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Here’s a peek at a couple things DD did this week in herworkbox. The plant sorting activity was from kidssoup.com.It goes along well with some plant related games from theTake it to your Seat Science Centers we’ve had in theworkboxes this week. Where’s the Fairy? — Reading/Word GameThe second activity uses Ami’s household word cards atHomeschool Share– Workboxables. Since DD is on thecusp of learning to read (but doesn’t want...
Here are a few things DD has done this week: Letter stamping from http://kidssoup.com/ (membershipwebsite) DD has really enjoyed word related file folder games thisweek and has asked to do lots of them each day. Hereare a few examples of what she did: Sunflower Sight Words:http://filefolderfun.com/KindergartenSightWords.html The “it word” matching came from page 15 ofhttp://www.wordway.us.com/FamilySets/itSet.pdf There are more word family activities at Carl’s Corner:http://www.wordway.us.com/LetterI.htmor http://www.wordway.us.com/ Frog two-letter sight words:http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/PDF/frog2swbookc.pdf(You can...
As I was out walking our dog this evening, I was thinkingabout my preschool posts. Just considering what I post, Ireally haven’t given a good view of what DD’s “preschoolday” really looks like. I would say the majority of theday is spent in creative play. She plays elaborate gameswith her stuffed animals, plastic animals, and doll house. She builds things with legos and K’nex with LD. She playsoutside. She, LD...
Several times a day, DD sits down to draw, make cardsand “practice writing.” She does this when LD writes inhis journal or practices his handwriting. I never suggestany of this, she chooses to do this on her own. Stickers,crayons, paper, glue and sequins are always out andavailable. (That means that the dining room table ispretty much always covered with “stuff.”) She and LD both enjoy arts and crafts and we...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 19, 2010
I saw this art project at Deep Space Sparkle. The kidswere enthusiastic to give it a go. She explains it betterthan I do, but essentially they drew the monster withoil pastels and then used water colors over top. I was amazed at how little guidance they neededonce I explained the steps. Even DD needed very,very little help. It is interesting that since doing this art project, DD’sdrawings of people now...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math: Preschool Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 11, 2010
In this game you need some counters (we used coloredtiles) and a deck of cards without the jokers, 10s or picturecards. Each player takes a turn. The player turns over a cardand adds that many tiles to her paper. (DD had to addyellow tiles, I added red tiles.) After she placed her tileson the yellow paper, she had to determine if there weremore than 10 tiles. If so, she took...
DD did the sorting activity again and then we pulled outplaydough and she formed the first letter of each word. ED enjoyed taking the wooden letters and sticking theminto the playdough!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 5, 2010 · Last modified October 27, 2015
This week I’ve been putting a letter sorting activity in DD’s workbox. I chose a small toy/item, wrote that word on a piece of paper and had the first letter of that word (in lower and upper case letters) that she had to sort into rows. She’s also been finding the letters to make words and has been quite motivated to do that. Other related posts you might be interested...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 5, 2010
I wasn’t quite sure what to call this post, buthere’s an activity we did today. Part I: I put letters on some cards and hid them aroundthe yard. DD (4) had to find the animal worker lettercards. LD (6) had to find the stars.
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 5, 2010
Part II: DD had to sort her hard hat animals into different colors.Then she had to put the letters in the right order tomake the words house, flower and teddy bear. LD had to take his letters, make as many words as hecould and write them in his notebook (men, cent, pin etc). He’s been unhappy about his journal writing, but hereally enjoyed this activity.
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 4, 2010
We studied the Milky Way Galaxy and planets a bit lastyear, but since this was covered in the Montessori “FirstGreat Lesson” that we presented (in our own version)over the weekend, I thought the kids might enjoy doing acouple pictures related to what we talked about. Links about the Montessori Great Lessons (geared forearly elementary aged kids): http://www.moteaco.com/albums.htmlhttp://missbarbara.net/greatlessons.htmlhttp://www.montessoricentre.com/GL/The%20Great%20Lesson%201%20-%20secular%20version.htm
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 4, 2010
We did two art projects to show the spiral shaped, MilkyWay Galaxy. One was simply sparkles and shiny starspasted onto black paper. For the white pictures, the kids drew the Milky WayGalaxy with a white oil pastel. Then they painted overtheir drawing with black paint. We found that white oilpastels worked MUCH better for the kids than regularcrayola crayons.
