The January winds blow...

And I resurface...

We had a wonderful Christmas together.

School has been back in full swing for a few weeks now. I readjusted some things in our daily routine. My nine year old, Bethany is now doing Bob Jones Reading. Mostly, I am a unit study, pull together my own thing, kind of girl. However, I needed to have something all planned out for me to ensure she's getting everything she needs. It's working well so far, and I was able to borrow everything except the consumable from a friend of mine. I've also gone back to daily check-off sheets and hopefully our workboxes will be resurrected for Trenton and "Muffin" (the little 4 year old I babysit).

Edited to add: Okay, so now it's February 1st and this little post has been in my drafts waiting to be finished. ack! Posting now and writing a new one for today. :)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

So far, I've only been able to keep up with posting the preschooler's school plans. Really, I'm doing schoolwork with the other 3 (1st grade, 4th grade and 10th grade), I just can't figure out time to write about it all. Anyway, our next book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Here are some of the ideas I've collected for the next two weeks:
Confessions of a Homeschooler has these printables 
1+1+1=1 shared this cute lapbook
Making Learning Fun posted ideas and some printables to use with the book
I Heart Crafty Things has two great ideas--magnetic letters on a baking sheet and a snack
The Crafting Chicks posted this cute idea for making a mini coconut tree out of an empty toilet paper roll.
Click here for a freebie download for a fun game from Peace, Love and Learning.
I made our own coconut tree out of tag board and lowercase alphabet stickers. I crafted the coconuts out of brown paper bag circle cut-outs stuffed with a bit of cotton. 
Lastly, we are going to make a coconut dessert on the last day...I think I'm going to use this recipe from AllRecipes.com

I'm excited about using this book with Alea...she so fun to teach and she loves school!

Blueberries for Sal

We had a great study of We're Going on a Bear Hunt! The little girl I watch LOVED the video of the author reading the book. By the end of the 5 days (which is two weeks for us--two days one week and three days the next) she had the book memorized. very cute!

For the next two weeks, we are going to "row" Blueberries for Sal. Here are some resources I found for this book.

• Literature Based Themes: Robert McCloskey This site has some great links to good ideas. We are SO making blueberry paint! :) 
• my favorite...Homeschool Creations printables 
• Blueberry Crumble {!!}

The only big downside is that this isn't really the right time of year to go blueberry picking. :( So I'll get some at the store and we'll make blueberry pancakes and muffins, etc. Won't be exactly the same, but we'll still have fun.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

With as long as it's been since I've posted, you may think I've already been on a bear hunt! Really, I have so much I want to post, I just can't seem to find time to do it. I am working on sticking to my schedule and hopefully, once I get into a routine, I will have time for some other things that I really enjoy doing.

I am homeschooling 10th grade, 4th grade, 1st grade and Pre-K this year. The youngest one is a girl that I've watched since she was a tiny baby. She LOVES doing school and I'm really excited to do Before Five in a Row with her.

This week we've started We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Here are some resources and printables I've found to go along with the story.
A video of the author telling the story:



Homeschool Share--lapbook for this story
Homeschool Creations printables for this story
Printables from Sparkle Box
For some fun snacks we are going to have Teddy Grahams, Gummi Bears and chocolate pudding (for the mud, of course!) I'll have to spread out the snacks during this week...don't want her to have too much sugar all at one time.

Hopefully soon I will be able to post about what I'm doing with the other kids. We started school on August 22, so we are still working hard to be diligent and consistent.

Off I go, to do more printing and preparing!
Thanks for sticking with me!

Preparing for Montana State Study

I've finished preparing for the Pacific Coast States: Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska. Now I'm moving on to the Rocky Mountain States starting with Montana.

For all 4 of the Pacific Coast States I really liked the HomeschoolShare printable lapbook pieces.  So, I will continue to print these and use them for these states as well.

I found this mini unit on Montana from diyhomeschooler. 

SchoolExpress has these printables for Montana (and other states as well.)

Lots of fun Cantering the Country!

Planning for NEXT Year!

