Do you remember playing with magic squares as a kid? I loved them, and I thought Daegan might too—and that they’d be another way to practice his addition facts. The classic magic square is a 3-by-3 grid that uses each integer from 1 to 9 only once, and where the sum of each row, column, [...]
A friend of mine posted this brief documentary clip on facebook, and it is a wonderful snapshot of the breadth and history of Canada-US relations. I hope it gives more depth and insight to my American friends about my country, and why Canadians get so bothered by the fact that (in general) we know far [...]
Here’s another simple science experiment to try at home. This one is so easy and safe to do, my 5- and 7- year old did it completely on their own. You’ll need 5 raisins (or, in our case, craisins, as that’s what we had in the cupboard): A can of club soda, freshly opened and [...]
Earlier in the week the boys gave me a hand making some cookies, based on the “Sugared Black Raspberry Tea Cookies” recipe on allrecipes.com. Here’s our version: RASPBERRY THUMBPRINT COOKIES 1/2 c margarine or butter 1/4 c packed brown sugar 1/4 c white sugar 1 tsp vanilla 3 Tbsp milk (we use unsweetened almond milk) [...]
We played a couple games with popsicle (craft) sticks last night. I got the first game idea from a blog post about making shapes (triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, etc.) using sticks, but added a little twist of my own to make the game broader. I began giving each boy 1 stick. “What can you make?” [...]
It’s the time of year when getting enough exercise can be a challenge. Exercise DVDs for kids to the rescue! My two boys very much enjoy the Yoga Kids DVDs (Canada)(US). The other day Gareth asked me if he could borrow my yoga mat, and when I came down to the basement, this is what [...]
My friend Alicia, who writes an online homeschooling column, offered some new pictoral story starters for February, and Daegan wrote a story about an evil magician and a man with a giant purple ear. It’s been published in Alicia’s column, just as Gareth’s polar bear story was last month. Here is the text of [...]
Gareth is just starting to read, but knows his numbers, so I thought I’d create a simple matching / concentration game for us to play. I found words and numbers on this blog, and simply cut and pasted them to index cards cut in half: He began by putting the numbers in order, like on [...]
While Daegan and I worked on some math and his short story (coming soon!), Gareth—who now wants to be included and “do homeschool” too—asked to see the Draw Write Now books. He said he wanted to learn how to draw an alligator. I helped him find the correct book and page, and left him to [...]
I came across this interesting read about homeschooling stereotypes and how they are simply not true; today’s homeschoolers are as diverse as any other group of people. Enjoy Beyond Stereotypes: The New Face of Homeschooling from the Simple Homeschool blog.