Dear Mr. Blueberry: Family learning activites

Last week we had fun with the book Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James. This book is a series of letters between a little girl and her teacher discussing whales. It's super cute and was already a loved and regularly looked at book.

The first day, I read the book and focused on the letter w (for whale). I gave Wyatt (3) his own letter W book. For our letter craft, we made the whales shown to side. The white base is regular printer paper. I cut out the simple whale shape from blue construction paper. The kids glued the whales down, found their W tail fins from an assortment of foam letters I have acquired
(If I were ordering new ones, I'd order these), glued on tissue paper for the water, added googly eyes, drew a mouth, and folded half a iridescent white pipe cleaner into a "W" shape. I glued the pipe cleaners on with felt glue, because that's what I had on hand, but I was planning to use tacky glue.
We also took a look at how long a blue whale is and how big Emily's pond would have to be to hold him. We took chalk and a yard stick to our sidewalk and marked out every three feet. I had the kids count by 3s for the first several, but when they started to lose interest I asked them to mark where they thought 100 feet would be. Some of their guesses are shown below; the thick blue line marks 100 feet. It was fun watching them come up with multiple techniques to make their guesses. Zeke (7) was definitely the ring leader helping everyone while I continued to mark. If I were to do this with only younger kids, I would have shown them what a foot looked like, had them guess and then used a tape measure or rope to find 100 much faster. I purposely chose the yard stick to give the older ones time to watch it unfold and really think about it.
We then went back inside and took a closer look at how blue whales filter their food (mostly krill) through their baleen plates. I placed shredded cheese in a bowl of cool water and had the kids use a basic comb to scoop out the cheese while allowing the water to drain out. Thanks to Learning is Messy for this awesome idea.

The second day, I read the book and talked about letter writing. This activity was primarily chosen for Zeke, but everyone participated at their level. Wyatt's focus was signing his name. I found this free letter writing template that made it easier teaching all my kids at the same time. A quick search on pinterest will give you more options, but I liked that this one was so basic.

I was gone during the day for the rest of the week, so we stopped there, but my other thoughts involved a whale craft made from a paper bag. Simply tie off the end to form the tail, paint it blue, then add eyes and a mouth. Here is a link to a pinterest search if you want a visual.

I've since done some additional work with my oldest on letter writing and addressing an envelope. This would also be a good time to visit your local post office. Our post office requested about 1-2 weeks notice for a small group last time we went. The kids had so much fun seeing how the mail is processed and sorted.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: Family Learning Activities

My little Wyatt (3) has decided he wants to do school stuff too, so I'm working on a literature and alphabet unit to do with the entire family, but is primarily for him. For the first week, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault.

We began on a whim last week when Claire (2) was looking at an alphabet puzzle. Wyatt was sitting close by, so we sang the alphabet song while playing with the puzzle. I then grabbed Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and used the puzzle to show each letter as I read.

The next day, I stepped up my game a little and put a construction paper coconut tree on our refrigerator and slapped on the alphabet magnets. The kids thought this was awesome! A nice thing about having slightly older children is that they want to play too, so they end up teaching the little ones. We read the book again and I encouraged the kids to play. I find someone doing something with the tree and letters every day.

We started the third day by watching Leap Frog: Letter Factory. This movie helped my older children learn their letters and sounds; Quinn actually learned the sounds before she could identify and say their names thanks to this video.
As our main activity, we examined a coconut. Initially, the kids drew pictures and guessed what was inside. They were all amazed to hear the liquid sploshing around inside. After we observed all we could of the outside, we drilled a hole to extract the water and split the coconut open. Everyone tasted the water and the meat, then drew more pictures.
After we finished with the coconut, we read the book again -twice. You wouldn't think that reading a book for the third day in a row would be entertaining, but the looks on their faces said otherwise.

On day four, we read the book again and learned a little first aid. The letters get hurt when they fall out of the tree, so my husband showed the kids what to do when someone is bleeding. Using ketchup as the blood, he began with cleaning a small amount of blood and putting a band-aid on it. Next the kids practiced what to do if someone is bleeding a lot (put pressure on the cut and call for help). Then the kids practiced bandaging a moderate amount of blood. (Apply a large bandage and wrap with gauze. If it's still bleeding, wrap it again. Get further help.) My husband went a little further than I originally planned, but he's an EMT, so I can't really blame him. We already have a first aid kit that the kids are familiar with, but if yours aren't this would be a great opportunity to start one.

