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{updated!} Homeschool Valentine Resources for the Very Young

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Updated, originally published Feb 2014

Valentine’s Day is upon us.  And in honor of that, I am here with some great Valentine’s Day Resources for preschoolers and kindergarteners.

Free Valentine's Day Resources for Prek-K from Quietinthechaos.com

  • I really like BusyBeeKidsCrafts.com  They offer lots of printable educational Valentine’s Day activities such as word searches, mazes, math worksheets, and dot to dots.  Lexie really enjoys dot to dots, mazes, and anything where she has to find numbers.
  • As you may know, I loove This Reading mama all year round!  We use one of her reading curricula to supplement our homeschool activities.  She also has some great Valentine’s Day activities and printable packs:
  • Cutting practice (my daughter’s favorite!)
  • Entire PreK V-Day printable pack, including emergent readers, rhyming activities and more!
  • This awesome Valentine’s Day Scripture pack is one of my favorites!  It is a countdown to VDay, using scripture, courtesy of Kim from Not Consumed.  She has some other great resources on her site.  Check it out!
  • I think we made these every year in school, and it never got old- Tissue Paper Hearts using paper plates and tissue paper
  • Marble painting is so fun, and is the perfect developmentally appropriate process art! Place cut out hearts on an old cookie sheet or box lid, roll marbles or golf balls in tempra paint (plastic bowls and spoons work well). Then, place the marble/ball on the cookie sheet/lid and roll around, leaving paint trails on the hearts. This is so easy, so fun, and makes super cute hearts for decorations and cards! Younger and older kids will love this!
  • Noodle Garland is a great fine motor activity for all ages as well! Get some different shaped pastas, paint them with red and pink tempra paints. Then glue onto cut out paper hearts. Hang them on twine via little wooden clothes pins.
  • ChristianPreschoolPrintables has some fun Bible themed Valentine’s Day printables- you can make your own valentines, create a minibook, and print a VDay sewing craft!  Lots of fun stuff for the tiny humans.  =)

 

 

Valentine's Day RoundUp

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

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Starting Monday, August 14, 2007, we will be starting the annual Back to Homeschool Blog Hop! The Review Crew will be sharing anything and everything that has to do with homeschool in the following topics:

  • Monday (8-14) – Curriculum
  • Tuesday (8-15) – School Supplies
  • Wednesday (8-16) – Planning / Record Keeping
  • Thursday (8-17) – Outside the Home
  • Friday (8-18) – Dear Homeschool Mom

I am excited to join again this year-

Click the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog post featuring all the crew members joining the linkup:

5 Days of Back to Homeschool 2017

 



Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you.  Thank you!

Learning Latin with Memoria Press & Prima Latina {a review}

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Memoria PressLOGO

I’ve wanted a gentle and simple way to introduce latin in our homeschool, but it wasn’t until having a chance to review Prima Latina Complete Set by Memoria Press that I really became excited about it!

We have been using Prima Latina a few times a week for several weeks now, and we have loved it.  Memoria Press offers classical Christian education and homeschooling programs at every level, and they *never* disappoint!  Prima Latina has been no exception.

What it is

Memoria Press’s Prima Latina is a gentle approach to learning latin for early elementary/beginner students. We have learned latin words and their definitions, derivatives in the english language, and are learning a prayer (but there is even more great lessons to be learned).

The Prima Latina Complete Set includes:

  • The Basic Set
    • 25 lessons, each including grammar lessons appropriate for primary grades
    • 5 vocabulary words with corresponding English derivatives per lesson
    • A practical Latin phrase per lesson
    • One line of a prayer per lesson that is learned in totality over 5 lessons
    • Easy-to-read, 2-color format
  • Flashcards
    • Vocabulary with derivatives
    • Latin sayings
    • Conjugations & Declensions
  • DVDs
    • 3 discs, 9 hours (15-20 min./lesson)
    • Comprehensive teaching by Leigh Lowe (<–she is SO great, fun, and easy to listen to!)
    • Recitation & review, vocabulary practice, and explanation of derivatives
    • On-screen notes, diagrams, & examples
    • Self-instructive format

Prima Latina Complete Set

Because my oldest student is so young, we have been moving very slowly, and repeat lessons at least once before moving on.  My daughter doesn’t mind this and I think it helps us both with retention, because of our learning styles.

