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If your child is learning his or her times tables, there’s a wonderful video game you can download for them to practice. The graphics are great. Timez Attack — There’s a free version or you can purchase a version that has more levels. You should check it out if you haven’t already!
We are using the Five in a Row book list to add some spice to our children’s literature readings this summer and into the fall. We bought two of the FIAR curriculum guides (for vol. 2 and 3) and will use the other two lists as a reference to bring great books into the house. We also will be going through the children’s literature author’s list suggested by Lucy Calkins...
DD took a domino and created an addition problem writing it on her recording sheet. We used the domino recording sheet from Mathwire. You can find more domino math ideas on the investigating dominoes page and on this Mathwire page.There’s a cute activity also for addition called the domino parking lot with use with regular sized dominoes. ED simply counted the dots and put her wooden numbers on top of...
I made this a while ago, but never got around to introducing it to ED. It was a big hit the yesterday. Then DD came over and wanted to play. I had a number of extra eggs and ham without a letter on the reverse side, so they took turns trying to find the letter for their plate. If they got a blank egg or ham it was the other...
Goodness, we have been so busy here there’s hardly been any time to write. It’s the end of the semester and many of the kids’ (and my) activities are coming to a close. There have been extra practices and parties and we’re still doing our slow but steady homeschool stuff. Lots of books and lots of games this time of year! Plus we’re finishing up some old (unfinished) lapbook projects...
The kids are working on the different forms of to, too, two. Here’s a quick exercise I made for them. You can print this out here: to, too, two practice worksheets You can also find a free file folder game called “to,too,two much glue” at File Folder Fun which practices these same skills.
Plants, plants, plants!! That’s still the main focus of our homeschooling life. The kids are enthralled by the growing process this year. The kids tenderly attend to their plots in the garden. We watch each strawberry ripen eagerly. They rush to inspect the blueberries and peas forming! They help bring in the lettuce for our supper each evening.And, they/we are loving the Junior Master Gardener handbook — and are enjoying...
A few weeks ago we started using First Language Lessons. The kids — and DD (age 5) in particular — are enjoying it. We’ve memorized three poems and are enjoying the leisurely introduction to common and proper nouns. This curriculum suits us at this point. The lessons are in small bits (we spent about 10 minutes, but often do more than one lesson) and most importantly DD enjoys them a...
Math Monster: I spread out various cards for the kids — multiplication problems for LD, addition problems for DD and letters to identify for ED. I’m the math monster and try to tag the kids. If they don’t have a card they are frozen, if they have a card and can answer correctly they can go free (if they answer incorrectly they’re frozen as well). They can be unfrozen by...
I used the Beacon Second Reader with LD a couple of years ago. DD has been reading them aloud in the past few weeks. When I downloaded them a couple of years ago, I printed it all out. I got a Nook for my birthday, though, and decided to download the book right onto the Nook. Neat!! Anyway, these stories are at the perfect (if not a bit easy) level...
The main focus of our language arts is always reading — both independently and aloud together. I really feel there’s no better way to increase your vocabulary, learn about the eloquence of language. We talk about what we read, we memorize poetry and all that. But since we have some standardized testing coming up, we’re doing some more formal language arts review (thus all the worksheets). A quick, straightforward sheet...
I made some addition cards for DD this afternoon. We needed some new, more challenging addition cards to use with our ‘Fast Track’ board game. DD wanted flowers and butterfly cards, so I thought I’d give it a go. She declared that these were “beauuuuu – ti – ful.” Hope someone else can use them. Click here to view and print out the addition cards. If you want to print out...
Since my kids are learning a bit about the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas we decided to jump to South America with our world music class. We are enjoying music, geography and games from Mexico and South America. Here’s what we’re covered with our friends the past couple of weeks: *We all sing hello and each child chooses a movement for the rest of the group to follow. *I pull out...
I’ve been trying to pull out a few photos which highlight some of our activities this year (and in general). You’ll notice them in the sidebar to the right. If you’re interested in seeing more you can click on the photo and that will bring up posts from that particular unit.
