India Unit Study is here!!!

I am so happy to announce that I've completed the India Unit Study and it is available for purchase and download.

Purchase India Unit Study by clicking on the title.

The India Unit Study is a comprehensive lesson plan for the classroom or homeschool. 

It is based on a cross-curricular approach to learning, covering topics such as geography, math, language arts, science and foreign language to name a few. 

Included in the India Unit Study are: lots of information organized by topic, detailed teaching notes, lots of vibrant photos, games, and hands-on activities. 

Kids will immerse themselves in the Indian culture.  More than 100 pages of information!

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

Columbus Day Activities for 1st and 2nd Grade

It's Fall and school is back in session and in full swing, whether your kids go to traditional schools or they are homeschooled.

With that in mind, I soured the web for some fun, interesting Columbus Day activities to include in your homeschool program or as a supplement to school.

Here are my favorites:

Columbus Day Race from Education.com

http://www.education.com/activity/article/columbus-day-boat-race/



This next one is awesome from Busy Teachers Café

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/themes/columbus.html

There are so many activities to choose from. Since they span almost all subject areas, I'm thinking this would work great as a Unit Study.

Apples for the Teacher has a nice timeline of the events surrounding Columbus' adventure.

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/columbus-day/facts.html

Enchanted Homeschooling has some neat ideas!



http://enchantedhomeschoolingmom.org/2011/10/columbus-day-activities/

Here are some things we'll be doing besides reading about Columbus' travels. We will be working on a maze, doing a word search, and putting Columbus Day words in alphabetical order. These are all ideas that you can do yourself and will be lots of fun for the kids.

Check out what we did last year HERE! and Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

Teaching Ending Sounds to 1st graders

I'm so excited to share this teaching activity with all of you!

As parents we are always looking for ways to help our children learn. When our kids are young, before they even start school, we are reading to them, teaching them sounds, words, and much, much more. We are our children's first teachers. And I think we are our children's most important teacher because we are the ones that give them the foundation they need to succeed in school.

It is with that role in mind that I created "Rhyming Flowers", a simple activity that gets kids excited about learning new words, understanding how putting together letters makes words, and distinguishing sounds.

As preschoolers, kindergarteners, and even first graders, kids are beginning to understand the relationship between sounds and letters. It's a magical time of discovery. Kids get so pumped up when they realize how many words they can make with one simple word ending. "Rhyming Flowers" is here to help with this wonderful discovery. This teaching tool will make learning rhyming words and sounds really interesting for the kids.

"Rhyming Flowers" is basically a rhyming game. What makes this learning product so different and so worthwhile is that it is FUN! I've used it with many young children and the response is unbelievable. I've had students lay on the carpet and play with these rhyming flowers for hours on end.

"Word Family Rhyming Flowers" comes in a set of 10 flowers. Each set has a flower center which is the ending sound and several petals which are the beginning sounds. The set also comes with instructions and extra game ideas. I've also color coordinated the flower petals and centers to make it easier for the parent/teacher.

The set is downloadable and I recommend laminating it which will make it usable for a very long time.

You can buy the set here for only $10. That's just $1 per flower. This small fee gets you endless teaching opportunities as well as infinite fun for your kids and students.

And to kick off the new school year, I'm giving away 2 sets to 2 Adventures of a Homeschool Mom readers (1 set per winner).

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED

It's really easy to enter....just leave a comment below telling me why you would like this activity and how your child or student would benefit from it. That's it!

I'll announce the winners on Tuesday 9/10 on the blog and on Facebook, so be sure to "like" Adventures of a Homeschool Mom as well.

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!!

Homeschool Resources on the Web - Lots of Free Stuff!

I've been meaning to write this post for quite a while. It's finally here. When I started homeschooling my first grader, I did a ton of research to find online resources to help me along. Needless to say, there is so much out there it can get overwhelming. I discovered and used these websites and its resources throughout the year. I started with a much longer list, but it is now down to this one that I am sharing with  you.

These websites are free for the most part, they offer instruction, worksheets or general help.They are not specifically geared toward homeschoolers, but I don't think that matters. The content is good whether your child is homeschooled or attends public school.

I hope to grow this list as I find other good educational websites. And if you love a website that is not on this list, please let me know in the comments below. I will check it out and possibly add it to my list.

