O'how Fast our Home-School Grows...

Isn't it funny how fast your home-school grows? What I mean is, one day your kids are learning their ABC's and the next they are writing book reports. One day your kids are adding 1+1, the next they are adding X + Y. One day they are learning the difference between nonliving and living things, the next, well... You get the idea. As parents, we love watching our children grow and learn. Of course we also miss our children being little too. So, bitter sweet.

In other news, I hope everyone had a Fantastic Easter! We of course did the traditional egg dying and egg hunt. Kids loved their Easter baskets and have eaten about half of their goodies so far, with a little help of course ;)


Until Next Time...

Is there Art, in your Home-school?

When you think about homeschooling and your picking out your homeschool curriculum choices, you know that you need to have math, history, language, etc., but what about art? Many times, art is one of those forgotten area of study. Even though, it isn’t part of reading, writing, & arithmetic, it is still important. It is important because art isn’t just about drawing, painting, etc. It teaches your child to explore their inner creativity. It also teaches your child about the history, the past artist that has influenced art throughout time; past, present, and future. So, if you do not have an art curriculum for your child or not ready to start anything too formal, but want to make art part of their regular studies, you can easily do this by simply choosing a famous artist and learning about them. Google their works of art, take trips to art museums, play art games, and of course create art ;)

Helpful Home-School Apps

I have a Great home-schooling tool to share with you all today called PuffinAcademy! It is an amazing free app, that will allow your child to use their online educational programs, on a tablet or/& smart phone devices. To use this app, is pretty easy. All you would need to do, is download the FREE Puffin Academy app (not to be confused with any other versions of Puffin), into your devices. Then, once you have the app downloaded, all you would have to do is search/select the program you want to use.

This app is exciting for me because my children's home-school curriculum is online. In the past, my kids had to be on our laptop to do their school work. Now, with this app, they no longer have to take turns using the computer. One can use the computer and the other can use the tablet. In fact, at this very moment, my oldest is playing multiplication games on her tablet ;)

Also, I can have them work on their lesson, even away from home. With this app your kids can now easily do their schoolwork at home or on the go. So convenient & easy to use!



Until Next Time...

I Heart Computers!

 
I love that I get to home-school my kids in the age of computers! Because of that technology, I have easy access to so many free resources. There are a few that I pay for too, but all still an amazing help to me and my kids. SpellingCity.com is one of those favorite's; I use it every week. Just yesterday, my daughter was doing their MatchIt Sentences game. I like this one because, when the kids match sentences, it builds their vocabulary skills.

 

 

 

 

We also have been adding Easter into our home-school last week. Here is a craft that my son made. He cut out and pasted all of the section and of course colored/decorated it ;)

 

 

Until Next Time…

Spring has sprung!

 

Awwww... Spring is the air! I just love this time of year. The flowers are blooming; the days are becoming warm and breezy :)


This past week we have really been taking advantage of those breezy, breezy days. As you have probably already guessed, we have been flying kites. Kite flying, has always been one of my favorite spring activities, since I was a little girl. My kids also enjoy it! As soon as they noticed it was warm and windy, they were asking to go and buy kites! Even their cousin, who is a bit older (she is in high school homeschool ), was outside with us, enjoying this favorite pastime.

 



In homeschooling news, spring will also be all around our classroom. We will be doing an Easter/Spring Unit Study. Some of the things we plan on doing over the next several weeks will be a field trip to a Butterfly Garden, tons of themed worksheets, and fun crafts. We are also planning on going over the origin of Easter again ( kind of a yearly tradition in our homeschool) and learning about rabbits.




Until Next Time...

Learning Games For Kids.com Review

Last week, I shared with you all, one of my favorite Home-schooling resources called Vocabulary Spelling City.
So, today, I am going to share with you another one of my favorites called Learning Games For Kids  (or LGFK for short)!





There are many reasons why I love this site. Besides being free, it has tons online educational games, songs, and printables; that help's my kids build skills in math, language, science, social studies, etc.
The site also has all of their stuff divided into categories: educational songs & videos, animal games, art & music games, math games, word games, geography games, brain games, science games, printables, just to name a few. So, it is super easy to find what you are looking for. Plus, this site is so easy to incorporate into what ever home-school curriculum you are using.

For example: When we are learning about the different United States, I used LGFK's US 50 States Games, as an added reinforcement. Or when my youngest was learning his ABC’s, the preschool games were such a BIG help. He always loved to listen to the ABC balloon song :)

Besides the above mentioned, below is a complied list of some more of our ( my kids & I ) LGFK favorites

 Top 5 Favorite's from LGFK

1.  Preschool Stories

2.  Typing Games

3.  Math Man

4.  Tetris

5.  Body Parts Jigsaw

If you haven't clicked on any of the LGFK links yet, what are you waiting for?
Go ahead, check them out ;)

Until Next Time...

My Vocabulary Spelling City Review

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite free resources, that I use with my kids.
                    
                                              
                                             It is called, Vocabulary Spelling City!

What is Vocabulary Spelling City (Spelling City or VSC for short)? Well, it is an award winning, online game-based, educational tool for Spelling, Vocabulary, and Language Arts. (They also have lists for words in Math, Social Studies, and Science too.)

So, how did I discover VSC? Well, it was several years ago and I was on one of those home-school forums. There was a fellow home-schooler, that was really bragging about them. So, I knew I had to go check it out. I mean if it is free, what can it hurt, right? As you can see, years of use later, that I obviously loved the program. Luckily, my kids do too! Which as we all know, isn't always the case, when it comes to school work. The games and activities are so fun, compared to tradition workbooks, that it doesn't even feel like they are studying spelling. Hang Mouse and Letter Fall are my oldest favorites.

Besides all of the teaching resources, and their awesome new app, my favorite thing about this program is that you can either create your own word lists or you can use the pre-generated lists of words that are grade appropriate. Holiday theme's are my favorite ones. In fact, just a few days ago, I found a fun St. Patty's Day word list that was already created.

Of course, I also have made tons of my own ( they are so easy to make ). For example, my daughter is an avid reader. So, I will take her book's and use them to create the lists. Which makes it much more fun & interesting for her when, it is time for her Spelling lessons.
VSC is also helping with my youngest. Even though he isn't reading yet, he still is benefiting from some of the activity's, like the Word Video's. I plan on using their phonics and sight words spelling curriculum beginning lists very soon.

Another great thing about this program, that you might like to know, is that it was originally intended for traditional classroom use. So, you can feel confident knowing that it is aligned to those standards.
In addition, they offer a 100% completely Free version of their program, but for just $30/year, you can upgrade to their Premium Version ( you get 5 students per upgraded account). Plus, they just added free instructional videos, to help teachers and homeschooling parents, understand the program and options on how to use it successfully.

Personally, we used their free version for awhile in the beginning. I did decide later to upgrade, not only because I felt the $30 was affordable, but also because I wanted the extras you get with the premium version. I really like how the kids now have their own sign in area, and all the new games, etc. that we now have access to.
I defiantly recommend this program to anyone who home-schools or is looking for some extra help after school or during the Summer months.



Until Next Time...