Spell Out Loud

Virtual Friends Become IRL

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:54:00 +0000

I love my new Hobo Bag from BorsaBella!

Yes, I'm in sunny FL this week with a group of ladies for the first-ever BEECH conference. This is going to be a couple of days of brainstorming, laughing, and learning.

photo by Jimmie

Jolanthe (Homeschool Creations) and Jamerrill (Holy-Spirit-led Homeschooling) swapping blogging stories.

I have known Jimmie for years online and I am so blessed to get to talk with her in person! She has helped me tremendously over the years both in my blogging and my homeschooling. I am thrilled that she is now a In Real Life friend!

These are just some of the ladies who encourage me in my homeschool journey! Who/what encourages you in your homeschool? Don't forget to share your photo with the BEECH team:

We’d like to see what encourages you in your homeschool adventure. Your encouragement might come from a person, an object, or a special place. Whatever it is, submit a picture of your source of encouragement on the #BEECHCon Facebook page for a pre-Twitter party prize entry to win a $50 gift certificate to Hearts at Home curriculum store.

Join us tonight,Thursday, February 16 on Twitter at 9pm EST! Follow the hashtag #BEECHcon and follow both Jenn @dazeofadventure for the questions and @spelloutloud for the winner. We've got a great line-up of sponsors:

You are Loved

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:10:00 +0000

Here's some virtual Valentine's chocolate just for you! May you all know how special you are--you are loved!

Free John 3:16 color-by-number page

There's a special Valentine's Treat from What's in the Bible? too! Use coupon code Love2 to get Vol. 1 DVD for just $5.00

Disclosure: Why yes, that DVD promotion is an affiliate link! I will receive a small commission if it is used--which I thank you in advance! :)

BEECH Party for Homeschoolers

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:51:00 +0000

I can't believe in a couple of days I will be heading to the beach for the first ever BEECH meet-up! BEECH stands for “Blogging to Encourage and Equip Christian Homeschoolers,” and I am looking forward to meeting some bloggers in person who have encouraged me greatly already.

We thought it would be fun if you all joined us, so we are going to party together on Twitter! Join us Thursday, February 16 on Twitter at 9pm EST! Follow the hashtag #BEECHcon and follow both Jenn @dazeofadventure for the questions and @spelloutloud for the winner announcements.

But you don’t have to wait until Thursday night to start enjoying #BEECHcon. There will be a special pre-party prize that you can enter right now.

Pre-party Prize

You all know that homeschooling is a journey with plenty of ups and downs. Some days you feel confident, and other days you feel like you have no clue what you are doing or why you started this homeschool journey in the first place. That’s when you need encouragement!

We’d like to see what encourages you in your homeschool adventure. Your encouragement might come from a person, an object, or a special place. Whatever it is, submit a picture of your source of encouragement on the #BEECHCon Facebook page for a pre-Twitter party prize entry to win a $50 gift certificate to Hearts at Home curriculum store.

All pre-party entries must be submitted by 8:30p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 16th. The winner will be selected at the start of the party, and you need to be there to claim your prize.

Twitter Party Sponsors

So plan to join us on Thursday, Feb. 16th at 9:00 PM EST for the #BEECHcon party, sponsored by these great folks:

and more!

Until then, find BEECH on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter to be the first to receive information about what BEECH has in store for 2013. It is going to be big.

Birds Writing Center

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:37:00 +0000

This week is the Great Backyard Bird Count! Thanks to my Facebook subscribers for reminding me a couple weeks ago. I thought that since there is a big focus on birds this month, that I would love to incorporate the theme into our homeschool somehow. After reading a series about writing centers on the WriteShop blog, I knew that I was going to create our first-ever writing center. Using mostly printer-ink and supplies I had on hand, I set up a simple bird-theme writing station at home.

I tried to provide materials for all age-levels in my home--- 1yr to 13yrs. old. I have the station set up by a window so that they will hopefully be inspired by any winged creatures they see outside too.

-- various bird-theme lined paper for writing (see below for details)
-- bird fact cards (see below for details)
-- bird booklet for my little girls
-- letter B plus Birds writing paper for my little girls
(You can follow my bird Pinterest board for even more ideas)

I have a whole set of bird photo cards that I picked up a couple years ago from the Dollar Tree. There are writing prompts listed on the back. I figure my younger children can look at the photos and then tell me about what they see. My older children will have the option of using the prompts on the back or not.

In the green bins are writing prompt cards from WriteShop. I printed out StoryBuilders: World of Animal cards for some creative writing inspiration. Each card is color-coded and students pick 1 of each color and use them to write their story:

Character Cards - Blue
Character Trait Cards - Yellow
Setting Cards - Green
Plot Cards - Lavender

The download contains printable cards plus instructions for different ways to play this writing game. I am excited to see how my kids use this component this week. I think this will help with the "Mom, I don't know what to write," reply I hear when they are asked to write.

I also printed out bird cards and placed them in our table-top pocket chart. My 5yr. old daughter has been the first to explore this activity. She helped me place the names of the birds we already knew on the bird photos.

