"The First Day of Homeschool" - book! :)

I have written a "back-to-school" book!  :)

Well, actually it would be more accurate to say a "back to HOMEschool" book.

Yes, I know there are plenty of popular "back to school" books out there, BUT they deal with a large classroom, getting on the bus, a new teacher who doesn't share your last name, etc.  Great for kids heading into that environment but not so great for homeschool.

For a while, I'd search and search Amazon and libraries for a fun "first day of homeschool" book when that time of year would roll around again.

Now cut to a scene of me with my daughter on our first day, showing her a classroom environment "back to school" book.  Yep, there just wasn't much of a "back to homeschool" book selection out there.

Yikes - it still pains me to this day - sitting there reading to my daughter about the wonderful parts of a first day at school and then closing the book and having to explain how our day was NOT quite like that (still a great day but just not like that).  I know, I know - guilty homeschool mom syndrome - I just  need to let the memory go...

Back to the book - I decided it was time to take action - time to write a book so I could FINALLY have something to read to my kids on their first day of homeschool.  I enlisted my sister-in-law to be the illustrator and she came through with a wonderful mix of cloth and watercolor - even sewing designs into the paper!  Yeah - very cool!  :)

We combined forces and self-published this book (I must say I gained a new respect for editors, publishers, etc. when I had to take on those roles) just in time for our first day of homeschool this year!

It was a pretty neat feeling to read the dedication to my daughter and son - letting them know that I had written it because of them and FOR them.

Then the test.  Would they like it?

YES!  :) 

I am happy to report that the book was a success, AND they enjoyed finding the tiny Homeschool Elf I had hidden in the illustrations as well!  :)

The story begins, "'Twas the night before homeschool" and follows the exciting first day of homeschool for a young child and her family.  They spend time together, complete schoolwork, and even participate in a treasure hunt of sorts for their school supplies when Homeschool Elf hides the items.

By the way - the physical book contains a paper pattern at the end for families to copy and cut out, so they can begin their own Homeschool Elf tradition if they are interested in doing so.  :)

I wanted the book to appeal to children of various ages (something that would please a WHOLE family) because that is often the homeschool set-up!  I included something to capture the attention of young children (hiding Homeschool Elf in the pictures for them to find) AND some questions that would keep the older ones involved as well - sparking some excited responses or discussion.  

In short, I wanted a "hey-let's-ALL-cuddle-together-on-the-couch-and-enjoy-this-book" experience.  I hope my sister-in-law and I have achieved that!  :)

I would love to share this book with other homeschooling families out there but am limited by time and resources (what can I say - I am a homeschooling mom).  So my homeschooling friends - will YOU help me?  It could be as simple as pinning this post, commenting on Facebook, mentioning it to a friend (or many friends), asking for it at your local library, and/or tweeting about it.  Every little bit helps to get the word out there!

If you have a blog and would like to review the book and host a book giveaway - please contact me, and I may send you a couple of copies after I have had a chance to review your blog and decide if it would be a good fit.  Please understand that I may not be able to offer copies to everyone who contacts me (remember the part above about limited time and resources - wink), but know that I really appreciate the interest each of you shows in wanting to share it with others.

The Kindle version is in the works and I hope to have it up very soon!  PLEASE NOTE that even though the Kindle version will have the elf pattern as well, I don't know how it could be copied or if there is a way to print from Kindle.  

I plan to post pictures of the new school room and our FIRST day of homeschool fun around the beginning of next week!  So I hope to "see" you back here then!  :)

Book information:  The book is a thin paperback - 8.5 x 8.5 size

Books may be purchased by clicking the links below or visiting Amazon!  :) 

BON VOYAGE, FIRST GRADE!!!

We waved "bon voyage" this week to our school year.  Sniffle, sniffle.  Actually - I was experiencing some major burn-out, so I was VERY happy to close that last book.  :) 

For our final couple of weeks of first grade, I decided to go with a bon voyage cruise theme for some ways to review a bit of what we learned this year.  

It is important to keep your ship in tip top shape, right?  Here is a "swab the deck" activity I had Miss A work on.  

I wrote several of her spelling words on a sheet protector using a WET erase marker.  It was her job to clean up the words that were misspelled (the messes) by mopping them off the deck using a paintbrush (mop) and bucket of water (little cup with water in it). 

The nice thing is that this activity can be used over and over - just plug in sight words, spelling words, math facts, etc.

Look out the portholes and see the flying fish!  Miss A matched the fish answer to the math sentence porthole.  I used highlighter tape so it could be easily removed, and I could re-use the portholes for different math facts or another activity later on.

This is a picture of Miss A donning a lei for the bon voyage party aboard the ship.  She colored in her face and clothes and I placed BLANK highlighter tape around the neckline where a lei would belong.  

