Please watch this video this weekend if you have a moment.  You won't regret it.

New Again

St. Patrick's Day falls on a co-op day this year, and co-op days are b-u-s-y!  We'll have some green fun a little early this year - maybe the Saturday or Sunday before.  Here's what I have planned for a green meal  (these ideas came from the March 1998 edition of Family Fun) :

*spinach linguini with pesto sauce

*garlic bread with a covering of chopped parsley cut in the shape of a shamrock (using a cookie cutter) 

*dark green salad with cucumbers

*kiwi

*lime sherbet

We'll also take some time a few days before or after to make these Irish treats:

*Irish Brown Bread

*Toffee Shortbread  (this is not the same recipe as mine, but the picture looks the same)

I might see if the library has a few of these titles, or these, too.   

Easter is sneaking up quickly this year!  Here are links to three of my posts from last year with many ideas for a fun and meaningful celebration and ideas for the days leading up to Easter. 

Resurrection Egg Scavenger Hunt

Christian Easter Links

Easter/Spring Ideas

Here's a new idea I found from the wonderful ladies on the Five In A Row Message Boards last Easter.  Each member of your family privately writes down on a piece of paper the sins they struggle with.  Sometime before Easter, you nail the papers to a wooden cross, only to find the sins gone and a purple cloth on the cross on Easter morning!   Here is a link to that thread.

Besides the wooden cross, our plans from Palm Sunday to Easter this year include:

* This week-long devotional from Christianity Today.

* Resurrection Rolls and/or Easter Cookies

* Resurrection Baskets - I will come up with my own version blending these ideas:  basket one,  basket two (in Julie's first post)

* Leaf Print Eggs

* A few favorite books:  The Tale of Three Trees,  Rechenka's Eggs,  Easter Bunny, Are You For Real? , The Parable of the Lily .   

 I hope your Easter prepartations are meaningful, fun and make a huge impact with your children this year!!

Yep, you read right - I said Thanksgiving.  This was one to-do that just didn't make the cut during the busy holiday season.  But, we had all the materials (and time) the other day and it really doesn't have to be a Thanksgiving experiment....

Remember the Science Projects for Holidays Throughout the Year book?  This is another fun math and science activity found in it. 

To sum up the experiment, we compared unpopped kernels to popped kernels in volume and characteristics.  We made hypotheses as to what makes popcorn pop.  Then it was time for a demonstration.  We poured about a 1/2 cup of water in a glass bottle and placed a deflated balloon over the bottle top.  The bottle was carefully placed in a pot of slightly boiling water.  As the water in the bottle began to boil, the air the the bottle was heated.  Hot air expands, which made our balloon expand.  This is the same sort of principle that makes popcorn pop.  Little bits of water and air are inside an unpopped corn kernels.  When they are heated and the pressure builds inside the kernel, POP goes the corn.

We then talked about whether or not kernels that had been crushed with a hammer could pop.  After deciding they probably couldn't, I cut holes in our balloon and we heated the water and air inside the bottle again.  The balloon wasn't able to inflate because air pressure wasn't allowed to build up.  Therefore, a broken corn kernel can't pop because no pressure builds up.

Late last year, I Tivo'd a popcorn documentary on the History Channel that was the perfect afternoon viewing.  Of course, we ate popcorn!

Are you thinking about adding some fun Valentine activities to your homeschool during the next few weeks?  Here are some great sites that offer exciting and original ideas.  Have fun!

Valentine Math

More Valentine Math

Easy Fun School Unit - lots of ideas including science, cooking, a book list.  As always with Easy Fun School, this is a well put together unit! 

The Virtual Vine - an early elementary site meant for the classroom, but still offers lots of cute ideas.

LaCelle Family Ministries Unit Ideas

I am truly humbled to have been a part of the Homeschool Blog Awards.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for my blog!!  For a little while I was second only to By Sun and Candlight in several of the categories.  As I told her, she is my blogging "hero" and to be second to her was an honor!  lol

Many congratulations go out to the winners and especially my blogland friends Eclectic Education and One Child Policy Homeschool!

Here's a peek at our Christmas Lapbooks that we finished last week.  Mahayla's is red, Caleb's is green.  We used many activities from the Symbols of Christmas lapbook unit from Hands of a Child.  All the extra math/logic/problem solving worksheets, plus some science worksheets were stapled together inside the large panel on the right side.  This keeps all the unit work together in a nice, neat package.

This week is light.  We're working on math everyday, putting together our newsletter and just having some Christmas craft and baking fun.  At the end of the week, we'll be officially halfway through our school year!  And on a well deserved break for a couple of weeks. 

