Fall is STILL Here!

                                     
I hope everyone, else has been enjoying the start, of this new Fall Season. We defiantly have! Even though it is still pretty warm, where we are, the temperatures have dropped some and there is a nice breeze outside.
This week, we have been having tons of Fun, with our Schooling. I have started a Fall Unit Study, Fall themed Spelling words, and incorporated of course plenty of learning games like sentence match, memory match, etc.
 In my opinion, the best part about this time of year, is all the Fun crafts we get to do. I think, I enjoy doing them, more then my kids do. Lol! So, what was one of the crafts we have done this week?

                                      Scarecrow plate face

What you need:
1. White paper plates
2. Construction paper:
3. Bow ( or you can make one out of paper )
4. Crayons, colored paper, markers
5. Tape or glue


Directions:
1.Prepare by cutting these shapes out of the construction paper ( if you do not have colored paper, you can color plain white paper the color needed:

 yellow- Cut it into several strips to look like straw & cut into a sunflower shape.
 brown-  Cut into a triangle and rectangle. Shape the triangle by cutting the very tip off. Shape the rectangle by rounding and cutting slits on the top and curving the bottom.  Draw " # " on both piece.
orange-  cut a small triangle for the nose.
dark brown- cut a round circle to fit inside the sunflower shape.
any color-  Cut to look like a bow ( you can also use a real bow or use any material to make a bow. )

2. Have your child color the plate to look like scarecrow skin.

                                 Now the Fun begins!

3.Have your child pick what color construction paper, they want to put their Scarecrow face plate on.

4.Glue/tape the plate to the paper.
5.Glue/tape about 1/2 of the "straw" to the top of the head.
6.Put the hat together. First glue/tape the triangle piece to the backside of rectangle shaped section.
7.Flip over the hat, and glue/tape the remaining "straw" around the bottom and side of the rectangle section of the hat and also put some coming out of the top of the rectangle, where the tip had been cut off.
8.Then glue/tape the hat to the top of the head.

9.Then glue the dark brown circle to the yellow sunflower cut out.
10.Then glue/tape the sunflower you have created to the hat.

11.Glue/tape the orange triangle to the center of the plate.

                                  Your almost done!

12.Then take a crayon, colored pencil, or marker and draw 2 eyes and a mouth.
13.Lastly, attach your Bow to the bottom center of the plate.

 Viola! You have created you Scarecrow plate face craft :)

Until Next Time...
 







 

Fall is here!

                                      It is Hard to believe that Summer is over, but it is!
                                         

 Is Here!

 

Personally, I enjoy the Fall Season most. Maybe it is because I grew up in Florida, and there,  the Fall and Winter Seasons were considered the more enjoyable months, weather wise. In Florida, Summer can bring some very uncomfortably high temps, loads of humidity, and storms. Some people may enjoy this, but me, not so much. That is why, I am very much looking forward to the cool winds, changing of the leaves, pumpkins, Turkey, etc. !
I must admit, that I am so ready for the Fall Season, that we have already started decorating and doing Fall crafts this past week. The first crafts, we have done,  is make pumpkins out of plates. They are really pretty simple to make. They are Great for little ones and older ones.



How to make Paper plate Pumpkins-

Items needed:
White paper plates
Construction paper
tape or glue
crayons, markers, etc.

Directions:
You can either take your coloring utensils and color the plates orange, then either draw the eyes, nose, and mouths on or you can cut out the face shapes and glue/tape them on. If you rather, you can also cut out an orange circle and glue/tape to the pate to give the pumpkin's color. Don't for get to cut out a stem to put on it!
Once finished, hang where you would like.






Besides the Fall Crafts, we also have been learning about science, nature games, and of course we have touched briefly on the different Seasons of the year. Field trips this week have been to a local State Park. There we enjoyed a guided nature walk by Park Ranger. The kids really enjoyed it!

Until Next Time...


                                   

Silk Worms are better than Math!

Have you ever had a lesson planned out  & ready to go. Then your child asks you what/why something was? Next thing you know, your on the Internet finding any info you can locate, about what ever they are curious about.

That my Reader's, is what happened for me today ;)

After Breakfast, my youngest who is 6 years old, asked why his skin was soft like mine and not like his Dad's, which is a bit rougher than mine. So, I went on to explain that his skin texture was like mine and he was also still young and as he ages, it may become less soft. That in fact, it had already changed some. "When you were a baby", I told him. Your skin was so soft, it felt like Silk.

Silk? What is silk he then asked. Then and there started our Homeschooling Day!  
 Today, we would focus on animal lessons about Silk Worms. Don't you just love how flexiable a Homeschool day can be?

I Googled of course and found some educational videos and informative websites about Silk and the Silk worms. It was very interesting!

I did not know that Silk has been around for over 5,000 years or that people eat the pupa out of the silk cocoon.

                                             ((My son thought this was VERY gross, lol))

I never really understood why the cost of Silk was so much, but after seeing how much goes into farming these bugs, I now understand.

((This video isn't a bit hard to understand, but gives some insight.))

