Archive for June, 2013

Learning About Scorpions

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 @ 10:06 AM
posted by Liz Pomeroy

Going through the book The History of Insects which is FREE to download/print at Gutenberg today we have been learning about Scorpions. With a great book from the library ‘Scorpions in the Dark by Doreen Gonzales’ & a couple of free printables we have all become a little more educated 🙂

sco5

I am not the world’s best artist but always create alongside the children so as to encourage them to do their best. With a FREE Sample: How to Draw a Scorpion from Dover Publications we all did our best in drawing.

sco1

My attempt:

sco4

This was not an easy project for the children but they persevered & I was very proud of their results.

sco2

In fact I laminated them for them so that their hard work did not get destroyed. (There is always someone around here with a pair of scissors cutting up paper – i.e Hannah and/or Caleb! Hannah started ‘attacking’ hers before I even knew what was happening!)

sco3

As you can see, our drawings were followed by a Coloring Page of a Scorpion from Education.com. I researched several coloring pages but liked this one best as the drawing is so vivid & some of the markings already colored in black making for a much better end result.

Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning 🙂

Liz

Share with others!Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Alphabet Rocks

Saturday, June 22, 2013 @ 08:06 PM
posted by Liz Pomeroy

Richard & I homeschool the kids all year round enabling us to take breaks when we want to, to fit in with our schedule. This means that for most of the summer we will be homeschooling as usual. This method works well for us & the children as although they like to take a day off now & then or in the case of the trip to England, a month, they also like the routine of ‘doing’ school.

ar1

I am constantly on the lookout for different ideas that involve no or very little cost. This week we made Alphabet Rocks from an idea from Education.com who have joined with PBS Kids to create 10 weeks of DIY Summer Reading Camp. (This idea was from Week 3.) A fun project for all ages which can be easily adapted for older kids who could maybe use larger rocks to create a pictures starting with a letter from the Alphabet. For ours though it was enough of a challenge to send them out to collect 26 rocks & paint them solid colors one day & then paint the alphabet in white on them the next day.

Daniel’s creations are above & these are Hannah’s:

ar3

One tip I learned: Don’t use yellow paint as one of the base colors as the white letters do not show up very well! Dark colors are much better 🙂

Of course Caleb was not going to be left out so he painted four bigger rocks that he had collected & the next day I painted his name on one.

ar2

Liz

Share with others!Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Until this morning I had never heard of Kirigami! Maybe I am in the minority on this or maybe I am not? What I discovered was a great craft to incorprate into our homeschool. Dover Publications have recently published a new book Kid.agami – Sea Life & on their website you can print off two free samples:

Squid

squid

Clam Shells

cs

Daniel & Hannah cut out the patterns themselves & then I scored the fold lines for them before they glued them.

Not homeschoolers? No worries! This is a great craft for all kids & grandkids especially now the summer hols are here. One recommendation – print out on cardstock.

Happy crafting!

Liz

Share with others!Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest