Ideas for Father's Day!! Make Dad a crown

We got a Father's Day printable through www.education.com (a site I really love!) which I thought was a cute fun idea to do. It's a Father's Day crown. Buttercup had so much fun coloring it. It was super easy and Dad will love being king for a day! I know my hubby will.

Here's Buttercup's crown.




Click here for the printable Father's Day Crown

The website also has other Father's Day ideas that I thought were great. Check out their top 10 list here
10 Ideas for Father's Day









Enjoy! And Happy Homeschooling Adventures!!

1st Grade Word Wall Activity - Words out of a Hat

As part of our homeschool day, Buttercup and I work on vocabulary building using a Word Wall. Every week, I give her 12 new words. On Mondays, I introduce the words by doing a word bingo activity that I have pre-printed. It's a great way to start the week! After word bingo, I write the words on index cards and Buttercup pins the words on our Word Wall. We practice the words throughout the week in different ways. For all of our activities click here

Ideas for working with Word Wall words

One of Buttercup's favorite Word Wall activities is Words out of a Hat. I came up with this activity to give Buttercup opportunities to practice recognizing parts of a sentence and to practice defining words.

Words out of a Hat is comprised of 6 cards. Each card contains instructions such as "Name a word that is a noun". I fold the cards and place them in a hat and Buttercup randomly picks a card. She then reads the card out loud and completes the task using a word from the Word Wall. We play this game for a few rounds a couple of times a week. The goal is to go through all of the cards at least once. Buttercup loves this game, so we actually wind up going through the cards a few times and she will usually not repeat words within a single category.


Print it free here Words out of a Hat


Ideas for working with Word Wall words

How do you get your week started and what are some of the activities you do to practice new vocabulary? Leave a comment.

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

Summer Activity Ideas

Summer is around the corner and we are looking forward to 2 months with our kids at home. But, the truth is, after a couple of weeks the kids start getting bored! I am constantly hearing things like "What are we going to do today?" or "What can I do now?"


So, a few years ago I came up with a Summer Fun jar. I asked my kids what kinds of things they'd like to do over the summer. The rules were simple: 1)the ideas had to be financially feasible, so no "We want to spend the summer traveling around Europe", 2)they had to be things every family member could enjoy together.

I wrote each idea on a strip of paper, folded the paper and put them all in a jar. Each week the kids got to randomly pick one piece of paper from the jar. Whatever was on the paper we had to do within the course of that week.

The Summer Fun jar worked so well. The kids looked forward to picking a "surprise" from the jar each week. And of course, they made sure we followed through and did whatever was written on the paper strip. Now that Buttercup is older and can write, I give her the strips and she writes the ideas on her own.

                                            

Each year, we add or change items to the list. It's up to the kids!!

Here's this year's list.

• Go to the zoo
• Go to the beach
• Make a backyard obstacle course (I make sure there's some water feature to keep everyone cool)
• Go to NY (my kids love the city and there's always something fun going on)
• Pack a lunch and go on a picnic
• Go to the park
• Make outdoor art (I tape a very large paper to the side of the house and let the kids get creative, it's very Jackson Pollock!)
• Go on a hike
• Go out for ice cream
• Catch fireflies (then release them)
• Go to a movie in the park (lots of towns offer them, just bring a blanket or chair)
• Go for a bike ride
• Make s'mores and watch the stars

                                          


What are some of the things you'd like to do with your children this summer?

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!!

What kind of home school approach do you follow?

That seems to be a very popular question! When I started homeschooling Buttercup, I was kind of thrown into it suddenly. I didn't have much time to research the different approaches to homeschooling. To be honest, I didn't know there were so many approaches to homeschooling. In my ignorant bliss, I just assumed people put together their own materials and study programs. Now, a whole school year later, I know that's not the case.

But that is how I did it, as a teacher myself, I already had knowledge and experience enough to come up with a program. But whenever I am asked what is our home school approach, I don't have an answer.

