With the holiday season coming up many parents are looking for gift ideas for their kids. None of us want more junk cluttering our homes, so we try to plan and purchase gifts that will last – and that might even teach our kids something! In this post I share 10 gift ideas that will entertain,…
Category Archives: Reviews: Curriculum
Homeschooling Your High-Schooler
I have a confession to make: when I homeschooled my oldest child – and only daughter – I, like many homeschoolers, found the prospect of homeschooling a high-schooler to be very daunting. Now keep in mind that when I started homeschooling in 1990 it was still very much a fledgling movement. So by the time…
How To: Teach the Fine Arts
There are so many ways to teach your children about the Fine Arts! In this post I am going to tell you about the activities and resources I have used with my own children and offer tips to help you introduce your children to the arts as well. For the sake of clarity, when I…
How To: Teach Social Science, Part 2 (History)
I love history. As a matter of fact, I am working on (finally!) finishing my Bachelor’s degree and while I am majoring in English Literature, I am minoring in History. Going through school I was fortunate enough to have some great history teachers. However, when I first attended college over 30 years ago (ouch!), I…
How To: Teach Social Science, Part 1 (Geography)
There are a number of disciplines that fall under the heading of “social sciences” but I am going to focus on the ones that would most commonly be taught in a home-school curriuculum: history, geography, economics and political science. Some may wonder why I would choose to use the term “social sciences” rather than just…
How To: Teach Language Arts
A few weeks ago I shared ideas for teaching your child to read. In this post I want to highlight other aspects of teaching the language arts (or “English,” which is what I call the combination of these subjects on my children’s high school transcripts.) For the sake of this post, and to make it easier…
How To: Teach Math (Drills)
In my last post I pointed out that teaching math has basically two components: math concepts and fact recall (or in other words: speed and accuracy when recalling math facts). Last week I discussed how I teach math concepts and listed some curriculum options that may work for you. This week I want to discuss…
How To: Teach Math (Concepts)
Before I get into the specifics of teaching your child math I am going to philosophize here for a minute…or perhaps editorialize would be a better word. In any case, if you do not care to read the upcoming *editorial* feel free to jump down to where I get into the specifics of teaching math. In the meantime,…
How To: Teach Your Child To Read
This post is the first in my series on “How To” teach specific subjects. Over the next few weeks I will be covering such subjects as teaching math, history, science, etc. If you have any questions or concerns you’d like me to address, please feel free to fill out my contact form so I can…
Let’s Get Scientifical
If you have visited my “Resources” page, where I recommend various curriculum suppliers that I have used during my 2 decades-plus of home-schooling, you would see the company “Tobin’s Lab” listed there. In this post I want to give more information about this supplier and tell you how their products have benefited my home-schooling experience. …
