50+ Ways to Learn and Play With Social Studies

Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on history, geography, government and more? There are so many great ways to work on these skills with kids besides boring lesson plans and textbooks. Here are 50+ great ways for kids to learn social studies from fun, games and real life: Volunteer at a historic […]

50+ Real Life Ways to Learn Math

Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on multiplication, fractions, ratios, algebra and more? There are so many great ways to work on these skills with kids besides worksheets and textbooks. Here are 50+ great ways for kids to learn math from games and real life: (Note: This was supposed to be 50, […]

Five Lessons To Take From Waldorf In Your Homeschool

I talked recently about lessons you can take from Montessori to enrich your homeschool.  Waldorf schools are another great source of ideas.  Here are five Waldorf principles that appeal to many homeschoolers. 1.  Young children don’t need academics.  Waldorf schools don’t start any sort of formal teaching (including teaching reading) until age 7, much like […]

10 Sneaky Ways to Improve Your Child’s Math Skills

Math seems to trigger some ancient fight-or-flight mechanism in some otherwise brilliant children. This irrational fear of math can cause kids who don’t feel good at the subject to avoid doing it, leading to a snowball effect of more avoidance, falling farther behind and feeling more panic about not understanding it (and more avoidance). Luckily, […]

50 Fun Ways for Kids to Get Great at Spelling

All five of our homeschooled kids are now great spellers, but they weren’t always great. They learned in different ways that suited them, but in the end they all ended up becoming excellent spellers — without worksheets, drills or a curriculum. How? It was easier than I thought it would be, once they learned in […]

Free Printable Weather Tree for April

Free Printable Weather Tree for April

Here’s a fun way for kids to track the weather and sneak in some math!  Have them color a weather tree this month, with each color representing a different kind of weather. I make up a weather tree for each issue of Wild Kids Magazine, a free monthly nature magazine for kids and their grown […]

February weather tree

Free Printable Weather Tree for February

Weather trees are great ways to incorporate art, nature studies, science and even math into a fun daily project.  Here’s a free printable weather tree for February to help your kids track the month’s weather. Kids can assign a different color to each weather type, then color one leaf each day to show that day’s […]

BirdSleuth free printable book guide

Free Printable Bird Guide

Here’s a wonderful freebie for your nature studies.  The Cornell Institute of Ornithology offers its 12 page BirdSleuth Explorer’s Guidebook absolutely free to download and print. The full color booklet includes lots of great stuff for identifying birds, including some fun activities and worksheets to fill out. Pages include: Wake up your ears What’s a […]

A Year of Forest School

Review: A Year of Forest School

Forest schools and other outdoor learning environments are becoming increasingly popular, not just in the United Kingdom but in the U.S. and around the world. A Year of Forest School: Outdoor Play and Skill-building Fun for Every Season, by Jane Worrell and Peter Houghton, gives parents and teachers ideas for nearly 40 seasonal activities suitable […]

March Nature Studies

March Nature Studies: 10 Wonderful Ways to Learn with Nature in March

Looking for some fun ways to work nature studies into your homeschooling this month?  Here are all kinds of wonderful ways to use nature to work science, math, writing, art and more into your learning. Whether you live out in the country or are stuck inside an apartment this month, there are still ideas to […]

Facts, activity pages and more to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.

Facts, activity pages and more to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, here’s an assortment of lesson plans, pages, songs, interesting info and more to use in your homeschool. abc Teach has a printable PDF bio with a multiple choice Q&A at the end. The Crafty Crow has MLK Day crafts and KidsSoup has some great crafts and activities. […]

Sensory Integration tricks to help kids focus -- from pre-K through high school

Sensory Integration tricks to help kids focus — from pre-K through high school

It can be very hard for some children to sit still and pay attention, even into the teen years. While it’s a common misunderstanding that this is always a sign of an issue like ADHD or that the child is not trying hard enough, there are actually many reasons kids can have trouble concentrating. Among […]

50 Fabulously fun ways for kids to practice their handwriting

50 Fabulously fun ways for kids to practice their handwriting

Think handwriting practice consists of kids writing C-A-T on oversized stationery lines again and again? Think again! From cake decorating to scratch-n-sniff kool-aid words to feather quills to invisible ink, there are oodles of ways to make handwriting a treat for kids. Here are 50 fun ways kids can practice their printing and cursive handwriting […]

Don't toss those turkey bones! Easy Thanksgiving science

Don’t toss those turkey bones! Easy Thanksgiving science

  If you’re going to be having turkey this Thanksgiving, here’s a great way to make use of those bones afterwards. Make bendable bones! This simple science experiment teaches kids the importance of calcium — and is also just really cool. Here’s what you need: A jar large enough to hold a chicken or turkey […]

Weather trees to maple syrup candy: Science and nature fun for January

Weather trees to maple syrup candy: Science and nature fun for January

It may be snowy and cold, but there are still lots of opportunities for science and nature studies this month. Here are five great ways to do some science and nature studies with your kids in January. Start a weather tree. Kids can use weather trees to track the weather for the year, either simply […]

Netflix to air new CGI Magic School Bus series

Netflix to air new CGI Magic School Bus series

Netflix has announced plans to offer an all-new series based on its most popular educational program, The Magic School Bus. The new series, The Magic School Bus 360°, will be produced by Scholastic Media, who also created the original series. Magic School Bus 360° will feature updated versions of the school bus, students and Ms. […]

Print out a FREE weather station for the kids!

Print out a FREE weather station for the kids!

Here’s a wonderful way to teach your little ones about weather. Mr. Printables has created a delightful printable weather station that is available for download absolutely free! Mr. Printables says: What’s the weather like where you are? Create your very own neat printable weather station to hang on your wall and report today’s weather like […]

Shrunken heads to Wild Watching: Science and nature fun for October

It’s a brand new month, and one that’s brimming with opportunities for science and nature activities. Here’s five fabulous ways to take advantage of the season this month. Take part in the Handbook of Nature Study’s Signs of Autumn Art/Nature Journal Study. Look for signs of autumn like dry grass or weeds, birds overhead or […]

50 fun household materials to use for poetry, spelling and more

50 fun household materials to use for poetry, spelling and more

Looking for some fun ways to play with spelling, poetry and writing in your homeschool? Make some language arts manipulatives! You can find wonderful materials all around the house, absolutely free, and pick up others at dollar stores or thrift stores for next to nothing. Here are some of our favorites. (Instructions follow for those […]

Oodles of amazing educational uses for plastic eggs

Oodles of amazing educational uses for plastic eggs

After Easter, it’s the perfect time to pick up extra plastic eggs on clearance to use them for all sorts of homeschooling fun — and not just for the preschool set. Most of us have seen the Pinterest pins of Easter eggs being used to learn sight words or letters, but you can use them […]

Kids can learn history through DIY timeline game

Kids can learn history through DIY timeline game

Here’s an fun and effective way to help kids learn history and get an idea for when things happened in relation to each other. Make a timeline game! Here’s all you do: First, find a timeline of history that includes events you want to teach about. This site has collections of timelines of people, places […]