March 16, 2015
You often hear the term “living book” tossed around in homeschooling circles, but what makes a book “living”? Can it be subjective? What are spine books? Do we have to read only literature that was written over a hundred years ago? How can I use living books in my homeschool? Today, I want to explore … Continue reading "Teaching With Living Books: A Tutorial"
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February 10, 2015
It happens every year, right around February. The thrill of the shiny new school year has worn off, the daily grind has started grinding on your nerves – maybe the cold weather is keeping you inside and your family is suffering from a bout of cabin fever. Winter burnout hits all of us, homeschool newbies … Continue reading "Beating the Winter Blues"
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January 27, 2015
Build Your Library Secular Homeschool Curriculum Sale! Here in the Northeast, we’re having a snow day! My kids had been complaining that we haven’t had very much snow at all so far this winter… I guess Mother Nature has decided to make up for it by sending us all of the snow today during the … Continue reading "Flash Sale! Blizzard of 2015"
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January 25, 2015
For the last month or so, I’ve been on a book-collecting spree. I knew for a while that I was going to do World History for the Level 8 plans. Then, I got my hands on a copy of The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way at my local library. I fell in love. … Continue reading "A Hint of What’s to Come – Level 8"
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January 21, 2015
A month ago, I got an e-mail from Mary Pride stating that I had been nominated for a Practical Homeschooling Magazine Reader’s Choice award. I was surprised – Build Your Library is still a pretty new curriculum, and excited that someone had nominated us. I didn’t really expect much, especially when I saw the competition. … Continue reading "Practical Homeschooling Magazine Reader’s Choice Award 2015"
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January 3, 2015
Another year of reading is done. I’m a little OCD about tracking my reading. I love being able to look back at the end of the year and see what I’ve read. I started keeping an excel spreadsheet again this year in addition to my Goodreads account. I’m already planning my 2015 reading – I … Continue reading "My Year in Books – 2014"
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November 2, 2014
One of the questions I get asked the most is what to do with the vocabulary words that are scheduled in the instructor’s guide. I’ve spoken about learning vocabulary in context, and I still believe that this is the best way to learn vocabulary. But sometimes, you want something more. Off and on during our … Continue reading "Vocabulary Notebook Freebie"
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October 9, 2014
Why not take a break from your regular studies this holiday season and learn about Winter Holidays Around the World? This is a fun, multi-age unit study that is perfect for the whole family. You’ll travel the world while learning about five major winter holidays – Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Chinese New Year. … Continue reading "Unit Study: Winter Holidays Around the World"
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August 27, 2014
This is part 3 of the Literature-Based Education series. Follow these links to read Part 1 and Part 2. It may sound obvious enough, but any school subject can be taught through living books. Science, history, art, grammar, even math can be taught with literature! Most homeschoolers are familiar enough with livening up their history … Continue reading "A Literature-Based Education: Teaching Academics"
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August 12, 2014
This is Part 2 in the Literature-based Education series. Last week we talked about Choosing Great Literature. Today I’m going to talk about the mechanics of reading aloud. So now you’ve chosen a topic to study and you’ve gathered all your books. Now, what exactly does teaching with literature look like? How can you fit … Continue reading "A Literature-Based Education: Reading Aloud – Making it Happen"
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