I then gave Miss A a spelling review test of some of her sight and spelling words.  She had to write the words on the highlighter tape as I gave them to her.  If she wrote the word correctly, we removed the tape and she glued a flower to that spot.  If she did NOT write the word correctly, the tape stayed there.  

The following day, we would try the word again until she completed the entire lei.   :)

This was an art activity Miss A completed to go along with our sailing theme.  I could not find a poem that fit with our theme and the end of first grade, so I just made up my own.  Download it for FREE here.

Of course, we spent some time working on a first grade memory book as well.  Mommies like to keep such things!  

(If you are interested in purchasing a first grade memory book,  mine is available for sale in my TPT store here.)

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL POEMS AND PAGES YOU SEE ABOVE ARE CREATED BY ME AND MAY NOT BE USED, COPIED, OR CHANGED IN ANY WAY WITHOUT MY PERMISSION (in other words, if you like it - please buy it instead of trying to copy it.  It isn't expensive, and I have put a lot of time and effort into it).

In addition to our "cruise" duties, we decided have an end of the year party aboard our "ship" and invited family.  I made some boarding passes and sent them out.

Miss A worked on a sign for our front door.  She wanted to make the words look like clouds but quickly realized that might take quite a while and not fit as well.  Instead, we opted to just make the first letter of each word a cloud letter and then write the rest of the letters with a marker.

When the guests arrived, they were greeted by our little ship's captain and sent to the deck where they could sign the "ship's log".  For this area, we had the guests complete the fingerprint flower poem and autograph/well wishes page from her memory book.  

The guests then donned leis and headed to the ship's galley for refreshments.  We even had entertainment (compliments of the ship's captain once more) AND an end of the year slideshow!

Prior to people's arrival, I had set up one wall that was the "bow" of the ship where the portholes looked out on the work Miss A had done at the beginning of the year.  An opposite wall contained the "stern" or "end of the year" work in portholes so guests could marvel at the amazing progress in one year's time.

If you've never done this - try it next year!  It is SOOO neat (at least it is for me) for both the kids and adults to be able to compare work from the beginning of the year to what has been accomplished by the school year's end!

Speaking of END - did I mention it is the END of our school year (insert giddiness)?!?  If course I did but it is definitely worth repeating!  Woo hoo!  And now I guess it is time for me to end this post (I know, I know - a bit over the top.  Just point me in the direction of some dark chocolate to make it stop).

For those wondering, I might be posting some things in the summer that did not make it into the blog during the year.   And just a heads up, if your kids like pattern blocks (or still do), make sure you check out the post about 4Blocks - coming soon!  :)

UPDATE:  Click here for a link to the 4Blocks post.

Linking to:

www.cornerstoneconfessions.com

www.milkandcuddles.com

www.momontimeout.com

www.ithappensinablink.com

Lesson Theme: Emergency 9-1-1

This past week (and a little of the week before), we spent some time discussing what to do in an emergency and how to dial 9-1-1.

A lesson in good citizenship?  You bet!!!  You are training someone how to help others (or themselves) in a real emergency!  If you like some of the activities we did below - you should be able to find them in the (very) mini unit I quickly came up with to go along with our theme.  The unit is available for FREE in my TPT store here.  :)

We started by watching a free online video for kids  available at this address.  We then reviewed information from the video and discussed it.  

I made up some scenarios printed on paper and we went over them together.  Miss A had to decide whether the situations were real emergencies or not.  If it was a real emergency, she would write 9-1-1 next to it (I originally thought it would be fun to use number stamps, but we didn't have any so Miss A just wrote the numbers instead).

I was also curious to see what she might consider an emergency - how accurately she was grasping this information - so I made a 9-1-1 web chart of sorts.  I wrote the "9 1 1" at the center with arrows pointing outwards and then asked her to draw pictures of emergencies which would require her to dial 9-1-1.

Curious what she thought of?  Of course you are!  ;)  She drew a house on fire, a car accident, an unconscious adult, and a dog attacking someone.

We also discussed why we should NOT dial 9-1-1 unless there is a real emergency.  I emphasized how the emergency teams might be on the way to a jokester's house when someone else REALLY needed their help and wasn't getting it.  (You might emphasize how the child or children would feel if they were the ones urgently needing help).

To go along with this part of being a responsible citizen, I made up a little poem we read together and then Miss A illustrated a picture of why it is important to only dial 9-1-1 in an emergency.  The man in stripes is a fireman (if I remember correctly) at a jokester's door when someone in a house far away is REALLY needing help.

Something that I thought of during this unit is how many young children might be unfamiliar with phones other than cell or cordless phones.  The video we watched emphasized the many kinds of phones which could be used to dial 9-1-1 if you were in your home OR away from it.

