Full disclosure: Teaching Textbooks approached me and asked me to do this review and giveaway, in exchange for a level of their product for my son. But the opinions expressed here are entirely my own. My First Experience with Teaching Textbooks I have homeschooled my 2 kids (boy, 13 and girl, nearly 18) since the very beginning, and like every […]
“Stay human, you carry the future in your arms and in your bellies.”–Michael Franti This is an old transcript from back when I ran a chat website called Mommy Chats (a site that I no longer own), and hosted all sorts of topical chats, including weekly chats sponsored by Mothering Magazine. Mothering was all the rage in the natural parenting […]
This week, as will happen, life took some unexpected turns. First, I forgot that I had a biopsy scheduled (just a mole…probably nothing, just to be sure it was nothing to be worried about)…and the doctor’s office always takes forEVER!! I think I sat in the waiting room like an hour and a half before I even got into a […]
Today wrapped up the first week of my 5th Annual Great Summer Purge and Clean: The Kitchen Zone. Today I focused on cleaning/organizing the top of my dishwasher (it’s a portable, and a magnet for piles of crap), cleaning the kitchen table (which wasn’t actually too bad, for a change), and thoroughly steam cleaning the kitchen floor…which was pretty bad, […]
Moving on to the microwave and cupboards around… I forgot to take a before pic of the microwave, so I didn’t bother with an after pic. It’s just a microwave. But I did take pics of the cupboards. These are my dish cupboards and my pots/pans and kitchen appliance cupboards. Plus my utensils drawers and my lid drawer… and a […]
Ok, we are in the stove area today…this means the stove and the cupboards above and next to, including my junk drawer…Plus I tacked on the cupboards below the kitchen sink into this area as well. I even opened up my stove and cleaned all the grime that gathers under the burners from spillage. GROSS! Also replaced all the aluminum […]
Today I tackled my fridge and freezer and some cupboards in the nearby area. I KICKED BUTT!! Luckily we are quite short on food right now, so this job was a lot easier than it could have been. Here’s my before and after pics, side by side: You can’t really tell from the before pic, […]
FIRST ZONE: THE KITCHEN I feel like I’ve not done this in awhile…I waited quite awhile this summer before getting going on this (life happened)…and the past 2 years have not really happened gung ho. I’m DETERMINED to make this year’s GSPAC really COUNT! And I really want to blog the experience fully, for those that want to follow along… […]
As I prepare to start yet another Great Summer Purge and Clean, I am reminded of the Flylady and her “shiny sink” philosophy… …and I went in search of a good article to refer people to about this philosophy… But I didn’t find anything that really resonated with me. So, of course, I had to write my own… […]
Today’s the day I finally sort out this year’s “Great Summer Purge and Clean”. I have had so much I have been working on already this summer, I haven’t had time to think much of this yet!! But I’m NOT ditching it! I’ve been thinking of switching tracks with my son’s homeschool charter so we can start school in […]
So, if you’ve not heard yet…there’s this new thing called the GDPR… Here’s a quick video that explains it well, if you prefer audio/video learning: Even if you don’t own an online business or website, you’ve probably been made aware of the GDPR by the slew of emails that you received in May from all the places […]
I saw an ad in my Facebook feed today that intrigued me. An ad for a new video streaming service for science videos! Immediately got MY attention, especially with all the way cool experiments in the video! He’s called the Dancing Scientist, and here’s his YouTube channel. The service that he’s doing is called Generation Genius. After watching the ad […]
I love this book! I think I got it years ago…long before children…from the bargain section of Borders Books (I miss them!) when I was working there. It was so intriguing, I couldn’t resist! The idea of underwear throughout history!! It’s a cute little lift the flap sort of popup style picture book that is actually really quite informative! A […]
Do you know about this?? Our family has had a family subscription for a couple years now…and we LOVE IT!! For just $14.99, a month every member of our 4 member family gets access to every song in Apple Music… and that’s a LOT of music!! No more having to pay to for new albums or trying to find used […]
This is an awesome book! My daughter got this as a gift on her 16th birthday from a family member and we are in love with it! It is a collection of short stories about female scientists…most of whom we’ve never heard of! Each one has only one page about them, but the info is very interesting and we really […]