Well, we are finishing up school for this year. We'd gotten a little behind on Math, so we've pushed through the month of June and now into July trying to get finished. I'm letting myself start to plan for next year {I had to make myself wait because I LOVE the planning part--it's the carrying out part that is hard for me.}

So, here is the beginning plans for Trenton {1st grade} and Bethany {4th grade}::
Cantering the Country
Five in a Row {Volume 2 selected books}

We are going to read Gramma's Walk.
And we will study Washington State.

Here are some resources I've found for Gramma's Walk:
Oceans of the World map (so far, I'm just using this one lapbook piece from this unit.)
Lapbook for Gramma's Walk

Here are some resources I've found for Washington State:
US Geography Resources
Enchanted Learning--Washington
Official Washington State site--with coloring pages, activity book, etc.  

For this coming year, I'm doing our lapbook/unit studies a bit different. Last year, I printed out resources, put them in a folder and several folders remain untouched. :( SO, this year, I'm printing out everything, cutting it all out, pasting it on cardstock paper and binding it together. Then when we do the study, the kids will decorate the title pages, fill in the mini books and learn, learn, learn. :) I'm excited to see if we have more success doing it this way. {Not to worry about the untouched folders; I imagine they will be used before it's all said and done.}

I'd love to hear how others organize, plan and carry out their homeschooling...so please, feel free to leave a comment!

yet another giveaway

I really like Freely Educate's website. I subscribe to her posts so they come right to my email inbox--it seems easier to keep up with her free finds. This time it's a giveaway...Friendly Chemistry. {just a note::doesn't "friendly chemistry" seem like a wild oxymoron?? ha!}

Anyway, hope over to her site and sign up for the giveaway if you need the subject of Chemistry to be Friendly! 

January's Blowing By

I enjoy blogging, trying to find time to blog...I do not enjoy. Some exciting things are taking place around here and I wanted to tell you about them.

Today, I have time at home with no "outside the home" commitments. You may not think that is very exciting, but really, it is! I've been extremely busy in-and-outside our home and that's has made it difficult to get my lesson plans ready for my kids. I've been wingin' it in school since the beginning of January---I do NOT like doing that. So, today, I'm getting myself ready for at least this coming week--and maybe even the rest of the month!

• After looking at this curriculum on Confessions of a Homeschooler, since August, I finally bought it over Christmas! Yippee!! Even though much of it is too easy for Trenton (5.5 years old), it works great with the two preschoolers that I watch. 
• Bethany (my 8.5 year old) "lost" her math book, yep, how convenient, right?? Actually she is very organized and keeps good track of her things. We have no idea where the math book has gone...So a friend told me that on the Math-U-See website, you can generate worksheets for certain lessons (it looks like the even numbered lessons.) You can also generate an answer key. I've already gone and printed off a week's worth of lesson problems.
• I taught a lapbook workshop for a homeschool group on Sunday. The workshop went fine--the greatest treat was meeting a blogger that I follow--Shannon from Song of My Heart! She is sweet, sweet, sweet! It was so fun to meet her and I'm praying that a friendship will grow {as God allows}.
• This week was our monthly local homeschool meeting and our speaker talked about learning styles and modalities. It was fascinating! I'm working through my notes from that evening and thinking about how to apply some of what I learned. Trenton needs to be active while learning. When I saw these Education Cubes, I wished desperately that I'd thought of this idea!! I placed my order for the cubes (on Amazon) and purchased a membership to the Education Cubes site which will give me access to all the printables she makes for the cubes. 
• I've committed to reading the Bible in 90 Days. yeah, I know. But I'm determined to do it! I'm a couple days behind, however that is not deterring me. My big goal is to get caught up this weekend. Feel free to ask me how it's going any time between now and March.

Okay, well I'm off and running, printing, planning, laminating and so on and so on. 

some cute stuff

Mama Jenn's blog has some really cute stuff on it lately. Puff ball magnets?! And Education Cubes...neat!

I'm preparing for a lapbook workshop that I'm doing for a local homeschool group; but I can't wait to make these puff ball magnets!!

