Posted in Fun learning

"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever." Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

I couldn't agree more with "politics are only a matter of present concern." If only I didn't have to ponder on them so much lately! Colorado primaries are approaching fast and I think I have finally, after months and months or seeking, have figured out as to whom will get my vote.

I won't bore you anymore with "political stuff" on this blog because its just a quick, temporary thing. As to who I will be voting for, well, that is between my ballot and I.

Now on to the fun stuff! Math! I like math and I enjoy teaching it to my children. From using a math curriculum (we use Math-U-See) to everyday living math. It really is amazing how often we use math on a daily basis in simple things, like laundry. Or how complex math can get when driving a car. I can't tell you how many times my children have asked what RPM and MPH are and how they work. I am so thankful that my children ask questions like that. It provides great learning and discussions in the car.

Anyway, I'm off to figure out how fast I need to clean my home before company comes over!

(If Dianna needs to clean the home before 6:00 pm tonight how many things can she pick up, throw away, dust, how many floors can she vacuum, how many dishes can she wash? Are there some chores she'll have to "put under the rug" due to time? Hmmmm) In reality, I think I can do them all in 6 hours even with taking a nap! This could lead to a chart... I've never timed myself on how long it takes me to do a chore. This could be an interesting project for the kids and I!

Posted in Fun learning

I have been so blessed to be able to have "girls night" every night for almost a week with my oldest daughter. Her brothers are having a fun filled week at grandma's.

We've drank tea together. We've watched "girly" movies like Shirly Temple in "Heidi" and the Little Princess. We've also watched "Underdog". We've had some very good "heart" talks. We've cooked together and sewed together. She even helped me when I fell on some ice and hurt my thumb and my bum.

We are having a blast! I think tonight we'll watch "True Grit". I know, I know... it's not a "girly" movie but it is a great western! I love the old John Wayne movies... or old westerns for that matter. Why not pass that love on to my daughter. She loves watching The Lone Ranger video's that I bought.  After all, she does want to be a cowgirl and a vet.

Posted in Fun learning

I found it funny that today while in the bathroom  (washing my hands) at my mothers house that it had occured to me that I brought over 3/5 of my children with me.

I think I just found a fun new way to speak about my children. Fractions!

• 2/5 are with my mother.
• 3/5  went to the store with me.
• 4/5 love macaroni and cheese.
• 2/5 are girls.
• 3/5 are boys.
• None of my kids like pizza!
• 1/5 is in diapers.

I crack myself up!

Posted in Fun learning

We will be growing Triops as part of our learning. The website also has free lesson plans to go along. Looks fun! http://www.triops.com

We'll be starting ours tomorrow.

Anyone done these? What did you think? Did your kids have fun with them?

Posted in Fun learning

Remeber Donkey Kong?

Like Post-It's?

Check this out!

I'm inspired....

Posted in Fun learning

My children are learning American Sign Language. (I'm refreshing my skills.)

Yesterday, I noticed that my son was practicing his spelling words by fingerspelling them. What a great idea!!

In spelling, the old fashioned write each word 5 times gets pretty boring! Thankfully we play scrabble and other games to help them learn their words. I also have my kids write short stories using their spelling words in them. Now we can add fingerspelling! Bonus!

Posted in Fun learning

I love math...

I dislike cats...

To have math and cats in the same sentence, or web address is incongruous to me. I'll get over it though, as MathCats is a very neat math site! (My daughter also likes this site!) Play games, make math crafts like an icosihenagon  using a very long piece of string, or a number city. Read math stories or make math fact cards.

