Spotlight on Resources to Make Life Easier for the Busy Homeschooling Parent

Can we be honest for a moment?  Homeschooling is a HARD JOB.  It’s a huge responsibility.  There’s the part that everyone sees, and then there’s all the other stuff underneath the surface, which takes a lot of mental energy.

Homeschooling has the potential to place an enormous toll on a your mental mental health.  You might become excessively tired, cranky, or sad, or have difficulty concentrating, or have lethargy that leaves you not even wanting to teach at all.  (aka, burnout)

Taking care of yourself, both physically and mentally, is so important to being an effective teacher and enjoying happy homeschooling days.  You know these, but it never hurts to be reminded, especially if you find yourself needing to re-center.

• Acknowledge that this is a busy season of life
• Create a routine to reduce stress
• But be flexible with your routine, when needed
• Ask friends and family for help
• Get plenty of sleep
• Eat healthy foods
• Exercise both your mind and body
• Take a moment all to yourself
• Remember to have fun

Brush up on all your skills at A Self-Sufficient Life!

Two of our favorite homemaking bundles to pick up are the No Sweat! Cooking Bundle and the Herbal Education Bundle.  The first utilizes batch cooking to ensure that your family has healthy and hearty meals, while cutting down on the prep and cooking time required by you on your busiest days.  The second can be completed family-style as a homeschool unit study or simply used to learn more about using herbs in your everyday life.

This three-book bundle includes:

Freezer Cooking Through the Year – This book includes : the whats and whys behind freezer cooking how-to tips and tricks pantry freezing guidelines, printable planning sheets more than thirty kid-friendly recipes!

Freezer Cooking Through Another Year – Join us for another twelve months of seasonally-appropriate freezer cooking recipes, along with planning tips and helps! This is for anyone who wants to get a leg up on getting healthy meals on the family table, without much fuss, and includes planning sheets and extra hints.

A Slow-Cooked Year – This book includes : the whats and whys behind crockpot cooking, how-to tips and tricks, safe crockpot guidelines, printable planning sheets, and more than thirty seasonally-appropriate, kid-friendly recipes!

DOWNLOAD THE BUNDLE

 

This two-book bundle includes:

• Teaching Kids About Herbs – Each month, your child will learn about a new herb and how to use it. Herbs are placed in seasonal positions throughout the book, but it does not have to be completed in order.  Includes basic information about seasonally-appropriate herbs, project ideas, and recipes. (28 pages of lesson plans)
• Simple Kitchen Fixes – Learning to use herbs effectively, for both cooking and remedy, is a lost art. This resource was designed to introduce the beginner to basic herbs and their uses. (31 pages)

DOWNLOAD THE BUNDLE

Pick up the Whole Foods Cooking Guide FREE on our Subscriber Freebies page!  Not yet a subscriber?  Sign up here!

Spotlight on Resources for Bringing Latin to Life!

About half of families begin foreign language in the elementary years, while the other half wait until high school.  If you’re trying to decide which language to select, may I make the case for Latin?

Reasons to Teach Latin

• English Vocabulary  About 60% of English words derive from Latin, and more than 90% of multi-syllabic English words have a Latin root!  All of that "scientific mumbo jumbo" is either Latin or Greek.  Learn it and empower yourself and your children!
• Foreign Language    If you want to learn or teach Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese or any of the Romance languages, a Latin background will be immensely helpful.  The vocabulary and grammatical structures all derive from Latin.
• Test Scores    Not my favorite topic, but a background in Latin has been proven to increase verbal, analytic, and problem solving scores.

Read more on Teaching Latin in Middle & High School...

Two of our Latin resources to pick up are the Latin Activity Bundle and Who Killed Marcus Aurelius game.  Each utilizes games and activities to reinforce foreign language concepts.  Who Killed Marcus Aurelius? is a Clue-style board game designed to practice vocabulary.  The Latin Activity Bundle includes four games and activities which reinforce a variety of vocabulary, grammar, and everyday usage concepts.

 

Solve mysteries in classical Latin! In the home of Marcus Aurelius, a murder has been committed. Whodunit? Unravel the mystery and solve the crime! Brush up on your Latin vocabulary in this Clue-inspired board game…fun for the whole family! (Cards with Latin words have English translations.)

PLAY THE GAME!

Brick-Themed Latin Daily Calendar –  Study basic Latin concepts with these fun, brick-themed daily calendar labels. Concepts covered include : months, days, seasons, and weather.  Use this unit with Lego or other building blocks!

