Disney Parks at Home

Our family has some Disney fans, who are missing the parks.  Disney superfans are making Disney Magic.  (Look at Disney Hungry for treats!). Here are virtual rides and here are park rides at home.  Learn to draw Disney characters or follow the Disney Parks Blog.  Try Star Wars Fighter Splatter Art at Disney Magic Moments.  Dress up, set up a parade in the hall, or try to recreate the Disney experience at home.

Good Will Online: Education Equipment

Good Will has loads of educational materials: globes, maps, phonics tiles, roller coaster kit, and educational games.  Take a look!  Be sure to check the shipping and compare prices on Amazon and eBay.

Hands-on Math

Some math programs, such as Math-U-See have loads of hands-on activities with math manipulatives.  We are using Saxon Math 5/4 with our fourth-grader.  Even Saxon has a few hands-on examples.  Today’s math lesson includes Geometric solids.  Saxon called for making a paper cube.  Any job worth doing is worth over-doing.  I used these shapes as part of today’s math lesson.  Seeing is understanding. Take a look.

Buy Education Tools at Good Will Online!

Good Will online has education lots.  These listings tend to be something of a grab bag: educational games, workbooks, medical charts, maps, calculators, Scholastic books, microscopes, telescopes, robot kits, Living Language, rocks,  Planetariums, LeapPads,  geographic sets, abacus,  Little Bits for programming, Snap Circuits, and math kits.  Before you bid, check Amazon and eBay to compare prices.  Always check the shipping!  Let me tell you, Good Will has great stuff!  One more listing, Math U See.

Another Tip: Build or Draw Shapes

In our household, we try to recreate experiments and build shapes as they are introduced, such as a pyramid, discussed in Math.  We use what we have on hand--in this case, dice.  See the pyramid below.

Your schedule may look more like college.

Update.  Today I had the satisfaction of hearing Paul, nine, say, ‘Can I work on my Florida report this morning?  I’d like to get it done.’  Sweet words.


In college, you seldom take seven, daily, 45 minute classes.  We have a daily schedule.  But, I can see the schedule is morphing into a shape more like college.  Right now, four subjects, Math, Science, History, and English occupy our mornings, divided into blocks from 9:00-12:30.  Math is usually problem sets.  English varies with hand-writing, novels, vocabulary, grammar, and anthology readings.  But, History, Science, and English all have projects and reports.  These take more time.  Here’s an example. Yesterday, Paul read Lesson 11 in Zoology 1, completed the review questions and vocabulary crossword.  Today, he worked for an hour making a Bee comic strip (in place of the Bee mini-book.). Paul asked if he count work on his Florida report.  Over the past two weeks, he has been working on the written report and slideshow using this guide.  Since Paul is researching and writing, we will just have him read a novel later for English.  We find he has more focus on extended projects and assignments.  This approach allows more instruction on the mechanics of Google Docs and Google Slides, too.  I am using textbooks for ideas for projects and assignments.  We balance long-term assignments with daily drills, problem sets, and exercises.  Think about your college classes and consider ways to make School at home have greater depth with lasting results.

Digital Portfolios

How do you prove your kids did their work?  I encourage home-school families to keep both paper and digital portfolios.  Paper work samples can be easier for kids to sort as they evaluate their portfolio to select materials to submit to online schools.  We keep both digital and paper portfolios.  How?  I use an iPhone or iPad to scan documents and save them on Google Drive.  I keep records and assignments on Google Classroom, too.  I put copies of scanned work with the assignments on Google Classroom—which is backed up on Google Drive, too.  I make and save videos to my YouTube channel and add those to Classroom, too.  The kids write essays in Google Docs saved on Drive and added to Classroom. I like to edit the essays or reports online and return them with comments added to make revisions.  Sound like a lot of work?  Yes.  But, when I need to collect material for an online school, I can send screen shots, grade spreadsheets, digital essays, and photo or video evidence.  Look at Google for Education.  All of the tools such as Drive, Classroom, YouTube, Sheets, Slides, and Docs are free; moreover, these tools make it easy to save your work.  Get your kids in the habit of taking photos and scanning their papers, worksheets, and graded tests.  You won’t have any trouble justifying your portfolio.