Since we started participating in a 50 states postcard swap (graciously hosted by Aimee at Adventures & Pursuits), the girls have been fully absorbed in exploring U.S. maps, looking at photos and videos on state tourism websites, and trying to learn each state’s special state symbols.  The whole family is having a blast learning state trivia and I am amazed at how much information the girls are retaining.  I love following their lead and providing the resources that help them explore this current interest!

Speaking of resources, the biggest hit around here has been The Scrambled States of America card game, based on an equally-awesome book by Laurie Keller.  My girls love, love, love this game!

The game comes with two decks of cards – 50 state cards and 50 “scramble” cards.  The scramble cards might ask you to find a state with 10 or more letters in its name or to find a state that touches Canada or Mexico.  The game also comes with four U.S. maps to reference during the game.

The game is intended to be played as a race, but we play following the suggested young player modification – instead of racing to be the first to match a state to the challenge, everyone with a match can put a state in their home piles. When we first started playing, we played in grown-up/kid teams (mainly to help my five-year-old with reading the cards), but now the girls pretty much have the cards memorized!

After the girls fell in love with this card game, we had to get our own copies of The Scrambled States of America and The Scrambled States of America Talent Show books.  These books are so well-done, and funny, too!  In fact, I have a hard time keeping track of these books because the girls have them squirreled away in beds and reading places constantly.  That’s always the sign of a good book!

• For more Scrambled States fun, you can check out Laurie Keller’s website. She has great printables and project ideas to pair with The Scrambled States of America books.
• Almost Unschoolers also shared an amazing cookie project as a follow-up to The Scrambled States of America – they made a cookie in the shape of each state and created their own cookie map.  So cool!

I’ll be sharing some more of our United States geography resources soon!

Happy playing!

Happy Thursday! Is your week treating you well? We’ve been waiting for the rain to pass, watching DVR’d figure skating and playing UNO Attack (many, many, many times….).

Yesterday, I posted some fun map projects over at my homeschooling blog.  If you enjoyed doing our Zoo Maps activity, you might want to check it out!

Have a great day!

Happy New Year!  I am starting 2010 with a bit of a cold, which is slowing me down a bit… I’ll be re-posting some of my older posts this week while I rest-up and get ready for new things in the new year! Enjoy!

{originally posted February 2008}

An estimate is, very simply, a good guess. Working with estimations is a great way to play with numbers and work on those logical reasoning skills. My girls seem to love any thing that involves guessing and checking, so this was perfect for them!

We started with estimating how many cups of water it would take to fill a small pitcher. We used three different size cups for comparing. Starting with the smallest cup, we estimated, then filled the pitcher to check. My five-year-old guessed 10 cups (and was right!), while my three-year-old guessed 3,000 cups. As you can see, maturity and experience make a lot of difference in making reasonable estimations.

We continued on with a medium and large cup, discussing how our estimates should change. My older daughter told me, “These cups will definitely be less than 10 because they are a lot bigger!”

Our second estimation project was to see how many legos it would take to cover a book. The estimates were 34 and 100 legos. Actual result: 56 legos. Think of all the good counting practice we had checking our estimates!

Here’s some more ideas for estimating fun:

How many steps will it take you to walk from the front door to the back door?
How many times can you jump in 10 seconds?
How many goldfish crackers will it take to fill this bowl?
How many blocks can you stack before the tower falls?
How many scoops of sand will it take to fill the bucket?

And, a great one for waiting rooms: How many babies/dogs/meals do you think we can find in this magazine?

Remember, this is all about exposing our little ones to the vocabulary and process — it doesn’t really matter how accurate they are with guessing or checking!

Happy playing!

One of the girls’ favorite math activities this week was counting the house.  I gave them a list of various things around our home – windows, tables, chairs, bathtubs, etc. – and they had to go around the house counting and recording the numbers.  They loved it!  Somehow anything involving a clipboard is super-cool to them…

If you’d like to try this with your child, here’s our list to download and print.  Have fun!

Enjoy your weekend!

We have been celebrating the arrival of fall with some fun apple exploration – I love apple season!  We are planning a trip to the apple orchard soon.  In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to:

sink or float?

How many teddy bears does your apple weigh?

sketching the inside of an apple

apple printing

Yesterday, we brought home one of each variety of (organic) apples at the grocery store – nine varieties!  We have been “taste-testing” a few each day and making a chart of our favorites.  Maybe apple pie this weekend?

