School Time Snippets

Making a Wind Vane: {Science with the Magic School Bus}

2013-05-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

My mom recently bought Tyler a Magic School Bus Science kit subscription on one of those daily deal sites and just last week we received our 1st of 12 science kits-- the Weather Station kit! The Magic School Bus came to our door-- figuratively speaking on a large white envelope ; ) We opened up the envelope and found a booklet of experiments and almost all the materials needed to execute the experiments (a couple called for plastic bottles, which you would need to supply on your own).

The booklet is very kid-friendly and the kids in Ms. Frizzle's class give a nugget or two of interesting facts for each experiment.

Experiments in this kit include:

making a wind vane

making a thermometer

measuring temperature

making a barometer

making a rain gauge

making rain

tornado in a bottle

We made the wind vane, which was very easy to do! The weather was perfect, but our only gaff was that our compass didn't work properly. I did shake it, perhaps not enough?! Oh well! The wind vane worked and we were able to see in which way the wind was coming from. We enjoyed the quick experiment but I do want to add that we've done a similar experiment before with a different weather station kit and to compare the two, the materials from the other kit help up a lot longer. As you can see in the pictures, our materials here were made from card stock and after a few bouts with a toddler-- the toddler won ; /

Nonetheless, looking forward to next month's kit!!

Joyce Herzog's Choosing & Using Curriculum Set {Review}

2013-05-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

I find that the abundance of curriculum to choose from is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing to have options; but the curse is that there are too many options that it is easy for newbies and veteran homeschoolers to feel overwhelmed and loose sight of what may be best for their family. You could search all day long on the web for answers to your questions, comparisons between curriculum, and where to "begin"-- and I can tell you I've been there, done that! It is exhausting! That's why having a guide like, "Choosing and Using Curriculum" by Joyce Herzog, can help make the process less mind-boggling.

Joyce Herzog has spent many years in the educational profession--over 25, in fact! She's shared her gifts with children and educator's in public and private schools settings, as well as the homeschooling community. Joyce's products were designed to bring out the potential within all students, though I believe her heart lies with the learning disabled and providing resources for those with special needs.

I received the Choosing and Using Curriculum guide book and resource e-book full of hyperlinks as part of the SchoolHouse Review Crew. You may purchase it at Joyce Herzog's product store for $15.

Our review team also had the opportunity to review several of her products. Please click the link below to check out reviews for: Scaredy Cat Reading System, Learning in Spite of Labels, Timeless Teaching Tips, Luke's Life & School List, Stepping Stones to Praise and Worship, Budding Authors, Bible Quotes, & Educational Dice Bag.

There are seasons to everyone's life and up until a few months ago, having a curriculum that I added things to worked well. Searching for go-alongs and activities was something I enjoyed, and it still is... it's just with three babes, my "spare" time is limited. So since realizing our curriculum would have to change, I was just at a complete loss over what do, and where to turn to next! I started to look at what everyone else was doing and felt even more overwhelmed!! Then this review came, and it was an answered prayer! Now after saying that, let me say that this book wasn't thee answer; it didn't tell me that I should be doing x,y,z. Instead, it gave me many things to consider and ask myself so that I could find the answer. It gave me resources to make MY homeschool vision a reality.

Some chapter titles you will come across in the book are:

Curriculum Types and Comments
What Can They Do by Themselves?

(And provides a chart of independent task based on age range-- a very helpful tool!)

What Grade Level?
Which One is Me?

( Are you Mrs. High Performance? Mrs. Happy? Mrs. Hopeful... A description of several types of homeschooling styles are given and though I see a small piece of me in several types, I am overwhelmingly, "Mrs. Average Homeschooler.")

Points to Consider When Choosing a Reading Curriculum
How to Interest a Child in Reading
Comparison of Math Programs
Developing Written Expression
Geography, Science, and History Resources
Testing
Special Help for Our Very Special Students
... and many more!!

I've not been to a homeschool convention before, but the book is a curriculum convention in itself! The book and e-resource provides an exhaustive list of companies that creates curriculum for every subject. The hyper-links was a neat resource as it gave a short description of the product and provided a link to take me there! The e-resource provides links to printable worksheet websites, craft ideas, math help, special needs resources, free resources, etc. etc!! It provided resources for all ages, learning styles, and types of learners.

I was hungry for what this book had to say, so I finished it in a matter of days. It is an easy and simple read. I have gone back several times to re-read many things that caught my attention. Some of the key points that hit home to me were:

Academics can be laid aside for a while until "the basics" have been learned-- obedience, listening & responding when called upon, developing a work habit, teaching them about God... etc. The Basics are to be taught before age 5 and then academics will follow.
Information about the different ways to think about Education; Joyce suggests choosing a style before you begin the process of choosing and using curriculum. She compares not knowing what you prefer and how you want your homeschool to look like to going on a long vacation without a map or adequate planning.
She laid to rest my worries to the question so many of us ask, "Will my child miss something?" And Joyce says, " I assure you that your child will miss something! Everyone does! We all have gaps in our learning. Yet we all manage to learn what we need to when we need to (17)."
And, I found it very helpful that a short description was given under each company name, along with the website to help endless searches become more focused.

I am glad I had the opportunity to read this resource for myself! It definitely came at a perfect time and has helped me sort through many questions I have been so focused on. To offer such material I think we depend on that person having a certain amount of knowledge and experience, and I think it is safe to say that Joyce has that!

In the end, no matter how many blogs and books your read about curriculum, Joyce wants you to remember that "your approach to curriculum will grow out of your personality, your life philosophy, and the unique traits of the children God has put in your family (18, underlined emphasis mine)."

