Blogs about homeschooling

Explore Africa Through Streaming Video

an african scene of people biking and carrying goods

Exploring countries and cultures has been one of my favorite ways to learn with my kids about the world we live in. While we take trips as often as we can to experience first-hand the wonders of the world, there are other places that are out of reach for an educational adventure—Africa, for example.This massive continent has a profound diversity of culture and depth of history that come to life when we combine our history and geography curriculum with online video resources.

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Experience Ancient Greece with These Hands-on Homeschool Activities

ancient Greek ruins

One of the allures of BookShark is rather than teaching history to your children from a dry, boring history book, your children learn about history through literature. Instead of merely learning the facts about Ancient Greek culture and events, your children learn through characters (both fictional and historical) in an engaging narrative.

You can bring that knowledge to life even further by supplementing BookShark’s curriculum with hands-on learning experiences and culinary delights.

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Box Day Sets the Tone for an Exciting New Year of Homeschool

two BookShark boxes stacked

Box Day is one of the most exciting days of the year for homeschool families. It’s the day that the Fed Ex truck stops in front of a house to deliver that huge box of homeschool curriculum: thick BookShark binders filled with Instructor’s Guides, stacks and stacks of historical fiction, non-fiction, and biographies, science kits with a whole year’s worth of materials for hands-on experiments, math curriculum and manipulatives, readers and a language arts program.

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Applying the Powerful Positivity of Procrastination to Your Homeschool

two blonde children relax in a red and blue hammock

Applying the Powerful Positivity of Procrastination to Your Homeschool

After he put off taking a vacation for several months, my husband decided that we would finally set off on that seven-day vacation—the next morning.

There was no time to organize and label seven zip-top bags filled with infant clothing; there was no time to do laundry and match up my outfits. We were simply going to buy new underwear and clothes along the way. I had never lived so wild, adventure-packed, and stressed at the same time.

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75 Ways to Love Physical Education as Homeschoolers

a boy climbs on playground equipment

When we first began homeschooling, I never thought about adding PE to our schedule. I knew my boys were active on their own without any coaxing. I figured that as long as we kept moving, we’d be developing motor skills. I didn't see a need to add a formal Physical Education course to our routine.

Lately, I have been more intentional about adding physical activity into our days, and I do that using a wide range of activities like the seventy-five options below.

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50 Ideas for Volunteering as a Homeschool Family

an adult and two young children pick up trash

50 Ideas for Volunteering as a Homeschool FamilyIt’s easy to get wrapped up in the academics of homeschooling. From planning history lessons to grading math tests, educational pursuits can quickly fill up every square inch of brain space. However, in order for our children’s education to be balanced, they need time outside of the home. If they can consider the needs of others in those activities, all the better!

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13 Video Supplements for BookShark Eastern Hemisphere

map of china and a stone statue of Buddha

BookShark’s Reading with History Level 5 offers kids ages 10-13 a chance to study a part of the world that is often overlooked—the Eastern Hemisphere. While BookShark’s curriculum is meaty enough on its own, you can easily supplement the curriculum with plenty of great shows and documentaries to dig even deeper or to stretch the curriculum over a longer period of time. Pick and choose from among these resources. They’ll help you and your child learn even more about this fascinating part of the world.

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10 Perks You May Be Overlooking at Your Public Library

an adult and child kneel and look at children's books at library

I often joke that the library is our second home. It is not unusual to find us there three days or more in any given week. Here are ten benefits our library offers our homeschool and enriches our experience. Make sure you aren't missing out on any of these resources your library offers you as a home educating family.

If I had to buy all the books, audio books, movies and magazines that we read, listened to, or watched in a single year I’d go broke.

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10 Captivating Netflix Shows for Elementary Science

We all have days where we need a break or something extra to cope with a bad day. Netflix is the perfect resource for finding those little extras. And since there are so many educational shows on Netflix, you don’t even have to feel guilty about regularly relying on these videos.

My kids thinking watching Netflix is a treat and they hardly even realize they are learning.

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10 (Quiet) Games to Play at the Library

free online library games books game in the library

books game library free online library gamesWhen most people think of the library, they think of long shelves of books, tidy reading nooks, and librarians with glasses on their noses; they don’t often think of games. However my boys and I have a lot of fun in our library by planning a few fun activities ahead of time.

I do remind my boys that we need to play games quietly and be careful not to disturb others by running or being boisterous. But being quiet and courteous does not rule out enjoying ourselves at the library with these ten activities and games.

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