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The Homeschool Front
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About

ABOUT ME

Hi, I’m Xuan. I’m a Southern California-based homeschool mom, wife, and sometimes purveyor of vintage goods. I’m an Enneagram 5, a lover of good food, and a former middle school history teacher. You’ll either find me looking at road maps and day dreaming about our family’s next epic adventure or perusing recipes and cooking up a feast for the brood. I’m really glad you’re here!

ABOUT THE BLOG

Being a parent is already a challenge, but then add teaching your own kids to the mix and your tank starts to run on empty. It’s hard to be engaged 24/7, to be cheerful and present, to be the superstar homeschooling parent you both idolize and loathe on Instagram.

Here at The Homeschool Front I share my favorite homeschooling ideas and resources as well as my own personal journey in homeschooling my three kids. I’m also nosy extremely curious and want to know what others in the community are doing and how they manage their children’s education while maintaining their own wellbeing, so you’ll see interviews and guest posts here and there. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer, and that when you leave this site you come to have a better understanding of homeschooling and how diverse the community has really become.

JUST SO YOU KNOW

I often use affiliate links in the blog. This means that I make a small commission if you purchase anything through those links. If I was gifted a product or sponsored by a company, it will be plainly noted at the top of the blog post, but that will rarely happen as I only share curriculum and resources that we actually own and regularly use at home. Thanks so much for your support!

