Light Straw Clay
Let’s talk about light straw clay. First off, I love it. Secondly, what is it? And why is it worthy of love? Both of those questions have an answer. Light straw clay is a bunch of straw (hence the “straw” …
Our Second Grade School Day
The house wakes early, even in the dark. Partly because kids are insane, and partly because I have a puppy, which is another story. In any case, by 6:30am the dog is pooping, Boots is shuffling cards, Shortshanks is asking …
Drinking Chocolate
In Spain, it’s not hot chocolate—it’s drinking chocolate. Encountering this sort of blew my mind, and so my quest began. The beverage I tasted in a Spanish streetside café was, as I understood it, a coffee alternative, not a dessert. …
Daily Bread: How to Bake with Sourdough
How do you bake a loaf of bread using the sourdough starter you made? Well let me tell you. I named this recipe my “daily bread,” as in “give us this day,” because it’s very basic and very good. It’s …
How to Eat Fried Caterpillars
After watching Bear Grylls do it, King Sturdy wanted to eat a caterpillar.
My Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum: Our Routine
In my last two posts, I told you about the ideas that have influenced my kindergarten homeschool curriculum, as well as the subjects we’re studying, the activities that go with those, and the way I’ve organized our approach. In this …
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My Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum: What We Study
In my last post, I shared the styles of homeschooling that have influenced the kindergarten curriculum I’ve created this year for King Sturdy. In this post, I’m going to tell you which subjects we’re focusing on and how we organize …
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Four homeschooling styles that shape our curriculum
There are a lot of different ways to homeschool: different curricula of course, also different philosophies. Here’s the mishmash of approaches that I like, with a broad-brush description of how I think about each. Unschooling Noticing opportunities to learn, constantly, …
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Kindergarten
Five-year-olds had a big first, last week. They started school. Parents were excited and weepy. Kids were excited and scared. Teachers were excited and reassuring. All the hubbub was sweet and exciting even from a distance, and a part of …
Rube Goldberg Machine
The other day in school, we talked to King Sturdy about potential and kinetic energy, then showed him an OK Go video to illustrate. Today, he had his heart set on building a Rube Goldberg Machine. After some debate, we …