Earth Day Activities for School- Trash

During this month, we will be doing Earth Day related studies for science and social studies. I will share what we are doing in hopes that it will motivate you to share some earth-friendly thoughts with your own children!

We started this "unit" last week, with reading The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute (Anymore). Since we just finished learning about communities and neighborhoods, this was a great follow up story to lead into how we take care of our community. Because it is an easy concept to grasp, we are starting with "trash," and where it goes. This is much easier than starting with wasting electricity or water. Once they get the trash issue, it is easier to transfer their understanding of good stewardship to something that is not as concrete.

So how do you teach about trash? Good question! I remember when I first had a newborn and a toddler in diapers and how much trash it generated every week. One baby's diapers didn't phase me, but two...holy cow! I was moved to start using cloth diapers and life returned to normal. So it only makes sense for the kids to see how much trash we generate as a family. I have a book from The Mailbox called Environment. It is for grades 1-3. In this book, there is an activity called "Tons of Trash." For this activity, you are to collect a day's worth of trash all in one bag. I decided to go three days, and then take an average. Today is the 3rd day. Tomorrow we will complete the graph, showing how much trash we generate each day, how much it would be in a week, and how much for a month. Then we will go through the bag and look at each item, discussing how we could reduce the use or if the item can be recycled. (No food went into the trash).

This week we will also make a visit to our local recycling center. We will bring all our recyclables and talk about what we see there. We have lived here for two years and this is the first visit to the center! This is totally unlike me, but it took this long to find out we even have recycling here. In Georgia they picked it up curbside, so it wasn't much to think about. Next week, we will visit our local landfill. It is only two years old, and my children's dad had a part in helping construct some railings around the landfill offices. We had just moved here when he did the work, and we've never been to see it. Perhaps we will visit each year and see how much it changes!

Come back and see the other ideas I have planned this month!

*Various mom-owned businesses are running Earth Day specials. Check them out!

First Soccer Game of the Season

I can't believe that this is Thomas' third year playing soccer! He played his first year right when he turned 5, and he was TERRIFIED! His dad and I ended up helping coach so that he would be more comfortable out on the field. He is one of those kids who doesn't like people watching him, and he didn't really know what was going on yet, so he was very unsure of himself. I was really surprised last year when he said he wanted to play again. He did much better and was actually getting in there and kicking the ball some, even though he isn't very aggressive. This year, he "aged up" to the under-8 team and he is doing VERY well. His first game was Saturday and I was very impressed by his skills and endurance.

Of course, Anna started playing last year at 4 1/2 and had a lot of fun playing alongside her brother. She is still playing in under-6 this year, and her dad is coaching. They had their first practice today and I just know not only is she going to be one of the better players on the field, she will do it all with a big, toothless smile!

I also have a son...

I've been writing about my daughter so much that I thought I should write about my son a little! Anna is at that age where she is just blossoming and Thomas has already been through that stage. His progression is much slower, even though he still blows me away daily with his knowledge and abilities! For instance, recently he spent his allowance on a Star Wars Lego set. The next day, we took a little break from school and he worked on it a little bit. He started it the night before. He got frustrated for a minute, and then as soon as he asked for my help he saw where he went wrong and corrected it himself. It was then that I realized how much a child really gets out of building, so I decided as long as he stuck with it, that would be his "school." Little did I know that he would not quit! He worked on it for the rest of the day, and when I went to check his progress, I took a look at the box. He was about 75% finished with a set that is meant for 8-12 year-olds. When I showed it to him and explained what it meant, he understood why I had the look of astonishment on my face. Here he was, almost 7, doing a "big boy" project all on his own! Night time came up before he could get it complete, so he finally asked his dad if he wanted to help. They finished it together.

Because Thomas does not typically stick with something this challenging for that long, of course I made a big deal out of it. While his Lego abilities were nurtured over time, his perseverance is still something in the beginning stages of development. He is learning! Here he is with his new "Rogue Shadow."

Anna's Easter Fair

A couple of weeks before Easter, my daughter Anna announced that she was going to have an Easter party. She was going to charge $1.00 for each person to come (she has a little store- so cute- and wanted to set it up at the front door.) I told her it probably wasn't nice to charge people to come to a party, but maybe we could do an Easter "fair?" She liked that idea and quickly made invitations for each of her invitees. Now, I had three teeth pulled around this time and was not very involved in the process until I realized she was serious about making this happen. So after seeing how she had spelled the words on her invitations, I wrote out the words and she re-did them. The attempt was great for a five year-old, but I wasn't sure the recipients would be able to read them!

