Summer is drawing to a close, which means that school is on everyone's mind. So, here is our Eclectic Homeschool Curriculum post.

It didn't take long to realize that recreating traditional school at home wasn't going to work for

This school year I had planned to use Ellen McHenry's Cells with my highly creative 10 year old visual-spatial learner. We had both really enjoyed her Excavating English book, but I can't say our experience was similar for the cells book. My son was not connecting with the material. If I have lea

Planning a unschooling or eclectic homeschool year seems like an oxymoron, but it never hurts to have an idea, plan your homeschool year in a broad sense. There are a few different ways you can go about it.

In the digital age, there are so many wonderful resources available for kids. I came across this great resource lately. It includes 10 free learning websites for kids. So although you may be limiti…

It’s been nearly six years since my daughter was diagnosed with autism. Like many other parents who hear their children have life-long challenges ahead of them, my husband and I went through the seven stages of grief, but I also Googled. Furiously. While I found no shortage of information, what I found by and large […]

This is a great tool for practicing homophones with your students. I created this to use on the 2nd day of homophone instruction after Day 1 of a mini-lesson (matching homophones whole group lesson). This is used to practice and familiarize the kids with homophones, and can be done independently or as a class. On Day 3, I am having my kids do a homophone matching center that I created that has a recording sheet--check it out! I am also working on a homophone quiz--check back soon for that! :)

How does an eclectic homeschooling family look like? What made them decide to homeschool and how does this eclectic homeschooling approach works? Meet Amber and her family and peek inside their daily homeschool routine.

Retelling is a crucial skill for young readers as they begin to comprehend what they are reading. With my first graders, we have been focusing on our retellings. We are working on the key elements of a fiction retelling versus a nonfiction retelling. Well...let me introduce you to the retelling glove! For our fiction retellings, we make sure to include the setting, characters, problem, events, and solution. For the nonfiction retellings, we focus on the main idea and supporting details. With the very bottom of the glove, we are always working on making connections! We are still in the beginning stages of retelling. I have done a lot of modeling using the retelling glove during our guided reading time, and then students have begun using the glove as we work to retell stories together through guided practice. The kids love putting that thing on. It is just a gardening glove from Walmart that I wrote on with permanent marker! In addition to our retelling glove, we also have an anchor chart that we reference. The pictures are great visual reminders as we continue to master our retellings. Since retelling fiction and nonfiction are so different, I feel like it is very important to be explicit about what is required of each type of retelling. I think the visual reminders and the concrete retelling glove are really having a positive impact. If you would like a copy of the anchor chart, click here! How do you help your students with their retellings?

Logic is an important and fun subject to teach in the homeschool. In this post, I share my favorite logic resources by age level.

Collections of eclectic recipes featuring local foods grown by local farmers in MA.

It’s that time of year again, everyone is scrambling around trying to create a plan of action or a plan to follow for the upcoming homeschool year. It’s also that time of year where som…

Today's selection -- from The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. In 1896, John Dewey, then chair of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Chicago, opened an experimental school to test his theory that children learn by doing...

In this 10 day series, we're going to look at the most common homeschool methods: dive into the roots of each, discovering what it looks like every day and examining resources for each one.

Last week, my fellow reading specialist and I hosted a parent night at school to educate parents about how to help their child with reading ...

Wanting to teach typing skills with mastery? Trying one or both of these fantastic programs that teach through games.

Want to seem like an excellent math teacher? Play the substitution game. It is worth 1000 worksheets. It's never boring and it's different every time.

Discover the journey that led to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The Origin of Species, Darwin's classic book is one of the most important texts in history.

Objectives for creating timelines:To present a chronological sequence of related events along a drawn lineA fast ‘snapshot’ of time, people and eventsCreating a Timeline – A verti…

Ever wonder if you are doing enough in your home school? Sonya has some encouragement for you.

I recently DRA'ed my third graders and realized that some of them were lacking in the inference department. As a result, I developed the lesson below! In my typical style, I began with an anchor chart. Firs,t we went over the meaning of an inference together, and students glued a copy of the chart into their reader's notebooks. Then, I began the modeling portion of the lesson by reading aloud The Sweetest Fig. If you have not read this book, you need to! The kids absolutely loved this book. They were really upset that the school library did not have a copy. In this book, a man has two figs that will make your dreams come true. With the first fig, he did not fully understand its power, but he vowed not to make the same mistake with the second fig. The ending is fantastic, but I won't spoil it for you. I had already selected four text clues from the text and written them on the anchor chart. As I read aloud, we paused and recorded our inferences on the anchor chart. For the guided practice portion of the lesson, we used two of Shel Silverstein's poems. (This is based off of one of Debbie Miller's lessons.) I removed the titles of the poems before copying them. Students glued the poems into their reader's notebooks. We used notecards to cover up the remainder of the poem as we went line by line. We paused every line or two to make inferences. Students had to record their inference and underline the text clue that led them to their inference. When we had finished the entire poem, students made their final inference and provided their reasoning. I was surprised how much the kids loved this part of the lesson. They also came up with amazing inferences. The poems I used by Shel Silverstein were Reflection and Magic Carpet. Click on the links to get your own copies of the poems! For the independent practice part of the lesson, students read Three Names. In this story, Great-Grandfather remembers his days in school with his dog Three Names. Students glued a set of text clues into their reader's notebooks. As they read, they recorded their inferences. If you would like a copy of the text clues for the story, click here! As a final assessment, I had students complete a written response question requiring them to infer and provide support from the text. I hope you find something helpful! How do you teach and incorporate inferring into your classrooms?

Here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.

With an Eclectic Homeschool you can embrace more than one method of home educating and blend all your favorite resources! Grab our FREE guide.

Don't let the fear of teaching high school overwhelm you. Here are the top High School Curriculum Resources for the Eclectic Homeschool!

Click image to enlarge and print McGuffey Primer worksheet:

The best pagan Youtubers with informative, awesome content. They give you spells, tips, tricks, correspondences, and more.

500 science activities for each month of the year, with season themes, for kids from preschool kindergarten to high school. Making teaching STEM easy.

If your kids are interested in Pokémon, be excited! You will be amazed at the ways you can capitalize on their interest by homeschooling with Pokémon. Have you heard your kids talk about Pikachu, Squirtle, and Charizard? Do they discuss attacks, trainers, and “evolution”? Sounds like your kids might be into Pokémon—which is great for …

Discover my handpicked homeschool curriculum choices for the 2023-2024 school year. This year, I'll be schooling 2nd, 8th and 10th grades. 😀