Summer Nights: Mason Jar Lights

Mason Jar Lights to light up the night
We loved, loved, loved making these mason jar lights. Perfect for a camping craft or any summer night. Hop on over to Kiwi Crate for the step-by-step instructions.

mason jar lights for summer nights

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Book Club Fun: Flower Arranging

We had a lovely book club today, arranging flowers and making our table pretty for snacks.
Celebrating Felicity's BirthdayFirst, I gave the girls each a tray with some glass jars to upcycle into pretty vases.  We used craft tape (Washi tape) to decorate the outside of the jars. More about our book club selection in a moment.

flowers for Felicity's birthday

The Washi tape adheres nicely to glass and is very easy to work with. The girls could rip the tape to the lengths they wanted to decorate their jars.

washi tape jars as upcycled flower vases

Next, the girls arranged the flowers into the vases and we set our table with plates of snacks, all the while discussing our book club selection.

Celebrating Felicity's BirthdayOur book is from the American Girl historical doll collection, Felicity’s Birthday. The Felicity books take place in Colonial times.
Happy Birthday Felicity. American Girl Doll.See our Hands-On History:  Learning with American Girl Dolls page.

Visit our Pinterest boards: Learning With Literature, Hands-On History, and American Girl History Learning.

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Posted in American History, books, creative play, Early Elementary Years, hands-on history, homeschooling, literature-based learning, Spring crafts | 1 Comment

7 Ways to an Easy and Fun Poetry Tea Time

poetry tea time

One of our favorite parts of the week is Tea Time Poetry Tuesday. This weekly tradition includes a real fancy tea set, a table cloth, special scrumptious treats and a stack of poetry books. We sip our drinks, eat our treats and each child chooses a poem to be read. Even my highly active four year old takes part.

My kids are learning about all aspects of poetry at an age younger than I ever imagined and they love it. It’s been a wonderful addition to our homeschool week and one we plan to continue indefinitely. It was introduced to us by the amazing Julie Bogart of Brave Writer. You can read more about it here.

Here’s what we’ve done to make tea time easy, simple and FUN.

1.  Make an easy tea set cleaning and storage system.  First, we got a tea set via a thrift store. But dragging out the fancy tea set, washing little tea cups and saucers and tea pots and then putting it all away again got old fast. It made me sort of dread tea time. Until I came up with this system: I use a tray. Everything fits on it. It has an absorbent towel over it. After we use our tea set, I wash it and put it right on the towel-covered tray for everything to drain. When it’s dry, I stick the whole tray into a cabinet until next time. Takes only a couple of minutes total. When it’s time for tea again, I set the whole tray on the table and the kids can set everything up themselves.

tea set for Tea Time Poetry

2. Designate a helper. They get to sample the treats. They love setting the fancy table. If there’s just one helper, they can’t fight with their siblings over who gets to carry the plate of cookies to the table.

3.  Here’s a BIG secret:  You don’t have to actually serve tea. Gasp! None of us actually like tea in our house. I’m a coffee drinker. My kids have tried tea and pronounced it “yucky”.  So this is a time when they get to have fancy ginger ale (a big deal since we don’t do soda) or some kind of fancy juice. You could try lemonade or hot chocolate or even just plain water, because even that tastes fancy if it’s served in a pretty china cup.

tea time dress-up

4. Give little ones something to keep busy with once the food is gone. Special play dough on a fancy plate is one idea we’ve tried.

5. Vary the poetry books. In addition to the ones we have on our shelves, we always have a couple checked out from the library. Many childrens books count as poetry (Dr. Seuss, for example). Song lyrics are another favorite.

poetry books for tea time

6. Be silly. Just because you’re being fancy, doesn’t mean you can’t be silly.  Jack Prelutsky’s poems are hilarious, as are many of Shel Silverstein’s.  Read poems about underpants, silly (but clean) Limericks or make up a poem using nonsense words.

tea time poetry for kids

7. Encourage them to write their own. Write down something you hear them say that’s poetic and suggest they read it at tea time. My daughter illustrated her own little poetry book and dictated the text for me write.  It’s not exactly poetry but she loves it and she reads it often at tea time.

tea time treats

Please follow our Poetry Kids Pinterest board for more learning ideas.

Tea Time Poetry Tuesdays are part of our Brave Writer lifestyle.

reading poetry

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Posted in Early Elementary Years, homeschooling, literature-based learning, preschool | 12 Comments

Minecraft Party Round-Up

minecraft cupcakes
Above: Minecraft cupcake printables from The Party Animal.

Places to find great ideas on decorations and activities for a Minecraft party:

minecraft party ideas

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"Don't worry, Mom. I won't eat the cupcakes. I'll just guard them for you," said the Creekside Dog.

“Don’t worry, Mom. I won’t eat the cupcakes. I’ll just guard them for you while you take pictures of them for your blog,” said the Creekside Dog.

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Every Day is Earth Day

Earth Day doesn’t have to be just one day every April. It can be any day of the year. Here are some activities you can do anytime, anywhere to take care of the earth and show your gratitude for  all of nature’s beauty.

Find out where the garbage goes.

field trip county landfill

Take a trip to your local  landfill or waste disposal facility. We learned a lot about what happens to all of the things we throw away and recycle, it was free, and we got to ride on a cool bus (big points with us homeschoolers). There’s a lot of science learning to be found at the garbage dump:  gas, garbage juice, decomposition and much more.

Have a trash clean-up day. Pick a favorite spot close to home: a park, a wooded area, a sports field, and fill up a garbage bag or two or three.

garbage clean upYou can read more about our recent trash clean up over at Kiwi Crate, including how we made our own books afterwards about how we helped the earth.
How I Helped the Earth Today
Take a Gratitude Walk to appreciate what the Earth offers to us every single day.

Gratitude Walk for the Earth
Hop on over to Kiwi Crate and read more about our Gratitude Walk, including the posters we made afterwards.
I Am Grateful for the Earth

Earth Day is any day. It’s every day. How will you take care of your part of the planet today?

For more ideas about learning outdoors, hands-on science, crafts, homeschooling and much more, follow Creekside Learning on Pinterest.
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Posted in Early Elementary Years, healthy living, homeschooling, Learning Spaces, Museums and Field Trips, nature, preschool, science | Leave a comment

Colonial History with Liberty’s Kids

We cannot get enough of this series! I thought it was a little pricey for our homeschool budget but it has been totally worth it! It has really helped Colonial history come alive in our house. Highly recommend it.

(Affiliate link below.)

 

Posted in American History, Early Elementary Years, hands-on history, homeschooling | Leave a comment

A Simple Fairy House and Garden for Kids

fairy garden

A very simple and inexpensive Fairy House from a cardboard birdhouse found at a craft and hobby store…

fairy garden accessories

I cut a door into the birdhouse with a regular kitchen knife, then sprayed it with a waterproofing spray (also from the craft and hobby store).

preparing the fairy garden

Much could be done to decorate the outside of the fairy house, but my daughter chose to simply place moss at the top. She was more focused on the things I gave her to decorate the fairies garden.

fairy garden bridge

Find the fairy garden accessories we used, and many more, at our Amazon Store. (Amazon affiliate link below.)
Creekside Learning Fairy Home and Garden Store

We dug up moss from another part of our yard to make a lovely carpet for the garden. Pretty stones form a walkway. Large flowers made miniature trees for the fairy garden.

fairy garden bucket

After a few days, look at what she discovered one morning while checking on her fairy house.

fairy dust on stones

The fairies had must’ve visited over night because sparkling fairy dust was all over the house and garden!  So exciting.

fairy house and garden

Each day, she checks her fairy garden.

Fairy House and Garden from Creekside Learning

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Thank you to our sponsor, Brave Writer.

bravewriter

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Posted in creative play, nature, Spring crafts | 5 Comments

Planting With Preschoolers: Grass Haircuts

play dough containers as seed plantersWe planted some grass seed in these play dough containers. Grass seed is very gratifying for kids to plant. It sprouts quickly, it’s hardy and, if you plant it in a little container, you can do this…

drawing faces on the grass haired people

Draw on a face…

grass hair people before hair cuts
Aren’t they cute?

cutting the grass hair

Then start snipping.

hair cuts for the grass people

So satisfying! He wanted to keep giving haircuts, so we moved things outside to the yard. He squatted down on the lawn and got to work.

