Category: Homeschool Den

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Thoughts on Teaching: Meaningful Teaching Activities

Have you noticed that the longer  you talk, the more the kids’ attention wanders? People’s brains stay sharply focused only for short periods… I think I’ve read figures of between 10 and 20 minutes for average kids. But of course, the more interested  you are in a subjects, the better able you are to sustain attention. The key to education then is transforming students from passive receivers of information to...

German Clothing - Kleidung 0

German Conversation Cards and Worksheets: Clothing – die Kleidung

Are you practicing clothing, shopping and colors in German with your kids? These are the worksheets and cards we used for this unit. As many of you know, we are studying German as our foreign language. (Why German? I studied German in high school and college, so it’s the language I’m most comfortable helping the kids learn.) This semester, we have daily conversation practice built into our day.  I made...

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Writing Scary Stories – Writing Workshop Mini-Lesson

With Halloween coming up and the house decorated with creepy spider webs and stuff, it’s the perfect time to dabble in writing scary stories! I thought I would share the materials I made for the kids for our Writing Workshop. This lesson was all about Writing Scary Stories! Before they delved in to writing their story, I wanted to spend some time talking about what makes a story creepy. Scary...

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American Revolution Unit: Books, Movies and Resources for Kids

There are lots of wonderful books and movies for kids about the American Revolution. In this post, I’m going to highlight some of the resources we used during our American Revolution Unit.  Our kids are currently elementary and middle school age:  7, (almost) 10 and 12. You might be interested in our packet, American Revolution Unit. Click here for more details: Books and Resources we used for this unit study:...

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Homeschooling is Like Coaching an Olympic Sport

To become an expert, I’ve heard it takes 10,000 hours of hard work and practice.  But, it also takes a special teacher, coach or mentor to get to that elite level. Just as top Olympic coaches help motivate and train their athletes by keeping track of every work out and by designing plans and drills that work, we homeschoolers/educators keep track of our kids’ learning, observe their strengths and weaknesses...

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Music for Elementary: Music Symbols (Week 4)

This past week, we talked quite a bit about different music symbols such as treble clef, base clef, natural sign, flat and sharp symbols, crescendo, quarter notes, half notes, etc. etc.  (We also went over various notes as we’ve done previous weeks, though I won’t talk about those activities this week.) We played Music Bingo (the easy version). For the link to this and other free music activities, see our...

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Free Minecraft Math Worksheets: Multiplication by 7s

Today I have a freebie for you. My kids still love playing Minecraft… and ED likes the Minecraft themed math worksheet characters I made.  So, here’s yet another set of Minecraft math worksheets! I made these for practicing multiplication by 7s (for beginners). ED knows the “song” for skip-counting by 7s.  We sing the 7s to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat: 7, 14 21 28, 35 42...

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Free Online Multiplication Games

The past week or so, ED has been playing some online multiplication games to work on her math facts.  I wanted to highlight some of the ones she has been having fun with. My girls’ favorite from multiplication.com is called Fairy Fun.  The picture adds more and more detail as you answer the problems correctly. You can highlight more than one set of multiplication facts (you could select 2s, 3s and...

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Black Bean and Cilantro Wrap

Last week we tried a new recipe for lunch.  The kids absolutely loved this.  Not only did we have it for lunch twice last week, but we got more cilantro and made another batch for dinner because the kids wanted Dad to try it out as well!!  I call that a winner!! What I also loved is that it takes under 10 minutes to prepare from start to finish! Ingredients:...

American Revolution Unit - Worksheets and Activities 0

Causes of and Events Leading to the American Revolution (60-Page Packet)

American Revolution Unit: Worksheets, Review Cards, Lapbook Page, Books, Resources, and More! Our most recent history unit was on the causes and events leading up to the American Revolution. We went into quite a bit of depth on the French and Indian War and how the colonies then became the focus of England’s attention in the post-(French and Indian)-War period as Parliament struggled to cover their expenses and tackle their...

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Music Curriculum: Week 3 in Pictures – Music Note Identification Game and More

We’ve still been moving slowly, but steadily through our music curriculum. My older two are definitely understand all the material we’ve gone over, but it definitely takes ED longer to remember all the notes… which is why all the games we’ve been playing have been so wonderful! She needs a lot of repetition and it is not yet translating to what she does on the piano (she just memorizes what...

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Our Own Mrs. Frisby Mouse Story

Have you read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (affiliate link)? It’s a book we read aloud a couple of years ago (and we highly recommend it!!). It is the touching story of a field mouse who lives in a farmer’s vegetable garden. She needs help moving her young mouse family because her baby, Timothy, is very sickly. Her home is warm and cozy, but is in danger both...

German weather seasons 0

German Conversation Practice Set: Weather, Days of the Week, Months, Seasons

Today I’m going to share our German worksheets about the weather and seasons, winter words and sickness/illness. These and a dozen other pdfs are icluded in German BUNDLE 1. I have found it difficult to find good German materials and curriculum for kids.  Early on we used a lot of free German worksheets and materials, but then at a certain point the kids were ready for more.  Last spring I...

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Podcast or Video Posts? I’d love to hear your opinion

I’ve been toying with trying something a bit different and I would love to hear your opinions.  I’ve been thinking of either putting together a few podcast episodes or video episodes highlighting different hands-on activities and/or thoughts about homeschooling.  I happen to listen to a TON of podcasts, but then video seems better to be able to incorporate visuals.  Anyway, I’m just bouncing this around in my head and am...