Homeschool Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Simply Learning Together

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Jaimie — 3 Comments

Science Unit Study – Weather

This science unit study about weather was quick, simple, and easy to put together! We did multiple activities that took no time at all, and we continue to talk about the topics we learned throughout our daily discussions even after we finished.

I actually planned this unit very easily and I lay out the whole planning process in my YouTube video here. Be sure to check it out because it goes through a lot of my philosophies on simple planning!

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Unit Study Components

This unit study consisted of a daily devotion, library books, food, and hands on activities. I had a big, fun wish list for this one, but I didn’t get to check everything off. I think it’s important to let it go though and not stress about the checklists. I want my kids to be interested in what we are doing and I’m always going to make decisions based on what’s best for us.

In this post I’ll share all that we did, but I’ll also link you to the other simple activities I wished to do with my family. That’s not to say we’ll never do them, but we just didn’t get to it in our time span for the unit. I’ll save them for a rainy day!

Daily Devotion

This year we are reading from Louie Giglio’s “How Great is Our God”. We really enjoy these devotionals because they’re easy to read, fun to look at, and it has that learn-something-knew-every-day kind of feeling.

I love simplicity, but I did have to dig around for the right pages for this one. It wasn’t too hard. Using the index, I found all the weather-related devotions and wrote them down for me to follow each morning as I read them. (You can see how I did this in my planning video) I also added just a couple devotions from the “Indescribable” book in order to have 10 total devotions (for 10 school days)

The following is what I came up with from “How Great is Our God”:

Water Cycle p.62
Rain p. 56 and p. 146
Clouds p. 182
Storms p. 12
Thunder p. 176
Hurricanes p. 88
Seasons p. 42

The last two devotions are from “Indescribable”:

Rain p. 188
Lightning p.168

Library Books

I like to read at least one library book a day during our science units. When I pick library books I like to make sure they’re the kind of books that are read aloud friendly. If you have a routine of putting books on hold, you can do this. I usually just show up to the library and start quickly skimming through books in the non-fiction section to fill up my bag.

For a simple, stress free unit study, I do not think it is necessary to have a specific list of books. Whenever I have to follow a book list, it stresses me out. Can I find them at the library? Should I buy them? Can I afford to buy them?

Try to stay relaxed about your book selection. Whatever you read is going to be WONDERFUL. You’ll have great discussions with your kids and you’ll learn so much.

If you prefer to look for specific books, I will list the ones we really enjoyed from our selection:

Hurricane Watch (Read and Find Out Science Series) This series is really great and they have even more weather books than this one!
Weather Words by Gail Gibbons
Weather Ready-to-Reads
Nat Geo Kids First Big Book of Weather

Food

I love to find snacks or meals that fit our theme when I can. To me, it’s an easy way to learn about a topic. We use multiple senses to experience something and its easy to plan into our day. We are already eating every day – now we are just changing the recipe!

Cloud Jello

I found this activity from the Totschool website. It was a great fit for our unit, and I knew my kids would love it. Unfortunately, it flopped for us! The directions are to use the quick set method for the jello. I don’t know what I did wrong, but my jello did not set at all!

I will say, they still look pretty! If I were to do it again, I’d probably keep it even simpler. Make the jello following the regular recipe the night before. Add the cloud topping (whipped cream) to the top when you’re ready to eat it.

It will look like the ones I have pictured. Although you can’t really tell….that blue stuff is liquid! oops! I’d definitely try it again. This one has some fun potential.

Check out the activities we didn’t get to for some more food ideas I thought would be simple and fun for studying weather!

Hands-On Activities

I usually try to make a wish list of activities I want to do with the kids. I have a mindset of if I get to them, awesome! If not, it’s ok! I personally feel like our reading and discussions is enough. However, these activities really do bring us joy, so I do try to fit them into our schedule when I can.

Now, this unit I approached a little differently (by accident) and it worked out so well, I may continue the pattern. We had a really odd week, and I had no extra time for the hands on things I typically enjoy. So, that Friday, I skipped the workbooks and we had a full science afternoon! It was so nice because we did one activity after another and it took all the pressure off of fitting it in during our regular school days.

Weather Wheel

This idea came from one of our library books! It was the perfect simple “craft” to kick off our unit. I used a marker to divide a paper plate into five sections. Then, we talked about the different kinds of weather we might see at our house.

I let my big girls draw their own pictures and write the type of weather. We used “rainy, sunny, partly cloudy, thunderstorm, cloudy”. (It was summer time, so there was really no reason to put something like snow.)

For the next few days I never really had to do anything with them. They were in a very visible location right by the window. As the girls passed by one, they’d change it all on their own. I love that observing the weather became so natural to them.

Cotton Ball Clouds

Almost all of our weather books talked about the different kinds of clouds and what they looked like. This made it easy for us to start recognizing clouds anytime we were outside or in the car.

For an easy way to review this, we used cotton balls to make the shapes of the clouds. I kept it simple by sticking to three: cumulus, stratus, and cirrus

Water Cycle in a Bag

This is so simple to set up, and you leave it out for observation during your unit. I found the idea from Pinterest here. The supplies are simple – water and a ziplock bag. A marker and blue food coloring are optional to add a cute factor.

We put ours in a window right by our kitchen table. After a day or two we could see the drops of water starting to drip down the sides – the water cycle in action!

Cloud in a Jar

You can find the directions to this one here. The supplies you need are a jar (with a lid), ice, hot water, and hairspray. I love these types of science demonstrations because all the supplies are already at my house.

We did this one about 14 times! I’m serious! It was so neat to see. I read multiple blogs sharing this activity, but one suggested to actually lift the lid off the jar to “release” the cloud. I highly recommend doing that because it really makes the cloud stand out!

As it formed slowly in the jar, we really had to watch carefully to notice the cloud, but once we lifted the lid it was very obvious what had formed inside.

Rain in a Jar

Another easy set of instructions and short supply list for this one. You need a jar, shaving cream, food coloring, water, and a dropper. I also suggest some sort of tray or plate to put the jar on. We got a little crazy with how big our cloud was and the food coloring started to drip down the sides of the jar onto the table.

Fill your jar with water and spray the shaving cream on the top as your cloud. The water represents air. I suggest mixing a little bit of water with food coloring (maybe just a spoonful of water! not much). The reason is because it took a LOT of drops of food coloring to make it through our cloud. Watering it down gave us better results.

The food coloring mixture represents the drops of rain forming in the clouds. As they get heavier and heavier, the drops fall as rain.

This is another easy one to do again and again as long as you don’t mind losing so much of your food coloring.

“Wish list” Items We Didn’t Get to

I highly recommend making this adorable cloud shaped sandwich! You could definitely just cut out a shape from your regular sandwich bread, but this recipe calls for a braided challah loaf that already takes the shape when cut! I love it!

Check out these simple snacks to serve throughout your week.

Have you ever heard of tornado cake? I’ve never heard of it, and it has absolutely nothing to do with weather! (ha!) However, with a name like tornado you can’t go wrong! Apparently it was named that because you can throw it together quickly for unexpected guests! The recipe looks delicious! I really want to try it, but ultimately my picky eaters aren’t fans of coconut. I did share the recipe with my husband, and he’s asking to try it soon!

Can you tell I love food activities? Well, the last thing I wanted to share is a non-food related demonstration. This thunderstorm formation experiment has a short supply list and a neat outcome!

You can also follow me on Pinterest. I have all of our activities plus the ones we didn’t get to saved to a “weather” board.

Watching the Forecast

I don’t know if you’d qualify this as an “activity”, but one simple thing we did was watch the weather forecast! We spent a few minutes the first day pausing and discussing all the different facts presented to us. We really enjoyed it and our local news had an app we could download onto our tv so that we could see it at any time of the day.

We didn’t do this every day, but a few times throughout our unit we paused to watch and learn from our local forecast.

Future Unit Studies

Is this information helpful? Let me know in the comments or connect with me on my YouTube channel or Instagram to let me know. I really hope to do this in order to give families ideas on how to throw together a unit study that’s fun and simple and low-stress.

As I mentioned before, we plan to loop our science and history, but I love sharing them here with you when we finish.

Be sure to check out one of our history units as well.

Are you a fan of novel units?

If you’re a fan of adding some fun to your read alouds in a simple way, I want to encourage you to see the different Read Aloud Experiences I have created. Almost all of them are absolutely FREE! These are created on a chapter-by-chapter basis and create such a unique, hands-on read aloud unit to do together with your family!