On the fifth day, we read the book again and made name trees. We used printer paper for the base paper and added construction paper and foam letters. The kids found the letters in their name and put them on their trees. We helped the little ones trace and cut their hands, but they glued it together. 

Some additional ideas:
I like Tasty yet Trying's idea of writing letters on a cardboard tube and having the kids match with letter stickers.
I almost put together a basic sensory bin similar to the one found at Natural Beach Living, but I absolutely love the sensory bin found at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom. The latter bin uses letter beads to thread onto a pipe cleaner tree.

Baked Nachos

Lunch is one of those meals that I tend to struggle with. I spend most of my effort on breakfast and dinner, so lunch leaves me wondering why my family needs to eat so often and if it is really my turn to feed them again.

When my kids were smaller, I usually had leftovers from dinner that we could eat the next day and then we'd fill in the gaps with sandwiches, so I didn't have to think about it much. These days, I still have leftovers, but not enough to feed everyone, so I've been forced to think about lunch a bit more.

Being a homeschool mom and having children that do their best work in the morning, means that lunch can't take a lot of time to prepare. These nachos take about 15 minutes from start to finish and my children gobble them up.

For the basic recipe you'll need:
1 bag tortilla chips
1 can black beans
1 1/2 TBSP ground cumin
1-2 C Mexican cheese blend

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cover the bottom of a large jelly roll pan with tortilla chips (this may or may not take the entire bag).
Rinse and drain black beans, then put on top of the chips.
Sprinkle cumin over the beans and chips.
Top with cheese and bake 5 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

To make a more balanced lunch, add diced peppers before baking, then serve with avocado and fresh salsa.

What's your favorite quick and easy lunch?

What I learned from our first year of homeschool

My news feed has exploded with pictures of children and teens finishing their school year. All those pictures have me thinking about our first school year and the not just the lessons my kids have learned, but the ones I've learned as well.

These are the big lessons I've learned from our first nine months as a homeschool family.

Be flexible.
We've had many situations that required flexibility this year, most of them were little things like postponing a lesson, but I also needed to be flexible with my curriculum choices. We started the year with a math curriculum that just didn't work for us. We gave it a fair chance, modifying it after a couple weeks and scraping the whole thing after a couple more weeks.

Trust your instincts.
You know your kids, you know yourself, and you have the ability to receive revelation for your homeschool. If you've studied your options and felt that a particular choice is best, don't automatically disregard that feeling because some disagrees. When I was planning for this past year, I originally picked a different math curriculum than the one we actually started with. When my husband looked at my original choice at a convention, he wasn't impressed. Instead of trying to convince him, I agreed to look at other options. Does it surprise you to learn that my original choice is what we ended up using and loving this year? My husband was still skeptical, but was willing to trust me and give it a chance.

Find a routine that works for your family.
I read numerous scheduling suggestions before starting the school year, so I had an open mind and experimental attitude. I am so grateful for that suggestion, because while our schedule isn't entirely unique, it is has evolved over the year and I anticipate that it will continue to evolve as we go along. To read more about our schedule, click here.

Learn with your kids.

My four plus their cousin at the beginning and end of the public school year.

When I get interested in a topic, I become more animated about it and in turn my children become more excited about it. Knowing what my kids are learning also helps me to bring it up at applicable moments.

Find a mentor (or two).
I feel a tremendous amount of pressure as a homeschool mom. I feel confident in my ability to guide my children through their education, but I still have a lot to learn. It sets my mind at ease to have knowledgeable people rooting for us and willing to help as needed.

Relax.
If you are trying your best and worried if you're doing enough, then chances are your kids are learning and you're doing just fine. After struggling through the first half of the school year with reading, I reached out to a local teacher friend who assured me that we were on the right track. It turns out I was doing all the right things, we just needed to keep at it. Fast forward several months and both kids are doing great.

Do you homeschool? Are you thinking about it? What would be on your list?

Freebies I've actually used this month: may 2016

A few weeks ago, I started this series about the freebies I'm actually using. It can be a bit overwhelming to look at the selection of free resources online, so I wanted to help get the word out for the ones we actually use.

We have been working on a large unit study of continents and animals for a few months. We do most of our study through books, visits to the zoo, Wild Kratts, and documentaries; but I found this sample from Mercedes Merrell to add to our science notebooks. I like the picture part of it well enough. A couple of the amphibians looked a little more like reptiles, but they were close enough. I didn't love some of her wording choices for the characteristics chart, but we made it work. An unexpected benefit of this activity was seeing Zeke step up to help his siblings correctly sort the animals.

