Today we wrapped up a semester of Botany with our informal homeschool co-op by taking a scavenger hunt hike with three families who have children close in age to ours. This concept of sharing educational experiences with a few friends is the essential definition of an educational “co-op” — or at least it should be. However, as homeschooling […]
Tag: science
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Hands-on Homeschool: Garden Prep Field Trip
Last week we took a few days off for a spring garden prep “field trip” at the home of my in-laws in Kansas. Grandpa and Grandma Gotcher are “firstgen” homeschoolers: They began homeschooling my husband and his two sisters in the early 1980s. They needed help getting their orchard and […]
4 min read
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Autumn Inspiration: Fall Foliage Hikes
When it comes to Autumn inspiration, the scenic mountains of Colorado and Aspen groves turning into blankets of pure gold never fail to take my breath away. One of my family’s most treasured Autumn traditions is taking fall foliage hikes in the high country. This year, the trees are just […]
4 min read
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Real Life Homeschooling in Your Own Backyard
At this point in our back-to-school schedule, we still have a few free afternoons each week. Our weekly homeschool enrichment programs, such as worship dance, PE Plus, AWANA, and our girls book club co-op are just getting started for the fall, so we’ve been using the remaining free afternoons for […]
4 min read
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A Deuteronomy 6:7 Mission: Time for Change
As you may have read in previous posts, this spring my sister-in-law Renée and I attended a Teach Them Diligently Conference in Omaha that really changed my life. I realized that over the past eight years, I seem to have forgotten our family mission for homeschooling. “You shall teach them […]
4 min read
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Friday Flashback: Learning on the Road
In our homeschool this week… we took a last-minute “field trip” to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, tagging along with my husband who had business there. This type of homeschool travel opportunity is one of my favorite homeschooling benefits! If you have never considered homeschooling while traveling, check out my tips for […]
2 min read
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Tuesday’s Tip: Must-have electronics kit for kids
By Rosanna Ward My son Joel, age 7, enjoys taking old electronics apart, such as DVD players, cable boxes, and more. My best friend was here a few weeks ago, and she told me how much her son loved the Elenco Electronics Snap Kit they had bought for him for […]
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Wildlife Wednesday: Close encounters with mule deer
By Renée Gotcher This week NextGen Homeschool is joining forces with Creation Conversations and Kathy Balman @Kathy’s Cluttered Mind to bring you Wildlife Wednesday — posts about nature with a giveaway and a link up for your nature posts. My family is an outdoor-loving family, and one of the reasons we feel truly […]
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NGHS Students: Deer Poetry
After our recent close encounters with mule deer in our neighborhood, the girls wrote the following poems to express what they learned about deer in our factual research, Biblical study and personal experiences with these beautiful creatures. The details of our experience and nature writing assignment can be found in […]
7 min read
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Standing Out in a Crowd
By Renée Gotcher Last week our homeschool group took an interesting field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. It was interesting because although these days most museums, zoos, performance halls, and the like have no problem hosting homeschool groups as they would any other school group, our […]