Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Daily Drills - Fun

I got this idea from my BFF Dani. She has her kids do a daily drill sheet each day as a sort of warm-up to homeschool. Each day is a different theme (math, puzzle, reading, etc). Well I wanted to hook the kids with something fun each day - and I found a free site to do it (of course!) So I printed several books of the following, and each morning my kids grab their binder and do a sheet (or two or three). They're fun and help us transition from normal day to school day.

http://www.crazydad.com/ is a fab site filled with great vid clips and such
For his 50 books of mazes - Mazes
For his Kiduko puzzles - Kiduko
For his FAB Slitherlink (one of my fav games) - Slitherlink
For his great Karuko puzzles - Karuko

More daily fun:
Printable Mazes for Kids (themed)
Word Searches
Connect The Dots
Color By Numbers
Family Fun Printables (word searches, memory games, mazes, puzzles, etc)

Thursday, January 7, 2010

New Year Mania

So our plan for this month is a slight deviation from our origional curriculum - one of the beauties of making my own curriculum is making any changes I want..so there! haha. This month I'm squeezing in a few different concepts as it's going to be a busy month..Since we're jumping all around this month we have a 'weekly theme' each week that we really focus on. They are as follows:

Week 1 (1/1-1/9)
Aside from our usual math & grammar we're focusing on Martin Luther King Jr (a little early, as we don't celebrate the day until the 18th, but hey)
Printable book (payed site)
Coloring Page 1
Interactive Civil Rites Game
Great Research links for older kids
Ideas for celebrating Dr. King's B=day
"I have a dream" lesson Plan
Black History coloring pages
'Story of the man' article for older students

Week 2 (1/10-1/16)
This week we're focused on winter, weather & animals. We have some great lapbooks & units downloaded from Currclick.com so it should be FUN!
Deer Lapbook
Clouds Minibook
"Polar Bears Past Bedtime" MTH Lapbook (this is one of mine so remember username: kickbutttidbits and password: kickbuttmama)
"The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" (I should have it posted by this weekend, almost finished)
Winter words Minibook (pay site)
Lesson Plan
Popsicle Science
Snow Melt Experiment
'What do salt trucks do?' lesson plan that goes nicely with the above experiment
Winter Day coloring Page

Week 3 (1/18-1/23)
This week we transition from history to geography. We're settling and getting ready for the winter olympics - which is near and dear to my family, as my DH's grandfather won gold in the winter olympics in the 1930's.
Canada Lapbook (from Currclick.com)
Canada Worksheets
Canada Crafts
Canada Coloring Pages
Canada For Kids
Canada History
Proud Canadian Kids
Virtual Tour of Prince Edward Island
Kidzone Geography / DLTK Kids Canada Printables
Enchanted Learning printable 4 Canada
Canada Maze Worksheets from Teachnology

Week 4 (1/26-1/30)
Olympics Unit (from Currclick.com)
Great Kids Olympic crafts
Olympics crafts
Sports coloring pages
Olympics inthe classroom (resources)
Teachnology Olympics themes
Going for the gold worksheet
Print activities
ABC Teach olympic theme

Monday, January 4, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to all my readers!

I'm not one for usually making New Years Resolutions (as I'm all about setting regular goals and meeting them) but I'm going to this year. I think the most important part of a goal or resolution is making sure it's realistic to your set parameters - like I would set DJ getting his PHD this year as my goal. (although miracles can happen..lol). I'm hoping to include Yoga into my daily schedule, even with the children. I only do it about once a week now, but it makes my leg (with the vascular issue) feel so much better, and I know I'm a calmer person from doing it. I also want to get the boys into a formal music class. I can only take them so far, but we have to consider the financials. I also need a new job. I'm thinking I'm not going to be able to maintain waiting for LA Fitness to get their crap together (it's been like 3 months).

So what are your goals this year?

Cool New Science Site

I found this cool new science link - the kids have been watching their videos all day...lol...and wanting to try them themselves. Check it out!

http://www.sciencesplat.com