Sunday, March 29, 2020

Tips for Home Learning

Many of us are tucked in at home these days and for some, like our family, routines are not too terribly different. We already school at home, my husband & I work from home and my parents and brother's family live right next door. 

For others, however, jobs and school are all moving homeward and you may be wondering just what to do with yourselves! 

My parents always say we are "blessed to be a blessing" and so I wanted to share some of the resources that we use regularly in homeschooling and home-based living that might be of some help during this extra time spent at home!

Here are some helpful resources for doing life, from home.


1. Exploring Nature With Children


This is easily my favourite resource that I've come across in 6 years of homeschooling my son. Exploring Nature With Children is a complete, year-long curriculum from Raising Little Shoots that we are now in our second year of. (When we finish it, we just start it right back up again and it always feels new). 

This curriculum is everything I love; simple, fun & creative! It is a weekly, nature exploration plan for children and families of all ages (I actually think it would even be fun to do on your own, as an adult!). Each week you walk through the same nature trail in your area (can even be your backyard) and discover a new piece of nature to study. There are poems, book lists, songs, art work & lots of extension activities for each topic. 

We always end up painting what we see, too (pictured above) - this curriculum can easily be science, language arts, art and even P.E. if you walk far enough!

This program can easily stretch into a week's worth of activities, every week, for a year and will surely be a fun use of home time! There is even a fun hashtag to follow on Instagram to see what everyone else is up to with this program! #ENWC



2. Wild + Free


Wild & Free is more of a resource for parents to gain ideas - but their entire focus is to get outside with your kids and be just that...wild and free! Who couldn't use a bit more of that?

Wild + Free has an endless stream of ideas for thriving together at home and outdoors.  Find them on Instagram @wildandfree.co. There you will find nature based ideas for simple handcrafts, recipes, outdoor exploration and lots of other activities based around home learning. They have some online courses for kids as well as beautiful community filled with connection points for mamas.

They also have monthly bundles you can subscribe to, where you receive beautifully curated magazines, full of inspiration and ideas for connecting with your children and being wild and free!

My friends Sarah, Marla & Louise and I run a Wild & Free Group chapter here in our area, and we can't wait to get back to our regular nature hikes and exploration dates! (Find us on Instagram under the hashtag #wildandfreeislandkids to see some of our adventures together!).


3. The Nature, Food & Farm Anatomy Series by Julia Rothman


We love these books. Julia Rothman is an incredible artist and has put together 3 books that beautifully combine art & science. The simple artwork and artistic expression bring biology themes to life in a whole new way!

Our family uses her Nature Anatomy book on a regular basis and it takes such little preparation to incorporate this into your learning. We have taken single pages of her book and turned them into experiments and entire units, sometimes! 

Earlier this year we learned about cloud patterns and crafted the different shapes of clouds out of bead foam, guided by the pictures in the book (pictured above)!

I recommend the Nature Anatomy book to start with, available here. If you are keen to pick them all up, the full set of Julia Rothman's Anatomy Series is available, here. 

4. Create-Your-Own-Unit-Study


This is a method I use in our homeschool every single term. Led by the idea of interest-based-learning, I either sit my son down to see what he wants to learn about, or I just choose a topic that I know he is interested in and begin gathering activities on that topic. I try to incorporate most subjects into this topic (even math!) and then the fun begins!

We create journal entries & art projects, find research opportunities, online worksheets & videos all based on our topic and then...get learning!

A really fun way to end your unit is to find a movie that focuses somehow on your topic of choice. The kids will feel so good about all they know on the topic when they take in the movie! (Ie. Study Rio de Janerio and then cuddle up at the end of the unit and watch "Rio"!).

As a homeschool mama with a very busy life schedule, this "home" time of life is really a big blessing for me - the gift of time to explore more of what we really want to do, instead of just what we feel we "should" be doing! No rushing around anywhere, we have time to spend 3 weeks learning every single thing there is to know about...pugs or rocket ships or Ancient Egypt! 

The final resources I've listed below will really be a help to you in gathering resources and putting together your own fun unit study to learn about...whatever you want!



TPT is a rich resource that I pull from often in my homeschooling. They offer over 3 million free and paid resources for every subject and every age of child - and the best part is, it is all created by teachers and home educators. The company's motto is "Unlocking the Collective Wisdom of Teachers", which I love.

