Welcome back. I'm busy doing my homeschool planning for next year but I'll be here occasionally keeping you updated. You may find just what you came for and if you don't, then keep checking back!

Each month I will post and answer some selective questions that I receive about homeschooling via my “Ask Brenda a Question” form in the sidebar of my blog.

I love getting comments from my bloggy readers and I really love getting questions from moms about homeschooling. After getting lots of private emails about homeschooling, I thought that it might benefit everyone if I posted the questions and answers right here on my blog.  I also added the form in the side column to make it easier to send the questions to me.

If you have any homeschool questions, feel free to ask!  I promise to get back to you as soon as I can.  Who know, you may even find your question posted in the next month’s – Ask Brenda.

Here is a question from Kate:

hi brenda!
you are amazing! i am wondering if you would be willing to share your list of historical movies? the one you talk about it your homeschool planner section…you mention a list of chronologically ordered movies…i am feeling overwhelmed by getting organized and am wondering if you could help.
thanks!
kate

Kate,

Let’s go to the movies! Where history meets Hollywood is a list of movies ordered chronologically that I have printed off, 3 hole punched and placed in my homeschool planner. I found this list online somewhere years ago and cannot find it again. (If you happen to know, would you mind letting me know so that I can credit it? Thanks.)

I use Netflix to find the movies on the list.  Then, I check the ratings and decide if we are going to watch them as a family or not.  I put them in my cue in chronological order so that I can easily pick them throughout the school year.

Brenda

Another question from a reader that remains anonymous:

I just read your article at Homeschool Classroom. We are in the process of going through our hordes of stuff and clearing out. There is so much we truly don’t need. I am wondering, however, if you have some new ideas on how to store all of those homeschool books. We are overrun with books and although I’ve given away a lot, I’m still short on places to stack/store and I’m out of places to put bookshelves. (We have four – one good-sized one, one small, and two minis). Thanks for your help and encouragement.

I’ve learned to think outside of the box a little when it comes to storing books.  We have so many history books that I had to put them in bins labeled by time period (ancient, middle ages/renaissance, early modern, late modern) for years before we bought more shelves.  We kept the bins in the garage, and each year I would get the next bin and return the previous year.

This kept my books organized and I was able to loan out a whole bin of books to a friend that was doing a particular time period.

A bloggy friend of mine, Angela, keeps them in her garage in filing cabinets.  She lets her little girl go to the “library” and pick books out weekly.  You can read more about her idea by visiting her blog, Homegrown Mom.

How about re-purposing something like the above t.v. stand from IKEA?  We use the t.v. stand for a bench at the end of our dining room table.  And, I keep our math books and manipulatives on this side of the shelf.

We have also used baskets that slide under our couch or coffee tables to house books.  And, I have added a basket to our bedroom with books that I read to the little ones before their nap time.  Keep thinking outside of the box and I’m sure you’ll come up with some handy ways of storing books.

Brenda