Adventures in Literature

The Basics of Homeschool on a Budget

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When you were little, did you enjoy school?

All three of our kids are homeschool and we’re on our THIRD year of it and loving it!

They get so much more flexibility to learn what they want to, along with the basics of course, but also get the time they need to focus on areas they may need more attention in.

We’ve really come to love the Spectrum curriculum from Carson Dellosa because it teaches them all the basics and has a really great format for education. With a 4th grader, 1st grader and our little 3 year old supervisor, we really have our hands full but we love learning together.

PLUS some of it is self-guided for my oldest and I can get some reading done while he studies. WIN-WIN!

If you’re just starting out with homeschool or trying to get your bearings with it after the last few years of your kids being in and out of it, then I highly recommend looking into the Spectrum curriculum. They have options for every grade and a wide selection of subject topics to choose from depending on how you want to structure it. Not to mention that most of the books are Prime items on Amazon meaning you can get them really quickly if you need to!

But we think our kids need much more than just their textbooks and we’re big supporters of a STEAM approach. So we have a day or two each week dedicated to Computer Science as well. Our 4th Grader is using the CodaKid programming lessons to learn how to build Roblox games and our 1st Grader uses Education.com for some self guided typing as well as math and reading games!

For our kids, we get the essentials: Math, Science and English/Reading then we sprinkle in some other topics like History and Sight Words as a few examples.

Setting up your homeschool shouldn’t be a stress magnet. There are SO many simple options out there that won’t break the bank and are easy for anyone to manage the instruction for!

What are some things you’ve seen or used in your own home for self-guided education?

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Clara by Suzanna J Linton

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

Talk about an epic read. I knew when I saw the description for this story that I would enjoy the adventure, but I had no idea I was going to be sucked into a whole new epic tale! The story of Clara is engaging and riveting. Taken as a young girl into slavery and enduring the atrocities of being a slave, she’s raised with a thick collar around her neck and doing what others tell her to do. But little did anyone know that she is quite the specialty. Known as a Seer, she has visions of the future and can see various outcomes to situations or clear answers as to things that are going to happen.

The kingdom is in chaos as the Wizards have taken over the role of King when they usurped his position many years ago. The Captain of the Rebel army is also someone Clara met a very long time ago and all of their stories interweave in such a way that you can feel the crumbling of everyone’s world as this story unfolds. 

Absolutely magnificent story that has me clutching for the next installment in this series. Thankfully I have them all and can keep going without stopping because I’d be an absolute mess if I couldn’t keep finding out what was happening.

One of the things I am loving most about this story is how strong and brave Clara is. Even after everything she’s endured, she stays strong for herself. Slavery took her voice, but it will not take her soul and she will continue to fight for herself, her freedom and those that are treated horrendously by those that are in power. A force to be reckoned with, Clara will warm your heart and feed that need for an epic tale that we readers all love and enjoy to ends of the earth!

A huge thank you to Love Books Tours for having me on this book tour! Make sure to check out the other accounts that will be featuring and talking about Clara!

Available NOW!

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About The Book

Join an amazing adventure about love, loss, and the fate of kingdoms.

As a slave, Clara’s life extends no further than the castle kitchens and their garden. However, she carries within herself a precious gift: the ability to see the future.

When a vision prompts her to prevent a murder, Clara is shoved not only into the intrigues of the nobility but also into a civil war. As events unfold, she begins to unearth chilling secrets about the war and her supposed friends.

Driven to learn the truth, Clara embarks on a journey that takes her from her beloved mountains to the very Capital itself, Bertrand. There, she is confronted by an evil as old as the mountains–and it’s using her anger and prejudices against her. If she is not careful, not only will the entire nation be lost, but Clara’s own soul as well.

About The Author

Suzanna J. Linton grew up in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and fed a steady diet of catfish and tall tales. After reading Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, she was inspired to be an author. She went to Francis Marion University and obtained a Bachelor’s in Professional Writing. Her first book, Clara, is the thousandth rewrite of a novel she penned as a teenager, when she wanted to write about a heroine in search of a voice. She still lives in South Carolina with her husband and various pets.

Visit her site: http://suzannalinton.com/

Life of a Blogger

It’s kind of ironic when you start blogging about books and you think: “I love to read books and write reviews about them, so I should totally start a blog and do this.”

But then you do and you realize just how much work it really is. Like hours each day of your time. Which, was great when I wasn’t doing a whole lot and then I found out that I really, really love social media and the intricacies of how it all works.

Then I found myself taking marketing courses online and learning all the ins and outs of how it works, how to track data, how to be ENGAGED. But then the dreaded thing happens. Where you are spending so much time learning these things that you actually stop engaging on your social media and it all feels like it’s falling apart.

That’s kind of where I am right now and realizing that the first step in turning this all around starts with learning how to shed layers. I spend too much time online trying to be who I think others want me to be and not enough time really being myself.

Therefore, here we are. I plan on being more interactive, sharing more of myself and all the things in the world of books and literature. But first and foremost just being me.

So tell me, are you being you today?

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