The Phantom Tollbooth

Recently we started a parent/child book club based on the format in Deconstructing Penguins mentioned in the previous post. Towards the end of Deconstructing Penguins, the Lawrence’s give a list of a few great books to start your book club with. The first one on the list was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster.
This lively humorous children’s book [...]

How to Deconstruct a Penguin

I recently came across this book Deconstructing  Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. It’s basically explaining how you can establish a book club for kids and their parents. The Goldstone’s conducted their own parent/child book club for years with such great success, that they decided to put the detais in a book for the rest of us.
Up [...]

Owl Puke!

Yes, you read that right – Owl Puke. The technical name would be Owl Pellet, or something much more refined, but this title got your attention, yes?
I recently attended the 2009  Homeschool Conference in the lower mainland of our province. This was their second year however, in a new venue, and even though there was less [...]

Proofread Carefully to See if You Any Words Out.

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. – Gene Fowler
The last few weeks of our homeschool have been focused on how to write a formal essay. We follow a loose Classical/Charlotte Mason homeschool philosophy, and are transitioning from copywork and dictation exercises to [...]

Cogito Ergo Sum

I was asked to write an article pertaining to how I am able to implement critical thinking with a Christian perspective into my homeschool, but before I explain how we do it, I feel I must firstly explain what critical thinking is, and what it is not.

As a Christian home educator, I find myself constantly [...]

Homeschool Perk #5

No Longer be a Slave to Grades!

Head on over to Heart of the Matter Online to read the rest of this month’s Homeschool Perk! See you there!

Birds of a Feather….

Birds of a feather stick together. That’s right – the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society are asking families, students, and people of all ages to help make an important contribution to conservation. Come join the12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count(GBBC), February 13-16, 2009. 

“The Great Backyard Bird Count benefits both birds and people. [...]

Book Review – Window on the World

I am often asked how I am able to teach to two different age levels. For homeschool families with more than two children, most of them have found ways to overcome this. For the rest of you, I will share how we manage it. There really isn’t any big secret – just a little bit [...]

I Lichen You Very Much!

Well, this whole new enthusiasm thing seems to be contagious! Today we went for another nature walk, but this time our group of young botonists grew from two to seven! This time we ventured a little further from home, to a local city park. We were on the hunt for birds, but the kids were so enthusiastic that [...]

A Winter Nature Walk

Well, after taking my first dose of my newly prescribed fresh enthusiasm, we had a fantastic day! We did many things differently, enough to write a few new posts about, but the highlight of the day was taking off outside and reacquainting ourselves with “the nature walk”.  Armed with notebooks, pencils, binoculars and field guides [...]