Incredible Crafty Paper

How's this for a handicraft?  This entire video, sounds and all, was created with paper.  What incredible creations could your children dream up with paper today?  Inspire them!



The Human Body (stop-motion!) from kellianderson on Vimeo.

For those less interested in innards and guts, perhaps quilling would be more to their liking?




Don't think that simple paper and glue isn't enough to capture your child's imagination on a rainy winter afternoon.  Get crafting!

Playing Pick-It

One of my favorite things to do is pull out a game that we haven't played in a long time. I spied Pick-It in our game closet and decided to bring it out today.

This is a simple game that you can easily make at home.  Five small sticks (like matchsticks) and cards that show what position into which you try to build the sticks.  There are levels of play, from simply matching the pictures, to having a hand of five cards of building possibilities and having to move only one stick to make it match.  It can be played by one player as well as a group.

This works on fine motor skills, perception, memory, patterning and more. It's a great way to spend some time together and build skills!

Fun History for Kids

Taking a break from books can be a very refreshing thing.  Playing at a topic is every bit as effective at teaching as reading!  The Libertarian Homeschooler recently shared this link on Facebook.

Primary History

I can't wait to let my Lambies browse around, play the games and see where their interests take them. There's so much great information here I just HAD to share! Of course I will be nearby with book suggestions to further explore their newfound engrossments.

Summer Learning

We are on summer vacation right now, as many of you are, too. Around here, the learning never stops, even on vacation! 100 EZ Lessons go on, a few times a week, for the littlest Lambies. Everyone has time for reading favorite books and various projects have been started, worked on and/or finished. Lots of time is being spent on physical education in the forms of biking, basketball, football, skateboarding and swimming. My eldest son is learning the manly skills of lawn mowing and pool maintenance. He also has expressed interest in learning how to make jam. The girls are doing lots of cooking, beading and some creative writing. The Littles are doing lots coloring, painting and imaginative play. We also like to spend lots of time in our beautiful mountains, hiking, camping, fishing, and admiring God's amazing handiwork!

I try to do something "schoolish" every day or so, besides reading, so we have less loss of skills to deal with when we start again. Here's some of the things we have done or plan to do:

Learning Wrap Ups
Puzzles
Homemade Play Dough
Schoolish Computer Games
Sewing
Cooking
Math-U-See blocks (the Little love building with these!)
Janice VanCleave's books (when I want a bigger project)
Anatomical models
Work in the garden
Playmobil
Lego blocks
Lego games

Do you have any activities that you do especially in the summer? Any websites, kits or ideas to share?

Wednesday Morning Math

So I was correcting math with 9 year old Polly. She got four problems wrong. Not too bad, but not her best, either. I started off the correction session by saying, "You missed four problems, and you did the same thing wrong in each problem." She replied, in all sincerity, "Wrote down the wrong numbers?"

Wee Gillis: A Mini Unit

We began this study after reading "Wee Gillis". I am so fond of Robert Lawson's illustrations! The Little Lambies: Troubles, Missy and Jack all listened and learned quite a bit about Scotland just from one reading.

We looked up the location of Scotland compared to our location in California and Israel. We always address geographical locations from these two points. We named the seven continents and they deduced which continents Scotland is located on. We spoke of what countries are to the north, south, east and west of Scotland.

We Google-traveled a road or two and looked around on street view. How green it is! Of course it's because it rains so much.



We looked at Loch Ness and discussed the Monster. I read to them a few appropriate pages of Jaws, Claws and Dinosaurs by William Gibbons and Kent Hovind.

We listened to bagpipe music. We listened to other traditional Scottish songs, too.

We learned about haggis. The children decided they did not want a sample of that!



We looked at pictures of long-haired cows and Scottish stags.

The Flag of Scotland was built out of Legos (thanks to Renee for the idea!).

We spoke about kilts and why men wear them. We discussed plaid and tartans and their meaning. This craft seemed appropriate.

I made a coloring page out of this image of Wee Gillis.



We practiced blowing balloons up in one breath to show how very strong Gillis' lungs must have been!

This was a fun little study. I think the Little Lambies learned a lot!

