Category: Blog posts

I am not the only one that thinks kids need to be outside more.  Many current experts recommend increasing the time that children spend outdoors playing or experiencing nature.  We have been fortunate to be able to raise our kids on an isolated farm where they could play and explore outside without constant supervision, and…

Ask yourself when and where you learn most effectively…. In a simulated artificial environment, focused on one isolated skill at a time, or in an authentic, real-deal scenario?  For MOST people, actual true-life experience provides a more motivating and realistic situation for learning skills, even though it may be more messy, chaotic, and overwhelming to…

This is something that took me a while to convince myself of – that traveling to a new spot with my kids could count as educational, even when I wasn’t being intentional about teaching them how to calculate mileage or how to spell the name of a new city.  There is a certain type of…

Six years ago, in 2018, I was staying up late at night to finish coursework toward my Talented and Gifted Endorsement through online classes at University of Iowa. Now, I actually am teaching TAG in our local school district 20 hours a week. I have a chance to put some of my ideas into practice,…

Not much, usually, when I am in the middle of it all.  Homeschooling is a serious commitment, and a solemn undertaking, and I take it pretty seriously almost every day.  There are lessons to learn, books to read, art projects and science experiments to do, and field trips to attend.  Most of these tasks require…