Quinn (5) finished working her way through This Reading Mama's Reading the Alphabet this month. When we first started, she did each of the activities, but as she learned more of the sight words, she wanted to move faster. Quinn loved the books, rhyming mats, and syllable cards, so as soon as we completed those activities, she wanted to move on to the next lesson. I did print everything though, because I plan to use the program with my younger kids as their first formal lessons.



After finishing Reading the Alphabet, we moved right into This Reading Mama's Learn to Read. The Learn to Read program isn't entirely free, but she offers enough of it free to suit Quinn's needs. The books are a perfect continuation of the Reading the Alphabet program, but speeds up the pace a little by introducing two new sight words per book. The first three books in each short vowel unit focus on a word family and the forth book is a review. As of writing this post, Quinn has only used the -AT, -AD, and -AN family books. I'm purposely trying to take these slow and really work on each of the word families as we go.
Aside from the activities that come with the books, I'm using these roll and read word family worksheets that I made.

Quinn and I are working on counting to 100. She can count to twenty nine pretty well, but after that her speech delay makes things difficult. We just started using these skip counting by 10s puzzles by Klever Kiddos that should help her solidify the names of the tens places. I also found this "I can" game from One Stop Teacher Shop that has the player filling in the blanks on the number line, but she has not wanted to play yet. 

Last, but not least, we used this Memorial Day emergent reader. It made a good introduction to Memorial Day and why and how we celebrate it. It's interactive, so the kids can personalize it.

Did you use any fabulous freebies this month?

Free Roll and Read Beginner Word Family Worksheets

I have two kids working on word families right now and after scouring the internet for resources to help them practice in a game-like setting, I ended up just making my own. I've had to divide them into smaller files to offer for free on Teachers Pay Teachers, so I currently have two options featuring beginner word family fluency sheets for free. I also have my entire collection of 30 word families available in one easy download for $1.

These word family sheets are great for some aspects of speech therapy as well. Quinn (5) has a range of speech delays including some beginning and final sound deletions and these worksheets are great practice for her.

I made these without pictures, but there is enough space that your kids can have fun drawing a picture or two to go with the group of words.

To play, have your child roll a die and read the words in the line with the same number. Repeat as many or as few times as your child wants. We do a minimum of three rolls, but probably average five.

I am a fan of keeping these sorts of activities in page protectors in binders with other activities that work on similar skills. I keep all of my short vowel words together, because it makes it so much easier to work on the skills, because I can always flip over to one more activity if they need the work and attentions can handle it.

Click here for the beginner a,e, and i word family sheets.
Click here for the beginner o ad u word family sheets.




These are the items I use with these worksheets.



What's your favorite way to practice word families?

Animals Around the World: Asia

Our family is currently studying continents and animals in a homemade curriculum I've titled Animals Around the World. This study was designed to be a relaxed introduction for my beginning elementary students. We just finished a three week unit on Asian animals, so today, I'm sharing what we did.

Goals:
I want my kids to be able to find Asia on a map and to tell a little bit about what makes it special. I also want them to learn about a wide variety of animals and have a descent idea where they live.

Geography:
Our Asian study focused more on the animals of Asia than the landmarks. We talked mostly about the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, but while reading books Zeke (7) paid close attention to Mt. Everest. We also found islands, deserts, and mountains on a map, but we spent most of our time talking about the Indian jungle.

Animals:
The Columbus Zoo is conveniently divided  (mostly) by continents, so we went with notebooks and pencils in hand and drew pictures of each of the animals we saw. Zeke was expected to draw the animals and write their names, while Quinn was allowed to just draw the animal. I highly recommend bringing mechanical pencils and extra lead or a bag of crayons, because we had a few pencil issues and I was only safe, because I brought the crayons too. This was such a fun way for the kids to learn about the animals. We go to the zoo all the time and the kids are usually very quick to walk through each exhibit, but when I gave them the job of recording their observations, they took it seriously and slowed down. Quinn (5) even recorded prints she found in the concrete.

Extras:
I try to add in an extra animal or geography related topic for each of our units, and for this unit I chose animal classification. For Quinn and Wyatt (3), I wanted to introduce the concept of classification and the names amphibian, mammal, and reptile. They already know about birds and fish, so I used that as a jumping off point. I dove a little deeper with Zeke, to get him started thinking about what characteristics put the animals in the different groups. I found this sample from Mercedes Merrell to complete and add to our science notebooks. I didn't love it, but for a print and go activity, it did the job and the free price was exactly what I needed. 

Zeke helping Wyatt sort out his animals.

