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Monthly Archive: October 2010

Montessori Conference Handouts — Brain Research and the Enriched Environment 2

Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)

Montessori Conference Handouts — Brain Research and the Enriched Environment

Someone shared this link to some handouts from a Montessori conference (American Montessori Society).  I have really enjoyed the one related to brain development.  I *really* enjoyed the book Magic Trees of the Mind, which talks about the development of the brain and how various connections (dendrites) are formed and then “pruned” as a child ages.  The handouts I was reading reinforced some of the things I had learned in...

Jumping on the bridge 12

Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Music / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates / Workboxes

Snippets of our Week (for our 5-yr-old)

I’ve been meaning to put up a post about what we generally work on from day to day. But, with blogger not working for a while, I have a plethora of photos to share. So, here’s a glimpse of what DD (just turned 5) has been working on these past couple of weeks.  Her “basics” include math, reading, handwriting, music/glockenspiel, arts&crafts; and another unit-study (a lapbook in this case, but...

Yay! Hooray for the Montessori Printshop 4

Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)

Yay! Hooray for the Montessori Printshop

I had some wonderful news from The Montessori Printshop over the weekend. I won a $30 voucher for their products. I’ve been scouring their website trying to narrow down the selection since they have so many beautiful 3-part cards.  Thank you Montessori Printshop! I’m having trouble with blogger ever since they did their “updates” on their image loader. Anyone else having those issues or figured out how to resolve it?...

Giveaway at the Montessori Printshop 0

Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)

Giveaway at the Montessori Printshop

The Montessori Printshop has an amazing giveaway going on between Oct. 15th and 22nd… worth over $500!  Be sure to go check out the details here.  They offer a wide variety of printable cards on everything from geography, culture, science, art, to math, language and more.  Their photos are vivid and appealing. While you’re there, visit their free downloads page to see what they have on offer.  I especially like...

Creative Play 4

Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts

Creative Play

 The kids usually get up in the morning, eat breakfast and then play for a while (at least an hour if not more) on their own before we delve into any school-type activities.  This is often some of the most creative play of the day — and I was particularly impressed by LD’s idea today.  He took this little jack-o-lantern and some yarn and said he wanted to be able...

Fall Craft Slideshow 0

Homeschool Den

Fall Craft Slideshow

Someone on one of my yahoo groups shared this link to Valerie’s Slideshow of Fall Crafts. There are lots of colorful fall and Thanksgiving related craft ideas. I was impressed!

Homemade Nutrigrain Bars 12

Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Food in America (concerns) / Recipes

Homemade Nutrigrain Bars

My family declared this recipe to be a real winner! Since moving back to the US, I’ve been very concerned about the fact that most everything has high fructose corn syrup.  In fact, I did a lot of reading earlier this summer and even wrote a post about what I had learned but never put it up on the blog.  Here’s a bit of what I wrote (back then): I...

2

History: American Colonies / History: American History / History: Native American Indians Unit

Books I’d Recommend for the Study of Jamestown Colony

**FREE COLONY RELATED CARDS: I just noticed at http://www.currclick.com/ that their current free product is on the American colonies.  There are lots of picture cards related to colonial life — pictures such as chamber pot, cotton, embroidery, flax, hearth, hornbook, indigo, tallow,  and more that would be great discussion points for the elementary crowd. One set of pages has a detailed description of the word, another group of pages includes...

2

History: American Colonies / History: Native American Indians Unit / Trips We've Taken

Jamestown Settlement — What We Learned This Week

We have learned a lot about the history of Jamestown settlement this week: Three hundred years ago,the English wanted to create a settlement in the Americas.  They knew about all the gold and silver that the Spanish had been bringing back from the New World and were determined to gather some of these riches themselves. They financed a trip with three ships to sail to the New World, to Virginia....

Field Trip — Learning about the Powhatan Indians 2

History: American Colonies / Trips We've Taken

Field Trip — Learning about the Powhatan Indians

We’ve had Grams and Gramps visiting us for the past several weeks.  Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa also came out to visit us to celebrate DD’s 5th birthday.  Happy Birthday DD! Then we headed off for a four day holiday.  What is AMAZING to hubby and me is the fact that we can drive a few hours and be someplace completely new! When we lived in central Australia it took...

2

Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Fall Theme Activities (Leaf Science Experiment)

We collected leaves in the woods to do a science experiment from education.com on why leaves change colors.  This was such a great activity because we went over the types of leaves (let’s find a maple leaf, oak leaf, etc.) Then we chopped up the leaves, put them in glass cups, added rubbing alcohol and hot water.  Then after a half-hour we put in coffee filters to see what other...

4

Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Fall Theme Activities

We’ve been doing a lot of fall related activities–especially for our 2 and 4 year olds. We’ve had a lot of fun with this unit so far! The girls had a blast making this fall display with fall flowers, leaves, pipe cleaners, buttons and fall-colored pasta. I’ve seen this tree-hand-print activity a number of places on the Internet and ED really enjoyed it (she’s done several this past week).  I...

Fall Theme Activities (Indian Corn Experiment) 0

Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Fall Theme Activities (Indian Corn Experiment)

 A teacher shared this fall-related science activity — soaking Indian corn in a bit of water to see what would happen.  We have a large tray with a paper towel and about 1/4 inch of water. We also pour water over the cob every 2 or 3 days. By day 2 we saw a few sprouts. And after a week, there was quite a bit of growth.  Our acorns, on...

More Fall-Themed Activities 4

Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

More Fall-Themed Activities

The girls really liked this crow popcorn seed counting activity.  DD and I worked on counting by 2s (up to 10) and 10s (up to 100).  Meanwhile, ED simply worked on one-to-one correspondence counting up to 10. She did this a number of times as well! I printed this from kidssoup.com. There are some great fall-themed printables at Print Activities LD did skip counting by 3s up to 300 and...