Category: Must Read

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Science Experiments: Red Cabbage Indicator (Fun for Ages 4 and Up!)

  We did a lot of Montessori science when the older kids were little, so this is an experiment we did years ago. Now the older kids are studying chemistry and ED is the perfect age (4) to enjoy the action of this experiment. Using red cabbage juice as the indicator, you add various household ingredients and compare it to an acid-base chart to see where that particular item falls...

8-Year Old Dresses ‘In Character’ Every Day 0

8-Year Old Dresses ‘In Character’ Every Day

I loved the creativity of this 3rd grade girl who dresses as a new character every day. She gets her inspiration from books, people she learns about, and friends. Each day she dresses as someone new from Jane Goodall and Harriet Tubman to Emily Dickinson, Georgia O’Keefe and Hermione Granger. You can see photos and read more at CNN Living. We’ve been reading short biographical sketches of famous people from...

Why I Love Fall 1

Why I Love Fall

The Beautiful Colors Hot Apple Cider Pumpkin Muffins! Here’s a post where I share our pumpkin muffin recipe. We make these all year long, but they are especially wonderful in the fall! Fall Decorations Roasted Pumpkin Seeds! We make ours by rinsing the seeds well and removing any extra pulp. Then we add 2 teaspoons of olive oil per 1 1/2 cups or so of pumpkin seed. We spread it...

Sandy-Crisis Map — Finding Information about Storm Affected Areas (power, gas stations, food, images etc.) 0

Sandy-Crisis Map — Finding Information about Storm Affected Areas (power, gas stations, food, images etc.)

Sandy-Crisis Map After a nerve wracking wait, we got in touch with my step-Mom’s relative who got in touch with my folk’s pet-sitter who drove over to their house to find that my Dad and step-Mom are fine. They still don’t have power (they’re in the huge stretch of New Jersey and New York that is still out of power). If you want to check on your loved ones and...

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Pumpkin Pie Scented Playdough

The scent of this playdough brought even my 9-year-old running! So much for the schoolwork that was supposed to get done while ED was happily playing! I had to change course and do some read-alouds while the kids were occupied. Here’s how we made it: 1 cup flour 1/3 cup salt 1 1/2  tsp cloves 1 1/2 or 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar 1 Tablespoon...

Grammar Worksheets: Comma Rules 2

Grammar Worksheets: Comma Rules

After a couple weeks working on spelling, we’re now back to working on grammar for a week or two. We use the Write Source Skills Books as our spine. (They’re about $7.95 each.) This week LD needed a bit of review on all the rules for commas and I made up a number of review sheets for him. After printing out the pages, you need to cut the rules and sentences...

Power Finally Restored to Us… But Not For My Folks in NJ; How You Can Help Storm Victims 2

Power Finally Restored to Us… But Not For My Folks in NJ; How You Can Help Storm Victims

We had two days without power (heat, water or septic), but with all the preparations we had made (four huge storage tubs filled with water, two huge bags of ice in an ice chest to keep milk and stuff cold), we were able to treat it more like a camping trip and adventure for the kids. We pulled out the camping stove for coffee and heating up our meals (out...

The Hurricane Really Affects Our Area 0

The Hurricane Really Affects Our Area

The storm is really building up and gusts are expected to reach more than 70 or 80 mph here. As many of you know everything from the New York Stock Exchange to the Federal Government have shut down. All the public schools in our area are closed both today (Monday, as I write this) and tomorrow (Tuesday, when this will post). Already more than 10,000 people are without power in...

Bracing for Hurricane Sandy and Our School Plans for the Week 0

Bracing for Hurricane Sandy and Our School Plans for the Week

Like almost everyone on the East coast, we are getting ready for Sandy. My folks who live in central New Jersey got a call from their township that said,  “be prepared to live without electricity for two weeks…” The center of the storm looks like it will pass right over their house! We live nestled down in the woods so the most minor storm almost always causes our power to...

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Homemade Candy Corn Recipe

When we lived in Australia, we couldn’t buy candy corn. I looked around for a recipe and found something online that has worked well. Now it’s become our family tradition to make our own candy corn each fall! Here’s how we made it: We put these 3 ingredients in a saucepan: 1/2 cup sugar 1/3 cup corn syrup 2 1/2 Tablespoons butter As soon as I turned the stove on...

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Counting Halloween Kitties

ED is really enjoying those color in the bar-graph activities… so here are a few more, this time with Halloween kitties. I have them in her workbox and she can work on them when she’s interested (often when the other two are working on their math). I’m really enjoying the computer drawing pad! 🙂 If you’re interested in these sheets you can download the Counting Halloween Kitties If you missed...

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What Has My Preschooler Been Doing Lately?

I thought it was about time to write a post about how my preschooler spends her day. Free, Unstructured Play First of all, she spends a lot of time playing both indoors and out. Play helps kids learn to control their emotions and behavior. Play allows kids to be creative. It helps them learn discipline, resist impulses and develop resiliency. During make-believe play children engage in ‘private speech.’ They talk to...

Math Dice Game: Mmm Brains 0

Math Dice Game: Mmm Brains

With Halloween right around the corner it seems only fitting that I bring up this game, Mmm Brains. It sounds gruesome, but it’s really just a dice game which requires addition and multiplication.  It brings the kids running, so you can’t beat that, right?! This game has five dice with the numbers 1-5 and a brain on each side.  Then there are lots of counters (red brains=5 and white brains=1)....