Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids

My oldest (Dragonfly) is almost ten years old and has a lovely group of homeschooled girls she calls her friends.  To capitalize on their friendship and desire to spend time together this summer, the moms have conspired to have them read a few children's novels and meet for book club.  For the month of May, we've been reading "Strawberry Girl," which has been a very interesting and fun read aloud for the beginning of the summer.   "Strawberry Girl"  was written by Lois Lenski in 1945 and won the Newbery Award for it.  The book is set among the "Crackers," rural, poor, white families in Florida during the early 1900s.  We've found it to be a good book for reading aloud because the accent and vocabulary of the "Crackers" is very authentic and can be challenging to read at times, if you're not from that region.  The story has lots of teachable moments about respecting adults, working hard, having compassion for others, dealing with d...

So, I totally missed National Ice Cream Day, which was earlier this week on July 19th.  Since July is still Ice Cream month and summer is an entire season of frozen food time, I thought I could still share this free printable.  It's just a simple collection, just like all my other letter cards ( see them here ), but there are still several uses for them. One of my favorite ways to practice handwriting is with sensory writing trays.   This is a modern take on the Montessori salt tray, which can be customized for many different themes or events.  If you click the colored text to see several examples from this blog and to get more printable letter cards.  They're so fun, and I've found that their almost irresistible to kids. You can use whatever you have on hand to set up your sensory tray.  In the past, I've used lids, paper plates, and trays.  My favorite option is a plastic  8x10 plastic tray , as it seems to give kids a good amount of ...

For a last week, we've been exploring some construction literacy activities for kids.  My kids love this type of theme, one with lots of dirt, trucks, and tools.  If your kids are like mine, then these construction learning activities will be great for them.  Whether you're trying to teach them the importance of stopping when you say, how to make equations to 10, or learning letters, you'll find something to do with them. Build 10 with Nuts and Bolts // Pocket of Preschool Road Construction Stop and Go // Still Playing School Construction Books // From Engineer to SAHM Phonics Sort // Preschool Play and Learn Build-a-Letter // Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids Letter Trace // Kindergarten Worksheets and Games Construction Slime // 123 Homeschool 4 Me Vehicle 3-Part Cards // Wise Owl Factory Construction Site Field Trip // Carrots are Orange Building Rock Houses // Pink Stripy Socks Make a Number Towers ...

We're back with more construction themed ideas today for preschool and early elementary kids.  My kids are enjoying these printables and working with them.  I just wish I had thought ahead to get them some mini construction trucks before we started, so they would have some for a sensory bin and dirt play (seriously- they're in the dirt all day long!).  It would have been nice to have them for the photo session too (haha). Since a lot of kids struggle with lowercase D and B reversals, I decided to make a fun construction themed activity to work on recognizing the letters.  Kids are asked to sort a pile of Ds and Bs onto truck mats.  The letter cards can be hidden in a sensory bin or placed face down on a desk.  Let me know in the comments if you want to see more themes and/or more fonts in the letter sort. > > > Click Here to Download   < < < This printable is only available for blog subscribers! Please sign up i...

It's almost time to switch over to fall activities, but before we leave summer behind, I had to do one more classic theme.  Construction!  The main highway in our town has been under construction for years (and will be for years to come) so there has been plenty of opportunity for the kids to observe road construction and it's process. For today's activity, I thought about making roadways, but that has been done.  Instead, I thought we'd focus on a different aspect of construction.  I know that it's not the most authentic building set, but I still think that it turned out very cute.  Besides, my kids like it (wink). Skimmer (age 5) helped me set up this picture, including placing the washi tape .  The boys are so excited about this letter building kit and can't wait to dive into the activity this week.  Don't you just love these  Tool Pens ?  They're adorable! Can you believe that I didn't have any  Mini Construction Truck...

All this week, I've been posting about math things for the classroom like the Giant 100 Chart Poster  for the wall and the 100 Board Game for learning skip counting and patterns.  To end the week of math fun, I wanted to put together a roundup of ideas for teaching kids how to count.  Most kids can recite the numbers in order and learn them almost like a chant, but to actually understand the quantity and value of a number takes a lot longer.  Here are a few ideas to help kids practice. 1- Pencil Box // Planting Peas 2- Wood Tray // Mama Guru 3- Sticks and TP Rolls // Montessori on a Budget 4- Red Numbers // Le Jarden de Kiran 5- Cups and Straws // Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids 6-  Popsicle Sticks // Chalk Academy 7- Toothpicks // Our Montessori Home 8- Q-Tips and Ice Cube Tray // Mama Jean 9- Wood Pegs // Making Montessori Ours When I first started homeschooling, I was very drawn to the Montessori method. ...

I've been doing watermelon activities and printables on my blog for two weeks and this is the grand finale.  I asked my friends in the Kid Blogger Network to send me their watermelon crafts and sensory ideas for learning.  The most amusing thing for me about this whole series is that I'm very allergic to watermelon.  It is literally my forbidden fruit.  I just love all the green, pink, red, and black of these activities!  I hope you enjoy, too! Watermelon School Supplies // The Gingerbread House Sponge Painting // Fantastic Fun and Learning Tissue Paper Watermelon // School Time Snippets Watermelon Fan // Red Ted Art DIY Squishy // Buggy and Buddy Stamped Tablecloth // Busy Mommy Media Felt Watermelon // Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids Sewing Watermelon // Homebound but Hopeful Paper Watermelon Slice // Moms and Crafters Rice Sensory Bin // Little Bins for Little Hands Writing Tray // Homeschooling My Kine...

When I was a kid, fractions terified and confused me.  I did not understand them and didn't understand why I would need to understand them.  One of my problems was that I was introduced to fractions too late, and I remember it coming in a fire hose of worksheets.  Now as a homeschool mom, I am obsessed with helping my kids and other people's children understand fractions in an enjoyable way.  Since this Saturday (Aug 3) is National Watermelon day, I thought this would be a perfect week for some sticky sweet fraction fun! The printable contains Montessori-inspired 3-part cards for the major fraction pieces, including halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, eighths, and tenths.  The cards can be used as flashcards or labels for studying the different fractions, or print two copies to use them in the traditional 3-part way by cutting off the label on one of the pictures.  The child can then match the pictures and labels back together. > > ...