Fall Craft Slideshow
Someone on one of my yahoo groups shared this link to Valerie’s Slideshow of Fall Crafts. There are lots of colorful fall and Thanksgiving related craft ideas. I was impressed!
Category: 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...
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...
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs
We enjoyed a visit with Auntie W, Uncle J and Cousin R to the beautiful Garden of the Gods. Auntie W. got a kick out of LD, who did hand stands continually along the path (middle picture).
Always Helpful!
This box held the doll house my Grandfather made for my Mom when she was a little girl. Once we removed the doll house (to pack into the trailer we’ll be bringing east), the kids jumped right in and played!
Farm Visit
As I mentioned before, we had a lovely time with our cousins. One of the things we did while we were with them in California was to go to a working farm. The kids got to feed animals and pick their own strawberries. The farm also had a mine set up and LD and Cousin B thoroughly enjoyed panning through a bag of rocks for gems. Hours later, LD could...
La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles
We spent time at the LaBrea Tar Pits in California. We saw fossils of some of the ancient American mammals, got to look into the fish-bowl science lab and watch scientists clean and sort small fossil pieces.
On the Road…
We’ve now been on the road for more than a month. I have a few minutes on my own and thought I’d take the opportunity to write a brief update. Not much to report on the homeschooling front, but life in general has been full to overflowing!! Our first stop after leaving Alice Springs/Sydney was California. We spent two weeks there and enjoyed time at Legoland, the La Brea Tar...
Another Flood Photo — What’s left of my sister’s living room
Here’s another picture sent by my sister. This is the livingroom/study and dining room — looks out on the backyard. Yes, that’s insulation hanging on the lamp chain. And on the right, that leg stick up near the far door, that’s the piano. Again, this is one of the rooms on the first floor. The water went at least 5-7 feet higher than this room. This level of the house...
Flood Destroyed Den/Library
My sister sent this picture of their den/library/study. This area had their computers, a number of tall bookshelves and so forth. The ceiling used to be finished, but this room was fully submerged under the waters; you can see the collapsed ceiling over the top of the other stuff. (The flood waters reached the second story beds, another 5-7 feet above this room.) My sister said they don’t know yet...
My Heart Goes Out to My Sister
My sister, her husband and three kids live and homeschool in Nashville, Tennessee. They have just lost most everything they own when floods rose to above the beds in their second story. The first floor (living room, kitchen, library, den, hobby room) was fully submerged when creek flood levels rose. (We’ve been there, and the water must have risen at least 50 feet to have gotten that high!) Considering that...
Free Montessori Cards
I noticed that there are free “guess what” cards at http://www.shop.montessoriprintshop.com/SALE_c69.htm. For example, there’s a close-up picture of a sunflower and one picture from farther away. These cards would probably be appropriate for 2-4 year olds. It’s probably only available for another day or so, but thought I’d mention it here. Also there are some new free cards at http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/assets/PDF/From_Plant_to_Food.pdf showing the food and its product (tomato and ketchup, for...
Todd River Starts to Flow
It has been raining quite a bit the past few days. The other day, a friend of a friend stopped at the Todd River bed, which is normally dry. He happened to catch the river just as it started to flow! The kids and I drove by around 11am (a half hour after this was shot) and the river was full from bank to bank and quite deep! Amazing!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPhK4TO1tto
Cubby House Fun
I bought foam remninants and made lots of foamcushions of all different sizes years ago from thesmall ones above to the long, 5 foot ones below. My kids have such a great time playing with these! They are constantly building cubby houses.Yesterday, they put on a long “show” for me. LDwas under the cubby (see the hand in the middlepicture) when suddenly an earthquake struck AND… eventually it turned into...