We have enjoyed the student text, flashcards, and smooth, gentle lessons immensely, but …

The video lessons are the icing on the cake!  The lessons are so gentle and move at a perfect pace; we do re-watch lessons a few times because it just helps us learn.  But because my daughter is an independent reader, she is able to read the student book (to be used with one student) on her own, and complete the pages independently after doing the DVD lesson.  I don’t have to teach anything!  I can just relax and listen along.

Prima Latina Review {memoria press}

The pages in the student text aren’t workbook style, at least not the way I think of workbooks.  It is more like a note booking style, in my opinion.  There are lesson “notes” on one page, and then simple questions like writing definitions and answering questions from the video lesson.  Lexie enjoys reading the lesson in her book, and looking back at her work, reading the prayer, etc. so we think of it more as her latin journal.

We are currently learning the first prayer together; she really enjoys saying oremus before each prayer at meals and bedtime.  My 4 year old also enjoys learning the vocabulary, which he has picked up on from his big sister using it in our home. When I ask my daughter some review questions, Mister can almost always answer them on his own. haha.

I made a simple chart with the words that we keep up on the dry erase board with magnets; this way we can review throughout the week when we aren’t “doing” school, since we school at the table & put everything away when we are done in the mornings.  We review words and prayers at the dinner table with Daddy many nights of the week.

Here is a Prima Latina Sample DVD Lesson from Brian Lowe on Vimeo.

Summary of What We Think About Prima Latina

We have really enjoyed this program!  I like that we can go at our own pace (which is pretty slow!  haha), can review lessons as many times as we need to, and I don’t have to teach anything! I can put the DVD in my computer, and play it for my daughter to watch, while I listen and work right there in the kitchen.  My son picks up on what he hears in the lessons, and that is always a bonus.

If you don’t know the benefits of learning latin, I will let you do the research there. =)  I took latin in my homeschool during high school; I do remember the derivatives and that latin helped me greatly when writing papers, while taking my ACT, and when I was taking college courses.  Because so many languages derive from latin, it is an easy way to transition into learning other foreign languages! (which we also want to do!)

There are other program by Memoria Press, for other grade levels:

You can see reviews on these program by clicking on the banner at the bottom of this post.

This is a great latin program for anyone wanting to introduce latin at a young age while learning the basics of english grammar, or families wanting to lay a strong foundation in latin for an extremely thorough language arts program later.

For us, this is definitely a great fit!  We will continue our slow progression through the program, so we can enjoy it and apply what we are learning (and YES- I am learning with my kids).

 Connect With Memoria Press

 

Read more Memoria Press reviews from The Crew by clicking the banner below:

Click Here to Read More Reviews

Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you.  Thank you!

FMF: Visit {& Processing Meat Chickens for the Freezer}

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This week’s Five Minute Friday prompt is Visit

.

.

and go!
I am outside on this beautiful Memorial Day weekend writing my FMF post, because I didn’t have 5 minutes yesterday … on Friday.

Visit is a great prompt for me this week; my mom is coming to visit.  She’s a school teacher, so she just got out of school for summer break, which works out perfectly because we are butchering our meat chickens this weekend.

(pictures courteous of my 6.5 year old)

Cornish Cross Meat Chickens ready for Butchering

 

Today is set up day, where we get all the equipment ready, gather our tools, etc.  Then tomorrow morning we will get up and get busy!  My mom will keep the kids occupied and out of the way so we can work as quickly as possible without interruptions (like making lunches, snacks, playing, etc).  Butchering and processing, bagging, and freezing 50 chickens is a LOT of work and takes a pretty long time without 4 tiny humans needing you every few minutes.

Raising our own meat on the farm means a lot to our family; for our children it is just a way of life.  For my husband and I it encompasses everything we want our children to learn about life in general.  Raising, and caring for animals the way they were meant to be raised, in a clean & happy environment, then butchering them humanely, in a process that preserves the integrity of their purpose is important. Not wasting parts of the animal, not covering them in dangerous chemicals for the purpose of mass production and shipping … those things are important to us.

You work for what you get, even when it costs more in the long run that buying it at the store, (and it is worth it), is a lesson we like passing on to our kids.

So, we are excited to see Mia, and thankful she can help us with the tiny humans, while we work.  The kids will enjoy her and it should be a nice week of weather for her visit.  After the work, we will spend the rest of the week playing.

(I will have a post with pictures and steps, on how we process our meat birds soon!)

Link up with the Five Minute Friday community this week, at:

Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you.  Thank you!

How we don’t learn in our homeschool & how I don’t plan {2017 Virtual Homeschool Curriculum Fair}

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Thank you for joining us for the 2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair! This is my first year joining, so I am excited to give snapshots of our homeschool, along with other homeschool bloggers. A big thanks to Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds for hosting it!

