Homeschool Art Class 9/21/12

Today in Art Class we finished up some cave drawings.  Then the children made a creature real or pretend out of a toilet paper roll, pipe cleaners, paper scraps, and any accessories they wanted that were available (like buttons.)  After they finished those up we moved on to the next lesson on Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphics.  The children drew their names and a secret message using hieroglyphics.  After they finished with those, they did a drawing as the teacher gave instructions of a pyramid surrounded by other drawings that were common on Ancient Egypt (like a lion and a cat.)  Class was cut a little short today, but that worked out fine because it gave us a little extra time to play at the park.

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Favorite Breakfast Recipes: Banana Bread

We had some bananas we needed to use up so last night I whipped up some banana bread for a quick ans easy breakfast this morning.

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs
3-4 med bananas
1/3 cup water
1 2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix sugar and butter.  Add eggs, water, and bananas.  Add dry ingredients.  Pour into greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool before slicing.

Note: If you don't have enough bananas you can use applesauce to bring it to 1 1/2 cups fruit.
Also it freezes very well.

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Homeschool Days at Mid America Science Museum

Today was Homeschool Days at Mid America Science Museum in Hot Springs Arkansas.  They were charging a reduced admission price and setting up special hands on learning stations that are not part of the "normal" exhibits.  We have been to the museum twice before and the children loved it, so we thought it would be fun to go for Homeschool Days and see the special activities that were planned.

The museum set up 10 learning areas.

1. Zoetrope- Create your own animation and watch it move.

2. Wind Tubes- design your own flying contraption and test it out in wind tunnels.

3. Marble Wall- create a roller coaster design for a marble.

4. Circuits- wire up your own circuits, buzzers, and bulbs.

5.  Light Painting-create paintings with light.

6.  Collective Piece- create a mini mobile out of recyclables and add it to a large main structure.

7.  KEVA contraptions- create a race way for ping pong balls

8.  Connectors and Tubes- build with connectors and blocks.

9.  Science Story Time- Science themed stories told by local librarian.

10.  Tesla Theatre- Science of Lightning

Plus you of course could go through all of the normal, fun, hands on exhibits that museum has to offer.

I have to admit, I knew it was going to be busy, but I was in no way prepared for the amount of homeschoolers that were there today.  At 10:30 I heard that they count was 440!  That is a lot of people!  It was pretty loud and chaotic.  The special hands on stations were a great idea, but out of the 10 stations, we only got to do 4.  We arrived at the museum at 10:00 when it opened and left at 3:00 when it ended.  The children had a great time and did a lot of fun stuff, but most of the things they did we could have done on any random day at the museum with a lot less people and chaos.  My wonderful husband told me to buy the membership passes so we can just go to the museum whenever we want to (like on a Tuesday morning when nobody else is there.)

Mid America has scheduled several 2 hour workshops throughout the year for homeschoolers in a small class setting.  You can find out more information on those here.  They are also offering a 5 week series and have science kits available to rent.  I signed the boys up for a couple of workshops and since we are buying the membership we will get a discount on those and the rest of us can play in the museum!  I wish some of the workshops catered to a wider age range, but I think it's great that they are developing these programs based on the needs of homeschoolers.

In case you looked at the pictures and wondered why my oldest was missing, she ran into some homeschool friends from another town that she met at the 4 H State Competition and spent the day exploring the museum with them.

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Schoolhouse Review Crew: Family Time Fitness

I admit that I never really thought too much about adding a P.E. program to our homeschool.  We spend a  lot of time outside playing and the children ride bicycles and play soccer.  I really thought that was enough.  But, as my oldest got a little older and playing outside was not something she did anymore and after I never got back in the habit of regular exercise after I was pregnant with our 7th child, I started thinking we needed to be a bit more deliberate in our exercise.

Family Time Fitness has developed a Fitness For Homeschool Curriculum that allows parents to teach Physical Education without any previous knowledge.  Their program has been designed to fit every age and ability level in a budget friendly manner.  It was written with grades K-8th grade in mind.  They created their program to " maximize the benefits of spatial awareness, body awareness, environmental awareness, enhanced neurological development, mind-body coordination, stress reduction, social engagement, poise and confidence."  Some solutions this curriculum can help with include:

• Improvement of gross motor skills
• Childhood obesity prevention
• Diabetes prevention
• Weight management
• Develops self-confidence
• Increases energy and focus for academic studies 


 The curriculum is customizable, easy to follow, needs only minimal preparation time, and does not require a large investment in equipment.  The program includes 260 lessons and is designed to take approximately 30-45 minutes a day for at least 3 days per week (although 5 days is recommended.)  One curriculum can be used for all of your children. The curriculum includes:

Start Up/ Training Guide- Full of information for parents including an introduction to physical education, information on what to expect from the program, safety information, tips for adding it to your curriculum, and equipment information.