Today we looked a bit more closely at Picasso’s “Still Life.”We did our versions of a still life (complete with lots of‘eyes’). I had the kids draw one continuous line that crossedover itself. Then they filled in the figures using oil pastels. The kids really like the vibrant colors of the oil pastels. You are looking at DD’s picture (and the small print Imade of Picasso’s painting).
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 31, 2009
The new artist we put up in the calendar this week wasPablo Picasso. I remembered a wonderful Picasso artlesson at Art Projects for Kids that was aimed at firstgraders. There’s a similar lesson at Deep Space Sparkle.LD did well with it; he said it was hard, but he wasproud of his picture when he was done. DD colored inone that I outlined and did an impressive job too. Most weeks...
Do you believe education can be exciting, inspiring, and full of joy? We do too!
I love the quote by William Butler Yeats, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." It's about getting the kids involved, engaged, and fired up about learning (while juggling the rest of life too!)
A bit about me: I have my Master's from Brown University. I have more than 20 years of teaching experience. I was a high school teacher for many years both in the U.S. and internationally and also taught for the University of Maryland before leaving to homeschool my 3 wonderful kids.
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This post has links to dozens of posts and resources both for new and veteran homeschoolers for everything from finding homeschool curriculum to general homeschool advice and encouragement.
Click on the image above to see the History Units we covered in our homeschool.
What science topics could I teach my 5-7 year old - Homeschool Science Curriculum
Click on the image above to see the Science Units we covered in our homeschool from elementary through middle school (and beyond!).
A list of the books we've used most in history, science, math, language arts, etc.
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Units are also sold separately.
This is one of our most popular units. It covers the Layers of the Earth, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and More! It is included in the Earth Science Bundle (see the picture/link above).
Click the image to see our Biology Units on Animal and Plant Cells; the Biology Unit on Biomes, Food Chains, Symbiosis; Scientific Classification & Taxonomy (Domain/Kingdom/Phylum/Class, etc.); Botany - Plant Kingdom and Oceans and Oceanography.
Click on the image to see our Animal Bundle - including the Animal Unit, Life Cycles, the Rainforest, Winter (Polar Animals) & Hibernation, Chameleons, Wolves, Cicadas and more!
The Human Body Systems, Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Muscular, Nervous, Endocrine Systems and More (with lots of hands-on activity ideas)! We usually study a different body system each year.
Click on the image to see our units on the States of matter, Properties of Matter, Electricity & Circuits, and the Chemistry Unit (Get to know the Periodic Table in a fun way!)
This is a free checklist I put together of the various science units I hope to cover in the elementary and middle school years.
Do your kids know the 4 largest countries? Which countries have the most people? The longest river? This packet covers basic world and U.S. facts and also covers geographic features and land forms.
Click on the image to check out our 100-page unit on World War I.
We have used AAS for 6 years! AAS is an affiliate link.
Dozens of posts about how to create a homeschool writing workshop.
Click on the image to check out all of our fun K-2 Math Packets.
This is one of the best values we have... more than 20 PDFs with games, activities and worksheets to learn/practice the multiplication facts ($7.00).
Click on the image to discover some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you including a long list of our freebies!
Click on the image to check out our 100+page Rocks and Minerals Unit.
This is a fun, hands-on unit for early elementary students!
How the body is organized from cells to tissues... organs to body systems
Click on the image to check out some of the Spanish worksheet bundles we have available!
Click on the image above to check out our German worksheets.
Click on the image to find out more about our units and packets.
