Messy Glory: homeschool

Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts

Friday, July 22, 2011

More Busy Bags

What’s new in the Busy Bag basket? Take a look:

PAPERBAG BOOK & MARKERS

The book is blank inside – I can’t wait to see what David decides to create!

MAISY’S GARDEN STICKER BOOK

A nice addition to our next book theme: The Carrot Seed.

WOODEN BEADS & SHOELACES

NUMBER PUZZLE CARDS

I was so excited to find these in the Target dollar bins. The package actually came with another set of puzzles (with numerals and the correct number of dots), but I decided to put out just these for now. I also bought a package of alphabet puzzle cards. These remind me of my childhood…we must have had something similar when I was little.

RHYMING CARDS

Another Target dollar bin find. These are double-sided.

As you can see, most of our busy bag activities so far have been store-bought items. I really want to take time to create some home-made activities, too. I’m also thinking that I need to start putting together some toddler-friendly busy bags for Miss Lida Lou (she had fun playing with the wooden lacing beads this morning, but I’m certain she would just try to eat the other activities).
I’m gathering ideas for homemade busy bags on my Pinterest boards. So far, I know I want to make:

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

bear hunt We’re Going on a Bear Hunt written by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

After a camping trip with cousins, this book about a family that braves the outdoors and the elements to go in search of a bear seemed especially appropriate.

A GUEST READER

Aunt Niki came for a visit and arrived on a Monday in time to hang out with Max and Macy, too. We were honored to have her as our guest reader for this book!

RETELLING THE STORY

We used the printable cards from A to Z Teacher Stuff to retell the story. David did this once on his own, and then again with Max and Macy a few days later. I was impressed by how well they remembered to order of the story.

SNACK TIME

The kids enjoyed some chocolate pudding (thick oozy mud) with teddy bear crackers hidden below. About halfway through snack time, Niki had the brilliant idea to add cool whip (a swirling whirling snowstorm). After that, the kids had fun brainstorming what else we could add for the other elements in the story. By this time, their snack was mostly gone…into the narrow gloomy caves of their mouths.

NARRATION & ILLUSTRATION

David drew a wonderful picture of the family at the mouth of the bear cave to go along with his very detailed retelling of the story. Here is a video of him explaining his illustration:

OTHER ACTIVITIES

We also completed a few of the We’re Going on a Bear Hunt lapbook activities from Homeschool Share, Keith helped David to complete a little book about his family that I found in a Teacher’s Helper magazine, and we watched this video of author Michael Rosen reciting the book.

A LOOK AT OUR BOOK JOURNAL

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Busy Bags

And now for the other half of our laid-back homeschool summertime plans…BUSY BAGS. Busy Bags are an extension of a little something I put together for David when Lida was born. He had a special Busy Box that contained a new surprise every couple days. It was always something small and inexpensive, but new and exciting to him. Most importantly, it was always something he could enjoy without much (or any) assistance from me. The idea was that he would have a special surprise to keep him busy while I was busy nursing Lida (hence the name Busy Box). The Busy Box was a bit hit, but it fell by the wayside as we all adjusted to having Lida around. I’ve revived the idea in a new form: Busy Bags!

I’m pulling together all sorts of activities David can enjoy during those times this summer when he seems to need a bit of direction or something to keep him occupied when I’m not able to give him my full attention. There is a wealth of ideas online, and I’ve frequented several blogs including My Delicious Ambiguity and Unsolicited Advice (I’m hoping I can get in on one of her busy bag swaps eventually). As I put together bags, I just toss them in a large tub labeled “Busy Bags Ready to Use” and that way I have a bunch on hand when the current selection gets old and we’re ready for some new activities. At any given time, I plan to have 6-8 busy bags in a basket in our living room for David to explore as he pleases (and also as a convenient way for me to suggest activities for him).

Here is a rundown of the busy bags that have been available to him so far this summer:

THREE-PART VEHICLE MATCHING CARDS

David has really enjoyed using these cards in the past, but they are definitely not a “do-it-by-myself” activity for him. There are about 18 vehicles (3 cards each) and all the cards are double-sided. Plus, several of the vehicles look similar (3 slightly different camouflage trucks, for example), which made it very difficult for David to match them up on his own. To simplify the activity, I put the cards needed for just three vehicles in one of the pockets of a baseball card protector page. There are six pages in the folder, but since the cards are already separated out, David can work on just one page at a time.

SEWING CARDS

Another twist on an activity we’ve done before: I used a Sharpie to write a D (for David!) and a 4 (his age!) on two of the cards so that he could sew along the lines.

COLOR-YOUR-OWN STICKERS

MAGNETIC DINO BOOK

DRY ERASE NOTEPAD & MARKER

FELT BOARD & FELT LETTERS

CLOCK & TIME CARDS

The cards are taken from a time-telling bingo game. I picked out just the o’clock cards for now. This turned out to be an activity that was easiest and most enjoyable when David had a little help. Keith or I would tell him the time on a card and then he would make the clock show that time and check his work by looking at the card.