Summer Bucket List 2013

2013-05-15T11:57:00.002-05:00

I initially posted this for my Wordless Wednesday post, but then later realized that although this is a picture of our bucket list--- it obviously wasn't wordless. Ha! I made this using Photoshop Elements and plan to get it printed and framed!

What are you all doing this summer??

Tot School with Abby: Letter H

2013-05-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we had fun with the Letter H! I am a tad behind sharing with you what we have been up to! I pulled a bunch of random things around the house to put in her bin-- H flashcards, Hammer, Hamburger, Horse, Hat, & a Heart box.... She had lots of fun making the /h/ sound all week : ) She enjoyed many of her activities and we finally were able to play OUT side!!!

Wearing her Big Brothers hat!!

Matching Upper and Lowercase Hh's on the helicopter from Royal Baloo's Zoomin' Movin Alphabet Packs (so cute!)

Also in the Hh Transportation Pack was this printable to be used with Do A Dot markers or stickers, but we poked holes using a skewer stick. I can only imagine what she would have tried to poke holes in if I hadn't taken the skewer away afterwards! Yikes! She had fun, though!

A couple weeks ago I made a strawberry puzzle for Abby and it turned out to be a DUD of an activity; well, I thought I'd try again with My Little Pony images (aka Horse)-- and while she still wasn't thrilled, she did put the puzzles together for me once.

Math/ Patterning Activity

I found some yellow/red foam "chips" in my closet and using dot stickers laid out a couple patterns for Abby to follow. She knew exactly what to do-- once she did all three patterns she showed me she was done by then peeling off the stickers and putting them on her.. (she did this with another activity, too! See the bottom of post!)

H is for Heart!

ABC Find It! from 1+1+1=1

Since I am doing the alphabet out of order, I have had yet to use this fun printable so I was SO glad to see that Carissa had a set for Hh!! I cut many of the pieces down so they could fit in the heart shaped boxes to add in a little fine motor fun!

Shape Activity

In hindsight, I should have sketched out where the pieces should have gone. I did try to stress words like, on top, under, on the orange square, etc...

And this is what we ended up with! Ha!

Funky, huh?!

H is for Hands!

Handprint Art-- always a fun activity

My little girl showing her independence! She wanted no help from mommy-- well except to give her more paint.

Shape and Color sort using buttons

Stickers on paper-- so yesterday! Ha!

That's MY girl : )

LOVIN' her water table! Finally the spring weather has arrived!

See our other ABC activities:

Shark Lapbook

2013-05-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

It all started when Tyler and I picked up The Great Shark Escape, a Magic School Bus chapter book, from a used book sale. And I could kick myself now for not buying the others that I saw! It's been a fun book to read-aloud. And I just love that within this story is factual information, too! It isn't some completely made up story, but we are learning some very interesting information about sharks!

I then talked Tyler into putting together a Shark Lapbook ; ) I found a free one at Homeschool Share and picked up some extra books from the library and we put together our own little unit! And I didn't get a picture of it open, but for the "Where to Sharks Live" pocket, I used the Oceans of the World copywork printable from, Learn Create Love.

Smell blood

Have gills

Are fish

Rush (swims fast)

Killer
(enter music from "Jaws"...)
ha!

Tot School with Abby: All About Fine Motor

2013-05-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

I wasn't very organized after our week with the Letter S, as I didn't have a letter planned out nor did I put our S activities away in a timely fashion.... so no major theme this week; it was just all about fine motor. These activities were out all week, but had my camera handy on one of the days the boys were out... When the boys are away, the girls will play... : )

I found a great round up of ideas over at Pre-Kinders and then put together some of our own activities.

My take on Hi Ho Cherry-O

Golf tees, foam block, & marbles

Spooning flat marbles

Pipecleaner Fishing

Lacing Buttons

Her shelves also had: bag of Megablocks, Button Art, Peg Board, & a basket filled with Alphabooks.

See our other ABC activities:

Papa's Pearls {Review}

2013-05-06T13:25:00.000-05:00

Papa's Pearls author, Dianne Flynn Keith has quite a resume. Have you heard of Carschooling, Homefires.com, or maybe UniversalPreschool? In every website and/or book authored by Diane, it has been her desire to help families break free from the conventional classroom walls. To expand on her desire and "to help parents and children reach their full potential and enjoy the extraordinary lives they deserve," Dianne shares pearls of wisdom from her beloved father in a short easy to read book perfectly titled, "Papa's Pearls".

I received a free copy of this book and took the opportunity to review "Papa's Pearls: A Father's Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren" as part of the SchoolHouse Review Crew.

Some believe that a wonderful life is handed to others. What they don't know is the choices that person had to make and the thoughts that helped propel that person forward. Your actions and thoughts matter; you direct your path-- and Dianne's beloved father,"Papa," gives you several pearls to make sure you take the right road.

Carol Joseph Flynn had become a successful business man and loving father and husband, however his life prior to his successes probably would have led him a different way. He lived through the depression, served in WWII, and could have had a completely different life. His family is thankful that he steered a different course, and Dianne shares that with you in "Papa's Pearls."

Papa's pearls of wisdom spanned generations. The book is full of tender memories shared by Papa's children and great-grandchildren. Each chapter shares a "pearl" that Papa lived his life by. Papa transferred his positive thinking and way of life to his family.

The way it was written made me feel as he was saying it to me. It felt as if I was in the presence of Dianne and her family and they were having a grand ol' time sharing memories of their most loved Papa. As I read, I realized his pearls are shared by many in the "self-help/ positive thinking" group. How wonderful that his children and grand-children were to receive such wisdom in someone so close to them. Every person should know and take to heart these truths.

