Peanut Butter Blossoms!

Yum! Yum! Yum! #MerryKissmas!

Red and gold sprinkles to get our blossoms in the holiday spirit!

Fresh from the bag!

My helper.  She helped roll the dough in sprinkles and then helped herself to some kisses.

Peanut Butter Blossoms are best when eaten fresh from the oven.

Hershey Kisses remains. 

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

Science Time! Muscles & Bones

Last week the kids were excited to get started on some science. We're following the Science - Biology Level L plan from Easy Peasy and after learning about biotic vs. abiotic the program move on to a simple human anatomy overview. The first lesson is about skin. The kids weren't too enthralled with it but I decided to supplement it with an episode of The Magic School Bus - Goes Cellular. Afterwards we dug the butcher paper out and started on our skeleton silhouettes so we could begin the big project!

My kids or creepy aliens?

A long weekend put our biology plans on hold and yesterday the kids were ready to start drawing! Our first lesson was all about muscles. Easy Peasy has a simple lesson plan laid out. The kids enjoyed the video about muscles especially the gluteus maximus joke. We later watched Sid The Science Kid - Muscle Boy Sid. Normally the kids don't care for Sid but they LOVED it yesterday! I think knowing a little about muscles made it more interesting for them. They enjoyed being able to explain to daddy about how muscles work. We then added biceps and quadriceps to our drawings:

Someone wanted purple muscles.

Today was focused on bones and how they protect our organs. I decided to hook up the laptop to the television so they could watch another Easy Peasy recommended video. The kids weren't too impressed. I did a search on Youtube and came across a great video about the skeletal system from MakeMeGenius.com. The graphics aren't the greatest but the video was short and the key points were reinforced thanks to a bright green parrot. We also watched a cute version of "Dem Bones" featuring skeletons on a felt board. Then it was time to add the radius and ulna along with the tibia and the fibula. Then it was time for lunch and an episode of The Magic School Bus - Flexes It's Muscles!

My sad attempt at drawing bones.

Learning As We Go!

In case I forgot to mention it, this is our first time homeschooling. I had planned on following the Easy Peasy schedule since it is totally free but for some reason it didn't seem like enough. I'm currently waiting on some books and programs I ordered for Language Arts to arrive. I should have most of them today and I will do a separate post on those later.

Today we focused on math - specifically The Number Line. C is pretty sharp when it comes to math. We are using the Light Blue Grade 1 from Math Mammoth and so far I am happy with it. He flew through the kindergarten review and the beginning Level 1 topics: Two Groups and a Total, Learning "+" and "-", Addition, Which is More?, Missing Items, and Sums with 5 and 6. Some of it he learned in kindergarten last year. We came to The Number Line yesterday and he was familiar with it While he isn't having trouble with the addition equations that accompany a number line, for some reason he gets confused when having to demonstrate the equation on the number line. For example:

If he is given the equation 2+4 he knows the answer is 6 but when he goes to show the equation using a number line, he will do odd things like count one tick mark as two numbers or he'll show the first part of the equation fine (2) but then he adds 6 more jumps rather than the 4 if that makes any sense. I tried making a small chart and using playing cards to make it seem more like a game.

It didn't go over too well so we stopped there. Today I tried using our Mala easel from Ikea. I originally bought this for the kids to play with but I'm discovering it's one of my favorite "classroom" tools! Anyways! I tried using this today and C continued to make the same mistake of inserting the answer into the addition equation. So I tried using just a blank number line with only 0 and 10 labeled. It ended up working! While he didn't do 100% he improved greatly. Maybe all those numbers just get in the way. I did notice that if he just focused on the answer instead of doing separate jumps for each part of the equation he did better.

Of course P was enthralled by this number line and wanted a turn too. She just turned 5 so I'm letting her take the lead as far as what "grade level" we work at. The other day we worked on adding using our hands and she just didn't like it too much so it didn't go far. She was adamant about having a turn with the number line. I started off with a shorter number line of 0-5 and kept it simple and she did very well!

I even tried to trick her by using a 0 but there is no fooling her!

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Amazon deals come and go with no warning. I'm not sure how long this will be on sale for so be sure to grab it quickly! (affliate link)

Liberty's Kids - The Complete Series

Our Homeschool Journey Begins!

We are officially a homeschooling family!  It took a few phone calls and resending an email of my Letter of Intent to the Home Education office at the BOE, but we did it. 

K will be using FLVS (Florida Virtual School) for his 9th grade core subjects and I'm hoping to supplement other courses using traditional homeschooling.  Keep your fingers crossed that I can figure this out.

C is a first grader.  I decided to fore-go a boxed curriculum and just put my own budget conscious curriculum together: 

- Math:  Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade 1

- History:  The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads

- Reading/Science:  Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool

I'm still tinkering around with everything.  One thing I noticed is that C's handwriting is awful especially considering that he's had two years of public schooling!  There is no consistency in the way he writes his letters and numbers which normally wouldn't be such a bad thing but it really slows him down and frustrates him.  He also has a very awkward way of holding his pencils.  I'm considering ordering Handwriting Without Tears and spend this year trying to help him improve his penmanship. For now we're just doing daily writing with focus on proper pencil holding techniques. 

Meanwhile I am doing some kinder work with P.  If we were still in Ohio, she would have been eligible for kindergarten since the cutoff was September 30.  Here in Florida she would be in VPK. 

I've also been researching some ideas to incorporate music and art into our curriculum.  Right now I'm still trying to find balance though.

K helping P while I worked with C.