Teachers Pay Teachers is one of my absolutely favorite places to find creative printables to go along with our homeschool! Whether it's a holiday-themed activity or something to complement a book study, I always jump on there if I need an additional resource. 

Do you have a little detective in the house? My son dreams of being a spy or detective when he grows up! He's always asking for a new spy costume or spy gear. In fact, you can often find him sporting a fake mustache or holding a little notepad in which he's taking notes on. He even loved when Encyclopedia Brown was our read aloud, etc. You can only imagine the excitement he had when we took him to the Spy Museum in DC! 

Well, with Caleb being my detective-loving son, I brought out an old set of printables that I had made years ago for a co-op class I was teaching and it was the perfect fit! 

I had originally made this as a fun way for my students to work on their grammar skills that we had just reviewed. Talk about the perfect match for my son, ha! His obsession with being a detective/spy made this activity exciting for him -- way more than his typical workbook assignment!

And because I love going down memory lane, here's a photo of my oldest working on this same activity way back when I taught in that co-op. Ahhh...it seems like just yesterday!

If this sounds like something your kids might enjoy, be sure to click here...

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We all have them -- those childhood favorites that we can't wait to share with our kids. I still have my Gary Paulsen books from when I was a kid -- Hatchet and The River. I remember absolutely loving these books! Well, the day came when I introduced them to my son. I decided that even though I typically allow my boys to read whatever they want for their daily reading time for school, I was going to require my oldest to read a few specific books this year. They would be books that I either loved as a kid or that I felt were important to cover at his age. First up was Hatchet. To put it lightly, that was a total bust, ha!

He completely HATED it! I thought maybe once he got further into the story, he would enjoy it. Nope. Not one bit. And you know what? That's okay. It just wasn't his cup of tea. He loves documentaries about this sort of thing. He loves movies about this sort of thing. But apparently in book form, it wasn't a winner!

Do you require specific books for your children to read? Or have a set curriculum that requires books outside of the genre that they love? I think it's good to expose them to things outside of what they typically read and I'm still glad I had Sam read it, but I definitely won't be asking him to read the sequel as planned, ha!

That said, are there any novels that you remembering LOVING, but your kids hated?

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Update: So after writing about this, I had my boys sit down with me and watch the movie based on Hatchet. Thankfully, I was able to find it on YouTube. It must've been uploaded from a VHS tape, because the quality was absolutely horrendous! Nevertheless, we watched it. It turns out, Sam really enjoyed the movie! In fact, he's still talking about it randomly. On our way to an appointment earlier today, he asked why the pilot had a heart attack. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about so he had to elaborate. Clearly, the movie won him over way more than the book!

*****

Side note: For anyone wondering, when I have my boys read books of their choosing -- or books that I choose for them -- I have them knock out one of the activities in their Reading Journal that I blogged about last week. If you think that might be something you'd like your children to do, definitely check out that blog post here.

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The first one in the series is a particular favorite for both of my boys -- Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy. Not only did it introduce my boys to this fun series, but they love this particular period in history. Not long after my oldest first read this one, we toured a lot of sights from the Revolutionary War. We even saw a statue dedicated to Nathan Hale while in CT! It kind of helped bring all of this to life for him and it has stuck ever since then.

It amazes me how much my boys have picked up from these books. I will tell you -- they've learned more history (that they can still reference in conversation months later) from this series than anything that's stuck from traditional history textbooks. I'm honestly amazed at some of the things they'll point out. Whether we're at a museum -- this happened shortly after they read Big Bad Ironclad! -- or watching a documentary, they'll reference something they read in one of these books with complete excitement. It's the joy that comes from knowing the answer before it's taught -- it's fun seeing their faces when they'll excitedly share what they know about the topic and proudly say they knew it because of what they read in Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. It's not every day that you find something that causes this response!

Definitely consider adding this series to your reading list this year if you have a child in elementary school! My oldest fell in love at around 8 years old, but my youngest followed in his footsteps much younger -- although I'm sure some of that was because he wanted to be like his big bro!

*UPDATE*

GREAT NEWS! Nathan Hale is releasing a new book this fall about the Cold War! I know what my boys will be reading in October! 

"The Reading Journal is 168 lessons recommended for grades 2-8. Comprised of 28 unique lessons that focus on vocabulary, word study, comprehension, and higher-level thinking skills, the journal cycles through each lesson 6 times throughout the year, providing just the right amount of practice without too much monotony.

"Hey, Mom! It's like villi!"

Ah, that wonderful moment when you realize they actually WERE listening during the science lesson...