Just another way we are enjoying Spring around here!

 

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Creative Snapshot: Tandem Drawing

adult & child tandem drawing

Creativity at work:  My niece (age 23) and my daughter (age 7) sat down with a long piece of paper and began to work on one drawing together, adding some of the same elements on each side of the paper:  a deer, a squirrel, clouds, a bird.

I love how they worked together, side by side, each adding some of the same components and then some of their own. When my daughter wanted to add the deer to the drawing but was unsure how to draw one, my niece pulled up an image on her cell phone and they both sketched together while looking at the example.

They turned the paper upside down (as in the photograph above) to add things to the opposite side of the paper.

Adult and child tandem drawing

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Fancy Handwriting Tip: Make a Feather Pen Like Fancy Nancy

Fancy Nancy Feather Pen
My daughter loves all things Fancy Nancy. And I love this series that has encouraged her to expand her vocabulary (Nancy likes to use fancy words).

Nancy also loves to write with a fancy pen, one that has a feather on top, or as she says, “a plume”. Writing with fancy pens makes handwriting more fun, so we made a  batch of pens for The Bee, including some to share with friends.

These are so easy and simple to make. All you need are some plain pens, some feathers and washi tape (found in a craft or hobby store).

fancy pen supplies

Wind the tape around the pen.
Washi Tape Pens

Add a feather at the top as you are taping. Use a bit more tape to cover the pen cap.
washi tape fancy pens

Ta-da! You have super fancy pens.
fancy pens like fancy nancy

For more ideas for learning with Fancy Nancy…

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Planting Seeds With Preschoolers

invitation to plant seeds Our seed-planting area is ready to for exploration.
Our books: What Does a Seed Need? and Spring Is Here!: A Story About Seeds  (these are Amazon affiliate links).

planting seeds in upcycled cardboard tubes We used cut up cardboard tubes from paper towel and toilet paper rolls to start our seeds in. You can also use cardboard egg cartons.

seeds for my preschooler to plant My preschooler chose to plant carrots and sunflowers.

sprinkling the seeds He sprinkled the seeds into the dirt and covered them with a little more dirt.

gently watering seeds A spray mister allows for gently watering the seeds without flooding them.

More notes on planting with preschoolers…

  • We used a large, vinyl tablecloth underneath our planting area for easy clean-up, since it was too cold to plant outdoors.
  • We read our books beforehand, then as we planted, we discussed the things we’d learned:  how seeds need soil, water and time to grow.
  • We placed our seeds in a bright location.
  • We covered them with a clear plastic container, to make a greenhouse.  Large lettuce containers and rotisserie chicken containers from the grocery store are good for this.
  • I taught my 4-year-old to mist his seeds daily, including misting the inside of the plastic greenhouse container, which makes it “rain” on the seeds.
  • After we finished planting the seeds, I encouraged him to play freely with the remaining dirt, containers, shovels and scoops.

And in a few days time, we saw our first little seeds sprouting!
seed sprouting

For more fun with preschoolers, follow Preschool:  Learning is Fun! on Pinterest.

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Foam Flower Words

foam word flowers

Here’s a fun way to practice reading and spelling, and they are so easy to make. All you need is some colorful craft foam and a permanent marker. Spritz on a little water, and they stick to glass.

Tips for creating foam flowers:

  • I used a teardrop shaped cookie cutter and a circle shaped cookie cutter to press the imprint into the foam, then cut out the shapes. You can also draw freehand with a blunt object like an unsharpened pencil or the tip of a scissors.
  • Using a permanent marker will ensure that when wet, the letters won’t come off.
  • You can draw letters on both sides of the petals so your child has more letter options but you have less petals to cut out.
  • You can also use these for a fun bathtub game.
My daughter used a spray bottle filled with water to make the foam stick to the window.

My daughter used a spray bottle filled with water to make the foam stick to the window.

The creative brains behind this project belong to my almost-7-year-old daughter, The Bee. She came up with this while playing with some foam letter discs I’d made for my 4-year-old.

I stored the pieces in a plastic container with a lid so she can easily take them from bathtub to playroom.

I stored the pieces in a plastic container with a lid so she can easily take them from bathtub to playroom.

 

I love the words she chose to spell:  "love you", "happy", "mommy" and then our dog's name, "Sydney".

I love the words she chose to spell: “love you”, “happy”, “mommy”. [insert heart melt]

easy to make foam word flowers

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Posted in creative play, Early Elementary Years, kindergarten, learning to read, Spring crafts | 7 Comments

It’s Brave Writer Giveaway Time!

bravewriterlogoThe awesome and inspiring Julie Bogart, creator of the Brave Writer program is sponsoring this post and giving away two of her products:   Exploring Poetry With Children and Brave Writer Goes to the Movies.

Julie Bogart, creator of Brave Writer

Julie Bogart, creator of Brave Writer

Julie is a mom of five who homeschooled for 17 years.  She is a professional writer turned coach to parents teaching their children how to write. Brave Writer has taught thousands of families all over the world since it began in the year 2000.

I had the pleasure of meeting Julie and hearing her speak at a conference last year. We began using the Brave Writer curriculum at home shortly thereafter. Reading The Writer’s Jungle introduced me to a new way of thinking about language arts, what Julie calls the Brave Writer Lifestyle.  We adopted this style and it’s been a perfect fit for us. To read my full review of the Brave Writer products, click here.

The Brave Writer Lifestyle puts the emphasis on growing creative writers, working with your child rather than power struggling through assignments. Instead of making sentence and paragraph structure the most intense focus in the early years, the idea is to grow kids who are confident in their writing ability, who can be creative and communicate their ideas on paper (or screen) effectively.

The Giveaways

Giveaway #1  Exploring Poetry With Children  and a copy of  the book Read Aloud Poems for Young People, by Glorya Hale.  Exploring Poetry With Children is a guide from The Arrow,  one of Brave Writer’s downloadable digital subscriptions.  The poetry guide contains four weeks of exercises and learning activities, which are used in conjunction with Glorya Hale’s poetry book. Julie also shares other ideas that will help your family engage in the practice of poetry that everyone will enjoy. The guide is ideal for 8 to 11 year olds and may be appropriate for some 12 year olds.

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate link.

Giveaway #2  Brave Writer Goes to the Movies  is an e-document that provides several pages of writing prompts and ideas to analyze the setting, characters, message,  plot development and more, of films.   Treating high quality films as an essential part of our childrens’ education is part of the Brave Writer lifestyle. The advantages include a film’s ability to tell a full plot in approximately two hours and the advantage of traveling to other places in the world and in history. Watching movies with your kids and discussing them during and afterwards, writing down what your kids say about them or having them write their thoughts can all be useful learning tools.  This guide is appropriate for ages 8 to 18.

Connect with Brave Writer

You can find Julie on Twitter and Facebook, where she often shares gems of advice, but for more inspiration, sign up for the Daily Writing Tip email. You get a FREE writing report with freewriting practices when you sign up.

How To Enter This Giveaway

  1. Go to the What is Brave Writer? page of Julie’s  site and read it.
  2. Then come back here, to Creekside Learning, and leave a comment at the bottom of this post about what stood out for you or what you identify with or what intrigues you about the Brave Writer program.
  3. Include in your comment which product you are most interested in winning, Brave Writer Goes to the Movies or the Exploring Poetry With Young Children/Read Aloud Poems for Young People combo. If you’re interested in winning either of the products, that’s fine, too. Just mention that in your comment. Note the target ages for each of the products above.
  4. Include a way for me to get in touch with you if you win.

Terms: One winner for each product will be chosen at random on Monday, April 1st, 2013 at midnight, EST.  Must live in the US to enter.

 Follow my Poetry Kids board on Pinterest.
Poetry Kids on Pinterest

Posted in give-a-way!, homeschooling | 29 Comments

Books for Learning About Jamestown, John Smith and Pocohontas

early american history jamestownOur early American History studies had us lingering in Jamestown for a while.

We’ve discovered so many wonderful books, that we really enjoyed hanging out there with John Smith, Pocohontas, Christopher Newport, the Powhatan Indians and the British settlers.

