Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids

I live in North America, and most of these animals are native to my neighborhood.  Back in 2015, my kids (then 2, 1, and 6 months) loved the Safari Ltd North America toob, because they recognized almost every creature.  As you may have noticed, I've been on a campaign to rework my old Safari toob printables.  Since the North America toob was one of the first I ever made, I'm excited to present the latest version for you. Originally published on June 10, 2015 and updated on March 3, 2021. This is a Member's Only Printable! Sign Up for the Newsletter to Get the Password! After you've put in your email address into the box, check your inbox for the confirmation email.  Open the email and click on the button to confirm your subscription.  You'll get a second email with a link to download the printable.  Download the PDF from the protected page.  Print the first two pages twice and laminate them for long-term use.  Then, cut out all the cards a...

In today's screen-driven age, many kids don't get enough time working on their fine motor skills.  The result is weak fingers and hands and poor handwriting.  More time strengthening their hands is a necessary part of your school day, but it doesn't have to just include play dough kneading.  Here are ways that you can improve your child's handwriting, while encouraging them to learn geography.   Set up these fine motor activities in some trays or bins, so one child can work on them, while you're working with another child.   Landform Trays with Play Dough // Pinay Homeschooler Squishing play dough is a great way to strengthen fingers and work on fine motor skills.  This activity uses colored dough to create landforms in an engaging and interesting way.  Place a few tins of play dough in a quiet bin with some printable cards, so kids can build whichever landform they want during their free time. Tracing Roads on Maps // Housing a...

It's a new school year, so it's time for some new printables!  I have lots of math helpers and manipulatives on this blog, but I'm not sure I'll ever reach a point where I can say that I have too many.  I was chatting with some other moms this morning in a Gameschooling group (homeschooling through game playing), and one of the moms mentioned she was looking for a pizza fraction game.  I've been spending so much time working on my small business that I haven't been posting to this blog very often, so I thought this was a great opportunity make a new printable! Is there any American kid who doesn't love pizza?  It doesn't matter what time of the day or how often we've eaten the food, the kids are always game for another pie.  With so many varieties available from savory to sweet, there are so many options for chowing down on it too.  If your kids enjoy pizza like mine do, they might enjoy these other fun pizza themed toys and books.  Check t...

I started this blog post MONTHS ago, when I was doing all the fine motor work to get ready for the new school year.  As part of our homeschooling plan for this year, we were planning to use "fine motor tubs" (sometimes called busy bins) to keep the kids working even when I'm not working one-on-one with them.  My main qualification for the bins was something the kids could do on their own and needed to be mostly quiet.  You can read about my thought process more by clicking on the picture or colored text below. Using Fine Motor Bins in Homeschooling Now that all the kids are out of school for the current issue, building and maintaining fine motor skills is even more important.  It's so tempting to hand our kids the phones and devices and let them play game or do all their learning on internet.  Although it's fine to do some learning and fun on devices, it's even more important for kids to spend a lot of time doing gross and fine motor skill buildi...

The kids and I started reading "Little House in the Big Woods" last week for the first time.  They're really enjoying hearing about life in the "old days" and all the ways that things were done differently 150 years ago.  It's been a very special time, too, because we all pile on the parents' bed for reading time and have some quiet time as part of our day.  It's been a great way to reconnect with them. Many of these ideas came from my own reading of the series; however, where possible, I've added links to give you more information about them.  Many of them can be done without extra supplies and don't involve other people, so their perfect for living "self isolated" like a pioneer. 1- Preserve Meat In my search, I found a blog and podcast called "Pioneering Today."  She has a post about salting, fermenting, and other ways to preserve meat.  The very first chapter of "The Little House in the Big Woods"...