Archives for February 2021

Does you child hate reading? Is it a constant battle to get through reading practice every day? Or, if you have an older child with no interest in reading, do you worry about what they’re missing out on?

The benefits of reading often are many. While reading, kids soak up information, new vocabulary, and correct spelling. Readers become better writers as they absorb proper sentence structure and other elements of writing.

Not only that, frequent reading exposes children to worlds and experiences outside of themselves. They are able to see things through someone else’s eyes, helping them build empathy.

Along with these benefits, kids who read often tend to do better educationally than their peers who don’t, so it’s natural for us to want our kids to be readers. But what happens if they don’t enjoy reading or actively refuse to read?

How do you help your child go from a non-reader to a bookworm?

If you want to help your child develop a love of reading, try implementing some of the following strategies and see what a difference they can make.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

Make Family Read Alouds A Daily Activity

If you want your child to love reading, the first step is to help them see reading as a fun activity. Whether it’s a regular part of your bedtime routine or a special time during the day, make sure you’re reading aloud every day.

This applies to young kids as well as kids who can read on their own.

Reading aloud is hugely beneficial to kids of all ages. They are able to have exposure to material above their reading level this way, and they’re able to become immersed in the story without having to struggle to get through the words.

Find a Series to Get Hooked On

There is a certain age range for kids- usually from around 8-11- where kids can really latch on to characters in books. The character or characters start to become their friends, and they just have to keep reading to find out what will happen to them and to have that connection.

Once they’ve been hooked, they will devour every book in the series about that character.

If you can help your reluctant reader find a character they love, it may just start them on the path to regular reading.

For my daughter, who struggled to enjoy reading for years, the Jasmine Toguchi series switched something on for her. She saw herself in the spunky Japanese-American character, and she wanted to read every book in the series to become submerged in Jasmine’s life and experiences.

Once she read through the series, she had developed the confidence that she could read and discovered the joy of reading for pleasure instead of practice.

After that, it was just a matter of finding the next series for her to get excited about, which she found in the Maryellen books from the American Girl Doll series.

My son didn’t have the same dislike for reading, but he also didn’t have the passion for reading that I wanted him to have.

He enjoyed the Magic Tree House series and would read them through with some nudges from me. For him, though, the next tip did wonders. If you try to get your child into a series and it doesn’t work, graphic novels might do the trick.

Give Graphic Novels a Try

Sometimes a whole page of text can be intimidating to kids who haven’t gotten into reading yet. A great alternative to jumping straight into chapter books is graphic novels. The amount and the quality of graphic novels coming out now means there is something for everyone.

For the uninitiated, these are not the super hero comics that may come to mind when you hear graphic novel. There are graphic novels for every type of kid that will fit whatever they’re interested in. You can find them at every reading level, from emerging reader to the middle school years and beyond.

For both of my oldest kids, the Wings of Fire graphic novels have become an OBSESSION.

What’s great is that it has a whole series of chapter books that are slowly being made into graphic novels. So far, only books 1-4 have been made into graphic novels.

Because they got hooked on the characters, they’ve gone on to devour the chapter books which are several grade levels higher than most books they read.

For a compilation of graphic novels to suit any kids, check out my Pinterest board dedicated to graphic novels.

Watch the Movie

Read the book then watch the movie after. This can be with read alouds or books that your child has read on his own. Being able to watch the movie after finishing the book not only makes things more fun, it will also help your child love the book that much more.

If you get into the habit of watching the film version of a book after reading it, you might find there is another unexpected benefit.

Each time my kids watch a movie after reading the book, they notice that the movie leaves out (sometimes important!) parts of the book or changes things. The details are never as rich as in the book and parts are left out to keep the movie within a certain timeframe.

If they don’t pick up on this themselves, try pointing it out or asking questions to see if they’ll notice this. My kids find this is true most of the time, so they always want to read the book before watching the movie to get more of the details.

Offer Reading Incentives

Whether your child loves setting goals or just needs a little bribe (hey, you gotta do what you gotta do), offering an incentive to read can be something that gets the ball rolling.

In our house during the time I was dealing with a child who didn’t enjoy reading, every finished book meant a celebratory sleepover at Grandma’s house. This was enough to keep my reluctant reader going even when she felt like giving up.

This could look different for you. Instead of aiming for a finished book, you could reward your child for reading 10 minutes each day. Adjust the goals to meet the needs and abilities of your child, whether it’s a target of one page, one chapter, one book, or a certain number of books to get some type of reward.

