Homeschool Geography with Stamp Collecting for Kids - A Simple Unit Study

Summary: This is a simple unit study you can do with your kids for homeschooling geography and more. Are you looking for some fun ways to teach geography to your kids?  Have you ever thought of doing stamp collecting with your kids?  

Today, I'd like to share with you a simple and fun stamp activity and how we added in just a touch of geography and writing along the way. 

STAMP COLLECTING 

 UNIT STUDY

First let's start with some frugal and free resources for stamp collecting. 

1.  Resources and How To's

Where to Get Stamps:

-Watch the mail, ask relatives to collect them, or even ask at homeschool groups for families to save them for you.

-Get a pen pal for your child, and ask them to collect stamps for you.

- Get a stamp catalog for free at the Mystic Stamp Company.  

- Get Free Album Pages, from the Philatelic Society here, such as "A Stamp for Every Country", from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and 100's more!

-The International Society for World Wide Stamp Collectors  has a program where they offer free stamps for kids up to age 17.  Send requests, along with your stamped self address envelope, asking for free stamps to: ISWSC Internet Offer

Easy Ways to Store Your Stamps

To store your collection, you could use a shoebox, drawer, or a notebook.  

We just used a notebook.  

Then we got some heavy writing paper from the drug store, but you could get official stamp paper, if you want from the American Philatelic Society - for kids.

Then, to put them onto the pages, we just used glue, and that worked for us.  Or put them in the little envelopes on the official stamp pages, available from the American Philatelic Society - for kids. 

To preserve the stamps, just take the stamps off the paper by laying them in a shallow dish of water for a while and then peeling them of with tweezers. 

2.  Geography Stamp Activities 

Here's some of the simple things that we have done for stamp geography:

• Look up where the stamps come from.  
• Learn more about those places,  mark the places they came from on the map.  
• Find them on a globe.  
• Get a stamp from a foreign country, look up a recipe from that country, and have a stamp/collecting geography supper.  

My daughter collected stamps from the US and from foreign countries, but especially from China, as that is her birth country. 

3. Stamp Writing Activities

Here's some simple "stamp writing" ideas:

• Make a journal, out of a simple paper tablet.  
• Write a bit about any new stamps.  
• If your kiddos are just learning to write, they could color, then copy a few words into their journal about their stamp. 
• Record the country or state that the stamp came from.  
• For older kids, they might write a paragraph about the stamp's origin, or country, and still make time to color or draw a picture.

Finally, I'd like to share the benefits your kids can get from doing this activity....

4.  The Benefits of Stamp Collecting

Stamp Collecting can give your kids practice in the following skills: 

•  Organizational skills
• Direction following practice
• Visual perceptual skills
• Attention to detail 
• Concentration skills

And these are executive functioning skills.

I was recently asked to write for the top special education site on this topic.  I invite you to click 8 Tips for Homeschooling a Twice Exceptional Student for more ideas and encouragement.

What would you add to this list?   

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is retired O.T, homeschool blogger, and most importantly is mom to her 2e college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school, college and 2e.  Pinterest,  Facebook 

Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2024
All rights reserved

Homeschool High School Nature Study and Making it into an Elective

Summary:  Homeschooling high school does not often include #nature study.  But ours did, and we made it into an easy #homeschool highschool elective. #homeschoolhighschool #homeschoolhighschoolelective #naturestudyforteens  This post may have affiliate links to resources that we used or would like to use in our homeschool.  Please see my disclosure policy.


We are all crazy about birds in our house.  

Often, we spent a lot of time identifying birds, learning to distinguish their calls and making bird feeders when my daughter was young.  But can we still do that in high school?  And can it count as an elective?

Learn to Read / Improve Your Child's Reading Level with Explode the Code

Summary:  Teaching phonics to your homeschooled preschooler or elementary kid is not hard to do.  Explode the Code homeschool phonics and reading curriculum is fun to do.  It starts in preschool and goes through 6th grade.  It includes spelling, reading, and more, and made my daughter a very strong reader.  Note - This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our  own homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.


Are you looking for a good, easy-to-use, phonics program?  How about a well-researched phonics program?  Or are you looking for a way to help your child improve their reading and spelling skills?

Explode the Code offers all of these, and it is a very popular phonics, spelling and reading program that my daughter loved to use.  It provides a well researched way to introduce phonics and improve your child's reading skills at any level, K through 6th grade.

First, let's look at the books for pre-readers....

Explode the Code Primers

In our homeschool, we started off with the Explode the Code Primers, when my daughter was five.  She loved working in her these books!   First thing in the morning, she would ask for her Explode the Code book.

 

The Primers series includes:

• Get Ready for The Code (Book A)
• Get Set for The Code (Book B)
• Go for the Code (Book C)

Each primer introduces a group of consonants and their sounds, with fun activities to do on each page.  

Each lesson follows the same pattern, which makes it fun and predictable for young learners to use.  Each of the lessons consists of the following activities.........click here to read more.

