Home School Interaction part 2

So for this year's school season, we are really going into Interaction for my kids.  They love school now, so its time to show you what I'm doing to make school more fun this year.  

 Fishing for 100 Days: Last year we tried to focus on having a 100th day of School party, but due to our cercumstance and situation of being on the go since we were living with family in their home, I forgot to keep track.  So this year I'm making it up to them.  Especially since now both kids are in "real" school grades.  Here's our super fun chart, that cost me 50 cents.  Its great!  We use our neon wipe off markers to mark the days we do school.  The kids get 2 options with this.  Have me fill in each school day with the color they choose or have them each take turns coloring the fish in each day.

Last year my children really struggled with "counting their blessings" being grateful for anything, especially really understanding why being grateful and saying Thank you is so important.  So I created a Gratitude Tree last year, that was bigger than this one, but due to space on our walls I had to re-paint a new Gratitude Tree for this year and start over.  But the kids like seeing their Gratitude Tree during our whole school day, so its a great swap.

For my Second Grader, he really wants to know what his schedule is, what subjects he will be doing each day, and how long each subject will last.  So I bought him a Job Chart for school.  I have a list of every subject we'll cover this semester.  Than I color in the subjects we'll do each day.  Then as we complete a subject my Second Grader gets to erase that subject for that day.  So far he's loving it...we haven't kept every subject exactly yet, but its working better than not having something for him to keep track with.

My Kindergartener was getting jealous that his older Brother was having a "School Chart" so it was time to get him his own too.  This one is scaled down for his age, and a little more fun to look at.  So there's an apple for each day, and on each day I will do one of two options.
1. Write all subjects out in the same colored wipe off marker ink,
2. Write each subject out in a different colored wipe off marker ink.

Then he too, gets to erase the subject he has completed.  This is really helping this little guy because he has a short addention span, can't hold still worth beans unless its REALLY FUN for him, or complains that school takes SOOOOOOO long.  So now he knows just how long school will be, and how much smarter he will get each time he finishes a school subject.

Home School Interaction part 1

This is my first year where I'll actually be accountable for Home schooling 2 children.  I will be doing Kindergarten, and 2nd/1st grade too.  We are in our own place now, and actually worked all summer on creating a fun, school area/room for me and the kids.  Since we're going to be stable in our own place I no longer needed to have a Home School on the Go.  So now I'm focusing on a fun, interactive home school experience for myself as Teacher, and for each of my children.  To start this interactive focus off with, I found some awesome calendar/ weather charts that are high quality enough/ strong enough that kids can use it without ruining them.  First off, my Calendar package that I bought on Amazon here.

package

what's included

well sewn quality

here's what it looks like today!

Pros: I love this whole package, love the images, love the colors, love the ease of use for children

Cons: none

My Rating: THUMBS UP

 Secondly, here's my Weather package.  I bought it from Amazon here.  My children and I love charting weather over a monthly basis.  It helps make our school day more fun, and brings in science weather into a more focused understanding.

Here's the company who sold this product online

Kaplan mailed my packed all bent up...not cool

numbers, days of the week, and weather images galore!

There are no perforated lines, so I had to free hand cut these out.

I was able to get all the pieces to lay flat after a few
days of being flattened by heavy books.

Their cards for "past, present, future" measuring were WAY too big, so I cut off about 2/3s off.

here's what it looks like today as we use it!

Pros: love the chart idea, love the images, love the hot, cold, windy, foggy cards as well, easy for K-2 aged children to use

Cons: I don't like how I had to free hand cut all these cards out, I don't like how I don't have any storage options attached to this chart, I am still disappointing that this company bent the chart when shipping it

My Rating: Thumbs Up still works well over all

My Growing Up Chart

Details: The Victoria Chart Company's "My Growing Up Chart" is a reward chart for children from 4 years of age and up.  Their motto is to "Encourage and praise for positive child development".  Perfect for children of elementary school aged children.  Their charts have customization, a complete reward program/ kit, and reusable.  They even have a matching app for iphone/ apple tech products.  Charts come with plastic reusable stickers with pictures, and even some that you can write on to customize it for your child's need, a wipe of pen, numbered stickers 1-20, gold star stickers that say "Good Job", an 8 row laminated chart, kit tips, and tricks for how to have this chart work best for you, your family and child, and of course the chart itself which is 11"x 25".  The Victoria Chart Company has all kinds of charts: bedtime, homework, behavioral, potty training, etc.

