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RSSYesterday Jeff informed me that Joely, our 7 year old, had been asking him about what atoms were. He said he'd tried to explain it in terms she could understand, but that he didn't think she had really 'gotten it.' And so I was assigned the task. Well, I love science, so I eagerly took [...]
January 20, 2010
Learn about Atoms with a Photographic Periodic Table of Elements
January 20, 2010 by 7 Comments
January 14, 2010
What Kinds of Life Skills Should Kids Learn?
January 14, 2010 by 4 Comments
This morning my husband told me about a series of blog posts he's been reading about "lost knowledge," and it really made me start to think. Have you ever wondered what would happen if some world-wide event suddenly rendered all technology useless? How would we fare as a nation? I'm not talking about the immediate [...]
January 6, 2010
Vocabulary Curriculum for Homeschoolers: Wordly Wise 3000
January 6, 2010 by 6 Comments
Have you been looking for a vocabulary program that's more than just lists of definitions? One that teaches not only the definition of a word, but also its connotation? How about a curriculum that teaches your children the words well enough that your kids actually incorporate the vocabulary words into their everyday speech? We've been [...]
December 9, 2009
How to Raise Musical Children
December 9, 2009 by 3 Comments
I'm a piano teacher and my husband is a music minister, so people tell us all the time that our children have no hope — they are going to turn out to be musical kids. And it's turned out to be true. All three of our kids seem to have developed an ability for music; [...]
December 2, 2009
How to Teach Your Kids to Type
December 2, 2009 by 3 Comments
Knowing how to type is a must-have skill these days. I'm not talking about being able to type 125 words per minute. But I am talking about being able to know your way around a keyboard without hunting and pecking. If you're like most people my age, you learned how to type in keyboarding class [...]
November 18, 2009
How to Raise a Reader
November 18, 2009 by 13 Comments
I love to read. My husband loves to read. My two daughters love to read. But my son has been staunchly opposed to reading since he first learned how in Kindergarten. He'll read if he is required to for school, but he has never really sat down to read a real book just for the [...]
November 12, 2009
A Memorization Technique Anyone Can Use
November 12, 2009 by 5 Comments
The ability to memorize is an essential skill that all children should master. Some children have a natural ability to memorize things easily, but everyone can still benefit from a strategy for memorization. We have a quick and easy method that my kids like to use when they have to memorize something, whether it be [...]
November 4, 2009
Free Spelling Practice Software
November 4, 2009 by 4 Comments
My kids use the computer for several school subjects, including Spanish, online math drills, spelling, and science. Unfortunately, since I'm so often working on the computer, there's not a lot of time available for the kids to do all their work. So to help alleviate this problem, we dug our 8-year-old Mac out of the [...]
October 28, 2009
How to Help Kids Understand What It Means to Have a Job
October 28, 2009 by 6 Comments
My kids know what their dad does for a living — he's the music minister at our church — but they don't fully comprehend what it means to have a job, nor do they understand a lot of the terminology that goes with it. I would imagine that this is true for many families. Since [...]
October 14, 2009
First Aid for Kids
October 14, 2009 by 4 Comments
My kids and I are officially beginning our study of first aid this week since our science curriculum for the year is already done. The basic text we’re using is a Community First Aid & Safety manual from the American Red Cross that I picked up for free somewhere. We won’t be reading over each and [...]
Joy is the wife of 