Card games galore!

Over the last few years I've heard of this thing called gameschooling... it's such a simple concept.... use games in your schooling, I feel like most homeschoolers already do it!

We like to have fun Friday, although it usually ends up being 

whatever day we need a little break and out come the games!

Here are a few of our favourite card games... I've included a couple of oldies but goodies and a few you need to check out!

Good old fashioned Crib....  we have a crib board stashed away in the house, trailer and truck!

UNO never gets old and is always a good time!

Science Ninjas: Valence card game.... this one is right up my alley... a chemistry card game where you collect elements to build molecules.. beware the acids and bases!!

Sushi Go!.... I like the strategy involved in this one.. it's a quick collect and pass card game, and don't forget adding up the points!  Perfect for the sushi lovers out there... or for those of us that don't know anything about sushi... I now know that wasabi is good, if you like extra points!!

Spiral at Mathgeekmama.com ... I love this game!  Let the kids pick their favourite Lego mini fig as a token and move around the card spiral using all your multiplication skills!

 

Bring your own Book....  this game changes every time you play it... as the name suggests you bring a book and then find lines to match a wide variety of prompts!   I love to theme it up... or let the kids go wild!  Goober says Calvin and Hobbes comics work best, while Sweet Pea will usually pick up a Rick Riordan book :)

Bears vs Babies... so this is a new addition to our house... Goober loves it!!  He can make an assortment of interesting monsters to defeat a variety of really odd baby armies.... what can I say... it's a hit!  And to be perfectly honest, any game that has a water bear card has already won me over ;)

What are some of your favourite card games?

All about physics....Part II

Here is the rest of our unit......

Part II

Magnets

Electricity

To see Part I follow the link below....

Part I

Big Bang

Forces and Motion

Light

Sound

We used Usborne's book What's Physics All About? as a spine...

I love this book also from Usborne, 365 Science Activities many an experiment was taken directly from this book!

We also used Brainpop Junior and Brainpop videos/activities/quizzes.  *Note* Brainpop is a subscription based website.. several DL schools will have a subscription you can access... if not I highly recommend adding it to your homeschooling budget, it is worth every penny!!

I also used a number of printables from TeachersPayTeachers....
Sweet Pea wanted some notebooking elements that I was too lazy to make!

Magnets

We read the corresponding chapter on magnets in What's Physics all About?

Great videos...
Brainpop Jr - Magnets 
Brainpop- Magnetism

We also read this book together.. love the Magic School Bus chapter books;
Amazing Magnetism

Here you can find a lapbook based on this book... we used some of the printables.

More great videos....
Bill Nye the Science Guy- Magnetism
Scishow- Animal Magnetism

This is a fabulous science kit.. lots of great ideas and an easy to follow format for experiments... Magnetic Science.

 There are a billion great magnet projects out there...
 do a quick search and do whatever catches your eye!

Here are a few we enjoyed....
 Playing with our compasses and hiding things in the backyard to create a scavenger hunt...
The kidlets spent entirely too much time playing with the magnets in their science kit....
Find the magnetic iron in your breakfast cereal....


Electricity
We read the corresponding chapter on electricity in What's Physics all About?

 We made a potato battery!
 So fun... we didn't have a led light so we used our fancy volt meter instead :)

Here are some great videos...

Brainpop- Electricity
Electric Circuits
Bill Nye the Science Guy- Electricity
Magic School Bus- Gets Charged
 

Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip

 Our scientist study was two fold.... Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

 The kids also love working on projects with Snap Circuits!

 

Hope you enjoyed our foray into physics... sorry it took me so long to post Part II :)











 

All about sharks....

We just loved our coral reef unit!  Goober was interested in all the sharks we came across during our study so it was only natural to delve deeper.....

 Here is how we do it:

 1. Read a book or three

2. Complete one or two lapbook elements per day

3.  Watch some great videos and documentaries

4. Assemble the lapbook

5. Finish off with a great 'fun' movie night!

My favourite free lapbook website (Homeschool share) set us up with a perfect lapbook!

Shark-Lapbook

 

Here are the books we used:

 Magic School Bus Chapter book- Shark Escape.

 

 DK Eyewitness Books: Sharks

Usborne- Sharks

And this gem that I have been recently introduced to... 

make sure you check out all the science comics!!

Science Comics: Sharks: Nature's Perfect Hunter

And other great books you can find at your local library!!

We found some great videos....

The Shark Academy playlist on YouTube is fantastic!  

Why don't sharks have bones? - Scishow

Super Sharks- Scishow Kids

It's not a science unit without a Sir David Attenborough documentary.....

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life

 Here is a sample of the finished lapbook....  

and yes Goober wrote hangry on the diet minibook :)

We didn't actually watch a 'fun' movie for this unit... we were so enthralled with Blue Planet we ended up watching Blue Planet II for fun...:)

 Sharks are really cool!

All about coral reefs.....

Goober announced the other day that he would like to go to the Great Barrier Reef!  

As much as I would love to fulfill this request... 

for my benefit as much as his.... it isn't happening anytime soon.

How about learning all about coral reefs?  

