Monthly Archive: January 2016

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A Little Princess

The girls and I watched a wonderful film this weekend called A Little Princess .  My girls (almost 8 and 10) loved it *so, so* much I decided it was worth mentioning to my readers as well.  It is the story of a girl who lived in India. When WWI broke out, her father took her to New York City where she had to attend a stern boarding school.  I...

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Chocolate Play Dough Recipe!

How to Make Chocolate Play Dough! The same day that we did the Chocolate Making Kit, (boy did my kids love that!!) I had a surprise for the kids. We made an enormous batch of chocolate play dough! Then, while I read aloud I let the kids have fun.  This was such a huge hit — even my 12 year old came over to check out the action for a while...

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Make Your Own Chocolate Kit!

Chocolate Making Activity We did this Make Your Own Chocolate Kit (affiliate link) a number of years ago and we all loved it! After we went over the Rain Forest Plants, it was the perfect time and excuse to make our own chocolate again! The write-up they have in the kit is well done. We read that aloud together before actually making the chocolate. It explains the history of chocolate...

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Free Penguin Addition Games and Worksheets

I thought it’d be fun to make some addition games for those of you with younger kids. It’s winter out for sure here having just gotten at least two feet of snow, so I chose these cute penguins for the game! There are two different games: a Penguins Doubles Game where the kids roll one die and double the number they roll (1+1, 2+2, 3+3, etc.).  My kids learned their doubles...

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Plants of the Rain Forest Activity: with Free Rain Forest Plant Cards

Today I wanted to share a fun activity we did about rain forest plants. As many of you know, we are doing a large biology unit on biomes, ecosystems, biological interactions, animal relationships, and so forth.  At the end of last semester we went over basic animal characteristics — the 5 vertebrate groups, the main invertebrate groups, and some fun activities for my youngest daughter — spiders vs. insects, domesticated...

Black Plague Notebook Pages Black Plague Simulation 4

Middle Ages in the 1300s: Black Plague Simulation; Worksheets on the Crusades, Hundred Year’s War

We spent a couple of weeks studying the events of the 1300s. Today I’m going to share the worksheets I made for the kids about the Crusades, Hundred Year’s War, and the Black Plague. I’ll also share the simulation: Will you survive the Black Plague?!! To start, we covered the history of the Crusades, Hundred Year’s War and the Black Plague. We read the chapters in our history book. We...

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Blizzard 2016

We woke this morning to 18 inches of snow, with another 10 inches (or more) expected in the next 24 hours!  The drifts we have around the house are considerably deeper!  Since we live down in the woods, we were expecting to lose power (and were prepared for that), but as you can see, we’re still on the grid! 🙂 Here is a glimpse of our deck from noon yesterday...

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Free Apostrophe Worksheet

This is another free apostrophe worksheet that I made for the kids last week.  This worksheet is mostly about showing possession and touches on possessive pronouns. In general apostrophes are used to show possession to show that a letter or letters have been omitted (ie. contractions) the plural of letters, numbers, and symbols If you can use it, this apostrophe worksheet is free to download.  There is an answer sheet...

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A Day in the Life – Homeschool Post (Ages almost 8, 10, 12)

It has been a while since I just wrote about one of our days.  I thought I would write up a quick post about the flow of our day. In our homeschool, no day is exactly like another. 🙂 Today I had to drag myself out of bed. I was up until nearly 3am last night working on the computer (on some school stuff for the kids and some behind...

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they’re/their/there, it’s/its, you’re/your, way/weigh – and other Homophones Worksheet

Today I’m sharing a very quick homophone worksheet I made for the kids. Some of the words they have to use correctly include: they’re/their/there it’s/its you’re/your way/weigh fare/fair witch/which new/knew right/write This homophone worksheet is free to download. There is an answer sheet too (though I don’t show it below). Hope someone else finds it useful! 🙂 ~Liesl Homophones Worksheet: they’re/their/there, it’s/its, you’re/your, etc. Other related posts that may be...

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Biology Unit: Animal Tracks and Animal Anatomy

As you know, we’re working on a biology unit.  I thought I would share a little bit about the animal activities ED (Grade 2) is working on before talking about our biome activities (in the next post). In the animal packet that I shared at the end of December, there is a whole section on animal tracks.  ED pulled those back out again and was working on those the past...

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STEM: Make Your Own Marble Maze; Flashlight Project

You know how we often like to start back into homeschooling with some engaging, out-of-the-box  activities? Sometimes we’ve done engineering challenges, other times we’ve done some fun critical thinking activities. Last week, I challenged the kids to make their own marble maze. They each took a big piece of cardboard, sticks (or whatever) and a glue-gun and went to work! They had fun trying to complete each other’s maze courses! ...

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Multiplication Practice Game Boards for 6s and 7s (Catch the Mouse Game)

Recently I came across these multiplication game boards I made for LD years ago. Originally I made it for LD to practice his 7s, but then I made another for the 6s. I thought ED would have fun reviewing her 6s and 7s facts when we start back to school. We’ve been playing these daily since the holidays!   I’m going to share this game again for those who might be...

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Biology Unit — Free CDC Unit on Rabies

We are studying biology right now. Last week, the kids had to choose one of the biomes, do research about it, and prepare a 3 to 5 minute speech.  They did a great job!  This week, they are going to do another short research project.  This time, I thought I would have the kids do another of the CDC units.  Previously (a couple of years ago) they did projects on...