I also have a few different blog posts I’ve published sharing how we celebrate the books we read by experiencing the story through different activities.

Posted on August 20, 2022November 30, 2023 by Jaimie — 5 Comments

Simple History Unit Study – Ancient Egypt

This is our second history unit study for the year, and we are having so much fun! We just wrapped up studying Ancient Egypt and I’m so excited to share with you what we did these last two weeks.

For more information on how I plan a unit like this, check out my planning video here.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Where are the Great Pyramids?

We are basing our history units off of the “Who Was…?” series. So, our daily reading came from “Where are the Great Pyramids?” by Dorothy Hoobler. I love these books because they are so easy to read aloud to kids. My children are eight years and younger, and they are able to stay engaged and keep up with the facts.

There are also lots of black and white pictures throughout the pages that make it easy to visualize what we are reading.

We read our chapter book during our morning time, and I aim to read just one chapter a day. This gives us plenty of time to finish in about two weeks. We have great discussions and we learn so much!

Library Books

I try to keep the process of adding extra books for our units simple. The nonfiction section at our library had an entire shelf dedicated to Ancient Egypt, and this made it easy for me to just grab and go.

I like to look for books that will be easy to read aloud to my age group. I don’t want too many words or books I know won’t catch their interest. There’s almost always kid-friendly books in the nonfiction section and I grab as many as I can get!

Sometimes I’ll look through the children’s section to see if there’s anything related I might want to add. Even fictional books can be a great way to enhance a unit.

Once we have the books, I’ll display them so they stand out to my kids. This always catches their interest and drives them to want to read more!

Food/Snacks

I can’t deny a cute, themed snack. There’s something about them that makes the unit so memorable. I also love that you really don’t have to add extra time in your day for it. You already cook meals and provide snacks. Now, you’re just changing it up! Easy peasy.

Egypt Rice Krispies Treat

This geography lesson was so delicious. I made a batch of Rice Krispies treats and poured it onto a baking pan. Using a printout of a map of Egypt, I shaped the dessert to look just like the country! We used blue icing to add a Mediterranean Sea at the top, a Red Sea along the side, and a Nile River.

Next, I used a toothpick to label and to teach the kids about the different parts of Egypt. We labeled all the bodies of water as well as where the pyramids were located.

I kind of want to do this with every country we study. Yum!

Mummy Dogs

We made these one year for Halloween, and they were so perfect for this unit!. The best part is it’s just two ingredients – hot dogs and crescent rolls. Head to this website for detailed instructions. (We did ours without cheese)

My 3-year-old was even able to participate and wrap the hotdogs which made this all the more fun. It’s very easy for kids to do! If you’re a fan of hot dogs, you can’t go wrong with this. No extra time, no crazy prep. We just ate mummy dogs for lunch one day and it was a blast!

Sugar Cube Pyramids

Although this isn’t really something you want to eat, I’ll still put it with all of my food stuff. And you better believe they all begged to taste a sugar cube!

There was a chapter in our book that talked about the process of building the pyramids. The Egyptians would carry these big heavy stones, and it’s still a mystery how exactly they accomplished such a great task. As we started placing sugar cubes on the plate, we talked a little bit about this and shared our ideas.

I saw somewhere on Pinterest that a family did this and squirted their pyramids with water they dyed yellow. We did this too and the girls loved seeing the sugar cubes start to dissolve. If you have multiple kids, it would be fun to let each child try a different temperature of water to see how it would affect the pyramid dissolving. Make it into an experiment!

Mummifying Apples

I always have apples at my house, so this one was easy to throw together last minute. The point of this experiment is to see what substance will preserve the apple the best.

I just used what was around our house and we were able to test six different substances:

Baking Soda
Salt
Honey
Vinegar
Water
Nothing-Apple Only (our control)

We left the apples alone for seven days and we were so surprised by our results! Not one apple looked the same! Did you know that scientists are still asking questions and trying to discover unknown facts about the mummification process?

Crafts/Activities

I love a good craft, but I don’t want to be stressed out. When I start a unit, I make a wishlist of things I want to do and fit them in our day as it feels right.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to everything on our wishlist. However, that’s the benefit of making the crafts an option! Reading books alone is so wonderful for us to learn. Anything extra is a bonus. I’m sharing all that we actually accomplished but I’ll also share what we hoped to do, but didn’t quite get to at the end of this blog.

Toilet Paper Mummies

This happened on a total whim, but it was one of my favorite mornings learning about Egypt. We had just finished a chapter about how the Ancient Egyptians wrapped bodies in linen cloth. The book went into detail about what scientists know about the process. It was so interesting…weird…but interesting!

So when we finished I had one of my kids bring me a roll of toilet paper and we just took turns wrapping each other up. It was hilarious! The kids laid on this little bench we have in our home and acted like they were mummies. We loved it. Honestly, it really wasn’t a huge waste. I wrapped all four of my kids and it was only one roll of toilet paper.

King Tut Footprint Art

We have these books that my kids write notes to each other in at the beginning of the school year. My 6-year-old wrote to my 3-year-old that the best part about preschool was that you got to paint your hands and feet and make pictures. (ha!) Well, every since writing it, she begged me to do an activity like that for my preschooler. That’s how this crazy piece of art came to life.

Using a library book, I made an outline of the top of King Tut’s coffin (see below) and drew the face with a pencil. I let my kids color it on their own. Next we did some footprint art. I pasted the piece they colored on top of the footprint and it actually turned out pretty cute! It may be a stretch, but I love taking something they really want to do and add a little more meaning to what we are studying.

Notebooking/Narration

I’ve been trying to do this at the end of each unit we do, and so far I’m loving the results. I heard about it on a podcast and I loved the idea of being able to look back on all the things we learned over the year.

I usually let my kids watercolor. There’s something unique about watercolor, and if you use the right paper, it really turns out so nice! I let them color whatever they want about our unit.

Finally, they narrate to me some things that they remember about what we studied. Depending on the age, I write (or my child writes) the narration on the back of the paper when it dries. It has been so neat for me to see what they remember from our units.

More “Wishlist” Items We Didn’t Get to…

When we start a new unit, I usually have a list of ideas that I think would be really fun to do. I add them into our days as they fit, but sometimes I don’t always get to my whole list. It’s not worth the stress to try and shove them in at the end. I’d rather end the unit on a positive note.

I do love the activities though and wanted to share with you in case you’re looking for a variety of simple Ancient Egypt activities.

First, I would’ve loved to make paper as the Egyptians did. I saw a variety of ways to do this online, and I‘ll share it with you here. Ultimately, it was a little bit messy, and I had a hard time fitting it in when babies wouldn’t disturb. Maybe we can save it for a rainy day.

Next, was the simplest little construction paper craft. I thought this was so perfect because it was minimal supplies! However, when we had time to do something from my wishlist, there was always something else I’d rather do with the kids. So, this one didn’t get completed. It would be so simple to throw together though!

Movies/Videos/Shows

We do enjoy a good video or show about the topics in our unit. We saw a couple great YouTube videos, listed below:

We also enjoyed a couple family movies that weren’t focused on Ancient Egypt in particular but had some slight relation to it in a small way.

Night at the Museum
Prince of Egypt

Bonus Read Aloud

This next part of our unit actually happened when it was over, but how awesome that we can continue learning even past the unit study!

The idea came to me when I was trying to think of chapter books my daughter would enjoy. It turns out the Magic Treehouse series AND the Imagination Station Series have books specifically about Ancient Egypt.

I was so excited for this find. I decided to read the Magic Treehouse book (#3 Mummies in the Morning) out loud to all the girls (We do our read aloud time before bed.) My daughter is going to read the Imagination Station book (#7 Secret of the Prince’s Tomb) on her own. I love that she’ll be able to connect with the story based on what she’s learned.

Future Unit Studies

Is this information helpful? Let me know in the comments or connect with me on my YouTube channel to let me know. I really hope to do this in order to give families ideas on how to throw together a unit study that’s fun and simple and low-stress.

As I mentioned before, we plan to loop our science and history, but I love sharing them here with you when we finish.

Be sure to check out one of our science units as well.

NEW – American History Unit available.

Posted on August 8, 2022November 30, 2023 by Jaimie — 3 Comments

Simple Science Unit Study – Space

We just wrapped up our first science unit study of the year focusing on Space. Using a variety of books, food, and activities we learned so much together!