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:  I love chore charts, job charts, reward charts.  It's great to give the child a sense of responsibility in a form they love.  It's also wonderful for them to visually see how well they are doing.  This visual praise is a real confidence booster.  As a Mom to children who are in Elementary school, I find visual charts that children get to see, touch, and interact with help keep the school environment calm, organized, and positive.  As a Mom, my children beg to help out around the house, beg to earn

allowance, and want to generally help Mommy.  But I personally find it hard to remember to give them something to help out with, or forget to give them their allowance, and then end up forgetting how much they earned etc.  So these charts help me stay organized, and on track as well because its something my kids want to use and love to use so then I see it as much as they do.  As a Home school teacher, my children don't normally have home work, but sometimes we take a really long time getting through our school day because the kids aren't having a happy day, or I'm not having a happy day, so having a chart that I can use to help us be happy and have fun while working on our school work helps keep our home peaceful, happy, and positive.  Over all, I'm very pleased with this chart, and happy to have had this opportunity to test, try and review it.  I recommend this product, because it is reusable, the stickers are easy to move around versus tiny little magnets on charts that I've had in the past.  And most of all I love that my 4 year old can use this and know what it is and how to use it without knowing how to read!

Pros: easy for kids to use, fun for kids to use, easy for parents/ teachers to help with, reusable, wipe clean charts

Cons: none

My Rating:  Thumbs Up

Learn Spanish on the Go

Details: Pimsleur Approach: Gold Edition: Pimsleur Spanish Level 1( comprehensive 1).  Get started instantly with access to a whole new world of learning a new language via CDs.  This approach to learning a new language has been proven to be the fastest and easiest way of learning.  What to expect: when pressing play you open the doors to the language of Spanish where you will listen in sequence, follow along, speak out loud and it only takes one lesson a day.  Your Pimsleur Spanish package comes with 16 CDs, 2 lessons on each CD, each lesson is roughly 30 minutes.

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:  I am very interested in learning to hold meaningful conversations in Spanish as I now have family who speaks only Spanish.  Its not fun being the only one in the room unable to communicate, and sit there looking dumb, at the same time wondering are they talking about you? As a home school teacher I am also interested in giving my children secondary languages as they ask for them.  My children want to learn Spanish, so if this Pimsleur program can work for adults I find no reason to try it with children as well.  But since our current school year is almost over, I will be holding onto this until the next school year starts in the fall before I introduce my children to this program.

For this review I very quickly played the CDs to see what to expect.  Each lesson is a conversation, but with different components of conversations, or speaking parts of speech.  For example, you will learn how to ask for directions;  how to speak to a man or woman, how to be polite while conversing with Latinos, and much more.  I was a little surprised when I first started listening to the CDs because I was expecting to learn numbers, then colors, shapes, simple house hold words, then phrases, questions, answers etc...like how they teach you in school.  but this approach really is different, and more engaging than text book lessons.  I started listening to the CDs as I do my chores around the house, or while cooking dinner for my family.  Because these are CDs I highly recommend that you get a CD player that you can easily carry around with you, because a big one isn't as convenient.

How it works: there are two voices a man and a woman who you hear converse with each other on various topics that would actually be important to learn when speaking to people of a Spanish speaking country, or heritage.  They each take turns repeating specific words, and phrases; in between spaces for you to follow along by saying what they say out loud.  Each lesson builds off the previous lesson, and gives you ample ability to continue to build off what you are learning before moving on.   I know this program will be even bigger or more popular if they go to itune type files that you can have on your ipod, ipad, tablet, or phone as they want this program to be accessible for people who travel via planes.

