Category: Homeschool Den

Games: Pop-Arty Beads 2

Games: Pop-Arty Beads

I often get asked how I keep my 4-year old engaged while I’m working with my older kids.  Last year ED loved doing Perler Beads. She would spend 30-60 minutes at a time working on those.  This year we added in something new that has brought endless hours of sorting and creativity… Pop-Arty Beads. It is wonderful for small motor skills, sorting and just for fun in general!  The beads are...

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States of Matter – Solid, Liquid, Gas – Learning Activities

Are you working on chemistry this year? I thought I’d share some of the activities we did when we learned about the States of Matter. I also link to a number of other posts from our chemistry unit. We’ve been having a blast with chemistry — well not literally, but sure have been learning a lot! Today we did most of the hands on activities suggested by the wonderful, wonderful...

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Chemistry Unit: The Size of Atoms

We started our chemistry unit a couple weeks ago.  We’re doing lots of reading and really enjoying the books in the NOEO curriculum. We loved, What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?  (affiliate link)  It takes a look at protozoa, bacterium, molecules and atoms — even talking about electrons, protons and neutrons. After we read through the book the kids drew pictures of protozoa. (LD’s picture is on the left, DD’s is...

What To Do When Your Child Has a Temper Tantrum 2

What To Do When Your Child Has a Temper Tantrum

There’s an interesting article about what to do when your child is having a temper tantrum posted at Boston.com by Dr. Claudia Gold, a pediatrician and author — don’t leave your child alone, reassure them with hugs (or verbal comfort), etc. In our family, hugs or even a hand on the leg or back really does help to alleviate the temper tantrum. We also talk about the emotions she felt...

Free Math Games: The Great Pet Races 6

Free Math Games: The Great Pet Races

I made this selection of games to help DD practice her basic math facts again.  She’s rusty on the problems like 8+7 and 6+9.  Since she and ED really love their little pets, I drew some little critters to appeal to them! You can adjust any of these board games to suit your preschooler (by just identifying the numbers on the board) or your older child (by creating more complicated...

Zoologic 0

Games for Thinking and Learning: Zoologic

Sorry, I had to bump this post back a day because I wanted to honor the mission team from the Mars Exploration Program – and talk about how we (the public) have benefited from the technology spinoffs we derived from the space program. Now on to logic games! This is a series about some of logic and critical thinking games we include in our homeschool. You can see the first...

Honoring the Mars Exploration Team and How You Personally Have Benefited from the Space Program 0

Honoring the Mars Exploration Team and How You Personally Have Benefited from the Space Program

Later today, the mission team for NASA’s long-lived Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity will be awarded the Haley Space Flight Award.  Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager,  John Callas,  will accept the award on behalf of  the team. Previous recipients of this prestigious award have included Alan B. Shepard, John Glenn, Thomas Stafford, Robert Crippen, Kathryn Sullivan and the crew of space shuttle mission STS-125, which flew in 2009 on the last shuttle...

Where Were You on Sept. 11? 0

Where Were You on Sept. 11?

It was a day that few of us will forget. I’m sure you remember where and what you were doing that terrible day.  I was in my sister’s guest room in Nashville, Tennessee and watched in horror as the second flight flew into the World Trade Center. And then, glued to the TV,  I watched it again and again and again as the news replayed it, as the towers collapsed,...

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Plant Activities: Symmetry, Vascular-NonVascular Plants

In our discussions about plants, the book pointed out that many leaves are symmetrical. We talked quite a bit about what symmetry is. First we took turns laying items out on a paper to make both sides symmetrical: Then we brought out paint and the girls made a number of symmetrical paintings. ED took a lot of care making small dots and pressing the paper down, then making more dots...

When We Need A Helping Hand… 2

When We Need A Helping Hand…

Don’t be afraid to ask! On Saturday, Hubby and I spent time doing chores around the yard.  Our house is set down among some very steep hills. Mowing the lawn on the ride-on mower can be harry and nerve wracking in a few spots. At one point, I tackled a tough, steep portion of the yard that is bordered by huge rocks (probably put in by the previous owners for...

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Africa Unit: Basic Facts About Africa

As I’ve mentioned before, we are studying World Cultures this year and are starting with Africa. Last week we started with some basic facts and the geography of Africa.  We’re using a really terrific basic textbook on Africa that has lots of pictures and is wonderful for the ages of my kids.  The first few days we worked through this Africa Learning Packet I created that was loosely related to the...

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Preschool Science: Plants

After doing a couple projects that talked about things that live above ground and below ground, we then delved a bit more into plants. We did a cute sorting project from Kidssoup (a paid membership website) which shows where certain fruits and vegetables grow: ED also sorted a whole series of cards into fruit and vegetable baskets. I’m not sure where I got these cards, but I made a set...

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Games for Thinking and Learning: Acuity and Clever Castle

Wednesday’s Games: Last year I wrote a post about how we added in some critical thinking activities into our homeschool. This year I’ve made a special point to add in some logic and thinking games into our week as well.  This is a series about some of games we include in our homeschool. We have a table that serves as our games table (the table with the red and white...

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Preschool Science: Above-Below Ground

In ED’s preschool science we are still talking about plants and animals. On this day we talked about animals and plant parts that live above or below the ground. We talked about how some animals like the grub or the cicada live part of their life under the ground, then live another stage above the ground. Some animals shelter under the ground when it is cold (like frogs and turtles)....