Some of Papa's timeless truths:

"Tell yourself you like it; You are what you think"

"You gotta roll with the punches"

" You gotta use your street smarts"

" When you fall down-- get back up, brush yourself off, and try again!"

"Keep a foxy pocket"

"Be grateful everyday!"

As I mentioned, it was an easy read-- just over 100 pages in 17 chapters. Each chapter got the point across without extra fluff. You knew what Papa was trying to tell you.

The memoir starts and ends with Papa's favorite saying, "I love you, you know that, right?" And giving and knowing love was core to Papa's being. Once you've read this book, you will feel that Papa is talking to you, too. Papa's "pearls" were meant not just for his family, but for YOU, too! Know that you are loved and that you deserve a blessed life!

Go Get Your Copy! You can purchase an autographed copy of Papa's Pearls through Homefires for $21.97 or through Amazon.

FIAR: Miss Rumphius

2013-05-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

"One day, I too will live by the sea... I too, will travel to faraway places..." said Alice. "That is wonderful, Alice, but there is a third thing you must do...."

"You must make the world more beautiful"

Love!

Miss Rumphius is such a lovely story in so many ways! It is a great reminder that we aren't just to be... but we must also do something to give back; we must leave a legacy.

It was also rich in learning activities! One of the things I have loved about our literature based Five In A Row studies have been that in all our activities, the book becomes part of us. It makes a beautiful story so much richer because you are applying things from the story by learning, experimenting, reading more-- the story comes to life and you start digging deeper in other stories as well.

Social Studies:

Found Maine on our US map & labeled 4 Oceans

Completing Landform Puzzles from our Beginning Geography workbook; we've gotten TONS of use out of this workbook lately.

Language Arts:

"Synonym" Roll match: One of the vocabulary words was "Sea," which was a synonym for ocean, so we did this fun activity with other words from the story. Don't mind my gross baking pan : ) The cinnamon bun template came from Mrs. Bi-Polar Pirate

Later in the week I made a Tic Tac Toe vocabulary board for Tyler. The goal was to listen for the words in the stroy to make four in a row, but he ended up covering the whole board : )

Miss Rumphius worked in a library, which had your old school CARD CATALOUG system!! That is dated! Makes me feel a bit old! After reading, "Check It Out" by Gail Gibbons, I made a scavenger hunt Tyler took to the library to test out his skills!

Math:

The math lesson was about a bushel & peck, and focused on the broader subject of Volume/ Capacity; this idea came from Frugal Fun for Boys. We got out the beans and several containers and Tyler compared two containers at a time to see which one held more.

Art:

Lupine Watercolor Art

Science:

Miss Rumphius planted Lupines, and we planted Sunflower seeds! I don't have a better picture, but you can see the seeds are starting to sprout here! We planted five and three of them have roots, stems, and leaves! We used a DVD case to "grow" these in so we could see the process, now we just need to transport them outside somewhere!

Celery/ Food Coloring Experiment:

After a couple of hours, the leafy part of the celery were colored! I believe blue was the fastest!

Cutting the celery to see the veins "drinking" the colored water

Flowers Express Lapbook from A Journey Through Learning; can't beat a lapbook for $1!!

It covered:

Parts of a Flower

Types of Flower Buds

Parts of a Plant

Things Plants Need

also included several flower coloring pages!

On the back of the Lapbook, I attatched a seed/ plant matching activity from Homeschool Share. Our Usborne Science book had some great interactive explanations on plants, too!

Just loved this book!! Hope you do too!!

Tot School with Abby: Letter S

2013-04-28T21:00:00.000-05:00

{Abby is 25 mos.}

It is always a humbling feeling when I create activities for Abby thinking she will like them and she proves otherwise! I'll get to more of that in just a second!

After all our fun with the Letter F, we moved down the alphabet and explored the Letter S:

S for.... Strawberry, Sun & Stars, Straws, Snakes, & the beloved Silly Sally

The Hubs purchased a huge cubby shelf unit on sale and we put it in Abby's "corner" of the room, so she had a different set up this week. Instead of laying items that begun with the letter S on the wall or on her table, I dumped them in a bucket so she could dump it all out and explore.

As I mentioned above, Abby was less than enthused with a couple activities I placed on her shelves this week! One was a Strawberry Puzzle I made for her. I printed two images of a strawberry; one stayed intact and the other I cut into three parts. I took this activity off the shelf and asked her to do the puzzle with me, and every time she said, "Noooo."

The other activity flop was with a number match activity from 1+1+1=1. Using the TouchPoint method, I added stars on the numbers to help her match the stars on the number to the star cards, but she was more interested in carrying the cards around and putting them in random places!

But she did enjoy putting star stickers on a printable from Carissa's Letter Ss printable set!

Abby's FAVORITE activity was the Sprinkle Sensory Bin, although it was short lived because once she figured she could eat them, the exploring and playing was no longer happening! All I kept hearing was, "Mmmm... Mmmm!"

Abby did enjoy some other math related activities! We worked on this foam number mat from The Dollar Store....

And, we matched socks!!

Abby worked on fine motor skills using clothespins again. She finally got the hang of having to pinch the clothes pin to open it! I glued a foam 'stick' on 6 clothespins and she attached them to the paper plate to make a sun!

p.s. Don't mind the band-aid... she doesn't have a boo-boo, Tyler got one out and saw him & she had to have one too-- on her forehead!

Another fine motor activity: Lacing Straws!

Then I brought out the play-dough, and she made a Straw Sculpture!

S for Snake magnet sheet

Snake Sun catcher!

Tyler made one too, but I don't know where it went! I had the kids fill a laminator sheet with tissue paper squares and once filled, we put the sheet thru the laminator and I cut an 'S' shape out. We added an eye and tongue...Ssssss!!!

