Weather Investigation

During the big storm (OK, so it was just big to us Northwester's who are not use to much) I took the opportunity to include it in school and have Handsome do some weather investigation.

An idea I got from the Charlotte Mason Companion book by Karen Andreola, was to have a dark cloth and catch snowflakes on it, then have the kids look at the snowflakes with a magnifying glass.  After, they drew their observations in their nature journal.  Handsome also wanted to go out and "investigate" the icicles, and then he drew pictures of them in his nature journal.

Another fun thing that I remember doing when I was in..., I think 3rd grade, was the teacher sending a child or two out in the snow to measure it with a ruler.  I had to let Handsome have the same experience.  So we made a snow chart and Handsome would measure the snow and come in and record the information on his chart.

It was fun having the snow and ice, and using it as a learning experience, as well as learning about electricity when the power went out.  Can I just say I am so happy to be homeschooling, I know it is not for everyone and many moms do the things I do on top of sending their kids to public school.  Me, I love the time with the kids and I love teaching them.  This is just what we need to be doing right now.

Grandma Cooking Class: Chocolate Cake Balls

In November, Grandma Carol taught Handsome and Gorgeous how to make chocolate covered cake balls.  Yum!  So apparently you bake a cake, crumbling it up, mix in frosting, make the mixture into balls, freeze, and then melt chocolate and roll the frozen cake ball in chocolate and let it harden up.  It was a hit.  (Too bad I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, sorry)  Thanks again Grandma Carol.

Thanksgiving Educational Website

I discovered this educational website about the first Thanksgiving, or as they call it, the Harvest Festival of 1621.  It is an interactive educational tool for children, I would guess, geared for kids in third to sixth grade.  But I LOVED it for myself, and we are using it for Handsome.  Thought I would share it with you.

It is here.  Check it out!

Portable Growth Chart

I saw a tutorial for a growth chart here.  And I loved it.  I loved the idea of a portable growth chart, because well, I knew we would not be in the same house forever, yet I wanted a cute way to mark how tall my little ones were getting.  So I made one up, and added it in to our social studies unit about "myself" learning about height and a little of math with measurement.  Mine is not as cute as the lady's on Whipper Berry, but I still like it, maybe the idea more than my creative talent. :)  I only did one for the family and am using key tags and writing in different colors for each kid (Handsome is blue, Gorgeous is pink, Adorable is green).  Then if/when we move I will just take it with us. :)

Rainbow Writing

Handwriting is an important part of school, though not as much fun as some things.  Ok, well... really it is at the bottom of the fun list.  However, I have found a way to add a little more excitement to it.  I learned about it while I taught Kindergarten.  Another teacher told me her trick and I used it then, and continue with Handsome.  I call it "Rainbow Writing."  I let Handsome write with markers (a special privilege in our house) and pick a new color for each line of writing he does.  He can pick any color, yet he often chooses to make it the actual colors of the rainbow. 

Also, I have to put a little plug out there for the Handwriting curriculum I found at .... Walmart.  Yes, Walmart!  My sister-in-law told me about it.  It is the Mead Writing Fundamentals workbooks they have in their learning section.  I like that they tell fun stories for how to form the letters.  That they do all capitals first, one complete book.  Then they do the lowercase in a different book and compare them to the capital letters, plus they help the kids know where the lowercase letter goes by defining the three different areas as the "sky", "grass", and "dirt."  So I just reiterate with Handsome that the "w" has to touch the top of the grass and the bottom of the grass, but make sure it doesn't go into the sky or dirt.  We are having good success with it.  We also have the "Number Stories" which I like.  Some of the pages we have skipped, but most are good, especially the number formation lessons.

Grandma Cooking Class

A new class was added to our homeschooling.  Cooking class.  And of course why not make it even better by inviting Grandma Carol to come and teach it.  It was a hit, and fun was had by all. 

I hope to have our "Grandma Cooking Class" once a month.  Thanks Grandma Carol!

Happy Columbus Day!!

So today is the actual Columbus day to commemorate Columbus landing on San Salvador in the Bahamas, October 12, 1492.  We did do our activities on Monday and Tuesday, but I don't feel late at all posting all we did today since it is the REAL Columbus Day. :)

When I started Home school I was confident in reading, writing, and math.  I was worried about the Social Studies and Science.  But I have found that those areas are where we are having the most fun!

We spent the entire day on Monday learning about Christopher Columbus and his first voyage.  First we made "sailor hats" to start off the day.  I got my sailor hat directions from DLTK's Crafts for kids.

Next, we learned about the three ships the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  We learned that the Santa Maria was the flag ship that Columbus sailed on, as well as a lot of other cool things about the ships.  Then we painted egg carton cups to make the three ships.  I even glued two egg cartons together to make the Santa Maria, since it was the flag ship and bigger than the other two.

It was so cool making these ships.  Handsome did the painting, but I did make the sails, maybe next year he'll be old enough to do them.  Then he put a little play dough at the bottom, stuck in the sails, and there you go.  I got the idea from here.

Then we took a break from projects, we read and learned more stories about Christopher Columbus and his voyage.  Then we also read 1 Nephi 13:12.  We talked about how Nephi saw Columbus many years before he traveled to America.  And how Columbus was lead by the Spirit of God to the Lamanites.  How wonderful to be able to use the Scriptures in teaching.

We learned about Columbus's first voyage.  We learned that he sailed to the Canary Islands, then went out into the water, not seeing land for a long time, longer than anyone had done before, and the sailors threatened mutiny.  Columbus convinced them to go 2 or 3 more days and if there was not land they would turn around.  But of course they found The Bahamas, which Columbus thought was Asia.

