This week , we worked on two dimensional shapes. Each year , I usually do an activity with food and sorting the food by shapes. I would use...
Behind in homeschool? We have helpful tips if you're falling behind schedule and motivation to keep going, including how to catch up in homeschool fast, how to use flexible homeschool schedules, and real tips on helping when a homeschooled child is behind (from kindergarten to teen homeschoolers!).
Results of a recent reader survey indicated that folks are interested in hearing more from other homeschoolers. As a result, I am working on a series called Homeschool Voices: A Series of Personal …
Minecraft is popular among children so why not use that to your
Does morning basket time have to happen first thing? Perhaps having evening basket time would work better? Here's what we've done in our homeschooling.
For the seven years I was a public school teacher, I spent much of the month of August preparing my classroom. I (poorly) painted walls, wrote names on desk tags, behavior charts, and baskets, and hung up brightly colored posters and signs. So much concern went into preparing the “best possible” learning environment, but not
There are three kinds of teacher-decorators: those who were born for Pinterest, those who can’t, and all the ones in between (such as the broke, the tired, and the I-have-no-time-to-decorate). However, making a classroom appeal to middle and high school students doesn’t HAVE to involve serious crafting or expensive, time-intensive projects. Check out these tips from me and Bonnie from Presto Plans as you prepare your classroom for the fall (or at any time of year that you want to give it a boost!) You might also like Sara's more recent blog post, Inside My Farmhouse Classroom Makeover. 1. Have a color scheme (if you can) Sara: My principal gave each teacher the paint for one accent wall, so that shade of turquoise inspired the rest of my blue decor: milk crates, bulletin board borders, etc. It helped unify the room to make it look pulled-together instead of random. I've also learned about the importance of contrast. Even a full-blown rainbow color palette can look clean and cohesive (instead of cluttered) if you pair it with black or white to balance it out. Bonnie: If you are looking for inspiration for colors that look great together, check out this Pinterest board. There are lots of combinations that will help you choose colors when you are shopping for classroom materials. 2. Stick to a few favorite fonts Sara: Just like businesses create a brand, you are creating a classroom “look” or persona that you will be known for... or, at least a mood you will create. (Friendly? Professional? Fun? Minimalist?) Try to pick a few fonts that most of your labels, signs, and other wall-hangings will consistently use. For example, I used the Google font Crushed to make and laminate labels for my whiteboard (see below), along with mint-colored painter's tape. 3. Make your classroom library a focal point Bonnie: Your class library should draw students in and works well as the focal point for any English classroom. Here are a few things you can do to make your library stand out: Give bookshelves a makeover by rolling them a new coat of paint and/or taking the shelves out and attaching wallpaper or scrapbook paper to the back. Put a few floating shelves on the walls near your library area where you can feature particular novels recommended by students. Add comfortable, flexible seating near a library to make it more welcoming. These items can be more expensive, so shop around online or scour garage sales until you find seating that may work. Use old books as decorations! When a book is unusable, find a way to repurpose it. One easy way to do this is to cut out the pages and write a reading-inspired quote in black permanent marker on top of the page. Frame the page and put it on your bookshelf! Sara: If your classroom library is small, nonexistent, or needs some attention, check out this blog post for more ideas about how to strengthen it. 4. Display student work Bonnie: Use student work as decor by making a framed gallery wall. All you have to do is pick up some inexpensive 8x10 frames (check your dollar store) and arrange them on your wall. When you get a piece of exceptional student work, add it into the frame! If you don’t want the hassle of buying and hanging frames, order a pack of mixed color picture mats and use them to frame student work on a bulletin board. Sara: Another way to get student work on display (while also practicing literary analysis!) is to have them complete this Quote Illustration and Analysis assignment; students use Canva (or any tool you wish) to make an inspirational or literary quote come to life. The results are stunning! 