Leap Day Ideas

The Homeschool Classroom has some fun ideas of things to do to make Leap Day special.

Here are four that I really liked.  I think we'll work 2 or 3 of them into our day tomorrow.

20. Bake together. Even better – take some of your tasty creations to family, friends, or neighbors (especially elderly neighbors that probably don’t do much baking for themselves anymore).

21. Make a trail mix that is made up of 29 pieces of various items like Cheerios, raisins, and so on. (Unless you’re adding in lots and lots of different ingredients, these will likely be individual snack mixes. So, let everyone make their own special mixes.)

22. Take guesses on what item in your house is closest to 29 inches. The one who guesses correctly can be the Leap Day King or Queen.

23. Have your children write a letter (or dictate it for them) to themselves to be opened on Leap Day 2016. Who do they think they’ll be? What are their hopes and goals? (Consider writing one of these to yourself as well.) Consider adding in a photograph of the child from February 29, 2012.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We spent the whole morning celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. 

First we went to our local Target for their storytime.  The kids got awesome goody bags which consisted of a cloth bag, a juice box, fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, crayons, stickers, a coloring page, and a mustache.

The storytime was awful, though.  We stayed long enough to hear two different 20-something chicks read several different books.  Obviously they don't have kids.  They were reading so quiet and monotone!  It was the worst storytime I have ever been to!  They were reading as if they were reading it to themselves for the first time.  It was so bad that I talked to the lady at the Guest Services desk on our way out.

Next we drove to Lakeshore Learning Store.  But we were 20 minutes too early for their activities.  There was a Target right down the street so we stopped in there.  So each of the kids got a second goody bag.  And this storytime lady was great!  I am so glad that we stopped by!

Here's pictures of the crafts we did at Lakeshore.  The hat is supposed to be a Thing 1 or 2 hat.  The plate hanging around her neck was supposed to be a Thing 1 or 2 sign.  In their hands are a bookmark and a silly character puppet.

A Hard Lesson Learned

Primus had a lesson today on not cheating and not lying.

This afternoon while we were doing an errand, she decided to do some pages from a Princess-themed math workbook that we got from the 99 Cent Store.  I noticed right away, though, that she had found the answer key in the back of the book and was using it to complete the first page. 

I was shocked and disappointed and gave her a quick lecture about cheating.  Then I removed the answer key. 

An hour later, we were home and I put the answer key back in the workbook.  Primus decided to do some more pages.  When she was done, she brought it to me to show me the page she did.  The page she had done was just a bit beyond her skill level so I asked her if she cheated again and several times she denied it.  But then I realized some compelling evidence and then she cracked and told me the truth.

I was mortified!  She's cheating!  And she's lying about it! 

She got a big lecture about it from me and Hubby.  Then she had to do two extra pages.  And then she was denied her daily media-time allowance.  I sure hope this lesson sunk in!

Scripture Memorization

Right from the beginning of our homeschool in the fall, I knew I wanted to start our day with memorizing a scripture or hymn.  So we started singing one Article of Faith per day until we had them all memorized. 

Then a couple months ago I discovered the Charlotte Mason method for scripture memorization.  It is awesome!  There is a good description of it here: http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/

Instead of index cards in a box, we use a binder with dividers.  We have used this method since the beginning of January.  And we have already memorized the scriptures that go along with the monthly themes in Primary for January, February, and March.  We've also memorized all 3 verses of the new song, "As a Child of God."  And now we are working on all 3 verses of the song, "Choose the Right" from the hymn book. 

I love starting the day with the scriptures and inspired hymns!

We Love Books!

We really do.  And I am so thrilled! 

Terius hasn't naturally taken to books the way Primus did from the beginning.  It could be because he is a boy, or because he is the third child.  But I am pleased to observe that he has lately been known to grab a picture book and flip through.  With a lot of children, I think especially boys, it helps if you make books available that are really interesting and then give them a comfy place to read.

This day the book that caught his eye was about the characters from one of his favorite movies, "Rio."  And the comfy place he found was the middle of the floor in the living room.  I couldn't have predicted that last part.



I love that Primus can read now.  She is often found reading to her siblings.  Tertius usually won't sit still to listen for more than a page, but Secundus usually enjoys it!

Presidents' Day

To accompany our Presidents' Day studies, I had a good discussion with Primus about Kings vs. Presidents and why our Founding Fathers decided presidents were better. 

I then pulled out these Presidents flash cards that my mother-in-law got for us.  They have a picture of the man on the front along with the number of which president they were.  On the back is their name, a copy of their signature, and a bunch of information.  I shuffled them up and had her put them back in the right order. 

