17 1/2 Reasons To Love Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool!
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Lee Gile's Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool has saved this homeschooling momma! I was struggling to find the energy, patience, and time necessary to homeschool my boys. I was tired of what felt like throwing money away on curricula that might work this time.
Read on to learn more about our homeschool journey and how we have found this free, Christian, online curriculum to be the answer to our problems!
To learn more about why we started homeschooling, read my post "Faith When Your Child Has a Diagnosis".
First Year of Homeschooling
Our first year of homeschooling was with a local cyber school. The staff and teachers were wonderful and very supportive! We felt blessed to have found them with such short notice.
During that year of cyber schooling, we were blessed to meet some wonderful homeschool families in our area. They openly answered all of our questions and calmed our concerns. I was so ready to homeschool on our own!
One homeschool mom, in particular, held my hand the whole way. She gave me materials, showed me how to put together a portfolio (required in our state of Pennsylvania), and sent emails containing sites full of resources. Whenever I felt discouraged or overwhelmed, she was there to lend a shoulder to lean on. God definitely answered my prayers when He placed her in my life!
Starting out on our own...
I researched & researched-and then researched some more! Different styles, requirements by state, curricula options...whew!
From my readings, I believed that a Charlotte Mason-like approach would be best for our family. And on paper it was! I loved the idea of copywork and outdoor nature study with notebooking. (I still do!)
But, I did not factor in:
1. our horrible allergies
2. effect of Mommy being pregnant
3. transition from public/cyber school mentality to Charlotte Mason
4. expense-A big factor! We were following Mater Amabilis, an amazing, free, online Catholic Charlotte Mason curricula. I loved the look and feel of this program. I thought-free! can't beat that!
But, the cost of the books (even used) started to add up. With having a new baby, homeschool budget was tight.
5. my overplanning/overachiever nature-I really overplanned our first year! It probably didn't help that I was pregnant with and had our fifth boy. We all got burnt out by January.
How I Found Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool
I found this gem while looking for homeschool extras!
Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool (EP) popped up. I was intrigued...interesting name-so I decided to click. And, boy, am I ever so glad I did!
Lee Giles has done something miraculous with this free, online homeschool program. She literally has included it all!!
Best part-she designed it to fit the requirements of our state (PA)!
Everything is right there in front of you. All subjects-required and extra-are present and accounted for. There is even an asterick (*) to indicate when an item should be printed to save for portfolio!
Lee is very clear in her explanation of why and how she started to build this online curriculum. She provides her reasoning in an easy to understand manner. She does not hide the fact that the curriculum reflects her Christian beliefs-and I highly respect that!
Our first experience with Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool was with Music-Ancient. Much to all of our surprises, we all loved it! Simple, to the point, not too long; it gave just enough information to learn but not shove it down their throats (how we all like to learn around here!).
After a few weeks with music, the boys asked if they could try the Art. Sure! Hey, mom, can we do the PE/Health? Okey-dokey! When my boys come asking me to do school work, you better believe this momma is going to agree!
More Great Reasons to Love Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool
I went through EP site with a fine-tooth comb. I just couldn't believe that all of this marvelous material could be free!
Now, you may ask, how do we make online learning for four boys work? Good question! We are still working out the logistics on that.
EP is accessible on iPads (which Captain and Professor both have) but lessons may require Flash-which won't work properly without the right browser. We have been playing around with Puffin Browser which seems to be working well. Scroll down to find helpful planners for large family use of Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool!
17 ½ Reasons to Love Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool
- Free!-You just can't beat free in my book. I try to be A.F.A.P. (as frugal as possible) raising 5 boys.
- Easy!- First word in the title-can't miss it. It is very simple to use. Once you read through FAQs (and please don't be like me and think you know everything and start in guns blazing-read the FAQs!!) and play around with EP a bit, it'll be a cinch!
- All-In-One!-Again, this program has it all! Even languages starting at Level 6!
- Enough!-I have read some critiques that claim EP is "light". Bleh! It is what you put into it. If you let your student slack in anything, it will seem "light". And learning, in my opinion, should not be intense, shoved down your throat but...
- Fun!-Truly, EP has fantastically fun project ideas and educational sites to visit.
- Organized-Again, once you read through FAQs, very easy to navigate for daily use.
- Well-Planned-This is where I really need to give Lee props! I find it amazing how she ties together themes and keeps it flowing-just outstanding!
- Accessible on the go-If you have wifi and a device, you are good to go! My boys have even accessed on my phone while we are out and about.
- Supportive-Lee has responded to my questions quickly and kindly. Also, you can join Easy Peasy Facebook groups for further help and support. Can't beat that!
- Adaptable-My oldest does best with larger text due to limited vision in his right eye. With EP, he can easily enlarge the text on the screen.
- Flexible-It is very easy for your child to use different Levels. For example, Smiley will be doing First grade for all subjects but math. Easy to switch between Levels!
- Feedback!-My boys have given me such positive feedback about EP! They ask to do their work-and demonstrate what they have learned in countless ways. Also, our homeschool evaluator raved over their portfolios. I had included work in Music, Art, and PE/Health from EP. She was so impressed that she said she was going to have her girls start using EP!
- Helps Mom!-Big, big factor here! As much as I like to think I can do it all and multi-task 24/7, I just can't! I know that teaching 5 boys at different ages and stages is possible but it is stressful. Using EP helps reduce my stress level. I can feel confident that the boys are learning and I don't feel pulled in several directions at once.
- Low impact on the environment!-All online=much less paper being used. Big positive for us!!
- Meets one of the strictest states's homeschool requirements-Pennsylvania has strict homeschool requirements-and they are all met with EP!
- Christian-I really like that this curriculum is Christian. We are a Catholic homeschool family and I have yet to find anything that would go against our beliefs.
- Combine age levels!-Oh how I love this about EP!! The "extras" (includes history and science) in the Year Programs can be easily used for different grade levels. There are 2 Levels-Level L (for younger grades) and Level M (for older grades). For example, Captain and Professor will be working on Year 2-Level M together. This means that history, science, music, art, PE/Health, and Fire Safety (required in our state) will all be covered. Very helpful indeed!
½. I like saying Easy Peasy!-Yeah, I'm being silly with this one but it's true! One of my favorite sayings has always been Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! And if that's not reason enough... So, I only gave it ½ reason.
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To help you in your homeschool journey, here is a FREE printable Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool Large Family Planner (+ 2 Types of Individual Planners)!
I created this planner with the hope of organizing our homeschool day and managing multiple device usage. We have 2 iPad minis, 1 old iPad, laptop, iPhone, and old desktop. I have seen families do Easy Peasy with more and less. It is totally doable if you are interested!
Simply click on the images below to download & print your FREE planners for Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool!
The first planner is an Individual Planner for each boy. They will record what they have completed for each day. The first is without language study; the second planner includes a language block.
The third planner is a Family Planner to organize who is using devices and when. It is also a general day/week planner.
I created these planners prior to my rebrand. Busy Boys Brigade (my original blog name) is still on these sheets.
How would using Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool bless your family?
I just came across this. I agree when we found EP, 6 years ago, it was a blessing. It has gotten so much better since your post.
Thank you for sharing your schedule layout. I love to print!
Oh, thanks so much for the kind words (& update!). I really do need to go back & add our new experiences with EP-I've been using parts of it with my younger boys this year & it's been awesome 🙂
Thank you for this post Amy! Even though it's years old, it had exactly what I was searching the internet for: to decipher whether or not EP would work with our Catholic background. Please let me know if you've continued using EP and if your opinion has changed at all. We're trying it regardless, but I love hearing other's experiences for the potential to tweak my own!