Tag Archives: homeschool

History, Adventure, and Treasure…The Ultimate Guide to Studying Pirates

Posted on by July 7, 2017 6
History, Adventure, Treasure...the Ultimate Guide to Studying PIRATES. A fun family unit study via Walking in High Cotton

In the spring I mentioned that we would have two family unit studies this summer. One is our Astronomy unit study–which is continuing casually through the whole summer and has been very fun so far! (I’ll have an update on one of our projects soon.) The other topic I chose this year is Pirates. I had no idea they would overlap so much, but space pirates is totally a thing so it’s worked out great! The history of Pirates is an interesting topic because it can involve a lot of … Continue Reading…

The Quest for Truth Sci-Fi Series for Middle Grade Readers…A Review and GIVEAWAY!

Posted on by May 26, 2017  
Quest for Truth sci-fi series for middle graders by Brock Eastman--A Review and Giveaway! via Walking in High Cotton

We’ve continued with our slow, steady, and FUN family Astronomy study this month. So far we’ve already seen and documented several moon phases including a full moon and a new moon; visible Jupiter; visible Mercury, and learned to recognize the Big and Little Dipper.  We’ve also watched several space and sci-fi movies as a family, including a special at-home family movie night presentation of Rogue One (which my kiddos hadn’t seen yet) and a splurge on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 in the theater. We’ve been keeping a list of … Continue Reading…

Space and Science-Fiction Adventure Books for 8-12 Year Olds

Posted on by May 6, 2017 6
Space and Science Fiction Adventure Books for 8-12 yo via Walking in High Cotton

When outlining our simple family unit studies, I mentioned that I like to use a fiction read-aloud on the topic as the backbone of our unit. Then I laid out our summer-long Astronomy unit study for you and there were no fiction books! I struggled with finding fiction books in the space and sci-fi genre because it’s not one that I’m very familiar with, personally. It took a lot of searching, chatting with our librarian, and reading reviews on Amazon to find a list of books to consider that meet … Continue Reading…

Summer Star-Gazing…A Simple Family Unit Study on Astronomy

Posted on by May 18, 2017 8
A Simple Family Unit Study on Astronomy for Fun Summer Learning! via Walking in High Cotton

Have you gotten your FREE Summer Unit Study Planner? I’ve been hard at work with mine, laying out plans for an Astronomy unit study and a Pirates/Maritime History unit study for the family this summer. I’ve put quite a bit of time into gathering resources and planning activities because I enjoy it. We don’t get much for family vacations and holidays around here with the farm to keep an eye on. So we have to make up our own, local, staycation-type fun for the summer. I’m going to share my resource … Continue Reading…

How to Plan a Family Unit Study for Fun Summer Learning

Posted on by April 26, 2017  
FREE Summer Unit Study Planner set at Walking in High Cotton (2017)

A book, a movie, and a field trip about the same topic equal an easy summer family unit study!  Summer brain drain–ugh! For 3 months the kids run around from camp to craft to sleepover wanting fun and games and play time all day, every day because SCHOOL’S OUT so we don’t have to do any more of “that learning stuff.” Um…not around here! So what’s a busy, working mom to do besides frantically shuffle the kids from one STEM camp to another and continue to spend her nights tracking … Continue Reading…

Bald Eagle Encounters…Bald Eagle Study Resources

Posted on by March 18, 2017 2
Bald Eagle Encounters with a BIG list of (mostly FREE) Bald Eagle Study Resources. via Walking in High Cotton #homeschool #unitstudy #naturestudy

I’m out the door in the morning the same time the boys head to the end of the driveway to catch the school bus. When they get picked up, I head to work. So we’re all heading out the other day and the Cowboy comes racing back in, “Mom, where’s your phone?!” Between my laptop, purse, lunch bag, and coat, I had no idea. He stormed through the house, grabbed it and headed back out. We had a Bald Eagle. In the driveway. I dropped my pile of junk by … Continue Reading…

Visiting the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia

Posted on by July 7, 2017  
Visiting the Mariners' Museum in Hampton Virginia (via Walking in High Cotton}

Most of our Christmas/New Year’s holiday this year was kinda drizzly and mucky, so Mr. Fix-It and I decided to take the crew to the Mariners’ Museum one of those last dreary, stir-crazy days. It’s a museum and park with trails and outdoor displays as well, but we stayed inside. The first thing I’ll say (since the majority of my readers are frugally-minded) is that I thought it was a little pricey, and I really think the 3D movie tickets should have been included, or at least discounted with the … Continue Reading…

50+ Resources for Learning About War Dogs and K-9 Heroes

Posted on by March 9, 2017  
Resources for Learning about War Dogs and K9 Heroes {at Walking in High Cotton} #homeschooling #military #wardogs #heroes

