< Previousfrog in my throat by Lydia W, age 13 I kicked my cowboy-boot-covered feet against the wooden fence I was sitting on. The sun was somehow pointing straight in my eyes, even though I was wearing a hat. I took my hat off, wiping the blonde hair that escaped my braid out of my face as I narrowed my eyes, trying to block the sun. I was very bored. You would think living on a ranch would be exciting: milking cows, collecting eggs, and riding horses. Truth was, after a few months, it all got pretty boring. Who wants to milk a cow anyways? I hopped off the fence, walking towards the creek. “Someone needs to mow the grass over here,” I grumbled as I moved long weeds out of my way and trudged through tall grass. When I finally reached the creek, I kicked my boots off and rolled my pants up to my knees. I stepped into the cool water, which was very nice compared to the hot sun. I crouched down in the water, not enough to get wet, but enough to look closer at the pretty, clear water. I watched a few minows swim by, but that’s when I saw it—a frog! It was the size of a small rock I slowly walked over to it, the water getting slightly deeper. As soon as I was about to reach it, my foot caught on a weed, and I flew to my knees, barely catching myself. I let out a little yelp, which was the biggest mistake ever because the frog was so startled it flew into my mouth and down my throat! Oh. My. Goodness. I had just eaten a frog, alive! I coughed a little as I stood up, wincing slightly as it went down my throat. Good thing it was small! I ran out of the creek, grabbed my boots, shoved them on my wet feet, and went straight to the house. I opened the door and coughed a little, my throat feeling hoarse. “Frog in your throat?” my mom said, appearing from around the kitchen and patting my back slightly. “How’d you know?” I said “Huh?” my mom said, looking slightly confused. “I fell in the creek and a frog flew down my throat!” I exclaimed. “Oh wow, actually? Are you ok?” she said, thoroughly surprised. I nodded quickly, walking to the kitchen and taking a long drink of water. “Hopefully nothing bad happens,” I said. “Don’t worry, you should be fine. Good thing it was small.” She smiled reassuringly. “Also,” I added, “someone needs to mow the lawn over there. The grass is insane!” “Are you volunteering?” she said, raising her eyebrow and smiling. I quickly shook my head and ran to my room. The last thing I wanted to do was mow the grass in the hot sun! 20 | The Utah Homeschoolerkicking the bucket by BLAISE J, age 13 This morning, my sibling told me, “You should go kick that bucket over there. It’s a piece of cake.” “But I have butterflies in my stomach. The bucket is filled with ice. I would be walking on egg- shells. I’ll kick that bucket when pigs fly,” I replied. “Well, if you don’t kick that bucket, I’ll spill the beans on you being so cowardly,” my sibling answered. “Oh! All right then. I’ll go kick that bucket,” I answered. I took a step toward the bucket, only to find that there were tons of eggshells on the ground around the bucket, and that I had stepped on and broken several eggshells, which hurt, but not too much. I also felt several butterflies takeoff in my stomach, and the only reason I didn’t turn around right then was I was so intent on KICKING THAT BUCKET! I took several more steps until I was right by the bucket when I saw that my pet pig, Estella, the super pig (my half pink and half white pig), was about three feet away on the other side of the bucket from me. I decided that since the bucket was filled with ice, it would not move when I kicked it, so I then kicked the bucket. The ice inside the bucket broke and flew out of it, and the bucket rolled into my pig, which in turn jumped so high that she probably landed on the other side of the planet. I screamed in pain and tripped over several eggshells, badly bruising one foot, and spraining the other. An abulance quickly showed up, and as the medics were loading me onto the stretcher, I saw the bucket, but instead of a bucket, it was a bucket-sized and shaped piece of cake. At the hospital, I found out that there was a leak in the hospital’s roof that drained directly onto my head, so I was under the weather then. My sibling also found a way onto the hospital’s roof and dumped a can of beans on my head. If you have seen a half pink, half white pig, please let me know—I would really like her back. Sticking his neck out by LOWELL L, AGE 5 Once upon a time, Chib woke up to a snowy day. He got dressed and ate a breakfast of wood with milk, which is his favorite kind of cereal. He wanted to make a chair, so he went outside. But he saw dragons! He ran as quickly as he could into his house. Then he got into his suit of armor just in case the dragons arrived when he went outside again. Then he went into his backyard and saw a wrapped- up thing. The wrapped-up thing made a big chirp. He wondered what it was. He wondered if it was a bag of tons of seed. Then he started tearing it open with his sword. He saw it was a bald eagle and jumped on it and flew to the dragons. He charged the dragons and stuck out his neck to punch one of the dragons with his head. His neck was really strong. He punched all the dragons as he stuck out his neck. Then his neck shrank back down, and wings came out of his suit, and he chopped off all the dragon heads. Chib and the eagle went back home. He really liked his neck. Wordsmiths: Writing