You can download these bird-themed papers for free! I appreciate all who read and subscribe to my site, so I'm planning on periodically creating some special downloads just for you. If you are a subscriber, you will find the download link at the bottom of the post in either your inbox or RSS feed:

You can easily keep up with all the happenings at Spell Outloud by subscribing two ways:

Subscribe to Spell Outloud via RSS Reader

or by email

If you follow SpellOutloud on Facebook, you can also access this download on my page. Just look to the left for the Only Likers box and click.

Hey Diddle, Diddle Nursery Rhyme Craft

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Every Thursday for the next couple of months I will be sharing what we did with nursery rhymes at my home. This week I'm sharing nursery rhyme ideas here and over at Totally Tots. Be sure to check out what we did for Jack and Jill.

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Hey, Diddle, Diddle has become one of my 3yr. old's favorite nursery rhymes. I think it is because the poem is so silly! A cat playing a fiddle? A cow jumping over the moon? She thinks it is hilarious--especially when we use our nursery rhyme props to act the rhyme out. This week we made a craft that we used when retelling the rhyme.

Hey Diddle, Diddle Craft Instructions

Supplies:
Large google eyes
Medium google eyes
2- regular paper plate
Hey Diddle Diddle Rhyme Print-out
Spoon Pattern
Black construction paper
white glue
scissors
glue stick
stapler

Print out the spoon, the rhyme, and the feet for the dish. Color and then glue medium google eyes on the spoon.

Glue large google eyes on the plate, staple or glue the feet to the bottom of the plate. Next glue the spoon onto the plate. Once that is dry, staple another paper plate to the back so that this project opens like a book.

Glue the nursery rhyme on the inside. Now you have your own Hey Diddle, Diddle book!

I would find my daughter "reading" her Hey, Diddle, Diddle book to anyone who would stop and listen. She loved it!

Here she is "reading" the poem to Grandma (it was laundry day--please excuse all the clothes in the background--lol!)

For a twist on this poem we read the book, Hey Diddle, Diddle by Eve Bunting. We really enjoyed the ending plus it was a great book to point out rhyming words and talk about music.

We also colored another Hey Diddle, Diddle coloring page to slip into our nursery rhyme notebook.

You can keep up with all our Nursery Rhyme activities on my Nursery Rhyme page.

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Ancient History: Eygpt and the Minoans

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:30:00 +0000

We have now completed one month of Illuminations by Bright Ideas Press (I'll have a detailed review up next month). Using Mystery of History Vol.1, we learned about Early Egypt, Stonehenge, and the Minoan Civilization this past week.

Our read-aloud book for the past couple of weeks has been The Golden Goblet. I am a big fan of good, historical fiction books. I learned more about history reading historical fiction books as a kid than I did in my history classes. I pre-read this just so that I could be enthusiastic and pronounce things correctly when reading aloud to my kids. I enjoyed it and my kids are starting too as well. It definitely is for older elementary children as there are some sensitive topics (Ranofer is often beaten and starved by his half-brother.)

After reading a couple chapters in the book, my son illustrated one of the scenes with his Legos.

A good part of the book takes place in a goldsmith shop, so this shows Ranofer working--well if I explained the whole thing I would give too much of the story away! :)

My 9yr. old daughter on the other hand, was very interested in what we learned about the Minoans and on her own, created her version of a fresco (well without plaster--she made do with what was on-hand.) I love that my kids are interested enough to do projects that are not assigned! She also made a salt-dough amulet, but I failed to photograph that project.

I was excited to get a box of books in the mail! These books will be used later in the year for our history studies. Just a few more left and then I will have all I need for the year. If you are wondering what the book list looks like, you can check out the Illuminations Year 1 Grade 3-8 list on Amazon. I've also been pinning ideas on my MOH1 Pinterest board.

What's been your favorite time-period to study in history?

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Nature I Spy Printable - Winter Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

It has been an unusual winter in our area. We usually get snow. We expect snow in the winter. This year though, has mostly been rain with a couple spring-like days teasing us. It's been a dreary, muddy winter. It is this time of the year that we start to feel cooped-up in the house.We need to get out.

When I start feeling this way I find that going for a nature walk helps change our mood. It might be a quick walk around the block or sometimes a trip to our local gardens or state park (I will admit that I only take longer walks on warmer winter days. I'm a wimp---lol!)

I created a winter edition set of I Spy cards (see related Fall I Spy Cards) for our next nature walk. Now I realize that winter looks different in the Midwest than in other areas. I tried to make most of the cards usable for any area. Just print and laminate (optional), place on a ring and carry along on your nature walk. See how many of the items you can find.

Nature I Spy Cards: Winter Edition Download

Please share the link to this blog post and not the direct link to the printable. Thank you!

You might also be interested in my winter notebooking page for young children too.

I've joined several other bloggers today who are sharing free nature printables too. Stop by their blogs and see how they are enjoying nature this winter.

Cindy from Our Journey Westward
Maureen from Spell Outloud.
Jimmie from Jimmie's Collage
Lauren from Mama's Learning Corner
Amanda from Hearts and Trees.
Barb from Handbook of Nature Study

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Science Review: Molecules Activity

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:18:00 +0000

We did a little review activity with my older kids on molecules. I pulled out Christian Kids Explore Chemistry and we read a chapter and did a couple of the activities. Here's an easy activity to do to illustrate molecules.

