Fall is here!!! One of the first things on my calendar for the month is a trip to the apple orchard. A local orchard has a wonderful fall festival every weekend in October, along with hot cider, donuts, and live music. Add to that the round of fall birthdays beginning, swim meets, and one last camping trip, and we’re already looking at a fairly full October! How about you?

I’d love to share a few printable pages with you all to help you get your October organized – keep reading and thanks for downloading!

My Daily Planner

If you’d like to take a look at how I’ve set up my yearly planner, I’ve explained it more in this post here, as well as given links to my favorite binder and colorful tabs (because pretty makes life fun too, right?).

Download the October Personal Planner Pages

You can download the October 2015 personal planing pages HERE. There are 12 pages included as a part of the download: the month at a glance and then weekly planning pages as well. Each month I’ll be offering a free download for that month’s planning pages, so you can check back and download them as they become available.

Purchase the Daily Personal Planner

If you like the layout and want to start planning out the rest of your year now (and next year too), purchase the full 2015 -2016 Daily Planner for $4.99. The calendar runs thru December 2016. It includes 18 month-at-a-glance pages and dated weekly pages through December 2016. Enjoy!

Sponsor Thanks

We really appreciate the following companies. There are some fun reviews and giveaways coming up in the next few months, so stay tuned!  Many of these have been long time sponsors of Homeschool Creations and we are SO thankful for them – be sure to stop by their sites and check them out!

• Rainbow Resource has been providing provide the best educational products to homeschoolers, parents, and educators at the lowest prices we can offer since 1989. They currently carry over 50,000 quality educational products in all subject areas, for grades PK-12 and beyond! In addition to their great prices, you can count on them for additional “perks” as well, like free shipping on orders of $50 or more!
• Educents is the online marketplace for educational products and resources saving you up to 90% on engaging lesson plans, interactive worksheets, hands-on learning tools, educational games and more! Plus, Freebies are added daily! Use code HSC10 to save an additional 10% on products!!
• EEME – Teach your kids electronics with online lessons and hands-on project kits that foster the curiosity and problem solving skills kids need for the science, technology, engineering, math – STEM – opportunities of tomorrow.
• Reading Eggs is the perfect program for homeschoolers, providing a comprehensive range of online reading lessons, activities and e-books that teach kids aged 3–13 the core literacy skills needed for lifetime reading success. Take advantage of our FREE 4 week trial and see how your child’s reading improves with Reading Eggs!
• Betty Lukens provides interactive educational tools for parents, grandparents, and teachers that make learning fun. Their educational magnets are ON SALE this month and will provide hours of fun at home and while traveling with younger children!

Don’t Miss The Daily To-Do List

Have you ever walked into someone’s house, met them for the first time, but immediately felt like you were in the company of an old friend. Everything seemed so familiar, comfortable, and just ‘right’ at once?

This past week I had the chance to fly to Dallas and meet a donkey. Yes, you read that right – a donkey. (That may have gotten a few questioning looks at the airport when mentioned – good conversation starter, in case you were wondering.) Granted the donkey may not have been the familiar friend part, but his owner, Rachel Anne – well, that meeting was one that made me cry happy tears.

For years I have followed Rachel Anne’s blog Home Sanctuary. When she wrote Flash, a book about the lessons God has taught her through a stray donkey named Flash, I cheered. Her writing style combined with her insight meant it was going to be a book I would love and laugh over.

But who would have thought that this same donkey would be the one thing that would bring us together after all this time? Certainly not me! Being in Rachel’s home and sitting down to talk just felt like we had been friends for ever-so-long.

My friend Cindy and I flew to Texas last week for a whirlwind trip with Rachel and her husband Tom thanks to Tyndale. We arrived to hugs, an abundance of hospitality, and two grazing donkeys. Flash and his buddy Henry were hanging out in the yard ready for some love. In case you were wondering, a donkey’s ears are so very soft. And Flash rather enjoys having his ears rubbed. I may have obliged him more than once (because truthfully, it’s rather soothing to pet those cute ears!).

