Monthly Archive: April 2013

4

Transatlantic Slave Trade: Notebook Pages

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery in America As many of you know, we have been studying Africa this year in our homeschool.  As we finished up our studies of West Africa, we spent about a week learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade and about slavery in general.  My kids had not yet studied this in history. We read a number of books… most of them had an incredible impact on...

Kids Can Cook Their Way to the White House! 0

Kids Can Cook Their Way to the White House!

I just read about the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge and wanted to spread the word! Does your child like to cook?  Kids ages 8-12 can submit original recipes to win tickets to a state dinner at the White House to eat some of these winning dishes with first lady, Michelle Obama.  The challenge is to create healthy recipes that include the five food groups either in one dish or in one...

Kids and Sports – Don’t Train Too Much 0

Kids and Sports – Don’t Train Too Much

My kids are quite involved in after-school sports and I worry a lot about them over-doing it as youngsters.  I really want to make sure that when they are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s they can be active and do the sports and activities they’re interested in.   I really love running and backpacking and am thankful that my high school and college sports didn’t leave me with any...

20

Preschool at Home: A Few Math Ideas for the 2 1/2 to 3-Year-Old Crowd

The last few weeks I’ve been trying to put together some posts for those who are interested in doing some preschool activities at home with their kids. Today, I thought I’d highlight a few things I did with my kids for math in the 2 1/2-3 1/2 age range. Here are some activities I did with ED when she was 2 1/2.  She was just learning to count up to...

2

Grammar Worksheets: Synonyms and Antonyms

I made a few matching worksheets for the kids to go over the concepts of synonyms (words that have a similar meaning) and antonyms (words that mean the opposite or nearly the opposite of each other).  Although the kids probably know most of these words, I’m going to have them work together to fill these out. If you’re interested you can download your own copy of these free grammar worksheets:...

I’m Worn Out 0

I’m Worn Out

We had a crazy busy weekend and it ended with LD being sick all night. We stayed close to home yesterday.  Last night, DD came down with the same bad tummy bug and tossed her cookies all night and into the morning.  I’m just feeling tired and worn out and have a bit of a headache myself.  I can think of twelve things I should do … especially yard work...

7

Field Trip! Visiting the Global Village at Heifer International

As I mentioned yesterday, the kids are raising money to buy some livestock for Heifer International.  When I looked on the map, I saw that the Heifer has various learning centers around the country.  We called and made arrangements to visit Shepherd’s Spring in Maryland. Oh my goodness, what an amazing trip we had!!! The program director was so engaging with the kids and she led us on a 3+...

0

The Kids’ Service Project – Selling Their Paintings to Raise Money to Buy a Goat, Sheep, or Chickens…

One of the lovely things about homeschooling is that we can reach out to our community — both near and far.  The kids and I helped a bit here in our community by volunteering at the local food pantry during the fall. They bagged apples and passed them out to people who came to the bi-weekly food bank.  This semester, we’re doing a service project that spins off from our...

25

Preschool at Home: Handwriting

ED really enjoys writing…  Here’s a picture of ED writing in her journal from last January. The kids and I made a special trip to Staples for them to pick out their own journals. I offered to write whatever they wanted for them, so they could record things about their day. While I wrote heaps for DD and LD, much to my surprise, ED insisted on writing in her journal...

5

Our Care Package from the Gambia!

The Internet is so wonderful because you connect with and make friends with people from all over the world.  I’ve made some good friends through my years of blogging with whom I email pretty regularly.  One of the friends we’ve had for years live in the Gambia… and they sent us a care package that fit in absolutely perfectly with our studies of West Africa!!  The kids were SO SO...

2

Learning About West Africa – Children’s Games and more

It has been quite a while since I talked about our African Unit. I think the last time I wrote, I shared the history pages I made about the Ghana and Mali Empires. We had also learned about some famous Africans such as Sundiata and Mansa Musa. The past couple of weeks, we’ve been learning more about contemporary Africa.  We’ve been doing a lot of reading from Journey into Africa:...

0

14 Things You Didn’t Know About Me…

Let’s face it, my life, especially when you look at the blog, revolves around the kids and homeschooling. I spend a lot of time preparing for homeschooling; the kids and I spend time working on their schoolwork, projects and activities; I blog about homeschooling; and I’m even (gulp) trying to write a book — not about zombies (though I did meet a woman at LD’s Parkour (sport’s) class who writes...

Boston Marathon Tragedy, So Shocking 4

Boston Marathon Tragedy, So Shocking

It made me cry to hear that one of the victims was 8 years old.  As a Mom and a runner, I’m heartbroken for the family and for all the victims today. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m a runner. I ran the Boston Marathon twice, plus a number of other races that attract large numbers of participants and spectators.  The Boston Marathon...

1

ED’s PreK Math Practice

It’s been a while since I talked about ED’s preschool math work. Here are some of the things we’ve been working on together during her math time. We’ve been starting by blasting off to space… 10, 9, 8, 7… or counting down from 20.  (Yes, ED is in her pjs!) She’s practiced using tally sticks to lay out (or identify) numbers up to twenty. I’ve also been having her identify...