5. Use author-inspired decor Bonnie: Find ways to incorporate the authors you will be studying into your classroom decor. You can do this by featuring fun facts or by sharing quotes by the author. For example, I use an interactive Shakespeare Hashtag of the Week bulletin display that exposes students to one quote from a Shakespeare play each week. If you don’t want to make your own, you might even consider assigning an author to each student and having them develop a bulletin display with a biography, fun facts, and quotes that you can swap out weekly. Sara: Don't forget to interject moments of literary ALLUSION or author-inspired inside jokes as well, like my favorite light switch art... 6. Make your posters work together Sara: On at least one bulletin board or section of wall space, add some symmetry or consistency by hanging posters in a similar style (color, font, or other), or by displaying images that have a common theme. For example, check out these posters of stylized quotes to get some English class wisdom on your walls. Bonnie: If you are looking for some ideas of common themes you could use for posters, try some of these ideas that could work in any English classroom: funny grammar quotes or fails, literary terms or genres, author quotes, famous lines from literature, idiomatic expressions, or jokes using puns! To read more about my favorite bulletin board ideas for middle and high ELA, check out this blog post. "English is Weird" poster set 7. Make displays that are EASY to update Sara: Two of my favorite bulletin board spaces were ones that took VERY little effort in updating, so I didn't have the self-imposed pressure to redo the whole thing multiple times per year. For example, my Word Nerd Challenge is quick to update on a Monday morning because all I have to do is add this week's word to the list. (I made each word tile a magnet that can go on my whiteboard!) I also made low-prep Quote of the Week flipbooks of reading and writing quotes, which students often asked to flip FOR me. I used Command hooks and spiral binding to hang it on a cabinet. Do you have additional ideas? Tell us in the comments!
Minecraft for learning is a great tool for gamer kids! Here's a parents' guide to Minecraft in the classroom / how to homeschool with Minecraft, including Minecraft education lessons, worksheets, books and more education resources for teaching with Minecraft to keep kids learning beyond the game!
Inside this post: Why we chose to use a nature-based homeschooling approach for preschool and curriculum ideas for you to do it with your kids. "Keep tracing the letters," I urged, knowing we were near the breaking point. I should have stopped. I knew we were headed into meltdown territory, but I was determined. "Slow
I never thought we would be homeschooling but here we are loving it. I want to share some reasons we love homeschooling over public school.
If your kids are interested in Pokémon, be excited! You will be amazed at the ways you can capitalize on their interest by homeschooling with Pokémon. Have you heard your kids talk about Pikachu, Squirtle, and Charizard? Do they discuss attacks, trainers, and “evolution”? Sounds like your kids might be into Pokémon—which is great for …
Whether you are a teacher or have kids heading back to school, you can put this backpack treat box to good use! Download the FREE template.
Whether your children are heading off to public school or private school, home school or maybe even boarding school, one of the most important things you can do for the new school year is pray with boldness on their behalf. Our kids are living in a world with no absolutes. Prayer is one of the powerful ways we parents
We’re rolling along through April learning about plants, seeds, growing and flowers. It’s a lot of fun. I found a lot of printable activities, some free some not, that go right along …
One of the best things about homeschooling is the flexibility it provides! "Why We Homeschool at Night" will give you a glimpse in to how we do things!
How do you include your husband in your homeschool when he's not home during school? I've got a few ideas that will help!
I haven’t had a good rant in a while, so I thought it was time…
Writing, I believe, is one of the most vital skills we can teach our kids, whether we homeschool or not. It is so poorly taught in modern education, yet
Homeschooling is a grand adventure and homeschooling boys can be especially fun or frustrating – depending on your perspective. As a homeschooling mother it’s vitally important to remember that boys are different as we learn how to work with the way they are wired! Thankfully, homeschooling allows us the flexibility to embrace this. So here are 4 things to keep in mind as you embark on this adventure.
