By Diane Power A change has come upon our student… With all the wonder and magic of first grade celebrated and absorbed, our little caterpillar has emerged from her cocoon transformed into a beautiful butterfly, ready to take on new challenges and adventures! My, how the world has grown! Our second grader, toolkit on their […]
Planning
Top Ten Fun Ways to Prepare for Homeschooling Next Year
Whew! We made it through another year! All that preparing, planning, teaching and purchasing of supplies and all those adventures have me worn out! Not to mention the challenges we overcame this year and all the new things we learned. I feel full, satisfied, amazed and slightly worn out and stunned. So…. If you are […]
First Grade Readiness – Are We Asking the Right Questions?
Looking back on my children’s education I can honestly say that the question, “When are they ready for first grade?” was one of the hardest issues I had to deal with during their entire educational career. But why did I struggle so much with this question and why is it the most popular question we […]
A Dozen Anti-Anxiety Tips for Parents and Teachers
Are you anxious? Here is a simple test. When you look at the photo of the rocks by the seashore are you thinking about how beautiful and relaxing it looks or are you thinking about how those rocks are probably going to fall down any minute? After 20 years of parenting and 30 years of teaching […]
Creating Warmth in Your Home
A recent study has shown that people who have a warm beverage in their hands rate a stranger’s personality as warmer than those without the warm beverage and are more likely to be agreeable in negotiations. The same effect can be seen with touching soft things and being surrounded by soft colors. Does this remind […]
Diversity in Homeschooling
Start your week with an Inner Work Meditation. Take some time to reflect on the following short essay/blog post and let it inspire you this week as you parent, teach, study and live! DaVinci was a scientist, a philosopher, a writer, an artist, a mathematician, painter, sculptor, architect, cartographer, geologist, engineer and inventor. In the […]
A Meal Planning, Daily Planning, Organizational Chart (Gift for You)
We have updated our “Color and Grain of the Day” chart so it looks pretty for you. If you want to share this please send people to our BLOG here to download it. It is free for anyone who downloads it from us. However, please do not distribute it (re-pinning from our Pinterest board is […]
How Health Impacts Learning in Your Classroom
What if you were in control of the education your child was receiving and also the factors that could increase the effectiveness of this education? Wouldn’t that be exciting? Not only would you be able to teach your child but you would also be able to assure that they were learning at their optimum performance […]
How Earthschooling Saved Us $44,000.00
The unique structure and philosophy of Earthschooling taught my children and I some very important lessons over the years and it turns out those lessons are worth a lot of money! I have to admit that when my children were toddlers I entered the Earthschooling world because I was attracted to the beautiful nature-based verses, […]
Waldorf Homeschooling Time Management
I want to give you a few free hours this week! Now you are probably wondering how I am going to do that. Perhaps I watched the movie “In Time” too frequently and I actually think I can add time to your countdown clock. Oh wait! That was a science fiction movie. I guess I […]
Hands On Education: Working with Your Hands in the Classroom
As parents and teachers using Waldorf-inspired methods we learn about the importance of making sure there is a balance between the head, heart and hands* in daily education. Steiner teaches that this balance is essential to learning and that when a child is engaged and balanced on all three levels that their learning happens more […]
Lesson Planning – A Dozen Tips
This month has been all about lesson planning for us. I’ve been spending hours every day putting the finishing touches on the new daily lesson planners for the First and Second Grade Earthschooling Curriculum for this coming year, planning our coming year and listening to everyone talk about lesson preparation and planning. With this in mind I’d […]