Caffeinated Homeschooler

We had a lot of fun learning about ponds this month with our  Mother Goose Time curriculum. We learned so much about the different plants, animals, and insects that live in and around ponds. We also took pond walks and saw first hand some of the things we had learned about. To wrap up this month we collected work that we were proud of to put in our portfolios. This is just a folder that I put some work samples in each month so we can keep track of favorite art projects that we want to keep but have nowhere to keep them, and also so we have a way to look back and see how much we have grown from the beginning of the year. I need to find a better way to store this, but for now the folder works. First we gathered all of our coloring sheets that we did every morning. The kids like to color them while I read the days suggested story and then at the end of the month we put them in order and staple them together to make a book. It's fun because it gives us a way to look back on th

We have been using Mother Goose Time for preschool with my son for 7 months now and have been very happy with it. I was recently given the oppurtunity to try one of their  add on products with our regular subscription. I decided that we would give the More Literacy and More Math workbooks a try. Preston is 4 1/2 and I figured a little extra help in those areas could be good for him. When he saw his workbook he was so excited, I decided to put them in the workboxes with his sisters work so that when she does math he can also pull out his math workbook and do math with her. He has really enjoyed doing these workbooks and I was surprised that he didn't get upset about doing more work. He usually doesn't like writing, but these books are adorably illustrated and the activity pages are fun and not to time intensive. He has really retained a lot more information this month. The workbooks have been just the right amount of extra work that he has actually remembered the letters

Last week we learned all about the plants that grow in and around ponds with Mother Goose Time . It was  a lot of fun because we live near several ponds and we have a lake right out in our backyard. We learned about Submerged pond plants, bog plants, emergent pond plants, floating pond plants, and algae. We were lucky because we got to go out and see a lot of the plants that we leaned about. The suggested stories that went with this week were also very helpful and gave us a lot of information about the different kinds of pond plants. I actually learned a lot about pond plants! Did you know that submerged pond plants are a major source of oxygen in the pond, or that cattails are edible, and there are different zones in a pond. Our favorite day was the day we spent learning about floating pond plants. We spent our day making mini ponds, doing a root experiment, and investigating things that float. We also decided to go on a pond walk at the end of the day to look for pond plants in rea

It was St. Patrick's Day this week! This is always such a fun holiday to celebrate and this year it was made more fun with our  Mother Goose Time celebration kit. I love that they send these extra kits each month to go along with a holiday that is happening. We started the day by having our annual bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. I hate giving them cereal with marshmallows in it because they usually just eat the marshmallows and leave the cereal, but we make an exception for St. Patrick's Day. After our breakfast we played the Hot Potato game from the celebration kit. I didn't get pictures of this because I was playing with them and we had a lot of fun. After we played a couple rounds of hot potato we played the coin toss game. I had my daughter add up all of our scores each time to help her with her adding skills. This wasn't a very challenging game for her but she was able to practice using mental math which we practice with her math curriculum and

This was a hard week for my daughter. Since we moved we have had to find all new doctors and specialists. It's time for her yearly allergy appointment and she was not looking forward to it. Last year it looked as if she was out growing her egg allergy so we did a food challenge in the doctors office. She passed but complained about her stomach hurting the whole time and even got a hive on her face. I wasn't so sure how much of a pass it really was. We continued giving her egg baked into muffins and she still complained of stomach aches and eventually said her mouth itched. We stopped giving her egg after that. So this year we were going to have her skin tested for egg again to see what the result showed. We saw a new doctor though and this one wanted to recheck a few different foods and he wanted to do a blood test as well so we could compare and get a more accurate result as to what she might be able to tolerate. I was happy, she was not. It was very dramatic. She cried, whine

If you know me very well then you know that I celebrate pretty much every holiday I can. I love finding out about different cultures, people, and ideas. I spend a lot of time researching a holiday and its traditions to make sure we celebrate it in as much of an accurate and authentic way as we can. I try to find picture books, crafts, and recipes to make it meaningful and memorable. If there is a local festival or activity then we attend that as well. Its great because most months have something going on in them and it makes planning Social Studies really easy. Mardi Gras was on February 28th this year, although we learned that the celebrations, feasts, and merry making typically start about 2 weeks before the day on the calendar going all the way through Mardi Gras and ending on Ash Wednesday . We had our party on the 28th but took a few days before to learn about it and get ready. I added some really great books to my holiday collection. I realized that I didn't have any book