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Summer Fun School

May 20, 2013 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

We no longer technically homeschool over the Summer.
Ever since joining a local charter school we’ve decided to try and stick to the Monday-Friday, September through June schedule, but that doesn’t mean we don’t learn over the Summer.

If you’re looking for some simple ways to encourage learning over the Summer break here is a list of some Summer Fun School activities:

Lately I’ve noticed that my children have been enjoying skits and plays. Sometimes in their Language Arts curriculum or with certain books they are encouraged to act out a story and they are so very happy to do so. I recently looked up some fun 2-3 person skits on Puppet Resources and thought I might keep a few on hand for those “boring” Summer days.

Summer of Photography!
Why not take your kids and your camera out on a daily hike with a goal. ABC’s in photos. Only pink things. Or have children arrange vacation photos with their own captions. There are some great ideas at Montessori-Now for using photography over the Summer.

Want to keep kids writing over the Summer?
Enlist a willing friend or family member to become Silly Story Penpals!
Initiate the conversation with your children writing a silly story then asking the penpal to return the
favor. This is a great way to sneak in some creative writing, penmanship, and basic language arts skills, all while having fun.

Space Crafts and Activities
Summer is a great time to learn astronomy! From Summer nights spent looking at the stars, to the Persides meteror showers in August, you’ll find some great Summer opportunities to learn all about our universe. We actually use this Meteror Shower Ap to keep track and be reminded of them.
If you really want to get into Space over the Summer, consider investing in a telescope, or participating in a local stargazer event.

Don’t forget about your local and semi-local museums!
Here is a list of US Museums by State.
There are so many wonderful exhibits to see, and it’s a great way for children to get excited about learning.

Chalk Pastels
This Summer we’ve ordered A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels, which includes 45 step by step tutorials. I plan on pulling it out whenever we hear “I’m bored,” or “It’s too hot,” ect…
Maybe by the end of Summer we’ll have a nice collection of artwork to start the year off.

If you’re not looking for a full on set of art lessons,
why not print out a few of these adorable Color-in-Quotes!
A set of pretty markers and a stack of these will go a long way on a HOT Summer afternoon!

Summer Reading!
Here is a handy printable your children can use to keep track of their Summer Reading. We laminated ours and used a dry erase marker. A special follow up worksheet is included as well. At the start of Summer make a goal, and when it is reached have an ice cream night with the family!

Summer Science Activities
Our ES brought some fun Soda bottle science activities last week, and the kids were loving every minute. They made tornados, dancing raisins, and even a shooting rocket bottle.

These science books include so many different science experiments you can do with your kiddos over the Summer, and they won’t even realize they are learning!

I’m sure there are TONS of other ideas out there,
I love how relaxed learning can be during the Summer!

Our Homeschool Classroom

August 12, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 14 Comments

It’s week 2 of the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop,
and that means Homeschool Classroom photos!

Yippy!

I love going through all the different posts for new ideas,
but if I’m not careful sometimes I get Homeschool Classroom envy.

(it’s a real disease)

For me, it’s easy to go from inspired to discouraged if my ideas
don’t pan out the way I had them figured out in my head.

To add to the matter,
We don’t exactly have a separate classroom.
We school out of our dining room,
which means I have to be creative about decorating.

Currently our “classroom” is a work in progress.
I’m starting with a very blank slate and slowly adding too it.

So here are the bones we’re working with:

We’ve got our dining table which serves as our main teaching area.

It’s hard to see, but in the back I have a small white board.
I’d like something larger, but again I don’t want my dining area too “cubicle”
Maybe I’ll get lucky and be chosen to review a Hidden Whiteboard
HINT HINT

*ahem*

A desk area for computer time and for educational videos.

I’ve got a world map, and a U.S. map on either side of the window.
I love having these maps on the wall,
but I’m thinking of getting something a bit more “old world” looking and then framing them.
I will totally share if I ever get around to doing this…

A corner cabinet to store our Notebooking binders.

Storage Drawers in what is supposed to be a pantry.
These drawers are just around the corner and hold the children’s textbooks and everything else.
I have a few drawers to myself to store teaching workbooks and supplies.
(You can tell it’s REALLY organized….. *snicker*)

My favorite part of our classroom are these shadow box displays.
These turned out to be a great way to showcase my children’s artwork
(keeping it OFF my fridge)
and they look wonderful in the dining area.

So there it is! That’s where you’ll find us all year long :)
It will NEVER be as clean as it is now
until it’s time for next year’s post ;)

I’m hoping that by next year I’ll have some really cool “Dining/Classroom” decorations up!

And to ensure I haven’t elicited any feelings of homeschool envy,

Here is a shot from the other side of the room…
where you can see that my couch is loaded with laundry.
Clean laundry….but nevertheless…

This is essentially how it stays year round.
If you ever came to my house and my couch wasn’t covered in laundry,
DO NOT BE DECEIVED!

I have either moved it all to my bed,
or payed the children a ridiculous amount of money to make it disappear.

Such is the life of a blogging homeschooler.

Read about our 2012 Homeschool Curriculum Here.

