Keeping a Portfolio

Hello There! Welcome to The Beauty of Play. This post is for my subscription memberships. I currently have two: One for all things homeschooling and another for all things math.  If you are interested, you can sign up for my newsletter HERE where I will let you know when the next enrollment period becomes open….

Putting Together my Planner for the Coming Year

Hello There! Welcome to The Beauty of Play. This post is for my subscription memberships. I currently have two: One for all things homeschooling and another for all things math.  If you are interested, you can sign up for my newsletter HERE where I will let you know when the next enrollment period becomes open….

Math Circles

Hello There! Welcome to The Beauty of Play. This post is for my subscription memberships. I currently have two: One for all things homeschooling and another for all things math.  If you are interested, you can sign up for my newsletter HERE where I will let you know when the next enrollment period becomes open….

A Time-Sequence Graph

When my son was in eighth grade, I compiled several resources to make a “How We Learn/How to Study” course in preparation for High School. It went over thinks like memory recall, reflection, interleaving, and notetaking. One aspect that we spent some time on were graphs and using them for study, understanding, and notetaking. In…

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…

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…

“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…

Planning for High School

You know that feeling you get when you feel like you aren’t doing enough for your kids?  The one that causes you to panic and doubt yourself, go look for curriculum, and then over-schedule your homeschooling days?  Yeah, me too.  Even though I’m a well-seasoned homeschooler that has been at this for over a decade,…