Lucy School...

So whenever I talk to people and they hear I'm homeschooling, most tell me two things: "I could never do that," or "I would never be able to give up all my free time." I usually respond with a smile and hardly ever say anything else. But when the conversation goes past that, the most FAQ I get is, "What do you do with Lucy while you teach Tony?"

This has to be the biggest question I get asked from those who are serious about spending the day well. I mean let's face it, if we are doing CC or thinking about it, it's some serious hard work to keep the house together, organize all the social activities, follow all the blogs for ideas, and not let the kids go crazy when teaching them all this great stuff.

If your house is like mine, you have one very little 3 year old that thinks she is in school too and wants to be in on the action every step of the way. So this post is my latest resource of what I do with my youngest while I teach Tony.

First I hate, hate, hate wasting paper! I mean, I know that is just the way it goes somedays, but my second hate is wasting ink and going back to the store to buy more. Which lately, with all the great resources on And Here We Go, I've been using a lot. Melody has a ton of resources for weeks 9-12, some great Geography cards that she has made up for us to use. And it's free! Yipee!

Ok, I'm digressing... back to Lucy. So what I did this week was somewhat of an experiment. Is it ok to use our children in experiments? Well, I did. 

I placed some alphabet letters in a page protector! 

Now I know that may not sound amazing to you but here's why it rocked.... I then had her glue different things everyday to the same page! So each morning we peeled off the last night's projects of beans, salt, paint, (whatever) and used the same page again! 

So this took care of my biggest problems of using too much ink and paper. Then I made some fuzzy ball magnets and let her spend her last day creating letters, and feeling them as she traced them with her fingers. 

This took all of about 10 minutes while the kids watched the magnet fuzzies come to life. I found this on another blog, http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/09/homemade-pom-pom-magnets-2.html

I had some minis, so I added them as well. My pics aren't that great, but you get the idea. :)

 Then we used them on the letters and whalaa, she had a tactile learning experience! 

Traced around and she was happy. I taught Tony while she "played" and practiced writing. You can use the big dots to show them where to start tracing and even draw on the page to show direction.

Next you have them write the letters out with dry erase on the letters and get great penmanship!

All I had to do was tell her where to start. I was doing the happy dance inside. It was a great moment. 

Now, I'm not sure where to post these letters. My drop box has not been cooperating very well, so I will do two things here: drop box and email. Just leave a comment with your address and I will send you the file. It's too big to put on the CC3 website even though it's just Powerpoint. 

 I used different fonts because some letters needed to be switched to look more realistic to handwriting letters. 

Here it goes- if anyone out there can download from dropbox, let me know it worked, ok?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/Outline%20Alpha.pdf

I'm going to have ask my sister in law to help me if not. :)

Week 8 and (a little 9) Resources!

So after my last post I should tell you "that Arctic day" we went to an Indian restaurant to get a taste of Indian food. I told the kids we could see belly dancers and that they would have a tea called chai, eat some Naan- they were super excited and so was I to save the lost day. When we drove up to the restaurant, it was closed- like shut down, boards on the windows... so instead we drove to get pizza. :) I mean really, what should I have expected? :)

Onto this wonderful week of CC...

Here is a file of our History sentence for Week 8 with picture format. I thought since it was such a long sentence it would help to have some picture cues to talk about it as well. :)

You can just right click and save it. Hopefully you will have no problems with this document. :)

Ok for science...

http://mrsrosales-acaciawoodschool.weebly.com/comparing-monocot-and-dicot.html

We have the ever helpful and resourceful teacher who made this sheet. 

But I wanted something I could make for my memory board so I made this instead....

And for some Geography Week 9 cards...

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/week%209%20map%20cards/Slide1.png

I love this idea! SO simple and fun for little hands. If you didn't want to do construction paper you could do paint. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and you are blessed beyond measure!

-Crecia

Off a Cruise Ship into the Arctic

Have you ever had some ideas that just flop? Like really land face first and your grabbling at what went wrong and how to fix it while it's headed for a nose dive?

Well that was my day today. 

My idea of teaching the kids about the different castes systems in India was like doing a belly flop into Arctic water from a cruise ship. The cruise ship being my imagination and the water being how wrong one can predict a good learning opportunity.

Even though I thought the wonderful pictures of India's Slums (edited for their viewing) would impact them to a harsh reality of our excess, it didn't. Even when I thought setting up the tent and asking them to only get two belongings and two books would let them know we have a huge surplus- did nothing as well.

When my daughter asked if we were done and that she wanted to leave, I knew it was over. But no, I still pursued hoping there would be some redeeming quality to this lesson. There wasn't.

So lesson learned- don't do what I did- and try to teach Castes systems to a 5 and 3 year old- at least not how I did.

