Monthly Archive: January 2012

Skip Counting Game 0

Skip Counting Game

DD is just now learning to skip count by 3s.  I made a unicorn and dragon themed game to help her practice. The game is pretty straight forward. Each player takes a turn drawing cards from the file until they get a dragon (STOP!) card.  The player then sorts her cards and places them in skip counting order while the other player is drawing cards. The object is to be...

American West Unit 0

American West Unit

As I mentioned last week, this semester we are studying the American West. We picked up where we left off last semester when we talked about Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. (To the left is Davy Crockett’s birthplace cabin in Tennessee which we visited last Thanksgiving.) We talked about the Ohio Valley settlement and how as settlers made their way west they used the rivers for transportation.  We learned a...

First Aid – Snakes, Spiders and Ticks (Day 5) 2

First Aid – Snakes, Spiders and Ticks (Day 5)

A few days ago our first aid topic was on snake, spider and tick bites. First we went over the venomous snakes in our area and then went over some other venomous snakes they might encounter in America. Then we went over some of the basic first aid measures you should take if bitten by a venomous snakes. In the picture they are trying to take off my ring. We...

First Aid and Fire Safety (Day 3-4) 2

First Aid and Fire Safety (Day 3-4)

Fire Safety  We were quite overdue for a review of some basic fire safety rules.  Even though we’ve lived here for a year and a half, we hadn’t made a family meeting spot outside in case of emergency. Nor had we gone over in detail how the kids can escape from their room in case of emergency. We talked about what to do if your clothes or hair catches fire....

We’re Moving Soon! 8

We’re Moving Soon!

Not out of the house, we’re here to stay for a while yet… but the Homeschool Den blog will be moving. A couple of months ago one of the editors of Parents contacted me and asked if I would like to come under the Parents umbrella as one of their bloggers. I was honored and thrilled to join such a great team of people.  So in just a couple of...

Game: A to Z, Jr. 0

Game: A to Z, Jr.

The girls got a new game for Christmas called A to Z, Jr by Discovery Toys.  What a great game! The game itself is the perfect age for DD and LD (ages 6 and 8). It’s similar to the game Scattergories. Each person rolls the die and picks up a card. Then he/she has to name as many objects as they can for the category they rolled. Categories might include:...

The Sistine Chapel 4

The Sistine Chapel

If you are doing art appreciation, you might be interested in going on a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel. This website was absolutely gorgeous and well worth a look at Michelangelo’s magnificent work: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.htmlYou can scroll in and out and move the cursor around to see different parts of the room… not just the famous portions like The Creation of Adam below (photo from Wikimedia Commons). If you are...

First Aid and Fire Safety (Day 2) 2

First Aid and Fire Safety (Day 2)

The next topic we covered was on broken bones. We talked about immobilizing the bone. I told them the story of when my sister broke her arm. My parents wrapped a magazine around her arm and secured it before rushing her off to the hospital.  We practiced wrapping the arm and they learned how to make a sling.

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Spelling: Silent Letters

Instead of jumping straight back into All About Spelling, I had the kids work on words with silent letters last week.  You can find this word sort in the language materials area at Montessori for Everyone. I made a couple of work sheets for DD and LD to do with these. You can download them here if you are interested. You can see the first two pages below. Words with Silent...

Preschool Math: numbers greater than 10 4

Preschool Math: numbers greater than 10

ED is ready to tackle the teen numbers. She often skips some of the numbers after 13. I am using a homemade version of the Montessori seguin board (download the packet I made here).  It’s a board with lots of 10s in a row. The child then places a digit over the zero to make 11, 12, 13, etc. 1) First ED counted the number of animals. 2) Then she...

First Aid and Fire Safety 0

First Aid and Fire Safety

One of the things hubby and I wanted to be sure cover again this year was emergency situations.  I’m a bit ashamed to say that we hadn’t gone over this for close to two years.  Most of this information was new to ED. The first day, I went over first aid for cuts.  ED helped me to ‘prepare’ my arm so she wasn’t afraid (she drew on my arm with...

My New Vocabulary Word — Cholesteatoma 8

My New Vocabulary Word — Cholesteatoma

Unfortunately, I learned a new word yesterday… cholesteatoma. I really didn’t like wikipedia’s initial definition, “destructive and expanding growth” but overall I’m hoping it’s not that bad.  Read on to see what I have… After several months waiting to see a specialist, I finally got in to see an ENT.  I have a long history of ear infections which started for me around the age of five. I wear hearing...

Recipe: Taco Soup 8

Recipe: Taco Soup

It’s the perfect time of year here for a warm crock-pot meal.  My kids love taco soup and I thought I’d share our recipe: 1/2 onion chopped1 can pinto beans rinsed1 can kidney beans rinsed1 small can green chillies, undrained1 1/2 Tablespoons taco seasoning2 chicken breasts1 can tomato sauce2 cups chicken broth (mine is homemade, just the frozen water/broth leftover from after boiling chicken breasts for other dishes)1 large can...

Seahorse Art–Based on Eric Carle’s book 0

Seahorse Art–Based on Eric Carle’s book

Eric Carle’s books are always inspiring for an art project.  A couple weeks ago we read Mister Seahorse. I cut out seahorses and the kids had a blast painting. The girls each did three or four paintings each. Be sure to visit Deep Space Sparkle for other Eric Carle-based lessons and other fantastic art project ideas.  A couple of years ago we  did a chameleon craft based loosely on Eric...