Middle school is such a tough place to be.   The kids aren’t really into the elementary stuff anymore, but definitely not ready for high school either, not to mention the insanity of puberty ramping up.  Middle school curriculum is changing too, and the easy and fun art projects of elementary school are replaced with….Well, what [...]

One of the science benchmarks for fifth grade science is the study of habitats and ecosystems. This is one of those benchmarks that is easily accommodated by a little bit of hands on field trip. Part of the way that we learn about habitats, ecosystems and species interdependence is to visit a swamp that has [...]

My son and I were sitting on a bench the other day, waiting for his sisters to come outside the building from their Girl Scout meeting.  He started looking for something to pass the time and ended up picking up nuts from the ground near a group of trees.  I was excited to see they [...]

We all want our kids to have a well-rounded education, right?  Homeschooling parents want plenty of opportunities for their kids to explore sports and other activities in addition to setting a high academic standard for them.   It all comes down to making sure they get everything the kids in public schools do, but kicking [...]

My daughter has avoided word games like the plague in the past. She really didn’t like doing plain word lists, or vocabulary lists. Last year I even asked a fellow home schooling mom to “teach” my daughter spelling because it was just a serious point of friction with us. This year, I tried a different [...]