Contest Winners | 21Have you ever stopped to wonder where everyday objects come from? Who invented them? How have they changed over time? For this contest, your challenge is to research the history and evolution of any ordinary object and turn what you learn into a classic “five-paragraph” essay (although it doesn’t need to have exactly five paragraphs). Younger writers who need a simpler format may use the “hamburger paragraph” approach—a single paragraph containing a topic sentence (top bun), supporting details (filling), and a concluding sentence (bottom bun). The Secret History of Everday Things JANUARY 2026 WRITING CONTEST 22 | The Utah Homeschooler 1. Research Help Parents may teach children how to find reliable sources (books, websites, videos) and may even help them find sources for their chosen topic. Parents may read and discuss the sources with their children. Older children are encouraged to summarize and take notes on their own. Parents may transcribe notes for younger children or encourage them to highlight or underline important information. 2. Planning the Essay Parents may teach their children how to write a proper essay. They may explain how to organize ideas into an outline with an introduction, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. They may ask their child guiding questions to help them figure out what information should go where, but should not create the outline for them or tell them how to fill it in. 3. Writing Once the outline has been created, students should write the actual essay on their own. Parents are encouraged to transcribe for younger children, as they often have thoughts and ideas far beyond what their hands can manage. 4. Proofreading Parents may correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization after the essay is written, but should not add, remove, or rearrange words, sentences, or paragraphs. Ideas and voice are far more important than correct spelling and punctuation. Your essay should include: • Introduction & Thesis: Introduce your object and give a clear idea of what your paper will cover. • Body Paragraphs (or Sentences): Share at least three supporting details, such as (1) the invention of your object, (2) how it’s changed over time, and (3) how we use it today. • Conclusion: Wrap up by summarizing what you’ve explained and why your object’s history matters. For example, if we were writing about the paperclip, our essay might explain: Introduction: Why the paperclip is useful and what the essay will cover. Body Paragraph 1: Early ways people held papers together. Body Paragraph 2: The invention of the Gem paperclip. Body Paragraph 3: Different types and variations of paperclips available today. Conclusion: A summary of how the paperclip has remained a simple but important tool for organizing papers. Now it’s your turn! Choose your own everyday object (but not a paperclip)—something you use often but might not know the full story about—and dig into its past. If you’re struggling to think of a topic, look around you as you go through your day and notice what you see. You may be surprised by what you discover. (Word Limit: 500 words) DEADLINE: 11:59 PM on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025 Each writing contest in The Utah Homeschooler is intended to help students practice a specific writing skill. For this issue, we encourage parents to teach their students how to write an informational essay before having them write their entry for this contest. Parents can choose another subject (or just another everyday object) and research, organize, and write an example essay with their children. By demonstrating the entire process, parents can empower their students to complete their writing contest entry independently. For helpful resources about how to research and write a “5-paragraph” or “hamburger” essay and to see sample paperclip essays written at different levels, please visit www.TheUtahHomeschooler.com/contest. GUIDELINES FOR PARENT INVOLVEMENTWRITING CONTEST RULES 1. Entrants must be residents of Utah and must be must be between the ages of 5–17 as of Sept. 1, 2025 (Turning 18 during the school year is OK). Entrants must be participating in homeschool during the 2025-2026 school year. 2. Only one entry is allowed per student per contest. 3. No vulgarity, profanity, gratuitous violence, or “adult themes” are allowed. Entries must be “family friendly” and suitable for reading by children and adults of all ages. 4. AI is strictly prohibited and may NOT be used in any form at any stage of writing. You may NOT use ChatGPT, Grammarly, or any other AI to brainstorm story ideas, generate an outline, write any text, or improve text you have written. All words should be the student’s own. 5. Entries must be the student’s own original work and must not copy from books, movies, or online content. Entries that contain plagiarism will be disqualified. 6. All entries must be written in English. 7. All entries must be typed and submitted either by copying and pasting the text into the body of the email or by sharing a link to a Google doc. 8. Copyright remains with the author, but The Utah Homeschooler reserves the right to publish entries in the magazine, post them on The Utah Homeschooler website, and/or use them for promotional materials. 9. Entries must include: • Student’s first and last name, age, and mailing address • Student’s typed writing contest entry • A photo of the student that shows their face • A signed Rules Agreement and Publication new, signed waiver for each contest. 