Homeschoolshare.com put on a great contest this year, go check out all the new content up on their site. Click here to see my submission, a unit lesson about teeth. I planned it a while ago knowing Mikey would be losing teeth sometime this year and thought it would be fun to do with the kids. I didn't win the big grand prize, but received an honorable mention and the prize is 15 children's books! Next year I will try even harder, but the competition is pretty amazing!!
Showing posts with label homeschool stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschool stuff. Show all posts
7/29/09
Honorable Mention
Homeschoolshare.com put on a great contest this year, go check out all the new content up on their site. Click here to see my submission, a unit lesson about teeth. I planned it a while ago knowing Mikey would be losing teeth sometime this year and thought it would be fun to do with the kids. I didn't win the big grand prize, but received an honorable mention and the prize is 15 children's books! Next year I will try even harder, but the competition is pretty amazing!!
6/3/09
While we homeschool
People ask me a lot what the babies do while I do school with the older two kids. Jeremiah usually sits with us and colors or plays little games. And Ella...well she just runs around the house and gets into stuff, like this picture shows! For my Babywise friends...yes, I know this would be a good time to do play-pen training...no, I haven't been doing it lately...I don't know why...this will be a good reminder to get back into it!!
5/27/09
Telling time
Mikey has trouble telling time, partially because I haven't worked with him much, partially because he just doesn't get it. So for a little practice we headed outside today.
What you need: sidewalk or driveway, sidewalk chalk, something to be hour and minute hands (I used foam, but sticks would work great.)
First I had the kids tell me what time they wanted it to be, and then I told them where to lay. You will notice the list of times down the right side of the picture. I wrote those out before hand and when I was done "reviewing" with Mikey we started working on the list. Haley had a short, fat piece of foam for the hour hand, and I had a long skinny piece of foam for the minute hand. Using the list on the side, Mikey told us where to put the hands. When he got it correct, he crossed that one off the list with the chalk.
Then he wrote down some times, and Haley and I had to place the hands on the clock, while he "checked our work."
Project rating:
Supplies: minimal, on hand
Execution: beyond easy
Mess factor: some chalk on hands and clothes
Fun factor: enjoyed by all!!
Did it teach the lesson: YES!! Mikey does have trouble but he loved the hands-on portion of this game, and it totally reinforced the concepts.
Side notes/learned by experience: They had more fun with the foam hands than they did laying on the concrete "being" the hands. You could easily do this on the sidewalk with multiple, mini-clocks.
What you need: sidewalk or driveway, sidewalk chalk, something to be hour and minute hands (I used foam, but sticks would work great.)
First I had the kids tell me what time they wanted it to be, and then I told them where to lay. You will notice the list of times down the right side of the picture. I wrote those out before hand and when I was done "reviewing" with Mikey we started working on the list. Haley had a short, fat piece of foam for the hour hand, and I had a long skinny piece of foam for the minute hand. Using the list on the side, Mikey told us where to put the hands. When he got it correct, he crossed that one off the list with the chalk.
Then he wrote down some times, and Haley and I had to place the hands on the clock, while he "checked our work."
Project rating:
Supplies: minimal, on hand
Execution: beyond easy
Mess factor: some chalk on hands and clothes
Fun factor: enjoyed by all!!
Did it teach the lesson: YES!! Mikey does have trouble but he loved the hands-on portion of this game, and it totally reinforced the concepts.
Side notes/learned by experience: They had more fun with the foam hands than they did laying on the concrete "being" the hands. You could easily do this on the sidewalk with multiple, mini-clocks.
5/12/09
Building activity
We studied the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis this week. The kids built towers with crackers and peanut butter. This is easily adaptable to any building or construction lesson.
You need:
Plastic knives or spoons
peanut butter
crackers
Directions:
really? I don't think you need them.
Although I started by giving them the instructions in Spanish, to reinforce the fact that when God confused their language it was impossible to continue work on the tower.
Project rating:
supplies--minimal, easy to gather, had all on hand
execution--also very easy, kids needed little or no guidance to complete the project
mess factor--using the trays made clean up easier, kids hands and faces needed cleaning up (especially after Mikey tried to shove the whole tower in his mouth at once, see bottom right photo.) overall, clean up was easier than I anticipated.
fun factor--definelty worth any mess
did it teach the lesson--yes, especially adding the directions in a foriegn language.
sidenotes--I highly recommend using trays underneath ALL your kids projects, it is something we started recently and it makes clean up sooooo much easier. I also gather my supplies on the trays so it is easy to see who has what and who still needs what. We got our trays from a friend who works at the hospital, she just brought some that they were going to throw away (the trays were used to hold sterile tools) but I have also seen them at teacher stores and ones that are not disposable at walmart. I love these hospital ones because they are HUGE and contain big messes. And they wipe up easily.
5/7/09
11/11/08
Handwriting practice for kids
Zaner-Bloser has a great resource for handwriting practice. It is for any grade level and you basically make your own practice sheets. When you get to the link, click on "get started."
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