Sunday, October 9, 2011

Creepy Crawlies!

Halloween is almost on our doorstep, well, it actually is already on ours! Pumpkins are sitting out waiting to become their evil selves as Jack-O-Lanterns. Decorations are hanging inside the house, with more to come after our first project everyday during school time.
I just can't help myself from having the kids make lots of cute little Halloween decorations to adorn every nook and cranny in our home. After all if it isn't about the boys, then it just isn't worth it! My children are everything to me and they find great joy in the making of and displaying of holiday decorations.
Check in Mon-Thurs for our project creations! For our move involved decor and projects I will post videos so that you too may make some ghouly, scarey, and frightful(or maybe just cute) Halloween decorations for your own home.
First up-Sticky Spiders!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

How To Make An Educational Calendar

It is simple, no really it is, I promise, you will need the following:
Posterboard
8 different colors of card stock (heavy weight paper)
Double sided tape or scrapbook tape
Adhesive Velcro Roll
Marker
Shapes for dates(we tend to use holiday and seasonal themes)
Paper cutter or scissors

Okay now that you have everything you need you can get started. Because I have found that poster board in not always uniform in size measure the width of your board and divide by 7 for the 7 days of the week. Be sure to write down your measurements so that you do not forget!
Next measure your height and also divide that by 7. Again record your measurements.
Now you need to cut 6 rectangles in the sizes that you measured out in each color.
Cut one of each color horizontally in half(like a hot dog).  This will be your Week Day Header.
Go ahead and label all seven days of the week on one of the smaller rectangles that you cut.
Next pick out your colors that you would like for your months and cut them to the same height as your days and the length of your preference.
Cut another piece of the same height as your days for the year.
Adhere both month and year at the top left and right hand corners, I left a small boarder around each or mine, just do not have too large of a top boarder or you will not have room for all of your weeks.
Next adhere your Day of the week headers starting with Sunday at the left and Saturday on the right. Adhere them on the edge and work inward, this helps to keep your lines more straight.
Leave a small place and begin adhering your rectangles for your dates, make sure you remember to keep your colors in the correct columns.
After everything is adhered you can then figure out your pattern and write your dates on your objects.
Place a small piece of the soft side of the Velcro on each day space and a small piece of the rigid Velcro on the back of the date objects.
By using the Velcro you can then re-use the calendar every month and for year after year if you would like. Saving not only time, but money and resources as well!
Feel free to leave questions in the comment section, or email me anytime!



In this picture you can see our weather chart, words, and star charts as well!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Kids Calendars

Just months, days, and year right? Well, for adults yes, but for a little one learning some of the basics it can be so much more.
Besides the basic calendar format here are a few of the other benefits of doing calendar time each day with your child. Letter exposure, numbers and counting, order of days of the week, months and years, patterns, songs to assist in learning and recall later on. These are just the obvious and a tip of the ice berg.
So how do you do calendar time and make it cover all of these items? You can just point to any old calendar and get these results, you need a child's calendar. You can make one very simply and inexpensively(tune in for tomorrows blog for how to) or you can purchase one at a local teacher supply or learning center.
After we have a morning song and go over a quick rundown of the day we have calendar time! We start out by assigning our 'men' for the day, we have all boys. We have a weather man and a calendar man, our weather chart is right above our calendar.
Now time for some learning songs, first up is
Next we sing the days of the week song, there are many out there, but here is a link to a couple different choices, 1st, 2nd. Make sure that you point to the days on the calendar.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Tis the Season

