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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Homeschoolers can learn from Swedish preschools

What homeschoolers can learn from Swedish preschools

There’s a big push in the United States to introduce formal academics earlier and earlier for young children, and that has been spilling into the homeschooling community. While many homeschoolers of the 90’s chose to homeschool because of issues like schools transitioning to full-day kindergarten and the “too much, too soon” academic pressures that were […]

Five lessons to take from Montessori for your homeschool

Five lessons to take from Montessori for your homeschool

One of the joys of homeschooling is that you can adapt ideas from all different places and use them with your kids.  Montessori schools and theories are a great source of some of those ideas. I attended a Montessori preschool myself (back in the dark ages) and it was one of the best educational experiences […]

New to homeschooling? What you need to buy right now

School is starting up again soon, and some parents are starting up at home for the first time.  It can be overwhelming trying to choose books, curricula and programs. Here’s what you need to buy to start out… Nothing. Yes, that’s right.  Nothing. The single biggest mistake that new homeschoolers make is investing in too […]

Free curricula in every subject for your preschooler (it's not what you think)

Free curricula in every subject for your preschooler (it’s not what you think)

I’ve been sharing free curricula for every subject and each grade in this column, and several parents have asked me to share free curricula for preschoolers. I’ve put off doing a preschool list yet for two reasons: If you’re new to homeschooling your kids, it’s more important to find resources for older kids than it […]

Great science stations for young kids

Science stations are wonderful for young kids.  They introduce toddlers and preschoolers to the love of science and are also great for keeping them busy while homeschooling older kids.  They’re fun, educational and easy to set up! What is a science station?  It’s a space you stock with fun materials for a child to experiment […]