Have you ever suspected that your children are in cahoots with each other to wreak havoc to your homeschool plans? How else can the house go from peace to chaos so quickly? Just yesterday, my house was blissfully quiet, but as soon as I sat down to teach a reading lesson to my third grader, […]
Make Reading Lessons Interesting with Questions
I often tell other homeschoolers that reading is my favorite subject to teach. I love the deep, enjoyable conversations that my daughter and I can have over a fairly short and simple reading selection. I love the fact that she’s not just learning phonics and vocabulary but also how to think critically about the things […]
Tips for Organizing Your Homeschool Papers
Before the year is out, my third-grade daughter will complete approximately 288 separate math pages (front and back) plus more than 180 pages for reading. That’s a lot of paper! And there’s more—spelling, handwriting, Bible, science, heritage studies, and English all have worktexts or activity manuals too. My daughter’s days are filled with papers. Those […]
How I’m Organizing My Homeschool Space (Video)
I’m about ready to dive into my second year of homeschooling. Last summer I spent a lot of time reading homeschooling books, poring over homeschool magazines, and listening to homeschool workshops in hopes of discovering the secret of homeschooling success. All of that “research” resulted in one very important lesson—homeschooling is an intensely personal experience. […]
Spelling Skills for the Real World
One morning, my second-grade daughter was taking a heritage studies test when she complained, “Mom, this question doesn’t make sense.” I came to look and immediately saw the problem. My husband, who writes the heritage studies tests for our daughter, had accidentally typed on instead of own so the resulting question was confusing. Once I fixed the spelling […]
Introducing Our Third Grade Homeschool Curriculum
My family likes to remind me about how, as a homeschooled child, I used to sit on the porch and wait for my textbooks to be delivered. I would get so excited about opening each box, unpacking all the materials, and flipping through the books to see what I was going to learn about during […]
Tips for Finding Great Read-Aloud Books (Printable)
Libraries are big places—the choices of books can almost be overwhelming. But not all books are worth reading. And if you truly want to experience the benefits of read-alouds that I discussed in a previous post, you need to choose your read-aloud books wisely. Here are some tips as well as downloadable reading lists for […]