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Homeschool

What is Nature-Based Homeschool?

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

We haven’t followed a formal plan for nature-based homeschool lessons in our homeschool but more of an unschool approach to spending time outside. We take an unschool approach to most of our subjects. Being in nature has many health benefits – mental and physical, as well as cognitive development. I think it is important for our kids to be outside in all weather, each season, all year long experiencing nature.

What is Nature-Based Homeschool

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

To think about adding an other element to your homeschool day or plans but I think it cane be a lot more relaxing than that. Thought there are different, amazing, options to choose from for a more guided way to include nature studies in your homeschool.

Nature-Based Homeschool

This is something that has been growing in popularity over the past few years as parents are interested in children’s connection with nature and harnessing its benefits for their educational development.

Forest school are popping up for all ages. I would have loved to have had something like these for kids when we lived out west. Now I can’t keep my kids in the house.

What is Natured-Based Learning?

Nature-based learning, or learning through exposure to nature and nature-based activities. It occurs in natural settings and where elements of nature have been brought into built environments, such as plants, animals, and water.

Nature based Homeschool

How to Get Started in Nature Based Homeschooling

Start by getting outside in every season. Winters can be hard, the cold is not everyone’s favorite thing, I for one really struggle with it, but we still make a point of getting outside everyday.

There are some amazing books you may want to check out to help you get started with nature based homeschooling. I often use books of this nature as a jumping off point. A way to kick my brain into high gear, get the ideas flowing.

Gardening – fruit, vegetable, or flower. All are get options for learning about plants growing in nature.

Bugs – build a bug hotel. I’ll be the first to say I don’t do bugs, but there are quite a few insects that are quite useful to us.

Playing with Natural things – do you make mud pies? How about building with old sticks and/or logs? Let your imagination be free. Playing outside grows resilience, self-confidence, initiative, creativity and more.

Similar posts you may be interested in:

Why We Garden in Our Homeschool

Benefits of Gardening with Kids

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Filed Under: Homeschool, Natural Homeschooling Tagged With: Homeschool, Nature Study

First Year Homeschool Tips

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

The first year of homeschooling, under normal circumstances, can be very stressful. I want to help you make it a better year than my first year. Yes, our first year was so hard, but we stuck it out and here we are six years later. I want to share our first year homeschool tips, let’s all be successful together.

5 First Year Homeschool Tips

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

The most common thing you will hear, especially from newer moms, is that they don’t think they are doing enough, they don’t think they are a good enough teacher. But let me tell you something, you are enough. You know your children better than anyone!

There are so many resources available now, more than ever before. You can find everything you might need if you search online. Whether you are shopping for full curriculum, or looking for something to add to your curriculum or plans.

First Year Homeschool Tips

Teachers aren’t perfect either. You don’t need to be perfect.

You are going to make mistakes and you’re going to think you are failing. But in the end, happy, well adjusted kids are what matters. Not finishing a read aloud that is on the curriculum reading list.

You don’t want to overschedule yourself.

Joining a homeschool co-op or homeschool meet up is a great way to meet other homeschoolers and have people who are going through the same things.

You might want to have your child enrolled in every extracurricular activity so you feel like they are with other kids, and being socialized. Guess what? You don’t need to. Between hanging out with friends and a homeschool meet ups you might find yourself already socializing a lot and not needing the extra stress of more activities to rush off too.

5 First Year Homeschool Tips

Be flexible.

Know that you are not forced to use the curriculum or method you started with. You can change your mind as you go along because you are learning what works.

Keep the Learning Interesting

If you and your kids are falling asleep during that curriculum read aloud it might be time to put it down. You want everyone to enjoy learning, pick up a great book, like Charlotte’s Web. Then you can watch the movie afterwards to compare them.

What are your kids interested in learning about? Include that in your lessons. Head to the library and let them pick out books that interest them and include them in reading time.

Have Fun and Make Memories

Don’t worry about finished a curriculum so much that you turn into a drill sergeant. Try a different way to teach, be silly. Do your lessons under the table in a fort or outside on a blanket in the yard.

Spend the afternoon setting off bottle rockets in the backyard. Or spend the day at a museum or science center.

Similar posts you may be interested in:

Google Classroom Alternatives

Keeping a Homeschool Reading Log

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Filed Under: Homeschool, Homeschool Helps Tagged With: Homeschool

What is a Secular Morning Basket

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

I have been intrigued by the idea of a having morning basket in our homeschool for awhile now without really looking into what it truly was, and what went into them. But a little research about a secular morning basket I realized that I have essentially been doing it for a few years now without realizing.

Secular Morning Basket

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

What is a morning basket?

A morning basket is when everyone in the family can come together and learn together about specific subjects. All ages can homeschool together doing activities like reading aloud, studying the arts, or even efficiently combining students for subjects like history and science.

Morning baskets can be the perfect opportunity for you to teach multiple grades at once.

Despite the name, it does not have to be in the morning, but morning seems most popular as its a time when everyone is most often together, just starting their day, before they go off into their individual courses or subjects.

What is in a secular morning basket?

Now that you know what a morning basket is, the question becomes what do you put in it. And how big of a basket do you need to hold everything.

The answer for the basket is that I don’t have have an actual basket, but a bin in our cube storage organizer. It keeps everything together and neat and tidy, which is the point of a basket.

What’s in your basket is really up to you. Some feel that there should only be books, and while I love books, I don’t think it should or needs to be limited in this way. My kids love trivia questions, and I think they are a fun way to se what they know or might need a refresher on.

