The Trees Have Hearts

Recently I was given the opportunity to read and review The Trees Have Hearts by Mrs.D. It should be noted now that Mrs.D's native tongue is not English. Upon eagerly scanning the contents I was immediately stuck by the large, beautiful images throughout.  Since no good review of a children's book can be written without a child's input I asked my two to sit and listen as I read it to them. My kids love stories and were very happy to oblige. As we started reading I was first struck at the abundance of figurative language. The book is steeped in it. It almost came off heavy...

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Not All Tea and Crumpets. Weekly Recap.

This was our first week back. Let me start by saying it definitely did NOT go as to plan.  Day one: Monday was a smashing success. How could it not be with wrapped school supplies waiting for the kids. Followed by an art class that ran incredibly long. Instead of being an hour and half it took until 2 in the afternoon. By the time we came home I realized it was pointless to do any other learning. Thankfully our fun book order was waiting for us. Day two: What a nightmare! Trying to get the kids back into the book routine and fighting their antics for most of the...

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Back to School Smarty Pants. GIVEAWAY!

  Today was our first scheduled back to school day at home. It was expected to have some bumps in the road. Nothing prepared me for the enjoyment of being back in the 'class'. Perhaps it was the fact that we used the classroom for only a brief time in the morning. It may have been the kids elation at opening their back to school 'gifts'. I wrapped up all the new school supplies and made sure I added a couple of cute things in there also.    Our first order of business after classroom time was to get going to our first 'art class'. The kids stenciled on a couple of...

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Reclaiming Your Classroom Space.

Scroll to bottom of page to add your classroom posts! Tomorrow is our first day back to classes. I have been working over time to reclaim the classroom from the mess it had become. You may recall my earlier post about the mess 'Classroom Devastation.' Well even if you didn't read the post I would like to take you on a virtual tour through ours! This is my teacher nook. It's meant to be where I sit and mark work etc..it's also a snuggle corner. Half the time the kids just want to get a hug and hang out. I have the 'Homeworkopoly' board on the wall opposite. Note the ridiculous sized...

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Creating a Buzz in Your Gardens.

Every year we work diligently on our gardens to make them more self sufficient and to bring in a variety of pollinators. This year is the first year I feel very successful. Some of the more delicate plant varieties have died and stronger more resilient plants have taken their place. The effect has been tremendous. Not a quiet moment all season! The bees and butterflies seem to love all the new plantings. Of course we can't brag without telling you what there is. We have blue vervain, which seems to like to sow itself readily, as well as coneflowers, liatris, peonies, bergamont, thistle, bachelors...

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How to Teach Listening Skills to Children.

When one reads the title they may think this is about being an attentive listener when an adult or other authority figure is speaking. Although that is a good trait to have it is ultimately a by product of being an good listener to begin with. You can be both but learning to truly listen to a speaker in this busy world we live in is a skill that is fading fast. Just take one look at the clicky clack of the texting buttons and other technology. When people have to set rules that no cell phone is allowed at the table it becomes clear that listening is falling by the wayside...

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Classical Composers Monthly Review and GIVEAWAY!

Recently I was given the opportunity to review for free two products from Classical Composer's Monthly. This is a online company run by a homeschooling family in the US. The mother has spent large portions of time finding what has worked and not worked for teaching her six children. So the units they offer are prepared with children in mind. Each one is carefully put together using age appropriate materials found from around the internet. Why is this useful if you can do it yourself? It's the time saving format that is terrific here. Instead of spending a large portion of your time hunting...

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How To Enhance Your Learning Environment One Element At A Time `Part Two

While working in our classroom I find it imperative that my kids have some stimulation. After all year after year my kids are in the same general area of our home learning. They need to have a changing landscape to keep them from become bored by their surroundings. That's why I look for engaging ideas to add in to our school year. One of these ideas has evolved over the past six years into what it is today. If you have spent any amount of time online I am sure you have run into many quotations that give you pause to think. Quotes are meant to inspire, encourage, and stimulate deeper philosophical...

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How To Enhance Your Learning Environment One Element At A Time.

 I am deep into the cleaning of our classroom and readying it for our back to school start on August 25th. All winter I pour over Pinterest coming up with new ideas to incorporate into our learning environment. Ways to either improve learning, our moods, or just organize things better. An idea I stumbled across was "Homeworkopoly" (Thanks Teacher.Net for making this available). Now I don't know about you or how you homeschool but I do know my kids. If given a choice they would sit in front of the work and dawdle until the time was up. Not that they don't like learning they just haven't...

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Homeschoolers Are From Earth! Really!

