One of my biggest pet peeves as a homeschooling mom? When people (specifically non-homeschooling people) ASSUME that they know what homeschooling looks like. And if you’re reading this, that’s probably something we have in common. People love to put mental boxes around anything that’s a little bit different, rebellious, or wild. The reason that generalizations…
10 Reasons You Should Use Audiobooks in Your Homeschool “Audibooks don’t count as reading.” I literally feel my jaw drop when people say this, whether they say it objectively or in sheepish humility regarding their own habit of listening to books instead of looking at them. This is kind of a soapbox for me. I…
Easy and fun to make, salt dough maps are a great visual aid for learning the geography of a country and a fun, hands-on tool for making history come alive. Why Make a Salt Dough Map We’re very much the hands-on learner types at my house. Anything that lets us build, create, or bake (or…
4th of July Unit Study Ideas and Activities for Your Homeschool It’s important for our children to understand our nation’s history. Many families enjoy celebrating Independence Day (often referred to as the 4th of July) with fireworks, homemade ice cream, and family cookouts. But do we really understand why we celebrate? These 4th of July…
My daughter’s Classical Conversation’s homeschool group had professional pictures taken this year for the yearbook. In them, my 7-year-old sits primly at a desk, a neat stack of books at her side. This exact pose was repeated for all of those in her age group. The result of this was a collection of photos showing…
I must confess that you might consider me to be a lazy homeschooler. Why? Because I search out ways to make homeschooling ultra easy. That is why I wanted to share how to make a volcano with you. This one is so easy. As we’ve delved deeper into our homeschooling journey over these 4+ years,…
Our “How to Spot a Homeschooler” Series In my series on “How to Spot a Homeschooler,” we’ve talked about: How to Spot a Homeschooler by Things We Find in Our Houses, How to Spot Homeschoolers by Our Friendships, How to Spot a Homeschooler by How We Dress, How to Spot a Homeschooler by the Things We Say,…
15+ Picture Books I’m Saving for the Grandkids Are your children old enough yet that you are starting to stockpile things for your future grandkids? I kept a few of my daughters’ and son’s clothes, a few favorite toys (including an old toy barn that probably every American kid in existence has had at one…
Because Sometimes Learning Stops Learning never stops. That’s what homeschooling mamas like to say – sometimes in kind of a snippy little way. Don’t get mad. You know it’s true. Sometimes. If you’re one of those homeschooling mamas (or dads) under whose watch learning (at least the formal variety) really does never stop, move along….
Hip hip hooray! Summer is on its way! It’s easy to throw our hands in the air and say we’re done with school until the fall. But is that the right move? What about summer slide? If you aren’t familiar with the term, it simply means that kids have a tendency to lose academic skills over the…
I’ve been feeling pretty sentimental this year. I’ve been thinking a lot about making this a Christmas I want my kids to remember. Maybe it’s because I turned forty, or maybe it’s because my kids have grown out of the baby stage and are old enough to remember what we do. In any case, I’ve…
Hands-on Language Arts for High School Homeschool My older son is graduating high school this year. Looking back, it’s hard for me to believe that we are here, at the end of what often felt like a never-ending journey. I remember our first day homeschooling. I got out the workbooks. I set up the desks….
5 Tips for Homeschooling Active Kids Does your child have an ADHD diagnosis? Or maybe you just have a child who happens to be super active? (After all, God created kids to be active and energetic! I just wish we parents had as much energy as our kids tend to have!) If your child has…
Creativity and curiosity are the cornerstones of a lifelong love of learning, in my experience. We need to do what we can to encourage those qualities in our children. It can be so easy to get caught up in your everyday curriculum and forget the importance of creativity. If you’re looking for some simple ways…
Food is a love language in our house. So, in our some-type-of-hybrid-of-traditional-and-unschool-y-homeschool, we decided to use food as a lesson! More specifically, we decided to make homemade ravioli. If you don’t want to make ravioli with your kiddos, no worries! There are lots of ways to use food in your homeschool. I’ll tell you what we did,…
