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Homeschool Writing Journal

June 18, 2015 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Today I’ve spent some time updating our Free Daily Writing Journals for Kids!

These are simple DIY journals that you can make with any standard children’s notebook.

You could even adapt these to use within a binder instead.

I designed these to be super simple and require minimal resources so you can really use these as your foundation and then add in any online programs or hands on manipulitives you have on hand. This is not required, but it would liven up the daily structure a bit for children.

Come grab these printables and read the tutorial for setting up your notebooks here.

Looking for a simple, no-prep writing program for kids? Click Here

Fungus….Ewwwwwe!

November 9, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 5 Comments

Even though we’re mid Fall,
recently I’ve been noticing lots of different colors pop up in the yard.

So today,
as crisp and cold as it was,
we donned our hats and gloves,
and headed outside for a small nature walk.

We brought cameras, a small rubbermaid bucket
and we quickly captured Fall life all around us.
They were all so pretty that we spent all our camera batteries just taking photgraphs!

Some Fall FUNgus for you:

You can imagine how excited the children were as they found each new specimen.

We immediately took off for the library and found this wonderful book
called, Mushrooms of North America and it was filled with beautiful photographs
and information about each different kind of mushroom.

Over the next week, we will be notebooking in our journals about the variety of fungus in our area.

How fun that we can just step outside and marvel at God’s creation.
So glad we got Math worked out so we can have some more days like today!

Dandelion Paint

April 6, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 1 Comment

It’s April.
The sun is shining (today) and it’s officialy Spring.

And as I stare out my window all I can see are little pops of yellow all over my yard.

Even after mowing.

You see, I’ve recently realized that Spring dandelions are much smarter then Summer dandelions.

Summer dandelions stretch long and tall chasing the sun across the sky.

But Spring dandelions know better.

They stay low to the ground, hidden safely where the mower can’t reach.

But sadly, as they are the very first flower to pop up around here, they are no better off.

There are too many little boy hands,
scrambling around for every last one,
in hope of presenting the largest bunch.

And while dandelions aren’t exactly my favorite flower,
they can certainly be put to good use.

Especially in our nature journals:

There is nothing like a sunny afternoon spent making Dandelion paint.

I too, joined the fun.
painting dandelions with dandelion paint…

And immediately, the structured homeschooler in me thought,
“Yes! We could draw the different stages of a dandelion and color them in with different things we find around the yard.”

But then, I looked down at my little blond babies,
watching their yellow stained fingertips scribble away….

and I realized that today we were only meant
to do nothing more then paint the sun.

Here are some more dandelion activities to try this Spring!

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