Here is the thing about all those subscription boxes I see so many YTers showing on here.....WHERE in the world do you keep ALL THE STUFF once the kids do the craft, activity, whatever is in there? It makes my skin crawl to think about having all that stuff in my house!! Those boxes are so expensive I would feel horrible throwing it all away but then all the STUFF would drive me crazy. So I don't buy them either!
yesss!! we did KiwiCo and it was cool to actually assemble each kit but I had a huge tote of everything and it was just wasting space and my daughter wasn't playing with them anymore. It became junk so we stopped!
I think the no games rule is a wise choice. The trick is with music is to hang the guitar on the wall. You can buy a guitar hanger and hang it up as decoration. If the instrument is away in a closet it will be forgotten. If it's on display they'll pick it up when they're bored! We've never paid for music lessons either but this trick has worked for us. All my oldest kids are musicians (the younger half are not ready yet). Some states require art, if anyone is required to teach it but is not artsy and is intimated by it I recommend Usborne art flash cards. They're non overwhelming, interesting and kids can recreate drawings with colored pencils. I recommend colored pencils over paints because for those intimidated by art bringing paints into the house is so messy 😂!
I'm a minimalist by nature! I do not do video games and I don't want my daughter to ever get into those either. My daughter plays piano, and started with an app, but now we're getting her some in-person tutoring. My daughter would love a horse, but at only 7 has no idea of the costs involved and the care. I definitely like to keep things simple and I have to be frugal as a single mum. I love all your videos! Thanks for all you do, and how you are always so accepting. Ange in Australia.
Great video. Would you do a video on what/how you do activities/extracurricular etc? We spend a lot on kids activities, classes and lessons. And I want to cut back. But they also love their classes and activities so much.
I laughed out loud as I listened to your video and was cutting something I had just laminated and was punching a planner with my coil binder. 😆 To each their own, right? 😂❤ Love your videos.
I know right? I had to buy another laminator this year because my old one bit the dust. It really comes down to, like she said, are you really going to use it. I cried when my daughter out grew mega bundles. She always loved all of the beautiful artwork in them. We use the strip binder to put all of her final project/reports in so that she can keep them as memories and there’s not a lot of loose papers flying around. Everything else was the same on my list. This was the first year she did dance lessons and now she’s addicted. Until a kid really wants to do something, lessons are just so expensive to justify.
The thing I've never done and probably wont ever do are those kiwi-crates or other subscription boxes. They are all quite pricey! They look so pretty, but not going to happen for us at this point. We are thinking of using Hoffman Academy for free piano lessons!
We are a unit study family as well, and I couldn’t live without my pro-click or my laminator. It saves me so much money to print my own curriculum since I’ve got 5 homeschoolers. Those things are very necessary for me! Also, I love the nature study bundles!! We are so very different but I do love watching your videos!
My daughter is only 5 but we started when she was 4. We don't do morning basket. We start out singing our national anthem then a hymn (right now its Amazing Grace) then the bible then the rest of our subjects.
We do Easy Peasy Art. TGTB has some art history in the language arts. More into just crafting what they want. Games/ screens are limited. Mostly Nation Geographic, cooking, and PBS kids.
Thank you this was beautiful! So needed to hear this have 3 boys and oldest is 9th grade. If feeling different has made me feel off and anxious and love your perspective on this stage of homeschooling! Thank you! And yay for being back on IG!
I'd love to have a no video game rule but my husband enjoys the Switch and my oldest will play occasionally. I do have a say on what sort of games we will allow. Minecraft, for example, is an unapologetic ban in our house. I'd much rather play board games as a family. I bought one mega bundle but I never will again. They were very specific worksheets and activities and we just never used it. I can find hundreds of free printables that I'll actually use.
May I ask what about Minecraft you don’t like? I would like to know if there’s something about it to be particularly wary of. I don’t know much about it, but I had thought some people seemed more allowing of it than other games. I don’t really understand why, other than “they can build stuff” in it. We have same older game systems from when my husband used to play. But, our children haven’t played at all, and my husband essentially stopped playing after our 1st was born, because we see the detriment of screens to our family culture. I can’t imagine introducing our kids to video games at this point
I just love watching your videos! ❤️ Although our homeschool and values are a lot different than yours, I learn so much from you! I do allow my son some screen time to play games, but it’s very limited. He is also only 8yrs old. I’m glad you said about the megabundles. I was buying them too & then realized that I wasn’t using much of them & I was spending so much money. I have since stopped buying them unless something I’m super interested would come along! I am a single mama who works evenings and weekends and homeschools my son during the day, so that I can spend time with him & I can decide how and what my son is educated on. It’s a lot of work but I couldn’t imagine it any or her way. Thank you so much for another amazing video! ❤️
I don't buy curriculum for elementary/middle school. I only spend my curriculum budget on high school stuff. I don't buy history curriculums. I do have a binding machine simply because I do use so many free downloads and public domain books. Bundles are pretty, but unless your kids are mostly young ones, they are not worth the money. Never done them either. My two oldest do take band at the local high school. My oldest started playing the French horn in middle school, prior to home schooling. He's the only kid in the school district that plays that particular instrument and it was a specialty of his band teacher at the time. He got French horn lessons during zero period for free. So even though they play instruments, I've never had to pay for music lessons.
What do you use for language arts and math? I’ve been thinking of using the mcguffey primer and copywork. Trying to figure out what math to go with next year tho Easy peasy math seems to be working well.
@@cm6037 I've used Good and Beautiful free downloads, McGuffey readers, Easy Peasy, and Gentle Grammar. Now that my youngest is in 5th grade, we are sticking mostly with Good and the Beautiful.
I print so much of our curriculum with 5 homeschoolers that I would not be able to survive without my coil binder and laminator! I would say those two tools and our printer are easily the most used in our homeschool 😂 I love that we can all do what works for our families in each season of life. What a fun video!
We are pretty much the same as well. I had a laminator before having kids and it’s the same one I had since then. We do have a Wii switch but it’s only played one day a week for 30 min with my husband and it’s only games like Mario. We don’t allow any other games in our home. Too many scary things out there.
We don't allow game systems in our house either but my two oldest kids have phones so when they are at friends houses or are home alone then we all can communicate if we need to but they have added games to their phones and cause their younger brothers to want to play the games as well and it drives me crazy because me and my husband didn't want them to play games on a gaming system, phones, or online.
Hey! What do you do with your unit studies if you don’t do the coil binding? Shopping for a printer over here, and hoping there’s an option other than the binding. 😉
Hey friend! I keep it very simple! I can't give you a number amount because I haven't tracked that, and it changes from one year to the next. 🤪 But truly, very, very minimal compared to some. Our math curriculum is probably the most expensive part.
The last 7 years, I’ve wanted to do music but haven’t it’s on the at some point list lol Same with art, we love RU-vid art hub and doing my own art from books but no subscription or curriculum either! We are guilty of binding machine and laminator 😂 We haven’t done co-ops, just 2 nature groups. I’m right there with you on the bundles too 😢 love the idea and I thought would be great for being a unit study family too but it just wasn’t working.
