Homeschool Den

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Category: Must Read

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Freebies / History: Africa Unit / Must Read

West African History – Free Notebook Pages, Africa Picture Books

We have spent two weeks learning about the history of West Africa.  The kids did a lot of different West African art projects and while they worked on those, I would read aloud to them. After the camel was introduced in the 7th century or so, West Africa began trading more and more with North Africa. West African gold, salt and slaves moved north, while goods, ideas and Islam came down...

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History: Africa Unit / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read

Geography of Africa–The Countries and Physical Features

Once again, we brought out our pin maps as we learned about the countries of West Africa. We used the flags of Africa from Montessori Materials  to create country pins for our pin map (African Flags-page 1;  African Flags-page 2). You can download and print out the map from the African Learning Pack I made back in September. I used a plain cork board underneath the map. As we were talking about the trade between...

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Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals

Earth Space Science: Topographic Maps

We read the second chapter in the geology book we have from Real Science 4 Kids.  It talked about the different tools that geologists use — including topographic maps.  I wasn’t sure the kids thoroughly understood how the maps worked and looked around for some resources to help them understand. I found a couple of wonderful activities! We actually started with this topographic map page from the USGS: I thought...

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Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Must Read / Science

Making Measurement Man – Our Measurement Unit on Gallons, Quarts, Pints, etc.

Last week we spent the week doing a brief unit on measurement — the imperial units.  We didn’t touch on the metric system at all.  I wanted the kids to come away knowing the basic facts like 16 tablespoons in a cup and 4 quarts in a gallon. Day 1: I brought out a number of different bottles, cups and measuring spoons and the kids and I went over what...

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Arts and Crafts / History: Africa Unit / Must Read

African Art Projects – Moroccan Tiles, African Masks, African Music

This year we have been studying world cultures focusing primarily on Africa.  We started out with some basic facts about Africa and then moving on to Egypt including a study of Ancient Egypt.  From there we studied the Islam and its history.  We learned about the spread of Islam and moved on to a study the countries of northern Africa.  We looked at some of the beautiful examples of Moroccan...

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Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Must Read

Grammar Practice: Possessive Nouns and Pronouns

A couple of days ago I went over possessive nouns and pronouns with the kids. This is a practice sheet I made for them. The second page has a couple of interesting tidbits about Australian wildlife that I thought the kids wouldn’t remember (the kids were all born in Australia). I shared a little bit about termite mounds, the cane toad and quolls… all critters you don’t hear that much...

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Freebies / Must Read / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals / Trips We've Taken

Minerals — Our Hands Activities, Seeing the BIGGEST Diamond in the World and more!

We finished up our close look at the three types of rocks and moved on to minerals. Last summer I bought a couple extra bags to pan for rocks and minerals when we were at an amusement park.  I saved it just for this unit and the kids loved it!!  It was a bit chilly out, so we had to use a big plastic bin in the bathroom rather than...

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Homeschool Den / Must Read / Running

My Awesome 1/2 Marathon Weekend in Washington DC

While last weekend was terrific because of all the things I accomplished inside the house, this weekend was wonderful because I reached a big personal goal… I ran a half-marathon down in Washington D.C. It was SO fun!  Plus, the family did some fun (educational) sight-seeing. I ran the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 marathon.  It was jam packed with people and music and had bands and cheering people all along the course...

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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read / Workboxes

Being Realistic about Spring Cleaning – Chores and Organizing

This past week we’ve done a heap of fun activities, but I’ve been spending most of my spare time — not blogging — but doing some spring cleaning and organizing.  I was in the mood to put some music on and clean… but to be honest, I get overwhelmed by those long, long, looonnnnngg spring cleaning lists.  To make sure I’m feeling good about the process I make sure I...

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Freebies / History: World Religions / Homeschool Den / Must Read

Learning about the New Catholic Pope

I felt it was important to talk to the kids a bit about the newly elected pope, Pope Francis. We’ve been listening to the news and talking about it a bit, but I wanted to go into a little more detail tomorrow morning and made some pages for them to add to their history notebook. We are not Catholic, but Grandma is. My Mom died a couple of years before LD...

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Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool Den / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read

Preschool Math Activities (K4) – Montessori Math and More

It has been ages and ages since I’ve written about ED’s math activities.  A lot of ED’s math happens naturally over the course of the day — counting objects in a picture book, counting by 2s, 5s and 10s when we brush teeth and do dental floss, counting money together, looking at numbers at the store, in books, etc.  Numbers are a part of daily life and we take advantage...

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Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read

St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Math Game

I made these game boards for ED.  It’s a race to 50 (or a race to 100). Print out one game board for each player.  The players take turns rolling the die (use a 20-sided die in the race to 100) and covering the squares on their game board with tokens. The first to cover their entire game board wins the game. You can download these free: St Patricks Day...

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Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read

St. Patrick’s Day Activities

This activity was a huge hit with ED this past week.  I chose some words from ED’s phonics readers and wrote them out on some shamrocks and taped them on popcycle sticks.  I covered an empty cereal box with construction paper and wrote the words out on the box as well and used a knife to create a slit for the Popsicle sticks. I sat with ED each time she...

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Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Rocks and Minerals

Sedimentary Rock Activities

Another day we read about sedimentary rocks in our books and filled in a bit of information in the  boxes on the sedimentary rock page, Three Types of Rocks Packet.  I brought out our rock collection. We had several different types of sedimentary rocks and the kids had to determine whether they were sandstone, limestone or shale by feeling the rock and grains.  We also filled in the next parts of...