Homeschool

Time-Saving Homeschool Planner | Skylight Calendar Review W/ Discount Code

May 27, 2024 by Quin Leave a Comment

I published a video on YouTube where I shared our family’s approach to organization and homeschool planning using the Skylight Frame Calendar.

I wanted to be sure to put a link to that video here too, because you guys, it has just been THAT good for our family. I had always been a good homemaker and felt pretty on top of housework…until we had baby #5 in 2023. That sweet boy has blessed our socks off, and I have spent the last year just enjoying having him in my arms. As a result, the house, and homeschool planning, had kind of gone by the wayside.

That’s okay, friends, these seasons of life come and go. I do not at all regret that time, but I do wish I had put a better system in place earlier so we could’ve at least kept the house a little more company-ready.

If you watch the video you will discover how this sleek modern device has become an integral part of our daily routine, enhancing communication, coordinating scheduling between family members, and bringing a touch of user-friendly technology to our home.

From coordinating lessons to creating a shared family calendar, I want you to find out how the Skylight Frame has transformed our homeschool scheduling experience, fostering a more connected and efficient household.

If you too think that a Skylight Calendar Frame may benefit your home, I would love to pass along my referral code to you, where you save $20 on your order, and I get $20 as well. You can find those links below.

With Love, Quincey

Skylight Referral Link: https://skylight.refr.cc/quinceyb Discount Code: FRIEND-8CQSGN7 Their shipping is pretty quick!

Or, you can purchase through Amazon if you would rather. There is no discount code there and the price does fluctuate some there, but the shipping is extra quick. This is my affiliate link, which does not cost you any extra to use, and clicking this will take you directly to Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TmctA3

Tea & Crumpets, or Whatever

March 18, 2016 by Quin Leave a Comment

It’s a Tea & crumpets kind of day. Well okay, here it’s more like water and donuts.

I just wanted to give you another visual of my favorite soapbox, which is: “Do what works for you”.

God created us each unique with our own gifts, talents, and interests.

You do you, I’ll do me. Together we’ll praise Jesus.

In short, this little saying means to me that although we are different, that doesn’t need to separate us. We can all praise Jesus for His perfect design within our lives and the gift of friendship despite diversities.

I have a wide community of homeschooling mom friends both in real life, and online. I love each of them for their uniqueness and can learn something from every one of them.

Many of my HS momma friends do a tea time with their children and I really truly admire it. It makes me smile to see the pictures they post of the read aloud they’re doing, and the fancy tea cups they’re sipping from.

I don’t beat myself up feeling envious or like I need to do better because I’m serving store bought donuts on the dishes I bought for myself at Target. I’m okay with serving water when I’m not in the mood to fix tea (yes, I do know how easy it is to make).

I have a teenager now (along with an 8yr old and a toddler), and I understand that this sort of contentment I feel has come with age and experience, and above all, from Jesus.

I’ve had to pray for God to help my heart and mind find places where I can feel satisfied and content.

It’s my prayer that each of you may also feel satisfied wherever you are, and that you’d only feel the nudge to self-reflect and change if it comes from God alone. Not from your Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest feeds, but only from Christ.

Be blessed my friends, and have a beautiful weekend!

A Toy They All LOVE: Pattern Blocks by Learning Resources

December 26, 2015 by Quin 1 Comment

We’re snowed in and enjoying our traditional post-Christmas morning. Ordinarily the kids would all be off in separate rooms happily occupied with their new toys, while Mr. Awesome and I continue trying to assemble whatever hasn’t been put together yet.

This post contains affiliate links. Visit my disclosure tab for more details

This year though, the kids all woke up and gathered on the living room floor to play with little sister’s new pattern blocks from Learning Resources. It was such a sweet sight to see!

From ages 3-13 each of my kids are enjoying these blocks! I regret not buying them at the beginning of the school year when I was purchasing our 2015 homeschool curriculum.

I printed off some pattern block templates from PreKinders last night and laminated them front and back. Prior to this my youngest was sorting them by color into her new pots and pans for her kitchen. That kept her busy for hours yesterday!

We also ordered the set of pattern blocks that came with cards, but those haven’t arrived yet. I think they will be a New Year’s Eve present (that’s a thing, right?).