What have you been up to lately?

the gift that will keep giving

I just purchased my Christmas gift!! A Scotch Thermal Laminator is on its way to my house! And folks, it may not make it under the tree. Right now, only today, this laminator is only $16.99. Huge deal, and I'm so thankful that my hunny said to go ahead and get it. Yippee!!

Thanks to Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1 for the great tip this morning! And thanks to my friend, E. for sharing her Amazon Prime so that I got the shipping free.

Christmas Links

T working on his letter recognition paper

I wanted to share some links that I've been using for PreK/K during this Christmas season. These ladies are so talented and I love it that they share so many resources freely.
1+1+1=1 Christmas Fun

Homeschool Creations:
Gingerbread Baby Lapbook
Nativity Preschool Pack

Confessions of a Homeschooler
Preschool Christmas Activities

Here's one I found, but haven't used yet:
2 Teaching Mommies--Nativity

What fun things have you been doing this December??

Pirate Resources

As I said yesterday, my son is loving studying about pirates! He has been asking to do school...gotta love that!

Here's my list of resources:
First my favorite--Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations has a very cute--I mean--hearty lapbook for free. I used her book list and found several of the books at the library. Unfortunately I didn't find "On a Pirate Ship", however the other books are serving us well.

Print Activities.com has a nice list of piratey coloring pages.

We are going to listen to some Patch the Pirate.

Homeschoolshare.com has a pirate lapbook with other resources listed.

I'm thinking of having a Pirate Party--just for fun! We'll have cheese and crackers and chicken (legs, of course!) And I'm going to make a treasure map for him to follow to find the "buried treasure". We'll end the evening by watching Veggie Tales, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything."

I'll be sure to post pictures (as long as our camera doesn't go on the fritz again.)
See you later, matey!

Note: image from thepickards.co.uk

Piratey Post

My youngest child is a boy, 5 years old. After having two girls, raising him has been different. (I realize I'm stating the obvious!) Anyway, I'm getting ready to study pirates with him...yeah, I never studied pirates with his sisters! :)

Tonight I read him a pirate book while he colored a pirate picture. Then while I was cleaning up the kitchen, he climbed into my bed to finish his coloring. I came in the room and said (mustering up my best piratey voice), "Shiver me timbers, who is in my bed?" And without missing a beat, he said, "It's the pirate from the Seven Seas!"

Soon I'll share the resources I've found and my ideas for a pirate themed supper! Now I've got to finish swabbing the deck.

A Week of Letter H

This week we have worked on the letter "H/h".

Here are some of the resources we've used:
First School Letter H printables
Kids Zone Beginning Consonant Sound worksheet H


Here are pictures from some extra activities we did. T is working on matching upper case and lower case letters along with matching the picture with what letter it starts with. He is doing very well. I made activity from the free printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler printables. It is called the A-Z Beginning Sounds Game.



Here is A. (she comes to our house for child care/preschool two days a week. She completed the preschool activity "Shades of Color" from Walking by the Way's preschool activity bag ideas.


Some activities we did for the letter H:
Trace hand prints, cut out and make turkeys for Thanksgiving
Hopping around the living room (for a long time to make them tired!)


I had them hop on left foot, then right foot, then both feet all while saying "H" and the sound /h/ makes.

I'd intended to let them paint their hand prints, but the week got away from us.

We are so thankful for a good week! Head over to Homeschool Creations for more great preschool/kindergarten ideas!

Two Tidbits

Happy Monday Morning! Before my day gets too far underway I wanted to share two things: a book I'm reading and a handwriting website.
First the book: Humility: True Greatness by CJ Mahaney
I've read the book once straight through, now I'm going to read it again and take notes. I find I learn better and retain it better that way. So many good truths and practical suggestions in this relatively short book!
Here is a review of the book by a blogger that I do not know, but I thought the review was good.

