Do you realize that those crazy rugrats running around your house have an amazing capacity for memorization? Don’t squander it! I wrote about it almost exactly 2 years ago, but the lesson was driven home to me again today by an example from my own childhood.

I attended a live production of Macbeth at the Shakespeare Tavern in downtown Atlanta with my son’s Classical Conversations Challenge III class. In the 5th act Macbeth stepped alone to the front of the stage and launched into the famous “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy. And I mouthed the words right along with him.

I memorized this slice of Shakespeare approximately 28 years ago. My English teacher surely would be proud, but probably not surprised.

Don’t confuse the capabilities of your tired, stressed adult brain with the mental gymnastics your children may be capable of performing. Math facts; states and capitals; the grammar of a subject; history dates; Shakespeare’s soliloquys: fill those heads now with facts that just might stick for a lifetime.

Related post: 

A Child’s Brain is Like a Sponge: Don’t Discount the Memory Work

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All 31 Days of Real Life posts can be found here. Other 31 Dayers can be found here.

31 Days of Real Life: The Lasting Effect of Memory Work is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

The monthly attendance reports that homeschoolers are required to submit in Georgia cramp my style. I’m thankful to live in a good state for homeschoolers, but it’s just plain easy to forget about those forms. If you do, however, you can expect a letter or call from your county, and if you have a high schooler, it can affect their ability to get a driver’s permit or license.

This summer I learned about a service called Homeschool Compliance, which is accepted in 110 Georgia counties. Set up an account and log into the secure site; enter your family information, dates for your current school year, etc.; create an electronic signature (quite entertaining); and submit your monthly attendance online. No stamps, printer ink, paper, or envelopes!

Your family info—those details that we fill in over and over again each month—are pre-populated and all Monday-Friday dates are pre-checked. The system automatically calculates the total days of attendance for the month and the cumulative days for the year, time-saving features that make filling out your form a breeze.

It literally takes seconds to submit your monthly attendance.

You’ll receive monthly reminders to submit and an email receipt when the report has been received by your local school system. You can have PDF copies of the reports emailed to you for your records, and they are always available on the website, too. View a demo video here.

Sign up for a free 3-month trial and then pay a low $1 per month.

Win a free year of Homeschool Compliance! (do one or all, leave a comment for each)

(Remember that this service is for Georgia homeschoolers.)

• Leave a comment: Do you have an attendance form horror story, or do you usually remember to submit?
• Share on Facebook (just click the “like” button at the bottom of this post)
• Tweet it! (there’s a retweet button at the bottom of the post for that, too)
• “Like” My Home Sweet Home on Facebook (click here or use the big “Find us on Facebook” widget here in the right sidebar, where I get to look at your lovely faces)

Contest ends Sunday, October 16.

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All 31 Days of Real Life posts can be found here. Other 31 Dayers can be found here.

31 Days of Real Life: Homeschool Attendance Reports (a giveaway for Georgia homeschoolers) is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

We started a new year of Classical Conversations classes on Tuesday and I’ll be perfectly honest: I wasn’t ready to let go of summer break. Last year was my first time tutoring Challenge II—the equivalent of 10th grade—and it monopolized my life and attention for the school year. I knew the first year would be an investment and the prep work would never again be as intense, but still the question nagged . . .

Can I have a life and teach this class?

Yes, apparently.

Company last week; a busy weekend and important church conference Sunday; one son returning to college and another moving back home: all of these combined to keep my focus on faith and family instead of Algebra 2 and British Lit in the days leading up to the first day of class.

Sunday night I sat in the floor with some of my older kids as we shared our hearts and dreams and engaged in that level of conversation that bonds and brands you as family.

No frozen pizza the night before my son would fly back to Dallas for his sophomore year of college. I made the Pioneer Woman‘s chicken pot pie for the first time (best. chicken. pot. pie. ever.) and we sat around the table and enjoyed each other’s company.

And then I stood on my front porch and cried as he drove away with his daddy for the airport, less than two hours before my first day of tutoring began. By the time I’d finished, he’d landed in Texas.

There are nine really neat kids in my class and our first day was wonderful. Hopefully I can juggle both my family and my class, as imperfect as my efforts may sometimes be.