10. Entries must be emailed to: no later than 11:59 PM on November 21, 2025. JUDGING Entries will be divided into three age groups for judging: 5-8 year olds, 9-12 year olds, and 13-18 year olds. They will be judged on the following criteria, adjusted to age-appropriate expectations: • Ideas: Does the essay clearly explain the history and evolution of the chosen object with accurate and interesting information? • Organization: Does the essay follow a clear structure with an introduction, supporting sentences or paragraphs, and a conclusion? • Word Choice: Are the words clear, precise, and appropriate, helping the reader understand the object, its history, and uses? • Voice: Does the writing have a clear and engaging tone? Is the voice consistent and appropriate for the scene being described? • Conventions: Is the writing polished with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation? Does it follow the word limit and contest rules? Wordsmiths: Writing Contest Winners | 23 UPCOMING WRITING CONTESTS Contest Announced Winners Published Writing SkillTo help their students prepare, parents may want to... Janaury 2026 March 2026 Poem on a specificied topic read and discuss different types of poetry; talk about literary devices like metaphor, simile, alliteration, and personification; practice identifying rhythm, rhyme, and line breaks; explore how poetry can express feelings, describe a scene, or tell a story March 2026 May 2026Descriptive Writing practice describing emotions or situations using sensory details (what someone sees, hears, feels, etc); show what a character is feeling through their actions, body language, and environment; use vivid adjectives, strong verbs, and figurative language (like similes and metaphors) May 2026August 2026 Opinion Essay: Which is best and why—A or B? practice writing opinion pieces with a clear thesis and supporting reasons; teach how to use examples or personal experiences to back up an opinion; encourage conversa- tions about opinions among family members and why those opinions are held Exact prompts, details, and rules for each contest will be released with each issue of The Utah Homeschooler. You can find the details in the magazine, on our website, or by joining our mailing list at www.TheUtahHomeschooler.com/subscribe. Writing Contest Prizes Ages1st2nd 3rd 5-8$50$30$20 9-12$75$45$30 13-18 $100 $60$4024 | The Utah Homeschooler Student SpotlightsStudent SpotlightsAbigail O Having just recently seen Star Wars for the first time, I decided that I wanted to sew a dress just like the one Princess Leia wears in most of episode four, A New Hope. My older sister taught me how to draft my own sewing patterns a couple years ago, and so I took on the challenge of doing this project entirely on my own. I began by taking all my measurements, and deciding the mea- surements of my dress based on that. (Obviously I didn’t want it to match my exact measurements or it would be way to tight and all the wrong shape.) I put those down on butcher paper, and also drafted the sleeves, collar, hood, and belt. I also made sure to add in the knee slits, which I didn’t notice at first. I cut the patterns out and pinned them to my cloth, which happened to be an old sheet my mom had lay- ing around, and cut out some pieces to test my pattern. It was then that I realized that the sort of cloth a sheet is made of frays very quickly. It was quite apparent that I would need to learn how to use our serger, something I had not gotten around to. I had to figure everything out from putting the needles in to thread- ing it to adjusting the tension. It was especially difficult because our serger was in storage mode, and the man- ual hardly said anything about how to get it ready to sew from there. Eventually, I figured everything out and began sewing my dress. I tested my pattern, and it turned out I nailed it on the first try, including the sleeves! Usually the sleeves are rather difficult and take a couple of tries to get just right. I serged the inside seams, and did a double folded hem on the visible seams. The belt was really fun. After sewing the cloth that made up the base of the belt, I cut out some pieces of 2mm EVA foam in the shapes of the metal plates on Princess Leia’s belt. I painted all the pieces with metallic silver acrylic paint, and hot glued them to the belt, completing my costume. I’m super happy with the way it turned out! age 14Student Spotlights | 25 Student SpotlightsStudent SpotlightsStephan M First we started filling cups with solutions of hand sanitizer, shampoo, baking soda dissolved in water and other liquids. Each one was mixed with cabbage juice that was supposed to help us determine the acidity of alkalinity of each liquid. Then we used some strips to help us measure the pH level of each solution. One solution we were testing was lemon-lime soda. The bottle erupted like a volcano in the Hawaiian islands. This was a potential problem because when it all erupted, droplets flew everywhere. We didn’t know if the soda droplets would affect the other solu- tions. Luckily it didn’t seem to affect the other solutions that much and so we continued our experiment. We tested each solution’s pH levels. The pH strips changed color based on the level of acidity. The most acidic thing we tested was lemon juice concentrate with