A reading chart is a great way to keep track of reading progress and a wonderful visual representation of all your child’s hard work.

So whether it’s a fun activity, a toy, or a trip to the ice cream shop, rewarding reading can help kids keep going when they want to quit and will also help them associate reading with fun.

Let Them Break the Rules

This one might be controversial. As long as my kids are in bed and reading, they can stay up for however long they want.

This might not work for kids who have to wake up for school, but it’s doable for homeschoolers who can sleep in when necessary.

My kids love to be able to lay in bed with a little reading lamp and read past bedtime. It’s a quiet time with no distractions AND they feel like they’re getting away with something.

Letting them do this has increased the amount of reading they get in each day. This strengthens their reading skills and helps them to get more into their books than if they were just able to read here and there during the day.

This has led to more confidence in reading and a deeper love of the books they’re reading.

So if you’re comfortable with adjusting bedtime and wake up times, letting kids stay up late to read can be a really good way to turn your kids into lifelong readers.

Set a Good Example

The last tip to help your reluctant reader become a bookworm is to model bookworm behavior!

I’ve written before about the power of modeling the behaviors we want our kids to adapt in my post about creating a learning rich environment. Just like encouraging kids to learn, modeling good reading habits plays a major role in whether or not your kids will love to read.

You hold so much power as a parent. Your kids internalize everything they see you do.

If you eat junk food all the time, chances are they will too. If you make a point to stay active and participate in sports, your kids will most likely emulate this behavior.

Your kids look to you to set an example, so if they see you spending time each day reading they will pick up on that.

Helping Your Reluctant Reader

If you want to help your reluctant reader grow into a voracious reader, give some of these tips a try. I know they made a huge difference for my struggling reader and they can make a difference in your family too!

Want to save these tips to reference for later? Be sure to save this pin!

The school year is more than halfway over, so I’d like to go over some of the homeschool curriculum choices and resources that we have been loving this year and the ones that haven’t worked out.

Being able to reevaluate teaching methods and materials and throw out what isn’t working for your family is one of the best things about homeschooling. I’m constantly evaluating and tweaking what we’re doing to make sure that we’re getting the most benefit out of the resources we’re using.

This school year, we stuck with some favorites, changed things up with how we were approaching math, and added in some new elements that have been great so far.

Whether you’re looking for some recommendations or just want to see what another homeschooling family is using, here is my run down of everything we’ve used this year.

So without further ado, here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of our 2020-2021 homeschool curriculum choices. Don’t worry- it’s mostly just the good!

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

Math

From Math Mammoth to Singapore Math

We started the year using a variety of math resources. For a math homeschool curriculum, we were kind of still hanging on to Math Mammoth, which everyone hated.

I know other families who swear by this curriculum, but it just wasn’t working for us. It was boring, repetitive, and not engaging at all.

Years ago, when my oldest was in 1st grade, we used Primary Mathematics (Standards Edition) from Singapore Math. It was a little fast paced for her, and she became frustrated with it. I really liked its approach, though, so I ended up dropping Math Mammoth this year and giving Singapore Math another shot.

Let me start by saying: Singapore Math has been awesome for us this year. It’s fast paced (which is good when your child is ready for it!), encourages mental math, and has a hands-on approach that my kids really thrive on.

There are two things that I have to stress here if you’re thinking about switching to Singapore math:

1. Make sure you go to their website and have your kids do the placement test! The grade levels don’t exactly match up with other programs. For example, multiplication is started in 1st grade in Singapore Math.

If your child is starting second grade, you might assume that you need to go with the Year 2 books. Don’t do that! The website explains everything you need to know about the placement tests, and I can’t stress enough how important it is to do this before purchasing.

2. If your child is anywhere past the Year 3 books, it may be a difficult transition to this new style of teaching. If you’re planning on starting your child at Year 3, you may want to actually start with 2B to teach this new style using math your child already knows.

I did this with my 3rd grader. Even though he knew the material, it took him awhile to grasp the new method.

This has actually been great, since it has reinforced these math concepts for him. If your child is well beyond Year 3, just know that it may take a little time to get used to the way Singapore Math teaches math concepts.

Pro Tip! Singapore Math uses math manipulatives, but they can get expensive! We buy these math cubes and that’s it! You really don’t need counters (use buttons, dried beans, candy….whatever you have on hand), and everything else can be done using everyday things.