 

 

 After we finished our lesson on Silk, my son said, " Mom, learning about Silk Worms is way better than doing Math." LOL! Kids, you gotta Love their honesty ;)

Until Next Time...

 

One of those Days!

Today is one of those, I wish I could stay in bed days. I am just sooooo Sleepy, Yawn!



Of course, when you have children, that hardly ever comes true.
 So, up I am. Tired, but that is what Caffeine is for!

 I love my children and I love our lifestyle. Still, I can not pretend that when the day comes when I can sleep in till whenever, spend my days doing whatever; there is a small part that is thinking that will be nice. I will no longer have early mornings, homeschooling days filled with teaching ABC's, Electrical Energy, Math, Clouds, Oceans, States, etc. etc. etc... 

Still, I wouldn't trade this moments for anything! This time is precious, even when I am tired ;) Yes, I am looking forward to seeing my kids grow up and see who they will one day become. Yes, I am going to enjoy having "ME" time again, but I am also not rushing to get there.

So, for today I am going make my 2nd cup of Energy and Enjoy my busy day of being a Mother :)

 

Until Next Time...

 

Viking's at Co-Op

 Last Thursday, was the first day our local Co-Op, started back. My kids were so very excited. My youngest was ready to start his Kindergarten Co-Op! Kindergarten is such a Fun time. Most children are at the age, are so eager to learn, mine included.



On their 1st Day, they learned about the Vikings. They learned about the History, they made a sword, shield, and helmet out of cardboard, aluminum foil and a mixing bowl. We also made Viking Bread!

How to make Viking Bread :

4 cups of Flour
 
1 1/2 cups of Buttermilk
 
1tsp of Baking Soda
 
1tsp of salt
 
Mix dry ingredient's first, than add buttermilk slowly stirring. Once mixed, flatten into a round shape ( Like a pizza crust ). cook 375 degrees for 45 mins.


 This Co-Op is Awesome! They really put a lot of effort into making this a Fun & Educational experience for the children. They do so many things, not just History, but Science for Kindergarten too!

Well, A Homeschool Co-Op is a group of parents, who have chosen to homeschool. That get together at a set date and time on a regular basis and in a joint effort provide learning & Social opportunities.








My oldest is also a part of the Co-Op. She is, however, in a different class. This year they are offering Drama. My daughter is so dramatic! Loves to be silly and put on skits. So, she was super happy to hear this. She also is taking part in another class. Over the next few weeks they are learning about Forestry.

Besides Co-Op, our Homeschooling week has gone pretty well. My youngest is doing very well in learning his letter and the letter sounds. My oldest, however, has been having issues with her writing. We have noticed that it has been taking her a very long time to complete her worksheets. After watching her, we have discovered that she was writing some of her letters bottom to top, instead of top to bottom. I am totally surprised how this has gone un-noticed for so long! Thankfully, I have found it and can help re-teach her correctly. So, today we did some handwriting practice. She did very well and I believe that her writing will not only be faster, but look neater as well.

Until Next time...
 

The Moon and the stars...

 This week in our homeschool lessons, we had fun exploring the universe. Science has always been one of my favorite subjects and to me there is nothing more interesting then Space. So, far we have only touched on the Sun, Moon, and Stars, but next week we will be exploring the different planets in our solar system. BTW, did you know that the Sun can reach up to 27 million degrees F (15 million degrees C)? Now that's Hot!


 In other homeschool news, we have discovered that my son is very much a Math visual learner. I bought some of those fake money's. You know, paper bills and plastic coins.
To me, money isn't just about learning the value, it's about learning how to use it, in real life situations. So, I thought why not set up a pretend store and let him shop.

It was actually pretty fun. It reminded me of when I was little and I would play house with my friends. We would set up areas that were stores with pretend food and baby clothes, etc.


Until next time...

Learning isn't just for kids

Recently, we had our year-end Homeschool Evaluations. (In our State, we are required to either have our children tested or have a Teacher provide an evaluation.) Anyways, my kids passed with Flying colors, which is always Awesome! However, even though this always puts a smile on my face and theirs too, the best part of these meetings for me, is the ideas that are given to me to try from the Evaluator.

For example, I have been assigning a lot of Writing assignments to my oldest. Since I have taken an English Comp. class in the past myself at the local College, I was grading her papers as if I was proof reading my own (I of course, gave her age appropriate, writing assignments to complete). The advice she gave me, was to just focus on one area of critique, at a time. Check for spelling only on one paper and maybe punctuation the next. Then later on, I can always take out her older papers and check them for other areas too. This is an idea, I would have never thought to do. I thought if I let anything that was incorrect go, then I would be teaching her the wrong way to write. The way she explained it to me was, that by focusing on one area only, it will be easier for her to focus and learn.

Another suggestion she offered up, was to just be flexible. If she needs to improve on any Subject, then instead of more boring worksheets, allow her to  Play free games online.
This idea was not new to me, as I am always open to learning while having Fun. The next suggestion she gave, however, did surprise me a bit. She advised me, to let her do some lower grade level work (Third grade games, fourth grade games, etc.) as it will give her confidence and reinforce what she has already learned.



 Do you have any homeschooling suggestions? Please feel free to share them!

Until next time...