When I was teaching my children to read I did find a little gem to help reinforce their phonics skills. It was Explode the Code! These books were a surprise to me! Mostly because my children hate workbook type of learning. Whenever I have tried workbooks with my children it had been a disaster but Explode The Code was different. My children would actually ask
Co-ops; To Join or Not is the Question!
Co-ops, are they a good fit for your homeschool? Is it worth the time? Is it worth the money? Do my kids benefit from them? Will they enjoy it? Will they learn anything? These are all good questions we ask ourselves when we consider to join a co-op or not. First, for any of our newbies out there let me explain what
Character Building for Families
Character Building For Families Here is a typical scenario in my house: One of my sons decides he wants to make “shooting sounds” with his mouth while he is drawing his civil war scene. My youngest daughter who is also at the table drawing gets annoyed with her brother and starts to tell him he needs to stop making that noise. Ahh, now my son has realized he
The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading As homeschool moms we will have to consider how we will teach our children to read. Teaching our little ones to read may seem intimidating to many of us. Many of us will read all kinds of theories on how to teach phonics. I also made this journey as a homeschool mom and yes, it is intimidating! You don’t want to mess your kids
Handwriting Without Tears
Handwriting Without Tears: “My Printing Book” “Printing Power” “Cursive Handwriting” “Cursive Success” “Can-do-Cursive” Handwriting Without Tears is a handwriting program created by an occupational therapist. It is a 40 year program with proven success for thousands of students. We started using HWT right from the beginning of when we started homeschooling. It has proven to be an excellent program in our home. The beauty of
Teaching Textbooks
Teaching Textbooks: Math can be your friend too! Math is the one subject that can make my children cry in my house! To tell the truth it is the subject that I least enjoy teaching. When one of my sons started having trouble in math I started shopping around for a new math program. I was looking for a program that I can stick with all the way through high
God and the History of Art
God and The History of Art By Barry Stebbing I consider myself a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. I may wander off the path sometimes but I do try to keep true to Miss Mason’s ideas. Sometimes it is difficult to find a curriculum that fits into the Charlotte Mason thinking but I have found one such curriculum that has been a perfect fit. It is called God and The
First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise
As a homeschool mom hopefully you will at least once use a curriculum that will leave you with cherished memories. First Language Lessons was one of those programs for me. It is a curriculum that leaves me with warm memories of cuddling with my daughter on the couch as we would do her grammar lessons. Oh, how I miss it even more as I