There's No School Like Homeschool: August 2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

This is too sweet not to share and have here on our blog forever.

Zoe loves the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" Just last night, she crawled up on the couch and started "reading" it out loud. It was the cutest thing ever. I captured it today on video b/c it's too good not to. She's such a joy!

Lots o' Learnin' going on here at the Sloan house. Hard to believe this sweet girl has only been with us 7 short months.

~Paula

Tot Trays! Week of August 22

We had a few fun Tot Trays already this week.

This first one is from a set of Tot/Preschool Activities that our sweet friend Buffy blessed us with! It had tons of activities, all packaged up in Ziplock baggies. I thought this one was super-fun. Lots of objects in baseball card holders (and then glued shut) and matching items in a baggie. The child finds the matching objects. So fun!

Here's a closer look at some of the items.

Big brother Robert even stopped to help. So sweet.

So proud!!!! She claps every time she finds a match.

I drew some shapes on this chalkboard and we said "circle", "triangle", "square" and "rectangle".

Then I let her have the chalk and go to town coloring it. The erasing was fun too!

Texture Rubbing. Put the items under the paper and rub your finger and then the crayon over it. This was a hit with all 3 kids. This was also one of those Activity Bags from Buffy!

Hand Puzzles (this is made from Foam). This was for Andrew (kindergarten). He wanted a "Tray Activity" too. :)

A fun wooden puzzle for Zoe. We talked about the animals on the farm, made animal sounds and sang "Old McDonald".

Playdough - let's face it, Seoul Sister needs something to do while mama is teaching History.

There's a few of the fun things going on at our house this week. :) Hope your school year is off to a great start!

For more Tot Tray Activities, check out 1+1+1=1 and see what other mamas and tots are doing!

~Paula

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Cc is for CRAB!

Letter Cc Week definitely calls for a Crab Craft!

I love these little crabs! I am a sucker for a handprint and footprint craft though!

~Paula

Get Organized!

I've had several people ask me about my "folder system", so I wanted to take a minute to explain it. It's really simple and just requires a little planning!

This bucket holds 6 folders in each of the following colors: red (together), blue (Andrew), and green (Robert).

Each folder is labeled by 6 weeks (Weeks 1-6, 7-12, 13-18, 19-24, 25-30, 31-36). I put all their handouts in their folders ahead of time. I paper clip each week's work in there together by the week. For example, in the first folder I will have 6 "bunches" of papers (for weeks 1-6).

Each child also has 5 daily folders (different colors for each day) with their name and the day of the week (Monday - Friday). I have found it's easier to have each day be the same color for all children (Monday is yellow in our house). Every Friday afternoon when we are done with school, I take their empty folders and I pull out the folders that contain the following week's work and I put them in and they're ready to go! It's that simple!

In the folders is always their math work, history (Story of the World), geography (Road Trip USA), letter of the week (for Andrew) and anything extra that I might add in.

Some subjects we keep in their "workbooks". The Apologia Notebooking Journals are nicely spiral-bound and I find it's easier to just leave them as they are. The Shurley English workbook is also nicely organized, so I leave it in-tact too. We also leave their handwriting workbooks in-tact.

For History (Story of the World), we are making a "History Notebook", so when we finish an activity/assignment, we put those in the 3 ring binder. Yep, those are color-coded too. Robert has the green one and Andrew has the blue. We are also making a US Geography Notebook. We are using Road Trip USA; I got this as a download from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I love it.

All other "loose" papers get filed away once they are graded and recorded.

I hope I explained this well. My brain has sort of turned to mush this week. It's been a busy one! I hope this helps some of you as you are planning or just starting your school year.

~Paula

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tot Trays

Here are the Tot Trays we have lined up for the next few days. I decided to work ahead and prepare them to have on hand when Seoul Sister needs something to do and a little mommy time. It sure does make it easier than preparing them in the mornings.

A simple puzzle. I love this Melissa & Doug one that has SOUND!

I scored it at a Used Homeschool Book Sale for $1!

Digging for objects in a large bowl of beans. Lots of goodies in there and SO FUN!

Stacking Blocks on top of one another.

snapping unifix cubes together (fine motor skills)

transferring objects from one place to another. Put one in each hole.

(This is good for teaching 1 to 1 correspondence.)

color matching

watercolor (this mama LOVES art!)

Shape Matching

Here's a closer look at these. They are Oreo Matchin' Middles. Fun!

To see other Tot Activities, visit 1+1+1=1 to see what other mamas and tots are doing together!

~Paula

Making an Edible Cell

We are LOVING Apologia Science. We went with the Human Anatomy and Physiology this year to correspond with our Classical Conversations Memory Work.

We made an "Edible Cell" after we finished our chapter about cells. Apologia Science and is full of fun activities for the kids to do. We do a project almost every day.

We made our yellow Jell-O cell and used various kinds of candy to represent the different organelles.

To make this Edible Cell , you will need:

a sharp knife (parent use), a spoon, a plate, a cereal bowl (one for each cell you are going to make), cooking spray like Pam, a box of yellow colored Jell-O (this will be the cytoplasm), a box of unflavored Knox Gelatin (this will be used to keep your cell together as you add the organelles), a couple jelly beans or peanut M&Ms candy (this will represent the mitochondria), several Skittles, Everlasting Gobstoppers or M&M candies (this will represent the lysosomes), A Starburst Gummy-burst or Lifesavers Gummies (this will represent the Golgi body), A piece of a Fruit Roll-Up or a piece of Fruit by the Foot (this will represent the Endoplasmic Reticulum), Nerds or Cake Sprinkles (these will be the ribosomes), Twizzler Pull and Peels or tubular cake sprinkles (these will be the centrioles), a large gumdrop, jawbreaker or round chocolate truffle (This will be the nucleus.)

Mix the Jell-O according to the directions. Add one envelope from the Knox Gelatin box and one extra cup of cold water.

Spray the cooking spray on the surface of the bowl.

Pour Jell-O mixture into the bowls (we made 3) and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.

Once the cytoplasm is hardened, use a sharp knife to cut out small segments of Jell-O where the organelle will be placed. Be certain not to cut all the way through. Try to make your cut match the size of the organelle you are placing in the cytoplasm.

Once you have finished placing the organelles into the cytoplasm, carefully turn the bowl over onto a plate. You've just made an edible cell!

Eat and Enjoy!

This little girl sat in her highchair and ate candy the whole time we did this experiment. Sticky would be an understatement. She went straight to the shower!

Happy schoolin' y'all!

~Paula

Maybe a little too ambitious

Zoe can say all of her colors in English. She can not quite "identify" them, however. (Zoe is 21 months, but has only been in the United States 6 months) I set up her Tot Tray with 4 pieces of paper (blue, green, yellow and red) and gave her a few blocks of those same colors.

I think she had a lot of fun, but I don't think she quite got the concept. I think we'll back up and start with "putting the blocks on the paper" and then do one color at a time and then go to two. I think four colors might've been a little ambitious on my part.

I think she had fun though; that's really what it's all about anyway! She threw the blocks at the tray, she put them on the paper. She needed a lot of help getting them to the correct color though. When we finally finished the boys clapped and said "yay" and she grinned ear to ear. She thought she really did something great.

To learn more about Tot Trays or to see other ideas for fun learning with your tot, you should check out 1+1+1=1. Other moms from all over the globe link up and share their ideas.

We'll be trying another one today. I'll let you know how it goes.

~Paula

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The First Day of School

Sloan Academy began school for the year on August 1, 2011. We had a great first day together! I can't believe my boys are in Kindergarten and 2nd Grade!