Monthly Archive: June 2015

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7 Active Summer Games our Family Loves

This game is great for keeping the kids active inside when it’s very hot outside!!  When I was a kid, I remember playing skip ball a lot.  We were shopping at Target about a month ago and did a total impulse buy!!  I’m so glad we did. We’ve all been using it daily since … meaning… it’s always lying in the middle of the living room. 🙂  But our family...

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7 Fun Summer Activity Ideas

This summer I won’t be posting quite as often, but I will try to post most Mondays (at a minimum)… and will keep FB going once or twice a day with some of our older posts.  In the meantime, I’ll be working on other projects to get ready for the fall. I’m working on a couple of cute math packets (addition/subtraction and multiplication), a packet on mammals, an ocean unit...

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Happy Summer!!

Yesterday was the first official day of summer! I hope your summer is going well so far!! One of the first things we did when we moved here close to five years ago was to plant a blueberry garden.  We chose a very steep (difficult to mow) hill, took out all of the grass, and created two tiers.  I remember ED (age 2 at the time) coming out to “help”...

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Free Sudoku Puzzles and Mazes for Kids

Whether you are going on a long trip or writing the kids a letter at camp, these printables might come in handy this summer!!  We have been using Krazy Dad’s website for years and I wanted to highlight them again since just recently I pulled out some of the printables we made again. I love that his materials are so varied. So, while ED is working on the harder 4×4...

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10 Books (and Series) My Kids Love (Ages 9, 11)

My kids really love to read.  My daughter in particular is a voracious reader. She reads any spare moment she has. My son likes to read too and always gets his breakfast and settles in for 45 minutes to an hour with a good book. I thought I’d share some of the books and series the kids have really loved this year. Actually this first recommendation came first from my son...

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Discovery Education Streaming–Free for the Summer

Years ago, we became members of the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op (a place where homeschoolers can make group purchases on various curriculum).  They have an amazing offer this summer for Discovery Education Streaming Plus: homeschoolers can now enjoy a subscription to this award-winning resource for their entire family ABSOLUTELY FREE for the summer (until August 31) — exclusively through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op! They do not require you to enter your credit card...

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10 Things You May or May Not Know about Me

These kinds of posts were really quite popular back five or six years ago.  At that point, bloggers tagged one another — “You’re It!” and we’d all share bits of trivia about ourselves. I actually really loved reading those random fact posts.  So, it’s 11:15 pm, the kids are sleeping and I’ve got a backlog of 8 or 10 posts that “should” be written.  Instead, my Kindle is calling, so...

Free Exponents Worksheets interactive notebook pages 2

PreAlgebra – Exponents Worksheet and Interactive Notebook Pieces

If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you know that we use a lot of different curriculums. Math is no exception!  This year LD used five different math curriculums… two that polished up some 6th grade math (arithmetic) skills (such as percents/decimals/fractions) and three  PreAlgebra texts. They all covered different skills. The main spine for PreAlgebra was the Art of Problem Solving–Prealgebra. (affliliate link) [See the update about this resource below!]...

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Was your homeschool year a success? 20 Questions to Consider

In my mind, a successful year goes far beyond tests results, awards won, or pages covered. Homeschool success comes in unconventional ways… The days we spent hours snuggled together reading and crying together over a book.  The days we tried an experiment… and failed!  The times we laughed hysterically while doing our work.  Or when we stopped our “work” and focused on being kinder to one another.  When we learned in non-traditional ways — on...

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7 Fun STEM – Engineering Activities for Kids

My kids love hands-on projects and engineering activities are always a hit!  Here are some quick activities you could suggest to the kids with materials you probably have on hand. Last January we started our Earth Science Unit off with some engineering activities.  We talked a lot about building structure, stability, and things like that.  These activities were so fun, they really don’t need to be connected to a study...

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Homeschool History Checklist

Today I’m sharing the history checklist, not only of some of the basic units I hope we cover K-8, but also of some of the historical skills I want the kids to start to master and some of the activities that can make history really come alive for them. In the early years, it’s easy to make history fun with hands-on projects… We have grown the Nile River Valley and made...

Free Science Checklist for Elementar and Middle School 11

Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School

Science in the Elementary and Middle School Years – Free Homeschool Checklist – K to 8 When I’m planning our units for the upcoming year, I think a lot about the science topics should we cover in our homeschool by the time they finish 8th grade.  I have a general checklist of topics that I go consider… and try to fill in the gaps as we go (and as the kids’ interests...

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350+ Summer Activity Ideas

I typed up a list of more than 350 activities, projects, trip ideas, and patches  the kids can work on this summer. When I handed these pages to the kids you should have seen them pour through the list! Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads, they were so excited!  Each of the items on this list have patches that scouts (and others!) can earn. But let’s face it, it’s just...