Garden

So, this is our first really big garden.  Our first garden in our new house.  About 40 foot rows, I'd say.  Two of them now contain seed potatoes.  One-broccoli.  Half rows each of carrots, onions, green leaf lettuce  and spinach.   Yippee!!!!  We are sooo excited.  I also must say that I have a fabulous set of neighbors.  Mr. L has been plowing our ground for us for several weeks to get it ready.  He also did the potatoes, all we had to do was prep them and put them in the row.  He ran through it and  did all the hard work.  Soooo thankful!  Now, we've begun to pray for rain and for the Lord to bring His harvest.

Five in a Row ~ Miss Rumphius Day 3

Here we are, Day 3  with Miss Rumphius from Five in a Row .   Just after our family Bible reading was over, dd5 asked to read to us.  So she did:)  I love it.  She remembers most of what's happening on each page and tells the story (narration) as she shows us the pictures.  It's such a sweet minute in the morning.

Next we got started by reading our book, Miss Rumphius and learning about bushel and peck measurements.   She sure had a LOT of seeds to sow!  Since it isn't lupine planting season just yet, we 'planted' our own.  I used large packing paper (just because I had it from our recent move) and  each child used finger/thumb prints to creat lupines to scatter about their "lane".  There is a separate little hallway to the children's bedrooms, so they'll be able to enjoy their own work.

We also re-placed our story disk, this time letting our youngest do that.  And she remembered!  We did copywork from the story as well as discussion of deserts.  I have to do plenty of animal studies for my boys.  They love animals, especially snakes and such.  I couldn't just mention things that live in deserts or something about a desert where Miss Rumphius might have visited.  I have to go all the way.  For them. :) 

I have these little habitat books called, "One Small Square".  This one is about deserts.  LOTs and lots of cool info there for guys.  Here, at the end of the book is a matching page.  Nate is trying to find some creatures whose silhouettes must be matched with the actual picture in the 'one small square' that he read about.

We also did a few math word problems that go along with the story from the Homeschoolshare site.  We only did three of those today.  I will pick and choose a few per day, since we do our regular math text throught the week for 2nd grade.  My K student did the counting for us as we did the figures on those problems ;)

Yes, we add a little extra to FIAR.  Not a whole lot, just enough to expand and go a little further.  Honestly, we have to school for 4.5 hours here and it makes those  hours a little more fun!

Five in a Row ~ Miss Rumphius Day 2

Miss Rumphius, Day two was a hit!  We began with reading  the story.  We discussed personification.  We also did a little seed graph worksheet that I took from an Old, out of print teacher's science book of worksheets.  They loved coloring the seeds and graphing them.  It was very simple, and my 2nd grader did help out my K student.  He got a chance to lead/teach, too.

Also, we read through the page on plants and seeds from a text that we had around here.  I'm not a fan of texts for a whole lot.  I just did it because it had some cool pictures in it and it told the children to soak a few beans in water to see them sprout.  So they did.  They had to read and follow directions for themselves and they were all too happy to do so!. 

Then, we took a brief walk outside for a nature walk.  We discussed a few plants whose seeds spread by wind.  I am ashamed to say that I don't know what they are yet because we've only lived here a few months and we have yet to see a full bloom of all that is growing in our yard.  But we could see that the seeds would drop and fly away.  They also discussed that they had seen a few 'hitchhikers' on the dog the other day.  And of course, how birds  help to displace seeds as well. 

We checked our seeds that were planted but nothing has come up yet so patience will be the theme there. 

Most of these activities today had no paperwork involved.  FIAR really can be a simple way for your children to learn. 

Bugs

They grow REALLY BIG down here.  What is this???

More Math Tools

My first post on my simple math tools is here, if you want to see another nifty manipulative I use. 
I frequent my local Dollar Tree for little stuffs for my homeschool.  I try to think outside the box whenever I can.  Here, we use a simple chalkboard that came with some kit or another and some $1 dominoes.  This is what I did today, but you could work up to it if you are working with younger children than mine.
1.  Choose a domino (eyes closed, child or adult.
2. Child counts the dots on it.  (As they get older, they will be able to identify visually more quickly)
3.  Mom writes number on chalkboard-two or three times slowly-child watches.
4. Child traces Mom's writing.
5. Child creates own writing. 

* Same could be done with letter tiles/Scrabble pieces that are lying around or at yard sales, etc..

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

Math Tool

Math has always been one of my least favorite subjects...except for maybe geometry, since quilting is all about geometry...yes! geometry is math and I love it...but "other" math-not so much.  But, with three children already under my belt, I felt that I could easily skip out on "formal" math for K since I kinda know what to expect.  So, here is a peek at one of my new found tools :)

These small magnets are pretty strong and there are 50 or so in a pack. (Yes, they are a choking hazard!!)  I used them with an old baking pan to do various activities on the preschool level.  Sorting, colors, etc.  Now we do counting, using them to make numbers, patterns, etc...the possibilities are endless. AND!  They stay on the fridge so they don't need their own space in the learning room:) That's one of the best parts of all!

Here are some things that come to mind right off:
*Create letter shapes, eventually spell short words with them
*Use them for addition/subtraction problems (ex.:  two green plus two yellow and let them count it up).
*Create shapes
*Sort colors
*Fraction usage (using contrasting colors at first then moving toward all one color would be helpful in determining fractions)
*They could also make their own "star chart" if you use that type of thing for reward/motivational purposes.
*Create number shapes, counting exercises

There are endless possibilities with these little doo-dads! They are one of my favorite inexpensive teaching tools.

Brother and Sister Fun

The Great Wall Project

Using Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler. We did not glue it so that they could play with the bricks to build things for Lego men :)

More on Teeth

With all the snow we've been having, running otu to gather supplies was not on my list. So, I made my own play dough. That was actually kinda fun. A project--just for Me!
Anyway, I had the children to make models of their teeth when studying the anatomy of a tooth.

In Our Homeschool....Teeth and the Tooth Fairy

Now, I'm so sure that this must only be of interest to a very slight few……but we have had quite a few teeth flying around our house for the last, oh, say 5 years!! This was an easy and fun unit to do since we only had a few legitimate school days until we are done for the year.

Even taking plenty of snow breaks, we were able to finish it in about four days. We learned soo much about teeth and the customs that other countries hold with regard to children losing their teeth. It was very, very interesting. If you read the books in order and do the lessons in relatively close order of how they are presented, it comes together nicely. This study is FREE from Homeschool Share!

First, we started our days with Geography. There was sooo much geography involved that we had to break it up and do some map searches every day. I printed out these little clipart pieces and the children would hunt for the places I called out. For the 7 yr old, I provided the continent as well as the country. The olders had to search a bit before I would give them the continent.

We did the egg/vinegar/soda experiment. All through the day, the kids couldn't help but to walk by and touch or dunk the egg back down into the vinegar. :) The egg in the soda sank and stayed there. But the one in vinegar dipped and danced a little.

We have now posted charts for every single child and they have been diligently checking off when their dental duty is done!