Friday’s Hardwired Homeschool Hints – What about Writing?

One of the things I see over and over in homeschool forums and in homeschool-related email groups is a fear of teaching writing.  I don’t know if it is because we didn’t feel like we got adequate writing instruction ourselves, or we just put so much emphasis on the importance of strong writing skills.  Truth [...]

SpellingCity.com Adds Student Record Keeping

If you already use SpellingCity in your homeschool, then I’m preaching to the choir, but if you don’t…you should definitely check it out! SpellingCity is a free spelling practice program online that lets you input your own lists, or use ones already on the site.  Then your kids can practice their spelling words by playing [...]

Does Your Baby Prefer Frontline or Nova?

Sometimes I get totally fascinated by the most boring subjects. Like learning styles, for instance. I’m sure that reading about the way people learn would be lower than say – – watching an infomercial at 2 a.m. – – on some people’s priority scale, but I find it perfectly absorbing. If you don’t know a [...]

August Just Ain’t What It Used To Be

It’s August. Not only does the calendar tell me so, but my “educationological” clock does too. For the past nine years, August has basically been homeschool CURRICULUM month.  I’d pull out all the old stuff, and see what was still salvageable/saleable, and then pop into a couple local curriculum fairs – – just to check [...]

Has Keyboarding Ruined My Children For Life?

So I’ve found one sincere downside to the big wide world of high-tech homeschool.  My children’s handwriting is ATROCIOUS.  Think : second grade essay without lined paper.  That’s my boys. Actually, I can’t blame it ALL on the constant keyboarding.  Uber’s neurological issues have always given him the unfortunate side effect of hand tremors and [...]

Friday’s Hardwired Homeschool Hints: Over the Moon!

I know that it has been a while since I have visited the Hardwired Hints territory, so you know it had to be something good to bring this puppy out of temporary retirement… Our subject this week is The Final Frontier.  Yep, that’s right. Outer space.  And instead of a passel of links, this time [...]

Romans and Tire Pressure and Zombies…Oh My!

One thing I nearly never do on my blog is regale you with details about what we are studying in homeschool.  Mostly, that’s because when other homeschool bloggers do it, I tend to nod off for a minute.  Not that it isn’t important – – because it IS!  But somehow the excitement of a homeschool [...]

Friday’s Hardwired Homeschool Hints: Spelling

In all my years as a homeschooling mom, I have never once woken up with the thought “Oh boy, I can’t wait until we get to do our spelling lesson today!” Go figure. Even though I was a pretty good speller in school myself, I still never got overly excited about spelling in general. Ok, [...]

Friday’s Hardwired Homeschool Hints – All About Animals

I’d like to say we are an animal family, because we really do love animals, but I reserve that status for those cool families that start naming off the animals at their house, and it begins to sound more like a pet shop than a house, ya know?  Our next door neighbors, for example, are [...]

Friday’s Hardwired Homeschool Hints: American History

H-T is studying American History this year in his Time4Learning Social Studies curriculum.  It is quite a thorough course, going all the way from the native peoples to inhabit the land all the way through the Clinton administration.  The best part is the Time4Learning trademark of fun, interactive lessons that make American History really “pop” [...]