Busy: An Update

Well friends, it's been awhile...

But if you had this little guy to distract you, you may not be blogging much either!  

I have a friend who exercises everyday.  She has 8 children.  I asked her what her secret is.  She told me it's her "one thing."  She said it's the one thing that she does everyday.  It's at the top of her list.  She may not shower, she may not cook dinner, but she makes time for her "one thing."  Now, I'm sure she had other things at the top of her list too, like her family.  But I've been thinking about that.

There are only so many "one things" you can have; only so many minutes to wiggle them into.

And ever since Baby M made his appearance, he has been my "one thing" that took the place of writing and sharing here as much as I used to.  It's ok.  It's the "season"we are in.  He's been my hardest baby.  And that's ok.  He's my "little project" right now.

The other "one thing" that has been swallowing up my extra minutes is that we are moving.  Across the country.  It takes an bucketload of time to have your house on the market, look for another house, research the new area, etc.

It's hard to look around at all the "little projects" I made just for our home that won't be apart of our future.  But it's also exciting to think about the future projects in the works.  

Sometime I need to take the time to go back and share the photos of fun "little projects" we have been up to over the last little while.  Here's a sample for today, along with a hope that I can fill in the details soon...

We made Violet Jelly: from violets growing in our own front yard!

It's so pretty!

I've been teaching an Irish Step Dance class for Kay and Ellie and friends.  It has been a blast!

I would love to share more about teaching a 3-year-old music.  I start my children on the violin and piano at age three (at the latest).  Ellie recently graduated from her macaroni box to her real violin!

Outdoors with kids: My little Jay has all kinds of secrets for having fun and learning in the outdoors.  He's always teaching me about the amazing creations we've been given.  Sometime I'll share our favorite field guides and apps that help us explore and learn in the outdoors.

And how to catch and hold butterflies!

Traveling cross country with four little ones: we're doing it twice this summer!

I just got home from a house hunting trip.  Baby M went along and I learned that I will never fly with a baby again without my baby backpack!  I have a baby Ergo carrier and it made life so much easier!  Can you tell Baby M has 2 older sisters?

We put our first offer on "our" house today.  Crossing our fingers and lots of prayers!

Things are going to be busy around here with lots of "little moving projects."  I'll try to pop in now and then.  Thanks for hanging in here with me :)

In the meantime, there's lots of fun little projects in the archive, like:
Top 10 Tips for your Beach Trip
I've been making baby food again
My Favorite Granola that I make every week
A Favorite Treat: Blueberry Lemonade
Watermelon Stamping
How to write a message with the Sun
and more!

Patriotic Geography Learning

Originally shared as a Music and Movement guest post at abcand123learning.com

 With Independence Day coming up, we've been working on learning our country's geography in one of our favorite ways: with music and movement!

I have a four-year-old and she goes around the house singing the names of all 50 states in alphabetical order.  I love the magic that music gives children!

Here is the song she's been singing:

I love how this video shows the shapes of the states.  It helps her to "see" the state she is singing about and now she can point to and name all her states on a map too.

My six-year-old son already knows his states so he's been singing along with this song that is about each state and the order they joined the union:

This song is fun for learning or reviewing the state capitals:

One game we like to play with the US map is the, Map Munching Game AND the"Don't eat the State" games!  This is a really fun way to review and learn new state geography.

Another game we like to play is with an inflated globe.  We call it "Where in the U.S. is....?"  or "Where in the world is....?"

I hope these movement and music ideas make learning even more fun for you too!

Happy Fourth of July!

Cinco de Mayo and Mexico Learning

Originally shared at abcand123learning.com as part of the Music and Movement Series.

One of the things that I love about being a musician and a dancer is that it brings me full circle in what I am learning about. It's one thing to read about a place in a book. But if you really want to get to know a people you've got to listen to their music and language and watch (and try!) the movements of their people's dance. That's where you will find a true reflection of a people's traditions and culture.

