Scientific Writing in Middle School
The Introduction of the Lab Report in our Homeschooling With our G7 Chemistry Block, we are introducing scientific writing through lab reports. Scientific writing is different than other academic writing in a few ways. First it uses a third person objective point of view. In some texts, first person point of view may be acceptable, using the pronouns ‘I’ or ‘we.’ This is not typically done in scientific writing. Nor is second person, ‘you,’ typically used. Maybe more dissimilar though, is that scientific writing writes in past passive tense. Active tense begins with the subject that is doing the action.…
An Introduction to History Analysis and Essay Form
Using Comparison and Continuity and Change over Time for Homeschool Writing This is the second year of US History. If you don’t know, we start with world history with the Ancients and move chronologically through elementary school. In middle school we start with US History. Last year, we spent the year on the Indigenous peoples of North America. We studied Natives of North America generally and then zoomed in to focus on eight (if I am remembering correctly) specific nations that I tried to choose from different biological regions throughout the US. In this post you’ll find: History Block Overview…
Language Arts for our Grade Six of Homeschooling
Resources We Are Using for Sixth Grade English. Things are changing a bit for us for language arts this year. In previous years, I’ve relied on BraveWriter style copy work and dictation for language arts in addition to our Waldorf/Charlotte Mason-style narration process. We’ve had some Michael Clay Thompson grammar thrown into the mix, and of course some Grammarland. We’ve also played with parts of speech to make sentences in her younger years. This year though, I’m considering leaving behind copy work, to focus more heavily on the writing process, word study, close reading, and introducing more literary elements. I haven’t decided on the copy…
Sophomore Year in Review
Whew! High school has been a whirlwind for us, but homeschooling high school is definitely doable. I just have to mentally prepare myself by realizing that there will be lots of changes through the years. He shifted gears midway through the academic year, which I talk about in the video. We used a variety of sources for his class from curricula, to gathered resources, self study, to a dual enrollment community college class. Below the video are links to the resources and curricula that I mention in the video. Some are affiliate links. E. O. Wilson’s Life on Earth for…
Fourth Grade Year in Review
This was such a fun video to make. I had just finished looking through the kids portfolios in preparation for their annual evaluation, and then looked through photographs of the year to add to the video. Looking back at the year allows for me to see how much we have accomplished in the last year. It also gives me time to reflect what went well during the year, and what we need to change. Below are the links to the blog posts from our blocks this year and my Number Sums Curriculum. Homeschool Planning for my Daughter’s Year 4 Journey…
Using Songs and Music for Homeschooling
“Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning to you. Our day is beginning. There’s so much to do. Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning to you.” This song was the song that I sang every morning with each of my children when we started our our circle time when they were young. It was a great way to signal the start to our school time, and helped them transition into our calendar activities. Even for calendar time we sang the days of the week and the months of the year. Songs and music are a wonderful way to learn and reinforce…
Homeschool Planning for my Daughter’s Year 4 Journey
We start homeschooling again in not quite two weeks. I finally settled down and finalized with a framework for our year will look like. I say framework, because in homeschooling things change, and it’s important to be adaptable. In the video below I go over the blocks we will be doing and why I scheduled them when I did. I go over our schedule, our enrichment loop, the artists and musicians that I’ve chosen to study (this is very much likely to change,) and some of my source books, particularly for math. You’ll notice an addition to our enrichment loop…
Games – Late Elementary
THIS IS A 4-PART BLOG SERIES ON GAMES. IT INCLUDES GAMES FOR PRESCHOOLERS, EARLY ELEMENTARY, LATER ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL. THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS THAT WILL HELP YOU FIND THE GAME EASILY. These are my favorite games suitable for late elementary. I really like to have games that cover a range of ages that can play, but these are primarily focused on the late elementary crowd. Games are my favorite for memorization, exposure, or reinforcement of a concept. Timeline This is a great history game. It comes with a deck of small cards of historical events. One…
Schooling at Home thru the Covid-19 Pandemic
Homeschooling is not school at home. It has a totally different look and feel to it. I think at a time like this we probably have enough stress, that to try to replicate school at home right now would be far too much. But I do have some ideas that can promote, encourage, and continue learning for your child or just provide some entertainment and family time. The two main suggestions are below. These I think will bring you some sanity. You can find other activities here, but everything else is icing on the cake. Read Aloud Start a read-aloud…
About Me
Hi, I’m Della. I’m passionate about homeschooling, and I want to share it with you.