Homeschooling My Monkeys

CC Monopoly for Review is here!!

2012-01-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

That's my son pointing to the state he wants to buy. When you land on a state, you have to locate it on a blank US map and name the capital to buy it. Before you can roll, you have to answer a question. It's fun.

I FINALLY finished it. I had trouble with the board. I decided to just print it out large at SAMS. I printed mine 24x30 I think and it was less than $9 so that's still ok in my book. You could print it out smaller but I wouldn't go too small or the states will be too small to fit the houses and read. The directions are in the download, but I use the money, cars, houses, and dice from Monopoly Jr. We outgrew it anyway. You will also need a blank US map. You could add your own questions to the Chance cards too. I printed mine out on the perforated business cards. The only "problem" we had was one question has you do the WHOLE timeline (with help from other players if needed), and they thought $1 was not nearly enough for that so we'll pay out $5 next time for that one. So the file has 3 sheets of chance cards, the logo for the back, the directions, and the board. If you have problems with the download let me know!

So, Here is the link.

I hope you enjoy it if you grab it. I would really appreciate it if you pointed your friends, etc. to my blog to grab the game. Have fun!!

2 folder Latin Lapbook

2012-01-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

This video may be helpful to you if you've never made a 2 folder (or one folder) lapbook before. It goes through how I fold the folders and glue them together and how I close mine with a velcro tab.

PS- I am finished with the Monopoly Review Game, I just need to pick up the game board from SAMS and see how that looks. I had made it the same size as a Monopoly Junior Gameboard thinking I was going to Modge Podge it on there. So.... I "cut it apart" into 4 sections and printed each out. Then I wasn't overly thrilled with the results/time it took and thought a better idea would just be to print it out as a large print at SAMS. It's only like $9 so that wasn't too bad. I felt like this would be the easiest way to do it. Of course, you can choose to print it out however you like. All that to say, I need to drag myself over there to get it and make sure it looks good before putting it up.

CC Monopoly

2012-01-09T06:58:00.001-08:00

Well, we’re almost done with our Monopoly game…. Just working out some cards to make it more “fun”. The kids will be playing it again today to test it…. Check back soon!

Latin Lapbook

2011-11-09T17:32:00.001-08:00

My first attempt at making a lapbook from scratch. It’s not as easy at it looks! You could add in some things or pictures, etc. in some places.
It’s for the Latin memory work in Classical Conversations cycle 3.

If you’d like to have the lapbook, you can download it HERE. If you click on the regular download button (takes 20 sec or so), it's free. The fast download costs $ from the hosting company. It only takes 20 sec to wait for the "slow" one. Thanks!
Oh, and I'm working on a CC Monopoly Game that should be ready by the end of the Holiday week so check back!

Movie Night Printables

2011-08-10T18:12:00.001-07:00

If you are interested in my movie night printables you can email me (hmlentz@gmail.com) and I’ll be happy to email you a zipped folder. The poster and menu are full page and I just laminate them as full sheets and then I can fill in the blank with the movie title and the time it will start. The third page is their job assignment for the night (which I rotate each week) and then tickets to get in. If you have more than 3 kids you can just duplicate this page and have more than one person doing each job. I didn’t do a clean up crew just because I kind of think that’s a job that everyone has to help out with.
The way I do movie night is this: The kids can earn up to a dollar each day of school. They can earn .25 for getting their work done in a timely manner, .25 for cleaning up their workboxes and setting up for the next day- this means turning in work, throwing away trash, and putting their shoe boxes back on the rack. Then there are two opportunities for attitude or behavior how ever you want to word it .25 each. It costs $1.00 to get in the movie night. When they pay me on Friday after school is all done, I give them a job and a ticket. I have done this for the past two years and the kids LOVE it. It’s special b/c if there is no school that week, we don’t do it quite like this. For example, they can have ice cream on a cone and other treats that they don’t normally get. This year I also added a store component that I am stocking with dollar store toys and things. This way, they can purchase some stickers or something and it’s not all food items. But the store is separate from Movie night so I don’t have that stuff on here. I may do a store printable set at some point. I even started stocking the store with the kids toys that I have to clean up. They loose their toys for the rest of the week and then they have to buy it back- ouch. You should hear the conversations at my house right now about them “saving” each others toys.

