Music is a mental superfood—truly enjoyable and beneficial for both brain and soul! Music awakens imagination and even boosts math skills. Join host Janna and her guest Dana Dominiak as they talk about Piano Prodigy—a video game that teaches kids both music theory and how to play the piano.
Anyone can be imaginative. Our job as homeschool parents is to give our children a toolbox with enough variety of options to foster their creativity. Both reading and writing are key vehicles for imagination!
Special guest Kathleen Cotter Clayton from RightStart Math believes that homeschool math can be so much fun that you fall off your chair from laughter. In this episode, she helps parents find the beauty, the fun, the giggles—even the joy—of math. Math is not math for math's sake. Math is a tool to solve actual problems.
If you are scared to homeschool high school, fear no more! Special guest Ann Karako of It's Not That Hard to Homeschool has successfully homeschooled five teens through high school graduation. In this episode she shares her insights about dual enrollment, homeschool styles, the family dynamic, gap years, and more.
Astound your children by turning a pipe cleaner into a delicate crystalline decoration! This craft is easy to accomplish with minimal mess. Enjoy it as a simple handicraft project or take it a step further and learn some of the science behind the activity. This particular tutorial uses a star shape, but of course, you can form the ornament into whatever shape you’d like for any holiday or just everyday crafting!
At its core, etiquette is a set of skills that we use to help others feel valued. Our polite (or rude) behaviors send unspoken messages about what we cherish. If your kids could use help with being more refined or kinder to those around them, this episode with special guest Monica Irvine is for you!
Nicole the Math Lady has a unique approach to math mistakes: When errors happen, instead of feeling like a failure, accept mistakes as part of the learning process. Teach your kids not to be perfect math problem solvers but perfect math fixers. Nicole explains how she uses her own bloopers to encourage kids to embrace imperfection and keep trying.
Past math trauma or thinking you're not good at math will impact how you approach math in your homeschool. If math is a weak spot for you, tune into this episode with special guest Nicole Thomas of Nicole the Math Lady.
Nicole encourages us to stop thinking about math solely in terms of numbers, formulas, and processes but to turn it into challenges that actually relate to something you're interested in—like how many more Pringles you could fit into a can.
What's your goal for second language learning in your homeschool? Do you want your kids to learn about a language or actually be able to communicate with that language? Adelaide Olguin of TalkBox.Mom takes the later approach. Her second language learning kits teach the entire family just a few useful phrases at a time in an immersive, whole-language approach.
Guest Gretchen Roe from Demme Learning says that math is like death and taxes: you don't get away from either one. She urges parents not to shortchange kids in their math instruction by claim they're just not a math-family. Learn how a mastery-based curriculum is student-centric, allowing a child to work at the pace they need to fully comprehend the skills (instead of the curriculum determining the length of lessons and how quickly you work through them).