Dragonbox ROCKS!! I have enjoyed these apps for years! I swear I enjoy the apps as much, maybe more than, my kids! If you haven’t heard of Dragonbox yet…its a company that gamifies math. Specifically algebra. They now also have other math games, it looks like. I’ve only played their algebra apps. But judging by the quality and fun […]
I just found this in my blog drafts…I apparently had written this up really quick on Easter so I wouldn’t forget it…then forgot to post it, woops! Well, here it is…better late than never!! An Easter funny for your enjoyment: My 17yr old daughter is just as funny as her dad…just overheard: (Discussing dad needing to get up so the […]
I’ve had this book for years…I believe it was given to me to review on another website of mine, but I’ve since forgotten. I never got into it because I’m just not really a poetry person. But I’ve recently gotten all about Julie Bogart’s “Brave Writer Lifestyle“, and along with that comes “Poetry Teatime.” This has become something my kids […]
Featured image CC by David D Ah, chores… Dreaded by both kids and parents alike. Kids hate doing them, parents hate having to enforce them. I don’t have all the answers, and things are NOT going smoothly in our house…but I was thinking the other day how much better things are FINALLY going in our house in regards to chores. […]
This is a lovely little story of a little girl bringing fireflies into her room, to chase away the darkness. Told in rhyming verse with absolutely GORGEOUS pictures, this enchanting tale would be especially wonderful for those of you that actually live in areas that have fireflies. Sadly, we don’t have them where I live. At the back of this […]
If you grew up in the 70s, you’re familiar with “Free to Be…You and Me“. It was a project by Marlo Thomas created to “encourage post-1960s gender neutrality, saluting values such as individuality, tolerance, and comfort with one’s identity. A major thematic message is that anyone—whether a boy or a girl—can achieve anything.” It is an and featuring songs […]
This book is called “The Garden” in the UK, and “Under the Moon” in the US. Same book. The one I have is called “Under the Moon”. I noticed on Amazon it’s harder to find under that title…but you can look for that title as well… I discovered this book because I have another book by this author and illustrator: […]
I am a Les Miserables enthusiast. Fangirl. Fanatic. Let’s just say I have a passion for this story, the characters and the music… And as such, I’ve tried to find ways to bring it into not just our family life, but into our homeschooling… First, a little background: I went to high school in NJ and we saw NYC tv commercials […]
This book is a little young for my kids, but I just adore it. It’s by Maya Angelou! It’s super cute…full of bright, colorful photographs. The story takes place in a village in South Africa, with a little 8 year old girl named Thandi, whose best friend is a chicken. It’s told in the voice of Thandi, and tells what […]
I’ve been doing a lot of updates to Homeschool Realm lately, and I wanted to let you know the latest today! I just added my Goodreads “Currently Reading” shelf to my sidebar, for those that like to learn what other homeschoolers are currently reading. It’s fun to find new books for yourself and your kids to read this way! You […]
My 12 year old son just finished this trilogy and is RAVING about it. So I asked him if he’d write a review about them, to share here…and this is what he had to say… PLEASE NOTE: The book links are Amazon affiliate links, and I do receive a small percentage of purchases made through those links…THANK YOU for helping to […]
This is very exciting! I discovered something that allows me to upload my booklist spreadsheets to my website with ease!! Check out my first page that I did this on: Children’s Historical Fiction Series, Chronological Order And this link will always be available in the sidebar, under “Book Lists”, so you can easily find it again! And that is also […]
This week I read an old favorite of mine to my kids, The Rainbow Bridge By Audrey Wood. This book is an adapted version of the creation story of the Chumash tribe (Native American) of the Central Coast of CA. The story is beautiful, the images are gorgeous….I love reading this story aloud. It tells the story of the creation […]
NOTE: This series is for newbie homeschoolers that are in overdrive…overplanning, overscheduling and overthinking your child’s preK or kinder year….WE’VE ALL DONE IT. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. This is the final part in a 12 part series….read part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 This is the final part in my series on “Homeschooling the Early Years”. I have spent […]
NOTE: This series is for newbie homeschoolers that are in overdrive…overplanning, overscheduling and overthinking your child’s preK or kinder year….WE’VE ALL DONE IT. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. This is part 10 in a 12 part series….read part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 This is part 11 in my series on “Homeschooling the Early Years”. I have been sharing some of […]
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