Last week I spent some time discussing the pros and cons of school-at-home and unit studies. Today I will be tackling a method that truly is the backbone of my beliefs about how children learn best…
Beginning to homeschool with unrealistic expectations is joy zapping and its huge among things new homeschoolers should avoid. You'll experience one or two mistakes, but they can be minimized.
Homeschooling doesn't have to mean endless workbooks and flashcards. Try one or all of these ways to make your homeschool more fun this year! #homeschool #homeschooling #ideas #fun
Delight-directed learning is a lot like giving a mouse a cookie. One great learning resource always leads to another.
Fun and engaging hand clapping game to teach your kiddos!
As homeschoolers, it's helpful to look at successful educational models to see what we can emulate. Finnish schools have earned a reputation for excellence
Are you a homeschooler who will be teaching Calculus to your teen? Or are you a college student who needs extra help? Check out these free resources.
Classical Conversations: Cycle 3–Games and Videos! I shared my Ultimate List of Books for Cycle 3 a few w
Questions about Saxon Math for homeschoolers? An 18-year veteran homeschooler offers advice on Saxon Math levels, placement tests, and more.
Cindy loves adding logic and critical thinking to her homeschool schedule...and for good reason! Take a look at this new-to-her homeschool logic series.
Seven *more* things that homeschoolers should stop doing if they want to live a stressfree and awesome homeschooling life. For real.
We have started to mummify a chicken, this is a fun project and your kids or students will learn a lot as they mummify a chicken.
There are a lot of foreign language resources out there, but finding a foreign language curriculum for high school can be a challenge. Many videos and apps are cartoony, as a result this keeps teenagers from being willing to even try them out. However, with a bit of research and help from another homeschool mom, …
Looking for the best language arts curriculum for the middle school years? Today I’m sharing thoughts on Learning Language Arts Through Literature and why i ...
What sort of grade level guidelines and standards should homeschoolers follow? As you take on the responsibility of educating our own kids, some of you are wondering what you should be doing at each grade level. How do you know if you’re “keeping up with the schools” or “falling behind“? There are not any specific […]
We had a lighter home-school week this week (which might make one think I would have time to blog more, but no). Some highs and lows to our week in our weekly run-down. Scholastic Report Looking at what did and didn’t get done on my planning sheet this week, the verdict is that we had solid school days Monday through Wednesday. The girls each got in two math lessons a piece. Counting peanuts into groups of ten. And eating several of them. We hit all of our Language Arts - Explode the Code, Handwriting, First Language Lessons, Writing with Ease. We read/listened to the audio of chapter 4 in Story of the World, learning about Ancient Egypt. We worked our our memory work for week 3 in Classical Conversations. Highlights of our memory work were learning the names of the Greek and Roman gods, the parts of an animal cell, and starting Latin noun endings. Typing up her notes for her CC presentation. A little appalled at the state of my desk in this picture so please avert your eyes from that! We finished (finally!) our recent lunchtime chapter book read-aloud, Little Town on the Prairie. There was some talk about jumping right into These Happy Golden Years, but instead we’ve picked up Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson. (He was also the author of Ben and Me which we’ve read-aloud and I’ve blogged here). B and I worked on her math and some letter recognition activities that I found in our school closet for her kindergarten. I’ve got the itch to pull out all our fall / apple books and do a lapbook with her so my hopes are to get that organized and lined up this weekend. Life Report We had a late night Monday night with the girls – unplanned – which set the tone for needing to slow down towards the end of the week. I had run to the store with a couple of the kids and got home right at bedtime. B came out to help me bring things in and closed the van door for me … unfortunately with one of her fingers still inside. My poor girl slammed it good and after calming her down and putting ice on it for about thirty minutes, T loaded her up and headed to the ER for an x-ray on it. : ( God again protected one of our kids (remembering last week’s update where the boy pulled his dresser over – I’m hoping this doesn’t become a weekly wrap-up theme!) The finger wasn’t broken – just very bruised. And as of this weekend, other than being a little stiff, most of her pain is gone. Although we would obviously not have wished this to happen to her, one perk was that she had a killer presentation at CC the next morning about her ER experience. : ) This was also a LATE night for the girls. B didn’t get home from the ER until almost 11pm, and at least one sister (the one she shares a room