In this post, I’ll share with you how I plan a unit study like this and all the things we did for the study. This post will be more of an outline of our study. For a detailed description and a variety of pictures, head to my YouTube channel where I discuss it all in detail.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Planning

This unit consisted of a daily science devotion, a variety of books from the library, food, shows, and different crafts or activities. I am looping our science and history subjects this year so my goal was to finish the unit in two weeks.

The way our days play out is important when it comes to planning a unit study. I plan our school days to have space in the afternoon (around 3-5pm). Check out my video about our daily routine to learn more about why I do this, but that space is so important to us.

It allows me to catch up on anything I need whether it’s school related or house related. We can run errands if we need to OR…we can throw in a fun, enriching activity for our unit studies! This space allows me to be flexible with our afternoons.

Once I choose what we are studying, I start to make a “wishlist” of activities that I think we could do at home. This is not a checklist by any means. I simply browse Pinterest and different blog posts related to the subject and collect ideas. I know the things I like to do so I only choose those types of activities.

For example, I’m not a fan of an activity that requires an odd supply. If it’s not something I can get at the grocery store or I don’t have it around my house, I look for other activities. If you aren’t a fan of paint, don’t pick paint! That’s the best part about these units. Make them work for you!

Now, keep in mind this is a wishlist. We are not trying to get all of these done by a certain time. Instead I have a goal of having a list of things I can choose from when time allows. This is so important when trying to keep this simple. If we do them all, great. If not, no big deal! Our reading and discussions will be enough.

All extra activities are considered enrichment. By reminding myself of this “motto”, I am able to approach the whole unit study with less pressure, less stress, and more excitement to learn!

Daily Devotion

This year we are using “How Great is Our God” by Louie Giglio. This is our second devotional book by this author and we love them! The devotions are short, engaging, and interesting. This book in particular has a page that gives the reader four different categories: Space, Earth, Animals, and People.

For our space unit, we will read all of the devotions listed in the space category. I try to read one devotion each school day during our morning time. To learn more about our morning time, click here.

Library Books

Before our unit begins, I make a trip to the library to gather more books for our study. I’m really bad about putting books on hold. I can never remember to do it on time, so I usually just show up and head to the nonfiction section.

I look for books that would be great for my kids’ age group and start filling my bag! I take as many as I can fit. They might not all get read, but they’ll be there if I need it.

There are times where I am able to browse the children’s section as well. If something pops out to me, I’ll grab those, but the non-fiction section is usually a great source for books!

I have some shelves in our school room at home that I use to display these books. For some reason, when they are on display, my children become much more interested! They are easy to access and inviting to read.

Books We Loved

Even though I don’t plan out my book choices at the library, we still came across some great books by chance! The following books were some of our favorites that we checked out at the library. If you see them at your local library, be sure to grab them!

Shows/Movies

Sometimes when I’m preparing lunch, I’ll let the kids watch an educational show or a YouTube video that relates to what we are learning. We didn’t do this every day, but we did see a couple of things that we enjoyed.

Magic School Bus: Lost In Space
YouTube: ISS-International Space Station-Inside ISS
YouTube: Blippi Builds A Rocketship! Learn About the Solar System (This was mostly for my youngest two!)

We also have a family movie night each week. We watched “Rocketman“, made in 1997, which is super silly and fun. Another one we watched was “Galaxy Quest“. I will warn you that it has quite a bit of bad language and was scary for a couple of my kids. It’s probably better for your older elementary.

Enrichment

As you read in my “planning” section, I come up with a wishlist of things I want to do with the kids for our unit studies. I try to keep it low key and less stress, and the following is what we were able to accomplish. For more details on the activities or how I fit these into our day, check out my channel where I explain it all.

Solar System Cupcakes

We were able to learn all about the characteristics of different planets with one library book and a box of cupcakes! As I read about the planets, the girls colored a free print out that had the sun and the planets. We learned so much!

We cut them out, taped them to a toothpick and let them become our cupcake decoration. Before we ate them, we even lined them up in the correct order! This was fun, simple, and delicious!

Moon Phase and Oreos

You’ve probably seen this activity before, but I can’t pass up a good snack lesson. I had a couple books about the moon from the library that we referred to. One had an excellent diagram of the different phases of the moon.

We used that diagram to create the different shapes of the moon using the Oreo cream.

Foil Painting of the Moon

I know some people aren’t a huge fan of paint, but don’t let this one scare you away. It’s very simple and really only requires one or two colors. We mixed different shades of grey and used a crumbled up piece of foil to paint our moons. Each one turned out unique! My three year old was even able to participate and I love an activity that works for a variety of ages.

Field Trip

We aren’t too far from the Houston Space Center, so I couldn’t pass up on visiting after our unit. Our studies made the trip so meaningful. We even got to see an astronaut in training. What a cool experience!

Some other great ideas for a field trip could be an observatory, a planetarium at your local museum, or you can even check out the Imax showings at your local theatre.

Notebooking/Narration

At the end of each unit study, I am trying to have the girls complete a notebook page for their portfolio. This is the first year we’ve done this, and so far I’m really happy with the results.

I’ve been letting the girls watercolor (use watercolor paper – it’s amazing!) but you could definitely just color any picture with crayons or colored pencils. Then, each girl tells me about what they’ve learned and I’ll write it on the back. My oldest will write her own.

This has been such a great way to close out our units and I can’t wait to look back on them all at the end of our year.

Future Unit Studies

As I mention before, we plan to loop our science and history, but I’m thinking a “Weather” unit is in our near future for science this year!

NEW – American History Unit

Posted on June 2, 2022June 2, 2022 by Jaimie — 2 Comments

Caddie Woodlawn: Homeschool Book Club – Read Aloud Activities

Caddie Woodlawn is a beautiful story about a young girl growing up in the mid to late 1800s. Based on the story of a real girl, she lives in Wisconsin with her family where she gets along better with her brothers than her sisters. Through her mishaps and adventures with her friends and siblings, she learns about her role as a young lady and how plays a part in her family.

The following read aloud activities were put together as a plan for our Homeschool Book Club. You can read more about how I host that HERE. However, these activities are also fun to do with your family at home. The activities are intended to be completed at the end of the book as a little book celebration. So please use this plan as it best suits you in the season that you are in.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Discussion Questions

What is your favorite part?
Who is your favorite character and why?
Caddie and her family lived a long time ago. What are some differences in their way of life that stick out to you?
At the end of the story, Caddies family had to make a choice. What was that choice? And what would you have done?

On the Map

This is a great opportunity to understand where Caddie lived and locate it on a map. We used a US Puzzle and turned it into a scavenger hunt! I’ve had this puzzle for a few years and we put it together all the time! It’s the perfect way to review a map of the United States. It’s large, and the pieces make up the actual shape of the states.

Hide the pieces all around your house or outside (I always love going outside when we can.) As your children bring them to you, begin putting it together. Once it’s complete, point out that Caddie lives in Wisconsin. Show it on the map. You can also locate Boston, where her mother is from.

Ask questions about what it would be like to travel from Boston to WIsconsin? Could they fly or drive? These kinds of questions are always so fun to ask.

Be sure to point out where you live on the map. How far is it from Wisconsin?

Snack – Taste the time period!

One of the moms in our group made a list of a bunch of the different foods that were mentioned in the book. The list included hazelnuts, salt pork, turkey, cranberries, and molasses cookies.

Prepare as many or as little of these as you want! I actually didn’t even know what salt pork was until we made it for book club. It’s not very good at all. (ha!) But it was so fun to try it! I found an easy recipe online, but you have to prepare it 48 hours ahead of time. It’s not hard, and it’s worth the experience if you can.

We were able to talk about why salt pork was so popular during that time period and why it was necessary to prepare it in that way. You can read about salt pork here.

Someone else made the Molasses cookies for our group, but here is a simple recipe if you are on the hunt for one. Molasses is so odd to me, but in a cookie it’s oh-so-good.

All of the other items can come from the grocery store. We didn’t have them all at our group, but I love the fact that any time we do try it, we can still think back to our novel.

Read Aloud

I love when I can read a picture book that relates to our story. Unfortunately, the way our timing worked out during our get together, we didn’t have a chance to read something. I will share what I had hoped to read though.

I went hunting in my own home library for this one. I found a picture book called, “Summertime in the Big Woods”. This picture book is from a series about Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child. The books are precious and easy to read.

Did you know that Laura Ingalls Wilder was also living in Wisconsin during her stories in the “Big Woods”. How is her summer like Caddie’s? How is their summer different from ours? These are all questions I had hoped to chat about with the kids.

