Saturday, November 22, 2014

Montessori Sensorial: Baric Tablets

Baric Tablets... beautiful work that isn't as appreciated or used enough, maybe because it isn't quite as known as other more popular works. Maria Montessori knew that this work was important to include in the Sensorial material for a reason. It teaches some very important skills that we will discuss here.

Why should we love and encourage this work? Read on and find out.



Tuesday, November 18, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #17


Hello, everyone! 
The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party #17. 
We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

 Here are our awesome featured posts this week! I decided to give Montessori posts a special mention this week. We love using Montessori materials in our homeschool, so I wanted to share a little bit of that here. ;)


1. Natural Beach Living: The Best Montessori Preschool Gift Guide
2. Discovering Our Way: Parts of a Car Free Download
3. Pinay Homeschooler: Static Addition
4. Welcome to Mommyhood: Letter C Activities
 
Don't forget to check out The Natural Homeschool's 

The Ultimate Gift Guide for the Eclectic Homeschool

Moms, Dads, Children, Eclectic Homeschool Families: here is the ultimate gift guide for you! We have picked an awesome list for you to draw inspiration from and have a wonderfully fun AND educational holiday. After all, as homeschooling parents, we are always looking for ways to be resourceful. So let's be smart and since we have gifting opportunities coming up this holiday season, why not stock up on some wonderful items for our homeschools?!


I highly recommend that you read the reviews and the item descriptions in the links I have provided so you can decide which gift ideas fit your family best.

Monday, November 17, 2014

DIY Dead Sea Minerals and Lavender Liquid Shower Gel

Who loves soft skin? Everyone, right? Who loves soft, MOISTURIZED skin? Everyone, again! Well, here is a recipe on how you can make your own rich, moisturizing shower gel with natural lavender soap and Dead Sea mud soap.


The mud by the Dead Sea is one of the most nutrient- and mineral-rich mud in the world. Dead Sea mud contains very high levels of the minerals magnesium, calcium, potassium, strontium, boron and iron. They alleviate skin irritation and inflammation, they relieve certain types of pain and even treat the most serious of ailments.


Thursday, November 13, 2014

The Ultimate Gift Guide for the Montessori Home


"Montessori..." bask in that beautiful word and all it encompasses. Now, attach the word "home" to it. What does it spell? Montessori HomeWhat a concept! What a wonderful concept!
We are an eclectic homeschool that incorporate The Montessori Method in nearly every subject we learn. Why? Simply because of what Montessori stands for: supporting child dignity, fostering independence, inviting peace, encouraging spontaneous education, teaching care for one's self and the environment, finding beauty in everything, just to name a few.


In this post, you will see a thorough list of Montessori materials that can be given as gifts for those who seek to have Montessori homes. Not only will your children love the materials, but gifting them something educational, useful and beautiful is the best gift of all. My wish is for you to find in this post many great ideas and inspiration for your Montessori Home.



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #16


Hello, everyone! 
The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party #15. 
We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

 Here are our awesome featured posts this week:


1. Best Toys for Toddlers: 50+ Green Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids
2. Our Adventure Story: 18 Free Thanksgiving Printables
3. Starts at Eight: Thanksgiving Poetry
4. Chica Chocolatina: Mexican Pumpkin Pie Hot Chocolate
5. Making it in the Mountains: How To Cozy Up Your Home for Fall
6. Living Montessori Now: Montessori-Inspired Thanksgiving Ideas
 
Don't forget to check out The Natural Homeschool's 

Friday, November 7, 2014

Celebrating Fall with Tots and Preschoolers

Fall is our favorite season. We love the weather, the season change, wearing sweaters and especially Fall activities and flavors. Here is a compilation of eight things that we love to do during Fall. We hope you find this fun list helpful and useful. 




This is my first guest post over at ALLterNATIVElearning blog and I am very excited to share it with you. Read on to get some ideas and inspiration during this wonderful season.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #15

Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party #15.

