Archive for Homeschool

Presidents Day is February 20th!  Here are some facts for the kiddos!

  • A minimum of 300 billion portraits of Abraham Lincoln have been created – that’s how many pennies have been made since 1787.
  • Sixth President John Quincy Adams had a pet alligator that lived in a bathtub at the White House.
  • The first President born a U.S. citizen was Martin Van Buren. His birthday was December 5, 1782, making him the first president born after the Declaration of Independence was signed.
  • John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the only presidents to sign the Declaration of Independence, and they both died on its 50th anniversary, July 4, 1826.
  • Nine presidents never attended college, including Washington and Lincoln. However, Lincoln was an avid reader and self-educated.
  • At 6′ 4″, Abraham Lincoln was the tallest U.S. President. The shortest, James Madison, was 5′ 4″ tall.
  • When he became President, George Washington had only one tooth. He wore dentures made of human or animal teeth, ivory and lead, but never wood.
  • George Washington is the only president that never lived in Washington, D.C. during his presidency.
  • Andrew Jackson was the first president to have been born in a log cabin, and the first to ride a railroad train.
  • Ronald Reagan was the oldest president inaugurated (age 69); the youngest was John F. Kennedy (age 43)

The information above was provided by Kiddie Academy, a national education-based childcare provider.

2 Categories : Homeschool

Art Contest
Students submit a digital photo of any art (other than photography) and submit it online at www.celebratingart.com.  Two contests each year — Next deadline is April 3rd.  There are 10 winners in each grade division of K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 who will receive $25 and a full color book that includes their art.  Other artists of merit will be invited to be published.  There are no costs to enter or to be published.   Open to all students in the US and Canada. Each year we have several home schoolers who are among our national winners.

Poetry Contest
Students submit one poem 21 lines on any topic and submit it online at www.poeticpower.com or mail it to Creative Communication, 159 North Main Street, Smithfield, UT  84335.  Three contests each year with upcoming deadlines of April 12 and August 15.  There are 10 winners in each grade division of K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 who will receive $25 and a book that includes their poem.  Other writers of merit will be invited to be published.  There are no costs to enter or to be published.  Our website at www.poeticpower.com also includes a database that is divided by grade and subject and contains over 1000 lesson plans on how to teach poetry.  You can also subscribe to our newsletter with tips on teaching poetry.

Essay Contest
Students submit one non-fiction essay, 250 words or less on any topic and submit it online at www.poeticpower.com or mail it to Creative Communication, 159 North Main Street, Smithfield, UT  84335.  Three contests each year with upcoming deadlines of Feb 15 and July 18.  There are 10 winners in each grade division of 3-6, 7-9, 10-12 who will receive $25 and a book that includes their essay.  Other writers of merit will be invited to be published.  There are no costs to enter or to be published.

0 Categories : Homeschool

I’m always looking for great homeschool resources and thought this one was perfect timing!  100 different lesson plans that are useful for different winter holidays around the world.

0 Categories : Homeschool

DreamWorks Pictures’ WAR HORSE will be opening in theatres this Christmas. There is a Scholastic Teachers Guide with lesson plans and printables available for you for free.

0 Categories : Homeschool

We are using this as part of our geography curriculum for the little ones and they absolutely love it!  With this deal you pay only $26 for a 3 Month “Traveler Package” Subscription from Little Passports!

0 Categories : Homeschool, I'm So Cheap

When Daddy’s away, these girls party!

So what would be better than Pizza, homemade slime, popcorn, candy and a movie?  Oh, a sleepover in the living room of course!

Friday we headed to Walmart to get our supplies for an evening of Mother and Daughter fun!  Me and my 3 girls!  First stop was the Redbox…which at our Walmart happens to be blue now…why is that? Anyhow we decided on RIO! Even though birds scare me in real life, I can hang with some animated birds.

Our trips to Walmart are never in and out or even quick.  We have to browse everything.  There is so much to see and my girls have so much fun browsing the items and asking me questions.  Lots and lots of questions…

You can view photos from our fun shopping trip in my Google+ album!

So to start off the fun we made some pizza!  Normally we would make homemade pizza, but this time I had a coupon and we picked up a DiGiorno Pizza that came with Chocolate Chip Cookies….we were going all out!
Pizza!

After we had our Pizza and Cookies it was time for a fun project!  A project that combines science, fun and even something oooooooey goooooey for October spookiness!  We made SLIME! This is a very fun project and I encourage you to make it with your own children.  My girls are ages 5, 7 and 13 and they all loved it! Heck, I loved it!

What you need:

Homemade Slime ingredients

  • Elmer’s School Glue
  • Borax
  • Food Coloring (optional)
  • Warm Water

The first step is to empty one bottle of Elmer’s School Glue into a bowl as Emma is doing in the photo below.
The main ingredient for slime

Once you have it empty, refill the bottle with warm water.  Replace the cap and shake.  Then empty this into the bowl of glue that you already have.  Add a few drops of food coloring if you like.
making the slime base

Mix it well!
Elmer's Glue, Water and Food coloring

Set this aside and grab the Borax.
Borax for slime making!

