5 Productivity Tools Every Homeschool Mom Needs to Stay Ahead

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We all need to do our work better and faster, so that we can have more time for fun. However, I do hope homeschooling is fun for you most of the time. In this spirit, I offer you five productivity tools. Here we go:

 

Tool #1

Homeschool planner – This Paper Peony Press planner contains pages for your yearly, monthly, and weekly goals. As such, you will find space to plan your menus, besides your lessons and calendar. Bonus: it is undated. I really like it.

Homeschool Planner

Homeschool Planner

 

Tool #2

Noise-canceling earbuds for focused planning – Personally, I enjoy silence from time to time. When I sit at co-op with all the noise around me, in the general area, it can get very noisy. At home, we run the dehumidifier all. the. time. I do not find white noise relaxing. It annoys me. A lot. So these earbuds are a lifesaver for me. I wish I had them when the children were little and loud.

Earbuds

Noise-canceling earbuds

 

Tool #3

Portable chargers for co-op days or field trips – How long do you stay at co-op? We spend seven hours there. We also drive for three hours both ways. So we are gone from home for 10 hours. When we take fields trips, they also usually take all day. As a mom with children on the road, I need to be connected with my husband via cell. We live in the year of our Lord 2025. Gone are the days of payphones and pagers. For my peace of mind, I must have a cell phone and a charger with me.

Portable Charger

Portable Charger

 

Tool #4

Desk calendars or dry-erase boards for scheduling – These come in handy. As a result, the entire family knows where everybody goes and when. Now that we have three cars and three drivers, we all go in different directions. It feels good to know and see visually the week or the month ahead. Personally, I like this wall calendar because of the cork board section at the bottom, where you can pin tickets or bits of paper and notes.

Wall Calendar

Wall Calendar

 

Tool #5

Coffee maker and tumbler for on-the-go days – You know homeschool moms do not stay at home every day, right? We need our coffee on the go, preferably in a stainless steel tumbler, please. The link will take you to a black matching set with a coffee maker and a 14 oz travel mug. As the only coffee drinker in my family, I love my single-serve coffee maker – which is what this link will take you to. No waste, reusable filter, and compact for your already crowded kitchen counter.

Coffee Maker and Tumbler

Coffee Maker and Tumbler


College Fair

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If your student is headed to college, you owe it to yourself to attend at least one college fair. I would wait until your child’s junior year. If your child has reached the senior year, definitely go now. Last week, I attended a college fair at Maryville College and learned a few things.

Maryville College Fair

Maryville College Fair at Clayton Center for the Arts

It happened in the beautiful Clayton Center for the Arts in downtown Maryville, TN. Continue reading »


Four Letters of Acceptance

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As of right now, four universities have accepted our son. The fifth university has not made a decision about him yet because they have not received all the documentation.

Teenager with his Chevy Colorado truck

Our son earned himself a truck by getting a really high SAT score.

Did you know that some homeschoolers should not fill out the Common App Homeschool Supplement? Don’t believe everything you hear on national homeschool podcasts… This very famous homeschool podcast insisted on the Homeschool Supplement inside the Common App. Well, it does not apply to everybody. Continue reading »


Unplugged Tots – Book and Website

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Raspberry Pi Press published Unplugged Tots, a book by Hannah Hagon, in August 2025 in the UK. In the US, the book is available for pre-order here and now [affiliate link]. The subtitle of the book encourages us to “introduce children to the foundations of computer coding.” However, unplugged means no electronics. Well, how on earth can one teach computer coding without electronics? Through simple household items and activities parents and children can do together.

Unplugged Tots by Hannah Hagon

Unplugged Tots by Hannah Hagon

I had to privilege of interviewing Hannah last week about Unplugged Tots and you can watch the interview on my YouTube channel or listen to it on Spotify. Yes, I have started a complementary podcast version of this blog. Please bear with me as I work out the techy details. Continue reading »


15 Workbooks – Free Resources to Supplement Your Homeschool

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Have you ever heard of 15Worksheets.com? I was very pleasantly surprised when I discovered it last week. Since then, I have already used it with my daughter for Trigonometry. Let me explain.

