Start with a Book!

 Are you familiar with Start with a Book?  The idea is to combine fiction and nonfiction books with lessons—something you probably do already.  The site has loads and loads of activity kits.  I love to add a book to any outreach program.  For example, I have an activity kit for this Handwashing Lesson.  Include Germs Make Me Sick.  Be sure to explain to Littles that the germs are fake so no one cries.  Ask me how I know.  One tip if you use Glo Germ lotion and the hand-washing lesson, check the nail beds; kiddos never wash their nail beds well.  What books can you combine with lessons?  I mean, you can do so much history with American Girl Doll books.  You might want to browse the library stacks for lesson inspirations.  Have a blast!

Simplify life with a theme for gifts!

 I like a theme!  Have you considered finding a theme for your gifts?  My kiddos receive books as presents.  None of us are adverse to a stack of books—even used books!  I keep a stack of paper, pop-up, flower cards.  They are perfect for someone in the hospital or a friend’s birthday.  It’s still a card; it doesn’t create  a sense of obligation—just a sweet message!  

My go-to high school graduation present is an electric kettle and as case of ramen noodles.  Really.  I pick up kettles whenever I can find them for less than $16.  I don’t want students to starve.  Teens think the gift is hysterical. 

Please stand by!

 Sorry!  June and July mean Science Camp, VBS, home-school portfolio reviews (ten) and two weeks of Faith Camp—kiddos who are behind in the sacraments.  While I have been inspired to adjust Faith Camp, I’m blanking on tips for home-school families.  I’ll post soon!  Please stand by!

Evan-Moor

  One resource I recommend all the time is Evan-Moor.  The workbooks are ideal for summer practice.  I like the Geography practice as enrichment in the elementary grades.  You can do an exercise each day or polish off a week’s worth of activities in under an hour.  Look at Grade 5 Geography, as an example.  Another suggestion is Summer Bridge activity books.  You can use these as supplement those days when you just need emergency lessons.  Consider used copies—many are like new.  These workbooks won’t replace a core curriculum; they do provide a good supplement.

Instant Lessons: Let’s write reports about inventions!

Let’s go old-school and reinstate reports.  Kiddos used to read an article and handwrite a report. Reports are a great safety net.  Read a book and write a report.  Done.  Reports are perfect assignments for the week of chaos when you had a trip to the ER, the washer broke down, and the dog was sick. 

 Pick any topic.  I teach science and am interested in inventions.  (Don’t you wish you had invented wheels on luggage?)   If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, look for Ben Cohen’s Science of Success articles.  (He wrote about white lines on the roads in the July 3rd issue.). Print a few articles to assign during family emergencies. 

Take BYJU’s Quiz, Ten Famous Inventions and Inventors Kids Must Know to get started with a list to research at the library or on Britannica.

ACS Chemical Landmarks: Crest, Scotch Tape (Booklet), Bakelite (Booklet), and  Test Strips (Booklet) are all examples.  Food Dehydration (Booklet) can lead to Snack Engineering.

Smithsonian has Invention Stories, such as epi-pens, George Forman’s grill, brewing coffee, and more about chips.  Invention at Play has a ton of short inventors’ stories, such as Ann Moore’s Snugli.

Lemelson-MIT has an Inventor Archive with Mary Anderson’s Windshield Wipers, Marconi’s telegraph, , and Mars M&Ms.

Dave Ramsey Financial Peace

 Have you considered Dave Ramsey’s Home School Personal Finance?  You may want to buy the 2012 version.  My friend, Christine, and my husband, Rob, teach a personal finance course and include Dave Ramsay’s program.  They are examining just the books and workbooks because the costs of the digital versions have risen sharply.  (BTW we use and reuse older textbooks all the time!)  Many, many families have their teens read one of Dave Ramsey’s books, attend a course (often held at a local church), or use a home study course.  Rob and Christine want the teens to use a workbook and take quizzes to hold them accountable for the material.  The used kits have DVD lessons.  Some teens prefer to watch and video and answer questions.  You do you!

Patriotic Art Projects!