The supplies for this activity are easy to find. You will need:
2 markers
2-1" Styrofoam balls
3-2" Styrofoam balls
toothpicks

My son is labeling one of the smaller balls. He labeled 2 with the letter O and stuck them together with a toothpick.

It looks like eyes, doesn't it? Nope that's not what it is though. Can you guess what this model represents? Yes, 02 aka oxygen!

He worked on another molecule model too.

I bet you can see what this is representing---no, not Mickey Mouse--water! This activity seems so easy but it is a concrete way to show what H20 means.

We did this review just to touch base on some concepts he studied earlier in his General Science class. I appreciate that the lessons and activities in the book are easy to understand and implement. I'm planning on using Christian Kids Explore Chemistry with my middle daughter next year for her science. The age-range is 4th - 8th grade but could be used with younger siblings tagging along too.

Linking up with:

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post. Thank you in advance for supporting this site.

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Nursery Rhymes: Little Bo Peep

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:33:00 +0000

Oh Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep---- and we found them! This was our first week working with nursery rhymes. We did crafts and/or activities two days out of the week, and the other days we read our nursery rhyme book and retold the rhyme several different ways. My 3yr. old almost has the poem memorized already! One fun way of retelling (which I did not get a picture of) was using a lamb puppet. The lamb puppet would help her "read" the story. Then it would run away and I'd have to find it. :)

I won't have a sensory tub for each rhyme (check out the Nursery Rhyme sensory tub by Sarah on Totally Tots), but I had enough stuff to make a Little Bo Peep activity tub. I placed cotton balls, white pom poms, plastic sheep, and sheep printouts into a plastic bin.

My daughter helped Little Bo Peep sort her sheep by size. Just print out the sorting mat and cards below to complete this activity.

Little Bo Peep Sheep Sort

* Print out more sheep cards and create patterns: big, small, big, small, ________ etc.
* Get large foam dice. Roll the dice and then add that many sheep to the pen.
* Use the sheep as counters.
* Talk about how we make clothing etc. from sheep's wool. Have your child collect the wool aka cotton balls and place into a bucket.
* My daughter just have fun playing with all the sheep. She had her own flock that she took care of for a day.

We also did a simple sheep craft along with a Bible devotional. Check out my post at Totally Tots for more information.

You can keep up with all our Nursery Rhyme activities on my Nursery Rhyme page.

Linking up to Link & Learn

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Learning about Monarch Butterflies

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:33:00 +0000

One fond school memory my older children have is raising butterflies. We bought a special kit, ordered our caterpillars and watched the magnificent change take place. My younger girls have been asking if they can have butterflies this year. As soon as the weather gets warmer, we will be ordering a new group of butterflies to observe. While we are waiting though, we started to learn all about these wonderful creatures by watching Your Backyard: The Monarch Butterfly from Crowe's Nest Media.

Crowe's Nest media is a company run by a homeschooling family. They aim to produce nature videos that show God's marvelous creation.The Monarch video is a semi-finalist in the upcoming San Antonio Independent Christian Film festival for Best Documentary Film and Best Creation Film. That is quite an accomplishment!

We have studied about butterflies before and I thought I knew my stuff. I was pleasantly surprised at how much new information I learned about Monarchs! I had no idea about instar caterpillar stages, the difference between Monarchs and Painted Ladies, and that Monarch butterflies could be tagged.

The DVD is high-quality and presents the information in an interesting yet fun manner. All my children ages 3yrs. to 13yrs. enjoyed watching this video. I love that Crowe's Nest media showed how God wonderfully crafted these creatures. The images were stunning and I was so impressed with the children narrating the DVD. This is an awesome Christian science/nature-study resource to have-- and share with others.

After we watching the video a couple of times, we pulled out our Christian Kids Explore Science book and read more about butterflies. In the book it had a great idea of creating a butterfly life-cycle mobile---which we did. We talked about the many things we learned in the video.

Here's a closer view of the caterpillar---we think he turned out cute!

Oh no! We got a patchwork butterfly instead of a Monarch! :)

Crowe's Nest Media is in the process of finishing a downloadable study guide to go along with the Monach butterfly DVD. The study guide is designed to help children integrate the contents of the DVD and to further their learning. It will include content review, discussion questions, copy work pages for various ages, coloring pages, and opportunities for further study. There will also be notebooking pages so that children can create a "monarch" keepsake notebook. I'm looking forward to using this resource with my kids.

Your Backyard Monach DVD $19.95

If you purchase the DVD now and use coupon code : SpellOutLoud you will get the study guide download free when it is available (roughly a $9.00 value) plus $1 off the initial purchase. This code is good until Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 (feel free to share this code with others!)

Crowe's Nest Media is letting me giveaway 1 DVD to one of you! But wait--- there are also other bloggers giving away a copy of this wonderful DVD. Just visit each of the following blogs below for another chance to win.