Secular morning basket

Some general ideas of what you may want to have in your basket:

  • read aloud books
  • encyclopedia
  • board games
  • hands on games such as Traffic Jam
  • puzzles
  • flashcards
  • trivia games
  • playdoh
  • coloring books

In my experience younger children listen to read aloud better when their bodies are doing something, like coloring or playing with Playdoh. Build your basket around the needs of your children, and what you want them to learn. This week or month might be all things dinosaurs, and next week or month might be about art or music.

A secular morning basket is only different from a religious morning basket (typically just called a morning basket) in the fact that it does not content a bible or other religious material. A morning basket can be a great addition to any homeschool no matter the ages of your children. Or single child.

Similar posts you may be interested in:

10 Doodle Books for Girls

5 Book Series for Girls Aged 11-13 Years Old

Books on Amazing Women for Our Girls

Filed Under: Homeschool, Homeschool Helps Tagged With: Homeschool, morning basket

5 Homeschool Bad Habits to Break

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Halfway through the school year, you might want to take a look back and evaluate how things went. Maybe things went great, Way to Go Momma! But maybe they didn’t. Maybe you need to make some changes, I know we do. Homeschool bad habits are often where our homeschool dreams go wrong.

5 Homeschool Bad Habits to Break

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

Let’s look at what didn’t work. Maybe you didn’t do structured lessons as much as you would have liked. Or maybe you didn’t do as many hands on science experiments as you would have liked. It’s okay. I think of January as a fresh start for our school each year.

It is time to change what isn’t working.

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Homeschool Bad Habits to Break

No Set Homeschool Time

When do lessons start in your homeschool day? Does it change daily? Is it something you are putting off longer and longer.

Picking a time to start each day can be a game changer for consistency. Here, right after breakfast and the morning routine, my kids each jump into math. Getting it out of the way. One thing we’re going to try as winter break ends is tea time language arts after a morning break (outside chores).

No Homeschool Plan

We need a plan! Okay maybe you really don’t need to know every little thing you are doing, but it will really help your days run more smoothly if you have a general idea of what you want to get done each day.

Maybe Tuesday is science day. Thursday is history day. Something like this can take the pressure off of feeling like you need to do everything everyday.

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Rushing

Do you feel like you are falling behind? Even though there really is no “behind”? A homeschool bad habit is to rush through lessons. One thing I would look at instead of trying to rush your kids through weeks of lessons is to look at what you can drop.

Slow and steady wins the race!

Look at your Schedule

If you are feeling burned out, maybe you are doing way too much. Too many subjects at one time, or in one day. Maybe you have to cut back on outside activities. Your kids don’t need to be signed up for every extra curricular activity.

Not Having Fun

One thing I learned in past years was that homeschooling doesn’t have to be this strict, sit down and get it done kind of thing. Yes, we have had bad years, bad days in good years, but it’s finding a balance. The best balance has been making sure were having fun here and there each week.

Have fun by including hands on learning. Have fun by getting out of the house even if it’s just for a walk or heading to the playground.

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Screen-Time Balance

This is a hard one. We have lessons online. Does that count as screen time? It doesn’t for me.

Screen time before lessons get finished throws a wrench in our whole day, and nothing else is going to get done, so I drew a hard line there. Screen time is after school lessons are finished. But you need to find where the balance is for you.

5 Homeschool Bad Habits to Break

Similar posts you may be interested in:

Beating the Homeschooler’s February Funk

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Filed Under: Homeschool, Homeschool Helps Tagged With: Homeschool

Homeschooling and School at Home

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

There is a difference. There are several difference between homeschooling and school at home. Everyone is currently learning how we can educate our children with the pandemic happening, everyone is doing their best which is what is important for our kids.

Homeschool and School at Home

Homeschooling and School at Home

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

I really don’t like seeing the comments on Facebook: “Day 10 of homeschooling”, or whatever day if may be. Why? because you aren’t really homeschooling, you are doing school at home, or you are helping your child’s teacher teach them through distance learning.

Homeschoolers don’t necessarily consider distance learning homeschooling either, even when they had been homeschooling in the past. Mainly due to your child having an online teacher, you are the parent helping to make sure that your child’s emotional wellbeing is being taken care of while they partake in their lessons.

What is school at home?

School at home is replicate school at home. This is a formal, sit down at your desk or dining room table and get your school work done. Though it does seem like it sitting in front of a computer watching their teacher on Zoom with technology now.

While completing school at home you are going to be working with someone else’s schedule, most likely your child’s teacher or teachers.

Homeschool and School at Home

What is homeschooling?

Homeschooling is the parents educating their child at home. Parents choosing the curriculum that they are using to teach their child. Homeschooling is learning outside of the public or private school environment. Essentially, homeschooling involves a commitment by a parent or guardian to oversees their child or teen’s educational development.

As the person in charge of your child’s education you are in charge of scheduling everything, for each day.

Homeschooling During a Pandemic

No one is doing the traditional homeschool thing right now. I’m not. It is not typical for us to not go to places like museums, or science science centers. We are used to spending hours at the library reading, studying a new topic, and just enjoying ourselves.

Homeschooling isn’t staying home in lockdown or quarantine, its going places, and seeing friends, joining a coop.

We are all surviving right now. Homeschooling, pandemic-schooling, virtual school, whatever might be the case for your family.

Similar posts you may be interested in:

17 Homeschool Freedoms We Forget About

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Filed Under: Homeschool, Homeschool Helps Tagged With: Homeschool

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A Little About Me

I'm Ashley, a Canadian secular homeschool mom of 3, living in Nova Scotia.

I share our adventures in homeschooling and parenting.

You can usually find us at the library surrounded by books.
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