Christmas/December Ideas

I am so loving this being the month of December and Christmas. Time to dive into all the great Christmas crafts and lessons.

The Christmas Story Advent Coloring book from DLTK is a great hit here and we are just getting started on it.

First School has some great printable sheets for kids all themed for Christmas.

I found some coloring pages over here at coloring.ws.

I will definitely be updating this thread a lot as the days progress along!

Happy Learning!

Days of the Week songs....

Today is... (sung to Are You Sleeping?)

Today is ________ , today is ________
All day long, all day long. (motion hands like safe in baseball)
Yesterday was _________. (point behind with thumbs)
Tomorrow will be _________ . (shade forehead to look ahead)
Now we're done, oh, what fun! (clap)


And another popular one here

Days of the week song (sung to Oh my darling)

There are seven days, there are seven days
there are seven days in a week, there are seven days in a week
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Thursday, Friday, Saturday

We usually sing through this twice.

I am really concenetrating on the days of the week and the months of the year for my kids to learn right now. Just have to figure out how to do a decent calendar to use. Something I can make would be best.

Great website....

I found this neat website and do you know what is even neater about it.

you can play some of the games on the wii!!!! YEP! you heard me you can play them via your internet connection on the wii.

here is the website:

Arcademic Skill Builders

Gearing up for the Winter/Christmas Season...

My goal is to tomorrow sit down and firm up what crafts we are doing this year, get all the supplies needed together with instructions so I can just go into the box and pull things out one by one and do them with the kids. Alone with having all the coloring sheets printed and ready to go. This time of year is busy enough so to have it all organized would be a HUGE blessing! So get ready for some winter and Christmas fun stuff.

Dancing Raisins Experiment

Today we did a science experiment with raisins okay craisins but it still works like raisins. :)

I took a mason jar and put the craisins enough to cover the bottom. Then add 1 cup of water. nothing happened. Then we added 1/4 cup vinegar. After the vinegar we added 1 tsp of baking soda... and the water went cloudy and tons of bubbles started forming.

The craisins have tons of bubbles around them making them dance in the water. The bubbles make them more buoyant in the water kind of like a life jacket does with us in the water.

What is making the bubbles? The chemicals in viengar and baking soda make the bubbles on the craisins and then when the craisins get to the top the bubbles burst around them causing them to go back to the bottom until they have enough bubbles around them to go back up to the top again.

Some homeschool Humor!

Autumn Activities

Going to share some Autumn activities we are doing this October.

Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh, my it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"
Then Woooo went the wind
And OUT went the lights.
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.



APPLES

Apples here (point to yourself)
Apples there (point away)
Apples are growing everywhere (hands form a circle...the world)
Some are high (point up)
Some are low (point down)
You will see apples wherever you go (point to eyes)
Apples on the left (extend left arm)
Apples on the right (extend right arm)
You will see (point to eyes again)
Both day and night (Hands together and head down on them)

************************************

APPLE TREE
(sung to the tune twinkle, twinkle, little star)

Way up high in the apple tree (stretch arm up high)
Two red apples smiled at me (hold up 2 fingers)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (make a shaking motion)
Down came the apples, (make a downward motion)
Mmmm--were they good! (smile and rub stomach)




I'm a Little Apple
(sung to the tune I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little apple, short and round,
I make a munchy, crunchy sound,
If you bite into me you will see -
I'm delicious as can be!


************************************


Apples
(sung to tune of "Are you Sleeping?")

Picking apples
picking apples
one by one
one by one
Put them in a basket
Put them in a basket
Oh what fun!
Oh what fun!


************************************


Apples, Apples
(Tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle")

Apples juicy, apples round,
On the tree or on the ground.
Apples yellow, apples red,
Apple pie and juice and bread!
Apples crunchy, apples sweet,
Apples are so good to eat!

Weather Lapbook

Homeschool Share Lapbook Links
Weather Theme Arts and Crafts

Rain or Shine CD Craft

Weather Songs

Preschool Weather

Preschool Science Ideas

55 Preschool Weather Lessons

year 2009 - 2010 has started!

We had a really busy day on Wednesday so I thought I would wait until this morning to post about it what we did.

In the morning we attended an awareness event for FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder). Our miss mew suffers from this and it is important that we all take time out to try to prevent this from happening to another innocent child.

Now onto our homeschool stuff.... :)

We traced our hands and decorated them. Then cut it all up. :)

She absolutely loved this. This is one activity that we are for sure going to be doing lots of.

NGBTS "Not going back to school"

We attended a not going back to school picnic. It was held in a city nearby and since my husband was heading into the city for the day we thought we could drop him off and have some fun.

Well after dropping off our daughter at school... special art school she is 18 ... we ventured to the park. The picnic was okay I guess but my daughter seemed to be left out of stuff and things happened... her being attacked by a dog... marks on her face, neck, arms, legs, etc. Not a good day. I child painting on the back of my shirt. The list goes on.... we went to eat lunch and well there were way to many bees so we went to our van to eat... and then decided to just go for some ice cream and head back to my parents empty house. Not a very good day. Oh well maybe next time will be better.

New playroom...

With me looking after children during the week it made more sense to have a playroom upstairs where they come in so that children were not taking over my whole house and so that we could have our own area to keep just for us and miss mew for her special toys.

In the first picture you can see the a bit of the corner of a black shelving unit which houses bins filled with toys and play items. This is working out really well with the kids. I am loving the mess contained to the area too!

We often use the table for crafts as I have small chairs that go around it making it a perfect height for crafts and eating for the kids.