I wanted Miss A to be prepared by knowing what different telephones look like so she could spot one in an emergency and not be shy about using it.  For this reason, we did a "telephone" scavenger hunt of sorts online.  We looked up photographs of different phones the video had mentioned and Miss A chose some for me to print.  She then cut them out and glued them to a paper to create a phone collage.

Once we had learned about emergencies and different types of phones, it was time to practice!  I drew a map on a large piece of paper, and we created an accident on the map using toy cars (we did this more than once in different areas on the map).  

Miss A then flew into action!  She pretended to dial 9-1-1 on a (disconnected) real phone and answered the questions from the 9-1-1 operator (me).

One of the main goals of this activity was to help Miss A learn to describe where an emergency had occurred if at an unfamiliar address.  She practiced looking for street signs, landmarks, stores, etc. on the map to help the operator know just where to send the emergency vehicles.  :)  

If you do this at home, make sure you take some time to actually pretend at a real intersection or park.  It is one thing to look at things on a fun map, but can be a completely different experience when standing out on a real street corner.  

And for those emergencies at home?  Well, Miss A has been learning her address, but I know how quickly one can forget things in a panic, so I decided to make some little reminders we could post by the phones in the house.  

Miss A helped me fill in the "9 1 1" part, and I filled in our address.  I also added our home phone number underneath so Miss A could see it and confirm the number if asked to do so by the emergency operator.

I made sure Miss A went with me to post the slips by the phones so I could make sure she knew where they were.  I also wanted to make sure they were at her eye level or in an area where she could still easily read the information if she needed to.  

Hopefully, as a child, Miss A will never be called upon to use what she has learned in this unit.  However, I feel better knowing she is now much more prepared for an emergency situation should one ever arise!  :)

100th Day of School - Homeschool, That Is! ;)

Woo hoo!  Yesterday was the 100th day of our school year!  I must say I was a bit worried that we had missed it with all that has been going on at our home lately, but as I caught up on attendance/homeschool day records, I realized (JOY!) we hadn't passed that mark yet after all.   I even had a few days to quickly come up with some ideas...double JOY!

So being the Pinterest lover that I am, I headed that way for some inspiration.  Thank you once again Pinterest for helping to save the day (someone seriously needs to come up with a button saying "Pinterest to the rescue!"  Actually, they probably already have...and pinned it.  But I digress...).

Here's how the day went...

Miss A burst through a "100" sign when she got up in the morning (it was taped over the doorway).

A "100th Day" balloons and bear sign graced the table (a freebie that I colored).  I also added a little pizzazz to some breakfast muffins by sticking crazy candles on top.

We decorated more freebies - these ones for wearing: 100th Day of School hats and glasses.

Crown link here.  Glasses link here.

One of our first activities involved a Smarties hunt to go along with the "Congratulations - you are 100 days smarter!" note.  I had the kids use spoons (although at the end they switched to hands) to dig through the mix of cereal in a pan and then place the Smarties on a hundreds number chart.  

Once all the goodies had been recovered, it was time to practice some subtraction...in other words:  time to indulge those watering, patient little mouths.  You must admit, it is kind of amazing that all the Smarties actually made it onto the chart!

Then it was time for a weighing activity.  Notice that I posted this even though I was the only thing listed as weighing more than 100 pounds.  I'm not sweating it, but I DID have Daddy add his name to the list when he arrived home.

Snack time was an extra special affair - a make-your-own 100th day snack mix with some little surprise treats included (like M&M's).  I gave Miss A a paper on which to record the groups of ten items each as she counted them out from the ten paper plates to reach the big 1-0-0.  

Yummmm - definitely a hit!  :)

And knowing what the snack was going to be, I chose to do this activity afterwards to use up that sugar.  "How wise of you, Michelle" you might be tempted to think - but hold that thought...  

I suddenly realized that I was going to be roped into doing most, if not all, the exercises as well - why I didn't plan for this when I was coming up with exercises is beyond me.  BUT, I made it through our little workout - thinking more than once how this part or that part of my body would probably be sore later on...

This was another activity we found time for during the day, AND it was another freebie (find it here).  :)  I LOVE Miss A's responses - definitely going in the memory box!   Some of you may already know how to read Childrenish, but for those who have yet to discover the pleasure, here's a key for some of my favorite words/phrases:

"bracking throo a sin" = breaking through a sign

casols = castles

hawis = houses

noospaprs = newspapers

pickchurs = pictures

yun = young

I also like how her "this is what I look like today" and "this is how I think I will look in 100 years" pictures look the same except for the size.  Obviously, she would be more grown up in 100 years.  ;)

After that activity, we spent a very brief amount of time discussing aging and the elderly.  So this was how she made herself look in this picture showing her as a 100 year old woman.  

