Geography Pen Pal 1

For our home school this year, we've really been focusing on being Interactive, for fun, education, and responsibilities.  So as one of my best friends offered us the chance to join this cool Facebook group to help with Geography.  I had to say yes!  What fun it'll be for the kids.  So what we do is every month is mail out a package of fliers, information, details, coloring pages and a little trinket from the state where we live.  Its all about the state/ territory where you live and you share it with 13 other families so we have a package being mailed out and being received every month of school (as some of us are year round Home Schoolers).  

So here is our very first month package.  We got it from Oklahoma!    

K'er doing his coloring pages

2nd'er doing his coloring pages

 

OK state music details

OK state details

OK state famous people

OK state recipe

Here are the trinkets that we were given.
We turned the guitar picks into magnets so they don't get lost.

My Kindergartener had fun!

My 2nd Grader loved this activity!

Spanish Learning Songs for Kids

Details: Whistlefritz offers Spanish Learning Songs for children.  Lyrics and translations are included, all songs are sung in Spanish, Cd comes with 15 fun songs.  Child friendly songs such as Good Day Little Friends, Old McDonald had a farm, Toys, At the Zoo, Clap, Clap Little Hands and more, perfect for children to get up and sing along, and dance along with the great music.  Comes with the lyrics written out in Spanish, so you can learn to read along with the songs and learn the lyrics that way as well as by just listening to the songs.  There is also a Vocabulary section for each song, giving the English translation for each word so you can figure out what the song is about, and what you are learning to say.  You can buy this on Amazon.

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

  My Review:  As a home school teacher I was planning on keeping this CD a surprise for my children for the new school year this fall.  I was planning on listening to it when they were sleeping or with head phones so they couldn't hear it, but before I could they found it in my pile of school supplies I'm organizing. My children love happy music so much, that they have literally taken control of this CD and listen to it whenever they can. My 7 year old is begging for Spanish lessons, his 4 year old cousin and newest Aunt are primary Spanish speaking, and my son really wants to be able to talk to them better than he does now.  My 4 year old loves learning how to be big like his older brother, and is super excited that he has now figured out how to use the CD player without help.  He switches the CDs around, and sits in bed listening to music once his brother has fallen asleep at night, or he'll get up early and turn the music on to wake his brother up.  With this Whistlefritz CD I have found my kids hiding all around the house listening, singing along as best they can, and dancing when I'm not looking.  Its super cute to see them so excited about music, dancing and Spanish!  I am very impressed with how fun this CD really is for kids.  I love being able to see the Spanish lyrics so I can learn them and teach them to my kids, and I love seeing the English Translations so we can learn about what we really are singing.  I recommend this product for teachers, parents, Home School teachers, and well anyone who loves good music, loves to dance, and enjoys Spanish.

Pros: AWESOME

Cons: none

My Rating: Thumbs UP

Home Schooling with Foam

Lately I've been so focused on teaching my kids what they need to know, focusing on their subjects and getting through the school day that I haven't been making school very fun.  We are about a month behind on our school due to all the missed days through the school year so we have to school through the summer, which will actually be good so that my kids don't forget anything, and so that they aren't as bored this summer as well.

So I've decided that for the next 35 school days I am going to make school more fun!  Today we did something that made reading, writing, spelling, shape recognition, and following directions more fun for both my preschooler and first grader.

At the Dollar Tree I found these packs of sticky foam (similar to play dough, just a different texture) in a bunch of different colors.  I let each child pick up a color and bring it home.  Some of the foam packs we've used are super sticky and some are not as sticky.  So just be aware your children might complain if its super sticky because the little foam balls will stick all over their skin.  But letting the foam air out helps it not be so sticky.

 My Preschooler loves to be surprised with what we do every day for school, so making daily activities and exercises more fun helps keep that surprise element and helps me be a better teacher.

Using foam to make letters

making shape outlines

making solid shapes

making numbers

3D shapes

following lines or directions

My First Grader has struggled with reading and spelling this year and last year as well.  But doing fun activities like this, he really enjoys learning to do his school work instead of fighting it.  For this happy smile I'll work harder at making school more fun!

uses foam to spell words

using rhyming flash cars

using a white board and a plastic sheet cover

we use lower case

letters with the foam

and upper case

letters with the foam

like this

or like this

Phase 2: Jobs and Charts

For Phase 2, we actually took longer than I planned to print off and make the Velcro stickers the boys can move across their Job Charts.  So here is what we did.  The boys cut out the printed pictures we found online using Google Images.  They each found and printed and cut out 10 pictures, with my help.

  Then they cut foam sheets to go with each picture, and using Elmer's glue they glued the foam to the paper images.

 Once those were dry, they then helped me cut up bits of Velcro and hot glue them to the back of each foam image.

 The finished product was that there were 10 foam Velcro images that each boy would be using on his own Job Chart.  5 images were jobs he should be doing daily, and 5 were jobs he will do weekly.  We decided to make it super easy right now, and we'll of course add more jobs each time we move, and as each child gets bigger.

Jobs, Charts, and Responsibility

My kids have been begging us for months now to earn real money so they can buy toys that we never buy them.  They don't want to do chores to earn money, they want to do "jobs" around the house to earn the money.  So this is step one of getting into this whole Parents who are now giving our kids allowances.  So what we are starting with is our interactive "job" charts for the kids.  To help them get super excited about doing "jobs" around the house to get money; I helped them put their "job" charts together.  They glued their titles on the top of their foam core boards.  Then they decorated them, with markers, then they hot glued Velcro onto their boards, and lastly helped me pick out pictures to match the jobs we've all agreed for them to do around the house.  

letters

gluing letters

gluing letters

decorations

decorations

recycling Velcro

by cutting off foam paper

My 4 year old's finished job chart

hot gluing Velcro

my 6 year old's finished job chart