Monthly Archive: December 2012

Time and the Busy Parent 3

Time and the Busy Parent

Do you ever find yourself saying to yourself (or to others for that matter) “there’s not enough time in my day.”  I’ve been thinking about that a lot and how my attitudes about time affect the relationships I have with my loved ones. There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” –Brian Tracy One of my New Years...

Looking Back at 2012 – Favorites from the Homeschool Den 10

Looking Back at 2012 – Favorites from the Homeschool Den

Wow, it’s the end of 2012… a great time to reflect on the year we’ve had.  Here are some of the highlights from this year: our favorite homeschool activities: It’s hard to choose just two, but I guess these are the ones that really stand out for me at the moment… the Black Plague simulation we did. None of us ever made it to our destination!! The kids really loved...

Self Reflection Questions for New Years 4

25 Self-Reflection Questions for New Year’s

Are you into making New Year’s Resolutions?  I find the process of self-reflection quite helpful when it comes to our family life and homeschooling.  I tend to do this twice a year — at the end of each semester in December and again in June. Last June my self-reflection had a lot to do with our short term and long term homeschooling goals. This season I seem to be pondering...

Helping Kids (and Yourself) Cope with Trauma; Crisis Planning Materials 0

Helping Kids (and Yourself) Cope with Trauma; Crisis Planning Materials

I wasn’t sure just quite when to share this material with the holidays and all, but I thought it was definitely worth spreading the word about these useful materials.  The U.S. Department of Education has put out a number of publications in the past few years on the topics of safety, crime and violence. Personally, I didn’t want to tell the kids about the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut… but...

My Favorite Gifts 0

My Favorite Gifts

Of all the gifts, my favorite was the one made from the heart… my own doll! It’s made of a milk-jug,  tin foil, felt and lots and lots of tape!! Isn’t it precious?! I love that the kids are finally of the age that they can keep secrets from me until Christmas! A close runner up was the homemade picture frame LD made for me, complete with a picture (courtesy...

Traveling, Celebrating, Eating, Enjoying! 0

Traveling, Celebrating, Eating, Enjoying!

Happy Holidays! There are estimates that nearly 93.3 million people will travel this holiday season, with nearly 84.4 million people traveling more than 50 miles. I think my friend, M, and her two kids might get the prize for the longest travel plans — 10,000+ miles from the east coast, USA here over to Victoria, Australia.  We, on the other hand, did a short 4 hour trip to see Grandma...

Our Favorite Holiday Sweets 1

Our Favorite Holiday Sweets

Do you have any special sweets you make this time of year?  Our family has some old traditions and some new. I’d like to share two of the easiest cookies we make this time of year: One of our new additions is from Aunt M… we love this recipe and it is so easy! We’ve altered her original recipe slightly: 1 cup butter 2 cups flour (I actually use 1/2...

My Son’s Teammates Lost their Little Cousin in the Sandy Hook Tragedy 0

My Son’s Teammates Lost their Little Cousin in the Sandy Hook Tragedy

When news of the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary first broke last Friday, I was horrified. While on the one hand, I wanted to know what was going on, what happened, and why, on the other hand I wanted to shield my own children from this terrible news. Quite frankly, I didn’t want them to know. I didn’t listen to the news in front of them. We kept the...

0

3 Things I Need From School Break

After a busy semester, there are three things I need: a complete break from our school schedule and routine time for self-reflection time to plan We’re currently on stage 1!! We definitely need time to revitalize and become re-inspired by our studies. I’ve been fortunate to have some good quality time by myself without kids while my in-laws were here to babysit. I spent lots of time at the library...

0

Let the Holiday Fun Begin! School Break! Hooray!

We are officially on school break! What fun! I can say that we all needed the break because it has been so busy these past few weeks. And while we had some fun projects we were finishing up, I can definitely say that I was beginning to feel flat and stale. Time to step back shake things up and re-energize a bit. While my in-laws were here for a few...

4

More Irregular Verb and Plural Noun Practice Sheets

I introduced irregular verbs and nouns to the kids last week, but it was clear they could use a bit more practice. Here’s another sheet I made for them. We actually did these last week, but with all the Christmas math posts I never got a chance to share these. More Irregular Verb Practice and Plural Noun Worksheets  Here is the link to the previous worksheets I made on irregular verbs...

4

Christmas Division Pages

I shared DD’s multiplication pages a couple days ago. Now here are the division pages I made for LD. He isn’t as inspired by the cute pages, but I still made a few pages for him. You can download the Christmas-themed-division here. I made the illustrations myself. There also some addition (with Pete the Cat) and multiplication (with Pete the Cat)  pages in this same style. See you again soon...

3

Christmas Addition with Pete the Cat and the Christmas Pup

ED is not really ready for complicated addition problems. She’ll just use the first of the six pages in this packet. I’ll have her roll the die and fill in the blanks—and I’ll also use some dominoes and have her fill in the numbers. If you don’t have actual dominoes, you can print the domino set from Mathwire. They even have a add-on set for up to double-nines. Click here to download Christmas...

Oh, the Devastating Tragedy of Today’s Events 0

Oh, the Devastating Tragedy of Today’s Events

Every parent around the nation must be shaking with grief and horror for the parents and families who lost their children and loved ones today. My heart goes out to all of those families. It is hard to wrap my head around the numbers…20 children and six adults all lost their lives today in what should be a safe haven of love and learning, an elementary school. It chokes me...