I hope that you will enjoy traveling around the world-in the comfort of your own home-to learn about cultures as well as the joy of music and movement and dance with your children and students!

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, today we will be learning about the music and movement in MEXICO!

Mexican dance is done in character shoes (shoe with a heel) for girls, and a cowboy boot for boys.

To get started, watch this video that shoes some of the different styles of Mexican Dance:

In this clip you will learn about the costume that the women wear when they dance.  You can also see the character shoes:

This lets you see some of the dancing up close!  The dance is "percussive" which means that the shoes are not just for dancing in.  They are also to make sounds with.

  You might like to try making sounds with your feet too!

Mariachi music is the style of music that we often think of when we hear Mexican music.

The word mariachi refers to the musicians now commonly seen in restaurants or strolling the streets, dressed in silver studded charro outfits with wide brimmed hats playing a variety of instruments which include violins, guitars, basses, vihuelas (a 5 string guitar) and trumpets.

This is a song we often hear in Spanish, the language spoken in much of Mexico with the mariachi style of music.

Mariachi songs speak about machismo, love, betrayal, death, politics, revolutionary heroes and even animals (one particularly famous song is "La Cucaracha").

Mexican dance is also for boys!

Now YOU Try!

Some things you really have to try to appreciate or understand them.

These activities will help you do that!

La Cucaracha song with the words in Spanish.  Try singing along!

Here is a child dancing with her skirt.  Try dancing like her!

Have you heard of the Mexican Hat Dance?  Try dancing it along with these children!

Make your own maracas 

out of your left over plastic eggs from Easter with the instructions: HERE

Link to Mexican flag coloring page: HERE

Link to coloring page of mariachi players: HERE

Try making music with

  Mexican musical instruments with the game HERE

Now you will be all ready for Cinco de Mayo!

How to Make a Wall Map to Color

We love to color at our house. So when we were learning about where things are, it just made sense to make a wall map to color. We've made a United Staes Wall Map and World Wall Map.

Want to make one too?

I started by deciding how much room I had on my wall. For my world map, I had a long space but only enough height for three pieces of paper. When I was making my U.S. map, width was the limiting factor. I only had room for 6 paper widths which made for a map 3 paper heights high as well.

Then in my printer menu I used the option for scaling the image. I played around with this in my printer preview until it was the size I needed for my wall. The scaling for a wall map will likely be between 500% and 900%. For my world map, I scaled the image to 800% and printed out pages 1-24 making a 3x8 paper map.

Around each printed paper there is a white border. Using my glue stick, I glued the pages together; overlapping so that the map line from one page matched the next.

After glueing the pages together, I used my black sharpie to trace the map line of the page underneath onto the border of the page on top so that the map lines are continuous.

We've been using our world map with Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth Animals.

What will you make a map of?

A Quirky Way to Teach Geography

Right now my daughter loves quarters. She loves to take her wallet to the grocery store and buy little trinkets or gum balls at the row of quarter machines they have.I wanted to give her a way to earn quarters rather than just give them to her, so now every time she reads one of her BOB books she gets a quarter. The reading is slow going so she has a hard time sticking with it long enough to finish a book. This is just the incentive she needs.
She has so much fun with quarters, I picked up a 50 state quarter collection holder at Hobby Lobby. Now as we come across quarters we check the back to see if it's a state we can add to our collection. The U.S. Mint has lesson plans to go along with each state's quarter that are divided up by age group. We enjoyed coloring the enlarged picture on the back of the quarter and talking about what the picture means.

How do you make geography fun?

Game: Where in the World?

Where in the world is.....?  Where in the world do they speak....?   Where in the world do they eat...?  Where in the world is the capital of.....?

This is a fun game to play with any ball and a map. We used our blow up globe ball.  You can prepare questions ahead of time or just play as you go.

Just say the name of a country and throw the ball to the next person. That person can name the capital or say another country before passing it on, depending on how you play. It's a great way to learn about different places on the Earth. Point them out on a map too before you pass the ball. You can also play it using names of states, cultural foods, or languages.