We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

 Here are our awesome featured posts this week:

 

 1. The Kavanaugh Report: Mini Rainbow Sensory Bottles for Baby
2. The Gracious Wife: Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
3. Typically Simple: Autumn Photo Frame
4. Mosswood Connections: Gratitude Garland
5. Yellow Days: School Routine Printable
 
Don't forget to check out The Natural Homeschool's 

Sew Darling and The Life of Jennifer Dawn GIVEAWAY

Remember Sunday's post about our gorgeous Sew Darling doll? Well, I am so excited to be bringing to you a very special product review AND now also an amazing giveaway with
Sew Darling and The Life of Jennifer Dawn!


Read on to find out more about these darling dolls, Jennifer's products and how to enter the giveaway. And don't forget to go read my review post on our Sew Darling doll.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Sew Darling Etsy Shop Product Review

I am so excited to be bringing to you a very special product review! Ashley is a very talented gal. She has an Etsy shop called Sew Darling and her handmade dolls are causing a sensation! They are becoming more and more popular, especially because of the incredible variety she has in her Etsy Shop.


In this post, I will give you an honest review on these beautiful dolls. Read on to find out more about these darling dolls made by Sew Darling.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Some of Our Favorite Pumpkin Books & Simple Pumpkin Craft

Fall is here! Our favorite time of year, hands down. We are so excited about everything that Fall has to bring and we would love to share two things we love: reading Fall books and making Fall crafts.


2 Fun Pumpkin Crafts for Tots and Preschoolers


We had such a fun time today making these two crafts! They were so fun, so easy and SO INEXPENSIVE! You should take a look and give them a try.




Tuesday, October 28, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #14


Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party.

We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

 Here are our awesome featured posts this week:

2. Blooming Homestead: Thankful Wood Art
4. Hip Homeschool Moms: Preschool Fall Math
 
Don't forget to check out The Natural Homeschool's 
Continent Studies with Preschoolers (FREE Printables AND Giveaway) post!

Continent Studies with Preschoolers (FREE Printables included)

Geography is one of our favorite subjects in our homeschool. We LOVE to learn about continents, countries, flags, seasons, etc. Our passion for it is serious. We enjoy it so much that we want to not only invite you to see an awesome lesson that we did, but we also want you to get the FREE Printables for you to do this lesson at home.


This post will have lots of pictures. We are SO excited to be bringing you these lessons, free printables AND a great giveaway! Keep reading to find out what you can get once you enter.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #13


Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party.

We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

 Here are our awesome featured posts this week:

1. Mama's Happy Hive: Autumn Sensory Play
2. 27th and Olive: Butterscotch Pumpkin Pie
3. The Domestic Heart: "Octobers" Free Fall Printable
4. 3 Dinosaurs: Free Pumpkin Pack Math Update

Don't forget to check out The Natural Homeschool's 
Our Sweet Playroom Makeover post!
 

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Under Drake's Flag: A Full Review

This review is seriously an amazing privilege for me. Actually, this isn't only a review, but it is a product that speaks directly to our hearts and it revives everything that we, as a family, stand for and believe in. So without further ado, here is my review of Under Drake's Flag.







Monday, October 20, 2014

How to Occupy Little Ones with Homeschooling


Greetings Natural Homeschool readers!

I am Brenda from Schooling a Monkey. I have two daughters, aged 8 (Monkey) and nearly 2 (Bo). My oldest daughter, Monkey, is in third grade.

Since Monkey is in third grade, she is in school for several hours each day. We try to arrange most of her school to occur during nap time, but on the days that Bo takes a short nap, or doesn’t nap at all, we’ve had to come up with alternative activities to keep Bo occupied while Monkey and I do school.

Here is what we do to keep toddlers occupied during homeschooling:


Sunday, October 19, 2014

Homemade Toiletries Round-up

If you have been looking for ways to save money and be more eco-friendly as you clean your home, look no further.
 
Here we have put together an amazing round-up of homemade recipes that will not only make your home beautifully clean (because they work so well), but they will also save you money.