To top the afternoon, we left ballet early because she was uncooperative, I forgot about the towels in my washer (2 X.. tomorrow will make the third wash), all the precious documents I've been posting on here seem to be having some technical difficulties in getting to you, my gluten free pasta was AWFULLY over cooked, and I thought that I got taken for an internet scam. Following an hour of my life waiting on the phone for no one to answer their customer service line. Which of course led to me immediately calling my bank to order new cards... only to find the products in my mailbox after I hung up.

Oh what a day! Yes, I'm thankful we are all healthy and everyone is alive- yes, I know that speech- but can I just say,
"I'm sooo ready for Friday!"

And so are they! :)

Blessings to all!

I will post better ideas over the weekend. :) 

-Crecia

Reproduction Power Point

Ok, call me Crazy!

I was planning on going to bed a few hours ago, but I didn't!

Here's a power point presentation I made for younger CC scientists. Its a powerpoint with questions and answers about the different forms of reproduction. I wanted to make something my children could watch over and over and I knew they would not click on something I didn't want them to see.

So here is my faulty recording attempt to narrate and give basic facts about each of these living things.

I hope you enjoy!

Afterwards you can check out the links below to get a better understanding of things. I know I needed it being that most of my answers would have been wrong. This is great for introduction or review.

The Power Point Download

Here's a great link on Lady bugs' reproduction and mating.

http://www.ladybuglady.com/ladybugmating.html

Here's a great link for Starfish info. This one is a bit wordy- so unless your child reads at a middle school level- it's best you just read and summarize for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish

Here's a great one for snakes. And this is totally Kid friendly!

http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/snakes/facts.htm

Here's a great one for reptiles in general:

http://double-d-reptiles.tripod.com/birth.html

This one makes a chart for us to see. Love it!

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/reptile/rerepro.html

Here's a great site for live birth.

http://scienceray.com/biology/giving-birth-animals-and-stars-in-action/

Here's another site for dolphins as well.

http://www.defenders.org/dolphin/basic-facts

Leave a comment if you can't download it and I will send it to you via email. :)

Blessings! And Good Night!

-Crecia

I caaannn't HEARRR you!!!

So here comes Monday... Are you ready? I'm not! Oh, how I'm just not a great Monday person.

But anyhow- while I was cleaning my disgusting floors I listened to Focus on the Family Podcasts- it keeps my spirits up (since I hate cleaning. )

If you have a smart phone- I would highly recommend the Daily Broadcast App. It's such a great resource at the tip of my fingers. It's the third app down on the page... so keep scrolling.

Over the years, I've heard many broadcasts and just had to share this one. It's a former police officer then teacher who explains the personality of a "Strong Willed Child." It has two parts, and is worth the entire time! You can download the app and then hear it or just play it right off your computer with the following links:

Part 1

Part 2

Now, I'm not saying I have a "Strong Will Child"- well ok, I guess I might have one- alright I know I have one and I know where she gets it from- her father- alright- it's from me. My family might call me out on this one- so I better fess up before the stories appear in the comments.

I know why I have her- because my mother always said she hoped I had a child just like me one day and whala- I had her. I know here personality is going to be used for the glory of God one day, and i know she will be an awesome leader when she follows Him. I know all that, but some days I just want to pull my hair out. And even though I claim her 99% of the time, I wish I didn't understand her and still have a strong will too. But I do. I totally get it- however- have totally gotten it wrong on the parenting spectrum. Evidently, we never grow out of this. And although my family rarely sees me stomp my feet and throw myself down as I would when I was her age, I still verbally have them once and a while- so this is good for me to even understand me. :)

So if you have a toddler, school age, preteen, teenager, adult child- they touch on all aspects of parenting. It's great for even care givers or grandparents as she just gives very practical tips on how not to lose but to make everyone feel like they are understood and to keep the relationship in tack. Ok, did I leave anyone out? I don't think so...

If you listen to it will you post a comment so I can get your take on it. I love discussion, so maybe we can start an encouraging one. :)

And here is more link to a free Veggie Tales Superhero Parenting Kit. Super fun I didn't know this even existed! But hey, free? How can I resist?

https://focusonthefamily.webconnex.com/veggietales?refcd=128002

I hope you guys all have a wonderful Monday! I will post again on Tuesday after we do our India lesson for the week.

Many blessings your way!
-Crecia

Roman Tax Day

So I wanted them to understand the Fall of Rome this week. 

Tony asked me about taxes and I thought this would be a great way to tie in taxes and why the people got angry and overthrew the government. 

Here Tony and Lucy meet up. Tony is the tax collector representing the government. Lucy is bringing her items to be evaluated. 

At first she was ok with giving over her tickets.

She carefully counted each amount.

Tony recorded the amounts. 

I then announced that Tony was collecting more than he needed and was lying about how much he really needed. Then I told him he got to buy candy with all his tickets. The news was welcomed to his ears.

