Category: Homeschool Den

How Long Will We Keep Homeschooling? (Homeschooling Through High School) 16

How Long Will We Keep Homeschooling? (Homeschooling Through High School)

This is the question our family gets asked most often… or some variation of it… Will you homeschool through high school? How will you teach the tough subjects like calculus? My son will be entering 6th grade this year… In our area he would be entering middle school.  DD is a 4th grader and ED will be in 1st grade. (You know, we’re homeschoolers so really they do work on...

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How and Why Did We Get Started Homeschooling?

As I start off this series, I realize there might be some readers who are fairly new to our blog.  I thought I’d share how we got started homeschooling (and blogging about our adventures). Homeschooling was on our radar even before we had kids. My older sister had kids before we did. They decided to homeschool their kids just about the time we had our son, LD. Also, my cousin...

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Just Out in Nature!

Rivers, lakes, streams, ponds… we’ve enjoyed them all this summer!  The kids had a blast at our friend’s floating dock… They got a real kick out of the fish who would come and nibble on their fingers and toes! The kids have spent lots of time exploring and playing in the creek behind our house and looking out for critters. The tadpoles have turned into little froglets and the skinks...

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Summer Activities: Making Marbleized Paper (20-30 mins)

Here’s a fun indoor activity that takes under 20 minutes. All of my kids and my niece (13) enjoyed making their own stationery.  All you need for this activity is shaving cream, tempera paint and a thicker paper. We used medium weight drawing paper.  Here are the easy steps: Spray the shaving cream, Add spoonfuls of the desired paint, Mix lightly with a finger or spoon, Press the paper down...

Australian Books for Kids 0

10 Australian Children’s Books

 Some of you may not know that we lived overseas for many years. In fact, all three kids were born in Central Australia.  ED was just young enough when we left that she doesn’t remember very much about Australia any more. We’ll be doing a short unit on Australia when we start back up with school. With the help of one of my Australian friends, we came up with a...

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Ideas for Keeping the Family Close-Knit and Strong

In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony. — Eva Burrows Does your family hold a regular family meeting?  We started holding one a couple of years ago and started some traditions that are still family favorites… “candle night,” the “smiley under the plate” and getting downright silly with the kids in “knock your socks off.”...

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Summer Activities: Slip-n-Slide

Slip-n-Sliding is really fun when it’s hot out, just as long as there are no water restrictions.  For some reason, ED asks all year long when we’re going to go slip-n-sliding… It will be mid-January, snow everywhere and she’ll ask when it’ll be time! This year I promised myself I’d bring it out as soon as it was warm enough. So, we set up the slip-n-slide a week or so...

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Summer Activities: Sun-Sensitive Nature Pictures

When I was at camp years ago, we made sun prints using photo paper and photography chemicals. I remember being thrilled to work in the darkroom. This isn’t quite as exotic, but it is a quick and easy version of that with sun sensitive paper… no chemicals needed! We got our paper at Oriental Trading. It was $6.25 per dozen sheets.  (Nature Print Sun-Sensitive Paper).   I sent the kids...

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Summer Activities: Sun-Sensitive Nature Pictures

When I was at camp years ago, we made sun prints using photo paper and photography chemicals. I remember being thrilled to work in the darkroom. This isn’t quite as exotic, but it is a quick and easy version of that with sun sensitive paper… no chemicals needed! We got our paper at Oriental Trading. It was $6.25 per dozen sheets.  (Nature Print Sun-Sensitive Paper). I sent the kids outside...

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Summer Activities: Big Bubble Wands & Foam Snakes

I’ve seen these activities all over the internet, but we have never given them a try. What a huge, huge hit these two activities were! The bubble solution was easy to make, I just had to make sure I ordered glycerine ahead of time. I mixed up another batch in under than five minutes when we (quickly) ran out of our first bowlful. This is the solution we used: 1...

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6 Native American Picture Books to Share with the Kids

I was looking for Native American children’s books written by and about Native Americans.  I found Debbie Reese’s website, American Indians in Children’s Literature. What a great resource! Today I’d like to share some of the books we read together this past week.  I went with the books that were available at our library and that were appealing to the kids. 1) Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story (affiliate link) This is a...

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Summer Activities: Kick The Can

This game instantly became a family and friend favorite!  Kick the Can is cross between hide-and-go-seek and tag with a “jail” thrown in for those who are captured! This was such an amazingly fun game to play in the woods where there are places to hide everywhere! This is a great game for 4-7 players. To begin, designate a place to be the “jail.” Not far away, the can should...

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Do we Homeschool in the Summer?

I was recently asked if we planned to homeschool throughout the summer.  We often start back to school a bit earlier in August than our public school friends, but our family has decided that we need most of the summer off… at least from our more formal approach to school. For one thing, the majority of the kids’ friends have “off” during the summer, so we set up more playdates...

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Popovers — Great with Soups! Yum!

Have you ever made popovers?  They are very simple to make as long as you follow the instructions carefully.  My kids absolutely LOVE these!   These are simple to make and don’t require many ingredients: >2 eggs, well-beaten 1 cup milk 1 cup flour <1/2 teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon melted butter Beat until smooth. Fill well-greased silicone muffin pan cups 1/3 full. It is very, very important not to over-fill...