So this year we tossed out Math Mammoth and are now very happy with Singapore Math as a curriculum.

Math Prodigy

In addition to Singapore Math, we have been using and absolutely loving Math Prodigy. This online math game has been played daily at our house, and I’ve seen major improvement in each of my kids’ math skills because of it.

If you’re not familiar with Math Prodigy, I’ve sung the praises of it here in my review of online math programs we use. This has been an indispensable part of our homeschool this year.

Mathseeds

Mathseeds is a part of the online learning program Reading Eggs. We have had a subscription to Reading Eggs for awhile now and love it. While my oldest two mostly use Math Prodigy for their online math practice, my youngest two absolutely love Mathseeds.

When starting Mathseeds, kids have the option to take a placement test or start at the very beginning.

My Kindergartener (who is working about 2 grade levels higher in math) took the placement test and is working his way through the learning path. Each lesson starts with an animated lesson and incorporates games and practice to teach each topic. At the end of each short lesson, there is a little quiz (that feels like a game) that must be passed before moving on.

My youngest, who is in Pre-K, started at the beginning. I have done very little actual math instruction with her (she’s 4!), but since she wants to be like her older siblings, she plays Mathseeds too. She is working her way through the program and can now play Math Prodigy like the big kids, which starts at a 1st grade level!

This is amazing because I know that almost everything she knows about math has come from this program. I love that I can let my kids play this while getting high quality math instruction.

If you want to give it a try, you can actually sign up for a 30 day free trial of the program. You will get access to everything, including Reading Eggs, Fast Phonics, Reading Eggs Jr., and Reading Express.

Language Arts

Handwriting Without Tears

For handwriting, we have always used the Handwriting Without Tears workbooks. I love these, and my kids love them too. We usually do a page a day.

My youngest two, who are in Pre-K and Kindergarten are working on print, and my 3rd and 5th graders are doing the cursive program.

Here are the links to each of the books we are using this year:

What I love about these books is that other elements of language arts are worked into the lessons. So while they are refining their handwriting, they are also practicing capitalizing proper nouns, how to spell homophones, and the like.

We will continue to use these each year, and I highly recommend them if you’re looking for an easy and effective way to improve handwriting.

All About Spelling

We started using All About Spelling at the beginning of last school year and have loved it! Dealing with dyslexia in our homeschool, spelling has always been our greatest challenge. Before All About Spelling, I focused on repetition and memorization to teach spelling which was difficult, frustrating, and ineffective. It often ended in tears.

All About Spelling teaches spelling rules in short, buildable lessons. It also incorporates color coded letter tiles to help visual and hands on learners.

Since starting with the program, I’ve seen so much more confidence in my kids’ spelling. This one is a keeper!

>>>Want to see my full review of All About Spelling? Read this post!

All About Homophones

This is another product from All About Learning Press, the company behind All About Spelling. I use this with my older two kids as additional spelling practice. The book is intended for kids from 1st grade to 5th grade. We bought them (one book for each kid) at the beginning of last school year, and I think we will still be working on them for another year or so.

Each page covers a homophone pair. Kids have to choose which homophone is the correct one for each fill in the blank sentence. I get my kids to do a page or two per week, and I will include the homophones from the week in our spelling lessons as review.

Reading Eggs

As I’ve already mentioned, Reading Eggs has been an absolute must have in our homeschool. The program is broken up into sections: Reading Eggs Jr., Reading Eggs, Fast Phonics, Reading Express, and Mathseeds.

In addition to Mathseeds, my youngest two use Reading Eggs and Fast Phonics. Reading Eggs has a learning path, just like in Mathseeds, where kids have short, fun lessons that teach letters, spelling, and reading. Each lesson starts with a short animated lesson which moves on to practice games and an end of lesson quiz.

Fast Phonics is a recent addition to the Reading Eggs program, which focuses only on phonics mastery. It is really great for kids who are just learning to read and need some reinforcement for sounding out words.

My oldest two have completed the Reading Eggs section and now use Reading Express, which is geared toward kids ages 7-13. It’s for kids who have mastered reading and now need to work on reading comprehension.

Even though my oldest are voracious readers, I find this program is a really good challenge for them. They are given a variety of different texts to read and analyze, from poetry and fiction to technical non-fiction passages.

Just like the other Reading Eggs programs I’ve talked about, Reading Express also has a learning path kids follow that gets progressively harder. Kids can take a placement test to make sure the material is at their level.

