Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Sunday School Post #7

Sunday is here and it's time for another Sunday School post! This is the 7th one in this series and you can find the rest HERE. Prayers are so very important and to make sure that my kids know what they are saying and why they are saying it is also important. I like to make up different coloring pages and worksheets, so that they can learn as they have fun. This simple Our Father coloring page is a started page that I like to use when just starting out. Get your own HERE.
My Little Flowers group met this past week and we decorated our folders. As we are waiting on the guides and sashes to arrive, we decided to study St. Therese as I shared in last week's post HERE.
We used a celery base and paint to make roses on paper and our folders and they came out so pretty! We also made a St. Therese page using print outs from google images and the St, Therese prayer art that I made. It worked out so well and the girls all had so much fun doing it.
Here is a close-up of our St. Therese page, the calendar is a good deeds calendar, where they color each box per day that they do a good deed on. The hearts are labeled monday - friday and have good deed ideas on them.
The Love Dare for Parents is still going strong for us, as well as the Love Dare for couples. It has been a truly enlightening experience and I highly encourage you all to get the books and try it yourself! Lent is the perfect time as there are 40 days and 40 dares!
I am so glad that our Diocese is doing a full day of confessions, is your Diocese doing it? No more excuses that you can't make it!
A fun craft coming up that also encourages your children to pray more! You will need a plain wood cross that is thicker than normal along with some paints and a cup hook. Begin painting your cross in any way you wish.
Once you have painted your cross, screw the cup hook into the bottom of the cross. Mine is not painted yet, as we are waiting to do them all together. Once your screw is in, you are all set!
You have just made a rosary holder! It is now perfectly ready to be hung on the wall and keep your precious rosary safe. We plan on hanging each one next to their bed, so that they always know where their rosary is.
The Communion of Saints Coloring Book is perfect for learning about Saints! I like to give them each the coloring page, while I read a story about that saint, it helps them famliarize themselves with the saints.
Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Sunday, March 8, 2015

MagiQuest - A Review & Tips

I've been wanting to do a review of this place for years, ever since we first became addicted, but of course other things kept getting in the way and before I knew it months would pass before i would have time. Magiquest has locations all over the USA and Japan too! It's an awesome place for families, not just kids. We go year round and once you invest in the wands, it becomes a great deal, since you will easily spend all day there. 
TIP: Call ahead and double check the hours, get there at opening and you will find you have the entire place (along with the employee and all their knowledge) all to yourself!!

TIP: Wear comfortable shoes or socks, since they let you run around barefoot (remember they are attached to a water park!) You will be up and down stairs non stop and the elevator only goes to the 2nd floor, not floors 3 & 4.
First things first, get the wands! You will be tempted to save money and have the whole family use 1 wand and then let the kids wander off while you sit and enjoy some coffee and conversation...don't! Make it a fun family outing that is worth the investment, because with so many locations, you never know when you will be at another one! We have been over 7 times already and cannot wait to do more!
TIP: Don't waste money on the toppers! You will notice that we have a few, although super cool, they weigh down your wand too much and often unscrew the cap, which makes your wand not work properly or effectively. It's a MAJOR disappointment and I wish it is something Magiquest would fix, but so far it's been a no-go.

TIP: Wear something with pockets or have some kind of a small bag (that won't get annoying). They hand you a booklet that you will need for completing your quests and they charge you if you lose it! Be sure to save them every time you complete the quest and bring them next time you come back, in case you do lose it, then you know you have extras!
My daughter even made her own cape, that's how into this we all are! If you stay in the attached Great Wolf Lodge, you will add more fun as there are Magiquest stations throughout  the resort as well, they bring many things to life and turn on lights or other fun things that always make people turn and look at what you are doing. You will be asked upon arrival to Magiquest if you want to play both ShadowQuest & MAGIQuest or just 1, go with just 1, you WILL NOT have enough time to play both games and you will just be out the additional money. 
TIP: This is a long day and you most likely won't be able to drag your kids away, pack a lunch or have something delivered. The one in Wisconsin Dells has a tucked away eating area with soda machines but nothing else. Having food in a cooler bag for the kids to graze as they play works great and then we go out for dinner after we play!