If you’d like an alternative for the story time, my other option was to find a book about Abraham Lincoln. There’s a chapter or two that discusses his presidency, and I thought it would be neat to read some history. I considered reading “My Little Golden Book About Abraham Lincoln”. It’s an easy read and very inexpensive.

Raft Challenge

There’s a chapter in the book that Caddie and her uncle ride on a raft. Caddie’s uncle plays a trick on Caddie making it difficult for her to successfully use the raft.

For this activity, I set up a STEM challenge, and it was such a hit! I provided the kids with a basket of supplies: straws, string, masking tape, and sticks from my yard. We talked about how rafts are made, and then I let the children have the freedom to make whatever they wanted. Their goal was to make a raft that a little lego man could float on successfully.

The results were so surprising to me! Every child created something completely different. As they were putting it together, I asked questions. What is your strategy to make this work? Why did you choose straws? What is the string for?

It was summer time when we did this and I set up a blow up pool in our yard filled with water. This is where we tested our rafts. You could use a big tub if you wanted. Want to know something crazy? The most outrageous looking raft was the one that worked the best! This activity went a little longer than I had planned, because the kids just couldn’t stop. They loved building their rafts.

I did stand nearby tearing masking tape for the kids to help them out and keep the building going.

Making Homemade Butter

For the last activity, we made our own butter. Caddie and her siblings churned their own butter. If you have time or the resources, you could share what they might have used to do this. Then, try it yourself. If you’ve never done this – it’s so easy! You have to try it. You’ll need a mason jar and heavy cream. That’s it!

Fill the mason jar half way with cream. I made one for each family. It takes quite a bit of endurance, so sharing the job among the family members made it easier to complete. Put the lid on tight and start shaking the jar with all your might.

This takes a few minutes. When one person was tired, they passed it to someone else in their family. After a couple minutes, you will feel that the jar is not really moving liquid around. That’s because it has turned to whip cream! This is a fun opportunity to put a spoonful in a bowl and add some sugar. I had a bunch of plastic spoons and everyone got a taste. Yum!

Keep on shaking that jar! After a few more minutes, you will start to notice the butter surrounded by buttermilk. The butter actually provided us with a second snack. I added a little salt to the butter and was ready with some saltine crackers. Spread a little butter on the cracker and taste the homemade butter. The kids ate it up!

I labeled each jar with the family name so they could take it home to enjoy.

Want more Book FUN?

We were able to finish all of these activities in about an hour and a half.The kids had so much fun! They loved discussing the books together and the simple activities were engaging and exciting for them.

A small book celebration like this really brings a book to life and we love experiencing the novels we read together in this way. I plan to share all of our book club plans with you, so sign up for my email list below and be notified each time a new one is posted.

You can also check out the growing blog post containing each book we’ve completed already. If you’re a fan of adding to your read alouds in a simple way, I want to encourage you to see the different Read Aloud Experiences I have created. Almost all of them are absolutely FREE! These are created on a chapter-by-chapter basis and create such a unique, hands-on read aloud unit to do together with your family!

Posted on May 21, 2022June 10, 2022 by Jaimie — 6 Comments

Homeschool Book Club

Homeschool book club is something I started in my home in order to connect with other homeschool families near me. It’s a homeschool group that focuses on literature by reading a novel at home and then meeting together to discuss it. On the day our book club meets we play, eat, read, chat, and do enriching activities to celebrate the novel.

Homeschool book club is not a new concept. I’ve seen some near me and have heard about some from others, but in this post I wanted to share about what it is and how ours came to be. I also want to provide you with ideas for activities in hopes that it might encourage or help others meet up together for the sake of good books! 🙂

And if you’re not into leading in a group setting, stick around! The activities can be done with your family alone, as well. Book activities are so much fun, and I’ve kept it very simple and low key.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

It starts small.

I mentioned the idea to one friend that was interested and she knew one more. That’s it! This group of families contains 11 kids, which was a great number to get us going.

We picked a SHORT novel that would be easy to finish. I didn’t want anyone to feel the pressure of reading a book in time. It also allowed us to finish reading quickly. I’ve read some pretty long chapter books with my kids and after a while it’s easy to forget things. Our first short and sweet book gave me as the planner a little wiggle room to play with ideas without feeling rushed.

The last “small” tip is don’t commit. Isn’t that so weird to say? It makes me laugh thinking about it, but it’s true. Sometimes the thought of a monthly/weekly commitment is overwhelming. We all agreed to one meet-up and than we would decide what to do next.

This worked out fantastic. We had so much fun and knew we wanted to continue. Instead of committing to once a month, we all picked a time in the near future that we were comfortable with…and that’s the only day we have planned for now. This laid back approach really takes a weight off.

Enrichment Activities

One of my passions is taking a book that I’m reading with my family and expanding upon it with games, crafts, food, or more books! We’ve done this many times in the past as a family. (Check out my Read Aloud Experience for The Secret Garden, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, the Boxcar Children, or the Courage of Sarah Noble) So, I was so excited to share our love for literature with our friends.

Different enrichment activities might include themed snacks, crafts, scavenger hunts, drawing, reading, writing, dancing, videos…and more! I pick a couple of these to go along with our chapter book and it brings it to life!

Schedule

The schedule will change each time, depending on the activity, but I do have a goal for each time we meet. We plan for a two hour window and I hope to do the following

Welcome and Free Play
Book Discussions
Activity
Snack + Read Aloud (usually a picture book)
Activity

Every book will be different, but I can add or take away activities as I need to.

Planning

Planning can sometimes be the hardest part for some. There’s so many options and a ton of resources out there!

Don’t give up yet…I’m hoping to do the majority of the planning for you! It is my hope that each time we do a new book, I will write a blog post containing all of the activities we did. I’ll keep a running list on this page of the different books.

Make the Book Club work for you.

There’s no rules to this, but do have fun with it! Go as big or stay as small as you’d like. One thing you could always do is just try out the activities in your home with your family. There’s no rule saying you have to put together a group. Maybe you could read the book and meet with just one other friend. Instead of making a schedule of things, just choose one activity and voila! Simple, fun, and educational.

Whatever you decide, I’d love to hear how it’s going and if you enjoy the activities for the books. Leave a comment here, send me an email, or tag me on social media (@simply.learning.together)

Book List

This is a growing list. So, save this page for future reference!

The Adventures of Reddy Fox by Thornton W. Burgess
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo (coming soon…)
The Captain’s Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe by Roland Smith (coming soon…)

Posted on April 1, 2022April 1, 2022 by Jaimie — Leave a comment

More Than Words Curriculum Review

I chose More Than Words: Level 1 for our bible curriculum this year because I wanted something that could guide us in our studies through scripture. In our previous two years of homeschool we used simple devotional books that we read together each day, which were amazing! (The Jesus Storybook Bible and Indescribable: 100 Devotions for Kids About God and Science)

Now that my daughter was entering the second grade, I wanted to dig a little deeper. I also knew I wanted something that talked about character, and More Than Words does that and more!

I am going to tell you all about this book and the goodness it contains, but I’m also going to share things that I don’t like about it as well. (Everything has their pros and cons…and they’re probably different for every family!) However, I encourage you to read all the way through, because I’ll let you in on a little secret later on that I think may surprise you!

To get a detailed look inside this book, check out my video HERE for a look-through and review where I discuss some of the same points I make below.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

The book is written to follow a 4-day-per-week schedule.

I love this because we are usually gone one morning of the week. So, I never feel like I fall behind. On weeks where I need a fifth day, I usually just review the week’s material and read the prayer at the end.

Each week covers one specific bible passage, one key truth, a look into fine arts, and one character trait. The weekly lessons follow the same sort of pattern, which makes it super easy to follow as the parent (and child!).

Day 1: Journal Intro, Bible Verse, Key Truth, Copywork

Day 2: Art/Song/Poem

Day 3: Character Study, Coloring Page

Day 4: Drawing, Discussion Questions, and Prayer

Journal Intro

This is a short journal entry to start off the week, written by a character from the curriculum. These characters are based on the author’s daughter and son and some of the experiences they have had.

My children enjoy these very much because it makes the lesson extremely relatable for them. It’s a great way to start off the discussion and dive into what we will be learning for the week.

Bible Verse

After a few discussion questions about the journal introduction (provided in the workbook), the bible verse for the week is introduced. The book encourages you to read it from your bible, but it is also printed directly in the workbook.