*To enter, sign-in on the Rafflecopter widget. You can use your Facebook account, or under that big button is a sign-in with email link. Rafflecopter and SpellOutloud do not collect this contact information. It is only to notify winners.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit these blogs to see their reviews and another chance at winning a DVD:

The Curriculum Choice
Finding Joy
Handbook of Nature Study
Mama's Learning Corner
The Traveling Praters
Get Along Home
Feels Like Home

Disclosure: I received this DVD and the giveaway copy in exchange for a review. The opinions stated are mine. I also will receive a small affiliate commission if you purchase the DVD using the coupon code listed above. Thank you in advance for supporting this site.

Getting Ready for Nursery Rhyme Time

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:36:00 +0000

Starting in Feb. I will be posting Nursery Rhyme activities both here and on Totally Tots on Thursdays. Nursery rhymes are a wonderful way to introduce young learners to rhymes and develop phonemic awareness. Did you know that it is a skill to hear words that rhyme? I have been working on getting things ready for this unit and thought it might be helpful to list some of my thoughts and resources that I will be using.

The Books:

There are many different collections and version of Nursery Rhymes. I will mainly be using classic nursery rhymes. If you haven't read any nursery rhymes for awhile, you might want to pre-read the book versions you will be using. Some of those classic poems might be too harsh or violent (i.e. certain version of the Old Woman in the Shoe say,"She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed," while other versions say, "She gave them all kisses and sent them to bed.")

The Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme book by Scott Gustafson is a beautiful, hardback book. The pictures are gorgeous! I'm tempted to tear them out and frame them. My children love to look at the pictures in this book. I do want to point out that one poem included in the book, the Bat, Bat poem, has a picture of a wizard catching a bat.

My Very First Mother Goose is another good beginning collection. Wonderful illustrations. Some of the standard nursery rhymes are missing such as Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Best Mother Goose Ever by Richard Scarry is the book I grew up listening to when I was a kid. Typical Richard Scarry style illustrations.

Sylvia Long's Mother Goose is another collection that has good reviews on Amazon. I don't own this version yet but hope to add it to our collection soon.

This week I've been printing off nursery rhyme poem pages and sequence cards. Each week I will introduce a new poem (or two) and we will add the poem to our Nursery Rhyme notebooks. Any crafts and other misc. things will also be placed in the notebook. I plan on using the sequence cards in our pocket chart for retelling the rhyme. I will probably be printing off pages from Kizclub too. There are word cards plus coloring pages. Some of the full color pages could be printed on magnet paper and used for retelling.

I also gathered up various odds and ends that go with different rhymes. We will use those objects for retelling and games.

For those who are wondering what rhymes I will be doing--- well I never know for sure but here is a partial list to start:

Little Bo Peep
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Twinkle, Twinkle
Hey Diddle, Diddle
Jack and Jill
Jack Be Nimble
Little Jack Horner
Hickory Dickory Dock

I've also been collecting Nursery Rhyme ideas on my Pinterest board. If you have any great nursery rhyme links, leave it in the comments so I can add it.

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Lego Learning and More

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:35:00 +0000

I've been enjoying using Instagram on my iPad. Though not as convenient as an iPhone, I still love the instant way to share photos with others. Here are some photos from the past week and a half:

Pictures 1, 2, and 4: My son has been on a huge Lego kick this month. He has confiscated any sort of bins/bowls/drawers for sorting his collection by color. He even set up a way to photograph his creations using white foam core board and my craft light. He would love to get a stop-motion camera and start creating Lego movies too. He came up with the Noah creation after our history readings this past week. He now tells me he wants to get a bunch of the Roman Lego mini-figures so he can recreate even more history lessons. Yeah, I won't fall for that one---lol! Every day I have to make sure he's actually doing his school work and not just building, but I do love that he is being creative and learning new skills (such as photographing and photo-editing).

Picture 3: We got our brand new WriteShop Junior D curriculum in the mail this week. I will be using this with my 9yr. old daughter. I glanced through it and am so excited to start! We will start on Monday and I'll be sharing my opinions on the program next month.

Picture 5: One of the many science experiments we did this week and half just for fun.

Picture 6: Each of my kids has their own clipboards. My little girls especially love theirs. When we are doing "school" each of them clip papers and either draw or color while we are reading or talking about things. They tell me they are doing their school work too :)

Picture 7: My girlfriends and I made a double-batch of The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. Boy are these good!! I don't think I would have ever made these on my own because when I first read the instructions I was overwhelmed. But it really isn't that hard. Now I feel like I can try these on my own. :)

Picture 8: I know I've shared about my Borsa Bell iPad bag before. I started carrying my bag around as a purse and it was too small for all the extras I needed, so I upgraded to the large Hobo iPad bag--picking the same fabric as before. I LOVE IT! It fits my iPad, wallet, Kindle (if I had one) makeup, diapers, and more!

Picture 9: I've been planning our week, our co-op class for Feb. and a nursery rhyme unit (to be coming up soon).

How was your week?

Linking up with:

Camera Phone Friday hostess Dawn Camp @ My Home Sweet Home

Weekly Wrap-Up hostess Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Collage Friday with Mary at Home Grown Learners

Fun with Science

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

This past week I pulled out various science books and we went through and picked out experiments to try. Do you know how freeing that was? We picked them out to do them for fun! No learning objectives other than what the kids observed on their own. Here are a few that we did:

Static Electricity:

With the air being so dry in my house right now, I knew this would be the perfect time to have some fun with static electricity. It never gets old seeing hair stick up on end or secretively trying to stick a balloon on someone's back. We had lots of fun and giggles with this one.

