Botany Unit / Science Shelves

I know it’s been quiet around here. In the real world, we’ve been spending a lot of time on science, and as much time as we can outside, as the temperatures start to creep up. Afternoons are in the 80s. The kids have been doing a lot of Teaching Textbooks for math lately, and there…

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Overdue Weeks in Review Vol. Meh

I know I skipped over a couple week-in-review posts. In my absence, I have blissfully read books for pleasure and binge-watched all of The Handmaid’s Tale. Also my sister got married, I was a matron of honor planning and assisting many-a-thing, and the kids were flower girls, and… little handfuls. In the upcoming week, we…

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Bird Animal Classification Box

Sharing all the contents of our animal classification boxes (in the Montessori continent box style) one by one. Up first is our bird box. It’s been so much fun putting these together — almost as much fun as watching the kids explore each animal hands-on. Animal classification cards freebie here. 🙂  We read the books…

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Waseca Biomes Tree of Life

We’ve been fervently studying animal classification around here, and the Tree of Life material from Waseca Biomes has quickly become a favorite hands-on exploration; it’s been used many times over the last couple of weeks. The material, a tree puzzle, is intended for advanced learners — and between you and me, I have no idea…

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Homeschool Week in Review: Vol 12

What happened this week? It’s always a blur; I need to rely on my phone pics, but it’s somewhat challenging to take good photos with a three-month-old. Nevertheless…  I persisted in snagging a few. Math We did mostly math on Monday and Tuesday. Everyone did bead chains. Then we were burnt out on math and…

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Animal Classification Cards *freebie*

I recently had a lighting bolt of an idea: I made animal classification boxes (a la Montessori continent boxes). I wanted something my kids could touch and sort through to understand what made each animal class distinct. I needed some type of control to explain the key points. After looking all over, I couldn’t find…

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Second Great Lesson, Timeline of Life and Long Black Strip

Last week we introduced Montessori’s Second Great Lesson: the Coming of Life. The Great Lessons are a series of stories designed to spark the fire of curiosity surrounding science, history, communication, numbers, geography and more. These stories along with key lessons serve as a framework for further explorations throughout the year.  Materials With the 2nd…

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Layers of the Earth Play Dough Mat *freebie*

Sharing one of our much-loved activities from this last week — a layers of the earth play dough mat. In the past we’ve made play dough models of the earth; that’s lots of fun, but I wanted something even easier to put on the shelf that the kids could work on independently. This is what…

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Week in Review: vol 10

Second week of homeschooling is in the books. I’m not sure how that happened so fast. We’ve been focusing on our Great Lessons work (we are doing one per week the first five weeks, you can read more about them here). I figure our first five weeks back are kinda a jumpstart and transition period after…

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