Our Curriculum Choices for 2012-2013
As summer winds down, and parents of traditionally-schooled kids are scoping out the best deals for the items on that long supply list sent home by the school district, us homeschool moms are finalizing our curriculum and activity choices for the year. While it can feel overwhelming, I have to admit that I love this time of year. When I walk into Walmart and see the slotted-cardboard kiosk filled with photocopied, bulleted list from all the surrounding districts, I am thankful anew that I get to manage the choices about how and what my kids will learn. I know Trevor doesn’t learn well...
Where Will You Observe the Transit of Venus?
Depending on where you are in the world, you may be able to watch, for the last time in your child’s lifetime, Venus transit across the face of the sun at sunset on Tuesday June 5th or sunrise June 6th. Watch the following video from NASA EDGE, Hawaii, then visit NASA’s website to learn more about it. Video streaming by Ustream Here at the Kessler house, we’re preparing for our viewing by playing around with space science this week. Usually, I post pictures of things we’ve done, and tell you how it worked out for us, but I don’t want any of you to miss this once in a lifetime event,...
Review & Giveaway: 51 Frugal Father-Daughter Dates
Bringing up two little girls can be worrisome in today’s society. It’s so important that provide strong foundations to ensure that they grow to be secure, confident, and emotionally balanced women. According to Focus on the Family, “girls with involved fathers are more likely to have healthier relationships with the opposite sex because they learn from their fathers how proper men act toward women. They know what behaviors are appropriate.” Dr. Meg Meeker, pediatrician and author of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters says, “Fathers have a tremendous power over their daughters. That's not...
Ten Great Multi-Age Tactile Learning Toys
I have three kids. Just in case you didn’t know, I wanted to get that out on the table right now. Buying toys for three kids is torture for me. I absolutely LOATHE when any of my kids get a toy that will only serve one purpose. Part of that, I suppose, is the fact that I’m cheap. Seriously, though, if I bought every new “cool” toy that my kids drooled over, we’d be broke and buried in broken plastic parts. And, honestly, between just birthdays and Christmas, we’re buried anyway. In recent years, though, I’ve begun to fight back. My tactile learners {Trevor and Logan} love to play to...
10 Strategies for Surviving a Cross-Country Flight With Kids
We’ll be travelling from Ohio to California soon, and I’m already gearing myself up. I lived in SoCal for nine years growing up, my brother is still there, and my parents have a condo on the beach where they spend about six months each year. I’m looking forward to hooking up with friends old and new, and checking out some of my favorite hang outs with my family. The last time we visited we only had two kids. Trevor was six and Molly was almost one. That trip seemed daunting at the time, but with all the planning I did {not because I’m controlling or anything; I just like to cover...
Impromptu Geology Lesson
Sometimes the best lessons are the ones that were never planned. Our most recent surprise lesson was the study of crystals found in Grandma’s backyard. I try to get the kids outside everyday to play and enjoy nature. This can be a challenge for the boy who doesn’t like to be told what to do and the girl who just wants to write. Trevor prefers to choose his own activities and directions. Molly gets caught up in her world of make-believe and just wants to keep creating. Logan, on the other hand, would stay outside all day and night if she could. On this beautiful May day, though, I was...
Kitchen Lessons: Making Candy Sushi
Now that we’ve {finally!} finished Japan, and can move on in our geography program, I am happy to share our new favorite {and very unhealthy & sugary} recipe: Candy Sushi. We really wanted the look of seaweed, but none of the three grocery stores we went to carried green fruit roll-ups, so we settled for the “rainbow” variety. {None of the kids – including my 75-year-old “kid” friend (who knows who he is…) – seemed to mind.} I’ll be honest here, and say that these little babies intimidated me, but they were really easy. I promise. We made a triple batch in under an hour. If you made...
A Geography Celebration: Final Geography Club of the Year
So, we’ve been studying Japan for a long time. A.really.long.time. Thankfully, our Geography Club came to my rescue provided my children with the perfect opportunity to showcase ALL of their learning. For the last meeting of the {school} year, the May organizers {incredibly creative and talented women} decided to let each family choose whatever country, region, state, etc. that they wanted to study. Instead of having the kids get up and share orally, each family would get a table on which to set up a display, create a “giveaway” that visitors to their table could take as a souvenir, and...
Hands-On Learning: Geography Club
Once a month we meet with a group of homeschoolers at a local library for geography club. Families take turns organizing the meetings, which simply means that they choose a region to study, assign countries within that region to other families, and plan a few crafts or activities to do. Oh – and bring food from that region, too. Mmmmm! Each family prepares a presentation of some sort about their country. It can be an overview, about some aspect in particular that interested them, or anything, really, as long as it is about the country they studied in some way. The presentations are as...
Making Japanese Daruma Dolls
Have I mentioned before that the Kessler kids {and their mom} tend to get caught up in a topic and explore it for w-a-y longer than planned? And that any curriculum or unit we begin takes at least twice as long as it should? Well… same goes for Galloping the Globe. In case you weren’t sure, I’m a science lover. So… to help my children {ahem… and myself} become a little more well-rounded, I decided to use GTG as our spine this year. It’s a decent roadmap, giving direction to my geography planning, but pithy enough to satisfy my need to control everything we do make it my own. So here we...