Bones, Bones, Bones...

Happy Tuesday! I am still in disbelief that April is here! Can you believe that we have now been homeschooling for 2 months? When they say time flies, it's so very true. I am with my children 24-7 now and I still miss them when they go for an overnight with Nana and Grandpa! How is that possible? When we are in the classroom we are so busy having fun that I often wonder if that can be called learning. 

This week, our Science Books have led us to a unit study on the Human Body. We are starting with studying the human skeleton, what better way to begin a new learning adventure, than with a hands on project! I purchased THIS Bones Book & Human Skeleton Model. WOW, was this more successful than I expected. It took us about 2 hours AFTER school and the kids never even yawned, complained or asked if it was almost over!! As we put the model together, we discussed what EACH bone was and passed it around to feel it, then we attempted to touch that bone on our own bodies. It was a lot of fun and such a learning experience for us all. 

I highly recommend hands on studies when your children are learning something. It doesn't even have to cost you too much money. Print out bone worksheets and put together a skeleton using a stapler or even glue, anything you have on hand, then label the pieces together. There are so many resources that a simple google search will help you fulfill your needs. Look at their faces! They are so proud of their hard work and they wanted to keep going! We read several books on the human body and all in all had a very awesome school day, not too bad for a Monday! 

In all of our unit studies, you will find that I always like to find coordinating books, workbooks and the like to have around for the kids to use and enjoy at all times. While we purchase many books new, it's always good to get AWESOME deals on books that can otherwise get pricey! Check out this FANTASTIC web site that lists Book Sales all across the Country!!! Most are at libraries and the links give you all the information you would ever need on tracking down sales close to your local area. You can often go on the last days of these sales and pack a bag for 5.00!!

 
This is a fabulous worksheet from CRAYOLA that will make it's way to our worktable later on this week as well. As with all worksheets, you can easily adapt it to the type of learners you have at home and their ages. My eldest will take this worksheet as a test and I will remove the vocab box as well as the answer key. My 1st grader will just have the answer key removed and fill in the blanks using the vocab box. My youngest will color that page and then point to the bone as I say the word aloud. There are so many ways to get creative and have fun with anything.

Enjoy every minute!

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Project: Postcard!

Hi everyone!! Hope you have had an excellent day. As many of you know, we have been on a virtual vacation this Summer, making stops all over the globe! This has been an absolute delight for all of us involved, not to mention the BEST learning experience. With Summer coming to a close, we are not ready to give up our travels! This is where our next project begins! We are asking if you could send us a postcard from where you live, where you are on vacation, places you love, anything at all.

Jot us a note about anything at all, mention your location if it's not stated on your postcard and send it off! We will research the location, learn some new things and maybe even a craft too! We will do a blog post, featuring the front of your postcard and all we learned. If you include a return address on the back, we will write you back too and give you some information on where we are from and who we are!

We can't wait to add your location onto our map of travels! Real and Virtual, we pin them all if we have learned something there. This is a fantastic lesson in map skills and so many other things the inspire creativity and create memories that will certainly last a lifetime!

Ready to send us a postcard? Just send me an E-mail and let me know, I will let you know my address and  you can get writing, so we can get learning and then get writing too! A lesson in every subject going on here!  Care to join us in Project Postcard? Let me know and I will add a link to your blog post about it here, so that people that want to send cards can visit your site too!!

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Grab a Button and Let's Get Some Postcards!!!

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Studying Plants and Having Fun!

Our Strawberry plants have yielded their first harvest and as we went out to pick them, I knew there was a lesson in here somewhere! I wanted the kids to be able to pick their own fruits and veggies without pulling out the whole plant!

I found this fantastic worksheet online and printed it out, so that the kids would have something visual to work with. We studied a bit inside before taking out rules and scissors outside. As we were studying, the kids were so excited to learn parts, but more excited to get out and eat those berries! They were so careful outside, even the youngest (3years) said 'careful for root!'

What have you done outdoors lately?

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We Love to Read!

I love stocking up our library for kids in the house, I keep 2 large bookshelves in the living room full of books and then each child has 2 bookshelves in their room full of more books, needless to say we have a LOT of books! I was in search of a fun age appropriate list of books to plump up their shelves for Summer reading, when I googled Summer book list, and came across a plethora of good things!! I printed one out and stocked up to round out the list and now the kids have gotten into Summer reading with great gusto! They first think of it as a scavenger hunt when looking for a certain book and then we set off to  read it in a new and fun place, whether we take it with us to the park, grandpa's or the beach or just in a new room at home! The kids love being able to cross books off of their list, that sometimes they want to keep reading all day long! We are having a blast reading our way through these lists!

