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Gardening with Kids When You Don’t Garden – Guest Post at Minnesota Country Girl
I am participating in the blog tour over at Minnesota Country Girl, where I provided a guest post for her series: “Summer in the Outdoors: A Series of Gardening, Foraging, and Nature Studies” In preparing for writing the post, I was faced with a little bit of a dilemma: I run. I hike. I love the outdoors, but I am not a gardener. Sure, there was that fluke summer, years ago, where I managed to grow a vegetable garden in my dad’s back yard, and it was successful. I think, though, that my dad may have been behind the scenes helping that garden to boom. We bought our house wanting…
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Book Review: My Big Tree by Maria Ashworth
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Should you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small percentage of that purchase at no additional cost to you. Recently, I received a copy of My Big Tree by Maria Ashworth to post an unpaid review on this blog. This book is a fun counting story featuring various animals who can be found in a tree. In addition to providing children with a charming story of a bluebird in a tree, the story allows preschoolers the opportunity to practice counting with 1-to-1 correspondence. The picture book also has an authors note that describes some of the characteristics of the animals…
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Downtime Is Just As Important as Time Spent Learning
Parents, especially those who homeschool, can get really caught up in ensuring their kids are always learning. Whether this is through ensuring that every toy is “educational” and every television program consumed teaches something or it’s through carting children from one enrichment activity to another, it’s a mistake. “What?” you may say, “but I thought that we’re supposed to teach our kids!” Yes, we are, but part of teaching and guiding children includes teaching kids how to just be. College Boy spends some of his time at home laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. Princess Boogie plays with her Ponies and flits about running in what seems…
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Music: Violin Practice
Miss 4 loves music, and she’d been begging us since forever for a “pretty little violin.” I did a lot of research, and last year, she started taking violin lessons. While I know that she enjoys her violin, sometimes lessons are a struggle (as anything at 4 could be expected to be). Do your children take music lessons? What do you do to get them to practice? (I’ll write more about the Suzuki method of learning music soon. For now, happy Friday!)
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Throwback Thursday: The Cat in the Castles
In 2012, my oldest built this castle from a kit as we studied the Middle Ages. Our family cat (well one of our cats) decided that it was the perfect spot for her to lounge, so lounge she did. This castle found a home in my husband’s work office for a long while. One of the awesome things about homeschooling is how fun the projects are for the whole family. This is still one of Mr. College’s favorite projects he put together. What projects have you done that have been a lot of fun?
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How to Start Homeschooling
I’ve had a number of friends ask, “If I wanted to homeschool my child, how do I get started?” I’ve also had a number of friends say, “There’s so much information, where do I start? What do I need to know? What do I need to teach in my homeschool?” I’ve answered these questions so many times, in fact, that I thought I’d put together a quick and dirty guide on how to start homeschooling your children. 1. Learn your state’s homeschooling laws Some states are really lax in what they require for homeschooling. Other states require things like testing, portfolios, and careful record-keeping. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education is…
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TinkerSketch May Art Challenge Courtesy of TinkerLab
I’ve been a fan of TinkerLab’s art, science and STEM projects for some time, but for some reason, I didn’t realize they had this monthly challenge. I think it will be a lot of fun to undertake this challenge with the kids! Head on over to TinkerLab to learn more about the May TinkerSketch art challenge – and follow me on Instagram to see what we come up with over the course of the month. It’s going to be fun to dig out the sketchbook and create art with the kids. Will you be participating in the challenge?
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Not a Secular Curriculum: Bookshark
“Bookshark literature-based homeschool curriculum provides parents with engaging full-grade learning programs that offer unrivaled educational outcomes” Source: Bookshark is Literature-Based Homeschool Curriculum | BookShark I was a bit bummed this past weekend. I happened upon Bookshark, and thought, “Wow! This looks great – it’s Sonlight without the religion.” Then, I took a closer look. Unfortunately, Bookshark’s history and science curriculum choices still present a problem. The science curriculum is “neutral” meaning they don’t touch upon evolution, climate change, the big bang theory, and other important scientific concepts that should be part of a comprehensive science curriculum. The history choices contain strong Christian biases. This means I’m still intent on creating…
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End of the Week Traditions in Homeschooling
Another week is done. What do you do to make it special? Do you think it’s important to mark the end of the week? Most of our Fridays end with Princess Boogie’s violin lesson. A few others end with a class at our local zoo. We’ve started to add in a special treat each week: Taking the kids out for ice cream. Not only does it make a nice incentive for Miss 4 to be on task during her lesson, but it also marks a nice transition into our weekend time. During the weekend, we don’t do lessons. We still read books, head out for various enrichment activities, violin practice,…
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Penmanship Practice
How strict are you when it comes to sitting properly for penmanship practice? Princess Boogie, 4, is just learning how to write, so I haven’t been a stickler about having to be 100% about her posture (In fact, I’m not sure I was strict about it with College Boy, 19, either). Right now, it’s student-initiated. She wants to learn to write, but she’s also a wiggle worm. (The book is Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Level K – I’ll write more of a review of their products soon). So: Sit down feet firmly on the floor or kneel at the coffee table/wherever else she happens to be when working on her letters?