What is Notebooking?  Notebooking is a great way to create a record of learning in a creative and meaningful way.  Like narration, it is a natural form of assessment for all ages.  In this week's episode, Carrie shares simple and inexpensive ways to create seven different kinds of notebooks:  Learning Journals, History & Timeline Notebooks, Creative Writing Journals & Reading Response Notebooks, Nature Journals & Lab Notebooks, Art Study Notebooks, Travel Journals, and End of the Year Portfolios.  Notebooking is fun and easy!  Pour yourself a cup of co ..read more

It's hard to live life with bouts of depression.  When you add in the role of motherhood and the calling to homeschool, life can feel overwhelming.  If you suffer from feelings of depression, then this week's episode will encourage you.  Carrie talks candidly about the elephant in the room (or in other words,  the little "black dog" on the couch).  Not everyone deals with depression, grief, or bouts of extreme sadness, but for those who do, it is Carrie's prayer that her story will give you a sense of hope and help you see you are not alone.   Take a deep breath ..read more

Join Carrie for this week's episode as she shares six simple ways to learn about US government with the entire family or with your teen for high school civics credit. This episode is full of resources, recommendations, and fun activities to do as a mini unit leading up to the election, as a way to dig deep into the Constitution for a semester, or as a year-long civics course.  Pour yourself a cup of coffee, fly your American flag, put your feet up, and join Carrie for a little patriotic coffee break.   Support the show Purchase Homeschooling High School: A Handbook for Christian Ed ..read more

Creation Science Co-Op: A Year Long Science Study Are you looking for a different way to learn science this year or a way to learn science with friends?  If science studies have you stuck in a rut, then make sure you listen to this week’s episode.  This week, Carrie shares how you can explore the days of creation as a family or with a group of friends and how to use Genesis 1 as your entire science curriculum for the year.  If you are a Sunday school teacher, a VBS director, or a homeschool co-op science teacher,  you can even use the ideas in this episode for your Sunday s ..read more

As a mother and home educator, you are standing on holy ground.  Motherhood and homeschooling is a calling.  They come with many blessings and challenges.  In this week's episode, Carrie shares how to dig deep into God's Word and how to study the Bible using the 3 Question Method.  All that is needed is a Bible, a notebook, and a pen and highlighter.  As Carrie expounds on the truths in Exodus 1 and how moms can apply these principles to their lives and homeschooling, she also explains how to use the 3 Question Method to study God's Word.   Carrie even used this s ..read more

Praying with your kids can be a time of connection and fun.  In this week's episode, Carrie talks with Steph Thurling & Sarah Holmstrom, the authors of Raising Prayerful Kids:  Fun and Easy Activities for Building Lifelong Habits of Prayer about how to  make prayer fit naturally into your daily routines. Carrie, Steph, and Sarah share relatable stories of their successes and failures along with fun activities and games to help parents turn everyday moments into moments filled with prayer.  They even discuss how moms can develop a more meaningful prayer life too.  P ..read more

In this week's episode, Carrie gives you permission to put off taking down those decorations a few days more, to start lessons a little later in January, and to keep celebrating Christmas a little longer.  Don't just sing the Christmas carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," go ahead and celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas. In this week's coffee break, Carrie shares a ton of fun activities you can do with the entire family to celebrate The Twelfth Night, the Feast of Epiphany, or King's Day, and all the days leading up to them.  Pour yourself a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and join ..read more

If you have a toddler, preschooler, or a 5 year old, you don't want to miss this Coffee With Carrie Homeschool episode.  If your children are past this stage, make sure you share this episode with friends who are thinking of homeschooling their little ones.  In this week's episode, Carrie explains the seven essentials of preschool and kindergarten and how to create a nurturing, learning environment with and without formal curriculum.  If you have little ones or you are new to homeschooling, you don't want to miss this episode.  Pour yourself a cup of coffee, put your feet u ..read more

“The world is the true classroom. The most rewarding and important type of learning is through experience, seeing something with our own eyes.” ~ Jack Hanna.  In this week's coffee break, Carrie talks with Christina Franco of Rooted HomeLife about incorporating travel and field trips into our home education.  In this week's episode, Carrie and Christina talk about the advantages of using real-life and the outside world as our main "curriculum" and how to incorporate more experiential learning into our homeschooling on a tight budget (or with a tight schedule).  This episode is a ..read more

What is your favorite flavor of homeschooling?  In this week's episode, Carrie simply explains the five major homeschooling styles and helps you discern which method you gravitate towards the most: Traditional, Classical, Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, & Eclectic.  If you feel Carrie is missing a few such as the Unit Study approach, online learning, and/or Montessori, make sure you listen to this week's coffee break.  Carrie shares how most homeschooling styles can basically be clumped into five distinct flavors.  Don't worry!  You might have a favorite flavor of ho ..read more