Lesson Plans- In PDF Format, each of the 260 lesson plans includes a list of supplies, warm up, activity, cool down, and outdoor activity.

1 page summaries- Each lesson is summarized in one page for printing and portability ease.

Video Demonstrations- Each exercise has a video demonstration showing real children doing the exercises.

Assessment Tools-tools to track basic fundamental movements plus downloadable food logs and meal planners.

Encouragement Emails-reminder emails every week for the first year to keep you motivated including nutritional and fitness tips.

Online Webinars-access to online webinars for further in depth instruction.

You can view the scope and sequence by clicking here.

The Entire Fitness for Homeschool Curriculum costs $57.  They also offer a Platinum Package   which includes: Core 1 and 2, Basketball Module, workbooks for K-5th grade, and a one year subscription to Home Educating Family Magazine for $137.

We have been having a blast with Family Time Fitness!  Everyday for about 30 minutes after morning chores it is the first thing that we do.  Exercise has really been a great way to start our school day.  I love that it is a program we all can do together as a family.  It is very easy to use.  A quick check before starting to see what supplies we need for the day is the only advance preparation I need to do.  If there are new exercises that we haven't done then we view the video that is linked in the lesson plans.  There is a large variety of  activities with some being easier to complete indoors and special activities listed for outdoors.  The children enjoy the exercises because they are fun and have great names.  What little boy doesn't enjoy exercises like superman, monster walk, or light saber?  I will admit that I was pretty sore the first week using muscles that haven't been used in awhile, but it didn't bother the children at all.  I think it is really sweet when they show each other (or me) how to do the exercises.  I have never hula hooped before Family Time Fitness, and Christian showed me how and told me to keep practicing and soon I will get it!

Family Time Fitness does not require a lot of expensive equipment.  We needed  jump ropes (I got on clearance for .50 each), hula hoops ($3 although I hear Dollar Tree has them for $1), playground balls (we had a few but got a great deal for several more at a yard sale!), bean bags (we used beanie stuffed animals instead of buying them), carpet squares (I used felt squares we had), cones (we used rocks.)  We have also needed something to measure distance and a stop watch or stop watch feature on a phone or electronic device.

An exercise mat might be helpful depending on what type of floors you have.  We have foam mats over our tile floors that makes a soft place to exercise.

Family Time Fitness is a great way for us all to exercise together and get our blood flowing before starting our school day!

To see what other crew mates had to say click here.

Disclaimer: We received a complimentary PDF download of the Fitness for Homeschool Core 1 Curriculum for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation.

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Homeschool Art Class 9/14/12

Our first homeschool Art Class of the 2012/2013 school year was yesterday.  The children have really missed going to class and every time we have driven by the art center have asked when we were going back.  The big day was yesterday and the children had a great time. They were very happy to see their teacher again.  For the next couple of weeks they are learning about and recreating cave drawings.  Many people/curriculum refer to these as "prehistoric" but the children know that their can't be anything before history and all things were created by God all at one time, and although some people did live in caves, it is not the same as the evolutionary "cave man."  They enjoyed the activities they did to recreate their own cave drawings. They have a homework assignment to visit a website, view the different cave drawings, and duplicate one to bring with them next week.   I did get some pictures, but have to admit that after I finally found my camera under the couch I forgot to charge the battery!  I will do better and get pictures of all of their creations next week.  We are looking forward to another great year at Art Class!

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2012 County Fair

This week is our local county fair.  The children work so hard on their projects all year long and look forward to entering their exhibits every year.  I let them choose what they would like to enter, but I do limit them to 5 items not counting animals.  Here's what the children entered this year.

Chelsea entered 2 dresses which both got 1st place.  She also entered a fleece tie blanket and got first place.  Her rainbow painting that she made in Art Class last year also got first place.  Her painted flower pot from 4 H camp got second place.

Chelsea

Chelsea

Chelsea

Chelsea

Chelsea

Nick's Lego Set, melted crayon art from Art Class, sand art from our last club meeting, and lion pillow from Bible School all got 1st place.  His popsicle stick house from Art Class got 2nd.

Nick

Nick, Alex

Alex's Lego Set also got first.  He made a fleece tie Razorback Blanket that also got first.  The terrarium that we built during one of Lowe's free workshop for kids that he put a cactus in also got entered and won first.  He was going to enter a wooden airplane that he built and painted but it broke on the way to the fair.

Alex

Alex

Anthony did not want to enter anything but chickens.

Christian entered his lion pillow, and melted crayon drawing and got 1st on both.

Nick's, Christian, and Lily's

Lillian entered her crayon drawing, lion pillow, and sand art and got 1st for all three.

