It’s only the most important homeschool document you’ll ever create! No pressure. We have lots of free and paid resource recommendations below. One thing to be aware of, is that r…

Take a tour through all the most popular homeschooling styles! Each method is explained in-depth, to get you started on your ideal homeschooling lifestyle.

You won’t find our college in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” rankings released this month. Last year Hampshire College decided not to accept SAT/ACT test scores from high school applicants seeking admission. That got us kicked off the rankings, disqualified us, per U.S. News rankings criteria. That’s OK with us. We completely dropped standardized tests from our application as part of our new mission-driven admissions strategy, distinct from the “test-optional” policy that hundreds of colleges now follow. If we reduce education to the outcomes of a test, the only incentive for schools and students to innovate is in the form of improving test-taking and scores. Teaching to a test becomes stifling for teachers and students, far from the inspiring, adaptive education that most benefits students.

We are so glad you are here at the Homeschool Den! We have been homeschooling for years now, so we have a lot of resources tucked away here at our blog. In fact, let me send you to one of our latest freebies – the FREE Winter-Spring 2024 Homeschool Planner and you’ll find our Free 2024-2025 School Year Calendar Printable here. Would you like to check out some of our...

As I mentioned before we have been using the Chemistry from Real Science 4 kids for our science lessons. I must say I like the program so far, text, labs, reviews, the whole deal. Everyone is having fun. So this week we are learning about molecules and how they are put together. The lab has a great little ditty on marshmallow molecules, however my dear sweet little vegetarian Molly was having none of that! After all "they are made with gelatin and that comes from cows" she informed me. That's OK I say! The amazing, awesome, super wholesome, homeschooling, handcrafting mama extraordinaire that I am will make home-made marshmallows with no animal byproducts and NO high fructose corn syrup. Then life took over as it does sometimes. The busy, gotta-get-this-done and move on mama that I also am went down to the store and bought some gross candy gumdrops, made from who knows what (I opted not to analyze the ingredients). In the end it wasn't has wholesome as I had envisioned, but they seem to have a solid grasp on ionic vs covalent bonds. The understand the rules that atoms follow to bond and that the shape of the molecules have rules to. We had fun, learned a bunch (in our school uniform of pajamas) and no animals were harmed. Oh and I can move on from this unit finally! I DO plan on mastering the home-made marshmallow for our annual camping trip so if anyone knows a good recipe send it my way please.

Thanks to the Pentagon's 1033 program, which allows law enforcement agencies to get their hands on DOD technology, and the Bush-era War on Terror, American police have received a startling amount of heavy-duty, military-grade hardware.

Wherein I talk about the many things I've been called over our last 10 years of homeschooling, and why none of them really matter.

At home.

It's not everyday that our nation elects a new president. And although I am more than tired of hearing campaign ads and seeing yard signs, I am eager to exercise my right to cast a vote...a passion I hope to ignite into all of my children. I realize that the national "Kid's Vote" campaign has made significant strides in spreading the excitement to the next generation of voters, but it does very little to teach kids about the actual election process. So in keeping with my desire to incorporate real-life into learning, I have pushed "pause" on our current Egypt study to complete a mini-unit on voting...specifically voting for a new president. (This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.) Resources that we used We used the following living literature style books: Know Your Government: Governor by Jacqueline Laks Gorman Know Your Government: Mayor by Jacqueline Laks Gorman Chickens May Not Cross the Road and Other Crazy (But True) Laws by Kathi Linz The Taxing Case of the Cows: A True Story About Suffrage by Iris Van Rynbach If I Were President by Catherine Stier Duck for President by Doreen Cronin Voting and Elections by Patricia Murphy We watched a youtube video on what the very first election process was like. I also gleaned inspiration from several great on-line resources which I have compiled on my Government Pinterest board. Election Process in Practice In an effort to clearly explain the election process, I decided to host a 2012 Family Dinner-Time Election. I joined forces with the Announcer's Wife to put together both a PRIMARY and a GENERAL election to elect the dinner to be served on election night. Our family was one political party and her family was the opposing party. I began by allowing each of my four older kids to pick a dinner-time candidate...a main dish that they enjoy. After looking at a few campaign ads and posters we had received in the mail, they were each instructed to make a campaign poster for their nominee. When the Hubs arrived home for lunch in the afternoon, we spent some time conducting a "town hall meeting" or simple debate. The children were each given a chance to explain why their dinner candidate was the best choice and why the others were not. I explained that voters take many factors into consideration when determining their vote. The Hubs and I (as the audience) asked questions and pointed out key "considerations"...like the fact that we might not have the ingredients for that particular item, the Announcer's family is mostly gluten free, mom has a meeting to get to on election night and might not have a lot of time to cook a huge time-consuming meal, etc. They all did a fantastic job responding to our concerns just as a real presidential nominee would do. Next came the voting. I made up simple "official ballots", set up a voting station, and invited the family to cast their vote for the PRIMARIES. The votes were counted and WAFFLES came in with a commanding lead. I then explained that we would need to choose a "running mate" for our candidate. We discussed how a presidential and vice-presidential combination was much like a dad and mom partnership. Dad is in charge, but Mom is second-in-command and is a helper to Dad. Just as Mom has many strengths that compliment Dad's, a Vice-Presidential nominee is chosen because his/her strengths will compliment that of the Presidential candidate. We all agreed that FRUIT would make a nice "running mate." In a humorous twist, the Announcer's family elected PANCAKES and BACON to represent their political party in the general elections. Our two families will be meeting together the Tuesday of the national elections to conduct our own general election. I have made up simple ballots for both readers and non-readers alike. The votes will be cast and tabulated. Later that evening, I will be serving up the winning combination at the dinner table. Who knows which dinner-time combo will win in this Battle of the Breakfast Foods. Right now, it's too close to tell.