I prefer wood toys, but after reading reviews about the color coming off of the wood pattern blocks by the same makers, I decided to go with the plastic ones. The wood may have been just fine, but I didn’t want to take any chances with our beige carpet. These plastic ones have not disappointed us at all! Even my husband and I have been playing with them…. for the kids, ya know? 😉

Anyway, I just wanted to share in case you have been on the fence about these. We’re loving them!

<br />

My Top 3 Thoughts on Christmas Morning 2015

December 25, 2015 by Quin Leave a Comment

As we gathered around the tree to open presents, I was left with 3 strong thoughts in my head. This is the first year we have commercialized Christmas in our home in many years. If you’ve been around a while or follow me on Social Media, you know I love Jesus and celebrating Christmas for two big reasons- First, for the miraculous birth of Jesus and the humbleness that it brings my heart, and Second for the beautiful twinkling lights all over the place. I love me some glitz.

Each year we explain to our kids how it isn’t about the gifts, and we focus fully on celebrating God and talking scripture. They’ve never begged for a gift or whined about it even once, they’ve just known that’s how we do it.

Personally, I’ve truly hated the way the stores commercialize and capitalize on this holiday.

Then I prayed for a change of heart, because every shopping trip since Halloween has left me bitter. I wanted to enjoy this Christmas the way everyone else seemed to.

So we still talked scripture, we still explained what this day was about, but to be honest, I kind of felt like I was screwing my kids out of the kind of Christmas morning I remember as a kid. I remember waiting for Santa, being fully surprised by my gifts, and playing with whatever I got all year long. There’s just something extra special about the gifts that were opened on Christmas morning versus gifts opened any other time of year.

My top 3 thoughts after opening gifts.

1. Everyone needs a 3 year old in their house on Christmas morning. There were SO many great big bear hugs, so many THANK YOUs shouted, and so much excitement. The gratitude was genuine, folks.

2. 8 year old boys LOVE toys from the dollar store. Although I cringed as a mama because I was buying cheap toys knowing they wouldn’t last long, the excitement as he opened the gifts and the hours of play afterwards made it so worth it. Cheap dress up armor has been his favorite thing for years. He is the son of a warrior after all.

3. Once you have a teen in your house it is totally acceptable to hang prepaid phone cards from the tree as an ornament. It makes for the most practical gift and you can visibly see the burden lifted off their shoulders as they realize it’s another 3 months of cell phone charges they won’t have to pay for themselves. My teen’s second favorite gift may have been cotton candy. Don’t worry, she got many other amazing gifts, she’s just a simple girl like her mama and loves the ‘little things’.

You wouldn’t believe the things I bought in the name of Christmas this year. From homeschooling manipulatives to toys, to electronics, to skateboards, and more, I did alright. This year I didn’t feel like I ripped my kids off, OR Jesus. This year, I feel like I finally found some Christmas-season balance as a Christian wife and mom.

This year, I am grateful for the simple things like always, but now I am even able to be grateful for the big things too. All because I asked God to change my heart, and He did.

Giving materialistic things on Christmas can feel good, even as a Christian. In fact I think especially as a Christian. We are blessed so that we may be a blessing.

I’m beginning to understand a tad of the commercialism (only just a tad though).

I’m praying that you too are finding a balance this Christmas season.

Ps. We didn’t make our traditional sugar cookies for the first time in over 10 years, and I don’t even feel guilty about wiping that off my slate. We all survived just fine! My SIL brought some to Christmas at my father-in-law’s house, so that did help fill the void a little bit.

KonMari: All Things Books

December 9, 2015 by Quin Leave a Comment

As I told you at the end of November, I’m going to be going through the book titled “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing”. You can find a link to the book at the bottom of this post.
When you’re going through this one of the first things you’re supposed to do is define your “WHY?”

Why are you wanting to tidy?

My short answer: Plain and simple; I want fewer choices so I can open more time in my day.

The slightly more detailed answer: We have so many choices here; one trip to a Super Target or a Dollar Tree and you can clearly see we aren’t hurting for options. It gives me so much mind clutter. I want to be able to think quicker, and more effectively, so I can move on to the next thing. I want my children to be able to make choices quicker. I want to clear out the physical and the mental clutter so we can enjoy more time together. I’m looking forward to spending less time cleaning up things that don’t spark joy for us, but that we merely own. When I look around, I want to see only things we genuinely LOVE and not just things that are kind of pretty or useful.

I love how the author highlights not just the why, but also the how. You can read more about that in the book.