A Latin Adventure – Further study of Latin with proper nouns, declensions, and everyday use of Latin words and phrases in our modern society. Demonstrated through a fictitious adventure, with interactive components.

Have Yourself a Little Latin Christmas –  Get into the holiday spirit while continuing Latin studies with these 22 pages of games, activities, and history!  Includes: Crafts, Caroling, Reading, Games, and Puzzles.

Latin Vocabulary Bundle – This bundle includes a daily calendar and vocabulary flash cards for fifteen different sets of daily use words!

• Months / Days
• Weather / Seasons
• Body Parts / Senses
• Colors
• Numbers
• Animals
• Food
• Family
• Holidays
• Nature Words
• Household Items
• Around the House
• In the Military
• Working a Job
• Declensions / Endings

DOWNLOAD THE BUNDLE

Looking for the perfect Latin curriculum for your family?  Pick up the Homeschool Curriculum Guide FREE on our Subscriber Freebies page!  Not yet a subscriber?  Sign up here!

Spotlight on Family-Style History Unit Studies

Unit studies are popular with homeschooling families because they provide a hands-on, in-depth approach to learning about any topic of choice.  This is a great way to provide individualized instruction for your students, allowing them explore the 'topic-du-jour,' and instills a love of learning!

Mid-winter is a fantastic time to pick up a new unit study.  It helps to get back in the groove of things when you can start learning something new, infusing a sense of enthusiasm into the day!  With novel studies, there is a read-aloud, or family time, element as well.  Added hands-on activities and field trips round out the trifecta of excitement and beat the wintertime blues...

Read more on Beating the Mid-Winter Blues in DeeDee's Journal (freebie)!

Two unit bundles to pick up are the Ancient World History and Journey Through the Continents sets.  Unlike our typical novel study bundles, these take more of a traditional approach to history, with activites, lessons, and videos.  Each of these is considerably longer than a novel study and has the potential to last all the way through spring!  For families who want to dive in headfirst and immerse themselves in history, there's nearly a month of full-time lessons...

Each of these modules contains several lessons, with videos and additional activities suggested for multi-modal learning.  {132 pages}

• Introduction
• Ancient Wonders of the World
• The Middle East
• Israelites
• Egypt
• Greece
• Rome
• Northern Europe
• India
• Asia
• Africa
• Americas

VOYAGE THROUGH WORLD HISTORY

Travel the world from your homeschool!  This 5th-9th grade curriculum comes with elementary connections so that it can be used family style.  The first unit is an introduction to geographic terms and practices, including a study of GPS.  We have included recommended resources for further study separated by grade level.  The seven continent units include:

• Geography – Geography and information about the continent
• History Timeline – A timeline of events dating back thousands of years
• Featured Videos – Curated collection of videos to showcase the geography and history of the region
• Read – Separate book lists provided for elementary, middle, and high school students. Also includes a reading log and book report form in the reproducible section.
• Make / Do – Wide variety of activities, ranging from building projects to writing assignments and everything in between! Includes both digital / virtual activities and printable / hands-on projects.
• Music Appreciation – Background on a music aspect of the continent, along with a building activity and chance to practice playing traditional music.
• Art Appreciation – Background on an artistic aspect of the continent, along with an art project using those methods to create a regional piece.
• Folklore & Mythology – Where available, folklore and mythological background for the continent.
• Connections – Where available, access to other {free} unit studies pertaining to the continent.
• Cooking – Two teen-appropriate recipes (typically a main dish and dessert) that originated on the continent.
• Map Work – Labelling countries (and states in North America), major bodies of water, and other important locations on the continent.
  • For the North America and Asia units, there is a secondary insert that specifically pertains to Central America and the Middle East. There is some debate over which continent these regions belong to, so we have create separate inserts for each.
• Research Questions – Things to get your mind thinking, researching, and making connections about the history and geography.
• Vocabulary – List of words about the continent for students to explore.
• Famous Folks – Biographies of three famous people from the continent’s history. A reproducible biography report form is included.

JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD!

You might also be interested in.....

• It's Not Ancient History!  Making Connections with World History
• 51 Ways to Teach World History through Literature

Explore Literature with MultiCultural Book Day 2025

 

Read Your World 2025 (1/30/25) is in its 13th year! Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen founded this non-profit children’s literacy initiative; they are two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural diverse books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators.

