I love writing blog posts about our monthly book club celebrations. As I look back at the record of our book parties over the years, I feel so blessed that our homeschool tradition has included such rich memories with friends who love literature as much as we do! One of our prolific teen readers shared… Continue reading The Time Machine
Our teen nature journal club spent some time with one of my favorite late-season wildflowers: blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum). It is easy to look at those fluffy blue-purple blooms and simply think, What a pretty flower! But when you slow down and look closely, there is so much more going on. Blue mistflower belongs to… Continue reading Blue Mistflower
We had a wonderful day celebrating goldenrod and the first hint of cooler Tennessee weather! Our nature journal club met on a partly cloudy, breezy day at our beautiful park and spent some time observing this fascinating plant. I love that the genus name Solidago comes from Latin words meaning “to make whole” or “to… Continue reading Goldenrod (2)
Can you even have a Gulliver’s Travels book party without tying up a giant like the Lilliputians? 😂 This activity was a hit with all the kids thanks to my friend Valerie! I’ll share all our activities and food ideas in this blog post as I talk about our first book party of the 2026-2027… Continue reading Gulliver’s Travels
Getting Your Homeschool Student Ready for Dual Enrollment Hello parents! 👋 My name is RaeAnna and I feel like it was just yesterday we began homeschooling a little 6 and 4 year old, but the years were short even if the days were long back then and now I have a 17 and 14 year… Continue reading Dual Enrollment help
What a splendid way to kick off our Teen Nature Journal Group for the new school year! We had a wonderful time meeting with park rangers and learning all about one of our area’s most fascinating native fruit trees: the pawpaw! Because of the size of our group, I knew it might not be possible… Continue reading Pawpaw
The Mulberry: A Tree Full of History A beautiful day for our final Nature Club of the school year! We have been so lucky this year—somehow, it seems that nearly every single month we met brought us a beautiful day to be outside. And what a perfect way to finish our year together: observing a… Continue reading Mulberry (2)
What could possibly be interesting about grass? That was the question we set out to answer at our August Nature Journal Club—and as is often the case with nature study, the answer turned out to be: quite a lot! Back when my teens were young I taught a similar object lesson on grass here and… Continue reading Grass (2)
Hello friends! If you are brand new to nature journaling, this is the post for you! I want to share some tips and insights of leading my children in observing and connecting with nature through the years. If you are a visual person like me, here is a video I made with some of our… Continue reading Nature Journaling – Start Here!
Spring in Tennessee always seems to keep us guessing. This year, the weather played a few tricks on me and forced a last-minute change to our monthly nature study plans. I had originally hoped to gather wisteria and locust blossoms for a seasonal treat with our teen nature club, but an unexpected early freeze altered… Continue reading Honeysuckle