The Primers prepared my daughter for the first grade book in this series, called Explode the Code, Book 1.  Let's look at what's included in that book....

Explode the Code, Book 1

Book 1 moves on to a study of the vowels and introduces basic phonics patterns.  Each lesson, again followed the same format, and my daughter quickly became independent in her work.  

Through the phonics, early reading work, spelling, writing and copying in the book, my daughter soon was ready for early readers.
This program did not require any preparation on my part.  

It was also full of the child drawn illustrations that had already caught my daughter’s eye!   Meanwhile, she was learning all her phonics skills! ......click here to read more about this book and their online options too.  

The Explode the Code series goes all the way through 6th grade. 

Explode the Code Book 1 through 6th Grade

Build your child into a strong reader!  That is what we did. Explode the Code continues to develop your child's reading skills each year, step by step, teaching more advanced phonics.

Explode the Code is a phonics based program I consider invaluable in helping my daughter learn to read, and continue to build her reading skills up for later middle and high school level reading.

Now she is a senior in college, and reading all those college research articles and long text assignments was not a problem for her.

Having a strong foundation in phonics and reading early on, gave her the skills needed to build on for success later in college. 

For more information or to purchase the printed workbooks, please click here. 

Thanks for the feature.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college senior, whom she homeschooled from preK through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting. 

Want to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Pinterest, G+, Facebook 



Just click here.

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Copyright, 2017, All Rights Reserved

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My Teen's First Plane Trip

This week, my daughter attended a national youth conference....

 It was held in North Carolina, for the National Youth and Government (YAG) College Conference. She went with two other students from our state of Washington, who were from her high school government group. 

They got to meet here......... 

which was the national conference center for the YMCA.

 This was her first solo flight, so I was quite nervous for her.  She, on the other hand, was not at all, and enjoyed every minute of her flight.... 

I wanted my daughter to have this opportunity, to get a chance to learn more about government and politics.  And to have fun!  She sent me this photo also,while in the air.....

She participated in the conference by playing the role of a senator, as they all enacted the college youth legislature.  She presented her own mock bill there.  It was discussed in committee......

then debated, and voted on in session.  She made friends with students from around the country....

 and got to be a part of this group.....meeting kids from different colleges all over...

Have you heard of Youth and Government,  orYAG?  It is a  middle and high schooler's program, where teens learn all about their state government, hands-on.

Each year, they gather together, for their state's youth mock legislature.  It is sponsored by the YMCA, and is available in 34 states around the country.  

My daughter loved going on this trip.  I am so glad, too... even though it was hard for me to have her fly across the country!  

It was so nice to greet her at the airport, and hear all of her stories....And I am happy to report "that both daughter and mom survived and are doing fine."

It was an adventure for us both!!

Happy Homeschooling,

Betsy 

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Homeschooling High School and How to Make Your Teen's Transcripts

SUMMARY:  This article offers a step by step guide for making your teen's homeschool transcripts,  the kind the colleges are used to seeing.  Homeschool transcripts are not hard to do! 
#homeschooltocollege #homeschoolhighschooltranscripts

The most often question that I get about homeschooling high school is how to make the homeschool transcripts.

Are you thinking about doing high school at home next year?  

Or are you already in the midst of homeschooling your teen, and are just looking for some direction on making their homeschool high school transcripts?

You will find many answers to your transcripts questions in my step by step guide below. 

Just click: Get my Homeschool Transcripts FREEBIE, to get yours. 

Transcripts FREEBIE

Thanks for stopping by,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad daughter, whom she homeschooled since she was in K. She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, 

about the early years, highschool, and

college.

Copyright all rights reserved 

@ BJ's Homeschool 2023

Handwriting Curriculum and Resources - Clay Activities

Summary:  Handwriting curriculum often can include hands-on activities.  Clay activities are helpful for building wrist and finger strength, plus it can help build the muscles needed for grasp. . This post may include affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our own homeschool.  Please see my disclosure policy.

Do you have a child who struggles with handwriting?  

Sometimes that is due to fine motor coordination difficulties.  Sometimes it is not, and it is instead an issue of hand and finger strength.  

Good wrist strength is as essential for handwriting as finger coordination is.  

Both are important.  Today I'd like to share a resource that we have found helpful for strengthening wrist and hand muscles. 

Clay Fun is a little book from Oak Meadow Homeschool Publishers, full of creative easy-to-do projects, which only require play dough or clay.

We got our clay from a local grocery/drug store, in the toy department.  My daughter enjoyed making a number of the projects, as described in this book. 

There are over 20 easy to do, fun clay projects in this book.  The projects are great for teens, too.

I liked how each project included easy to follow, step by step directions.  It could easily be done independently, depending on the age of the child.

It can easily become a family project! Your whole homeschool could take a Clay Fun break, in the afternoons.

photo credit - Oak Meadow

One fall, my daughter enjoyed making their Cornucopia project as pictured below.

