Truchet Blocks

Making Blocks to Play Math I am an affiliate of WoodPeckers Crafts. How did this happen? Early in my blogging days sharing about our homeschool journey, I wrote a post about how I made a 100-chart out of 1-inch wooden blocks: Making a 100-chart for Math. It turned out to be THE most popular post,…

Using Monopoly for Math

The Different Ways that You Can Use the Game Monopoly to Get in a Little Math Practice in your Home… Hello There! Welcome to The Beauty of Play. This post is for my subscription members. I currently have two subscriptions: One for all things homeschooling and another for all things math.You can learn more about…

Making Mushroom Spore Prints

We love to go mushroom hunting. Our mushroom hunts are for spore prints. We do NOT eat our mushrooms. I wish I knew which ‘shrooms were edible and which were not, but alas… Goals!  Spore prints are a favorite around here. I do not know how I made it all the way through my college…

My Favorite Educational Apps

The homeschool world abounds with opinions on electronics. Some think that electronics should be limited, while others think that electronics should be embraced.  My family falls somewhere in between. We do limit our screen time at my house to encourage and promote outdoor  (and indoor) play, but I do use them for educational purposes occasionally, especially on…

“Notice and Wonder” with Cuisenaire Rods for Homeschool Math

Today for math we did one of my favorite activities, though I will admit, it is not always my children’s favorite. My daughter, now 10, build a structure with the Cuisinaire Rods, and then we did a “notice and wonder” activity. The structure that she build for today was a pyramid. I could have guessed…

Nurturing a Love of Reading

Learning to read is definitely one of the hallmarks of childhood, and a particularly special on for a homeschooling parent. Not only do you have the joy of a parent watching your child learn to read but also the joy as their teacher. Remembering the point for each of my children reading journey where they…

Games-Early 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. We have shifted from our normal structured homeschool style to a more unschooled style of homeschooling for the summer.  With…

Making a Skip Counting Number Wheel

I was lucky enough to be advised by older and wiser homeschooling parents than me that after my children could count proficiently to 100, I should teach them to count by 2’s, 3’s, 4’s and so forth.  It worked so very well for my first child, and so with my youngest now going through kindergarten,…

Turtle Tessellation Tiles and Pentagon Spirals

We are finished with our homeschooling year. Well…almost.  We didn’t get to math this year, and so as we shift our focus to more fun, and a less strictly academic theme to our schooling (because who are we kidding? Homeschooling is a lifestyle; there really is no “summer break,”) we will be doing our math…

Easter pH play

This Easter I had the lofty goal of dying eggs with food, using beets for pink, turmeric for yellow, and red cabbage for blue. Like many things, my kids had different ideas, thus we did not dye eggs.  That didn’t stop us from having lots of fun with colors. I took the cabbage juice to…