Whether you have a gifted child, a struggling learner or a mixture of the two, I have encouragement for you. You CAN successfully homeschool! These articles should give you some background on the varied special needs in our homeschool and offer you lots of practical ideas.
One of my goals in homeschooling creatively has always been to help kids love writing. Whether students believe it or not, writing is an essential skill that finds its way into real life quite often. Teaching writing with real-life methods is a great way to convince kids of its importance. Not to mention, anytime an…
It’s long been a saying that we have to crawl before we can walk, walk before we can run, and run before we can race. Development is typically easy to track and anticipate as a child builds upon previous skills, a steady line sloping up. Gifted kids, though, develop much differently. Instead of a straight…
We’ve talked a lot about brain training for cognitive skills here at Our Journey Westward. Closely related to cognitive skills are social skills. This article focuses on some easy ways to improve social skills in the homeschool. Don’t get “social skills” confused with “socialization”. One of the biggest thorns in the side of any homeschooler…
Science and creativity seem mutually exclusive, don’t they? It makes sense that the two fields are so opposite of one another that they can’t possibly compliment one another, right? I mean, the idea of a creative and scientific study for children does sound almost comical when you consider the limitless range of creativity and the…
This post was originally published a few years ago, but I’ve seen a surge of questions and interest in how to plan student-led courses in high school. As you take a peek into the planning process of our high school equine course, I hope to help you cast a vision for developing your own course…
Games are wonderful additions to any homeschool. In fact, we typically play at least one game a day – sometimes even gameschooling for an entire day! Not only do games bring joy and lightheartedness to the school day, they can help teach new concepts and practice old ones. One of the most important reasons I…
At the IAHE Conference (Indiana Association of Home Educators), I taught four workshops. While they were all well-attended and well-received, one of the sessions sparked an emotional reaction like none other. My brain training session was the last on my schedule and one of the last of the weekend. I fully expected a low turnout…
Ah, fall. Beautiful weather, fun festivals, football…and the beginning of “sick season.” It’s the perfect time of year to teach middle and high school students about germs through some cool bacteria science experiments! I’ve harped to my son for years about the importance of hand-washing to prevent illness. Now that he has actually seen bacteria…
Are your children overjoyed to learn about soil? Probably not. But, oh, I bet they will be when you introduce these unique activities! Eli and I have had so much fun playing in the dirt AND doing some pretty cool chemistry experiments. I received free products and compensation from Home Science Tools in exchange for…
Have you ever considered the idea that special needs children may thrive through regular time spent in nature? Nature study has so many benefits beyond the obvious academics. It’s hands-on, active, and loud – as much as it’s detail-oriented, calm, and peaceful. It allows for fresh air, sunshine, and exercise to break into the school…
Book smarts are important, but they aren’t the only things that matter for gifted learners. It’s incredibly important to make common sense connections through real-world gifted homeschooling, too. One of the challenges I hear often from parents of gifted kiddos is that sometimes brilliant-minded children don’t always make those common sense connections. It can be…
Do you need a convincing list of reasons to homeschool gifted children to assure you that it’s really okay to keep advanced and/or talented kids at home? These 101 reasons are really just the start. I could have added one or two hundred more to the list! In my years of experience homeschooling and teaching…
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