Best Amazon Finds for Hands-On Learning

Summary -  A collection of hands-on activities from Amazon, for crafts, science and more. This post includes affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our homeschool. #handsonlearning #homeschoolelementary #giftsforkids.  I use affiliate links to products that we used or would use in our homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.

It's curriculum search time and I always started back to our homeschooling routine with a fun hands-on learning project.  Each year, when my daughter was young, we spent at least one day a week working on a hands on project that she chose for herself.

My 2e daughter learned so much from doing hands-on projects in our homeschool, especially during the fall and the cold winter months, when it was too chilly to play outside. It was nice and cozy inside when my daughter had a fun project to do.

And she loved doing these projects!  At the same time, doing hands-on learning taught her so much, and with her ADHD tendencies, we saw improved attention span, concentration, attention to task, and more.  And doing these activities or kits together made wonderful memories, too.

Amazon has tons of ideas for fun, hands-on learning that is educational, too. Here are some of my favorites for you, including creative arts and crafts, fabric arts, my favorite science kits, and even some construction kits for making things with wood.

Let's start with arts and crafts, which are so great for developing small muscle skills for handwriting, and more.

ARTS AND CRAFTS KITS

Arts and Crafts were always big in our homeschool.  My daughter learned to hand sew early on, and loved making small sewing projects.  We also enjoyed spinning art, origami, and crafting with clay. And anything project oriented from American Girl.  Here's some creative kits for each of these activities that I just mentioned.





HAND ARTS  - KNITTING & WEAVING

Have you ever thought about teaching your kids how to knit or weave, using very simple projects? Oak Meadow Homeschool curriculum got us started with some knitting and weaving.  These projects were so fun to do together and also helped my daughter with her attention issues and concentration skills.

Each year, in the elementary years, we spent every Thursday morning working on a hand arts projects, using VERY small, VERY easy projects.  My daughter made this quilted pillow above.

Now let's look at some wood and construction kits....

CONSTRUCTION KITS

And finally, I'd like to share some wonderful wooden construction kits that I found.   At our house, my daughter, when she was little, started out making things out of cardboard and tape, and here's one that she made of the rides that she took at our state fair.  Then she got into making things with wood.....

Building with wood, what a great way to play and learn on a winter's day!  Making things with kits like these below, improved my child's direction following skills, attention to task, organizational skills and more.  And then, there was the pride of creating something by hand, and a job well done!

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - Through coloring books?

These books are written in story form, to teach character education for young learners, through coloring books.

Would you like to teach your kids about gratitude?  Taking responsibility for their actions?  How to be a good friend and to make friends? How to do what he says? These and more are taught in the series called "Donnie Learns".

These books tell simple and interesting stories that teaches a positive character trait.  The author even had the cover by blank, so as to encourage the kids to color it and all the pages of their books.

Here are a few for you to browse, if you like.  Here is a link to my review - Character Education Coloring Books




I hope that this gives you some helpful ideas for your own homeschool. What would you add to this list?  If you share your ideas below, I am sure that other families would be interested in them. I wish you a wonderful homeschool year, with lots of hands-on learning fun with your kiddo.

This post is linked to lots of other posts from veteran homeschool bloggers of the iHomeschool Network. Click here to connect with all of them!

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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Copyright, 2017
Revised 2020
All Rights Reserved

BJ's Best Boards for Hands-On Learning - Preschool thru High School

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Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her 20 year old college student whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote a new e-book for College Bound teens.  She offers free homeschool help and messages at BJ's Consulting.

Want to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright, 2016, All Rights Reserved

BJ's Best Boards for Hands-On Learning and High School, too.

Do you like to collect favorite pins for your homeschool, like I do?  With so much out there on the web in the way of resources, new curricula, etc, I tended to get overwhelmed with all the many choices.  So I began to collect my favorite hands-on learning activities and ideas onto my pinterest boards.

 Today, I'd like to share my best pinterest boards with you.  They are full of hands-on learning ideas and activities, and  reviews of my favorite project oriented curricula, too.

I am picky about what I pin.  Some of my blogging buddies pin everything that they come across. For me, I only pin things that I used or would use in my own homeschool.  So for most of my pinterest boards, you won't find tons of pins to scroll through, but just what I consider to be the best for my family.

Pinterest is such a great way to collect new ideas and resources for your homeschool.