Well, I recently read an article on www.homeschool-curriculum.org that finally clarified all of the different approaches for me. The explanations are clear and concise; it also includes why some parents choose each approach.

Finally, I have an answer to stranger's questions....but why do I care what they think? Actually, I don't. It was more for me. And the answer is I don't really follow any approach. I do what feels right for me and my child. She gets to have a say in most of what she learns. I determine what are "the must haves". Buttercup gets plenty of free time to explore the great outdoors, museums, parks and other activities. We try to do as much hands on stuff as we can. I don't have textbooks, but I like the idea of keeping in line with our state guidelines.

Anyway, if you are starting on your own homeschooling journey, this website will be very helpful. I recommend reading the different approaches and trying them to see what works for your family.

Here's the link:

www.homeschool-curriculum.org


Also here are some other posts that might interest you.

5 Reasons I Home School

How I made the decision to home school p1

How I made the decision to home school p2

I joined BlogFrog!!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share that I am now on BlogFrog. I have a community called Homeschool Adventures! It is a really fun community where homeschoolers can share their ideas, ask questions and connect with other homeschoolers. It is also a great place to showcase your own blog.

Join me at the Homeschool Adventures community at BlogFrog!! Click here!

The Dangers of Homeschooling

I just came across this on Twitter and it is a YouTube video by a homeschooled kid on "The Dangers of Homeschooling". It is so creative and absolutely funny, I just had to share.

Just click on the link and enjoy!

The Dangers of Homeschooling

Homeschool Resources - The Homeschool Handbook

As a homeschool mom, I am constantly searching for resources, ideas and general information that can make the homeschool experience more fulfilling and enriching for both my daughter and myself.

With that in mind, I'd like to share a resource I recently came across that I think other homeschoolers will find helpful.

The Homeschool Handbook covers everything from curriculum to field trips, crafts, health and fitness, and much more!

I would recommend The Homeschool Handbook to anyone starting to homeschool or a seasoned homeschooler.


Happy 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.

Top 5 reasons I chose to homeschool

Like I've said before, the decison to homeschool your children is a very personal one. Everyone needs to do their own research, look into their state's laws, and most importantly consider what's best for their children.

Here are my personal reasons for homeschooling my own child:

1) She gets a better education at home - I've witnessed first hand how schools are lowering their standards to cater to low achieving students; public schools are way too concerned with standardized test scores; public schools stifle kids imagination; kids are taught to blindly accept what they are being taught, instead of questioning and exploring the subjects

2) We work at her pace, which usually is faster than a public school - I noticed that a lot of time spent at school is wasted. Kids usually spend about 6 hours at school, at home, we can get the work done in half the time.

3) Learning is personalized - Homeschooled kids can explore their interests much more freely. They can delve deeper into subjects they are interested in, instead of just superficially as in school.

4) Flexibility - I love being able to make our own schedule according to the day. Sometimes we want to sleep in and we will start school late, then we'll just work a little longer too. If it's a nice day we will do a lesson in the park or library.

5) I get to spend more time with my child - This was a big one for me. We have only so much time before our kids grow up and go live their own lives. I want to spend as much time with my kids right now as I can.

I'm sure there are almost as many reasons for homeschooling as there are people actually doing it. These are just my reasons. It was with these five points in mind, that I decided homeschooling was the best choice for us right now.

I hope I can help other moms out there who are considering the homeschooling option. I'll be happy to answer any questions as best as I can. I'd love to hear from other moms.

What are your reasons for homeschooling?

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!

Common playground injuries

My daughter is not a toddler anymore, but I definitely carried her down the slide on my lap many times. Luckily nothing ever happened. But according to this article on Yahoo, it is becoming more and more common for kids to get injured sliding on their mother's lap. Read it here.

Have you ever gone down the slide with your child on your lap? Did you think it was dangerous? I certainly didn't.