She was soon understanding what was happening.

This is when he got to trade the tickets for candy.

Tony used his gavel to tell her she couldn't do anything about the unfairness as he was the government.

Then we talked about revolution and how the people got angry and started to rebel.

We are going to end up the lesson with reading from our Bible book about Zacheaus and how people didn't like him because of the tax collecting he did. But how Jesus looks at everyone and how he forgave him.

This can be done so many different ways. I mean you could be the tax collector to built roads and have them set up their houses and tax accordinly. The possibilities are endless! I love this for all you can do with it based on the ages of your kids.

Have a great day! 

All in a Day's Work...

So some friends have asked me what my little love, Lucy, does while I teach my older son. Most of the time she is right there a part of the action, getting her little hinny in on everything her brother is doing. But we also have time where I just have her work on her "school work" and him work on his. I'm going to try to periodically post stuff geared for 3 and under as well as CC stuff to give us all more ideas of what is doable and worth our time (or not).

But before I get to that- we ran out of detergent last night-s o I had to get bus and make that before school today.

So here is my make shift recipe of homemade detergent I love love love making! 

It's ingredients are 

1-2 bars of Dial Soap (unscented),

 2 bars of Feels- Naptha (available at Wal Mart), 

1 box of 20 Mule Team Borax, 

1 Box of Super Washing Baking Soda, 

1 Bag of Regular Baking soda (not pictured), and 

1 Regular sized container of Oxi Clean. 

I bought my Oxi Clean at Sam's so this is a much bigger box than what you would see at Walmart. 

I open everything up, and chop up the soap bars on a cutting board. Then I get my grading blade for my processor and feed it through. If you don't have one, you can do by hand with a cheese grader.

It looks like grated cheese. But not as yummy.

Add the Borax and mix again for a few minutes until well blended.

Dump everything else in a very large bucket. Mine is a 6 gallon sized bucket I found in the storage aisle at Walmart. Make sure you throughly mix. I love this part since I'm so tactile. Really get in there and make sure it's well mixed.

When you are done you will have about 3 gallons of detergent for about $20. And since it's all homemade, I love knowing what exactly is in it. :)
I use about a regular scoop size for each load and since it's a not the lathering type you can use it in HE washers. I would start off with maybe 2 TB for a med HE load and work up if need to.
Ok, now onto the rest of our day.

Ok, onto school. Here's Tony doing his Reading program. So far so good. 

Here's Lucy doing her pouring activities. She pours beans, rice, salt- anything I have available into another bowl. This is great for all sorts of reasons, motor skills, eye- hand coordination, cooking and life skills, etc. After she was done I asked her to put them in the correct jars, but I guess there were too many beans for her, since she left them in the bowl as is. Tomorrow we are going to do some patterns with them and I will use them to make some large letters for her to glue the beans on.

Another thing I use for Lucy is the magnet letters from our leap frog kit. Here she is matching up the lower case letters (from All about Reading) with the upper case (from Leap Frog). 

Onto my favorite SOTW Co Op group. We worked on making citadels this week and built our own using styrofoam bricks. So great! The kids really enjoyed it.

 This guy is a little brother from one of the CC kids. But don't you just love how the younger siblings get to participate as well? I'm so thankful for multiage teaching. None of the "little" kids acted little, they all did what the big kids were asked to do. 

When they were finished we added the roof and moved them aside to dry. Then we worked on some Chinese painting and ended the Co Op with playing at a great park.

Ok, Tomorrow I will be posting us doing a Roman Tax Party! I want the kids to understand taxes and why the people got angry over getting taxed. Hopefully my idea will work. :)

Blessings to you all tonight!

-Crecia

Ok... Back to Work!

So if you haven't noticed we were off for a week and that is why I was doing some planning ahead and making resources. I made a few more that I'm posting, but for the most part the rest of the next few weeks will mainly be sweet pictures of my kiddos doing some of the great activities I have planned.

For a detailed list of all our stuff (in order) go over to my CC by Week page. I have songs and videos on there that will make some of this memory work a bit more catchy. But I warn you now, I'm not a singer. In fact I know I'm tone deaf. Shannon (from youth group can attest to this). However when it comes to kids they don't care! So Praise the Lord, my kids love me anyway!

Next I have a few things that I have been working on.

First is my 11's memory cards for my kiddos this week. I already have them on card stock and am ready to cut! These are to show the groups of 11 and teach them how large numbers can be when multiplying. Of course I'm not looking for mastery, just identification. 

Next I made a wheel for Science this week. You can use it for older kids to read on their own. If they are older, I would trace a third wheel and have them attach it to the back of the two facing out. Then I would have them make lines and write in their own definitions of each group and characteristics of them. 

Directions: Cut out the black lines on the title wheel and pin a brad in the stars after lining up correctly. 