Read Your World’s mission is to raise awareness of the need to include kids’ books celebrating diversity in homes and school bookshelves. Read about our Mission and history HERE.

Young Adult - Jewish  

The Prophetess (Evonne Marzouk)

Rachel never understood her grandfather's blessing, but as she begins her senior year in high school, she's not giving it much thought. Her plans are challenged by meeting Yonatan, a mysterious stranger still reeling from his own losses. Yonatan says Rachel has a calling―and his message leads Rachel to see her Jewish heritage in an entirely new light.
The world needs Rachel more than she could have ever imagined. But as her life and relationships are changed in new and unexpected ways, Rachel is torn between her higher purpose and her daily life. Her calling may be a gift, but does it offer her a choice?
An inspiring and uplifting read, The Prophetess is perfect for women of all ages and everyone looking for a bit of inspiration in today's challenging times.

Thoughts
The characters are likeable and memorable, and deal with real-life challenges (the fantastical element is just a few steps away from real dilemmas in spiritual seeking, especially by young people). Relationships are complicated and are centered in the story. I can also verify that the Jewish traditions presented are accurate (despite a minor grammatical error in one of the fantastical terms that the author coined). The story takes place in the United States and Israel. The timeline for this story is the present and goes to the past, with glimpses of the future when it pertains to the characters or events. The feeling the heroine has of not being understood and of being ready for more than others want to show her, seem like they might be universal, and certainly made me feel connected with the character and drawn in to the story! This novel seamlessly blends the ordinary with the extraordinary, telling the story of a high school girl finding her role in the world- grieving her grandfather, balancing love and friendship and family. Added to this is her journey into her faith, a beautiful, frightening, life-affirming journey into her calling in the Jewish world Parents and educators should be aware there is a wide range of topics discussed throughout the book, including the Holocaust, addiction, eating disorders, and terrorism.

--> Snag the FREE Read Around the World booklist below <--

Download Read Around the World for FREE!

Pick up eight unit studies for your tween/teen readers in the Diversity Literature Unit Study Bundle!

Bring modern history to life with living literature that represents several different groups!  Includes eight unit studies covering cultural stories from around the world. Each unit addresses a historic era from a new perspective, and these are told in living history format.  Each unit has introductory text, which will give the student basic background information about the topic at hand.

Product sample:   The Button Box

Includes:

• The Year of the Panda
• The Button Box
• Men of the 65th: Borinqueneers of the Korean War
• Killers of the Flower Moon
  • Indigenous People insert
• Genius Under the Table
• Anna Strong & the Culper Spies
• Inoyo of the Congo Forest
• The Forgotten Finca

Get the Bundle

Read Your World is honored to be Supported by these Medallion:

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Authors: Stephanie M. Wildman, Martha Seif Simpson, Anna Jennings, Gwen Jackson, Afsaneh Moradian, Joaquín Camp, Rahana Dariah, Ziggy Hanaor, Josh Funk, Nancy Tupper Ling, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Gea Meijering, Eugenia Chu, Dorktales Story Time, Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett, Authors J.C. Kato and J.C.², Cynthia Levinson, Diana Huang, Rochelle Melander,  Lisa Chong, Lisa Stringfellow,  Brunella Costaglioga, Lindsey Rowe Parker, Rachel C. Katz, Tonya Duncan Ellis, Shifa Safadi, Lisa Rogers, Sylvia Liu, Eva Clarke, Crystal Murakami, Teddi Ahrens

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📌 FREE RESOURCES from Read Your World Day

• RYW2025 Poster

• Mental Health Support for Stressful Times Classroom Kit

• Diversity Book Lists & Activities for Teachers and Parents

• Homeschool Diverse Kidlit Booklist & Activity Kit

• FREE Teacher Classroom Activism and Activists Kit

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• Gallery of Our Free Posters

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📌 Register for the Read Your World Virtual Party:  https://readyourworld.org/virtualparty 

Join us on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at 9 pm EST celebrating 13 years of  Read Your World Day Virtual Party! Register here.   

This epically fun and fast-paced hour includes multicultural book discussions, addressing timely issues, diverse book recommendations, & reading ideas.

We will be giving away a 10-Book Bundle during the virtual party plus Bonus Prizes as well! *** US and Global participants are welcome. **

Follow the hashtag #ReadYourWorld to join the conversation, and connect with like-minded parts, authors, publishers, educators, organizations, and librarians. We look forward to seeing you all on January 30, 2025, at our virtual party!