Your kids can create spin mixing art without a fancy expensive kit. Just use a salad spinner, coffee filter, some paint, and your creativity!
How to Schedule Ambleside Online and how to make it actually work from a second-generation homeschooling mother of 4. You can do AO!
I've been asked to co-write a method book for beginning strings and it has been fun creating pages and developing a plan for my 'dream' method book. Last year, I spent a lot of time researching different books and many have great stuff...there is just not an ideal book for my classroom. I would like a book with a quality, simple rote section where students can easily read the exercises while focusing on what is most important...perfect position and quality sound. A book which incorporates multi-level parts to help reach all ability levels would be helpful. I believe that an option with more difficult parts included with easier parts helps motivate and inspire students to keep practicing in order to become advanced. It would be nice to have a book that allows students time to master new techniques, then apply those techniques with great sounding music. One thing I want students to learn right from the start is how to create a quality sound. I just finished pages which teach bow direction/placement, bow weight and bow speed. Students can then practice those techniques on an easy exercise while reading bowings. The bowing is meant to have students travel a short distance while stopping the bow after each quarter note so that students have time to keep checking bow direction, etc. They perform it like this: What would you like to see in your dream method book?
In this article, we share with you the best violin care tips to keep your instrument in perfect condition.
This hands-on math activity is perfect for teaching symmetry to preschoolers and young kids. It makes learning symmetry fun and playful!
Character training may seem elusive and difficult to accomplish. Yet, Charlotte Mason gives us great insight into this most important aspect of a child’s education. It’s quite simple, really. Character training is a matter of conveying worthy ideas then allowing the Divi
Cool infographs about all music things related
Typesy is an amazing homeschool typing program. Not only do kids get excellent instruction in touch typing, but they also get to play fun games to cement the skills!
Examples of Charlotte Mason notebooks including photos of the big three: commonplace, book of centuries, and nature journal.
Would you like to decorate your classroom with fun, hand-drawn anchor charts/posters? Do you simply not have the time to get them done? Well, you have come to the perfect place! I love making these engaging and appealing anchor charts. I also can draw/create any other topic you would like, just contact me directly and ask! My students absolutely love these posters and references them every day. Many of them are visual learners, so the colorful images really help them connect and remember what they have learned. This particular anchor chart is for readers/writers learning all about capitalization. My students get confused and forget when to capitalize words so this "MINTS" phrase really helps them remember! **These will be copies unless asked otherwise for a custom poster. They are not laminated, and are printed on normal, anchor chart paper. I ship these out ASAP after being ordered, but please keep in mind once shipped, it is outside of my control. Therefore, if shipping does not meet your expectations, I highly encourage you to please reach out to me first, and we have always been able to work something out to make up for anything that may have occurred after I have sent your package, thanks so much!! Hope you love it :)
Copywork for every age child. Hundreds of copywork pages covering many subjects.
It's easy to be distracted these days! Between calls, emails, texts, and social media begging for your attention, how can you homeschool consistently?
144 Artists to Pique Your Students' Interest Instructional Strategies % %
Yesterday we talked about the recipes that defined the 1960s, and today we’re delving into the popular recipes of the 70s. While some food trends stayed strong into the 1970s, like fondue, Jell-O, and really anything from a mold, new recipe contenders also stepped into the ring. There was more of an emphasis on fresh vegetables and fruit in the 70s which corresponds to the opening of Alice Water’s Chez Panisse in 1971. What are your favorite recipes from the 1970s?
This Sparkly Icicle Craft is a wonderful way to bring the beauty and magic of Winter right into the home or classroom!
Looking for sensory integration activities for autism to develop your child's motor skills? Check out our collection of fun vestibular system exercises!
My third graders are starting to finish up these People in Kimonos that we created based on Cassie Stephen's blog post. We did them mostly the same as Cassie, with the exception of the backgrounds, which we used bubble wrap to print and some of my students added drink umbrellas as parasols. Other than that, Cassie has great info on her blog and that's where I learned most of what I taught my students, just click the link above.
