Middle grade books are admittedly some of my favorites to read. Both when I was in middle school and now as an adult. My only regret is that I hardly read any classics when I was in middle school. I have been remedying that problem as an adult and have read a lot of great middle grade classics over the last few years. Today’s list includes some great middle grade classics for you to read to or with your middle schoolers or suggest they read on their own. That being said, remember, middle grade books aren’t just for middle schoolers! Many upper elementary students will also enjoy these books as…
How to Teach Math Without a Curriculum
As relaxed/minimal homeschoolers one of the big things we do to keep things relaxed is not follow a curriculum. So many times before I have heard people say “Oh, we don’t follow a curriculum . . . except for math.” For some reason parents often feel confident teaching all the subjects except for math. Have you ever felt that way? The truth is, teaching kids math doesn’t have to be hard and you don’t have to follow some pre-written curriculum for your kids to get it! Now, before I get into this post, let me share that math has never been my strong suit, I don’t find math easy to…
The Best Picture Books for March
Month three of the year is almost upon us so it’s time for another monthly book list – this time it’s the March picture book list! Overall March can be a pretty great month – the weather starts warming up and you’ve got St. Patrick’s Day and spring and every few years Easter is even thrown in at the end of the month. The book list is mostly spring-ish themed though I did add in a few St. Patrick’s Day books (you can find a full list of them here though if you are looking for more) oh, and remember, March 14th is Pi Day (3.14) so I’ve got a…
What is a Relaxed and Minimal Homeschool?
To be honest, I personally cannot understand those other homeschool mothers who create a homeschool schedule at the beginning of the school year and stick to it all year long. My Type A side does like the idea but my Rebel side (which is stronger) can’t handle the idea. Our homeschool is constantly evolving as we are. We have tried a number of different homeschool styles in the last few years, from the more traditional school method, to unschooling to the Charlotte Mason method . . . I have nothing against any of those styles, if you’ve been around here for awhile you’ll probably actually know that I really wish…
Our February Brain Box
A new month means it’s time to share what is in our Brain Box for the month! This is our third month with using our Brain Box and it’s so nice to have our main resources for the month so handy. If you missed the previous months you can also check out our January Brain Box and December Brain Box. I feel like this month we have been getting back to the basics and really simplifying our homeschool. I know I’ve written a few posts in the past about minimalist homeschooling (or at least one), I’ve been meaning to share an updated post on the topic, hopefully in…
January Reading Wrap Up
Here’s a bonus book list for you this week – my January reading wrap up! January was a good reading month for me, I read eleven books from a variety of genres. I read 2/28 books from my list of books I want to read in 2019, decent but I’m going to have to step it up a bit to reach my goal for the year. At the beginning of January I came across some really good book channels on YouTube and I think that will also influence some of the books I read this year, three of the books from this list were thanks to some of those channels.…
