Lost one :(

One of the chicks we had to help out, died yesterday. We aren't really surprised, as we figure something was wrong with him to begin with. He had only pecked one hole, and was in the shell with his beak sticking out and chirping for 24hrs or so and never progressed. The 2nd one had just started breaking out, but was very late in hatching, so we went ahead and helped him as well. He is doing fine, but will be at the bottom of the pecking order for sure. Now hopefully we have a good number of hens in the bunch, since eggs are our main purpose.

They hatched!!

Go back to the Chickens post...I updated teh slideshow with the pics of our new chicks. We had 1 hatch on the night of the 26th, then one more on the 27th, than 5 more the night of the 27th, Then 3 more on the 28th...and then on the 29th we had to help the last 2 out of their shells. So we have 12 chicks out of 13 eggs!

Spring is in the air!

We did Spring last week, here is our lapbook.

For the cover (I will add a pic soon), I cut out the letters to spell Spring and had DS glue them on, I then gave him several small sheets of spring themed stickers which he decorated it with.

In the lapbook, I have several mazes, dot-to-dots to get him writing, these are in plastic coversheets and he uses a dry erase marker. In the purple pockets are spring dominoes, memory, a puzzle and counting cards.

For this week we also planted sunflower seeds. We used an 18ct paper egg carton and filled the cups with soil, then pushed down a sunflower seed and watered.

We talked about how plants grow, and we read this book There are several other good plant books on my site as well.

We are going to join on with the great sunflower project, once our sunflowers start to grow!

Next week our chicks are due to hatch, so we will be studying chickens this coming week.

Some links I used for the spring lapbook:
Mini-books
Spring Activities
More spring activities
Spring games and puzzles
Lapbook Ideas

Chickens!!!

So our newest project...

We take them off the turner on the 25th and should hatch about the 27th. So stay tuned. The week they are due to hatch we will be doing a chicken lapbook.

But for next week's topic....SPRING

File Folder Games

I got a laminator (YEAH!!) and put it to good use today making up a few file folder Games. I got them from here. They are great, free and you can print them already colored!! (Bonus!!).

Johnny Appleseed

We had a lot of fun with Johnny Appleseed, and Apples in general. We weighed them against a few household things, we did fruit prints, we made apple sauce, and probably his favorite thing was taste testing the different apples and determining whether they were sweet or sour.

We also did a lapbook for this unit (all items were taken from links I posted in a previous post). I also cut out the letters to spell Apples and had him glue them on the back. I actually had one more double spread that I didn't know what to do with so I glued them together. Later I thought of some stuff, I could have put a picture recipe for the applesauce, I found another mini book of Johnny Appleseed that I could have added (this was in a book of mini-books I had on my homeschool book shelf).

Our Weekly Craft

I post a weekly kid craft on my mom's board, frederickmommies.com, this was last weeks craft, it took us awhile to actually get it done.
The assignment for babies was ice cube painting, and for Preschool was marble painting. Cole really enjoyed it. He made two pictures, and wanted to make more.

To finish off polar bears

So to finish off the polar bears this week. We watched some more of the videos I have posted about previously. We also did a science project. I'm not sure how I feel about it, It didn't work as well as I had hoped (I found it online at one of the many links I have posted already). But the point was made, so that's good. I filled the sink with cold water and dumped a bunch of ice into (great time to clean out the ice maker)...and had him put his hands in, we talked about how it felt (cold, duh!) and why it was cold, and where polar bears live, and if the water there would be cold, and how he thought the polar bears stayed warm. Then I covered his and my hand in veg shortening (or as he called it FAT!). But you must have to really coat it on THICK to get it to work well...I put it on pretty thick but the water was still cold. So I had him put both his hands in and tell me which one felt colder...(the one with out the FAT). So the point was made...
Washing it off was another challenge...lol. It would have been more fun if I had had some plastic toy polar bears. O well.
We also did an art project, I had a large polar bear stamp, so he dipped it in white paint and put it on black paper. We also did or FM weekly kid craft, which was marble art. We used black and white again, and he rolled the marbles in white paint, then put the paper in a box lid, and rolled the marbles around the paper. He really enjoyed that. Will post pics later, once I get them downloaded.

All About Me Lapbook

Here is the first lapbook we did, it's still a work in progress. I was a bit too ambitious I think and DS sort of lost interest in it.

