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 […]

Easy homeschooling on the road

    Our family just got back from a week out of state. We didn’t bring piles of textbooks or worksheets, but all five kids packed lots of learning into that week. The kids managed to learn geography, presidents, American history, genealogy, civil rights, drivers’ education, physics, phonics, nutrition, genetic testing, ghosts, high school exams, […]

Should you homeschool through the summer?

Should you homeschool through the summer?

One of the great things about homeschooling is that you can do it in the ways that fit your family’s needs. You can choose how to homeschool, what to use and when to do it. That said, what’s the best way to approach the summer months? There are many good reasons to continue homeschooling through […]

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 […]

Free bird sighting log sheets!

Free bird sighting log sheets!

Here’s a sweet freebie to help with your child’s nature studies. Hobby Farms offers these printable bird sighting sheets to print out. They say: Use this bird-sighting chart to document what birds are nesting around your home and when you see them. When your chart is full of feathered creatures, print yourself another page! The […]

Ant Science! STEM Activities Using Ants for Educational Summer Fun

The ants are out for the summer and making pests of themselves around some homes.  Why not take advantage of their presence to do some fun educational projects outside?  From ant mazes to taste tests (for the ants, not the kids!), there are all kinds of fun STEM projects you can design to use some […]

Use printable car maps to help kids learn their states on road trips

Use printable car maps to help kids learn their states on road trips

Here’s a fun way to help kids pass the time on road trips and learn their states at the same time. Print out free car maps and have them color in the states as they spot cars with those state license plates. There are two versions of maps available — a labeled one to help […]

Naturally raising monarch butterflies in your homeschool

Naturally raising monarch butterflies in your homeschool

Raising monarch butterflies from caterpillar eggs has been one of the most magical ways that we’ve done nature studies in our homeschool for many summers. Some families order butterfly kits through the mail, but we’ve filled our yard with lots of plants that butterflies need at various parts of their life cycles so that they’ll […]

99 More things to do by the end of the summer!

Following up on my 101 things to do this summer, here are 99 more fun, educational and just plain neat things to do with the kids before fall sets in. From preschoolers to high schoolers, there are activities for everybody. Write a letter to the editor. Cook with some sort of edible wild food, such […]

Ten sites for fun, free summer math practice

Right now, we finally have nice weather in southern Minnesota and it would be nearly criminal to have the kids sitting inside doing anything, even educational stuff! That said, everybody needs cooling off times and it’s great to have some educational fun on hand for rainy days. Here’s ten sites with games, activities, drills and […]

Summer science fun

Summer science fun

Summer is in full swing and it’s the perfect time to start up a little outdoor summer science. Don’t worry, this kind of science fun doesn’t require much on your part at all! Here’s all you need to get your kiddos experimenting, making concoctions and learning along the way. Test hypotheses.  You hear all sorts […]

101 things to do this summer

Have you made your summer bucket list yet?  If you need a little inspiration, here’s our list from 2010 of 101 fun, educational, sentimental and silly things to do over the summer. Catch fireflies Take part in the library reading program Dance in the rain Master the multiplication tables Read the Little House series together […]

5 Fun Ways to Enjoy Nature Studies in June

5 Fun Ways to Enjoy Nature Studies in June

June is such a beautiful month that it’s nearly immoral to spend too much of it inside!  Here are some fun ways to take the learning outside this month and have a great time doing it. Grow some gladiolas.  Glads are wonderful flowers for children.  They’re easy to grow, colorful, inexpensive, and don’t take much […]

From historical to hilarious: 30 days of holidays in June

Are you looking for some inspiration for teachable moments and fun activities this month? Here are holidays, anniversaries and more to coincide with every day in June. All Month: Zoo and Aquarium Month National Accordion Awareness Month National Adopt a Cat Month National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month Audiobook Month Rose Month Great Outdoors Month […]

Free online learning games for every subject

Here are some great ways for the kids to play (and learn) in every subject from right at home today.  These online games are all free and require no special downloads or installations other than basics like Java or Adobe Flash Player in some instances. Math: Zeus’ Petals teaches kids multiplication skills.  The game says:  […]