Thanks to Ruby Lane for your kit, Movie Night Marathon that I used to create these. You can find the kit over at Funky playground designs.

Electrolysis of Water

2011-08-07T07:17:00.001-07:00

Our first science experiment of the year in chemistry. We are using The Elements- Ingredients of the Universe by Ellen McHenry for our spine. I love it so far.

Our experiment all set up. I was so excited when Hailey said that the pencil with the most bubbles must be the one with the Hydrogen around it, and the other the Oxygen. When I asked her why she said that because in the recipe for water, there are twice as many hydrogens as oxygens.

BEST field trip EVER

2011-01-28T13:14:00.001-08:00

OK. This was the BEST field trip ever. Two days (who gets to do that?!) AND Aunt Nancy as a chaperone. It was crazy and fun and exhausting, and well, just see.
First we went to the Butterfly house after arriving in STL. GORGEOUS.

No, these are NOT butterflies. They are roaches. Look at That! She’s even smiling. Yuck. She’ll learn.

There are between 1500 and 2,000 butterflies at the butterfly house. Here are 2. I have more, but really do you want to see them all? These are my two favorite. And it’s so hot and steamy in there that my lens kept getting steamed up.

Like this. See the hazy film over it? That’s condensation on my lens.

And now it’s gone. I must have wiped the lens right before these. Look, he’s trying to catch a butterfly on his cast.

This was in the theater. It was educational. But very creepy. Look at that!

And then I saw this and it looks kinda like that spider wants to eat my child. Of course, I just took a picture. I couldn’t stand to look at that spider. I would be freaking out if I were him. I’m MUCH farther back though so that’s good.
Tomorrow I will post our AWESOME Eagle spotting adventure the next morning. WOW!!

History fun

2010-07-25T07:32:00.001-07:00

The Celts vs. the Romans.

We had some issues when the Romans Celts didn’t want to use the double headed axes they made but wanted swords instead…

One week down!

2010-07-20T06:30:00.001-07:00

Last week was our first week of school. The kids were excited and can’t wait to get into Medieval History. We moved some furniture around and got a new desk for Aidan- hopefully we can find a new one for Blake now. I don’t know… I doubt he’d sit in it anyway.

We are waiting for a day a bit cooler to launch our hot air balloon. It’s been crazy hot and humid.

10/11 School calendar.

2010-06-08T13:33:00.001-07:00

Here is our newly updated calendar. The colored days are school days.

So, we started really doing money (store type not just counting/identifying) at the end of the year with the boys. Some more concepts with doodlebug. I found a great workbox (although you don’t need to do workboxes to do this) on Movie nights. I decided to combine some discipline with money. They can earn (and loose) money during the week based on how hard they work, extra school jobs,helping out with each other, attitude, etc. and then we have our Movie Night on Friday. They are each assigned a “job”. Doodlebug is the concessions stand person, monkey boy was set up, and stunt man was ticket taker. They LOVED it and can’t wait to earn more $ for this next “year”.

Finish up Ancient China

2010-05-05T16:07:00.001-07:00

We’ve had a great time visiting Ancient China. Our favorite project was making terra cotta soldiers. We watched a video on utube where they were making the soldiers. They made a mold for the body and then added heads and details. So, we decided to copy the process. Here is our version of making the soldiers.

Push model magic down into a rectangular form.

We have Playmobile figures that looked kinda like the soldiers and so we used those. We pushed them down in halfway. Then covered them up with another layer of model magic.

Let the model magic dry (I pulled it out of the form) for several days.

Then cut the mold in half and peel apart the layers.

Let the model magic dry very well. After pulling the layers apart and taking out the figure, I pushed them back in to neaten up the mold.

Then you get to use the terra cotta clay and push it into both sides of the mold. Sandwich them together and push push push.

Take off one of the molds and then carefully remove the figures. They are a rough mold so you need to clean up the edges and smooth them out a bit.