Art Timeline for Kids
So, today's post is completely out of the normal. Today I'm sharing some of my favorite homeschool memes. There is just something about memes . . .
Now that we're more than a month into our first term and I've had a chance to "test drive" our plans, I'm going to do a few posts on what school looks in our home this year, with two third graders and a kindergartener. (And, of course, four little ones too! Since my preschool-aged kids outnumber my school-aged kids right now, our plans are influenced by them as well.) First up: our weekly schedule sheet. This is very much like the schedule format we have used for the last couple years, with a few small changes: :: I added a column for my kindergartener's daily work. She would be happy to "do school" every day, but my time is limited (and I'd prefer not to do much formal academics anyway). So to make sure she gets the one-on-one time she wants, I aim for three days a week in each category. (Obviously, she doesn't see this checklist. It's to hold me accountable, not her.) :: I organized our weekly assignments into various categories as part of moving my older two toward independence. I don't plan on having them do all their own readings (though they have been and will continue to be doing a fair amount of them solo), but I do want them to start taking on more of their own scheduling. So I have been creating lists for them that include all of the work they're meant to do independently for the week. In the course of doing so, I reorganized my own schedule sheet so that I can simply copy certain boxes onto another page and print it for them. (More on that below.) :: I put two checkboxes next to each of their readings, one for having read it and one for having narrated it. (I have added quite a few non-narrated items to our schedule; as you'll see, those only have one checkbox.) This makes it easier for me to keep track of who has done what. I use the back of the sheet to note people to add to our timelines, places to look up, and topics to discuss. As I mentioned, our work for the week is broken into various categories: daily tasks for each child, with four checkboxes next to each (we school four days a week) weekly readings we do together weekly readings they do independently other work we do together other work they do independently I copy three of the boxes from my schedule (the "Independent Work" and "Independent Reading" boxes, along with their daily assignments) onto a new page to make the kids' checklists: In the black space on the right, I have been writing their chores for that week, with checkboxes next to those as well. They are training in new cleaning tasks this term; once those are formalized, they too will be pre-printed on their weekly sheet. And a few other notes about scheduling: :: I don't make a daily schedule; I much prefer working from the weekly one as it gives me more flexibility. When we sit down to "do school" together, I pull out the weekly list, pick something, and start. I don't have specific readings tied to specific days--it's all considered on a weekly basis. :: I know there's a lot of e-conversations going on right now about scheduling based on a formal time table. I don't schedule that way. ;) So far, we have been able to manage short lessons and alternation just fine without a timed schedule. :: We are still schooling in three main blocks (morning basket, naptime school, and independent work). I occasionally move some of our more hands-on items (like drawing lesson or nature journaling) to the evening or weekend if Baby has been extra fussy that week. :: In the past, I have had my two oldest come to me separately to narrate their independent reading. But listening to their narrations was taking so much of my time--they are very detailed and talkative kids. And they're doing the same assignments, so I knew I should streamline that part of our schedule. This year, we're doing it a bit differently: during their independent reading block, I encourage them to choose one narrated and one non-narrated book to read from that day. I don't care which they choose as long as they read the same ones. They trade off books, and then when both of them have finished, they come to me to narrate together. This has helped me free up some time in a big way, and I also think they're benefiting from listening to each others' narrations even more often than they already were. Next up: overviews of our third grade and kindergarten plans!
Here's my guide to the best virtual museums you can visit online at home from the comfort of your couch or computer. If you can't travel for any reason, this is a splendid time to travel virtually to a museum of your choice. There's an almost dizzying array of virtual options. It's not quite like walking through a museum. But it has its own strange pleasures.
Homeschooling using the Charlotte Mason method is so much more than "homeschooling". It's a lifestyle! In our home, we start with essentials of: Nutrition, Cleanliness, and A Well-fed heart. Nutrition: While we all know nutrition is important, it is extremely important on homeschool days, as you are working on the habit of attention. Cleanliness: We