Dragonfly Mini Unit

My little Lambies are learning about dragonflies right now. It all started with a chapter we read in "Among the Pond People" by Clara Dillingham Pierson. I always bring up images of the animals we are reading about so the children can imagine the story better. The Snapping Turtle was illustrated with this picture:



The Dragonfly Children were illustrated thusly:



I printed these for the Littles to color: Dragonfly Lifecycle and Dragonfly and the older children (just those who wanted to participate) drew them using this tutorial: Draw a Dragonfly.

Eyewitness Insects has a beautifully photographed series of an emerging damselfly. A dragonfly's emergence is very similar. My copy of this book is older and has a different picture on the cover than the one I linked to. It seems that the insides are the same though.

I read "Sir Small and the Dragonfly" to Missy and Troubles. They got a laugh out of it.

Best of all, I found a perfectly undamaged deceased dragonfly while I was walking last week, so I had a wonderful specimen to show them. They got to see the compound eyes close up, see the intricate veining in the wings and observe the many jointed legs. We could not pry open the mandibles, but they did get a close look. We used magnifying glasses and also the microscope. It was a good day of science for the Littles.

A Worthless Piece of Junk? Never!

We had two non-functioning CD players hanging around. Before throwing them away, Polly and Jack decided to explore them. Out came some of Daddy's small tools and the magnifying glasses. I didn't note the time, but they probably spent more than an hour taking those players apart and marveling over the tiny pieces that were inside.



They compared the two and found the similar parts and noticed the differences.



Should I count this as "mechanical engineering" or "de-construction skills"?

Floor Puzzles

My Lambies, Polly, Jack, Missy and Troubles spent some time with
floor puzzles the other day. They choose to build the glow-in-the-dark creatures set.

What a great way to learn some biology, practice fine motor and classification skills and have fun
at the same time.

Learning With Dover

One way I enrich our studies is the use of Dover coloring books. We are blessed to have a bookstore in the next town that carries a large selection of Dover books in-store. When I search my shelves for a certain historical time period, science topic, or famous person and don't find a corresponding Dover, I head out and get one. If they don't have a certain one in stock, I get it on Amazon. They make our studies so much more interesting! I like to let the kids color while I read the related story. It helps my kinestetic learners stay tuned in.

Drills...The Fun Way

Ahhh....it's nearing back to school time! I have every intention of starting Monday (but have given myself until Wednesday, just in case I need more time for something). In the meantime, I am allowing the Lambies to warm up their thinking caps with these fun little games I found. Some mention using the Wii, but they work just fine on the computer, using the arrow keys and space bar, too.

Academic Skill Builders

I love that they can be playing and learning at the same time!

Lego Mania!

I suppose all homeschoolers deal with it. Legomania, that is. All of my boys and most of my girls LOVE getting out the Lego.



Years of watching yard sales and swap meets carefully have netted us two very large tubs of Lego. We also buy new when the price is right. In addition, we have a tub full of the Lego that my husband had when he was young. The Crew is Lego Spoiled!

One thing that suffers from all the attention is the ever-popular manual. The schematics. The instructions. So many things that they make are freely built, but some Lambies in particular like to follow the visuals. That's hard to do with so few booklets.

Tonight, I discovered the motherlode of Lego-manuals. Every.single.one. is downloadable from Lego.com. I don't know how this nugget of information evaded me for so long. Jack is going to be so happy. PDF's are soooooo convenient!

July Party!

Remember that I am trying to have a fun little study/party once a month with the Lambies? Last month, we learned all about Flag Day together. I did not plan ahead enough to make a flag colored dessert or anything fun like that. This month, besides The Fourth of July, which we celebrate as a family, I want to put some forethought into a fun day. Off to the list of July's special days, weeks and month designations.

I found a few interesting ones. My favorite possibilities are:

Blueberries Month
National Unassisted Homebirth Week (1st-7th) (not really suited to a kids party, but fun to know anyway!)
Freedom Week (4th-10th)
Rabbit Week (15th-21st)
Chocolate Day (7th)
Embrace Your Geekness Day (13th)
Cow Appreciation Day (17th)
National Ice Cream Day (18th)

I'll be pondering options for celebrations. Please leave any ideas you may have for me!