General Education Sites (these sites include a variety of subjects within each site, they are not specific to one subject)

www.education.com

www.internet4classrooms.com

http://www.newton.k12.ks.us/tech/first_grade_internet2.htm#Reading

www.printables4kids.com

www.abcya.com

www.pbskids.org

www.tlsbooks.com

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/

Math Websites (these websites are specific to math only)

www.ixl.com (a note about this math site: they allow you to try it for free, if you like it, and I guarantee you will, there is a membership fee that gives you unlimited access)

www.math-aids.com

www.dadsworksheets.com

www.math-drills.com

www.homeschoolmath.net

I hope this list helps you in your own search for homeschool materials! Hopefully I've done some of the leg work for you.

Do you have a favorite website? Please let me know.

1st Grade Art Project Idea - Tissue Paper Butterfly

Here's a very simple art project idea. I remember when my oldest daughter was in school and she used to make all sorts of art projects with tissue paper. So I've been thinking of doing something similar with my 6 year old. I finally went out and bought a pack of tissue paper in assorted colors. I got mine at a dollar store! The only materials you need are glue, tissue paper, a white sheet of paper, a pencil and a sharpie.

We started by drawing our butterfly. Then we traced the drawing with a Sharpie to make the borders very visible. After that we just started ripping small pieces of tissue paper, crumbling them and gluing to our picture. We did them in a pattern, but it can be done randomly as well.

If you are ever looking for a last minute or quick and easy art project, this is it!! Since it is Spring right now, this colorful butterfly fits right in with the season. I think this project would make a great rainy day activity also. Other tissue paper art ideas are flowers in a vase, a garden scene with birds, trees and flowers, a rainbow or a flag.

My daughter had so much fun "creating" her butterfly. Here are some pictures!

End of the home school year, tying up loose ends and looking back!

Wow, this time of year gets really busy and I kind of dropped out this past week. I've been planning out our last few weeks of school. I plan on being finished with home school around Memorial Day weekend. Here'a a recap of our homeschool year.

We've covered everything I had planned for and more. We were able to move forward in Math, starting some 2nd grade concepts. Nothing too indepth, but since I had teaching opportunities I didn't want to let them go by without at least an introduction. We started with multiplication and we really went deeper with fractions.

Math

We took our time with Math, because I think it's really important to have a strong foundation, since Math builds on itself. I feel very confident with how my daughter performed. She really loves math. She has a good grasp of Geometry, Algebra, Graphing, Fractions, Addition, Subtraction and Patterns. With addition and subtraction, she is doing two digit addition/subraction with carry over (we don't do re-grouping).

Reading

My 6 yeard old daughter is reading so well, we've moved to level 3 books and chapter books.

Writing

This year we focused on cursive. Now that is the only way she writes and does it very well. I'm so proud of her! I gave her plenty of opportunities for writing. She wrote about herself and her family. She wrote notes, cards, how to's, and tail gating on our history lesson on occupations, she made a book about different occupatations. There were many other writing assignments, I can't remember them all right now.

Science

We covered the Water Cycle, Clouds, Recycling, we had a weather sheet that she completed everyday. We predicted the weather by looking at the clouds. We made graphs to study weather patterns. We made a rain gauge. We studied habitats, the rainforest, oceans, etc. We studied energy sources. We had fun doing science experiments in our own kitchen!

We had some rainy weather so my lessons on rocks and soil had to be postponed, so we still have to do those.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we did a lot of geography and learned how to read a map. I also taught geographical terms, such as equator, hemispheres, etc. We also did history lessons on families throughout time, we studied how families lived in the 1800s, the 1950s, and today.

We studied cultures, especially around the holidays.

Art/Music

She started taking piano lessons! In art we learned about different artists such as Seurat, Degas, Edward Hopper, and Geogia O'Keefe. We did lots of art projects based on those artists and did lots of other ones on our own, like paper snow flakes, tissue paper art, etc.

We also went to museums, plays and concerts. We had a very busy first year in homeschool!! Looking back I am very happy and proud of what we accomplished. I have learned a lot too. There are things that I plan to do differently(I'll leave that to another blog entry).

The one thing I have learned is that I do not want to follow any curriculum or book to a tee. Thankfully, I had my school district's curriculum as a guideline (I didn't want to go completely alone). But it was just that, a guideline, more like suggestions. The reason that was important for me was that I wanted to make sure that my daughter had a good foundation and learned what she needed to within the state's requirements. Beyond that, we spread our wings and really took off. We liked being able to learn and explore freely without too many restrictions. Although I must say that I am very organized and like structure. I did plan out every homeschool day and week, knowing that things could change. Having that flexibility was priceless.

