Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids

It's been three years since I've talked about our kitchen homeschool classroom, so I thought this was a good time to bring it up again.  Especially since I feel like we're beginning a new chapter this year with our US History curriculum , leaving behind the unit studies for a while (although I'm sure I'll have more themed printables to share).  We also switched out our world map for a really big (50 inches!) laminated U.S. map with clear borders, visible small towns, and highways. The main feature of my homeschool classroom is still the  Elite 32" Cabinet  we bought a few years ago.  If anything, I love it more now than I did when we first got it.  I've been very impressed how well it has handled my tough children.  The laminate surface wipes clean easily and gives me a large surface for hanging posters or other organizers. This picture shows how much I can fit into the relatively small footprint of the  Elite 32" Cabinet .  S...

We recently got an Instant Ink compatible printer for our homeschooling.  I had been putting off buying ink on our old printer for several months, not wanting to put out the money to purchase new cartridges.  Then, I heard about a great deal on a new HP printer .  For the price of two cartridges for the old printer, I bought a brand new wireless printer with 10 months of free ink!  I've wanted a wireless printer for a long time, so it's even more perfect. The printer is part of HP's Instant Ink program, a subscription service where ink is automatically sent before you need it (amazing!).  When you sign up for the program, you chose how many pages of printing you think you'll use a month- 30, 100, or 300.  Every month, your printing allowance starts over.  When the cartridge gets low, HP automatically sends you new ink.                                       ...

I've been enjoying Travel Time Tuesday so much and have been posting so much content (twice a week lately) that I decided to move all of it to it's own blog.  The Camping Notebook blog post is now at my new site-  Party Through the USA . Click on the picture to go to the camping notebook post.

I don't know how many times I've written about our love of Safari Toobs.  They're one of my most common printables and our favorite thing to use for homeschooling.  The little figurines come in a one-inch by one-inch by twelve-inch "toobs" which look really neat on the store shelf, but aren't very convenient for storage.  My solution is to put all our toobs in recycled Crystal Lite Containers , which are wide, sturdy, and have a snap-down lid.  The containers are easy for the kids to open and for them to refill at the end of school time.  For many years, I labeled them with a permanent marker, but I decided to make them some uniform labels for the new year.  I even included the piece count of each toob. The new year means new attempts at organizing.  So search e-bay, raid your cupboards, and beg from friends to build up your stash.  Then, get organizing!  I laminated mine to make them more durable and attached them with a loop of tape.  ...

I've been enjoying Travel Time Tuesday so much and have been posting so much content that I decided to move all of it to its own blog.  The Crystal Light blog post is now at my new site-  Party Through the USA . Click on the picture to go to the organization post.

/> For some reason, I never got around to posting about our classroom at the beginning of the year.  On this blog-anniversary week, I have decided that this would be a great time to share our current set-up. Like many families, we school at the kitchen table most frequently.  I'm not completely satisfied with our set up, but I like the elements on our wall.  Our kitchen bench needs to be repainted with washable paint.  I like the white but this white is always dingy and doesn't want to be clean.  With three little kids, white things that can't be washed are just not working. However, we do love our plastic-covered wood furniture pieces that can be easily wiped off like our main homeschooling  Elite  cupboard.  Inside the child-lock is a treasure of resources for our homeschool.  I love that even the doors can be used to store and display stuff.  The wire baskets are from the dollar store and are held up with tiny cup hooks.  I u...

"He's a tramp, but I love him." Last year, we did the Lady and the Tramp family date night for Valentine's Day, but I lamely didn't have the movie for us to watch.  Yesterday, I ordered the DVD off of Ebay, so we'll be ready for this year.  I am the only one in my family who has seen it, so I'm excited to hear what the rest of the family thinks of it. There's still lots of time to put together this Italian dog-themed movie night.  It can be as simple or as elaborate as you chose.  And, of course, it doesn't have to be just a "family" date night, the movie and ideas will work for a regular date as well.  So, pick up a box of graham dog bones and settle in for this classic Disney flick. Ideas - Lady and the Tramp ( Ebay ) - printable chalkboard signs ( In Our Pond ) - red and white checked table cloth ( Amazon ) - candles in wine bottles ( Pinterest ) - coloring pages ( Coloring Book ) - felt dog ears ( Project Caitlins Life ) - official To...

I finally figured out how to make subject covers for our science units that are also useful as subject introduction posters!  These covers (such as the one below) feature the animal that we're going to be focusing on, the "letter of the week" in a few different fonts, and the continent where the animal originates (in Montessori continent colors).  I took creative license on the posters, placing animals on a specific continent based on how we were going to study them, even if the animal (such as an owl) can be found in more than one place.  I plan on laminating these covers, using them as the dividers between my units, and then displaying them as posters during the week.  I think these will work very well for us. Our 2016-2017 Science Units *each of the links takes you to my Pinterest board* - apples (world map; a BTS tradition) - gorilla (Africa; comparing apes and monkeys) - vulture (Africa; scavengers; contentment) - elephant (Africa; Savannah; safari) - camel...

This picture is a great example of organization and disorganization existing in the same place.  On a shelf inside our homeschool cupboard , sits this untidy line-up of very organized tool boxes.  I'm sort of addicted to them, so I'm sure this won't be all I ever make.  The larger cases came from Walmart, but the smallest one on the right came from Amazon .  I thought some might enjoy a peak inside. The smallest box in the collection holds one-inch wood tiles.  One side has a plain D'Nealian letter on it, while the reverse side is done like a Scrabble letter with a value.  There is both uppercase and lowercase letters to allow for lots of spelling opportunities.  The colored tiles are phonics blends for when we move past simple CVC words.  I'm planning on making a second box (told you I wasn't done) for the cursive letter tiles.  The printable for all these letter tiles (print, Scrabble, cursive, blends) can be found here . The box without a...