Geography and so much more!

We are learning about the 7 continents this week.  I have incorporated our theme into most of J's workboxes and was so excited when this idea came to me during my Sunday planning session....

He LOVES money and is super excited about earning it.  So, what better way than to use nickels to measure distances between 2 continents.  Doing that allowed him to skip counting by 5s...which sets him up for multiplication down the road.  It also gave me the chance to observe his skip counting ability.

First, he read the questions on his data sheet (2nd picture) to help him set up his measurement.

He recorded his measurements on this sheet I typed up.

Just by doing this simple lesson with J, I discovered that he could only skip count by 5's up to #25...

Teachable Moment!!!

I wasn't planning on making this!  But noticed it needed to be done!  

So, we created this skip counting number line to hang up so that we could use it as a reference tool.

To cut down on frustration and time, we "shared the pen".  I wrote a number, then J wrote a number...from 0-95.

  I made sure to use 2 different colors (red & blue) so my Little Learners can see the pattern and different numbers.

And the Grande Finale...

Nixon's favorite number is "100", so we saved that job for him.  He wrote the number to complete our skip count by 5's number line.

So simple, so easy and oh so FUN!

Happy Learning with your Little Ones!

We're Back...again!

Howdy Yall!  It's us AGAIN!  Sorry for the inconsistency with blogging, but I have 3 good reason why it's been tricky...

Update:
We moved to Texas (notice my opening line!)  Sure miss those sunny beaches and great friends but we are making lots of new memories here.  Starting to feel like home and I think we are ready to tackle this blog again.

If you haven't "liked" us on Facebook, please do so!  I will be doing daily posts there that are quick and simple.  My blog will be more in depth topics and ideas.  And with that being said...here's some up-coming blog topics per your requests:

*Daily School Schedule
*Daily LIFE schedule (how do we get it ALL done!)
*Our Workbox system
*Why do we Homeschool? Our Pros and Cons
*Recipes

And any other topics you might suggest!  Feel free to email me or leave a comment below.

Happy Learning with your Little Ones!

Top 5 "Gotta Gets"...

Here are my Top 5 "Gotta Gets!" if you are really interested in Tot Schooling your little learners.  

#5  - Calendar Pocket Chart - 

I can't think of a better teaching tool to help your little learner learn some many different skills and concepts!  If you haven't already purchased one...you "gotta get it!" ASAP!

#4 - White Boards and/or MagnaDoodle

                                                   

We use either or both of these tools every day!  If it's not Daddy writing an equation for Jackson during their nightly Math practice, it's me using it with Nixon on Letter Formations.
We use a sock (yes it's clean!) to wipe off our boards.  And I added the blue painters tape to the large white board to help with letter formations. (Thanks Pinterest!)

#3 - Large Foam Dice - Dollar Tree Purchase!!!

Something we use everyday and I think you can tell by the pictures!  We use these when we write addition equations/roll and write (3+5=8).  I've also used them for syllable/letter counting
(Roll it! Find it! - Find the word that has 3 syllables/letters)
We've even used them for time outs...roll it and that's how many minutes you have to sit and
think in Time Out.
The possibilities are endless!

#2 - Supplies labeled and accessible!

This is my pantry!  Bottom 2 shelves are Homeschooling supplies that are clearly labeled and kid-accessible!  I found these labels on Pinterest and the green snap bins came from Dollar General.

Easy to read labels!

I am a big believer that if you show children (not just tell them) how YOU expect things to be used, they will!  I have paints, markers, crayons, colored pencils and even scissors!!! accessible to my kiddos.   (Yes, they are ALL washable!) This really helps with the flow of a lesson if I need them to go retrieve something that I forgot.  And most importantly, I think it gives them a sense of ownership
even at 4 and 2 years old.

#1 - Abacus

I wrote the numbers on it as a visual...but when you flip it around....

It's GONE!

This teaching tool was the best $15 we've spent so far when it comes to teaching Math concepts!