Another fun phrase completion:  "When I am 100 years old,  I will be too old to put up wreaths."  Cracks me up.  Definitely not what I would have written or thought of, but that is the beauty (and cuteness) of such open-ended possibility questions.

Well off to bed and then on to Valentine's Day activities...

Linking up here:

http://www.theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/

www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.net

www.tatertotsandjello.com

Lesson Theme: Fire Station and Firefighters!

We've been taking some time over the past couple of weeks to begin discussing different community helpers.  Of course, firefighters were on that list!  :)  

There were just SOOO many fun ideas for firefighters, fire stations, and fire safety that I decided to spend more than one week on the subject and just wait until we were done to share.  Thus, the ideas would be grouped in one large post so you wouldn't have to go hopping around my blog searching for all the little posts.  You can thank me later...or now...;)

I titled this game:  Ready...Set...Dress.   It could be played together as a timed contest or individually.  

The goal is to keep rolling a couple of dice until the two numbers add up to the number on the dressing list.  The item beside the number is the piece of clothing the firefighter can put on next.  The game is done when the firefighter is dressed and ready to go!

The pieces of clothing were items I drew on colored paper and cut out.  The reflective stripes were made from aluminum foil.  

Uh oh!  Time to fight some fires of our own!

I believe this flame was discovered in a workbox of all places!  Of course we needed to put it out...

Miss A would roll two dice, write a number sentence about the numbers she had rolled, and answer the number problem.  The answer was how many dots of water we were allowed to "spray" on the fire to put it out.  It took quite a few dots but eventually our fire was extinguished!  

Hooray for my little firefighter!  :)

Ah yes, duty calls again!  In this case, the fire was in the form of spelling words and flames written in red washable marker on a white vinyl tablecloth (check the party section of Walmart or Dollar Tree for these dollar tablecloths).   This was a much bigger fire so a hose and real water were called for of course.  ;)

What a hit!  You can do so many things with this concept - have your kids practice writing their spelling words on the tablecloth, math facts, etc. using red and orange markers to create the "fires".  Then at the end of the lesson, they get to "put out" the fires with real water (just make sure you use a WASHABLE red marker or your fires might resist the water).

For this activity, I printed some fire engines and hydrants which Miss A and I colored.  I cut them out and also snipped out some small words, number sentences, etc.  On the hydrant, I would place the "answer" to some of the math sentences, words, etc. and each fire engine would have a "problem/question".  

If the answer on the hydrant matched the problem/question on the fire engine, the engine could hook up to the fire hydrant via a hose (blue bendy straw).  If the engine could not match up with the hydrant's answer, they could not hook up to get water.   For example:  if the hydrant had the word "rage" on it and you were practicing rhyming words, an engine would have to have a word on it that rhymed with "rage" in order to hook up its hose to the hydrant.

A pretend play bin fit for little firefighters (I found the hats at the 99 cent store or Dollar Tree - I cannot remember which).

I saw this idea on Pinterest (here is a link) and thought it was soooo cute!  I loved the idea of making my kids' footprints into fire engines!  They helped of course.

And when one has a fire engine, one should certainly have a fire station in which to put said engine.  Thus, we built a fire station by rolling some dice, adding the numbers together and then using the answer to figure out what we would get in order to build our station (example:  roll two numbers which added together equal seven = building).  

Sometimes we would just have to hold onto an item until we had another one on which to put it (example:  holding onto windows until you have rolled a building).   We then glued the items on a paper bag (one end is open so you can slip your fire engine in and out as you please - see picture above).

This is a fire collage that the kids worked on together - torn paper, red and shiny gift basket shreds, etc.

The point of this game was to practice the concept of Stop, Drop, and Roll.  I cut out pieces of red and yellow flannel and we took turns being "it".  The "it" person would chase someone else and put the flannel pieces on their clothes.  That person would then need to stop, drop, and roll until the felt flames came off.  Then THEY would be "it" and chase someone else, attempting to get those flames onto another person.  :)

These activities were all good, but I don't think any could hold a candle to the actual day we visited a fire station (it was a surprise for the kids).  It was definitely a highlight of our week to be shown around by a real firefighter.  Lots of fun!  If you have a fire station near you, you might want to check to see whether they could give you a tour.  :)

Do you have any fire safety, firefighter, fire station ideas or crafts you would like to share with others?  Feel free to post about it in the comment section below!  :)

Linking up to:

www.houseofhepworths.com

www.bearrabbitbear.com

www.whipperberry.com

www.homeschoolcreations.net

www.oneshetwoshe.com

www.tatertotsandjello.com