Homeschool Village Garden Challenge

My garden at the moment is S.C.A.R.Y. It literally has not had a thing done to it since last fall..except for tossing the remains of some old plants out there. And it really didn't bother me since I didn't have to look at it at all this winter....after all, it's been covered in mounds of snow and ice for months!

But the snow has melted (although I'm almost positive more will be headed our way in April..par for the course!) and I really need to start tending it if we plan on having any kind of a productive garden this year.

The Plan (no progress yet!): First things first! For the month of April, we'll be cleaning out the bed, raking it, turning over the soil and calling the utility company to come out and mark their lines so we can add on this year. We plan to triple the size of the garden as Reagan has big plans for the vegetables she wants to grow (although Mommy *did* remind her we have to eat what we grow!). Mother's Day weekend is always our planting weekend, so we'll plant seeds directly into the ground then.

Lessons/Resources Being Used: In April, we plan to make an egg carton seed starter. (Note: due to lack of warmth and good sunlight our seeds usually don't do well being grown inside so if that happens, we'll just use it to our advantage to talk about why, but we won't plan on these being used for actual planting unless-miracle of miracles, they actually grow!) In addition to the egg carton seed starter and Easter (which is our main focus in April), we plan on studying birds, weather and worms and of course, we'll be talking about how all three can help plants grow. Our library has great concept kits and this month we'll be using the WEATHER concept kit they have and using the theme "April showers bring May flowers".


Reagan is super excited about the garden this year. Right now we're both drooling over seeds and she has specifically requested to plant potatoes and corn. A great book about planting potatoes is Two Old Potatoes and Me. Definitely inspired Reagan to try something new! (By the way, in case you do decide to check this out, you'll want to know it's about a little girl who's parents have just divorced and she and her dad start planting potatoes together, thereby helping her adjust--the divorce theme is definitely toned down so if you're not a divorced family-we aren't-it should still fit in perfectly!)

And just because she's cute, here's a picture of Reagan with our garden last year (our first attempt at planting seeds directly in the ground as opposed to starting them first!) and a picture of Reagan and cousin Emily with fresh zucchinis!

Mining for Numbers

I took this idea from No Time For Flash Cards and tweaked it a little bit for us. My daughter is great with shapes, but we still need to get number recognition down pat.

I used the sensory box idea from No Time For Flash Cards and filled ours with puzzle numbers, number magnets and bits of craft foam with numbers written on them. Then I typed out a simple sheet that read "Find the Numbers!" with each number in a column. When she found a number in the sensory box, she had to say the correct number name and sort it into the correct column. Fun learning!

A soft answer turns away wrath..

Reagan and I have just started using My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts by Susan Hunt. I already love this book! This week we've been working on the first Bible memory verse, Proverbs 15:1: "A soft answer turns away wrath." And wow--there are tons of activities that revolve around this one tiny verse!

To start, there is an AMAZING homeschooling blog out there called 1+1+1=1. (By the way I promise to post about all of my favorite homeschooling blogs later on!) Carissa is a homeschooling mom to three and she is putting the finishing touches on Raising Rock Stars Preschool, in part based on....drum roll please ..the ABC Bible Memory Verse Book! You can see Letter A which corresponds with the Proverbs 15:1 memory verse, here.

And of coures, there are tons of other great ideas around the web. I took this idea from Spell Outloud. I have to say that the pompom jar is ingenius. After a huge blow up between my four year old and I (we have the same temper and she can push buttons no other person can push, which in the end makes me forget I'm a 30-something adult!), we started using this jar in conjunction with the Bible verse we were learning (God has an impeccable sense of timing doesn't He!) It definitely made our day much better. We recognized that we were snipping at each other and we both tried to react differently! Amazing! And she has had so much fun filling her jar with pompoms :)

Tomorrow we'll be working on the toothpaste activity found here at Spell Outloud.

Promise to share pictures soon :)

Rainbow Rain

I saw this craft over at Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie and since today is a miserable, dreary, rainy day, we decided to make it too.

Obviously ours didn't come out quite as well as theirs did, but I learned something about us. Reagan and I, although we absolutely love to do crafts, are just really too impatient to spend much more than five minutes on one!

I also attached a photo of Reagan blowing bubbles to cheer up our sick cat, Pritsha, who had just been force fed her medication and lunch!


Hope you enjoy crafting your rainbow rain!

Number Hunt

You know those kids that know everything about a bunch of random stuff--like water cycles, magma and lava, plates crushing into each other, a zillion random facts about dinosaurs, etc, etc----yet they are missing some of the basics--like number recognition?

That's my little one. She has such a hard time recognizing 6,9 and 10--honestly does not get them (yet she can add....very strange!) So we've been having number hunts. We go around the house searching for a certain number. I'll point out a number and say "is this a 10?" and we shout NO! (Or yes as the case may be!) Or she'll point out a number---Mommy, here's a number 10! Great fun and it's really helping her get these few numbers down!

Here are some tips for the number hunts:
-Look for numbers everywhere: on the clocks, in pages of books, on bottles of lotion, on the microwave, on measuring cups!
-If you're worried about not having enough of a certain number to find, make number strips and tape them to the wall. On our walls right now we have 6s, 9s, 10s, and 7s and 8s thrown in there for good measure.
-Have your little one carry a bag, basket or purse to collect the numbers. Reagan will collect the bits of paper, number magnets, books with the number in it, foam numbers, even lotion bottles in her purse!


This has been working so well for us I thought I'd share it with you! And for those of you who get frustrated, as I do on a daily basis, try to remember (as I am) that all children get different concepts at different times!

**This post is linked up at Link and Learn at No Time For Flash Cards (a GREAT site for crafts and learning activities!)