I can’t say enough good things about this program. I highly recommend you sign up for the 30 day free trial to see what the big deal is. That way, you can see how much a difference the program can make for your child before you decide to sign up for a subscription. We did the free trial and were completely hooked.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Yes, the book has a gimmicky title, but let me tell you something: this book is worth its weight in gold. I have used it to teach all of my kids to read.

My youngest two are working through it right now, and we will continue to use it until they have completed all 100 lessons. Once they are done with it, they’ll be independent readers.

Whenever anyone with young kids asks me what they need to start homeschooling, this is always the first book I recommend.

Computer Science

Coding

This year, I got serious about getting my kids to practice coding on a regular basis. I really want them to have a solid knowledge of coding, since it’s a skill that will only become more important.

We had tried several programs in the past, but they were either too slow paced or too difficult to follow. It’s been really hard to find something that my kids really enjoy.

The best program we’ve found so far has been Hour of Code, which has different projects for kids of different ages and abilities. There are projects using different coding languages, which I’m not sure is helpful or makes things more confusing.

This is definitely something only my older two work on. There are projects geared toward younger kids, but I found that for the most part my younger two were pretty lost.

We’ll be sticking with this unless I find something better since something is better than nothing.

Typing

This year, we started using Typing Club for touch typing practice, and it’s great! It’s a free program that teaches touch typing that even my 4 year old can follow.

No, I don’t think 4 year olds should be learning touch typing. If you have multiple kids, though, you know that the youngest wants to do everything the ‘big kids’ are doing.

Since starting this program, the kids have become much faster with their typing skills.

Each kid can open their own account which keeps track of their progress. You can see which letters they’ve been working on, how many words per minute they are typing, and their accuracy. My kids love challenging each other to see who can get the top typing speed.

Miscelaneous

Another resource we buy every year is the grade level Brain Quest workbooks for my older two and Highlights workbooks for my younger two (they are really great for little kids who want to ‘do school’ with a lot of fun, entertaining activities as well).

We don’t always work through the entire book, but I find them really useful as a supplement to what we are working on.

My kids always finish the science section on their own because it’s everyone’s favorite subject, and I will sometimes assign work from the social studies/geography sections. Other than that, I’ll ask the kids to do a specific page from the book if I see they need to work on something, like how to properly use quotations.

This works for us, and I plan to keep using these each year.

Other Subjects

You might have noticed that I only included the homeschool curriculum resources we’re using for math and language arts. That’s because we don’t use a curriculum for anything else!

Since this is about the curriculum choices for the year, I’ll save how we learn social studies, science, creative writing, art, and French without a set curriculum for another post.

So there it is! That’s my round up of our homeschool curriculum choices for the 2020-21 school year. I hope the information here has been helpful. If it has, please take a minute to pin it for later!

>>>For an updated rundown of our current curriculum, including what we’ve kept and what we’ve changed head over here! Spoiler alert: We found a MUCH better (and free!) program for coding.<<<

While some people successfully homeschool math without a curriculum, I recommend using a curriculum at least to loosely follow. It can help make sure that there aren’t any gaps in education and can also take some of the pressure off of you as the homeschool parent.

We use Primary Mathematics from Singapore Math and couldn’t be happier with it. It really depends on the individual, and it can sometimes take some trial and error to find the curriculum that works in your family.

What I would like to share, though, is the websites we use to supplement our homeschool curriculum for added practice and to help explain topics that might be a struggle. In this post, I’ll review some of the best math websites for kids that we use in our home.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

Math Prodigy

Math Prodigy deserves the first spot on the list. Why? Because my kids beg to play this math game. Even on the weekend, when they could be playing video games, they often ask to play Math Prodigy instead.

Math Prodigy is an online role playing math game that gets kids to practice math in a fun, engaging way. The creators of the game have built a rich fantasy world in which kids create their own character that goes on quests. If your kids are into Pokémon, they will fall in love with this game.

While trying to complete levels, kids have to battle other kids (if playing online vs the offline version) and creatures. As they go, they can add pets that battle with them and build up strength as they progress.

Each battle helps kids level up and earn money, which can be used to buy things for their houses, new clothes, or pets.

Okay, but where is the math part?

Each battle is punctuated by math questions. If you answer correctly, you hit your opponent. If you answer incorrectly, your hit misses, and you risk losing the battle with consecutive wrong answers.