Okay, I know, I KNOW! It isn't here yet, but what is here is the time for planning. Planning shopping, food, decorations-No. Time to plan on what you and your family will be giving back to the world this coming holiday season.
After all this is the season of giving not receiving and I want to make sure that this concept is incorporated into our daily activities for the next few weeks. I am hoping that his will allow for a true understanding of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even New Years when they arrive this year.
First Week - talk about the extras that we have in our lives, for example-extra food, extra toys, extra clothes, and explain what 'extra' really means. Incorporate want and need into the first week as well to help the little tikes start to understand and comprehend the difference.
Second Week-talk about things we do to help other people. Start simple, using please and thank you helps people feel appreciated, holding the door makes people think you are kinda, donating clothes to a second hand store. Then ask your little ones what they could do this very moment to help someone. Have then write it down in a little journal, or draw pictures of what it is and you will write in the captions for them. (Great tool for later on too, when we get greedy hands)
Third Week-Decide what you and the tikes want to do this year to help someone. We will be planning on something that we can make to donate as the holidays approach as well as a one day outing type of event. Examples may include, helping to make mittens (whip stitching is easy for little fingers and is great to help develop fine motor skills.) Another example may be to create activity packs for a shelter, make sock monkeys or other sock animals for a shelter or abuse center. As we start to narrow down what we are going to do this year, I will be sure and update everyone and provide step by step guides of what we are doing as well as more ideas.
Fourth Week-Schedule out how much work you have to do daily to make your donation target day. Make sure you do not overwhelm the kiddies, and allow them to do a little at a time. Make sure to praise them for the great work that they are doing and to encourage them to always give when they can. Each day when you work on your project be sure to talk about how others without food, or clothes, or shelter may feel. Then follow up with how safe and protected, loved and cared for they are. You need to walk a fine line with this lesson, do not consume them with the negative of the world, but instead make them feel blessed and fortunate to be able to help others.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

1 2 3

Is it really as easy as ABC?
Well it can be even easier because once you learn to count and then identify each number 1-10 you can easily learn what they represent.
After you say your numbers 1-10, count days on the calendar for a couple months, count the ducks on the lake for the kids they will get the audio and visual.
The conceptual can be learned from counting objects any objects. Sometime counters are nice, but toys, apples, fingers! Then to reinforce it have your child count outside of school time, remember to use teachable moments. How many cereal boxes are in the shopping cart? Can you count out 3 green peppers for our recipe? Count how many buttons are on your shirt.
After a relatively short period of time will they not only be able to quickly determine the quantity of an item, but can abstractly understand the number 5 when you speak of 5 cars that are not visible to the eye.
Good luck on the numbers lessons 1 2 3 weeeee!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Joys

One of the best parts of teaching is literally the ability to pass your knowledge onto someone else. In this case my own children. To be able to teach them the basics, and then the fun stuff too! Like the soap and pepper experiment including the how and why of it. But I do tend to find excitement in just about everything. Haha! Yes I am THAT person...and I have my own happy dance! One of which my children always expect me to do when something good or great happens.
But I digress, one other of the best parts is when the child passes on the knowledge you have taught them to someone else! When in conversation about the topic that they learned about they can contribute. We had one of those moments in the store the other day. One of the boys was wearing a shirt with various dinosaurs on it. An older lady asked if he liked dinosaurs. Which my son replied, I like to learn about them and look at pictures, but you can't see them because they are extinct. That means they are all dead. They died a long time ago. My favorite is sharp tooth, his real name is TYRANNOSAURUS REX!(He said this in a loud and menacing voice too). He is a carnivore, that means he eats meat! He sometimes even ate brontosaurus, they are long necks and I learned about them this morning.  The lady was so happy with her little lesson!
LOL I literally laughed out loud told him great job, gave a high five, and a thumbs up push. I was so proud that he not only learned the information but that he was willing and able to pass his knowledge on. Because lets face it, what good is knowledge if you just leave it to sit in your head? We need to share what we know with the world. By sharing and conversing we can solve the most complex of problems and make the world a better place than what we found it.
That's my hope and wish for my children, that they will leave the the world a better place than what they found it.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Practicals

No I don't mean practical exams. What I do mean is practical knowledge. How to dress yourself. How to prepare meals. How to tie your shoes or cross the street. The list is never ending.
I know that sometimes I forget about the importance of everyday task knowledge. So for next weeks lessons we are going to incorporate at least one a day.
Some examples are making pudding(safe cooking for 3 & 4yo), sweeping the floor, making a bed, and others.
I want to make sure that the boys will be prepared for daily tasks when the time comes to fly the nest. I know I know we have some years left. I am being proactive and want to give them plenty of practice time. ;)