Spring Cleaning {CURRICULUM} Giveaway!

This is BIG.....no HUGE.....wait.....ENORMOUS

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Gong Hei Fatt Choy! {Links!}

Happy New Year!

(in Cantonese)

This week's unit from Story of the World (Volume 1) was Ancient China. And how cool is it that our learning about China corresponded with the Chinese New Year? Yup, that's how God has worked in our Homeschooling throughout the year. A friend of ours (not knowing what we were studying) invited us to see her son be a part of a Dragon Parade at the Elementary school so we trucked on over an let the kids see what that was all about! HOW COOL! (I think I was more excited about the coincidence than the kids!) Here are some other fun things you can do to teach about Ancient China and Chinese New Year!

Some fun facts about Chinese New Year

And some free Power point slide shows from Mr. Donn (this site is amazing and has GREAT links for games, activities and projects!)

Learn about Tangrams

Online Tangrams! From PBS also this great site for more Tangram activities

Free Printable Tangrams

Make Almond Cookies  

We get a lot less cookies baked this way.....

Oh so yummy Almond Cookies

Choose from a variety of easy, cheap Crafts

We even Ordered Chinese Food and practiced using Chopsticks!

 Played with Felt food (easy sew-free tutorial!)

We had a fun-ducational day! It's important to remember when doing mini Unit studies (like these) you have to be picky about what you are learning and what activities you'll do. The first few times I tried to cram in way too many things and not enough time to just explore and enjoy the learning! You can always expand the unit to last more than a week! 

I also like to include other things for the kids to work on throughout the week that the kids can work on independently. So when I need to sneak a way to put Liora to sleep or take care of something, they know what they can work on without stopping school!

{Fun}day Fridays

So you've read we've been changing things up, and we did. And it was fabulous!! I think I am really going to love doing this each week. It makes Fridays so much more fun, relaxed and educational as well! (Gotta stick that in there right!?)

Our First Unit was on the Arctic/Antarctic Regions~ learning about the animals and the Inuit People who live in these regions! I'll include some fun links and activities I found for this week.

Videos:: (my kids love the addition of videos in our learning)
Nat Geo has great links, photos and activities. This one was short and great for some basic info:

Answers in Genesis has one of the Ice Age which talks a little about how the Ice got there (from a creationist view point: 

What to know How to Build an Igloo??? This 10 minute video shows you.....seriously I never knew.....

Fun Links:: (photos, games, slide shows)

Critter Cam Arctic Game 

Explore this Website for Great info on the Tundra and other regions! 

Photo Slide show with info about How Arctic Animals Camouflage themselves!  

FREE Powerpoint presentations on the Inuit Tribes plus this site has all sorts of activities and links! 

Hands On Activities:: (this makes every lesson more fun!)

• Making a sugar igloo

• Make your own Inuksuk
• Polar Bear Painting: Blue Construction paper, Bear shape, cotton balls, white paint.

Resources and Activities::

FREE Lesson Plans! Look around this site and download all sorts of free activities and games!

Kidssoup This is a really great resource and SO affordable at $2.15 a month. I use it all the time! There are Activities, Games (printable file folder), Activites AND Resources for Bulletin Boards, felt stories etc. New units are added every month!

SeaWorld FREE downloadable lesson

ABCteach tons of freebies, you can become a member, but I just use what is free!

Worksheets included in their Unit Folders:

• Sonlight curriculum
• Map of the Arctic Tundra (color and lable)
• Color the Igloo
• “My Book about the Inuit People”
• Polar Bear Crossword puzzle (Jonah)
• AA writing practice (Ellie)

• AA Coloring page
• Arctic Report, KWL Chart (Jonah)

 So How did it go???

Well it didn't run perfectly of course. But it was great. We had a nice relaxed paced day, watched videos, read books, learned a LOT.....and the best part is their unit activities can be worked on throughout the week. They can color, play a file folder game, work on the Igloo, write a report (only Jonah and more like a few sentences about Arctic Animals and People). I'm excited to see how the week looks.......and now off to build the next Unit on Ocean Animals! (that should be hard huh?living in Hawaii and all!)





I may be loading our unit find each week. I find so many cool free things, and I love sharing......

Chinese New Year {Teaser}

I dropped everything I was supposed to do this afternoon [namely laundry] to make some felt Chinese food for our Chinese New Year Party tomorrow......stay tuned!

Stone Soup

There is an old Swedish Folk Tail titled Stone Soup where a hungry traveler tricks a whole village into giving him the ingredients to make a pot of soup. All because he called it stone soup, and threw a stone in a big pot of water. We read that story today, the kids enjoyed it.

When it was time to throw something together for dinner, I was planning on using the left over meatballs from yesterdays dinner and throwing them over pasta and calling it a meal. But I remembered Dave had asked when I was going to use my new Stone Rectangle Baker.....and soup sounded good today.

So we made stone soup today! Though I must warn you if you have a reader in the house, hide the box of Barley before they come in the kitchen! It gives it all away when you are telling them we are adding stones to the soup, and your son blurts out, "But the Box says 'BARLEY'!!!" Thanks Hooked on Phonics!

Organizing and scheduling your day and activities can be a tricky thing, especially if you've never done it before. As a new homeschooling Mom, it was something I struggled with for quite a while. I was used to responding to the needs of my children when they arose and arranging the cooking, cleaning and other things around that. But when you place a responsibility as huge as homeschooling into the mix, I found I needed to make time to actually educate, otherwise it ended up lower on the priority list. I've also found myself on the other end of the spectrum with the schooling day taking so long I literally didn't have enough time to keep up with the essentials of housekeeping (and I am NOT talking about having a perfect house either). Finding the balance in both worlds is both tricky and necessary.