This week’s topic is See How We Learn- to be completely honest, how we learn really encompasses SO much, it would be easier to tell you how we don’t learn here. =)

How we don't learn in our homeschool

We do not learn all willy nilly all the time, but we do not use textbooks for everything (math is about it). I know some people have negative opinions about home schooling but for further education, like university and college, I have found hundreds of great companies who help tutor and create research papers, for children and teens.

We do not settle for a world view we don’t agree with, or follow something because everyone else does. We use what works for our family.

We do not prescribe to beginning school at a strict time, on a strict schedule. We do prescribe to a routine, a rhythm if you will, while the baby sleeps and eats on a schedule (for mama’s sanity, and the baby’s).

We do not mark off all the things, we do try to accomplish meaningful lessons that help us all grow and learn.

I do not plan all our lessons in advance. I do tear out the workbook pages, and divide into 36 weeks, place them in folders for clipboard work each week (math, grammar, and handwriting). I occasionally use the best student learning guide 2020 has too if there’s a particular topic we would like to go over. But everything else, I divide into 36 weeks so I know about how many lessons we need to hit each week. When and how we hit them is up to us. And I use 36 weeks as a guide, but we school year round, and start the next level of whatever we are working on when we finish. =) My children do small tests in English, Maths etc. and I use Grade Cam Test Grader to mark the tests. It’s super easy to use which allows me to spend more time teaching rather than marking!

Mostly, my children learn through hands on and reading. We use literature for just about everything; I haven’t found many math books I am a super huge fan of, so we do a lot of hands on for math. When they’re older, I’m going to show them learning cloud NZ and let them pick an online course to study. Learning is so important no matter how old you are!

Our Homeschool Day

Our homeschool days, that aren’t interrupted by errands, play dates, co op, or field trips mostly look the same. Our mornings begin at 7am, followed by breakfast, morning basket, morning chores, time outside (or downstairs if it is too cold out), reading together in the chair (just getting back to this in this season of life after baby), and then work at the table.

I don’t plan out our week (like certain subjects on certain days), I just plan that we get Xnumber of days or lessons per subject, how we get them done depends on the week. =)

Some days we get through a lot in one day, while others end with me feeling like we didn’t accomplish anything (but we actually accomplished a lot … that’s another post) I don’t measure our success by how many papers we complete, or lessons we get through. Often we bunny trail on topics, go looking for videos to supplement something that catches their interest, or just go outside and focus on something they’re interested in.

However, we do enjoy the workbooks and papers that we do use, which helps tremendously. If something doesn’t work, I scratch it and we do something else. Thankfully, we haven’t had to do that hardly at all.

After we are done with hand writing, reading, writing, spelling, math, history, and science (if done at) the table (not all in one day, and not in that order..) we do whatever extras I may have planned. Sometimes we are reading about a topic my kids love, like Native Americans or the pilgrims, pioneers, or astronomy, and I will get a bunch of books from the library to read on the side, have a few videos in my notes for us to watch, or a field trip for us to go on (though at this time, field trips aren’t happening a lot). We like to do nature study, take nature walks around the pond and in our woods, and journal outside.

Homeschool Weekly Plan

I keep these extras written down and we pick and choose what we want to do, or what we have time for. I do not live by my planner, I use it for my thoughts; it is much more like a journal for our homeschool. I have journaled since before I could really write, so for me, this feels more natural. It helps me keep track of my notes for the kids, what I want to review, what we want to look into later, interesting field trip ideas, etc. But just because I write it down doesn’t mean I have to do it.

**You can’t let yourself feel like a failure for not marking off every single thing. Or where would you find joy in what you have accomplished?!

If you aren’t a planner person, but want to keep track of things, you may look into using a traveler’s notebook!

What I really love about homeschool planning in a traveler’s notebook is the freedom that comes with it! I can write down things I want to remember that the kids did during school, and all the other things I mentioned above. I keep other pages in my notebook with all those lists and thoughts.

So, how do we learn?

Eclectically.

I love Charlotte Mason and classical styles of education, mixed with Montessori and Waldorf philosophies and activities. I learned about so many wonderful philosophies in college, and I like implementing parts from many of them into our homeschool. Homeschool isn’t about school at home, I think we’ve all heard that. It is about living life, floowing Christ, becoming life long learners, and finding a love for learning that grows and grows! That doesn’t look like 4 brick walls and a couple of recesses for us. It looks like … life!

