I love science, it's was always my favorite subject in school. I even majored in biology in college. Luckily my daughter seems to have inherited my love of science. She loves learning about insects, dinosaurs, space, geology, and this year she asked to learn about germs. And so  we've spent the last few months growing bacteria on agar in petri dishes and testing all sorts of products.  One of our experiments tested the effectiveness of various natural household cleaning products. If you haven't already, you can read about it here . Since our essential oil spray scored the worst on our previous experiment, we were curious if essential oils would work better full strength and which ones kill germs best, so we designed an experiment to find out. Our Experiment: Which Essential Oils Kill Germs Best? First we decided which essential oils to test. We went with tea tree, cypress, eucalyptus, clove, lemongrass, and sweet orange and then I had my daughter write a hypothe...

    When I get ready to order curriculum and supplies before the start of each school year, I like to sit down with my daughter and ask what she would like to learn about that year. I like her input, children tend to be much more eager about learning when it's something that interests them.  This year she asked to learn about germs so we ordered  a kit called The World of Germs from The Young Scientist's Club's Magic School Bus series (you can check them out here ). The last several projects in the kit involved growing bacteria on agar in petri dishes. She had so much fun, she wanted to do more, so we ordered some prefilled agar petri dishes from Amazon (you can order your own here ) and decided to design a few of our own experiments. The first thing she wanted to try was testing which of our household cleaners killed germs best and so we set out to design a simple experiment to figure it out. Our Experiment: Which Natural Cleaners Kill Germs Best? Fi...

I'm in a lot of mom and homeschooling groups on facebook and one question I see asked over and over is, how to get started homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. The early years are honestly really easy. There's no need to purchase fancy boxed curriculum or spend hours a day on academics. Young children learn so much from just living life and playing. In this post I share what homeschooling looks like for our family during the preschool and kindergarten years. I don't typically do much in the way of formal academics before 1st grade. Preschoolers learn best through play and everyday interaction with the world around them. There's no need for anything beyond that unless you have an extra eager learner, in which case, just follow their lead. We might spend a few minutes a day practicing things like writing their name, recognizing and writing the letters and numbers, and practicing letter sounds, but even that isn't necessary. Believe it or not, thi...

Today we had one of those perfect mornings where I'm reminded of all the reasons we homeschool and why it's the right choice for our family. My husband, who usually spends his days on roofs or in the dirt building solar arrays, was called off work for the day because of bad weather. With the rain pounding down on our roof, we all snuggled back in bed and I quietly gave thanks that we didn't have any reason to rush out of bed. Later, as we took our time getting dressed for the day and I cooked potatoes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast burritos, I again was so thankful that we didn't have to rush out the door in the rain to the bustop, that we could stay in and take the time to cook and eat a real breakfast. We could enjoy this rare weekday morning that my husband was home. I love that we can set our own schedule and be flexible. I love the freedom that homeschooling gives my family. There are so many reasons we choose to homeschool and so many reasons why I love it. In ...