Category: All About Homeschooling!

Used Curriculum 0

Used Curriculum

I’ve had some good luck getting my curriculum used this year from http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com. I bought three books from homeschool classified and got prompt replies from the sellers. The books arrived quickly in the mail. The prices made me excited as I saved quite a bit buying them second-hand.  Just wanted to mention that venue if anyone else was looking around for curriculum for this fall.

Science Sorts —  Our Montessori Science Work, Fall 2011 4

Science Sorts — Our Montessori Science Work, Fall 2011

Over the past few years, we have done a lot of Montessori science work.  This year I compiled a review notebook and will let DD and LD work on this as they are interested (ED will be introduced to these for the first time this year).  Mostly I expect the older ones to cut out pictures from magazines and write on these sheets (pages 5 and beyond in the pack). ...

Crystal Fire 2

Crystal Fire

Another reason to by thankful this month… About a week before we went down to visit my sister and her family, my niece found a stray kitten. They took her to the vet, gave her shots and generally looked after her.  Although they just bought a farm, they couldn’t really keep the kitty.  They asked if we’d like her. So on the return trip home we stopped in to pick...

Montessori Philosophy and our USA unit study 6

Montessori Philosophy and our USA unit study

I’ve been doing some reading and re-reading of Montessori philosophy this summer.  I thought I’d share my thoughts about how our studies — specifically our USA unit study — fits in with my interpretations of Montessori teaching in the early elementary grades.  As I have three kids spanning the two age groupings (both 3-6 and 6-9), I use elements from both. **We will be starting the year by creating paper...

Writing a Novel — Elementary 0

Writing a Novel — Elementary

Last year my sister’s three homeschooled kids each wrote a novel. I hope to get a chance to read their work when we visit them. Her kids are 8, 11 and 13. Amazing! It’s not yet our season for writing things like that, but someone in one of the groups I visit shared this link for kids who plan to write their first novel.  Here is the elementary “Young Novelist”...

My Special Day 2

My Special Day

Today’s my birthday, so this post is about… well me! I am so happy! Not that I wasn’t happy in Australia, but I was ready for a change and boy is life wonderful here! I’ve managed to find a musical outlet here (I played the oboe in a wind ensemble for 10 years in Australia).  Here I’m singing in my church choir and have had the opportunity to play the...

Designing Your Homeschooling Curriculum — Balancing it All 8

Designing Your Homeschooling Curriculum — Balancing it All

I’ve been having a thoughtful discussion with a blogging friend of mine. We’ve been talking about the reality of homeschooling… how it really works with a three year old in tow, what curriculum we use and things like that.  I would love, love, love to hear your comments about how your day goes — and how you arrive at your homeschool curriculum decisions!Here’s part of my email letter to my...

Hope You Had a Lovely Mother’s Day 2

Hope You Had a Lovely Mother’s Day

I was treated like a star on Mother’s Day. The kids brought me breakfast in bed complete with homemade cards and crafts. I looked like a queen with the bright yellow crown DD made for me! Later in the day, hubby rounded up all the nuts, bolts and parts and put together my favorite swing — a Mother’s Day Gift three years ago! (We disassembled it to bring it back...

Plans for the Next 5-7 Weeks 3

Plans for the Next 5-7 Weeks

While on holiday it was time to think through our homeschooling plans for the next 5-7 weeks or so. I always have a running plan in my head, but sometimes it’s useful to put it down on paper, so to speak. As you will see, I am trying to include a lot more Newberry honor and medal winners now that DD is a bit older. I’ll continue to read lots...

Other Things We Did While on Holiday 0

Other Things We Did While on Holiday

Lots and lots and lots of rides… including “It’s a Small World” (left) Checking out the alligators.   A bit of mini golf. A wonderful children’s science museum type place called Wonder Works. The kids LOVED the ropes course at Wonder Works. Kennedy Space Center — we were SO sad not to see the launch (which was postponed to four days after our visit instead of while we were in...

Check out the garden now! 0

Check out the garden now!

DD checks out the gardens… but sadly it’s not ours. Any guesses as to where we are? Here are a couple of other hints. Yes, the past 10 days or so we’ve been down in Florida with Grams and Gramps. (Posts were set to go off automatically during that time.)   We had such a wonderful time! We were all healthy and enjoyed getting away. Best of all I feel...

What to Know When You Buy Salmon… 0

What to Know When You Buy Salmon…

There is so much to consider about buying salmon. I sure didn’t realize any of this so thought I’d share. 1) Salmon are carnivores. In the wild they start eating microscopic plants and animals. As they get bigger they eat tiny crustaceans (krill) which gives them their pink color and then larger fish. 2) Farmed salmon is a nice gray color.  Hmmm… but salmon farmers resort to cosmetics to change...

Reorganizing The Homeschool Den’s Links 3

Reorganizing The Homeschool Den’s Links

I developed this blog in large part for me.  It helps me keep a record of what we’ve done and it also helps me stay organized and keep track of websites where I’ve gotten activity ideas and printables.  You should see my drafts!!  Whenever I’m cruising around trying to find information and activities for new units I create a “draft” and link lots of the websites I come across. I...

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St Patrick’s Day Units — Free Downloads, Printables, etc.

There are such wonderful resources out there for those of you planning to do some St. Patrick’s Day activities with your kids. Here are some of the free St. Patrick’s Day units and printables I’ve come across this past week: Irish-themed letters (lower and upper case), numbers (0-20) and phonics cards; Powerpoint Explanation about St. Patrick and how he brought Christianity to Ireland Musings of Me — St. Patrick’s Day Teacher’s...