Caffeinated Homeschooler

This is our second month using the  Mother Goose Time More Math and More Literacy workbooks. I have really noticed a change in my 4 year old son since using these workbooks. He will be 5 in just a few more months and I thought that it might benefit him to have a little more in the way of practice pages and reinforcement so when I was given the opportunity to try these out I jumped on it. He was really excited to have his own workbook and I noticed that he started to try a little harder to do his work. I focused on the More Math workbook this month because I already know he needs work on his letters and letter sounds. I was curious about his math skills. He is stronger in his math skills right now and I wanted to find out what areas needed more reinforcement and what areas are pretty much mastered. The pages in the workbook go along with the months theme and have great pictures. They are fun and inviting and he feels like he is doing big boy work, which he is so its win win! We

World Penguin Day was this week on April 25 and conveniently we had a day about Penguins in this months  Mother Goose Time box. I switched a few days around so that we could do the Penguin Day on World Penguin Day because what better way to celebrate this adorable birds special day then to learn all about them. We started off the morning by reading the suggested story in the Teacher Guide which gave us some really good information about penguins. After reading the story we used potatoes as eggs and tried balancing them on our feet like the daddy penguins do. It was pretty hard and we gained a lot of respect for those amazing dads! After this we played the Penguin Moves game from the Teacher Guide. It used the included pocket cube and the cube cards. This game had us waddling, hopping, and sliding to different letters and numbers as review. This was a lot of fun and a great way to get the wiggles out first thing in the morning. They especially liked the sliding part and used t

My Kids both love art. My daughter especially loves it. She processes everything better when art is involved. Crafts, painting, sculpting, drawing, etc. you can just see that she comes alive when her artistic abilities are being stimulated. My son likes art as well, but not nearly as much as my daughter. He has started using multiple colors in his pictures and showing thought and planning behind his creations. I love that our  Mother Goose Time curriculum uses a lot of art. There are so many ways that art is incorporated into the everyday activities. Whether it is an invitation to create that uses thought and imagination, a make and play that is more of a fun playable craft, ideas for dramatic play, or even songs and dance art is woven into almost everything we do. While it is very art rich it is nice because it can be as simple or detailed as a child needs it to be. I particularly like the invitation to create projects. They are like open ended artist prompts that give you some bas

I absolutely love the  Mother Goose Time Celebration Kits that come each month. I have done posts on past kits and each time they just really help add a little something special to the school days near a holiday. This month was an Easter kit and it came with all the supplies needed to have an Easter Celebration. We started the day by reading some Easter books that I already owned. I have a slight obsession with holiday and seasonal books and have a very large amount of them. We use them all the time though so I tell myself it is ok!! While I read a few books the kids colored the Easter coloring pages that Mother Goose provided on their website. After this we made our snack for our Easter lunch. We couldn't do the Boiled Egg Bunny Snack that was suggested in the kit because of my daughters severe egg allergy. They looked really cute though. Instead I decided to try the resurrection rolls that have been all over Pinterest lately. They looked really easy and I liked th

Every month I get so excited about our  Mother Goose Time Curriculum and I say its our favorite theme, but then the next theme is just as good. They are really nailing it this year. We are learning about Birds and Eggs for April. This week has been amazing. The suggested stories have been great, the activities engaging, and the information we are getting about our feathered friends has been phenomenal. I am also doubly pleased because again I can use this as my daughters science as well. It is so convenient to be able to teach the science and social studies units together. Makes my job easier and lets them learn and work together. It's a beautiful thing. Week One is titled In the Nest. It is all about nests, eggs, hatchlings, bird food, and learning to fly. We have learned all about the birds life cycle and most importantly we have learned about adorable baby birds. The first day was about nests. We wrote our names on eggs this month instead of name tags and then placed them on