Outside School.

Yesterday was just too nice to stay inside all day doing school work. So we took it out to the picnic table! The kids actually seem to focus better out in the fresh air, and the picnic table is larger than our dining room table so there is more room to spread out.

Last week we learned a little bit about the characteristics geologists look at to describe rocks (color, texture, luster, hardness, shape). On one of our recent walks we collected a few rocks for our own geologist exercise.

What do you look forward to doing outside when the weather gets warm?

Fun with 16 Bean Soup Mix.

I have a bit of a confession to make. It's hard for me to get into Play-Doh. I think it's the smell. The kids still play with it now and again because what's a childhood without Play-Doh? For quite some time now I've been wanting to make the leap into playing with dry beans as an alternative. (I wouldn't suggest this activity for a little one who still likes to put things in their mouth, as the beans can definitely be a choking hazard.) A child may not be able to build with beans, but it's the next best thing to an indoor sandbox. Except the kiddos come out of the experience a lot less messy. Speaking of mess, the beans didn't make as much of a disaster as I thought they would. At least not this time. Much of the mess was contained to the plushy baby quilt we put down, and the beans were very easy to scoop up off the blanket.

All you need for a fun playtime is an inexpensive bag of mixed dry beans (the bag we purchased was less than $2), some plastic spoons, muffin tins and/or egg crates, and a few different shaped containers. We ended up using muffin tins over egg crates; it was much easier to scoop the beans up with the plastic spoon in the more slippery metal muffin tins. 

My oraganizationally thrilled heart happily spent quite a bit of time with my four year old daughter, sorting beans by shapes, colors, and sizes. Some of the beans looked terribly similar, so it was a great experience for her to learn how to classify something by more than just color.

Both of the girls played happily for hours. HOURS. The baby was none too happy when it came time to clean up for dinner either. A day later, we're still finding some of the split peas here and there on the carpet, but I do believe this is going to be a favorite lazy afternoon game for a long time.

Let's Practice Adding Money Toss Game.

We're playing games over here again for math class! There is only so much workbooking a restless first grade boy can handle, so we really try to mix things up a bit and find creative ways to encourage learning. We still play our math hunt game on occasion, and last week we added another math game to the mix. The main objective of this toss game is to help R add random quantities of change together quickly.

To make your own game you'll need four or five paper plates, about six sections cut from an egg carton, and an equal number of coins. My husband helped me out by printing the name of the coin and its corresponding amount on the paper plates; he also added the name of the president pictured on the coin to the back of the plate for extra points, and added a one dollar plate for good measure.

We then cut sections from an egg carton, and weighted them on the bottom with pennies. We cut out six sections because we wanted R to get at least three weights on plates for good addition practice. To play, toss the weights at the paper plates, see where they land, and add up how much "money" you have. (We let the kids keep tossing until they had landed at least three of the weights on plates.)

Even the cat was into it.

Fun with Math :: Adding to Ten Scaverger Hunt

Math. It can be confusing when you're first learning it, and terribly complicated when you get older. We home school at our house, so finding fun ways to reinforce what the kids are learning is super important! Truth be told, my husband is actually better at this than I am, but I'm learning a thing or two as well.

Yesterday I hastily cut out two of each number from one to nine, and scattered them around our living room and dining room for my six-year-old to find. 

His instructions were to find two numbers that added up to ten. So if he found the number seven, he would have to determine which other number he needed to make ten, and then go and find it. If he came across any other numbers he was to leave them where they were. That way he was also (hopefully) building observation and memory skills so that he would remember where he had seen a particular number when he needed it.

I cut out two of each number for two reasons: one, to make the game last longer, and two, so that he would have to find the numbers for each equation twice (more reinforcing).

To finish, we did some addition on the chalkboard!(Isn't it snazzy? My mom bought that chalkboard when she was home schooling us.)