The Creative Mama is in the midst of the “A Day In The Life” series. Today, I am there writing about how my idea of the ideal homeschool day has changed. I’m realizing there is more to education than books. Our days and schedule reflect that. To read more about it, click HERE

Join me today at my new venture – The Homeschool Scientist. The mission of this new blog is to “equip and encourage homeschool parents by taking the fear out of and putting the fun into science education.”

Stop over for special launch day giveaways and join the community!

The Homeschool Scientist will seek to “equip and encourage homeschool parents by taking the fear out of and putting the fun into science education”.  TheHomschoolScientist.com will go online in February. Until then, join me on facebook today for the launch of The Homeschool Scientist community. Fill out a survey and be registered to win the World Of Science book courtesy of MasterBooks.

Since it is that time of year when we start thinking about planning and organizing, Homeschool Creations is having a last minute sale on their Weekly Homeschool Planner . From Thursday, December 29th to Saturday, December 31st use the discount code – ORGANIZE12 – and the planner is only $12!!

This is the planner I use and love. You can read my review HERE. (However, the giveaway is closed.) It is downloadable and editable with lots of planning option pages. Looking for a new homeschool planner? Look no further! Take advantage of this sale!

I love science experiments for kids that are timely and practical. When kids realize that science is happening all around us all the time, they get excited about science instead of being intimidated by it.That’s why our science studies seem to rabbit trail here and there. We might be inspired to study photosynthesis and leaf pigments by the changing colors of fall. We get inspired to do a pond study in the spring by finding frog eggs.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I have been on the look out for science projects that will fit with the season. Here are a few I haven’t tried yet, but are on the schedule for this month. Try them out and let us know how they turned out! If you blog about them, email me and I’ll link to your experiments next month in the Hands On Science post!

Read more for hands-on Thanksgiving science at The Homeschool Village….click HERE!!

I am a fan of routines. In fact, there are times I lose it when my routines get interrupted. (Don’t judge..I know there are others like me!) However, there are other times when I just need to throw the routines and plans out the window.

This week, I had homeschool as usual planned. My plan was to go through our normal routine of lessons and ice skating with some extra fun stuff thrown in when we had time. The more I thought about it the more I realized that our extra fun stuff never seems to come around with this school year’s schedule. That’s when I decided to scrap the routine and spend the week on the “extras”.

What did that look like? Well…

Monday was Columbus Day, so we took a 3 day weekend and did some traveling to see family over the weekend. We spent Monday driving back.

Tuesday, we designated as “entrepreneurship day”. My daughter and I worked on a couple custom sewing orders for her business. She sewed. I just cut fabric.

Wednesday is my day to teach high school biology to a group of homeschoolers. My daughter takes the class, too. On the way back, we stopped at the library and spend the rest of the afternoon reading and writing.

Thursday was errands in the morning, a break for lunch with my husband, followed by housecleaning. In the late afternoon, the kids played “Indians” in the woods behind our house. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them laughing from the creek while I was at the house. Love that sound.

I’m not even sure what Friday will hold. But, I’m sure it will be good. Even though we didn’t stick with the some old routine and veered off of our curriculum course, we had a great, educational week. We spent lots of moments just enjoying what we were doing. I don’t feel the pressure and the stress that I feel on lots of planned weeks. Having this freedom has been great. I think I’ll try and sprinkle more of these kinds of weeks into our school year.

What about you? Do you just need to throw the routine out the window every once in a while? I highly recommend it!

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Here’s a great leaf experiment to do with the kids as part of homeschooling or as a weekend project. It’s especially great this time of year when the leaves are turning. Enjoy and let me know how yours turned out!!

One of the first resources I discovered when we started homeschooling was SpellingCity.com. I believe I first heard about it from a traditional schooling friend whose kids used it for spelling practice at home. At first, we used it for a spelling supplement. Now, SpellingCity.com is basically our spelling curriculum. The site is amazing. Kids learn without even knowing it!

We used the basic, free version of SpellingCity.com for a long time and we have been pleased with it. A couple weeks ago, we were given the opportunity to review the upgraded premium membership. We love it! My daughter loves the new games and new challenges. I like the premium membership because now I can set assignments (a great variety of games and activities) on my parent account that my daughter can see in her student account. Later, I can log in and see what games and activities she actually completed and track her progress. SpellingCity.com, also, has a spelling and vocabulary test option. The student take a test online that is immediately graded and can then see what words they need to review. A record of each test is kept online. Easy record keeping!!

We might fight over other school subjects, but not spelling. My daughter actually asks to do it! SpellingCity.com has been a huge asset to our homeschooling. It has taken a formerly boring subject and made it fun! What could be better than that?!

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Even though the academics are important to us, my husband and I feel there is an even larger challenge ahead of us. We feel that there are somethings that are even more important for her to learn. Things like:

**********************to read more, visit me today at MOD Squad Blog!

We love homeschool. But even homeschooling can’t take the drudgery out of some subjects. My daughter used to despise spelling. We tried several books and programs and techniques. Then, we found VocabularySpellingCity.com. My daughter asks to spelling first now. Up until this point, we have just had the basic free membership. That is great for spelling words, but they have now added vocabulary, parts of speech and writing to their Premium Membership. Perfect for us! VocabularySpellingCity.com has offered us a premium membership to try out and review. We are so excited! After we spend some time checking it out, I’ll tell you all about our experiences!