Second the website: Meacham Handwriting I have been teaching my 5 yo (plus the 3 and 4 year olds that I babysit) how to write the letters of the alphabet. We've also been working on the sounds the letters make and overall have been having FUN doing it. I saw an idea for "gel tracing" on my FAVORITE homeschool blog E.V.E.R. and googled "gel tracing" to see if I could make my own gel packs. The Meacham Handwriting site came up and I liked the ideas right away. So, I'm off to try to make my own gel pack using hair gel, food coloring and a zip-lock baggie.

It's time for SCHOOL!

This week was our first week of Kindergarten (for my youngest, T) and Preschool (for a 3 yo and 4 yo that I babysit.) Honestly the week didn't work out like I'd dreamed it would (you know, in my head it all works out GREAT!) I made the plans, cut out the shapes, bought the supplies and prayed for good days. The other thing I have to confess is that it was MY boy that made the worst trouble--whining, pouting, arguing. I felt like each task took 3 times as long because he wasn't going with the flow! I did not give up and the Lord indeed gave me strength. It's Friday and today was better!!

Our theme for this week was the sun.
Our color for this week was yellow.
Our shape for this week was a circle.
Our Bible story emphasis was Creation.

Here are some of the things we did: (and hopefully I can get the pictures to download from the camera and add them to this post)
I made suns, with Marissa's help, and I hung them from the ceiling with fishing line.
I bought small yellow plates and served their snacks on them.
Snacks included round ritz crackers with cheddar cheese, bananas, and lemon jello.
I took a lemon and cut it in half. I had the kids smell it and then taste the juice (I squeezed some juice onto individual spoons.) Then they used half of the lemon to dip in yellow paint and stamp onto a piece of paper.
They painted their own suns after tracing a circle onto their paper.
We went on a "yellow hunt" around the house.
Today they ran outside in the yellow sunshine and played! =)

Each morning we have also incorporated the calendar, the pledges, and other morning work. I've used Homeschool Creations ideas and once you go to her site you'll see that she links to other creative moms. Our morning work has been fun this week.

On the days when I don't have the extra babysitting kids, I'm doing more kindergarten work with Trenton. This week we read The Napping House and are working on this lapbook to go with it. T loves this book and enjoys hearing it over and over again. He is also doing Pathway Readers (he is on "Before We Read") and Math-U-See Primer.

Head over to Homeschool Creations to read more from Preschool Corner.

History, Art, Music, Oh MY!

I'm a little scatter-brained these days! (Those who know me might wonder if it's a more often than just 'these days!') Regardless, I've been working on getting school things printed, organized, labeled and ready for the year. In the process, I've come across some really neat websites and just had to stop the printer long enough (for my hunny to go get me more ink) AND to share the links with you!

My oldest daughter is going into 9th grade (how did that happen?? She was just a wee tot in my arms?) Yes, it does happen. This year she is working her way through Abeka's World History book. She started the book somewhere along the way last year after she began struggling through Mystery of History. (Not sure exactly why she was struggling, but she was; so it was time to try something else.) I started her in the book about where she left off in MoH. This year she is starting at the French Revolution. Basically she just works her way through the book, reading, taking notes, completing the chapter reviews, and taking the quizzes and tests. BUT, you know me, I can't just leave it like that....I have to throw in a couple lapbook pieces, notebooking pages and even a power point presentation that she is going to design herself.

Check out what I found for the French Revolution:
A squidoo lens on the French Revolution! And if you scroll down you will come to Joyful Songs's own lapbook pieces for it. Fabulous. (If I knew French, I'd say "fabulous" in French.)

Now on to England and America to a notebooking page on George Whitefield. Well, I couldn't find one already made for me, but here are some images of him. I printed one out and then my girl will make her own notebooking page, because she is handy like that (or maybe it's because I'll tell her to!:)

How about some great pages on Thomas Edison:
Homeschoolshare.com has a slew of Free Inventor Notebooking Pages! {swoon} In that happy list, you will indeed find Thomas Edison.
Crayola.com has a Thomas Edison coloring page. You are probably thinking--a coloring page for a high school student?? No, I printed these out for the younger two and the two extra kids that will be working on preschool work. I tried to tie in learning about the same things whenever I could. I'm hoping that will be easier on this scatter-brained momma!
More Thomas Edison coloring sheets from Handipoints.com

And now a famous ship: The Titanic
My SmokyMountain Homeschool has a whole post on The Titanic with all kinds of great links. I didn't have to look any further. Since I'm not building an entire unit on The Titanic, I found what I wanted and I'm moving down the history timeline!

