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Learning with Themes Activity Pack for Early Learning {video}

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Learning with themes is one of my favorite ways to teach because it is so effective. It reaches children where they are and with what interests them. Focusing on themes works well for a variety of homeschooling approaches including: relaxed homeschooling delight-directed homeschooling notebooking unit studies a completely theme-focused approach In fact, I think it …

The Importance of Play for Small Children

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Perhaps one of the hardest decisions I’ve made as a home educating mother was the decision to let Caroline play. Sounds silly? I can imagine it does, especially because I believe in the importance of free play for small children. But it is hard to swim against the cultural tide that is currently obsessed with …

Using “Wild Kratts” for Homeschooling

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We happened across Wild Kratts a few months ago. We had a DVD of three Zaboomafoo episodes that Caroline received a few years ago with a magazine subscription. It was a bit above her at the time so I put it away. She pulled it out recently and I looked to see if I could …

Teaching Our Spirited, Active Child to Read

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I wanted to bring together two topics near and dear to my heart in this one post: spirited children and homeschooling. More specifically, teaching a spirited child to read. (If you aren’t familiar with the concept of a spirited child or wonder if you have one, you might want to check out my spirited child …

How a Homeschooled Dreamer Does Preschool Math

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One of the things I enjoy about Caroline is the fact that she is so imaginative and creative. She has a rich imagination that far exceeds anything I ever had as a child. In the Strong-willed Child Or Dreamer? book, I am a doer and she is a dreamer. One of the things that makes …

Reflections on Our Homeschool Preschool Year

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I mentioned in April that we were going to give homeschooling preschool a try for a bit and see how it worked. It has been interesting. Here are some random observations in no particular order. What Hasn’t Worked Well – Repetition Caroline does not enjoy doing the same thing or similar things more than a …

Our Homeschool Preschool Plans

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We started doing homeschool preschool this week and so far we are off to a good start. Caroline is excited each morning to come down and see what is planned. I have to say that none of these preschool ideas are original to me. I’ve done a lot of surfing, looking for ideas that I …

Should I Send My Child to Preschool? Thoughts on Education, Family, and Community from a Christian Perspective

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I’ve been finding interesting reading here and there online over the past week that has helped me as I’ve been processing the whole preschool thing. My gut tells me not to send Caroline to preschool, but I am also trying to be open to God leading in another direction. She belongs to Him and He …

LeapFrog Letter Factory: It’s Officially a Big Hit

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I can officially call LeapFrog Letter Factory a big hit with Caroline. Now that I know she likes it, I’ll look into the other related ones as well. Thanks very much for the recommendations! I’ll be checking out some of the others soon! I also purchased the Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder today. We already …

Hands-on Counting Numbers with Number Line

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I wanted to find some fun hands-on ways for Caroline to interact with counting numbers. I found some ideas on a few different websites and adapted them for our use. Hands-on Counting Numbers This activity was super easy to make! The flowers are from my scrapbooking stash. I wrote on them and the white strip …

Creating an Indoor Sandbox for Preschoolers

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One of Caroline’s favorite activities at the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum is the indoor sandbox. So far we haven’t purchased an outside sandbox for her, but we may look into that next spring. In the meantime, I wanted to come up with a way she could enjoy an indoor sandbox over the winter since she …

How I Homeschool My Three Year Old

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Several days ago Kat left a comment asking if I would share how I organize Caroline’s day, what we are doing with her learning, etc. So, for what it is worth, here is where we are right now with Caroline as a three year old. And this is honesty at its finest. I am motivated. …

Using Sticker Books as Learning Tools

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Like many little ones, Caroline is fascinated by stickers. I found My Big Book Of Stickers and it was a fabulous teaching tool! We garnered hours and hours of learning time from this one book. I actually should say David did because this was an activity that primarily David did with Caroline after supper while …

Goodnight Moon Lapbook and Puzzle

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Caroline enjoys Goodnight Moon and I was excited to find some fun Goodnight Moon activities we can use with the large board book we already have. I found both a Goodnight Moon lapbook and a Goodnight Moon puzzle that she is enjoying! Goodnight Moon Lapbook Today we (David and I) made a Goodnight Moon lapbook …