Tag: homeschooling

Homeschooling

GraviTrax Review: Homeschool STEM and Physics

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

GraviTrax Review: Homeschool STEM Marble Run

Teaching Elementary STEM (Engineering!) and Physics at Home

We’ve had a lot of indoor time lately — and I’m not even talking about sheltering-in-place due to COVID-19! Since baby Lochlan’s premature entrance into the world seven months ago, our usual social outings have been stripped back a great deal. (Master Lochlan would rock a shirt with the phrase, “I was social distancing before social distancing was cool.”) Our family has always loved games and building sets, but this rainy housebound winter, we’re enjoying them even more than usual.

[Disclosure of Material Connections: I received a complimentary GraviTrax set from Timberdoodle in exchange for writing and publishing this review. All opinions — and photographs! ;) — are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.]

Continue reading “GraviTrax Review: Homeschool STEM and Physics” →

Homeschooling

5 Ways to Streamline your Homeschool for the Holidays

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

5 Ways to Streamline Your Homeschool for the Holidays

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day rush at us at seemingly breakneck speed, our calendars full to overflowing with recitals, shopping, family gatherings, and endless errands. Each year, we promise ourselves we’ll slow down and make time for what’s really important, yet each year we find ourselves captive to the tyranny of the urgent, swept up in the cultural chaos of Christmas.

We limp through holidays, then let out an exhausted sigh in January, wearily vacuuming up the fir tree needles and boxing up the nativity while vowing to do better next year.

Instead of resigning ourselves to overwhelm and lack of margin this holiday season, let’s redeem the time, as Paul instructs in Ephesians 5:16. But how can we hold the hours accountable?

Continue reading my Holiday Homeschool Survival Guide on the Veritas Press blog

Homeschooling

Chroma Cube: A Single-Player Game for Gameschooling

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

PIN IMAGE Chroma Cube: A Single-Player Game for Gameschooling in your homeschool

Using games as teaching tools is such a popular practice in homeschool circles there’s actually a term for it: gameschooling. Have you heard of it? While gameschooling might conjure up images of a large family gathered around the dining room table, it doesn’t always look like that. There’s a place for single-player games, too, especially logic puzzles which teach deductive reasoning skills. My daughter particularly loves these sorts of challenges!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary Chroma Cube from Timberdoodle in exchange for writing and publishing this review. All opinions — and photographs! ;) — are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. Aveline’s sweatshirt is compliments of Primary. 

Continue reading “Chroma Cube: A Single-Player Game for Gameschooling” →

Homeschooling

Deconstructing Fundamentalism (without Rejecting Jesus)

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

A Response to Josh Harris:

When it comes to breaking news in Christian media, I don’t generally write a hot take. I tend to mull over disparate issues, ponder how they’re all connected, then write a response. And as a second-generation homeschooler who’s seen the good, the bad, and a whole lot of ugly, my responses usually focus on the cultural and theological shifts within homeschool subculture. (My article “Christian Homeschooling is not a Formula for Success“, for example, was a result of years of conversations with those inside — and outside — the conservative Christian bubble.)

But Josh Harris’ recent “I am not a Christian” announcement isn’t a hot take. It’s connected to that larger story arc, that ongoing cultural shift, that wide expanse of connectivity between rules and rebellion, between legalism and losing faith.

Continue reading “Deconstructing Fundamentalism (without Rejecting Jesus)” →

Homeschooling

How to Create a Hands-off, Independent Morning Time

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

PIN IMAGE with text: How to Create an Independent Hands-Off Morning Time in your Homeschool

With the exception of coloring books, our homeschool morning time is designed to be nearly all audio. (And I’m talking tech, not read-alouds.)

Most homeschool morning times are family-centered, and are traditionally more teacher-intensive. But unlike the communal morning basket with read-alouds, I created this all-audio routine to be completed independently by my daughter, as a launching point for her day. She craves structure, and this set sequence of audio tasks calms her and settles her (and me!) into a great headspace for the day. We used this same routine last year, too, and it worked out so well for us.

While a morning time that’s not also family time might seem odd, the way I see it, we homeschoolers are together with our kids 24/7 — sometimes that even feels like 25/7 or 8. So I’m not too worried about letting go of some together-time for an hour or so in the morning. In fact, it’s been a lifesaver.

[We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. 

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Continue reading “How to Create a Hands-off, Independent Morning Time” →

Homeschooling

Using Hands-on History to Teach a Global Worldview in your Homeschool

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary Hands-On History Project Kit from Sonlight Curriculum in exchange for writing and publishing this post. Aveline’s outfit is compliments of Mabo Clothier. All opinions are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

Homeschoolers love to talk about the best way to teach homeschool history. Everyone has an opinion, right? If you’re new to homeschooling — actually, even if you’re not! — it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Searching Pinterest for hands-on history project ideas, for example, can be  like drinking from a firehose. Phew. 

Continue reading “Using Hands-on History to Teach a Global Worldview in your Homeschool” →

Homeschooling

Why I Don’t Use THAT Popular Homeschool Booklist

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

That super-popular homeschool booklist? I don't use it. This is why.

You know that free homeschool book list? The one making the rounds across the homeschool world — along with the various free and low-cost curriculum offerings by the same author — the one which also includes a not recommended list dozens of titles long?

I don’t use that list.

I know, I know. It’s trending in popularity. It’s everywhere. It promises “wholesome” and “appropriate” titles, and ranks each one according to its “moral merit”. (It also provides a separate, but very lengthy, list of books which the author believes should be avoided.)

Don’t get me wrong. I do agree we should avoid certain books. Some books — like ones about the occult — aren’t even worth the paper they’re printed on. Libraries, too, are full of quizzically-named books like “Help! Haunted Werewolves ate the Cafeteria Lady*” — these always make me scratch my head. Literary merit? Moral value? Highly debatable! (*not an actual book.)

But the author of this particular recommended/not recommended reading list isn’t referring to books about werewolves and lunch ladies. When this book list decries books of questionable merit, it cuts out books like Clara and the Bookwagon (due to unkind parents who don’t value education), as well as Tirzah and The Year of Miss Agnes (because the main characters decide to pursue a path other than childbearing.) There are dozens more books similarly not recommended; this is just a sampling.

I’m taking a deep breath here.

Maybe you have parents who were less than kind to you.

Maybe you struggle with infertility.

This does not make you less than.

This does not make you “of questionable merit.”

Continue reading “Why I Don’t Use THAT Popular Homeschool Booklist” →

Homeschooling

100 Essential Tools for Homeschooling Gifted Kids

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

100 Essential Tools for Homeschooling Gifted Kids - by Gina of the Oaxacaborn Blog

Are you homeschooling a gifted / twice-exceptional (2E) child with sensory-seeking tendencies? Me, too! Let’s navigate this wild ride together. I created this mega-post for you, a huge list of 100 resources, sensory tools, educational websites, digital subscriptions, apps, games, morning time ideas and tips for homeschooling gifted and advanced learners. Continue reading “100 Essential Tools for Homeschooling Gifted Kids” →