Anyway, she wrote out all the invitations for "Monday at 6 pm." It turned out that we could not do it the Monday before Easter, but we did have it yesterday, the day after. (Which is nice because Easter stuff is 50% off by then!) We set up 5 "games." One was a long jump. If you could jump to the first line, you got to pick one egg out of the basket. If you could jump to the second, you could pick two eggs. Oh, I forgot to say that Anna gave each guest 5 tickets that she cut up, and you had to pay a ticket to do each game. Another game was jumping on the mini-tramp, and reaching up to lines taped on the wall. (First line- one egg, second line- two eggs, etc.) Then we had two ball toss games, and finally, a trivia question. Once everyone used their tickets, we sat down for "tea" (oreos and grape juice) and allowed each guest to pick an egg that had an Easter trivia question. If they knew the answer, they got to pick an egg. The questions were simple biblical questions pertaining to Jesus' crucifixion. The eggs that they got for prizes had candy or a Snoopy Easter toy that I had collected over the years.

Anna was a wonderful host, and even in the planning stages really amazed me. She had an idea, and while I could have told her no, I realized how beneficial it would be for her to carry out her creative plan. She had to count tickets to make sure that she had enough for each child if they all came. I didn't realize this until later, but she only invited enough guests so that there would be enough tea party supplies. I had been wondering why she didn't invite all her little friends, and only invited three girls that live on our street, and later she mentioned her thoughts on the matter. She is so bright!

It was so much fun, I'm thinking about doing something like this every year. Here is a picture of Anna counting her money. When Anna said she was going to "get ready" for the fair, it was five minutes before it was supposed to start. That is why she is wearing this:

It's Spring?

With Easter coming early this year, I am SO messed up. I know it only happened 3 days ago, but how did I miss the first day of spring?! I've been waiting for its arrival all winter, and I totally missed the date! Of course, when we woke up for Easter this morning, it was 30 degrees outside, so it's easy to miss the change in season. We've noticed the days getting longer, and I know what that means.... I won't have to freeze anymore! HALLELUJAH! It also means for some that the end of the school year is coming soon, which for many that also means TESTING. Fun stuff. We school year 'round, which is good, because we haven't done school for two weeks due to me having to get three teeth pulled. The nice thing is that we can take time off whenever we want: if someone's sick, if we have things to do, or if we just want to play a little. The kids are ahead of where they should be, so that makes it even nicer. The funny thing is, I had my teeth pulled a week before "spring break." I planned on having school during the next week (spring break) and my son said- even though he had JUST had an entire week off- "Isn't this spring break?" Lucky for him, I wasn't able to get things together in order to have school, so they really did have a spring break- and then some. Well, I've got way too much to do, so go read someone else's blog...:o)

Choosing a Handwriting Curriculum

Since I have "been there, done that," I thought I might offer a bit of advice when it comes to choosing handwriting material for pre-schoolers or kindergartners. Whether your child will attend public school or stay home with you, choosing the best handwriting curriculum is important.

If your pre-schooler will be attending a local public or private school, go to that school and find out what style of handwriting they use in their curriculum. I did not think about this, and my daughter, who started writing very early (she's very artistic) used whatever pre-school books we had around the house. I had used the same things for my son, and then when I actually selected a handwriting curriculum for them to work out of everyday, the letters were formed differently. The curriculum I chose came from BJU Press, and I liked it because the letters provided a good transition to future cursive writing.

If you will be teaching your child at home, your job may be a bit more stressful, because you actually have to go through the task of selecting the handwriting curriculum that your child will be using. Many parents select their entire curriculum from one source, and they use whatever handwriting materials are included with that curriculum. Other parents pick and choose subjects from different companies and put together their own curriculum. I highly suggest finding a local homeschool conference where vendors will let you go through their books. You might find everything you want in one place, or you may pick one subject from one company, another subject from another company, and so on.

Regarding handwriting, it's also important to note that some curricula, like Abeka, teach only cursive writing, and do so from kindergarten and up. If you are going to choose a curriculum like this, make sure you plan on sticking with it. Many Christian schools also use Abeka, and if you don't plan on keeping your child enrolled in a school that uses it, it's going to be a pain for the child if he or she is transferred to another school where students are printing letters and have no clue what cursive is.

While you may have a child like one of mine, who doesn't write letters unless he has to, you may have a child like my other, who started writing letters for fun. No matter what your child's age, if she is writing letters, it's time to figure out how best to help her, and the best way is always to use the same method or style from beginning to end. So be prepared and see what's out there!

