Tag: review

3 Weeks to an Organized Homeschool – Product Review

Kris M.
homeschooling, children, organized

Organized Homeschool?

How to Get Organized While Homeschooling Children

While surfing for tips on how to get my son’s homeschooling stuff organized, I found a book called, 3 Weeks to an Organized Homeschool: A Step-by-Step Guide to Organizing Your Schoolroom, Curriculum, and Record Keeping by Katherine Leigh.  It was exactly what I was looking for, according to the title.  I’m totally new to homeschooling and I’m starting mid year and need to get him caught back up, so I’m scrambling to learn everything I can and get everything set up effectively as quickly as possible.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Quick Read
  • Free Resources
  • Schedule of Tasks
  • Action List Provided
  • Great Explanation
  • Homeschooling in Your Car

Cons

  • Religion

Overview

In this book, Katherine not only lays out what you should do to prepare for homeschooling your children each year, but she even gives you a schedule to follow!  Granted, it’s just a suggested schedule for how to get everything done most effectively in 3 weeks from her own experience.  It took me about 2 hours to read the entire book.  You could also read little bits at a time if you read along while actually carrying out her action lists.

The author provides a free bonus for buying her book.  She allows you to download free templates for lesson plan sheets, grading sheets, student schedules, and more!  She tells you how to set up your binder and gives great details of why she’s suggesting each item.  She even wrote an appendix for those that travel a lot and find themselves homeschooling from their car.

I honestly couldn’t find anything I didn’t like about this book.  She clearly lives a spiritual life and teaches her children religion along with her curriculum.  I don’t have a problem with this.  The only reason I list it as a Con is because some people may not like that about the book.  In my opinion, it wasn’t overly used and to each their own.

Target Audience

This book was written for parents who are preparing a new year of homeschooling.  It serves as a great step-by-step guide to getting ready for a new year of schooling at home.

Price

You can download it to your Kindle for $3.99.  However, I was able to download this book for free as I am a subscriber of Kindle Unlimited.

Final Opinion

5 Star Rating

5 Star Rating!

I definitely recommend this book to other parents preparing to homeschool.  The price is right  for the great advice.

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Don’t Waste Your Time Homeschooling – A Product Review

Kris M.
homeschooling, waste, time

Is it a waste of time?

Waste of Time or Not?

Last night I was surfing Amazon for some books about homeschooling.  Specifically, I was looking for something to help me plan out the year and make homeschooling most effective for my son so I don’t waste a lot of time doing things unnecessarily.  There were only five days from the time that I decided to research homeschooling to the time that I took the plunge, got his materials, and withdrew him from public school.  So there was very little planning involved and we scrambled to get started.  Now that the mad rush is over, I want to make sure I do the best for him that I possibly can.

While surfing, I found a book called, Don’t Waste Your Time Homeschooling: 72 Things I Wish I’d Known by Traci Matt.  When I saw this, I simply had to read it.  I needed to know why it didn’t work for her and why she thought it was a waste of time, so I purchased it right away and read it.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Quick Read
  • Helpful Resources
  • Helpful Tips
  • Honest Experience
  • No Fluff

Cons

  • Deceiving Title
  • Too Short

Overview

Traci Matt provides a bunch of really helpful tips and resources for such a short book.  The book was 72 pages long and took less than an hour for me to read.  The author was very direct and to-the-point so there wasn’t any fluff in the book just to fill space.  I liked that.  Spoiler alert: she homeschooled all three of her children and was not advising against homeschooling, which was the impression that I got from the title.  That’s okay though, it got me to buy the book and I’m glad I did.  I now have two other books on my Wish list as well as some other resources to check into.

 

Target Audience

This book is clearly intended for anybody who is currently or is considering homeschooling their children.  It gives a lot of things that are just good to know when getting started and gives you ideas for how to handle certain situations.

 

Price

This is an eBook that you can download to your Kindle and sells for $2.99.  However, I was able to download this book free as I am a subscriber of Kindle Unlimited.

 

Final Opinion

5 Stars

5 Star Rating!

I would definitely recommend this book to other parents considering homeschooling.  From legal references to differences between children, you’re sure to find at least a few useful tips in this book and you can’t beat the price.

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Additional Recommendations