We are SO pleased with the first edition of the Westward Gazette! I bought a $20 software program from WalMart called Perfect Pro Office that made our computer work simple. (Word Perfect is the only office-type program that came on my computer and it stinks for projects.) The newsletter includes a story or journal entry from…
What fun we had visiting WKYT TV in Lexington today! They took us on a tour of the newsroom, video control room for broadcasts, video control room for taping shows, and the live set. The kids all had the chance to stand in front of the green screen to try their hand at pointing correctly on the weather map. …
If writing isn’t a natural passion for your child, it can be a subject full of drudgery. Believe me, I know. Up until this year Mahayla has fought me tooth and nail over any sort of writing assignment. This year has been different, though. I believe she’s enjoying writing partly because of maturity, but I’ve made…
We’re on a tour of ancient history right now and loving it! So far we’ve been through Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. I thought I’d share a few highlights of this week in Egypt since we had so much fun. The best part of the week was mummifying a Ken doll. Thanks Jamin for the…
(This post contains affiliate links.) Picture Prompts Inspire Writing Here’s a fun way to get your kids to write – and it’s VERY easy! Use homemade picture prompts. Simply cut out interesting pictures from magazines, old calendars, old books, etc. and paste them on card stock. Let your child choose a picture, then write a…
We took an impromptu history trip Saturday to Blue Licks State Park where they were having a reenactment of the Revolutionary War battle that took place there in 1782. Okay, so we missed the actual reenactment by seconds, much to my son’s dismay, but had a great time anyway. During the actual battle, the English,…
My son loves baseball. He’s also excited about his new interest in learning to read. (Thank you, Lord!) So, we came up with a fun way to show his reading achievements – a “book”ball chart. Everytime he reads a book by himself, we’ll add a baseball to the field. We came up with the idea…
This is the title of a workshop taught by Tina Burnell that I attended at the CHEK Convention. This post contains affiliate links. Let me first start by saying, Duh!! I have a master’s degree in education. I’ve studied in depth about teaching reading. I’ve studied in depth about reaching various learning styles. I’ve known…
Here’s the newest summer center at our house – Birds! The box of books on the right includes nonfiction books about all sorts of birds – everything from birds we see around here to penguins to toucans. I’ve also included some really good children’s literature that have birds as characters – Make Way for Ducklings…
This year we’ll be doing a unit study about Kentucky. I found a WONDERFUL easyfunschool unit study online that I thought I’d pass along to all you KY gals. I also plan to use:
This week’s art center focuses on Mary Cassatt. I’ve only put out pastels and watercolors this week to encourage my kiddos to really use each medium. I found that putting out more than a couple of choices last time didn’t give them much practice with any one thing. As a side note, if you need…
My children pulled all the Miller’s books out again the other day. I can’t tell you how much we’ve enjoyed these books! From the time they were preschoolers and we started reading Storytime With the Millers, my children have intently listened to and learned from the stories. I think they’re so good, in fact, that they were…