Julie Naturally
healthy, natural living for Christians
Recently, I learned that one of my favorite homeschool curriculum providers, Mr. D Math, just published a new book, TEACH by Dennis Dinoia. I had to take a look because I’ve talked with Dennis personally and we have a lot in common. We’ve talked a couple of times about troubleshooting in homeschooling and about self-directed …
I learned early on how to teach math for K-6th grade in one year. My oldest son refused to do math curriculum. I made up for this by using Math Facts to the Max, Times Alive:Times Tables the Fun Way, Family Math, and a few other tools you can find in this math resources post. …
Recently, I tried making a list of kids life skills that all homeschoolers need to teach. I wanted to help unschoolers focus on what’s important since we tend to do things more organically. As I began making my list and doing some research, I came across the Life Hacks Series from Hess UnAcademy. Wow! She …
Because unschooling is so contrary to the public school mindset, it’s necessary to renew our minds about education if we choose to pursue this style of homeschooling. One of the ways we can undo all the brainwashing to which we’ve been exposed is by reading the best unschooling books out there. Very few of these …
Unlike a lot of parents, I don’t think every kid should go to college. In fact, for many kids, it’s not the best choice. They should consider alternatives to traditional college. Why? Because some kids just don’t have aptitude. Some kids have aptitude but lack other necessary skills for success. And, a lot of teens …
One of the most common questions I hear is, “How does unschooling work? I mean, on a day-to-day basis. Do you just let kids do whatever or…?” Well, Christian unschooling acknowledges that foolishness is wrapped up in the heart of a child. So, our unschooling looks a little different, but many of the same principles …
A writer is a person who writes about stuff. In order to write about stuff, you have to know stuff and do stuff. That sounds really basic and juvenile, but it is the reason why I am against writing programs for children under twelve years old. Most of the writing prompts for younger children aren’t …
We’ve covered multitasking and discovered how it’s actually better in so many ways to focus on one thing at a time instead. You’ll also enhance your sense of calm when you can give your full attention to what you’re doing through block scheduling. Another thing that aids in feeling calm is to embrace the benefits …
The Christian unschooling style of homeschooling is one of the most misunderstood and even maligned styles. When you say “we are Christian unschoolers,” many people conjure up images of wild, defiant children who don’t seem to know basic things every other child knows. (This image wasn’t helped by some radical unschoolers who became the face …
We think we know what to teach preschoolers, but what if we’re wrong? Even in homeschooling, many preschool curriculums and learning resources focus on early reading skills. These include learning the alphabet and letter sounds. Some include basic math activities such as counting to 100 and single digit addition up to 10. Ideas for what …
How long does it take to learn to read? Judging by the age at which many folks start teaching reading skills, they must think it takes 3-4 years. I would argue that it takes much, much less time than that. It takes about thirty hours. That’s right, only one hour a week for less than …
As homeschooling parents, we want to know how to teach our children everything, including how to teach little kids to write a story. But, telling stories and writing stories require very different skills. Some of these skills are developmentally based. All children under age 10 tell stories. However, their writing efforts usually don’t match the …
While we have used math curriculum periodically (check out my list of math resources), I always try to unschool math in some way as well. Why? Isn’t the curriculum enough? First, I generally don’t use a curriculum until the child is around age 10. Until that time, I focus mostly on math facts, money, and …
In 2018, we graduated our second child from our homeschool. The first question everyone asks upon discovering this is–you guessed it–“Where is he going to college?” Well, he’s not going to college. He completed a career assessment tool and his path doesn’t necessarily need college. The question is uncomfortable, and I wish people would broaden …
Here in the northern hemisphere, it is summer and since I live near the Great Lakes, it is precious. For three months, it is warm enough to swim in Lake Michigan (although I don’t think the lake ever gets warmer than 70 degrees Fahrenheit.) When I was a kid, the streets swarmed with kids, we …
When my children were younger, I struggled to keep everyone at the table at the same time. Living books were important to me, but my rambunctious bunch wouldn?t quiet down. I was okay with them playing with Legos or squishing clay while I read, but quietly? That seldom happened. At that time, only one child …
As homeschooling parents, we lay down our lives for our children. Often, we give up friendships, dreams, income, and more so that our precious little ones can be taught at home. We feel we demonstrate service to them because every day most of our activity revolves around serving their needs. Maybe we feel that they …