{Project-based Learning} {Reggio-Inspired} Over a year ago, I found Lori Pickert’s blog and the terms “project-based homeschooling,” “project-based learning” and “reggio-inspired”…

Unsure of how to record and keep track of credits for a project based high school course? This post will address your questions!

Homeschool how to get started tips for homeschooling your children including homeschool ideas, homeschooling curriculum, home school schedule from homeschooling preschool to kindergarten through high school homeschooling. Learn how to homeschool your child today! 18 COMMON QUESTIONS ON HOW TO HOME SCHOOL TODAY (AND THE ANSWERS!)

Last year my sixth-grade daughter, Elizabeth, was subjected to science. Her education, week after week, consisted of mindless memorization of big words like "batholith" and "saprophyte" - words that...

Since I studied theology in Europe I had little exposure to English-language theologians, who are looked down upon on the Continent, where they prefer a more systematic/rationalist approach to the …

In 1941, Charlotte Pommer graduated from medical school at the University of Berlin and went to work for Hermann Stieve, head of the school’s Institute ...

Our world is filled with amazing sources of multicultural book ideas, websites, authors, organizations and other resources to help your family incorporate diverse books into your reading process.

Eleanor of Aquitaine is remembered as the determined and powerful wife of Henry II. Yet she had such a command of England after Henry’s death...

Science is one of those homeschool subjects that comes alive when we add in experiments and other hands-on science projects. But sometimes it's just easier

An interview with David Epstein.

A few months ago I went to a really neat "Enrichment Day" sponsored by a homeschool group that I'm a member of. The idea was fo...