Saturday was chock full of Christmas memory making.  Baking cookies and treats for co-op teachers was first on the list.  We made little trays for each teacher with pretzel and nut bark, strawberry jam thumbprint cookies and candy bar topped shortbread.  We, um, needed to make extra batches since the first kept disappearing.  Hmm, how'd that happen?? 

My Mom and Dad came for a visit, too!  They were very good to keep Eli busy.  He loves to "help" me in the kitchen, but he has no idea that he really is no help at all!  :)

A local church hosted "A Journey to Bethlehem" this weekend.  What a wonderful experience it was, with cookies and hot chocolate to warm us afterward!  Kim, you guys and gals did a spectacular job!!  I pray many will come to know the true meaning of Christmas and be led to The One through their "journey".

Since we were already out, we finished off the night with our annual Christmas light drive.  We always start the trip in McDonald's drive-through ordering large fries for everyone.  Then, we munch and drive around town casting votes for the best decorated houses.  I believe this might be the most treasured of Christmas traditions in the eyes of my children!

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  Our camera won't take pictures in the dark anymore.  Hopefully, we'll be able to upgrade soon. 

I've stumbled upon some fun math word problems, analogies and such for Christmas.  Enjoy!

rhlschool - scroll down to find analogies under the English section and lots of problem solving sheets in the math section.

EdHelper - has some way cool sample pages for problem solving.

12 Days of Christmas - for middle and older children.  They have to determine and chart the cost of gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas.

Christmas Math - all sorts of links to some very fun math ideas and worksheets.

I saw this while visiting Michele's blog.  It was too good not to share!

Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant is an excellent book for the Christmas season!  About a gift train that heads into poor Appalachian country each year, it makes for a wonderful example of giving at Christmas time. 

I loosely used this unit from Homeschool Share to do a mini-unit this week.  We covered geography, history, social studies, some language arts, a little science, and a lot of Bible.  It brought us back to our cozy Five In A Row days.  What good memories!

The best part of the unit was when my children decided to each buy a gift to give to a needy child.  We were going to send the gifts to the real gift train, but in the end the kids decided they would rather help a child in our own community.  So, with their wallets in hand, they each bought a gift that will be given to our local fire station's Toys For Tots drive.  It warms my heart to see them giving.  Remember my frustration the other day?  Yes, this proves all isn't lost to selfishness.

I ran across a few fun science experiments for December.  Enjoy!

Poinsettia pH Paper Experiment

Christmas Crystals

Christmas Cookie Mystery  and Teacher Directions

Christmas Chromatography

After perusing Christmas websites, going through my Christmas file folder and searching my computer files for Christmas ideas, I've put aside some things that I hope to use this December. 

You may be surprised to find this out about me, but when I plan a unit, I very rarely make detailed plans.  Yes, I know, this coming from an organizing junkie!  :)  I usually go through all my resources and jot down things I think would be good activities.  Sometimes I'll organize the activities, sometimes not.  For instance - for the astronomy unit we're working on, I did organize the topics (in the same order they were covered in Exploring Creation Through Astronomy.)  But, the extra activities I considered adding to each topic were simply written down under the topic on a piece of paper.  When we got to the topic, I would look over my list of activity ideas and we would do the ones that suited our fancy that day. 

So, for December, I've put together my Christmas basket.  I've included the books, worksheets, craft ideas, and such that I hope to use at some point during the month.  I've decided to do a lapbook on the Symbols of Christmas as my main curriculum each day, so all the copies I need are already in the basket, along with a "master list" of the topics the unit covers.  Beside each topic, I've jotted down the other worksheets, crafts, projects or books that might go along.  Each day, I'll decide which Christmas symbol we're going to cover and which of the potential activities or projects we'll also do.

I may or may not get to all the things that are waiting in the basket.  In fact, I can honestly say we probably won't get through everything!  But, by the time Christmas break rolls around, we'll have great memories of Christmas fun with Jesus having been in the center of all the festivities! 

One other thing I recently found.....A free inductive Advent Bible study.  I spent some time today copying the pages and putting them together in a little notebook.  We'll start the study this coming Monday in order to be finished in plenty of time before Christmas. 

We are part of such a wonderful co-op!  Every year we attend a Thanksgiving Feast the Monday before Thanksgiving.  Each year focuses on an historical time period - this year happened to be the 1950's.  The moms work to prepare eight different stations that teach the children about the food, clothes, games, and general lifestyle of the times.  Groups of children travel around the stations having all sorts of fun!  This year's stations included clothing styles, fast food sampling, toys of the decade, games of the decade, popular books & tv shows, popsicle stick creations, paint by number, and beaded bracelets. 

