Uncomplicated parenting in a complex world.
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Summer is officially here as we mark Memorial Day off of the calendar. Hooray!
Are you looking for some Summer fun ebook recommendations?
I’m an affiliate for the Bundle of the Week, a weekly sale featuring ebooks around a central theme for a bargain price.
This week you’ll find tips for planning a summer of fun, including “daily activities for kids of all ages, recipes to help you make the most of the food that’s in-season, tips and recipes for eating well on-the-go and dozens of delicious homemade ice cream recipes that you can make with or without an ice cream maker!”
In this week’s bundle sale, you will find:
Note: there are affiliate links in this post.
Although we aren’t the backyard homesteaders that some of my friends are, our little raised bed garden is a source of joy and fun for our family, and we like to consider our thumbs to be at least green-ish.
It seems that every year we get a bit more adventurous, learning from our mistakes, growing new things, and enjoying more of our harvest (though “harvest” does seem like a generous term some years).
Personally, I am excited to garden this year as this will be the first spring in quite some time when I haven’t been pregnant or had a brand new baby, so I’m ready to get out there and see what we can do with this little back yard space of ours.
My littlest kids love digging in the dirt and my oldest is deep in botany study this year, so we are a family eager to get out there and get our hands dirty.
Here is what has been happening in our little garden lately …
Can you feel it in the air? The days are getting longer, the pace is moving slower, (hopefully) the sun is starting to shine. Very soon, if they haven’t already in your neighborhood, the school bells will be chiming their last before the Summer break begins.
Even as homeschoolers, my family adjusts our pace to the so-called “lazy” days of Summer. However, like most of you, in the back of my mind lingers the question: how can I help my kids retain all that they have learned during the school year? What can I do to encourage my kids to keep their skills fresh and sharp over the Summer vacation?
For today’s Friday Five, I give you 5 fun ways to encourage your kids to practice their handwriting, reading, and comprehension skills over the Summer break.
Hello, friends! Pizza box solar oven s’mores aren’t the only backyard scientific fun we’ve been cooking up this week. The kids and I are sharing our baking soda and vinegar volcano today on our other blog, The Dynamo Rhino homeschool blog.
We would love it if you’d hop over there today to check out this fun backyard chemistry experiment.
From the post:
A few summers ago, while thrift store shopping, Jillian and I found a kids chemistry book and purchased it. It has turned out to be some of the most valuable fifty cents I’ve spent in our homeschool.
The book is called Chemistry for Every Kid by Janice VanCleave (you can probably pick up a copy on Amazon, or keep your eyes peeled for a second hand copy like we did) – my kids and I love it!
We’ve had a string of gorgeous sunny days with little to no breeze. That is perfect weather for backyard science experiments and the kids and I decided to kick the Summer off right with a volcano!
We loosely followed the instructions in the kids chemistry book, but the idea is a simple one, especially if you’ve ever done any kitchen table science experiments with baking soda and vinegar.
