Thursday, March 26, 2015

Online Art Curriculum

We are embarking on the tail end of our 9th year of homeschooling. Does that make me an expert? Not even remotely. I am still learning something new all the time. I’m constantly learning what my boys like and don’t like, as far as materials and resources go. And believe it or not, I’m still learning how to pick programs that work well with their learning styles.


Recently I knew that I wanted to incorporate a little art into our homeschool. So I set about finding an art curriculum that would engage and interest my visual-spatial learners. Did I succeed? You betcha! Time4Art (conveniently offered by their core program, Time4Learning) ended up being the perfect addition to our school day. He loved it. The animated characters and interactive lessons were a great fit for him. Not only did enjoy the course, he came away from it feeling like he really learned something. He even took the course a second time! 

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Science Education

We are an eclectic but primarily online homeschooling family. What’s an online homeschooling family? Well. I don’t know that that’s an actual term, lol, but my explanation would be that we are a homeschooling family that prefers online curricula and materials over textbooks and workbooks.

Science education is one of those subjects where people like to say “but wait, don't you need to get off the computer and get more hands on to really learn science?” Sure! But that doesn’t mean we can’t turn to the computer for guidance and direction.

My boys have found great websites teaching science for kids, and they LOVE watching science experiment videos. Once they watch them, they try and recreate them. Taking notes to what goes wrong or right, and recording their observations and results.


So it’s the best of both worlds…computers AND hands on experience!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Do Your Homeschoolers Like Reading?

Do your homeschoolers enjoy reading? Reading can really cover a lot of “subject areas” can’t it? As a homeschooling mom, I like incorporating/combining subjects, and reading pretty much fits into any area.

I incorporate reading into spelling, by letting my boys make spelling lists from words in the books they are reading. Since strong spelling skills can help to improve reading fluency and reading comprehension, I feel good about pairing these two subjects up. Not to mention, they enjoy creating their own word lists. This not only helps them to feel like they have more control over their education (even if only in a small way), but it’s a huge time saver for me too!

Outside of spelling, other subjects obviously are improved with strong reading skills. Science, history…even math. What are some of the ways that you incorporate reading into other areas?