What helped me, might help you.....

1. Making a list, checking it twice (or 3 times if you are mathematically challenged)
Yup, recording everything you do during the day and where you spend (or-let's be honest) waste time. There is no use in pretending you take 5 minute showers if you really take 20 minutes! Or that it'll take you 15 minutes to get out of the house with 4 kids if it takes an hour! So write it down for a few days, even a week. And be honest, it's YOUR schedule, your life. You may find the hour you spend reading magazines isn't worth it, or you may find you need an hour somewhere to have some downtime! But be honest and true to you and your family.

2. Your Goals
Maybe this seems obvious, but sometimes a well planned day looks fabulous on paper, but really isn't accomplishing what you would like the day to look like. Adding in 2 hours for crafts isn't going to work if your goal is to spend more one on one time with each of your children. Or teaching for 6 hours straight (or even 1 hour!) depending on the ages of your children. But deciding what your goals are, what you want your day to look like and be like and what is realistic, is very important if you want your schedules to succeed. Prioritize what is important for your school day as well as your household. I used to have one day a week that I cleaned the entire house, now that isn't even remotely possible! It's still a priority to have a clean house, but we have different days to accomplish those tasks, it's more realistic for us to clean the floors on one day, the bathroom on another and so on.

3. Your set responsibilities
There are items in everyday that can't budge, they are meals and nursing babies, picking up kids, taking them to sports, so consider them when planning things around those items. Again on paper sometimes it looks like you may have a great chunk of time when in reality you don't. An example is on the days I take the 2 older kids to MBTA, we don't leave the house until around 11:45, I see that chunk and think, "That is almost 3 hours I can fit a few lessons!" When in reality, getting the kids school supplies, homework, clothing, shoes etc ready will take a good hour. Then give myself a little time that is another 30 minutes. Give myself an extra 30 minutes for mishaps and I'm down to an hour, so maybe on a good morning, the kids can get out their science and history units and work on them for a while! That is realistic, not cramming in a full day of school before leaving for their class!

4.Epic Fail or Grand Success  
If the goal is a schedule that works than identifying what is working and what isn't is important. Chances are you've got routines that really are working for you. Keep them! But don't be afraid to admit when something just isn't working. I've changed our school schedule 4 times since the beginning of the year. Because when I try something for a month and it just doesn't work, it's not that I'm giving up, I'm being flexible to make things work. If I keep plugging away at what doesn't work, that isn't helping me or the kids, it's making us pretty miserable!   

5. Down Time
Don't over do it (in my opinion). Make sure there is time in there to throw in a batch of cookies when your little one bats those eyes and wants to bake with you. I found when I tried to have every second accounted for it was almost as overwhelming as not knowing what to do next! You have to leave room for creativity and spontaneity even if that isn't in your natural personality! As much as I need to get things done each day, I don't want to be a slave to a piece of paper that is telling me it's time to do XYZ when I really want to sit and read a book with my kids. This isn't an excuse to be lazy, it really isn't, there is room for rest! 

6.No Cheating    
It's tempting to try and look into another family and copy what they are doing, but don't! You are in a different season of life than someone else. While I think mentors and advice is great, is helpful and beneficial! Make sure you aren't just copy and pasting what works for someone else. Make it work for you and your family! If you aren't a morning person, don't schedule school to start at 7am! Maybe your kids are better focused and work harder after a little free time, so start school after lunch and plan your housekeeping for in the mornings! There are days I declare "Backwards Day" and do school after lunch, it's okay!


7.Give it Up 
Giving it all up to God and asking Him for guidance is of great importance. Maybe He is pointing you in a direction you wouldn't normally take, maybe He is asking for your time in other ways or for you to give up a certain role or responsibility. You won't know that unless you ask Him to reveal it to you! He'll guide you, He will. And He will let you know how you can do it better!

8. Tryouts  
After all is said and done, try it out. But keep in mind two things....the first is that change can be difficult, so give yourself time to adapt. Don't quit after the first day and redo your whole schedule (unless you really messed up!) On the same token don't be afraid to tweak things that really aren't working. Seasons in life are ever changing. 9 Months ago our schedule looked very different with all of my time of nursing and caring for a newborn than it does now. You are allowed to change things as life changes.....it's really okay! ( I needed to learn this myself~the hard way!)

What tips or steps do you have to helping make a schedule or routine? Please share with us so we can all learn together! 

Blog-Hop extraveganza

 Heart of the Matter is hosting an incredible blog hop with some of the biggest bloggy~names around the globe! If you are in need of encouragement or information, link up to the blogs below for the next few weeks!



10 days of socialization for mom | The Homeschool Chick
10 days of classical education | Milk & Cookies
10 days of large families | Chocolate on My Cranium
10 days of special needs | Special Needs Homeschooling
10 days of struggling learners | Homeschooling the Chaotic Family
10 days of homeschooling girls | Homegrown Mom
10 days of homeschool enrichment | Confessions of a Homeschooler
10 days of building a spiritual legacy | Mommy Missions
10 days of frugal homeschooling |The Happy Housewife
10 days of Charlotte Mason | Our Journey Westward
10 days of unschooling | Homeschooling Belle
10 days of organization | Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom
10 days of getting started | Blog, She Wrote
10 days of homeschooling boys | The Tie That Binds Us
10 days of homeschooling Montessori | Fruit in Season
10 days of preschool | Delightful Learning