Summer Reading 2

The kids are tracking as many reading minutes as possible for our library's summer reading program. It's the final week of the program, and our bin full of library books is overflowing. Here's a link to some of what we read last week.

Here are some books we are enjoying this week:

How Do Apples Grow?

On a whim I bought one unit of Deana Jump's Guiding Readers on TPT. We're skipping to the fourth book, How Do Apples Grow?, and will read it as much as he wants before we go apple picking in a couple of weeks.





The Snatchabook

The kids picked this out themselves, and it was an entertaining bedtime read.





School Bugs

Our librarian gave this book to A5 since he is starting kindergarten, and the pop ups really are impressive! Am I the only mom who is scared to buy pop up books? The only one I have is What Makes a Rainbow, but the paper pop-ups don't seem like they'd hold up around R2.





The Green Ember

We're finally starting this book that, it seems, everyone is talking about. I'm reading a chapter at a time to C18 and N18.





Fast-To-The-Freezer Cookbook

I'm re-reading this book of make-ahead meals. This week I have plans to make three of her recipes. I haven't done a freezer cooking session all summer and I'm completely out of freezer meals!



Those are some of our library and Amazon picks for the week. It's almost time for traditional schools to start back in our area, so we'll be adventuring more to our favorite parks and museums as the weather cools and crowds shrink.

Hatching dinosaur eggs

We can now add dinosaurs to the list of things A4 is obsessed with: super heroes, his tire swing and pirates.

He's learning that dinosaurs were reptiles, and reptiles hatch from eggs. He acts this out by putting himself inside a cardboard box, making squeaky sounds then "hatching out" of the box. 

We also did an activity at a children's museum where kids "hatch" dinosaurs out of eggs.

Really it's just water frozen inside a balloon with a miniature plastic dinosaur stuffed inside. The balloon helps keep an egg-like shape in the freezer, then I just cut open the balloon and put the ball of ice in a bowl. 

He uses salt and warm water to melt the ice away and collect the miniature dinosaur. Obviously this isn't really how an animal would hatch but it's fun for him. He's done it about a dozen times in the last few weeks at home. 

How do you do All About Spelling?

When I first considered using All About Spelling, I looked at approximately 3,258 blogs to see how other families stored and used the letter tiles that are a big component of the spelling program. So many great ideas are out there! Many moms use 2' by 3' marker boards (link to AAS tips about marker boards), either permanently or temporarily on their walls. Others use sheet metal with a decorative frame, or even an oil drip pan.

These are all wonderful ways to use the letter tiles, but right now I just didn't want to buy any new stuff to put on the walls.

So, I just used my fridge. 

The letter tiles are obviously magnetic, so this works well. 

But, you're probably wondering how we write on my black fridge. 

Being able to practice words with a dry erase marker isn't mandatory for the AAS program, but it is helpful. I have two solutions! 

The magnetic sentence strips I bought from Rainbow Resources, but a similar product is available on Amazon. 

The neon dry erase markers were purchased from Amazon. Little A4 uses these same bright, chubby markers to color and practice writing letters on the lower part of the fridge. 

If you're wondering what letter tiles are, please visit the All About Spelling site. They'll explain he The letter tiles are a key component of the Interactive Spelling Kit.

How have you set up your All About Spelling letter tiles? Please share your link below!

This site contains affiliate links. 

Preparing for a new year of homeschooling

What to do about all the old curriculum materials... That's the big topic this week in my homeschool supply closet!

Here are some options for getting rid of old books and homeschool materials to prepare for the new year:

1: Send a message about items for sale to your local homeschool email list

I'm a member of a local Yahoo Group and our group allows us to sell homeschool materials to fellow subscribers. I always post "For Sale" and the item name in the subject line, then post a description in the body. I disclose the condition of the books, that the items are from a non-smoking home and include my email address, so no one accidentally hits the "reply all" button. This can be a great way to make friends with other homeschool families. Several times I have met new homeschool moms who I can encourage, and seasoned homeschool moms who have great ideas to share!

2: Use the Amazon Trade-In Program

You won't always get top dollar for books this way, but it sure is easy! They also pay in my favorite currency: Amazon gift cards. Amazon will pay shipping costs. and you can print the label from home. It's definitely worth looking at what they'll offer for your items, especially older or more obscure titles. Click on this link and enter the exact title of the book you're curious about, and they'll give you an estimate of what it's worth in their Trade-In Program.



3: Post high-value items on EBay

Items that have held a lot of their value, like IEW and Math-U-See, can be good to sell on EBay. The best way to see if your item is worth going to the trouble of posting is to search for similar items. What are they selling for?

4: Bless another homeschool family

If you ask around at church, a homeschool group, or on your local homeschool email group, you're sure to find someone who would love free materials.

5: Attend a curriculum swap

I've only been to one curriculum swap, and some moms got together at a playground and swapped teacher guides, reference books and more at a picnic table while the kids played.

What's for lunch? Homeschool edition

A hot lunch is perk #643 on a list of a thousand reasons why I love homeschooling. Who doesn't love a hot lunch? Now don't be impressed, because I'm not going to any trouble in the kitchen; I'm embracing the crock pot and casserole dish.