Candy-free Easter Baskets

You've JUST finished the Halloween candy, and it is already time to think about Easter. You pass by the candy in the store, you may have even purchased some to put out with your Easter decorations. Maybe you have even already eaten it all! It is so tempting, isn't it? I remember, "back in the day" when my children were younger, before they knew what sugar was. Life was so simple then! They are now 3 and almost 5...and the battle of sugar began long ago, when people began dangling M&M's, suckers, and taffy in front of them.
We know that sugar is not good for the body. We know that sugar is horrible on teeth. Yet, we continue to celebrate every holiday by showering our children with candy! What is wrong with us? Actually, we have done pretty well, personally, but family members LOVE giving the kids candy. What they don't realize is that if every family member gives them candy...that's a LOT of candy! We usually end up throwing it away before they eat it all, and they never even notice. But if they know where it is, they will sneak into it when they aren't supposed to and I've been known to dump the whole bowl in the trash when I catch them. Candy to children is like drugs to an addict...if they know it's there, they just can't stay away from it.
There will be no candy in our Easter baskets this year. We MIGHT include a small chocolate bunny, but really, we can be more creative than that! We usually think about spring toys, bathing suits, and other things necessary for spring and summer, and to help you get the juices flowing, we've compiled this list. Choose age appropriate items for your children and watch them enjoy!

blow-up beach ball
bouncy balls
bubbles
change purse
color wonder book w/ markers
coloring book
crayons
cross necklace
hairbows
hand puppets
handbag (Use the handbag as the basket!)
jump rope
magna doodle
matchbox cars
play doh or silly putty
sand toys
sandals
sidewalk chalk
small puzzle
sunglasses
swim goggles
swim suit
temporary tattoos
wooden beads/strings
yo-yo
One idea for the family that does an egg hunt AND Easter baskets; you can get one of those make your own puzzle kits at a craft store and put one puzzle piece in each egg. The puzzle can show a picture (for younger children) of where the Easter basket is located. For older children, a riddle or map can lead them to their goodies. Children LOVE this kind of stuff. If you have more than one child, they will not fight over who has the best candy. They will work together on the puzzle so they can find their Easter baskets. You can also make your own puzzle at home, by cutting the picture or paper into smaller pieces.
Have a wonderful Easter, and we hope with these ideas, it is the most fun and healthiest Easter for you yet! Don't forget to tell your little ones what Easter is REALLY all about!

The Flu Hit Our Home!

What a week we had last week! February 15-16 we had a women's conference at our church and as Saturday came to a close, I remember thinking how drained I felt. I went home and slept the rest of the afternoon, but went to bed feeling pretty good. Sunday morning came, and I knew things were not going to go well! I felt horrible. Before I had a chance to put my feet on the floor, my son came in and said, "Mommy, I'm sick!"
"Me, too!" I replied. I don't remember much after that! The week went by like a blur. I couldn't get out of bed. I lost 3 lbs. the first day, just from being too tired to eat. I tossed and turned all night in the bed, having to re-position myself because of the pain I'd feel if I stayed in the same position too long (which was about 30 minutes!) Somehow, I got through the week with absolutely no medicine, and on day 3, I thought it was behind me. Then I did three loads of laundry (I had not done laundry in over two weeks and it HAD to be done!) Needless to say, I ended up back in bed that night with a fever of 101.3. I'd been tricked!
Poor Thomas pretty much laid on the sofa and watched television. No complaints there. But he was miserable, too. Luckily, we were able to get his dad to come over and take care of him a little bit, and bring food. A week and a day later, we are almost back to normal. Just really run down and ready to get back on schedule.
The real story here is Anna, my five year-old. Think about the things that a five year-old could get into if they had free reign on the house!! What did she do? Crafts! She had the best time, between coming up to check on me, taking care of her brother, and doing just about every craft you can imagine. At the end of the week, I told her she could use any of the craft stuff whenever she wanted since she had done such a good job during the week just keeping herself busy and cleaning up when she was done (mostly!) She was so proud of that, she has been telling everyone we see! So I thought I'd share some of her work. Before we got sick, she made this Valentine's day card for my sister:














She used stamps, ribbon, star embellishments, sequins, photos, and markers. I had to stop her at the seashells and cotton balls. Those will have to go on another project that doesn't have to survive the machine at the post office. At some point in my delirium, I remember her bringing some play doh things to me and telling some great stories. It was dark in the room and my head hurt too bad to lift up to see her work. The next day I could see them in the daylight:

