T is for....

The week of Thanksgiving (and part of the week before) we learned that T is for....

Trains and Trucks - we read some fun books filled with trains and trucks and did these pictures building with shapes.
T is for Turkey - I had big plans of reading books all about thanksgiving, but our Library is well, sad, and the two books they have were check out, so I will plan better next year to get those books a head of time. But we did still do this fun craft together. I saw this idea on pintrest.
T is for Turtle - Here Ryan is doing some activities that I got from Confesstions of a homeschooler, we also ready I think a book about turtles, I had planed to do a turtel rock craft I found in family fun, and study turtle's more, but life happens and this did not go as planed. But I am sure I will have another change to do them another time.

T is for Thanksgiving- On thanksgiving day we went to visit friends, and headed out on our thanksgiving family trip, we talked about how how greatful we are to the lord for blessing us with such wondeful blessings, and trying to focus more in our prayers to thank the lord for specific things.

and as always we read chick-a chick-a boom boom and put the letter T and t on the alphabet tree.

Fall Activies

are you tired of me saying it I LOVE FALL!!!

and I am happy to see that Alabama does have a pretty fall, all things considering.

We took a walk and collected fall leaves of all shapes and sized, we studied about the trees and why they turn colors. Here is a GREAT video that tell you in case you did not know.

Click HERE for a Link

Here is another GREAT song that teaches photosynthesis - my kids were singing this for days! (but we did watch it a few times)

Click HERE for a LINK!

anyway- we made the snack place mats with our leaves, and construction paper and contact paper. We also wrote # on the leaves (once they were done- so they are covered with contact paper) and then they rolled acorns on them and would add up the #'s that the acorns would land on. They loved this, but got frustrated that the acorn would roll off easy- next time I will put then on a cook sheet.

the boys making there snack mats
Here we did some fall Q-tip painting I saw this idea on pintrest

We did this when we were still learning about that letter F as well... for fall

F is for....

Here is just a sneak peek into a few things we did this past week - giving a focus on the letter F, as Ryan is learning his letters, and what they say, and mean.

I chose to study both upper and lowercase at the same time. With my last two boys they were taught upper then lower, and I still struggle with telling them to write lowercase. So with Ryan I am teaching them at the same time. A mommy letter and a little letter, with a slight focus on the lowercase because it is used WAY more!

So far it's working well. Also- I pick what letter to work on, based on what will go along with what the other boys are learning. (so it is very random)

the older boys are learning about wet-land's plants, trees, and animals.

So we learned all about Frogs- and did this fun craft. The boys sat on my lap and pushed the petal and helped me sew these- they love them. I got this from a Animal craft book I got on ebay.

F is for Flowers .... we did this experiment in science this week, learning about flowers and how they drink and grow. We got this idea from the kids science book, a book that is part of our science curriculum
the boys working in their science note books drawing a picture of what happened and then writing about it.
F is for Fish... I got these cute printables at Confession of a Homeschooler - love that site. GREAT abc printables- I DO do them all for each letter- I just pick one two. I printed extra little fish so he could practice making patters too. He enjoyed that.
F is for FOOD! we did this really cute lace story hungry Caterpillar from confessions of a homeschooler, and then ate some fancy food that the kids never tried before, like apple-pear, star fruit, and persimmon. This was a great activity for counting as well.

We as always read chick-a-chick-a boom boom and put the letter F f on our alphabet tree.

I try to find books to go along with whatever we are letter we are learning about and if I can't we just keep our eye out for that letter when we are reading. I will say- "Ryan do you see any F's" as we read- it is fun.

Squirrels

we learned all about squirrels this week... and Here is a funny book the kids, like. It did not really teach them anything about squirrels but they laughed. They also liked a book called Those darn squirrels you can see it HERE - just a note I did not like the mans name in the book so I changed it as I read it :) WE did ready many educational books on squires too.

WE also did this experiment to be able to watch squirrels.

we used peanuts, pecans, pop corn and scrambled eggs (after reading about what they like)

it took a few days but we did get to watch many squirrels in our back yard, the most we saw was four at time, and now we see at least two almost every morning, we think they might have a nest in out trees.

P is for pumpkin

Each week we focus on a different letter of the week. There is no ryme or reason to it, but we try to cordinate it, so it will relate to what our over all theam is for the year. Animals and Nature.

This week we learned about the letter P
some things that we did this week

we started my reading chick-a-chick-a boom boom - and adding the letter P to our alphabet tree. This was inspired my this site - I have not taken pictures of mine yet.

HERE - for my tree inspiration

made pumpkin play dough- just use any home made kind and add lots of pumpkin spice to it, it smells sooo good.

painted Pumpkins - that was easier then I thought it would be

read about penguins

we did a pumpkin counting activity - found HERE

also - just made a point to point the letter P when it came up in our reading

O is for Owl

This week we learned about the letter O

Here is just a list of some things we did this week -

again we always start the week by singing chick-a-chick-a boom boom and putting that letter on our alphabet tree- inspired by THIS - I made my own- no pictures yet....

Then each day I try to something involving that letter...

