We’re studying Westward Expansion this unit (I get my rotation schedule here, we’ve been doing this schedule for a year and are loving it so much.) We finished up our readings about the Erie Canal, the Pony Express, Annie Oakley, Tall Tales, Davy Crockett, Native Americans, and more. The 19th century is such a fun … Read more
In the past I have been a curriculum gal when it comes to math. Using games felt like so much more work! But I love that games show kids how math is practical and useful in real life and playing games teaches them so much more than arithmetic skills. Also, I used to collect playing … Read more
am working on putting together a large collection of simple sheet music for folk songs to be used in homeschools or where ever! Music is a big part of our family and it’s easier for us if we can listen to the song and look at the music. If you’re like us and need something visual … Read more
I have three students in Years 6, 4, and 2 and after having everyone in different time periods with the Ambleside rotation last year, I knew we should never do that again. We could’t do any books together and it was hard for me to manage. I came up with a new rotation combining the streams … Read more
I used to completely ignore birds. I did not find anything interesting or valuable in watching them, knowing their names, or even noticing their existence. Can you believe that? A year or two ago a friend was telling me about reading and studying at her desk by the window where she could see her bird feeders. … Read more
We’re trying something new in the read-aloud arena. At the beginning of the year we each picked a book (my husband and I and our three oldest boys) and assigned them to a day of the week. For a few weeks we successfully read each book once a week and it went really well. My oldest … Read more
We just finished up our second term of the school year! At the beginning of this year we switched over from using Ambleside Online’s book list and schedule to the history rotation as outlined by the wise and wonderful women of A Delectable Education podcast. Ambleside Online was a fabulous place for us to start. … Read more
TIMERS have changed everything for us. Having lessons for a specified number of minutes is a much more peaceful way for our family to homeschool than requiring a specific quantity of work each day. Everyone has their own timer and although it may seem counterintuitive, they do work harder and give a better effort when … Read more
A great many times in the last 5 years of homeschooling, I have tried to do some fun science observation/experiment involving growing a house or other type of plant. For me, the point was to grow it, make our observations, draw a nice series of pictures, and check it off the list. And our poor … Read more
This is how we do artist/picture study, it’s very fancy. ? I pick an artist from the time period we’re studying and hang 6-8 of his/her works on the fridge for the 12 week term. This piece of vertical real estate is probably the most valuable (since it is visited so very frequently) in the … Read more