A great feature of the game is that parents are sent updates on their kids’ progress as well as monthly report cards. These tell you how many math questions were answered during the period, how many correct and incorrect answers, and the grade level of the questions.

You can also see specifically which topics were covered (geometry, fractions, etc.) and which was the child’s strongest and weakest areas. This has been great for seeing what we need to spend some extra time on during lessons.

I’m always amazed when I check the progress reports. Not only because their reports are so thorough but also because of the number of math questions each of my kids answers while playing. Each week, my kids answers hundreds of math questions, and that is outside of our regular math work that we do.

This is the reason Math Prodigy is number one for us. Anything that will encourage extra math practice and make it fun enough to compete with video games with no educational benefit is a winner for me.

Nothing is perfect, though, so here is my rundown of Math Prodigy’s pros and cons.

Pros:

It’s FREE! (You can pay for a membership which allows kids to unlock extras in the game. We use the free version and have no complaints.)

Kids have so much fun that they don’t realize how much math they’re doing

The regular report cards help parents know exactly how kids are doing

It’s responsive, meaning the content adjusts as kids play. If there are a few wrong answers in a row, the program will change the level to something easier. If levels are mastered, the program moves up to harder material.

It’s safe. This is a big one for me. I’m always hesitant to let kids play online games because of safety issues. Math Prodigy takes safety really seriously, and I’m completely comfortable letting my kids play it. They aren’t able to use their own names. They can send messages to other players, but the things that can be said are limited to pre-written phrases they can choose from.

There are seasonal “Fests”, like Winter Fest, Summer Fest, and Pumpkin Fest. They are awesome and make the game feel new every few months. Where kids may tire of games that stay the same, there is always a burst of renewed excitement with Math Prodigy each time a new fest arrives.

Cons:

It doesn’t teach math concepts well, so it’s really best for practicing what has already been covered outside of the game.

Buying membership is pushed constantly throughout the game. My kids know that we don’t have plans to buy the paid membership anytime soon, so they have stopped bothering me about it. I could see this being a problem for some kids, though.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a free online learning resource that provides lessons and practice by grade level all the way from Kindergarten to college level. It covers many subjects, including math, science, humanities, language arts, and computer programming.

We mainly use Khan Academy for math practice, especially when someone has difficulty understanding a specific concept. The instruction videos are really thorough.

Sometimes having things explained by someone else with a supporting video can help drive an idea home better than their textbook or I can alone.

While we use Singapore Math as our math curriculum, you could actually use Khan Academy as a complete homeschool math curriculum.

Once you sign up for a free parent account and set up individual accounts for each child, they can take placement tests to see exactly where they need to start so that it isn’t to hard or too easy.

Once their level is established, they can start learning and completing practice activities. In each section, kids earn mastery points to show how close they are to completing a topic. They can work through each until everything in a grade level is mastered.

Or if you are like our family, you can just use Khan Academy as extra practice instead of working through entire grade levels. For us, we have a solid math routine set up and having the kids work through Khan Academy at this point would be math overkill.

However you use it, Khan Academy can be a fantastic free resource for homeschool math.

Pros:

It’s a comprehensive free math curriculum. Finding something of this scope and quality that is also free is amazing.

Children can work at their own pace to complete grade levels.

You can use it as a free tutor to explain hard to grasp concepts.

Cons:

Especially for younger kids, the site itself is boring, so it’s probably not something they will use unless assigned. Instead of a game like Math Prodigy, this should really be considered more like a workbook or extra curriculum.

MathPlayground.com

Some math topics are best learned through memorization, like the times tables. We can only do so many flash cards before people start revolting over here, so I’ve found a way to get kids do do flash cards without them knowing it. Sneaky, right?

Math Playground has a ton of online math games that cover a specific math skill, like multiplication or adding up to 10.

The site has ads and is kind of spammy looking, to be honest. The beauty of it, though, is that the kids feel like they’re playing arcade style games instead of doing math drills.

In some games, the math part is front and center, where the goal is to answer questions correctly to make their car go faster or their spaceship shoot the right alien.

Some of the games, though, don’t seem like math games at all but will pause and ask a few math questions in order to continue playing.

Twenty minutes of playing is like going through a whole stack of flash cards, and I find that after a while of using this they can answer times table questions much faster.

Multiplication is really the main reason I started using this, but my Kindergartener saw his older siblings using it and wanted to as well. I let him do ‘adding to ten’ games, and he became incredibly fast in his response time.