How to make Lego vegetable bricks

Wow! There is truly something out there on the Internet for everyone! I just saw this article and had to share.http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Vegetable-LEGO-Bricks

As a mom to a six year old who loves Legos, I can easily see how making Lego shaped vegetables would go over big in my house. I'm just not sure if I want to put in the time to actually make them. I do think it's a fun way to get your kids to eat vegetables if you have picky eaters. But vegetables are actually very well liked in my household, so I don't think I'll be making these. But I am curious if anyone has tried Lego brick vegetables and whether it was a hit with the kiddies.

 What are some ways that you make or camouflage foods to get your picky eater to eat vegetables? If anyone is willing to try this Lego recipe, please let me know how it tuns out!

Socialization and Homeschool

Hey, all! I just wanted to share this video I found on Mom's Homeroom, talking about all of the options parents have when it comes to socializing our home schooled kids.

It offers great tips and opportunities for socialization. Just click on the link and scroll down a bit. The video is called Home Schooling and Socialization. Enjoy!

 http://momshomeroom.msn.com/parenting-videos/social_issues/

How are some ways you help your kids to socialize? Leave me a comment!

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!

Ideas for working with Word Wall Words

 So, as a homeschool teacher I think it's important to have certain routines in our classroom. One of the things my daughter loves to do is the Word Wall.

We start the week by playing Word Bingo on Mondays. We do this every Monday and it's our first activity of the day. I have a set of 12 words that we will be working on throughout the week. I print them randomly in 3 columns (I don't actually used a bingo board, although you can). Then, I give my daughter a bag of pennies for her to mark the words as I read them.

When one column is completely filled in, she yells Bingo! As an end to the activity, I will write each word on an index card and my daughter will pin them on our Word Wall. It's a great start to our week and we both enjoy this activity.

Here are some other ideas for working with Word Wall Words:

• Word Pyramids - I give my daughter a sheet with blank lines (in the shape of a pyramid), and she has to spell out the words, letter by letter. We do 3 word pyramids at a time (more than that would get boring!). Depending on the level of difficulty of the words in a particular week, we may do word pyramids a couple of times a week.

• Alphabet word order game - My daughter takes the index cards down from our Word Wall and she places them in alphabetical order. This is a great activity for practicing alphabet order, especially when there are several words with the same first letter. The kids really need to think about alphabet order to place the words correctly. Again, another simple activity, but for some reason, Buttercup loves it.

•  "Words out of a hat"  - This is a game I created to practice sentence parts (Not a very creative name but it works). I wrote down a set of language related directions and Buttercup will randomly pick one out of a hat! and she has to follow the instructions on the paper. For example: Once card reads "Choose any word with a long vowel sound". Buttercup looks at the Word Wall to find a word that fits the requirement. I have included this activity in My Printables, so feel free to print out the directions and try them out. I would suggest playing this game once or twice a week. In my house, we play it every day and Buttercup goes through all of the cards because she loves this activity as well. I think it might be her favorite.

• 
  Writing practice - Sometimes I'll just ask Buttercup to pick 3 words and write sentences in her notebook.

• Word Scramble - Towards the end of the week, when Buttercup has pretty much mastered all of her Word Wall words, I give her a word scramble. I usea free website called Superkids that allows you to plug in your own words and it scrambles them for you. Word scramble is a more challenging activity which is the reason I reserve it for the end of the week. I want to make sure Buttercup has a good grasp of the words (imagine trying to unscramble words before you really even know how to spell them; that could be very discouraging for the child).

We end the week with a "test" (in quotes because we don't really do tests in our homeschool). I will read the words from the week and she will write them down. There is a reward for spelling all 12 words correctly! That is a huge incentive and makes the "test" more of a challenge. My daughter will usually be able to spell them all. If she still has trouble with a word, we will work on it the following week.

Here is a complete list of our Word Wall activities and games:
-Word Bingo
-Word Pyramids
-Words out of a hat
-Alphabet order game
-Word Scramble
-Sentences
-Dictation

Try out these activities and let me know how they work out for you.

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

1st Grade Art Project - Shadow Art

Since we've just finished our Science lesson on shadows, I decided to follow that up with an art project.