I started this journey saying we would do it for one year and see how things went. I had no long terms plans. But as our first homeschool year is coming to a close, I can confidently say we will continue!! I am so happy. My daughter is so happy. That's what matters.

I hope this blog has helped other homeschool parents along their own journeys. I hope my lessons helped as well. I will continue the blog throughout the summer but on a more relaxed schedule.

In the meantime, look out for my Summer Reading list!

Earth Day 2012

Every year I am amazed at how little attention Earth Day receives in the United States. We are one of the world's worst offenders when it comes to the environment. Yet when it's time to raise awareness it seems people prefer to ignore the issues.

This year, I decided to get my young daughter involved in a small way. Recycling is not something new in our household, so my 6 year old is used to separating glass, tin, plastic, etc. But I wanted to do more. I wanted her to understand why we do those things and more importantly, I wanted to give her a sense of empowerment. I want her to know that every effort counts, that every paper we recycle makes a difference.

We started by reading "How to Help the Earth- by the Lorax". It is a Step into Reading level 3 book which was perfect for her to read by herself. Then, we talked about what we do at home to help the Earth. She noticed that there were more ideas in the book that we currently don't do, but would be able to easily incorporate into our daily lives. I loved the fact that she was proactive about suggesting changes.

The following day, we read the book once more and then we made our own Help the Earth chart to remind us of all the little things we can do. I wrote the list and she cut out pictures from magazines that illustrated our "to do's". We had great fun and since the poster has been up, we've talked more about what we're doing and she is also helping me to remind the other family members to "comply" as well.

Do you do anything special to help the Earth? I'm always looking for new ideas, I'd love to hear your comments!

                               

Lego Organizer

I really wanted to share a storage tip. And who doesn't need storage ideas, right?

I was going through some old magazines, just to clean out some clutter and I came across a great idea in an issue of Family Fun magazine.

One of the writers offered a fantastic suggestion for organizing all of your kids' Lego pieces while at the same time creating a surface for playing.

My 6 year old daughter is a huge fan of Legos and she plays with them everyday. She likes to spread out all of the tiny, little pieces all over the floor. Needless to say, we are constantly stepping on Lego pieces which is not only annoying, but it can hurt as well.

My daughter also likes to build her Legos and leave them up on display.

So this idea in Family Fun magazine was a perfect solution for us. We didn't do it exactly as it showed in the magazine. I basically took the idea and made it my own.

I went to the store and purchased two plastic 5 drawer storage carts. Then at a home improvement store I purchased a piece of white laminated wood and simply placed it on top of the two bins. The article in the magazine did suggest attaching the board to the carts, but I opted not to do that so I could move it easily if I needed to. They also suggested painting the wood, but I bought the white one, it worked better for us.

Finally, my daughter and I organized the Legos in each drawer by color, making the Legos easy to find when she plays. I still need to get some drawer dividers, but for now she has a great little play area! And I am very happy to have all those tiny pieces off the floor!

5 biggest challenges in homeschooling

Now that I've been at this homeschooling game for about 6 months, I can look back and assess where I am, what I've learned, where I excelled and where I fell short.

The number one thing that I have learned is that homeschooling is not easy! It takes so much commitment from the homeschool parent. Homeschooling also requires an inordinate amount of organization. I have always been very organized; a huge believer in "a place for everything, everything in its place". But homeschooling takes much more than that. I had no idea when I started out how much structure homeschooling requires. Without structure and serious organization skills, it is very easy to get lost in every day minutae and not get school work done.

Structure and organization aside, here are the 5 biggest challenges I face as a homeschool parent.

1- Finding a homeschool support group in my area.

I live in Central NJ and there are no homeschool support groups in this area. I have tirelessly searched the internet and while I have found a group here and there, they are usually very religious/Christian. Since I am looking for a group that focuses more on socialization and academics than religion, these groups are not a good fit. I have also come across 2 listings that sound like homeschool groups. The first one I contacted was actually someone's private home number and she told me her kids were now in college and she offered some advice which led to dead ends. The second listing must have been outdated. I never heard back and after 3 or 4 attempts I gave up.

As of now, my daughter and I are on our own and I do feel that socialization is an important aspect to consider, which bring me to number 2 on my list.

2- Availability of extracurricular activities.