I invite you to see how my fellow bloggers learn in their homeschools (note: all posts will be live by noon EST, Jan. 2nd):


Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Weaning Bottle Baby Calves: What I’ve Learned {All Around the Home and Homestead Blog Party #2}

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We were a bit late on weaning the calves from the bottle onto feed and grass; we waited until about 3 months old, mostly just because we lost track of time!  They were weaning just as the grass was really coming in thick so we were hopeful we could just wean straight to grass …

calves 3.5 months old {QuietInTheChaos.com}

Lesson #1: Bottle Babies Need Grain Feed

Unfortunately, calves that come off commercial formula have to wean onto some kind of feed or their growth will be stunted and they could get sick.  They really need the protein and carbs found in the feed. =(

So, we went from 2 full bottles of milk a day, and slowly cut back about an 8th of the bottle at a time, so as not to cause nutritional scours or other health issues for them.  While doing this, we offered them free grain in buckets in their stall.  At first they weren’t eating much grain.

Lesson #2: Cows LOVE Grain

We don’t plan to keep them on grain long; just until they hit their weight requirement, then they will be grass fed.  however, we have learned that while milk is like crack for a baby cow, grain is even more so!  Those babies go crazy over the grain!  Not that I want them to, but it is just evident that cows are bred to eat, gain, and be slaughtered.

Fortunately, they don’t have much longer before we can start weaning them from the grain.  In the meantime, I plan to call a local feed operation and see if they can make me a healthier grain-based feed.

 

All this leads into- next year we will hopefully purchase a mama/baby pair and get a bottle baby or 2 to put with her.  We knew getting these calves that it would be a learning experience, and the next time will be as well, I’m sure.  We didn’t want to invest the money in a cow/calf pair being completely new; but knowing that a nursing calf is healthier in general, and of course the way God intended it, is motivation for trying it out next time!

Join us HERE for the All Around the Home and Homestead Blog Party!

Faithful Homestead

 



Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you.  Thank you!

All Around the Home and Homestead Linkup {Bi Weekly Blog Party!}

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All Around the Home and Homestead Linkup

You may know, in the fall of last year we moved to our dream land – a 40 acre homestead. Whilst our friends were contacting the realtors Greensboro is home to looking for their perfect city house, we were looking for a house out in the country with some land so we could fulfill our dreams of owning a homestead. It has been such a blessing to our family in SO many ways. We didn’t really need to do many renovations either. We used majesticdesigns.co.uk to design some new windows and repainted but other than that, everything else was in pretty good shape. We are not a “fast paced, go-go-go” family; we continue to enjoy weekly activities, outings, and camping but running the roads and being gone all the time is not for us. Our land, woods, and pond are just perfect for our family’s personality.

This spring my husband and I sat down to discuss what direction we wanted to go with our farm- were we out to make money right away by producing vegetables and meat, or did we want to provide for our family first and go from there?

We decided that during this season we need to focus on feeding our family (and perhaps selling extra) while learning all we can by getting hands on experience. Once our children are older and can help more (and I am less busy with babies), we will work on producing food/products to sell.

So, the farm is officially working on being a homestead- raising and producing our own beef, chicken, eggs, and vegetables as much as possible to support our family. Among these things, we have fruit trees growing, and dreams of heifer cow, more baby cows, and a few dairy goats in the pastures. We’re also figuring out the off grid heating solutions and we’ve just found our fresh water supply.

We use our woods to hunt wild game, chop fire wood, and of course to play and learn for our homeschool!

Speaking of homeschool, homesteading and homeschool often go hand in hand, but certainly do not have to. Anyone can homeschool, and anyone can homestead! But both are extra fun when combined.

I am always trying new recipes (many, many fails lately…), tweaking recipes for our children’s dairy allergies, learning something new about the garden (my husband’s the expert there), embarking on a new animal adventure (my favorite part), or starting a home or sewing project. I try to stay focused on one thing at a time, but honestly it can be tough!

Homeschool will wrap up here in about 3-4 weeks, we are going to celebrate for a few days and then I will begin my pre-baby projects (she is due in July) for the next month or two.

If you love homemaking, whether you’re great at it or a bit clumsy with it as I am, or homesteading I encourage you to come here every 2 weeks and link up with us! Don’t blog? Then check out the links posted below from other homemakers and homesteaders!

We will meet back here to link up about every two weeks (that’s our goal) for another post, and to add link ups!

Faithful Homestead