Benefits:

Rolling the clay out for this project is great for strengthening the wrist muscles.

And shaping the pumpkin and the other veggies for the cornucopia is super for building up the finger muscles.

Another simple project included was their Bunny Egg Bank, which was great for not only building up wrist strength, but also finger strength, too.

Photo Credit - Oak Meadow

Benefits:

Making the pinch pots for this project is great for strengthening the finger muscles needed for a mature grasp.

Clay Fun is all about having fun working with clay, while building up the wrist and finger muscles for handwriting. 

For more information on Clay Fun, please click here to read the rest of my review of this helpful resource.  Another benefit is that these activities can work for older kids, too.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is a former O.T, veteran homeschooler and now mom to her college grad, whom she homeschooled from preK through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school, college, gifted/2e and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting. 

Want to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Pinterest, G+, Facebook 



Just click here.

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.
Copyright, 2017, All Rights Reserved

Homeschool Organization Methods - From the Early Years all the way to College

Summary:  Does your child or teen struggle with organizing his work?  Does she have executive functioning issues?  Here's the organizational methods that worked best for us in our homeschool.  #homeschoolorganization #adhd  #homeschoolhighschool



This week was not a cold one here, as it was in so many places around our country....We were lucky to have sunny mild weather here.  We hope those of you with snow, maybe piles of it.. are warm and cozy at home, or playing outside in it, if it's only a little.....   

This week was a regular one for us, with my daughter's college midterms being over.  

Monday evening I sat down with my newly college student daughter as usual, to hear her college study plans for the week.  This was an outgrowth of our weekly study meetings from our homeschooling years. 

Then she pulled out this....  

 

It was a simple organizer, that she had designed herself, to hold her assignment sheets and papers from each of her college courses. 

I had no idea she was working on this!  It kind of resembled our old system of workboxes, but in a new way.

I don' t know if I shared this before, but my daughter used to struggle a lot, with organization, especially in the elementary years.  A LOT.  

We tried a number of ways to help her learn to be organized in her studies, and finally settled on workboxing.  

Homeschool Organization Methods

Work boxing can be a real help for kids and anyone who struggles with organization or executive functioning skills.

During the earlier homeschool years we often used work boxing as our organizational method.  That just involves putting each subject's book, papers, etc in a desk top box, one for each subject.

Later, in the early teen years and in high school, we used spiral notebooks for each subject. That way important papers did not get lost. 

SO there was one spiral notebook for math, one for history, etc, etc.  All of the math problems were worked out in the math spiral bound notebook.  

The for English, all of the written work was done in the English spiral bound notebook, until it was time to write on the computer.


Did that save a lot of headaches.

But it still was a day to day struggle for many years, with papers getting lost, notebooks being misplaced, pens disappearing, and such.  We just kept practicing the organizational skills...

Things began to improving around middle school, but to see her come up with this idea, on her own, was really rewarding to see.

My Teen's Own College Organizational Method

Referring to the photo above:

There was a folder for each course, plus one for printer paper.  She used notebook folders, from the dollar store, and put them into a clear envelope that she had found around the house.

   

This made the package thinner, lighter, and easier to carry, than if she had used a notebook.  So everything was at hand, and there was always  paper for printing things at college.

Simple and frugal, and kind of like our old system of workboxes....

When a homeschooler goes to college....they take their organizational skills learned in homeschooling with them.


All the organizing and study planning that we do with our high school kids, and all the efforts we make to teach our kids organizational skills from early on...makes a big difference for our kids in the future.

A lot of kids from public school may not have these skills in structuring their time, and setting a study schedule, like our homeschoolers do.  

Do we give ourselves credit for that?

College Activities and a Potluck

1)  My daughter, on the way to class, on campus, 2) volunteering with a friend from college, 3) lettuse from my neighbor's greenhouse garden, 4) pizza casserole for the church potluck 

Fruits from the garden

Well, my fall/winter garden took a hit from the cold and wind....We had some nice green onions, but lost some due to the cold.  I made a big salad using lettuce from our friends, and added in some of our remaining green onions.  We had that with a pizza casserole and some roasted acorn squash. 

Nature Road Trips

We also went to a potluck at church, as a family, and enjoyed seeing friends.  Then, later in the week, my husband and I got out for a mini road trip.  

We have a favorite country road that we like to take, by a local river....wishing that my daughter could come with us, but she has lots of studying to do these days...This gave my husband and I an all daylong date...

...and the mountain was out!

Nothing like getting out in nature!  As the native american prayer goes....

Beauty in front of me,
Beauty to the left of me,
Beauty to the right,
Beauty behind me...................

Glorious...How was your week? 

Do you use the workboxing approach in your homeschool?  What type of organizational issues come up in your family? 

I love reading your comments...

And thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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Just encouragement for your homeschool in your inbox.      

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Copyright @ 2021 BJ's Homeschool

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All rights reserved