We took a nature walk Outdoors

made the letter O in our squishy bags (see crafts with kids)

Made Orange Muffins - yummy (recipe to come) & played with Orange play-dough

we learned about Owls and made an owl craft. we used the kids hand prints for the wings, and Popsicle sticks for the back and "bones" of the wings. We also had a yummy owl lunch- PB& J with a cheese beak, apple and grape eyes and carrot stick feathers. The boys LOVED this!

Read about Octopus- and planed a game but did not get to it.

Squishy Bags

We made these it was fun, we use them to practice letters and numbers Ethan does spelling words. They are supper easy and all you need is gel, and a zip lock bag, we also added glitter because I had some on hand. I also duck tapes mine closed. The important thing is to get out all the air!! I did not go a good job on Ryan's, but it still works great. If you need more instructions just google or search pintrest for squishy bags.

Berry Paint

One of the main books in our science curriculum this year is this book called More fun with Nature. One the activities in it is to use smashed berries to paint with. We found these berries when we were on a nature walk, but they were not in our book, sooo thank you to the wonderful Internet we found out they are called "poke berries" and are poisonous to humans. Sooo they did not eat them, just painted with them. They really liked it.

we did this on Ryan's week of learning about letter P - we painted, and it just happen to be with Poke berries-

Pickin' Cotton

This year we are mostly focused on learning about Animals in home school but along with that we are doing a Nature/Science study too. Last week we learned about Cotton and what a useful plant it was. Doing home school with the Internet makes life sooo great, you can look videos for just about anything! Anyway- On our way home from our home school PE class at the Y we saw this combine tractor working in the cotton field. We pulled over to watch it, and to watch how what we learned about was happening right in front of us!

well; the impromptu field trip was just getting started....

one of the workers came up to us, and said the boys could pick cotton, he had grown up working with cotton all his life and picked cotton by hand as a young boy. As we were heading back to the van we stopped and talked to the owners of the cotton farm, the lady of the house talked to the boys, and let them pick cotton too. Then a different worker who was driving the combine stopped and asked if they wanted a ride. (if it was ok with me) I said yes, as the boys were supper excited.
Here are the boys on the Combine after picking cotton - bellow is a picture of the Cotton farm
Here is the boys ridding the combine.
The combine picks the cotton, and it rolls it up into these HUGE 500lb bales of cotton. Then they place it and another tractor comes and picked it up. The farmer then takes these to another location where there is a cotton gin- where it is cleaned and then shipped over seas to make the things we use today. They said hardly any cotton stays here in the us anymore.
The boys got to watch this whole process right from inside the combine. They also told the kids how to find the seeds, in the cotton they picked, and how to plant them, and take care of them so they could grow there own cotton. We will be doing that in the spring.

the boys will be talking about this for months.

what a great experience- a little boys Dream come true.

I love love love being able to have opportunities to make my children's education come to life...

*note: I did not have my camera, a son of the farmer took these picture on his iphone and then emailed them to me, the south is sure full of lots of friendly people :)

supper easy bird feeders- here is how to make them!

I made these bird feeders a while ago with the kids, and they LOVED them, we did them again this past week, and they still want to make them again. They are so easy, the they love watching the birds enjoy them! Here is how they are super-easy!

what you need: bird seeds (I got the cheapest kind at wal-mart) Ice cream cones, peanut butter, a pipe cleaner and scissors.
1. Cut a the tip of the ice cream cone.

2. Fold your pipe cleaners in half, and then twist the end to make a ball/knot.
3. spread the peanut butter all over the cone (not to thick)
4. Cover the cone with the seeds. (I dumped them in a big container, and then had the kids sprinkle the on, and press them on)
5. Lace the pipe cleaner through the hole, and your done!

6. Hang in the tree! MAKE SURE TO HANG IT NEAR OTHER BRANCHES THAT THEY CAN STAND ON TO EAT IT.

WATCH THE BIRDS ENJOY IT!

let me know how yours turns out!

Easy 4th of July firework shirts!

Here is how we made these-

craft paint

pipe cleaners

shirts

I got these shirts at salvation army for about 50 cents each- making this a cheap craft too!

Bend the pipe cleaners in have and then twist to make a loop. (I did only two or three, and cut them in half so my "fireworks" would be smaller.

i used a sponge brush to apply the paint to the pipe cleaners but you can also dip them, I just like having more control with the amount of pain on the "stamp"

HERE is a link to the video to see how they are done.

Letter & number activites

During the summer I have been trying to do an hour or two of Summer school. This is just to keep the juices flowing in my boys brains and to give us fun ways to do activities together.

I am NOT a fan of activities that

A. Make bid messes,

B. Require lots of stuff, and

C. TAKE LOTS of TIME to PREPARE!

I have gotten all these ideas from, books magazines or heaven help me, my own brain (can you believe it?) or at least I had not thought of them before but I'm sure someone one else has already :)

Well I wanted to post them because

1. I am a forgetful person, and I will forget these by next summer when I will still have little

kids that want to do fun simple activities.

