Hands-On Homeschooling Resources

At the end of every homeschool year as part of my homeschool planning for the next year, I like to ask my kids what they think about their education. It is important to me to get input from them, so I can figure out how to improve their experience of homeschooling. The thing that stood out overwhelmingly was that my kids wanted more hands-on learning experiences.

As a Charlotte Mason educator, I build our curriculum around living books. I have really been trying to be more consistent with narration and even changed the way we do notebooking, but my kids still really wanted to dive deeper and do more. So this school year, we decided to try several different resources to give the kids those hands-on experiences that they craved. I’m going to share some of our favorite hands-on homeschooling resources.

Knowledge Crates

The first resource we tried was Knowledge Crates. Each knowledge crate is filled to the brim with curated materials. We studied deserts during Term 1, so I got both the Preschool and Elementary Desert Crates.

Each crate comes with a guide and almost everything you need to complete each activity. Here are a few of the things we did:

• Rubberized an egg
• Made desert animals out of clay
• Created a wooden model scorpion
• Made camel art
• Made cactus art
• Created a roll and poke cactus
• Made a map of the world’s deserts
• Made scratch art
• Made sun art
• Read lots of desert books
• And more!

The crates are a bit pricy, but they do include all of the materials and my kids had so much fun and learned a lot more about deserts than if I had just read to them.

Knowledge Crates has a large assortment of crates. I’m planning to complete the Rainforest crate next and I’m eyeing the Simple Machines Crate for next year!

Home Science Tools

Home Science Tools has provided us with a lot of great things to make science come alive! They have all sorts of dissections kits. We got the Owl Pellet Dissection kit and my kids had a blast putting a little rodent skeleton together.

We also got a solar system model kit and picked up the See You Around kit to supplement our Apologia Astronomy text. We made the moon phases with Oreos and plan to learn more about constellations.

You can find all sorts of tools for science at home. I’m planning on checking out the microscopic life section for our study for Term 3.

History Unboxed

I’m really excited about History Unboxed. They have a variety of boxes relating to different periods of history. We have gotten the American Revolution Box and the Ancient Egypt box.

So far we have created a tin punch lantern while learning about Paul Revere, wrote on a scroll with a quill pen, and had tea in honor of the Boston Tea Party.

For our study of Ancient Egypt we have worked on mummifying an apple slice, decorated a sarcophagus, and learned how to play Senet. It is so much fun!

We are planning to add the Egyptian Pharaohs box to our learning, as well as the Civil War box!

Baketivity

My little bakers have enjoyed several boxes from Baketivity. We choose the boxes based on what they want to make. They’ve enjoyed cake pops and whoppie pies, rice krispie treats and granola.

We also ordered some kitchen tools for my 10 year old. He’s so excited about his apron and knife. I love that my kids are getting such great hands-on experience baking.

Drew’s Art Box

We also added Drew’s Art Box to our homeschool this year! My 12 year old has become really interested in art, so we ordered him the watercolor landscapes kit and the watercolor pencils kit. He has become so interested in art that he draws daily.

They also have paper quilling and macrame kits among others to choose from. Each kit comes with all the high-quality materials, plus instructions on how to access video instructions. It’s been such a fun addition to our homeschool!

Let me know, what other hands-on homeschooling resources have you used and loved?