We’ve been learning about our senses and it’s been so much fun! The first one we learned about was our sense of touch, which was taught using a homemade mystery box. Today we learned about our sense of smell. This is so easy, but it is such an adventure for little ones!
What You’ll Need Several small paper bags or dark-colored fabric bags. Several fragrant items that your child will be familiar with, such as: cinnamon cocoa coconut coffee mint vanilla lemon What To Do Mark each bag with the name of the item you’ll be placing in each bag. If your child is old enough to read, mark each bag with a number and make yourself a numbered list to keep track of what is in each bag (for example, mark a bag with the number 1, put coffee beans in the bag and then write [...]
A mystery is irresistible, isn’t it?? This mystery-solving activity is fun for children from the time they can talk. Not only is this fun, but it is excellent for developing problem solving skills and an awareness of their sense of touch.
What You’ll Need A box or container of some kind with an opening (like a shoe box or tissue box). Felt that is large enough to completely cover the open part of the container. Scissors Glue Mystery items that are age-appropriate (use your imagination!) raisins cotton balls measuring cup whisk crayon sticky note bubble wrap coins paint brush What To Do To Make The Box To prepare the container, cut a circle about 4 inches across (if using a tissue box, just widen the hole, as needed). Next, cut an X in the middle of the felt (about 3 inches by 3 inches), rotate the felt [...]
With the huge focus the last several years on teaching babies and very young toddlers how to read, I think there are many parents out there feeling inadequate if their preschooler isn’t already breezing through books. Our culture tend to equate education and accomplishment with worth. If a child is “behind” most of the other children his age, it is often seen as an indication that something is “wrong” with him. In many situations, the child is treated as though he has failed.
I am concerned about this mentality. Yes, when a child has real developmental delays, they need to be addressed. My concern is with assuming that just because we *can* teach a very young child to read (or whatever other developmental milestone), that it means that we *should*.
Always Learning
From the time a baby in his mother’s womb becomes aware of his surroundings, he [...]
You may recognize this picture from my “Decorating Your Homeschool Area” post. My four-year-old, Pumpkin, and I made this adorable container a few weeks ago and she has been using (read: abusing!) is ever since. It has held up beautifully and shows no signs of wear-and-tear! It’s being used to hold school and art supplies, such as markers, colored pencils, crayons and paintbrushes. Wouldn’t you like to make one?
What You’ll Need Any shape container (circle, square, oval, rectangle) with sides that are perpendicular to the table (meaning they aren’t angled in or out). It must be at least half the height of the pencils you will be using. Pencils: They must be unsharpened (otherwise you’ll have a weapon, not a container!), but feel free to get really cheap ones. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t the best for writing. Ribbon that will go [...]
Whether you have an entire room devoted to homeschooling or your kitchen table doubles as school space, you can make learning more fun with a little decorating creativity!
Continue reading this post over at Modern Alternative Mama!
Linked-up at:
Mercy Ink- Heart and Home
This is such a fun and easy project! Your kids will love being able to color inside with chalk during the wet/snowy winter months. If you homeschool, this is a fabulous tool for children to use to practice their letters!
How cute is that?! I bought a wood wall plaque that is 11×14 inches, so it’s big enough to provide plenty of writing area, but it’s also small enough to stand on end in a bookshelf for easy storage!
What You’ll Need Wood Wall Plaque: Make sure there are no cracks. Fine Sandpaper Chalkboard Paint Acrylic Paint (for the edges- I used a glossy red one) Sponge Applicators What To Do Gently sand the surface of the wood to make sure there are no rough spots, then wipe of any dust with a rag. Paint a smooth coat of chalkboard pain on the face of [...]
Today I am guest-posting over at Modern Alternative Mama!
“When most of the public school parents I know think about trying to home school, they say that they imagine their kids sitting at the kitchen table reading expensive textbooks and whining about how bored they are. They tell me that they would love to teach their kids at home, but they can’t afford the curriculum or don’t know how to make their kids learn. My answer? Try teaching without textbooks!”
Continue reading this post at Modern Alternative Mama!
In Our Homeschooling Philosophy and Homeschooling Younger Children, I mentioned that we like for our girls to learn through real life activities, rather than dry textbooks or pointless drills. The last two years, beads have been a wonderful learning tool for our four-year-old! Here are some of the ways she has been learning with them…
Colors
Of course, you can use anything to teach little ones their colors (learning colors while folding laundry together was one of our favorites!), but there is just something extra fun about pretty beads!
Counting
Bright and uniquely shaped beads are tons of fun for little ones to count! Start by counting with them, showing them how to either line the beads up and point at each one as they count, or move the beads from one pile to another. As they progress, let them take over and get excited with them as they [...]
Hello Ladies! I’ve finally finished my site index. If you’re a brand new blogger, learn from my mistake: Start a site index at the beginning and keep it updated. I kept thinking, “When I have a few more posts, I’ll do an index.” Well, there I was with no index and over 100 posts…
All of my posts are now listed, linked and ready for you to explore! Please do let me know if you have any problems or notice something missing. Enjoy!
Index
And, just because there really aren’t any fun pictures about site indexes to show you, here’s some recent pics of my sweet girls!
As our children get older, we need to continue to discover their interests, but we also need to take it further. We need to nurture their passions.
My parents were amazing in this area! I’ve always been very creative, so they made sure that I could test out my artistic interests and, if I discovered I loved something, they nurtured that passion. At our Air Force base’s arts and crafts center, I took drawing, ceramics, oil and water color painting and pottery classes. The drawing classes, I loved! We did pencil and, occasionally, pen & ink. For as long as Miss. Ivy taught, I took drawing classes.
Ceramics were another favorite. Millie wasn’t the most pleasant person, but I learned how to clean the pieces and then stain or glaze them and I learned to do it well! She was demanding, but I learned so much and I enjoyed it. [...]
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