I don't remember exactly where I got all the stuff I used for it. But I did get some ideas and materials from here and here and here and here (this is a great video tutorial)

How to on Lapbooking

I had a request to post instructions on lapbooking. Really I just do my own thing, but I learned some techniques from this site

Before making a lapbook, I just google the topic followed by lapbook...so for polar bears I googled "polar bear lapbooks", I will also google the topic followed by preschool activities or curriculum. Then I collect different things from different sites and incorporate that into the lapbook. I try to keep the stuff at a 3yo level, I find that DS gets bored really quick if I have too much older stuff on there, like stuff that I have to write and fill in, I try to make it so that he can do most of the work himself, with just a little assistance from me.

I have always made and used File Folder Games even when I taught preschool many years ago (okay maybe not that many, but it was quite awhile ago). A Lapbook is basically a file folder game, but more in depth. Anything Goes. The can be as simple or as complex as you'd like.

For the Polar Bear Lapbook. I cut out the Polar Bear Shape and Letters to spell Polar Bear on my cricut, and had DS glue them on the front.
Then on the inside we glued a map of where polar bears live. Taken from here , this is also where I got the trading card that I laminated for him. Under that we put a mini book that I filled in with his help, and he did the colors of the bear part with a crayon. I got that here, we found the answers to fill in the blanks by reading a book about polar bears, you could also find the answers on the fact sheet that came with the map link I gave earlier in this post.
On the Left side I put this shape book . I folded it over and cut out the polar bear shape. I then cut out the sentences and I read them to DS and he glued them on.
Under that I glued another picture (and I can't seem to find where I got that from at the moment)...but it shows what their paw prints are like, and some other characteristics of polar bears.
On the back I glued a picture of a polar bear that DS colored...it could be any picture really. Then I stapled a page protector on the back that has a polar bear maze on one side and a colored picture on the other. Maze and picture. Then I stapled to sandwich ziploc bags, in one are cards for making compound words and a polar bear puzzle I colored, laminated and cut out. And that's it. It's a cinch. There are lots more ideas at this great site in regards to polar bear lapbooks and activities.

Getting Ready for Johnny Appleseed

So March 11th is Johnny Appleseed Day, and DS is already a big fan...so we are going to go with that theme next week. I have found soooo much stuff online to do with apples and Johnny Appleseed as well. I thought I would share some it beforehand, then I'll show you our finished projects next week.

Apple File Folders
Lapbook Items
More Lapbook Ideas
More Johnny Appleseed Ideas

I'm really excited about this one, lots of fun ideas!

Polar Bear Lapbook

Here is the lapbook we did:
On the cover I cut out a polar bear and the letters to spell Polar Bear on my cricut and he glued them on. On the inside, I have a mini book that we filled out together about Polar Bears, a map of where they live, another mini book that he glued sentences into about what Polar Bears eat, and then a little picture that points out parts of a polar bear and has their feet prints. On the back cover I have a polar bear maze in a cover sheet so he can use a dry erase on it, and the back side is a picture he colored (sort-of) of a polar bear and her cubs. In the ziploc bags I have a polar bear puzzle, and polar bear word cards for making compound words, he can only read some of the words, so I read them to him and we had fun making nonsense words, and real words. Then glued to the back is another picture I printed of a polar bear and where he wrote his name for the FIRST time. He asked me to help him out of the blue (he typically has no interest in writing at all)...so I helped him with the C, he wrote the o and L, and I helped with the e...not bad for his first time! We also printed out a polar bear card from National Geographic Kids (they had lots of stuff on their site, I linked it in the polar bear post before this one).

**They have a lot of stuff at homeschool share, but you can google Polar Bears and find a ton of stuff!  Sorry this is an old post that I have just updated and I don't have all the links to the items I posted.






I found some more great Polar Bear video links:
San Diego Zoo
They even have a live polar cam of their polar bear exhibit...but it's a little slow, and didn't hold my 3yo's attention very well.

and some more videos
here
and
here

Next week is Johnny Appleseed!

International Polar Bears Day

Feb 27th was International Polar Bears Day, in celebration of this we are talking about Polar Bears this week. I had some forethought and managed to remember to get some books about Polar Bears from the BookMobile.
I plan to make a lap book on this topic with him this week.
So far we have read a polar bear book, watched the artic segment from BBC The Planet Earth, and also checked out the webpage on Polar Bears from National Geographic Kids
and made a polar bear craft . Except we cut the circles out of black because polar bears have black skin, and glued cotton balls on it for the white fur. There are some good ideas here and here

I'll post pictures of our finished product at the end of the week.