Even though the verse is only listed for “Day 1”, we read and recite it each day of the week to work on memorization.

As a side note, I love finding songs that relate to the bible verses. There are so many great Christian groups on YouTube that write awesome children’s songs. So, it’s definitely something we like to add in as we learn the scripture.

Key Truth

Each week there is a Key Truth related to the bible verse. The book encourages you to memorize the different truths each week and has cute review cards to go with it.

We simply discuss the idea and repeat it throughout the week together. The sentences are short and easy to remember and, even better, I love teaching and talking about them with my kids.

Copy Work

A copy work page is provided for each week. This is usually a shortened version of the bible passage. It is also what the kids and I work on memorizing for the week. My kids are 7 and under, so it’s short and easy enough for all of us to say together, even my little ones.

Art/Song/Poem

This alternates each week. Our favorite is the art. We love looking at the different pieces and talking about them. Discussions and questions are provided in the workbook. This makes it easy for me because I’m not very familiar with art.

For the poems, I usually just read it out loud and discuss the questions provided. When a song comes along, I like to find it on YouTube and play it for my kids. We don’t try to memorize it or anything, but we do enjoy listening to what it’s supposed to sound like.

I really love the way this book alternates the three art studies (art/song/poem). It keeps it interesting and we never really tire of them.

Character Study and Coloring Page

This is one of the main reasons I bought this curriculum. Each week, I look forward to the new word based on a character trait. A short paragraph explains the meaning and why it is important. At the bottom of the page, their is usually a circling activity finding synonyms and antonyms of the word in order to help understand its meaning.

It’s been so helpful studying these words because I can use them in our day-to-day discussions and they have so much meaning to us. When I am speaking to a child about a bad choice or if I’m trying to help them make a good one, we can easily bring up these traits, and I love that.

The coloring page is a bonus to the character study. It’s a sweet picture with the character word in big letters. Honestly, my kids complete this when they want to. They aren’t really interested in coloring, but they have asked at times to do it.

Drawing, Discussion Questions, and Prayer

Each week, the lesson closes out with an opportunity to draw a picture about something related to what you’ve been studying. The last page contains a couple of questions to think about and a place for your child to write an answer.

Finally, a short prayer to read closes out your week.

The book is divided into 4 quarters that focus on specific topics.

The topics are, “Who is God?”, “Who Am I to God?”, “Walking the Walk”, and “The Great Relationship”. At the end of each quarter, there is an opportunity to discuss these questions and talk about it more in depth.

The book encourages you to review the “Key Truth” topics as well as the character traits discussed in that quarter. A few options are provided about how to do this.

There is also a hands-on art project that is a part of the review and all directions are provided for this.

Here’s my Confession…

We don’t actually WRITE in the book…AT ALL! Not one bit. I don’t feel that the book is wasted though because we use it to guide our morning discussions.

I originally purchased the book for my second grader to work on independently. However, it turned out to be a part of our morning routine and we all discuss it together instead. All four of my kids participate as we learn verses, sing songs, look at paintings, and talk about character.

The honest truth…I kind of feel like all the writing and coloring and drawing is busy-work. I know that’s harsh, but it felt true in my home. It was just another thing to have to get finished. So, instead I looked at it as another great workbook for our whole family to learn from.

There are times that my children request the coloring page. So, I rip it out and they color as they please, but it’s never my intention to assign them anything from this book. It is purely a guide for our discussions.

My Review

Even though we don’t actually use it properly, I really do love this book. I like the pattern that it follows each week. My kids and I know what to expect and look forward to certain pages. No teacher guide is needed. Everything is right there for you in one book, making it a cost-effective way to study together.

I love that it’s helping us remember different verses in the bible. My three year old even says them with us and it’s one of the main reasons I wanted all of us to use it. We can all learn together as a family.

I don’t really feel like all the writing and drawing is necessary. If you have a child that truly enjoys all of that extra work, then go for it. Otherwise, my suggestion would be to skip it.

I definitely recommend this book if you are thinking about using it. I have even considered using the second book they created as well.

We spend about five to ten minutes each day looking through the book, following the lesson, and practicing the weekly verse. Although it’s not a ton of time, our conversations are meaningful, memorable, and something I look forward to each morning.

Posted on February 27, 2022February 28, 2022 by Jaimie — 4 Comments

Christian Light Education Language Arts Review

Christian Light Education really improved our second year of homeschooling for a variety of reasons. I picked it because it was inexpensive to try it out and it gave us the flexibility we needed.

We finished our first grade year with CLE and continued using it for second grade. The second grade level added quite a bit more that made the program even more thorough than I thought it was. In this post I hope to give you a very thorough description and honest review of the second grade program so that you can get a better idea of what it is.

If you’d rather watch the video version of this post, check it out on my YouTube channel HERE.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Christian Light Education is published by Christian Light Publications

They are a Christian Mennonite company, and you can read all about their beliefs and practices here. I am a Christian, and although I do not practice some of the same things listed in the “what we believe” section for Christian Light Publications, I have never felt turned off by the curriculum because of this.

I actually didn’t even realize the difference in beliefs until I heard someone else tell me about it. Then certain things clicked – like the images in the workbook. It was hard for us to figure out what a few of the images were because we couldn’t relate to them. This happened two or three times and we moved right along.

The program does talk about God often and believing in Him and making good choices that please Him. It teaches good character and provides short readings for the kids, teaching about manners, kindness, and good study habits.

The Language Arts curriculum is broken up into 10 units.

This is one of the reasons I chose this curriculum to replace an old one in the middle of the year. You can buy individual units for less than $5. I loved this because I could buy a unit and test it out with my daughter without really breaking the bank or feeling like I wasted a workbook.

That’s exactly what we did. I started with one unit, and we kept going from there. There are also optional materials you can purchase, and you can check those out here. We have not used the optional items in our homeschool.

The lesson content is set up as a spiral review.

This means that a topic is introduced and practiced again and again throughout the year. You do not master a skill and move on. Instead you are working on a variety of skills every day and repeating them here and there throughout the program.

I personally love this set up, because it makes it harder to forget things. For example, we can learn and practice alphabetical order and 2 months later we end up practicing it again.

I also like this because every section in a lesson is just a few practice problems for each skill.

Beginning in Level 2, the Language Arts program includes handwriting, spelling, AND writing.

How nice to be able to have that all in one! This is not the case in their level one, so I was happily surprised when we figured this out.

The handwriting sections start off with manuscript writing. It is a very short section in the lesson (see the image above). Next, it moves into curves and lines to get ready for cursive writing. When you get to unit 3, cursive letters and words are introduced.

The writing program becomes part of the lessons beginning in unit 3, as well. (See image below.) It’s so nice that I do not have to rearrange days or routines in order to incorporate writing practice. The process is broken down in the unit and easy to follow.

Each student book is called a LightUnit.

A LightUnit comes with the lessons, 2 quizzes, a self-check, and a test. One lesson usually begins with a new language skill followed by phonics and grammar review. Next, there is a short penmanship section to practice handwriting and, lastly, spelling practice.

There are also a few enrichment activities included in each LightUnit. (I’ve never actually even looked at these.)

The lessons are very to-the-point without extra things.

If you are looking for a variety of art and nature and song and poetry throughout your lessons…well, this isn’t for you.

A lesson is 4-5 pages long. Although it sounds like a lot, every section averages 2-6 practice problems.

If you sit and complete a lesson exactly as it is in the workbook every day, week after week, you are going to get bored.

Wow…that came off really strong, but hear me out. You can make it what you want! Honestly, that statement stands for almost anything! Homeschool is about making adjustments for your family.

The set-up of the lessons provide a flexibility when you plan!

For example, let’s say the review section is something that really doesn’t need practice. Your child has mastered it and is confident…so skip it!

Or maybe you’re feeling crazy and want to add some movement. Come up with a scavenger hunt or an activity to help get through some of the questions. Change up your routine and have fun with it!

Or MAYBE your infant won’t stop crying and your 3 year old is having a melt down and it’s raining outside and you haven’t even cleaned up breakfast yet…let your child work on it independently! I LOVE love LOVE that there are days that she can just practice on her own. As a mom of four, it’s so important to have this flexibility!

However, with the lack of variety in the lessons, it does tend to bore us after a while. Every couple months, I step away from it for a week or two and dive into something different. I might read a book with my daughter or complete a mini-unit together. This helps us go back to it fresh and ready to continue.

I do NOT follow the lessons exactly as they are written.