TIP: Once you have bought your wands and activated them, next time you go back you can still open treasure chests and activate things, you just cannot play the game without paying again. Sometimes my kids just like to go to play with all the net slimbers and slides, they bring their wands to open the chests and play with some of the things but have no interest in the games themselves. On these days my husband and I only activate our wands and challenge each other....I'm a level 7 magi you know ;)
Have fun with your family by eliciting a challenge before you begin, we like to say that the winner at the end of the day gets to pick where we eat or what movie we see or whatever we plan on doing that evening. You WILL work up an appetite with all the running up and down the stairs, using the net climbers and flying down the slides. It's an activity palace! Our kids are all old enough to venture off on their own, they know where the cooler bag of food is, where the bathrooms are and know to never leave the area, this makes playing to much more fun for all of us. 
TIP: USE THE EMPLOYEES!! Stuck on a challenge or battle? Run in and ask them for help, that's what they are there for! We learned many a trick while in there with them. 

TIP: As you solve riddles and find parts of your quests, be sure to wave your wand at everything! Stars in the sky, suits of armor, shields and pictures on the walls...they all add up coins, gold and points to your score and you only increase your levels by adding up more gold and points! Many people just solve the riddles and wonder why they don't make the high scores for the day and this is why! It's so easy to do and adds more fun to the game!
This place is 4 floors of pure adventure! You will find many parents sitting on the sidelines, but I fully believe it's because they have never tried it themselves! Get involved, and have fun with it, it's the only way to be when you are on vacation!!

TIP: DO NOT take your wands on the slides, the static electricity sometimes deactivates them. It's no big deal, as they only have to restart them and  you don't lose any information but it is a pain if you have to wait in a long line! We usually go up to the slides in pairs and 1 person goes down while the other takes the wands and just switch off doing that.
At 30.00 a person, it adds up fast your first time but please believe me that it is so worth it! This is one of those times that the money is well spent and if you are dead set on never going back, sell them to people as they walk in! We took friends with us one time and bought them wands, which they gave back as they don't live near a magiquest and this last time we were there, we were able to sell both 17.00 wands for 25.00, not too bad!
TIP: Still not sure about the cost? Check out Ebay and try and win wands there, they can delete the information on them when you arrive to a new Magiquest and then you are free to start from the beginning!
Hope this convinces you to try it out! Enjoy every minute my friends!


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Friday, February 20, 2015

Fossil Friday!

It's Fossil Friday in the school room and I wanted to share with you what we all did for our fossil lesson with our homeschool group. The kids got to dig for dinosaur bones from a plaster of paris brick with pick tools and a hammer.
These are real fossil specimens given to us by the Burpee Museum of Natural History. Educators have an awesome opportunity to borrow learning boxes from the museum for a small fee and they are an awesome way to get our group together learn.
Due to booking issues with our local library, I decided to host this event in our home. Knwing we had a fairly large group coming, I decided to create stations, so that the kids were not restricted to their tables and the activities could be spread about. I also raided our classroom library for as many books on Fossils, minerals and rocks we could find and used those to decorate the space.
I had 3 tables set up with a booklet we would all be making and I spread the fossils throughout the tables, to encourage them to move from table to table. Each table had a variety of craft supplies, so they would only have to share with their table and not the entire room.
Using the awesome TOOBs from Safari Ltd., I made up these awesome checklists that you can get HERE (Print and laminate them to use over and over again)and then I dumped the TOOBS in bins and covered them in rice. This alone makes a fantastic sensory bin, but when paired with a magnifying glass, brush and checklist, it becomes a hunt to learn. They were told to dig for one, match it to the list and read the name and then check it off. 
Using a Google search, I came across this Types of Rock sheet, but it was afrom a pay site for the entire activity and as I was doing this on my own dime with a small fee to pay for the box from the group, I decided to keep hunting. I used the cover sheet and shrunk it down to fit 4 per page, so that I would not waste that much ink and paper and then did the same for the definitions. Add them to paper for a longer backgroun and they were fun and easy to make! It was a great event after everything!
Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Monday, March 18, 2013

Weekly Round-Up!

Sorry for the delay in posting, it was a crazy weekend, followed by a busy Monday morning! I hope your weekend was wonderful. Yesterday, we woke up to little 'snowy' footprints leading us to a gallon of GREEN milk and green sprinkled donuts!!! The note we found explained it all! Our Elf on the Shelf Charlie had decided to see if he could beat the leprechaun to our house and when he found that he did, he was sooo excited! The children were thrilled and it was the start of a fun day. 
A library used book sale gave us the ultimate find of fun books! I love these sales for so many reasons! They help us uncover so many treasures, bring out a love of learning, give money to libraries and so many more.