Have you seen the movie Max, about a Marine Corps dog originally stationed in Afghanistan? As a boy momma, with an equally adventure and animal-loving girl, it was right up our alley for family movie night. We enjoyed it! A little predictable? Yes. But still a quality family movie. And it sparked a lot of interest from the crew about military working dogs. The boys are already crazy about anything military and the Ladybug loves everything dogs right now so this angle on their favorite topics was very fresh for them, … Continue Reading…

Summer is Winding Down…

Posted on by March 9, 2017  

I know everyone is in back-to-school mode. We don’t go back until the day after Labor Day, so we’re fighting that a little bit. We did get all our school supply shopping done (except for earbuds, I didn’t find earbuds on sale anywhere) and I’m starting to stock up on lunch supplies and snacks for the first few weeks. But otherwise, we are not going into full-school-prep yet. To underline that, our kiddos have been packing up and heading out on “adventures” every day with the dogs. No explanation of … Continue Reading…

Kids Need More Than Book-Learning

Posted on by June 7, 2017 2
Kids Need More than Book Learning...I've become strongly opposed to homework. I need those hours back to teach them all the OTHER things they need to know! {via www.walkinginhighcotton.net}

Ok, we’re not even a month into the school year and I’m already over the homework. Sheesh. I’m just the Momma, it’s not even my homework! And the more I read and think and pray, the more oppose to homework I am, except for two cases… The child is not being diligent and getting their classwork finished and has to bring it home to work on it. This would go hand-in-hand with a student with a specific learning challenge that needs extra work. (Um, we have one of those. Maybe two. … Continue Reading…

A Tough Row to Hoe

Posted on by August 1, 2014  

You know something I struggle with? Not getting my own way. {smile} But you know what’s REALLY hard? Compromising what I want for what I know is right–and things are STILL not easy. For some reason (Christian immaturity, probably!) I feel like when I submit to God in something, the clouds should break open and sunshine should pour through and everything should become rainbows and roses and suddenly I’m on easy street. I mean, I’m doing the Will of God–that means it should be easy, right? Ha! Not so much. … Continue Reading…

How To Make Relaxed Summer Learning Plans

Posted on by April 24, 2017 2
How To Make RELAXED Summer Learning Plans {via www.walkinginhighcotton.net} Planning summer fun that will keep their brains keep whirling during those hot summer days.

I already introduced you to why we make summer learning plans. Today I’m going to share simple steps for creating your own simple, relaxed summer learning plans. I did this for the first time in 2012 and it worked great–even though we were not strict about sticking to it. It’s an outline, not an itinerary. In 2013 I did less pre-planning and I feel like we got less out of it as well. So I’m going back to my first-year concept. I’m not done (obviously–since I pretty much just started last week!) … Continue Reading…

What ARE Relaxed Summer Learning Plans?

Posted on by April 3, 2017  
What are RELAXED summer learning plans? {at www.walkinginhighcotton.net} Why we bother and how we keep it fun. #summerlearning

I’ve gone back and forth for several years not knowing where I fit with homeschooling (since we don’t homeschool full-time) and finally embraced the fact that we do homeschool–just not full-time. But I am–we are–intentional, teaching parents and we create a constant learning environment at home. Well, we try, anyway. {smile} So this week I’ll be sharing some of my planning process and what our summer calendar looks like. But first I’d like to share some thoughts on why I go through the trouble of making summer learning plans, and how we … Continue Reading…

25 Adventure Series Chapter Books For Young Boys

Posted on by June 22, 2017 11
25 Adventure Series Chapter Books for Boys. Great for independent readers or for read aloud family time! via Walking in High Cotton

Well, it’s been 70 degrees for a few days, so we’re starting to think about summer plans around here again–and part of that is summer learning plans. Summer is a great time to work on some fun family unit studies as well as some local field trips. I was also spurred on by finding 16 books in The Sowers Christian Biography series at our local thrift store for only $4.00!! What a treasure! The kiddos can’t wait until we dive into a few for read-aloud! I’ve started reviewing our little playroom … Continue Reading…

Real Life Homeschooling…Learning by Adopting a Soldier

Posted on by January 11, 2016 6
Learning by Adopting A Soldier {via Walking in High Cotton}

Real Life Homeschooling is about busy momma’s sharing ideas for how you can be intentional about teaching at home, even if it doesn’t look like traditional school-at-home. Last month I talked about how down time can play a key role in developing a supportive learning environment in your home. This month I’d like to talk about another activity our family participates in that has opened wide doors of learning for us…Adopting A Soldier. I mentioned our recent “adoption” the other day while taking about care packages. This is the third time … Continue Reading…