Homeschool Den

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Author: Liesl - Homeschool Den

Want to make a “TRASH-O-SAURUS”??!! 2

History: Geologic Timeline (Montessori) / Science: Dinosaurs Unit

Want to make a “TRASH-O-SAURUS”??!!

I lost my internet connection this week.  That’s a total bummer since writing on the blog is a major outlet for me since we’re so new to the area (and I know very few people yet). The kids and I had busy, fun week and I hope to start sharing some of our activities later this weekend. We’ve been working on our timeline unit (I’ll explain more soon, though a...

Nature Around the Yard 13

Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science

Nature Around the Yard

We had a lot of fun outside yesterday. We caught lots and lots of little tadpoles (and then let most of them go), as well as a couple of 3-inch frogs.  We came across a snake which I’ve tried and tried to identify.  My best guess is that it is a water snake (another book to borrow from the library!). And finally, we found another quite amazing looking mushroom growing...

Second Grade Readings 0

Homeschool Den

Second Grade Readings

It has been a LOOooong time since I have consistently sat down with LD to listen to him read.  Instead, he has been doing independent reading primarily on his own.  This week I was pretty impressed with his intonation, rhythm and general reading ability.  Grams gave us a children’s encyclopedia set and among other things he read some articles to me on birds and fossils.  He’s also reading through a...

County Fair 4

Outdoor Fun

County Fair

Last weekend was LD’s birthday; he turned seven. We still don’t know anyone well enough to have over to celebrate his birthday with us, but we had a wonderful day at the county fair! We were surprised how few people were there — especially compared to “Show Days” (the annual fair that came to our town in central Australia). I wasn’t quite up to getting the kids organized to submit...

4

Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math: Preschool Math

Sunny Side Up (game learning about double digit numbers)

I brought out a dice game to play with DD called Sunny Side Up.  The dice have the numbers 1-5 and a smiley face.  I made little cards that have 9 numbers using just those digits (such as 51, 42, 14, 3, 5…).  We each have our own card and take turns tossing the dice.  We try to build numbers using the value on each die.  So you need a...

Egg-speriments! 14

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Science Experiments

Egg-speriments!

To make our bird unit especially appealing to LD we, of course, had to add in some science egg-speriments! While DD and I were unable to smash our eggs… LD did!!  We’re not quite sure why, but then when he tried it with a second egg he couldn’t break it no matter how hard he tried.  Anyway, this experiment was designed to show how strong egg shells are and how...

And more Egg-speriments! (Eggs and Pollution) 4

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Science Experiments

And more Egg-speriments! (Eggs and Pollution)

We looked at the air bubbles coming out of this egg when it was placed in vinegar and talked about why the shell is porous.  This lets the growing embryo get oxygen.  We then talked about how since it is porous it can let things through — like acid (vinegar), acid rain and pollutants.  We talked about DDT (how eagles nearly became extinct)– and how poisons, pesticides and so forth...

The Developing Chick-Egg Set 4

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Science

The Developing Chick-Egg Set

This summer, I saw a really interesting tool for studying chickens at My Montessori Journey.  It was a chicken hatching set that you can buy for about $35.  It was a great idea, but I decided the kids might get more out of it making their own.  So, earlier this summer at Grams’ house, I printed out some chicken embryo pictures.  One set has the developing chicken embryo with the...

4

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Bird Unit Activities

Last night I set up the table with a few more bird-related activities. These are activities for my 2 1/2 and 4 year olds: In the middle of the table are styrofoam eggs. The girls decorated them with plastic push pins (I don’t know what else to call them!) and colorful brads.  I also set out a bird identification set and the bird lapbook we made years ago. The girls...

Bird Unit 2

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Bird Unit

I showed this picture last week, I think, but what better visual to go with our bird unit! We have started off the year with a new bird unit. We did a pretty extensive bird unit last year and learned all about galahs, magpies, Murray magpies and Port Lincoln parrots (lots of pictures in the “Where we Live” label). We did a lovely lapbook to go with those (I just...

Last Year’s Bird Lapbook 0

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit

Last Year’s Bird Lapbook

Here are a few pictures of the bird lapbook we did last year. We’ve had this out and have chatted a lot about how different the birds sound (galahs make a really distinctive ruckus). ED did the coloring last year; DD did the cutting activity (cutting the slits in the feathers). Hmmm… this would be PERFECT for ED right now. She really loves practicing with scissors.  I’d better head off...

Bird’s Egg Craft 0

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Arts and Crafts

Bird’s Egg Craft

This activity would probably be perfect around Easter!  This summer as I wandered around Hobby Lobby I saw all the cute colored brads.  Not just the plain round ones as were available in our town last year, but flowers, hearts and things like that.  I picked up a couple boxes of brads, a push-pin looking thing I also saw at H-L or Michaels and a bunch of styrofoam eggs.  All...

Bird Related Activities 0

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Math: Preschool Math

Bird Related Activities

So aside from learning about the birds in our area (which are all new to the kids), I also selected a number of general bird and chicken activities to slip into their workboxes. Here are a couple they did today: DD had this chicken grid game from prekinders.com in her workbox today for math.  We played with two dice and she had to try adding them together.  That’s quite challenging...

Endless Paper at the Craft Table 0

Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts

Endless Paper at the Craft Table

Today Daddy took the kids out to the playground leaving me with an hour or so to myself. I managed to clear stuff off of our craft/science table. Then as I was unpacking one of the boxes, I came across the roll of butcher paper our friends gave us. As I considered where to store it, I realized I could put it UNDER and ACROSS the craft table for an...