with) couldn’t go to sleep until she was back home. By Thursday they were all really draaaaaagging, so we had a very lite school day on Thursday and Friday of this week. I am feeling the need to shake our daily routine up a little bit now that the weather is a little cooler outside. The schedule I worked out for us has served us well the first six week of school, and I could probably keep using it, but I would like to be able to work in a morning walk each day. Still working out kinks, but we took a walk/bike ride on Wednesday morning before starting school and all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. On Thursday, I escaped for a good chunk of the day! I have now warned my husband that I might need these “teacher development days” every six weeks or so! : ) A college acquaintance was in town giving a workshop on Thursday morning and I attended that. After checking with my friend who was staying with the girls, I found she could stay a little longer and I got to have lunch with T. By myself. With no interruptions. I have to fess up on myself – I give the girls a hard time about talking to me non-stop when I get one of them one-on-one to myself, but I think I did the same thing to T on our lunch date. : ) Much needed shot in the arm for Mama. Breakfast : oatmeal, coffee, reading through Matthew with the girls, and one of our history timeline cards from CC. So far this addition to our schedule is working well! (We were doing this reading before, just upstairs in the schoolroom). And with that we’ve wrapped up another week of school. It’s hard to believe that today is the first day of autumn, too! Today looks to be a normal Saturday around these parts, albeit with mid-seventy degree temperatures. I’ll take that! We have soccer for B this afternoon, a quick grocery run and stop at Staples, and our family pizza and movie night tonight. Typically that’s our Friday night activity, however, T hosted a music team get-together/rehearsal here last night and it was a loud, late night with a house full of musicians. : ) Happy Saturday. Linking up with Kris and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!
Teach Up! How to improve your teaching with Bloom's Taxonomy. Use this powerful model to expand your homeschool teaching.
Looking for the best language arts curriculum for the middle school years? Today I’m sharing thoughts on Learning Language Arts Through Literature and why i ...
Algebra resources for teaching and learning mathematics. Fun and visual resources for maths teachers and kids.
We switched from Singapore Math to Math Mammoth and It's been a fantastic fit for all 4 of my children, 1st-6th grades.
My family didn't start with the Saxon Math Curriculum. No, we used a different math program and it was a colossal failure. Then we switched to Saxon Math!
In case you've been snoozing for the past few months, this is what you've missed:
You can teach language arts without a curriculum. Get ideas for how you can use inexpensive resources to easily teach language arts in your homeschool!
We've talked previously about determining your child's learning style to help narrow down your options for curriculum. There are so many options available
Grade 3 Ontario Social Studies unit: Early Canada 1780-1850 for new 2023 social studies. The unit includes photos of artifacts, mapping connections, research organizers and more to cover the Ontario Curriculum. IMPORTANT UPDATE!* *Now updated for 2023 curriculum changes!!** Slides version updated as well! Student pages are included in google slides! Previously: March 7, 2021 a large portion of the unit was changed. Please reprint and discontinue use of the previous version. This item is frequently updated, so please check back frequently for further updates! Now Includes Google Slides!* DID SOMEONE SAY *DIGITAL*! Newly updated!! Select student pages are now included for use with Google Slides! 150 Interactive Slides to help with virtual learning! Check out the preview VIDEO for digital samples and details. (Please note: some pages, teachers notes and others are only available in the PDF). Student ready (locked text) and Editable (unlocked where allowed/possible) options provided. DIGITAL UPDATE redownload to get the goodies! Force Copy Links are on page 3 of the PDF*. Included you will find: Unit Overview: A unit overview explains key learning goals, assessment tips, differentiation, lesson sequence, materials needed and teacher notes. Perfect to help you plan out your unit in a snap! Intro Activities: Question prompts, partner talk cards and conversation ‘cootie-catcher’. I’ve also included information for a ‘time-line’ to help students create an understanding of this time period. Read Alouds & Videos: A variety of read alouds and videos are suggested with follow up activities and discussions to help your students understand how successfully the Indigenous People of Early Canada were living before the settlers arrived. Some information about Indigenous way of life, beliefs and history are included. Also, a read aloud about a Black Loyalist Community has been added. (Please note: many of these books are available through the author's official YouTube which are linked, but some do require finding a copy of the book. Copies of the books are not included with this file. That would be against copyright and unethical). **I have added read-aloud and video suggestions for Treaties and Wampum Belts to accommodate the new 2023 curriculum changes! The other points were already included in the previous unit materials!