Our Buzzing Homeschool

Hey everyone! I’m so excited to introduce you to these amazing Art & History kits created by my friend Olga Mirova! 🎨✨

She started this mom-to-mom business during the 2020 lockdowns and we were so proud to be one of her very first customers! 🥰
These kits bring art history to life with wonderful hands-on activities, and they are available in both English and Russian. 🌍

Like or comment below if you want to see what's inside our kit and how we used it! 👇
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Hello, everyone! I am Olga - a Designer, a Mom of 2 and a Founder of Art Minutes.
I started this project when I could not find resources to introduce my son to the Art History in a fun way.

🖼👩‍🎨Do you want to learn about Legendary Artists with your kids?
💌Make great memories with your children while engaging in learning and fun activities.

Art Kit includes:

🎨Letter from Artist focused on his childhood
🎨Facts about different art periods
🎨Questions after the letter
🎨Spot 10 differences
🎨Word search
🎨Drawing activities
🎨Colorful Timeline
🎨Memo Game
🎨Coloring page
🎨Souvenir - Magnet

Artists in English: Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Klee

The materials are sent in the envelope by mail.

NEW BRANDING, NEW COLOURFUL DESIGN THAT KIDS WILL LOVE

NEW WEBSITE:
http://www.xn--rtminutes-zyh.ca/

Good Morning, Happy Monday!
Enjoy these gorgeous peonies of all shapes and colour from Oshawa Botanical Garden 🌸 with plenty of buds still the way!

We use The Good and the Beautiful from this list a lot, but not solely.

Their Math & English are free in PDF format, as well as some samples from other subjects. But I usually prefer to place one big order per year and pay shipping.
It saves the expenses and hassle of printing and organizing 300+ pages per subject 🙈
Sometimes I also get lucky and can ask my neighbor to bring it across the border 🤩

Language arts curriculum for every grade: https://freedomhomeschooling.com/complete-language-arts/

It’s our family tradition to have a picnic on this bench at the beginning of the summer. the bench and the tradition are about 11 years old 😄

Who else knows this garden and enjoys a snack there? 🧺

P.S. So grateful for homeschooling—we were able to enjoy the weather today and didn't have to rush back home or to school. ☀️🌱

Fun times looking back at our old unit studies ✨
Back then I used to piece together our bilingual unit studies 📚
To my fellow bilingual homeschooling parents - you can apply these exact strategies to any language combination. Most classic stories are easily accessible in almost any language 🌎
Did you notice a difference in literacy requirements in different languages for the same age group? 🤔

I have to go the extra mile to create a full immersion in our homeschool. But it makes our learning more rigorous and fun at the same time!

We studied Stone Soup folktale lately.
I got three versions - English classic, Jewish classic (Wise men of Chelm) and Russian classic (Axe porridge - Каша из топора).

Just reading and comparing details and illustrations prompted lots of interesting conversations about European history, different cultures, clothes and cuisine.

For the literacy part we used Kumon Reading gr2 workbook and regular Russian textbook for gr2 as well.
In Russia kids start school at 7yo usually, but there is a drastic difference in approaches and standards, not only age- levels.

Kumon has simplified texts and all assignments are for comprehension only. Like insert/choose the right word or put events in the correct order.
I really like the quality of these worksheets but it's just not enough for me..

Our Russian book uses original rich language. Students are supposed to use a dictionary for new words.
Assignments promote not only comprehension, but also critical thinking and language development - find synonyms for some words, find and explain outdated words, describe main characters etc.
Of course, my daughter is not able to give perfect answers for all these questions BUT we still keep working on these skills instead of lowering standards.
As our ultimate goal is not a good grade but raising a child with good language and critical thinking skills.

D. actually likes this folktale. Maybe we can go back to it in a couple of months to monitor her progress :)

As you might know, I work as a math tutor for school children, and I see this every day - majority of school kids kids are heavily trained to memorize formulas and steps, not actually think through a problem. 🧠

"Drill-and-kill" is not actual education. Kids need to learn how to analyze, problem-solve, and understand whys behind things they are doing💡

Today we said goodbye to May - such a pity that the photos don't capture all the colors and scents! 🥰
And on one of the trails, we met a deer 🦌, by the way, not the first time in this park. As you can guess, they don't really appreciate photoshoots just like countless chipmunks and birds.
Who can recognize this park?

Happy Friday everyone!
I realize I still haven’t formally introduced you to our foster/rescue turtles who overwintered with us! 🐢🐢🐢

They are bigger now, but I just really love this photo of them! 🥰️
They taught us quite a bit of science - love these kinds of hands-on projects!

They are happy and healthy, and now two of these guys are officially looking for their forever homes 🏡 Feel free to reach out if you want to learn more about turtles or adopt a shell-buddy!🐢

Thank G-d, she was found safe! 🙏💕

🎯