A few Shabby Touches…

January 30, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 1 Comment

Over the weekend I picked up a few shabby touches to spread around the house:

a plant stand.

a little bird.

a little nest.

some weeping.

some willow.

I love having new treasures to look at!

Writing Notebook Printables

August 28, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 4 Comments

Oh, golly.

This is one of those posts that has been sitting in my “draft” box,
patiently waiting to be published.

It was meant for May.
(of 2011….so not too bad, but still)

Do you ever do that?
Get a post half finished then forget about it.
For months.

I do.
(obviously.)

However this time I think I lucked out,
because there is nothing Seasonal (i.e. Christmas in July)
about this post.

And it happens to be perfect timing for “Back to School”
so perhaps it was just meant to be.

I suppose I COULD delete this introduction and PRETEND that I planned it this way…..

But I guess what’s done is done, so without any further ado,
I present to you May’s post: TODAY~

writing notebook printables

Writing Notebook Printables:

I’ve been working (behind the scenes) on a writing notebook for Sissy.

Sissy is going into the 3rd grade this year, and writing is NOT her favorite subject.
(I’m sure she would say it a bit more eloquently, but you get the picture)

So to ~~trick~~ inspire my dear daughter into working on those NECESSARY
(and not something you’d want to cut from your school curriculum) skills, I came up with this Writing Notebook idea.

And I know, I’m re-inventing the wheel here,
but sometimes having just the right method for just the right child
can work AMAZING miracles.

The front of the notebook has a custom cover page,
(I made a boy or girl version you can snag too)

The back of the notebook has an editing marks sheet for reference.

Please know that these might not be PERFECT printables.
There might be a spelling error.
The font is kinda funny and
my grammar might be incorrect.
(I’m sure the police will point that out to me shortly)

But they are what they are and I’ll be using them to inspire my little girl this year,
(I’ve got high hopes!)

So far I’ve uploaded a printable writing guide that will take children through the
steps needed to write an Instructional Paper.

And if you jump over to the main website, you might notice
quite a few more titles that I’ve got in the works.
(please read that to mean: Whenever I get a spare second)
(and please read Spare Second to mean: When pigs fly)

Oh the plans of a homeschooler…….

Homeschooling in the Car…

February 25, 2010 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

Do you homeschool in the car?

I do….and apparently I’m not the only one.

Apparently, there is an entire book devoted to homeschooling in the car…..

CarSchooling by Diane Flynn Keith.

(I don’t have this book…but I do love herClickSchooling website!)

We do quite a bit of school in the car.

My opinion is that when you homeschool you just have to be open for the opportunities to arise and somehow you’ll squeeze all the curriculum goals in before the end of the year. I really believe that.

I have to believe that because I don’t have a magic fairy that comes in and teaches my children Art History and Global Economics….leaving me free to solve the numerous daily hassles that seem to always come up:

Like when I have to run back to the store to pick up the cheese that I forgot…

OR to pick up the cheese that the lady charged me for but didn’t put in the bag…….

OR to pick up the cheese that the lady charged me for, and put in the bag, but whirled the bag back around that stupid spinning thing at Wal-mart and hid the other half of my groceries from view leaving me to pack up three children in the pouring rain and head back to the store just so we have what we need come dinner time….which is approaching ever so quickly…..and we might as well pick up McDonnalds anyway, cause it’s too late for Chicken Parmesan anyway! Yeah.

(TOTALLY HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT)
grumpy

So Moving On…….Lately we’ve been quite sick, I even lost my voice…(betcha didn’t even notice)…and we’ve been traveling alot (…..more on that later), and of course we’re just horrible “Planners” in general…..always running out of toliet paper and laundry soap at just the right time…..

All of which equals more and more of “Car Time” and less and less of school time.

So to counteract ~~life~~ all of these crazy issues that keep popping up, I’ve begun to think of how I can utilize this time on the road.

So I came up with this ingenious idea.

homeschool tools

Clipboards for the Car.

Really Rocket science here folks….

homeschool crafts

Of course I had to sell it on the kids, so I let them go crazy with some Modge Podge…… and they turned them into some “Really, Super Duper Extra Special Travel Pads!” (you know……for when we want to bring along all our super cool worksheets to the dentists office)

homeschool crafts

It was like taking candy from a baby.

When they finished tearing out every worksheet within reach, and attaching them to their clipboards I knew I had a gold mine.

I knew I had to share…..because I’m gonna milk this on as long as I can.

Homeschooling in the Car rocks.

In fact I now have a school bag dedicated especially for stuff to bring in the car.

I also keep a spelling list in my center console……

Next to my iPhone…….which is jam packed with every educational “AP” I can find (lest the kids have a moments rest from learning)

But the point is that I wanted to stop the, ~~“It’s to hard to write when the cars moving, and the pencil pokes through the paper and my leg and it hurts… and brother is leaning on me and I can’t focus on my math………….”~~ whining in the car.

And these clipboards are going to help. I just know it.

If you’re unfamiliar with Modge Podge, I posted a tutorial of how how we made these clipboards on our main site.

Anyone else have a Handy Tip for Carschooling?

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