Forgetful Momma

Secular Homeschooling in Canada

homeschool helps

Doing School at Home

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There are a lot of “homeschoolers” right now what with school being closed across Canada and the United States. There is a lot of information out there about how to schedule the day, how to re-create school at home. School at home is going to look a lot different than actual public school.

Doing School at Home

Doing School at Home

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School at home is going to look differently than public school. To start, you have a very small amount of kids in your school, and in your classroom, especially if you have multiple grades.

Let’s Take A Breath

You are stressed about working from home or being off work, and now you are stressing about how to teach your kids. Relax, take a breath and let me tell you about deschooling.

Deschooling is a period of adjustment that child goes through when leaving school and begins homeschooling. The child has he chance to decompress and disconnect from “school” being the default and “school ways” being the standard expectation. But this only happens through a lack of strict scheduling, and maybe even a complete lack of “school”.

How to do School at Home

This is where most of you are. You are now home with your child you are trying to figure out when to get school work done, and then school work is finished super early in the day. What you are suppose to do with the rest of the day, because doesn’t school take 8 hours a day?

School at home doesn’t take all day because your child is working at their pace and not working on someone else (or a classroom of someone elses), and are able to get their work done faster… assuming they work and aren’t getting distracted by the fact that they are home.

Suddenly Doing school at Home

School at Home & Screen Time

You can use screen time. At this point, throw out the rules on limited screen time. Maybe your school has classes online, maybe you’re kids are super interested in learning more about graphic design or coding right now. You know where they are going to learn about those things: online, on the computer, screen time. Just go with it. We LOVE Teaching Textbooks which is online.

There are a lot of places that are doing live videos on Facebook showing and teaching new things as well as this goes on. Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for example is one that we have been enjoying each day. We just love seeing and learning about animals from them.

Get Outside

Just because you are having to stay away from people does not mean that you can’t get outside and get some fresh air. In fact, I recommend it for helping everyone burn off energy, to keep people from climbing the walls in the house.

Going for a walk is a great way to get out of the house without, hopefully, coming into contact with many people, and if you do, remember the 6 foot rule. Walking is a great way to start a nature study, and you don’t need to be formal about it, just talk about what you see and hear.

Arts & Crafts Time

This is a favorite past time for my six year old. He loves to color and draw. One of our favorite YouTube channels is Art for Kids Hub. Step by step drawing of kids favorite characters, animals, and more. I really like this videos for my kids and I to do together.

You don’t need formal art time, just let your kids have free range to crayons, markers, paper, etc.

Doing School at Home

Reading

Any homeschooler will tell you, reading is the best thing ever! You kids can read to themselves, they can read to you, or you can read to them. The answer to many questions lay within a book.

With all the closures libraries are also closed for physical books which is completely horrible but many have access online with OverDrive. There are also online book subscription places that are offering their services for free for a certain amount of time. Scribd is one of these places, Epic offers reading FREE for 30 days , and Amazon is offering children’s books for free on Audible.

You don’t need to make this time stressful and hard on yourself or your kids. Just be together. Read a book out loud. Maybe take some time for yourself in your room away from everything.

Getting Hands on with History – Hieroglyphs

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I’m not a history buff so teaching my kids history this year was a little challenging but we have all learned a lot. It is amazing what a great book can do for perking interesting, I should have known this of course, being a huge book lover! While history isn’t my thing, creativity is, and it also is engaging for kids and my kids are loving how hands on they are getting while learning and revisiting their book and these hieroglyphs are just one example of that.

Hieroglyphs - history

Getting Hands on with History – Hieroglyphs

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

We have a really great book for our history lessons this year, The Usborne Book of World History, it came with our Reading with History Level 1 curriculum. This books is full of hands on learning activities and crafts to do with your kids as you’re learning about different periods and cultures in history. Creating stories using the early invention of writing, hieroglyphs, is one of the activities that we turned into our own and was one of our favorites. (It was not done exactly this way in the book.)

We used modeling clay from the dollar store, we just lucked out that they had it in stock when I was looking but Walmart and Amazon are usually my go to place to get it. We also used some playdough toys like the rolling pins and knives.

Each of my kids got a good sized chuck of clay rolled it flat and then proceed to “write” a story on their clay using hieroglyphs. They used a combination of those that were shown in the book and those they created on their own.

Hieroglyphs - Reading with History Level 1

I want to point out that my kids did theirs on placemats because it made clean up easier and I didn’t have to worry about it sticking to my dining room table, which is where we do school. I’m planning on doing this again this summer, outside where the clay will dry faster, and encourage new, nature inspired stories.

What kind of story do you think that your kids would write using hieroglyphs?

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Mastering Multiplication with Times Tales

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Oh multiplication how I came to hate you, and then love you, all through the eyes of my child. I got to see how scary and frustrating you could be, after all doesn’t three and five together make eight, not 15? But then I got to watch it all click, and to be completely honest, that is one of the best perks of homeschooling, watching it all click into place. Times Tales was just what we need.