For other Earth learning ideas, click on the "Earth Day" category on the sidebar. Happy globetrotting!

Celebrating the Earth

At our house a party is much more complete with cupcakes. I'll show you how to make some fun Earth Cupcake Toppers for yours.  Above is one side of the cupcake topper, below (scroll down) is the other side.

Click the image below (you may have to right click to open it) and print them.
Here are the other supplies you will need: pen, red marker or heart stickers, toothpicks, glue stick, an extra sheet of paper for the back side, and EITHER a 1 3/4" circle punch OR a paper cutter.  Scissors work too :)

If you have a circle punch, this is how you will want to punch out each topper.  I used a handy little coupon at the craft store to pick one up since I we make so many cupcakes around here :)
If you don't have the circle punch, no worries-notice how I chose a square photo of the Earth for you?  Just cut them out on your paper cutter (or use scissors.)  You will need to cut squares the same size to go on the back of the toppers.

Next, put a little glue on your toothpick and stick the front of the cupcake topper on. 
You will want to draw the heart on the blank side BEFORE you glue it on.  It's easier that way.

Here is what each side looks like:

Let them dry before you put them into the cupcakes, and there you go!  We put them on heart cupcakes and frosted them green since we are working on being more green around here.

We've been reading stories about how food is grown and how we can take care of the Earth.

This is a fun game to play with any ball and a map.  We used our blow up globe ball.

Just say the name of a country and throw the ball to the next person.  That person can name the capital or say another country before passing it on, depending on how you play.  It's a great way to learn about different places on the Earth.  Point them out on a map too before you pass the ball.  You can also play it using names of states, foods, or languages.
Tomorrow is Earth Day...stay tuned for another Earth Little Project.

Teaching Kids to Love the Earth

Tomorrow is Earth Day. We've been prepping for our celebration this past week.  Without even knowing that our Nana just sent the kids these great blankets.  She knows that we love geography around here.  The kids are LOVING them and it's fun to cozy up with the earth this way.

  As great as it is to talk about protecting the Earth I belive the thing that will help us most in our quest to treat the Earth well is to Teach Our CHILDREN to LOVE the EARTH. My sister is studying this very thing in college and turned me onto this book: Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. The subtitle is, "Saving our Chilren from Nature-Deficit Disorder."  I hope every parent reads it!  It is a must read and will change how you view and value your child's participation in nature

Here are a few of my favorite thoughts from the book:
p.10 "Many members of my generation grew into adulthood taking nature’s gifts for granted; we assumed (whe we thought of it at all) that generations to come would also receive these gifts. But something has changed. Now we see the emergence of what I have come to call nature-deficit disorder. This term is by no means a medical diagnosis, but it does offer a way to think about the problem and possibilities-for children, and for the rest of us as well.
My own awareness of the transformation began in the late 1980’s, during research for Childhood’s Future, a book about the new realities of family life. I interviewed nearly three thousand children and parents across the country, in urban, suburban, and rural areas. In classrooms and living rooms, the topic of children’s relationship with nature sometimes surfaced. 

I think often of a wonderfully honest comment made by Paul, a forth-grader in San Diego: “I like to play indoors better, ‘case that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”
In many classrooms I heard variations on that answer. True, for many children, nature still offers wonder. But for many others, playing in nature seemed so ….Unproductive. Off-limits. Alien. Cute. Dangerous. Televised."


p. 44 "…Edward O. Wilson and the ecopsychology movement are on to something. She calls for a common-sense approach, one that recognizes “the positive effects of involvement in nature on health, concentration, creative play, and a developing bond with the natural world that can form a foundation for environmental stewardship.
The idea that natural landscapes, or at least gardens, can be therapeutic and restorative is, in fact, an ancient one that has filtered down through the ages."

p. 120 "We can now look at it this way: Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health. (and also, by the way, in our own)."
Jay and Kay had a great time digging in the dirt with spoons and then planting seeds in these little pots.  Dirt is such a great medium for discovery!

p. 109 "This we know: As the sign over Alber Einstein’s office at Princeton University read, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” We don’t have to wait for more, needed, research to act on common sense, or to give the gift of nature-even when it might seem to be too late."


p.310 "We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories...the adventures we’ve had together in nature will always exist."

