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What's New?
Wondering what has been happening lately? The homeschooling blog contains the most recent activity, articles, and web pages which I have written and updated recently.
Keep your eye on what others have added to the Homeschool Gallery, Curriculum Reviews, New product descriptions, Top Ten Homeschool Ideas
The Hobbit Unit Study - integrated writing lessons for The Hobbit
The Hobbit Unit Study is a fun, integrated literature approach to language arts. Works for multiple ages based on writing techniques by J.R.R.Tolkien.
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Homeschool Art Lesson Plans - art techniques and projects
Homeschool art lesson plans and creative ideas- Be inspired with crayons and glue guns, fall crafts, drawing lessons, art courses and art technique lesson plans
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Homeschool Writing Ideas to teach writing and develop confidence
Homeschool writing | creative ideas to simply teach writing, design your own writing curriculum, understand copywork, and find free printables.
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How to teach writing - Easy step by step guide for Homeschool Families
How to teach writing in your homeschool as a step by step gradual progression- a growing conversation - increasing in depth and expression as the child matures.
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Homeschool Schedule - Steps to create a schedule that works for you!
Step by step guide to make a homeschool schedule that works; Set realistic goals for your daily schedule, sample schedules, templates, organizational tips
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History of the World Homeschool Curriculum
History of the world homeschool curriculum ideas to teach history chronologically. World history through history living books, narration, story and fun projects
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The Household Management Notebook to help get organized and simplify
This household management notebook keeps your home (and life) completely organized and neatly accessible in an affordable household notebook or binder.
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Homeschool Planner Options - Choose what suits your style
Choose a homeschool planner option that will suit your needs and your family. Create your DIY Planner or get the 'ready-to-go' Keep on Track or Student
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2022 Homeschool Planner - DIY Organizer for all your needs
2022 Homeschool Planner -The Complete Homeschool Planner DIY - create your planner, schedules, assignment charts, meal ideas, chores, daily planner
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Homeschool art curriculum - teaching resources to plan your approach
Homeschool art curriculum - resources to help you design your curriculum | teach art techniques | art and history | teach elements of art.
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How to teach homeschool art and design an art curriculum
What you need to know to teach homeschool art - what makes a homeschool art curriculum, and best of all how to naturally integrate art in your homeschool day.
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Homeschool History Ideas to create your curriculum plan
Homeschool history curriculum resources | History project Ideas |Charlotte Mason living books | history spines | All you need to design your curriculum
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Schoolhouse Teachers Online Classes
Schoolhouse Teachers - more than 400 online homeschooling classes for preschool through high school; This page helps to show the scope of the online homeschool classes for your entire family
Homeschool Preschool Ideas - How to keep it engaging, simple and fun!
Homeschool Preschool Ideas :gentle ways to schedule the day and keep learning fun in every day activities. Homeschool your preschooler without being overwhelmed
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Homeschool Art Resources - Inspiring Art Curriculum,Courses,Textbooks
Homeschool art resources, easy to use, helpful to create your own homeschool art curriculum. Nurture confidence in young artists as you teach
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History Project Ideas for the Medieval Time Period - keeps kids involved
History project ideas keep your homeschool kids involved as they learn about the medieval time period. These resources have a ton of excellent ideas for the middle ages.
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Online Home School - World of Exciting Possibilities - online courses
Online Home School - exciting possibilities, different options to homeschool - online homeschool curriculum catering to unique homeschool families and each family chooses this option for their own unique reasons.
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Covid 19 Homeschool
How to homeschool your kids during Covid 19; 8 Bits of advice to help you enjoy this time and tips to set up a homeschool schedule.
Finishing the Race - How Home Education Prepared me for Life
Suzannah Rowntree led a workshop on Home Education Graduates in May, 2015 and I have stumbled on it once again, and since it's so good, I would like to share it with you all.
The article describes in detail the life and experiences of 4 home educated students and what their life looked like during the homeschooling years and afterwards.
They are certainly inspirational stories and she begins by saying,
I want to begin by saying what I’m not here to tell you. I’m not here to tell you how to do your job of raising and training your children. I can’t do that because I’ve never had children, and I’ve never had the training of them. All I can do, and what I want to do today, is simply to share my experience as a home educated student, along with the experiences of some others who’ve walked a similar path. Most of all, I want to take this time to honour the wonderful parents, my own first, and you second, who have made this decision to put your children’s training above your own free time, disposable income, and in some cases, social acceptability."
At the moment, home education can still be an unpopular choice, and sometimes it can be a difficult choice. What I want to do today is to tell you how immensely rewarding it is, and how deeply grateful I am to my parents for sticking to home education through the tough times.