Mastering Multiplication with Times Tales

Mastering Multiplication with Times Tales

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information. This is not a sponsored post.*

A little multiplication background: We started multiplication towards the end of grade 2 and she was getting the lower numbers really well, but then came summer. We read a lot during the summer, preventing the summer slide in one area, we kind of forgot our multiplication. So while learning the lower numbers came easily again, you know, counting by two, and fives, Austin just didn’t want to work to learn the higher numbers, she ran out of fingers basically and was done. Her shutting down down and not wanting to try new things is something that we are working, I’ll share more about that another time.

I had read amazing things about Times Tales and thought I’d give it a try, if it didn’t work then I wasn’t out a lot of money but at least we tried. But boy has it worked! I mean it worked instantly. She was happy to sit there and work on the stories, and on the flashcards. She was even willing, and trying, to do the division, which blew my mind.

Times Tales Grahics

The graphics are a bit funky, very basic, but easy to remember. The stories that they tell are the stories that teach your child multiplication for them to be able to remember. We have found it works best on the computer because she could pause it at the correct times easier.

She is quite proud of the fact that she can answer multiplication questions now without thinking about the stories she learned them through. Times Tales is specifically for the upper times tables: 3×6, 3×7, 3×8, 3×9, 4×6, 4×7, 4×8, 4×9, 6×6, 6×7, 6×8, 6×9, 7×7, 7×8, 7×9, 8×8, 8×9, 9×9.


Not only was I able to find something that worked for Austin, our oldest, I found something we’ll be able to use it again with the next two when their time comes if need be. I ordered the DVD with a CD-ROM with the bonus printables, you can print them again and again. The printables include flashcards with the characters and flashcards with just numbers, crossword puzzles, and a set character dice. I printed out the flashcard and laminated them because I love using it, but also because I know how thing tend to get ruined her within minutes thanks to little brother and puppy.

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Using Post It Notes in Your Homeschool

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A year, maybe two years ago I bought a pack of Post It notes from Costco because I tend to leave myself notes every where. I have started using them in our homeschool now too. The best thing about Post It notes is just how much you can do with them.

Using Post It Notes in Your Homeschool
Using Post It Notes in Your Homeschool

Using Post It Notes in Your Homeschool

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

Library Lists

I look up a lot of books online, and then look to see if I can get them from our library. If our library has them local I use my lovely post it notes to write down the books that I want to pick up. I then stick the note to my wallet so I don’t loose it before getting to the library.

Read Aloud

Going with our BookShark Reading with History we started Charlotte’s Web (which I was totally stoked about because I loved it as a child). BookShark gives daily reading schedule along with the vocabulary that gets picked up in each chapter and questions to ask your child(ren).

I use post it notes to write down the questions and put them at the end of each chapter. This way I am not breaking the flow of reading to get up find the questions.

Using Post It Notes in Your Homeschool

Keeping Track

I love using post it notes for keeping track of how my kids are doing in different subjects. I can stick one in their math workbook to keep track of where they might need a little extra practice. Or in our history book to remember something really interesting, or something that they took particular interest in and want to learn more about.

I have been sticking them to the covers of their workbooks, or activities books to help us keep track of where we need to start or which activities we are going to do in what order.

Using Post It Notes for New Ideas

Just like I keep track of what they want to learn more about. I also love post it notes for writing down project plans, extra activities to do like making a snack or dessert, or making spider watercolor web (post to come later on this one!)

Post its are super handy in our homeschool for keeping track of things that I want to happen, to track things for their school year portfolios, and more.

Soil Testing Garden Science

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When you are working in the garden, and hoping  and working hard for all your vegetables to grow, you also have to consider what else they might need, maybe your soil isn’t as great as it could be. Being curious and the experimenting type we did some soil testing in our backyard. Not just on our soil in the backyard, but did the whole thing in the windy yard.

My oldest has now been “experimenting” with dirt and water on her own while outside playing. I love how one thing can spark explorations of other kinds.

DIY Soil Testing Garden Science Experiment

Soil Testing Garden Science

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

For the first part of our testing we started by using a soil test that we bought from a store, you can most likely find them at any garden center, or on Amazon. They really don’t cost a lot, usually under $8 from what we have seen.

Soil Testing Garden Science Experiment

With the store bought test it really is as simple as following the instructions on the package. The first part was testing the pH of the soil, and was over and done within minutes. For the other three tests you had to mix water with your soil and then let it sit for 10 minutes.

DIY Soil Testing Garden Science Experiment

For the second part of our soil testing we did a DIY method that we basically just made up. We already had some pH testing strips (for our fish tank) and wondered if they would also work for our dirt.

DIY Soil Testing Garden Science Experiment

Letting little fingers do the pH strip test didn’t leave us too sure of how well it worked on the first strip. Letting it re-settle helped for the second strip, and we could see the color change, but it wasn’t a huge difference, and quite close to neutral as the store bought test seemed to be.

I hope that my in-laws will be visiting this summer and will perhaps bring us a little Nova Scotia soil so we can redo this with that dirt and compare. And yes, I am actually hoping that my in-laws visit this summer and not just for the hope of dirt, can you imagine?

Do you take science outside? There is a lot to be learned out there, starting with soil testing.

 

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