Monthly Archive: May 2012

Clues to the 400+ Year Mystery of Roanoke Island 3

Clues to the 400+ Year Mystery of Roanoke Island

Have you heard of the Lost Colony? It’s a mystery that has lasted more than 400 years.  We delved a bit into that mystery last week! Roanoke Island Festival Park was an amazing interactive history site.  The kids and I spent over six hours learning about the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.  Back in 1587 a second attempt was made by Sir Walter Raleigh to create a lasting settlement in...

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Ocean Unit Freebies

Since I talked so much about the ocean yesterday, I thought I would share some of the ocean related freebies I made for our ocean unit last fall.  I hope someone finds these helpful. Remember, crustaceans, arachnids and insects are all part of the arthropod group (look at this chart to see what I mean).  This is not a complete list of invertebrate groups, just some of the ones we studied last...

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Seashore Life

Last week we joined my folks, sister and brother-in-law and my two nieces and nephew on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Because they are homeschoolers as well, we took advantage of the pre-season prices and lack of crowds to enjoy time off together at the shore. We had such a great time — splashing in the waves, building sand castles, being buried in the sand, riding in the waves...

Who are you Remembering for Memorial Day? 0

Who are you Remembering for Memorial Day?

Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day and started after the Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union Soldiers. By the 20th century Memorial Day was extended to honor all Americans who have died in wars. Last week we spent the entire week with my family: my folks, my sister, brother-in-law and their three kids. We had some long conversations about the members of our family who have served...

First Commercial Spacecraft Docks at the Space Station 0

First Commercial Spacecraft Docks at the Space Station

We got really interested in the future of space exploration when the space shuttle Discovery flew by our house back in April. I dedicated a couple of blog posts to it because the kids and I were so excited.  It was the end of an era for the Space Shuttle Program.   A new chapter in space exploration has been in the works for a number of years now.  Yesterday the first commercial spacecraft...

Making Strawberry Jam 1

Making Strawberry Jam

Last year hubby and I transplanted a lot of plants from one of the garden beds to make way for strawberries. We planted 50 strawberry plants of different varieties a year ago. We got only a handful of strawberries last fall, but the past couple of weeks the strawberries have been extremely prolific!  The kids and I have been out every-other-day picking two bowls full of ripe strawberries each time....

Spelling Sort: -ed sounds at the end of verbs 3

Spelling Sort: -ed sounds at the end of verbs

DD loves to write little notes and stories, so I made this sort to help her understand how/why past tense -ed verbs are formed. She’s a creative speller and will often end her verbs in -t or -id.  This is a lesson covered in All About Spelling, but she won’t be up to this lesson (in volume 3) for a while yet. This is just a more colorful version of...

Things to do with the Kids This Summer 4

Things to do with the Kids This Summer

Can you believe it? Summer time is almost here. My friend’s kids get out of school this week!  Our family is busy working out our summer plans.  We plan to do several road trips and are trying to find fun (and educational) things to do with the kids this summer.  We’ll be heading to Arkansas and Missouri, for example, and plan to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Mammoth...

Multiplication Card Game – Great for beginners or advanced learners 0

Multiplication Card Game – Great for beginners or advanced learners

Last November we reviewed a  multiplication card game called Speed!  We still love this card game so much!  DD has started playing it almost daily as she works on her 3s and 4s times tables and practices skip counting.  We play a variety of games with these decks of cards. Since DD is just learning how to play we don’t do the competitive, quick game of Speed (see details about...

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Critical Thinking Activities

Earlier this semester my friend and I were chatting about math.  She said that every Friday they include some critical thinking activities. I thought that was a terrific idea and back in late February I ordered some materials. We added some of these activities into our schedule as well.  We generally include critical thinking once a week, but sometimes we skip a week depending on our schedule. Sudoku: The kids...

A Fun Fitness Board Game for Kids: Flip2BFit 0

A Fun Fitness Board Game for Kids: Flip2BFit

I have had the privilege of reviewing a new board game called Flip2BFit.  This is so much more than a board game — it’s a full fitness workout!  The kids and I had so much fun with this game. On the first day we tried it out, they liked it so much that they made Dad play it when he got home from work. The kids really enjoyed all the...

DD creates her first Blog Post 4

DD creates her first Blog Post

Yesterday I talked about some of the digital tools kids can use these days.  Part of the reason I wanted to write that post was because it was an area my kids haven’t delved much into. The majority of our projects have been hands-on or have been lapbooks or notebooking pages.    I learned a lot looking into the ways technology can be used to supplement tradtional type work.  I...

Digital Tools Your Child Can Master 0

Digital Tools Your Child Can Master

Technology in Education and in your Homeschool (Part 2) Last week I talked about how you can incorporate video, audio and educational apps into your homeschool. This week’s post talks about how your child/student can use tools to create their own projects that use photos, diagrams, audio, visual components including interactive animations,  3D animations and/or video content.  Your child can use a wide range of tools to create stunning videos,...

Read Aloud Time 0

Read Aloud Time

Sometimes it’s a bit hard to describe how homeschooling works.  Lots of things happen simultaneously and our read aloud time is the best example of this.  This semester our read aloud time has been mostly centered around American history (though we also read a book about Isaac Newton). We were studying the American West and so we read the  Sign of the Beaver, Little House in the Big Woods, and The...