I found some printables to go a long with Silly Sally by Audrey Wood.

Matching colors!

What else was on her shelf you ask?

A Magnetic Gears set from Melissa & Doug...

And... golf tees, a foam block, and play hammer!

We kept busy and had lots of fun this week!! What was your Tot up too?

See our other ABC activities:

DIY Bird Feeders

2013-04-25T06:45:00.000-05:00

Spring is coming!! The birds are out and about, green is springing forth, and it has gotten a wee-bit warmer outside! Though, it's still pretty chilly around here if you ask me!

To make friends with the birdies in our backyard the kiddos and I made some easy diy bird feeders. Gather some supplies you probably have in the house somewhere:

toilet paper rolls

bird seed

peanut butter

string

golf tees

To prep the toilet paper roll, I punched two holes on opposites sides near the top.

I put a generous layer of peanut butter on each roll.

The kiddos rolled the toilet paper rolls in the bird seed; well, Tyler rolled it and Abby used a spoon.

To give our bird friends another place to stand, I pushed two golf tees into the sides on the rolls.

Voila! Easy DIY bird feeders!

Welcome to our yard, little feathered friends!!

Wordless Wednesday {A Hand to Hold}

2013-04-24T14:41:00.000-05:00

Tot School with Abby: Letter F

2013-04-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

Our most recent Tot School snippets spread over about two weeks. I had everything lined up to go and on Monday, Abby came down with a bug that didn't go away for quite some time. Bless her heart, she was so tired and whiny I thought my head might explode. She is quite dramatic anyways for a two year old and to top it off with not feeling well... yeah, let's just say the only way we all stayed sane was by watching Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc, and Tangled more times than I can count on my fingers!

When she did have moments of feeling "okay" (and they were quite brief), I took her downstairs to play and change up the scenery. Our focus was on the Letter F for feather, fish, flower, frog, & farm....

Here is her little table all set to go!

I couldn't find a printable for what I was looking for, so I just made my own. Here Abby matched the shape on the flower to the shape on the vase. I haven't really stressed shapes much, and when she looked at the shape, she did well matching... other times she would pick up the flower and just put it somewhere!

You can't talk about the Letter F and not talk about frogs!! Abby and I labeled the frog parts, made our own 5 Speckled Frogs props and listened to the song on my phone, completed a Do A Dot Frog page with stickers, & worked on lacing!

Do A Dot & Frog Labeling from 2 Teaching Mommies

Stamping F's on the fire truck. She wasn't so interested in this one. A lot of those markings were ones I did to try to get her interested!

Art Fun!!

Decorated paper plate fish with Do A Dot Markers, painted with feathers, and made "flowers" using paint and the bottom of a pop bottle. I thought the latter craft would turn out better... oh well, the kiddos had fun!

Since Abby really took a liking to the color purple I filled her water table with all things GREEN!

The Hubs and Tyler were out and about this night, so Abby and I had some "girl time" : ) We played with these alphabet blocks I picked up at Goodwill.

Playing with Playdough;

I was trying to have her fill in the F, but pulling it apart and putting it wherever she wanted was more fun : )

Playdough Mat from Homeschool Creations

Farm Shadow Matching! I actually cut this activity wrong, according to the directions, but Abby did a great job with matching up the animals and making their sounds.

Activity from 2 Teaching Mommies On the Farm Unit

Find the frog!

Using Mr. Potato Head to make Funny Faces : ) She loved filling up all the holes-- it didn't matter if Mr. Potato head's mouth was where his arm should be!

Creating a farm scene with our Melissa & Doug re-usable sticker pads

Melissa & Doug See and Spell

Leap Frog Magnetic Animal Match-- she loved this!

Practicing matching letters in her name!

So sweet!

As I write this, she is finally on mend! Our healthy Abby is back!!

See our other ABC activities:

Linking up @ Tot School Gathering Place

FIAR: Andy and the Lion

2013-04-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

A country boy named Andy daydreams about lions, reads books about lions, dreams about lions at night, and one day he meets a lion! One day on his way to school, Andy helped pull a sharp object from a lion's paw and then they parted ways. Soon a circus comes to town, and who should Andy see? .....

Guess you'll have to read the book ; )

Social Studies: Geography: Setting, History of Circus

The setting is a small town called Andersonville. Not sure if the town is as fictional as the storyline or not, so I pointed out New York and Africa on our maps. New York because of the symbolic lion statues that greet you if you were to visit the New York Public Library and Africa because that is where you will find lions in the wild.

I googled images of Circus posters and showed Tyler one from last year and we talked about the differences. We also checked out some pictures and videos at PBS of the Big Apple Circus. You can watch a video of the Chinese Vase Juggler that we saw at the circus!

Language Arts: Aesop's Fables- Kindness, Personification, Vocabulary, & Layout of Text

We read The Lion and the Mouse from Aesop's Fables and discussed being kind to others.

When we re-visit topics we have talked about in previous rows, I like to explain it in a different way. For our lesson on personification, I found a a super neat idea! I cannot find the link back to the source, but you can check out my Language Arts Pinterest Board to see what I am talking about.... Anyways, the teacher decided to use Sponge Bob for the lesson on Personification. On top of the page was the question, "What Can Sponge Bob do, that a real sponge cannot?"

The idea was/is genius! But I am not a big fan of Sponge Bob, so I chose Lightning McQueen and asked Tyler, "What Can Lightning do, that a real car cannot?!" And with much help from me, we came up with a list!

Scrabble Math Spelling! Combining a little math with Vocabulary. You can find the scrabble tiles over at Jimmie's Collage.

