Author: Liesl - Homeschool Den
Camping in the Outback
This was one of the last opportunities we’d have to gocamping for the weekend as the weather will soon betoo hot. Even as it was, temperatures ranged from 9 to 34Celsius (or 48 to 95Fahrenheit). It was COOOooooldat night (especially compared to our afternoon)! In the first picture you can see our campsite across on theother side of the dry river bed. (Click on the picture toenlarge it.) One little...
Photo Paper Nature Prints
The kids enjoyed this little photo project a lot. Grandmaand Grandpa sent us this “Nature Print sun sensitivephoto paper” from Oriental Trading ($6.00US, for 12photo sheets). Here’s what we did: 1) The kids collected small nature items. 2) I used a cereal box and covered the photo paper overwith the other side of the box whenever they wereselecting their items. They arranged their nature objectsjust so. 3) Then we took...
Tot School
We had a wonderful weekend camping and I’ll share more about that soon. Today is DD’s birthday, though, so I won’t spend much time on the computer today. Last night I needed a few more ideas for ED and checked out a website I really enjoy. It’s truly a wonderful resource if you have a toddler or young preschooler. This Mom shares a wonderful assortment of activities for her son...
Halloween Felt Board Scene
This afternoon DD and I sat down together to put togethera new felt board scene. This is based on Five Little Pumpkins .DD and ED had fun making and remaking the jack-o-lanterns’faces. I read the story several times while DD acted itout on the felt board. I took the picture in the book display area I was mentioningin the post I wrote yesterday about reading (scroll down below). By the...
Paint Popping!
A while back I read about a family who put paint inziploc bags and had the kids jump on them. Nowthat the weather is warming up, we decided to giveit a try. Some of the bags we filled with paint andair; some of them we had paint, vinegar and bakingsoda (to expand the bag). LD was able to pop allthe bags (and the ones without vinegar/bs “lookednicer”), but DD and...
Reading and Signing (ASL) in the Homeschool Den
It’s obviously most interesting to post about the livelier things we do at the Homeschool Den. But to be honest, I really enjoy the quieter things we do as well. We read lots and lots of books together. I have a wooden napkin holder where I display 3-5 new picture books on the dining room table. I change this several times a week (as needed). Whenever we sit together at...
Workbox Activities
On Tuesdays, I volunteer to help with Kindergym. Wehelp set up. Even LD (who is technically too old for it) hasa good time because his buddy often stays home fromschool so they can play together. ED (20months) lovesall the equipment. Here are a few things that were in our workboxes for theafternoon — tangrams, the hundred’s board puzzle andskip counting 2 to 200 maze (which I laminated). I found the...
Preschool Number Line Recognition Games
Here’s another number line recognition game I playedwith DD. We put the numbers in order from 0 to 13. Thenshe had to close her eyes while I switched two cards. Shehad to find and correct the switch. Then it was her turnto switch the cards while I closed my eyes. In the end,we switched lots of numbers and put them back in theright order. With the same set-up, we also...
Skip Counting by 3s
LD is learning to skip count by 3s. He set up the wagonsand then put groups of three mini-erasers above eachwagon. To get him familiar with the general concept ofmultiplication I talk about groups of 3 (1X3 is one group ofthree; 2X3 is two groups of three, and so forth) and had him putthe seals under the appropriate wagon wheel. wagons and seals are available at filefolderfun.com
Fruit Leather
I saw this idea on the Crafty Crow and thought it wouldbe pretty straight forward for the kids. It turned out reallywell! We used 6 1/2 cups fruit (2 1/2 raspberries, 4 cups blueberry)and 3 teaspoons of sugar. We cooked the berries on the stove for 45 minutes.Next we pureed it in the blender.Finally we baked it in the oven on low for 6 hours or so. Here’s the website...