 The 4th of July is right around the corner.  Let’s celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary in style!  Do an elective art project!  Add this fun, summer project to your digital portfolio.Make 4th of July Agamographs! Here and here are more.  4th of July Pointilism dovetails well with this Art of Patriotism unit.  10 Easy Crafts includes spin painting.  Finally, 30 Patriotic Crafts should give you enough ideas to finish your art unit.

Instant Lesson: Story Starters and Writing Prompts

 My young friend, Meg, used to get up at 6:30 to be able to finish all of her school work before her neighborhood friends even got on the bus to go to public school.  She enjoyed running out to the bus stop to announce she had finished!  Now what?  You need instant lessons occasionally for enrichment.  Some of my favorite instant lessons are for writing.  

Kiddos: Free Creative Writing Story Prompts are written for home-schoolers!  Here, here, and here are more story starters.  Print a list or two for your emergency files.  You could also have your kiddos print a list my hand to practice handwriting.

Teens: I keep a set of grab and go writing prompts for days I just blank.  I used several from San José State: Descriptive Writing, Pruning Your Prose, Snowball, etc.  (Nope.  I can’t find the source for the exercises unless they are buried in Homegrown Handouts.)  Teens need to write!  Practice with SAT Writing Prompts or these prompts.  

There are any number of reasons you need an extra activity or an instant lesson.  Let’s create a stack of files for fall!

Instant Lessons

 When I taught professionally, I had emergency lessons.  You should, too!  Create files marked Emergency.  Some large families also have an emergency snack box when mom just can’t face cooking another meal.  Put the emergency files there. There will be days when your three year old decides to have a two hour melt-down or the baby is vomiting with a fever.  While your older kiddos are delighted to build with LEGOs or bake, consider emergency lessons—at least to keep you from feeling guilty about missing the regular lessons.  

Money: Currency, coins, and money combines several subjects. Let’s start with coins.  Watch Money and Magnets before you read The Captivating Chemistry of Coins.  Here are the student questions.  Younger kiddos might enjoy the NCW issue, Marvelous Metals, which has articles, a game, activities, and terms.  Assign the terms to the kiddos.  They can copy the vocabulary and definitions.  In fact have them research the definition and record any unfamiliar word.   Tell the children they can clean copper pennies (older than 1981) with vinegar and salt or Ketchup; however, they need to find the pennies by themselves and do the experiment in the kitchen. Here is the U.S. Mint’s Coin Classroom, with videos. Ask the younger kiddos to hunt for change and count it.  Here are counting money worksheets to print.

Currency is another interesting topic.  Here is the currency academy.  Cash, Currency, and Counterfeit (guide) and Counterfeiting Countermeasures, are fascinating.  Here are U.S. currency videos.  HST has a Counterfeit Money Project kids can do independently if they have a magnifier.  Ask the kiddos to hunt for yours when they are searching for coins.  If you have a hand-held microscope, paper currency is fascinating under the microscope.  

Science NCW and ACS Issues: Celebrating Chemistry (scroll down) has annual issues full of articles, activities, vocabulary, etc.  Look at The Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy.  Print the articles and save the experiments for another day.  Kiddos can summarize articles or just write a few facts, depending on their ages. Do you want dire emergency science lessons?  Use Bill Nye Movie Sheets and Bill Nye Episodes.  My emergency lessons were Chemmatters articles and teacher’s guides, such as Crochet Chemistry, which dovetails well with Fabulous Fibers.  The teacher’s guide is on the same page as the article. Students should write the answers in complete sentences.  Voila! An instant lesson!

English and Math: Pick a writing prompt. The kiddo is practicing  handwriting.  Have Editor in Chief and Easy Grammar on hand.  Pull out any sheet.  By all means read a book!  Ask your kiddo to add the title in her reading log.  Similarly, print math drill worksheets.  Try to train your kiddo to pull out math of his own and work on the next lesson.  3-Act Tasks have videos, such as The Candyman, with questions.  Kids can estimate the number of pieces of gum from the gum ball machine and see the answer in the link or video below.