Baking Soda and Vinegar Reactions:

We blew up a balloon using vinegar and baking soda! An easy way to observe a chemical reaction and bi-products of that reaction.

Sedimentary Rock Building:

What? This doesn't look like science? Well we made this creation to demonstrate sedimentary rocks! This recipe is found in Christian Kids Explore Science Earth and Science book.

Neutrons, Protons, Electrons Oh My!

My 9 yr. old and 12yr. old worked on building an atomic model and models of H2O and O2 molecules from Styrofoam balls. We followed the directions found in Christian Kids Explore Science: Chemistry book.

Observing Nature in the Comfort of my Home:

I also got this awesome DVD in the mail from Crowe's Nest Media. Oh it makes me wish spring was near! I'll be writing in more detail about it next week along with other bloggers and we'll be giving away a couple DVD's too.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Illuminations

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:43:00 +0000

I can't believe I'm organized enough to actually link up in my first ever Weekly-Wrap Up hosted by WUHS. We've been working hard at getting back into the school grove after the holidays. We added some new curriculum this semester and will be adding WriteShop Junior book D to the line-up as soon as the mailman delivers it.

We finished up our second week of using Illuminations and Mystery of History Vol.1. Illuminations is is an all-inclusive *curriculum, covering Bible, Language Arts, Literature, Science, Humanities, Geography, History, Life Skills, and Projects. We've been reading through our first book, Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechick. I decided to read this aloud to the kids and I have been surprised at how interested they are in this book about Adam's family. It has brought up some good questions and discussions.

Each week I print out the Illuminations schedule and put it in my binder (I print out a month's worth of schedule/materials at a time). I file each behind the appropriate tab. Then I print custom schedule sheets for my 3 older kids to place in their binders. Illuminations always you to edit and change the text on the schedule. So for instance, my children are using a different spelling program than what is scheduled in Illuminations. I can replace the text with my children's specific spelling assignments. I love that!

My kids place their weekly schedule in their Mystery of History binder. It is set up with tabs for all the continents plus a misc. tab. All their history, geography, and reading assignments will be filed here.

Here's an earlier assignment that was filed in the notebook. Assignments vary from reports, graphic organizers, maps, to notebooking pages and art projects. By the end of the year each child will have a complete portfolio of work.

I like that all my kids are covering the same time-period but have different levels of assignments. This week we read about Noah and the flood and dinosaurs. My younger kids played a dino matching game while my middle schoolers worked on a mini-report on an ice-age animal.

Since our local co-op is not meeting yet, we have been using this opportunity to work through some fun science experiments from Christian Kids Explore Science: Earth & Space. We've studied astronomy in-depth a couple of years ago, but I thought it would be a nice way to review and it tied in well with our Days of Creation lessons in history. Can you guess what this experiment was? It looks like a galaxy with all the star confetti. It was actually a tornado-in-a-bottle.

My younger girls are continuing with All About Reading Pre-Level 1 and Level 1. This activity was for my 5yr. old, but the 3yr. old wanted to "feed the monster" too. Each slip of paper had a word that my 5 year old had to read before feeding the monster.

The girls have also been using the ipad for school, making crafts, coloring, and of course playing. :) Well that's it for this week! Swing on over to WUHS to see what everyone else is up to.

App Activities: The ABC's and a Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:32:00 +0000

Each week it seems like I learn about more educational apps and uses for the iPad. I thought I'd share what we've been doing with our iPad this week.

As usual, my preschooler and toddlers seem to use the iPad more than their older sisters and brother. I have some great ideas for the older kids though which I hope to share in an upcoming post.

Our new app of the week is The ABC's of God. This app is geared toward young children learning letter recognition. It pairs scripture with the process of learning letters. What a great combination!

★Trace each character in a wooden stencil, on a felt pad, and on a chalkboard!
★Find letters using a flashlight, match them on a fridge, and more!
★Unlock bonus games and collect stickers!
★And learn about who God says He is, in His Word!

I love that I don't have to print out worksheets for this type of letter identification practice. Right there covers the price of the app! :) Children find the letters in various settings. First they find the capital A on a page with only one correct answer. They do the same for the smaller case letter. Then they come to a page as seen above where they have to find multiple capital letters, then lowercase. Finally they find both capital and lower-case version of the letter in a Bible verse. This app is well-done and a great fit for my family.

Our new book of the week is Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo by Oceanhouse Media.This is a classic Dr. Seuss book made new for the iPad/iPhone. This book is about young Gerald McGrew who knows just what he'd do if he ran the zoo. He'd find the most unusual animals in all the out-of-the-way places. In typical Dr. Seuss style, the creatures are all very imaginative. This book is actually pretty long and we had to read it during several different sittings. Good thing it has the "Read to Me" setting! :) That is one feature I love about OMbooks. It makes this an easy way to turn the iPad into a listening center.

A nice craft extension after reading this book would be to create your own animal to put in the zoo. We used pieces from our Bug Craft Kit.

