I am teaching South Carolina History this year and have been compiling a list of some books about South Carolina. I wanted to find some books that will help kids enjoy the history and rich culture of their state. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order. You can click on the picture to view the book on Amazon. (affiliate link)   Palmetto: Symbol of Courage Why is the Palmetto Tree on the South Carolina flag? What is so important about it? This book tells the story of how the Palmetto Trees helped the colonialists during the American Revolution.  Dave the Potter Thi ..read more

It is hard to believe the year is almost over and Alex will be headed on to first grade! I had seen this idea on pinterest of having all the your child's teachers write notes in a book for them, that you then give to your child on graduation day. Then I had the opportunity to write in one last year and realized how much I loved the idea.  There are lots of great books to choose from, but I settled on Only One You by Linda Kranz! It is a sweet book filled will lots of beautiful advice.  I made an attempt at some rhyming ;) and added a letter to the envelope that holds the boo ..read more

Our homeschool academy has two days left before a long break until after the New Years! I am excited for the change of pace for several weeks, but it is a little daunting to think of the long days at home, and Will comes home later now because basketball has started. So, what will we do to fill our time? This summer, as we planned our unit days, we decided to do Holidays Around the World for December. It is a perfect inquiry study for the break because we will have lots of time to study!  This evening I asked the boys what countries they wanted to learn about. I told them to pick from th ..read more

Child-led schooling is very easy when you only have one child to worry about! :) As a parent, I can start the inquiry and learning, but then I really enjoy letting Alex help decide where it will lead! I also love having the flexibility to do that in Kindergarten. I feel like my job this year is really to foster a love of learning.  A couple of other moms and I have decided to have an inquiry/unit day each month where we get together and do some fun learning activities. While at home, we carry out the unit in a variety of ways. So we celebrated the end of August with a pizza party! Th ..read more

We have finished our first week of school! It was pretty crazy trying to get all the kiddos out of the house, but I loved being able to peek in on each one throughout the day! This year I added on some afternoon classes at our homeschool academy, so we have two full days there and we are adding in more structure to our days at home because Alex is in kindergarten. Its sometimes hard to wrap my head around all the different things I need to cover, so I am so thankful to have Teachers pay Teachers around to look for resources for kindergarten AND third grade literature, writing and history! T ..read more

The Olympics are drawing to a close but I still haven't shared about the fun we had for the opening ceremony! This would be tons of fun to do for the closing ceremony too.  For some reason, because of the business of life, I didn't even realize that the opening ceremony was happening until the morning of! We were on our way to the library and the idea of making a fun party around the ceremony started churning in my head. We picked up a couple of books about the olympics and headed to the grocery store for some international snacks! Before the ceremony we had our own olympics, including ..read more

Are you all ready for the big Teacher Pay Teacher's sale coming?? I mean saving 28% is FABULOUS, but I hope that you are also saving some extra dollars by taking advantage of TPT credits! I was talking to someone the other day who didn't know what that was, so we quickly went to teacherspayteachers.com and I walked her through it. Every time you leave feedback on a purchased product, you earn credits that then translate into dollars off your future purchases! Here is how you do it: 1. First go to MY PURCHASES under your my TpT tab. 2. Under Paid Purchases, sort your purchases by NEEDS FEED ..read more

I often talk about homeschooling as if it is the "Great Experiment." Because that is really what it is. Education is so amazing in that there are so many facets in which to educate your child, and I am thankful to have the amount of choices I do. I don't think one is better then the other, but it really comes down to what is best for our family and each child.  So now we start "officially" homeschooling because Alex is entering Kindergarten in the fall. Which is quite hard for me to believe. And I am thankful to have the support of an amazing homeschool academy to keep us on track, but I ..read more

I've said a lot of goodbyes in my life. This summer is full of hard ones again.  It doesn't ever get easy, but my least favorite are the ones where I am being left behind.  The ones where you stand where you are and wave to the people as they drive away or disappear through the security checks. Because I have to turn around, go home, and its life as normal. No new adventures, life to set up, or cultures to explore.  This summer marks 10 years since I moved to South Carolina, during those 10 years I have had lots of family and friends that have come and gone, leaving me here wav ..read more

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