Several TpT / blogger friends and I have joined up to bring you a week of giveaways and deals! It all starts Monday! You can read details about it here:
Psst...something exciting is coming!
Several TpT / blogger friends and I have joined up to bring you a week of giveaways and deals! It all starts Monday! You can read details about it here:
End of Year Memory Books: POP UP Style!
I have been working on this pop-up book for awhile now and am so excited it's finally finished! Are you looking for something a little different in your end of year memory books this year? How do pop-up memory books sound?
There are base pages (with guides for gluing in the images) as well as the pop up image art. The above pages show the basic book, but I have included several more pages that you can add in based on what you'd like to include.
This is a fun way to end your year. Pop up books always bring a smile, and the creation of their very own pop up book is a way to instill creative confidence! There is even a page for homeschoolers. I have labeled this activity for grades 2-5, though if you have classroom helpers you could do this with first graders as well. Students in grades 4 and 5 should be able to complete this project independently, while second and third graders might need a little assistance making sure their folds/flaps are creased well and lined up to fold into the book correctly.
You can follow the steps I've shown above to create your own book, or purchase my template by clicking on the image below:
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| Fill out the base page and pop up inserts. Color as desired. |
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| Cut out the pop up inserts and fold in half. Fold back the tabs. |
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| Glue in the tabs. Here is the page opened op. |
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| The pop up inserts fold snugly into the book as it closes. |
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| Trim wish washi tape for a fun touch! |
You can follow the steps I've shown above to create your own book, or purchase my template by clicking on the image below:
5 Tips for New Homeschoolers
We are coming to the end of our fourth year of homeschooling, so while we are still learning and finding our groove, there are some tips I'd love to share if you are just starting out. I know this is nothing revolutionary, but I do hope it is reassuring or helpful for those new to homeschooling.
1. Use your library! If you are just starting out, you might be tempted to purchase tons of boxed curricula. I know I did.What I didn't know is that, especially in the early years, it might just be better to borrow a huge bag of books with every library visit instead of buying tons of curricula that might never get used. Use resources that are available to you for free or almost free before investing money elsewhere. Use interlibrary loan. Use digital library resources. Here in Massachusetts, any resident can get a free e-card for the Boston Public Library and borrow digital books. Their selection is better than our local library consortium's selection, so we have access to thousands more books (all for free). It's great for ebooks and audiobooks. Ask your local librarian what resources are available to you. In our town, we can borrow Kindles from our library, learn a foreign language with Mango, and get passes to local museums.
Low-cost considerations: Speaking of museums, consider a family membership to a local museum. There are also numerous inexpensive websites that I could not come close to listing them all.
Before investing in high-priced textbooks or workbooks, take time to
explore what is out there for free. Try going to a homeschool fair with gently used resources - you'll be able to peruse them and pay a lot less than new. Here are a few websites to look into:
BrainPOP
Discovery Education
Coursera or edX (free)
Homeschool Buyers Co-op
Khan Academy (free)
Mathletics or IXLTeachers pay Teachers (also follow them on Facebook for some amazing flash freebies)
Teacher Made Freebies (free)
Thinkwell
Seterra Geography or GeoGuessr (free)
2. Join local homeschooling groups. Try out different activities to find out what works for you and your kids. This might change over time. We belonged to a co-op in the past, but don't participate in one right now. If an activity doesn't exist that you'd like to see, try to set it up yourself. There are often great rates for homeschoolers at museums, zoos, and places like gymnastics and art studios. I set one up at our local Audubon and the kids get three hours of farm school each week. Where should you look to find a homeschool group? Try Yahoo, Facebook, and Google groups. Hopefully you will find some like-minded homeschoolers to share your journey with. You will also find a wealth of knowledge about your state's homeschooling requirements and BTDT advice.
You can set up an informal co-op in your home or connect at a playground with other families. In time, you may wish to do something more formal or join some paid classes as well. You may also be able to trade off teaching subjects with another family. You are not in this alone.
3. Do less. Throw out your ideal vision of homeschooling. However you THINK it will be, it probably won't be that way. For us, we do a minimal amount of traditional school work during the "school year." Why? We are very busy with classes outside the home! Music, foreign language, swimming, farm school, etc. all take a lot of time during the week, and most of the rest of my kids' time is spent playing or reading. So when do we do the fundamentals? Generally we do them on summer mornings. It doesn't take much time, but all of the "extras" are not in session, so it's the perfect time for us to take care of things like math and handwriting. That doesn't mean we do zero math or handwriting during the September - June months, but we definitely don't do it daily. It's what works for us, so we are sticking with it. If it works for your child to spend one month doing only science, and the next month only art, try it out! Immersion works for foreign language, why not other subjects?
Children are curious by nature. Leave them alone with some great learning toys and a stack of library books and see where it takes them.