What has been your favorite app this week?

You might also be interested in:
There's a Wocket in my Pocket

Our Muddy Meanderings

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:54:00 +0000

We've had unseasonably warm weather in our area. In fact, we haven't had a significant snowfall yet, which is really weird. Most of our winter has been rainy. Last week though, we had a beautiful day. I hadn't planned on going anywhere, but it was too nice to be inside. My mom happened to be over and suggested a local state park. I totally forgot the entrance is free during the winter! So we dug around the house for socks, shoes, and jackets and headed for an impromptu nature walk.

The first stop was the natural spring. My mom needed a couple of gallons of water to feed her water kefir. No, it's not a pet. She makes it into a drink (see previous link for more details.)

For the first part of the walk, we took a road down to the river. That way Lil Pumpkin could get some energy out and walk on her own. She was so excited! She babbled and babbled the entire short walk to the river.

The trees' shadows lined the road. We spotted a couple of woodpeckers. Saw a couple dogs being walked, but I think our noise drove most of the wildlife away. :) Harmony Art Mom suggested doing a Silent Nature Walk. I don't think that would be possible with my group. I like the idea though!

The best part for the kids was that it was ok to walk in the mud! Good thing since the trails were mud. A stroller + mud= hard work. I probably should have worn Lil Pumpkin in the carrier. The kids went to the river bank and spotted various animal tracks. We saw deer, raccoon and maybe coyote tracks (could have been dog prints though--I'm no track expert.)

Breaking up the monotony of brown and grey tones were the occasional splashes of green--mainly from moss.

It will be interesting to come back in a couple of months and see this whole area bursting with color.

If you are looking for some winter nature studies ideas, you might want to check out Harmony Art Mom's Winter Nature Study e-book. She has a ton of resources and information on her Handbook of Nature Study blog. Reading her blog has inspired me to get my kids out more to learn. :)

I also have a nature notebook page for each season of the year. You can find them here: Nature Notebook Pages

Not sure what notebooking is? I highly recommend reading Notebooking Success by Jimmie. You can use this tool for any curriculum and any subject.

Do you incorporate nature studies into your year? How?

Kindness Craft

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:45:00 +0000

This year I have been intentionally teaching my children virtues. I had found myself telling my kids to be nice, be kind, be attentive, but I hadn't told them what that meant. I just expected them to do it. Thankfully I came across a wonderful company called We Choose Virtues that has the cutest virtue cards to help with our virtue training (You can see my WCV Flashcard Review here)

We use the faith-based parent/teacher cards. There are also community cards that contain no scriptures for those in public school or community settings. Sometimes we stick to a particular virtue for more than a week or so. Currently we are working on showing each other kindness.

With 6 kids in the family (once again my ds is missing from the photo) we have many opportunities each day to show kindness.

Kettle Gretel is the VirtueVille kid who teaches about kindness. She loves to make hot chocolate for all her friends. My younger girls pretended to make hot chocolate for each other. While doing this, we sang a little song to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with the words taken from the nursery rhyme "Polly Put the Kettle On"

Gretel put the kettle on, kettle on, kettle on

Gretel put the kettle on we'll all have hot chocolate.

(Name of child) take it off again, off again, off again

(Name of child) take it off again, our friends have gone away.

Then we did an art project to help us remember the keyword pictures and Bible verse.

The girls colored their kettle and cup and glued onto a piece of construction paper.

The "hot chocolate" being poured from the kettle to the cup has the theme verse.

Now instead of saying, "Be nice now," or something along those lines, all I have to say is "Kettle Gretel" and my kids know what I'm telling them and what I am expecting from them. :)

You can download the craft printable here: Kettle Kindness Craft

Life is Art

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:30:00 +0000

After all the holiday decorations were taken off the walls and put away, I realized I packed my framed photo that usually hangs in the front room. After looking at a blank wall for a couple of days, I almost went looking for it in the attic, but the mailman saved me from that task. He delivered a package that I had not expected yet, and when I opened it, I found a beautiful photo art canvas that would fit nicely on my bare wall.

This awesome piece of artwork was created by Tara Kelley from Life is Art Creations. Tara and her husband work together taking alphabet photos found in nature and their surroundings, and then create word-art from those photos.

I picked the word "Hope" and I love the verse that was paired with the photo. This is one of my words for this year.

There are over 10 available prints to choose from, such as my "Hope" print or this cool "Smile" print. Or Life is Art can create a customized piece for you! Family names or your own one little word can be made into one-of-a-kind artwork.

Which print would you want on your walls? Life is Art is giving one of you the opportunity to win a 11x14 print (not canvas) from her collection.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

2012 Curriculum Additions

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:40:00 +0000

When we started off our school year, I knew we were starting off with half our course-load. I was hopeful that by January I would be able to add what we needed. I'm thrilled that God met that need and we are excited with what we will be studying.

Our first big addition is a new History and Literature program:

We will be using Illuminations Year 1, Grades 3-8th this year. Illuminations is an all-inclusive *curriculum, covering Bible, Language Arts (grammar, writing, copywork, spelling and vocabulary), Literature, Science, Humanities (poetry, theatre, music, and art), Geography, History, Life Skills, and Projects. It is a customizable schedule plus includes reader guides, graphic organizers and more. I love that all my kids will be using this program.

