Blueberries, Bees & Boys

 I still am using a bullet journal. I still love it. I post all my weekly layouts and monthly cover in Instagram @homeschoolbulletjournal. Here is a peek in my 2021 yearly set up. I really like the Cover page I came up with. This year we will be moving and big changes are coming. I felt that a compass was a good reminder to stay the course and believe that God has got it all. 

      So I started this blog and then things happened and it got pushed to the side. The year 2020 was a crazy year for us. But I felt very prepared when the lockdowns started. As a homeschool mom, we just carried on with what were doing (minus the field trips, and traveling). We were able to push though and meet some goals early.  JD really got into reading...and grandma keeps sending awesome books.    I have to say I am so thankful that I homeschool. We did not have to do any transitions to online school, or deal with a school system scrabbling to get things in order. Thankfully we were able to just continue on with normal school days.  JJ working on math     I am also so thankful that my kids or I don't have to deal teaching what another Teacher has assigned. I don't think that online school is homeschooling, when you are doing it through the public school system. I love that I get to teach my kids things that we find interesting, and...

During the summer we spend our morning doing school work, them head over to our village playground (spielplatz is the German word for playground). One of the things we love best about living in Germany is they build the best playgrounds. They have them everywhere. Park for our Village. I love the way the build the playgrounds. I feel like they are made for kids to take risks, learn coordination, and have fun. The playground pictured above has 2 platforms on it (just the tent on the right side). I have seen kids climb up the outside of it, if they fall it would hurt. But no one is telling them to get down, you will hurt yourself. They let the kids learn what is their limits. Thankfully my boys don't want to climb up the outside, they stay in the safer areas. I always say, they design the playgrounds to break an arm. I also love that kids go to the park without parents. The helicopter parent is very rare in Germany. I see kids there without their parents. My boys have learned...

A couple of people have been asking about a digital PDF, so I have created a free one. Subscribe by email and I will be happy to send you a copy. Free weekly PDF I have always struggled with being organized and remembering to do stuff. My grocery lists would never make it to the store with me, or I would forget when we had something going on. I have had planners, and there were good. I would use them for half the year, and then stop. Then I heard about a bullet journal...life changing. This is how I spend my Christmas holiday, setting up my next years bullet journal.  Two years ago, I got a dot grid journal and never looked back. I use it for everything. Every weekend I make time to sit down and plan out our next weeks adventures.  I have two formats that I switch back and forth between. But the basics are daily spots, meal planner and a to do list. I have just started picking a color and using that to make it pop every month. This month is Purple, last month...

We are currently in our third year of living in Germany. I will admit that my ability to speak German is not good. But I am able to read a lot more that I used to. When we first moved here we lived in the Baumholder area. Our Village was a small little place called Ruschberg. Our Village Ruschberg We lived at the top of a hill with a wonderful view of the rolling hills all around us. Add This was the view from our home in Ruschberg. After two years there, we go the opportunity to move to the Stuttgart area. We have been here for about 10 months now. Our village is bigger here, and we have access to move immediateness close by.  JJ skateboarding in our new neighborhood. Since moving to Germany we have become a very active family. We run and bike together every week (counts as PE). We can go bouldering and swimming  We have the ability to keep up a much healthier lifestyle.   We are thankful that Stuttgart has a lar...

Before we moved back to Germany we decided that we would continue to homeschool. It was a very easy decision for us. We had three main reasons for wanting to continue... JD and JJ working on our math the first year we started homeschooling. 1. We wante d to move   to Germany was so that we could travel. With kids being in a school we would have be limited to only their holidays. That would mean we could not go with Jeremiah if he had a work trip. We try and go with him anywhere he goes, if it for a week or longer. This way we have been able to see so much (Washington DC, St. Louise,  Colorado Springs,  and  Vicenza, Italy just to name a few).  Homeschooling can be done anywhere, so now we are free to travel whenever we want. Being here in Europe we also try and go during the off seasons, so fall, winter and spring are our prime travel months. JD and JJ in Vicenza, Italy 2018 2. The second reason we continued the homeschooling...

Hi, my name is Beverly.  I am a stay at home mom of two bo ys. I am so lucky that I get to homeschool. JD is 10(top of picture), and JJ is 8(bottom of picture).  With my husband Jeremiah, we live in Stuttgart, Germany.   Today is our three year anniversary of living overseas.  I wanted to start this blog to be an  encouragement to homeschool families all over the world, and just share my failures and triumphs, and our adventure as we all explore together. How we started homeschooling... We started this adventure when my oldest was in 1st grade. My husband got a chance to come to Germany for 4 months for work. We decided to pull JD our of school and finish the year homeschooling so we could go with Dad.  My youngest would be started kindergarten the following year. He saw his brother doing school and decided he wanted too do school also. So I jumped in with both boys, not having clue as to what i was d...