I have boards for all of the season of homeschooling, as I had the pleasure, and of course, the hard work, too, of homeschooling my kiddo from preschool all the way to college.  As a homeschooling family of one gifted 2e child, I include two boards specifically related to that, as well. 

During elementary and the middle school years, my daughter had some ADHD type struggles as well as sensory processing issues and auditory learning challenges, too.  You will find a number of things to pin on those topics, in my special needs board, and information on dysgraphia on my handwriting board.

I include lots of pins from my fellow homeschool authors at The Curriculum Choice, as well as others from around the web.

 So let's get started, first thing first, with my board for preschoolers and early learning.

EARLY LEARNING FUN! - for preschool and kindergarten

Awe, my favorite years of all!  Here are my best posts on early learning with links to my favorite early learning resources.  As a former preschool teacher and a mom, I highly recommend these hands-on learning favorites for your young learners.

ELEMENTARY - HANDS-ON! - for kids ages 6 - 11

In the elementary years, we focused a lot on hands-on learning, and that included fun projects like knitting, hand sewing and other great ways to build in the fun and  improve attention span, too.  Here I share my favorite resources for project based learning, from me and my blogging friends too.

MIDDLE SCHOOL IDEAS 

Are you looking for new ideas for your middle schoolers?   These are the years when our kids are learning who they are, and are developing their personalities and favorite interests.  


ROCKIN' HIGH SCHOOL and COLLEGE

High School  - My board on high school includes tons of ideas for planning, organizing, choosing curricula, rockin' electives and more!  I collected my best tips for newbie homeschoolers and veterans who are getting started homeschooling high school,  wondering how to assigning high school credit, looking for good electives and activities for their teens and more.

College Bound Teens - This same board above includes all of my best tips for getting your teen ready for college and helping them get in, too.  I include special tips that is important to homeschooled teens who are applying to college, such as how to share their accomplishments to the colleges, and all those pesky little details, like SAT prep and more.  How to homeschool high school with college in mind....it is not that hard!

HANDWRITING HELPS - Help for teaching handwriting and tips for kids who struggle 

Are you looking for a fun, low stress way to teach handwriting to your kids?  Or do you have a struggling handwriting in your house?  Or a child with dysgraphia?  Here are my best resources and tips for each of these handwriting needs.


SPECIAL NEEDS HOMESCHOOLING 

Do you have a child with ADHD, ADD, sensory processing disorder, or other special learning needs? My daughter struggled with some these learning issues, and I want to encourage others who have kids with special needs, too.  The 1 on 1 of homeschooling can be such a gift to kids with special needs.  Here are my favorite resources for you, from me and my friends, and from my background in OT, too.

This week has been a wonderful one in our house.  My daughter, now in college, was available and for our holiday tradition of joining in the Argosy Holiday cruise.  It is a short ride along Puget Sound, with a choir who sings and is along for the ride.  Here's a picture of the boat, taken from the shore. They always have a nice bonfire there, too, each year.

We have been doing this as a family tradition, since my daughter was 10.  I got a picture as she and my hubby stepped off the boat.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions with your kids?  I love reading your comments.

I am honored to be a part of the iHomeschool Network!  

I just joined recently.  This is a part of one of own iHN projects, linking you to other great homeschool resources.  To reach all the other awesome pinterest boards of iHomeschool Network, click here.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her 20 year old college student whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote a new e-book for College Bound teens.  She offers free homeschool help and messages at BJ's Consulting.

Want to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright, 2016, All Rights Reserved

Homeschool Science Kits for Elementary - Hands-On!

SUMMARY -  hands-on educational science activities, science kits, science experiments,Magic School Bus science kits, ,elementary hands-on science, educational gifts, gifts for homeschoolers, preschoolers, kindergarten, and elementary aged children. This post has affiliate links to products that we love and would use in our homeschool.  Please see my disclosure policy.

Each year we always added at least 2 or 3 science kits hands-on to our homeschool.  They were so much fun and the best way for our 2e child to learn.

My daughter learned so much from doing hands-on projects, especially during the cold winter months, when it was too chilly to play outside. It was nice and cozy inside when my daughter had a fun project to do.  So we always included two or three hands-on kits or projects in our holiday gift buying for our daughter, when she was in the elementary years.

And she loved getting these gifts!  At the same time, doing hands-on projects taught her so much, and with her ADHD tendencies, we saw improved attention span, concentration, attention to task, and more.  And doing these activities or kits together made wonderful memories, too.

