Happy May, !

Do you follow a year-round schedule, the typical September-June schedule, or something else? My family does a year-round schedule (if we waited for bad weather, we'd only homeschool about a month a year!), but if you follow the typical public school schedule: Are you excited for the end of your school year? Are you done early, almost done, or wondering how you'll ever finish?

Well, if you're done early or just want something fun: Check out these free printable games, my Mancala unit study, or my newest creation, a WWI scavenger hunt!

If you're in a mad scramble to finish and don't think you'll make it: Breathe. Just take a moment. It'll be okay. The public schools rarely finish all they have planned; we don't have to, either. It's okay to call it done and pick up again in the fall. Or it's also okay to just keep chuggin' along until your kiddo finishes. (Why do you think my family follows a year-round schedule?!? I could never keep up with trying to stay "on schedule.")

Sadly, my blog and YouTube channel are still on hold. We've had so many amazing adventures this spring (it's hard for me to remember it's spring as we've been sitting in 90F weather for the past week) and I've had to focus the rest of my time on actually making some money. But never fear, I'll get back to it.

In the meantime, I've been working on making some updates. All of my products can now be found in my shop, and checkout is secure through Thrivecart and PayPal or Stripe. A super cool part of using Thrivecart is I can now offer coupons for free products! This month, I wanted to offer my Roll-and-Write a Story printable to you for free. So use the code MAYFREEBIE when you checkout, but hurry - the code is only good for a few days!

Lately, my kids have been playing fill-in-the-gap with their math skills on Khan Academy. I love how easy Khan Academy makes it. I have them take the course challenge for whatever grade I think they might need, and we see where the gaps are. Then, they go back and practice just those skills, take a few unit tests, and retake the course challenge to see how much they've learned. We took a few years off of formal math, so I started them both with 2nd grade (they're currently 8 and 10), and they're already almost done. I expect they'll both finish 3rd grade in just a few weeks.

We also started a typing program. My daughter, the 8-year-old, has been off and on interested in various ELA skills including handwriting, typing, and spelling, but we only started working on them formally in the last year. Now that both kids' handwriting is a little better and more automatic, I thought we'd try Touch Type Read and Spell. It's a paid program, so we're doing it every day. It's early days yet, but I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

So, tell me: How's your year going? Are things moving in a good direction for you? Do you have any fun travels planned? I look forward to hearing back from you! Until next time,

Happy Gaming!

Ashley

Gypsy Gameschooler