Homeschool Supplies

Today I am excited to share with you my homeschooling clean up at Target.  I was able to pick up all 22 of these items for $1 per item.  As you can see I picked up 4 workbooks 3 dry erase writing boards 2 set of dry erase sentence strips 10 box of flash cards and 2 games and 1 clock.

I saw another homeschooler had mentioned Target dollar items in their blog but did not really think I would find this many useful things.  A great blessing indeed.  These are all early elementary items.

I proceeded to Walmart where I picked up 17 cent notebooks, 20 count pencil packs for 97 cents. Markers for 97 cents , Elmer's glue for 50 cents, 24 pack crayons for 50 cents and composition notebooks for 50 cents.

I save extra money out of my budget all year to hit these deals when they come up before school.  This is the earliest I have ever seen them out.  They go fast so if you live near any of these stores you may want to act fast.

Need help with inexpensive grade school curriculum?  Check out this website: http://allinonehomeschool.com/
Easy Peasy All in one home-school curriculum.  The outlines are free to access and have lots of great links to videos and worksheets to reinforce taught concepts.  You will just need your basic supplies.

I hope you have a super year teaching at home.

Fun games for kids!

This post is about some fun games our family really enjoy and also help me get through my homeschooling day!

Feed the Kitty:  This is a fun fast cute game that runs right around $10 and is well worth the investment. It has 20 wooden mice, a food dish and 2 custom dice.  It is fast and takes about 15 minutes to play.  It says 4+ on the box I have had children as young as 3 play this. In this game your littlest one will most likely get to play first which is great excitement for them.  The directions say the person with the shortest pinky goes first.  You roll your dice and either pass mice to the player on the left , put them in the cat dish , take them out or keep them.  If you have a child just dying for your attention this is great because it does not take long and they are satisfied because you played with them.  The last person with mice left wins the game.  Beware just because you lose all your mice doesn't mean you are done playing.  Your opponent could roll a pass to the left and give you more mice!  Also an older child can take a younger one to a corner of a room and play this with them to help appease them.  Great fun.  Feed the Kitty ranks an A++ in our home.  A must have.

Hisss:  Hisss is a simple card game that is all about building a snake with your cards.  A snake must have a head a tail and a body.  If you are the lucky one to place the final piece (either a head or tail) you get the cards that make up that snake.  The colors move and blend from one to the next so you have matching skills involved. When you are all done the winner is the person with the most cards.  It is fun and simple for little kids but does need a little space for you to lay the cards out as you build the snakes.  This is also a great fast game that you can play or assign an older child to do with a younger one.  Not quite as fast moving as Feed the Kitty but fun!  '

Granny Apples:  Oh my granny has an apple orchard and you want to get the apples!  This is a fast moving game but I have modified it in the past so I could have younger children play it.  The lowest I have been able to go with this is 6-7 yrs.  The game has 8 wooden apple dice that you roll.  In the original game the person who counts up the apple total rolled first is the winner and gets that many cardboard apples to keep. Several rounds later when all the apples are passed out the winner is determined by who has the most.  I have modified this by letting each person roll a turn and then counting up the apple count and getting that many.  You have whole and half apples and worms and birds that take away apples and pics of granny which means she gets apples in her basket.  Fun fun fun but not for a preschooler.

Zeus on the loose:  This is an adorable fast moving card game and your child needs to be able to add and subtract in their head up to 100 with no problems. The box recommends 10+ I have had kids as young as 8 play without problems.  Zeus is a little plastic statue holding a lightening bolt (of course).  You want to have Zeus.  As you play Zeus moves from player to player.  If you play a card and your score come out at and even 10,20,30 etc.... you get Zeus.  Play a minor greek god card that says steal Zeus and you get Zeus....the score on Mt. Olympus ( discard pile) goes up and down until you hit 100 and the person who makes the pile an even 100 gets Zeus.  You win you get a letter to spell Zeus.  The first person to spell Zeus wins. This is a fun fast action card game for sure.

All of these are available on Amazon and a specialty toy stores.  All are well worth the money you pay for them. Check them out today.

Homeschooling

Do you home school your children. We do. The great advantage is that all my kids have different learning styles and they don't have to be boxed into one method of learning or teaching.

My daughter who is now in college worked very well on the conventional model currently used in schools today. Her 10 year old brother not so much. He does well with work books but it definitely sticks better if he visually sees it first. The 6 year old..... well we are still trying to peel him off the ceiling to get learning done. We are required to do jumping jacks while we shout out the alphabet. Everything is done loudly with lots of movement. The 4 year old just rambles along with the rest of them at this point.

Some days I get worn out. Everyone does. The fact remains that my children would not be as well off if they were in school. For art we bring out the crayons and glue and tape and markers and scissors with unabashed enthusiasm. Yesterday we made paper chains. Yes it was a big hairy mess but they had fun for more than an hour doing this activity.

Most days my living room floor is covered with legos and once the snow flies the school day looks like this: Eat breakfast. Feed the outdoor animals, grab the sleds, slide down the hill for an hour, come in and drink hot cocoa. After this then it is time to start school. My boys literally go sledding every morning for an hour once there is snow on the ground. Sounds like gym class to me.

They get alot of work done and alot of play and alot of fun. This is the blessing God has given them through homeschooling. While somedays leave me feeling worn out. I would not change it.