This is totally unrelated, but while editing a batch of photos tonight I saw these from the Southeast Homeschool Expo. On the left is Graham Hepburn, Quaver of Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music, and on the right is Steve Demme of Math-U-See. I’m on the advisory council for Quaver and I worked the Math-U-See booth at Georgia homeschool conferences for years, so it was pretty cool introducing them, even if I acquired a pair of bunny ears in the process.

Has your new school year started, and if so, did you jump right in or resist like I did?

And it Begins: A New School Year is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

The Southeast Homeschool Expo is this Friday and Saturday at the Cobb Galleria Centre here in Atlanta. I’ll be working at Quaver Music’s super cool, techy booth (your kids will love it). Classical Conversations will be represented, too (I’m a Challenge II tutor—approximately 10th grade, but appropriate for students in grades 9-12).

Our Cumming location has spots available for Challenge II and III, so stop by the CC booth (or visit me at Quaver’s booth) for more information.

Will you be there?

The Southeast Homeschool Expo is this weekend! See you there? is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

I had the most awesome time last week working at the Quaver Music booth at the Southeast Homeschool Convention. Working for vendors at conferences for the past few years has meant no wandering through the vendor hall or listening to speakers. One of the most important things a homeschool mom can do is keep herself inspired, her batteries charged.

A desire and love for learning is contagious.

The Institute for Excellence in Writing booth was close to ours, and I met Andrew Pudewa, it’s director. I heard his Teaching Boys & Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day talk at an online homeschool conference about 3 years ago and wanted to see it live (if you are a homeschooling mom or a teacher in any setting, this linked audio download is well worth your $3).

Although that was the only live session I could attend, I bought four conference CDs from other speaker sessions: two from Andrew Kern (“Teaching Classical Literature Classically” and “Introduction to the Lost Tools of Writing”); one from Jim Weiss, storyteller extraordinaire; and one on finding college scholarships that I thought might be helpful. I’ve never met Andrew Kern, but was able to speak individually with the other two gentlemen as well as Memoria Press’s Martin Cothran, author of the logic book used in the Classical Conversations Challenge II class I teach.

I left early Saturday in order to attend the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that evening with area Classical Conversations high school classes. We stayed afterward for an informal audience Q&A session with the guest conductor and pianist, two young men of exceptional passion and talent.

What I brought home from the convention—the one live session and two audio CDs I’ve heard so far, and the conversations—combined with the symphony really motivated me and set my wheels turning.

These sorts of opportunities might not be readily available everyday, but others are. What am I “feeding” myself? What do I allow to inspire me? A mind that doesn’t venture beyond superficial knowledge and pop culture, will surely atrophy.

What inspires you?

Related Posts:

• Education: It’s Not Just for the Kids
• What It Truly Means to Teach

Be sure to check out The Carnival of Homeschooling at The Homeschool Post!

What Inspires You? is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

The Southeast Homeschool Convention in Greenville, SC, this Thursday-Saturday boasts one of the best speaker lineups I’ve seen: Andrew Pudewah, Leigh Bortins, Jim Weiss, Andrew Kern, Susan Wise Bauer and Jesse Bauer, Jay Wile, Jeannie Fulbright, Ken Ham—they even have Tim Hawkins performing live. I’ll be attending with Quaver Music, so if you’re there stop by the booth and check out their awesome music program and say hi!

The conference hashtage is #SouthEastHS on Twitter. Who’s going?

Are You Going to the Southeast Homeschool Convention? is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

One yearly event has remained consistent in our eighteen years as a homeschooling family: March burnout. It would be bad enough if it were only the kids, but it’s me, too.  A combination of factors—primarily exhaustion and spring fever—contribute to this phenomena. Although it’s difficult to conquer, here are a few ideas for making the most of the March meh mindset.

Read the rest at The Homeschool Post.

Surviving March: Dealing with Homeschool Burnout is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

March’s desktop wallpaper is available now at (in)courage. Look on the right side of the navigation bar (underneath the blog header) where it says Calendar (Mar.). Download the image (two sizes are available, a larger and a smaller), right click it and set as your wallpaper. Enjoy!

