At 2pm on Saturday, September 24th I will be in Unity at MOFGA’s annual Common Ground Fair to give a talk Ive dubbed “Pollinator Conservation through Agriculture”. *Insert excited squeal here.* There’s a decided interest from the public in pollinators, I’m excited to be able to say. You see it in the news, in the…
Category: Unschooling
Unschooling at the Runamuk Homestead
Our youngest son “Summer” is never more content than when he his hard at work fixing something, and while the Runamuk truck is down for maintenance, Keith thought it the perfect time to include Summer in the repairs. This is the rear axle that they are tinkering on.
Pressing plants
For a long time I’ve wanted to learn how to press plants. I like the idea of creating beautiful framed works of art using pressed flowers and herbs. I had saved two large squares of cardboard for the project, and today I begged some newspaper from my mother-in-law’s recycling bin. I attempted to entice both…
Our field trip to the Maine Wildlife Park
We save all our change for our homeschool field trips. It’s gotten to the point where Summer will fish the coins straight out of his Daddy’s pockets to put in the pickle jar that now serves as a coin-bank. Papa saves his change for the boys too; and between the two jars I rolled a…
How Unschooling Has Changed Our Lives
Back in October when we decided to make the shift from homeschooling to unschooling, I had no idea how drastically it would change our lives. I hoped it would have a positive impact on our family, but there was no way I could comprehend the full implications of this change; no way of knowing how…
Exploring Winter Through Play
The boys have been spending time outside almost every day learning about winter first-hand. Summer received a shiny new sled for the holiday from Papa, and could scarcely wait to get home to try it out. I like watching them from my front room picture-window; they can practically sled right out the back door and…
Unschooling Update
We’ve been “unschooling” for a couple of months now, and I’m embarrassed to admit that my boys are still obsessed with their video games. I even hesitate to share this news with you, but in the fairness of full disclosure I want other parents to know that the road to unschooling success has it’s own…
The Science of Winter
Now that the first day of winter is just around the corner, I have found myself standing at my picture window gazing longingly outside and wondering what I can do to encourage participation with nature despite the cold. And how can I stimulate inquiry into the science of winter? What are the sciences of winter…
How to Teach Science Every Day
Why is it that science intimidates us? I’ve heard it more than once–I even used to feel that way! That science was just too hard to teach, since I really didn’t understand it myself. Science is so all-encompassing, and so critically important–as homeschoolers it’s daunting to think about teaching our children any part of it,…
Great Migrations on National Geographic Television
As the Scientific Homeschool we love our science channels. We watch Mythbusters, How It’s Made, Planet Earth, Destroyed in Seconds (is that really science? or just the male desire for destruction?), Dirty Jobs, Bugging Out, Head Rush, Meteorite Men, Through the Wormhole, even “Punkin Chunkin” and more. I even consider watching “Phineas and Ferb” on…

