Homeschooling

SNAKE Math Game

~ Tonya ~ Leave a comment

Last week, I had the opportunity to observe an Essentials class at my CC Community. Even if the next level of classical education is a few years away for your family, I’d highly encourage anyone with a Foundations child to take a looksie at an Essentials class. It broadened my view of this whole classical journey, and renewed my excitement for the process. Seeing English and Math memory work come to life in real application was a great motivator to keep plugging along with all those songs about gerunds and verb conjugations. Bonus, I saw math games in action that I immediately stole, and have been using at home ever since. Including this fun game, called SNAKE.

Snake

You can play this as a multiplication or addition game. We learn skip counting in our Classical Conversations memory work, so my 6-year-old can rattle off multiplication as fast (maybe even faster) than his addition facts. We play both multiplication and addition to reinforce both as a good math foundation. Continue reading →

Delighting in Dandelions

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As a homeowner and struggling lawn keeper, I’ve often wondered what possessed God to create dandelions. They are the bane of gardeners everywhere, an impossible to kill nuisance that seemingly does nothing but cause headaches. Yes, I know you can eat them…I tried that as a kid. Bleah. Not interested in doing it again during adulthood. As we took our family walk today, I became awash in an old familiarity with this little weed, that offered me a new, and yet nostalgic, perspective.

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Music to Make You Moody

~ Tonya ~ 4 Comments

As a part of Classical Conversations, we study great composers and orchestral music for 6 weeks. As a classical music junkie, this is one of my favorite parts of the program. I think an appreciation of great scores and understanding the intricacies of classical music is sadly lacking in our society. There is such a wide range of styles in classical music – thousands upon thousands of fantastic melodies, harmonies and rhythms – if you give it a chance, I’m positive you’ll find something you love.

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Science Observation: Bird’s Nest Day 27

~ Tonya ~ 5 Comments

Happy Monday! A later update than usual because I spent my entire day observing Challenge classes at a local CC community. In a strange twist, one of the classes has an assignment this week to watch birds as part of their Science lesson. More on all that fun in another post. I know you really want the details on our nest happenings. It’s nasty out today and Hydro looks none too pleased about it. Continue reading →

Science Observation: Bird’s Nest Day 24

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Boo-hoo! Hydro is tricky just like his momma. Hiding eggs and making me all excited, then dropping the boom today. No new babies. I’ve officially given up on the other eggs at this point. Hydro was born a week ago. I cannot imagine a scenario where eggs that were incubated at the same time hatch that far apart from each other. Anyone with vast birding knowledge want to correct that thinking for me? Continue reading →

Science Experiment: Magic Penny Cleaner

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Do you have any old grungy pennies around the house? I’ll bet you do. Check under the couch cushions. Oh. Is it just my couch that collects money? Try the cup holders in the car. Still just me? We’ve been studying the first 12 elements on the periodic table, and this little experiment is an easy lesson with some pretty cool chemistry going on. Bonus, it’ll make your gross pennies look brand-spankin’ new. Like magic. Disclaimer: Vinegar is (apparently) the absolute worst smell on the planet. According to my kids, it may kill you with prolonged exposure. You may want to add “noseplug” to your list of materials.

Magic Penny Cleaner

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