~ Taking a Breather ~

Chrrp chrrp chrrp… Do you hear that? That’s the sound of the crickets chirping in this lonely cyber space. In the midst of getting ready to close on our new house (Don’tcha love the sold sign?), I’ve been a busy busy beaver around here and haven’t had much time to post. We are packing, packing, [...]

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An Impromptu Art Lesson

My son has been taming a cat. Well, more an adorable fuzzy little ball of black fur kitten. He’s the runt of the country kittens living under our porch. And he’s not doing well. He’s being pushed out by the others and not allowed to feed. He’s learned to trust us, especially Luc, as we’ve [...]

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Playing Doctor: Germs and Our Immune System

The kids have had great fun this week studying about germs. I figured, mainly since everyone had a cold, that this was a good place to start. We did a mini overall introduction to the human body last week with a few fun worksheets and watching Osmosis Jones. Of course, as you can see above, [...]

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Free Lessons ~ Health, Nutrition, and the Human Body for Healthy Kids

Discovered a great new site for homeschooling moms… Nutrition for Healthy Kids is a blog dedicated to teaching our children about proper nutrition. This homeschooling momma steps out of the box and teaches young children to think critically about their food. Her lessons go way beyond the public school’s general 4 Food Groups philosophy. What’s the [...]

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Fall Break ~ Spookables and Other Such Halloweeny Things!

Maybe it is because it is my husband’s favorite holiday. Maybe it is because fall birthday anticipation is ramping up. Maybe it is the irresistible draw of beautiful autumn leaves. But fall and Halloween is almost as big as Christmas around here…almost! The kids have been caterpillar hunting, jumping in leaves, making scarecrows, dressing spoooooooky just for [...]

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Sew Simple Owl Softies and Mommy Time

This week I made the kids a promise. A week of undevoted mommy time. Each kid picked a number and that was their special day with mom. After breakfast and chores they would have my undivided time until lunch to play with them how they chose. They spent the past couple of weeks pouring over [...]

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Fall Break ~ Caterpillars and Remembering 9/11

We’ve been on fall break around here. For me that entails LOTS of extra cleaning and organizing around the house. (Have you noticed it’s been kind of quiet around here?) For the kids it has entailed caterpillars. You may remember our post about our monarch caterpillars? Well, after several died due to Tachinid fly parasites, [...]

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Rocks and Minerals Lapbook and Unit Study – Part I

*This series will be a 2 post series. Check back next week for part two! I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to start this unit. I remember my rock collection as a girl. Our neighbor had a bed of river rock in their garden and I would spend hours digging [...]

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Less Screen Time

So I have in my head this great weekly wrap up on the rocks and minerals unit study we are doing right now. (Sorry, you’ll have to check back next week! But instead I spent much more time doing this… and this… and much less time on my computer. Life is good!

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Living Math: Dominoes

My budding learners are loving using Math Lessons for a Living Education book. They enthusiastically complete the worksheets and are ready to move on to the next story. But I’m not ready for them to. I notice that while they complete the sheets correctly they have yet to grasp the concept of true number recognition. [...]

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To Test or Not to Test…Should I Test My Homeschooler?

Many homeschoolers must test due to state regulations. Many homeschoolers choose to test to track progress and fill in educational gaps. Many homeschoolers educate at home precisely to avoid testing. Which is right? As with many hot topics in the homeschooling community, I don’t know if there is a right or wrong answer. Our state [...]

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In Which Literature Captures Us and We Read Great Classics…

This week has seen a flourish of literature. As we study Mark Twain in the historical sense of post Civil-War and the invention of steamboats and the Mississippi River, we couldn’t very well not read Tom Sawyer! Gabe has been reading it on his own and we listened to parts of it out loud on [...]

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The Pony Express Unit Study

We had a good first week back to school. The week was unbearably hot and humid (as in so humid my glasses fog up everytime I step outside) that it made me once again glad that I made the decision to homeschool in the summer and take a much needed spring break. It was a [...]

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Camp Wrap Up

Yep, I know…you are all very sad that these are the last of the 100′s of camp pictures posted! My turn at camp with Lilah Jane came.  Our time together was sweet, short and long all at the same time. Two days without my baby and I was sore and needing to nurse ever so [...]

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A Week of Camp

My babies went to camp this week. It has been my first real week without them. Sure, they’ve spent the night at gram and pop’s house or their cousins. But one night is not a week! I was a nervous wreck. I tried properly preparing them last week with a training boot camp of learning [...]

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How to File Paperwork if You Are Not a Planner {a.k.a. Unschooling}

That time is upon us once again…. Yep, filing paper work with the state education board. Fun. Fun. This is my yearly quandary… One of the huge advantages of homeschooling is following a MUCH more relaxed schedule. For us that contains a fair amount of unschooling…or child-led interests and rabbit trails. These really can’t be planned [...]

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Entrepreneurial Lemonade

What is a 5 year old boy to do on a hot summer afternoon after returning from the park and discovering the cooler jug of lemonade sitting on the porch? Why make a lemonade stand, of course! But it’s tough to find customers when your house is in the country. After watching him chase down [...]

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The Learning Room ~ Balance and Timing

Do you ever resist change because you just want your way to work so badly? I have resisted moving our school time to the afternoon. I was hanging on to this notion that our afternoons needed to be free. But as I felt the prodding of the Lord upon my heart I gave that up [...]

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A Boy’s Responsibility

What can turn a boy into a man? Responsibility. How do you instill responsibility without being a naggy mom? Allow him his first pet that he buys with his own money. Meet Mike the hamster. And how to weave into our homschool week? A pet project ~ Check out two library books on hamsters. Read [...]

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Statue of Liberty Mini Unit Study

This week’s wrap up takes us up close and personal with the Statue of Liberty. We shall soon be traversing the waters of the World Wars and the Great Depression. I figured the Statue of Liberty and immigration would be a good segue from late 1800′s homesteading into a more industrial world full of people [...]

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