Our favorite books:
Before the start of each unit, I request stacks of books from the library. We don't always read all of them together, but the kids wander off with some and it gives us options. For this unit, I typed "Asia" and "Asian animals" into the library search bar and reserved just about everything that looked age appropriate. Not many of the books stood out in my mind enough to add them to this post, but we did read or at least look through each of the animal books. However, none of them stood out in my mind enough to write down for future lessons, so if you're going to do this unit, I recommend doing the same sort of search at your local library.
We're using the Introducing Continents series for our first look at each continent and Introducing Asia did not disappoint. The series gives a nice general look at each continent and the writing is easily understood by elementary students.
For a fun read aloud book, I turned to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. We kept it simple with just the first three Mowgli stories. My intent was to take Zeke to the theater to see the new movie after finishing the book, but we haven't gotten around to it yet.
Another fun picture book is The Saggy Baggy Elephant. I used the Step Into Reading version, instead of the original Golden Book version, and had Zeke read it to me. This version was a good match for his early reading abilities.

Movies/ shows:
My favorite movie for this unit is Equator: Battle for the light. I'm always amazed at how much the kids pick up from watching a documentary. I learned a lot too. This movie really showed how everything is connected in the jungle.
My kids also enjoyed the short Asian animal show on Animal Atlas.
It was very neat to see the connection between The Jungle Book stories we were reading and the animals actually found in the jungle, so I highly recommend watching The Real Jungle Book movie.

Final Thoughts:
Other than a three week timeline, we did not have a set schedule for this unit. Most of the formal work was done in just a few days, but I kept Asia and its animals in our conversations and tried to make the kids think about it as often as possible. We constantly looked at our dollar store map hanging on the wall and made connections between our books and movies and everything else. My assessment of their gained knowledge has been made by things that they are still telling me and pictures they have drawn.

Entertainment connections:
I have found that the kids really like to make connections about the places we are learning about and shows they watch. Where is Carmen Sandiego? is a current favorite and Zeke gets excited when they talk about places we've studied. To specifically tie in with Asia, we watched The King and I.

Homemade Instant Oatmeal: 4 flavors

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that I can take the time to ensure my family is getting a good breakfast to start the day. That being said, I can't spend the entire morning cooking, so I still cook the same things I did when my kids went to public school. One of our favorites is this create your own easy oatmeal. Life would be just as easy if I made a big batch of oatmeal in my rice cooker or on the stove top, but not everyone wants the same flavor.

I begin each bowl with 1/2 C instant oats then add one of the following sets of ingredients

Almond Joy
2 TBSP shredded sweetened coconut
1 TBSP sliced almonds
1 TBSP mini chocolate chips (add after oats are cooked)

Raisin and Brown Sugar
1 tsp brown sugar (more or less to taste)
1 heaping TBSP raisins

Cinnamon and Sugar
1/8-1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar

Plain
smidgen salt
1/2-1 TBSP granulated sugar

If I'm just making one or two bowls, then I add enough liquid to cover the oats (water level should be at the very top of the oats, but not much higher) and then microwave for 1 minute.

If I'm prepping for the whole family, I boil a kettle of water and allow the hot water to cook the oats. I aim for the water level to almost cover all the oats (as in the picture shown).

I don't have water measurements for you, because my family has different preferences when it comes to the thickness of their oatmeal, so I imagine everyone else does too. If you don't have enough liquid, you can always add a little more, but if you know you prefer thin oatmeal, I suggest adding more water than I've described.

What's your favorite way to eat oatmeal?

Short Vowel Word Family Cubes

My kids love games and will happily work on just about anything if you make it into a game. I've had my eye on this phonics cube set for awhile now, but I haven't wanted to spend the money on them. I contemplated printing some, but my most recent printed die lasted about 20 minutes before Claire (2) accidentally squished it.

For these cubes I bought 1" wooden cubes and removable color coding labels. The blocks can be purchased in smaller bags for less than $5 in the craft section and the color coding labels are less than $2 in the office supply section.
I thought about painting the blocks, but I wanted the flexibility to change the letters or word families without a lot of work.

Here are the combinations I currently have  for each cube:

starting consonants:
b, c, j, m, p, r      
l, h, s, f, d, w     
n, g, k, v, t, y

short vowel word families:
at, ig, ot, et, ug, an (my daughter uses these with This Reading Mama's Reading the Alphabet curriculum)
og, op, ox, in, it, ip  
ed, en, ap, ar, ad, am
ump, ack, ick, ill, ing, ash

To play, have your child roll one consonant and word family at a time or roll all of them together and see how many words they can make.

