Category: Homeschooling

  • Kick-Off: Let Fall School Projects Begin

    Love this time of year!  Who doesn’t, really?  I think I write about it every year, unlike the other seasons.  Just something about the Fall.  It officially starts today, yay!  Thought we would kick off the many, many Fall activities we will be doing this season, so excited!  We started by doing a leaf study.  I purchased this really cool kit from the Used Curriculum sale at my local Homeschool Convention.

    Leaf Kit - Science activityThe kit includes many samples of leafs, each in their own plastic sleeve and label.  The Tree Finder book has every kind of tree you can find in North America, comes with illustrations and descriptions.  The workbook, guides you through lessons on trees and all their parts.  Yesterday I let the boys look through everything in the kit.  We will start the lessons on Monday.

    The next project we worked on was leaf rubbings as seen here on Pinterest, which is where I saw it.  It is originally posted on this blog.

    leaves We collected leaves from around our neighborhood.

    leavespretty leaves.

    Then we taped the paper down to the table with masking tape.  We used crayons that had the labels taken off so we could rub properly.  I stressed to the boys the importance of holding the bottom of the paper tight once they placed their leaves under the it.

    Olivers Leaf Rubbings

    Olivers Leaf Rubbings

    Adams Leaf Rubbings

    After the leaf rubbings we read 2 books about Fall.  One is a family favorite about all seasons but it seems best for Fall it is called The Acorn and the Oak Tree.  The other book, of course, was Clifford’s Leaf Season.  All in all, this was a great start to celebrate my favorite season.

    acorn and the oak

    Happy Fall!

  • Adventures in My Fathers World Wk.2, Columbus’ Ships

    ships for week 2 Adventures in My Father's World

    We are using Adventures in My Fathers World for our school year. I have a 2nd Grader, Kindergartner, and Preschooler;  so far it is working very well. We started off the year by learning about Leif Ericson and Christopher Columbus. The boys have been fascinated. We used a wall map and a globe to trace the explorers routes.

    We heard about how long they were out to sea and the hardships involved in such journeys. My boys were wondering why it would take so long to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  This came after they asked how long it would take in a plane. I had the opportunity to explain Sailboats and their dependence on the wind.

    One of the hands on assignments for Week #2 is making Christopher Columbus’ ships and use the sails to move them across the water.

    supplies for week 2 Adventures in My Father's WorldWe used aluminum foil, craft sticks, modeling clay, thick paper

    The Santa Maria

    We folded 12″x12″ squares of foil in half then in half and then one more time.  Then we folded the sides up to create the boat.  We used a dab of modeling clay to hold the craft stick and then attached sails made from resume paper and voila, we had a Nina, Pinto and Santa Maria.

    Columbus Santa Maria, Pinto, Nina

     All three ships with Christopher Columbus in the lead.  I was not thrilled that Mr. Columbus is a skeleton but the boys scrambled to find some lego men,

    boys gotta love em!

    After the ships were complete we had them set sail in the best make-shift ocean we could find… the bathtub.  They worked really well.  The rules: you can only blow on the sail to move your boat.  We used straws.  The boys loved it!  One word of caution  – if you have an eager preschooler perhaps wait until naptime to do this.  Our lil guy sunk our ships in under 3 minutes.

  • Art Time with the Boys

    Painting Activity Prep

    This year we are doing Adventures in My Fathers World, included in that is “I Can Do All Things” art lesson book.  We did assignments out of there to start off our homeschool week.  The lessons are good but it starts out with coloring and drawing and my boys were dying to paint something.  So I headed over to Pinterest and searched for Kids Painting, got so many great results but one piqued my interest.  It was a paper with swirls, dots, waves and stripes.  I thought it would be a perfect, easy and fun lesson with the boys. The original post is here at Be a Fun Mum.

    I set the table up while they were all on break.  I usually have them share paint and brushes but that never turns out the way I imagine it can.  This time, everyone got their own palette and a variety of brushes.

    I asked them to watch me paint the different items and then told them they could make any kind of painting they wanted as long as they used dots, stripes, waves and swirls.

    Mommy's Sample Paintingmommy’s sample

    They liked being able to have freedom with their painting, I liked that they actually incorporated the items into their creations.

    Painting with swirls, dots, waves and stripesOliver painting the Solar System

    Painting with swirls, dots, waves and stripesPreston creating a Robot

    Adam and Olivers Creations (Kindergarten)Adam’s is ocean waves, fish “and the red part is a force field” -lol

    Samuels (preschool)Samuel immediately mixes all his colors up and made this masterpiece

    Preston's Robot Creation (2nd grade)Preston’s Robot (sideways)

    This was fun!  I even got in on the action, what a blast!  Thanks to “Be A Fun Mum“!

     

  • Back to School Pictures

    I am a 2nd Grader

    School Pictures!  Looking around the web I found some great ideas!  My middle child is not in this round, he was not in the mood so I didn’t push it. I will get him though! He will be next, may take some bribery.

