Think, Learn, Know, Do, Become
Welcome to Smart Simple HomeschoolSmart Simple Homeschool strives to make it easy for you and a challenge for your learner as they think, learn, know, do and become. This is a space to find tips, ideas and encouragement for your homeschooling or school at home journey. I’m glad you’re here.
Learn by Doing
Children of all ages learn by doing. This doing can take on a wide variety of forms from hands on science experiments and history projects to writing songs about long division and sitting together discussing the merits of literature. Seem unobtainable? Think your children are too young? Not at all! Smart Simple Homeschool is here to show you that all children can think, learn, know, do and become all it takes is facilitation from the teacher and a little creativity. Let us help make it simple for you and puzzling for them.
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Your Environment
What you do matters. Where you do it also matters. The environment you create for your homeschooling or school at home can make or break your time learning together. Creating an environment that encourages learning, risk taking, exploration, thinking and doing does not need to be complicated or expensive. Take the time create the environment, see the difference.
Mission
Smart Simple Homeschool’s Mission & Vision
Homeschooling and school at home shouldn’t be stressful. It’s time that we let go of the stress and embraced the smart simple way of doing things. Just because things are simple doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of thinking going on; instead, it means we’ve quit over-complicating teaching and learning by getting straight to the heart of it. All students can think, learn, know, do and become in a smart simple way.
You are welcome here
I’m Kandis
I’m a Masters of Education in curriculum and teacher leadership holding, wife and mom of four – 3 homeschool kiddos and a preschooler – who has chosen the smart and simple instead of chaos and complicated.
I long to help others find the smart and simple so they can experience the freedom and joy that learning can bring to the teacher and the students. Let’s enjoy this journey together.
– Kandis Babel
Resources
Our Most Popular Resources
01
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street Novel Study
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Every person in a family has a unique position. Take the time to think deeply and interact with The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser to discover how these unique positions and personalities impact everything from how stress is handled to holiday spirit. Schema activation, predictions, space to record independent thinking, journal prompts, get out of the book activities and personal reflection questions give students the opportunity to do more than read the words written in the book. It allows them to spend time with it, roll the content around in their brains, and make decisions with and without the guidance of the teacher. Traditional comprehension questions have their place and are included in each section. This said, rest assured, all resources created by Smart Simple Homeschool are designed to challenge your learner to think, learn, know, do and become. The simple part is for you the educator or parent – simply purchase and print.
02
Top Elf
Novel Study
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Santa’s retiring, so now what?!? Bring on the Santa trials. Who will win and be the next Santa? An elf, one of Santa’s children, a Klaus relative from far away? Help your students think through this fun holiday novel by spending time with the content, rolling the text around in their brains all while making decisions regarding their own thoughts and intuition. This deep dive is accomplished through schema activation, predictions, independent thinking, journal prompts, get out of the book activities and personal reflection with a few necessary comprehension questions sprinkled in. Do not let the word simple in Smart Simple Novel Studies or Smart Simple Homeschool scare you. The simple part is for you the educator or parent – simply purchase and print. Rest assured, all resources created by Smart Simple Homeschool are designed to challenge your learner to think, learn, know, do and become.
03
The Hobbit
Novel Study
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Adventure seekers wanted – gold, dragons, goblins, dwarves, fairies, invisibility all included! Grab their attention with the story. Grow their mind with a variety of deep thinking and processing activities. Win their hearts with a classic. Win their minds with meaningful work. Let this novel study help your students and children learn, think, do, know and become through inferring, predicting, questioning, summarizing, comparing, connecting, and researching. Print and go for the teacher. Read and dig deeper for the student.