Now you need a 1/2 cup of warm water and about a teaspoon of Borax.  Mix this up, don’t worry about the powder being dissolved.
mixing the Borax solution to use as a binder

Now for the fun part! While one person stirs the glue mixture, another person will slowly pour a little of the Borax mixture into the glue.  Just a little!  Now as the glue mixture is stirred you will see the molecules binding together and it getting stringy and slimy looking!  This is so cool!  See in the photo below how it is starting to pull with the spoon?
binding the molecules for slime!

Add a tiny bit more Borax solution and keep mixing….now let your kids dig in with their hands!
Homemade slime fun
stretchy slime

Now this was a bit too slimy for continued play, so we added some more Borax solution.  At this point you will definitely need to mix it well with your hands!  Knead it in well.  Be sure to only add a little at a time, but do not stop mixing!
Ewww slime

We got it to the perfect play consistency!
goooooey slime!
Slime
Slime
Homemade slime fun!

Store in an air tight container! We put ours in the containers you see in the photo above.  The lids screw on.  You could also use ziploc bags if you want.  We ended up making two batches and the Borax solution was enough to make both batches. We just needed another bottle of glue.  We left that one white by not adding any food coloring.

Talk about cheap fun that will last for days!

Next it was movie time! We popped the popcorn, poured our Clear American drinks ( I LOVE the Pineapple Coconut!  Emma loved the Honey Dew, Lauren loved the Raspberry and Morgan loved the Black Cherry!), grabbed our yummy chocolate candy and made pallets in the living room.
had Caramel Corn
Slept in the living room

Rio was such a cute movie! The girls were cracking up laughing and absolutely loved it.  The bird dance club was hilarious!  Definitely a great movie for family movie night!  I think if daddy had been here he would have liked it as well.  I think I’ll add it to the Christmas shopping list for sure!  A birdie love story…awwwwwwww

We had so much fun and are planning on inviting some of our friends over to make slime with us!  It would be a fun project for a kids party and they could take home the slime as party favors!

#DontBeTheDarkHouse and #ClearAmerican

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias  All opinions are my own.

I’m thinking that it’s time to get Lauren a Pen Pal. It will be great for her to practice penmanship!  Also she will be able to learn about other places.

I used to have pen pals all over the place.  My favorites were the pen pals that I had in Japan!  They always had the coolest paper, pictures, handwriting and so much more.  It was such fun getting letters in the mail.

Vistaprint has a deal right now for 10 free note cards (that come with 10 white envelopes), just pay shipping and processing (starts at $4.43)! Choose from over 150 easily searchable designs or upload your own design for something even more unique.

I’m thinking this would be great to do for Lauren.  I’m planning on taking a cigar box and decorating it and filling it with writing supplies for her!  Anyone have a cigar box they can send me?  Hmmm…need to go post to freecycle!

(If you are interested in buying a larger quantity than 10 you can get a discount up to 50% off list price!)

5 Categories : Homeschool

We started our school year with a fun project!  The whole process went on for a few weeks as we watched the life cycle of Ladybugs!

The first thing we did was order the Insect Lore Ladybug Land.   It’s super affordable and totally worth it!  All of my girls loved this entire project!

It comes with a code to order the Ladybug Larvae.  For us it took a bit because of the extreme heat we were having here in Texas.  But when they came they were alive with all the food they need.  You simply pour them into the habitat and add some water with the provided dropper.

It has a cap on the top that doubles as a magnifying glass so you can get a real good look at what is going on in there.

The girls loved checking on them daily and they grew soooo fast!

After awhile the Larvae will start moving up and attaching themselves to the side of the dome.  Then they begin to transform into the Pupa stage.  You can see one that is changing in the photo below.

Then pretty suddenly, there are ladybugs!  I can not even tell you how excited my girls when they awoke to a ton of ladybugs!

When they had all turned into ladybugs it was time to let them go.  The girls were a little sad, but I explained to them that they needed to go do their jobs and live their life’s!  Then they were happy to let them go.  The ladybugs hung out and played for a bit though!

Then it was time to create our Ladybug Life Cycle project!  We had went shopping for the supplies while we were waiting on our Ladybug Land to arrive.  We purchased everything we needed from Walmart.  You can see our shopping trip since we documented it on This Moment.

Supplies we needed were:

The first thing we did was use the Elmer’s X-TREME  School Glue to to glue some of our printouts to poster board so that they would be more sturdy.

IMAG1289

I really do love this product!  It actually stays stuck!  If you haven’t tried it yet, then you need to pick up some next time and give it a try.  This is not your average glue stick.

After gluing our cutouts to the board we cut them out again for a much sturdier piece.  Then we glued our life cycle phases to our wheel.
IMAG1290

Then poke a hole through the center of both pieces as well as the display board.  Using these holes attach everything together.

IMAG1292IMAG1293

Then using the Project Poppers the girls titled the display board and decorated it a bit.

