Welcome back to the “5 Essentials for Homeschool Enchantment” series! Today, I want to share with you one of my absolute favorite essentials for homeschool: creativity stations.
Art and Music, Brave Writer Lifestyle, writing
Monthly Archives
April 2018
If a homeschool fairy swooped down one day and told me I could only choose three tools to teach my children, I’d like to think I would not hesitate. I would smile and reply, “Books, nature, and open-ended art supplies.” But my answer is a sneaky one. I firmly believe that, at least in the early grades, you can teach just about every subject with these three things.
Blossom and Root Kindergarten, Nature Study
Inspiring Wonder: Nature Study in Blossom and Root Kindergarten
The first time I heard of Charlotte Mason, I was in my early twenties. I’d never heard of her or her methods prior to studying early childhood education. Yet somehow, despite my (relatively unromantic) public school education, I discovered that I had managed to have a Charlotte Mason childhood.
Between my parents and my grandparents, I’d grown up in a world richly infused with nature, literature, and the arts. I spent every moment I could outdoors, rambling over fields on my bike,
The seasons in Colorado, especially spring, aren’t exactly clearly-defined. Just the other day, I took the dogs on a morning walk through icy sleet, only to enjoy a hot, sunny afternoon at the park with the girls mere hours later. We dance between snow, rain, hail, and sunny 80 degree days from mid-March until, sometimes, the beginning of June. Even so, spring is magical. And it’s one of my favorite times to play hooky from table work in pursuit of muddy puddles and new, green sprouts.
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Any fellow Wildcraft fans out there? We got this game as a Christmas gift from my sister and, from the moment I opened it, I was in love. It’s got everything that makes my inner nature-nerd swoon! We’ve played it several times since then, and my daughters have already learned so much. We love incorporating games into our homeschool routine, so it was a perfect fit for our nature-based homeschool.
Art and Music, Blossom and Root Early Years
Inspired by Frida Kahlo: An Art Activity from Blossom and Root Early Years Vol. 2
This activity is from Blossom and Root Early Years, Vol. 2. Click here to download your free sample of this delight-filled, gentle, hands-on curriculum for ages 4 to 5. Vol. 2 features picture studies and inspired art projects from Renoir, Frida Kahlo, Hokusai, and Jacob Lawrence. Please note that this sample also includes a peek at Early Years Vol. 1 for ages 2 to 4.
Part One: Picture Study
Choosing curriculum for the year can be an exciting–and daunting–task. There are so many considerations: learning style, teaching style, homeschooling style or philosophy, subjects you want to cover, and (of course) budget. I think we can all agree that, given unlimited funds to put toward home education, we would have no problem spending it. Unfortunately, that’s simply not the case, and most homeschooling families (that I know) are on a pretty modest budget. So what do you do when it comes time to make those curriculum decisions and you’ve got less to work with than you’d like?