Posted in Fun learning

To spark creativity in myself and my chilren I have:

• Endless supply of paper - Construction, plain, card stock, drawing
• crayons, markers, pens, pencils, paints. (Each of my children has their own rubbermaid totes with their own supplies in them.
• pencil sharpeners
• glue (stick, regular white glue and rubber cement)
• Tape (scotch, double sided, duct)
• Notebooks
• Rubbermaid totes full of craft stuff. This is from stuff I buy when I see good sales. Stuff like pipe cleaners, pom-poms, safety pins, beads, felt, fabric, Plaster of Paris, yarn and a bunch of other goodies. These totes are accessible at any time!
• Camera's
• Music (all sorts)
• Musical instruments
• Books! Books create all sorts of sparks!

The list goes on! The gist of this - let your kids have fun. Let them create without your interferance! Let them drum on different things. Let them draw a "brown bear" purple. Let them sing their own songs.

Being creative isn't just making crafts.. it's taking something from your imagination and putting it to some sort of media. It's writing a story or a poem. It's making sculpters in a mud puddle. It's building with legos. It's knitting a scarf. It's capturing a picture. It's trying different spices in foods. It's singing a song from your heart. It's sewing a quilt. It's coming up with new ideas!

What do you do to spark creativity?

©Dianna A. 2007 

Posted in Fun learning

These will be like any ordinary scrapbooks, however they will be of history. Starting with a page of what history is. Then we'll go through and "scrap" what we have learned in history from the past few years. This will be a fun way to get rid of some of the "learning leftover clutter" and it will be a neat way to show what the children have learned in a creative way other than a 3-ring binder.

Happy Scrapping!

©Dianna A 2007

Posted in Fun learning

I found "The Toymaker" a while back and I forgot all about it until recently. There are fun ways to make all sorts of paper toys. There are some wonderful Christmas toys and decorations to make as well. Check it out and have some Christmas folding fun!

I think we'll make some of these this week to decorate with over the weekend.

Happy paper folding!

©Dianna A. 2006

Posted in Fun learning

(That quote put a smile of my face this morning. I, on the other hand, like butter on my bread and I love to cook!")

Yesterday was a day of FUN learning. Redo and her three sweet daughters came over. Redo taught us how to bake bread. In turn I started to show her two older daughters how to sew using a sewing machine.

Bread - It came out wonderful and wow was it tasty! The girls made "Two-tone" bread. The kids want to make bread more often... so do I!

I've never made bread, bread before. I've made plenty of zuchinni and banana breads, but not bread that you get to play with, 'er knead.

This was a great opportunity to teach my kids a bit more about chemistry. (We've been doing a chemistry unit.) While I was cutting the cooled off bread, so we all could try the fresh loaf, I explained how yeast works. In terms that my boys could relate to, the yeast "farts" so that the bread can rise. (We all 'let off' Carbon dioxide.)

Sewing - Redo's girls did fabulous! I just wanted them to sew lines so that they could get a feel for a sewing machine. We plan on getting together again so that the girls can sew some pillows.

Posted in Fun learning

Needed:

A bowl

Baking soda

Measuring cup

1/2 tsp.

Balloon

Vinager

Funnel

Put funnel into balloon. Pour in 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Then over the bowl, or sink, pour in 1/4 cup of vinager into the balloon by using the funnel. Tie balloon and shake.

Caution: You have to be real fast to tie the balloon, otherwise your balloon makes for a great volcano!

What happens: When the vinager (liquid) mixes with sodium bicarbonate (solid), it then produces carbon dioxide (gas). The gas then blows up the balloon.

Other things to "blow up" using vinager and baking soda:

Plastic ziploc baggies (These do explode.. recommend doing this outside or in bathtub.)

Film cartridges (also do these outside.)

Posted in Fun learning

"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." ~Leonardo da Vinci

     I know I can think of countless times when I had to learn something that I had no desire in learning. I can thank my public school education for that! I had boring history teachers that ruined my desire for learning US history. I had no desire to learn biology and a few other subjects. (Yuck!) Unfortunatly, I didn't have good teachers who knew how to bring into being the desire to learn those things.