As I mentioned before, we also fill out a book report (Just 1 per book for all of us) about each and every book we read, so that I can be sure they are really absorbing the information and not just racing through to read every book on the list and be done with it. I've saved every filled out report and am putting it into a binder that will be great to pass on to my grandchildren with reviews on books their parents loved! I have put each page into a page protector to keep it safe and preserved.

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Paperweights and Learning Fun!

With Father's Day right around the corner, I've been been thinking of all the cool projects we could make for dad. 1 was perfect for the rain-is-coming day we had yesterday! We hit the park and walked the nature trails, all the while looking for rocks! The best ones are by the creek, but only mom was allowed to grab those, since I am still too much of a worrier when I am with the kids alone. We grabbed our bucket of rocks, rub on letters and set to work after dinner! We waited for the rocks to completely dry off, so that they would take the letters better.

The big kids (6,5), worked on spelling out actual words and putting them on the rocks, while the little guy and I worked on individual letters. I would say a letter and he would find the rub-on and together we would rub it onto the rock. We made loads of cool rocks and in the end glued the top one together into 1 paperweight to give Daddy for his office! We hope he likes it!! (No worries, he works so much that he has no time at all to go on the computer, let alone read my blog!)

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Take The Learning Outside!

As the weather warms up, we are all dying to get back outdoors on a regular basis! The kids love to run, jump and yell with no boundries (well except for the fence!). It's fun, exciting and best of all thrilling to get outdoors and play with bubbles, water and sand. Why not sneak in a little learning while you play? 

We took our sidewalk chalk out with us this week and drew reaaaalllly long lines and measured to see who drew the longer one! Then we wrote out number 1-20 on a bumpy hill! We made clouds with numbers on them and hopped from one to the next or just stood still until someone yelled out a number and we all headed to land on that one! We even pulled out the jacks and matched them up to the same color chalk drawing!!

I wrote out some Math problems and before I was done with the last one, my 5 year old was pulling up a chalk and getting right to work!

All the while, I don't think the kids even knew there was a lesson in there! Even Mommy had some fun with the chalk!

Enjoy this month as we near Summer and vacations abound!

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~Michelle!~

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Zoo Day!

The day started out bright and sunny, but by the time we pulled up to the zoo, it was rainy and gloomy! Did we turn around? NO WAY! We had a blast! As you can tell by our Flip Flops and Ice Cream post, we know how to enjoy the gloomiest of days! We pulled into the FIRST parking spot at Brookfield and were thrilled with our luck of having an empty zoo! 

First stop, the reptile house, so that we could sit in a boat and map out what to do next! The kids love to write on their laminated maps (we are members and don't like to waste maps, so we laminate them and the kids can write on them with dry erase markers) and each write where they wanted to go!

We lucked out and got to see almost ALL of the animals being fed! The kids thought this was just AMAZING and just wanted to sit and watch. They asked questions and got really into everything.

We make everything a learning experience, even while having fun! At doors, I would say:

'open the door that says PUSH please' or we would take turns reading what the informational signs at each animal would say.

Enjoying their maps AND a brief moment of no rain in the sky! It was so rare to get them to all stand still, that I didn't even bother with the smiling! hahaha!!!

My oldest son is really into Giraffes right now and I put together a little field pack for him to enjoy! I try to give each child a little something on their own day every now and then. It's a way to individualize them in their own way! The blanket and bag are from Target (1.25 each!!), the book was from the zoo and the Bus Notebook is perfect for his field notes!

Their favorite part of the day! This was 25 minutes to closing and we got to see this all up close and so personal!!! We were squealing like crazy! haha! 

For us, a trip to the suburbs isn't complete without stopping at Hamburger University! hhaha! Yes, there is such a thing and my mother happens to work there as a corporate employee for McDonald's. The kids love to stop and visit with Nana for a brief moment and learn any secrets. To them, Nana has the ultimate dream job, second only to Grandpa who gets to work from HOME in his PAJAMAS! hahaha!! You have to love kids!

Do you have any MUST STOP places?

~Michelle!~

Making a Chore Chart!

As my kids get older, they start taking on more responsibility around the house. I find that giving them little chores, helps them learn that a house only works if the members of the family work together and it also keeps them involved doing something when I need to tackle heavier chores. I put this all together with stuff that I have in the house, I knew for sure I didn't want to buy anything else for just this project.

This was a small project that the kids could help me with, so that they could understand more of what we were doing and why. We decided to work at the craft table, so that we didn't have to carry around the supplies that were found right there.

I used library book pockets (yes, I use these a lot don't I! haha) and flashcards to write all the chores on them (6 year old) and then cut them out with wavy scissors (5 year old) and use a glue stick to put it all together (3 year old).

