I made our first set of calendar wheels by hand for my oldest daughter, way back when she was preschool aged, as a simple hands-on way to learn about the passage of time and how we measure it. We ended up loving them so much that I recently made printable versions for my younger two daughters and added them as a freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. The set includes a days of the week wheel, a months of the years wheel, a seasons wheel, and a weather wheel. Assembling and Using Your Calendar and Weather Wheels Grab a printable set here:  Calendar and Weather Wheel Set Cut out each wheel and each arrow. Laminate each piece and cut out again.  Poke a hole in the center of each wheel and the end of each arrow with a thumb tack. Attach one arrow to the center of each wheel with a paper fastener.  Hang on your wall or bulletin board and have your child turn the calendar wheels as the days, months, and seasons change. Turn the weather wheel daily to reflect the weath...

 Elementary age students really don't need fancy science curriculum or thick science textbooks. If that's what your child likes, then go for it, but it's not necessary. There is so much science going on around us all the time that you can easily use your everyday experiences and your child's interests to learn about all sorts of amazing scientific topics. In this post I share some of the easiest ways I've found to add a little science to our homeschool days. Nature Study There is so much to be learned by just observing and interacting with the natural world around us. Simple things like backyard bird watching, star gazing, watching the moon moving through its phases, observing insects, watching the seasons change, and researching about animal and plant life around your home are all great ways to incorporate science into your homeschool days. Check out this post for lots of simple nature study ideas:  42 Nature Study Ideas . Kitchen Science Most people probably don...

  My girls are 11 (12 in November), 6, and 3 this year so I have a middle schooler, an early elementary student, and a preschooler to plan for. My plan is to incorporate a lot of unit studies and journaling this year since they can easily accommodate a wide age range and a wide range of topics.  Since we tend to do a lot of student-led learning in our household, I don't like to over plan in case my kids' interests end up shifting mid-year. This is another reason we tend to incorporate a lot of journaling- it works well with just about any topic and doesn't require a lot of planning ahead of time. We do sit down and do some basic planning and shopping for the new school year each summer though.  Here is our tentative plan for this year: Science For the last several years we've picked one broad science topic as a yearlong theme. Spending time on a single topic on and off all year long allows us to dive in really deep. Topics we've done in previous years are birds, geo...