Quite a few months ago I purchased and read the book, Managers Of Their Homes (aka MOTH) after hearing some rave reviews about it. I'd felt the need, and we'd been trying to implement one for some time, to use a family schedule. Remember, I have warned you in the past that I'm a bit Monkish.. The book has a lot of great information in it, and it was interesting to see how so many different people manage their days. It was also equally interesting to see how each family chooses or plans to prioritize the day. For us, that's what it came down to, was figuring out which things were more important and shifting things around. I'm also going to state right from the start that we do NOT use this schedule every day. We are NOT rigid and bound to it. However, on school days we like to try and keep within the lines as much as we can. It's not only helpful for the adults, but super duper helpful for the kids. The book comes with the schedule grid (that's the white thing my colored paper is on) and I trimmed mine to fit on the bulletin board. Thankfully, I can print one off their website if I mess it up so I wan't too panicked about that aspect of it. I had considered laminating it. Okay, I wanted really badly to laminate it, but it was too wide for my laminating machine. I still consider, quite often, taking it to my favorite store in town (aka the laminating shop) to have it encrusted forever in plastic, but there are far more important things to deal with. The scheduled grid is actually set up so that a family of many (as in 8, but you can actually obtain more for a larger family) can use one grid. Because our family is half that size I opted to make our colored slips of paper wider. Thus, there were no empty white spaces driving me nuts, and we had a bigger rainbow effect. Is that weird? It's okay, you can say it is.. The result was also that I had more space to jot down the tasks in. In the book, MOTH, the Maxwells tend to be very detail oriented when it comes to their schedule, seriously it's amazing. For our family, we are detailed in some areas and less in others. It simply depends on the area and how we might all ready handle it. For instance, in the book many people wrote on their schedules exactly what they were doing in each or their school blocks. I didn't. We decided on what chunk of our day was going to be school oriented and we wrote "school" there. Why? Many reasons.. My biggest being that we still use our workboxes. Thus the boys all ready know and see what's expected of them. We school together as a family and very rarely is there work that they must take away, at this stage of our schooling, to do on their own. When there is they see it in their workboxes and know to dutifully deal with it. So, I didn't feel the need to write down every detail of our school day, but rather mark off a chunk of time for it. The same is true of our chore time. All though you may notice that Mr Scarecrow has vacuum written on one day of the week. Other then that you'll notice that it really just mentions Chore Time. Again, this is because we have a chore system that is working for us and our chores change daily. I didn't feel the need to write all that out in the small rectangles of paper. Did you notice the flip charts hanging from the base of our bulletin board? Those are the kids Chore Charts. Yes, we use to use something different and yes, I blogged about it. The problem was that we found the x's everywhere and the laminate peeling off. These were inspired by Mr Scarecrow and they work amazingly well for us. Each child has two. One is their daily chores (to the right) the other is their weekly chores (to the left). Generally they'll find only 1 weekly chore per day (Saturday has 2 each..) Their daily chores are broken down into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening. The morning chores are the heavy stuff; later it's just tidying up what we've gotten out. Truth be told, if later chores are done properly there's not much for them to do in the morning slots. An inspiration my children have for not dawdling is extra free time. This is a huge inspiration to them, as they know if they work quickly they will gain extra free time in the morning. They also know that dawdling may end up costing them free time. We also tend to work with timers around here. I know, kinda geeky, but it works for us. Plus, may I just say it's an excellent living math experience and has really helped the kids gain a full understanding of time. Now, a few side notes.. The book is sold directly through the Maxwell's website. While you can pick it up used you need to know if the scheduling papers and such have been used. Plus, if you're interested in registering your book to give you access to their message boards and other goodies (something I've yet to do) You need a book with the registration form in tact still. They will not reregister a book simply because it's changed hands. This is clearly stated on their website. Would one benefit from their website? I've honestly no idea. While I've poked around it a tiny bit, I've not registered to see what else is available. When we follow our schedule (weeks we school, which means 3 out of 4 in a month) I don't have as much time to fiddle on the computer, and I'd rather spend it doing other things that I feel have higher priority. Does this schedule work? The schedule is just a silly piece of paper with brightly colored paper stuck to it. That's all it is. It sits there and looks really colorful on your wall. In short, it's just a tool. How well it works is up to you. Our schedule works beautifully for us if I'm up early like I'm suppose to be. That way I can get others up and moving when they need to be. Are we rigid with the schedule? No way! That'd stress me out and I'd get a migraine. We use it as a guide. There are days when we stick with it more then other times and all those days are fine with us. There are also days when in the evening we may change plans and play a game longer or watch a longer movie starting earlier. Life goes on. I promise, the schedule won't blow up! Does your Husband like it? My husband helped make the schedule. He likes that his work hours (because he works from home) are set on the schedule. It means no interruptions from the "home office" and that he can give his undivided attention to clients. He was 100% for it as long as it wasn't going to be one of those "we absolutely must do it this way or else it will blow up!" things. In short, it works for us and we like it. Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest Chores & Schedules

Educators are finding themselves in an awkward position as they straddle open-access culture and paid sharing networks.

I am not an expert in foreign language instruction. I only speak English fluently and have taken upon myself the task of helping my children learn multiple foreign languages. In graduate school for Speech-Language Pathology I was blessed to be able to "specialize" and work with a professor to help

