Here’s the thing.  Momming is hard.  And homeschool can be pretty hard, too.  When we started homeschooling, I had to convince myself that if we were going to do this big, awesome, feels-kind-of-scary-thing, then I needed the right tools and homeschool supplies to make each day easier.  There’s no point making hard things harder.  Am I right? So, here are my absolutely essential homeschool supplies!

So, you’ve made the decision.  The hardest decision of your life, but you’ve made it.  You’ve decided to homeschool.  Now that the big decision is made, though, there are of course new questions without answers! Ah, so is life.  Always a new problem, always a new question.  One of those questions is: how are you going to transition your kids from 6.5 hours in a public-school classroom to your new homeschool routine?  The answer (If I may be so bold) is de-schooling.  Not to be mistaken with unschooling.  I’m talking about de-schooling.

“December 7.”  That date meant I was late for advent.  I kept repeating the day in my head as I pushed open the barn door to my office and walked towards my mis-matched chair and desk.

I had every intention of starting the advent activity, from Focus on the Family, on time with our children.  Our 3 kids, ages 6, 4, and 2, were excited about building a nativity as we slowly approached Christmas Day.  Wait… slowly?  Who am I kidding?  Time was rushing by and life was a complete blur of school, work, youth group and coaching.  

December 7.  This would be the day we would start the advent activity.  It had already been a few days since I had sat in front of my computer trying to decide if it would be more economical to print the activity at home on my own printer, or in town at the print shop.  I decided it was probably cheaper at the print shop.

Even with that decision made, I pictured the scene of making one more trip into town, getting the kids out of their car seats and running door-to-door in the cold, north-east winds.  That thought alone made me shiver, sigh, and press print.  After the printing was complete, I gathered up the papers so that I could review them and cut out the first few days worth of cards.  We had some catch-up to do.