Add details with a sharp stick or a pen.

And you’re done! Make an army and then bury them in the sandbox to guard the tomb of the emperor.

The end of the Romans

2010-03-23T19:53:00.001-07:00

We finished our Roman unit last week. To celebrate one of our favorite units so far we had a Roman feast where we also showcased the projects we did.

First up is our Roman Centurion soldier. This was also his project for the Romans. The chest plate is the only thing he didn’t make. Of course, Max had a go with the helmet there, but it is a great costume. Gotta love duct tape.

Hailey and Blake’s costumes were thrown together for the feast because they did other projects.

Here is our senator. He is too cute!!

Hailey’s ocean mosaic (it hasn’t been grouted yet) took the longest time but I think she did a GREAT job with it. Blake’s first project was this “wax” tablet that Romans used to write on. They would then smooth out the wax and write something new. It says ‘Caius is a Dumbell’, from Detectives in Togas, which we read and LOVED.

Other projects are below. The Roman ones start with the yellow lego aquaduct, Blake’s tablet, Hailey’s mosaic, with a Coloseum Zootrope in front with a chariot race on the inside, and then Aidan’s helmet.

Earlier projects were the Egyptian masks, there is (laying down) a mummy Aidan made, an amulet, Aidan’s Trojan horse, Blake’s cyclopes and other Greek toilet paper people, and The Pharos lighthouse.

Lunch games

2010-03-18T18:37:00.001-07:00

Don’t have time for enough games? Play during lunch.

We love games.

Science Fair

2010-03-04T15:03:00.001-08:00

Hailey had her first science fair last weekend. It was fun for everyone who went as there were lots of different things to do while there.

The above pics are from the gummy bear launching station.

The engineering students brought these construction activities- towers and bridges.

Slingshot whiffle balls and a hide and seek mirror one

Lastly an identifying the mystery mixtures.

Now Hailey’s project:

Here she is weighing and taking notes for her experiement.

At the SF, she has her interview with the judges. Although she did not win a medal, the comments on her evaluations were very good. I was so proud of her for sticking to it and working so hard on it. She also did a wonderful job explaining it to the judges.

She did a Going Bananas experiment where she figured out the % edible part of a green, yellow, and brown banana to determine which would be the best buy.

Work while you work

2010-01-13T20:22:00.001-08:00

I took these photos while the monkeys were working today. He’s concentrating so hard…. small money loves to be on the computer. His favorite game is one where he commands a Greek war ships and rams it into his enemies to sink them.

… and look, that little mut still likes to hang out at the back of a chair. Isn’t she cute with her new doo?

We are loving lapbooks! Here is a monkey enjoying looking back at one during quiet reading time.

What are we doing?

2010-01-13T20:15:00.001-08:00

This boy loves those pattern blocks.

This one loves math too…. but not cutting. He has to cut quite a bit in K. The bug likes the computer. One of our favorite sites is iknowthat.com it’s a great site. We also found a great one on rocks at http://www.learner.org/interactives/index.html there are a bunch of other things there but we really liked the one on the rock cycle.

We’re busy

2009-12-22T06:47:00.001-08:00

Birth of a King lapbook. Great project.

Snowflakes this week

2009-12-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

We are doing snowflakes this week with Snowflake Bently. LOVE this book and the photos!
Here is a list of some of the activities we're doing. Most from the lapbook on Homeschoolshare.
Snowflake ideas/crafts:

How to fold your paper for a hexagonal snowflake: http://highhopes.com/snowflakes.html

Paper patterns for cutting your own print and cut: http://www.papersnowflakes.com/

Cut a virtual snowflake online: http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/

Snowflake Bentley lapbook: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/resources_snowflake_bentley.php

Some science experiments: http://kidsactivities.suite101.com/article.cfm/snow_wonder

I sure hope it snows like it's supposed to!

Workboxes Day 1

2009-11-09T21:01:00.001-08:00

I’m pretty sure I LOVE workboxes. For me anyway. My wonderful sister sent me the handbook for this system and I promptly spent the weekend getting ready. Today was Day 1.