a pH of 2. The liquid that was the most basic was the ammonia. Mom embarrassed me a little when she suggested we check the pH of spit and urine. My reaction was, “Oh, gross!” It was an interesting experiment. We had a lot of fun testing things we use on a daily basis. I learned that the opposite of an acidic thing is an alkaline thing. Afterwards my mom used the blue-colored ammonia solution to mop up the lemon-lime soda and the floor stank for a week! age 13Stewart G age 10 26 | The Utah Homeschooler Liza S Last month, we did a unit study on cheese. My mom bought a whole bunch of little pieces of specialty cheese from the grocery store and we did a taste test- ing day. Some of them were really gross, and others were really good. Some cheeses were hard and some were soft and some were kind of inbetween. We even tried one kind that was three years old! We also watched a documentary about cheese. It was so disgust- ing. Lots and lots of different kinds of cheese are made with mold. Have you ever eaten blue cheese? Did you know the blue part is mold? Gross but yummy! age 8scott ORyan OCURTIS O About a week ago, we learned about Marie Curie and how she discovered stuff about and did lots of experiments with radioactive energy. Those experiments helped people invent smoke detectors and better x-ray machines and lots of other things that we use. So we did a science experiment. We got some tonic water and highlighter markers, popped out the ink holder in the markers, and squeezed out the ink into the tonic water. We poured it in plastic bottles and added some glow in the dark glitter just for fun. When we were squeezing out the ink, we got some of the mixture on our hands. We also got some on the table, and some even splattered on the wall and floor. It was easy to clean up, though, because we could see where it was with our black light flashlights. It was a very fun experiment. They glowed under black light because both the high- lighter marker ink and quinine in the tonic water glow under ultraviolet light. When we shine the black light on it, it looks like radioactive water and it looks super cool. age 12 age 9 age 7 ADDIE B age 8 When I first looked at The Utah Homeschooler magazine, I saw a boy’s comic strip and I thought, “Oh! I really want to do that! I want to make people laugh!” and so I drew some comics to submit to the magazine. I really like drawing. 12 3 Student Spotlights | 2728 | The Utah Homeschooler Rhea H We have been learning about Kate Warne, who was the first female Pinkerton detective. Here is a poem I wrote about her. A long time ago, back in 1846, When the Pinkerton detectives were around, Kate Warne walked in And lifted up her chin, And said, “I’ll be the best detective you’ve found.” The first case she worked was just perfect for a woman. Forty thousand dollars had disappeared. Disguised as Madame Imbert, She befriended the suspect’s wife, And found the money in their cellar, as they’d feared. Lincoln was elected, but his life was under threat, So Kate went to uncover the plan. She helped him escape On an earlier train And he got to Washington DC without any pain. age 12 ELORa H I have been learning about printmaking and doing different kinds of printmaking art. The first kind of printmaking I did was making my own rubber stamp. It was pretty fun. To make a stamp, you use little carving tools with different kinds of blades on the end and carve a big pink block that’s made of material kind of like an eraser. The first stamp I made was a little heart. It was a solid shape, so I just had to cut all the outside parts off. Then I did a flower, but it was a lot harder. After that, we did a different kind of printmaking to make a sunflower. At the beginning, we traced a circle halfway on the edge of a paper. We got different kinds of brown paint and put dots all over the inside of the circle with a Q-tip. Then we got leaves from outside and used a paint brush to put paint all over them. Then we stuck them against the paper and pulled them off, so the paint and the leaf pattern would stick to the paper, making a leaf print for a petal. I did two layers of leaf prints and used different colors of paint to make different colors of petals. age 9 28 | The Utah HomeschoolerRhea H age 11 Blaise J This year, I entered three works of art into the state fair—a quickdraw, a watercolor painting, and a photograph. The quickdraw is where you have a set amount of time to draw or paint a picture (about two hours). I used watercolor on my quickdraw submission. My quickdraw submission achived an honorable mention, my watercolor painting achived 6th place, and my photograph achieved 1st place. I really like doing art, and will continue learning to do it and get better and better. age 13 FRANCINA J I entered a photo into the Utah State Fair! The photo was a picture of a river from a plane. It won 1st place! I also entered in a painting of a rose, but that didn’t win anything. I also entered into the quick draw. The quick draw is where you draw something at the state fair in a matter of hours while you are at the state fair, and then you enter it in and they judge it. I drew a ride, and I won an honorable mention. age 9 GWEN J I took a picture of my baby sister, and I entered it into the state fair. She was dressed up as queen. I won 3rd place! I also got an honorable mention for the quick draw. I didn’t win anything for my painting. age 5 Student Spotlights | 29Next >