IMAG1296Next we used index cards to write down our Ladybug vocabulary words.  We glued part of an envelope to the board to hold our cards.
IMAG1297IMAG1298We also had Ladybug Life Cycle sequencing cards that we attached with Velcro.  This way we can take them off and the girls can practice sticking them on in the right order.  They also each drew their own ladybugs with the project poppers on construction paper.

The happy girls with their finished project!
IMAG1299

This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Elmer’s #xtremeschoolglue #collectivebias

8 Categories : Homeschool

Books books and more books. Homeschooling families can never have enough books!  I know a lot of families that do not homeschool that are also book junkies as well. I prefer to buy the majority of our books used if I can.  Save some money and save some trees!

We started back to school yesterday and are still making lists of all the books and resources we will use this year.  Needless to say I still have some shopping to do!  Thankfully with today’s Juice in the City Deal I can save some money!  The deal is $10 for $20 worth of educational games, books, and other materials at The Book Cover in North Richland Hills.

The Book Cover is an education consignment shop that has a lot of your homeschooling and educational needs covered.  This 50% off deal also make an awesome gift! Hmmm, I bet your public school teachers would love to have this gift!  Don’t forget your Homeschool moms!  They would love this as well!

 

 

 

1 Categories : Homeschool, I'm So Cheap

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again…the majority of kids eat like crap.  They are on this fast food gimme gimme gimme mode and their stuck.  It has to change!  Veggiecation is a curriculum based nutrition education company that is available in elementary level classrooms nationwide.

But…

It’s also available for parents need health and nutrition resources to use while teaching their kids at home. They have the program for homeschool available for individual purchase.

We eat a lot of veggies in our home and it has been fun finding new ways to enjoy our vegetables.  Bento is a fun way to incorporate healthy foods for kids.  New exciting recipes that present veggies in a different way may get a kid to like something that they didn’t like before.

Veggiecation helps young kids with their food choices while demonstrating that eating vegetables is healthy, fun and delicious.

Veggiecation was founded by Lisa Suriano, a certified nutritionist. Lisa’s credentials include Master of Science, Nutrition and Food Science, and Serv-Safe Certification for proper food handling and protection against food borne illness. Today, Lisa “Veggiecates” our kids on healthy food choices.

Check out this recipe from Veggiecation…

Zucchini, Tomato & Parmesan Bake

Yield: 5 servings

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 medium zucchinis, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
  • 2 plum tomatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- In a bowl, toss the zucchini and tomatoes with the garlic, oregano, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper.

- In an oiled baking dish, arrange the zucchini in overlapping rows. Then arrange the tomatoes on top of the zucchini.

- Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top of the tomatoes.

- Bake for 35 minutes.

- Cool in the pans on a rack for 20 minutes. Remove the bread from the pans and cool.

Visit the Veggication website for more information.

 

 

1 Categories : Did You Know?, Homeschool

Pay attention so you don’t miss out!  This is a ONE DAY ONLY SALE!

It’s time to get ready for another school year and why not save some bucks buying used! You will also be helping your local homeschool families at the same time by buying within the community!

The date: THIS THURSDAY! August 4, 2011.

The time:  11:00 am until 3:00 pm

The location:  Windhaven Room of the Plano Centre.

The cost:  $3.00 entry fee at the door. No charge for your children 12 years old and under to attend the Used Book Sale with you. Youngsters 13 and older accompanying parents will also be charged the $3.00 entry fee.

For more information visit NTHEN.

0 Categories : Homeschool, I'm So Cheap

The 4th of July is right around the corner!  Time to gather some ideas for recipes, crafts, decor and activities!  My girls already decorated their bikes with some awesome and easy 4th of July Crafts!

Today my girls will be working on an Independence Day Lapbook!  There are tons of fun educational Independence day activities out there!

Do you have some great 4th of July posts up?  I would love for you to link them here to share with my other readers!  I’m always looking for more fun ideas!

9 Categories : Homeschool, She's Crafty

We hate History textbooks in our home.  Why use a boring textbook when you can experience it in real life!  That is why the Genghis Khan Exhibit at the Irving Arts Center is an awesome opportunity to experience a bit of history in a way your children and you will actually remember.  Honestly…think back to when you were in school.  Now dig deep into the depths of your brain and tell me what you remember being taught about Genghis Khan… For most I am sure your answer is “Nadda…..Read More→

1 Categories : Did You Know?, Homeschool

Join CurrClick on Facebook for 4 FREE Memorial Day/Patriotic learning resources. Simply like them on Facebook, then visit their FB page starting at 5:00 CST this evening for the freebie title list and the 100% OFF coupon code that will work for all 4 titles. Read More→

0 Categories : Did You Know?, Homeschool

Genghis Khan is coming to Texas!  No, don’t freak, stay calm.  What I mean is the Genghis Khan Exhibit is coming to Texas!  The Irving Arts Center is hosting the Genghis Khan Exhibit starting June 1st until September 30th.

What a great way to bring some history into reality for yourself and family.  It’s so much more exciting to see things in person, than on the pages of a book or on the internet.  To be in the same room with pieces of the past. Read More→

0 Categories : Homeschool