I took little die cut boys and wrote out everyone's name on two of them and then they were glued and taped to craft sticks (combination of everyone working together).

We all read the chores together and then I assigned them the first time around. I do not reward them with money for doing chores, as this is something that is just a fact of life. They do earn little things for making it to the end of the week with a completed chore list. The things they can earn are:
A day off from 1 of their chores.
Opportunity to assign the chores (this is the fast favorite)
Chance to switch 1 chore with someone else.

I then stuck all the pockets onto our good behavior chart, so that it's always in one place and clearly visible (In the playroom on the wall).

That's our chore chart!! Share yours!

For the Birds!

My youngest and I read books about birds and then we took our binoculars outside and watched for some as we lay on our backs and stared in the sky! We wondered what it would be like to fly and where we would go, Disney World (me!) and McDonald's (him!). We marveled at all the colors that could be found on birds and even visited a pet shop to look at birds that could be kept as pets! Upon coming home we started our craft of the day!

We dug around in our bucket of CAPS, CAPS, CAPS and found one that belonged to a trail mix bucket and we were ready to roll! We were going to make a bird feeder! We waited until the big kids got home from school, so that all could be involved in putting in the seed and hanging it up!  Let's hope we get some birds!

Share a link to your homemade bird feeders in the comment section please!!

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Craft in a Minute! Easter Crosses

 Today we made a quick craft to go with our Stations of the Cross readings and also as something for Easter. How simple is this??? Clothespins and glue and paint! That's it!! Just make sure that an adult takes the clothespins apart, just in case the springs are a bit difficult. It will take 4 clothespins for 1 cross.

Do you have any quick crafts to share????


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Corner of my Home...

Welcome to another Corner of my home! This is our educational nook. I am hoping to find the RIGHT rainbow colored rug some day to place right in front of it! In these shelves are games and toys and books that are for learning and educational play! These toys are ONLY allowed to be played with right here, since things have a tendency to grow legs and walk away to their bedrooms and the playroom etc. There are 8 bins in this shelf and I wish we had actually gone with something bigger! I may purchase and set of 4 if I can find one! The unit is the Expedit from Ikea, the BEST store for organizing children!

At the top left you will find workbooks and school curriculum books that I am building up to keep the Summer learning going this year. We will have 'school' for 3 hours every day (Broken up into 2 portions with lunch, playtime and relaxing in the middle). I also have a small bit of markers, pencils etc. here for quick projects or games that we need something to write with and then a large jar of crayons!!

Going to the right, we have our reference books like a couple Atlases, maps, Dictionaries, experiment books etc. and the bell for our reading game (I will touch more on this reading game in another post!!). The next shelf holds our reader books (Levels 1-4), I have 2 beginning readers in the home and I like to keep these out in the open and not their personal book shelves, so that they can look up any words they need in the dictionaries. This also holds our Microscope, that I LOVE LOVE LOVE, it's by Geo Safari and it's FANTASTIC! Even the little one gets into being a Scientist! (This may move to our Science Nook, if I ever get it more under control). The little silver tin holds the slides.

The Microscope Nook is the only one that has recently changed! I moved the beginning readers to the reading nook, where they can snuggle in better with them! I now added the reading manipulatives here, since that seems to be the 1 part of our collection that continues to grow!

The next bin is 'organized' but it still looks like a mess! I really don't know what I want to do with this area (hence the need for the bigger shelf!) This entire corner is full of some learning board games that fit in the nook (I change out these games weakly, so it's like getting new games each time!!), and magnetic boards!

The Bottom shelf is full of 8 bins (one was in use at the moment!!) with the larger ones being labeled (I am having my daughter WRITE the labels for the top row) with photos so that everyone knows how to put stuff away right where it belongs! The Lego Box, is topped with a bin full of Unifix Linking Cubes that are the perfect thing to use with Legos or even alone as a Math manipulative (More on these in a future post). The craft box holds a little bit of everything crafty and the bin above it holds construction paper). MagnaTiles are next and they are FABULOUS!! These magnetic tiles have the kids AND mom and dad enthralled every single time they come out! I even posted about them here! The green bin on top of that one, holds more MagnaTiles! haha! We are obsessed and running out of space!! Finally is our flashcard bin, this holds all flashcards of any sort! We even make our own and those are in there too. The green bin above that holds our Spanish bin, I speak Spanish fluently and will be teaching the kids this Summer as part of our curriculum!! I am so excited!!!

All of this sits beneath our Nature Table! There is so much going on in this nook, that is seems to be their favorite place to play. 

Hope you enjoyed this corner of my home! Share yours in the comments please!!

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