Pros: handy, easy to engage with, easy to follow along with, lots of recitation and repetition,

Cons: because this is a CD course, you need a portable CD player,

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

Marble Raceway 2.0

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Details: The Learning Journey International: Techno Gears Marble Mania Raceway 2.0: Race series 200+ pieces, action packed marble maze with a marble launcher.  Comes with a full color instruction manual, windmill marble drop, marble twisters, QI scanner codes for marble action.  Best for children 6 and older.  Not recommended for children under age 3 as there are lots of small choking hazard pieces.  "Kids with race to the finish as they build and create their own raceway."  You can find this toy and others similar on amazon.

my kids dressed up

My Review: I am a home school teacher.  I have a First/ Second grader, and a Preschool/ Kindergartner.  They love learning, but struggle when I don't make school fun.  As a teacher and their mother I am always on the lookout for fun educational tools, toys, and games.  The Learning Journey's Techno Gears Marble Mania Raceway 2.0 is exactly one of those fun educational toys and games.  When I signed up to test, try and review this product I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.  I didn't realize how much I would learn from this tool as well.  I didn't realize how much fun the hard work it took to set this up would make it all worth it.  So let's start at the beginning.  We got the package delivered in the late afternoon, but due to base ball games and bed time we weren't able to set it up right away.  My kids were begging every hour it seemed until we were able to set it up.  So I started working on this at 11 am.  We pulled the pieces out of the box, I started taking pictures, then we started reading through the instructions.  Looking at the full color manual I noticed my pulse quickening.  Taking pictures of all the bags of ALL the pieces I started hyperventilating.  How can something that looks so fun really take that many pieces?  How the heck am I going to put it together?  Because even though my oldest is 7 almost 8 there is no way he can put this together all by himself.  Let me stop and give you all the experience I have at building with tiny little pieces.  Um...yep...basic Lego's (I can build a house, sheep, and a wagon), Trio Blocks ( these aren't small pieces so I can be more creative with them) that's all the experience I have had.

 So we started separating all the pieces (but kept them in their numbered bags), then we started at the beginning.  I went slowly from page to page one part then three parts and so on.  It literally took me a whole hour or longer just to build this raceway.  My oldest helped a lot along the way (I'd give him a set of directions like attach #9 to the #13, then attach that set to another #13 and a #12.).  But he didn't always want to help because it was taking so long.  I begged my husband to come help, but he said he wanted to see me do it so I would feel good about myself.  Around 12:30-12:45 I was done, and got to start taking pictures of the finished product and start filming my kids playing with it.  I have kept it up in our school area for the last 3-4 days and they play with it every day as part of school.  I highly recommend this product.  Not just because its a fun toy for children to play with, but that its a great home school tool.  Learning is great when we as teachers can make it fun and realistic/ or life like for our students.  I have a ton more pictures and some little video clips posted on Youtube.  Here is a link for you to follow to see my kid's reactions to this toy.

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.

Did I run into any problems? Yes.  The first was while I was building it.  On page 14 of the manual it gave a set of instructions but it wasn't until page 16 or so that I realized that I didn't fully get what the instructions were saying, so I wrote down my notes in the manual.  Once this is built, it is pretty much impossible to take apart, so if something comes off or "breaks" accidentally its not easy to fix.  You really have to know how to put it together again, so to easily fix this problem I highly suggest keeping all the extra pieces, the manual, and even the box too.

Pros: super fun to play with, you get to teach/ learn reactions, speed, processes, sequencing/ what comes next, following directions, sciences

Cons: as mentioned above I did run into a few problems, but I easily came up with solutions, so at this point I don't have any cons to mention.

My Rating: Thumbs Up!

Home School Craft Time

 One of my favorite parts of home schooling my children is being able to do fun crafts outside when the weather is nice.  This was a fun one, hand painting ceramic train banks.