Would that satisfy your curiosity in the meantime?  

The answer was a disappointed yes... so I jumped all over that!

Luckily it doesn't hurt my feelings to put together another science unit... 

 Here is how we do it:

 1. Read a chapter or two of a related book

2. Complete one or two lapbook elements per day

3.  Watch some great videos and documentaries

4. Assemble the lapbook

5. Finish off with a great 'fun' movie night!

My favourite free lapbook website (Homeschool share) set us up with a perfect lapbook!

Coral Reef Animal Lapbook

Here are the books we used:

Magic School Bus Chapter Book- The Fishy Field Trip

 

Coral Reef: Around the Clock with the Animals of the Ocean

DK Eyewitness Books: Fish 

Usborne- First encyclopedia of seas and oceans

And any other great books you can find at your local library!

Here are some of the great videos we watched: 

Crash Course Kids- The Life Hydrologic

Scishow- White sand beaches

It's not a science unit without a Sir David Attenborough documentary.....

Great Barrier Reef

Here is a sample of the finished lapbook!

Movie night- Finding Nemo of course!

Enjoy discovering coral reefs!

Our curriculum choices 2017/18

Wow.. it is nearing the end of August… already!  Where did the summer go?!?!  My kidlets have finished up their summer workbooks and projects and are ready to start a new year.  Some people have asked me what that looks like when we homeschool year round… well part of it means cleaning up… organizing our homeschool closet, filing away projects and artwork, and restocking the kid’s bins with new workbooks, pencils, etc.

The kidlets love getting a new notebook, folder and some cute stickers :)

*Shameless Usborne plug-  I am an Usborne Consultant and would love to find you the perfect books to supplement your learning or help you develop an entire unit!  You can find my Usborne Consultant FacebookPage here or drop me a line!  But if you have a homeschool friend that is a consultant make sure to throw some business her way!*

Here is how our year is shaping up for units and curriculum… lining up with my philosophy of reading, writing and math everyday!
Sweet Pea is 11 years old and Goober is 8 years old.

Math

Both kidlets work through the MathSmart workbooks.  I explain new concepts as needed and we use Khan Academy as a supplement when needed.

I love living math books… this is a great link to a wide variety of math topics.. www.livingmath.net.

The kidlets also love to play Prodigy math game.  I have to be careful not to help too much here as it adapts to the learner and will get difficult if I hep with answers ;)

Usborne books also has a great selection of math activity books. We are adding these to our bins this year….

Times Tables Activity Book 

Decimals and Fractions Activity Book

Math Puzzle Pad

 Language Arts

Goober will be starting cursive writing this year using Handwriting Without Tears.  

Sweet Pea will continue to develop her cursive using this neat workbook....

I love All About Spelling... I find we don't use the whole program... and because we do our own thing we can totally pick and choose what works!  So I usually only purchase the teacher's guide, The LearningHouse has been great at helping us find what we need!

Here are the books we are using for story writing this year... Usborne of course! 

My first story writing book

Write your own story book

For poetry inspiration we are loving A Crow Doesn't Need a Shadow...

Our book lists are usually quite long...
We always have a read aloud on the go and the kidlets have a book on the go...

Here is our current read aloud, we are really enjoying it- The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Sweet Pea is currently reading Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCammilo, one of her favourite authors.

Next on her list is Hidden Figures Young Readers Edition

which will likely lead into a unit on astronomy and astronauts!

Goober is currently reading Fergus Crane (Far-Flung Adventures#1)

which will likely lead to a science unit on inventions!

Social Studies

We are continuing our study of Canadian History...

check out my blog posts to see how we are tackling this huge topic!

We have already covered First Nations and Vikings, next up Explorers, Fur Trade and Voyageurs!

Science

Science is by far our most random subject.... we go where the questions and interest leads us.  Anything and everything is up for grabs... check out my science blogs!

Sweet Pea has spent the last few years working through chemistry, biology and physics so this year she is going to read The Magic of Reality and The Science of Why.  I'm guessing they will lead us down some great paths of learning :)

For Goober we are going to pick some Magic School Bus Chapter Books and make a unit study, a lapbook of the topic or even some lego stop motion animation :)

Together we are going to work through this book I was recommended...Two Truths and a Lie... 

I like how it incorporates science and critical thinking!

Art

Now I'm not an art person... but my kidlets love it!  

We love ArtHub for Kids youtube channel for drawing, painting and folding tutorials, 

it really does give the kids a boost of confidence in their art skills.

We will also work through ArtTango.com , free art lesson plans for kinder through Grade 5... we used it sporadically last year and I was really impressed with the projects! 

French

I am very grateful to my parents for sending me to french immersion when I was young...  however teaching my kids to speak french after more than a decade of practice is pretty interesting!  For french I find a varied approach seems to be working best for us.  We mix it up with nursery rhymes and simple songs, reading french pictures books, watching french tv shows, and simple worksheets.  French is most definitely our work in progress, however I have noticed the more consistent we are the more the kids pick up and retain... so my goal this year is a little something french everyday!

Hope everyone's homeschool planning is going well... 

and that you find some great resources that work for your family :)