Jennifer of Baytown,Texas

We are a small loving family, with a mom (me!) and dad (Matt) and a bouncing 5-year-old (Aaron). We are a service based family. We believe in helping others as a family. We volunteer a lot at Matt's nursing home, where he is an administrator. We have one kitten we just recently adopted. She is 9 weeks old and her name is Alice.

Karina of Texas

Tim (Daddy) is an entrepreneur, and he's currently volunteering as a project manager for our church's new building project. Karina (Mommy) homeschools the kids and loves to have friends over for dinner. Jubilee (9) likes to paint, write, and organize. Ezra (8) spends his free time playing with his voice controlled car, building things, and playing tag. Naomi (5) enjoys taking care of her dolls, painting, and playing the piano. Boaz (20 months) loves "grooming" his cars, throwing balls, and simple puzzles.

Madeline of Texas

We are a family of four with 2 cats, 2 dogs and a fish. We enjoy STEAM focused activities and creating art together.

Margie of Laredo, Texas

My family includes my husband, my daughter Aly, my son Aaron, and our dog Rocco. Law enforcement, entrepreneur, love of books.

How do you Timberdoodle?

Jennifer: I heard about Timberdoodle through a parent message board on Facebook. We looked more into it when we were looking to make the jump from Abeka. Our favorite Timberdoodle products are the Math-U-See and the Gearphun gear sets. My son is a very hands-on kind of kid and he loves the Gearphun and manipulatives from the Math-U-See kit. We follow the scheduler and add in our own reading program as we had tried the All About Reading and he wasn't flourishing.

Karina: I first heard about Timberdoodle 6 years ago from my friend Tiffany, and I've bought a curriculum package every year since then. My favorite products are the games, such as JumpIn', ColorKu, and Three Little Piggies. We incorporate these games into our school schedule at least once a week. I love it when my kids ask for help, because it means that I get to play too.

Madeline: We first learned through a blog about free to cheap curriculum. We use the manipulatives to explore further in our studies.

Margie: I first heard about Timberdoodle on Facebook. My favorite product is All About Reading. Schooling is done in the evening followed by bed time.

Tell us about a typical school day at your house.

Jennifer: We start around 9:00 -10:00 a.m., trying to cover each and every subject we can in the planner. As for chores, we do have small chores, but living in an apartment it kind of eliminates all the outdoor chores. Meals, we kind of eat at our stomach's discretion.

Karina: Our goal is to start at 8:30 a.m. with Scripture time. Everyday we cover Reading, Writing, and Math. We do chores in the morning, after Scripture time. Around 11:30 a.m. it's time to set the table for lunch.

Madeline: We school year round since we like to take random weeks off for trips. We start school after breakfast and take our time to finish any work before dinner. The subjects we go over vary each day to week. There are some days where we would rather play board games than going over worksheets and textbooks. I try to keep it fun and engaging. Chores are done with a timer between breaks and school. I’m always surprised by how much our kids can accomplish with a timer. We are an autistic family where every person has their own sensory issues to food. There are days where we make 3-4 different meals for dinner. It works for us and everyone gets a plate of healthy food they will eat.

Margie: We start at 9:00 p.m. We work on one subject at a time until the entire book has been completed. Then we move on to the next subject. We have a housekeeper that takes care of the chores. I cook large meals that last two days at a time to keep me from cooking every day.

If we peeked inside your home on a random Wednesday afternoon, what would we see?

Jennifer: You'd probably see us trying to figure out what we want to do in the afternoon, as right now we are trying to cut down on electronic time.

Karina: You may see me fixing dinner while Jubilee (9) practices Fur Elise on the piano. Ezra might be outside climbing barefoot, and Naomi would perhaps be feeding her doll pretend food. Boaz would be eating a snack or following one of the other kids around.

Madeline: The kids and I in the school room, each of us doing something different. The youngest will probably be stimming on our big comfy chair (jumping and spinning) while listening to an audio book, oldest finishing up a project, and I might be working on our schedule. Wednesdays are our Fridays.

Margie: Kids running around the living room with books, toys, markers, colors, etc.