And since we were in Texas, we sat down for a casual (donkey-nearby) dinner of brisket. Haven’t you ever enjoyed a meal with a donkey in the near vicinity?

Flash wanted in on dinner – can you blame him? Although he does get special treats every now and then, stealing Rachel’s bun was a bit more of a treat than normal. (Rachel may have been done with her meal after that).

After dinner we meandered around the property together talking and laughing about so many different things, pausing over a lavender plant that had a story to tell. Y’all (we were in Texas, so I can say y’all) – it was just relaxing, refreshing, and much needed by both my friend Cindy and me. We laughed a lot that day, cried several times (good tears), and shared our hearts with each other.

Honestly, my heart is so full and putting everything from the trip into words is so hard to do. I’m not nearly as eloquent as Rachel (I’m not comparing, just stating the facts – and that’s ok), and somehow it feels that if I try to share every little detail it will somehow diminish the special time we had together. There is so much that God has spoken into my heart from the very moment I knew I would be visiting Flash, to the hours we spent with Rachel and her husband Tom, and it has been such an incredible blessing overall. Life lessons in grace and how God loves to lavish on us so very much.

This summer, or fall, or frankly anytime, I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Flash: The Homeless Donkey Who Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Second Chances (you can even request an autographed copy). Flash is a reminder to look for God and how He is speaking to us in the every day moments of life – from the simple to crazy times. You will love Rachel’s writing style, her perspective and insight into seemingly every day happenings, and put the book down feeling encouraged in so many ways.

My biggest takeaway from the book comes from chapter 12, when we are reminded that often the journey we are on isn’t about fixing the problems we may be going through, but it’s about the process and the transformation that comes because of the circumstances. The last few months in our lives have definitely been a process, but through it all God has been dropping little nuggets into my heart (sometimes I accept them a bit begrudgingly). There will always be room for my heart to change, and sometimes I need to just step aside and let that change happen.

(and p.s. this is one of those books that would even be a great read-aloud as a family and is safe for kids to read too!)

If you have a little chunk of time, watch this webcast with Rachel Anne and her friend Priscilla Shirer. In it both she and Priscilla share lessons learned through Flash – ones we all can relate to, laugh with, and learn from.

Win a Copy of Flash!

If you’d like to win a copy of Flash, just follow the directions in the Rafflecopter widget below to enter. Rachel and Flash will both autograph the book for you too!

Note: Flash is showing as limited availability on Amazon, but more copies are expected soon! You can also order through Tyndale Direct (and you can save 25% off through July 8th, with discounts/free shipping for bulk orders for book clubs).

Don’t miss all of Rachel’s freebies to go along with the book as well: http://rachelanneridge.com/inspiration/

Tyndale House Publishers sponsored a contest to win a trip for two to meet Flash and Rachel in real life. I won by sharing this webcast on social media: http://rachelanneridge.com/webcast/. My friend Cindy and I traveled to Texas and had all the fun above. Thanks Tyndale! 

In just a few short weeks, Teach Them Diligently will be wrapping up their 2015 convention season in Dallas, TX from July 16-18th. Over the last few months either myself or my family has attended the first three conventions this year in Nashville, Atlanta, and Sandusky (the last one had a waterpark attached – can you guess which one the kids attended?) – and we would recommend it for your family as well!

We have so enjoyed meeting other families (hanging out with our friends from 1+1+1=1 is always craziness), sitting in on various sessions, speaking (which was so very encouraging to me too!), and perusing the vendor halls. (I’ll be honest and say I just like using the word perusing). Finding some new-to-us companies was great, especially when the kids helped pick out a few things for us to use during the upcoming year – I love that! Rick was also able to attend the men’s breakfast with the Benham brothers on Saturday morning in Sandusky and really enjoyed them! Enough that he bought the bought their book for himself and another for a friend to share (my husband isn’t one to sit down and read a book, so this was pretty significant – grins).