Today I’m going to give you profiles on four young men and women I know who were home educated all the way through “secondary school”, and show you how their start in life being home educated has had some amazing repercussions on how they now live their lives. I also want to spend some time sharing some of the most important things I learned from my parents and provide examples of how they and other parents have prepared us, the home educated, for life beyond the school years."
The article ends with 13 excellent observations about homeschooling.
Here are the first six:
1. Reading aloud to children is the best way I know of to wake a lifelong love of reading and therefore, learning.
2. Textbooks are a sure-fire way to kill curiosity. Instead, seek out real, living books to bring a subject alive.
3. Elder siblings can have a powerful impact for good on younger siblings’ education.
4. It’s getting easier and easier for home-ed students to access tertiary education without needing a school certificate.
5. Don’t put too much stock in a university degree. Ultimately, it’s a good work ethic, self-motiviation, and experience that will set you ahead of the pack professionally.
6. The two most important things you can give your children are worldview discernment and Christian character. Academics will flow naturally from that; not the other way round."
It is well worth the read.
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Science Shows Our Brains Need Craft More Than Ever
"At a time when many of us feel overwhelmed by the 24/7 demands of the digital world, craft practices, alongside other activities such as colouring books for grown-ups and the up-surge of interest in cooking from scratch and productive home gardens, are being looked to as something of an antidote to the stresses and pressures of modern living.
Crafts such as knitting, crochet, weaving, ceramics, needlework and woodwork focus on repetitive actions and a skill level that can always be improved upon.
According to the famous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi this allows us to enter a "flow" state, a perfect immersive state of balance between skill and challenge.
With what is increasingly referred to today as "mindfulness" being a much-desired quality for many people, it's not surprising crafts are being sought out for their mental and even physical benefits."
I found this article really interesting as it then describes the benefits of craft for many different people including those who were hospitalized or suffering health problems. "Over half said they felt less stressed, a feeling of accomplishment, and less likely to act on their "ruminating thoughts"."
Are you teaching any craft to your children? May be worthwhile to keep in mind that we are also developing these textile based activities as a part of their overall homeschool curriculum.
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Why more and more WA parents are choosing to teach their children at home
"Most WA children’s experience of learning involves going to school and sitting behind a desk for hours on end surrounded by 20-30 others and being taught a structured curriculum by a teacher.
But a rising number of school-aged children are staying home and getting an education from their parents or carers, with an increase of about 65 per cent in homeschooled students across the state in the last five years."
This article is very informative and shows a natural way of home educating and following the interests of the child. I love reading what Violet is doing : "learning Japanese with a tutor, playing on a maths app, writing book reviews, taking part in online art classes, playing educational board games, and occasionally completing a page or two of a maths or English workbook."
The article talks about the benefits of homeschooling such as the flexibility and how easy it is to customize the educational process and recognizes that children are always learning.
Mrs McCarney said the motivation to educate their children from home was to spend more time together as a family which the traditional school schedule did not allow.
What about you? What were your reasons to home educate?
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Easy Notebooking Pages for Homeschooling
What I really like about Productive Homeschooling notebooking pages is that they provide a ton of really helpful pages to make homeschooling easy. Now, they also have a page generator in which you can enter your own details to create your own pages. I think this would be really helpful to create copywork pages specific to the literature you are studying.
How do you think you would use these notebooking pages? 
Reading Activities for Kids
While I am a huge fan of reading wonderful books aloud to my kids, there are also a bunch of fun reading activities which your children will enjoy.
There are reading games which any parent can make quickly - flashcards or the 'fishing' game as well as reading comprehension and board games.
Reading can take you into a whole other world and I believe that it is so important to enjoy a range of activities to not only teach and practice reading but also to integrate reading into a wide range of multi sensory activities.
Setting Homeschool Goals
Have you ever thought about how setting a goal in homeschooling can actually affect what you do day to day?
These top level decisions will have an impact on how you homeschool, what activities you will be doing, the direction you are headed, the groups you join, the way you'll spend your time.
There's certainly a lot to consider - and I wonder if you think this is a waste of time or something worthwhile?
Homeschool Reading List
I wonder if you're a bit like me having a ton of wonderful books on your shelf - and not having a great system for your kids to get to read them all?
Have you ever thought about using the books on your shelf as your own homeschool reading list? There are a number of programs which use living books to teach history or literature and if you select the books carefully - you can have an easy living books curriculum right in your own home.
It may take some organization - and it could mean that you take time to make those important decisions as to what you 'really' want them to read, but once you've done that - it is possible to set up a homeschool reading list on your own bookshelf.
I'd love to hear what you think of this idea.
Schoolhouse Teachers
Schoolhouse Teachers Art Courses