** Early Settler Animated Shorts: Using films created by the National Film Board (free to watch), I have created a follow-up activity for each video which focuses on comparing life in early settler times to life today as well as some key elements of daily life. Period Pieces Paintings: A variety of art pieces from 1780-1850 are provided for students to view and analyse. Two discussion prompts and a reflection sheet are included. Mapping: 3 student friendly maps are included as well as a 'making connections' response page as well as a general 'mapping reflections' sheet. Extension activities for discussing 'push and pull' factors for settlers is included. Questioning & Research: With the inquiry focus of the new curriculum, students are expected to ask questions and research in a variety of ways to find answers and make connections. I have provided some anchor charts, a Q-chart, samples of our “Question” brainstorm sheets and ‘Big Questions”. Students will work in small groups (4 or 5 students) to research some of the questions on their chart and the ‘big question’ associated with their topic. NEW: More structured graphic organizers are provided to assist students who need additional support. Research Product- Kiosks & Brochure: To share their research findings and connections, students will create a ‘kiosk’ in their groups using the foldable templates and create a brochure to go with their kiosk. Artifact Exploration: Pictures of artifacts and definitions to match are provided as well as a "what this may be" sheet and a "comparison to now" activity to consolidate their learning after the activity. Artifact Final Project: Students ‘create’ an artifact and exhibit for our ‘classroom museum’ and write a written piece about their artifact. Planning sheets and a sample success criteria checklist is provided. **DIGITAL GOOGLE SLIDES NOW INCLUDED!*** I try to update my items as quickly as possible when I can, but I cannot commit to unlimited lifetime updates of units. I will do my best, but I am a full-time teacher and mom to a young child. Please note that the purchase is for the CURRENT curriculum (as of August 2023). If future updates are made, they will be added as a 'bonus', but I cannot commit to lifetime updates. Thank you for understanding :) If you feel something is missing or you have an idea for an addition I'd love to hear from you, please note not all requests/suggestions can be accommodated. My email is [email protected] *This unit was updated with consultation from 3 Indigenous Education Experts to help ensure the material, language and photos included are culturally sensitive and in alignment with the truth and reconciliation commission Canada expectations. I strive to ensure that the unit is sensitive and accurate. Of course, please check your board's specific instructions as they may differ. Also, please consider your classroom community of learners and the specific backgrounds of your students as well as your level of comfort with the topics when discussing sensitive areas such as the racism found in Early Canada. There are many activities to pick and choose from, so there should be plenty of options to suit your classroom. Please pre-read all texts and view all videos before showing them to your students to ensure they work for your situation. Board expectations can vary as do expectations from community to community and family to family. Please exercise extreme caution in discussing the traumatic events of the past. If you are not sure about an activity, please check with your board's Indigenous Education Liaison or Admin. As always, tailor these to your class and seek input from local Indigenous groups, Elders, and other important voices as you teach about these important topics. * If you are looking for more grade 3 social studies for the 2020 Ontario curriculum, check out my Living and Working in Ontario Unit Or for guided math activities, check out my Ontario guided math bundles for all strands! For sample report card comments for this unit, click here Thanks for stopping by: ~Tina's Teaching Treasures Inc.
Being a homeschooler isn't easy no matter what type of homeschooling you choose to do. Being a secular homeschooler is hard too.
The arithmetic, geography, civil government, physiology, grammar and history questions range from 'What is a personal pronoun?' to 'Who first discovered Lawrence River?' and 'Define Cerebrum'.
In the Collaborative Model, struggling students are never left out or left behind.
Tips and advice for what works with our visual spatial learner
A blog about pursuing a classically creative education, using hands on elements to bring education to life for those who pursue a classical model.
Can they both be right? Essential Question: To what extent can cultural relativism be used to justify different concept of human rights? Learning outcomePrescribed contentPossible examplesDebates s…