Freebies we've used this week: 4/29/16

The other day I started writing this totally great blog post about some of my favorite free resources around the web, but then it occurred to me how much better it would be to show you all the great stuff I'm finding instead of just the treasure troves. So from now on, if I use any freebies, I'll share them here and let you know what I thought.

I'm currently teaching Quinn (5) to read using This Reading Mama's Reading the Alphabet program. We work entirely at her pace, but she is extremely motivated and wants to practice several times a day. We worked through lesson 20 (the -ot family), lesson 21 (Qq), and lesson 22 (Jj) this week. To accommodate her rapid pace, we skip part of the activities. Quinn always uses the books, rhyming words, sight word activities, and syllable count.




Zeke and I are reviewing some word families right now, so I found these free readers from This Reading Mama. I printed the readers in black and white on regular paper and they are still cute. The freebies also include three extra pages of coordinating activities. I printed them all off, because I'll use them with Quinn soon.

Zeke is working on blends with his speech therapist, so I pulled out these blend cards from The Measured Mom. I like that they force the child to isolate and really think about the blend sound. The cards come in color, but I printed them in black and white to save on ink. Sometimes, I go through all of the cards and other times, I only grab 10 or so.


What freebies have you used or discovered this week?

Funny Bunny: a review

Funny Bunny is a fun and simple game designed for children and their families.
We were given a copy of Funny Bunny in exchange for an honest review.
My husband put together this video to show how the game is played and why he likes it.

Here are my thoughts:
Who should play this game?: 
Funny Bunny is marketed as a 5+ game, but younger kids can play too. My 2 year old loves it, but doesn't always sit through a whole game. My 3 year old will sit down with my 5 year old and play this several times in a row. Our 7 year old enjoys playing too, but likes to change games more frequently

What does it teach?
Funny Bunny works on counting, motor skill, following directions, and taking turns. The carrot is challenging enough that my two year old cannot twist it, but easy enough that my three and a half year old can. The spaces are just slightly bigger than the bunny bases, so it does take a small amount of concentration for little ones to place them correctly.

I love that my kids love this game. I like that the classic move-a-pawn-around-the-board game has found a more interesting board. I appreciate that this game allows for strategy and luck. Players can choose how many bunnies are in play, but only need one to be the winner.


Have you played Funny Bunny? Tell me about it in the comments below.

Our Homeschool Routine

Before starting homeschool, I had this idea that school had to start bright and early each morning at precisely the same time...just like public school. It took me about a week and a half to realize that my vision of everyone up and eating at seven, so we could be dressed and ready to learn by eight o'clock was a bit ambitious.

After some trial and error, my kids and I settled into a routine that has us getting up and eating breakfast around 8:00 am and starting in on school work by about 9:00. I tried doing a morning circle time, but it didn't work well for my kids. They kept getting distracted and wandering off, so we get right into our work instead and sprinkle circle time things in as they fit.

I separate my first grader's studies into three or four groups that are divided by breaks of varying length. Each group consists of 3-4 tasks that he can choose the order of. Today's schedule went as follows:

• math worksheet, math game, Star Wars Reading workbook, Star Wars Writing workbook
• 20 minute break 
• Mom's choice book, 2 related activities, sight words game
• 30 minute break
• review European landmarks, nocturnal animals lesson and activity, free choice reading for 15 minutes

His 5 year old sister has her own lessons for math and reading, but they are learning about animals and geography together.  Quinn (5) usually starts her reading lesson while Zeke is working on his math worksheet, works with me on her math during his first break, then takes a break until it's time for group lessons.

If Zeke (7) works diligently, we can all finish by lunch. After lunch we have a quiet time. Sometimes, Zeke will do his reading during quiet time, but other than that I try to keep it a time for everyone to just relax. The rest of our day is spent playing, watching PBS, reading, singing, and going for walks.

What does your daily routine look like? Do you prefer to complete tasks one right after another or do you like to have regular breaks?

Homeschooling: we've made the switch

You may have noticed some crickets from my tiny spaces on the internet and it's for good reason. We are now a homeschooling family, and for the past year my thoughts have been consumed by all things pertaining to this transition for our family. At this point, I feel like I have a decent handle on things and have learned enough that I have the time to share with others. The focus of this blog is shifting a bit from budgeting in the kitchen to budgeting in basic family and homeschool life.

My children while out for a walk.

So if you're looking for ways to stretch your budget, resources to teach your kids, or tips and reviews to make sure you're spending those hard earned dollars wisely; stick around, because I'm back and have lots of new ideas.