How Pinterest Helps Homeschooling

Do you Pinterest yet?

I am hooked!

I love looking at it for inspiration, as well as sharing neat things I find with others. For visual folks like me, it's a gem.

Tonight I assembled a Pinterest board of books for boys, recommendations from other moms as well as some of our favorites right now.

(My Pinterest page also has several other homeschool-related boards...as well as some just for fun!)

(My husband I insists I should backup my Pinterest images on Evernote in the unlikely event that Pinterest crashes and loses everything -- or simply dries up. He's probably right.)

Q & A with the Kids

Every once in a while, I love to participate in one of those Q & A activities with the kids. You know the ones -- you ask your child questions about something, and you record their honest answers, word for word. Sometimes their answers can be quite entertaining!

Here are the answers the kids gave to a list of questions I stumbled across on someone else's blog....questions about me, their mom. I asked them these questions months ago -- but stowed them away in an email file and just uncovered them today. It was fun to read back through them!

Miss Artsy:


1. What is something mom always says to you? ("Go to bed.")
2. What makes mom happy? ("I don't know.")
3. What makes mom sad? ("When I say I don't want to play.")
4. How does your mom make you laugh? ("Tickles me!)
5. What was your mom like as a child? ("I don't know.")
6. How old is your mom? ("33.")
7. How tall is your mom? ("I don't know.")
8. What is her favorite thing to do?  ("Get food ready; work on the computer.")
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?  ("I think she goes to sleep when it's night-night. Also makes my bed.")
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? ("When she wins lots of medals.")
11. What is your mom really good at? ("Standing on her head.")
12. What is your mom not very good at? ("Playing LEGO games on the Wii.")
13. What does your mom do for her job? ("Brushing my teeth and telling me to go potty.")
14. What is your mom’s favorite food? ("Guacamole ("gwats-ta-moley")!")
15. What makes you proud of your mom? ("When there's present and surprises coming!")
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? ("Tom & Jerry.")
17. What do you and your mom do together? ("Girly stuff like looking for girly clothes.")
18. How are you and your mom the same? ("We both have long hair.")
19. How are you and your mom different? ("We have different kind of looking faces.")
20. How do you know your mom loves you? ("From saying special songs about loving.")

Mr. Tinker:


1. What is something mom always says to you? ("I love you so many; sweet dreams; don't forget to wash your hands after you finish doo-dooing.") ;)
2. What makes mom happy? ("When I gave her the clear umbrella; saying "I love you.")
3. What makes mom sad? ("When I feel bad; when I don't want to do stuff; when I say I'm scared.")
4. How does your mom make you laugh? ("When she tickles me; when she says silly things.")
5. What was your mom like as a child? ("She had red hair; she had a kids' voice; she wore hairbows all the time; she liked dress-upping; she had a pink room.")
6. How old is your mom? ("33.")
7. How tall is your mom? ("25 feet and 2 inches.")
8. What is her favorite thing to do? ("To rest, close her eyes, not get headaches; She likes to eat with me; she likes to lay in the sun.")
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? ("She goes shopping; she takes vacations sometimes; she washes clothes.")
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "I don't know.")
11. What is your mom really good at? ("Making my bed; cooking.")
12. What is your mom not very good at? ("Driving a tractor; not good at doing difficult controls on a remote-controlled car.")
13. What does your mom do for her job? ("She puts toothpaste on my toothbrush; she cooks food; she turns on the TV; takes care of us while Daddy's at work.")
14. What is your mom’s favorite food? ("Soup.")
15. What makes you proud of your mom? ("She gives me ice cream and makes me jell-o.")
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? ("Phineas & Ferb's mom.")
17. What do you and your mom do together? ("She watches me do Legos.")
18. How are you and your mom the same? ("We both have freckles.")
19. How are you and your mom different? ("She's a girl and I'm a boy; she wears pretty clothes and I wear cool clothes.")
20. How do you know your mom loves you? ("She takes care of me; she gives me water at night.")

On Reading

Both of the kids are reading fluently now.

It may seem like this for everyone -- but to me, it seems like this just happened overnight.

One day I'm teaching phonic sounds and the next they're reading entire books aloud to me and their daddy. It will never get old, and I'll never get over the fact that I helped teach them to read!

Of course, they need motivation to learn, as well -- nearly every child does. I've learned what type of subjects they like to read about and supply them.

In Mr. Tinker's case, he LOVES Snap Circuits -- it's his favorite toy of choice right now. (Has been for a year.) He sharpened his reading skills reading Snap Circuit technical manuals. He eats it up! In no time he was reading words with ease such as "indicator," "display," and "diode."

Miss Artsy loves to read 1) girly things and 2) books about animals. I keep her pretty stocked on Dr. Seuss books, as well as Fancy Nancy and Mo Willems titles, as well.

Here are some of her favorites:

Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman

Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman

Cat the Cat Who Is That? by Mo Willems

Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever

Dude: Fun with Dude and Betty by Lisa Pliscou

Dick and Jane stories

Eloise Wilkin Stories


What I have found is that it's a lot easier to find books that our daughter loves to read than it is to find books for our son. He wants nothing girly, nothing animal-themed, nothing too "babyish." Most everything in the subject matter he likes (adventure stories, science, fantasy) is a bit past his reading level. Just more incentive to keep on learning!