Lastly, I have a "Tic Tac Go" Memory Game that can be played with older kids or with an adult. I will show a video of how to assemble it this week. It is essentially going to be in a sheet protector with the top sheet cut out so you can flip through the questions and flip over on the back to see the answers. Clear as mud? Yeah I know, if you need more help, just comment and I will answer to clarify. This was a great project in my head until I realized how hard it would be to assemble without video instructions. :)

But it's 1:30 and I need to sleep- so here it is without the video demonstration. Which will be arriving in a blog near you...

As an alternate resort, you can just use two sheet protectors. One to have the Tic Tac Go grid and the other to have answers and questions facing out. Also, in this file I have weeks 5 and 7 as well. :)

Hope you have a great week! We will be posting pictures of the family doing what I love the most... learning!

Be Blessed!

-Crecia

More Fun Stuff!

So I love CC! I know you've heard me say this again and again. But can I just share reason #53? Because we have a huge community out there that is all doing the same curriculum, give or take a few weeks. Regardless of who we are or how long we are doing it, it gives us community and connections with so many people.

This was brought to light again while I was reading my FB posts the other week. I saw a friend talk about her daughter's learning for the day, I knew instantly that she was doing CC.

Long story short, she was the first one that gave me curriculum advise and she is a former teacher as well. We were in the same youth group together and reconnected through FB. How great is that? Anyhow, she gave me some stuff to pass along to you guys...

So here comes some more great resources (courtesy of my friend Shannon). :)

First up is a great picture guide of all kinds of animals. She uses it with the titles which I will attach next.

Memory Work Review 

Here are the instructions I got from Shannon:

 For memory work, I have the girls put the Kingdoms, classifications, and 7 wonders in order.  

We cut up the cards and sort the picture cards many different ways: 1)  Vertebrates vs Invertebrates , 2) then we split up the vertebrates into bird, reptile, mammal, etc. 3) then we split up the invertebrates.  CC didn't split up the Arthropods, but my girls found it helpful to do the sub-phylum on that group.

(There are three pages I'm just showing you two because it's easier. )

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/Animal%20Kingdom%20Sort%20Cards.docx?w=18697ba9

Here's the titles for you to cut up and have them use with the pictures. 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/Kingdoms%20and%20classifications.docx

Here's the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/Seven%20Wonders%20of%20the%20Ancient%20World.docx

Thanks Shannon! These are great and will be used in our house as well now! :)

Lastly, a friend of mine actually sent me a picture of her daughter doing one of our activities.

She's actually one of the only few people that I thought would read this blog.

I love when we see ideas or things used in other houses. So if you have the time send me an email with your kids and I'll put them in the next post. Who knows maybe it will end up being a huge photo album of kids all over doing great things in CC!

I loved receiving this! It totally made my day yesterday. Thanks Ames!

I thought with Shannon's picture cards an afternoon follow up could be to have the kids try to make as many animals as possible from the cards and see if we could guess them. These are so cute! I especially love the flatworm. 

Blessings to you all!

-Crecia

I Love FREE Resources!

So if you are like me, you love getting a great deal or finding something free that you can use for our little classrooms.

This post is dedicated to just that! Free stuff! Links to all kinds of things that might make your day or week a little easier or brighter.

Thankfully, I was able to figure out how to post documents on the blog now, so watch out, I'm going to try to give something away of value each time I make something... oh I can't wait!

Alright in case you haven't checked out the "Great Links" tab, run on over there after downloading this stuff and see what kind of great sites I found. There are so many amazing sites out there. I tried to put lesser known sites that others may not know about or some that are mega linked to great ones.

First off, I found a site that is all about "Note booking." As far as I can understand it, the note booking is a way of meaningful journaling. So I made a few pages that might be fun for you to use this week or any week.

Here's what the blank one looks like. You can use it for any CC week. It's created in PowerPoint so you can just download and type in whatever you would like.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/Think%20and%20Draw_%20Blank%20History.pptx

Here's one already typed and ready to go for week 5. I have fill in the blank so to help them write in key words and to work on that memory. If you don't want it to be fill in the blank, simply type it in yourself. :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/Think%20and%20Draw_%20Week%205%20History.pptx

For Week 6, I did a Science Notebook Page...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/Week%206%20Science%20Draw%20Boxes.pptx

Week 7, Memory Geography Cards

I love these and it just makes our memory work come to life!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/Indus%20River%20Flashcards.pptx

You can use these any way you want. I am going to use them as flashcards and then print an extra copy and make them into memory game cards. 

Alright, it's 11PM and I promised myself I would get to bed at a decent hour. I hope you enjoy these resources. If you like them, feel free to pass this link on to others. The more I can help, the better.

Also, feel free to comment on any that you would like more of or use the most. 

I will make more and share according to the comments I get. 

Have a great week. Be blessed!

Crecia