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A reading-centered life for my kids, that’s my goal. For so many reasons… To give them the words that will fill their vocabulary and their writing. To encourage them to become lifelong readers. To enrich our time together. I am … Continue reading
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We didn’t know what kind of a view we’d have, if we’d see it once or twice or even at all. Would the kids understand what an amazing opportunity this was? Would we regret making three small children wait for … Continue reading
We are learning about the amazing stars in the sky. We began with a fun project, then we got down to business to understand the life cycle of a star. First, let me show you our fun project.
We made a floating star jar. Very easy. Here’s all you need:
Throw everything into the jar and stir. The Karo Syrup allows the stars and glitter to be suspended in the liquid. It’s sort of like a snow globe that doesn’t need much shaking to make it snow.
The real fun was when we took the jars into a dark room and could see the glowing stars. Of course, those pictures didn’t come out so good, so instead I can show you how sparkly the glitter looks when you set the jar in a sunny location. But at night, my kids have a cool night light for their rooms.
One of my kids is itching to do this again because he wants more glow-in-the-dark stars and less glitter. We did use a lot of glitter for our first project and it does obstruct some of the glow-in-the-dark stars. So if you want more sparkle, use lots of glitter. If you want more glow, use less glitter.
Now, here’s what we did to learn all about the amazing life of a star. We started with our trusty Usborne Book of Astronomy and Space
We used a Life Cycle of a Star free printable (see photo below) from Mari-Ann at the wonderful Counting Coconuts blog. I added notes to the bottom of each card that matched the description in our book. As we read, I had Firefly, my 7 year old, put the cards down in the right order. When we finished reading, he mixed them up and put them in order again from memory. Then we used them to make a poster to hang on the wall.
After that, we went back and used the internet links in the Usborne Book
We watched a wonderful DVD that I got for free from NASA , called Journey to the Stars. This is an amazing program about the life and death of stars, including our sun, and shows beautiful images from earth-based and space-based telescopes. Unfortunately, NASA is out of stock with these free DVD’s but you can get on a waiting list to get your own here, watch a trailer on YouTube, or go see it at the American Museum of Natural History in New York or the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
For my little guy, age 3, we gave him some play dough, star cookie cutters, a drinking glass to make round and crescent moons, and, to his delight, his own tube of glitter. He had great fun sprinkling and working the glitter into the dough and cutting out his own shapes. This activity was also inspired by Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts. Her whole post on Space activities for preschoolers has some wonderful ideas.
For more ideas on learning about astronomy, follow my Astronomy pin board on Pinterest.
Linking up with these great Linky Parties.
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Welcome to the weekly Kids Co-Op linky party, where bloggers from around the world share their great ideas for learning and fun. Earth Day is coming up on April 17th. Need some quick ideas for books to read? Marnie at … Continue reading
The Queen Bee recently turned six and one of the gifts I gave her was this set of upcycled bottles. I know some of you are giggling now, as you realize that I have just given beer bottles to my six year old to play with. Yes, this is what happens when you spend too much time on Pinterest, I suppose.
But my daughter doesn’t know what beer is and she joyfully accepted this gift. And then she spread the love amongst our family by presenting everyone with flowers for their rooms. Even her brothers, the very same brothers that she spends a part of every day in conflict with, received flowers. And that, you see, is the whole idea.
I was inspired by this craft from The Colorful Living Project, but what made me make this for my daughter was a post I read by Amy at Teach Mama. Amy decided to show her young daughter a way to spread love amongst her siblings by giving her little vases decorated with ribbons and some flowers to arrange. Please do go and read Amy’s post to find out how she planned this project to help her daughter step aside from bickering with her siblings and show them what a great little sister she is. Oh, I knew, as soon as I saw Amy’s post, that this was an amazing antidote to, what often seems to me, an overwhelming amount of sibling squabbles in our house.
It was so simple to spray paint the bottles and tie a little ribbon around each one. She even, unknowingly, picked the paint color when I told her, in the craft store, that I needed paint for a project and what color did she like best? I covered the cardboard caddy with scrapbooking paper.
