Organizing Kindergarten

Last year I used a physical planner (The Happy Planner) in combination with digital project management software (Basecamp). And while I really like both of these, I wanted something to track grades, gather links and documents, and keep schedules in one place. I could really use Basecamp for this but it isn't laid out specifically for schoolwork. I'd like to keep track of standards that we're covering so I went in search of a basic school-specific planner and discovered Planbook.com. It's cheap: $12/year, and it's got an app. It's not as in-depth as some software, but it's fine for what we're doing right now. Here's a screencap of this week's schedule and the drop-down menu:

The classes are color-coded, and you can bump lesson plans forward and backward, extend standards to additional lessons, keep track of grades, events, lists, documents, etc. And the standards are easy to look up and add to lesson plans, assignments, and assessments. This would be a useful tool of homeschoolers who need to provide samples of work to their counties. Check it out!

Disclaimer: I don't work for Planbook and I didn't get it free to review. I just like to tell people about cool shit that might help them out, especially for free or on the cheap. Also, feel free to share any free or cheap resources that you know about in the comments.

Kindergarten... the adventure begins!

The goal was to start Kindergarten on August 7th, but Disney had other plans. Two of our favorite rides, Ellen's Energy Adventure and The Great Movie Ride are going dark on August 13th. We couldn't miss our chance for one last ride. So to accommodate our impromptu Disney trip early this week, we began our work last Thursday. We're using Denise Eide's fantastic program, The Logic of English. We're spacing out our various subject start dates to ease in to our workload. Here's our first cursive attempt:

This week we're adding mathematics to the schedule, using Singapore's Essential Math. It's manipulative-heavy, so we'll give it a spin. Away we go!

Oak Meadow giveaway over at Secular Homeschool

The folks at Secular Homeschool are hosting an Oak Meadow giveaway! Check it out:

http://www.secularhomeschool.com/content/1660-august-2017-giveaway-oak-meadow/

DIY Book Binding

As a homeschooler, I have a lot of printed material for The Spawn. I've been organizing the mountains of papers in 3-ring binders, filing cabinets, folders, cardboard boxes, and on each and every flat surface in our house. You name it, I've stacked papers on it.

I considered purchasing a comb binding system to attempt to subdue this chaos.

Then I came to my senses and bought a timeshare. Ahem, I meant some brads and duct tape.

I recently purchased Build Your Library for Kindergarten to supplement what I'm doing with The Spawn. I want to wrap up my Pre-K Literary Explorations program while working on the Kindergarten history. So I'll happily use BYL for Kindergarten LA in hopes that I can keep plugging away on 1st grade stuff before 1st grade sneaks up on me. Le sigh.

Here's your DIY bookbinding lesson:

You'll need:

3-hole punch

brass brads (these are 1.5" but I also have 1/2" for smaller projects)

cardstock for front and back cover

printed material

ruler

duct tape

pencil

scissors

markers

Step 1: Hole punch your stuff.

 Step 2: Insert the brads from the back of your book. Open the brads so that they're parallel to the book spine.

Step 3: Use your ruler to draw a guideline approximately 1/2-3/4" from the spine.

 

Step 4: Tape the front of your book.

Step 5: Tape the spine and back of your book.

Step 6: Trim excess tape.

Step 7: Write your book's title on the spine. I also color-code my spines.

Yay!!! A book!

Too many irons are worth two in the bush...

As you can tell, I'm really bad at updating the blog. We're still plugging away at the program and I'll get the posts up eventually. I'll even backdate them so that I feel like I'm a Time Lord and not some reckless blogging drunkard spewing random posts from here to February all over my nice, clean calendar.

I'm still working on that secular integrated curriculum and it's slow going but it will be finished, if I have to make a blood sacrifice to every invisible sky daddy I can think of.

Isn't this how everyone spends Saturday morning? No? Just me?

I've got a lot of various projects on my plate in addition to the Etsy shop. We're looking for a piece of land for the future homestead. I'm writing curriculum daily, homeschooling, reading, sewing, baking. Plus I've come up with a new project that I really want to do but REALLY don't have time for. The more christians I come across in the homeschooling community, and on social media in general, the more I think the Bible needs a rewrite. It would include such verses as:

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for they need their vaccinations, you science-illiterate twats." -Matthew 19:14

I'd need a good pen name for the project, to decrease the chances of some religious nutcase hunting me down for a good old righteous killing. Any ideas? I've got a few that might work.

Holier Bible by J. Diddy, King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Gospel: Part Deux by Mighty Undead Crossmaster

The Best Book by Donald J. Trump (It's like the Good Book, but so much better. It's bigger, you know, so it's better. I mean, it's the best book. You can't beat this book.)

I don't know, I haven't even really committed to the project. It's tempting but I don't want to put the cart before the sleeping dog. I'll guess we'll cross that bridge when we burn it. Mmmm, I love me a good malaphor in the morning. Toodle pip!

Happy Solstice!

Today we're celebrating the winter solstice. We live in Florida and it's usually hot for Christmas (this year it's supposed to near 80 degrees) but it's very crisp out today. We talked about the scarcity of food during this season and made feeders for our animal friends.

The first ones are strands of plain cheerios. I just tied a button onto one end of a length of string and wrapped a bit of scotch tape on the other end to make threading easier. Then we went to town stringing the cereal until we were happy with them.

 

 

 

The others were apple slices which we spread with peanut butter and dipped in crushed cheerios (we're out of birdseed). I cut a little hole near the top of each slice and strung them with thread.

 

Then we hung them outside for the birds and squirrels to enjoy.

Happy solstice!

Week 13: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.

VIDEO: View this nursery song version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Writing Practice, Heads and Tails Matching Game, Color Match
Supplies:     
       Brown Bear Printables
       Crayons or Markers
       Paper and Cardstock

Print the Heads and Tails Matching Game (page 3-4) on cardstock and cut it out.
Color Match and Writing Practice can be printed on regular printer paper.

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Bear Tracks Process Art
Supplies:     
       cardboard
       (2) sponges
       hot glue gun and glue
       art paper
       paint
       scissors

1. Cut two cardboard rectangles (a bit larger than the sponge)
2. Trace a bear print onto each sponge and cut out pieces.
3. Glue pieces to cardboard to make you bear print stamps.
4. Have your child stamp paint tracks onto the paper.

Note: You can also do prints of other animals from the story.

EXPLORATIONS
Learn some interesting facts about bears: