Category Archives: Homeschool Happenings

‘Twas the Night Before …

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… the first day of school and all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring … except maybe a ~~mouse~~ spider!

The children were all nestled all snug in their beds,

With visions of glow sticks dancing in their heads!

When what to my sleepy eyes did appear …

A printer out of ink and a message that read “ERROR.”

Before Momma, the teacher, went fast asleep in a flash,

She decided to take one last dash …

To the library for a view of the place

Where growth and learning would happen in the coming days.

If you are racing and last-minute planning on the eve of the 1st Day,

Take heart and know that everything will be O.K!

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Mathew 5: 14-16

What Day Is It, Mom?

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After being asked this exactly 329 times, I decided our first graders really needed to have a solid understanding of the Calendar and all its components. It is not that I hadn’t tried. I had tried teaching them with many variations, including a standard calendar. I never realized how foreign that can seem until I thought about how strange it might look to little ones.

I decided to check out the plethora of free resources and ideas in the cyber world, and there was no lack of links there. After carefully considering this very popular post, I decided a hands-on approach is exactly what my students needed as well. Continue reading →

Is Exploring Nature a Worthwhile Pursuit?

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I think it is.

Just today, five of my children and I heard bees buzzing. Continue reading →

Two-Word Wednesday: {Planning Anyone?}

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Anyone else in ~~planning~~ panic mode?

First a Library … and now an Art Gallery in our New Home

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I have seen this idea all over Pint*erest, but I never seemed to have a large enough wall to do it at our old house. I decided recently that the wall between our kitchen and library would be the perfect spot for an art gallery.

I didn’t need to search far for beautiful artwork. I have saved special works over the years and in recent months. All but one of these works of art were created by one of our children.

By Curly, at age 9, 3rd grade (now age 14)
Continue reading →

Activity-Based Alphabet Assessment

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I was catching up on laundry and trying to organize our language materials in the library today.

A certain little someone was nearby as usual and was saying, “P-UH-lease play with me Mommy!” I decided a break from laundry was needed.

She wanted to play with the packing materials again. If you’ve ever purchased the squishy styrofoam peanuts that can be moistened and shaped into objects … these are just like those except all white and repurposed from a package Grammy received.

Well Li’l Bit loves playing with a tub of them. Today I decided to hide magnet letters in them and ask her to name them as she placed them on a dollar*tree cookie sheet.

She loved doing this and had no clue it was “work”! I was able to assess which uppercase letters she can identify and which she can’t. I put most of them in there at least two times, so I feel like my informal assessment is accurate.

She had so much fun that she wanted to hide some for me to find too. I always give her “tools” as well like old measuring cups and spoons as well as various containers.

Please share ways you extend fun activities for purposeful learning and/or assessment of your preschooler or early elementary students! I love hearing other ideas for purposeful play!

Today’s Time-tested Tip: When reading a picture book aloud to a non-reader who is eager to turn pages, tell them to wait for you to tap the bottom corner of the right page twice before turning it to the next page.

(This really works and quells any desire to pull your hair out as you read to a non-reader who seems more interested in the turning of the page than the story itself. I’ve used this trick since our oldest was a toddler and he is now 14!)

Pinterest Inspired Repurposing: Preschool Style

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I can’t remember how I was inspired with how to turn things I might have thrown away or given away into worthwhile learning pursuits … before Pinterest. I don’t always copy the ideas I see exactly, but more often that not I see an idea and my brain takes over.

Here are a few ideas I had pinned and have now made a reality in our learning pursuits:

1. Counting Beads

I saw this idea on Pinterest awhile back and knew I could do this with what I had on hand *almost*. I had the beads, and I had some rings.

I just needed a few more large rings, and it would be a fun project to work on together. I found those rings at the Dollar Mart Plus (kind of like the Dollar*Tree but not quite) today. It will also hopefully be something Li’l Bit can use as she continues working on counting to 10.

She loves to count, and she loves beads. This one is a win-win if her initial interest today is any indication. This was SUPER EASY and I can see many uses, and I can say it will travel well too when I need to grab something for occupying her little mind on the go!

I do love Pinterest.

All you do for this is find 10 of the same size rings, and add beads on each one for numbers 1 through 10. I didn’t do a ring for “zero” but I may add that later. I then put them all together on a smaller ring. She was already counting the beads up to five today.

2. Tub of Ribbons

I found a bunch of old ribbons in our attic at our previous home while packing. I almost threw them in the get rid of pile. I just couldn’t though. They were the thick and brightly-colored wide ribbons that many of us wore as BELTS (yes, belts!) in college circa early 90s. Along with duck*head shorts. And they were still like-new. 😀

They were in a little holder my Dad made. I have different plans for that now in our nature area, but back to the ribbons and the aforementioned tub (which used to house baby wipes by the way).

I had seen an idea to sew ribbons together before putting them into a container to be pulled out of, but I decided to just do something simpler. Besides, I didn’t want to sew the ribbons together, because I knew our little dancer would prefer to twirl about with multiple ribbons about her.

Sometimes I just know how it will go, and watching her twirl and explore each new ribbon as she pulled it out of the container was priceless!

This one was simple. As I said, I had the ribbons already, but you could find these on a clearance table and/or grab some at a local craft store. Or you might find these hidden gems in your attic like I did!

First, I just put them all together in one hand by one end. Then I unfurled them all to make sure they weren’t tangling together.

Second, I placed them in the empty wet wipes container. I used the kind with the pop-top dispenser.

Third, I pulled out just a couple of inches of one end of one ribbon.

Fourth, I watched our three-year-old squeal with delight as she pulled out ribbon after ribbon.

I have about 20 ribbons in our tub, and it took her a good 15 minutes to pull them all out because she explored each one and “made matches” as she went. She also broke into spontaneous ballet twirls and spins as she pulled out the ribbons.

You may wonder what is the point? Well, I used to wonder too, but she was seeing cause and effect in action, using her fingers to pull those ribbons out (it wasn’t easy and did require some finger muscle action especially for those ribbons which end was not poking out of the container and she had to really hunt for). Also she was exploring through movement and spontaneously matched the ribbons with similar colors and/or patterns.

3. Pasta Strainer and Pipe Cleaners

Who knew? So fun, engaging, and yet so simple to do!

A dollar store pasta strainer and well-loved pipe cleaners already on hand provided 20 minutes of open-ended play that required great fine motor strength and diligent thought.

And at the end of it all, the pasta strainer made a fun hat too! Try it and let me know if your preschooler liked it as much as mine!

To Try for Baby Chicks or Not?

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We are thinking … well some of us are … that it might be a great study of science to have some baby chicks around here. We have at least a couple of hens who seem to like keeping our eggs warm.

We will have to keep them perhaps in our garden shed for a while. Chickens will … how shall I say it … prey on one another in nature, and they will prey on baby chicks unfortunately.

On the other hand, I have wondered if the real science lessons might come in allowing nature to take its course.

I think we do have an actual baby chick to hatch that I’ll do a weekly post with updates on the chick(s).

In the meantime, I have three little people here who are immensely enjoying having our “ladies” (as Grammy calls them) here at our house.

I go every morning with our three littles and check for eggs, check feed and water and deliver the expected scraps, which usually consists of strawberry caps, bread crusts, apple cores and things like that. We don’t give them any meat or dairy scraps.

In the evening, the older boys usually make sure their little hen door is closed after they are all safely inside. Thankfully, the ladies take themselves inside their house along with Mr. Squawks at dusk or soon after.

We are learning that Mr. Squawks knows exactly how to fertilize eggs (our little ones say “they are married right now!). 😀 We are also learning that hens like to graze and that the old saying of a “pecking order” is literally true.

We are also counting eggs and will keep an average. We are going to graph the daily morning and evening totals over a week-long period and then calculate the average.

All in a day’s work on the farm!

Now, will you help a Momma/Teacher out? What do you think? Should we try to hatch baby chicks? Would you be interested in reading weekly updates and seeing their growth and hearing of their daily pursuits??? Please comment and help a Momma/Teacher convince the adoring Prez that his wife has not completely lost her wits. 😀

Summer School and Renovation Updates

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This may be part of a series.

Ha, ha. The probability of that is not too high.

OK, who am I kidding? When I say the word series, that is usually part one of one. One reason for that right now might be the state of my desk and work space. It still needs quite a bit of tender loving care.

Who knows though? Maybe I will continue updating our summer school pursuits. I hope to anyway! It will at the very least keep me on task.

I have continued organizing our library, which will be used for school and other learning pursuits as well … especially reading. Just look at all those books (and space left) for little people and bigger people to easily access.

Our science and nature cabinet is organized, and everything science-related excepting a few books has been placed on (or in) the cabinet.

Our arts and crafts area is in need of more work. I do have it all set aside and much of it is ready for use, but I need my cool metal cabinets that are at the moment still in the workshop in need of cleaning and some tender-loving care.

Someone really is in summer school as he knows he has no choice but to finish his science curriculum that he has been studying since midway through his 7th grade year (yes, he just finished 8th grade). I will say science is his least favorite subject, the curriculum is very in-depth, and he still scored well on science on his standardized testing. He has just one chapter left and a couple of tests to take.

All in due time I keep telling myself. We did just move 30 miles into the country along with six children and all of our belongings. In addition, we’ve been renovating our 3,000-square-foot home (that was still original to circa 1976) as well as finishing a 2,700-square-foot space in the basement, which includes two bedrooms, a full bath, a kitchenette and a living space. Here’s a sneak peek for those who keep asking for continued renovation updates.

*The Toy Room* (out of sight and they are out of their minds to have these toys again after them being packed for more than two months!*

*A view from the inner door coming in from the garage area; you can see the big boys’ bedrooms at the far end of the room*

*LEGO zone*

I am really hoping also this summer (or what is left of it; seriously, what happened to June???) to spend some extra time with Li’l Miss and Li’l Bro on reading and language. And of course, what do they want to do? Math of course. Sigh.

So, we mixed it up and started with language, which I have no pictures of because I needed to be that involved. Math was their reward, and they loved it thus more photos!

Speaking of rewards, I love Pin*terest. Who doesn’t? But anyway, an idea inspired me to use an OLD metal hanging thing I have to create our own behavior chart.

And yes, I intend to have clips for EVERY student in my room! I don’t often have behavior (or attitude) issues from our oldest two but I do have expectations and have no problem clipping them down if needed (or up when warranted).

I like the way it turned out. It needs a little something on the top, and I need to find an orange clip and a yellow clip or something similar. I tried it out on Friday during a Summer School session, and it worked like a charm!

Beside our behavior chart, I have hung up our world maps, one large one, one smaller one that shows countries under persecution, and one that is in Chinese characters.

In language, we tried out a “new” used book I found at the curriculum sale: Preparing to Build by Rod & Staff Publishers. I was able to get two Level 2 students books as well as one teacher book for $15. It will definitely be worth that, and we’ll use it at least four days a week.

After a lesson in “What Is a Sentence?” with some exercises after, we tried out another pinterest-inspired idea: number cubes.

I can see so many uses for these dollar*tree finds (3 of the square plastic tubs for $1), but on this day I put three dice in each of them. I asked them to shake them up and then add up the three numbers. I allowed them use of their abaci, but they really didn’t need them. It was fun to see their abilities even after being away from formal math for a couple of months.

“Mommy, 5 + 5 is 10, so 5 + 5 + 4 must be … 14!”

“Mommy, I know that 3 + 3 + 3 = 9 because I can skip count my 3s! 3, 6, 9 and that is 3 groups of 3.” Sounds a lot like multiplication, doesn’t it?

I love it when they make these associations, and I love it that our math style of learning encourages them to pursue this instead of just come up with an answer. I could see using these math cubes for place value work as well as reading multiple-digit numbers along with other possibilities. I am making each of our 2nd graders math and language cubbies with manipulatives such as the number cubes in them ready to go each day. I hope to utilize many hands-on approaches.

I will be *hopefully* sharing more of our summer school learning. I am officially starting us back to school for 2013-2014 the first week of August. Between various camps, moving and renovations, I haven’t had any time to plan and prepare for this coming school year. I finally just gave myself the green light to relax and realize that our children are still learning every day with their incessant reading, daily nature walking/creek jumping/hiking/exploring, math in the everyday and helping to care for our animals as well as experimenting with a very late garden (for this area).

Oh and watching turkeys walk across our backyard as we relax with a book on the back porch!

Our Chickens Are Home!

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Since last April when Mo first got his 4H chicks, we’ve not had them at our house. We lived in a neighborhood back then where poultry weren’t allowed. My parents (AKA Grammy and Papa) gladly let us build a hen house and coop for them at their house, which at the time was just a few miles down the road. We did our best to care for them several days a week, and Papa graciously filled in for us on the other days. But we longed to have them home with us. We knew this house had a hen house when we looked at it, but I’ll be honest in saying I wanted our other hen house that the Prez built with Papa and our big boys. It was going to be so costly to have it moved though … and then one is here. Sigh. I wasn’t happy, but I decided to put on my farm girl pants and get to work to ready it for our ladies (as Grammy calls them).

Now that we are living in the country with plenty of land, it was time for our 20 hens and 1 rooster to come live with us. And last night, the Prez and our oldest son got them all loaded in boxes with holes cut in them. And they brought them to our renovated hen house. Since they’ve laid at last count 16 eggs today, I think they must like the new place. It has 8 nesting boxes, which are there on the left in the above picture, and roosting poles, on the right side of the picture. We made some improvements such as new doors on the front (and closing the makeshift door on the back) and adding two new little hen doors.

**Their first night in the new place**

It has been a family affair to get the hen house that was on this property ready for our ladies. We have scooped poop that must have been years old in some of the corners, emptied out a full trailer load of junk that had been piled up in and around the old hen house, closed old openings, remade old doors, added little hen doors with steps, spread out fresh hay and just today we made them a pen. We plan to add a second pen so that we can rotate them in the hopes they don’t strip the foliage completely. We shall see!

Now if we can just keep the foxes and possums away as well as our Border Collie, who has unfortunately (and apparently though we’ve never caught him red-pawed) developed a liking for them. We sell extra eggs for $3 per dozen, which around here is somewhat of a bargain for farm-raised, free-ranging hen eggs, but honestly it sometimes pays for the feed. Nonetheless, we don’t have to buy store eggs anymore and the children are learning responsibility as well as nature in living color with our 20 hens and 1 rooster.

**This is when they first got up the courage to first come out into their new pen. They were tentative but only for a few moments. They love the foliage and the worms they were finding!**

We left them out in their pen while we headed to the Wally World yet again and to buy some mattresses as well. Mo assured me they would go inside at dark and be waiting for us to close up their hen door when we got home. I was not so sure, but he was right. They had all gone back inside by the time we got home. We closed their door for the night, and refilled one of their feeders. We also found 2 more eggs. Talk about fresh! And yes, on occasion, we’ve brought an egg in and fried it right up! YUM!

All in a day’s work at Stay Awhile Farm! Nighty-night hens!