15Worksheets.com Homepage

15Worksheets.com Homepage

My daughter is in 10th grade and she is taking Geometry. At the same time, she is preparing to take the SAT again in spring, as we do ever year since she was in 7th grade. Our umbrella school does not impose testing on us. We test our children voluntarily. If you are going to make your children take a standardized test, might as well make it one that counts, like the ACT or the SAT. Continue reading »


5 Supplemental Workbooks to Enhance Your Homeschool Curriculum

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After the back-to-school season, we homeschool parents may realize our chosen curriculum isn’t working. What to do? Let me suggest you do not need to make drastic changes. Maybe all you need is a little supplementation. This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

Brainquest Workbooks

Brainquest Workbooks

In this post, I am recommending workbooks or curriculum add-ons which can address this pain point we have all felt at one time or another. Continue reading »


Sending The Transcript

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The First Week of my son’s Last Year has come to an end. Why am I capitalizing nouns as they do in German? Maybe because I feel like this First Week and this Last Year feel important? Here’s what we have learned: the Common App walks you through all the needed documentation each college requires. Some will have the same requirements. Others will ask for an extra thing or two. But you cannot do it all in one sitting.

Alexander the Great Diploma

Alexander the Great Diploma – don’t you wish you saw his transcript?

To tackle the job of applying to five universities, my son spent a few minutes every day opening tabs and filling out required information. One cannot possibly finish in one session. Continue reading »


Back-to-Homeschool Co-op – First Day

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My children are excited to go back to co-op and see friends and start new classes. I cannot think about this too much but I have to say it, for the record: this is my son’s last year in (home)school. He is a senior in high school this year.

Mom and teenagers in car

My children and I in the car, driving to co-op on the first day of back-to-homeschool

He drives us to co-op as he has for more than a year now. What will happen next year? You mean to tell me I have to drive again? Continue reading »


Homeschool Organization and Storage Solutions

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Have you ever struggled with keeping materials, books, and projects organized? You and me both. Especially after the back-to-school rush when clutter starts to build, I find it necessary to take a few minutes and really think through my organization methods. Let me offer you solutions to help streamline your homeschool space, based on what has worked for us.

Things To Do This Week

Spend a few minutes today to save hours every week.

 

Continue reading »


My Next Level Health Kitchen

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You might know that I am a bit of a health reformer. A vegetarian since 1993, I have also been drinking 2+ quarts of water daily, walking 2+ miles regularly, and generally aimed for 7 hours of sleep at night. One cannot be too careful with one’s lifestyle choices. If we aim to age well, – and who doesn’t? – we must make a bit of an effort. This post contains affiliate links.

Glass Food Storage Containers

Glass Food Storage Containers

Well, my son has taken our healthy lifestyle to a whole new level. Ever since he read Estrogeneration (affiliate link), he has politely refused to eat certain things (like veggie meat products or processed foods). I don’t mind a challenge, so I have adapted my cooking to accommodate him and, for the most part, the other members of the family have not complained (too much).

Estrogeneration - learn about your next level healthy lifestyle

Estrogeneration – learn about your next level healthy lifestyle

Here are some of the new things I have had to add to the kitchen:

  1. A Reverse Osmosis Water Filter – honestly, you can taste the difference in the water
  2. Aluminium Watter Bottles (no, BPA-free plastic bottles are not safe)
  3. Glass Food Storage Container Set – not as convenient as plastic, but so worth it
  4. Castiron skillet – hard to handle and clean, but so much better for us than Teflon
  5. Large castiron skillet – for bigger recipes
  6. InstantPot – I had one, but I use it more often now, to save time, as I sometimes cook four kinds of breakfast for the four different people in my family
  7. Cast Iron Dutch Oven – to make anything, really, but especially our amazing Dutch Oven Bread recipe

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you order through these links, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.