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Tot School: Airplane Theme
It’s been over two years since I did this theme. I got pregnant that year and a lot of my tot school posts went to the wayside. So, I figured at least I could post the pictures I have. We were planning a trip on a plane. She was 2ish, and hated things of hers being taken away. So, I figured it might be helpful to talk a lot about the airport experience and prepare her for the loss of her stuff for a little while and during the security check. We did some dramatic play with her dolls going through the airport. Going through the metal detector. Sitting in…
- 3-5 Year Old, Interest Led Homeschool, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way, Theme, Tot School, Unit Study
Tot School: Fall Theme
It’s been over two years since I did this theme. I got pregnant that year and a lot of my tot school posts went to the wayside. So, I figured at least I could post the pictures I have. Fall Bath — I had my husband cut out leaves. I remember trying myself, and if you look closely you can probably tell which two I did. 😉 That’s shaving cream with orange dye. Playing in leaves. Collecting leaves for gluing onto a paper. Playing in the rain. We visited a pumpkin patch. We don’t do Halloween, so I’ve never really gone to these, but during the week, they’re pretty benign.…
- 3-5 Year Old, Curricula, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way
What A Four Year Old Can Learn
Last year I realized that it was a bit of a misnomer to call this list “goals,” as I wasn’t really focused on trying to get her to accomplish them. It was more just keeping track of what she was learning. Moving forward to get something done is a pretty inherent aspect of the word “goal.” So, instead, I’ve been focusing more on my own goals and learning more about how to facilitate a natural way of learning. The baby was six months when my daughter turned 4, so we were not structured much at all early on. Fortunately, I had put together the letter of the week activities before…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, Adult Book Club, Adult Education, Book Clubs, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way
Book Club: A Southern Linner
This was our cookbook month for our adult/teen book club. The plan is to read a cookbook or read about a cook and everyone cooks and brings a recipe from it. This month’s book is: A Love Affair with Southern Cooking I chose this book first because everyone loves to read it and the recipes! I have to admit, it was tons of fun to read. She traveled the South for decades learning all about southern food. The book has great personal anecdotes, a timeline of food in the South, and histories of people and products that are from the South. Many of the recipes I liked, but some were…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, Book Clubs, Book Focus, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Kids' Book Club, Preschool, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way
Kids’ Book Club: Up the Rhine to Switzerland!
Book for this month’s kids’ book club: The Overall Boys in Switzerland (This link is for the kindle or hardback version. DO NOT buy the paper book! I did and immediately returned it. It was terrible! No pictures, tiny print. I ended up just printing a pdf of this Google ebook.) This book is a sequel to this reading primer. I don’t know if I’d actually read it again. My daughter loved it, but it was really basic. So, not really a classic. Just old. 🙂 But, it’s great as a secondary reader. And, it’s a great informative story. We had a Swiss book club get together, so a mix…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Adult Book Club, Adult Education, Book Clubs, Book Focus, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Life, the Give Way, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Teen Book Club
Book Club: Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Book for this month’s adult/teen book club: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Even though this book club is for older teens and adults, sometimes, when we read kid’s classics, we’ll ask the rest of our families to join us. This was one of those instances. Nursery Alice is a simpler version Lewis Carroll wrote for younger children. And Great Illustrated Classics are always good abridged versions for the lower to mid-elementary range. Here was what my event description said: Everything’s a little topsy turvy on Daylight Savings day — the perfect time to have a Mad Hatter’s tea party! This is a family affair, so read the book with your family…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, Adult Book Club, Adult Education, Book Clubs, Book Focus, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Life, the Give Way, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Teen Book Club
Book Club: A Tale of Two Cities – Bangers and Baguettes
Book for this month’s adult/teen book club: A Tale of Two Cities This book is about a 9th or 10th grade reading level and would interest 14/15 year olds and up. If you’d like to include younger kids, I would suggest Great Illustrated Classics: A Tale of Two Cities, which is a 5th or 6th grade reading level. But, again, the story itself is for older readers, with this kind of content, I would say a 12 or 13 year old might enjoy it too, but it’s unlikely that anyone under 11 would enjoy this story. I preferred this free audio version. I found she was easy to listen to…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, Adult Book Club, Adult Education, Book Clubs, Book Focus, Curricula, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Life, the Give Way, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Teen Book Club
Teen and Adult Book Club
I took a homeschooling test, which said one of the areas of homeschooling that I leaned toward was Thomas Jefferson Education. I’d never heard of it, but looked into it. I liked a lot of what I read. But, like any of the homeschooling philosophies, I pick and choose what I think will work for us. There were two things that I could start immediately, without knowing much else about the philosophy — read classics to your kids and make sure you are also focusing on your own education, which they term “you, not them.” It was just the push I needed! I’ve been really wanting to start reading classics,…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Clubs, Book Focus, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Kids' Book Club, Preschool, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way
Kids’ Book Club: First Stop! China with Little Pear
Books for this month’s kids’ book club: Little Pear Little Pear and His Friend I found some translations, as well!! Petit Tang (French Edition!) Petit Tang et Ses Amis (French edition!) Der Kleine Shang (German Edition!) The book is a high 4th/low 5th grade reading level and would interest kids 3-10ish. There are two more books in the series. We did not read them, but plan to in the future: Little Pear and the Rabbits More About Little Pear The author, Eleanor Lattimore, actually wrote tons of books!! And they all look great! Many are out of print. I found a few at my local libraries and some reasonably…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Guest Posts, Interest Led Homeschool, Parenting, the Give Way, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way
Squashing Boredom: Scavenger Hunt Style!
Photo Credit: Rachel Samanyi We were stuck in a rut. The “I’m bored bug” was crawling out far too often. I could suggest an activity, but rarely did it spark a creative fire in my kids. I decided that instead of waiting for them to be bored, I would send them on an adventure to start the afternoon. We are blessed to live on a farm with plenty of space, but I think this can be done in any space…just use what you have! It took me about 10 minutes or less to write up short clues for outside and inside. The only problem…they were a little too excited! They ran…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Clubs, Book Focus, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Kids' Book Club, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way
Kids’ Book Club: All Aboard with The Boxcar Children
This month’s kids’ book club book: The Boxcar Children The book is a 3rd/4th grade reading level and would interest kids 3-11ish. We met at a park near a train museum for most of the activities, and then headed over to the train museum. If you are in the Los Angeles area, Travel Town Museum at Griffith Park is a free museum with a boxcar the kids can look at and passenger cars they can roam in and trains they can see. (Here’s a list of train museums in North America.) Because the book is about independence, I tried to set up most of the stations to give the…
- 12-14 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Clubs, Book Focus, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Kids' Book Club, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Teen Book Club, Theme
Kids’ Book Club — Destination: Wonderland!
This month’s kids’ book club book: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland This book is about a 7th grade reading level. I’d say it is appropriate for some 4 and 5 year old’s, but generally speaking probably 6 and up. My four year old understood most things, but, of course, the jokes and puns were beyond her. The only questionable part for us, was the “off with their head” aspect. Fortunately, the queen never actually does it, and we were able to talk about how very silly it is that she’d always say that. We did have to show her a deck of cards as we were reading, since we realized…