If you or your child hates doing flash cards, this is a super alternative.

Pros:

It’s fun, so kids will want to play this.

It’s much, much better than flash cards and will help a lot with memorization of math facts.

Cons:

The ads are really annoying.

Mathseeds

The math websites I’ve included so far are all completely free to use.

Mathseeds is the only paid math website I am recommending, but let me tell you: It is SO worth it.

While Math Prodigy falls short on teaching, Mathseeds offers a full, comprehensive game-based curriculum that kids work through.

Kids can start at the beginning, where they learn counting and numbers, or they can take a placement test and start at their ability level.

Each level has instruction followed by game-based practice. Correct answers earn points, in the form of acorns, which can be spent on clothes, items, and pets that kids can put in their house.

We’ve been using Mathseeds for a few years now, and I highly recommend it.

You can try it for FREE for 30 days here.

I love that they have such a long free trial, so you can have enough time to experience the whole program and really see if it makes a difference in your child’s learning before signing up.

On top of that, the free trial gives you access to their entire program which includes their phonics and reading programs as well!

We did the free trial and loved it. We’ve been using it ever since.

Conclusion

Like a lot of parents, I’m pretty picky about how much screen time my kids get. I’m always trying to balance screen time with non-screen activities in our homeschool.

That said, there are times when using online activities to supplement what we’re working on can make a huge difference. It’s much better than doing worksheet after worksheet, in my opinion, and often has better results.

Just like the reading game I use to get my emerging readers to practice, making math practice fun will get them to do more than they might if I just ask them to use their workbook. It’s all about mixing things up and making things more fun.

If you’re looking for a way to make math more engaging or make practice less of a chore, check these math websites for kids. It has definitely made a difference in how quickly concepts are mastered in our house.

Do you have someone in your family who loves space? If you do, chances are you’re always on the lookout for new material to feed their passion.

My oldest daughter, now 11, has been fascinated with all things space for years now. Our homeschool is pretty heavily focused on STEM subjects, but the specifics of what we learn are interest-led meaning they can choose what they want to study in-depth.

That said, we have spent a ton of time learning about space and combing through all of the resources there are – and there are a LOT out there.

So whether your child is as crazy about space as mine, or you’re just looking for a way to teach more about the topic, I have compiled some of the resources that we use as a family. The best part? They’re all free!

Here is a run-down of the best free online resources for kids who love space.

Websites

NASA.gov

NASA.gov has to be the first on the list. It is amazing and provides so much free information, educational products, and activities that I don’t even know where to start.

I recommend first checking out the NASA Kids’ Club. This interactive kids area has a ton of information geared toward elementary aged kids. It has activities and printables, picture shows on various topics, games, videos, virtual tours, and ways to get involved.

In addition to all of that, an absolutely fantastic offering is their NASA Stem @ Home program, which is divided by age range (grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12). We love the K-4 section, which has videos, stories, games and activities, hands on projects, and videos.

If you wanted to make a space unit study, you could find everything you need right here without having to look anywhere else. And it’s all free!

Outside of the Kids’ Club, there is even more for kids to explore. Even though not specifically geared toward kids, there is information about missions and astronauts, free e-books, NASA TV, and stunning photo galleries.

National Geographic Kids: Passport to Space

While not as comprehensive as NASA’s site, National Geographic Kids offers information about each planet and other elements of space, educational videos, and fun quizzes and activities.

The quality is what you would expect from National Geographic. Great quality photos, easy readability for kids, and very engaging content.

The only downside is that most of it is just for online use, whereas NASA has a lot of things that can be printed out or done screen-free. I know this isn’t necessarily a big deal because they’re online resources after all, but NASA just goes next level in what they offer.

AMNH.org

The American Museum of Natural History has a great collection of space resources for kids. From stories and videos to hands-on activities and online games, there is a lot to explore.

I particularly love their printable Moon Flip Book activity where kids can create their own flip books to see the phases of the moon in action. Such a great idea!

Sky and Telescope

Geared toward seasoned astronomers and older school aged kids, Sky and Telescope has a wealth of information for stargazers about what you can see in the sky on any given week as well as time tables for lunar eclipses, meteor showers, and other notable space events.

While this will be great if you have older kids or your family loves to check out the night sky with your telescope, this isn’t the reason I’m including the site on my list.