The Queen Bee loves all things flowers and I knew she would be so happy to have her own set of little vases. She is my child who is most likely to bring flowers she has picked into the house and ask for something to put them in.
I love that she gave her big brother, source of much of the sibling bickering in our house, not one, but two of the flower-filled vases. Then she put one in her little brother’s room, one in Mommy and Daddy’s room, one in her room and one in the bathroom.
We can put the bottles back in the carrier when this set of flowers has wilted and the they will be ready to go for her next picking adventure. Which got me to thinking…
This is a great way to show love to siblings and parents but what about neighbors? Or taking a dozen or so over to the nearest senior community and passing them out to some folks who could use a smile. Or maybe for teachers. My kids are homeschooled but they have many teachers: music teachers, sports coaches and many more. Maybe one week we will bring a little vase of flowers to each of their activities and present it to their teachers.
For now, I am going to enjoy the little flower that my daughter lovingly placed on my bedside table, which is a really nice way to end the day.
Linking up with these great linky parties.
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Inspired by a story we read about Alexander the Great and his horse, a huge, wild black stallion that only Alexander could ride, Firefly and I decided to make a horse that he could ride. Perfect for a 7 year old.
Naturally, The Queen Bee and Love Bug (ages 6 and 3) wanted one, too, so now we have a small herd of horses and lots of wonderful pretending, including ancient Greek warriors, modern day local farmers and cowboys, too. ”Howdy, ma’am.”
We made a template of a horse’s head, then traced six pieces onto cardboard. I drew in an ear, eye and nostril, then the kids colored the horses to their liking.
We taped a stick (any straight stick will do, we used a variety, including a piece of dried bamboo and a yard stick) onto of the inner sides of a horse head, then put loops of packing tape all over the inside and pressed the two sides together.
Then they were ready to ride!
The story of Alexander the Great, and his horse, Bucephelus, is in Chapter 25 of The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times
For more Ancient History projects and ideas, visit my Story of the World page and the Hands-On History Collaborative Pinterest board.
Linking up with these great Linky Parties.
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We are learning about star constellations, using our Usborne Book of Astronomy and Space
The Big Dipper
Lyra
First we used the printed cards from Mrs. Home Ec to inspire our rock constellation art. These are actually lacing cards, which is another great activity to do with them.
Then we used the Usborne Astronomy book to get some more constellation ideas.
This one is Eridanus.
Finally, we decided to get really creative and pretend to be astronomers, discovering new constellations.
Astronomer Firefly discovered this detailed constellation of a dog.
Astronomer Mommy, inspired, no doubt, by all of the April birthdays in our family, discovered this new constellation, simply titled "Cake".
To reinforce what we learned, I photographed the rock constellations, then printed them out and made a little book for each child. I added a few facts about each one, from the Usborne Astronomy book.
At the end of each book I added a few more hand-drawn constellations and some blank pages for the kids to create even more of their own.
We’ll be sure to notice the night sky over the next few weeks, to see if we can spot some of the constellations we learned about.
Check out all of the other fun science experiments and activities we’ve done on our Hands-On Science Page.
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Wow, last week we had a record amount of links shared for fun learning and crafting opportunities with the weekly Kids Co-Op Linky Party. Check out these highlights, then link up your fun activities below. Or check back and see … Continue reading
Is it the only secret? Definitely not, but here is what has worked for us. Are you ready? Drum roll……
The Kid of the Day gets to…
We’ve been doing this for three years and it not only works great, but my kids, ages 8, 6 and 3, manage it themselves with little need for me or my husband to intervene. They will start to argue over something, and then one of them will say, “Wait, who is the Kid of the Day?” Problem solved. Dum-da-da-dum. (That was my triumphant superhero music, in case you were wondering).
