Monthly Archive: February 2012

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Geography: The Seven Continents and World Landmarks

I brought out the materials to help ED (my 4 year old) learn about the seven continents again (though of course everyone joined in). Below is about a week’s worth of geography activities we did together. We went over the fact that a map is really a flat version of a globe. Then we went on to sing the continent song together. I was surprised that ED knew the entire...

Welcome to the Homeschool Den! 5

Welcome to the Homeschool Den!

On any given morning you’ll find our family trickling out of bed one by one and heading to the kitchen. Usually my youngest, ED, is the first one awake.  As I get her breakfast I put away dishes, grab my coffee and then finally sit down to read with her; she’s usually asked me a half-dozen times by then!  Most of the time the other two kids (DD, 6 and...

Cute Writing Paper 0

Cute Writing Paper

I’ve been printing out our own customized writing paper for DD when she does her spelling and narration work.  She loves this paper and you can choose from all kinds of themes (animals, holidays, seasons, cartoon characters and more). You can also choose the size of the writing paper (from larger lines for beginner writers to standard rule for more seasoned writers).  Anyway, since we get SO much use out...

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Preschool Board Games

Today I want to share a couple of amazing preschool board games that ED really loves! ED turned four a couple of weeks ago. I always ask the kids what kind of cake they want.  ED wanted a Beyblade cake (the spinning top that you see down to the right of the cake).  Funny, huh?! I’m no major cake maker but the kids love helping to make their own birthday...

Antarctica 0

Antarctica

I can’t say we did an entire unit on Antarctica, but we revisited it briefly this past week and a half as we read Mr. Popper’s Penguins aloud together. The kids really loved the book and it was a relatively quick read (about 4 or 5 days for us). I wanted to touch on Antarctica again partly for ED since we’ve been going over the seven continents for her and partly because...

Outdoor Time and Other Activities 0

Outdoor Time and Other Activities

I really try to make sure the kids spend time outdoors. We don’t have a playground, but they manage to find things to entertain themselves.  It’s been a funny winter here with lots of mild days and only a bit of snow now and then. A couple days ago the kids decided they wanted to do some “hard work.” (I kind of wonder if that is because of all the...

American West Unit: Geography and the Louisiana Purchase 0

American West Unit: Geography and the Louisiana Purchase

Our next topic was the Louisiana Purchase. Prior to 1803, the United States territory went only as far as the Mississippi River. Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, needed money for his wars in Europe and sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. for $15 million (3 cents an acre!).  This nearly doubled the size of the United States. We’ve been using a map that shows the Louisiana Purchase and...

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Valentine’s Day Word Hunt Game

I came across a Valentine’s Boggle Game at Teacher’s Pay Teachers. I printed it out and much to my surprise both LD and DD loved it.  They did it both yesterday and today and then complained that it was too easy the second time. I promised the kids I’d make a new word hunt for them and just finished it this evening. My version is not as cute as the...

Facebook Too! 0

Facebook Too!

So yesterday I managed to get my Twitter account sorted out. I’m so excited to see 15 people following me already!  This evening I managed to sort out my new Facebook account too, though I’m not quite sure how to add the like button in. I’m so excited to start chatting there! I even posted my first question for y’all… do you manage to get time to yourself during your...

The Face Behind the Blog! 4

The Face Behind the Blog!

Hi! Nice to meet you! As you may know, we will be joining the Parent’s blog team pretty soon.  Our family decided we’d like to share a couple of photos of the family behind this blog.  Here’s my photo for what it’s worth! (Ugh… don’t mind the fly-away hair!) When we transfer over we’ll have a photo of me and the kids to share with you as well. Do you...

Valentine's Subtraction Cards 1

Valentine’s Day Math Games: Division and Subtraction Cards and other games

Valentine’s Day Division Cards I made a Valentine’s Day set of division cards to use with LD over the next week or so. We use these cards to play a game called Fast Track — an idea we got from Peggy Kaye’s Games for Math. To make the board you need a large piece of butcher paper or poster board. There are three win spaces, three start spaces and various...

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Preschool: Free Valentine’s Day Word Matching Game

ED has been working a lot on letter sounds and simple -at and -an words. I made this Valentine’s themed word matching activity for her to work on over the next couple of weeks. She has to attach the clothes peg to the matching word on the wheel. It took some cutting pasting to put it together, but if you’d like to make your own you can download the pages...

Preschool Activities 0

Preschool Activities

While the other kids are working on their things, ED has lots of preschool activities in her workboxes. Here are a few things she’s done this past week or so: We played memory using -at words. We are going through “My -at book.” ED says the initial sound and then I help her smash the sounds together. This is definitely an activity we do together as she is not reading...