     I know back in school I had to memorize all sorts of history facts and dates and a bunch of other stuff to memorize... but do I remember them? NOPE! I didn't have the desire there. I only retained those facts for the tests and then shortly after those facts became matter somewhere else other than my brain.

     It wasn't until recent years that I've had a desire to learn history and a few other things. In my own studies I can make it fun and I can learn it in a way that I'll retain it.

How do we as homeschoolers cultivate a desire for learning in our own children?

I have learned, first and foremost, that the Lord needs to be in control of our homeschool. I need to allow the Lord to give me and my children our desires. Then I need to seek Him on how to teach, lead and guide my children with their desires.

I have learned to listen to my children. They often tell me what they would like to learn about and from there I can give them the resources they need. Many times while driving in the car or taking a walk my children they will ask a question about something. I take those questions and then develope more of an interest for my children. Even if I know the answers to their questions, I still ask questions to them to get them to think more about it.

When it comes to some of the core learning, the Three R's. I am right there with them learning it all over again with them. I journal with my children, we play games together to help them reinforce what they are learning. I have learned to be involved.

When I am excited about learning something with them, that excitement usually spreads to my children. (Except when learning about plants, my kids could care less about them... however, now that they have their garden.. its a different way to learn about them.)

If my children do not show any desire in something then we move on.

I have learned that encouragement goes a long way.

I have learned that I have to be creative and 'keep ahead' of them. The funner, the better! With my boys, the more gross it is, the better. The effects are amazing when you can relate a subject to burps, farts and puke! Seriously! My son grasped learning about solids, liquids and gasses that way. He was having a hard time grasping how something can turn into a gas, but when I explained about our bodies making 'gas'... he got it! My daughter, however, needs things explained without the body functions.

I look for ways to teach my children in ways they'll understand or relate.

How do you cultivate a desire for learning in your children?

Please share here on my blog, or on your blog. (Please leave a link to your blog if you write about this on yours).

©Dianna A. 2006

Posted in Fun learning

My two oldest children now have blogs. I am hoping that blogging will help them with their writing skills as well as give them a new interest for writing.

There are so many possibilities that can go along with them having a blog. I can give them writing prompts, if I feel like it, and then they can compose on paper first.

If you feel led, please drop by their blogs and say "Hi!" (you have to be a registered user of homeschoolblogger.)

I know they would be tickled.

My sons' is DavidTheHutt

My daughters' is HappyHorseLover 

Posted in Fun learning

Puppy Training: It's going well. It has been a long time since I've trained a puppy.

He's sitting real well and we are working on laying down and staying. I've trained him to lay down in another room when we are at the dinner table. For the most part he has already been house broken, which helps greatly. He's left a few 'mines' in the house. He doesn't really let us know when he needs to 'go' so we have to take him outside often. He goes in to see the vet on Friday for his check-up.

I am also crate training him which is coming along good. I am still working on getting him to be more comfy in there when I leave the room as he still gets anxious and whines. He does like his crate and goes in it to sleep, which I didn't expect. The blanket in there must be more comfy than the floor.

Having the new puppy has done wonders in my children. I am so impressed at my 9yo son and how he is handling his new responsibilities. He cleans up after himself without me having to remind him. (Huge Miracle) He takes the dog outside to 'go.'

He's been helping me to train the dog.

All of the kids have been keeping their toys off the floor now that they know it's the puppy's if they leave it there. This has really improved on the time we spend cleaning stuff up at the end of the day.

It really is amazing what a pet can do for a family. It's been 5 years since we last had a dog in the house. This dog has caused our family to be more calm and more content.

This week has been a great time of learning for the kids. I'm blessed!

Posted in Fun learning

"You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers." ~John J. Plomp

One of the fun parts of home schooling is the questions our children ask. They seem to think of questions that I/we don't. (And I ask a lot of questions! I'm an inquisitive person.)

Before I had children I didn't have a care as to why we burp, fart, have boogers and vomit. I just cared that those things gave me some relief. (I also made my dad proud with my burps.)

