Flower Photography, and History Repeating

 

I don’t know where time has gone, but I sure wish it would slow down some.  I’ve done the best I can all along, to cherish every moment of watching all of my children grow up, knowing it will all happen too fast. It’s yet another reason I school my kids myself. I don’t want to miss any of their fleeting childhood. Still, it seems like yesterday that my first baby girl, Alexis Grace, was born.  She grew up in the blink of an eye. Next thing I knew, she was in high school, and taller than me!  She’s athletic and strong, and it blows me away.Read More

Our Antique School Desks and Books

 

Lately, I’ve been putting time into some things I can’t speak much of, yet.  Well, I could. But there has been too many time in my life, when I have spoken too soon, about many things, that never really came to be, in the end. So I am finally starting to remember to keep my mouth shut about some things, until they are a little more certain! How about that, huh? I’m only in my 40’s.  Anyway, just so you know, I’ve been more creatively productive than it has seemed lately. ; ) Doesn’t it bug you when people speak so vaguely?Read More

10 Educational Games for Grade School Kids

     Games can be such great fun!  Whether just your kids are playing one together, with their friends, or the whole family is having a game night, it’s time well spent together!  Most every game calls for everyone to bring their skills to the table, while having a good time, usually laughing a lot, getting competitive, and just enjoying the fun.

     But many, many games are actually a great way for our children to learn as well!  At the grade school ages, many of the classic games us adults grew up with, and others that have come out since, can really aid in building up our kids’ academic skills, and re-enforcing many as well.Read More

Last Minute May Day (Baskets & Delivery) Tips & Ideas!

 

     May Day is less than a week away.  But if you really want to touch some hearts and make some older folks in your life feel so unforgotten, this is a wonderful thing to do with your children!  It not only has the potential to teach them a bit of History, but it teaches them about kindness and compassion, as well.  What’s more, it couldn’t be more fun and exciting!  

 

PLANNING YOUR MAY DAY CONTAINERS

    Planning, putting together, and secretly delivering  May Day Baskets, is something we have done with our kids for the past 4 consecutive years, from 2008 – 2011.  Every year, the number of our recipients has grown.Read More

Maple Farm Field Trip

            As a kid growing up in western Massachusetts, tapped maple trees and maple farms seemed to be everywhere.  Visiting maple sugar houses, and learning about the process of making maple syrup and sugar, were some of my favorite school field trips. 

     Living a significant shift away from that area now, maple farms are not as common around here. But this was yet another field trip I really wanted to take our kiddos on.   We almost arranged one out where I grew up, but the timing of getting out there would have risked missing the end of the season this year.  So I found Matfield Maple Farm, less than an hour from us, and we went on a beautiful day!Read More

Flat Stanley Comes For a Stay With Us, In Plymouth, MA, from Oregon!

 

Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley?  Or the Flat Stanley kid’s books his character is from?  Well I hadn’t.  Or I don’t recall, anyway.  Our oldest daughter does remember the books, but I have not been at all familiar with Flat Stanley, and neither had our fourth grade trio!  But we were about to get very familiar with him!  He was coming from Oregon, to stay at our house with our family, in Plymouth, MA, as an exchange student, of sorts.

 

This is the day Flat Stanley arrived, and I told the kids all about their new and exciting project!  (Please excuse the bad cell phone pic in this one shot!) Flat Stanley was not only going to be fun, but he was going to be a wonderful homeschooling project, loaded with excellent lessons.Read More

Our Road to Homeschooling – Our Story

We all have our story, I suppose.  Our own road, that led us to where we are, homeschooling.  I know we have ours.  And I would think nobody would really care to hear it, except for the fact that, people ask! -ALL OF THE TIME! Do you know how many times I have been asked why we homeschool? If you homeschool too, I am sure you have an idea. So I thought I would tell you our story, and try to kick off some more regular posting on the topic of homeschooling here. (Again.)  But I warn you….it’s really a story.Read More

Valentine Ladybug Mint Cookies

 

These adorable Ladybug Cookies I came up with, come right in time for Valentine’s Day, and I promise you, they couldn’t be easier to make! (There’s not even baking involved!) I think you are going to love what they are made with, too!  (You know…besides LOVE.)  I’m talking ingredients.  These cookies are also a sweet idea for a little girl’s birthday party, or to send in with your kids to school, to share with their class.  You’ll look so clever. (You don’t have to tell a soul it was my idea. ; )

Does the word fondant scare you?  Ever heard of the stuff?Read More

Our School Year 2011-2012, Kicks Off!

Well, forgive me for the delay with any updates about our new school year we’re in the midst of here!  Once we kicked it off at the beginning of September, we’ve been very occupied finding our groove, with our new schedules.  Things are quite different for us this year! With the kid’s respective ages and levels, life has opened up new and exciting opportunities, of experiences and learning, for all of them.  Not to mention new territories for us parents!  We have a high schooler now, for example, and with it comes all kinds of things.  But the younger ones are also following their passions and gifts, more so than ever.Read More

{Homeschooling}: The Metamorphosis of Butterflies – Photos, Our Experiment & Study

Hatching butterflies is probably a pretty standard experiment and  study for students, in both formal and home school educations alike.  It’s one that can be used as a Science participation lesson more than once in the course of ones education, because the benefits of the lesson are different for various ages.

For very young students, such as toddlers-K, it’s a really fun & exciting process to watch every day. At this age, they are full of both intelligent, and sometimes humorous, questions.  They are able to grasp the basic understanding of the stages.  Some little ones may rather non-nonchalantly accept the transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly, simply as magic, in a way.Read More

Now Reporting

It’s always nice to have friends, who care about your kids in a sincere way, almost as much as you do.  Don’t you think? I have had a friend in particular like that, for 13 years now or so.   About half-way into our friendship, I began home schooling our oldest, and at the time, only child. Eventually, we added 3 more students to our school, ;-) and are now transitioning into our 7th year of homeschooling .

My friend had 3 kids of her own, all close to my daughter’s age, adding a 4th along the way. She has also happened to be a teacher.  But somehow, all along, those two facts or common interests, have never really come together between us.  Until this year.  Oh, I may have, at times, happened to say something to her about our schooling, as a friend would in sharing what is happening in their life in girlfriend chit-chat.Read More

A Baby Raccoon Study

Some of our most exciting lessons, often times turn out to be ones that were not part of my day’s lesson plan at all!  Like the countless opportunities of teachable moments  that pop up throughout every single day for us as parents/teachers, to utilize in educating and guiding our children down the right paths, we’ve had many days, where a lesson to study has sauntered right into our yard!  And it can be a darn cute lesson!!

Such was the case the other day, when we spotted this baby raccoon, right up on the hill, outside of our school room windows!Read More