Of course, I had to pull out my fall books as well.  It’s always a treat to read some of our favorites that have been tucked away since winter.  The girls are loving these apple books right now:

—>By the way, if you are looking for great nonfiction books for kids, I would highly recommend anything by Gail Gibbons. She has books on just about any subject from giant pandas to recycling to ice cream to the post office. Just tons of wonderful information and great illustrations. Fun stuff!

Hope you are enjoying the first days of fall!

Delaney is still quite enamored with the Spinny Speller – I think she is still amazed that she can sound-out words!  (Read my first post about Spinny Spellers here.)

She wanted to write down all the words she was sounding out, so I made her this simple recording sheet.  I put it inside a sheet protector so we can use it over and over again.

If you would like to print one to go with your Spinny Speller, here you go!

Spinny Speller Words PDF

Enjoy the long weekend!

We’re settling into our second week of homeschooling.  The girls are eager every morning to get going with their work – most mornings we are starting around 7:45!  Here’s a peek at a few things we did last week:

M&M Graphing

Watercoloring on wet paper:

Making numbers and other creations with Wikki Stix:

Playing Double Shutter (with the bonus of practicing addition!):

(We all *love* this game – it’s very addicting.  Here’s a link to the game on Amazon: Double Shutter)

Delaney’s Workbox:  We are using our own version of Sue Patrick’s Workbox System – more details coming soon on how we’re using this system!

All in all, we are doing a lot of the same things we usually do – read a lot, play games, muck about outside, ask questions, experiment with art supplies, etc.  The girls have asked for a morning “Circle Time,” so we’re doing that too.  I am trying not to get bogged-down with planning, like I have a tendency to do!  We’re off to a good start…

{Also, a big thank you to everyone who offered support, encouragement, and resources when we announced our homeschooling plan.  Thank you! I haven’t had time to individually reply to most of your comments, but know that I always read and appreciate them!}

]]> http://lets-explore.net/blog/2009/09/homeschooling-off-running/feed/ 4 http://lets-explore.net/blog/2009/07/friday-feature-spinny-spellers/ http://lets-explore.net/blog/2009/07/friday-feature-spinny-spellers/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:00:12 +0000 Amy http://lets-explore.net/blog/?p=1025

Have you seen the Spinny Speller?  We are all quite enamored with this simple toy.  Spin the wood blocks and spell basic consonant-vowel-consonant words (you can make 36 real words, and dozens more silly ones, too!).  The first time Delaney, age 4, played with the Spinny Speller she successfully sounded out a few words than declared in triumph, “I’m a reader!!”  Awesome!

The Spinny Speller is made in Vermont by Maple Landmark – all hardwood construction with non-toxic finishes.

They also make Spinny Critters and Spinny People.  Silly fun for toddlers and preschoolers!

Happy playing!

The thing I love most about summer is that my kids get to have those long unstructured blocks of playtime that they need and crave. However, I know I will hear, “There’s nothing to do…” more than once! In the interest of being proactive, I’m putting together some Summer Fun Bags – ziploc bags filled with simple, open-ended projects and ideas that will hopefully spark the girls’ interest and get them busy doing something.

Summer Fun Bag #1: Tangrams

My girls love puzzles, so I think they will enjoy playing with tangrams. I printed the tangram template here on colored cardstock. I used the large template, which still fits on a regular size sheet of paper. I cut out two sets of tangrams, and printed the animal tangram puzzles from abcteach. I’m sure the girls will also enjoy coming up with their own designs!

I’m also planning to grab these two books from the library:
Tangrams: 330 Puzzles
Grandfather Tang’s Story

More Summer Fun Bags to come! Happy playing!

1. Draw shapes outside with sidewalk chalk. Give your child shape challenges, like “march around the square,” “jump in and out of the circle,” or “count the sides on the triangle.”

2. Go on a shape hunt. Give your child a clipboard and paper with two or more shapes to find. Hunt inside, outside, or both!

3. Create shape collages with paper, felt, or fabric shapes.

4. Make shapes with pipe cleaners, yarn, playdough snakes, or Wikki Stix.

5. Glue popsicle sticks into triangles, rectangles, and squares. Decorate and use them for picture frames.

6. Play a shape guessing game. Take turns giving clues such as “My shape has 3 sides” or “My shape has no corners.”

7. Have a shape day – here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• Circle day: hula hoops, Frisbees, Ring Around the Rosy, round crackers, pancakes, and bracelet-making.
• Triangle day: triangle-cut cheese & bread for sandwiches, playing a musical triangle, creating trees, roofs, sailboats, or tents.
• Rectangle day: graham crackers, printing with sponges & paint, blocks & bricks, doors, and flags

More shape fun in the Let’s Explore Shop:

I’d love to hear your ideas, too! Have fun playing with shapes!