a few free homeschooling resources

I LOVE this site: http://www.worksheetworks.com/

Free, highly-customizable worksheets? What could be better? So many of the activities are really fun. H always requests more worksheets from this site. I always figured we would use worksheets infrequently, but these worksheets are so well-liked, they aren't "work" at all!

H working on roman numerals, which he loves for some reason.

F working on an odd/even sums maze.

Need spelling lists? Check out K12 Reader - it has them for 1st-5th grades, as well as reading comprehension sheets. Great resource! For handwriting, I go to this site; it is worth navigating around the ads to get the worksheets, which you can tailor for everyone from pre-readers on up. I have used this site for copy work in the past, by typing out a few sentences from a favorite story and having the kids trace the words.

Have fun teaching is another site I've been using lately, and it looks like they do giveaways on their site and have a Teachers Pay Teachers store for some of their stuff, too. Khan Academy is another one that is getting more and more use (and giggles; H thinks it is hilarious!) on our end. Another math site I've used with success is Homeschool Math. What are your favorite free homeschooling resources?

pompom racing

What you need:

• pompoms
• straws
• ramp (optional) - a table or smooth floor works well too

This is something my kids have loved doing for years. I got this activity ready for them this morning since we hadn't done it in awhile. It is always a HUGE hit here! This is one of many great games we learned from a speech therapist.

Pompoms set up.

Ready, set, blow!

They fly down the ramp so fast it's hard to capture it!

man vs nature

Is it a natural resource or a man made resource? This was a question we covered recently in one of our homeschooling study units. The topic had me wondering about the intersection of man and nature that we often see on walks. It can be so beautiful to witness the initial, or primary, interaction, before it moves on to something unrecognizable as one or the other. Generally it is man manipulating nature, though we have had more and more of the opposite in terms of weather in recent years! Here are a few pictures from recent walks of man making a mark on nature:

What are your favorite spots to see man's gentle impact on nature?

thanksgiving fraction plate download

I have another download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store (it's free to have an account there and there are over 60k freebies as of this post). This is the preview file to my larger Thanksgiving math activities. You don't have to know fractions to do this but it's a fun introduction for little ones. Cut out the fraction pieces and glue them on to your Thanksgiving plate. Great fine motor practice and a fun way to start thinking about how you want to fill your real plate. They will only be able to fit everything on their plate if their fractions add up to 1!

bark painting

Hurricane Sandy was a disaster for so many people in the northeast US, but we were lucky enough this year to avoid the issues we encountered with last year's storm. We didn't lose power (yay!) and since we had our two giant maple trees removed following last year's storm, there were no branches falling toward my head or through our roof, as they did last year (bigger yay!). Only two fence panels and small branches (<10ft long) fell. During yard cleanup, the kids and I found several large pieces of bark, so I put them on the deck to dry out. We used Q-tips and large brushes to paint:

Our finished pieces.

H painting his space themed bark.

He wanted to add glitter. There is glitter in space. Duh.

Just wish we had more bark to paint!

halloween

Just a quick picture update - Halloween from the back! H wanted to be a shark this year and after seeing this super cute costume idea, I knew buying a costume was not an option! F was a dinosaur, which has now been worn 4 consecutive Halloweens between the 2 of them. =)

Hope you had (or will have, if you are sans power) fun ToTing!

I am so very thankful all of our family and friends are safe after Sandy, and I am keeping those who were not as fortunate in my thoughts. Wishing a speedy recovery to those affected.