Our 5-A-Day books from last week were all sooo good that they were mostly read twice a day! Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is an old school favorite from the Preschool years but I am pulling it out again because it is an easier read for a new reader. 
Stopping in at a local thrift had us finding these awesome books that of course were a LOTTERY find, because many are on our homeschooling book list for next year! How awesome is that?! 
Beans Beans Beans! These letters are all hidden in the beans and Roman had to dig through them to find the letters he needed for his sight word flashcards. This was by far one of the most fun activities for him.

A great combination of early learning skills is put together in this CENTER. Roman has to spell out his sight words by looking for the correct letters but also with the ADDED challenge of matching up the Lower Case Letters with the proper Upper Case letters. 
There is absolutely nothing in the World I love better than to see my children working together in a warm and healthy environment. With all that is happening lately, I know that my husband and I made the right decision. My son is actually now ahead of the game when it comes to Kindergarten and my 2 children are 1 grade higher than they were when they were in school. (The school curriculum that we purchased tests the children to find out what level of learning they are at) My home has heat, no fear of bullying, friends and so much love that it must be bursting out of the windows. In this home, there are no politics, favorites, protected parties and no fear. The school they left is getting worse and many families are joining us in this homeschooling journey. I often sit and wonder what Seton (our curriculum) thinks when they began fielding calls from all of us at the same school. At the moment there are 4 families that have left that school with 9 children and there are more coming. After knowing all that, you would hope that the school would begin to sit and think what exactly they are doing wrong. Oh well, for now we are all happy and healthy as the children still see their friends and continue to learn at a pace that was designed for them! 
When learning about mazes in class, we decided to make our own out of LEGOS and you should have seen their faces at this challenge! It was a good thing that this activity was saved for the end of the day, because it was one that certainly occupied a few hours time! 
B,P,D,Q are all letters that seem to get easily confused when in their lower case form. I purchased a large, blank foam die and filled with with the letters (one on each side) and put a line at the bottom of each letter to identify which one it was. He got to roll the die and circle the Upper Case letter that it was. I gave him different colored markers so that he was able to keep it all separate. After all of that, I had him WRITE the lower case letter beneath the upper case one that was on the chart. A simple activity to put together, but one that really helped him get his letters straight. 
 These tiles were a steal at 6.00 from STAPLES. They link together Upper Case, Lower Case and a Beginning Sounds photo all in a train of Alphabet tiles. This is one of his favorite centers.
Creative writing is one of my favorite classes to grade the papers of. Reading all these amazing tales really makes me smile. I wrote up a deck of writing prompts and put them on a book ring to keep them together and then the kids pick a number daily and that is the prompt they are given. They always look forward to finding out what they will write about!


 We found these fun little easels and canvases at an art store and I immediately knew they would be put to good use in art class. The kids could hardly keep their hands off of them and of course wanted more when the task was through!!! They are all now decorating my living room.
Enjoy the day everyone!

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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Sunday Tips!

Before your kids come home from school or wake up, pull out a long neglected toy and put it somewhere it will be noticed straight away! Watch your children delight in playing with this 'new' toy for hours! 

Make even fast food last longer than a a quick eat! I always have some kind of card game or small board game in my tote in the car. This allows us to still play a family game, no matter where we end up at the end of a long day!

Happy Sunday my Friends...

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

In The Garden With Kids!

 If there is one thing I love to do in the outdoors, it's gardening! It's another one of those Summer Memories that I have with my grandfather on my fathers side. He still keeps a very large garden and we still go there and pick veggies, the only difference is that I go there with my own children and not my parents! (WOW!).

We started our herb garden today and each child had a blast getting involved in their own special ways!! We had garden scoopers, seed pourers and waterers! In honor of earth day we truly had a blast getting muddy!
Since the weather finally started to warm up again (did I mention SNOW last weekend???), the kids hit the water table again! I was THRILLED when I found a Ziploc freezer bag FULL of different sized scoops at a garage sale (.05)!!! This has been the MOST LOVED part of the table! We broke it off into 2 sections. 1 with just water and ducks and all water toys. The other half has these containers, scoops and funnels. The kids LOVE IT! They have a blast filling and squirting and just being silly. Who would have thought that the normal things EVERYONE throws away, are their treasures pieces!
Our very unhealthy but delicious snack that tied in perfectly? Worms in dirt of course!!!

Gummy Worms
Chocolate Pudding
Crushed Oreo Cookies

What did you do to honor Earth Day?


~Michelle!~

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