04
Under the Blood Red Sun
Novel Study
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Race, economic disparity and history collide in the Scott O’Dell Award winning novel Under the Blood-Red Sun. Heavy topics such as these, demand that students have a opportunity to do more than read the words written in the book. They need to spend time with it, roll the content around in their brains, and make decisions with and without the guidance of the teacher. Help your students to do just that with this novel by Graham Salisbury through schema activation, predictions, space to record independent thinking, journal prompts, get out of the book activities and personal reflection questions that encourage deep thinking and interaction with the text and their world. Do not let the word simple in Smart Simple Novel Studies or Smart Simple Homeschool scare you. The simple part is for you the educator or parent – simply purchase and print. Rest assured, all resources created by Smart Simple Homeschool are designed to challenge your learner to think, learn, know, do and become.ke.
05
Dragons Don’t Cook Pizza
Novel Study
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This novel study is designed to help children think through the entirety of the twenty-fourth book in the Bailey School Kids series, Dragons Don’t Cook Pizza by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones. As with all my novel studies, it is not just comprehension questions. Schema activation, predictions, space to record independent thinking, journal prompts, get out of the book activities and personal reflection questions encourage deep thinking and interaction with the text and their world. Children need the opportunity to do more than read the words written in a book. They need to spend time with it, roll the content around in their brains, and make decisions with and without the guidance of the teacher. Do not let the word simple in Smart Simple Novel Studies or Smart Simple Homeschool scare you. The simple part is for you the educator or parent – simply purchase and print. Rest assured, all resources created by Smart Simple Homeschool are designed to challenge your learner to think, learn, know, do and become.
06
The Roald Dahl
Novel Study Bundle
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Roald Dahl has been a favorite of generations. Introduce his works to your students through this bundle that spans several different types of stories and student ability levels. These novel studies ask children to use schema activation, predictions, independent thinking, journal prompts, get out of the book activities and personal reflection questions as they spend time with the book. Children need to roll content around in their brains, and make decisions with and without the guidance of the teacher. These novel studies provide the scaffolding necessary without constant teacher intervention. Traditional comprehension questions have their place and are included in each section. This said, rest assured, all resources created by Smart Simple Homeschool are designed to challenge your learner to think, learn, know, do and become. The simple part is for you the educator or parent – simply purchase and print.
It may seem difficult to believe but,
Yes, they can . . .
In most learning environments children are not given the opporutnity to show what they truly know or can do. Students are rushed from one idea to the next without fully thinking about or exploring any one idea. What would happen if we gave space? What would happen if we taught children to think?
Think
Thinking is much more the recalling answers. Thinking is about taking time to play with information, make connections, try out ideas, roll the content around in their brains, defend thoughts and make decisions with and without the guidance of the teacher. Thinking is what learning is all about.
Learn
Thinking is the beginning of learning. To learn is to make information useful. It is to put what you have thought about into practice.
Know
To know something, to truly know it, is so much more than spitting out information for a test. Rather knowing is understanding. It is the ability to explain it to someone else and have that person too come to understanding.
Do
What will your student do with what he or she has thought about, learned and come to know? In what ways will this shape who he or she is? When we think about, learn and know something, it changes what we do. It changes how we interact with the rest of the world and information around us.
Become
All the thinking, learning, knowing and doing changes who we become. It changes our outlook on life and the options that are available to us. People who learn to think, learn, know and do have the option to become so much more and make a profound impact on those around them.
Blog
Not sure where to start?
How about here.
It’s Time to be the Chef
The difference between the typical home cook and a chef is the knowledge and understanding of how to make little adjustments that make a big impact while cooking. Most home cooks are quite comfortable following a recipe and getting a decent result. A chef, on the...
Moving Towards the Bullseye
When kids first start making predictions they are often so concerned with being accurate that they don't add any detail to their predictions. The vagueness of their predictions is only matched by the vagueness of someone with something to hide. You know the...
Accurate like the Weatherman?!?!?
Sometimes I think that my local weathermen would have more accurate predictions if they said something like "It's cloudy and later we have a chance of meatballs" because quite frankly that is more likely what is going to happen than what they predict most days. In...
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Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Email: hello@smartsimplehomeschool.com
Facebook: SmartSimpleHomeschool
Instagram: @SmartSimpleHomeschool
Curriculum & Resources: Browse Here