She was able to recognize Washington, Lincoln, and Obama from their pictures. 

We also talked about how Presidents are elected every 4 years and that sometimes we vote to keep the same president 2 terms in a row. 

That led to a discussion of FDR being elected 4 times in a row and why we decided to change the law to disallow that. 

And she was fascinated by the fact that Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President but not the 23rd. 

I also mentioned how Ford was never elected at all because he was a Vice President who stepped up and finished the former President's, Nixon's, term but then wasn't reelected.



I am thankful for our country and the opportunity we have to vote for our leaders.  I have worked at a polling place every election since the first one that I could vote in.  My kids have definitely grown up in an atmosphere of political awareness and learned how important it is to vote.  I'm excited to work again this June for the Primary Election.  It is always a long day, but it is so worth it to be a part of the political process and to set a good example for my children!

Math Rocks

I saw this idea on someone else's blog a long time ago and thought I would share.  I gathered a bunch of little rocks from down by the river and painted numbers on them. 

On some rocks, I painted an addition sign on one side and a subtraction sign on the other.  Then there are also rocks with "equals" signs.  All of the rocks that have numbers have one number on one side and another number on the other side.  I painted all the odd numbers in blue and the even numbers in red.

I just used our washable tempera paint.  I had to give them a couple coats.  When they were completely dry, I sealed them with Mod Podge.

They are great for practicing number families.  For example, Primus made the number sentence, "8+12=20."  Well, then we took the 20, moved it in front of the 8, and adjusted the symbol rocks so the new sentence was, "20-8=12."  The 8 and the 12 could also be switched. 

Valentine's Day Crafts

The last time that we went to Lakeshore, they had several crafts going on, instead of just one.  Awesome!  Now I don't feel bad about not doing any crafts since Christmas! 

As you can see, they made crowns, colored a picture, crafted a card, made paper flowers, and made a Valentine mailbox.

Daily Choice List

I'm not one to stick to a routine.  We do have some structure around here, but I also value the option to totally stray from the schedule on a whim.  With homeschool, that translates into us flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants and learning/doing whatever sounds good or fits in that moment.  I don't do lesson plans.  I just have good curriculum and great resources available that we can grab at a moment's notice.  (The exception: morning calendar and journal time before breakfast.  This one doesn't get messed with very often.)

But I have noticed in the past couple weeks that Primus is hungry for something more predictable.  She needed a clear plan of what was expected of her each day.  So I determined that on average, we do 8 tasks a day.  A task could be a worksheet completed, or book read, or activity done. 

Primus must complete 8 tasks in the day before she can have her media time allowance (fake money we made to limit TV and video game time.)  She keeps track of this by putting little stickers in my lesson plan book where I write down what we did.

To accompany this new structure, I made up a list of general tasks that we could do on any given day.  This list is posted on our bulletin board.  She knows that I will choose our assignments from here, and that she can have some say throughout the day on what she is interested in doing.

The second list is Fun Stuff that she can do pretty independently that would also count as a task.  She can pick only one or two things from this list to do each day.

So far, this method is working well.  This afternoon I asked Primus to pick something from the list and she knew right away that she wanted to do animal science.  Great!  We hadn't done any science in a couple days so that was a good idea.  So we sat down with our Evan Moore curriculum and completed 3 science activities. 

This is going to be the perfect balance for us.  I can still be relaxed about routine while giving Primus a clear goal of how many things must be completed before school is "over" for the day.  And I can still reserve the right to decide at the last minute what needs to be done, while giving Primus some feeling of control as she gets to choose a few things that interest her at the moment.

More Painting

My friend's kid was complaining about being bored so after dinner I pulled out the paper roll and paint.  We had a good, solid 30 minutes of entertainment.  Now we have a decorated disposable table cloth for breakfast tomorrow.

A Homeschool with Homework?

This week I've been tending my friend's second grader everyday after school.  I cannot overstate how much I loathe school pick-up time. 

Anyway, it's been an interesting experience to have homework time everyday after school.  It's actually been nice in one way because I have been able to get Primus to sit down to do extra work at the same time as Friend did his homework.  We recently took a couple days off so I've been sneaking in extra work here and there to make up for those missed days.

In this picture, she is practicing spelling with word families.  Those big yellow dice in front of her have a bunch of different word families on them.  She would roll a dice and then have to think of and write down a word that belongs in that family.

On this day, even Tertius and Secundus did some "homework."  This was a rare moment that they were able to play with the same thing, at the same time, and not fight about it.  Heaven!