I wasn't interested in the length and width of my couch.

I didn't want to know why milk or other beverages would come out of my nose when I laughed too hard.

I didn't want to know why a circle was called a circle.

I wasn't that interested in how they put the "bubbly stuff" into soda's to make you burp better.

I didn't care how much my head weighed.

I just love how my learning gaps are getting filled up.

Don't forget to add those questions they ask to a notebook! Questions notebook

Posted in Fun learning

I was one of the winners of JenIg's Art Bits contest so I wanted to take a minute to let you know how neat these cards are! I won the Architecture deck and the Painting deck.

They are played like "Old Maid". Instead of an 'old maid' card it is 'art man'.

My children and I have enjoyed playing them as well as learning at the same time. It comes with a wonderful sheet that has all the names of the artists and a bit of information about them. Like date of birth, and a bit about each artist or works of architecture.

My children have also discovered that they can use these card to play 'memory'. How fun! Two games in one!! Plus learning fun!

To find out more about Art Bits please go to this post from JenIg.

Posted in Fun learning

Once in a HUGE while I'll treat my children with Hersheys chocolate bars.

Today was one of those days where I let them indulge on a bar. While they were enjoying their choco-yummy-licious-ness I was looking at my Rock Solid homeschool catalog I got in the mail today.

My son and daughter come over and started teaching me about fractions by using their chocolate bars. (Why didn't I think of that!!) (Boy! And WOW, I've taught them well!)

"Mom, I am now eating 1/12 of my bar.... I just finished 1/6... I just ate 1/2..."

Now isn't that just the coolest way to learn fractions?

Hershey milk chocolate bars have the rectangles you can break off and eat. (Total of 12). Think of all the possibilites with just one chocolate bar!

Multiplication - 3 x 4 = 12 rectangles then subtract 3 and have 9 left.

Addition and subtraction - break all the pieces apart and do addition and subtraction problems. (If you need more than 12.. get another bar! mmmmmm)

Division - 12 divided by 6 is 2 (split bar in half)

Make up your own math problems.. then for doing a good job at math treat yourself with.. CHOCOLATE! That is my kind of math!! (When I'm not preggy, anyway.)

More chocolate fun:

M&M's are great for sorting, counting, adding, subtraction, making graphs of the colors.

Use chocolate chips for sorting, counting, adding, subracting.

I think subtraction with chocolate is the best though... mmmmmmm.

What other chocolate yummies can be used for math?

Go here to enjoy "Chocolate Math" a poem.

http://www.grandpatucker.com/choc-math.html-ssi 

Oh, and by the way, on the subject of my belly button in my " Where is my Belly Button " post, my husband with wonderful dark chocolate colored eyes came home and told me that an older woman he works with used to tell her children that, "She'll un-screw their belly buttons and then their legs would fall off!" Her kids believed her.. until they knew better. Isn't that just comical to think about?

Posted in Fun learning

I am excited! I received our huge package today from Sam's Science Adnventures. The kids and I are all excited to start them! I've been wanting some of these kits for a while, and Praise the Lord we had a nice tax refund. Whooo hooooo!

I can't wait to start these with my children and share with you all how wonderful these kits are! They are perfect for us! Hands on and notebooking! If you like to notebook, these look great. If your new to notebooking, these would make a great start to one!

I ordered:

Sharks - for my 9yo ds

Horses - for my 8yo dd

Insects - for my 5 you ds

"What's the Matter" - for my 9 and 8 yo. (I ordered the main kit and an extra 'student kit.)

Backyard Birds - One kit plus extra student kit.

I want to order more, but we have to finish these first.

Make sure to stop by Sam's Science Adventures today! Also make sure to check out their blog at Inside The Treasure Box here at homeschoolblogger.

Posted in Fun learning

My dear friend, Nancy wrote a wonderful blog on the big "U" word! Unschooling!

Check it out! She has a wonderful way with words.