Spring is in the air and it's time to once again begin the ritual of spring cleaning, but it's always a little more difficult to work on spring cleaning for homeschooling moms because there are always children at home. "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shovelling the walk before it stops snowing," to quote Phyllis Diller, and more so when homeschooling, in my opinion! But don't despair, I have a few tips for you to get things under control! This post may ... read more
Homeschool Complete Unit Studies Review
For the past month or so, my children have spent some time reviewing two Unit Studies (grades 3-6) from Homeschool Complete: Asia and Olympics. Read on to find out more. What we received We received 2 PDF files from Homeschool Complete, one for each of the unit studies. There are a number of additional items that are required in order to fully complete the unit studies ranging from books to milk cartons to rain gutters, in our case. As unit studies, they do contain math, science, ... read more
North Korea Confidential: A Great Read For The Curious
North Korea has been on the news frequently over the past couple of years, and interest in the country has risen. After listening to an audio book about a defector from North Korea, I wanted to learn more about this reclusive country. North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors was my book of choice. This post may contain affiliate links through which I may receive a small commission. Tuttle Publishing kindly sent me a copy of ... read more
Teaching Grade 4 Daily Higher-Order Thinking With Evan-Moor
Critical thinking is imperative in the real world, but it can often be difficult to teach these skills to children. Since January, Kallista has been using Evan-Moor's Daily Higher-Order Thinking Grade 4 to stretch her skills. Read on to find out more about these short daily excersies and how they've worked for her. This post may contain affiliate links through which I may receive a small commission. The Daily Higher-Order Thinking book is available in both a physical book, as well as ... read more
Degusta and Chill With The February Box
As I sit typing up our review of the February Degustabox and overcoming my procrastination since the January box, I'm looking forward to tonight's date night with Phil, so we can Degusta and Chill with Netflix! We'll enjoy a nice gin Gina together after the kids have a dinner of pasta and pesto and head off to bed. Saturday evenings are the one night of the week I don't have to think about anything else. Do you have such traditions? Grab your February box while you can, and enter to win a ... read more
Belfast Children’s Festival 2019 #BCF19
Young At Art will soon be in full swing in Belfast! This year the Belfast Children's Festival turns 21 and comes of age with theme of 'Our Place in the World.' The goal is to help children think about how they contribute to society as global citizens. You know we're all about being global, so we're really looking forward to this year's festival, which takes place from March 8-13. We were invited to Young at Art's launch of the Belfast Children's Festival a little earlier this year, ... read more
5 Ways To Add Culture To Your Homeschool
I'm not sure how I came to love multiculturalism so much, but it's in my blood now, especially since doing some travels in my late 20s and early 30s (when I travelled Europe and spent two years in Japan). I try my best to help my children learn about different areas of the world. I wish I had the means to take my family around the world to experience it first hand, but as I cannot do that we find other ways to expose our children to the world. Today I'm sharing 5 ways we add culture to our ... read more
Read Bamboo and Me To Discover Bamboo’s Uses!
Bamboo is said to be the most versatile tree on the planet! It's fast-growing, beautiful, pliable, yet strong, all at the same time. From food for humans and animals to shoes and hats, it can be used in a plethora of ways. Bamboo and Me: Exploring Bamboo's Many Uses in Daily Life, is a lovely book for children. This post may contain affiliate links through which I may receive a small commission. Dual Language Tuttle Publishing kindly sent us a copy of Bamboo and Me: Exploring ... read more
How to Homeschool Without Heat
What do you do when you've run out of heating oil during the coldest day of the year? It's still possible to do some homeschooling, and to have fun with it, too! Find out how we managed to homeschool without heat, as well as some additional ideas I'm keeping in mind should it happen again (let's hope not)! This post may contain affiliate links through which I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Out of Heating Oil Heating homes are a little different here in the UK, ... read more
Adaptive Learning With IXL
This year we've gone back to adaptive learning with IXL's full annual IXL Learning membership, and this time we're reviewing the USA version which includes math, language arts, science, social studies, and also Spanish! Although we've previously used the UK program, I didn't realise there was so much to it! What is IXL? As you may know, I'm from Canada but raising our children in the UK. Four years ago we reviewed the UK version of IXL, and I really liked it, but this time I thought it ... read more