The first one is a monkey, with blue and yellow flip-flops, sitting on a chair. She had a picture to go by, but still really good for a five year old. The second is obviously a cow, and I had to share because I got an "udderly" great laugh when I saw it. It's funny the things that a small girl will notice. I'm not too surprised, since I will never forget when she was maybe three years old and pointed to a woman's tennis shoes in line at Whole Foods and announced that she has shoes just like me. I hadn't worn those shoes in at least a couple of months, but sure enough, they were the same exact kind. But here is my favorite one EVER. When Anna was 3 years and 4 months, we were in the living room. I was drinking from my favorite cup:

Anna was busy doing something- she's always doodling- and I
didn't pay much attention. And then she gave me this drawing:


Isn't that amazing? I didn't get pictures of all her artwork from the sick week, but I am so glad she is who she is. Any other kid, and I'd have ended up with a burned down house, but instead I got artwork! She's been at it for quite a while, and does a little more everyday. I am so glad that she has the opportunity to improve her craft every day since she has tons of free time after schoolwork is finished. Just another benefit to homeschooling, I guess!

Valentine's Day

A couple of weeks ago, my 5 year-old daughter asked me, "What is happy Valentine's Day again?" To which I replied...
"It's a day that someone invented a long time ago so that people would go out and spend money on things just to tell their loved ones that they love them."

Somehow, that explanation made her remember all the candy and little goodies she got from family in the mail last year. Unfortunately, it's possible that while the kids remember this stuff, the adults may not remember this year, and send nothing in the mail. What a huge disappointment this will be for them! As much as I despise the trinkets and things, I don't like the sad faces because they literally think, "maybe they don't love me anymore?" Uggghhhh.

So anyway, this weekend we've been working on making Valentine's cards. My sister, who would never forget Valentine's Day, already sent them gifts, which came in the mail Friday. They each got a dress-up outfit for their BuildABear animals, a BAB "pawsport", and a couple of other little things. So my creative daughter decided that we should take pictures of their animals in their new costumes and use them for part of my sister's Valentine cards. She even went so far as to suggest we should take a picture of the front and the back, so that she could turn the card over and see the back of the bear as well. How creative! Our project got stalled when I tried to print the pictures out for them and realized we were out of color in the printer. Ooops! Anyway, here they are. Hopefully we will have pics of the cards in a couple of days before we send them off!

Counting by Fives

This is an activity that my son enjoyed a lot, so I thought I would share. We started using this when he was five years old, doing kindergarten work. He could count by fives perfectly, but I wanted to make sure that he could recognize the numbers as well. I printed out the numbers 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100 fairly large on cardstock paper. I then cut them into little squares. I gave them to him all mixed up, and had him put them in the correct order. For beginning learners, you can start with half of the numbers, and then add the second half once your child gets those down. I cannot stress how helpful this is when learning about money, and counting nickels! We coincidentally did this shortly before the "nickels" section in his time and money book came up.

We also used the same concept with recognizing the months and days of the week. Simple enough, and it's fun, too!

Fa La La La La, La La La La

My son, Thomas, participates in choir, which is a small group from nearby Liberty Academy, along with other homeschoolers. Liberty Academy is a small private school that uses ACE curriculum and it's a great, affordable alternative for parents who work and can't (or don't want to?) homeschool. The choir teacher, Patricia, is a DEAR, SWEET friend that Thomas absolutely adores. I learned this because I noticed that after each choir practice, he would talk to her. About anything. One day he told her about his loose tooth. He just isn't like that with most people at ALL. So she is a very special person. As a matter of fact, it is Patricia's church that we visit at Christmas time to see their special choir/orchestra program, "Rejoice! It's Christmas!" And it was this program that helped my son learn about the plan of salvation. (She bawled when I told her about him accepting Christ!)

Anyway, Thomas is the youngest singer by a year. He looks so little up there. Anna, who is even smaller, was supposed to sing, but after being sick in the fall she decided to wait until spring to join the choir and perform. (The truth is that she doesn't like sharing the stage with others, so we will see what happens when she is asked to perform this spring!) They both love singing, and even though they sometimes say, "I don't want to go to choir!" they find themselves giggling when I catch them singing their songs around the house. They are not children's songs, so it's really neat that they have the opportunity to learn these songs and get to sing them with other children/ young adults.

This picture shows Thomas and who he calls his "best friend," Nolan. Nolan is eight years older than Thomas, and another homeschooler. The age difference doesn't matter, though, and they have learned a lot from each other!

My Five Year-Old Genius

My daughter just turned five in November. She has always had incredible insight, even on things that I did not "teach" her. So we started kindergarten when she was 4, and take it slowly since we aren't stuck in "grade levels." In her math book yesterday, she had this problem:

If you have 4 pennies, could you buy all of this candy? (Five pieces of candy are shown.) "No," she says. (It is already stated that one piece of candy costs one cent).