4. Be flexible. You know if your kid(s) had a good night's sleep, a solid breakfast, and if anything else might be affecting them that day. If something else is going on, like illness or just a THNGVBD (terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day), give yourself the space to let it go. You don't have to do school every day. The great thing about homeschooling is that because you aren't trying to educate 27 kids, you can do it when the time is right. That means it will take less time. If it's taking all day, try something else. Do you know your child's learning style?
Remember, you can always reevaluate your decision to homeschool. If it
isn't working out for some reason, you can always consider sending your child to
school.
5. Make time for YOU. Even if it's 10 minutes of deep breathing, you NEED to take time for yourself. For me, that is a run 4-5 mornings a week. For you, it might mean shutting yourself in your room with your favorite book, or waking early to have some quiet time and tea/coffee before the day begins. Many families have success with quiet time after lunch, where little ones nap and older ones retreat to their rooms to read. Find what works for you. Carve out the time. You are worth it, and it is essential. If the homeschooling parent isn't happy, homeschooling will not be successful. Here are a few more tips on how to take a break when you homeschool.
Do you have a tip that helped you in your first years or homeschooling? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!
BrainPOP
Discovery Education
Coursera or edX (free)
Homeschool Buyers Co-op
Khan Academy (free)
Mathletics or IXLTeachers pay Teachers (also follow them on Facebook for some amazing flash freebies)
Teacher Made Freebies (free)
Thinkwell
Seterra Geography or GeoGuessr (free)
2. Join local homeschooling groups. Try out different activities to find out what works for you and your kids. This might change over time. We belonged to a co-op in the past, but don't participate in one right now. If an activity doesn't exist that you'd like to see, try to set it up yourself. There are often great rates for homeschoolers at museums, zoos, and places like gymnastics and art studios. I set one up at our local Audubon and the kids get three hours of farm school each week. Where should you look to find a homeschool group? Try Yahoo, Facebook, and Google groups. Hopefully you will find some like-minded homeschoolers to share your journey with. You will also find a wealth of knowledge about your state's homeschooling requirements and BTDT advice.
3. Do less. Throw out your ideal vision of homeschooling. However you THINK it will be, it probably won't be that way. For us, we do a minimal amount of traditional school work during the "school year." Why? We are very busy with classes outside the home! Music, foreign language, swimming, farm school, etc. all take a lot of time during the week, and most of the rest of my kids' time is spent playing or reading. So when do we do the fundamentals? Generally we do them on summer mornings. It doesn't take much time, but all of the "extras" are not in session, so it's the perfect time for us to take care of things like math and handwriting. That doesn't mean we do zero math or handwriting during the September - June months, but we definitely don't do it daily. It's what works for us, so we are sticking with it. If it works for your child to spend one month doing only science, and the next month only art, try it out! Immersion works for foreign language, why not other subjects?
Children are curious by nature. Leave them alone with some great learning toys and a stack of library books and see where it takes them.
4. Be flexible. You know if your kid(s) had a good night's sleep, a solid breakfast, and if anything else might be affecting them that day. If something else is going on, like illness or just a THNGVBD (terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day), give yourself the space to let it go. You don't have to do school every day. The great thing about homeschooling is that because you aren't trying to educate 27 kids, you can do it when the time is right. That means it will take less time. If it's taking all day, try something else. Do you know your child's learning style?
5. Make time for YOU. Even if it's 10 minutes of deep breathing, you NEED to take time for yourself. For me, that is a run 4-5 mornings a week. For you, it might mean shutting yourself in your room with your favorite book, or waking early to have some quiet time and tea/coffee before the day begins. Many families have success with quiet time after lunch, where little ones nap and older ones retreat to their rooms to read. Find what works for you. Carve out the time. You are worth it, and it is essential. If the homeschooling parent isn't happy, homeschooling will not be successful. Here are a few more tips on how to take a break when you homeschool.
Do you have a tip that helped you in your first years or homeschooling? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!
Wordless Wednesday: Legos (again)
Legos get so much play at our house these days. I love how they incorporated the cannon I made in my engineering shop class back in college.
LEGO Workshop with Play-Well!
This morning we had the opportunity to host a LEGO® workshop with Play-Well TEKnologies in our very own homeschool! Several local homeschooling families joined us and the kids got to build lego cars with gears and motors.
First, our instructor Krista, gathered everyone together and they all listened to the rules about respecting each other, helping each other, and how everyone would pitch in to clean up at the end. They also talked about engineers and what they do. If only I could captivate my kids' attention this well:
The kids needed to find similar wheels, mount their motors and gears, and learn how to control the motors to drive their cars. One of the rules was that no parents could help, which was a nice break for the parents and also encouraged peer collaboration and teamwork! Oooooooh...look at all those gears!