You'll have to explore the book yourself to figure out the layout of the text, but another book with the same layout is "Little Monkey Says Goodnight" by Ann Whitford Paul.

Oh, I almost forgot... Tyler also got his first library card this week!! He checked out a book about Cats, a Early Reader Lego book, and something else... ?! He was SO excited!!

Math:

To work in the whole "circus theme," Tyler did an Elephant measuring activity.

Art: Line of Design, Diagonal Line of Design

Throughout the story, you will find a "S" line of design. I pointed them out to Tyler and then using his stickers he made his own "S" shape.

If you check out the cover of the book, you will notice that the figures are in a diagonal line going from small to large. Tyler didn't exactly mimic the lesson, but he did put his stickers on a diagonal line!

I was inspired by a lesson found at Mrs. Brown's Art Class blog titled, "Matthew's Dream." The lesson was all about Abstract lines, and since I pointed out "S" shape lines and diagonal lines to Tyler, I thought this might be an interesting project to do! After reading the book, "Matthew's Dream" by Leo Lionni, Tyler created a picture titled, "Tyler's Dream."

Using Overlapping circles, we learned how to draw a lion thanks to Art Projects for Kids.

Who could resist Hand Print art?! We did this as part Tot School with Abby: Letter L.

Science: Dreams: Sleep Cycle & Lions

Tyler and I checked out the Sleep for Kids Website. He wasn't too excited about the subject, but we talked about Dreams, how we sleep, & the importance of sleep. Using a worksheet, we figured that, for his age, he needs about 10 hours of sleep... so if he goes to bed around 9ish, he needs to sleep until 8. Yeah. That's not happening!!

I don't recall what we read, but we just looked through some Non-Fiction books about lions.

Just for Fun!!

The circus came to town!!

Amazon.com Widgets

I found that there was a Sculpture Park in the area and thought it would be a neat Field Trip, but since the Spring-like weather has yet to arrive, we'll have to add the idea to our Summer Bucket List!

Carrot Apple Coconut Muffins {A Weelicious Recipe}

2013-04-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

I am not a magazine "reader;" I am more of a magazine "flipper." Anyone else like that? I just like to look at the pictures and maybe read a few short captions. Well, I was flipping through the April 2013 edition of Parenting magazine and a recipe caught my eye. I folded over the page to save for later as we didn't have the exact ingredients the recipe called for....

Fast forward several weeks and Tyler and I were working on some school work. He was breaking up the word muffin in his Explode the Code workbook and he had a light bulb moment: "We should make muffins after this!!" he said. And so we did.

While I was searching for the magazine, Tyler had already pulled the milk, flour,and eggs out! The article featured three recipes by Catherine, who is the master-mind behind the food blog Weelicious. I have several of her recipes pinned on my food boards and have yet to make them by the way. But since we devoured these muffins, I think I'll be putting her other recipes on the top of my "must-make" list!

We made 12 regular sized muffins around 3 p.m. and by 6... there were only 3 left! Ha! You do the math ; ) They were yummy & healthy, too!! (Bonus!!)

I ended up using Olive Oil, instead of Veggie or Canola because that is what we use-- for everything! I am sure you could also sub in Coconut Oil, too.

And because we made larger muffins, they took longer to bake... maybe 25 minutes?!

Go check out the recipe! Yum!

Carrot Apple Coconut Muffins

Preheat oven to 350*

Combine 1 1/2 C Flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 C coconut flakes (unsweeted or sweeted.. your choice), 1 C peeled & grated carrots ( I ended up grating carrot sticks), & 1 peeled & grated apple (1/2 C) in a bowl.

I used this handy 6 Piece Grater Set that I purchased from Amazon & I LOVE it!! It helped immensley in this task of grating carrots and apples! Otherwise I would have had to slice and chop them up by hand!!

In a seperate bowl, combine 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/3 C milk (we used Almond milk), 1/4 C oil, and 1/2 C honey.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet, stir and pour into your muffin cups.

Bake ~ 25 minutes for 12 large muffins.

Tot School with Abby: Letter L

2013-04-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

After our week with the letter C, we had fun with the Letter L!! I don't have one set theme for our week. "Tot School" with Abby is not necessarily about her knowing the letter, but building and expanding her vocabulary--spoken and unspoken.

Some L words we spoke of during the week were:

Lemon,

Lamb,

Lion,

Laundry,

Lamp, Ladybug, Lettuce, .....

She is loving this type of activity, so we did it again with L is for Lamb. She used a dot marker to "catch" them all.

I placed some painter's tape on our floor and asked Abby to do various tasks, such as walk on the line, hop on the line, touch the line, etc. A great activity for listening, too! As you can see, big brother was into this activity as well ; )

Walk like a bear

Abby received a fun game for Christmas called Roll and Play by ThinkFun. It is geared for toddlers 18mos. and older; we have a lot of fun playing it together. You are supposed to roll a big cloth die and do the task from which ever color the die landed on, but she just enjoys dumping out all the cards and picking on of them to do!

Making a "Scared" Face

I drew some lines on the chalkboard and gave Abby a paintbrush and some water to trace over my lines and have them disappear. She was interested in doing her own thing ; )

Looking through her Letter L book from Baby Einsteins Alphabook collection

I pulled out some sheets from her Kumon Let's Sticker and Paste book... and we ended up doing FIVE of them! They are fun simple activities, although I wished the Sticker book did not have activities on both sides of the paper.

L is for Lion! Both kiddos had some fun making hand print lions! Aren't they adorable?!

