Seward Seas Life Center Summer 2011

A trip to Homer for a wedding meant a LONG drive with the boys so we broke it down into several trips. Anchorage to see the grandparents and go to the Imaginarium (Children's Museum) And then Seward which when I was a kid the sea life center was the 'go down to the beach and poke at stuff in tide pools with sticks'  center and although that has it's own awesome-ness about it, I was more just as excited as the boys to check out the new fancy sea life center.

Seals! This was totally the post awesome part about it.

You then can go down below and watch them swim around. We could of done this for hours.

Several underwater sea life tanks.

Most of the museum was more geared for adults or older kids but they did try a bit with some child friendly bits such as this mini crabbing boat. 

So long summer

It's been a long time since i've posted. I'd like to blame the summer weather, or fancy activities, or even that since it's summer my DSD has been home from school and suddenly it's harder to get our pre-k/k work done but really it has more to do with DS2's ability to push the chair out of the way and crawl up the stairs which means my computer time is suddenly very limited. :-)

This summer i wanted to do some world culture / geography lessons so that was our summer activity. I looked around for curriculum i could use with my pre-k/Ker & the 2cd grader and ended up buying Expedition Earth ( http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/world-geography )

I also found: http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/printables/printablesnotebookinggeo.html

which i wish i had found earlier! but they have lot of lot of printable so i know i will be back to their site in the future. :)

We started off in mexico. we classified some mexican animals, learned about children in mexico, and looked up a lot of info about Geckos. the smallest gecko measuring about 3 inches and the longest 12! 

Next we flew to china. Learned about the Chinese new year and did a little origami.

We also dyed some silk with kolaid

Next was India, elephants, henna, + hot weather!

Lochs own sari for the lesson. :) He really liked that you tuck it in your underwear. *sigh* boys...

And finished up with England. 

Ipod apps for preschoolers (and olders too)

So for yule I received an ipod from the husband. Really i wanted an ipod because of all the awesome educational apps people kept talking about. One appeared under the tree with my name on it and I squeed in delight as I downloaded a gazzilion apps for the chitlins.

So here is my list of THE aps you want to keep the kids busy and also learn something. Most of these are free but i will * any that need money. These are in order of my kids most used to least used.

1. Feed Me There are 2 free levels. One the purple monster is thinking of an lower case or upper case letter and you feed him the corresponding letter.
The awesome other free part the purple monster thinks of something...black and you drag the black animal to feed to him. It gets harder as it goes working with finishing patterns, fractions, telling time, counting how many objects there are.....

2. Starfall *starfall is a pay for ap. You can play it online for free here but my preschooler likes it soo much that I went ahead and bought the ap. The ipod version only is the letters not the books and other game you can play on the website.

3. Cut the rope *sometimes free* You want to feed the monster candy but the candy is attached to a rope. You have to cut the rope to drop the candy into his mouth. Sometimes this is very easy, other times it requires you to swing the rope, move objects, or other wise manipulate the candy so that it can fall into his mouth.

4. Read Me Stories Cute little books that it reads out loud to you. With internet the parent can put in a code and get a new book every day but books you already 'have' don't need internet to access.

5. 3 Mice lite You have to move the cheese and the traps around to make sure the mice can get to the cheese but the rats get trapped.

6. Angry Birds I think just about everyone knows of angry birds by now but really it's totally education. You have to figure out how far your birds will fly, if you change the trajectory if they will still hit their targets and several other mathy awesomeness. All while killing those mean old piggies.

7. Rocket Math free you build a rocket (which needs to have certain bits in order to be able to fly into space) Once you launch it it sends you to space where you have to solve math problems which earn you more money for your rocket and keep you in the air longer.)
Okay now this one isn't really a preschooler ap but my preschooler likes to build the rocket and shoot it off into the air where he then hits random planets (the math answers) He doesn't seem to mind that it's a math game.

8. Spongebob Marble *this has 1 free bit to it and the rest is pay all in the one download which is slightly annoying*  This is really kinda awesome. You have little spongebob marbles which need to go into the hole but you have to 'paint' a track for them to get there. As you move through the levels you sometimes need to work with opening buttons or magnets so that the marbles can get to where they need to be.

9. Gingerbread Fun You bake and decorate a gingerbread man. Not really educational but a lot of fun and the best part is 'eating' your gingerbread man as it makes a lovely crunch crunch sound.