"How many could you buy?" I innocently ask.

"Well," she responded, "you could get none, or 1, or 2, or 3, all the way up to 4."

My face just froze and I dropped my head and laughed. Another great answer from my insightful five year-old. And THAT'S why I homeschool!

Christmas Eve

Since the kids are 5 and 6 now, we are able to do more things together and start Christmas traditions that they are involved in. Of course, we went to the Christmas Eve candlelight/communion service. This was Thomas' first communion after asking Jesus into his heart so it was a special moment for that reason as well. When we got home, we made cookies with the Christmas cookie cutters so that we could leave Santa fresh, homemade cookies. (They were organic as well!) We had fun decorating them with different colored frosting. In this picture, you can tell how excited the kids are that it is Christmas Eve and Santa will be coming soon!!

P.S. My daughter decided one day to put a tattoo on her head, so imagine how delighted I was that all of her pictures have a mark on her forehead! :o(

Santa Claus Came to Town!

Every year in Anthony, the city puts up the "Santa House" in front of the shops on Main Street. It's just a little house that looks like a living room inside where Santa sits and waits for children to visit. Every year since his birth, it's been the same ol' thing... my son won't go near Santa. Well, I take that back, we got a picture of him one year, but he looked terrified in the picture. So this year I had no idea what would happen. I knew how excited he was to see Santa, but I figured he would balk once we set foot in the house. He even knew what to tell him he wanted: Star Wars Legos.

So one afternoon we went, and he went right up to Santa, sat on his lap and had an entire conversation with him! I was dumfounded. I was in tears as I took pictures. This is a huge milestone for him, and just another sign that he is growing up FAST!

Now, my daughter was another story. While SHE is usually very friendly and talkative, she took the back seat this time and wouldn't go up to Santa. We left the little house, and she decided once she knew what she wanted, she would go back and visit with him. So a couple of days later, we returned with a card for Santa that told him exactly what she wanted. Also, Thomas wrote down the specific Star Wars Legos he wanted: the Imperial Landing Craft.

Since this was a HUGE milestone and I was SO proud of him, of course I HAD to make sure he got the ONE thing he asked for. I also got what my daughter asked for, and both turned out to be their favorite gifts. It's ironic, considering this is the year that we started to wean them from Santa. This is probably the last year for my son, as he will be 7 next Christmas. And I'm sure once we tell him about Santa, he won't be able to keep the news from his little sister. They each got a couple of gifts from Santa, and the rest were from me. Usually almost all is from Santa, and I can never remember what is from Santa and what is from me. What a mess!

Snow, Snow, Snow

Since my internet went down for well over a week (thanks AT&T) I'm behind on posting, but we have lots of fun stuff to share. First of all, the SNOW we have gotten in KS so far! Holy moly! Our first snow fell on December 15, 2007. Before that, we had ice that was kind of a pain for a few days, but nothing catastrophic. On December 21, it probably reached 60 degrees that day. We went in to my son's choir program around 6:30 pm, and when we came out, we could tell that the temperature had dropped a LOT. I had planned on making the hour long drive to Wichita the next morning, but lots of people grumbled about the snow forecast and said I would probably end up in a ditch- along with them- because they had to go to Wichita as well.

Now, when you live in Georgia, and they forecast snow, they are about 20% correct. But in Kansas, when they say it's gonna snow- it's gonna snow. I think this is because there is nothing really stopping a storm from plowing through our flat lands, but in GA they deal with the gulf stream air and never know how it will play with the other weather systems coming in.

I went to bed that night, and something woke me up. I could hear the wind howling outside. I just kept hoping it was JUST wind. I would not get up to check. I kept waking up. The wind was MAD. Finally, when it was a decent hour, I looked out the window. Not only was the snow coming in sideways- it had already covered everything in sight. The snow did not stop until 5 pm that day- just as predicted. It went from coming down sideways, to nothing. Absolutely peaceful. But cold. The snowdrifts were over four feet, and there were patches that barely had anything. Dogs lost their legs in the snow! Our screened porch on the second floor did not keep the snow out- it was covered as well. Luckily, they are pretty quick to clear the roads in Kansas, so I was able to make it to Wichita the next day. I HAD to. Santa was not done shopping, and this was a VERY important year as you will read in our Visit to Santa coming up next!

P.S. Two days after Christmas we got a beautiful snow that fell peacefully from the sky. It was so pretty. Now THAT is the snow we need!