Actually, the lack of extracurricular activities for homeschooled children. Of course, there are community programs that offer dance lessons, music, art classes and the list goes on. However, these classes cater to kids who go to public school and most classes, if not all, are offered after school. Also, the kids who attend these classes are public school kids so their experiences are different than homeschooled children. It's hard to connect and make friends.

3- The financial aspect.

As a homeschool parent, I am responsible for all of the material and activities for our homeschool. It can get expensive to buy books and arts supplies, enroll in a variety of extracurricular activities and do other things such as field trips. I want this experience to be exciting and fun for my daughter, so I have to be creative. I use the library a lot for books. I enrolled my daughter in our local YMCA for classes; the variety isn't great, but there are enough classes to keep her busy for now and the prices are good. As far as field trips, my husband and I plan ahead and set money aside for trips to museums, etc.

4- Keeping the lessons interesting.

Spending everyday together reading, studying, learning, can get boring. I want my daughter to love learning and to want to learn something new every day. I am always trying to think of fun things to do, interactive projects, hands on science experiments, computer based activities; teaching that goes beyond worksheets.

5- Finding "me" time.

This is actually a pretty big one. My friends told me before I embarked on this journey that I could not forget about me; that in order to keep my sanity, I would need to find time to do things that I enjoy. I was sure I would be able to do that, but reality has been quite different. The fact is that we can get caught up in planning, preparing, teaching, mentoring, that we forget who we are beyond that. There are days when I feel like being alone, even if it's something simple like taking an extra long shower. I allow myself to indulge in that. There are other times that I will just go out by myself. Even if I have nothing to do, I will get in the car and go to a store and just walk around by myself. The one thing I have missed out on is doing yoga. I rarely find the time to do it and it's so important to stay healthy physically and mentally.

I am working hard to turn these homeschool challenges into success stories! It's a matter of finding the resources and finding balance....

Valentine's Day Craft Idea part 2

Here's a cute idea for the kids to make to put all of their goodies in. It's so simple, didn't take that long to do, but was a lot of fun. The best part is that it is homemade. I love to give things that are homemade. It makes the gift that much more special because you put thought and time into it.

We took a brown paper bag (lunch bag) and decorated it with hearts of different shapes and sizes, glitter, and personal message. These bags are also perfect to put the chocolate covered pretzels I wrote about in a previous blog entry, http://homeschoolnj.blogspot.com/2012/01/valentines-day-craft-idea-part-1.html

You can then help your child fill the bag with small gifts and sweets and they can give it to their friends, or anyone else!!

What happened to English Grammar and Spelling??

So as an English teacher by trade, I think it's very important to teach kids grammar and spelling. As the mother of a junior in high school, I can tell you that schools no longer teach grammar or spelling. It is appalling and they might tell you otherwise, but I can assure you this is the new reality. I don't know why grammar has been forgotten.

I've noticed that teachers are so focused on having students write, write, write. They have so many writing assignments that it is mind boggling. However, most of these writing assignments have no purpose. My high school age daughter writes so much, but she has no idea why. Then, the teacher collects the writings and you never hear another word about it. My question is: How are the kids supposed to learn from their mistakes? The answer is: They don't. Kids my daughter's age don't have a clue about modifiers, run on sentences or even correct placement of commas, colons, etc. It's astounding.

Spelling is another issue. The idea with spelling is that you should let the child spell the way they think the word is, or how the word sounds. The idea is to encourage young kids to write, even if it's incorrectly spelled. I've heard teachers say that correcting kids too much discourages them. That practice might work fine when kids are in kindergarten or even first grade. Eventually, kids need to learn the correct way to spell. The problem is, by the time teachers start focusing on correct spelling, kids have already created hard to break habits. It is too late!

So my philosophy is teach them while they are young. Kids can take criticism and should learn early on the right way of doing things.

My older daughter is in public school and never learned how to spell, except when I taught her at home. Her spelling is not stellar unfortunately, but I did the best I could given the situation. The school was of no help at all. I would edit her writing and they would not. They would tell her "it's ok". No, it's not ok. It is embarrassing to see grown adults who do not know the difference between "there", "their" and "they're".

Since I homeschool my first grader, I have a golden opportunity to do things differently, better.
We work on writing everyday, and while I encourage her to write creatively, we do go over her writing and work on spelling and grammar.