Here's a list of my go-to recipes for easy, inexpensive hot lunches at home:

Cheesy Polenta in the crock pot:
This dish is gluten-free for those avoiding gluten, and any leftovers can be stored in the fridge then sliced and heated up in a skillet. Cheesy polenta is good both ways! Top with leftovers from the dinner before,

Breakfast casserole:
This dish is for breakfast, lunch or dinner in my house. I've altered the recipe a dozen ways, adding broccoli or spinach, substituting ground beef for sausage... but I always use a full dozen eggs.

And any other four-hour-or less-crock pot recipe from this book...




Add some veggies with yogurt dip or hummus, and lunch is served!

Last Child in the Woods & EE Week

I've been reading Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Have you heard about this book by Richard Louv?

I've been meaning to read this guide for some time; when I heard about it a few years back, I only skimmed a paperback copy while drinking a hazelnut latte at Barnes & Noble.



It's easy to think about nature and going outdoors this time if year, isn't? When the weather is glorious, when tomatoes need to be planted, when flowers start blooming... It's easy to say, "kids, lets go outside."

Just being outside has value, enormous value, no matter what we are doing... Playing with sticks, looking at clouds, walking across rocks...

Still, how can we as homeschoolers spend more time outside, educating our children? That's the question I was trying to answer early, early this morning when I skipped to the back of the book and looked at item #73 on Louv's list of "100 Actions We Can Take." Three website links are given under "green the K-12 curricula," and I will share these with you now.

100th day of 2014: April 10

It's the 100th day of 2014 and we're taking an hour away from our normal activities to celebrate. I modeled this after "100th day of school" festivities I have seen online. Do you remember doing 100th day activities as a kid? I don't, but why not try it? 

First up, for A3, a hundred pieces of cereal on a string.

He focused for a long time and did his very best laying out 100 pieces on the chart then stringing them.

Baseball Unit Study wrap up

I'm a total scardie cat. 

Worst athlete ever. 

A ball coming at me is not my idea of fun. 

The one year I did play a school sport, the volleyball coach would only put me in for the last two seconds of an already won or lost game and gave me the Sportsmanship award at the end of the season. I was that pitiful. 

I couldn't run a mile without stopping, even if a bear was chasing me. 

Still, I have this desire to love the sport of baseball as much as my husband and his family, so together we can share the all-American pastime with our kids. 

Despite my infant scapegoat (you know the line... "I can't because of the baby, but you go and have fun"), I decided to join in and try tossing and hitting the ball with the kids today for homeschool PE. 

I'm still lousy at it, but we did have fun! We worked up an appetite for a baseball-themed afternoon snack: Tyler Florence's caramel corn. Yum! 

With opening day fast-approaching, are you incorporating baseball in your homeschool? Please share with the Linkup below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Hands down, the best place for homeschoolers to "shop"

Drum roll, please...

And the best place for homeschooler to "shop" is...

A place with the world's greatest return policy...

A place where someone is eager to help if you need it...

A place where your entire family is welcome...

A place where...

Okay...

I've kept you waiting long enough...

Another homeschool perk... Snow days!

There are so many perks of homeschooling, aren't there?

Here's an example of one little perk...

Faberge egg craft

When I first started pulling together Russia-inspired craft ideas for our Olympics unit study, I initially thought we could do something related to Matryoshka dolls. Then I decided that was way to ambitious!

Faberge eggs came to mind next, and a quick Google search revealed an all-inclusive kit perfect for our study: Art In History's Faberge-style Egg kit. Woohoo! I usually would attempt to create these activities from scratch, but sometimes it's best not to reinvent the wheel and I chose the easy way! The kit came with all two of each paint, a brush and sponge, the plaster egg and full instructions online.

The downloadable 13-page lesson plan also included a history of Nicholas II, the geography of the Russian Revolution, a history Faberge and the love story behind the particular egg we would attempt to recreate, the Rosebud Egg.



My two official homeschool students completed the art activity with great care, and A3 did it in his own way!

The first day we used sponges to paint the egg red. Here's A3's egg...

The paint dries quickly enough to complete in one session, but sledding and snowball fights were calling my boys outside!

The second day we added the gold band and painted the base gold...

Then added the details...

I ordered three other history-infused art projects from the website, and I'll share those another day! I'm not an affiliate of Art In History; I just enjoyed their product and thought you might, too!

What about math?

Four years ago when we began homeschooling I wasn't sure of which math program to choose. My kids hated math, probably because they were so far behind. So, I made this declaration to my newly-adopted pre-teen sons:

"For the first month we won't touch a single math textbook."

During our first month we focused on finding our spot, exploring different homeschool options and showing our kids that school can be fun. 

As far as math was concerned, here are some of the things we tried that went well:

We read "living math" books, like The Adventures of  Penrose the Mathematical Cat. 

Olympic art, to eat and to display

My favorite arts and crafts projects are the kind you can eat! We created Olympix flag cookies, adapted from a suggested activity in the Amanda Bennett Winter Olympics unit study.

Please don't judge our artistic abilities! ;) I never try to impress anyone on Pinterest with our art; we simply use art for fun and learning.

Today we started