She suggests that there are 3 things you need to remember to use her method effectively:

1. Touch everything, don’t just look at what you’re sorting, actually touch it.
2. Sort by what you want to keep, not what you want to throw. This is opposite from how I usually sort/tidy/declutter/clean
3. MOVE QUICKLY; don’t spend too much time over analyzing.
Today we are tackling the BOOKS! We’re homeschoolers, and we LOVE books. Without a doubt I know we have way too many though, and that many of them don’t spark joy. Some of them I paid way too much for and they actually spark regret, and guilt.
It isn’t about getting down to a certain number of books, but about only keeping the ones we genuinely LOVE.

My challenges:

1. I buy too many books because they’re cheap at second-hand stores.
2. I write everything off in the name of homeschooling.
3. I run an unofficial neighborhood Little Library, so I keep extra books on hand for swapping out to both boys and girls of all ages from toddlers to teens.
4. I have children of both genders, and with a fair age gap between them, so I feel like I should hang on to books from my oldest to pass onto my youngest. That may mean I’m storing so-so books for 10 years just waiting for them to be read!
5. We have books stored all around the house, so the biggest challenge right now is getting them all into one place. Bless my sweet little kiddos for being excited about doing this and hauling baskets of books to the living room for sorting!

I’ll post a very raw honest looking before and after once we’ve completed this task!

Something you should know: We just “sorted” our books this summer and I gave away easily a hundred children’s books. I didn’t use this method though, so I am curious to see if I feel differently by tackling our shelves this way.

If you’re interested in grabbing a book and joining me you can find this title on Amazon.

This post contains affiliate links. Visit my disclosure tab for more details.

<br />

Thankful Thursday: Thoughts on Thanksgiving 2015

November 26, 2015 by Quin Leave a Comment

Today I am thankful for the ordinary, everyday things. I’m thankful to have our oldest daughter in our care. I’m thankful for the beautiful person she is, for her kindness and compassion. I’m thankful for her desire to learn and for the joy of cooking (& adoration of kitchen gadgets) that we share.

I’m thankful for the sink full of dirty dishes, because it represents meals shared together.

I’m thankful for soap. I know it sounds silly, but not only are we blessed to have it when so many don’t, but we even have options when picking out soap.

I’m thankful for a little boy who is full of feelings. From feelings of excitement to feelings of sadness he has them all and he’s in no way embarrassed to show them to us. He prayers for people all the time. Do your 8 year old boys do that? I hope they do. I just think it’s so special. He’s adventurous and up for trying new things; like rinsing potatoes in the dishwasher.

Speaking of that: I’m thankful for Pinterest to find these crazy ideas. I know they don’t always turn out, but that isn’t really the point.

The journey is fun.

I’m thankful for social media to share ideas, words, pictures, all of it. I’m thankful for the sweet people I’ve met through the internet.

I’m thankful for my youngest child who delights in the simple things. She has never been overly entertained or impressed with fancy toys, but give this girl a couple bowls and a wooden spoon and she keeps busy for hours. Truly, hours. It amazes me.

I’m thankful for homeschooling and where it has brought our family.

I’m thankful for field trips, for curiosity they spark. I’m also thankful for the good food we eat on field trips, and the friends we share it with.

I’m blessed with a few different groups of mama friends. I’m thankful for the way we can encourage one another, and enjoy warm fellowship. *Take note high school girls, the majority of your friendships now are nothing like what your adult friendships will be like. You won’t understand this yet, but trust me when I say that you will be thankful for this some day.

I’m thankful for my very own husband. I’m thankful for the work God has done in each of us to bring us to where we are. I’m blessed by his carefree, fun personality. I’m amazed at his strength, both physically and emotionally. He’s been through so much pain and keeps pressing forward and blessing the socks off of everyone he can.

Broken and Beautiful.

I’m thankful for our extended family and our church family, which is all just an extension of our little family here at home.

I’m thankful for where I’ve been, and where I have yet to go.

I’m just all around so thankful.

I’m thankful for the boy who broke my heart after high school… because I found a lot of strength after that ugly mess.

I’m so glad I serve a God who can take our messes and turn them into something beautiful.

I am thankful for YOU!

Home Organization: A New Bookshelf

May 16, 2014 by Quin Leave a Comment

Oh, Happy Day! Mr. Awesome & the kids assembled this bookshelf for me while I was at a movie with friends this week.

He ROCKS for doing this!

