We are two weeks into homeschooling this year and have officially had our first field trip. I’ve lived here for so many years and somehow am only now hearing about so many cool things to visit and experience. This week we visited the Greensboro Science Center, a museum, aquarium, and zoo, all in one. Aside from the heat it was quite an enjoyable experience. Some of the zoo animals were understandable hiding/sleeping due to the temperatures but we still got to see otters playing, the adorable red pandas snuggling up together, and many many more. I have been to North Carolina Zoo several times but in terms of ease, I do believe I enjoyed this place even more. As much as we love the big NC Zoo we do tend to get overwhelmed and exhausted whenever we visit. The Greensboro Science Center let us take our time and enjoy ourselves at our own leisure. Of course, now that I know what to expect, I think I’ll wait to return during the spring/fall when it is much cooler.
Every year I am excited to plan out field trips with the girls. It is one thing I always loved when I was younger and wished that I could have more of but they seemed to no longer exist after elementary school. So, since I am the teacher now, I get to plan as many field trips I want. For now though, I’ll admit that majority of our field trips often involve animals of some kind whether they’re wild animals or domesticated. This year promises to be no different as I already have a list of places I’m looking forward to exploring with the girls.
This is somewhere I have visited on multiple occasions but have not taken the girls to yet. I am excited to see their faces when we are so close to the big cats. I personally always enjoyed the tiger rescue and learned something new each visit.
I have lived in NC for almost 20 years and somehow only just discovered that this place existed! This is also on my list of field trips this year but will take some planning due to distance.
Another place I only recently discovered and am looking forward to visiting.
The list goes on, between local museums that we have visited before and the usual zoo/aquariums that we always love. I don’t know who looks forward to our field trips more, me or the kids.
Without further adieu the 2025-2026 homeschooling year has come to an end. This year has been a rollercoaster of a ride when it comes to homeschooling. Homeschooling is already a fulfilling challenge but being a working mom who also homeschools comes with a whole new set of challenges. Biggest challenge we faced this year was schedule. I started the year waking the girls up at 7AM so that they could do their lessons before I started work for the day, but the lack of sleep made them grumpy throughout the day. I then tried to work their lessons in small batches during my breaks and lunch. That also didn’t work for us. I’ve learned that I was still operating on the premise of my public school background, I was used to school as something that happens in the mornings at specific times. I forgot that one of the reasons I even decided to do homeschooling was the flexibility of it. So after prayer and guidance I decided to move our homeschooling lessons to the afternoons when I was done with work for the day. Some days were harder than others but overall this is what ended up working best for us.
Up until now my youngest Emily (6yrs) has also been doing her lessons right alongside her sister Anastasia(8yrs). They have been at the same level and doing their lessons together but this year that changed as well. If she had been going to public school Emily would have only started Kindergarten this year while Anastasia just finished 2nd grade. So when I saw that Emily was still working on learning the fundamentals when it came to reading that was when I knew it was time to separate the lessons and give them both individual attention at their level, which to my surprise they both thrived with and actually preferred the individual lessons.
It has been a year of many changes and lessons for all of us but it has been a successful year. I love seeing how far they’ve come and how much they’ve progressed since we started last fall and I’ve learned what does and does not work for us. But all things come to an end and this year we ended the school year with a bang and went to the lake with their grandparents. It was a perfect way to end the school season and start the summer festivities. We have many activities planned for this summer but at the same time, it is the time for rest and relaxation for all of us.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
I am totally a planner girlie. I love calendars, love planners, love the cute pens and highlighters and stickers to go with them and keep myself organized. I have been this way since my school-days. I would always have a planner to write down everything for all of classes, due dates, tests, reminders, etc. When I finished school and started in the corporate world I traded in my planner for the calendar app on my phone and outlook on the computer. I didn’t have as many things to keep track of aside from meetings or scheduled calls. For many years this is all I needed, and it worked for me during that season of my life.
But now I work full time, am a mother, a homeschool teacher, and homemaker, all wrapped up and rolled into one. There was a time where I was also back in school as well, and my husband picked up most of my slack so that I could finish and get my bachelors degree. Now we have traded places and I am happy to be able to do the same for him, that he did for me. Now he works full time and goes to school, along with his many other responsibilities. So our responsibilities have shifted and suffice it to say the current season of our life, is busy. Very busy in fact, and the little phone calendar app just wasn’t cutting it for me anymore. Yes I still use it, especially for keeping track of appointments, schedules, important dates, etc. But for day to day organizing it just wasn’t working.
Sure there are hundreds of planner/organizing apps to help people get organized. I have even tried several of them, but they just weren’t doing it for me. I’d stick to them for a bit and then things would fall to the wayside. But you know what did do it for me? A good old fashioned paper and pen planner. I started using them again last year and immediately remembered how much I loved using planners to help me stay organized and on top of things.
Not all planners are created equally though. What some people find useful others do not. I tried several different planners, printable ones as well physical copies. I even tried designing my own, but that just made me feel even busier with everything I already have to do. Some planners were specific to the task, such as homeschool specific planners, while others more broad. But ultimately my favorite planner ended up being the one my sister gifted me from ChristianPlanner. I loved that planner so much that she gifted me another one this year as well. With this weekly planner I am able to block out the days as needed. I have my homeschool sections where I can note down the lessons for the day, to do list, meal planning, appointments, and so on, and so forth. I can make it cute with my different colored pens and highlighters (because that’s the kind of girl I am) but ultimately the purpose is the same. To organize and keep track of what needs to get done.
I think the significance of having a physical planner that has helped me the most, is the simple act of writing things down. Me personally, I am a tactile learner. I need to touch and feel in order to learn, I could type all I want on a phone or tablet but it doesn’t help me to simply touch a smooth screen. It is the act of physically writing things down on paper, that helps me actually remember them. I remember when I was in college, I didn’t study in the traditional sense of quizzing myself or using flash cards. My professors would often talk so fast that my notes would be messy and sloppy as I tried to keep up with them. So then I would go home and re-write them again, so that I could make them look nicer, more organized, and of course color-coded. I even had different colored notebook paper for each class. But it was that simple act of rewriting my notes that would help me remember what needed to be remembered.
Bringing that same concept back to planner I see now why all of those organizing apps and todo lists on my phones wouldn’t work. I wouldn’t remember what I needed to do unless I checked my phone a hundred times to remind myself. But by writing it down in the planner, yes I do still check it occasionally to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but simply writing them down already helps keep it in my mind, I can close my eyes and picture the todo section of my planner and what I wrote there. I mean this concept isn’t a foreign one. It goes back even to Biblical times if you truly stop to think about it. God told Moses to write down the commandments, he told kings to write down copies of that law so that they would remember. He told prophets to write down their prophecies so they could be remembered and preserved. Throughout time and history the act of writing things down has been used to remember and pass things down.
So, my advice today. If you find yourself struggling to keep track of your to-do lists, or figuring out what needs to happen throughout your days. Ditch the phone apps and try getting an actual planner to keep track. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive. I’ve even seen small pocket planners at the dollar store. Give it a try, and I hope that it helps you, as much as it has helped me.
Little Piece of Quiet 