We set up a work area in our kitchen, where I placed a lamp (to create the shadow), a Wegman's can of beets (the only can I had), and a sheet of paper.

My daughter outlined the can on the sheet of paper, drew and colored her depiction of the can and made the shadow.

Simple, but fun! Here are the pictures.

1st Grade Science - Shadow Experiment

So I've been waiting to do our Shadow Experiment for quite a while now. We were waiting for a sunny day and they've been few and far between. But luckily, yesterday we had perfect weather and a nice spot in our backyard for our experiment.

I created a little worksheet to help us along, which I'm including with My Printables for anyone looking to do an experiment about shadows.

First, you need to pick an object (we did our experiment with a water bottle). Stand the object upright and measure its length and write it in the worksheet. We started at 10 am, but you could start earlier.The earlier you start and the later you finish, the more data you will collect! We went outside and picked a spot that we knew would be sunny for most of the day.

We placed the water bottle on the ground and used sidewalk chalk to mark the spot for the water bottle. That way every time we went outside to make an observation, we would place the bottle in the exact same spot. At this point, we also marked our first shadow. My daughter then measured the shadow and documented it. Right away, we had two pieces of data that we could discuss (the bottle's actual size and the first shadow size).

We went back outside every hour, placed the bottle in the same spot and marked the new shadow. If you can't go outside every hour, that's fine. Just note the time you do go out to measure. The point of the experiment is to notice the size of the shadow changing as well as the position of the shadow that moves on the ground like a clock.

My daughter loved coming to the conclusion that the sun works like a clock!

The next day we finished our experiment by talking about what we discovered and answering the questions on our worksheet.

Teaching Synonyms and Antonyms in first grade

I recently taught my first grader synonyms and antonyms. I've mentioned many times before that one of my objectives in homeschool is to make learning fun. I try to stay away from lecture based lessons, opting instead, for games and other activities that reinforce my teachings in a stress free, fun environment. It seems to work so well for us, so I wanted to share some of my ideas.

I started by making a list of simple words, words at the first grade level. Then, I printed the words in card format and we played Synonym Match Game. It is a very simple game similar to Memory Game. My daughter and I spread out the cards faced down on our table. Then we took turns turning over two cards. The main difference is that we would turn over one card, read the word and say its synonym. Then, we would turn over another card. If that card matched what we said, we would keep both cards and the next player would take a turn. If it didn't match, we would simply turn both cards down and the next player would take a turn.

It was a great learning exercise because my daughter practiced reading and she had to come up with the synonym on her own. She was motivated because she wanted to win; she wanted to make as many matches as she could!

The game actually took longer than I expected or even planned for, but my daughter had so much fun with it, she just wanted to keep going.

When we were done, she wanted to play the Antonym Match Game, which I had planned as a different lesson. But since we were having fun and she was learning, we just kept going.

I have both games here under My Printables. Feel free to print out the cards and play! Please make sure you read my terms of use before you print. As always, these are my original ideas and I would appreciate credit if you mention it in a blog or website.

How do you teach synonyms and antonyms? I'd love to hear your ideas.

1st Grade Art Project - George Seurat and Pointillism

For our next art project, my daughter and I chose George Seurat. We liked the idea of exploring a new style of art and pointillism sounded like fun.

We took out a library book on George Seurat.


We read it over a period of 2 or 3 days. These biographies, while they are for children, are difficult to read for a 6 year old. So we take our time reading. I do a lot of the reading, pausing to ask questions and discuss certain things.

My daughter loves to look at the art work on the pages. She especially likes to read where the painting is displayed, ie Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. When she finds paintings displayed in NY or Philly, she gets super excited and we plan a trip to see the art work.

Ok, so then it's time to do our own art project. Even though, George Seurat liked to paint things he saw around him, realistic things, like people at a lake, we decided to take a couple of things from the kitchen and paint those.

My daughter placed some fruits on our kitchen counter. She then outlined the fruits on her white paper. We chose the colors, remembering that Seurat, would never mix colors, instead he would place colors close together on the canvas to give the illusion of a new color. For instance, if he wanted to use the color orange, he would place dots of read and yellow very close together, giving the audience the appearance of orange.

