And the winner is.....

.....Grandma Bonnie! Thank you for entering and I hope you enjoy your new things. I will contact you for shipping information. I also want to thank those that entered.

Revisit: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We love this story for so many reasons. We love the art and we love the idea to grow into something wonderful.  This revisit was mainly a review for Benji  and an opportunity to extend higher learning for Jacob. 

We read the book and went over all the stages of the caterpillar and then learned our really big word Metamorphosis. We talked about other things that go through a metamorphosis.

We used our story helpers from Kizclub to help retell the story and to let Benji work on sequence. After that we worked on summarizing the story and used this wonderful worksheet to record our summery. 

We also did some fun crafts. We cut out a simple set of wings for a butterfly and then used a craft stick for the body. We used sponges to paint.

We did some recycle art for the caterpillar. We reused egg cartons and painted them and used some left over scraps from the art bin to make them special.

Here is the final product. Don't forget to display the art in the classroom or in your home. 

Extensions and Resources:

• The Eric Carle Web Site
• Sparkle Box- free printables and lesson ideas
• Homeschool Share - tons of printables and ideas for a full unit of learning
• Scholastic - Lesson plans

Review: Rory's Story Cubes

This is one toy we love! We received this wonderful addition as a gift from a wonderful Aunt. We opened the storage box that looks just like a book and found nine very nice dice inside. The game couldn't be simpler.....just roll and start story telling. If you have more then one person playing, share the dice and take turns adding what ever is on your dice to the story. We have officially made this a game we like to play for journaling and also before bed. These bed time stories couldn't be beat. 

Rory also offers other products including a set with "picto-verbs" and an app I would love to have if I actually owned a phone that would support it(my current phone doesn't even have a camera!) It sounds like they are even looking into making a larger version as well.

For more information including more ways to play in the classroom, go to www.Storycubes.com

Clean Out the Closet Giveaway!

I'm cleaning out my closet and and having a giving away to celebrate the nearly 5,000 visits.
  

October 6th through 17th

What's in the giveaway:

• Lakeshore Learning Listening Center: Sight words- enough for up to eight students 
• addition and subtraction workbooks
• Basic not boring science curriculum for k-1
• sight word wheels for study 
• build a train sight word kit
• 0-10 dot to dot counting book

Ways to enter:

• leave a comment about why you want this set 
• go to Lakeshore Learning and come back here and comment on what products you like best
• become a follower of this blog
• blog about this give away
• like my school land on Facebook
• leave a comment on another post of this blog
• subscribe by email

Each entry will count toward a chance to win. The winner will be picked by random drawing at the end of the 17th and the winner will be announced on the 18th.
Good Luck to all who enter!

Art: You can too!

Have broken crayons? No Problem!


We did some crayon recycling with our old bin of crayons that we've had for about six years now. Some of the crayons were starting to look a little sad and no one would use them and so this project was born. 

The first step was to sort by color, some variation is acceptable such as light green and dark greens together.

Now for the tedious part which is peeling off the paper and breaking them.

While you are doing this part preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

After all the crayons are ready you will want to prepare what you are going to melt them in. I have some silicon molds that I am using, but any kind will work well. If you don't have any of those, an old cupcake tin will also work. The thing to keep in mind is that you will probably not want to use it for food after word, so cheap is good! I am placing my mold on a cookie sheet that is lined with foil and wax paper should things some how spill.

Then I place the whole thing in the oven and let it melt till it is all completely melted (about 10-15 min.)

After it is all melted, I took it out very carefully. Remember, it's melted wax and it is very hot including the molds so be very cautious and let this step be for the grownups only.

As you can tell from the photo above the waxes and the pigment are needing to be stirred, a popsicle stick or tooth pick will work just fine.

After that, you just wait for the wax to harden and your have a new set of crayons ready for coloring. Just be sure that if you make a brown one, to make sure the kids know it's not a peanut butter cup!

*With the holiday seasons just around the corner, some fun molds could lend this to be a great home made gift. I plan to make a set using a christmas tree mold for my kids I teach sunday school to.

I'm almost to 5,000 hits! I think it's almost time for a give away...

Leave a comment and tell me what educational give away you would like to see this thursday!

October Book Bin

This month is one of my favorites. I love fall. I have a great time every year pulling the books for this bin. I pulled books about Autumn, Thanksgiving, and Halloween.  

 This year will be wonderful since we will be incorporating some of these books into our up coming unit about the new world. What's also new is that Jacob will be able to have these selections pulled for D.E.A.R.S and will be able to dream up new ideas for his journal writings.

What are you guys reading this month?

Home Keeping...

              Because to say chores just sounds like work! I think one of the main differences between homeschool and public schooling moms, is that we don't have several hours in a row to get a whole bunch of work, errands or what ever done. This is by far my most often asked question when I mention that I homeschool the kids. People want to know how I get anything done around the house. The truth is I just have to squeeze it in. Some days things are more tidy than others but from what I understand, that's actually normal for anyone. I do have a couple of resources that I call upon to keep things "clean-ish" and I try to leave it at that. After all, I don't want to make things more complicated then they have to be. Also, don't be afraid to enlist the short people for help. Benji thinks there is nothing more fun then running the swiffer around the house.

Picture by Susan Landor Keegin 

Time Warp Wife - Darlene is a wonderful christian gal, who shares her ideas and inspirations on how to build family bonds,  AND she also shares how to organize your home and home keeping so that it is part of the day or part of the week rather than making it a huge ordeal. She has printable cleaning calendars and shopping list/meal planners too. What's not to love?  Oh and she even has a recipe for a winning window cleaner that can be made with stuff you probably already have under the sink.


Martha Stewart Online - Martha is the quintessential homekeeper in my opinion. With her checklists, you can be spick and span before you know it. She has daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual checklists. And if that wasn't enough she has tips on how to organize just about every room in the house. Most of her ideas are reasonable afforded but some of her organizing ideas can have bit of a price tag. What I know is, she might use high end materials, but you can duplicate them for your own home with lower end materials or just some good ole imagination. I love her ideas, I just don't have her budget so I like to hit up the discount stores instead of the department store. Can my family tell the difference? Nope!

I like to keep my checklists in clear page protectors in a binder, so I can use an expo marker to mark them off as I go and then wipe them off at the end of the cycle. What do you do to keep your home tidy?