Betsy, Author at Family Style Schooling

SQUILT Music Appreciation Curriculum Giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of SQUILT free to review. All my opinions are my own. Even though I played piano and clarinet as a kid, and sang in the choir all through high school, training my kids to appreciate and understand great musical pieces is a bit daunting. Because of the complexity of the…

Sunday Reflections: Last Week of Summer

This post may include affiliate links. See my full disclosure policy for more details. Life at the Strauss House… Countdown is on. Our Challenge classes start up on Tuesday, and therefore this week included orientations and teacher equipping fun. If you’re going to homeschool, make sure you have a group of moms that are in…

Using a Sketch Notebook for Taking Notes

When I was in college, I loved to doodle while I was taking notes. Even though it may have looked like I wasn’t paying attention, the doodling slowed my brain down enough so that I could pay attention to what was being said. Occasionally my drawings related to the materials, but more often than not…

Ready, Set, Race! 5 minutes of Rapid Recall

So often our homeschooling day becomes filled with tasks that need to get checked off of a list, that essentials like drawing maps, copying charts, or memorizing vocabulary are overlooked and forgotten. To make things worse, the only way to memorize maps, charts, or vocab is through daily repetition. When we started Challenge A, we…

A Quick Game to Foster Creativity: Add on Art

The other day I was working on preparing for the upcoming school year, which meant that the kids were left to fend for themselves. Occasionally my youngest finds herself a little lost in figuring out what to do. My husband grabbed her, gave her a marker, and they started playing what he calls: “Add on…