If you would like to buy an 8×10 print of this image (without text) and support a good cause, visit Especially Heather’s Etsy shop. Some of the girls at (in)courage have donated items to be sold to help purchase expensive educational software for Heather’s daughter’s iPad (enough money for the iPad was already raised). Emma recently suffered seizures that have left her unable to communicate effectively; the software would be a huge help. Read all about it here.

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If you’re a homeschooler existing in a state of March burnout, I’ll have an article at The Homeschool Post this Sunday that will hopefully give you some ideas to invigorate your homeschool. I’ll link you to it then.

March’s Desktop Wallpaper is Available Now at (in)courage is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

My husband and I had a magical weekend in Nashville. Full details cannot be revealed at this time, but I participated in a focus group for product that will make kids love music. When the beans can be spilled, you’ll be the first to know and can share my enthusiasm.

If this sounds cryptic, then I’ve done my job. :-)

Here’s what I can talk about:

Blog Buddies

I got to hang out with some fine ladies: Meghan, Sue, Jenn, Sami, Abby…

and Heather! Hanging with Heather felt a little bit like playing hooky, considering the Homeschool Blog Awards started while we were there. (Go vote!)

Sweet Tea

An amazing and mind-boggling discovery was made about my new buddy, Sue: being from Arizona, she had never tasted sweet tea. You would think that a reputable hotel in a fine Southern city like Nashville would serve it, but you just might be wrong. Experiencing mild withdrawal, I called my husband, who was sightseeing, to please bring me some, and for heaven’s sake, get one for Sue, too!

McDonald’s sweet tea in the South—which Jenn compared to crack—is addictive. At the bargain price of $1 for a large, I have trouble driving past a MickeyD’s without stopping for one. Chick-fil-a also serves excellent sweet tea, which you can purchase by the gallon. When we were in Pigeon Forge last month, their McDonald’s sold it by the gallon, too.

I tried to explain to Sue how to make it, but it was so completely foreign to her that she asked me to please post. While this could be titled “sweet tea for dummies,” I prefer “sweet tea for the unfortunate.” Never having been exposed is surely deprivation of the worst kind.

The secret is to add the sugar when the tea is hot, otherwise it won’t dissolve and will sit in the bottom of the glass. Although they make long, thin-handled spoons for stirring the sugar at the bottom of the glass, this will always be second-rate sweet tea.

I brew mine in a coffee pot, reserved only for tea. We go through about a gallon a day in the summer, so that’s how much this recipe makes. Use four family size tea bags, preferably Luzianne or Tetley. After brewing, you will have about 6 cups (depending on how much water you used) of very concentrated hot tea.

Pour this into a gallon pitcher with 1+ cups of sugar.  One cup is pretty tame and I make it that way because my husband is diabetic, but this is really not a time when less is more. Stir to dissolve the sugar, and then fill the rest of the way with cold water. Chill and serve.

Songwriters

We were treated to an evening of fine Southern food and a performance by amazingly talented and gracious Nashville songwriters Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick at B.B. King’s Blues Club.

The Sites

I dearly loved taking my camera out for a couple of Nashville nights.

What did you do this weekend?

Sweet Tea, Sightseeing, Songwriters, and Sisters (of the Bloggy Kind) is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

As homeschoolers, we can help each other by sharing successful ideas or events. Our group’s mother/son outing is a favorite. This marked our third consecutive year to stay overnight at a mountain 4H camp, and our first without rain.

On Friday night we gathered around a campfire, toasting marshmallows and building s’mores. The moms remained, talking and laughing, while the boys slipped away to the recreation hall, where we later discovered that they’d choreographed a dance for our entertainment.

I didn’t realize that my boys were killer hula-hoopers. They won both the older and younger boys’ competitions. My nine year old is a hula-hooping machine. When I commented that we didn’t even own one, he said, “I learned how at Walmart.” Huh? :-)

We were proud of the older boys and how they mentored the younger ones. This is a great bonding activity for the boys, the moms, and most importantly, the mothers and their sons.

Mother/Son Outing: A Homeschool Success Story is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved