In an effort to focus a bit more on the genre of poetry this year, my 2nd grader is completing a weekly recitation. I honestly had no idea how much fun the two of us would have with this assignment! Practice has become a bright spot each day and I watch him beam at the…
What a fun 7th birthday celebration we had for my little Christmas man. Grinchy green was everywhere thanks to the wonderful ideas I found on Pinterest. Even if you don’t have a December birthday babe in your house, these ideas would be great for a lighthearted gathering this Christmas season or a fun book/movie night….
I’ve been touting the benefits of living math for quite some time now. Why? Because living math makes sense to kids. It builds concrete understanding of abstract concepts. It touches real-life, giving math meaning and purpose. And, it’s fun! This post contains affiliate links. To make your life (and mine) easier, I decided to pull…
Composer study has been a simple addition to our homeschool over the years. We don’t spend a ton of time learning about composers, but still get some basic knowledge while we learn to appreciate the incredible music. Our plan is easy. Spend one day per week over the course of a month focusing on a…
(This post contains affiliate links.) The Unorganized Learner Do you have an unorganized learner? Here are just a few hints that you might: Pencils (or any necessary school supply for that matter) can never be found. When pencils are found, they aren’t sharpened and it takes 15 minutes to find a pencil sharpener. You’re always…
Boy, I hope your neck of the woods contains as many fossils as mine. In Central KY, we can find fossils hidden just about everywhere – and that makes our rock and fossil walks so much fun! We get to be scientists (petrologists, paleontologists, archaeologists or rockhounds – you decide) and detectives, which are pretty…
If you’ve been around here long at all, you know there’s living literature out there to help teach ANY subject. Did you know that’s true for the Bible, too? Over the years, I’ve found some FABULOUS books to go along with our Bible studies. Now, I’m not saying we read literature instead of the Bible…
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website.) Rocks: Nature Study Indoors or Out One of the cool things about studying rocks is that you don’t necessarily have to be outside to do it. Of course, you’ll want to take a rock collecting nature walk at some point, but once you have…
These Tale of Three Trees activities combines an amazing book with a meaningful nature walks! This post contains affiliate links. The Book Tale of Three Trees is one of my very favorite picture books ever. I know, I know – I have a lot of favorites. In my defense, there are some REALLY great…
(This post contains links to my products.) Oh my goodness, I love boys. Learning is such an active adventure with them! I remember taking early elementary nature walks with my teen daughter and they were, oh, so very different. She and I would quietly admire the intricacies of a flower or sit peacefully in a…
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my products.) What are attribute blocks? Attribute blocks are a set of unique and versatile manipulatives (hands-on objects) used for teaching math, science, logic and critical thinking skills. The set includes 60 pieces: five shapes: circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, hexagons three colors: red, yellow, blue two sizes:…
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business, Shining Dawn Books.) In Charlotte Mason Homeschooling in 18 EASY Step-by-Step Lessons, I obviously discuss things like copywork, dictation and transcription. In the early years of homeschooling, these methods (along with reading living literature) are fabulous for teaching the language arts of handwriting, spelling/phonics, grammar,…