Here’s how it works…Everyone gets a fair amount of days each week. We post the schedule on the wall in the kitchen. When I had two kids it went like this:
Kid 1: Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Kid 2: Tuesday, Thursday Saturday
Mommy: Sunday
Yes, that’s what we did with the extra day. Mommy got to be Kid of the Day. They think it is hilarious when I run up to elevator buttons on a Sunday and hop up and down, saying, “Yay, I’m Kid of the Day! I get to push the button!” A few odd looks from strangers, but totally worth it.
Now I have 3 kids and they only get two days each week. I, again, get the remaining one. Sometimes, I let Daddy be Kid of the Day on Sunday. See how nice I can share?
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Such a simple craft. Such a delighted little girl. My daughter and I made Doll Crowns from upcycled cardboard toilet paper tubes.
That’s it. Done! We made these for party favors for my daughter’s upcoming American Girl Doll themed party. The girls can decorate their own doll’s crown with a strip of jewel stickers.
This craft was inspired by TP Craft and Lilla A, both courtesy of Pinterest.
Linky parties where I hang out.
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Every other week we drive out to a local farm and pick up food for our family. On this day, my two youngest decided to walk around and thank all of the animals. “Thank you, cows, for the milk. Thank you, chickens, for the eggs.” It was so cute. We enjoyed seeing the new baby goats, too.
Linking up with Moments to Remember.
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It’s that Linky Party time of week. Check out all these learning ideas from all over the world. Or link up your own great ideas. Great ideas from last week’s Co-Op: Terri at Creative Family Fun shows us 10 Ways … Continue reading
Firefly, age 7, reads the poem he has chosen.
We started a new ritual today: Reading poetry while having tea time. It was really fun and it only took a half hour from start to finish, leaving me wondering why I’d never done it before. Genius, pure genius and you can thank Julie at Brave Writer for this amazing idea.
Our tea time mission: To increase language rich experiences in our family.
How we’re doing it: Set a fancy table, serve tea (or some other palatable drink for kids) and a yummy snack, put out a stack of kid-friendly poetry books. Then each child (and Mom) chooses a poem to read. Kids who are not yet reading can have their poem read by Mom. That’s it.
Setting a fancy table.
Here’s how our first Tuesday Tea Time went down: Over the weekend, I stocked up on some fancy snacks. Then, Firefly, my almost-8-year-old, enthusiastically helped set up a fancy table. That’s right. I said it. He helped with enthusiasm. Already, I am liking this new ritual.
Afterwards: ”Girls get to have tea parties”, he said wistfully. Then he brightened: “Hey, boys can have Tea Time!” The pleased look on his face about this discovery was priceless.
Yum! Gingerbread biscotti.
Coincidentally, my friend Rivka over at Tinderbox Homeschool began a similar tradition this weekend with her family. I love her idea in the comments section about taking her kids to a thrift store to pick out their own fancy tea cup just for Tea Time.
What we are reading for Tea Time: I pulled what we already had off the shelf, which you can see below, but I hope to add to our collection. Do you have favorite poetry books that you read with your kids? I’d love to hear some suggestions.
Linking up at these great sites.
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We’ve been working our way through the chapters in our history curriculum that cover ancient Greece. Here are some of the fun projects we’ve done to go along with them.
We made a paper parthenon from our History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations
book and learned all about the goddess, Athena, whose statue was placed inside the Parthenon.
We made a pizza dough Parthenon. Okay, use your imagination. It wasn’t easy getting the dough to stretch just the way we wanted it, but it was fun to make.
While our dough was baking, we learned about how the Greeks had dinner parties, from the Visitor’s Guide to the Ancient World.
We decided to have a Greek Lunch Party, in the style of ancient Greece. We bathed and “perfumed” our feet before entering the party…
…then had our lunch while reclined on the couch cushions, just like the ancient Greeks. With a few modifications, like our beach towels to protect the couches.
The kids decided this was a fun way to eat, much more fun than eating at the table. I have the feeling that there will be some more Greek Lunch Parties in our future.
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It’s an exciting day here on my blog! I am so pleased to join a group of over 35+ creative and amazing bloggers, who co-host the Weekly Kids Co-Op. This means that starting today, and in the weeks to come, … Continue reading
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