Binder Activities ....

People always ask me IF I teach all my kids together or not, and my answer is yes... and no....

I do some things at the same time- Like Math- but they are all in different work books. Our unit Animal studies, science and art we do together, but Language arts, and reading I do with each boy. So then comes the question "what do you do with the others while you are working with one kid?" I say.... they do a Binder Activity (see page My Home School Style) I will do another post later about the Binder in more details) In short it is a binder with all different activities for them that they can do under different subjects while I work with others. They can be done by themselves or with another child that I am not working with.

Here is Ethan working on a puzzle and reading THIS book- we love this book- it comes with a puzzle and also a place for them to collect quarters for each state
Here is Aaron and Ryan working with the Draw right Now books - I got this set on ebay used for about $5 a book. I worked with Ryan while the other boys did there own. These are a fun way for kids to practice writing skills. They have step by step for drawing then they write the fun facts about the animal or things in the picture. I do not have all the kids write everything. Ryan does some letters, Aaron one line Ethan does 2-3 lines.

Boys playing with THESE wooden shapes They boys got these as gift a couple years ago
I have shared this idea before... these are Bendaroos - I got these on ebay- but you can also get them on amazon. I got a ebook that I printed off as well with letters, numbers, shapes, dot to dots and more templates. They also like to build all kinds of things with them.
Math Building- This is where Ethan builds things with coins and then adds up the sum of what he built. He has made a pizza, a robot, among others.
just a few of the ideas that I put into the binders. I put new ideas every month or so, to keep things fun, and yes I do use the same ideas over and over again-

My Alphabet TREE!

I do Letter study with Ryan each week, sometimes we focus on a new letter, sometimes we review. It just depends on what goes along with what we are learning about in our unit study and what letters he seems to have down.

Each week we read Chick-a-Chick-a BOOM BOOM and we put a letter on the TREE (see above) this tree is in his room so he can see it through out the day. I made this with packing paper and green paper and tape. The letters I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler blog

most people have their kids learn capitals first then lowercase. I do not understand this because we really do not use Capitals much, then you have to go back and remember what capitals match what lowercase. So I teach my kids both at the same time. We have Big "A" and little "a" it may take longer- I am not really sure, but it works better in my mind. I felt with my first I was having to "detox" him from writing all CAPS all the time. My second did well with this, so I am keeping with it. It just makes sense to me.

Anyway- we read the book then put the letters on the tree, and study that letter that week.

We love this!

W is for .....

We have been learning about Arctic Animals- and for Ryan we have done this week with a focus on the letter W

I did not take many pictures but here is a handful if ideas that I did over these past couple weeks

W is for Water

W is for Waffles

W is for Wolf (Arctic wolf)

W is for Walrus

W is for Watermelon- we did a couple activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler and of course eat watermelon!

we talked about W for a couple weeks because we also reviewed past letters some days too Ryan also got this mixed up with M a lot and also Mixes F and T (lower case) so we took W slow and reviewed along the way- it worked well.

We always read books every day. I try to pic ones that have the letter we are learning about, as we read I ask him to find that letter for example W, and I will ask him past letter too. I make this a game, and say "now it is my turn to spy letters", etc. He really likes it
I really love THIS book I picked it up on sale a few years back from scholastic when my kids did go to public school it has become one of our favorites. It has LOTS of W but not so many you feel like you are saying them all the time. There are repeated phrases and it is a really fun story too.

that is our week of W in a nut shell.

In side our schoolroom

These are not really very good pictures- but they are better then nothing. I put a lot of thought into our schoolroom and I really like it. I wanted something, clean, and cozy yet fun and inspiring too. On the walls we have our calendar, and schedule (see my page My home school style for details on that) our white board, and a clip board that I painted and added ribbons too. It holds a picture that has a saying that goes along with the Good Habit we are trying to develop it stays until we move on to the next one. This ones says I can be polite, because we were learning to develop good manners, the one we have now says " I can Obey" as we are learning about Obedience. These pictures are from an ebook that I got on line. The bookshelves I got at Aldi years ago, and painted them, and made new covers to hold the books I LOVE these book shelves they are easy for the kids to take care of. The wood chest holds many of our games and puzzles we use for school and I also painted that too. Our reading tent is made of a hoola-hoop old sheets and curtains that I cut into strips (raw edges showing) and then I topped it with some fun shapes and a monkey. I also make some throw pillows and a reading mat.
Here we have our picture study frame, and our US map and my favorite thing in my whole school room is my quote "Education is an Atmosphere a Discipline a life" by Charlotte Mason. I did this with a stencil, dark brown fabric and I glued it with LIGHTLY using Elmer's glue.
Here is our ART wall, I used light rope from JoAnn's, fabric shapes with ribbon and buttons, they are held up with sticky hooks, and then ART is above it with fabric like I did the quote. The desks are Ikea table top we make and painted the legs and chairs are Ikea too.

We keep most of our school supplies in the closet of my office in the room right next to us. But we really do use our school room every day and I love it.

Snowflakes

We have been learning about animal life in the cold areas of the world like the Artic Tundra and Antartica. Our curriculum has us do a few snow activites and since we live where this is.no.snow.... we make our own!!!! thank goodness for snow cone maching! ha haThe boys measuring snow, then they measured it again when it had melted. They also like to play in it for fun.
We made snow flakes our of pasta, and decorated the house with them, we also read THIS wonderful book on snowflake Bentley.
We also have and read THIS book about what snowmen do at night - I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! There is another one about what snowmen do at christmas time which is also really cute

we have still lots more artic winter study lessons to come!

M is for....

MOOSE!!!!

we learned about moose, and read if you give a moose a muffin and make orange muffins.

we did other things to but I really can't remember them.... this is what happens when I wait sooo long to post about school.

the boys LOVE LOVE LOVED this activity, we took shirts we had, I did have to buy a couple at Walmart, then we used their foot for the head, there hands for the antlers and then finger for eyes, the end of a paint brush for the inside of the eye and mouth.

the kids LOVE these- I love art that they wear and use, instead of just going on the wall and then into a book or the trash.

Preschool activites + spelling Activity

So I am always looking for fun ideas to put in the kids Binders for things for them to do "independently" while I work with other kids. I have seen a lot of these "dot a dot" books and thought the kids wold love them but did not want to pay the $13+ for a set of dot markers + books. I was supper stoked when I found BINGO makers at the 1.00 store. I kid you not they are the same thing! So I picked myself up four bright colors and an ABC dot book for $5 bucks from amazon and I am happy about that!

although the kids just like writing with them and making letters using dots with out the book.

they call it adding "Christmas lights" ha ha!

Ethan enjoys practicing his spelling using these "marker paints"

totally worth it.

p.s I have no idea if this ink get out of clothes... just something to keep in mind

Here Ryan is sorting the math blocks into blows- then when he is done he uses them to build and create- he got board with sorting after just about 5 minutes- but that is 5 minutes of working on the skill, so I will take it! and building and creating is developing great skills too, even if all be builds are guns... thank you Star Wars....