I bought this one at Ross but I'm sure Amazon has them (Melissa and Doug).

 Jackson uses it in so many ways: Counting forward and backwards, Counting by 5 & 10s, finding the sums in his Double Digit addition and subtraction equations.  Nixon can also use it for his simple equations and to count by 10s.  

Such an ancient learning tool that is still so effective!  We love it!  

Happy Learning with your Little Ones!

What do we do with ALL THIS CANDY?!!?

We hope your Trick or Treating was as successful as ours!  And now you are asking...

"What do we do with ALL THIS CANDY!?!?!"

 Here are some simple, very quick lessons to do with your little learners...AND ALL THAT CANDY!  Best part of the lesson = Everyone gets to eat a few pieces while you play!

SORT IT! COUNT IT!

I decided to informally assess Nixon on his 1-to-1 correspondence by simply asking him to count out 10 lollipops (picture above)

Then we SORTED the Dum-Dum pops from the Tootsie Pops.

Best part = we both picked one to eat!

Other ways to SORT your candy:

*Chocolates vs. Non-chocolates*

*Like vs. Don't like*

*Big vs. Little packages*

*By color* (4 your littlest learner, add a piece of construction paper to help with color sort might help!)

*By shape*

*Hard vs. chewy*

TALLY MARK IT!

We have been working with Jackson on counting by 5's and skip counting.  And teaching this concept, using tally marks, seems to really work for little learners.  

First, I tally marked the first 10 suckers and he finished the last 4 tallys.

Then, we sorted out all the Starburst Mini-packs.

We tally marked the packages together. 

(I don't have a picture of that)

We opened all the packages to make a BIG pile of Starburst ready to eat and tally!

Success!  Fun and Learning were both accomplished!

Other ways to Learn with ALL THAT CANDY:

*Snack-size M&M or Skittles sort and graph*

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/MM-Graphing-Sorting--169003

*Family Estimation Jar*

Using a clear jar, dump the same kind of candy in and have every family member estimate "How Many?"  And the family member with the closest estimation, gets to keep the candy in the jar...BUT, they have to share a piece or 2, just to be nice.

Little Learners, more than likely, will not understand this concept yet.  But it's a fun way to introduce it.

*Candy Memory*

Sort out a few pairs of candies.  Hide them under small Dixie cups.  Mix the cups around them arrange them in rows.  Lift up 2 cups to see if you have a match.  If you do...keep it and EAT IT!

*Magic Candy*

(for your littlest learners)

Have your Little learner unstack the small Dixie cups (4-5) into a long row.  Hide a piece of candy under one of the cups.  Move the cups around (like a magician) and line them up in a new order.  Have your little learner find the candy...then EAT IT!

*Boo Bump*

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Boo-Bump-Math-Game-Freebie-323564

*Sink or Float Predictions Science experiment with Candy*

Good way to get rid of the yucky ones!

*M&M Color Mixing*

Use the primary colors in the Snack-size M&M bags to create the secondary colors

Skittles can work too!

*Skittles and Straws*

Using Skittles (M&Ms, Smarties, Gobstoppers...) and a drinking straw...set the timer for 30 seconds.  Little learners have to use the straw to suck and transfer the candy from 1 plate to the other.  

Increase time, if they are have fun!

(Fine Motor skills)

Enjoy and Happy Learning!

"Where do I even start?" ~ Morning Calendar!!!

I LOVE getting personal messages on Facebook, emails and even chit-chat at weekend birthday parties from Moms that are looking for an answer on how to get started with their little learners!  Some have 2 year olds, while some have 4 year olds... But no matter what their ages, I seem to always direct them to the easiest way to get going in the morning and such an effective tool that we use in our learning schedule ... Morning Calendar!