“This book is an absolute must-read for parents.” –The Boston Globe

"The simplest, most profound, and most helpful of any book I have read on the personal and historical situation of our children, and ourselves, as we move into the twenty-first century.”-Thomas Berry, author of The Dream of the Earth

I will continue to share some Little Project ideas for celebrating our Earth this week.  It's something we've been trying to do more everyday, not just on Earth day.  At our house Jay enjoys being outside, but Kay THRIVES in the outdoors.  She cries every time we have to come inside.  She sees the beauty of being outside and is a great example for our family.  The earth nourishes her.  It nourishes all of us.  What are you doing to help nourish the earth today? Teaching children to Love the Earth is one thing we can all help do.

Map Munching

We call our new game: "Map Munching."
It's a great way to make snack time educational. Plus, there is a built-in reward system!

I've blogged before about Jay's love of geography.  Like anyone, he forgets things if he doesn't review.  The challenge is to keep the learning of geography fresh, while reviewing.  The same old thing just won't do.  If you (the Mom) need a geography refresher, jump in and play too.  You can both have fun with this game we made up today :)

We started with the states: Cover your map (this one is from the $1 spot at Target) with one snack on each state. Ask your child to find your home state. If he does, he gets the snack that is sitting on it :) You can branch out from there according to your child's age and attention span.

 Want to play too?

You need: a map (see links below to print one out), and some small snacks like: cheerios marshmallows, trail mix, etc.

Ideas for ways to play Map Munching:

Identify the State:
1-Put snacks on a few states and practice just the same ones until your child has learned them.  Ask your child to find your home state. If he does, he gets the snack that is sitting on it :) Repeat with other states.
2-Use geographic regions, like: west, midwest, southwest, New England, East, southeast.
3-Repeat. Repetition really is the key. You can use snack time again tomorrow, or another way to review. Just keep at it. You will be surprised what children can remember.

Identify the Country:
1-Put snacks on a few countries and practice just the same ones until your child learned them. Ask your child to find your home country. If he does, he gets the snack that is sitting on it :) Repeat with other countries.

2- Use geographic areas such as Continents to break it down.

3-Work on your home country/state first and then branch out from there. Utilize what your child is familiar with. Does a relative or friend live in a certain place? Talk about it. Look at pictures of that place.
4-Repeat. Repetition really is the key. You can use snack time again tomorrow, or another way to review. Just keep at it. You will be surprised what children can remember.



Identify the Capitals:
1-Put snacks on a few capitals (countries or state capitals) and practice just the same ones until your child has learned them. Ask your child to find your country's capital or your state's capital (depending on which game you are playing). If he does, he gets the snack that is sitting on it :) Repeat with others.

2-Start on your home country/state CAPITAL first and then branch out from there. Utilize what your child is familiar with. Does a relative or friend live in a certain capital city that you can talk about and see photos of?

3-Repeat. Repetition really is the key. You can use snack time again tomorrow, or another way to review. Just keep at it. Geography is FUN!  You will be surprised what children can remember.

{Little Project Tip} We used a Children's Atlas (Border's Bargain Book) open to different pages today but I want to laminate some maps to use for this and another geography idea I have brewing...so stay tuned!

Do Mom and Dad want to join in the geography fun?  Get a map too and make it a race!

They say that the best learning happens when your child is having fun. A full belly helps too :)
That was a fun learning Little Project. Hope you can use it too!

UPDATE: Renee left a comment about playing Don't Eat Pete too-great idea! I can just hear it now, "Don't eat Spain! or "Arizona!"

P.S. For more educational games, check out my links in the left side bar.