Nick and Lily

Nick, Christian, Lily

Our New Zealand male rabbit was entered in Alex's name even though they all take care of it together.  Snow got 1st place.

The 5 oldest children showed chickens this year.  Our Poultry Chain chickens are a cross breed between a white leghorn and a Rhode Island Red.  Each child has to show 3 chickens and they are judged as a group for the color of their feet, size of their comb, and how big an egg they are laying.

This year we have had a bit of a problem with our chickens at the fair.  Our chickens have been pecking at each other to the point that one of them is not going to make it.  We gave them an electrolyte in their water that is supposed to help with this problem.  Even with having 4 injured chickens, the children still did well with the judging.  We ended up with one 1st place, three 2nd places, and 1 third place.

While we were waiting for the poultry judging, we went and looked at all of the booths.  Arkansas Game and Fish was there with a baby alligator.  Alex and Emmie both held it.  When the alligator moved, it started Emmie and she let it go.

I am very proud of my children and all of their hard work this year!

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Schoolhouse Review Crew: Speekee

 I cannot imagine a better, easier, more fun way for young children children to learn Spanish!   We loved Speekee when we reviewed it before and with the addition of the Fast Track Lesson Plans I couldn't wait to have an opportunity to review the program again.  I didn't tell the children we were reviewing it again.  Instead, I logged in to our account and started playing the first video one afternoon and everyone stopped what they were doing and yelled, "Speekee is back!"  They were so excited!  So what exactly is Speekee?

Speekee is a Spanish learning course for young children (ages 2-10.)  The videos use real Spanish children in real locations and teaches essential vocabulary.  The main character is an adorable puppet named Speekee (pictured above.)  The videos are spoken entirely in Spanish, but there is captioning in English.  Each episode has cute puppets, fun songs, and an interesting location to visit.  Speekee was created by specialist linguists and musicians and uses a spiral learning method with lots of word repetition built in to each video.

There are 10 different episodes of Speekee that range from 16-20 minutes each.  It is recommended that you start out watching the videos in order.  The 10 different videos are:

El parque
El cafe
La casa
El zoo
La clase
El mercado
La estacion
La playa
El jardin
La fiesta

Here is a short montage of clips from El zoo

Speekee is more than just videos.  With a subscription to Speekee, there is a full 40 weeks of lesson plans to go along with the episodes of Speekee.  Each week Speekee FastTrack gives you 4 activities with corresponding video clips, worksheets, and other downloads including flashcards.  Taking just minutes a day to complete, these fun activities will help your child with a greater understanding of the Spanish language.  You can access FastTrack with your Speekee subscription via the website, or sign up for weekly emails.

To give you an idea of how the FastTrack lesson plans work,  I thought I would give  brief description of the first week's lesson plans here.  Day one, you would watch the video of El parque.  Day 2's activity is to make a sock puppet of Dino and Lupi.  Day 3 your child draws happy and sad faces using green, yellow, and red.  Your children practice the phrases Muy Bien and Que tal by holding up the appropriate faces.  On Day 4 they sing the How Are You song with their puppets.

You can try Speekee for 2 weeks for free.  A monthly subscription to Speekee TV is $7.50 with no minimum to buy or you can pay $60 for a full year.   Subscribe by clicking here.  Speekee is also available on DVD.

Young children have an amazing capacity for learning languages, and when it is in a way that they enjoy, it is natural and easy for them to do so.  Speekee is a fun immersion into the Spanish language.  We love the puppets and the catchy songs that yes I find myself singing at the oddest times during the day.  I love that it uses real children doing real life fun kid activities.  The videos are long enough to teach their subject, but not too long that the children get bored watching them.  My children love El zoo and La playa the most and will watch the videos over and over again.  It is so sweet to hear Emelia (18 months) asking for Speekee and watching my 5 year old and 3 year old pretending to be Dino and Lupi.  They are learning Spanish and having a great time doing it!  I confess I have even used Speekee as a "baby sitter" one rainy day while I needed to fix supper and keep the children occupied.  I let them choose their favorite episode and I didn't hear a peep out of them!

I am very impressed with the FastTrack curriculum to go along with the videos.  It is a great mix of worksheets and hands on activities perfect for that pre-k to age 8 or 9 (depending on the child) age group.  The hands on activities do not require a lot of planning from mom and use easy to find supplies that you probably already have around the house.  Each activity only takes a few minutes and they are fun!


One thing you may be interested in knowing about Speekee is that it does not teach Latin American Spanish, but Spanish from Spain so a few phrases may be different if you are used to Latin American Spanish.  At this time, there are only 10 episodes of Speekee but we are definitely hoping they will make more.

To see what other crew mates had to say click here.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary subscription to Speekee in order to write a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation.

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