 


These recipes are easy to make using minimal amounts of ingredients, and they will take you a step closer to having a healthier home. Take a look at this awesome list. It is broken up into categories to make recipes easier to find.
Each category will have one featured post and then more recipes below. We hope you enjoy making these.
Also, include your children whenever possible. If they take ownership over helping make (and use!) these cleaners, they may become more aware of what it takes to clean the house and hopefully will help keep it cleaner.



 To read the entire post, please click here.


Effective Safe Natural



 photo YLjoinmyteamfinal_zps9399e46f.png

Friday, October 17, 2014

Bedroom Cleaning Chart for Children (Free Printable included)


It hasn’t always been common knowledge that toddlers and preschoolers are capable of successfully performing tasks to help keep the house clean. But now, as a society, we are finally catching up a bit more with wonderful teaching methods like The Montessori Method, and we are starting to help our children get on the right path to independence. 

Preschoolers and even toddlers are capable of performing small tasks, be it picking their blocks up or wiping the table.
Messes are part of childhood and that is ok, but we also need to clean them up. In our home, this was becoming a bit of an issue, so I am sharing with you this post with an easy way to keep a preschooler’s room clean. As a bonus, this post comes with a FREE printable of the chart! Read on to find out what we did.

To see the entire post and get the FREE printable, click here.
 
 photo YLjoinmyteamfinal_zps9399e46f.png

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Our Sweet Playroom Makeover


I am so happy that you are here to look at our playroom makeover! We are so proud and we are really loving it.
 
Our playroom used to be cluttered, full of tiny trinkets that made big messes and toys that never got played with. It was exhausting to go these two routes to get it cleaned:
1. Nag and nag to get it all picked up
                or
2. Take forever to get it cleaned and organized myself


Tuesday, October 14, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #12


Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party.

We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

 Here are our awesome featured posts this week:

1. Craving Some Creativity: Pumpkin Table Centerpiece
2. Twigg Studios: Masala Chai Pumpkin Pancakes with Caramel Apples
3. Our Adventure Story: 25 Free Fall Printables
4. Starts at Eight: Our Favorite Pumpkin Books for Kids

Don't forget to check out The Natural Homeschool's Some of Our Favorite Fall Books post! We had a blast reading these!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Some of Our Favorite Fall Books

Fall is definitely our favorite season. We love the weather, the season change, the leaves falling, the cinnamon smells, the pumpkin flavors, the celebrations... in other words, we love everything!
To make Fall even more special, we go to our local library to pick some seasonal books. Every year, without fail, we are able to add more books to our "Fall Favorites" list. Here are some that made it on the list. We are only showing you the ones that we absolutely loved and enjoyed reading together.

 


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #11


Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party.
The Natural Homeschool
We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

Here are our awesome featured posts this week:


1. 3 Dinosaurs: Skip Counting Wall Cards (Free Printable)
2. The Pinay Homeschooler: Life Cycle: Organisms
3. Home.Made.Interest.: 10 Hearty Soup Recipes
4. Woods of Bell Trees: Clay Gift Tags

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Fun Interview with Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now



When I found out that my family and I would be in the area where Deb Chitwood lives, I decided to let her know and I asked her if she would mind meeting with me. I had never met her before and was beyond excited at the opportunity to spend some time with her. But I went a step farther and asked her if I could conduct a mini-interview and ask her some questions to include in a post. She gracefully agreed. Woohoo!

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A Little Birdy Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #10

Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party.
The Natural Homeschool
We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

Here are our awesome featured posts this week:


1. Leapfrog and Lipgloss shared "Veggie Guacamole Wraps Recipe"
2. Bits of Positivity shared "Using Children's Books to Raise Awareness about Hunger"
3. Look, We're Learning shares her free printable "Free Printable Flashcards: Spanish Days of the Week"
4. The Domestic Heart shared "Autumn Leaves Free Printable Trio"

Homeschooling a Toddler: What 3 Learning Sessions Look Like


Have you ever attempted to homeschool a toddler? If you have, you have probably realized how they are extremely tactile, how they love to explore new and exciting things and how they have a short attention span. To maximize this precious one-on-one time with them, it is important to focus on one thing and one thing only: flexibility.

