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Fox Craft 0

Fox Craft

We also learned about foxes this week. Our fox was primarily a sewing craft. We used feltand did a few stitches to form a nose. Then theysewed the head onto the body with a few stitches. They pulled knotted embroidery thread throughto make whiskers. The tail was also sewed on, but we wound up justgluing the legs on (there was only so much sewingDD wanted to do!) The ears and...

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Ancient Greece — Geography Project (part 1)

This project idea was adapted from Ancient Greece!: 40 Hands-On Activities to Experience This Wondrous Age (Kaleidoscope Kids Books). (affiliate link) We bought some self-hardening clay and looked at various maps to make a map of Greece with its many islands. Obviously Mom had a hand in forming the mainland areas of Greece and Asia Minor (now Turkey). The kids did all of the islands. We’ve been reading Mary Pope...

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Ancient Greece Geography Project — Aegean Sea (part 2)

We added labels to our map of ancient Greece. Then we took turns adding deep blue water and making the Aegean Sea! It was a good lesson on much more than just the geography of ancient Greece. Some of the islands were covered by the water. We talked about the fact that there are mountains under the oceans. We also talked about the fact that when the levels of the...

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Ancient Egypt — Geography Project

Last year we did a unit on Ancient Egypt. We really got a lot out of that geography project as well and I thought I’d share it (since we started this blog after that). We shoveled sand into the container, then laid down a aluminium foil river bed (so the water didn’t all wash away). Then we placed fertile soil on the aluminium foil and “flooded it” and watched the...

Music and Games 0

Music and Games

I love music and it has always been a big part of my life.I play the oboe, guitar and piano and am learning thedulcimer. LD started learning the piano earlier this year and isdoing really well. Still, I wanted the girls to get to sing,dance and enjoy music as well. I set aside two differenttimes to do music activities during the week. One ismore for ED and the other is...

Capture the Squirrel’s Tail Game 0

Capture the Squirrel’s Tail Game

In keeping with our forest theme, we’ve played thisfun game outside the past few days. The object is to grabthe squirrel’s tail while protecting your own. In ourversion we each had a couple of tails to start out with!  FOX AND RABBIT GAME: Another good game we played this week was the  “Fox andRabbit” Game (from Family Fun website).  Two players areblind folded.  One is the fox and has to...

ED Turns Two! 0

ED Turns Two!

Our cakes these days always have decorated cookies onthem instead of fancy icing. For one thing, my cakedecorating skills are lacking, but also the kids lovedecorating the cookies and everyone gets to be involved. We had a lovely birthday, though ED was a bit under the weather.

Sandpaper Letters; Writing Curriculum 0

Sandpaper Letters; Writing Curriculum

I wanted to share a couple of things that are workingreally well for us for handwriting. I had heard aboutsandpaper letters. In fact, I’ve heard that a lot of peoplehave made their own. I decided to buy sandpaper letters(ours are from didax.com). I have found them SO helpful.Both LD and DD enjoy doing them and it helps LD withsome of the letters he hasn’t been forming properly. I wish I...

Pattern Blocks 0

Pattern Blocks

Grandpa also sent us some pattern blocks when he sentthe sandpaper (tactile) letters. ED and DD have reallybeen enjoying them a lot! We found lots of free patternblock printables at http://prekinders.com/pattern-blocks/I printed them in color on one side and black and whiteon the other (to make it more challenging for DD).

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Little Critters

But then after our picnic lunch we went down closer to the (now mostly dry) river bed and saw lots of little critters– a little frog, a cicada coming out of its shell and a large 6-inch/15 cm praying mantis. By the way, once the cicada has dried, it is orange and black we just happened on it in the ten minutes or so when it’s still drying and the...