That’s Aidan’s shoe rack filled at the beginning of the day with all of his assignments. and that is a picture of him doing one of the centers, Hailey is also doing a center activity behind him at her seat.

Then there’s Hailey’s workboxes, and her doing her math. She learned what the concept of division was today. Yeah her.

Blake is also doing workboxes but I thought you might get sick of seeing pics of boxes. So, that’s him doing the center on the floor- we moved him to his desk for the 2nd one.

Then Aidan is doing a computer game, and Hailey was still plugging away at her math.

School and lunch

2009-10-22T12:17:00.001-07:00

Aidan and Blake play a math game.

Hailey is reading and working on her grammar.

This is the Earth. If it were a pizza.

Hailey works on a lab sheet to compare our pizza to the Earth.

He draws his picture to show the layers of the Earth represented in the pizza.

Winner of Curriculum Cleanout!

2009-08-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

OK. Well, my DD just picked a number for my CC give away and it's.....
drum roll.....
#6.
That's MaryLea (aka Pink and Green Mama)
Yeah!!
I will be getting into touch with you ASAP about shipping these out. Please email me your shipping information. My email addy is hmlentz@gmail.com.

Thanks everyone for participating and I hope you all got something along the way.

Curriculum Clean Out!

2009-07-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have two items/sets to give away at the Curriculum Clean out.
BJU Math 3 Home Teacher's Edition ( 2nd edition) spiral bound manual and the home teacher packet. The latter is unbound, but hole punched and rubber banded together for now. I got these at a garage sale bundled with a bunch of other stuff.

The Other items also came from that same garage sale and is:
BJU Math 5 (2nd Edition) student book and tests and keys.

I hope someone is interested in these items and can use them!
Please leave a comment telling me how long you've been homeschooling.
Don't forget to leave me contact info. I will pick a "winner" on the 15th and notify you right after. Enjoy the curriculum swap!! There are LOTS of goodies out there.

Studying plants

2009-05-01T19:03:00.001-07:00

Doesn’t he look so intent?

We’re growing sunflowers for the bee project. So, we might as well study plant growth and parts first right? And then Bees next…

But I also need to fit in there mosquitos b/c we have some cool larvae in our biodome, and then finish weather and Easter labbooks.

Science

2009-04-21T13:33:00.001-07:00

View Full Album

So, we are looking into some dirty pond scummy water for any tadpoles. We found some living things that they drew but they don’t look like tadpoles. Have to find out what they are…

Reading 100 lesssons book

Math- numbers through 40 – count and write CH 8

writing- practicing letters and phonetically writing

Read aloud- Madeline- France, counting to 12 and putting in equal sets an object of 12, symmetry, healthy habits, rhyming words.

science- planted seeds for our bee garden project, looking for tadpoles and drawing what we find, frog life cycle, measuring flower growth, identifying parts of a plant/seed.

March - April

2009-03-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

We finished our Oceans unit and are now working on
March 23-27:
Spring Break
March 30th - April 3rd:
Reading/phonics: 100 Lessons
BJU Math- ( Numbers 11-19)Lessons 40/41, 42/43, 44/45, (Time) 46/47, 48.
FIAR- Storm in the Night- emotions (fear), language (quotation marks and personification review), art (facial expressions), science (safety in storms), science (five senses).
Weather - documenting weather, graphing each day as part of date.

We're off!

2009-03-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

Aidan LOVES to read now. He's reading to anyone who will sit and listen to him. And his favorites right now are Little Critter books. This is him doing his daily reading with me.

Oceans unit

2009-03-06T20:40:00.000-08:00

We have been having a great time with our unit on Oceans. It has taken a bit longer than I originally planned, but we've done some spontaneous things too. Like this giant squid thing....

Aidan reads his new book to Blake. I'm the biggest thing in the ocean. It has a very funny ending.

This is the size of a giant squid. I stood at one end and they stood at the other. We had measured and taped it off on the floor. Please ignore the messy kitchen.

