Every year right around April, I start to panic that we haven't met our state's "civics" requirement for homeschoolers. Sure, we read plenty of books about presidents and history, we talk about current events (to an extent) and we experience the real world, where civics is actually taking place, but I always wonder if I should be a little more intentional in this area. 

This year, Miss H asked me if we could celebrate holidays and special observances a little more intentionally than normal. That's when it occurred to me that some of these minor holidays were the perfect opportunity to bring in areas that we needed to learn more about. Constitution Day, September 17, suddenly took on a new light. 

Constitution Study

I didn't find out that public schools were legally required to teach about the Constitution on or around September 17 every year until I had been teaching for at least a couple of years. Yet, this became law in 2004 and is supposed to be a part of every public school curriculum if the school accepts public funding.

Since I didn't know or understand the Constitution very well myself, I always struggled to meet that requirement. Thankfully, after years of paying closer attention and learning about how our country works, I felt confident enough to make a resource that I wish I had been able to use as a teacher. My Little Robins' Constitution Study was a part of a homeschool bundle earlier this fall, and now is available to you! 

What you'll find:

• 26 page study with watercolor illustrations
• Diagrams to demonstrate concepts
• Primary-source text of the constitution, as well as summary for brevity
• Questions to guide narration
• Copywork 
• Memory work, to solidify learning of the Preamble 
• Insight into the founding fathers 
• A break down of the Bill of Rights
• Primary source letter explaining the context of "Separation of church and state" 
• Book suggestions to further your study 

It will only take you an a couple of hours to do this study. Finish it all on one day (September 17 or any other day!) or break it into several lessons. The page labels will help you with that! 

This study doesn't share any opinions, and therefore is non-biased. It contains religion as far as a primary source letter describing the context of the idea "separation of church and state." 

Welcome to part 2 of my Favorite Things roundup. If you haven't had a chance to look at the Homeschool Mom edition, you can read it here.

This post will be organized a little bit differently: instead of by price point, I'll be organizing these subscriptions by type. 

We've had a lot of fun with subscription boxes. I think our love of them started during the pandemic, when we were looking for fun things to do with our young children and picked up a deal for a Raddish Kids cooking box. Since then, we've found many other subscription boxes that supplement our homeschool, or just are enjoyable. 

As well as subscription boxes, I've included magazines and other subscriptions we've loved in this post. 

Some of the links I've used to share these great products are affiliate links or referral links. You can learn more about these links in my policies. 

Subscription Boxes For Mom

Fab Fit Fun- My sister gifted me this box during the pandemic, and it was so much fun! Four times a year, I got makeup, accessories, and home goods delivered to my door. As a VIP member, I could choose most of the items I got each time, so I knew it was something I wanted and needed. 

Let's Make Art- I started painting during the pandemic, and after a few months of just doing Let's Make Art's free tutorials on YouTube, I began getting the monthly subscription box. Each month, I received the tutorials before their release, paper, paint, and a cute painting supply surprise. 

Rocksbox- This jewelry rental site is so much fun! Each month (or every other month) I received a box with three pieces of jewelry in it (well, more if they were earrings!) and then I decided if I wanted to just "rent" the jewelry and wear it for the month, or buy it. Usually, I ended up buying one thing each time. 

StitchFix- I've been getting StitchFix pretty regularly for years. I probably only do three or four boxes a year, but now that I've found a sylist who is perfect for me (Diane!), I usually buy everything in the box. This means I do a whole lot less shopping, which helps with the budget and saves me time. You can get $25 off of your first box using this referral code.

Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box- If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen me post about this amazing box! Each month, I get four high-quality essential oils in the mail, and then recipes and supplies to make things with the oils. This is huge for me, because like a lot of other people I know, sometimes it's hard to decide what to do with essential oils, besides defusing them. I've made some really useful household products and toiletries; cleaning spray, shaving lotion, and face balm have been some of my favorites! When you subscribe, you can get a $40 gift card to use on future purchases.  

Subscription Boxes for Kids

Kiwi Crate- We first subscribed to Kiwi Crate for three months when Hadley was three or four. It was so much fun to make new science-based projects each month! Last year, we bought our middle son, then six, a Kiwi Crate subscription for Christmas. He has made some really fun projects, like a grabber (similar to a claw in an arcade game!) and an optical illusion bank, where mirrors made it look like the money disappeared. 

Koala Crate- While big brother got a Kiwi Crate, little brother got a Koala Crate. This subscription, also from Kiwi Co, is geared towards children ages 2-4. Each month, there's a theme, and little ones create things around that theme. We loved the barnyard theme, where we made little animal puppets and a barn to put them in! 