On the topic of spelling, I started the year by skipping the spelling section in the workbook completely and just having her write the words each day. We made this fun, and I can share more about how we did it soon. Even with fun spelling practice, we eventually tired of it after a few months and started only doing the spelling practice section in the workbook. We do not do daily list writing anymore.

After Christmas, I quit giving the quizzes and self-checks. It was a wasted day of lessons! My daughter was completing lessons well and was not struggling through the skills. (If she were, I may have kept doing them for practice).

One day, I just completely forgot about giving the quiz, and it affected us in zero ways. So, I stopped! We work through the lessons, and I give the test at the end of the LightUnit, if I feel she’s ready.

We also skip the penmanship sections most days. I do this because we already have a handwriting curriculum that I love (A Reason For, Level T). Completing the penmanship was overkill to me, so we only do it if we want a super short handwriting day and skip our handwriting book.

My point in telling you all of this is don’t ever feel like you have to do EVERYTHING!! You have the freedom to choose in your homeschool. If it feels like too much, cut it out. If it’s not enough, add to it. Do what’s best for your kiddo. Because of the way these lessons are set up, this is easy for me to do.

Let’s focus on the Teacher Guide for a second.

The guide is very thorough. The answer keys are actually on the same page as the lesson guide, and I really like that. You don’t have to flip back and forth to check answers.

Each lesson in the guide starts with scripted review questions. Next, it moves into a script for teaching the new skill. It provides questions for discussion as well as an explanation for each section in the lesson.

If there is any prep, it explains it at the beginning of the lesson guide. It also gives you optional activities to do during a lesson.

When it is time for a spelling test, the list of words and sentences are provided.

When I first received the guide, I was extremely overwhelmed. It’s a lot. However, once I read through the explanations and figured out how it worked with the lesson, I felt much better. It’s one of those things where you kind of just need to jump in and try it out to see how it would work best for you.

The guide is very helpful, but once we got in a groove, I didn’t feel like we needed it as much. It would be hard to have the program without it though. I’m glad I have it to refer to, as needed.

I’m really happy with CLE, but I’m not 100% sure yet if we will continue for 3rd grade.

The truth is…I’m somewhat bored. I want to read more books! I want to dive into novels with my kids and explore new characters and places and events. We do read chapter books together, but I feel like I want more. I’m starting to look for something more literature based.

My decision is not final. I really do love the flexibility I have with this. It’s almost like I would love to do CLE for 6 weeks and a novel for 6 weeks and than back to CLE…and so on. And I could…

I just have a couple more things I want to research, so I’ll keep you posted.

Let’s look at the pros and cons here.

PROS:

Inexpensive to try
easy to follow
includes spelling, handwriting, and writing beginning in 2nd level
flexible
can be completed independently (depending on child)
Christian values

CONS:

cut and dry
not hands-on
difference in beliefs
can feel boring at times
not much classic literature or fine arts (at least not in level 2)

I think this is all just proof that no ONE curriculum is going to be the perfect fit.

We get to make it what we want and add or take away as we please. Even when I was a classroom teacher, I was doing this with our textbooks for my students. The reason I bring that up is to point out that learning is not a one-size-fits-all matter.

My suggestion to you if you are considering trying Christian Light Education is to do what we did. Purchase one LightUnit. Look at the samples to get an idea of which one you should buy, based on your child’s abilities.

Then, try it out in your home! It’s the perfect way to figure out if it’s what you need for your language arts program.

Posted on February 27, 2022March 2, 2022 by Jaimie — Leave a comment

Why we stopped Horizons K mid-year

I really did not think this would happen, but we stopped Horizons K mid-year. I love Horizons! We’ve used it for three years with my oldest daughter (now in Horizons 2). As a matter of fact, she still uses it, and I don’t have plans to stop.

This has been a tough decision for me. I know how Horizons works. I know how to add hands-on activities, and I know how to manipulate it to work for us. I’m very comfortable with it and recommend it to many. That hasn’t changed, but, let’s be honest…this isn’t about me. It’s about my daughter.

If you prefer to watch instead of read, check out my YouTube video on this same topic HERE.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

I’ve known since November that something wasn’t right.

This decision has been quite the journey and my choice to stop was not based on a quick mishap. It’s been a process, and I’ll explain.

We started our school year the first week of August, and Horizons K starts very slow. It’s wonderful! The pictures are bright and colorful with just a few problems to complete in each section. It’s perfect. We can add a game to re-enforce a skill, and the lesson would be awesome.

Then, a few months in, it started moving very quickly. I tried not to worry. Horizons is set up in a spiral review format, so I knew she’d be getting practice again and again.

I put a large amount of energy into making it work for us.

It was tough to get through a lesson, mostly because it was a lot of problems to get through. We went outside. We played games. We added manipulatives and more movement.

The effort was worth it! We definitely enjoyed it more, but after a while, I could tell it had nothing to do with how “fun” it was anymore…

We took a couple weeks off to re-group and connect

Maybe I was trying too hard. It’s possible I was setting my expectations too high. I was dreading our math lessons, and I knew we needed a break. I prayed about it so much.

Those two weeks were needed. I highly suggest a break when you’re feeling confused about something in your homeschool. Connect with your kiddos and relax. It’s so refreshing and so helpful!

We didn’t do math for two weeks, and then the best thing happened. She ASKED to start again. YES! Ok, this is great. It’s exactly what I wanted. We jumped back in and pushed through.

Just a couple of weeks into January and she was moving on to Book 2. Woohoo! I was a proud mama, and she worked so hard to get there.

But book 2 is a whole new ball game.

The work practically triples! What used to take us 15 minutes was now taking 45 minutes to an hour. On top of it, I kept feeling like we needed to go back! She needed to keep working on things she’d learned in book one. It felt too soon to be adding in brand new material.

Maybe you’re thinking I should’ve just not made her do all of the problems, and I’m all about that! Sometimes, I cut out half the work in our second grader’s workbook. However, if I feel like the practice is necessary, I want her to do it. I can’t cut the work if full understanding is not there.

It was this weird balance of trying to build her skills and confidence while also not pushing her too hard.

I really don’t remember it moving that fast when my oldest completed it three years ago. Of course it did, but as a new homeschooling mama at that time, I’m betting I just kept encouraging her to keep going- We had to finish. (Or so I thought.)

I’m thankful I know better now. We don’t have to just keep going. I have the freedom to make the changes needed to best fit the needs of my kids.

You know, I really don’t like swapping curriculum mid-year.

I’ve done it once before, and there’s this awkward phase of trying to figure out where to start in the new curriculum and figuring out how the new book works. It’s a scary commitment to me and a big decision! I don’t want to flip-flop from book to book.

There’s a part of me that feels like I’ve done something wrong. Did I do enough? (Isn’t that the million dollar homeschool question!?) I just have to keep reminding myself though that I know my child best.

As you can see, this has been a prayer of mine for months. I don’t think it’s coincidence that something keeps prodding me to change what we are doing. It’s no mistake that it suddenly felt very clear that we needed to pick something else. I truly feel God leading me to this next step in our homeschool.

So, what now?

Well, I have researched a lot of math curriculum over the years. I really do enjoy learning about it. There’s one other program that I’ve thought about using, because it is set up in a simple, spiral review format as well. I’m referring to Christian Light Education.

As I looked through Christian Light’s kindergarten program, I immediately went to their sample books and My. Jaw. Dropped!

Three quarters of the way through the units, and we would be counting dots on a domino for math. Wait…what?! We were past that. WAY past that.

Two feelings came over me. 1) That’s way too easy for her! 2) Oh my goodness, I feel awful that I’ve been pushing my daughter so hard.

In order to practice the skills that my daughter needed, I had to purchase the level one book. I’m talking- skills we learned back in August. WOW! This program was at a completely different pace! I felt so weird getting level one, but as I reviewed the scope and sequence over and over, I knew it was a good fit.

Honestly, even level one is MUCH easier than what we are doing now, but I want to start slow. I am not in a rush. This was even more proof to me that I made the right decision. Horizons was very advanced.

My goal for the end of the year is simple and easy-going.

I have hopes to work through book one and book two of CLE to end this year. Then, we will take a summer break and I’ll pick up where we left off for her first grade year.

It’s kind of nice because normally so much time is wasted reviewing at the beginning of the year. In our case, we are doing that at the end of this year and moving forward at the start of next!

This is very new to us. I plan to update you guys soon on how it’s working for us.