Geography and History: I like Daily Geography.  Pull any lesson.  For high school teens I’ve used Land and People: Finding a Balance.  The focus question provides a guide.  For example, have the teen start with the poster, review the Teacher’s Guide, and read the lesson.  I’ve used this as a research project.  What is the current state of water quality in Cape Cod?  How is Cape Cod addressing the water quality issues?  For History, try Five Minute History Lessons or pick a Sesquicentennial Lesson!  What does freedom mean to you?  Try Dissecting the Revolution and worksheet from the Museum of the American Revolution.  Save these crafts for a rainy day.

VeggieTales Connections

 Good Will has a listing for Veggietales Connections.  eBay does, too!  This looks like a year-long Bible Study for kiddos.  What fun!

Portfolios

It’s that time of year: portfolios!  Each year I review several for home-school families.  I’ve been on the other side, preparing portfolios, too.  They are a lot of work! Let’s examine both aspects, reviewing and creating portfolios.  This may help you assemble materials for your own portfolio to submit.

Let’s talk reviews.  When I review portfolios, I prefer to interview the family—kiddos included!  The first time I work with a family, the interview takes hours.  What is their home-school philosophy?  What is the family’s style?  Is there a dedicated space?  Do the children work on their lessons daily?  Is school year-round?  There are many ways to home-school successfully.  Once I have a better idea about the family, I look at the program of study.  Does the family use a defined curriculum?  Are they enrolled in an on-line school?  How many hours and weeks do they teach?  Which courses did the children take?  Then it’s on to specifics.  I like to see work samples, reading logs, textbooks, essays, tests, certifications, and photos.  The kiddos tell me about their work, their interests, their favorite books.  Moms share anecdotes.  During the interview I take pages and pages of notes.  Once the interview concludes, I review my notes and draft a letter.  Sometimes, I contact the mom with more questions.  Next I craft a letter.

In Virginia and West Virginia, the school districts require a letter. Here is an example from last year’s review.  (BTW I taught Jacob in Bio and Comp.  I sat with him in Algebra 1, and tutored him in Latin.  I had plenty of material.)  

My reviews are positive.  I might make suggestions to the family; however I do NOT write negative comments in a letter to the school board.  Home-school families are sharply scrutinized.  I don’t invite more.  Once I get acquainted with the family, I can rely on work samples.  Although, several families prefer an interview at their homes.  My friend, Michelle, pulls out all the books, samples, and syllabi.  Another mom of eleven, Mrs. S sends me digital files in pdf and png format with photos, work samples, test scores, essay, etc.  I’ve reviewed her children’s portfolios for many years, initially in her home, occasionally from her van!  Mrs.S’s family is also enrolled in an on-line school.  I trust these submissions.  

How do you create your own portfolio?  Here is one I assembled and submitted to Kolbe Academy quarterly.  I like to include photos of the textbooks in Google Slides, with the subjects as titles. It is helpful to include work samples, tests, essays, etc from each quarter.  I just took photos and added them to the slide deck.

 Mrs. S creates one, annual portfolio for each child.  In each portfolio is a copy of Seton’s curriculum, work samples for each subject, a reading log (at my request years ago), tests, and transcripts for on-line classes, such as Rosetta Stone Spanish.  Mrs. S’s younger children have many more work samples; the teens have more essays and course transcripts with test grades because they take more of their classes on-line.  Every year, she includes over 50 photos and a summary for each child, with his or her strengths and weaknesses.  Why?  Mrs. S is documenting field trips, service projects, sports, and milestones.  The letters for her children’s portfolios are a breeze!

What about a child with learning differences or special needs?  Mrs. S has a child with Down’s and was very concerned about her portfolio.  This child, L, has a host of medical needs, too.  L. receives a myriad of therapies, all part of her education.  Remember you are home-schooling to address your child’s unique needs.  With L I’m looking at her development.  Has she learned new words?  Can she sing?  Tie shoes?  Copy letters?  What exactly can she do this year she wasn’t able to do last year?  L has had a number of surgeries which delay development.  All of that type of information goes into my portfolio, review letter.  Mrs. S and her family use every tool available to help L grow and learn.  