Melissa and Doug Magnetic Bug Catching Puzzle

So, I thought she would be interested in this activity... and she was not! Ha! She loves lip gloss, so I thought I'd put some lip gloss on and have her press her lips on the paper; alas, L is for Lips... right?! Wrong! She loved the lip gloss, but she would only mark her lips on the paper once!

Lip Whistles!

Using these three lion images I thought we'd try doing a sizing activity. I pointed out big and small, but when I asked her to do it... she wasn't really sure. Thus, I changed my words to 'daddy lion, mama lion, and baby lion.' After that, she caught on very quickly : ) She loved showing me the /beebee/ lion.

For a fine motor activity, I cut a couple pieces of clothing out of felt and had her use clothes pins to hang up the laundry. This task proved to be pretty difficult for her little fingers, so we'll keep working on it!

We worked on the Letter L because Tyler was rowing "Andy and the Lion" from FIAR Volume 3 AND because we were heading to the circus that weekend! I'll share pics in my FIAR posts, but I will say that we did not see any lions. The circus just isn't the same as I remember it!

See our other ABC activities:

Letter C

Letter F

Letter L

Linking to Tot School Tuesdays & Tot School Gathering Place Wk 13

©2011-2013 School Time Snippets. All rights reserved. You are free to link back to my website but all text and other content may not be reproduced without the written consent of the author.

FIAR: Mrs. Katz & Tush

2013-04-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Katz and Tush

"Larnel doesn't know his neighbor, Mrs. Katz, very well, until he asks her to adopt an abandoned kitten. Mrs. Katz agrees on one condition: that Larnel help her take care of the kitten she names Tush. When Larnel starts spending more and more time with Mrs. Katz to help with Tush, Mrs. Katz tells him stories about coming to America from Poland and about the good times she spent with her late husband. As Larnel grows to love Mrs. Katz, he also learns about the suffering and triumph black history shares with the Jewish heritage.

(summary from Amazon)

FYI: For those that are also doing Five In a Row (or thinking about it!), this should go without saying, but many of the things we do during our rows may or may not be suggested in the manual; our activities may extend beyond the suggested lessons or we may add things just because I think it would be a fun "extra." In no way, does what we do replace the importance of the manual!!

Social Studies:
Geography- Poland
Relationships- Loving our Neighbor
History- Jewish Exodus from Egypt/ Passover

Added another flag to our garland!

Similar setup to the Me on the Map activity, Tyler and I brainstormed acts of 'love' that we can show to:

self-- eat healthy, be happy, play with favorite toys

our family-- share, be nice...

our community-- be helpful, open doors for others....

I printed off a kid-friendly version of the Passover Story and read it to Tyler and then used some Passover resources from Homeschool Share to make a file folder activity about the Ten Plagues of Egypt.

In talking about Passover, we learned about the Seder Plate. We stapled the images we found at Nick Jr. to the plate and then wrote the significance of each item underneath. I found this to be a very interesting study; just one thing I "knew/ heard of" but didn't really understand. Although, Passover has passed, check out 123 Homeschool 4 Me's actual Seder Meal-- what a wonderful experience for the whole family.

Language Arts:

Reading Comprehension

Yiddish-

There were many Yiddish words in this story; we had fun saying many of them. In fact you may say some Yiddish words yourself and not even know it, like "tush" (aka buttocks)!

Informational Writing/ Sign Making

This was not part of the FIAR lessons, but I thought it would be good writing practice. In the story, Tush gets lost and Mrs. Katz and Larnell pass out signs around the neighborhood to try and find him. Tyler drew his own "Lost Cat" poster. Has anyone seen his orange cat named, "Pastel"??

Art:

Design/ Pattern/ Texture

How to Draw: Cat

This was a great lesson on paying attention to the details. There are lots of different patterns and textures in this story, so we decided to go on a pattern/ texture hunt ourselves! Tyler and I walked though the house with markers and crayons in hand and rubbed over the different designs we found. Next I printed off I printed an image of a cat, cut it out and then placed it over our texture rubbings.

Not sure what book we used, but Tyler practiced following directions on "How-To" draw a cat.

Math:

Grouping/ Multiplication

Science:

Cats & Kittens

We simply read a few Non-fiction books about cats. I have been meaning to head over to an animal shelter/ adoption facility that is down the road, but we just haven't made it there.

Just for Fun:

Apple Kugel

I am not sure what this was supposed to look and/or taste like, so I have no idea if it "turned out" right. We did follow the directions, but in the end neither one of us were fans of it. Here is a great index of Jewish food if you are ever needing to make something!

Don't forget to check out how other families "rowed" with Mrs. Katz and Tush:

Delightful Learning

Homegrown Learners

Five in a Row, Volume 2 Link Up

A Journey Through Learning: The Earth Lapbook {Review}

2013-04-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Much of our learning comes from Unit Studies, but never have we taken what we were learning and made a lapbook out of it. We would do pieces of lapbooks here and there, but I don't think I ever knew that Lapbooking could be so easy or else we would have done them sooner! I am so glad we had the opportunity to review a lapbook put together by A Journey Through Learning.

A Journey Through Learning highlights that Lapbooking is "Scrapbooking with a Educational Twist." Prior to my wonderful children, I loved scrapbooking and as a homeschooling momma, I love "educational" things, so this review sounded like a Win-Win!! And it was; I loved the process.

A Journey through learning has Lapbook templates for just about every subject! My son chose to do The Earth Lapbook with Study Guide, which covered Layers of the Earth, Landforms, Atmosphere, Rocks, Seasons, Ocean Zones, etc. You can purchase the 42 page Lapbook as an Instant Download for $13.00 or you can purchase a printed copy for $21.00. It is geared towards Grades 1st- 4th.