Here are a bunch of science hands-on gift ideas for you, including our favorites from educational publishers.

Let's start with science kits for experimentation:

SCIENCE KITS

Do your kids like to do science hands-on?  For science in the elementary years, we mostly focused on simple science projects from Evan Moor, and hands-on science kits that my daughter chose herself. These make great gifts for your young scientists!

One of my favorite companies for science kits is the Magic School Bus.  Do you love using Magic School Bus for science, too?

Then, when my daughter was a little older, we found some great educational science kits from Science Wiz Kits. We especially loved these.  Here is my review of one of them, if you would like more information.

And finally, I'd like to share some wonderful wooden construction kits that I found.   At our house, my daughter started out making things out of cardboard and tape, and here's one that she made of the rides that she took at our state fair.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is a homeschool blogger, former O.T, preschool teacher and published author of children's stories.  She 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 is the author of "Homeschooling High School with College in Mind".  She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting.

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All Rights Reserved

Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool, 2016
Revised 2019

100 High School Electives

Summary:  Sharing 100 ideas for fun and engaging high school electives for your homeschooled teen. With lots of links, including high school activities as well as electives. #homeschoolhighschool #highschoolelectives.  This post includes affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.

17,863 have read this article


There is so much more to homeschooling high school than just core studies.  One of the main reasons that we homeschooled all the way was to foster our daughter’s interests and grow her gifts.  And as she approached high school, they became her high school electives.  

Indoor Play Activities that Help with Handwriting

Summary - Indoor play activities for a rainy day that actually can help your child build foundational skills for handwriting.  #indoorplay  #handwriting


With summer approaching, are you, by any chance, looking for some fun indoor activities for your kids, when it is too hot to play outside?  

I recently found a resource that offers easy-to-do inside play activities, from Play Packs.  In fact, these activities can actually help with handwriting, build muscles and be just plain fun.

Play-Pack Gross Motor offers a number of activities that can build up your kid's foundational skills for handwriting.  

Did you know that the shoulder muscles actually are a big part of handwriting?  These activities can help build up the shoulder and core muscles, as well as those of the wrist.

I wrote a review of this resource, with more photos of the activities involved.........Feel free to click here  and read more.

Do you have questions about your child's handwriting skills? If you like, I encourage you to share about that in the comments, and I will be happy to give you my ideas and suggestions.

For more ideas on handwriting, click here, for my handwriting section.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her 20 year old college student whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote my book on College for Homeschoolers.  She offers  homeschool help and messages at BJ's Consulting.

Want to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook 

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.



Copyright, 2020, All Rights Reserved

Finding Mentors For Your Homeschool

Summary:  Finding mentors for your homeschool can give so much to your homeschooled kids.  By using community and homeschool activities our daughter not only found friends but also mentors. Having mentors is such a gift for our homeschoolers at any age, during the elementary years, but especially in the homeschool high school years for our teens.


As a homeschooling family, we were always on the lookout for ways to build community for my daughter and our family.  We also wanted her to have a wide variety of experiences with kids and adults, and hopefully, the benefits of adult leaders in her life.  

Through the years, we looked for things that fit my daughter's interests and that led us to join in a number of community activities.  We found a kid's co-op K -2nd, did dance classes at the Parks department, did some gymnastics, then drama, etc...whatever she was interested in, we gave it a try. (Within limits, of course, re the driving time, lol.) And we were lucky enough to find some other nurturing adults, along the way.  

When my kiddo was 5, we looked for a program that would give her a chance to make friends and be a part of a group. We found a once a week co-op that was actually held at a public school.  There's lots of great homeschool co-ops out there as well, of course. 

Our co-op had a lovely group of kids, which gave our daughter a feeling of belonging and some early friendships. But as it turned out, having a teacher to interact became the biggest bonus for her. Somehow the stickers she earned there meant more!  She loved getting feedback from her teacher, so not"just" from mom at home.  (Her words)

We found that teachers and other adult leaders would come to mean a lot to our daughter.  Homeschooling worked very well for us, as it challenged her, helped with her ADHD and sensory issues, and was a much better choice for her, than public school.  But we wanted other teachers/group leaders for her, too.  So we just looked for opportunities in the community, where she could interact with other adults, different points of view and different personalities.  