Let me go on one short rant here…

First, always make the decision that’s best for your kid. Stop thinking about how YOU feel (ahem…speaking to myself) and think about your child’s needs.

Every. Child. Is. Different. Like WAY different – I have four completely different kiddos in my home, and I am so grateful that God has chosen me to be their mother. He has given each of them their unique gifts and abilities, and it is my joy and pleasure to help them grow up and live out the purpose he has set for them.

My oldest child is a numbers girl. Math comes easy for her. I only bring this up because Horizons has been amazing for her, and we plan to stick with it. This is proof that it really is about the child. As much as I love Horizons, I’ve learned it may not work for all four of my kids the same.

Think about what brought you here to this post. You probably have something on your mind about math, whether its what curriculum to buy or which one to stop! If you haven’t prayed about it, take a minute and do it. My homeschool changed drastically for the better when I started praying about specific needs in my homeschool. (God is so faithful!)

I am not one to say, “Yes! Change it! Get something new!” But, sometimes, we just know that it’s not a good fit.

There’s so many options out there! Sometimes I wish I could just have a little taste of all of them in one book. Wouldn’t that be nice? Here’s the thing – no curriculum is going to be perfect for you. Not ONE. So, pray about the steps to take in making it work. Does that mean changing it up a bit? Shortening the lesson? Adding in games? Switching to every other day?

Or…does that mean it’s time for a bigger change? It took me almost three months to finally say yes, but I’m so glad I did.

Posted on February 27, 2022May 17, 2022 by Jaimie — Leave a comment

Make Explode the Code FUN – Adding variety to the workbook pages

IF YOU PREFER TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON THIS SAME TOPIC, CLICK HERE: Make Explode the Code Fun!

Explode the code is set up with a very consistent format. I love this, because it’s easy for my daughter to follow. However, it wasn’t long before I was itching to add a little variety to the workbook pages. We wanted to have some FUN.

We started Explode the Code (Book One) half way through my kindergartener’s year, and I wish we would’ve had it from the beginning. It’s great practice, and I love how the lessons are set up. She can do a lot of it independently.

Sometimes repetitive practice gets old. When this happens I like to mix up the lesson a bit in order to add some excitement. It makes teaching more fun and it really helps my daughter have a great time learning, as well.

Are you ready to add some variety to the workbook? I’m so excited for this. I want to give you a SIMPLE alternative way to complete the majority of the workbook pages in Book One. Mark this page, or write down what you like. We are about to spice up some phonics!

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These are not activities to do every day.

That would be incredibly exhausting! These ideas are more for you to keep in your pocket for a day that really needs some mixing up!

Let’s be honest, some of the workbook pages can be completed so quickly on their own. We even combine a couple pages at times. We definitely just do the workbook most days. However, my point is to provide you with options. You never know what day you’ll need a change in routine.

For some of these, we will be cutting the textbook.

Yes, cutting it up! I LOVE doing this. I’ve cut almost all our workbooks at some point. The reason for cutting is because it’s less work. Hear me out! The book has the practice we need – so let’s use it! No need to go searching online for extra. Let’s use what we paid for.

So, think ahead…If you are cutting up a page, what do you want to do with the other side? Sometimes, I skip it altogether. Other days, I’ll do the back side FIRST so that it’s done, and then I can cut the other side the next day. You could also make a copy. It’s completely up to you.

Let’s get to it!

Some of these activities would work for multiple pages, so feel free to change them around a bit if you’d like. But like I said earlier, the point is just to have fun options for each one.

Cut and Paste

SUPPLIES: Construction Paper, Writing Utensil, Glue stick, Scissors

Book Directions: Find the picture that begins with the sound of the letter below. Circle it.

To prep this activity, cut the rows of pictures out. Leave them in their rows so you’re left with strips of paper. (See image)

Begin by introducing the letter and its sound. (Follow the wording from the book) Have your child write the letter at the top of the construction paper. Next, he/she will look at each row of pictures and cut out the picture that makes the correct sound.

Then, glue the picture onto the paper. Repeat this for each of the rows of pictures.

Watercolor Matching

SUPPLIES: Watercolors (or just colored pencils), construction paper and glue stick (optional)

Book Directions: Circle the same word.

We love using watercolors at our house. If that’s something you’d prefer not to use, you can also use colored pencils. Since we were using the watercolors, I tore the page out and glued it to a piece of colored construction paper to make the paper a little thicker.

I chose to go with a rainbow theme, because I knew my daughter would enjoy that. She read the word on the side of the page and painted it red. Next, she found the matching word and painted it red, as well. Now, the matching words also match in color.

We painted with orange next, and then yellow, and so on until we had all of the colors of the rainbow. If there were any extra boxes, I let her pick the color.

At the end we had a pretty workbook page that now hangs up on our work display wall.

Matching Words

I love setting up a DIY matching game and it would be perfect for the workbook page mentioned above. Cut up some scraps of construction paper and write the words on the paper scraps. I would just write the given word and exact match, not the extra words.

If you wanted to add to it, you could make cards with words from the previous pages that look just like this. Save the scraps and add to it as you move through the book. your game will get bigger and BIGGER as you complete it.

Read, Roll, and Write

SUPPLIES: Dry Erase marker, dry erase board/pocket, die, paper, pencil

Book Directions: Read, copy, and circle it.

On a piece of paper, assign an exercise/movement to a number 1-6. (See image above). Have your child read the word in the workbook and circle the matching image.

When it’s time to write the word, add in some movement! Roll the die. Whatever number is landed on determines the movement to be completed.

I like to put our dry erase pocket on the other side of the room. This gives my child a place to go while moving. Once she arrived to the pocket, she wrote the word and then returned for another.

Sidewalk Chalk – Jump on the Sound

SUPPLIES: Sidewalk Chalk

Book Directions: Spell. Write.

For this activity I showed my daughter the picture in the book for her to identify. Next I wrote the letters on our patio, just as they are written in the workbook. By using 2 different colors, it was easy to separate the columns (see image).

As she sounded out the word, she jumped from letter to letter, sounding out the word with the correct letter sounds. We had fun putting the letters further and further apart! Actually, I should rephrase that and be a little real with you – she insisted I make it further to jump, because the way I wrote it was just way too easy! (ha!)

I also gave her a piece of chalk to write the word on the patio as well.

Squirt the Sound

Follow all of the directions above, but instead of jumping on the sound, use a squirt bottle! Get them from the dollar store. These are so great to have.

Wait for a beautiful day and take your lesson outside. Have your child squirt the letter that makes the correct sound! This is so much fun!

DIY Write the Room

SUPPLIES: Scissors, clipboard/folder, pencil, tape

Book Directions: Match and write it.

This worksheet is set up so that there is a group of words to pick from at the top. The bottom 3/4 of the page are the pictures with a space to write the word.

For this one, I wrote the words on scratch pieces of paper and taped them around the room. We created a “Write-the-Room” activity. Next, I put the rest of the workbook page on a clipboard and handed it to my daughter.

As she walked around the room, she’d read the word on the card and then write the word down on her clipboard.

Window Writing

SUPPLIES: Dry erase marker, scissors, tape, mirror/window

Book Directions: Circle it.

Window/mirror writing is a a simple and fun way to add a twist to any lesson. I set this one up so it looked just like the workbook page.

Cut the picture out and paste it to the window. Write the set of words next to the picture. Your child can go to each picture and circle the right word with a dry erase marker.

When you finish, remove the pictures and wipe it off with a towel. Easy clean-up!

Chatterpix Reading

SUPPLIES: iPad/iPhone, Toys (optional)

Book Directions: X it.

When we get to this page, I have my daughter read the sentences to me and then she decides which one matches the picture. She’s not always happy about doing this, so I wanted to come up with something crazy-fun for her to do.

Enter Chatterpix Kids. This app is free. I never really use apps in our homeschool, so this was quite the treat. To use the app, you take a picture of something – It can be ANYTHING. I chose to focus on stuffed animals.

I let my daughter take a picture of her stuffed animal. Then, we traced a line where the mouth is. Next, I had her sound out the words of the sentence so she would know what it said. When she was ready, she hit the record button and said the sentence into the iPad.

You have the option to add stickers to the picture as well. I let her pick one sticker, and then we hit PLAY. Oh my goodness, did we giggle!! It was such a silly time.

I’ll be honest, you could probably do the worksheet in five minutes. By doing this app, we spent probably 30 minutes playing. So, it more than triples the time. However, like I mentioned above, this is not an everyday thing. This is meant to be something fun and special to add variety to your workbook.