Here are some pictures of our George Seurat art project. My daughter enjoyed it and did tell me when she finished that pointillism is hard work!





I am including some information about George Seurat and Pointillism for your reading pleasure and reference.

George Seurat was born in Paris, France in 1859. George wanted to make his paintings different than anything he had seen up until that time. He thought about painting in a unique way; he thought about it from a scientific perspective. He wanted to use color, lines and shapes to convey feelings to the audience. If he wanted the audience to feel warmth, he would paint in a way that the canvas shimmered with warm tones, thus giving the audience that feeling. If he wanted to convey a cooler feeling , he would use darker colors and shadows. George Seurat worked slowly on his paintings, some of them taking more than a year to complete. For his painting, Une Baignade, Asnieres, he would go during the day to the lake and make lots of sketches. Then he worked late into the night in his studio on those sketches. His most famous painting is Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This is a perfect example of dots of paint mixing together right in front of your eyes to create warmth and coolness. Even though, George Seurat only lived to be 32 years old, he created a style that influenced many famous artists of the time, like Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Lesson Planning for Homeschool

As a homeschool mom with very little support in my town or immediate area, I've had to come up with a lot of my lessons completely on my own. The bright side is, as an English teacher, lesson planning is something I am very familiar with. In my twenties I also taught ESL-English as a Second Language to teens and adults. While adults are very motivated to learn, after all, they are in the classroom of their own accord. Adults chose to be there, they paid for the lessons. So they have the most interest in getting all they can out of the classes. Teens, on the other hand, are there because their parents made them, and of course, paid for the classes. Teens are much less motivated to learn. So I had to be really creative when I taught kids and teens. It led me to come up with games and activities around lessons I was trying to get across. We even had competitions, races, anything that got the kids involved and out of their seats.

Now, many years later, I have taken this homeschooling journey with my own child. It's been incredible to far. I've learned as much as I've taught. I know that my daughter is a very active child and doesn't like to sit for long periods of time. I also know that she responds better when she thinks she's playing. She'll actually ask to do these activities over and over, thus retaining more than with traditional methods.

To that end, I've created games and activities to help with certain topics. I like to have an activity for every topic we do, so as we proceed with the school year, I will have more and more of these lessons and ideas to share with you.

I will include free printables to help you in your own lesson planning. I hope you and your homeschool children love and enjoy these activities as much as I did coming up with them. My daughter certainly loved these, especially because she responds much better to "fun learning". In other words, any activity that doesn't feel like work. I have found that she retains what she's learned much better as well.

Once the printables are up, feel free to print whatever you like. Please refer to my terms for using my printables.

-Printables may not be used on any website or blog (you may refer to them with a link to my website on your own blog or website)
-Printables are protected by copyright as they are my original materials
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Cherry Blossoms!

Cherry Blossoms will be in full bloom in April. Nothing says spring like blooming flowers and few flowers bloom as beautifully as cherry blossoms. As a kid my parents would take me to see the cherry blossoms. Now as a parent myself, I want to continue the tradition of welcoming the spring with a visit to see the cherry blossoms with my own children.

In order to get excited about spring (we don't need much, warm days, picnics, flowers), I decided to have my 6 year old do a cherry blossom art project. I got this idea while I was on the internet. I came upon this site (I wish I could remember the name). You know I am big into giving credit for other people's ideas. I thought I had saved the url, but I have not been able to find it. Any way, I just loved the simplicity this project.

All we needed was a large piece of white paper, brown and pink paint, a 2 liter soda bottle. We don't drink soda, so we used a 1 liter water/seltzer bottle instead.

I made an outline of the tree trunk and branches with paint (to make it easier for my daughter to paint). Then she painted the trunk and branches brown. Then we poured pink paint onto a paper plate and my daughter dipped the bottom of the water bottle in the paint and touched it to the paper. We got a nice pink flower. My daughter then randomly place pink flowers around the branches. It was a lot of fun to make and her art work is now decorating our house and bringing spring inside!