She looked up to her dance teachers, gymnastics coaches, etc and that meant a lot to her.  One year, my daughter became fascinated with science.  We found her a science hands-on lab class that was offered at a local public school.  It was a magnet school, and we were allowed to enroll for just that class, as homeschoolers.  Most states allow homeschoolers to enroll in ps, part time.

She did this for awhile, and over the years, became friends with the science teacher there.  This teacher took her to science museums, told her about science lectures in the area, and encouraged her interest in the subject.  

Later this teacher asked her to become her volunteer TA. This was a great opportunity for our daughter.  It was her first volunteer job.  This teacher helped her to learn how to assist, and gave her challenges to meet along the way.  And working with her did a lot for her self esteem as well. Finding a homeschool mentor at ps, that was fun!  A nice surprise.

Then my teen heard about a leadership program that she wanted to try, called Youth and Government (Y and G).  It is sponsored by the YMCA, so it included homeschoolers and ps kids as well.  We liked that.  She participated throughout high school, and there met a woman who later became a mentor.  She was the leader of her Y and G delegation.  

As my daughter progressed in the program, this leader taught her a lot of leadership skills.  My daughter ended up running for office, and later became a mock chief justice at their annual Mock Youth Legislature.  Great experiences.

My teen watched this leader and learned a lot from that. When she joined the teen leadership board of this group, she got to know this adult leader personally.  My teen was enthralled with her style of leadership. This inspired her, and led to her desire to become a leader, but didn't know how yet.

At the same time, she became more involved in our church.  She attended our youth group, and got to know the youth leader there.  Through that, she was invited to a statewide youth conference, where she learned more about leadership and inclusive community.     

This and her work in Youth and Government (Y and G), helped her to later decide on a major.  In freshman year (in college), she found a leadership program on campus. (Honors Global Leadership, brag alert)  That is where she is currently studying now, with an eye on a political career possibly.

Having these mentors, the science teacher and her Y and G leader, added a lot to our daughter’s homeschooling years. These adults helped her on her way, and exposed her to new ideas.  

We were also pleased that they wrote college reference letters, which helped our teen get accepted by multiple colleges.  That gave her a wider choice.  But more importantly, they helped to open up the world to her, as each of these women shared their passions.  And their encouragement.  

And they showed her another way to be, a part from my husband and I.  Another perspective, another lifestyle to learn about, and another hand to help the growing along the way. 

What are your kids interested in exploring?  How have you found mentors along the way?  Or has that been a difficulty? Please share in the comments or on Facebook.  This is a part of the  November blog hop.

Do you have a college bound teen?  

Have you seen my new book yet?  
________________________________

Do you want a step by step guide to high school and college, plus my exclusive guide to the Common Application for homeschoolers? 

I have gathered together all my best tips for high school and college and put it into my new book, Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition. 

It gives you everything that you need to plan your high school homeschool for your college bound teen.  Plus how to help them get into the college of their choice.

Amazon for only $11.99

Paperback is on Amazon for only $11.99

This book is an easy-to-read guide to college for homeschoolers, recently updated with 7 NEW chapters, including:

- My own homeschoolers guide to the Common Application

- How to write the Counselor Recommendation Letter

- Where to find college scholarships

- SAT/ACT Prep

- How to make your own homemade courses

-  Included are also 12 homeschool high school planning printables to make your record-keeping easier.

10 easy to do steps to homeschool high school with college in mind. And it really is NOT that hard!!  

This book does not tell you how to homeschool high school.  Instead it gives you guidance for doing it your way!  

Keep your nurturing homeschool style and showcase their accomplishments to the colleges!

Recommended by: Lessa Scherrer, Certified College Counselor

                               from College Inside Track

"Betsy has a wealth of understanding and knowledge to share with the parents of college bound homeschoolers.  She provides support, encouragement and step-by-step advice on all aspects of the homeschool high school and college application process. This book is a must-read for parents considering homeschooling high school and for parents in the thick of the application process."

And help for record keeping!  With my exclusive high school and college planning printables.

For more information, click here - Frugal College Prep for Homeschoolers or to buy it here - my book on Amazon for only $11.99.  

And don't worry about forgetting things!

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.

Want to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Pinterest, Facebook 

No spam ever. 
 Just encouragement for your homeschool
 in your inbox.

Copyright 2016
Updated 2019
 All Rights Reserved