Welcome to Howard Homeschool!

August. You know what that means. It's almost that time of year again—BACK TO SCHOOL!! I can not express how excited I am to start this blog and share so many fun, engaging, meaningful, and educational resources with you!

My name is Stacy Howard, and I have been an educator since 2013. I have taught in public school as a special education paraprofessional and as a substitute teacher. I have also led classrooms in private and non-profit organizations, been a tutor online, and run my own classes on Allschool.com. As you can see, I have worn many hats in education, but one position is the most important to me, and that's being a homeschool teacher.

I love having the freedom to teach my children on my own. Let's face it; there is a lot going on in public schools nowadays that makes me very nervous. I have seen and experienced things that really hurt my heart during my time as a public school educator, which has led me to the decision to homeschool my two youngest sons. ( I homeschooled my oldest son for a few years as well. You can read more about that in the About Me section on my homepage.)

It can be rough at times; I'm not going to lie. It's not easy being mom and teacher, but I can tell you that it is very rewarding and an excellent bonding experience if you keep on keeping on. Don't fret! Since we are going to be sharing this homeschool experience together, I will be there to support you throughout this whole learning adventure. Through the good and the bad, beautiful and ugly, I will genuinely post all of my educational endeavors with you and encourage you to reach out an comment or contact me to tell me all about yours as well. I really would like to form a community with this blog and help out as many families as I can. Not just with homeschooling but with juggling life as well. Being an adult is HARD, but you don't have to do it alone!

I am a stay-at-home mom. I have no village. Other than my husband and my parents, who all work full time and then some, I have no one else to help me. It sounds kind of sad, but you know, I have read on many platforms so many other parents expressing that they are in the same situation. I know I'm not alone. This is my way of reaching out and connecting with others. I don't want to make this out to be my perfect homeschooling mom life. That's not realistic. I want to share with you my life, and my ups and downs. Trust me, the struggle is real.

Now, let’s discuss a little bit about how I work my homeschool magic so you can get an idea of what my curriculum offers and see some of the fun things that we can look forward to doing together. Please note that I plan my curriculum Monday-Friday, so I recommend that you start on a Monday with your kiddos if you want the lessons to line up. Or you can look over the curriculum and pick and choose what you want to cover and only homeschool Mon/Wed/Fri. Do whatever works for your family's schedule! Also, after 4 weeks, I have a week of review where we look over the last four letters that we have worked on for the month as a refresher so all of that awesome stuff that they are learning really absorbs into that brain of theirs 😁.

SO.........I like to have a little morning meeting every day. During morning meetings, my children and I look at their calendar and discuss the day of the week, month, date, and year, as well as yesterday and tomorrow. Then we count the days up to where we are on the calendar. We then move on to the weather and if there are any special events or holidays going on that day.

Calendar time is important to help your child learn sequencing and order. Learning the order of the days, weeks, and months and understanding what comes before and after leads to sequencing skills that help them understand concepts of the past, present, and future.

I made my own calendar. It's nothing special, but I like to make things myself and save money as much as I can. These templates will be available to you if you would like to make your own as well. Or you can buy one off of Amazon; just click on the link button below.

Then, we review our letter, number, shape, and color of the week. That pretty much sums up a morning meeting—quick and easy. For fun morning meeting songs, check out my resources page!

Then, there is handwriting practice. I have quite a few activities that go into this category. I've made a collection of letter tracing worksheets and name practice worksheets as well. We practice writing our letter of the week, paying attention to the proper formation as we write it. We do this every day. After that, we usually do another letter-forming activity to further memorization and also strengthen fine motor skills. I have a collection of Play-Doh mats that we use to form the letters. You don't have to just use Play-Doh with these mats; you can use buttons, coins, candy, or whatever you want as long as you always pay close attention to formation. Another activity my boys enjoy doing is practicing letters in shaving cream. It’s fun sensory play, a little messy but easy to clean up, and educational! I also have created letter do a dot worksheets that will be available to you. My kids LOVE dot markers! You can find then on Amazon here.

After handwriting we usually watch a video about a topic that aligns with our letter of the week. For instance, for A week, I have a cool video about ants, and then we go outside and observe the ants that we find in our yard. Boom. There is some science and nature for you.

Then comes a fun craft which is always a hit. Here are some cute pictures of my boys' fine art.

This is is just a sneak peek at what we do every day. I have planned a ton of other games and activities for the whole school year! I'll be posting the plan for the week on Sundays so families will have an idea of what to look forward to, as well as having the chance to print everything out so you'll be ready to go by Monday. Look for my next post coming out soon with a list of supplies and tips that will be handy to have in order to follow along and learn with us!!