Illuminations Year 1 uses Mystery of History Vol. 1 as its history spine.

"This is everything you need for teaching Ancient Civilizations through the time of Christ, all in one book. Chronological, Classical, Complete. This is a truly unique and remarkable new product! Written for 4th – 8th graders but adaptable for the whole family." -Bright Ideas Press

We are looking forward to studying ancient history for the second half of the year.

Another exciting addition is a unit study on Ancient Art and the Orchestra by Harmony Art Mom. If you are looking for fine-arts curriculum or nature studies curriculum, you need to see what Barb has available! Even though it says Grade 5, I asked it it was ok to switch based on what we were studying. She said that would work fine. The material is suitable for all 3 of my older kids grades 4-8th. I think this will integrate perfectly with our Mystery of History year 1 curriculum.

We'll also be doing a butterfly nature study during the spring. While we wait for the weather to warm up, we'll be using Crowe's Nest nature videos.

For my preschooler/almost K'er, we are thrilled to be using All About Reading Level 1. We are moving through this very slowly right now. She's just starting to understand blending but has not fully grasped the concept. She also continues to do All About Reading Pre-Level 1 activities with her sister, though she knows all her letters and sounds.

Here is my All About Reading Level 1 review if you would like more information.

I have had The Fallacy Detective on our "to-do" list now for 2 years. We started and got through 3 lessons before I got sidetracked with little ones. I put it on our curriculum list at the beginning of the year but we never touched it. Well another mom approached me asking if she could teach this to all the middle-schoolers in our co-op. Yes! I'm excited that this will finally get done.

Have you made any new curriculum changes for the 2nd half of the school year?

Scratch and Sniff Ornaments

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:56:00 +0000

As I expected, my little girls have loved smelling the stickers in The Sweet Smell of Christmas book. I remember doing the same thing when I was a kid. I thought it would be a great idea to mix the scratch-and-sniff idea along with our Names of Jesus advent chain study. So I gathered supplies so that we could make our own scratch-and-sniff Names of Jesus ornaments to put on our tree. I thought this would be a wonderful way to remember all the names of Jesus we have learned during this month while also being a keepsake.

Supplies:
Names of Jesus ornaments printables from Bible Story Printables
Various flavor packets of Kool-Aid
small containers
paintbrushes
scissors
ribbon

Mix each packet of Kool-Aid with 2 TBS of water and stir. Print out your ornaments on cardstock or watercolor paper.

All of my kids---ages 13-3yrs. old enjoyed this project. The Kool-Aid paint works just like watercolors.

The kids took their time and even experimented with mixing colors. After the pages were dry, we cut them out and tied string through the top to hang on the tree.

They turned out beautifully! When we scratched them, we could get a faint smell. So it doesn't work as well as the scratch-and-sniff stickers, but it was sure fun to paint with Kool-Aid!

What is Christmas?

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:15:00 +0000

Today's book is What is Christmas? by Michelle Medlock Adams. I picked up this board book as a way to discuss various Christmas traditions with my young children.

Summary: Using rhyming patterns and colorful illustrations, this book shares various Christmas traditions such as putting up a Christmas tree, seeing Christmas plays, Santa Claus--but are those what Christmas is about? At the end the author shares that all these traditions are fun but Christmas is about the birth of God's only Son.

This is a cute, little book suitable for toddlers and preschoolers. It allows parents to talk discuss with their children the various traditions and that those things are fine, but the real reason we celebrate is because of Jesus.

After we read it, I printed out the shape cut-and-paste Nativity Sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies. She had so much fun doing this activity. We hung it up in the front room for all to see.

This book went perfectly with Why Do We Call it Christmas? DVD from What's In the Bible.You can see a sneak peek below.

I can't believe there's only 8 more days until Christmas! I am enjoying reading these special Christmas books with my kids each day. Which books have been your favorite?

Christmas Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:07:00 +0000

Today's book is Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Though not a traditional Christmas book, this book fits in the season by explaining abstract terms and vocabulary often used during the holidays.

Summary: Who knew that baking cookies could lead to explaining abstract holiday vocabulary? Ms. Rosenthal uses the theme of baking to define words such as anticipation, tradition, disappointed, celebrate, appreciative, and more. Each page is beautifully illustrated and is a wonderful way to introduce new vocabulary to children.

I enjoyed reading this book with my children. It was a wonderful way to talk about concepts such as selfish, thoughtful, gratitude and more. This is not just a book for young kids either. The descriptions paired with the fun illustrations are a great way for children to visualize the word meanings.

"Gratitude means taking a minute to look around the table and be thankful for all the people and all the cookies."

Of course, after reading this book baking cookies is the perfect way to talk about some of the concepts again! :)

My 5yr. old received her great-grandmother's apron for her birthday. We talked about how we can wear our special aprons each year as a tradition.

Lil Sis said she wants to be a chef. So Big Sis helped her make her own batch of Christmas cookies. Lil Sis was appreciative that Big Sis helped her!

They all got to decorate and eat their own sugar cookie too.

