Homeschool Brag Time Thursday Hop #17

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Welcome to Homeschool Brag Time Thursday!

Come link up your Homeschool related posts to 'brag' about the great things you and your kids are doing! Browse around and see what others are up to as well! (Please link up the direct URL of the post you are 'bragging' about!)

Please Follow your hosts and grab our Brag Time Button to display in your post or on your blog so others can join in the fun as well! (Failure to follow these specific guidelines will result in your link up being deleted, so PLEASE be sure to 1) link up the direct URL of your post and 2) post the hop button on your post or blog (where we can find it).  We also kindly ask that you follow us, we WILL follow you back!) Thank you!

Workboxes - Whales

Tot School
34 months

Whale Size Sort

Ww Box


Melissa & Doug Sea Life Wooden Chunky Puzzle

Whale Puzzle

Whale Stamping (stamp and large stamp pads from Oriental Trading)

Feed the whale (fish bean bags from Oriental Trading)

Whale Stencil Tracing (Stencil from Oriental Trading)

#3 Whales Worksheet


Whale matching

K – 5yo

Whale 3 part cards – I used these cards in the whale matching tot activity and we also used a set to make our baleen v/s tooth chart, and to label where the whales live.

Humpback Anatomy cards

Dot-to-dot and Whale Math Games from Enchanted Learning

And the whale ate baby!! (he climbed in to get all the fish out, lol)

You can follow my OCEANS Pinterest board for links to these and other great OCEAN themed activities!
Books we read:

And if you missed our field trip you can view it HERE, another whale related trip coming this week as well.

COMING UP NEXT:  Since Gray Whales (like the ones in the movie BIG MIRACLE) migrate to Mexico, our next unit will be MEXICO (because we are WAY overdo for a Little Passports lesson)…followed by DOLPHINS (since dolphins are related to Whales!!  A few of the Tot Activities will carry over to the next few units.
Linking up with these great blogs: (find the buttons in my right sidebar)
Tot School
Montessori Monday
Teach Me Tuesday
Link & Learn
Preschool Corner
No Ordinary Blog Hop
The Sunday Showcase
Science Sunday
FreeBEE Friday
What my Child is Reading

Great My Memories offer!

If you've been considering purchasing My Memories, now is the time!!

Now through March 31st, every Person who buys MyMemories Suite Software using your STM promo code during this Special Limited Time Offer is eligible to receive a One Year RAKStar Membership - free!! That's a free HUGE Digital Scrapbooking kit every month - and it's MyMemories Suite compatible, so it's like getting a free software content upgrade every month!! Valued at $247.35!!!

All you need to do is purchase the software and use code STMMMS57311 and you'll recieve $10 off of the software and $10 off of store purchases, as well as a free ONE YEAR Membership to RAKStar!

Just email me your purchase receipt (dated now through March 31st) and I'll get you a Gift Certificate good for one RAKStar Membership!

What is a RAKStar Membership??

So, let's do the math:

 $39.99 MyMemories Suite Software

-$10.00 Using your promo code

---------------------------------------------

$29.99 Payment

---------------------------------------------

+$10 in free merchandise

+$19.95 RAKStar Membership

---------------------------------------------

=$29.95 Free Bonuses

However you add it up - it's an incredible deal for the Best Digital Software on the Planet!

What are you waiting for?  Go to www.mymemories.com and don't forget to use code STMMMS57311

Don't forget to grab this weeks freebie from the right sidebar, and check back each week for a new one! There is also lots of free packs at the My Memories online store, and a weekly freebie on their facebook page!!  

**BONUS** Each person who send me their purchase receipt also gets a chance to win a free 8x8 photobook from Shutterfly.com (prize is a coupon code good until Dec 1, 2012).  Have your first My Memories made pages printed for FREE!!  Drawing will be held April 1st.

Valentine’s Day (and Your Heart)

I posted all our tot school Vday activities before Vday, and meant to do a short after post with some updates, and show what we did with my 5yo as well….but never got around to it.  Well, better late than never, right?? 

do-a-dot on the window, we found these cool dot window markers, and decorated our windows!  (we saw a similar idea of tracing the lines on another blog…can’t remember which, sorry).

This was the first time the kiddos used our light table (since I made it) and they loved it, even c (15mos) was really into it!  Of course a lot of the gel clings got tore up by the littlest tot, but still fun!!

Using Color box 2 with Z, we’ve really been working on his colors, he has a speech delay, so it’s made it difficult, but he is improving greatly!

Some kindergarten math – graphing candy hearts, and chocolate addition.  We used a small bottle filled with water, glitter and 2 di.  He would shake it up, and then take the two numbers write them in the box and add them up.  He had small paper candies to use as counters if he needed.

You can find all the printables on my VDAY Pinterest board or on the other VDay blog post. 

I used this recipe for the chocolate play dough…I found that it would get dry and scaly looking quickly, so I added some EVOO to it…just a tad and worked it in, it made it much smoother and softer.

We also talked about our own HEARTS!
We listened to our hearts beat with a stethoscope, and we found and felt our pulses.

These are the books we used:

Field Trip #35 Friday Blog Hop

Field Trip Friday!

A Blog Hop designed to share 'FIELD TRIP' related Blog Posts

(does not have to be a 'home school field trip', can be any trip to any place with your children!)