It was obviously very special and enjoyable to her as she has asked me to skip all the other workbook pages and just do this sentence one again and again! 😉

Microphone Fun

Another idea I had for this one is to use a microphone. My daughter loves talking. So, naturally I bought her a bluetooth microphone for Christmas (lol!) Even though it’s silly, we can get it out and read sentences or words into it. There’s even an echo feature on there to add something to her voice if we want to.

We used a microphone for one of the pages, and I encouraged her to come up with a new voice every time. She sure made us laugh!

If your child loves singing, you could connect it to some background music and let your child sing their sentences! Maybe it sounds crazy, but I promise your kids will get a kick out of it!

Shaving Cream Spelling

SUPPLIES: scissors, shaving cream, wash cloth for clean-up

Book Directions: Write it.

Cut out the pictures on the side of the workbook page. Just a tip – When I cut ours, there was also part of a picture on the back, so I made sure to put an “X” on the back side of the cut-outs. I didn’t want to confuse the sides.

Have your child sit at a table with the pictures piled on the side. Squirt shaving cream onto the table and spread it around (you’ll want to give a minute to free play first).

Have your child draw from the pile of words (or if you need to, show one of the pictures) and then write the word in the shaving cream. For every new word, wipe the shaving cream to make a blank slate.

This is so much fun, and most of the time it doesn’t even feel like school work!

Letter Play

If you don’t feel like making a shaving cream mess, try just using wooden letters or magnetic letters instead of writing the word. Choose a picture and make the word. A simple change like that can really make it interesting.

Do you have letter stamps? These stamps are great to have on hand. You could stamp right in the workbook if you wanted to! Spell out the word using the stamps. Add some color patterns by using your different colored stamp ink.

Small changes can be so much fun!

Sometimes it’s nice to have a go-to list like this to keep in your back pocket for a day that really needs it. I would not recommend doing something like this every day, but if you wanted to take a week off of the workbook, this would be a fun way to do it! Or, if you’re feeling a little funky, a small twist can make a big change in attitudes.

I’d love for you to share your activities with me! Send me an email or tag me on social media @simply.learning.together

Have fun with phonics!

Posted on February 1, 2022February 1, 2022 by Jaimie — Leave a comment

Addition Activities for your Homeschool Math Lesson

Sometimes I look at a lesson and think, “This is going to get frustrating today…” That’s when I know I need to change it up. I usually do this by throwing in something hands-on or by simply changing up the routine a bit.

In the early years, we are always practicing addition, so it’s a go-to section for me to add something new. In this post, I want to focus on addition activities for your homeschool math lesson. These are great to break up a lesson, add some hand-on learning, mix up your routine, or just to PLAY with math.

I’m keeping it simple by using things you probably already have around your house! We take the problems straight from the math book and then skip the section in the text. It’s actually quite fun to scratch it out and move on. PLUS, it’s no extra work for you coming up with problems.

You could also do these activities with addition flash cards. Check out my post on more flash card activities here.

I feel like this may be a growing blog post. I come up with new things often to play with my daughter and I want to add them here as we do. I will start with simple addition, but there are some activities that could be used with older grades as well.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Magnet Tile Ten Frame

You’ll need: Magnet Tiles (2 different colors), Optional White Board and Dry Erase Marker

The image above isn’t the typical ten frame you see. However, our Horizons math book had it set up like this, so this is how we practiced it on this day.

We use the Picasso Tiles at our house. They’re affordable and provide tons of fun! Thanks to the square shape of these tiles, you can easily create your own ten frame. If you have a big white board, you can create an actual frame on it using a marker. Fill in the spaces as you complete the problems.

For example, 3+5 – Place 3 blue tiles and 5 orange tiles together on the frame.

Legos

You’ll need: Legos – two different colors

The point of this is to stack the legos together to make one big tower. If the problem is 7+5, stack 7 red legos and then add 5 yellow legos on top. Count the total number in the stack to get your answer.

Draw out of a Hat/Box

You’ll need: A box or bag

There’s something about drawing out of a bag/box that adds excitement. Throw some flashcards in there or write the problems from your book onto sheets of scratch paper. Sometimes we even cut the problems out of our textbook!

Have your child draw a problem and solve. It’s that simple! Add some blank cards in there with wiggling cues. For example, “do 20 jumping jacks” or “march around the room”. This will add some fun movement as well.

Dominoes

You’ll need: Dominoes

When we’ve done this in the past, I only chose five or six Dominoes. I have my daughter actually write the problems out in order for her to get the writing practice. We talk about the math signs and what each one means.

A dry erase pocket is perfect for this. Each side of the domino is added together to get a total. Write the addition problem and solve. Or, just discuss each side and count the total number of dots.

Simple Addition Math Mat

You’ll need: Addition math mat, counters, writing utensil

This addition math mat is perfect for when you are just beginning to start addition and you can use it over and over. The best part is there are traceable numbers on the mat to help with writing.

The directions are on the mat, but you simply roll a die and place that many counters in a square. We use teddy bear counters, but anything works. Do the same for the second square. Write your math problem, and solve.

We’ve also used this mat with play doh and it was super fun! Roll out 2 big squares of Play Doh on to the squares on the math mat. Use stamps (yes, stamps!) as your counters. If you’ve never stamped Play Doh, then you must try this! Add them all up to get your total.

Unifix Cubes

You’ll need: Unifix Cubes

As mentioned before, use the problems straight from your math book or for a little twist, roll a die for each addend. The Unifix Cube activity really follows the same guidelines as the Lego activity above. However, the great thing about these cubes is they really do stick together nicely. The variety of colors makes it a lot of fun.

For a special reward, try making a Unifix Cube rainbow tower. Start with red. Roll a die and stick that many red cubes together. Next, move to orange. Roll the die and add that many orange cubes to the red. Do this for every color of the rainbow. Can you count them ALL at the end?

Secret Picture

Every child will have their own taste when it comes to games. This one I made especially for my daughter who loves pictures.

You’ll need: Coloring Page, Construction Paper, glue stick, scissors, writing utensil

Glue the coloring page to the center of the construction paper. Flip it over so that you only see the solid color. You are going to cut this into six sections. I numbered mine so I could keep them in the right order.

Cut the paper in half (long ways). Then, cut each half into thirds. You will have 6 pieces. On each piece, on the blank side, I wrote 1-2 math problems from her textbook.

When it was time for her lesson, I told her there was a surprise on the back side of the paper, but she would have to finish to see. As she solved the problems, I reminded her – nooo peeking!

Once the problems were solved, we taped them back together (This is where the numbering helps) and she finally flipped it to reveal the secret image!

She was so surprised and immediately asked to do it again. We are looking forward to another secret picture activity soon. As a bonus, she even colored the picture later that day.

Matching

You’ll Need: Constrution paper, scissors, writing utensil

I always use my child’s textbook for the math problems (no extra work for me!), so for this activity I determined how many total problems needed to be solved. It happened to be around February, so I went with a Valentine theme. I cut 8 red hearts and 8 pink hearts.

Next, I wrote the addition problem on PINK hearts and the answers on the RED hearts. This made the game flow a little bit easier

We played the game following the same guidelines as the popular “concentration” card game. If she flipped over a card with an addition problem, she solved it first and wrote the answer. This meant she only had to solve it once.

It’s so helpful to break up the problems like this and a lot more fun to do than out of a big group of problems in a book.

Whenever it was my turn, she still solved the addition problem I flipped over, but I wrote the answer.

Not an Activity, but a TWIST

You don’t always have to plan out a separate activity to add something fun to your math lesson. A simple change or twist can really mix up the lesson and make it fun. Here’s a quick list of ideas to do just that:

Dry Erase on window/mirror
Toss a ball back and forth as you work through the lesson
Take the problems out to the sidewalk and use chalk
Solve and show – write the answer on a mini dry erase board and reveal to mom (This is so incredibly simple, but it’s DIFFERENT, and sometimes a small change does big things!)
Exercise between problems: jog, jumping jacks, squats, lunges. You could even roll a die to figure out what the exercise is going to be
Go outside! Solve a few and ride your bike up and down the street. Come back and do it again. No bike? Jog around the yard! Enjoy the fresh air!
Cut out the problems and hide them around the house. Go on a scavenger hunt. (This is one of our favorites!)

What’s your favorite way to mix up an addition lesson? Try out an activity above and share it with me on social media (@simply.learning.together).