Sky and Telescope has a section specifically for homeschoolers from grades K-12. It includes a huge amount of resources, like livestreams, space websites, links to activities, and audio and video resources.

If you want a comprehensive list of space resources to use for homeschooling, you need to bookmark this.

YouTube

Canadian Space Agency

My kids’ all time favorite space-related YouTube channel is from the Canadian Space Agency. They have a series of videos filmed from the International Space Station featuring astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Each video answers a common question about life in space, such as how do astronauts brush their teeth, how do you sleep in space, and what kind of food do astronauts eat.

Although they were filmed about 7 years ago with no new material coming out, there are a lot of videos to watch. The information they provide, along with the fact that they are filmed in space, makes it a great resource.

The videos are fun and engaging, and any kid who dreams of being an astronaut one day will be thrilled to be able to see these clips of a day in the life of a real astronaut.

SpaceX

SpaceX’s YouTube channel is great for watching launches and flight footage in real time.

They also have videos about the technical design aspects of their rockets and technology as well as talks about SpaceX’s ultimate goal of getting humans on Mars.

NASA

NASA’s YouTube station is another channel to check out for live launches.

Follow continued coverage of NASA’s current projects, including the Perseverance Rover, which is set to land on Mars on February 18, 2021, and their Artemis Moon to Mars plan. Exciting things are happening!

Not only does it show live action videos, it also has a ton of educational videos about various space-related topics.

Podcasts

REACH: A Space Podcast for Kids

As I’ve mentioned before, our family is really into using podcasts as a learning tool. REACH is a great family friendly, kid focused podcast about everything space.

Hosted by Brian Holden and Meredith Stepien, this podcast includes half hour episodes as well as biweekly mini episodes that run about 3 minutes long.

The longer episodes bring in experts to talk about things like black holes, Mars, and NASA’s Perseverance rover. Their mini episodes quickly cover one question, like. “Why is our sky blue?” or “Why is Mars red?”.

That’s my roundup of the best online resources for kids who love space. The best part about it is that space and space exploration is constantly evolving. New missions are created and interesting space events are being added to these resources, so you can always come back and see new content to learn about.

Want to keep this list to reference? Be sure to Pin it for later!

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Homeschooling doesn’t have to be all about worksheets and textbooks. So much learning can be done organically with little to no instruction just by making learning materials and learning opportunities accessible. By creating a learning rich environment, children are given a chance to explore their interests and develop critical skills on their own.

The idea is to provide a home environment that encourages learning, exploration, and curiosity.

Okay, that sounds great. What does that actually look like, though?

Below is a list of things I do to make our home a learning rich environment. These things are essential to our homeschool and contribute immensely to how much my kids learn from independent exploration.

The list in by no means exhaustive, but if you’re new to homeschooling or you’re looking for ways to create an environment for organic learning, then this is a great way to start!

1. Book Box

Like I’ve said before, a homeschooler’s best friend is the public library. It has an incredible amount of resources that are absolutely FREE. It’s a no-brainer to get a library card, if you don’t have one already, and make use of everything it has to offer.

One of my favorite things to do to make our home a place of constant learning is to create a book box every two weeks. Go to the library (or your library’s website to create a list of holds you can pick up later) and browse for children’s books of a variety of subjects.

Choose some subjects that you know your child loves already and some that will expose him to new things. For instance, one book box at our house might have already loved topics like ‘how to draw’ book, several books on animals and their habitats, a chapter book or two, an astronomy reference book, and a cookbook for kids.

To encourage learning about new topics, I will also throw in books about things the kids might not know about yet like some biographies, books about a specific time period, or a science topic. It will look different each time.

Of course, my kids are allowed to check out their own books that they want, but they are always excited to see what gets put into the book box every two weeks.

Creating a book box is a wonderful way to expose kids to many topics. They can expand their interests and learn new things completely independently. In many cases, they will ask for more books on some of the topics for the next library visit.

Will they be interested in every single book I put in the box? No. And that’s okay! Don’t push them to read the books. The book box is to allow them to explore subjects on their own.

2. Games

Board games, cards, chess, checkers, dominoes….you name it. Playing games that require skill or strategy are a great way to incorporate fun into learning. They also teach important life lessons like good sportsmanship, taking turns, and the consequences of cheating.

Some homeschoolers have taken this idea to the next level by doing something called gameschooling, where much of traditional instruction is replaced or supplemented by educational games. While I don’t know if I would classify myself as a gameschooler, I do use games to enrich our homeschool days.