 

Books that make this part of history come alive:

  • Pocahontas:  Princess of the New World, by Kathleen Krull
  • John Smith Escapes Again, by Rosalyn Schanzer.
  • Journey to Jamestown: My Side of the Story, by Lois Ruby.

Journey to Jamestown: My Side of the Story was our most favorite. You read one side of the book from the viewpoint of Elias, a young English settler, then you flip the book over and read the story from the viewpoint of Sacahocan, a young girl from the Powhatan  tribe. The two characters interact throughout the story and become friends, despite their respective people fighting with one another.

English settlers from the Jamestown TOOB.

English settlers from the Jamestown TOOB.

Our spine:  The History of US: Making Thirteen Colonies: 1600-1740  by Joy Hakim. We listen to the cd’s as well as read the text.

Powhattan Indians from the Jamestown TOOB in a pan full of uncooked rice.

Powhatan Indians from the Jamestown TOOB in a pan full of uncooked rice.

For more ideas for learning Hands-On History, Follow Me on Pinterest.

Thank you to our sponsor, Brave Writer. Are you looking for ways to inspire your kids to become true writers or a way to end the battles? Go and see what the Brave Writer program has to offer. It’s transformed writing at our house into something my kids love and look forward to each week.

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. You pay the same price, but I get a small commission if you click over to Amazon from my site. Thank you.

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Kiddie Pool Bird’s Nest and Story Time

birds nest in a kiddie pool Spring is for the birds.  Stories about birds, really.  And what a fun way to listen to story time and learn about birds, in this easy-to-make nest.

1. Dust off your kiddie pool.

1. Dust off your kiddie pool.

2. Line the sides with brown butcher paper. This was packaging that we reused.

2. Line the sides with brown butcher paper. This was packaging that we reused.

3.  Add shredded paper.

3. Add shredded paper.

4. Scatter strips of cardboard around the house. Have kids collect these "sticks" as nest-building material.

4. Scatter strips of cardboard around the house. Have kids collect these “sticks” as nest-building material.

5. Pretend to be birds and add more shredded paper and cardboard "sticks" to build the nest.

5. Pretend to be birds and add more shredded paper and cardboard “sticks” to build the nest.

6. Add giant eggs! Creatology egg-sentials nesting eggs.

6. Add giant eggs! (These are Creatology brand “egg-sentials” nesting eggs purchased at Michael’s hobby/craft store.)

7.  Sit on eggs. Or sit in nest next to eggs. Whatever works.

7. Sit on eggs. Or sit in nest next to eggs. Whatever works.

9. Eggs hatch. Inside are little birds that wind up and walk from Easter past.

8. Eggs hatch. Inside are little birds that wind up and walk from Easter past. Pretend they are baby birds.

9. Make play dough worms. My 8 year old "assistant" led this activity. We looked up all the questions the preschoolers had on the internet while we made the worms:  "What do worms eat?" "How do they dig?" "Why do they have a band around them?"

9. Make play dough worms to feed your baby birds. My 8 year old “assistant” led this activity. We looked up all the questions the preschoolers had on the internet while we made the worms: “What do worms eat?” “How do they dig?” “Why do they have a band around them?”

12. Throw shredded paper at each other.  Laugh and be silly.

10. Throw shredded paper at each other. Laugh and be silly.

12. Sit in your nest and listen to The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman

11. Sit in your nest and listen to The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman.

      More wonderful books about nests and birds:
    • Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
    • The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
    • Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
    • Birds by Kevin Henkes
    • Lazy Ozzie by Michael Coleman
    • How Robin Saved Spring by Debbie Oullett
    • Planting a Rainbow by Lois Elhert
    • Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles
    • Mama Outside, Mama Inside by Diana Hutts Aston
    • Feathers for Phoebe by Rod Clement

birdsnestinakiddiepool

Creekside Learning boards you might like on Pinterest:

Preschool:  Learning is Fun! and Learning With Literature

preschoolpinboard.jpg learningwithliteratureboard.jpg

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Posted in creative play, homeschooling, kindergarten, literature-based learning, nature, preschool, science, Spring crafts | 8 Comments