Loki Success GIF from Loki GIFs

We've been working through our Apologia Human Anatomy and Physiology book and while the boys enjoy it, it's a lot to process at times. So when I gave my son these fun, new pencil grips and this was his first reaction, it totally made my day, ha! 

That said, these are so fun! I ran across them at the store yesterday and we're all obsessed. I have a feeling we may need to buy a larger pack!

I don't know about you, but I love documenting little things about my boys at each stage. I love getting those Mother's Day questionnaires with their sweet thoughts, and I especially love seeing their thoughts when each new school year comes around!

Since I'm always randomly searching for a new one each year, I decided to just make one this year. If this is something you might enjoy, be sure to click on the image below!

I'll try to upload an image soon of the sweet thoughts my boys wrote down... ;)

Whether you're a newbie or an OG Homeschooler, curriculum choices can be tough. Do you continue with what you've used before? Try something new? Do a box curriculum? Follow a friend's recommendation? There are SO many options! And honestly, there are way too many amazing options to choose from. I personally struggle with being able to narrow down our choices and actually stick to something. There are so many that I love that I find myself trying to squeeze in more than I should...

To some, it may seem crazy, but after 2 months off, we are now back into the swing of things with our new school year! I've heard of so many homeschoolers that love the 6 weeks on - 1 week off schedule that we decided we're going to give it a try. Surprisingly, the boys were in pretty good spirits about starting school in the beginning of July -- I suppose the idea of constant 1 week breaks helped with that, ha! We're now done with our 1st week and things are going great! There has been very little resistance and thanks to some of our curriculum choices, the boys have actually requested to do extra at times -- total win!

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Ok, so if you've read previous blog posts that I've made, you made have come across one where I don't speak that highly about Story Of The World. Well, that opinion has since changed...

Ever since I tried SOTW with my oldest son several years ago, I held on to the curriculum JUST in case we'd want to try it again. You never know how curriculum is going to work -- whether it's great for you and your kid hates it, or vice versa. We are amazingly blessed with an insane variety of curriculum on the market that you're bound to find something that will for well for your family -- regardless of how it works for others you know. SOTW was once thought to be a total bore in this house. I could barely handle and it sure couldn't keep the attention of my kid. However, that same kid now begs for me to read it!

It all started when I was trying to calm my wild monkeys -- I mean handsome boys -- and get them ready for bed. They were literally climbing all over and hanging upside down on their bunkbed. They asked for me to read them a book while they tried to go to sleep, so I tried to think of something boring. I LOVE reading to them before bed, but if it's even remotely interesting or catches a hint of their attention, we'll end up sitting there reading several chapters with them begging for more. It is totally awesome, except when they really need to be asleep instead of wide-awake listening to an adventure story. ;) So that night, I decided to go into our school room and dust off our Story Of The World book. I knew it used to put them (and me) right to sleep -- maybe this was the perfect solution! Maybe, just maybe, they'd be asleep by the second paragraph. Wrong. They were so drawn in, we read a couple chapters, with lots of discussion in between, before I finally said we had to stop for the night so we could get some rest. They couldn't get enough! I guess it's an age thing? An interest thing? My oldest was the same age as my youngest is now when we first attempted it so who knows. Either way, SOTW is a total win in this house now! 

I honestly don't even think they consider this school when we're reading it. When we knock out our Saxon math or phonics/writing curriculum, sure...they know they have to sit down, press on and get through it. Sometimes it's with joy, sometimes it's a bit of a drag. But they know it's school and it's something they need to do. With SOTW  they'll randomly just ask if I'll read it to them while they're playing. We've been doing several day-trips lately, so I'll bring different books in the car to read -- both read alouds and books for them to read on their own. They'll specifically ask for me to read SOTW with much excitement. It's pretty awesome, ha. 

On one of these recent day-trips that I mentioned, I decided to bring along art pads on the drive so that they could do one of the suggested activities in the SOTW Activity book. As I handed each boy their art pad and colored pencils, they both grabbed them with enthusiasm and actually put the effort forth to work on it as I read without one complaint. I mean, it was like the twilight zone! My 4th grader generally has a good attitude about things, but let's be real. He's 9 and school work can be a drag at times. His life goals are to be outside, during every waking moment, playing Beyblades and having Nerf Wars. Even in the car, if I mention knocking out some schoolwork on a long drive, it is received with some deep sighs. Not that day. Not with Story Of The World! 

Can you sense the excitement?!

This guy took it very seriously and worked hard on his drawings...

