Monthly Archive: September 2013

24

Free India Learning Packet

This year we are again studying world cultures in our homeschool. We are focusing on Asia and just started our unit on India.  I made a packet for the kids to add to their history notebooks which covers the geography of India, some basic facts (population, capital, etc.) and things like that. It’s 20 pages long and includes answers to the various sheets that the kids and I will be...

2

What Creature Can Make Water Boil? (Kids Will Love This!)

All kids who love science should check out this cool website about the mantis shrimp…it sees an incredible range of color, is beautiful to look at, yet it is one of the most violent creatures on the planet — it can make water boil and smash glass with one blow! My kids loved it! Here’s a picture of the beautiful mantis shrimp, but you and the kids should check out...

Free Fall Themed Packets for PreK-K (Ages 3-6) 1

Free Fall Themed Packets for PreK-K (Ages 3-6)

Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some fall-themed activities. There’s a huge selection of free packets to choose from… I’ll highlight a number of free packs I’ve come across: Fall Pack from 3 Dinosaurs: Leaves Unit by 2 Teaching Mommies Fall and Thanksgiving Dot-to-Dots — Resources I mentioned last year about this time Fall Worksheet Pack from Mama’s Learning Corner (ages 4-6): Fall Fun Printables by Homeschool...

22

Free Ultimate Math Game Board (+free addition cards)

This week I brought out a math game board to go over some math facts with the kids. The great thing about this board is that the kids can practice any math skill they’re working on. A player can start on any green start space. If she answers a math fact card correctly, she rolls the die and moves clockwise around the gameboard.  If she lands on a space such...

When the House Falls Apart, You Find you Need Surgery… And There’s Lots to Juggle! 0

When the House Falls Apart, You Find you Need Surgery… And There’s Lots to Juggle!

So, a couple days ago I wrote a blog post about how are homeschool routine is working out this year.  It’s going pretty well and I love being back into a routine.  But as for life in general, it’s sometimes hard to juggle everything.  Preparing and time with the kids homeschooling takes up a good chunk of my day, as you can imagine. Plus, writing also takes time.  But there...

1

Teaching Music to Kids — notes and rhythm

For many years, we did kindermusik classes. It was a wonderful mix of dancing, playing instruments, singing, learning about rhythm and more.  When that finally came to an end — our friends moved away 🙁  — we spent the semester just working a bit on piano, singing songs (here’s a link to a kids song packet I put together for the kids this past summer). But I really wanted to...

6

What’s a “Typical” Homeschool Day Like this Year?

We’ve been back to school for about a month, I wanted to share how homeschool life is going.  I love the posts where other homeschoolers share what they aspire to each day — and that’s what this post is.  Not that everything on the list get checked off, but if we were to have an ideal day it might look something like this (this is the list that floats around...

Nocturnal-Diurnal Animals 4

Nocturnal – Diurnal Animals (Free 3-Part Montessori Cards)

This week ED and I read two books together: What Makes Day and Night  (affiliate link) and Totally Amazing Night Animals. (affiliate links.)  She really enjoyed both of them and we added in some activities to go with these books.   After we read through What Makes Day and Night (affiliate link), we spent a lot of time in the dark bathroom! First I held the flashlight and shined it at her as she...

3

20+ Thoughts For the Busy Homeschool Family… Remember…

  Sometimes I need some homeschooling encouragement. Here are some things I need to remember as we race through our day… Think about dinner in the morning — That tops my list because having dinner planned (or better yet, waiting in a crockpot!) makes the end of my day SO much better! The education is important, but keeping the family healthy, happy and on track really has to top my...

5

Free CDC Lesson Plans Grades 4-8 — Science Ambassador Program

Over the summer, I stumbled across the Center for Disease Control’s Science Ambassador Program. What a great find!  It has a series of lessons (maybe mini-unit would be a better term for them) on all kinds of various topics with challenging activities for students to learn about. Topics include — autism, birth defect, Hantavirus, HIV/Aids… and many more. What I like about their lessons is that they require the students...

1

Geography Activities for 4-6 year olds

Last Thursday I talked about using the Montessori landmark cards, but I didn’t think to talk about ED’s other geography activities.  After reading through Me on the Map (which is just perfect for the 4-6 year old crowd), I had ED do an activity we had done a year and a half ago or so.  You have the kids color in and paste their location, pinpointing their location by going...

Safe Snack Guide – Nut and Egg Free Snack List 0

Safe Snack Guide – Nut and Egg Free Snack List

Lots of schools and other places are requiring nut-free snacks.  LD’s gym suggested this website as a helpful place to find snacks that are free of nuts, tree nuts and eggs: snacksafely.com.  It’s a list of the purchased types snacks. I personally wish the list had started out (in big bold letters) things like sliced apples, baby carrots, snap peas — you know the fresh fruits and veggies that should be...

What We’re Doing for Homeschool Art (K, Gr. 3, Gr. 5) 2

What We’re Doing for Homeschool Art (K, Gr. 3, Gr. 5)

Last year DD and LD did art class once a week at an art studio.  We decided we really needed to cut that out for now (because of the cost — although the teacher is absolutely brilliant and wonderful with the kids!).  This year we’ve got art scheduled in once a week (so that we actually carve out time for it).  We had our first art time yesterday (Thursday) —...

US Constitution Worksheets and the 3 branches of government 8

Our American History/Geography Activities + various freebies

We are planning to focus on World Cultures (India and China) this year, but we haven’t started in on that yet.  Instead, we resumed the year with some of the U.S. geography and history activities we were working on last May/June. Since we traveled quite a bit this summer I wanted to reinforce some of that geography.  We talked about our trips and the states we visited. We pulled out the...