The Holes In Your Nose

A simple anatomy lesson. When swimming in a pool on vacation a few weeks ago, I asked my 3yo to put his face in the water, he said "No sorry, I can't because I have these holes in my nose". It sparked my memory that Usborne Books carries a book caleld "The Holes in Your Nose"... (I am an Usborne Consultant). And I remembered I had one in my inventory. So when we returned home, I pulled it off my shelf. It's a great book! It explains about the holes in your nose, why they are there, what they are for, what they are NOT for...etc... all at a young child's level. It is rather humorous (atleast my husband and I thought so). It is originally a Japanesse book that has been translated into English. But Cole learned alot about noses. It is now one of his new favorite books. After reading it a few times, he came to me in the kitchen and said, "Mom, I don't have hair in my nose"...I told him, "Check daddy's nose, I bet he has hair", and he excitedly ran from the kitchen saying, "I bet he does!". We visited my parents this last weekend for my Dad's Birthday, and my Dad mentioned to me that Cole had told him about this book, and he was talking about how he was going to have a big nose when he got bigger.
It's amazing the little things we can teach our children when we go off of their interests and natural curiosities.

You can buy it here

Ten Apples Up On Top

My 3 year old was really into the book Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss. So I decided to make a counting game for him that was a spin off of the book. I put his picture at the bottom, and cut out 10 apples and affixed velcro so he can put them on and take them off. I made number cards for him to pick to show him how many to put on top of his head. He enjoyed the game. I think that I will make some new cards that have easy math problems...like 5 + 5, to teach him addition and subtraction.

Scripture Study

Probably the one concrete thing we do is Scripture Study. Everything else is more fly by the seat of my pants.
I ordered this felt book from Time4felt.com It gives him something to play with while I read. Though some days he isn't too into it, other days he is. It just depends on his mood.
I use the storied scriptures reading schedule from the school of abraham I like doing it this way because it really takes the meat out of the scriptures, and for a 3 year old, attention span is lacking some. This way we get to the heart of the stories.
I also print of coloring pages from The Living Scriptures coloring books that go with the story we are reading...or I do google searches or search lds.org to find pictures that go with the stories if LSI does not have matching ones. Each day after we read the excerpt, he colors a page (some days he doesn't want to, some days he scribbles it, and some days he asks me to color it). Then we put them together to form a book about that story. Each time we reveiw what we have talked about already. Our Nephi books goes from Lehi preaching to them reaching the promised land.
I also use some supplemental books occasionaly, like the Who's Your Hero books, My Frist Scripture Board Books, Turn your little ones into Book of Mormon Whiz Kids, and Scripture Study for Latter Day Saint Families (Book of Mormon Edition). I also own the Book of Mormon DVD's from The Living Scriptures, so after we finish an entire story, we watch the DVD...usually we do it for FHE after the main lesson. I find that this helps him visualize the stories a lot better. I grew up on these scripture cartoons and they helped me remember the stories as well. We also have scripture stickers that we put in the scriptures when we read the stories as well.

It works well for us and most days he asks to do scriptures.

Family Home Evening is another constant. My oldest is a Sunbeam, so we just use the SunBeam manual and repeat the lesson he had the previous Sunday. I have 2 supplement books Primary Partners vol 1 & 2 that I use to add something to the lesson. I usually keep the lesson short though, like 5 mins. For example last night I cut out a moon, a sun, some stars and a cloud. I took a 12x12 navy blue peice of paper, and glued a sky blue piece over half of it. While I talked about day and night, he glued the pieces on. Then I read the story blue train, green train...which talks about how Thomas works during the day and Percy works at night. IT has little poems about the sun and moon in it. We talked about things we do during the day and things we do at night. The whole thing lasted maybe 10mins.

Inspiration

I found a new blog Latter-Day Homeschooling, and it inspired me to start a homeschooling blog of my own. So here is to a new blog, and sharing ideas with others.
Right now I am homeschooling (unschooling) my 3 year old. It's been an adventure so far. I hope to get caught up by posting pictures and ideas of things we have done thus far....and then continue to share throughout this journey we have embarked on!
In the meantime check out this blog http://www.latter-dayhomeschooling.com/