Simple Living, Homeschooling, Faith, Homemaking, & Books
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We are now homeschooling eighth grade. I wanted to share our relaxed homeschooling curriculum choices for this year. With Caroline's input, I've put together an interesting collection of materials that should make for a good year. As a general rule, eighth grade is the time for relaxed homeschoolers to prepare their child for high school …
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One of the things I am passionate about doing on this website is helping parents of differently wired children. I've shared many parts of my journey as I've tried to unlock what my daughter needed in order to thrive as a person. In the process, I've sought out the knowledge and wisdom of other homeschooling moms with special needs kids. Although …
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As I wrote in Middle School Chemistry for Relaxed Homeschoolers, we've been taking Caroline through a study of the elements, molecules, and reactions using books I knew would appeal to her and fit her learning style. My goal is to introduce her to the vocabulary and also gain an understanding of elements and how they fit into the bigger scheme of …
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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 describe our approach as: parent-influenced, …
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When I submitted my name to review Helping Your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities, I thought it would be worth checking out as something to maybe refer to from time to time. I thought it would be worth knowing about the book in case it might be helpful for some of my readers either now or in the future. I had no idea it was going …
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Live online high school classes is something the early homeschoolers could have only dreamed of. It's amazing the opportunities we can bring to our homeschooled children right from the comfort of our own home. It's equally amazing how these kinds of classes can free up homeschool moms from the weight of preparing, teaching, and grading high school …
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We recently completed our first standardized testing. This is not required in our state, but I did want to get a snapshot of where Caroline is at this point in our relaxed homeschooling journey with a gifted/2e child. I had the opportunity to do a Stanford Achievement Test with her as part of doing a review of Homeschool Testing Services so I …
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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 with my highly creative and imaginative …
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I was familiar with Math Mammoth from my (very) extensive research trying to find a math program that would work for my daughter. At one point, I even used some free placement pages from the Math Mammoth website to get a feel for where she was in terms of grade level. (More on that below.) I was interested in Math Mammoth because I had read so many …
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One of the most popular homeschooling programs currently available is Classical Conversations (CC). When CC came to our area a few years ago, I explored it as an option even though we are relaxed homeschoolers. I taught for a year in a Classical Christian school and therefore was very familiar with classical education. CC offers a number of …
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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 …
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In a 2010 article from Psychology Today, Peter Gray, Ph.D., makes the case that math should not be taught until middle school. He shares a fascinating study from 1929 that has largely disappeared from the nation's collective radar. But the findings are stunning regarding whether or not elementary students should study math. In When Less Is More: …