Here is a photo of their finished product. They used the key in the Activity Workbook to create their names in both hieroglyphics and cuniform...

So...if you read my last review of this curriculum and you found yourself in the same spot -- give it time. You just never know how things might change! Here I had planned on using a different curriculum as my spine, but it never showed up. It legit got lost in the mail and we received the empty bubblewrap envelope instead (insert crying emoji). I guess that was a blessing in disguise, because it appears as though we're good to go with our SOTW set!

Clearly, I've completely dropped the ball on this blog. It's been over a YEAR since I've gotten on here! Between homeschooling while also teaching a set of classes, a cross-country move, then adding my youngest into our daily homeschool schedule -- this completely fell on the back burner. That said, this whole quarantine situation has given me a little extra time and with all the new temporary homeschoolers out there, I figured I might share some of the activities we've been working on...






So...my boys aren't exactly huge fans of fairy tales. Are yours? I have all sorts of versions of them -- some from my childhood, the Little Critters set that I had bought my boys during one of those Kohl's Cares promotions, and others I've randomly collected at garage sales. Sadly, when given the option, they're still not what either boy opts for when choosing a book. However, as part of our homeschool curriculum, we use the Jot It Down program by Brave Writer. This awesome program includes a fairy tales project that my boys have loved! (Though they won't admit it, ha...) Along with this program, I've also added the Evan Moor Literature Pockets: Folktales and Fairy Tales workbook to the mix for additional activities.

People approach this project in all sorts of ways, but this is how it has worked for us...

It has been a slow, ongoing, project for awhile now. So far, we've completed 3 fairy tales over the course of several months, but my goal is to complete 10 before putting them all together. I've seen some families make their collection into a book, but we have chosen to make large crafts for each fairy tale (some on 12x18 paper, etc.) so that won't work. My goal is to put them together with loose leaf binder rings when we're all done.

With each fairy tale, we read as many versions as we can get our hands on -- this is usually just from my own stash, but I'll go to the library if I need to. For today's fairy tale, we resorted to ABC Mouse. Social distancing prevented us from utilizing the library, but it still worked out wonderfully! Did you know ABC Mouse is FREE right now due to the pandemic?!?! We had used the app with my oldest when he was in preschool, but so much as changed since then! As it turns out, they have a TON of digital books on the app now. As luck may have it, we found out today that they had two different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears on the app! Score! Between those two and my Evan Moor workbook, we had 3 different versions to compare!

After my boys read all three versions of the story, we compared each version. How were they different? The same? Which version did they like more? Why? Etc. We talked about the history behind the original story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and then worked on a sequence activity in the Evan Moor workbook. The best part came next...

The boys LOVE painting! Any excuse to paint will win them over. That said, I let them paint a scene from their favorite version of the story. This brought joy in the midst of the craziness going on right now. They loved it!


After they completed their paintings, they presented them to me and explained the scene that they chose. They each retold the whole story in their own words as well. As part of the Jot It Down program, you are encouraged to dictate what they say. I adjust that to fit our style...



I then have him do a small piece of copywork based on his retelling of the story. Here's his finished product (with the dictation on the back). I love the look on his face after he completes any project -- beaming with pride. Hard work pays off!



At this point, we haven't had a chance to do it yet, but we usually end each fairy tale with a movie. I have yet to look up a Goldilocks and the Three Bears movie, but that will be on the list of things to do over the weekend.


We've been alternating between working on that and working on the fairy tales. (Perhaps I'll try and write about that next.) Once we finish these fairy tales, I'm probably going to let them pick a new theme and go with it. I have no doubt my youngest would pick super heroes and their origin stories if I let him, ha!

I love these types of projects. They incorporate so much! My boys willingly do more reading, writing, and discussion on both when we do these projects than with anything else. Having fun while learning in the process is all we can ask for, right?!

Have you done any projects like this? I'd love to hear about them!

So...I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but in addition to homeschooling my own children this year, I also added on the job of teaching others as well. I'm helping teach the 1st and 2nd graders at the weekly class my son has been going to for the last 2 years. It wasn't something I had originally planned to do, but I'm glad it worked out! With this new job, I will most likely start creating printables to go along with our lessons in class. With that being said, I wanted to share one that we used during our first week in class!

Our goal is to complete an experiment in class every week. What better way to learn about science than to get your hands dirty and play?!

For our first week in class, we covered the Water Cycle. We watched a video (see below), sang the song together (lyrics are linked below), and completed an experiment that helps kids see how it works.