2. "Someday" by kids will look back on there scrapbooks and see that yes, mom did spend time with me.

3. thought it wouldn't hurt to share the ideas. (although I'm sure you thought them already)

YARN Activity!

this activity is supper easy, all you need is yarn, pencil, paper and glue. I cut the paper into quarters for Aaron and picked letters to practice. He knows the names and sounds but is working on his writing, I read that having kids trace with there finger helps them remember the shape to write it.

For Ethan I but the paper into strips, and he spelled a couple spelling words.

I wrote the word or letter in pencil, then they used scissors to cut the yarn the right lengths, then traced it with the glue. Then added the yarn. Once they dried these have been great flash cards the boys use to help with there spelling and writing. (you could also do this with numbers/math if you wanted)

Science Fun!

This is an easy fun science activity. All you need is paper, kids washable paint, straws, and markers. You take the paper and put a small blob of paint (you might need to water it down a little if it is to thick, it depends on the brand of paint you have) Then have the kids blow air through the straw pushing the paint in different ways. Making funny looking splotches. You can talk about how the air is pushing the pant, you are making the air, (or how ever much details you want etc) Once they are dry (we did ours the next day) use markers to make them into silly looking monsters. (you can also add google eyes, but we did not have them on hand so... we just used markers)

Play-Dough

I picked up these dry erase white boards at target in the $1 bins and they make great mats, (but you could do this on a cookie sheet or just your table if you want)

all you need is PLAY-DOUGH let the kids pick what color the want, then have them roll it into a long snake, Ethan then used his spelling word flash cards to spell out different words with the flash cards (we only do about two or three) Each time he says it and then sound it out, says the letters, and traces it with his finger.

Aaron worked on making his shapes and tracing them with his finger. You could also do this with numbers, letter or whatever you wanted to work on.

Math Train

since my boys are train freaks I liked this idea, all you need is construction paper, glue, markers, and a circle punch and or scissors. I took the construction paper and cut it into different size blocks (not even, not equal) Then punch out a bunch of wheels from black with the circle punch. I only did a few a head of time, and did this more, as they made their trains. They made an engine (L shaped piece) with very uneven hand but smoke stack. (I cut these for them) They glued wheels and wrote their name on them. Then they made more cars for their trains but assembling the box and wheels, then writing a number on them.

Ethan is doing math, so he made +, -, and = cars. Aaron is still learning number names (past 10) and sequence (past 10). We worked on these over time, making a few more each time, then we use them to do simple math problems or for Aaron to put numbers in order. For example I would give him a set of 3 or 4 number and he puts them in order in this train. (you could do with with letters and spelling if you wanted - but it would require more cars!)

counting Fun

I use this for Aaron to count, and learn what numbers represent, and Ethan uses this for helping to visualize his math problems.

all you need is an egg carton, and buttons or small pebble type things

write numbers 1-12 in the inside bottom of the egg carton, and lets the kids put that number of little item is the matching whole. easy, and my boys like it :)

Well, that is all for now, when we do more I will post more. I have really had lots of fun, and I notice that I enjoy my time with them more when things are easy to do, and do not require a lot of prep, planning or stuff. AND having these little things makes learning fun, and is does not feel like learning, and they seem to learn better, and are not board.

origonaly done 7-18-2010

Most of the home school stuff I do, is really easy and simple but I like to mix it up with a little more elaborate activity and craft every once in a while, (if I can)

here is an Activity where we read books about fishes, and ocean animals, then made these cute fish. These were more work for me, then them but they LOVED playing with them, for days until they fell part.

To make these fishes you need paper, glue tissue paper, staples, tape, a large craft stick, and a plastic grocery bag.

Draw a fish on a piece of paper. Chop up tissue paper, and let the kids glue on the tissue paper to the fishes. Then once dry cut out the fishes (this an extra piece of paper along with it to be the back side of the fish) Then staple the fish most of the way closed, leaving along the bottom a little open. Stuff in an old trash bag. Add a craft stick, with tape then finish stapling closed.

Add some long streamers for the tale (staple)

Draw a face with a marker

then run around and have fun.

originaly done- 8/2/2010

Pet Store Activity

This is another Book & Activity that we did this summer.

I am always looking for cheap fun things to do with the kids.

We go to the Library every week and get books to read, and this time we happened to get a bunch about pets or animals. The boys have been begging me for a pet, but I stand firm in my motto which is "I take care of kids not animals" - this is just for me, I am not an animal person. When my kids get old enough to do the work we will talk about it again then.

But in the mean time it is fun to go and look so that is what we did. After reading fun books we headed to the pet store to see all the fun pets that they have.

Ryan really enjoyed it, who is fascinated with animals.

These are three really cute books, you should check them out.

Ryan just LOVED the fishes. I really wanted to bring some home with us!! I actually do like having fish. BUT we just have issues with keeping them alive (due to little hands putting toys and dirty fingers in the tank) so I didn't but I wanted to.

I love the look on Ethan's face in this picture (bellow)

The kids has a blast at the pet store, they loved that they got to play with the kittens and see cool animals!

origanly done - 8-2-2010