Sources

 How to check your sources… Campfire’s stance on sourcing… WHAT ABOUT WHEN THE TEXTBOOKS DON’T LIST ANY SOURCES?  **THIS IS KEY FOR THE REST OF THE QUESTIONS** WHAT ABOUT USING NEWS SOURCES FOR CURRENT EVENTS? WHAT ABOUT USING NEWS SOURCES TO SHOW CONTRASTING OPINIONS? WHAT ABOUT USING NEWS SOURCES FROM HISTORY? BUT AREN’T PRIMARY SOURCES WRONG, A LOT OF TIMES? WHAT’S WRONG WITH ENCYCLOPEDIAS? WHAT ABOUT HISTORY. COM? WHAT ARE GOOD PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES THEN? WHAT ABOUT SINGULAR ERRORS? BUT MY SCHOOL GROWING UP TAUGHT ME FLAWED HISTORY!  SO WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?! BUT AREN’T .GOV …

Response

Response: We have waited about a week, very intentionally, before posting.  We did so because the Bible says: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…”  We know a lot of people wondered if we dropped off the radar these past few days, and we haven’t.  We have been exercising patience and prayer.  We’ve also been incredibly busy trying to catch up on emails!  We love the homeschool community so much, and because of our love of homeschool we wanted to elevate it and elevate parents… holding …

Unit Studies – But are they real curriculum?

“But… is a unit study actually curriculum?  … or is it JUST a unit study?” A unit study is a broad term that can often mean many things (just like “school book” is a broad term).  In our definition, a unit study is a cross-curricular and/or interdisciplinary approach to education.  This means multiple academic disciplines are combined into one, or there is instruction that intentionally applies academic disciplines simultaneously.  The unit topic is often interesting, to invoke passion-led learning or simultaneously teach a life-preparation skill.  This approach leads to increased comprehension and memory retention while providing the …

COLLEGE PREP

“But what do I put on the high school transcript?!”  What is it that colleges want to see?  How can you help your student stand out?  Here are some tips which we hope might be helpful to you, in regards to college preparation.   IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE BEFORE WE JUMP IN: Some students are not headed toward a post-secondary education, and that’s okay!  Other students desire career fields which may require a degree, and we understand that, as well!  There is not a “better” or “worse,” “more intelligent” or “less intelligent” approach.  My husband and I both come …

Language Arts Approach

CAMPFIRE CURRICULUMS LANGUAGE ARTS APPROACH I know these are supposed to be podcasts… but you know, that’s why the “ish” is on the end of it. 🙂  There are just a couple of notes we needed to add (an important one around the 2:15 minute mark), so that’s why it looks like a video.  Enjoy! Return HOME Go to ALL PODCASTS

NON-AUDITORY LEARNERS

WHAT DO I DO WHEN I HAVE A NON-AUDITORY LEARNER THAT TUNES OUT? We are asked for our opinion on this a lot because many parents who utilize our curriculum are very in-tune with their child’s learning style.  So, what do you do if you have a “kinesthetic learner” (etc) that tunes out during reading portions of any curriculum?  We’ll share our opinion below by copying/pasting our response to someone who recently asked the same about their 7-year-old child. THE SOLUTION (OUR OPINION): We will try to give some personal feedback, but please know you can take …

Notes

HOW TO: NOTE-TAKING Jump to… WHAT DOES NOTE-TAKING LOOK LIKE (WITH PICTURE)? WHAT TO SAVE FOR THE STATE? WHAT IF YOUR CHILD GIVES YOU A BLANK STARE? WHAT IF THEY HATE WRITING? ELEMENTARY VS. HIGH SCHOOL? REAL LIFE! *HIGHLY ENCOURAGED APPLICATION IMAGES OF YOUR CHILD’S WORK . WHAT DOES NOTE-TAKING LOOK LIKE? Honestly, note-taking (or note-booking) can be as structured or as unstructured as you want it to be.  We DO encourage it to be slightly more structured as the student gets older.  For now, we will share a couple examples to help answer, “What is note-taking?” …

HOW DO THEY?? – “WITHOUT WORKSHEETS”

WANT HELP ANSWERING PEOPLE ABOUT “NO WORKSHEETS” WITH SOME EASY ONE LINERS? WE’VE GOT THEM HERE! You know how homeschoolers get asked silly questions like, “Wait, so how do your kids get socialized if they’re homeschooled?”  [ghastly whispered, as if it is a curse word] Or how about this: “But like…. will they be allowed to go to college?!” HAHA! Okay, so UNFORTUNATELY there is another question that has carried over from homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike: “But you don’t use worksheets?  So are your kids actually learning anything?! How do you know?” After reading the rest of …

Is Campfire the “Dessert” or the “Meal” of homeschooling?

**IMPORTANT CURRICULUM POST. WE HIGHLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO READ—THOSE WHO ARE CUSTOMERS AND THOSE WHO AREN’T. WE PROMISE THIS WILL BE WORTH YOUR TIME AND ALSO AN ANSWER TO A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION** The written version gives you an answer in less than 3 minutes and then continues on for more reading (optional); the audio version is a 25-minute listen… both are worth it.  Audio version is HERE. — Our curriculum has obviously evolved since the beginning, so new people have asked us a very important question: Is Campfire Curriculums only the “awesome dessert” to the “meal”? …

Our RV Renovation

  Back to: A Clean Home AND Happy Kids!?!? – PODCAST Back to: Taking Back Your Homeschooling Day – BLOG! Our RV renovation! People asked… We had a couple people ask about our RV reno that I mentioned in the recent podcast, so we thought we should join in this “share picture” theme we had going on our Facebook group! After all, while we’re not on social media, we can still join in the fun, right? Besides, all anyone has to do is say the words, “reno” and “please share details,” and I can literally hear the …