Here is the entrance... with the cubbies for shoes and other things. It really helps keep things tidy in my house. Also the bookcase in the background houses some homeschool items because I also homeschool my 5 year old.

2009-2010 Curriculum

Bible

• Family Time Bible in Pictures by Kenneth N. Taylor
  

Language Arts

• Learning to Read- "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons".
• Learning to Write - Manuscript lessons for "100 Easy Lessons" from DonnaYoung.org.
  

Finish up "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", and then move to other things.

• Reading - Sonlight P4-5 Curriculum
• Penmanship - Handwriting With Out Tears Kindergarten
  

Math

• printable worksheets
• number games

Science

• assorted science books
  

Life-Skills

• age appropriate life skills (cooking, laundry, cleaning, personal care, etc)
  

What will be in the workboxes??

This is a question that I am asked often when it comes to homeschooling my daughter. What am I going to put into her workboxes for school work this year. I am going to start a list and try ti keep the ideas flowing for her workboxes.

• file folder games
• colouring pages
• worksheets for math
• worksheets for printing
• reading book
• dice game
• domino math
• cookie sheet activities (magnetic letters)
• tangrams
• stringing beads and cards
• play dough
• paint by number
• name writing practice sheets
• cutting practice
• mazes
• dot to dots
• puzzles
• 
  

Themes for 2009-2010

I am so gearing up for this school year.

September
In the Barn Yard
All About Fall
I am Special (about me)
Creation Lapbook
Special Days: Labour Day (7th), Grandparents Day (13th)

October
Thanksgiving
Fire Safety
Scarecrow/Pumpkins
Special Days: Thanksgiving (12th), Halloween (31st)

November
All about Me
Five Senses
Colours
Special Days: Remembrance Day (11th)

December
Christmas
Gingerbread Man
Special Days: Christmas Eve (24th), Christmas Day (25th), New Years Eve (31st)

January
Let it Snow
The Snowy Day
Special Days: New Years Day (1st)

February
Friendship
Groundhog Day
Dental Health
Special Days: Groundhog Day (2nd), Valentine's Day (14th)

March
Kites
Dr Suess
Special Days: St. Patrick's Day (17th)

April
Easter
Earth Day
Special Days: April Fool's Day (1st), Easter (4th), Miss Mew's Birthday (14th), Earth Day (22nd)

May
Watermelon
What about Weather
Teddy Bears
Special Days: Mother's Day (9th), Victoria Day

June
Special Days: Father's Day

Homeschool Supplies... and wish list...

just putting a list of homeschooling supplies that I have in my homeschool or that are on my wish list.

• glue
• construction paper
• math manipulative's
  
• microscope
• magnify glass
• writing paper
• measuring spoons/cups
• coins
• library card
• pencils and erasers
• crayons
• markers
• paint and brushes
  
• wall maps and atlas
• stickers
• dictionary
• camera
• jump ropes
• hiking guide
• small white boards with markers

Can you think of any more???

Story Strips and Picture Cards

After doing much research and trying things that work for us. I am going back to using story strips and picture cards. Why did I stop using this? Good question... I guess on the quest to find something bigger and better I stopped using them. Why try to fix what is not broken? I ask myself this question all of the time. So back to story strips and picture cards we go. Sad thing is I can not find my old picture cards so I have to print out all new ones. :(

I have found some amazing links that I will share with you all here

The Internet Picture Dictionary
Autism Picture Cards
English Visual Images
Do 2 Learn Educational Resources

Re-vamping my homeschool situation for next year...

So I am re-vamping things... we are going to be using the workbox method when homeschooling. I plan to cover up some cereal boxes that will fit on my bookcase to start with... I hope to get this done in the next few days. I am really excited about this new adventure and it will be nice not to answer "are we done yet" every time we finish one assigned task. She will know that once her card if full she is done.

Don't get me wrong I am still going to use Sonlight P4/5 while homeschooling my daughter as well as other material I pick up and of course lots of crafts and lapbooks.

I do not have the workboxes book yet but I hope to get it soon but I know it will be a good fit for my daughter and me. Click here to find out more about the system.

I plan on looking for cereal boxes today and tomorrow I am sure we have a few in our recycle bin I can pull out and recover to make them pretty to go on my shelves in our kitchen for homeschooling. Did I mention how excited I am about this. :)

more pictures and info to follow as I get this up and running at our house.

Homeschool resources...

Spelling

Zaner Bloser's Spelling Connections

Math

Houghton Mifflin's Leveled Math Practice

I am still here....

I haven't forgotten about this blog but we have just been very busy. :)

I do plan to update it this week for those regular visitors I do apologize.

Valentine's Day Ideas

Crafts

Handprint wall hanging
cardboard tube cupid
pom pom critter
Valentine's Day T-shirt
Heart Pillows
Kids Valentine Hat
Using up candy canes
Valentine Printables
ABC Teach
edHelper Valentine's Stuff
DLTK's Valentine's links
Teacher Help

Winter Ideas

Just putting together some things for a winter lapbook to work on as well as worksheets to go with our home school curriculum.

Snowflake Designs

Beginners 1

Puzzles

maze
picture hunt




Coloring Pages

sled
snowman
penguin
skating
snowflake 1
snowflake 2
snowflake 3



Stories

The Mitten

Crafts

Paper Plate Snowman
Styrofoam Snowman
Snowmen Fence
Snowflake Mobile




Lapbooks

The Snowy Day
My Book of Winter Words
Winter Counting Book

Food

Snowflake Tortillas