You know as I sit here erasing and rewriting what I wanted to say. I realize it's been said before. The endless questions we are faced with as homeschoolers when one discovers we choose homeschool. It's astounding to me that people and by people I mean everyday folk, feel it's okay to question our choices. I realize homeschooling is novel to some. I realize maybe some people have got questions. What I wish they would realize is that I am out living my life and that questions no matter how well meaning are invasive. I would never think to walk up to a stranger or their children and ask...

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From Tree to Table - Apple Butter the Easy Method

So we have been living in this house for a number of years and our apple tree has never been as laden with fruit as it is this year. Partly because we had a really nasty spring last year which made the poor tree loose all but one bud. The trauma caused it to bloom out of every possible area and make more fruit then we can use. Generally this old apple tree starts losing it's apples in mid July. This year everything is a bit late and it's just started to heavily rain apples on us. Also the weather has been so harsh that the appleworms just aren't here like they normally are. This is presenting...

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Classroom Devastation!

If you knew me you would know I like to have an orderly home....you wouldn't be able to tell that from this picture. Sigh..we've been off school since mid-May. I have had little reason to go to our classroom or back craftroom which are both found downstairs. So it's become a dumping ground for those items that should be put away but weren't. The bookshelves are in a state of disarray as the kids pull out books to read but rarely return them in the same fashion. It's embarrassing. So why then would I share this with you? Because this is real. This is the reality of homeschooling. Once bookwork...

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Art Not Just Fun

We have always done visual arts at home even before starting to homeschool. My parents are artists so it came naturally to me. This year as the leader of our local homeschool group I wanted to see more added to our schedule that enriched the group. I was really lucky I stopped in a local workshop that opened up. I met a fantastic woman whose dream it is to bring local artisans and children together. My son mixing paint for his frog stepping stone. We have set up some classes for fall with the hopes of taking in more over the course of the year. However...I had someone ask 'will they learn...

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Overwhelmed Before the School Year Begins?

Well here it is August and I know I have to organize the classroom. I also have to find a viable planner to lay out all our school lesson plans at least by the month so I don't end up with it as a weekly chore. No pressure...but if that wasn't enough to keep me busy I also am planning on having two events per month set up for our local homeschool group which I started the other year. Thankfully I just met a wonderful woman who runs a local arts and crafts store who has connections throughout the city. Which is going to be immensely helpful in relieving me of finding a lot of contacts...

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For Better or Worse.

I am coming to the conclusion I can't stop it's in my gene's. I grew up with a pair of do it yourselfers and married one too. I am going to be honest here when I moved out as a younger person I would skip school to rearrange and redecorate my apartment.  I think I probably should have been listening to that and become a interior designer or something. Well fast forward a long way or rather a few short, very , very brief years to now. We've been living in our home for ten years and I can't stop. Something is always in a state of half finished or I am spending my time daydreaming about...

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Essential Skills Advantage- A Look at Their Site.

Note/Disclaimer: I was not compensated to write the following review. It is unbiased as I am in no way affiliated with the company. Please note all the content of the review is solely my opinion based on my experience with the website. Recently I was given the opportunity to review Essential Skills Advantage curriculum and website. Created by teachers and educators the content of the site aligns with most curriculae. For more than ten years ESA has been in schools across North America. With over 300, 000 students using the site demand for their business to become more accessible has...

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Walking Down the Jammy Lane.

I had a wonderful childhood blessed to live off the grid before off the grid was cool. It was even before solar panels came out--not that I am trying to date myself or anything...Well my mother was a gardener and preserver of food extraordinaire. She would make jams, jellies, pickles, relishes, ketchups, chutneys all summer long to store for our winter food supply. Which sounds awesome until you consider that all of the produce had to be grown by us. It meant she spent a large portion of her summer in the garden weeding and taking care of those crops. That left her little time for berry...

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Daytripping Again -Northern Style.

Not feeling entirely like yanking out the giant canoe we still wanted to have some water fun. The other year geocaching we found this great spot on Lake Huron where names were carved into the rocky outcroppings dating back to the 1940's! When we went last year there were numerous types of native berries bearing fruit which was a yummy treat. So we piled into the truck with all the gear we needed and away we went. It's about an hour to get there from here but worth it. A lone dock juts out into the water and not a soul in sight other then one water boarder. Which incidently was pretty cool...

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How You Can Learn From Geoboxing--Installment Two

As promised yesterday we wanted to share with you what we included in our Geo Box swap with a Louisiana family. Our box included: Frito's corm chips which are hard enough to come by in our city let alone the country. a bottle of maple syrup--nothing says Canadian then pure maple syrup dripping over hot pancakes aka flapjacks. two postcards depicting animals from Ontario freshly picked pinecones driftwood from the shore of Lake Superior rocks from Lake Superior two bits of Amethyst--our provincial official stone two pencils a moose pen--I am pretty sure they don't have moose in Louisiana maple...

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