If there is one thing I wish we’d done more of in our early homeschooling years, it would be International Day. In our children’s young lives, it was a way to travel on a tight budget and expose them to other parts of the world. We ‘visited’ Australia, Germany, South...
Author: hlphs2018
Growing Things Part III – Processing
Now that you've planted and picked fruit and veggies, aside from eating them raw, what else can you do? My personal favorite is jam. Making jam is a simple and uncomplicated means of preserving fruit, and can be used as a spread on toast, in tarts or pies, and even...
Growing Things Part II – Picking
You don't have to have a farm to be able to enjoy the fresh and in-season fruits of the ground. Even with a small space, you will be surprised at what you can grow, and with a little exploration, you will probably find places that let you pick some of...
Growing Things Part I – Planting
Learning where food comes from is an important part of educating children. I remember when I lived in London, a prominent political person in South Africa was asked where she would get her groceries if the farmers gave up their farms. Her response was the name of the local grocery...
FREE Unit Study for April, 2020
In these unprecedented times of lockdown and traveling viruses, have you found yourself now homeschooling for the first time and don’t know what to do as far as content or curriculum to teach your children? I have a unit study curriculum that covers grammar, spelling, vocabulary, mapwork, history, opinion, research,...
Wonderful West Trip
We recently had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see some of the wonderful west of our country. We took an eleven-week trip, spending about half of the nights on a bed (in hotels or with friends and family), and the other half on the floor in our tent. It was the...
Fishing in Ocean City
Homeschooling. What does that mean to you? Perhaps you know someone who homeschools. Or perhaps you have simply heard the term. Or perhaps you are interested in homeschooling or are already doing so. What does it look like? How do you “do” homeschooling? The fundamental basis for science is observation....
Home School Computing – Picking the perfect Chromebook
In my last article wrapping up computing options for homeschoolers, I mentioned that my platform of choice, at least as a starting point, would be Chromebooks and Chrome OS. I’d like to add a little meat to those bones and help you pick something that’s going to get them going...
White Sands National Monument
As former Vermonters, we were quite enthralled with our trips to White Sands National Monument. The sand-fine gypsum was unbelievably like the snow we experienced annually in Vermont. But this wasn’t for shoveling. Or plowing. Or slipping on because it had become a sheet of ice with the sustained below-freezing...
Socialization and Homeschooling
One of the most common questions people against homeschooling might ask you is, “What about socialization?” Well, what about it? Firstly, what is socialization? My go-to quick-reference online dictionary is https://www.dictionary.com/. Their definition of socialization is “a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms,...
Hands-on Science
It might surprise folks that as a Cornell University graduate with a degree in Chemical Engineering, I had little to no practical, hands-on science experience prior to my graduation. Most of my knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology and the like was out of textbooks. For many reasons, I do not...
Science Made Easy
Teaching science to your child can be a daunting topic if you weren't a science fan yourself, but there are so many fun and easy ways to get your child interested in the subject. They're easier than you think. In many ways, we are closer to the beginning, rather than...
In the Kitchen
There’s no place to multitask quite like in the kitchen. One job can cover a multitude of subjects. Science - experiment away with heat, chemistry, pressure, steam... Math - measuring in baking and cooking Home economics - making food Life skills - cooking is NOT old fashioned, and will, in...
Computer Class 1 with Rick Eutsler Jr
For our first semester of the Computer Class we will be covering the basics, as we have students ranging in age from seven years old to forty six years old. We're going to do 8 lessons to cover 8 to 10 weeks. These classes will begin to cover the basics...
Photography Class 1 with Rick Eutsler, Jr
For our first semester of the Photography Class, we went through the following topics. Photography Basics: Shutter Speed Aperture ISO Composition: Rule of Thirds Depth of Field Practical Application: Sports Photography Still Photography Portraits Landscape Macro Additionally, while focusing on Mac (Apple) based skill sets here, we will also be...
My Five Most Invaluable Items to use in homeschooling: #5 Notebooking Pages
Notebooking Pages... one of the top 5 invaluable things I use in homeschooling! Notebooking Pages is a treasure absolutely worth having, whether you get the free version or the Lifetime Membership. The free version offers over 600 pages of notebooking pages to download. We started with this before jumping...
Commitment
Before my wife and I married, I was committed to homeschooling. By contrast my wife, who came from a background and country (South Africa) where homeschooling was unheard of, had many misgivings. Yet, as with many things where I stood apart from my wife’s experience and training, she yielded, choosing...
Setting the Tone
I love learning. It is a wonder to me, but I never liked school even though I was good at it. Even the classes that I was most excited to take never satisfied, but quickly became a bore. In all my years of study the only class I ever took...
My Five Most Invaluable Items to use in homeschooling: #3 My Planner
My Planner - What I planned for the year, the week, what we actually did this week, and who has a birthday today! My planner. It certainly is one of my 5 most invaluable items for homeschooling! My sister gave me a brief tutorial on using Microsoft’s Publisher, and it...
Hardware for Homeschooling Part III – ChromeOS
So we’ve looked at a the two core options available to most for homeschooling computer hardware. Windows and MacOS seem to be the primary options, but there are some new options coming on the market that are worth consideration. The most notable at this time is ChromeOS. ChromeOS is a...