The Rainbow Resource Center Homeschool Blog

Summertime at Rainbow Resource Center means it’s time for our annual writing contest! Students from ages 7 to 18 (by January 1, 2025) who wish to participate will write and illustrate an original story involving time travel. Two or more winners in each age group are selected by a team of Rainbow Resource judges and will win cash prizes. One of these winners is selected as the Grand Prize Winner and will be published and sold on our website! Keep reading to learn more about the official rules and how to participate.

“The fourteen-toed sloth crossed the Mississippi River in a neon orange battle tank. Just so he could taste the wild palm trees of Nebraska.” While this may seem like comical nonsense, Mad Libs® educate children, and let’s be honest, adults, too! This silly way to introduce grammar practice into errand running, down time, or scheduled grammar time is a game changer for students.

It’s that time of the school year again! As we enter the home stretch, many parents have a sinking feeling. Instead of crossing the finish line triumphant, hands high in the air, they are weary and limping, hoping to crawl across the line and pull the kids with. If you’re running on empty, not sure how much farther you can go, you are not alone! You just need a fresh wind to come along and put a spring in your step!

It’s all in the cards! What does it mean to use Card Drafting or Deck Building mechanics in board game play and how are they different from each other? Today, we'll talk about these two game elements.

We all have choices to make in life. Some of our choices have made us very happy and some have made us wish we could go back in time and change them. As parents, we have the opportunity to invest in our children, teaching them wisdom and good judgment. Here are some good reminders to think about as you go through the busyness of raising your precious flock.

Our language skills progress as we grow, mature, and learn. Squiggles turn to letters, to words, to sentences, and before we know it, we are writing essays, papers, and reports! The written word allows us to express our ideas, understandings, and findings to others. As this skill develops for your young students, a new skill needs to emerge in your personal teacher toolbox: the ability to evaluate, assess, and grade our students’ writing. So, where do you start?

Evaluating essays can pose large challenges for parents. For multiple reasons, we can become discouraged and challenged with responding effectively to student writing. What should be “good” for student and parent instead becomes “the bad and the ugly.” Don’t wave the white flag! Evaluating your student’s writing and encouraging them in this process is important, doable, and can provide wonderful results.

In my previous artilcle, we considered the benefits—both practical and experiential—that cooking together as a family offers. Let’s take this a step further and consider how we, as parents, can breathe life into our history and science lessons using the power of food!

Gaps, holes, chasms — call them what you will, but they are a real fear for some parents and something they will avoid if possible. Gaps typically happen when you make a big change. It can be from one math program to another, or it could be from attending school to homeschooling. How do you fill these gaps in understanding?

Cooking together promotes family relationships, self-confidence, and healthy eating habits. Not to mention the practical application of mathematics, vocabulary development, and social skills. I might also add that it is fun! In this two-part series, let’s look at mom and child-friendly ways to incorporate cooking into the homeschool day.