With toddlers, as with infants and newborns, it doesn't matter how prepared you are or how much you have planned for this time. It will happen in their time and in their way. As stressful as that may sound, in the end, it is best to follow the child because that is how she learns best.
Here, I present to you three easy review lessons to keep things short, fun and moving along. This is not to tell you what to teach or how to teach it, but rather how it works for our family in hopes that this will inspire you to get ideas and come up with your own fun and easy activities that your toddler will simply love and enjoy revisiting when you invite her again to join in. 
These lessons are geared for toddlers that are 2-3 years old, but you can start some of these activities sooner and make them more complex as they get older and/or master the skills. 
The amount of time each session takes varies. I follow her and keep an eye on her attention span for that day. I usually have more material than what we use, just to be ready. Usually, our lessons are about 30 minutes long, but sometimes as little as 15 minutes, so we break up our lesson into two parts and come back later for the other half.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #9


Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party.
The Natural Homeschool

We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

Here are our awesome featured posts this week:
1. Trillium Montessori shared "Montessori at Home and on a Budget"
2. Lovely Livings Blog shared "Autumn Pot Rack Display"
3. Annie's Noms shared "Pumpkin Coffee Syrup"
4. A Moment in our World shared "Human Body: Cells" (includes plant cell -pictured-)
5. Natural Beach Living shared "No Cook Natural Cinnamon Play Dough"

Friday, September 19, 2014

Our Chore Chart Routine (Preschool)



Afternoon Chores
After what K and I have been learning about how much he loves helping with household chores, and after reading the "Managers of their Homes" book (see above), I figured I would try an afternoon chore chart. I consulted websites that cited chores that were age appropriate (this one included) and came up with a list. I used the free editable chore chart below to fill it out with our afternoon chores. I ended up filling up two charts, haha!

Cinnamon Applesauce Recipe to make with your children

My favorite time of year, hands down, is Fall. The change of season, the change of weather, the crisp sweater feel, the leaves, the smells...and the spices, oh yes, the spices! I love cinnamon and I am so excited to share with you a delicious recipe that not only children will enjoy, but it is healthy and they can actually help you make.

Applesauce and Other Fall Recipes to Make with Children

My favorite time of year, hands down, is Fall. The change of season, the change of weather, the crisp sweater feel, the leaves, the smells...and the spices, oh yes, the spices! I love cinnamon and I am so excited to share with you a delicious recipe that not only children will enjoy, but it is healthy and they can actually help you make. 
I have a super amazing bonus, you will enjoy 17+ recipes that you can make with your children this Fall (or any time of year) in this wonderful round-up. 

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Simple Apple Mosaic Craft for Preschoolers

Everyone loves apples, right? And who doesn't love simple crafts to have fun with preschoolers? Well, why not a craft with apples in it?
A wonderful and incredibly creative mom from our co-op organized this activity. All the children really enjoyed it. And the best part is that this same mosaic concept can be used for other shapes or even for themed pictures.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

A Little Bird Told Me "Every Wednesday" Linky Party #8


Hello, everyone! The Natural Homeschool is so excited to welcome you to this week's Linky Party.
The Natural Homeschool

We have so many fantastic bloggers out there that are writing some fabulous posts and we would love for them to share what they're most proud of.

Here are our awesome featured posts:

http://happydealhappyday.com/toilet-paper-roll-craft-toilet-paper-roll-wreath/ 

http://www.everystarisdifferent.blogspot.com/2014/09/boat-activities-for-tots-preschoolers-w.html

http://www.cravingsomecreativity.com/2014/09/11/make-vanilla-extract/

http://www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com/2013/10/pumpkin-pointillism-an-art-lesson-in-primary-colors/