Our calendar time has taught both of my boys:
*Days of the Week
*Seasons
*Counting forwards and backwards from 1-31 (visually and auditory)
*Complex patterns using colors on number/date cards
*Understanding of yesterday, today and tomorrow
*Sentence structure (when we read our day of the week sentence)
*Visually recognize days of the week
*Concept of time

Here's what ours looks like in our new Learning Nook!

 (small eat-in area in our kitchen)

 I believe I order this off of Amazon: Pocket Chart Calendar for $19.99.  

Here is our calendar routine (procedure video - Coming Soon!)

Keep in mind that consistency is the KEY!  

*Nixon picks a pointer and we sing "Days of the Week" to the tune of the Adams Family Song.

*Meanwhile, Jackson is independently working on his own Daily Learning Workbook/Calendar but refers to our calendar to complete his work.

*Over to the fridge, where we complete our "Today is..." sentence.  When prompted, Nixon can visually pick out the day of the week and ZAPS it into the sentence.  

*Using a pointer, Nixon reads the "Today is..." sentence.  I just added a fuzzy ball glued to a circle magnet to create our "period", but it's missing in this picture.  I did this just to introduce punctuation to Nixon.

*We go back over to the calendar, count from 1 - ? and then flip over the date/number.  I casually mention, using the yellow sticky notes sticking up over the day of the week, what was yesterday and what tomorrow will be.  (That is mainly for Jackson's notebook work.)

This takes us a total of 5 minutes which is perfect for a little learner and a busy Mommy!

Below is a picture of our months of the year.  When we were learning about leaves/Fall, I noticed that Jax had no clue what a season was or even the order of the months in a year.  So, every day for about 1 week, we made a "word ladder" with these cards.  I scattered them out and he would have to create the ladder, then both boys would walk up and down the ladder saying the names of the months.  The next week we decided to add the seasons and posted it in our pocket chart.  They refer to it all the time in casual conversations about birthdays or specific holidays. 

Here's a picture of our months of the year.  No Pocket Charts? Just write the months out in order on a long paper.

I hope this helps you get a jump start on learning with your little ones.  Such a simple way to start and such a quick way to learn with your little learner!

Happy Learning!

We R Back!

Well HELLO!  We are back and life has sure changed for our family since I last posted...ummmm, A YEAR AGO!  So hard to believe.

November 2012, we happily discovered, we were pregnant with boy #3!  So life got busy with baby Masons arrival in July plus a move in August of 2013...something needed to give for awhile and sadly it was the blog!

But, things are steady (for the time being) so I'm gonna give this another go!  And with so many emails from mommies interested in the "Hows" and "Why's" with homeschooling little learners, I am feeling lead to restart our blog in full force again!

Don't cha love when God gives you a little nudge and you don't listen, then another and another .... then finally a gentle PUSH!  I have to remember that HE has laid out this path and purpose for our family and it's my job to share it with you!

It feels good to be back and share what has changed and remain the same with my THREE little learners!

~ashley

Labels! Labels EVERYWHERE!

A quick lesson that I did with my Littlest Learner was labeling the house.  Seriously took 3 minutes!
I did the same lesson with Jax when he was about this age (1 1/2)

My fabulous teacher-friend gave me these Post-It Notes that has a simple picture and the word.  I checked the Post-it's website and couldn't find these exact ones.  I even "Googled" and had NO luck!  You could easily make these using a clip art program or pictures from magazines.

Fork and Spoon labels on he kitchen drawers

Added Velcro

I used Velcro squares instead of using tape.  WHY?  It makes this simple activity so interactive and hands-on!  I had taped them on the things we labeled when I did this with Jackson.  Nixon LOVES the sound that Velcro makes so I thought this switch-up wouldn't hurt and would make it so FUN!

Took'm off...

...Put them back on!  Can't ya tell!

We also labeled the couch, the truck bin, his bed, and a lamp.  The lamp was some new vocabulary for him. I figured it would be...how many times have you told your 1 year old to "turn off the lamp"!?  I know I haven't....

And we didn't forget the bathtub!