The Earth Lapbook requires using two manila or colored file folders for the base, and thankfully it came with "How-To" instructions for how to put the folders together and then shows you how it will look in the end! Each template page also told me how to assemble the piece and where to put it. There was no guessing involved in putting this Lapbook together; A Journey Through Learning made the learning process enjoyable by giving me all the information I needed from assembling the lapbook to what to say/read. The only "busy-work" involved was cutting, but that was great fine motor practice for my son! The guide also gave a suggested book list, songs, poems, questions to ask, and a few craft ideas.

During the review period, I would read the study guide on a particular topic then had Tyler cut out the template pieces and he would narrate what he learned as I wrote in the space(s) provided. I didn't want to overwhelm him with the process, and it worked for us this way. Completing the Lapbook over several weeks also gave us a chance to review the pieces that we had already completed in the Lapbook every time we worked on it.

Although I loved the process and how easy A Journey Through Learning made this experience, my only concern was that this Lapbook was chock-full of vocabulary that was way over my son's head. He is a young Kindergartner, so I thought it would be okay.... and some things were appropriate for him to be exposed to such as landforms and the seasons, but start talking about the spheres and his eyes glazed over. I am not even sure I pronounced some of the words right!

It probably would have helped that I had age appropriate books on hand for the given topic, but I was not pleased with the selection at my library, so I pretty much just read off the study guide. And thankfully, I was able to explain the Ocean Zones in a way that made sense to him thanks to watching "Finding Nemo" a trillion times!

The Earth Lapbook was an easy "grab and go" activity, which is much needed in our lives right now with a toddler and baby on board. I know I've already said it, but we really did enjoy our experience... so much so that I've already purchased an Express Lapbook to be used in a future study!

Other lapbooks that were reviewed were:

Letters, Numbers, and Shapes (ages 3-5)

Knights and Castles (Grades 2-7)

Astronomy and Space (Grades 2-7)

Click on the banner to see more!!

Must-Read Books for a 2 Year Old

2013-04-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

Several months ago I shared what my 16 month old daughter was "reading;" she had just started liking to sit and look at books instead of trying to destroy them ; ) At that time, books were meant to be explored by chewing on them and/or walking/crawling on them. Oh, and let's not forget they were meant to give mommy something to clean up for the upteenth time!

Fast forward to today and now she is 2 and she LOVES being read too! Here are some of our favorites that I could probably read with my eyes shut : )

The Pout-Pout Fish

by Deborah Diesen

Like her dollies, she carries this book around with her and loves to say, "blub, blub, bluuuuuuuub."

Corduroy

by Don Freeman

Silly Sally
by Audrey Wood

We're Going on a Bear Hunt
by Michael Rosen

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

by Nancy White Carlstrom

Goodnight,Moon
by Margaret Wise Brown

She loves finding the mouse on every page. Did you know that he moves around the room?

Go, Dog, Go!

by P.D. Eastman

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Stawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

by Don Wood

Llama, llama Time to Share

by Anna Dewdney

A new favorite... and one that teaches a very important life lesson!

If You Give...

by Laura Numeroff

What is your 2 Year Old reading?

Tot School with Abby: Letter C

2013-03-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

This past week we did some Tot School "experimenting" with Abby. It all started when Tyler and I were rowing "Three Names" about 2 weeks ago; I had this brainy idea to set some things up for Abby to play with as she is in and out of our school room and when she is in, she is typically trying to grab a hold and/or draw all over what Tyler is working on.... Then Tyler runs out of the room with is papers over his head so she can't get them.... Then Abby follows after him crying... And then.... we are done! Ha.

So with that mental picture in your head and that being our reality many days, I set up some things again with Abby in mind when we began rowing "Mrs. Katz and Tush." Since Tush is a cat, I set up a Letter C station.

C for colors,

carrot,

cat,

car,
clown,

and cupcake....

We found our school rhythm this week as we played and did "Tot School" with Abby in the morning, had lunch, nap for Abby, some quiet time for Tyler, and then Tyler did his school stuff. It worked out pretty well so we may just keep at it.

Abby LOVES writing on anything and everything! And writing all over part of Homeschool Creations CAT PreK Pack was no exception.

Coloring C is for Cat

"Catch the Cat"

I placed several stickers on a piece of construction paper-- several cats and a few randoms. With a Dot Marker, I asked Abby to find the kitties.

Cupcake Color Matching

( I am embarrassed to say I don't recall where I found these free printables! I apparently did not pin or bookmark it! Gah!) She did great matching the colors if she was given a choice between 2 or 3 cupcakes and even has begun to say, "Purple" although it sounds more like /peepul/ : )

Doing a page from her Let's Sticker & Paste Kumon book she received for her birthday

Homeschool Creation's Letter C Do A Dot Printables

I hid a Letter C inside on of these carrots (bought at the Dollar Store) and had Abby pull up the carrots to find the letter

But she was more interested in playing with the beans..... SO, we dumped them in her new water table that she also got for her birthday!!

The next day we filled it up with shaving Cream and Cars!!

Again playing with a new toy she received for her birthday, Alex Little Hands Button Art-- great for find motor and Color matching!

Brought out one of her favorite toys, the Melissa and Doug Doorbell House

Playing with magnetic pom poms

C is for Clown, too!!

She placed the pre-cut shapes on to her Clown face!

Colorful Caterpillar Craft inspired by No Time for Flashcards

A lesson on colors and sizing

Melissa and Doug See and Spell

Amazon.com Widgets

My intentions with Abby are to provide opportunities that promote learning; to spend time with her and do things geared towards her learning level. And of course to do activities with her so she'll keep out of Tyler's stuff ; ) Thus, I am not going in alphabetical order-- it is all about exposure and will typically be themed from whatever Tyler is doing.

