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Shiller Learning Language Arts Review: Montessori or not?

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SHILLER LEARNING LANGUAGE ARTS... Finding a homeschooling education program that fits all of a mom's or family's desires and a child's needs can be a challenging task and despite the ridiculous amount of curriculum available can sometimes seem impossible. This has been the case for me, who loves Montessori, but really can't commit to doing Montessori full time as I have no training and don't have the time or energy to be constantly creating activities and "following" exactly what my child is up to. I wish it was different but I have been trying for two years now to implement Montessori at home and yeah, my efforts while valiant, don't look like the classroom. The occasional Montessori activity on a tray or engaged cleaning toddler just haven't reached the mark. There is part of me that wishes I could just keep sending them to school but homeschooling is really the best option for our family. My husband feels that I need a set curriculum so that I ...
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How to Start Homeschooling Step by Step

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You are interested in homeschooling. Maybe you aren't happy with your child's progress at school. Maybe you look at your squirmy 5 year old and can't imagine how he will ever sit still and do well in a classroom. Maybe you feel your child is developmentally not ready to cope with school 5 days a week 9 to 3. Maybe your school district has poor outcomes. Maybe you love the idea of the beautiful private school down the road but just can't afford to send more than one child. Whatever your reason for being curious or serious about wanting to homeschool, welcome! DIRECTIONS FOR THE JOURNEY I hope this post will give you some direction, point you toward some helpful start-up resources and help you get a better idea if this whole homeschooling gig is for you and your children.I will try to continually update this page as I find helpful links and homeschool programs. I hope I can provide you with an overview of where you would need to go if you wanted to pursue this wa...
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Nutrition Packed Carrot Cake Bliss Balls- Gluten Free, Vegan

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      NUTRITION PACKED CARROT CAKE BLISS BALLS.. As a mom of a 3 and 4 year old I'm always looking for ways to get extra nutrition and veggies into my kiddos diets.Well, frankly into my diet as well! So I put together this little Carrot Cake Bliss ball recipe that packs in the healthy stuff and includes those raw carrots to give a bit of a veggie bang all while tasting oh soo delicious. My girls are begging me for them...they don't last long around here between the kids and ahmmm the parents. If your kids are more on the picky side you may want to blend up the nuts and pumpkin seeds and perhaps leave out the buckwheat kernels but we like ours nice and chunky. NUTRIENT DENSE The recipe starts out with dates which are a source of energy, sugar, and fiber. They even are a source of minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, sodium, potassium,and magnesium. Healthy but sweet to ease some sugar craving that I may or may not have... Then of course there are the carrot...
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Our Favourite Beginning Phonics Readers for Learning to Read

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 SEARCHING FOR GOOD READERS Over the course of the past year my daughters have been deep in the trenches of learning to read. It has been a learning experience for all of us, but  besides me having to grow in patience, the process has been much simpler in many ways than I imagined. Maybe I can write a post on our journey another day, but today I wanted to share what I have found to be the BEST sequential phonetic readers we have used.  ( Be sure to check out Free resources available during Covid-19 in point #5! ) In our search for readers, we have tried Abeka readers (K-1st grade, which we do like overall and are still using for practice), Fitzroy readers (these are ok, but not great), Bob books, Ladybug readers, Christian Liberty Press readers, a McGuffy reader and a few others that the library had single copies of. I have also looked into many other options and samples and had not found anything that I really liked. Many "phonetic" readers include too many random sight ...
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Montessori Inspired Cooking for Young Kids- Review of the Independent Kids Cookbook by Plenty of Trays

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  Our Experience with The Independent Kid Cookbook …  This morning I was admittedly distracted writing an important email while my kids played. I was aroused from my screen when my daughter asked me if I could please turn on the oven. I sprang out of my chair to discover my daughters, aged 5 and 6, had independently mixed up a batch of oatmeal cookies. The girls also had made a pot of tea and had poured everyone a cup using our tea set and had declared we were having a tea party. My mommy heart was just a little proud despite the little bit oatmeal on the floor that was later cleaned up quickly by a daughter with the cordless vacuum.  If you haven’t visited Plenty of Trays you may not have seen their The Independent Kid Cookbook , but you should definitely check it out. My kids and have really enjoyed having this book in our home. This is a digital product that I printed out and placed in a binder with plastic sleeves and put on the shelf in our kitchen for easy...
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What We Do All Day- Homeschool Record Keeping: FREE DAILY TRACKING PRINTABLE

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TRACKING YOUR HOMESCHOOL DAYS... As I get deeper into this adventure of homeschooling my children, one of the dilemmas and challenges I have faced has been around how to record and what to record of what we do everyday. Here in South Australia we do have some government requirements, but I am not required to show what we did every day. However, as an eclectic homeschooler and also a Montessori inspired homeschooler I felt I needed some way to keep track of the work we’ve done- both for me to keep track of where we’re up to and to have a way to prove that I am educating my children if I ever needed to defend myself (unlikely, but I feel more secure this way). Also I felt I needed a place to make observations about my children and notes about learning gaps and needs and interests. But I NEED this all together in one place. TRYING DIFFERENT METHODS First I just tried a small spiral notebook, but I found this messy and although it worked for noting my observations, didn’t have space to...
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