Our final country we studied this year was Australia. It was an especially fun country to learn about because of it's unique wildlife and ecosystems. My kids loved learning about the Great Barrier Reef and all the amazing sea life that lives there.  We only made it through about half of the countries I had planned to get through this year because we ended up finding so many interesting things to learn about. We started with several countries in Europe and then moved on to Aisia and Australia this year. Next year we will be learning about a few countries in Africa, then we'll finish up with South and Central America. You can find the links to all the countries we've already covered here:  Learning About the Countries of the World . Basic Information   Australia is considered both an island and the smallest continent. It's located in the south Pacific Ocean. The terrain is mainly low plateau and desert, with some fertile plains in the southeast. The climate ranges from su...

Educational apps can be a really easy way to sneak in some extra learning. My kids tend to prefer playing a math game over doing a math worksheet just about any day. Here are some of my family's favorite educational apps for kids, organized by subject: *Most of these links take you to the Google Play Store, but the majority of them are also available for Apple devices.  Preschool - Starfall : Starfall has been a favorite in our homeschool for many years now. I put it in both the preschool and general education sections because it covers a wide range of subjects for preschool through about 3rd grade. It offers math games, a virtual library, lots of reading games, and more. - Noggin : Noggin has lots of educational games featuring your children's favorite TV show characters. - ABC Mouse : ABC Mouse has lots of math and reading activities and games designed specifically for preschoolers and kindergarteners. - ABC Kids- Tracing & Phonics  ABC Kids has games that focus on lette...

  Geology is a favorite subject in my household. There's so many fascinating topics to explore like volcanoes, earthquakes, dinosaurs, fossils, the rock cycle, and more. My kids are also avid rock and fossil hunters and we love learning all we can about our finds. Our rock hounding adventures and our love for all things geologic has been the inspiration for quite a few of my posts over the last several years. I thought I would share links to all my geology related posts in one spot where they are easy to access. What is Geology? And Why Study it? Geology is the study of the Earth's physical structure, its processes, and its 4.5 billion year history. It includes things like the study of rocks and minerals, volcanology, plate tectonics, earthquakes, paleontology, erosion, decomposition, and oceanography. Geology plays a pivotal role in many different career paths and there is a growing need for geoscientists. Geoscientists are working on solving some of the most critical problems...

My girls love collecting wildflowers from our yard and garden. Instead of just letting them wilt and die after picking them, we usually press them and save them to use for crafts later. One of my favorite ways to use them is for making pressed flower bookmarks. Pressed Flower Bookmarks  For this activity you will need: -Fresh flowers or leaves  -A flower press or a heavy book for pressing flowers and leaves in -Waxed paper -Clear contact paper or a laminator sheet -A permanent marker -Scissors -A hole punch -Plastic cord or yarn -Beads The first step is to go out and collect some flowers to press. The best flowers for pressing are flowers that lie flat and only have a layer or two of petals. Flowers like poppies, daisies, violets, pansies, and cosmos tend to work really well. If you want to press thicker flowers or flowers with many petal layers like roses, peonies, cone flowers, zinnias, or dandelions, it's best to pull them apart and press the individual petals rather than t...

My family loves exploring nature and we often end up bringing home lots of nature treasures like colorful autumn leaves, spring blossoms, cool rocks, sticks, acorns and just about anything else that catches our eyes. Rather than just putting more treasures up on our nature display shelf, which is typically pretty full, I often try to come up with fun craft projects to use them for. In this post I share some of my favorite nature crafts that we've tried, plus a few other cool ideas I came across but haven't gotten around to trying yet.  Nature Crafts from The Barefoot Mom Nature Print Salt Dough Ornaments Yarn Wrapped Walking Sticks Autumn Leaf Crafts This post has instructions for several crafts that involve autumn leaves including watercolor resist leaf rubbings, autumn leaf placemats, and a color extraction STEAM project. Pressed Flower Bookmarks DIY Nature Fairy Wings Autumn Leaf Paper Lantern Craft Simple DIY Nature Themed Christmas Ornaments This post has instructions for ...

The Mesozoic Era began around 250 million years ago and ended about 65 million years ago. Both it's beginning  and end are marked by major extinction events. The Mesozoic Era is often called the age of the dinosaurs because they were Earth's dominant animals during this era. It's also the era when the first mammals and birds appear in the geologic timeline. T he Mesozoic Era is divided into three periods: the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.  If you haven't already, be sure to check out my other posts about geologic history: Learning About Geologic History- The Paleozoic Era Learning About Geologic History- Fossils Animals of the Mesozoic: Triassic - The end of the previous geological period is marked by a widespread extinction event that resulted in the loss of around 90% of Earth's species. The Triassic Period began with Earth as a sparsely populated planet with low biodiversity.  The two groups of animals that dominated the early Triassic  were the...