She's known her long and short vowels since she was 3 years old. I taught her about "word families", words that rhyme also when she was 3. I was encouraged by her first teacher in preschool, who noticed that my daughter was very smart and learned things quickly. The teacher told me to really challenge her at home above and beyond what she learned in school. I immediately started to do that and my daughter loved it. She soaked up all of this knowledge like a sponge. And everything I taught was using games. I can't tell you how many word games we played. I never pushed her. I let her choose the games and we played. As a result, she was reading in kindergarten. By the time she got to 1st grade, she was already reading at a 2nd grade level. That's when we decided to homeschool and she's flourished. She's an excellent speller for her age.

On this journey, I strive to offer my daughter a well rounded education where she can explore her interests while becoming very strong in the basics of reading, writing, and math. I will always put emphasis on proper English. I think it is fundamental.

How do you feel about teaching English grammar?

Valentine's Day Craft Idea part 1

Kids love to exchange Valentine's at school, so I think it would be the same way at homeschool. It's fun to give and receive these little treats from friends. Your child can give valentines to their homeschool group friends, their friends at gymnastics or dance or whatever activities they are involved in, they can even give them to their cousins or siblings.

I know that many of you think it's much easier to go the store and buy a bulk pack of valentines. You're right, it is so much easier. But it's also boring! It is worth it to take a little time and plan an activity that your homeschooled child will love to do.

Almost all of our activities serve a double purpose. For one, we have fun doing a craft, something creative and handmade. Second, I like to incorporate a little hidden learning. Since we are making little cards to attach to our gift, my daughter uses a ruler to measure a square on the card stock. She uses age appropriate scissors to cut out the square.

Here is a Valentine's Day idea that serves both those purposes with the added bonus that your child can then give these to the people she loves.

First, you need to figure out how many you want to make. That will dictate how much you need to purchase .

We are going to be making chocolate covered pretzel rods. My kids are pros at making these, since we make them for almost every occasion. They are so easy to make and are a great gift!

Chocolate covered Pretzel rods
What you'll need:
- 1 bag of pretzel rods
- 1 bag of chocolate candy (from the craft store). You will need more if you want to make them in different colors. I will make them using milk chocolate.
- Sprinkles (jimmies) in red, pink, white. The craft store has these already prepackaged together.
- 1 pack of small lollipop bags (also found in the candy making section of the craft store)
- ribbon (to tie the bags. I use Christmas type ribbons, you can choose the color) I will use red
- red card stock

Directions:

Set up your work area in the kitchen. Place foil on a cookie sheet. Melt your chocolate according to the instructions. Dip your pretzel into the melted chocolate about half way, shake off any excess. Place the pretzel on the cookie sheet and have your child put the sprinkles over the chocolate to decorate. Do this one at a time, otherwise the chocolate will dry on the pretzel and the sprinkles won't stick. When your tray is full, place it in the fridge for about 10 minutes to set. Remove from fridge, carefully take the pretzel off the foil and place in a bag. Tie the bag with ribbon, place the card through one of the ribbons, tie it again and curl the ribbon with scissors (parents do this).

To make the card:
Cut the card stock into small squares. Let your child write a short message on one side, then hole punch it to secure it to the ribbon later. Kids can also decorate the cards.

Art Projects and Homeschool

Art is definitely not my forte, but it is part of a well balanced curriculum in any school. So it should also be part of a homeschool curriculum. I've been doing a lot of research on the topic. How do I teach art to a 6 year old? How do I make it part of homeschool? What is the best way to integrate art with other things we are doing? These were a few of the questions I had. I came across some good ideas, but nothing really made sense to me. It seemed that some of the ideas were either too childish or too advanced. I don't want my daughter to just sit in front of a white sheet of paper and draw randomly. That's ok for afterschool but for an art class I was looking for something more structured. I wanted structure for me, as the teacher. Some guidelines that I could follow to make teaching art fun, productive, and educational.

I still haven't really found anything I can use. It's a shame because there is so much information out there for homeschool parents in general, but for this particular topic, there's not much. So, as with almost everything I do, I decided to come up with my own plan.

I am homeschooling a 1st grader who is naturally interested in art. That is a huge plus. I picked a couple of artists and/or artistic styles. I made a list. I am going down the list and trying different things.

My first artist was Georgia O'Keeffe. I picked this one on a recommendation. Looking back I would not have started with O'Keeffe in first grade. I think her style is too complex for first graders. I've also never been a big fan. But since homeschooling is not about me, I decided to give it a go.