I love seeing the big kids reading.
Today we are compiling the stacks of books from around the house onto this ONE bookshelf. I’m keeping my expectations low, but hoping this gets organized and stays organized for at least the summer. Once we get our groove for where the books go I’m going to borrow my dad’s label maker and mark the shelves.

Do you have any spectacular book organization methods to share?

This bookshelf is from the KALLAX line at IKEA. You can see the details of the shelving unit on their web-site by clicking HERE.

Choosing Christmas Cheer

December 19, 2013 by Quin Leave a Comment

Some years Christmas time usually leaves me frazzled, anxious, worn out & disappointed. But this year I don’t feel any of those things! I am so in love with this whole Christmas season & celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I’m most thankful that I had another year of making memories with my little family. Praise Jesus for these good times!

Here is what’s working for me this year:

I chose not to make platters of cookies for all of the neighbors. I did however do simple neighbor gifts (I’ll post this soon!).
The 2 cookie platters that I did make were filled with 2/3 store bought goodies and 1/3 homemade cookies… that were from a mix… yes, I really did that. & they were lovely and appreciated all the same. –Am I really the same person who wrote a few years ago about cutting out processed food and only making all natural? Yeah, well, uh… that girl had a 3rd baby and needs a break right now.
I chose not to worry about putting a price on gifts & trying to keep it even for everyone. Shopping is so much more fun when done from the heart and not the wallet. Hopefully this doesn’t backfire and leave anyone comparing (or complaining).
We are not exchanging gifts between us siblings. This is kind of sad, but it cuts out A BOAT LOAD of stress! Those brothers of mine are already spoiled, and very difficult to shop for!
We are lightly homeschooling through the holidays. Rather than taking a week or two off and trying to get back into routine, we are just lightly schooling through it all. In all honesty, I think we are getting MORE done, when I am more relaxed and not pushing the schedule.
I’m throwing out random acts of kindness every.single.place I can. I don’t want to reveal too much, because that would suck the joy right outta the whole shebang. I do want to encourage you to just bless someone, anyone, in anyway you can. Whether you get to stick around and see their reaction or just imagine what their expression was, it feels SO good either way.

Oh and here’s a silly one:

We put the great big over sized Christmas tree downstairs and let the big kids load it full of ornaments just as they wanted to. The basement is off limits to the toddler, so she and the tree are both safer that way.
We bought a smaller (6.5ft x 3ft) pre-lit tree for upstairs. I only placed one ornament on it. Um, because I bought the ornament, came home, hung it on the tree, and it hasn’t moved yet!

All of these little cut backs have made it easier to put my time, money and energy into the things I feel more passionate about right now. What can you do, or are you already doing, to go LOW STRESS this week and next?

The Work Place

December 17, 2013 by Quin 1 Comment

My home is my work place. I am here more than anyone else. I am in charge of more physical duties here than anyone else. I am not complaining. I take pride in this. God has provided me a beautiful home, and a husband who allows me to be a housewife.

This year we took a leap of faith by also extending my duties to not just at home mom, but full time homeschooling momma as well.
This is just about pure joy!
Along with adding full time homeschooling to my job title, it also added a lot more STUFF to the house.
I mean it..A LOT MORE! Books, printer paper, cardstock, colored drawing paper, construction paper, reading books, text books, teachers manuals, workbooks, pens, pencils, art supplies (this is huge), science supplies, craft supplies. It just goes on and on!
It didn’t have to be this bad. I just let it get this way while I was shopping for the perfect things to help the kids to learn.

I’m a pretty neat person, although all of this stuff is starting to overwhelm me! Another resolution of mine, is to get on top of the clutter! I’ll post little pictures of before and after, or long drawn out blog posts explaining the process to you. Either way, I’ll let you know how I get out from under this STUFF!

Maybe while my hubby is home for Christmas break I can take the time to reallllllly organize. Or maybe not, because I’ll be too busy cleaning up after him snuggling and enjoying his company while he’s here.

Daily Perspective Through Handwriting

October 14, 2013 by Quin 1 Comment

Just a quick daily dose of perspective from this homeschooling momma.
This is what my kindergartner did with his handwriting today.
My first thought: Why can’t he follow the rules! Surely a public school teacher would have had him redo his work & he would have forever been tagged as the weird Bible loving boy who didn’t follow directions.
Second thought: My boy is Christian! A rule-breaking-overachieving-Christian!!

Disclosure