Homeschool Den

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Category: All About Homeschooling!

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Health / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read / Outdoor Fun / Science / Science: The 5 Senses

Nearsightedness Is on the Rise — Sending Kids Outside May Help Prevent This

We’ve all heard the experts tell us that time outside has huge benefits for kids.  It helps them concentrate and focus in school, boosts learning, helps fight obesity, and is even beneficial for social development. Research has proven that recess is good for kids: “A recent multicenter study of more than 11,000 eight- and nine-year-olds, led by pediatric researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, showed...

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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read

Homeschooling Is Growing Ever Faster — Article in The Economist

Because of the holidays I missed this article about homeschooling in The Economist until today. The article explains that homeschooling has increased dramatically over the past thirty years. One thing I didn’t realize is that there are about as many homeschooled students now (estimated to be about 2 million) as there are students who attend charter schools. Another interesting statistic I hadn’t heard was, ” In 2007 a report found that...

General Homeschooling Plans for Spring 2013 0

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read

General Homeschooling Plans for Spring 2013

I spent a lot of time over our winter break thinking about what we will cover this spring. Our kids are  in grades 4, 2 and preschool although as homeschoolers this doesn’t mean much as they cover what they are ready for and go at their own individual paces. I wrote up a general set of plans and you can take a glimpse at what is in store for our family....

The Sweetest, Nicest Thing Happened Today! 3

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read

The Sweetest, Nicest Thing Happened Today!

I was touched by a Random Act of Kindness today!! With Grams and Gramps still visiting, I wanted to have a special “date” with each of the kids on their own. ED and I went out for breakfast.  We giggled and played tic-tac-toe and talked… and when it came time to pay, someone had already paid for our meal!!  Isn’t that just the loveliest thing?!! Thank you, kind stranger! It...

Don’t Read This If You Don’t Want to Read About Hormones and Female-Stuff! 4

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Mom Stories / Must Read

Don’t Read This If You Don’t Want to Read About Hormones and Female-Stuff!

Honestly, I will start posting about our homeschooling stuff again. In fact, I have all kinds of materials I’ve made for the kids and have a heap of new things to share with you all, but since I was on the topic of health and well-being (with yesterday’s post about LD’s horrible allergies) I thought I’d share with you some of the struggles I’ve personally had the past eight to ten...

LD’s Health Issues… and the Impact on our Homeschool Life 4

Asthma and Allergies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read

LD’s Health Issues… and the Impact on our Homeschool Life

I’ve been alluding to our health issues here at the Homeschool Den. There’s nothing too terribly major thankfully, but LD has had illness-induced asthma since he was little.  Since we moved back to the USA he’s been steadily having more and more asthma attacks. Some land him in the hospital and some have been controlled at the doctor’s office.  Our pediatrician suggested that we look into some underlying triggers, so...

Time and the Busy Parent 3

Holiday: New Years / Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read

Time and the Busy Parent

Do you ever find yourself saying to yourself (or to others for that matter) “there’s not enough time in my day.”  I’ve been thinking about that a lot and how my attitudes about time affect the relationships I have with my loved ones. There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” –Brian Tracy One of my New Years...

Looking Back at 2012 – Favorites from the Homeschool Den 10

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read

Looking Back at 2012 – Favorites from the Homeschool Den

Wow, it’s the end of 2012… a great time to reflect on the year we’ve had.  Here are some of the highlights from this year: our favorite homeschool activities: It’s hard to choose just two, but I guess these are the ones that really stand out for me at the moment… the Black Plague simulation we did. None of us ever made it to our destination!! The kids really loved...

Self Reflection Questions for New Years 4

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read

25 Self-Reflection Questions for New Year’s

Are you into making New Year’s Resolutions?  I find the process of self-reflection quite helpful when it comes to our family life and homeschooling.  I tend to do this twice a year — at the end of each semester in December and again in June. Last June my self-reflection had a lot to do with our short term and long term homeschooling goals. This season I seem to be pondering...

Helping Kids (and Yourself) Cope with Trauma; Crisis Planning Materials 0

Death and Dying / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Must Read

Helping Kids (and Yourself) Cope with Trauma; Crisis Planning Materials

I wasn’t sure just quite when to share this material with the holidays and all, but I thought it was definitely worth spreading the word about these useful materials.  The U.S. Department of Education has put out a number of publications in the past few years on the topics of safety, crime and violence. Personally, I didn’t want to tell the kids about the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut… but...

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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Nature / Outdoor Fun

3 Things I Need From School Break

After a busy semester, there are three things I need: a complete break from our school schedule and routine time for self-reflection time to plan We’re currently on stage 1!! We definitely need time to revitalize and become re-inspired by our studies. I’ve been fortunate to have some good quality time by myself without kids while my in-laws were here to babysit. I spent lots of time at the library...

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Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Must Read

Let the Holiday Fun Begin! School Break! Hooray!

We are officially on school break! What fun! I can say that we all needed the break because it has been so busy these past few weeks. And while we had some fun projects we were finishing up, I can definitely say that I was beginning to feel flat and stale. Time to step back shake things up and re-energize a bit. While my in-laws were here for a few...

When Tragedy Almost Strikes 3

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read

When Tragedy Almost Strikes

I have two little stories to share…I’ll start with the less dramatic one. Yesterday afternoon I had just dropped the kids off at their art class. I was on a major road and stopped in the left turn lane to wait for the light to change so I could turn across the highway. The light finally turned red to bring the traffic going my direction to a stop. I’m not...

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History: Africa Unit / History: Ancient Egypt / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Must Read

The Day in the Life of a Homeschooler

Every now and then I like to write up these posts. The first one I did was when the kids were 3 and 1 (and ED wasn’t born yet!)…I’ve done them periodically since then. This is a glimpse of what goes on when we’re actually home all day. It’s not a “typical” day because as homeschoolers each day is different than the day before–at least in our family. That’s what...