Monthly Archive: January 2010

Science Experiments — Repeating Activities 0

Science Experiments — Repeating Activities

I wanted the kids to be able to repeat experiments theywere especially interested in. As we’ve done eachexperiment, I’ve written the steps out on index cardsfor LD to follow. After we’ve done the experiment I’veprinted photos of the experiments on card stock andplaced them on a key ring. LD can flip through the stackand choose experiments to repeat (and I have them onfile and easy to access in the coming...

Avoiding the Stress 3

Avoiding the Stress

These days I’ve only been posting about our homeschool activities and really haven’t talked about life in general at all.  I think that’s because I’m avoiding the major things and enjoying the little things.  You see, we’ve been here a long time (12 years) and are going to be moving.  We don’t know where (away from Australia at any rate), though we do know when (probably in about five months). ...

Ancient Greece Books for Kids 0

Ancient Greece Unit — Read Aloud Books for Ages 3-6

Here are the books we’ve been reading aloud for our Ancient Greece Unit. Aliki’s book, The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus  (affiliate link) has beautiful illustrations and the stories about the gods and goddesses are engaging. I really recommend that one! We really, really like the First Greek Myths series by Saviour Pirotta. We continually check them out of the library!!  They are all good. We’ve read Perseus and the Monstrous Medusa, Odysseus and the Wooden...

Woodland Animals — free three part cards 0

Woodland Animals — free three part cards

We’re going to be starting our new unit on biomes/animal habitats and will be learning about forests this next week.  It just so happens that there are some beautiful 3-part Montessori cards free for a few days at the Montessori Print Shop that will work in nicely with our studies.   I can’t post a picture today of these lovely woodland animal cards, but animals include the skunk, bear, deer, rabbit...

Spaghetti – Yarn Art 0

Spaghetti – Yarn Art

Here’s the finished product of the kids’ arts-and-craftsproject last week. It took two days to dry thoroughly. This was a really good project even for ED (age 2) whocould pretty much do it on her own as long as I remindedher of the steps along the way: Put the spaghetti (or yarn) in the glueStir, stir, stirDump it on your plate

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The biggest crystals in the world

I’ve included a picture with ED’s tiny hand. Now want to see something astounding? Check out this website: http://www.ironammonite.com/2009/12/surviving-cueva-de-los-cristales-giant.html In a cave in Mexico where the temperatures soar to 50 Celsius/122 Fahrenheit, there are gypsum crystals that make a grown man look like ED’s small fingernails! You can also check out the National Geographic website: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/crystal-giants/crystals-photography I found even the story of how they entered the cave (without perishing) and...

Making ancient Greek “hoplons” 0

Making ancient Greek “hoplons”

The ancient Greek foot soldiers were called hoplites. Thisword comes from “hoplon,” the shield each had to carry.Each hoplite provided his own armor. The shield was madeof bronze and leather. Each hoplite could choose thedecoration on his shield and often used a symbol ofhis family or city. The shield was very important, so much so that in Spartait was against the law for a hoplite to leave his shieldbehind in...

Science Experiment: Transparent, Translucent or Opaque 2

Science Experiment: Transparent, Translucent or Opaque

I gathered a number of items from around the houseand put them all into a ziploc bag with a flashlight. Thenbefore letting the kids sort, I made sure they saw examplesand understood the difference between something thatwas transparent: you can see obects clearly through and light passes throughtranslucent: you cannot clearly see objects, but light passes throughopaque: light does not pass through I was surprised by a number of objects...

Food Groups Sorting 0

Food Groups Sorting

This activity would be easy to create by clippingfood items from an advertisement. I got mine on saleat some point. There’s also a free file folder game athttp://filefolderfun.com/FirstGradeHealth.htmlwhere kids can sort items into grains, fruit, vegies,milk and meat. Anyway, here is DD sorting foods into the variousfood groups. PS — When I was talking to my hubby about the“food pyramid” he said, “Oh no, that’s outdated.”  HappilyI could say that...

Spaghetti Art 0

Spaghetti Art

For this activity we needed cooked spaghetti (we usedfettuccine), bits of yarn or string and glue. We had onebowl of plain glue, and a bowl of glue + red food coloringanother with glue/yellow and another with glue/green. This activity worked best when I had them use a fork.My kids didn’t dip it in well enough to get a lot of glue.They really needed to stir it around a bit (and...

ED’s Tot Activities 0

ED’s Tot Activities

ED turns two next week! Wow! She continues to do many of the same tonging,spooning and sorting activities with ever moreconcentration. I love this picture below whereshe is just so intent on getting the eraser ontothe right spot! I usually set up one new activity for her on thelittle table in the kitchen each morning. I didn’tget a picture of the rice/bean tub in action, butput in a picture of...

Workboxes 0

Workboxes

The workbox yahoo group I participate in had a great discussion last week about “fun” boxes.  I wrote my own comments and thought I’d share them here too: I’m a little late adding to the discussion, but I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and thoughts about fun boxes.  I always enjoy hearing how things are working for others. I think I’m different from many in that my kids do their...