One of the main goals I set early on in our homeschool was to give my children a love of learning. Creative homeschooling is the mode I’ve used to successfully do that. Don’t think that you can never put your child in front of a textbook or computer screen to homeschool creatively! Instead, think of it as offering your children curriculum and styles to meet their needs. Sometimes that will be a textbook or computer class. Other times, it may be a unit study, living literature, field trips, games, project-based learning, co-op classes, or interest-based studies. These articles show you how. Be inspired!
This post contains affiliate links. Read my entire disclosure policy here. We recently had one of those days – I mean weeks. You know, when everyone feels just good enough to do something, but not good enough to do a normal day of school. What to do so the week isn’t a total flop? Sick…
Fridays have been {fun} for years. This past week, our Friday morning was dedicated to science fun. Besides containing all the mess of tons of experiments to one day, it gave Caleb a chance to review several chemistry concepts we’ve been learning. Science Friday Using the book Molecules by Janice VanCleave(affiliate link), I chose…
Sadly, the formal study of economics is left out of most of the curricula I’ve run across in my 11+ years of homeschooling. An understanding of economics is EXTREMELY important as our children grow up to care for a family, learn to tithe and give, and become the financial leaders of our country. Unless we took…
I’m a huge believer in project-based learning! Keep reading to learn why and to get tons of project-based learning ideas for your homeschool! Just what is project-based learning? Quite simply, it’s a learning method in which your children dive into a subject and complete a project to show what they know. Projects can really be…
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) Target Age Range: 3rd-7th Skills Covered: volume, length, width, height, formulas, 2-dimesional shapes, 3-dimensional shapes Snap cubes are great for teaching perimeter, area, and volume in a hands-on way. This lesson focused on volume and understanding the formula for finding…
If you live in Central Kentucky, you are blessed when it comes to homeschool field trips right outside your door! Besides the oodles of places you can visit right around the corner, there are several fabulous opportunities within a reasonable driving distance, too. Some of our best homeschooling moments have happened on field trips. In…
Target Age Range: 4th-8th Skills Covered: reading, addition/multiplication, calculator skills, problem solving, charting data (This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) The King’s Chessboard by David Birch is a fantastic book – both for math and character training. In it, the king foolishly agrees to doubling a gift…
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) Target Age Range: 3rd-8th Skills Covered: economics, productive resources, natural resources, capital resources, human resources, sorting Last January, I took a professional development class on incorporating economics into your classroom. Yes, apparently homeschool parents can take professional development classes…they knew I…
Target Age Range: PK-1st Skills Covered: shape names, cutting, fine motor, baking, creativity This living math lesson for little people is simple and motivating. Who doesn’t want a cookie break in the middle of the school day?? 1. Make your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe first and refrigerate it. For a real living math…
Learning math with play dough geometry is so much fun! Middle and high school students like to play, too, and this series of lessons gives them a great, hands-on overview of beginning geometry. Concrete learning (actually touching, building, and manipulating things) is so important to solidify a real understanding of otherwise abstract concepts. Play dough…
Target Age Range: PK-2 Skills Covered: sorting, classification, attributes Classification is both a math and science skill. The ability to classify objects also develops organizational skills which are helpful for writing and general “life” organization. This activity is super simple to pull together. Simply gather a variety of beads (or buttons, cereal, rocks, beans…)…
Target Age Range: 4th-12th grades Skills Covered: gathering data, graphing, technology, keyboarding When I used to teach in a classroom, it was easy for my students to gather large amounts of data for graphing…there were 24+ people in the room at all times. As a homeschooler, it takes a little more creativity to gather…