    Preston 2nd Gradegot this idea from Pinterest.  I showed him the picture and asked if there was anything else he would want people to know about him and he added “MarioVideo Game Master Player” – *too funny*

    Back to School Picture with signs

     these signs are from iheartnaptime.net, thank u!

    Back to School Picture with signs

    Back to School Picture with signs

    This was a fun project and I look forward to taking some more with my Kinder. Thanks to contributors of Pinterest for the inspiration.

  • A Prayer for Teachers

    Are you on Pinterest?  WOW!  I have been super inspired since finding it.  While cruising through checking out all the great stuff I came across a Class Rules sign on Pinterest.  I love the sign, I printed it for our Homeschool Room.

    I decided to visit the blog that it originated on and I found this wonderful prayer for any teacher.  I hope to pray this prayer many every morning.  I took the text and redesigned it to be “rainbow-ey”, if you like the prayer, click here to download it.

    Prayer for Teachers

    PS- the font I used for Lord and Amen came from another Pinterest post, ultimately from the eighteen25 blog, thanks ladies!

  • Fun with Shaving Cream

    fun with shaving creamRecently I discovered another amazing blog!  This one is called Meet the Dubiens.  I have seen so many things on this blog that I want to do with my kids.  Very inspiring!

    Our first inspiration we did today.  She mixed food coloring with shaving cream and used it as paint for her kids bath time.

    We did not make it for bathtime, just craft time.  I let them play at their little table and gave them some utensils.

    I do wish I would have had primary colors, Oliver was mixing colors and discovering new colors, would have been more effective with primary colors.

    I am still trying to use up the neon colors I used for Oliver’s Rainbow Cake.

    The boys had fun for about 1 hour, record time for my 3 and 5 year olds.

    Oliver playing

    colored shaving cream

    Woody in the shaving cream

    pretty green shave cream

    Olivers Mixing Tray

    tie dyed shaving cream

    Next time:  More tools and Primary Colors.

    FUN:  YES!

  • 2011 “Not” Back to School Blog Hop!

    Not Back to School Blog Hop

    Last year while I was gearing up for my first year of Homeschool, I came across a Blog Hop. At the time I had no clue what a Blog Hop was… glad I found out. A blog hop is a place where bloggers with common interests can participate in a theme and submit their blog to one place. I poured through so many blogs, I was so inspired.

    Home of the Matter Online is sponsoring another one for August.

    This week’s topic is Curriculum. I am going to share 2 lists with you. My “dream” list and my “real” list! I have 2 simply because of budgetary reasons.

    My Dream List:

    Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing

    Science: Apologia Zoology 1 (Flying Creatures of the 5th Day)

    Character Training:  Positive Action Bible

    Math:  Math U See

    History:  History of Mystery

    Here is what we will be using for my Kindergartner:

    Sonlight Core 1

    Sonlight Core 1

    We used this for Preston this past year.  Oliver is already doing math and reading so I am going to try Core 1 with him this year .  He will probably end up doing the Apologia Science with us.

    For My 2nd Grader and possibly my Kinder – Adventures in my Fathers World.  I have this curriculum and it is for multiple kids.  I am going to work through and may discover that I do not need the Sonlight Core.  I will keep you posted!

    Preston will also be using Horizons, we used it last year and liked it.

    For all 3 boys I am going to use Positive Action for Character Training.

    Thanks for stopping by!  I cannot wait to see all the blogger Mommies and what they are using!

    Next Week:  SCHOOLROOMS!!!  (did I tell you an IKEA just opened up in my city?!?!)

    This looks perfect:

     Love IKEA Inspiration!

  • Summer Centers

    We love centers!  I used them throughout the past school year for all 3 boys.  Some structured some as free-play.  The boys are always happy to pull them out and play with them it is a guaranteed 30 minutes of constructive play.

    For the Summer I reorganized them, rearranged and grouped different things together to get the boys geared up for summer indoor activities.

    I put everything in one cabinet thanks to my sister who gave me a nice white cabinet.  Thanks Tia!

    our Centers cabinet

    Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks and BoardsMelissa and Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards

    Styrofoam shapesStyrofoam shapes – Good for Math, Sorting and Building

    math manipulatives10 Base T  set – great for Math and Building

    Random toolsRandom Tools (thanks Liv for the Magnifying glasses)

    treasure huntColored rice, items are buried, fun!

    Math ManipulativesGreat for Math, Sorting, Building and Art

     Geoboard
    it’s also a Geoboard!

    shape blocksshapes

    shape blocksfor building

    robotsLearning Robots, Phonics and Math

    Concentrationtravel size Concentration game

    Card shufflercard shuffler

    One happy boyOne Happy Boy!

  • 2nd – 3rd Grade Math – Multiplication

    Online Quiz: 2nd – 3rd Grade Math: Multiplication

    Mark your answer then click the Next button to go to the next question. You will be given results immediately following the quiz.

    [QUIZZIN 3]

  • Addition For Kindergarten Quiz 1

    Online Quiz: Addition for kindergarten.

    Mark your answer then click the Next button to go to the next question. You will be given results immediately following the quiz.

     

    [QUIZZIN 4]