Week in Review: 27 September 2014

This past week+ the kids and I have been suffering from the dreaded Back to School cold. How we get it as homeschoolers is by participating in several different classes where we do things like, gasp!, socialize. =) The kids missed one of their farm school classes while ill, but were better in time for music and Spanish class, which is new this year and they are really enjoying! The theme is Mother Nature and Father Time so they are learning all sorts of autumn words right now.

Big kid tried Mapping the World by Heart at a local co-op for the past few weeks but it wasn't a good fit for him, so we decided to drop out. I love the idea of the curriculum, though, so I purchased it through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op so we can do it at home together instead. This is the first time he has tried a class and not loved it, so I am okay with him deciding it wasn't for him. While home, he finished a book he's been reading for awhile, Wings of Fire, and all of us listened to one of my favorites from childhood: Half Magic! We have started listening to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe now, it's nice to use audiobooks sometimes and a good skill to work on.

Soccer is in full swing, which Little kid does and loves, and we have been practicing a lot in the backyard! Some other fun stuff we did this week: engineering walls (materials engineering with mortar), handwriting, study of some mid-Atlantic states, finishing up a 1500 piece puzzle (minus two pieces that disappeared) and poring over our new Student Atlas.

Wordless Wednesday: Ground Cherry Season!

Writing about Community Helpers!

When my oldest was in K, we learned about community helpers but I wasn't really fond of the resources I had at hand. Since that was the case, I had created some more community helper resources such as writing prompts and are-can-have tree maps. That worked great for him. However, with my youngest, he wasn't quite ready to tackle everything his brother had at the same age. With two brothers being so different, it only makes sense that in a classroom there will be a lot of differences in skill sets, particularly in K and 1! Now my youngest is in 1st, and needs a little extra practice, both with reading and writing. I got to working on a new set of writing pages to address this very issue! I love working through this unit, because it's so easy to tie everything else in with it! It's also important for our kids to know how many people it takes to run a successful community. We are lucky to have had some wonderful encounters with many of our community helpers, in particular our farmer, librarian, and firefighter!

I think we will spiral with these community helper packs, first using the cut and paste option, and then moving on to one of the more difficult pages. The full pack has 10 community helpers in all: police officer, firefighter, librarian, crossing guard, chef, teacher, mail carrier, veterinarian, farmer, and doctor. I think we will also try to draw a local map of our neighborhood and try to locate all of these helpers as well. Click the image below or the link at the bottom to download the police officer pack for free!

You can download the police officer pack FREE here!

Wordless Wednesday: Constitution Day!

Amazing freebies used:
Constitution Day -- Close Reading
Constitution Day -- Adorable Booklet!

Truly Amazing TITANIC Resources!

While I was searching for something else, I stumbled upon a fantastic math freebie perfect for my son! Filled with interesting facts and diverse math problems, it was a big hit! Visit Teaching with a Mountain View's Titanic Math!

While you are there, if you're looking for an even more in-depth resource, this bundle looks amazing!

I wondered what else might be out there in TpT-land and stumbled upon an equally wonderful free find from another top-notch author, Primary Junction,Titanic - Read All About It!

I love that there are leveled reading passages! This makes it very useful for our homeschooling use. I haven't used the following resource, but I have used others from Melissa Shutler, so I know this one will be excellent as well:

You can bet it's on my wishlist now!

Last but not least is Lovin Lit's no prep Titanic pack!

Show me the MONEY!

One of my kids' favorite things to play with is their play money! Thankfully, they have become masters at adding up bills and coins and making change, but I know this task does not come easily to many kids (and adults, too)! If you are working on coin counting, you'll definitely want to visit Teaching Tykes' TpT shop! Lori has the following really fun money resources:

Need coin practice? Click the image above!

Are your students ready for bills AND coins?

Or maybe the bundle makes more sense (of course it does! You'll save $!)!

Lori and I linked up in a fun promotion over this past week and it's been a blast getting to know more about her products and read her blog. You'll definitely want to like her Facebook page since she posts really fun things every day!

 While you're at it, I highly recommend Melissa and Doug's play money (not an aff link). There is SO much money ($9353, I think!).

If you don't have money for the money in your budget (harhar!), never fear. Find some spare change and try going artsy. This project is always a blast with the little ones, and even better if you have lots of different state quarters! Coin rubbing money tree!

Here's another money game you can do with either real or fake coins: fishing! Check out this post I wrote on having an indoor carnival:

Have kids that aren't quite ready for money math? That's okay, I've got you covered. This will keep any toddler (past the mouthing stage) occupied for hours on end. Save a container with a plastic top. Yogurt containers work well! I found giant coins at the dollar store which were great for tiny hands. My kids always called it "funny money." Cut a slit in the lid. Fill, dump, repeat. Visit the original post for more dump and fill ideas!

Wordless Wednesday: Sculpture!

Week in Review: 6 Sept 2014

Some of the things we did this week (top to bottom): Farm school, magnets, LEGO marble mazes, sound offices, Walden Pond, Draw Write Now, garden harvesting, chess tournament, Minecraft!

First day of farm school

It's that time of year again! This is the 5th year big kid has done a program at a local farm. He spent two years of preschool there, then I set up a homeschooling program one afternoon a week while little kid was in preschool. Last year, they both did the homeschooling program together. This is likely their last 10-week session, as I think they feel like they are feeling a little done with farm school. Maybe they will miss it over winter and want to go back in spring, but if not, I am okay with it. They have learned so much there that I never would have been able to teach them: practical farm chores, so much fun in nature, and with wonderful teachers.

That's their group way in the distance. I didn't want to disturb them by getting too close! Some of the things they did: hiked up to an area with a really large rock, found a really cool and unusual caterpillar, found lots of turkey feathers, and I have no idea what else. They apparently never remember what they did or don't like to talk about it much. I will need to ask the other parents and instructors for some details. =)