Winston Churchill
Activity Village--huge section of famous people notebooking pages! They are arranged alphabetically and it couldn't be easier to find what you want (unless they don't have the person you are looking for.) I did find Winston Churchill on this site, yep, it's printed and nearly hole-punched. I also spent some non-Churchill time looking around this site. Neat stuff.

And here are some other sites that I printed some goodies from:
Cindy Downes, from Oklahoma Homeschool has a long list of homeschool forms--all kinds.
Notebookingpages.com--some free artist, picture study, and composer notebooking pages.
I just found this blog today: Harmony Art Mom. I'm definitely going to bookmark her blog. I already found a post on Claude Debussy--our composer for September. And Leonardo daVinci who is our artist for September

Well, I'm super excited about getting so much accomplished today. Now, if my dishes would wash themselves and dinner would make itself!

Madeline Unit Study

I love the book Madeline. Seriously, what's not to love? We are going to be doing this book as a unit study/lapbook along with France. So here is what I've come up with so far:

Homeschoolshare.com (this will be a standard link for the FIAR books because they have great free lapbooks!) Here's the direct link for Madeline.
Madeline Coloring Pages
A great link for Information on France (for kids)
Walking by the Way has lots of pictures and ideas for Madeline and France.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

I'm planning for our unit on How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. It looks like a delightful book.

Homeschoolshare.com has a free lapbook and other resources.
Here's a lesson plan using Google earth.
The Homeschool Mom has a great list of resources.
Busy Cafe has lots of apple theme activities. (Bethany and I have studied apples; so I'm going to focus more on T with the apple things.)
Here's a webquest for the book.
A blogger who has given some details and pictures of her study.

I've already asked a good friend of mine at church to give us pie-making lessons! She is known for her pies. Yummy times!

The Start of a Schedule

I've been working on Bethany and Trenton's school schedule for next year. They will be 3rd grade and kindergarten, respectively.
I started planning the Language Arts and History/Geography. I want to tie in these two curricula:
Galloping the Globe (I was silly to think that we'd get through the book last year; so much good stuff there!)
Five In a Row volumes 1 and 2, selected books

Here's what I have so far: Blue means Galloping the Globe, Green means Five in a Row, regular black means I have a literature guide or unit study for them.

September: France/Madeline, Italy/How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
October: Great Britain/The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Spain/The Story of Ferdinand
November: Canada/Very Last First Time, Mexico, Cranberry Thanksgiving, Molly's Pilgrim
December: open
January: Brazil, Venezuela, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
February: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Sweet Clara and The Freedom Quilt, Quilting unit study
March: South Africa, Kenya/Magic Treehouse: Lions at Lunchtime, Miss Rumphius, Sarah Plain and Tall
April: Morocco, Nigeria, Make Way for Ducklings, Keep the Light's Burning Abbie
May: Egypt/The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, Magic Treehouse: Mummies and Pyramids, Australia
June: New Zealand

I tried to connect the book and countries together as much as possible. The ones with slashes are the books/countries that I was able to connect. I like this stage of planning...then the hard part is carrying out the plans. I'm praying that I'll be consistent and diligent!

I've started copying the needed papers for Madeline/France and I will put that in a separate post. The other thing I'm planning is a "light start" in August. We have done this for the last couple years and it works well. In August, we will start with one subject the first week, then add another subject the next week. We will continue in this manner until the day after Labor Day when we will be in full swing. While we are getting into the groove of each subject, I also try to walk through the daily schedule we will be following for the year. This gives them time to adjust and me time to tweek...because it usually needs tweeked! :)

Hopefully I'll continue to fill in the blanks for both kids until I am ready for the new school year!