Interest-Led Learning In The Early Years: Preschool and Beyond
Curious about Interest-led learning for your younger child, but not sure where to start? This will guide you through letting your child take the lead beginning in preschool and on into the elementary years. Following your kids' curiosity and crafting your homeschool around their interests can be a powerful way to motivate learning. When your homeschool becomes more playful, it becomes more interesting and engaging. The Value Of Interest-Led Learning For Neurodiverse Children Using our kids' interests to fuel their education is a powerful way to motivate and tap into their natural...
STEM Gifts for Science Loving Kids
How many of you -- like me -- have kiddos who will get all excited about science gifts if they find them under the tree? Just look at all of these great STEM gifts. You can launch rockets, make perfume, build structures, and even program robots. These hands-on gift ideas will be a guaranteed hit for the entire family. Experiment and explore new and exciting games and toys to create a solid foundation for STEM discovery. You can create a passion for learning by making STEM interesting, and above all, fun. STEM Gifts for Science Loving Kids Weather Station...
Interest Led Homeschooling: Helping Your Child Find Their Interests
How do we help our kids find their interests? What can we do to foster them and what happens if our kids change interests? These are all good questions and worth exploring as we move into a more relaxed, eclectic, interest led, child driven approach in our homeschools. What Is Child-Led Learning? Child-led learning is an approach to homeschooling in which kids pursue their own interests in their learning. This is opposed to having the parent or adult actively driving all the different components of their child's education. It's a chance to step out of the way a little bit,...
Knowledge is Power: Helping Our Gifted Children Cope
Raising gifted kids is an amazing but sometimes crazy ride! There are definitely some challenges we have to navigate along the way. For example, gifted kids struggle with anxiety more often than their neurotypical peers. Along the way, we’ve learned that knowledge is power. Kids are more likely to feel anxious in uncertain situations where they don’t know what to expect and don’t understand how or why something is happening. To help our gifted child cope, we’ve learned to arm her with knowledge. Knowledge is power when it comes to managing anxiety or, as our daughter...
The Pros And Cons Of Homeschool Charter Schools
Does your state offer charter school options for homeschoolers? Have you been wondering if a charter might be a good option for your family? I am joined by Shawna Wingert from Different By Design Learning as she shares her own experience with a homeschool charter, and what she sees as the overall pros and cons of enrolling in one. What is A Homeschool Charter School? A homeschool charter is a program offered in many states where funding is provided to families specifically for homeschooling. The family is enrolled in a public school charter and is subject to all of the...
Why I Still Read Aloud To My Tweens and Teens
Once my children hit their teen and tween years, there was no reason to stop reading aloud to them even though it was a little trickier to schedule. After all, reading aloud has always been an important part of our homeschool family culture. The Undeniable Value Of Reading Aloud From the time our babies are born, we are constantly reminded how important it is to read to them. We buy board books and picture books and we spend time every day reading to our little ones. We know that reading aloud to our children offers so many benefits. Reading aloud increases their vocabulary....
Spooky Unit Studies For October Interest-Led Learning
I remember the year October tried to kill me: over-the-top excitement, hyped up intensity, and nonstop energy. The frenzied anticipation leading up to Halloween means that homeschooling can be challenging. Add in three birthdays within a span of 14 days and my kids tend to be rather unfocused. At my wits’ end I decided to try something different a few years ago in the hopes that October and I could be friends again. My children are highly creative and love channeling that creativity through art and making things. Create Your Own Halloween Costume So I gave them a challenge...
Helping Our Children: The Lies Anxiety Tells Us
I've written quite a bit about anxiety, and to be honest, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. It's a topic that's very close to my (rapidly beating) heart and very present in my home. I am an anxious parent of an anxious child. I face anxiety every single day of my life in one form or another, be it my own or my kiddo's. While my knowledge and familiarity can't make it just go away, my experience has given me plenty of insight into how anxiety works - how it creeps, how it sneaks, how it attacks, how it talks, how it convinces, how it distracts, and how it lies. Anxiety...
Creating An Animal Unit Study For Your Homeschool: A Step By Step Guide
Have you ever thought about using art to lure your kids into meaningful learning across subjects? Art enticed my boys into happily agreeing to write an informational essay on animals. This led to an entire unit study in our homeschool. By the time we finished this animal unit study, their project included not only art techniques, but scientific questioning and research, note-taking, the writing process from start to finish and layout and design. They also stretched in areas such as perseverance, problem-solving, and hard work. All because they were enamored with the art of Steve Jenkins,...
When You Just Aren’t Comfortable Getting Help for Your Child
I love talking with parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kiddos. Apart from the comradery and the peace that comes with knowing you're not alone in this often-difficult journey, it's so uplifting to encourage them, hug them, to be there when the lightbulb goes off as you explain why their child behaves they way they do. The relief that washes over a mom when she realizes that her child is wired to act a certain way and that it is not a reflection of her parenting - whew, that just fills my bucket right up. The tears stream and the shoulders relax, we all want to shout YES! from the...