Tinker Crate- After seeing her little brothers get SUCH FUN crates in the mail for months, Miss H decided she wanted Tinker Crates for her birthday. These Kiwi Co boxes are more focused around STEM learning. Amazingly, H was able to do all of these on her own, with just a little help sometimes. 

Raddish Kids- We've subscribed to Raddish kids for more than two years now. Each month, we get a box with great recipes, activities, conversation cards, and a kitchen tool in it. Originally, this seemed to expensive for us, and we thought we would buy a cook book and work through it. That never happened. There's something about the excitement of getting a box in the mail every month that motivated H  (and sometimes her little brothers) to get cooking. We've discovered some favorite recipes through this subscription, and it has introduced out family to new foods that we don't typically eat. 

Think Outside Boxes- A few years ago, I reviewed Think Outside Boxes, a subscription focused on helping children build a survival backpack and learn how to use the tools. These tools have come in handy, and the fact that it inspire us to learn about nature was so refreshing! You can read my review here.

Health Subscriptions

Mary Ruth's Organics- We take a lot of vitamins in our house, and finding the most effective, highest-quality vitamins is important to me. This referral code gives you $15 off of your order (although I'm not sure if there's a minimum!) 

YourSuper- This company sells superfood powders that have different purposes. I ordered about four times a year for two years, and was really happy with the options! When I collected too many, I stopped subscribing but still use their products! You can save 20% off of your order with my referral link.

Magazine Subscriptions

Eden and Vine Magazine- This is a beautiful Christian living magazine that a friend told me about. There is a heavy focus on natural elements like herbs, gardening, and tea, which I find so inspiring and relaxing. I cherish each edition, even though it only comes four times a year. 

Ranger Rick, Jr.- My science loving son has gotten Ranger Rick, Jr for more than a year, and he loves learning about animals in each volume. As a plus, this magazine is really affordable! 

Clubhouse Magazine- We subscribed to Clubhouse, Jr. Magazine by Focus on the Family for our youngest child, and we enjoyed it so much that we got the original Clubhouse for our older two. It is filled with games, fun crafts, and ideas that you want your child to be taking in.

Have you tried any of these subscriptions before? Let me know your favorites! 

Sometimes I feel like I'm terrible at curating traditions, and worry that my kids will not grow up with sweet, every-year special celebrations that we faithfully did. But then, my daughter reminded me about candy math. 

Candy math is our favorite day-after-Halloween homeschool tradition. It started out as a simple way to prolong the excitement of trick-or-treating: "let's sort your Halloween candy!" But soon it became a way to use materials that we had temporary access to: math is about numbers, and the quantity of candy we have is exponential. 

But, the amazing thing about candy math is that the options are never ending! Here are some ways to learn math with candy, on November 1st or any other day. If you are among the many Christians I know that don't celebrate Halloween, this can be done with any candy, any time! 

Related: Family Time Math 

Candy Math Ideas For Young Children

1. Sort- Sorting candy is a simple but exciting skill for young children. They will likely enjoy sorting by variety, but there are other sorting options. 

• chocolate versus not chocolate
• one piece versus multiple pieces
• by color 
• by texture 
• sweet versus sour 

2. Graph- After sorting candy by type, try graphing the candy. With young children, I use the candy as the graph, meaning I don't try to make bars or lines. I simply line up the candy in an organized way, so that 4 M&M packs are the same height as 4 tiny little peanut butter cups. That way, children can visually compare quantities of candies. 

3. More or less?- Practice comparing quantities by grabbing two varieties of candy, and having your child determine which is more and which is less. You could even have them write the numerals on paper and use greater than, less than signs to compare them. 

4. Weigh on a balance scale- If you have a balance scale, you can have fun with your child by comparing the weight of two different candies. Decide which one is heavier, and then make a guess at a candy that might be heavier than that. Have a little weigh-off of sorts!

5. Addition and subtraction- Subtraction is obviously more appropriate for this occasion 🙂 Candies with many pieces work best for this. Open up a pack of M&M's, count how many there are, and then make up math problems from what's inside. Here are some examples: "How many red plus blue do you have?" "What happens if you eat 5 of them?" You can do the same thing with bigger pieces of candy, but having little treats to snack on during math time is always appreciated! 

Related: Which Math Curriculum Is Right For You? 

Candy  Math Ideas for Older Children

Many of the ideas for younger children can be adapted for older children. 

1. Graphing- Older kids can make more of a proper graph. Instead of just using the pieces of candy as the graph, they can make their own bar graph on a piece of graph paper. 

2. Multiplication- Use candy packs with multiple pieces of candy in it to practice multiplication. First, take a pack of multi-piece candy, and have your child open it and count how many pieces are inside. Then, count how many packs of that same type of candy you have altogether. Finally, have your child multiply the number of candies in one pack with the number of packs of candies there are in all. That will tell you how many pieces of that specific candy you have! 