If your child has learning differences, emphasize his or her progress.  Reading is one of those areas where kiddos can make a big jump after several, very frustrating years.  If your kiddo is still struggling to read, explain your strategies.  Are you reading aloud as a family?  Taking turns with each page in a book?  Listening to audio books?  The same can be true of math facts.  Do you practice them anyway?  Use manipulatives?  Model strategies?  Some kiddos need devices to write because their hand-writing is illegible.  Do you practice handwriting, too? (Okay, maybe printing, not cursive.)  Is the child making adequate progress, not necessarily blazing new trails?

Now assemble work samples.  Scan math tests, essays, spelling lists, etc with your cell phone.  Scour your phone for photos of things your family has done.  Do you keep chickens?  Did you visit a museum?  Did you take a Co-op field trip to the park with a ranger as a docent?  Does your family garden?  Think of all of the ways you educate your child, which includes piano lessons, Latin, soccer, and tutoring.  

Organize your thoughts.  Are you working with a teacher, who will write a letter of evaluation?  What would you like the teacher to tell the school board?  I think it’s important to emphasize all of the ways the kiddo is making progress and developing rather than focusing on his deficits.  Put your thoughts on paper for the teacher to paraphrase in her letter.  Guess what?  After all of this exhausting work you are going to be even more resolved to help your kiddo learn next year!

Homemade PE Equipment

 I was looking for sports and science when I ran across this ERIC document, Homemade PE equipment.  The article has plans to build a net, use a magazine to make a baton, parallel bars, and milk jug bowling pins.  It’s summer!  What a good time to collect recycled materials for a backyard playground—complete with homemade equipment!

Montessori

 Did you know Good Will has Montessori materials?  It does!  Take a look!

Food and Nutrition Curriculum for Kiddos!

 I’m on the hunt for meaningful summer projects.  How about nutrition?  It’s a great elective.  Super Snacking is easy to follow.  I like 4-H projects; they just seem a bit more balanced: My Plate, 4-H Cooking 101, Food and Fun, and Food and Nutrition.  Each program has a different emphasis.  Look at Get Fit, That’s It!

Nutrition has a plethora of resources, including Nutrition and Food Safety Education.  Food Hero has a bingo game and scavenger hunt. Surprise!  SNAP has a good curriculum.  University of Wisconsin has loads and loads of links: Got Veggies?, Cooking with Kids, to name a few.  Some links are broken.  I love Got Milk, especially some of the site’s nutrition information.  

The Homeschool Mom has suggestions for creating a nutrition program.  Start at the library!  Get a stack of cooking and nutrition books from the children’s stacks.  Decide your approach.  Will you explore cooking?  Are you more interested in vitamins and minerals?  Healthy lifestyle?  Balanced diet?  Basics?  The School House has reviews of some commercial curricula.  I’m an Apologia fan.  This summer, let’s do practical lessons with the kiddos!

Shop Good Will!

 I shop Good Will online and locally.  There are so many interesting listings.  While I have had great luck buying TI 83/84 graphing calculators at Good Will, I have NOT had much luck with electronics, such as microscopes.  My advice is to avoid any electronic or telescope, binoculars, etc.  Below is a sample of current listings.  See?  There are so many interesting, educational materials.

More American Girl Unit Studies

 I’m still going down the rabbit hole of American Girl dolls.  I have several young friends who adore the original Pleasant Company dolls.  My friend, Jen, is teaching her daughter, Sophie, a unit this coming fall. The six historical dolls (plus Kit) offer an excellent range for American History.   

1. Portraits of American Girlhood (POAG) and the Welcome to the World books are frequently cited in the Well-Trained Mind Community, a highly reliable forum.  POAG is a curriculum, which uses the American Girl books.  

2.  Look at the Historical Craft Kits once sold for American Girl dolls.  Jen’s plan is for the girls to make rag dolls. I recommend using a felt doll pattern and yarn hair.  Felt is easy to sew.  Here is a more authentic rag doll pattern.  Use a quilt cheater panel kiddos can sew up quickly into a doll quilt.  