thehomeschoolfront

Xuan || The Homeschool Front
“If you don’t see a clear path for what you wa “If you don’t see a clear path for what you want, sometimes you have to make it yourself.” - Mindy Kaling⁠
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Did you know that we actually use these quotes in our homeschool? ⁠
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Each month I choose a variety of quotes and share one weekly with the kids. Not only are they a springboard for discussion about grit and perseverance, but they also become our copy work and our theme of the week.⁠
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Real life - My 9 y.o. and I write the quotes down in our interactive notebooks and add some flair to make them look interesting, while my 5 y.o. just cuts and pastes them into his as he’s still learning to write and isn’t much into drawing or coloring. The toddler likes to cut her quotes into tiny bits and glue them all over her notebook and sometimes the table or the wall or even her face 🙄.⁠
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#thehomeschoolfront #homeschoollife #homeschool #homeschooling #notesfromthetrenches #homeschooler #homeschoolmom #eclectichomeschool #secularhomeschool #relaxedhomeschooling #bravewriterlifestyle #quoteoftheday #quotestoliveby #quotes #mindykaling #womenshistorymonth #empowerment⁠ #copywork #interactivenotebook #themeoftheweek #thisishowwehomeschool⁠
Do you have a homeschool crew? A group of kids and Do you have a homeschool crew? A group of kids and their moms that hang out at least once a week if schedules cooperate?⁠
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We have a small one, just three families that would meet on Wednesdays pre-C 19. We’d usually go to the beach, chill at a skatepark, take a hike, visit a playground, and once in a blue moon hang out at each other’s homes (we try to avoid that last one so we rarely have to clean the before AND after mess.)⁠
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The kids do their thing, run around and talk about Minecraft, while us moms get a chance to vent, share ideas, and swap homeschool resources. ⁠
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It’s great for all of us to have that outlet, especially for people like me that shudder at the thought of a co-op. ⁠
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However, my little one pictured above 👆🏼is the only girl (besides us moms) in a sea of boys. I don’t really want to find a new group to hang with, and finding another homeschool family with at least one girl and a mom that we’d all get along with seems like a daunting task. Plus, we like keeping our group small since there’s less chaos and drama. ⁠
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Thankfully she’s still young, so I’ll wait it out a bit before I start recruiting applicants 😑⁠
My kids LOVE playing video games, but they also re My kids LOVE playing video games, but they also read a lot. ⁠
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It’s the cornerstone of our homeschool. I read aloud to my kids daily (REAL LIFE - it doesn’t always happen in the mornings and it isn’t always a peaceful experience 🙄), they read aloud to each other throughout the day, we listen to audiobooks whenever we’re in the car for more than 30 minutes, for shorter drives the kids have magazines to peruse, and we always end our evenings either reading on our own or listening to books on Audible.⁠
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Even on those days that seem like a total bust, we always get some reading in. ⁠
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But for the past few months our public library has been closed for pick ups, so we’ve had to revisit some well loved books in our home library and I’ve been tackling my nightstand book stack. I’ve also added a few new books for the kids here and there (I try my best to only buy books we love) as well as a couple of paperbacks from the local used book store. ⁠
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A few of our favorite books we’ve read or listened to in the past month:⁠
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Big kid - The 39 Clues series⁠
Middle kid - Dog Man series⁠
Little kid - Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho⁠
Me - Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran⁠
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Unfortunately my husband is not a big reader, unless it’s a fishing report 🎣⁠
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#thehomeschoolfront #homeschoollife #homeschool #homeschooling #notesfromthetrenches #homeschooler #homeschoolmom #eclectichomeschool #secularhomeschool #relaxedhomeschooling #bravewriterlifestyle #readaloudfamily #bookstacks #bookstagram #readacrossamerica⁠ #readersofinstagram #read
Meet my little orange notebook.⁠ ⁠ Pre-C 19, I Meet my little orange notebook.⁠
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Pre-C 19, I would toss her in my backpack and lug her around to whatever enrichment class or homeschool adventure we’d go on. I would jot down ideas, goals, and anything else that urgently needed to come out of my eternally cluttered brain. ⁠
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Every night I would open her up and reflect on our day, the good, the bad, and the ho hum of life. I would write down our goals (or to do list) for the following day, and when we were home I would keep her open on our kitchen island so I could easily refer to my notes.⁠
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This little orange notebook helped keep my life together, which is truly a feat since I’m easily distracted, but for the past 6 months or so I’ve been avoiding her.⁠
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Our days at home don’t change much. Our homeschool goals are still the same and our routines are pretty established, so when I opened up my little orange notebook a couple weeks ago and jotted down my self-care goals, I realized that I’ve been neglecting myself.⁠
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So I halted activities that I found draining and refocused my efforts on those that gave me joy. During that time, we prepped our garden for spring, we went on short hikes, I decluttered and reorganized our kitchen, and we streamlined our homeschool so my kids could spend more time reading and playing and hanging with their friends online in Fortnite.⁠
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I also reflected on how I plan on utilizing this space and set boundaries to limit my time on here. I have no desire to be some kind of social media influencer, I cringe at how it all just seems like a popularity contest when trying to keep up with the algorithms, but I also know how important social media is in providing some personality to my blog. ⁠
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So I’m not signing off, but you will see less of me on here. I’m hoping this will give me more time to write quality content on my blog and to pursue other goals I have planned. ⁠
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Thanks for reading my ramblings, and I hope you have a wonderful week!⁠
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- Xuan⁠
We all have dreams and goals, but what do we do to We all have dreams and goals, but what do we do to make them happen? And how do we instill determination and grit in our children? ⁠
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These are the questions that are always on my mind as I homeschool my kids and prepare them for adulthood. I know that my actions teach them more than my words, and that they need to see me fulfill my goals, take time to care for myself, and to live up to the words I proclaim.⁠
Progress, not perfection. ⁠ ⁠ My kids work on Progress, not perfection. ⁠
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My kids work on handwriting and typing daily. It doesn’t take them long, maybe about 10 minutes for each task. I admit, it’s not their favorite part of the day, but they know that these are skills they need to have.⁠
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Right now they’re using Handwriting Without Tears for cursive (9 yo) and printing (5 yo), and Typing Jungle for keyboarding. ⁠
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What are your favorite handwriting and typing programs?⁠
Gameschooling, hmph. ⁠ ⁠ It’s one of those t Gameschooling, hmph. ⁠
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It’s one of those things that people either absolutely love or deeply despise the idea of it.⁠
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I’m kinda in between.⁠
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While we enjoy playing games and incorporating them into our learning, it’s not a replacement for the subjects we study. Instead it’s a supplement that brings a bit more joy into our homeschooling.⁠
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But a big downfall with gameschooling is the fact that there are sooooo many games out there, and it’s easy to get sucked into adding more to your ever growing collection. Like right now we (maybe just me?) are extremely overwhelmed with games and are trying to figure out storage solutions as we slowly declutter our lot.⁠
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Luckily for us there is a little game shop in the next town over that rents games to members for just $5 for 3 days, and it seems like a great way to figure out if a game is something we would enjoy and want to play again. So once we finish going through all our games, we’ll most likely take advantage of this opportunity to help save my sanity as well as some money.⁠
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But if you are looking for a new game to add to your collection, my kids love Dragonrealm and Dragonwood from @gamewright.⁠
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DISCLAIMER: The Homeschool Front contains some contextual affiliate links and sponsored content. An affiliate link is a link in which retail partners have agreed to pay a small commission for purchases made from that click-through. As always, I only recommend curriculum and resources that we actually use and love in our homeschool. Thank you for supporting the partners that allow The Homeschool Front to keep on running!

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