What is a death witch?Death witch and death witchcraft are somewhat umbrella terms that encompass a wide variety of beliefs and practices. You’ll often find that no two death witches engage in the craft or paganism exactly the same way, but many have similarities. This can really be said about any magical community at large. For instance, Wicca has a specific framework attached to it, but Wiccans tend to operate uniquely inside that framework and ideology. That being said, what are some things that fall within the death witchcraft spectrum?Spirit Communication:One of the core tenets for most death witchcraft practitioners is spirit communication. Seances (which means to commune with the dead) have been a part of every culture throughout history. In the UK, Canada and the USA, seances became popular during the Victorian era thanks to a movement known as Spiritualism. Spiritualism began as a religious movement in the United States, often within different sects of Christianity. Today, there are various registered religions around the world based on spiritualist beliefs and principles. However, not all people who identify as spiritualists are part of an established religion. Generally, when referring to spiritualists and spiritualism, it means people from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (and today), who believed that communication could occur between the living and the dead.People communicate with spirits in various ways, the most popular of which is through divination methods such as tarot or spirit boards. If you’d like to learn more about this, you can check out my book on the subject, The Book of Seances.Ancestor Veneration:Working with the spirits of your ancestors, or honouring them in some fashion, whether through ritual or not, is a form of ancestor veneration. Many death witches work with their ancestors through magical practices and traditional genealogy for various reasons. Some do so to heal familial trauma or help different spirits on the other side, while others aim to improve their current lives in some way. Most fall somewhere between the two. Ancestor work is deeply personal, and there is no single right reason to participate in it.Working with your ancestors is about establishing a relationship with death and everything that comes along with it. This includes the spirits of your ancestors, as well as the spirits of other humans and of sacred areas belonging to the dead, such as graveyards.We all have ancestors, and we all can benefit from building a posthumous relationship with them.If you’d like to learn more about this, I implore you to read my other book, The Book of Ancestors.Necromancy:While both spirit communication and ancestor veneration are forms of necromancy, there is another part many death witch practitioners engage in. That is the communication or summoning of spirits to learn about the future, change the outcome of a situation, or accomplish something using the spirits of the dead. Necromancy is used in spellwork, from getting a job to hexing your neighbour. Like ancestor work, there is no one right way to participate. It is up to the death witch herself how she’d like to do this work. Death Doula and Death Positivity:Because death is something that happens to all of us, the practice of being a death doula or participating in death-positive activism is often an important aspect of the craft of a death witch. In the simplest of terms, a death doula is like being a midwife, except you’re not helping bring life into this world; you're helping a life end and move on to the next phase. Death doulas can participate in a broad range of tasks from healthcare to ritual and spiritual work, and not all identify as witches. Death Deity Work:Like most people who identify as a death witch, there are certain gods and goddesses who rule over death and the underworld in some way that I work with consistently. In most mainstream pagan practices, death is ignored until autumn or winter because that is when most of the earth experiences metaphorical and literal death (E.g., the life cycle of plants). But a death witch recognizes that the deities of death are active year-round, though they might be busier during certain times of the year. In conclusion...Death witchcraft is a deeply personal and diverse path, with each practitioner bringing their own unique approach to the craft. Whether through spirit communication, ancestor veneration, necromancy, or death positivity, the practices of a death witch are rooted in a profound connection to the mysteries of death and the afterlife.If you're curious about exploring this path further, I encourage you to delve into the resources mentioned, experiment with simple practices, and, most importantly, follow your intuition and personal beliefs. Remember, there is no one right way to be a death witch—your journey is your own.For more insights and detailed guides on death witchcraft, please check out my books, The Book of Seances and The Book of Ancestors, and explore the rest of my blog for additional articles and resources.
In the northeastern United States, longhouses were the dominant type of home among Native Americans. These houses were built from tree trunks lashed together and then covered with slabs of tree bark. The houses measured as much as 20 feet high, 20 feet wide and 50 to 150 feet long.
Are you homeschooling middle school? Here is the curriculum that's worked for our family. Get some inspiration by checking out what we've used.
Discovering Waldorf is a weekly series of articles written by ‘everyday’ Waldorf families. The contributors to this series share their ‘real-life’ insights and inspirations on all kinds of Waldorf topics. This series is not meant to be Waldorf philosophy in its purest form, but rather a snapshot of how we can all incorporate Waldorf ideas […]
A must-have for all homeschooling families, this charming and funny picture book explores the special rhythms and routines of home education, inspired by awa...