Everyone got to personalize their vehicle with various decoration pieces and there was a lot of variation in both size and style of the cars.
A goal was set, design was carried out, and testing was performed. We had a vehicle ramp from a previous lego birthday party (for
non-motorized cars), so instead of driving the cars down the ramp, the
kids tested out their creations by driving their cars up the ramp. What a fun time!
Do you want to host LEGO-inspired engineering classes, camp, or even a birthday party? Visit Play-Well's website for details. They are in 25 states, and my oldest son had great fun at LEGO camp a couple of summers ago:
A celebration with some FREEBIES!
To thank my fans and followers on TpT, I created two new forever freebies: Fractions Task Cards & Doodle Arrows Clip Art:
If you haven't used task cards in your classroom before and you are in a 3-5 classroom, you can try them for free with these fraction task cards:
There are QR codes for self checking (you can just ignore them if you don't have a way to use them in your classroom). How can you use task cards in your classroom? Visit Minds in Bloom for 31 Ways to Use Task Cards in Your Classroom!
My other freebie is a clip art freebie. I am not a graphic artist by any stretch, but just LOVE to create simple clip art for my own use. I decided to share these with you as well, because arrows are just so much fun! Most of the arrows included are shown below:
If you are a follower, thank you so much! If you are not, I hope you enjoy the freebies and consider following me. You can gain access to more free downloads by joining my list and making use of my FREE resource library:
If you haven't used task cards in your classroom before and you are in a 3-5 classroom, you can try them for free with these fraction task cards:
There are QR codes for self checking (you can just ignore them if you don't have a way to use them in your classroom). How can you use task cards in your classroom? Visit Minds in Bloom for 31 Ways to Use Task Cards in Your Classroom!
My other freebie is a clip art freebie. I am not a graphic artist by any stretch, but just LOVE to create simple clip art for my own use. I decided to share these with you as well, because arrows are just so much fun! Most of the arrows included are shown below:
Five for Friday: March 13, 2015
Tomorrow is PI DAY! Woohoo! Here is my five for Friday on this Pi Day eve!
Spring is in the air! We have had 50F degree weather several days this week and even went for a walk without winter coats! That being said, we still have snow, but only a couple feet left. =) Since it's been so warm, we took the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the springlike weather!
Music has always been an important force in my life, and I am thrilled my boys have been enjoying listening to some of our old CDs. This is what is currently playing, pretty much all day long these days (from top left and clockwise: They Might Be Giants, Stray Cats, Louis Prima, Johnny Cash):
In addition to listening, the kids have been practicing the piano a lot, and I have been playing the ukulele. We also learned about the harp this week and used this great St. Patrick's Day music resource from Tweet Resources:
Pi Day will be here tomorrow, so I have decided to join several other TpT sellers and put all of my math resources on sale for 20% off! I am sure I will be baking at least one pie for fun, and we have lots of circle activities to do today, too! If I were an extrovert or even a better party host, I'm sure I would have planned an ePIc Pi Day party, but it just didn't happen. We will be at our last week of floor hockey at 9:26 am, which will be 3/14/15 9:26! I'd love to hear if you have any fun Pi Day plans!
This was the last week of our winter swim session, and the boys have made big strides in their swimming abilities! I am hoping we can continue through spring, but with our packed schedule and the swim teacher availability, it might not happen. Fingers crossed, because they are really enjoying it this time! It looks like we will be able to join homeschool swim in the fall, which we can't do right now because it conflicts with their music class. It's hard to think about summer swimming with all of the snow outside, but our small pool will probably not be big enough for the kids this year. I'm not sure I want to go with a larger pool so I have been looking into other local options, though we always have Walden pond, which you can't beat for price. A season state park pass is only $35!
Last but not least, somehow between our classes outside the home, hours upon hours of Boggle playing, and multiple get-togethers this week, we managed to squeeze in a little bit of school work! One of my favorites from this week was doing self portraits! We followed a YouTube video and the kids were able to follow along. I think they did a pretty good job considering we have never done any art classes outside the home. I need to find one that works with our schedule at some point, but in the meantime we just wing it at home.
Music has always been an important force in my life, and I am thrilled my boys have been enjoying listening to some of our old CDs. This is what is currently playing, pretty much all day long these days (from top left and clockwise: They Might Be Giants, Stray Cats, Louis Prima, Johnny Cash):Pi Day will be here tomorrow, so I have decided to join several other TpT sellers and put all of my math resources on sale for 20% off! I am sure I will be baking at least one pie for fun, and we have lots of circle activities to do today, too! If I were an extrovert or even a better party host, I'm sure I would have planned an ePIc Pi Day party, but it just didn't happen. We will be at our last week of floor hockey at 9:26 am, which will be 3/14/15 9:26! I'd love to hear if you have any fun Pi Day plans!
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