We usually end the day with a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but this year called for food from the 50's.  We ate hot dogs, french fries, mac n' cheese, jello and rice krispy treats.  Let's just say the kids probably enjoyed the meal a tad more than the adults. :)

Books!  We love books around here!  Here's a sampling of the Thanksgiving books sitting on our shelf this year.  Anyone who's ever used Five In A Row just has to be a fan of Cranberry Thanksgiving!  We read it every year, along with other informational books and historical fiction stories.

Here's my poor attempt at a Thanksgiving tree this year.  Luckily, the kids covered over it with many leaves of thankfulness!!  I think we'll fill in some more thankful leaves soon to cover it up even more.  :)

The kiddos made this the other day, and boy does it smell good!

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

5 1/2 c flour

2 c salt

8 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 c oil

4 c water

pumpkin pie spice (see below)

orange food coloring (2 part yellow/1 part red)

Mix ingredients together.  Cook over medium-low heat and stir until lumps disappear.  Knead dough on floured surface until nice consistency.  Store in airtight container.

Homemade pumpkin pie spice:

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

And here's a fun recipe I have tucked away for December....

Peppermint Playdough

2 c water

2 c flour

1 c salt

4 tsp cream of tartar

4 Tbsp oil

4 Tbsp peppermint extract

red or green food coloring

glitter

Same directions as above, except wait until kneading time to add glitter.

If you love Christmas movies, here's your dream list for December.  Get your TiVo ready!!

My Merry Christmas - Scroll down to find a comprehensive list of movies and tv specials for every day of December!

Hallmark Channel - See Saturday, Dec. 15 if you like the Love Comes Softly series!

Other Listings - including the network channels.

I hope you don't veg-out in front of the tube too much, but it might be hard with so many great movies.  I love this time of the year!!

Our Fun Friday activity this week focused on Columbus Day.  We did the sink or float experiment from Science Projects for Holidays Throughout the Year.  After doing some basic experimentation on what objects sink or float, we moved on to asking the question, "Does sinking and floating make a difference in salt water vs. fresh water?" 

Basically, you make a saturated salt water solution (we put 1/2+ cup of salt in a quart jar of water and shook until all the salt was dissolved.)  Then you tape a little cm ruled paper strip in two clear plastic cups.  Place the object you want to test in one of the cups and place it in the salt water.  See where the water reaches on the cm strip and record it.  Place the same object in the other cup and place it in the fresh water.  See where the water reaches and record it.  After doing this with several objects, your children should see that things float better in the salt water. 

Over the weekend or on Monday, we'll probably do some or all of the fun website activities below.  I hope you find some good ideas to add to your studies!

Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude - a very good shackwave game.

Online info "book" and quiz

Columbus CyberHunt - very cool!

Columbus Math Mystery

The above sites I found at this great Columbus Day site with many more "meaty" activity ideas.

I've been feverishly working on reorganizing our schoolroom.  It's almost finished - quite a task with a 7 month old!  As I was putting some things away in my new-to-me $5.00 yard sale filing cabinet, I thought I might share how I keep up with the seasons and holidays during our school year.

I hear these two questions a lot:  "How do you remember to plan fun activities for the seasons and holidays?"  and  "How do you fit seasonal things in with the rest of your curriculum?"

Question #1:  I keep seasonal and holiday folders in the filing cabinet.  If I find a good idea from a magazine, I rip it out and put it in the appropriate folder.  If I find a good idea on the internet, I copy it and put it in the folder.  If I see or hear about a good idea, I write it down and put it in the folder.  When the season or holiday is upon us, I pull out the folder I need and pick a few things to add to my lesson plans. 

Question #2:  My children will only be little once.  I want to create a sense of joy and excitement about God's seasons and special holidays while they're young, so they will always feel a tingle of excitement about them, even as adults.  I fit these sorts of things in as part of my curriculum, not on top of everything else.  Remember, it's okay to do things that stray away from the "regular" curriculum.  So much of the "fun stuff" covers many subject areas anyway.

For example, the Thanksgiving folder above is open and showing a turkey "glyph" activity.  Completing these fun turkeys requires mapping/graphing skills, decision making, crafting, reading and writing.  Who could ask for anything better?  Getting my kids to do all those things without realizing they're working and learning is priceless!

I've also run across many holiday-based Bible studies that I keep in these folders, too.  When I'm looking through the folders and making plans, I can be preparing to add appropriate Bible study lessons for the upcoming holiday, too. 

Upcoming seasonal things to think about - apples, pumpkins, sunflowers, Labor Day, Grandparents Day, autumn, Columbus Day.....

We've loved our science kits from Home Science Tools!  We haven't been able to buy many, but the ones we have bought have been excellent and well worth the money. 

I put the Patriotic Colors Chemistry kit in our USA center.  The kiddos have had the most fun using the chemicals to make red, white and blue colors appear and disappear.  

 

If you need an idea for birthday or Christmas gifts, these are great!