Winter wonder awaits...

Welcome to OM's Newsletter for Homeschooling Families:

We're starting off 2020 with K-4!

Each month, we send you a fresh batch of homeschooling tips, resources, activities, freebies, and more, geared to different grade levels. Enjoy!

Planning Ahead:

Tips from our Educational Counselors

Now is a good time to make a plan on when you would like to finish up your school year, and how to accomplish this. Here are a few ideas to help put the next few months of learning in focus:

Decide which skills are the most important to work on.
Review the remaining curriculum for this year. Which topics and projects do you want to make sure to include, and which might be skipped, streamlined, or done as discussion to save time, if necessary?
Consider any changes you'd like to make for the remainder of the year. What is working well? What might be adjusted to make learning more successful?
Create mini-goals to accomplish along the way.
Plan ahead for some fun ways to end the school year.

Remember to think out of the box when completing the curriculum: f ind new ways to approach subjects, tell stories, play games, visit a museum or library. Change things up by giving the students a chance to "plan" the day. Pick a few days each month to be spontaneous, and do something unexpected.

Switching up your day-to-day routine is a great way to re-energize the student and the parent/home teacher, and keep you both enthusiastically moving forward in your school year.

Felting with Wool Roving--Oak Meadow Teacher Demonstrates a Fun and Easy Craft

Craft Activity:

Make Your Own Felted Acorns

Felting with wool roving is a simple and fun sensory craft that helps your child to explore the characteristics of wool. Children of all ages can feel successful in their creation as wool is a flexible and beginner-friendly medium. Watch the video >

Sweet Dreams: The Importance of Bedtime Stories

Any time is a great time for reading! But, it turns out, there's something extra special about cracking open a book around bedtime. Sleep specialists actually believe that the practice of parents and children reading together before bed is essential to a good night sleep.

Reading before bed not only engages children in a love of literacy and books, but also provides them with a comforting routine, connection with you as a parent, and a point of focus in the midst of day-to-day busy-ness.

Need some bedtime reading inspiration? Take a peek at this list of 15 authors' all-time-favorite bedtime stories .

In The Wood

by Elieen Mathias

Cold winter's in the wood

I saw him pass —

Crinkling up fallen leaves

Along the grass —

Bleak winter's in the wood

The birds have flown

Leaving the naked trees

Shivering alone.

King Winter's in the wood,

I saw him go —

Crowned with a coronet

Of crystal snow.

*This poem was selected from The Journey Through Time In Verse and Rhyme .

The Story of Wilson Bentley: The Snowflake Man

Here at Oak Meadow's southern Vermont headquarters, we're no stranger to winter snow. Even if you don't see snow at your own home, you're probably familiar with the shape of its flakes and may have even spent hours cutting out snowflake decorations.

But do you know the story of snow's most famous photographer? He was another Vermonter: Wilson Bentley , better known as the Snowflake Man. Read on for the story of this snowflake photographer.