Monthly Archive: February 2014

16

Writing Workshop Mini-Lessons Day 2 – Make the Story Come Alive with Details

Writing Workshop Mini-Lesson #2: Make the Story Come Alive with  Details; Show the reader what happened; Create images in the reader’s mind You’ve set up a good writing space, have your supplies – pencils, journals, resource materials. Now what?!! This is the second in a series of 5 posts with lesson ideas to help young writers get started on their writing journey. Be sure to read the introduction to this series in last Monday’s...

3

Long List of Activities for Tots and Preschoolers (ages 2-6)

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a post about how to create your own preschool science curriculum at home (mostly with materials you’ll find around the house).  I realized it has been a long time since I shared our long list of preschool activities. I wrote this post last year when ED was 4. The activities in this list really actually range from 2-6 year-olds or so. I’m a...

One of *Those* Days 0

One of *Those* Days

I’m pretty sure you know exactly what I’m talking about, right? Not only are there a mountain of dishes to be put away, but  there are dishes in the sink filled with cold nasty water with floating bits of who-knows-what. (Grrr.. why didn’t we just do them last night?) There’s laundry still in the dryer, waiting to be hauled out and folded. LD lost his math book. We spend 15...

37

How do I Help the Kids to Start Writing?! 5 Lessons Ideas for the Writing Workshop (Day 1)

You’ve set up a good writing space, have your supplies – pencils, journals, resource materials. Now what?!! This is the first in a series of 5 posts with lesson ideas to help young writers get started on their writing journey. Introduction: Writing Workshop Mini-Lessons I have spent a lot of time writing about why we use a writing workshop, how we set up and structure our writing workshop, and even went into...

22

Long List of Free Homeschool and Teaching Resources

This is a list of some of the most useful homeschool and teaching resources from around the web. I have added in some free resources I found that integrate computer science concepts into science units, plus Engineering units for kids, and units from the CDC (Center for Disease Control).  If you have any great resources and websites I should add to this list, leave a comment or leave me a note...

2

Science Experiment for 2-8yr olds: Make a Color Explosion in Milk!

The kids participated in a science fair event a couple of weeks ago… where kids and adults could share their favorite science-related collections, photos, experiments, and knowledge. Some adults set up a slide show of their astronomy photos, sharing bone collections, a cartographer shared some of her materials, kids brought in their rock collection and more… My kids  set up a science activity station with the Color Explosion in Milk....

0

What We’re Up to In Our Homeschool – Curriculum We Use

One thing about homeschoolers is that each family has its own style. Some people have quite a structure/routine to their homeschool; some people unschool and support and follow the passions and interests of their kids. Our days are fairly loose, but we follow fairly traditional subjects. Homeschoolers often fall into different categories… Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Classical, or use online-curriculums. I would say we are eclectic, hands-on homeschoolers — meaning we...

5

Free Math Lapbook (PreK – K)

Here is the free math lapbook ED (and I) made together. It has all kinds of different activities she was working on from the days of the week and months of the year to the concept of odd-even, more-less, doubling, and other things! At the end of the year last year, I had ED cut out and put together a math lapbook. We didn’t go over much of the material...

20

Practical Pointers for Working with a Reluctant Writer (or any writer!)

How do you help a child who throws his hands up and declares he can’t write, refuses to write, only writes “I suck at writing” or prose of that sort?  Well, it has been a long hard journey for my son (10), but things have started to turn around this year and I wanted to share how we’ve made it over that hump… most of the time. *Have a space where...

Keeping Homeschooling a Secret at Work 1

Keeping Homeschooling a Secret at Work

I know several people who balance working outside the home with homeschooling.  For each of them it requires a lot of juggling, some outside help, flexibility on when the “academics” happen, but ultimately is working well for their families. Each one of them (two friends and my sister) enjoys being a professional and also values being able to create a challenging learning environment for her kids. Their kids are involved...

Great 10cent Sale on Lapbooks/Unit Studies 0

Great 10cent Sale on Lapbooks/Unit Studies

Someone in one of my yahoo groups said that there was a 10cent sale on one of the publishers I have used a lot in the past, Homeschool Bits. She makes and sells lapbooks, unit studies, time lines and more.  Her work is reasonably priced (most lapbooks are $1.00), but for the next day her work is on sale for 10 cents. Wow! I think the sale ends on Saturday...

Homeschool Encouragment 0

Homeschool Encouragement: To Homeschool You Need…

To Homeschool We Need… Love The most important ingredient of homeschooling is simply love. Homeschooling is about the relationships, not the curriculum we use.  Some days will be wonderful, other days… not as noteworthy, but at the end of the day did we connect wit the kids, snuggle with the kids, help them find their own voice and strengths. I help motivate them and support them. I try to keep...

Digging Out From the Snow! 2

Digging Out From the Snow!

Like so much of the east coast, we spent a lot of time today digging out from the huge snowfall. ED is the youngest and often the hardest worker! She was out there shoveling (and playing) for hours. Boomer said, “No way I’m going down those stairs.” So, we created a potty spot for her, shoveling a path into the back yard from the garage. It’s snowing again right now...

0

Preschool Math: Teaching Numbers Greater than 10

Have you heard of a seguin board?  It’s a Montessori math tool for helping young kids understand place value.  When ED was little (about 3), I made a printable and used it to work with her when she was ready to tackle the teen numbers.  She used to skip some of the numbers after 13. I used a homemade version of the Montessori seguin board (download the seguin board activity...