3. Negative numbers- This was a lesson that I did with 4th graders as a public school teacher, and I was told that it was "too hands on." Well, thankfully, hands-on is the name of the homeschooling game, so I used this lesson proudly with my current 4th grader!

To do this, it helps to have some negative number addition and subtraction problems written on a piece of paper or notecards. Take two different colors of multiple-pieced candies, like M&M's. Decide which color will represent negative numbers, and which color will represent positive numbers. 

If the first problem is -3 + 6, you would have 6 candies that represent the positive color and 3 that represent the negative color. Lay them out side by side, and you'll see that there are three more positives than negatives, so the answer to this problem is 3. When subtracting, remember that pesky trick that subtracting a negative number actually means you add the positive. So, 5 minus -3 is the same as saying 5 +3. I don't make the rules. 

4. Fractions: Part of a Whole- There are lots of fun ways to learn fractions with candy! The first is pretty simple, and most children with a general concept of fractions will find it almost too easy. Take a candy bar that has multiple pieces. Then, take one piece off, and ask what fraction it represents. If there are 4 pieces of the candy bar, one piece equals 1/4 of the candy bar. 

5. Fractions: Fraction of a Group- Similarly, you can learn fractions with multiple pieces of candy. Using candy like M&M's or Skittles, count how many there are total. Then, have your child count how many there are of one color. That color represents the numerator, and the number of candies total is the denominator. For example, if you have 15 pieces of candy, and 5 of them are red, then 5/15 are red. Practice reducing fractions with your child, by dividing the numerator and denominator by a common divisor. 5 and 15 are both divisible by 5, so the fraction of red candies is 1/3. 

What are some other fun ways to learn math with candy? 

When it was time to choose a math curriculum for our homeschool, I chose Singapore Math (Dimensions)  for a number of reasons. I had used other versions of Singapore Math as a public school teacher, and I knew that the private school I used to teach at used it, too. If we ever put our children into that school, they would be on the same page with math. I also like how Singapore Math gets great results all over the world, all while being hands-on and engaging. 

Since I've used this program for a while and in multiple settings, I thought I would share some tips I have that will make you successful with it! 

Tips for Using Singapore Math

Do the Lessons

Obviously, if you have a child who would prefer to race through the workbook and not do the lessons, more power to you! But, most children want and need direct instruction surrounding each skill. The lessons are creative and pretty fun! Singapore Math's approach is unique, which brings me to my next point. 

Know About Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract

Being aware that this is the main method of instruction for Singapore Math can be really helpful. This approach starts students out with hands-on math work, moving manipulatives or playing games to understand the concept. Once the concept is introduced, they see it modeled in pictures in the math text book. After practicing with pictures, they move on to abstract representation in their workbooks. This means they solve problems with numbers and symbols rather than with objects and pictures. Knowing this approach can be really helpful, because it might be tempting to skip one part of this process. Since the value of Singapore Math lies in this method, it's good to be mindful of it, and not just skip straight to the abstract work, as is tempting!

Use the Video Subscription

At an extra cost (currently about $85/year) you can get videos to go with your Singapore Math curriculum. We have never used these, but they came highly recommended from a friend. I plan to use them this year as my 4th grader starts getting into more complicated math. Sometimes she needs to hear it from someone other than me! 

Get Familiar with the Free Resources 

It's easy to forget that the company of any math curriculum wants it to work for you more than anything else! To get it to be a success for you, there are often free resources available online. 

Singapore Math's website has easily-printable resources to use. I find these to be easier than copying the back of the page on my little scanner!  

Learn the Modeling Method

This math program has a modeling method that is really helpful. It involves drawing bars to depict the problem, and the type of problem determines the type of bars. Strangely enough, I never learned this as a public school teacher! When I went to renew my teaching license, I found out I could take classes through my library at GALE Courses. GALE courses had several Singapore Math courses, including one on their modeling method. This has been so helpful! 

Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract

Being aware that this is the main method of instruction for Singapore Math can be really helpful. This approach starts students out with hands-on math work, moving manipulatives or playing games to understand the concept. Once the concept is introduced, they see it modeled in pictures in the math text book. After practicing with pictures, they move on to abstract representation in their workbooks. This means they solve problems with numbers and symbols rather than with objects and pictures. Knowing this approach can be really helpful, because it might be tempting to skip one part of this process. Since the value of Singapore Math lies in this method, it's good to be mindful of it, and not just skip straight to the abstract work, as is tempting!

If you'd like a comparison of math curricula, sign-up for this homeschool math series through the button below. You'll automatically be redirected to a page where you can download the form immediately (no need to wait for an email!)