Elementary & Middle School Archives | Page 2 of 2

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Disney

August 9, 2016 by Susan 14 Comments

This is the ultimate guide to adding learning to your Disney vacation. Literature, history, geography, science, and more. You might be surprised how many educational opportunities there are!

Incorporating our real life into our schooling has always been important to us, like when we took an impromptu trip to Texas to spend a few weeks, and the ways we’ve learned about our state with fun first day of school field trips. So deciding to homeschool Disney World was a no-brainer!

Studying about an amusement park, you ask? Spending valuable school time learning about a cartoon Mouse?

If that’s what you’re thinking, you are in for a treat!

First Day of School Traditions for Your Homeschool

August 3, 2016 by Susan 11 Comments

When I say the words “first day of school”, what do you think of?

Sharpened pencils, that first swipe of crayon on a page, cracking open the glue sticks?

As a homeschooling family, we have tried to remember to take advantage of the freedom afforded us. We’ve incorporated travelling into our schooling, for one thing. Another thing that I’ve tried to do is make the first day of school unique.

Since we’re still several weeks out from school starting for most folks, I thought I’d share some of our best first days with you to hopefully get your creative juices flowing!

7 Honest Homeschool Math Curriculum Reviews

July 11, 2016 by Susan 9 Comments

The ultimate review collection. Reviews of all of the math curriculum we’ve tried over 10 years of homeschooling. What worked & what we really wanted to work but just didn’t…pros, cons, hits, misses.

$Honest homeschool math curriculum reviews from 10 years of homeschooling. What worked, and what we really wanted to work but just didn't.$

When we started homeschooling, the one thing my kids asked was that we not use Saxon Math curriculum. The charter school they had attended used it and it was not their favorite.

Let me say clearly…I know lots of homeschool families that use and LOVE Saxon. It’s just not a good fit for us.

One of the very best things about homeschooling is that you can pick and choose what will work for your family. And if something doesn’t work…you can try something else!

Math Curriculum

With math, we have used a number of different curriculums (I know “curricula” is the correct plural, but it sounds funny, so I don’t say it).

When I was looking for things to try, I loved reading about other people’s experiences. So today, I thought I’d share ours. Each one of these had pros and cons, things we liked and things we didn’t. You can click on the images to read more about each curriculum.

Smashbooks

June 1, 2016 by Susan 22 Comments

A few years ago, Minnesota hosted the “Winter That Never Ends”. By the beginning of March, we began dreaming of a sunny vacation. Greg pointed out that with us homeschooling and him working from home, we had the freedom to be anywhere. We talked about how nice a condo in Florida would be, if only we could afford it. And then I remembered.

“Honey, your mom lives in Texas. Texas is warm.”

And so we went.

We made our home in Waco for two and a half weeks, one of which I designated as Spring Break. I wanted to take full advantage of our new environment for our schoolwork the rest of the time. And I wanted to do something creative. We had done lapbooks several times, including one before a trip to Disneyworld, but I felt the boys may have outgrown them.

Have you heard of Smashbooks?

They are essentially a type of scrapbook, but less structured and made on the go. Unlike a scrapbook that you make after an event, a smashbook you put together while you’re doing it.

Smashbooks can be in a regular notebook, plain scrapbook, or binder.

And having the word “smash” in the name made it more appealing to my two boys. 🙂

Spelling Wisdom

May 11, 2016 by Susan 3 Comments

While we never really subscribed to any one philosophy of homeschooling, the closest we got would have to be the Charlotte Mason method. I was always drawn to her belief in educating the whole child through discipline and exposure to art, music, nature and great writing.

My boys had a heavy phonics background in their time at the local charter school they attended. My eldest finished fifth grade and my younger third when we decided to homeschool. They were both strong spellers.

So when we began homeschooling, I was looking for a spelling program that built on the foundation they had.

What we landed on was Spelling Wisdom by Simply Charlotte Mason. We used the downloadable version, and only printed what we needed.

As described on their website:

Learn today’s 6,000 most frequently used words presented in the writings of great men and women of history.

Creative PE Ideas for Your Homeschool

April 10, 2016 by Susan Leave a Comment

Being a former teacher, I never really stressed over the core subjects in our homeschool. But when it came to things like art, P.E. and other electives … I always worried a bit that I was dropping the ball.

We joined a local Homeschool Co-Op for a few years where we mostly took part in those kind of elective courses. My boys took things like Drawing, Lego Engineering, and Carpentry.

I looked into structured P.E. programs for homeschoolers, and I’m sure there are some great ones out there, but we took a more un-structured approach that worked great for us.