Monthly Archive: October 2013

My Personal Life Has Taken Over! 0

My Personal Life Has Taken Over!

I love homeschooling — and I love writing about what we’re doing, but life is taking over for a little while. We have family coming from all over the US (and from Brazil) for my husband’s great uncle’s birthday party. He’s turning 90 and we are hosting several families (they started arriving earlier this week). Then tomorrow we will have 50 or 60 people over to our house. It’s been...

Math Cups 3

Active Multiplication Math Games and Free Online Multiplication Games

DD has learned most of her multiplication facts, but she still needs lots of extra practice because it takes her a while to come up with the answer sometimes.  I’m trying to find some fun ways to keep her practicing them and making sure she has them memorized and can recite the answer quickly. So here’s a post covering some of the fun ways we’re reviewing those facts… everything from...

13

Learning about Hinduism – Hindu Gods and Goddesses

Last week I shared the Free India Learning Packet. We’ve covered some basic facts and geography about India from that set and read about Ancient India in several of the books we’re using (Story of the World, Kingfisher Encyclopedia, etc.).  Now that we covered some of the background about the ancient Indus Valley region, it was time to delve into some background about Hinduism. For the next couple of weeks,...

7

Free Units on Pets and Pet Diseases (called Zoonoses!)

I learned a new word with this unit: A zoonosis is any disease or infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans.   Zoonoses would be the plural! We had such a good experience with the CDC Science Ambassador unit on the West Nile Virus that we decided to try one more unit: Healthy Pets, Healthy People (Note: Look on the second set of tabs for “Zoonotic Disease”). Besides...

0

Fun Fall Activities to Do with the Kids

I took this photo last year–the trees don’t quite look like this yet! I love this time of year! Last Friday I shared some of the free fall-themed packets and indoor activities you can do with your 3-6 year old, but there are so many other great fall activities you can do with your child as well. Here are some of our favorites: just go outside and enjoy the weather...

2

Kindergarten Science – Classifying Animals

Last week, ED spent some time learning about the different animal groups — mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. We talked about some of the different characteristics of each group and she spent time separating them into the different categories. We have a number of different activities and she spent several days going through our various activities: One was from a book called Take It to Your Seat Science Centers and...

Building Happiness and Harmony in our Home :) 1

Building Happiness and Harmony in our Home :)

Sometimes we need an infusion of sunshine and happiness into our homeschool. There are times when the kids nitpick at each other, poke, needle and whine… we all (including me!) need to step back and ask ourselves if we are being as kind, thoughtful and caring as we can be! One day for our writing workshop, we read the book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily...

8

German – Stories for Kids

We’re learning German in our homeschool. Why? Well, because that’s what I learned and studied growing up. Plus, when I was in the Peace Corps in Hungary I listened to German TV stations because I understood that better than Hungarian. Anyway, that’s the language that’s easiest for me to teach the kids. Not long ago, we started using using Bobo Siebenschlafer in our homeschool. It’s a book that has  a number...

4

Kitty Race Game — Doubling (5+5 thru 10+10)

ED loves kittens and I made this game for her to practice her doubling.  It’s a pretty straight-forward game. Just roll the die, double the number and move the token up one space. This doesn’t have to be a competitive game… the players just guess which kitty is going to win the game. (I drew all these kitties — not professional by any means but ED likes them and the fact...