Week 3 and 4+

2009-02-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

Oceans
Ocean words that begin with O
Ocean/beach poems and songs
Counting by 5's, and 10's
Discover what type of liquid an egg will float in- salt or fresh using scientific investigation
Mini field trip to the local pet store to see anenome, fish, coral reaf, star fish, sea horses and more.
Tactile star fish
Fish art project
5 senses
Tide pool
Float or sink
Shell Memory
Fishing for Phonics game
Sea Gulls book
Edible aquarium

Use Magic School Bus on the ocean floor thorughout.

Monday:
Wake up and Read- Oceans, poems and songs
Reading 100
Fishing for Phonics- f, h, c, and p
Online tumblebook- choose from one relating to the ocean/beach
Math- plus 1 game
mini-field trip
Oceans on the globe

Tuesday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, Seashore Surprises,
Reading 100
Fishing for phonics- short o words
Math-patterns
Ocean animals book
Color oceans on map. Label continents

Wednesday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, It could still be coral, Coral
Reading 100
Fishing for phonics- short a
Math- skip counting 10's
Tidal pool fact sheet and tag book
A house for hermit crab art project- fingerpaint/scratch ocean, tear tissue paper for seaweed, cut red paper for hermit crab.

Thursday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, Sea turtles
Reading 100
Fishing for phonics- short e
Math- skip counting by 5's
Egg floating science book
Until I saw the sea book

Friday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, A day at Seagull beach
Reading 100
Fishing for phonics- short i
Math-One to one matching Ch. 2 lesson 10, More and Fewer Ch. 2 lesson 11
Sea gulls book

Monday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, Sea Stars
Reading 100
Fishing for phonics- short u
Math-Pictograph ch. 2 lesson 11, Chapter Review
What begins with o
Tactile star fish

Tuesday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, What is a whale, Humphrey the lost whale, and The Whales
Reading 100
Fishing for phonics- short vowel trios
Math- Cheddar's Chekup, Ch. 3 lessons 15, 16
Whale mobile

Wednesday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, The Manatee
Reading 100
Math- Ch. 3 lessons 17, 18
5 senses
float or sink

Thursday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, Swimmy
Reading 100
Math- Ch. 3 lessons 19, 20
Food chain

Friday:
Wake up and Read- poems and songs, choice, Rainbow fish
Reading 100
Math- Ordinal numbers Ch. 3 lesson 21, and 22 review
Make rainbow fish with paper plates
Watch Magic School Bus on the ocean floor

Still to do if interest remains: Sharks, jellyfish, anenome and sea urhins, octopus and squid, ocean deep/floor.

Week 2

2009-02-12T20:08:00.001-08:00

I'm going to post this on a weekly basis instead of daily.

This week we are doing a Valentine's unit.

Writing- focusing on s, 3,5,6 letter/number formation
Reading- 100 lessons book
Address
What happens to my Valentine? Mailing process.
Rhyming words
Color words
Patterns
Graphing and sorting valentine candies
Weaving.

Week 1

2009-02-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's hard to jump in this in the middle of the year.
Monday, Feb. 2nd
Opening:
Set up February Calendar
Today's date

Language:
ABC order- connect the dots
Beginning consonants
Comprehension
100 Lessons

Math:
Mental math
Ordinal numbers - didn't get to
Tall towers game

Groundhog Day
Weather prediction by hibernating animals

Tuesday:
Wake up and Read
Date and Pledge
S sheet
Reading lesson- 100 Lessons
Read and label the house
Read around the house
Reading Rainbow
Math Game- roll dice and color squares to see who wins first. A lot of good talk about who was winning and by how much.
Hybernating color flap "book"

Wednesday:
Wake up and Read
Date and pledge
Reading lesson
Handwriting practice- 2, 5, 6, S
Writing- address and phone number
Reading rainbow
Math- 100 days, counting and building #100 with 100 legos

Thursday:
Wake up and Read
Reading lesson
Handwriting practice- 3, 5, 6, s
I went walking story and make book- write in animal names
Rhyming words

Friday:
Wake up and read
Alphabet nature walk