Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids

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"...

All this week, I've been doing a salmon and freshwater fish theme with science, sensory, literacy, and more!  Today, I'm adding to my collection with a fishy writing tray.  This easy to set up activity is especially good for reluctant or beginner writers.  It would make an fun literacy station in a classroom, too. Making Montessori-inspired salt trays for writing in many different themes is one of my favorite things.  I have trays (and FREE printables) for Mickey Mouse, watermelon, apple pie, monster trucks, and so many more.  They can be made for any theme, color, or occasion that you want.  Shoot me a message on Facebook or comment below if you have a theme you'd like to see! For this fish tray, I used blue dyed salt, which is really easy to make.  Just dump however much salt you want to use (I did about two tablespoons) into a zip top bag and add 1 drop of blue food coloring.  If you want, you can try to make a more green grey col...

Growing up, I remember being obsessed with  Indian Corn !  I would look longingly at it and linger my fingers over the kernels.  I loved the colors, the texture, the season, and everything about them.  We never got to bring any home, which might be why I'm still obsessed with them as an adult.  We've done so many things with them over the years that I decided it was time to write a post about them. 1- Pick the Kernels off with Tweezers Probably one of the most obvious activities with Indian Corn is to take the kernels off the ears.  Using tweezers to accomplish the task helps strengthen kids fingers for better handwriting.  The kernels can also be removed with fingers.  I've found that rubbing your thumb along them or rubbing two ears together can get them off quickly. To enhance the learning, talk with your children about corn's place in history as food for animals and people.  You can tell them about how children used to de-kernel...

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!  Mickey Mouse!  Mickey Mouse!  If you haven't guessed it, this week is all about America's favorite mouse!  I've got lots of fun and educational ideas for you and your Disney loving kid.  Whether you're heading to Disney World to visit Galaxy Edge or staying home and watching Disney Channel, you'll find lots of portable and printable resources here. My kids really enjoyed using the Mickey head shaped trays for the sensory writing activity.  I used  red sequins  as the substrate, which were very beautiful but didn't give a very clear image.  Salt or sand works the best for making a clean letter, so that's what I recommend especially for new writers.  A sand art kit would give you lots of color choices for many themes (or they can be mixed for more fun), since you only need a teaspoon or so for the tray.  Kids can then shake the tray to erase their markings and start over.  Challenge kids to wri...

I haven't written about sensory bins in a long time.  They're one of my kids' favorite learning activity and the thing they ask for most often.  Usually, we do something quick and don't even take pictures of them, so they never make it into a blog post or on social media.  I'm trying to be better at both (wink). Yesterday, I debuted Frog Letter Cards for use with a salt writing tray, but I also wanted to show how great they would be in a pond sensory bin!  For this bin, I used a bunch of our dyed rice to make a colorful pond. How to Dye Rice To dye rice, add an amount of rice in a zip top bag.  I use a sandwich size bag and add 1/4 cup to 1 cup of rice.  To your rice, add a bit of food coloring , paint, or some other dye and a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol.  Seal the bag and squish the contents around until the rice is colored.  Dump the rice onto a cookie sheet in a thin layer to dry.  After an hour or so, the rice should be safe to handle wi...

When I was working on updating my old Montessori-inspired Salt Trays post from several years ago, I realized that I hadn't done a custom writing tray since my apple pie spiced one in 2015.  In the salt tray roundup post, I highlighted over 30 themed ideas.  I'm not claiming to have found every single idea and article in the world, but I was very surprised and pleased to not find a frog themed one in my hunt. If you've been following this blog for a while you'll know that frogs are our thing.  The original name of this blog was "In Our Pond" with a heavy emphasis on animals in the pond.  I even thought that our homeschool would be dominated by children sitting on lilypads for lessons (hahaha). Even though we've left the pond far behind, we still feel ourselves drawn back to the pond every spring/summer.  All winter long, Dragonfly (age 7) talks about wanting to find frogs, and we're talking this year about growing tadpoles if we can find some local....