3. Look for Recipes, Pioneer Potato Soup, Addy’s Shortbread, and Historical American Recipes are all free and open the door to another rabbit hole!  

4. What about science?  In this Unit Study for Kirsten, one topic is tornados, perfect for a science study!  Make a Zoetrope, made popular is the 19th Century.  Schools made Milk Plastic as a science experiment. Students from 1900s on grew plants and created School Gardens.  Any focus on practical farming would be consistent historically.

5.  Write a book report with a simple book report template.  Your kiddo can practice hand-writing, spelling, and recap her favorite American Girl book.  You can add questions.  What is the time period?  Where is the story set?  Would you change the ending?  How?  Write a Movie vs.Book report.  Which is better?  Does the movie capture the book?  (Spoiler alert!  The book is always better!)  

American Girl Teacher’s Guides

 If you are planning a history unit based on the American girl dolls, you are going to want as many resources as possible.  I found two of the Welcome to the World books at Good Will. Keep an eye out for the American Girl Teacher’s Guides, which are books are different from the Free Teacher and Conversation Guides.  Let me organize what I found.

1. Here is a sample of the Nez Perce Indians from The Girls of American History Curriculum.  The entire curriculum set is 109.90.  You’ll still need all of the books, craft materials, etc.

2. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has Addy’s World (use to guide a tour of the American History Museum) and   Addy Walker (watch the video).

3.  The Pleasant Company published a book, ‘America at School’, which is a social studies unit.  I found an image and isbn.  The listings are exorbitant.  See if your library can track down a copy.

4. A girl’s window into history is an interesting article about Pleasant Rowland.  I like a little context.  Read this inspiring article about how dolls teach history.  How American Dolls Teach History is interesting, too.  Did you know there are American Girl Reddit forums?

5.  Look at this forum for ideas, too! Here are suggestions for using the dolls to teach about Mesopotamia.  Too fun!  

Co-op Fees

  The local Co-op used to rent space at a neighboring church, one day a week.  (Our church has a large school and even larger religious education program.  There just isn’t space for home-school families.  Frankly, some of the school’s teachers are none too thrilled with RE classes held in their rooms.)  The Co-op had costs, such as insurance, which they divided among the participating parents.  For many years, the Co-op held classes at the local library; the library now discourages home-school families from holding classes.  

During COVID, we held Co-op classes remotely; in Virginia, there was an extended lock-down.  The local library was closed, reopened with appointments, and closed intermittently whenever COVID spiked over the next year.  The library made it clear they did not want science classes taught in their Maker Space any more.  

We needed a solution.  Our house has a large basement; we increased our liability insurance and have held classes in our basement.  Smaller groups meet in individual homes, too.  Do we charge?  We ask for a fee of $35 per family for Biology and Chemistry classes to defray costs.  Otherwise, the math or literature classes aren’t expensive to host.  We do buy all the textbooks and lend them to students to ensure they all have the same edition.  (I shop for textbooks ruthlessly.  If one goes missing it’s not a big deal.  The same is true of graphing calculators we lend to students.)

BTW my husband and I tutor from time to time, too.  We don’t charge to tutor either.  Why?  Once upon a time, I was commissioned to tutor the basketball team for a local college.  Wow!  The team seemed to think I was there to start an IV and transfuse understanding.  I learned quickly I do not have the stomach to tutor for money.  When I tutor as a favor, the onus remains on the student to learn the material—not on the instructor to miraculously transmit knowledge.  

Other home-school groups do charge fees.  My friend, Jen, belongs to a Classical Conversations Group in Woodbridge.  Classical Conversation’s fees are distributed among tuition, facility, and supplies.  The Classical Cottage Consortium charges fees for different classes.  Other Co-ops hire veteran teachers directly.  (Sometimes veteran teachers need to be paid to derive meaning from their work.)  While many churches have space available for a Co-op to meet, others don’t.  Be sure to check about insurance or facility fees!  

