The reality is, reading doesn’t equal understanding. Reading comprehension is a complex skill for children and it helps for us homeschoolers to have some strategies up our sleeves to teach our kids reading comprehension skills. It can often be the case where our kids, who can confidently read, struggle to understand the underlying message.  We invest countless hours […]

In this post I am going to share 5 easy, effective and practical strategies that you can start doing now for incorporating Charlotte Mason practices and living literature into your homeschool curriculum. But first, why would you want to use Charlotte Mason practices and living literature in the first place? Good literature is powerful.  I’ve always loved good […]

This is Step 7 of the seven steps to story writing success, a step-by-step guide for teaching children how to write stories. In this post, I will share my experiences and insights on how to effectively edit writing with your child. I will be explaining why children (and you) should pause and revise and edit their […]

Maths Year 4 Quick-Check resources! Year 4 maths checklist and assessments for all of year 4, aligned to the National Curriculum, Just like the All of year 3 Maths Checklist and Assessments, these printables can be used to quickly assess children’s knowledge across all areas of maths in year 4. If there is anything you […]

This is a review of the Galore Park curriculum and textbooks for use in the homeschool. We’ve been using Galore Park Textbooks for a few years now and really love it for its thorough subject coverage and the progressive way it develops and deepens essential subject skills and knowledge. Two of my kids are currently […]

This post is all about getting children to write so that they pull people right into their imagination.  In other words, this post is all about getting your child to “show not tell” in their story. Welcome to Step 6 of our seven steps to story success writing guide where I am going to share […]

Maths Year 3 Quick-Check resources! A growing bank of checklists and assessments that can be used to quickly assess children’s knowledge across all areas of maths. These resources have been designed for efficiency, making it a time-saving option for homeschoolers. You can use these to identify areas your children may need to focus their learning […]

In this step kids will be considering how to spice up their writing- make it more effective, interesting and meaningful by intentional use of Vocabulary, Connectives, sentence Openers, and Punctuation, in short VCOP. This is Step 5 of my Seven Steps to Story Success – A step-by-step guide to teaching children how to write stories. Accompanying […]

If you missed the previous steps you can catchup here: Step 4-Character Development In this step kids will describing the characters in their story more detail. They should not only note physical aspects of their characters, but also more personal details such as their back story, strengths, skills, weaknesses, and motives. Accompanying character development activity page can be found towards […]

This is Step 3 of my Seven Steps to Story Success – A step-by-step guide to teaching children how to write stories. In this step -planning the plot, children will visually render the main parts of their story. Accompanying worksheet can be found towards the bottom, available to download and print. If you missed the […]

Times Table Practice Mat #3. These times table worksheets are different in format than the previous two times table mats posted. This set gives students a chance to really give their times table knowledge a workout. It has different activities requiring slightly different ways of applying their multiplication knowledge. One of the activities included are […]

Times table practice mats #2- each mat targets a single times table. One half of the times table activity mat is applying the times table and related division facts to different scenarios, and the other half is worded problems. Times table practice mats # 1 can be downloaded here. In set #1, one half is […]

This is Step 2 of my Seven Steps to Story Success – A step-by-step guide to teaching children how to write stories. If you missed the previous step, or want to browse all of the steps you can catch-up here: Step 2-Sort Out the Nitty Gritty In this step kids will explore and pin down the key […]

In the post 5 Products That Give Your Child a Strong Writing Foundation, I detail how I homeschool English during the primary years, up until my kids are about 12 years old. I also mention how freewriting is an essential part of how we do English in our homeschool. The Brave Writer freewrite method is […]

It is so easy to get overwhelmed when confronted with the numerous curriculums and ideas out there for teaching English in the homeschool. In this post I am going to give details of the only 5 products we used for our English curriculum from the ages of 5-11 in our homeschool that has provided a […]

Telling the time resource to help children develop their understanding of telling the time to the hour, half hour, quarter past and quarter to, and to the minute. These worksheets give the chance to practise writing the time and reading in analogue and digital format. They also provide lots of practice drawing the time on […]

The aims of these multiplication worksheets is to help students get confident when using the written method of multiplication. These worksheets will help students get that extra practice to help them embed this skill in their long term memory. Answers included. I hope this helps some of you out!

When should you use the ‘Make 10’ strategy for subtracting? When the number being subtracted has to cross a ten of the number it is being subtracted from. Take a look at the following examples: 19 – 3, 26 – 14, 73 – 52. looking at the units of each sum, 9 – 3 and […]

When teaching how to add, a key step is to learn the number bonds of ten- all of the different ways to make ten (e.g. 8+2, 6+4),  otherwise known as “friends of ten”.  This is such an important step, that no matter how old the child is, it should be learnt and practiced till fluent. […]

The Times Table Mastery Mats in this post are for the children who are fluent in at least their 1-5, and 10 times table and division facts. These mats embed times tables within other areas of maths, for example fractions, measuring, and perimeter of shapes, so it will strengthen and deepen their understanding of other […]