Many years ago, I came across some information about Sue Patrick's Workboxes, an organizational system designed to aide her autistic son in developing independent study skills. In the simplest of terms, workboxes are made from a drawer organizer cart. Each school day, you fill the drawers with school assignments or fun activities and instruct your child to work their way down the cart, doing the task in the first drawer before moving on to the next one. Your child would be motivated to do the school work you've placed in one box in hopes they'd find a reward such as a fun game, a snack, or a pass for a break in the next box. My Type A personality loved the idea of this well-ordered school-day tool. I appreciated the autonomous learning that the workbox method promised. As an added bonus, I was assured that if I implemented something similar in my own home, those dozens of learning games collecting dust in my school cabinet would finally get played with. (This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.) But, after much consideration, I scrapped the entire idea altogether for the following reasons: I live in an acutely small house. I have five kids that would all need an entire workbox system for themselves. With a few swift calculations, it was obvious to me that my tiny little home could not possibly hold 60+ boxes! Rearranging books, games, manipulatives, etc. in drawers, bins, boxes, or the like every night seemed like an exhausting endeavor. While I liked the idea of Sue's system, I knew I'd need a structure that would encourage educational independence in each of my kids, but that wouldn't require a giant home renovation to make it happen. After much deliberation and a little bit of elbow grease, I created my Task Card System. These colorful one-inch "reminders" have revolutionized our daily schedule. No longer do I have to prod or cajole my children a million times a day to continue at their tasks. The motivation is built right into the system. Here's how The Task Card system works In the evening, I quickly scan my Brave Homeschool Planer (It takes about 10 minutes, tops!) and determine what activities I have assigned for the following school day. I still maintain our TRIO of subjects but am now able to mix in an occasional "extra" to avoid a lot of downtime while I am working with or teaching another child. Extras might include play an educational game on the computer, complete a learning puzzle, have a snack, play with the baby, etc. These extras supply an intrinsic motivation for my kids to keep on keepin' on. Who wouldn't want to complete a math assignment knowing that snack time, computer time, playtime, etc. came next? Admittedly, selecting the next day's activities each evening does require a little bit of purposeful selection. I have to order each Task Card in such a way that allows one child to complete a subject that requires my assistance while the other kids work on more independent subjects. Group subjects also have to be timed accordingly. But as Mom, I get the privilege of re-ordering the cards in the middle of the day if needed. (Such was the case the other day when I had the entire day "ordered" and had to whisk us all out the door for a rather random trip to the doctor. When we returned, I made a few simple adjustments to the Task Cards and the kids were back to business as usual.) The Perks of using The Task Card system The most obvious perk of The Task Card System is that I have the benefits of Sue Patrick's original idea--fostering independent learning and using all those fun "extras" that would otherwise get forgotten or passed over--without all the clunky boxes taking up space and demanding to be cleaned out/reorganized/de-cluttered every evening. In addition, I never have to nag. My kids know exactly what is expected of them each day. For the most part, they get to set the pace of their own learning. So, should they buckle down and complete all the items on their card by lunch, they have the rest of the day to do as they please. But, should they lollygag and twitter away precious learning time, a longer-than-normal school day becomes the natural consequence. To use the Task Card System From the Base Chart, pull off all the one-inch tags needed for the following day's work. Attach these to the individual child's Task Card. (Both the Base Chart and the Task Cards can be printed in multiple colors to accommodate large families.) Insert these cards into each child's book bin. Or, simply lay them out wherever daily work takes place. The next day, remind each child to look over his/her Task Card and get going with their day. When a child completes one tag's task, he/she returns it to the correct Base Chart making it very clear what has or has not been completed. (The Base Chart has a picture of the tag with a blank square just below it. The completed tag gets placed in the correct blank square. That way, you don't have to go searching all over the chart at the end of the night when you reorder the cards. Everything has a place and everything is in its place. At the end of the school day, instruct each child to return their empty Task Card to their book bin in order that you may attach the next day's tags. How to put it all together This is a digital download. After purchasing, you will immediately be sent a print-ready file. The 14-page file includes: 1 sheet of 48 Task Tags that can be reproduced for multiple children (Each sheet includes enough tags for 2 children.) 8 Base Charts in the following colors: navy blue, light grey, pink, light purple, maroon, army green, mustard yellow, and light blue 8 Task Cards in the same colors (Each sheet includes cards for 2 children.) To ensure the best quality product when printing from a home printer, select "fit to print" before printing. Print onto 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock. Next, laminate all the sheets you've printed. The one-inch tags then need to be cut into individual squares. Apply clear velcro dots to the backs of the Tags, the empty squares on the Base Chart, and each of the 12 squares on the Task Cards. Attach the Base Charts to a wall using 3M adhesive strips. For more information on how to set it up and how to utilize the task cards throughout the homeschool day, be sure to watch a short series of video clips answering the FAQs. Grab my free No Twaddle Book List! Thank you! The list will be sent to your inbox shortly. Grab my free No Twaddle Book List! I've compiled a complete list of my most favorite books for all ages, tots to tweens. Start here to build a reading culture in your home! Yes, send me the book list!

A variety of record-keeping options here for meeting legal requirements in the state of Maine.

The title "Breathing Lessons" came about because at the end of most, if not all, of the paragraphs about homeschooling, I wrote "Relax. Breathe. Breathe