Pollywog's Place Blog

Our 2023-2024 Homeschool Curriculum, Schedule Plans, Resource Links, and Daily Routine

Published on April 25, 2023September 9, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog9 Comments

It’s that time of year again for us… time to get the next school year planned out. We finished up our 2022-2023 school year back in April and I’ve been busy gathering supplies and making schedules as I coordinate with everyone for vacations, holidays, and special trips that we have planned.

Last year was a bit of a whirlwind as everyone got readjusted to life at home. We also had another little one join us mid-year and that made things very interesting and kept me on my toes… he will be with us again this year so we can’t wait to see what the year will hold for everyone.

It is SO TEMPTING to take a few months off to just focus on this house but I know from past experience that this doesn’t go well and that it takes FOREVER to get a couple of the kids back into the school routine. You can read more about last year’s curriculum and routines HERE.

We had switched to Living Education Books from Master Books for our Language Arts and Math and we absolutely loved them but I decided to go back to some of our oldies but goodies books that we already had on hand for this year. We still have the Living Books and I may decide to switch back but I really wanted to try to simplify things just a bit. I also found some great workbooks to go along with these older books so I’m curious to see how they work out. If you want to see how we liked our curriculum from last year then check out this post HERE.

One of the biggest changes will be that little Ma’am will be joining us at the table for some of the lessons that she can participate in… she loves school and we try to include her as much as we can. I also have another post with activities that we use for little miss last year.

I’m also super excited to be using more of a Charlotte Mason-style approach this year. It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out and how the kids react to this new method of learning. You can look up Simply Charlotte Mason on YouTube for lots of helpful information or check out their site for TONS of FREE resources and helpful tips! I’ve recently some more wonderful FREE resources at DonPotter.net.

Note: I’ve had to recently update this post to include this wonderful FREE site of Charlotte Mason-style curriculum lesson plans for grades K-5… go check it out HERE!

We have a wonderful all-in-one printer that we use to make copies of the work so that we can use/reuse the books/materials multiple times which helps to cut down on the cost of books every year. Our old one lasted for several years so we just bought an updated one to replace it. We also try to stock up on school supplies when they go on sale and/or on school tax holidays to help save money. Check out this post for essential supplies.

Please note that it is not necessary to purchase any of these materials to give your child/children a good education. We happen to have a lot of them on hand already and many of these we have been able to find for FREE or discounted prices online or on our local FB groups. You can also find lots of used books on eBay, thrift books, and Amazon. Your local library often has many books on various subjects that you can use for lessons too!

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Bella’s Ultimate Tuna Salad

Published on April 17, 2023December 12, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

The girls have been practicing their Home EC skills and we are their Guinea pigs… thankfully most of their experiments turn out well and are pretty tasty.

This is a tuna salad recipe that they had in their lesson but we changed it up a bit to fit our tastes. Ms. Bella took the lead on getting this prepared by checking before school to make sure we had boiled eggs and she set the cream cheese out to soften.

Ms. Caitlyn served up some celery and carrot sticks with homemade ranch dip and some pickles. Some of the kiddos ate it with crackers and others made sandwiches.

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Critters, coops, and check ups

Published on March 8, 2023March 8, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

We’ve been pretty busy around here lately.

We’ve added some garden beds to our yard… thanks dad!

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A ‘Can-Do’ attitude

Published on February 25, 2023January 25, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

This morning at the breakfast table I was awed by something remarkable. It was a shift in outlook that has occurred in our home without us noticing.

When we received the news that our youngest would have Down Syndrome along with Dandy Walker Malformation we were shocked , scared, worried, and confused. It was overwhelming because we didn’t know what her future would hold or even if she would have a future as her prognosis was very grim.

I spent a good part of my pregnancy in a semi-depressed state. The pregnancy was extremely difficult and there were times that I wasn’t so sure if either of us were going to survive but I did and so did she! This stress and anxiety was increased by the fact that we were in the midst of a world wide pandemic as well which meant that I went to the majority of my appointments alone.

After she was born we were relieved because she proved that she was a fighter. As we waited for her blood test to confirm the Down Syndrome we weren’t as anxious anymore. Her Dandy Walker was confirmed the day after she was born and it didn’t seem to feel as awful as it had just a few days before. Part of this was due to her wonderful neurosurgeon who helped us understand it better.

There were so many times that it felt like we just couldn’t go on. There were times that we felt she couldn’t go on. We were proven wrong time and time again and I’ve never been so thrilled about about being wrong!

As time goes on we have continued to face challenges like open feeding issues, heart surgery, and leukemia but she continues to show her warrior spirit and faces every challenge with a smile on her face. We could all learn some lessons from this little girl.

During our pregnancy there had been so much focus on the things she would not be able to do but very little on the things she would be able to achieve in her life. We knew that everything they said wasn’t true as our older son with Down Syndrome is able to do a wide variety of tasks but hearing an ‘expert’ say it just seems to make it seem more like a fact than the opinion it was.

I have really tried to never say that either our son our daughter can’t do something. Instead we try to say that they can’t do it that way so we’ll have to show them a different way that they can do it. we always try to help them find a way that they can do things … hence, her #thelittlegirlwhocould.

This morning I noticed that one of the older girls was trying to teach Shyanne to do something. Shyanne wasn’t getting the hang of it and one fo the girls said ‘she can’t do that’. Big sissy wasn’t giving up and she showed her a different way to do it and she caught right on. Her little face beamed and so did her sister’s… it was like magic.

We need to remember that we can overcome whatever challenge or obstacle is in our path … maybe we can’t get their by the conventional route but we can find another way to get past it. We also need to remember to keep a smile on our faces and a good attitude because we are children of the God who can do all things and He wants to help us achieve our goals.

Whatever you are facing right now is not so big that God can’t help you get through it so please just ask Him for help.

God bless you and your family!

Banana-less Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Published on February 22, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

You’ve heard of milk-less and egg-less recipes, right? Well, this one is nothing like those but I’m sure you could make this one pretty easy.

You need to make sure you didn’t get a good sleep the night before and don’t drink your coffee before you get started… let it sit and get cold on the counter.