Here are some pictures of our project.

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?

Creative fun way to teach vowel digraphs

Using my last post as a segue, I wanted to share one of the fun things we do in homeschool to learn spelling.

Today we worked on the vowel digraph "ee". We've worked on that before so it was nothing new to my daughter. I found these phonics sheets on the internet at the link below:

www.skillworkshop.org

These phonics worksheets are great. My daughter and I talked about the "ee" sound and how some words have the same sound but are actually spelled "ea". We decided to focus on "ee" phonemes only and tackle "ea" another day.

I actually printed two copies of the sheets. The first copy I gave to my daughter and she filled it out on her own with some guidance from me.

Then today, I used the second set of copies. I cut them into cards and I placed them on the floor randomly. I told my daughter to look through the cards and see if she could find words that rhymed. So, for example, she picked out "week" and "leek". She continued until almost all of the cards were in pairs. (there were some that did not have pairs, we left those aside).

Then, I told her to look at the cards again, because some of them could be grouped together into "families". She found "wheel" and "steel" and put them with "reel" and "eel".

Finally, I got a dry erase board and told her we were going to make up short poems using some of these words. She loved the idea and picked a pair of rhyming words and started to make silly poems.

We had a lot of fun with this lesson. It was relaxing, no pressure, more like a game. My daughter thrives on activities like these. I have found that they are the best learning experiences for her. She really retains what she learns.

I want to give credit to Margaret Adams who posted the vowel cards at www.skillworkshop.org. Follow the above link to go directly to the page with the cards. I have to say that the website is a little confusing to navigate. I didn't get these worksheets by searching their website, but found them instead by doing a Google search which took me directly to this link.

Do you have any creative ways to teach spelling and grammar?

The Power of Recycling

I consider myself very "green" conscious. I recycle, I use the right light bulbs, I don't use plastic bags at the supermarket, etc. I try to do my small part to help our beautiful Earth. As a mom, I find that teaching my kids to not be wasteful is very important. As a human being, I think we could always do more. Even if it's a little thing. Because those little things add up and will make a difference if we all do it.

I am constantly thinking of ways to improve our efforts here in our home. It's not always easy or convenient, but we try.

As a homeschool parent, I realized I could turn the idea of recycling and protecting Mother Earth into a lesson or lessons that we could do throughout the year. This video is a great starting point, because it shows how one small change can make a big difference. It helps for kids to see for themselves how much they can help, instead of just hearing a lecture from us "the parents".
Maybe this video can lead to a conversation of what else the kids can do that they think will help. I love it when kids come up with their own thoughts and solutions, because they don't think like adults. So they wind up coming up with such creative ideas.

How do you encourage your kids to help the environment?

Stay at Home Moms - a Great Article

Good morning!! I just read a really wonderful article on MSN about the "new" stay at home moms and I just had to share it. It profiles today's moms who choose to stay home with their children. It also gives great advice and tips. Here's the link:

The New Stay-at-Home Mom

As a stay at home mom who homeschools, I am very familiar with the challenges as well as the advantages of staying home.
For me, one of the biggest challenges is the stigma. Believe it or not, there are still people out there who turn a nose at women like me. They have no idea what a hard job I have. I have heard comments like "do you sit around watching Oprah?". It's insulting and ignorant to say the least. I'm glad the article The New Stay-at-Home Mom, shows that today's stay at home mom is not a slave to the stove or laundry machine. We are a growing group of women who think it is important to be close to your children especially when they are young. We are also a group of women who work hard whether it's starting a business, blogging, or homeschooling.

The advantage of course is the privilege to be there for every important moment of my child's life. Taking charge of raising our kids instead of pawning them off to strangers. My children love the fact that I homeschool, attend every game or school event and take an active role in their lives.

What are the challenges you face as a stay at home mom? Please share your thoughts.

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.

