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How many homeschoolers are there? Number of Homeschooled Students-in-the-US 0

How Many Homeschoolers Are There in the USA?

Last August, a new study was released showing a continued increase in the number and percentage of students who are homeschooled in America.  The last time the U.S. government released data about the number of homeschooled students was back in 2007. Since I am doing a series about homeschooling in general (How to Start Homeschooling, Choosing homeschool curriculums, etc.), I thought this was the perfect opportunity to share some of the...

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Finding a Language Arts Curriculum (Writing, Grammar, etc.)

Welcome back to the our series on how to start homeschooling. During the past week, I have provided information about some of the homeschool curriculums available out there in the different subject areas. Today I wanted to share some of the writing and grammar programs available to homeschoolers. This is not an exhaustive list. You may want to order the (free)  Rainbow Resource Catalog, which is packed with homeschool reviews.  But these...

Thank You to My Wonderful Readers! 0

Thank You to My Wonderful Readers!

This week I’m going to hit a major milestone since joining the Parents.com team… two million hits on my blog…. one million in just the past nine months. I feel incredibly grateful to be a part of such a wonderful team and love having the blog to share our family’s homeschool journey.  Ours is certainly not the best/ideal/only way to homeschool, but I enjoy sharing how we meander through each...

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Science Activities for Ages 4-6 or So

In writing my series for new homeschoolers about choosing a science curriculum, I came upon this post from last year.  Since many people are planning or just starting the new year, I thought it was the perfect time to share this again. We have always done a lot of hands-on science. In the early years, I just want the kids to think science is cool!!  We’ve done a lot of science...

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Homeschool Science Curriculum Options

  We tend to create our own units and I’ll highlight some of our most popular posts below, but first I wanted to share some of the science curriculums available to homeschoolers. Once again this is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you a place to start. Real Science 4 Kids NOEO Science R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (by B. Nebel) – K-2 Science Curriculum Elementary...

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Hands-On Geography Activities for Ages 4-10

There are so many fun things you can do with your kids to help them gain an understanding of the geography of our amazing world! Here are some of the geography activities we use in our homeschool. Over the years we have made maps… with sand, dirt and grass seed like our Nile River Valley Out of clay, like our Ancient Greece (and Mediterranean Sea) map  (Ancient Greece Geography Project, Ancient Greece...

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Choosing or Creating a History Curriculum

  When we first started homeschooling, I read The Well Trained Mind. The thought of covering history in four year cycles sounded like a wonderful way to approach history. After all, the kids would build on their former knowledge… learning about the ancient world several times, but going into more depth each time round.  History was broken into  these four year cycles: Ancients Middle Ages and Early Renaissance Late Renaissance/Early Modern...

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I’m Going Deaf Today (Single Sided Deafness, That Is)

Yes, literally! After 10 months of ear problems , I am heading into my 6th (and hopefully) final ear surgery this morning at Johns Hopkins. [You can read about the previous 5 surgeries to address my semi-circular canal dehiscence and the crazy symptoms  here.] My symptoms these past months include severe dizziness and balance issues, vision problems (things blur when I turn my head and bounce around when I walk/move),  problems with...

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Math Worksheets, Game Boards, Lapbook and more (All Free!)

This is the second part in my talk about math curriculums. In the previous post, not only did I list some of the better known homeschool math curriculums, but I shared 15+ ideas for making math engaging and fun! (Math Curriculums and Active Engaging Math Activities) Today I wanted to share some of the materials I’ve made for the kids. I’ve found that the kids really enjoy when I make...

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Math Curriculum Options & Active, Engaging Math Activity Ideas

In this series, I thought I’d try to offer new homeschoolers a starting point for finding homeschool curriculums that works for your family. Today I’ll be talking about math. It’s sometimes tricky to find the curriculum that works well for you and your kids. It’s helpful to ask around (online and in your community) to see what will work for your child.  If you can go to a homeschool curriculum...

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How Do You Know What to Teach the Kids? Finding a Homeschool Curriculum

I’ve been asked fairly regularly, “How do you know what to teach the kids?”  That is definitely a daunting task, especially if you are pulling your child out of public/private school mid-year.  Homeschool does not have to look like traditional school and there’s no rule saying that learning has to come from books or a certain set of books.  There are a lot of homeschool curriculum options out there… and...

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How To Start Homeschooling

When parents are thinking about homeschooling, they want to know exactly “how to start.”  That’s such a huge question I’ve actually written a book… or rather, most of a book. It’s about 200 pages and I’m still not quite done!  But I still want to write a shorter blog post to help those parents wondering what to do to get started homeschooling. First things first, make sure you find out...

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Back to (Home)School Shopping List

The back to school sales are starting up where we live… and across the other side of the country, the kids’ cousins are back in the classroom next week. With that in mind, I thought it was time to share our homeschool shopping list. We try to top up on various supplies while the back-to-school sales are on.   Here are some of the things that we use in our...

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...