Clearly can see the green "bed" label
 AND a naked bottom AND diaper in the floor AND a sleeping boy!  

This simple activity exposed Nix to a new word and showed me that he really has a big vocabulary...he just can't speak it yet (or just can in his own little language)!

Happy Labeling and Learning with your Little Learners!

Learning (and teaching) CAN be fun on Halloween

I knew my kiddos would be to crazy-excited about Trick or Treating tonight, but I still wanted to do alittle learning today!
So I HAD to become extra creative, quick and fun on this fun day we called Halloween!

Sensory and Counting Lesson

(and alittle creepy too!)

All ya need: Spaghetti and green food coloring 

Boil water/spaghetti and add drops of food coloring
Boil for about 5 minutes, then turn heat off and let the noodles sit and soak in green water

Here's what you get - put in fridge  to make it feel creepy and cold

Add some plastic spider rings and eye balls for fun!  Use chop sticks to pick the spiders and eye balls out (fine-motor)
Use spiders for counting and addition lesson after minutes of fun, icky hands-on play!

Posting this during nap time!  So once the boys are up...we will do this as our Hands-On afternoon activity! I'll be sure to post pictures of the fun!
Happy Learning (and Trick or Treating ) with you little ones!

My BOO! Blog

Happy Halloween!  To celebrate, we wanted to share a few

 Boo-tastic activities that we are doing around here.

Here's our Sensory Box. 

Here's our poem for the week!  Lots of giggles when we put this together and read it out loud!

Studied Pumpkins today!  

Wrote down descriptive words (chart paper on easel)

Closer look at our chart!

I bought these Treat Bags about 2 years ago, knowing I could eventually use them!  

After laminating them (of course), I decided they were going to have so many uses over the next 2 weeks.  Today, we did a pattern activity...

 And tomorrow I am using them as sound cards for a Segmenting Sound lesson.  

Gonna write 1 letter/sound on each card.  For example: /c/, /a/. /t/ 

Jackson will push up each card as he says the sound then say the word.

I am also planning a addition candy lesson for next week 

(after we get 400 pounds of candy from Trick or Treating)

So grab some of these next time you are in Walgreens, Dollar General or Walmart!  You can use them for learning or treat giving! 

And here we are in action! 

Happy Learning with your Little Ones!  And have a safe Halloween!

Quick snack! Mommy Must DO!

Here's a Mommy~Must~Do

My boys LOVE snack mix and I HATE those almost empty bags of chips and such!  So here's what we do...especially when I need extra room in my pantry after my Sams' trips:0)

And of course ...the picture is upside down!  Sorry!

The boys usually help me make this!  A BIG mixing bowl, a few measuring cups and 2 mixing spoons turns into alot of fun while learning alittle too!  I dump into their measuring cups and they then dump into the big mixing bowl.  Once all our ingredients are in, the mix and mix and then...EAT!

We usually throw in a small amount of candy just for some sweet fun!

DA TA! A bag of deliciousness ready to go for the kids!  And a happy mommy with a less-cluttered pantry!

Happy Learning (and munching) with your Little Learners!

Hop to it kind of learning...

The simple game of Hop Scotch turned into an amazing teachable moment one day and a precious memory made with Jackson.  We have played this before a few times, but this day it was different.  The game finally made sense to him and his BIG boy self.

It was a very much "On-the-Go" lesson.  He wanted to play the game and I secretly turned it into a teaching/learning opportunity.

I was so excited to see all that we had covered in this simple 10 minute Mommy and Me moment: fine and gross motor skills, handwriting, numerical order, following directions and LOTS of FUN!

Check out our pictures:

Tracing the construction cone = fine motor skill

Writing numbers inside each square = fine motor, numerical order and following directions

Finished product - I "modeled" for him #1-5, but he finished #6-10

Jackson showing Nixon his awesome work

Trying it out! Hop Scotch'n = gross motor and FUN!

Happy Hopping with your Little Learners!