NUMBER CARDS W/STICKERS

Place the correct number of stickers on each card. There are exactly the needed amount of stickers in the bag, so the activity is self-checking.

BUTTON SNAKE

I’ve been wanting to make a button snake ever since I first came across the idea on Counting Coconuts.

More Busy Bags to come…

Monday, June 06, 2011

Caps for Sale

Our plan for the summer is to spend some informal homeschooling time with a different book each week. We’ll be focusing on several of the books featured in Before Five in Row, simply because lots of resources for these already exist and I’m trying to keep my prep time to a minimum.
I have to give a huge shout-out to Homeschool Share for providing a wealth of printable activities and lapbooks, and also to Delightful Learning for being my inspiration. I’m gathering so many ideas for fun activities, links to other resources, and organizational tips from Michelle and her crew, and I’m especially excited to keep a record of our summer adventures with a Lap Journal / Scrapbook of sorts.
And now, without further ado…

Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina
Last week was all about caps, coins, and monkeys at our house. I love this story and have enjoyed telling it to many children as a librarian. How fun it has been to share it with David as well!

CAPS FOR SALE! FIFTY CENTS A CAP!

We took the change jar down from the shelf and identified the different types of coins and their values. We also did a little impromptu sorting of the coins and put together the How Much is it Worth? book from Homeschool Share. Then we talked about ways to make fifty cents using various combinations of coins and did some crayon rubbings of the coins (the idea for this came from Delightful Learning).

A PEDDLER AND TWO MONKEYS

We spent a day out at Max and Macy’s house and took along a bag of caps so that we could act out the story together. Everyone took a turn at being the peddler, but I think they really enjoyed being monkeys more.

ILLUSTRATION & NARRATION

For each book we explore this summer, I plan to type up a summary of the story according to David and pair it with a story-inspired illustration or piece of art that he creates. This first go-around was quite fun. He thoughtfully paged his way through the book, retelling the story along the way. I provided him with a tree outline and was pleased to see how carefully he sketched out a couple of monkeys – one with a red hat and one with a blue hat.

MORE MONKEY BUSINESS
To go along with the monkeys in Caps for Sale, we enjoyed chocolate-covered frozen bananas – an especially tasty treat after participating in a 5K Walk/Run on a very hot Sunday afternoon.
While I was at work on Saturday, Keith took the kids to the zoo, where they made a special visit to a rare baby Javan gibbon, born earlier this spring. Keith told me that David was so excited to visit the monkeys and kept mentioning Caps for Sale on the way there. We go to the zoo so often that I didn’t think he would even make a connection between our focus on the book and this trip, but he did (not that it really matters, but it sure did bring a smile to my face).

A LOOK AT OUR BOOK JOURNAL

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Sowing Plans

Spring is officially here, the days are growing longer, and our garden is just waiting to be filled up with homegrown goodness.
I’ve spent some time browsing the gardening sections of the library and bookstores and reading up on the topic already this week, and now that Keith is on spring break I’m hoping we’ll be able to dig right in (pun intended).
At the moment, I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the decisions that need to be made:

build another bed or stick with one? maybe try some containers?
start from seed or buy plants?
which veggies should we grow? how many varieties? how many of each?

I definitely need to put together a good plan of attack. I’m thinking that we’ll implement much of the information I’ve been gathering from All New Square Foot Gardening – the orderliness and ease of this method really appeals to me.
Perhaps part of the reason I’m so excited about our little garden this year is that I anticipate David will really enjoy being involved in the growing. We’ll be starting our gardening homeschool unit next week, too – it should be fun!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

It's easy being green

I'm not sure why, but St. Patrick's Day became quite a big deal at our house this year. On Wednesday evening, David and Keith were laying out their clothes for the next day when David realized that Keith would have to go to work in the morning. He was so disappointed that Dad would not be home on St. Patrick's Day and would miss out on all the fun. Thankfully, I did have some fun planned:

Pot o' Gold Roll and Cover game from 2 Teaching Mommies

Lucky Charms graphing from 2 Teaching Mommies

Gold Jumble form Musings of Me

We started our morning with a bowl of Lucky Charms. I was surprised that David actually took the time to sort and graph his marshmallows before scarfing them down. Lida enjoyed some cheerios (and I think David slipped her a rainbow or two as well).

Then we moved into the living room and tried on Lida's new green mama-made legwarmers. They fit perfectly and she was so excited to wear them. She laid like that on her back for a good few minutes just pulling at the legwarmers and doing her happy scream. Unfortunately, the legwarmers slid off as soon as she started scooting across the floor. She seemed genuinely distressed by this, immediately turning around to pick them up and trying to figure out how to get them back on her legs. So cute!

David and I played a few rounds of Gold Jumble - identifying uppercase and lowercase letters (I bought the green and gold coins on clearance at JoAnn's). Notice David's all-green outfit - he picked it all out on his own, right down to the green "church socks" and green camouflage underpants.