You can use TPT to download single worksheets to fill the space of an hour, entire unit studies to work on all month or single items and inspiration to create your own unit. (More on that below).


This fun website is packed with ideas for science experiments and at home research to do! What kid doesn't love to explode a volcano made of baking soda and vinegar or learn more about what makes you hiccup?

They are even offering free K-5 Science lessons right now. Definitely worth exploring!


Missing church right now? Right Now Media is an online library of Bible studies and faith videos with a wonderful children's section. They are being wonderful and also offering free access right now to those who don't have an account.



If you are a mom, you undoubtedly have boards on Pinterest filled with fashion, food and ideas for your dream home reno - but there are also endless (and often free) educational resources available on Pinterest, too! 

A virtual inspiration board, Pinterest is a great place to go to find ideas. Searches like "Grade 5 Ancient Greece" or "Preschool Butterfly Art" will provide you with endless ideas to do on your own or add to any unit you are working on! 

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I hope these resources and ideas help you with some creative new ideas for learning at home together! I'd love to hear about how you're all learning at home, whether you've been doing it for years or are just stepping into it tomorrow morning! 

Have so much fun!
Love from,







(PS. Fun tip, in gathering links and hashtags for these resources, I remembered that our family has a little hashtag to keep all our homeschool photo memories - find it on Instagram here @ #happyhomelearner !  You can also find me on Instagram at @lovefromvalerie!. )

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Broken Together.


Do you like puzzles?

My mom has always loved them. When were kids, she would pull out 5 or 6 puzzles and excitedly declare a rainy Saturday "puzzle day!" - (an exclamation that was often met with whining and bored sighs -- sorry mom!).

Growing up, I never really cared for puzzles. As a chatty, busy child I thought they were 'too boring', as a young adult I couldn't be bothered to stay still long enough to complete one and as a young mom, it was hard to justify time in a day to not be doing housework or something else more productive!

With each new age, I am made more aware of how wise my mom is; God has gifted her with a strong sense of good discretion, and I have really learned from that. She has advised me in things like getting better sleep, having simple faith and not being too busy with my spare time. In each new season of life, I find myself thinking "man, mom was right about that, too!".

Turns out...she was also right about puzzles!

With a little more time spent at home right now, I'm currently working on a large, 1000 piece puzzle (start small, right?!); which, when finished will be a beautiful canvas painting of 2 yellow birds, sitting on a tree stump, filled with wildflowers of all sorts. It's a beautiful and challenging puzzle and I'm actually really enjoying it. I even view it as a source of relaxation and self-care. A time to sit, be still, even hear God's voice as I take in the quietness.

Last night, I was trying to fit together pieces of a large, brown, stump, finding myself getting more and more frustrated, losing sight of why I'd even started...then something struck me...

...It occurred to me that this beautiful puzzle would never come to be without 1000 broken pieces.

A thousand small, seemingly insignificant on their own, little puzzle pieces.

...And it made me think of us. Our countries, schools, churches, families - the communities we're a part of - we're one potentially beautiful picture that can never fully come together without each individual little piece.

When I look at a puzzle box, with all those broken, mixed up pieces, I see a challenge. I see a lot of work and sometimes, I just want to close the box and do something easier.

Meanwhile, God looks at those same broken pieces and sees potential. He already sees the clear, finished image. He looks at millions of broken people, every day and He loves them. He doesn't see broken, He sees useful.

So one piece has got jagged edges and one piece is loud and full of color and another piece may just be indistinct and plain...every single piece is needed.

And most importantly, like a puzzle, each piece is most valuable when connected to another piece.

Like Jack Johnson said, we're better together. When a plain piece of a brown stump, connects to a bright yellow piece, and then another, and another - and you start to see the image of a bird come to life - each individual piece starts to have more meaning. You suddenly put so much more value in that plain, brown piece that has no clear image. You start to remember that it's a little part of something bigger.

The really good news here is that, God knows the plan. The Maker has seen the original image and knows where each piece goes.

So let's take a lesson from the little puzzle piece. Let's trust the process of being built. Let's connect with each other, sync up and create something beautiful. Let's hop in the box, mix up with each other and trust the Hand that's putting it all together.

We may be broken, but let's be broken...together.