Local History!

 Visit your hometown like a tourist!  Living on the east coast has advantages; we do have loads of history!  We just visited Rock Hall and Chestertown, Md.  Both Rock Hall and Chestertown have museums.  Really! (I was surprised, too.). Chestertown (founded 1706) and Washington College (founded in 1782 and located in Chestertown) have loads of history.  I bet your hometown does, too!

Make your hometown a history, unit study.  Read Hometown History: The Story of Ft. Herrick for inspiration.  When was your town founded?  Who were the founders?  Why did they choose the name of the town?  What are major events in the town’s history? How is the town renowned?  For example, Dean Martin was born in Steubenville, Ohio, also home to Franciscan University of Steubenville, my son’s alma mater.  (Not that I’m biased.)  Does your town have a historic district?  Does it have distinctive architecture?  Did the town take part in any war.  For example, Winchester, VA changed hands 72 times  during the Civil War. (Yes, that number is highly debated.)   Kings Mountain SC was the site of an important Revolutionary War battle. (I had had no idea until we visited Kings Mountain.  It’s beautiful!). Freeland MI had Camp Freeland , which held prisoners of war during WWII.  

Here  is one town history guide.  Add maps, photos, brochures, etc.  Work together as a family.  When our family first moved to Winchester, VA, we visited major historic sites: Stonewall Jackson’s Headquarters, Winchester National Cemetery, George Washington’s Office, and a host of sites, especially Old Town Winchester.  We used to show visiting friends the Canon Ball House or Handley Library.  So much history!  Think how much your family will learn!

Lakeshore

 Lakeshore Learning is having a big sale.  Look at Landforms.  However, you may want to look at Good Will or eBay for deals. Below are examples of the range of items—not the best prices.  Look over the sets you find most interesting on the Lakeshore website.  I’m a fan of the People Long Ago Resource Boxes.

Above is the set I bought at Good Will for my friend, Jen; she’s using it to develop an Kirsten Pioneer Unit Study and Little House study—literature program.  The resource box helps frame the study. Below are more Lakeshore kits, both modern and vintage.  Keep at eye out for a deal.

American Girl Doll History

 One of my home-school friends is teaching her daughter history next year with American Girl dolls.  So smart!  Her daughter, Sophie, loves her dolls.  What a fabulous way to introduce a love for history and literature!  Start at your local library.  Who knows?  The library may have all the Welcome to the World books to get you started.  There are both vintage and more recent editions of the American Girl books.  Remember, this is your child and your program.  You could read the six books, cook a few recipes, play a few games, and try a few crafts.  Call it a day.  You may want to take a deep dive into Native American culture.  Focus on the doll or period of history which resonates with your daughter.  (Face it.  Your son is NOT going to be as excited.) Below are a few links.

1. Fields of Daisies has several American Girl History Units for sale.  However, some of her material, such as reading lists, etc are free.  You may find the outlines are sufficient to build a curriculum.

2. American Girl has Conversation Guides. Beforever has the history timeline for the American Girl dolls. The other conversation guides are reader’s questions for the books in each doll series.  They would be terrific for a book club based on the Historical dolls.  The teacher’s guides, like the questions and activity guides , are generic—but free.  Take a look.

3.  The Unlikely Homeschooler’s unit studies (such as Kaya’s) are more of an outline with suggestions in blog posts—still free!  

4.  Heavens to Betty had better results and uses the American Girl books: Kaya, Felicity, Rebecca, Molly, and Nanea.  You can do a great deal of instruction with the American Girl Doll books!  The unit studies include cooking, crafts, etc.  

5. My favorite is Kirsten.  Here and  here are guides.  Here are Kirsten videos, which look educational.  Here is a long list of books.  Little House on the Prairie dovetails well with any pioneer, unit study.  Here is a pioneer history unit study.  Select elements you like.

I found a Lakeshore People Long Ago resource kit for pioneers at Good Will.  You could use these kits with your unit studies.  Used sets are available at eBay.  

Want some more fun? Sew!  I’ve made a few dresses and accessories!