See our other ABC activities:

Letter C

Letter F

Letter L

Wordless Wednesday {Reminiscing: Our 1st ABC Wall}

2013-03-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Encouraging Links

2013-03-26T10:09:00.000-05:00

I won't go air our "dirty laundry," but in short.... it's been a rough homeschooling road these past few months. Bad attitudes. Whining. Impatience. Straight up defiance. Those words sum up our journey as of late.

Thankfully I have been emailing back and forth with a friend who is in the same boat. Thankfully I am not alone in this. And.... you aren't alone either if your days have been filled with more "bad" than "good."

And call it whatever you want, but the Lord knows what I am facing and since my "breakdown" last week I have found all sorts of encouraging posts that were almost written just for me.

Thought I'd share them with you in case I'm not the only one thinking "the grass might be greener on the other side" ; )

5 Helps for the Deary Homeschool Day from Homegrown Learners

Do Not Give Up from Homeschool Creations

5 Ways to Overcome a Bad Homeschool Day by Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling; while you are there make sure to read Is this Homeschool or is this Hell?

Help, My Five Year Old Won't do School by Simple Homeschool

10 Things I Wish Someone had Told Me about Homeschooling by Raising Arrows

©2011-2013 School Time Snippets. All rights reserved. You are free to link back to my website but all text and other content may not be reproduced without the written consent of the author.

Marbled Easter Egg Craft

2013-03-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

We haven't pulled out the paints for some "free-style" painting in quite a while, so with a project in mind Tyler and I got out our paint and marbles to create some Marble Paintings. And of course we didn't do just one painting, we created seven different creations!

Simply gather your choice of paint, some marbles, and a deep sided cake pan. If your cake pan has a lid... use it ; ) But not necessary. We dropped several drops of paint in the cake pan and set our marbles on top. With or without a lid, start tilting the pan back and forth. If you have a lid, dance around and get crazy with those marbles!!

Tyler's marbled creations.

We gave them a day to dry because we had some big globs because of the amount of paint we used. Just remember, a little bit does go a long way : ) I searched google and found a printable Easter Basket outline and egg outlines. I sent the marbled paper through our printer, stacked them all up, and cut out the egg shapes.

Tyler and Abby colored their Easter baskets and then we cut them out and glued them onto construction paper. We added some Easter grass and finally our eggs!

Amazon.com Widgets

Happy Easter!

FIAR: Three Names

2013-03-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest, I wasn't exactly looking forward to rowing Three Names from Volume 2 because it is one of the longer books to read and sometimes I loose Tyler's attention with long winded stories. I ended up reading this book before nap/ quiet time several days during this row and to my surprise, he very much enjoyed the story! Three Names is a story of memories about life on the prairie, school, and a dog named, Three Names.

Social Studies:

Geography- Canada & Great Plains States

Prairie Life

Because we have made a flag for the United States already, we chose to make the flag of Canada to add to our Trip Around the World Garland as the Great Plains do stretch that far north!

Coloring the Great Plains

To extend our learning about Prairie Life, we also read Dakota Dugout and Covered Wagons, Bumpy Trails and Tyler completed a worksheet from Beginning Geography by Evan-Moor.

Language Arts:

Similies

Descriptive Writing: Five Senses Poem about Snow (since we had a TON of it!)

Truth be told, I always get exasperated with this type of activity with Tyler as I don't know how to explain to him that I want him to describe snow. Tyler would just soon say, "I see snow. I taste snow... " Gah!

In the end, this is what we came up with... after much prodding!!!

Snow

I see white falling from the sky

I touch soft snow

I taste water

I smell nothing

I hear kids playing

Math:

Ordinal Numbers

Grouping/ Multiplication: Using Dog Bones (Popsicle sticks), we found out how old Tyler would be in dog years.

Tyler would be 35 in dog years!!

Art:

Vanishing Perspective

Science:

Tornadoes

We read Twister on Tuesday (Magic Tree House Series book # 23) & the accompaning Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #8 about Tornadoes

Animals: Dogs

A lil' bit of Tot Action:

We read a couple of non-fiction books about Dogs which then gave me a crazy idea to set up some doggie-themed trays for Abby.

Melissa and Doug See & Spell-- I just gave her the letters that spelled dog

Decorated a "D" with Dog stickers

Made doggie ears and played "Puppy School"

Built a dog house from a diaper wipes box and used it to talk about positions-- on, in, under, behind, etc.

Just for Fun:

A couple of fun extras that were mentioned somehow in the book....

Homemade butter: Poured a little bit of Whipping Cream in a Mason jar and shook it up!

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade: Used recipe from Hidden Sisters

Tyler tried learning how to tie his shoes: Watched a couple YouTube videos to show him different ways, but still learning!!

Have you read Three Names yet?

I am pleasantly surprised with all that we did and learned with this book!

Wordless Wednesday {Abby turns 2}

2013-03-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Monster Truck Themed Birthday Cake

2013-03-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

As my daughter had her 2nd birthday come and go, I thought I'd dig through my photos and find you the cake I made for my son's 5th Birthday last year. He requested a "Monster Truck" cake, so I turned to Pinterest for some quick searching and inspiration. And whoa! There are a lot of amazing monster truck themed cakes out there!! Who knew?!

Being the beginner cake decorator that I am, this is what I came up with:

I crumbled Oreos and used the Oreos to create a #5 Monster Truck track. I added Whoppers for rocks, green icing for some greenery, and then used a couple toys from his massive car collection to add the final touches.

It's nothing fancy, but needless to say, I had a happy lil' 5 year old that day!