SAVE $7 on Your Family Registration!

Want to save an additional $7 on your family registration in Dallas?  Use the code HSCREATIONS during registration and the discount will automatically be applied.

Download a FREE Audio Session!

Teach Them Diligently is offering a free audio download from Rachel Carman – Seven Simple Steps to Sanity. If you feel like you are about to lose your mind and need encouragement in walking in peace and faith, download this session today.

Personally, I think that the phrase “summer school” gets a bad rap. It brings up images of kids that are way behind in their schoolwork. And really – not always the case. Well, at least around our house!

While the end of our school year had a few hiccups resulting in some remaining math lessons, much of our summer homeschool plans are simple and to the point: tie up a few loose ends and keep it informal and low-key. The main goal is to have information stay ‘fresh’ (in areas like reading) and not get so far off our routine that the beginning of the next school year is a bear.

In the grand scheme of our school year, we have officially finished. Testing has been done, letters have been sent in with official results, and we have submitted our forms for homeschool next year. Phew! But – the learning continues!

Our Summer Homeschool Plans

creative math fun with Spielgaben

This summer we’ll be focusing on a few of the basics and then if some other fun interest-based learning (the beach will likely bring up some interesting critters to study).

• Reading – the girls are avid readers, so the boys and are are going to continue lessons with All About Reading (Kaleb) and read-alouds (Zachary reading to me. We also have several read-alouds planned as a family.
• Math – aside from finishing up the random remaining lessons (Zachary), we’ll be focusing on math fact review (multiplication and division) and I’ll be having fun with Kaleb using Spielgaben.
• Science – in short, hello nature!! And there may be some fun experiments we need to do together as well!
• PE – in my book, swim team counts as PE. Because there is a LOT of practice, tired kiddos, and energy expelled. Add in family bike rides since we all have new bikes that actually work – and exercise is ON!
• Games – we haven’t been playing as many games lately, but we have some great ones that are fun and sneaky in various learning (shhh!!). The kids love playing games, so afternoons will involve game time!
• Rest  – so very important! Even though there is already a LOT planned (almost every single weekend has something penciled in!), the one thing we know is the importance of downtime.  While our kids think that means lots of screen time, we are really planning to nix a lot of that and encourage creative play and time together. Legos, K’nex, and reading are our friends!

When We’ll Work

Mornings are typically filled with swim practice, but we can usually squeeze in a bit before leaving since our kids are up at the crack of dawn. Because it’s summer, we are a little more relaxed, but it looks a little like this:

Breakfast – chores – a bit of school – swim practice – showers/dressed.

Afternoons are a little more laid back around these parts. Depending on the weather, we tend to spend time at the pool, but otherwise we can squeeze in a bit of school, read together, and just relax at home.

Lunch – finish any chores – a little school – reading together – RELAX

Advantages to Summer Homeschooling

Maybe the thought of summer homeschooling makes you cringe, but covering just one or two subjects over the summer can have advantages:

• Less to review in the fall. You know those worksheets at the start of many books that just seem like repetition from the prior year? Yep – they are. Keeping the learning cycle going during the summer months can cut back on many of those ‘repeat’ lessons and let you get to the new concepts faster.
• Routines are still in place! That schedule that you finally got in place and when things were running smoothly? Keeping a simple routine in place makes it so much easier to get back into your fall school routine!
• So many fun opportunities! While there are fun things to do year round, depending on where you live, the summer season offers a few different things to take advantage of. We love hitting different summer reading programs, visiting a few places that are less school field-trip crazy, and just enjoy the warmer weather and outdoors.
• Try new things. We have several programs that we love and use consistently, but the summer months offer a chance to try a few new things that we may not be able to fit in during the school year. Maybe it’s a different approach to reading or a hands-on look at math. Or some fun experiments you might not normally do. Have fun together!

Will you be schooling through the summer?

What does your family have planned?