Preschool on the cheap vol #2

People are always worried about the cost of homeschooling. There are plenty of ways to do it for bookoo bucks but there are also ways to do it for cheap or even for free. And that's without taking into account using any sort of state run program that gives you money for homeschooling expenses (although that is also an option.)

Value Village / Salvation Army / Other Thrift Shops are your Best Friend. (and think outside the box)

Ideas: make your own, thirft shops, friends, freecycle, & the dump (yes the dump!)

Once you know what to look for you can find an amazing array of educational supplies. Here is my check list when evaluating any item/toy/craft

• Is it 'natural'? (does it have life or is shiny dead feeling plastic?)
• Will it support my children's imagination?
• Can it be used opened-ly? / Can it be used in multiple ways?
• Can it be used for multiple age ranges?
• Is it a official school item or is it a toy box item?
• How much prep or involvement does it need from me?

Found at the dump. A totally perfect memory game set.

                                                    
                                      Cloth pin gnomes made from random bits out of the craft box.

Practicing numbers. Old file folder and some random bits of felt cut into numbers to play with.

Also found at the dump! This box had a cool info book about dinosaurs, plastic glasses, a 'pick' and a wooden hammer, this cool dino plastic mat, and some cement with 3 little dinosaurs in it we 'excavated'.

Thrift shop score! this cute little info page & bird craft came in a box with a few other minor crafts and a whole list of January-ish craft activities.  The thrift store had all 12 months of these little themed craft boxes for .99 each and that day they were even a half off item!

Freecycle find. A mom was sorting out the attic after her kids were grown and gone so I got these.

Curriculum Review #1

Kumon makes a gazillion workbooks. Then I found these cute little ones for the 2+ age group. Kumon Books Can be found at Barns & Noble for about 7 bucks each.

The one pictured above was our favorite but they also have a color, fold, and cut one. These books are really very good for the price and are great at practicing fine motor control. 

Good points: 

• great fine motor control practice. 
• fun. 
• start off easy and then progress to more complicated work pages.

Bad Points: 

• Not really do-able for most 2 year olds really more for 3+
• Repetitive. 'Color the white spot on the strawberry red' - 'Color the three white spots on the icecream cone the correct colors.' 

All in all I say that if you are going to buy one go with the sticker or cutting one and pull it out once in a while when you don't have anything, or it's a sick day. Makes you feel like a good mom to get 'something' done
If your toddler or preschooler digs it then go ahead and buy all of them. Some kids just thrive on repetition and workbooks. Mine were all into it for 1 book and then lost interest now they get pulled out every now and then and are fun for about 1 pages worth of work.

Stars: 3 / 5

A day in the life...

So sparked by the 'peek' into other homeschoolers lives via several email groups I decided to throw my 'Day in the life of a homeschooled preschooler' out there.

Plenty of things change this schedule. Normal things like sickness, holidays, or things that must be done, but generally heres the scoop.

8 - 8:30 - we wake up. I am not a morning person my boys on the other hand feel that mornings are super-de-duper. I spend anywhere from 10 -30 minutes trying uselessly to convince them it's still sleepy time and they should just go back to bed.

Get up, make breakfast, eat breakfast, pour coffee, check facebook via itouch.

9 - 930-ish I get dressed. Sometimes the boys get dressed depending on their mood. We homeschool. I totally don't care if they wear their PJs until it's bed time again.

10-ish We do 'circle time' I light a candle, sing opening verse, song, closing verse, then blow out the candle.

 - Now in a normal school this is where the kids get together in a circle, sing a couple of songs, some fingerplays, and maybe a story that relates to the weekly theme. -This is not circle time at our house. -
Asher (1yr) adores anything with music, fingerplays and cute little songs are right up his ally. Loch (almost 4) on the other had loathes circle time with a deep passion. He always has, even at story time when he was just a wee babe. So 'circle time' is me doing the above with varying degrees of his running wildly around going on around me.

10:15 or so Sometime after this I ask him to check and see what the homework fairy has brought him.
The homework fairy comes in the night and leaves his school work in 4 large plastic drawers. He can normally find at least one of these that he wants to do right then.

Main lesson / Homework fairy projects can take anywhere from 5 minutes - an hour depending on what they are and his interest level.

10:30/11:30 a bit of housework and some free play

Noon is lunch followed by babys nap and a little tv time for 'quite' time.

1 or 2 is time to head out if we have things to do in town if not we finish up any left over work or projects.