Some of the kids also designed their own Christmas Cookies using this Christmas Cookie Coloring Sheet. We would have glued them onto paper plates, but we ran out. So we arranged them onto real plates for now. :)

What's Your Favorite Christmas Cookie?

The Donkey's Christmas Song

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:50:00 +0000

Today's book is The Donkey's Christmas Song by Nancy Tafuri.

Summary: A shy, little donkey is afraid that his bray is too loud and will scare the little babe in the manger. All the other animals welcome the little one with their song. Finally the babe looks at the donkey. The donkey lets out his loud song and the baby laughs.

This is a cute rhyming book perfect for toddlers-K. The simple illustrations capture children's attention along with the rhyming text. Each animal makes their "song", which children enjoy saying too (the cow moo's, the dove coo's, etc.)

After reading the story, my little girls went to their Nativity set and had all the animals greet baby Jesus with their song.

I was reminded of one of my favorite childhood Christmas movies while reading this book-- Nestor, the Long-Eared Donkey.

This movie told about Christ's birth in such a simple way, and Nestor always made me a little teary-eyed. I was captivated by the story, the emotion-- and there is just something about the Arthur Rankin Jr. animation that fascinated me as a kid. Do you remember these movies? Please tell me I'm not the only one that old--lol! :) I have this on my to-do list for this Christmas season-- watch Nestor with my kids.

What has been your favorite Christmas book so far this season?

Learning How to Read with All About Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Mozer) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:30:00 +0000

I recently got to check out the new All About Reading Level 1 set. We have been using All About Reading Pre-1 and All About Spelling, so I was excited to see what this new level contained (Make sure you read all the way to the bottom for a special announcement!)

What is it?

All About Reading Level 1 contains
1. Teacher's Manual
2. Student Packet (includes Activity Book)
3. Run, Bug, Run! reader

4. The Runt Pig reader
5. Cobweb the Cat reader
(you can download samples of each element at the website)

In addition, a Reading Interactive Kit will need to be purchased, but will be used for all reading levels (so it is a one-time purchase). There is a Deluxe kit or a Basic kit to choose from. Items can also be purchased individually.

How it Works:

There is a little prep-work when you first start this program. There are phonogram cards and word cards that need to be torn-apart and filed. Then there are magnet tiles that need to be assembled. I did all of that while watching a Christmas special. It wasn't difficult at all.

All About Reading Level 1 is geared toward beginning readers. Students who know their alphabet and sounds and who are just starting to learn how to put the sounds together to make words can use this level. If you aren't sure if your child is ready for formal reading instruction yet, use this Reading Readiness Checklist to help guide your decision.

When you are ready to start, the Teacher's manual walks you through everything you need to cover in a lesson. It tells you what you need and what to say. It is very easy to follow and understand.

This program is a multisensory program. Children will learn through sight, sound, and touch.In the photo above we learned a hand-motion to go along with short /a/. My daughter is pretending to hold an apple while saying the short /a/ sound.

Then she worked on sounding out words with letter tiles. Don't you love our pizza pan? LOL! I do have a dry-erase board that we use for our magnet letter tiles but I was teaching in the kitchen that day and used what I could find. :)

After we used the tiles, we did the activity page in the student book. I like that the activity was focused and was not just a "time filler" as some worksheets can be. From looking ahead, many of the activity pages have a hands-on component-- match words to pictures, create word flippers, play as a game etc. I would consider these "active worksheets".

Then 20 minutes of reading books with mom! I actually do this throughout the day. Read a book for 10 min. after lunch, and read some books before bed.

What I Thought:

If you are like me, one of the first things I look at is the price. Yes, this program is a little pricey, but I believe it is worth it. Here's why:

* All the materials in this system are top quality. They did not take any shortcuts creating AAR materials. The 3 readers that are included are hard-back readers. The teacher's manual is well-written and easy to follow (no teacher-ese lingo).

* There are no gaps. I don't have to worry that I'm forgetting to teach some component of reading. It is all covered.

Phonological Awareness
Phonics and Decoding
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension

* It is multi-sensory. Some children learn better by hearing. Others by seeing. Others by kinesthetic (tactile) learning. This program teaches to all those learning styles. This allows children to process the information in more than one way and remember it better.

*You'll get the "Go Ahead and Use It" one-year guarantee. You have one full year to try out AAR. If you find that any of the curriculums do not meet your needs, simply return the materials at any time within one year of purchase for a full refund of your purchase price, no questions asked.

All About Learning Press is letting me give away 1 All About Reading Level 1 Kit and 1 Deluxe Reading Interactive Kit!

This giveaway runs from 12/9 - 12/13. Enter via Rafflecopter. If you are reading this in a reader and don't see the form, please click over to the site to enter.

Disclosure: I was given a free kit to review. I am also an affiliate. The opinions are my own.

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Weekly Wrap-Up: Illuminations

App Activities: The ABC's and a Zoo

Our Muddy Meanderings

Kindness Craft

Life is Art

2012 Curriculum Additions

Top 10 Posts from SpellOutloud in 2011

Scratch and Sniff Ornaments

What is Christmas?

Christmas Cookies

The Donkey's Christmas Song

Learning How to Read with All About Reading