We learned that the Santa Maria was destroyed on Christmas Day, while there in the New World.  So they sailed back with just the Nina and the Pinta.  But there was a storm and they were separated.  The Nina arrived at the Azores and waited 10 days, no sign of the Pinta.  Then they went to Lisbon and waited there for 10 days, still no sign of the Pinta.  They then went to the home port of Palos and within hours the Pinta also arrived safely.  What a cool story!

We painted the journey.  I got the idea from here.  I had so much fun I couldn't resist and had to do one myself, and of course Handsome did his, drawing the ships and labeling the lands as well. 

Then there was time to "play with all their new ideas!" and build their own boat to go sailing in and discover new lands.

And lastly everything got set out on our learning table.  I'm still playing with this.  I want a place to display all the cool things Handsome learns and makes.  This may be the place....we'll see.

School Time: Calendar

As I have started Homeschooling I've felt the need to start writing little blogs about what we do for school.  Hopefully this may help others who are thinking of homeschooling themselves, or at the very least, give a glimpse into what we are doing.

Each morning when school begins the first thing I do is "Gorgeous' Reading Time".  At this time I get to pick out 3 picture books and call it Gorgeous special reading time.  Gorgeous gets dibs on my lap.  Handsome always sits next to me and listens as well, but I make sure Gorgeous knows that this is HER special time with me.  This makes it easier to work one on one with Handsome as I can remind her that she already got her one on one special time.

Then we do the pledge of Allegiance and then on to the Calendar.

Calendar Time:

1) Handsome and/or Gorgeous (she has a choice to join us or not) count the number of the days, find the correct next number and place it on the calendar.

2) Gorgeous sings with me to figure out what day of the week it is.  (Handsome already can read the day and knows all the days of the week.)

3) We say the date all together.  It goes something like this; "Today is Wednesday, September 14th 2011."

4) Then Handsome has to figure out what day was Yesterday and what day is Tomorrow.

5) If there is a special holiday or birthday, Handsome has to do a count down and let me know how many more days there are.

Handsome has been doing "Calendar Time" for the last year, so he has it down.  So recently I have been adding additional questions such as: "How many days are in a week?"  "What day comes after Tuesday?"  "What day comes before Sunday?" etc.

 When have these cool count down blocks we use for birthdays.  I want to make more for Holidays.. but wonder if by the time I get to it, we may not need them. :)

Handsome has to write the month each time we change months.  As we move on, I have put the old month on the side of the calendar.  So randomly we sing the month song and I then ask him questions such as; "How many months in a year?"  "What month comes before September?"  "What month comes after April?" etc.  (and you'll see Gorgeous' months up there too above her head.)

It seems like a lot, but really it is all done in a matter of minutes.

Crane Flies = Science

With TONS of crane flies all around us, what is a home schooling mama to do?  Make it a science lesson of course.  When they were on the windows we observed them closely, made sketches of them in our science journals.  And read and learned about them.  Did you know that adult Crane Flies do not eat!?  So they can not bite (good news for Gorgeous who was a little worried).  And we learned how to tell a female from a male.  So every time after when we saw one Handsome had to identify for me if it was a male or female.  Really, who knew science lessons would come so easily. :)

First Day of School

Handsome and I have been looking forward to this day for awhile.  Finally, his first day of school.  He was so excited that he woke up and immediately got dressed and was ready.  (He had his outfit picked out days in advance)

I hoped that Handsome wouldn't be disappointed with his first day.  We had actually been doing a lot of school work here and there because I wanted to established expectations before Adorable was born, so that it wouldn't be so hard to start right in and yet work around a baby's schedule. 

Luckily he wasn't disappointed at all.  He was so excited to finally get to see, touch, and well... dive right into the school things that have been arriving at our home the last few weeks.

Let me back up for those who don't know what I am doing for Handsome's Kindergarten school year.  I actually have him signed up with an Alternative Learning Program option that our state offers.  He is a public school student with a School District but he is taught by me at home.  Basically I get to home school him but the public school buys me the curriculum and learning supplies I choose to use.

I knew I would home school no matter what, but this solves the money problem.  I choose the curriculum and what he will be taught, and report to a teacher and show his progress during the year and they buy the materials, etc. I want.

So for our first day of school we started with a prayer and scripture reading (OK, we do this every morning anyways).

Then a yummy breakfast of scones and jam (thanks to my visiting teachers for the scone mix.  LOVED IT!).

Next calendar, and counting school days, then the usual reading lessons, writing lessons.  Then a lunch break with some science. :)

We had yummy watermelon for lunch.  We observed the watermelon, cut it into pieces and enjoyed it on our driveway as we learned how to spit watermelon seeds (every child should have a fun watermelon spitting contest memory!).  After we enjoyed lunch, we measured the distances of the seeds, recorded the furthest seed distance, and where most seeds ended up, etc.  It was a blast!  Then we recorded the data in our science journals.  I am so glad I get to still enjoy summer with my kids (especially since it feels like it finally got around to summer in our part of the world) and have them in school learning at the same time. :)

Then we finished the day with a read aloud, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, followed that evening with soccer and a game of catch with dad in the backyard.

I was worried about making sure we met the required 2 hours a day of non-religious learning, but we easily did it and actually spent much more time. :)

At dinner I asked Handsome how he liked his First Day of School.  He loved it, but next time wants friends to come too.  Soon we will be signing him up for soccer, between that and play dates in the park I hope to fill his friend quota as well. :)

As for me, well, I have realized that I have just taken on another full time job!  I am tired at the end of the day and realize, I have to get things ready for the next day of learning, let alone do the tidying up of the house, laundry, church calling, etc.  not to mention that knitting project that is started and begging for me to get to before the book has to go back to the library.  This will be another thing to add to my list of responsibilities, but for me, well worth it!