First, I talked to my daughter about the artist in very general terms. Then we went to the library and got a biography about Georgia O'Keeffe (a children's biography). We looked through the book at first, then I began to read my daughter the story. Even this children's book was way too long and complex for a 6 year old. I read the story sometimes changing the words, making it simpler to understand. We did not read the whole book in one sitting.

On a different day, we read some more. At that point, we just talked about O'Keeffe and her art. I asked questions and my daughter answered in her own words. I encouraged her to talk about the art and how it made her feel. This part of the lesson was great.

Then, we went on the internet and looked at some more of Georgia O'Keeffe's art. I told my daughter to pick one that she really liked. When she found a purple flower, she was set. I then gave my daughter some paper and pencils and told her to make her own O'Keeffe flower.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this set of art lessons. I believe that in 1st grade, children do not need to know art in detail or know the names of artistic styles, etc. I believe at this age, children need to be introduced to a variety of styles in a supportive, creative environment, so they can explore their own tastes and abilities.

Next we are going to make paper snowflakes!! I can't wait.

If you read this blog and would like to contribute ideas, please do so! I welcome them. That is the purpose of this blog. I want to exchange information with other parents that are out there homeschooling and having their own experiences.

What to do the week before the holidays!!

'Since this is my first year homeschooling, I had no idea what to expect the last week before Christmas vacation. I made my lesson plans as usual, with a little more flexibility. For instance, I didn't plan any formal lessons for Friday, since it's a half day at public school and my older child would be home earlier. I figured we can have a half day as well or even a day off.

What I didn't anticipate is the lack of enthusiasm for school work during this time of year. My daughter simply isn't interested in doing any work. Monday was totally stressful because I was in teaching mode and wanted to get all the work done. My daughter on the other hand was whiny; she complained she was tired, or sick, or anything that would get her out of doing school work. Throughout the month of December, we did tons of Christmas or holiday themed activities. We made Christmas tree mosaic, we made wreaths and snowmen. We did activities that taught us about Christmas in other countries, we even learned how to say "Merry Christmas" and "Santa Claus" in several different languages. I think we both feel all Christmased out!! So I re-assessed the day's plan and decided to do things differently.

We still got some work done but I chose to go a more relaxed, casual way. We did some guided reading and other activities that didn't involve deep concentration and focus. Success!

Tuesday started out the same way. So we veered from my plans again. Today is Wednesday and we are a little more focused. So we are trying to get some work done. I'm even hoping to get ahead of schedule so we can take it easy the rest of the week.

The other thing I didn't anticipate or plan for is the fact that I would be so busy this time of year. I have shopping to do, holiday meals to plan, guests to entertain, and house cleaning to do. With all of that homeschooling became a chore even for me this week.

Finally, I just allowed myself to be flexible and stray from the structure/routine, in order to preserve my sanity and not have a completely stressed out kid by the end of the week.

So far, so good. This afternoon we are baking Gingerbread Men cookies. That counts as part of school, doesn't it? Measuring=math, reading the recipe=language arts, talking about the origin of these cookies=social studies. Awesome!

I wonder how other homeschool moms deal with things this time of year.

Christmas Tree Mosaic Arts and Crafts Project

As a homeschool mom, I am always looking for project ideas to do with my 1st grader. Arts and crafts projects serve several purposes. They can be educational, just for fun, or even to break up the monotony of the day sometimes.

I like to do projects with a purpose. Since we are going to be celebrating Christmas soon, I thought it would be fun to do a Christmas related project. We started by talking about decorating our Christmas tree and what kind of things we use to decorate our tree. Then we read a Christmas book. We finished off by doing our mosaic arts and crafts project. This was just a simple project I came up with to tie in our art class with the season. I had used this idea previously for other projects and it worked wonderfully.

It was really simple to do and my daughter and I had lots of fun doing it.

Here's what you need to make this project and instructions.

Materials needed:

1 piece of black construction paper

Elmer's glue

Paint swatches in green, brown, red, and yellow colors (I got mine from a home improvement store)

I made a free-hand outline of a Christmas tree on the construction paper. Then I cut out random pieces of the paint swatches, in different sizes and different tones of green (for the tree) and brown (for the trunk). I also cut out free hand circles of red for ornaments. And finally I cut out a yellow star.

My daughter then used glue to put the pieces of "mosaic" colors on the tree. After she did the green and brown, she glued red ornaments (we did some purple ones too, since purple is her favorite color).

Tip: Using different tones of the same color (in this case green) gives the mosaic a nice texture and interesting look.

Here's a picture of the project as we started and the finished mosaic.