3-ish Running around in town / free play at home

4 - dinner prep / housework

6 - dinner / daddy gets home / daddy time

8 teeth brushing / books / bed

Chalk Drawing 101

Chalk drawing can be very intimidating. In fact it's down right Scary. 

Drawing in general is scary for most of us with the few exceptions of those who are artistically gifted for such things. Even if it is only to be seen by the kids and not to be studied in a museum of fine art. 

All the books say the same thing about the fine arts. Something along the lines of;

"It doesn't mater how well you can sing/draw/paint/dance, just do it and your kids will enjoy the creative process."

Okay well thats great but my stick figure drawings are just not up to par. They look like nothing and are definitely not waldorf-y. So what is a mom to do?  COPY

That's right, I said COPY. 

*Secret - In the early grade school years of waldorf children copy the drawings of their teachers. It's not the dirty word we have been lead to believe.*

I have This Book (LMNOP and All the Letters A to Z)

From that and from the Oak Meadows kindergarten curriculum I can find a image that works for me.

See the L? Directly from the LMNOP book. 

This mountain scene for M? Also copied from the LMNOP book. My addition is the golden spider for our #8 story in Oak Meadow.

Okay so this one did come out of my head, mostly. Oak Meadows provided the N within the fence but since it was Solstice/Christmas I drew the Nativity. It fit with the season and with the letter N. 

In all fairness though it's not like I came up with the magnificent imagery myself.

This week is the letter O - also totally copied from the LMNOP book. See the formerly mentioned stick people? 

Now normally I change the drawing while the children are asleep. One because it's kind of magical for them to 'discover' the new drawing but mostly because if I do it while they are awake they want to 'help' which leads to less of a chalk drawing and more little kid chalk fingerprints. 

Today I broke out their own chalk boards while I did my drawing. I gave them no prompting in anyway as to the what or how of their drawings. The instructions were merely to "share the chalk there is plenty for both of you." and "draw on your own board."

Yule - 7 years.

"The world is our mom"

Loch - 3 1/2 years.

"The world - and some robots."

Exploring our world at 30 below

Dancing with the music and silks. Loud baby Mozart + play silks equal a really good time. The trick is mommy has to be playing too or for some reason it's no fun at all.

Right, okay. So there is plenty of ice outside it's -30...but at -30 we don't go outside. Even in full wool long john and parks its COLD. So instead we are freezing / thawing a bowel of water in the freezer. 

What happens when we put water in the freezer? Take it out? Pour new water into it? poke it with a spoon?

Rice and sand in a tray with various scooping devices and containers makes for a whole HOUR of self directed learning. Loch kept coming back to this every 45 minutes or so. Hiding 'treasures' in it to re-find them was the biggest hit.

Sorting lady bugs by size is really old hat but it is still fun. We also practice counting each sized bugs. I think he just likes the fact that they are red - his favorite color.

Tricky cheap preschooling tips

See apple? See dry spaghetti noodles stuck in apple? every tried to stick dry spaghetti noodle into an apple? it's actually kind of hard. I'm not sure how this is 'school'....lets call it 'fine motor control' but it was totally fun.

Those paint chips in the paint section of home depot? Perfect for matching colors (grab two of each) for younger kids or for arranging by shade which is what Loch is doing here. I choose to grab red-pink, blue- light blue, & yellow - pale yellow to start with. As we becomes better at it I will add in non primary colors or other paint chips that include words such as 'tuscan' or 'beige'

Paper + crayons = letter practice! 

Color and print letters on paper, tape to the kitchen floor. We practiced letters by playing hopscotch & right leg E! Left hand D!

Piece of wood from old cut down tree makes perfect practice for nailing. This particular type of wood was a little hard so I had to start the nail but after that he got to nail it down. All sorts of fun. Who doesn't like hitting stuff?

Sometimes you need a break...

 
   So it was happening.. Loch was being wild, loud, and disruptive. He fought anything that even seemed like school. Even the slightest 'school-y' question would erupt in arguments between us. It was time for a good long break. A good long break.

So I took a leap of faith and we did no official school work for 3 weeks. The homework fairy had the holidays off and we took the week before, during, & after 'off'.

Today was are first day back to the books and it went well. Mondays have always been our light days to  help get back into the groove after the chaotic weekends and today we talked about the sound the letter M makes, M words, and the number 8. We made a block tower, read some stories, and watched too much scooby do.
But there were no fighting, no arguments, no mommy pulling her hair out.

Take a deep breath and get back to business.




(and when I find my cord thingy I will make a post with some pictures.)