Simple Living, Homeschooling, Faith, Homemaking, & Books
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I mentioned that we are using WriteShop for our writing curriculum (Relaxed Homeschooling in Seventh Grade). Up to this point in our homeschooling journey, we haven’t used any formal writing program. I tried a few times, but it didn’t work for us. Caroline is gifted/2e and has diagnosed dysgraphia (among other learning challenges) so I …
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Last year I wrote about relaxed homeschooling in middle school. I shared our plans for not just last year but the middle school years in general. It was interesting to go back and read it just now to see what worked out and what didn’t. We’re still relaxed homeschoolers in seventh grade. I would still …
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I attempted to do a wall timeline with Caroline a number of years ago. For a variety of reasons, it did not work for her. I think part of it was her age, part of it was her learning challenges, and part of it was the layout. However, I think timelines can be very valuable …
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We’ve made the official move to year round homeschooling which I’ll address in another post. Today I wanted to share what we’re doing for Science this summer and the following four months. We’re taking a relaxed, living books approach to this and I think we’ve hit a home run with it. (I’ll share more in …
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Nature study is a very popular topic in homeschooling circles right now, especially thanks to those who follow a Charlotte Mason style of education. And while I think most everyone would agree that the idea of nature study is a great one, it often doesn’t work for some families for any number of reasons. These …
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This year we officially start middle school with sixth grade. How is that possible? But it is! We’ve settled into our relaxed homeschooling approach as it is the best way to do homeschooling for our little family. Although I would really like to be an unschooler, I know after trial and error it won’t work …
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One of the most popular homeschooling programs currently available is Classical Conversations (CC). There are many people who enthusiastically participate and current members can be very persuasive when inviting people to join. When CC came to our area a few years ago, I checked it out since I had taught for a year in a …
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This year my curriculum post is going to be a bit different. (You can see my past ones here, here, here and here.) I’m writing about homeschooling a gifted/2e visual-spatial learner. Kind of specific, don’t you think? And yet that is the world that we live in at our home. 🙂 We’ve undergone a significant …
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Would it be wrong to start off a post about relaxed homeschooling curriculum choices for the upcoming year and admit that a lot of the time I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing? Would it make you feel better to know that I have a degree in education, am an experienced teacher, …
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One of the things I’m passionate about as an educator and curriculum developer is that learning materials for young children should be visually engaging, colorful, well-designed and simple. Reaching this balance is a challenge, but it can be done. I’m really picky about the aesthetics of any materials I use with Caroline whether it is …
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I realized we were relaxed homeschoolers somewhere along the beginning of Caroline’s second grade year (this year). I had kind of wandered in the wilderness of trying to figure out how to answer the question when people would ask what kind of a homeschooler I was. This was mostly due to trying to figure out …
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So we’re on my favorite learning subject – history. So far I’ve done almost no formal history with Caroline because she has been taking those classes at our homeschool co-op. (It’s rather ironic since my Elementary Education degree came with a Social Studies major and I love history.) We’re blessed with a really good Christian …
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My approach to science in our relaxed homeschooling family has been very relaxed. My philosophy is that all children really need in early elementary is exposure to science topics and to develop a healthy curiosity about the world around them. If a child is curious, she will learn plenty even in an unstructured way. Relaxed …
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Since I’ve already written at length about how we ended up as relaxed homeschoolers in my series intro and language arts post, I’m going to jump right into explaining our relaxed homeschooling math approach in the early elementary grades. Mathematics versus Arithmetic In The Right Side of Normal: Understanding and Honoring the Natural Learning Path …
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I almost feel like it is dishonest to say how I teach language arts because I sometimes feel like I haven’t. I have facilitated a lot of learning. If there is any area where I feel like I’ve really embraced relaxed homeschooling and can see how well it can work, it is relaxed homeschooling language …
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One of the benefits of observing homeschoolers for many years before I was blessed with a child is that I had the opportunity to read lots of articles and blogs posts written by moms who shared their mistakes. They wrote of the things they wished they could do over, what they would change, their regrets, …
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I’ve been thinking off and on all summer about our right brain homeschool curriculum choices for my spirited child for this coming school year. I’m one of those people who has to investigate, read, and then let it all ruminate in my subconscious before I can make a decision. Now we’re getting to the time …
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Perhaps the best website I’ve used with Caroline is ABC Mouse. It is by subscription, but worth every penny in my opinion. There are two things that set ABC Mouse apart from other learning websites. The first is the high quality of the site in general. The graphics and production level are far superior to …