I’ve written about using games to help kids practice reading. Learning is much more effective when it’s engaging and fun, so games play a big role in our home.

You can also find really great educational board games that can teach kids about anything from money to geography to spelling. When my kids were first learning how to count money, the board game Allowance was a really fun way to encourage practice.

If you want a great resource for all things gameschooling, I recommend checking out My Little Poppies for great tips and recommendations.

3. Open-Ended Toys

Open-ended toys are essential to creating a learning-rich environment.

What are open-ended toys? They’re toys that can be played with in multiple ways. They are NOT battery-operated, push-a-button, single-use toys. They don’t come with instructions and there are no rules to follow.

Open-ended toys encourage creativity and imagination. They help promote exploration and strengthen a child’s critical thinking.

For younger kids, this could mean Legos, Playdoh or magnetic tile sets. Dress up clothes, play kitchen toys, and animal or dinosaur figurines are also great open-ended toys.

My older kids have spent countless hours playing with Snap Circuits and Gravitrax– two open-ended STEM toys that I highly recommend.

4. Arts and Crafts

Help kids get in touch with their creativity by stocking various arts and crafts supplies. If you keep the supplies all in one easily accessible area, they will be used more often. It’s great to incorporate art projects into what you are learning at the moment, but just letting kids do their own thing is great for encouraging them to use their imagination.

Some items that I always keep on hand are:

• Construction paper
• Colored pencils
• Crayons
• Markers
• Watercolors
• Acrylic paint
• Different size paintbrushes
• Glue
• Beads
• String

I tend to only buy my crayons, markers, colored pencils, and paints from Crayola. I’ve skimped and bought off brand in the past, and the quality is just never as good. The Crayola website also has great project ideas, free coloring pages, and themed activities, so it’s worth checking out.

We also keep a small bin to collect recycled items that the kids like to repurpose into crafts like paper towel rolls, little containers, and tissue paper from gift bags.

5. Exploring Tools

Binoculars, magnifying glasses, microscopes, telescopes…. anything that helps kids explore the world around them will lead to great learning experiences.

Stock your book box with bird watching books, nature books, or astronomy books and watch your kids take exploring into their own hands.

6. Reference Books

Some people say reference books are dead. Everything can be found online, so what’s the point of having reference books taking up space in your home? I get that, but if you’re trying to create a learning rich environment for your homeschool, you want things that can be accessed by everyone at anytime.

There is something that can be gained by leafing through a reference book that you won’t get from typing in a specific topic online. We have a ton of reference books on specific subjects like space and animals as well as dictionaries and atlases.

Also, whenever you come across a country in a story, you can quickly check in the atlas and learn where it is. If you’re reading a chapter book and run into a word that is new, look it up in the dictionary. Not only does this facilitate learning, it also gets kids in the habit of becoming engaged learners whatever they’re doing. They’ll get used to stopping to learn about something rather than passing things over.

7. You!

That’s right- you as the homeschool parent are the most important part of a learning rich environment! What do I mean by this? You have a HUGE amount of influence in how your kids approach life, including learning.

Are you curious about the world around you? Are you excited about learning new things? Do you read voraciously? Whatever behaviors you model, you’re kids will pick them up.

Story Time

Here’s an example of the immense power of being a role model. I love reading and tend to read a book every two weeks or so. The problem was that I would wake up early and read before the kids would wake up and read again at night once everyone was asleep, so they never saw me reading.

At the time, I didn’t understand why my kids weren’t huge bookworms like me. They would read aloud when I asked them to or if it was something for schoolwork, but I didn’t see them reading for pleasure.

I decided to change my behavior to see if my habits would catch on. During the day, I would set aside a little time for reading. I would tell the kids that they were free to do what they wanted while I read a chapter of my book.

After a few weeks or so of doing this, my older two started to join me and find a comfy spot on the couch to read their books too. They started to get into the habit of making a reading time, and now they devour books quicker than I do!

Whatever it is you want your kids to learn and be interested in, make sure you are showing your own enthusiasm. It’s contagious!

Conclusion

There are so many ways to create a learning rich environment for your homeschool, and these tips are only a few. I’ve found, though, that after incorporating these things into our home, my kids have really benefitted.

I’m always amazed at how much kids can learn when left to their own devices. Give some of these ideas a try and see what a difference it makes in your homeschool!