Homeschool and your local library

I guess I never realized the importance of our library until we started to homeschool.

Sure, we would go there once in a while to pick books to bring home. Sometimes, we would even spend time there reading books. But I don't think I really appreciated how much a library has to offer.

Now, my daughter and I go to our local library once a week and we take our time browsing the shelves and choosing just the right books for the coming week.

For my daughter, it is just fun. It is part of school and we try to go on the same day every week (library day). It's something we both look forward to.

In reality, it is a carefully planned outing. I do a lot of research on books I will need to support the lessons I am teaching. I like to have different resources at my disposal to make lessons as interesting as possible.

For instance, I was planning a lesson on healthy habits, so I found books about personal hygiene and health specifically for young children. I also use books to help reinforce math lessons. I always find good material at the library.

We've become quite comfortable with the library and it's massive amounts of books. My daughter is very familiar with the layout of the children's floor of the library and she is clear on what reading level she should be choosing.

During our first visit, I showed her where level appropriate books were and I helped her choose. I gave her guidelines and since then, she has become a pro at choosing her own books. It is important for her development to learn to make choices. She also likes to be in control of the books she chooses.


If you homeschool, use your local library. It is a very valuable resource and it's free.

1st Grade Art Project - Edward Hopper

As I posted last week, our lesson on Georgia O'Keeffe was a success. So now, it's on to our next project. I also mentioned that we would be doing paper snowflakes, which I think is perfect to decorate our "school" (actually my office turned homeschool). But that will have to wait.

The beauty of homeschool is the flexibility it allows me as the teacher and my daughter as the student. For instance, the two of us were at our local library last week and as we browsed the titles, my daughter recognized a book and pulled it from the shelf.

It happened to be a biography on Edward Hopper. The interesting thing about that is we had just seen his work at the Whitney Museum in New York a few days earlier. We were both intrigued by his style and when she picked his biography, I thought it was a perfect segue to our next art project.


A note about Edward Hopper: He was an American artist known for portraying everyday American life and the average American. His work is realistic and colorful, and well balanced.

I haven't fully planned out our lesson, but we will start by reading his biography. Then, we will discuss Hopper's paintings that are shown in the book. We will continue to explore his work online. And I'm sure we will do some activity, not sure what yet.

UPDATE: Our discussion of Hopper's work included talking about the shadows he uses in most of his paintings to show depth, time of day, distance, height, etc. Once we talked about it, my daughter was able to look at other Hopper works and see those things for herself. She really liked the colors he used and the realism of his work.

So on a sunny, but cold day, we took our paper and pencils and took a walk in our neighborhood. We found a place to sit and my daughter made a drawing of what she saw. The drawing portrayed life in our small town by showing the street lamp and building under construction.

Overall, it was a very good learning experience!

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.

Back to Homeschool!

Is it me or is it just so hard to start up again after the holidays? I mean, I remember with my older child that it was difficult to go back to school. It's so cold outside, you've been home for at least a week, you just don't feel like going back. But when the day comes, you get on that bus and that's it. You're back in the routine.

But I feel that with homeschooling it's even harder. Because you make your schedule, I guess you can decide when you go back to school. That's nice. The flip side is that you're used to waking up late, and not having a routine at all. All of a sudden, you have to get back into that routine, but you don't have a bus schedule or a school schedule to push you back into the routine. It takes a lot of discipline for you, as the parent/teacher, and for the child.

So I wanted to start on the 3rd since that is when my other child started up again in public school. We got up at a reasonable time and got started right away. I had planned a regular day but not overly ambitious since I didn't know what to expect. To my surprise, my daughter got right back into her school work too. One less battle to fight!

One of the things I think helped is that I planned a fun music/science activity to get us going.

I got the idea in a magazine and had been planning it for a while. We got 8 emplty bottles of soda or water and filled each according to the directions and when you blow into them, you make music. We started just by doing do re mi da so la ti do for practice. The instructions in the magazine also taught us to do "Row your boat".

How do you handle the back to school ho hum?? Share your tips, please!!