We started off our Whale Unit going to the movie theater to see the movie BIG MIRACLE.  C actually requested we go and watch it when he saw the preview on tv, and it fit in perfectly, so why not?

Then we boarded a catamaran to go Whale Watching.  Humpback Whales migrate from Alaska to Hawaii every winter.  We were lucky enough to see several whales!   It was a lot of fun, the boys talked about it for weeks before hand, and are still talking about it now.  I'll be posting our whale unit next week, so stay tuned!

(digi scrapped with My Memories Suite Software)

**NOTE:  Before linking up please review guidelines HERE

Homeschool Brag Time Thursday Hop #16

<center><a href="http://chestnutgroveacademy.blogspot.com/p/brag-time-blog-hop.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Chestnut Grove Academy" src="http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy117/williamsmk/HSBlogHeader-004.jpg"/></a></center>

Welcome to Homeschool Brag Time Thursday!

Come link up your Homeschool related posts to 'brag' about the great things you and your kids are doing! Browse around and see what others are up to as well! (Please link up the direct URL of the post you are 'bragging' about!)

Please Follow your hosts and grab our Brag Time Button to display in your post or on your blog so others can join in the fun as well! (Failure to follow these specific guidelines will result in your link up being deleted, so PLEASE be sure to 1) link up the direct URL of your post and 2) post the hop button on your post or blog (where we can find it).  We also kindly ask that you follow us, we WILL follow you back!) Thank you!

Thank you!

I'm so excited, I received a email this morning containing this:

Nominations were submitted by our readers from January 18th through February 15 for six homeschooling award categories. I will be awarding total of six Homeschooling WINNER badges on March 30th.

The top five finalists in each category will be put to a vote starting February 22 through March 21. Readers are allowed to vote once a day during the voting period. Please get the word out to your friends, family members, Facebook Friends, Twitter buddies, etc. to cast votes on your behalf... be sure to let them know to return often and keep voting! FYI, voters are required to give their email address OR be logged-in to Facebook or About.com before casting their votes. This requirement assures a fair contest for all the finalists.

Please click the badge above to vote for me, as stated ONE vote per day is allowed per facebook account!  

VOTE HERE

Ratatouille

We have not had a whole lot of success in our garden, BUT we have had success with eggplant and tomatoes (previously also turnips, beets and radishes).  So I polled my facebook foodie friends for ideas on what to do with eggplant.  Here is my first attempt at a recipe.  I must say it was actually pretty tasty. Q says it needs meat, but I tried to explain to him that eggplant is a meat substitute, he didn’t care. 

Here is the recipe I used.

1 onion, sliced thin

2 garlic cloves, minced

5 tablespoons olive oil

a 3/4-pound eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 3 cups)

1 small zucchini, scrubbed, quartered lengthwise, and cut into thin slices

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3/4 pound small ripe tomatoes, chopped coarse (about 1 1/4 cups)

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled

1/8 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shredded fresh basil leaves
In a large skillet cook the onion and the garlic in 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons oil and heat it over moderately high heat until it is hot but not smoking. Add the eggplant and cook the mixture, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes, or until the eggplant is softened. Stir in the zucchini and the bell pepper and cook the mixture over the moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for 12 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cook the mixture, stirring occassionaly, for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the oregano, the thyme, the coriander, the fennel seeds, the salt, and pepper to taste and cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the basil and combine the mixture well. The ratatouille may be made 1 day in advance, kept covered and chilled, and reheated before serving.
Read More http://www.epicurious.com:80/recipes/food/views/Ratatouille-12164#ixzz1m86Hx1iA

You can find it and more fresh veggie recipes on my CSA pinterest board

Field Trip #34 Friday Blog Hop

Field Trip Friday!

A Blog Hop designed to share 'FIELD TRIP' related Blog Posts

(does not have to be a 'home school field trip', can be any trip to any place with your children!)


This weeks field trip was a total FAIL!  We were suppose to go and see a play about Pirates, and well...I mixed up some emails and was at the wrong theater to see the play, but the time I realized it we did not have enough time to get to the correct theater...so no play!  Boo!    We did visit a little park next to the (wrong) theater, and then did some walking through Chinatown, before heading to McDonald's for lunch...and of course the play place was CLOSED because of all the rain we had received the day before...  O well... it was still a good day spent outdoors in beautiful Hawaii!  


To add even more insult to injury, I forgot my camera, and decided to take pictures with my new cell phone (not a smart phone) and am now unable to get them off my phone, I've plugged it in via USB to no avail.   Some weeks are just like that!  lol 

**NOTE:  Before linking up please review guidelines HERE

Homeschool Brag Time Thursday Hop #15

<center><a href="http://chestnutgroveacademy.blogspot.com/p/brag-time-blog-hop.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Chestnut Grove Academy" src="http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy117/williamsmk/HSBlogHeader-004.jpg"/></a></center>

Welcome to Homeschool Brag Time Thursday!

Come link up your Homeschool related posts to 'brag' about the great things you and your kids are doing! Browse around and see what others are up to as well! (Please link up the direct URL of the post you are 'bragging' about!)

Please Follow your hosts and grab our Brag Time Button to display in your post or on your blog so others can join in the fun as well! (Failure to follow these specific guidelines will result in your link up being deleted, so PLEASE be sure to 1) link up the direct URL of your post and 2) post the hop button on your post or blog (where we can find it).  We also kindly ask that you follow us, we WILL follow you back!) Thank you!