Where to find me now (this blog soon to be archived)

Hello dear old friends!
This is just a quick note to tell you where I can be found now. I am no longer keeping an exclusive homeschooling blog-life has developed into so much more, as it often does.

We are still homeschooling, #7 did arrive safe and sound-she is almost 2! Where does the time go to?

In the time I have been away lots has happened:

Now Open! 

Twisted & Plied- all about my fiber arts obsession. I have learned how to spin yarn! We are also raising these adorable fiber goats. Learn more about it at www.twistednplied.com

And Also:

The fun I had learning to spin, process raw fiber and developing my knitting talents for my new business, led to an opportunity for me to teach more than just in our homeschool! There is a growing desire for learning self-sufficient skills and God has called me to help educate those that seek it. So I have started a program that offers local (Idaho) workshops, and also online information, that is geared towards: "Preserving Traditional Skills in a Modern World".

Lylli drew this for me-isn't she talented?!

This site will be launched next week, and at that time this homeschooling blog will officially become archived. I will be using my posts from this site to aid in teaching about homeschooling and providing Ebook guides on the new site. I haven't completely abandoned writing about homeschooling! It is still a very much real and important part of our lifestyle!

The launch of this program will be announced on the Twisted & Plied website as well as my Facebook page. Please follow there so that you can join me again! 

Thanks so much for being my friend here and I hope that you will come with us on the new adventure!

A Special Invite:

Because you are following this blog, I want to give you the opportunity to be among the first to sign-up for the Newsletter and Raffle announcements. You can do that now:Receive the very first issue!

Thanks for following Happy Day Homeschooling!

Heidi

Number Words 1-12

Just a quick post to share this weeks creation!

My HanaRose is working on recognizing number words so I created this little activity:

I am going to print it on cardstock and have her cut them out and then cut each pencil in two creating a puzzle to put together before reading the word. Once she has mastered these I will make another set up to twenty. Some other things you could do with this printable:

Cut out pencils have student place in order.

Place objects or paperclips on each pencil to match the amount.

Whatever else you can dream up.....just download from

Here for Free

and print it out!

Happy Day!

What's the Weather?

Weather is all around us. It effects pretty much everything we do.

We love spending time outside when the weather is nice!

For the next couple of weeks we are going to be looking at the weather and breaking it down, trying to solve some of it's mysteries. 

To help us I have gathered a few library books:

On the Same Day in March

a Tour of the World's Weather    By Marilyn Singer

*This one goes all over the world showing how the seasons are different in other places at the same time.

What's the Weather Today?   By Allan Fowler

*A quick little read (easy) that takes a first look at different types of weather

DK Nature Activities 

Weather watcher       By John Woodward

* This is a great little book with good explanations with pictures and activities to do, we are using this a lot throughout our study

Sequences of Earth & Space

Rain       By Andres Llamas Ruiz

*This book takes you through the water cycle with great illustrations

I face the Wind   By Vicki Cobb

*A fun book about air and what it does, with some activities to help promote your own observations about air.

The Rainbow and You    By E.C. Krupp

*Become a "Rainbow Watcher" with this book. It teaches about light and colors.

And we already had this book in our own library that we have used throughout our Earth Science studies this year:

(Reader's Digest) How the Earth Works    By John Farndon

*Lots of activities listed in this book and some good info, not very good for just reading from, but a good resource for planning and gathering facts.

I think I have planned this pretty well. I have used my Mini Unit Guide to plan it out and we have 8 weeks of weather study and activities all lined up. We are going to read stories, keep a weather log, and do lots of fun experiments. To keep track of it all I have created this Weather Journal:

You can download this for FREE!

Some other resources we will be using will include documentaries about weather that I find on Netflix and I have also downloaded a few things from Currclick:

Simple Days Unit Studies: All About Weather

*A nice little ebook with basic info about the weather 

My Little Weather Book

*A great preschool weather journal for my little ones

Whatever the Weather (Teacher Book Bag)

*Weather picture cards and weather word cards 

Looks like a cloudy/overcast day here today.....What's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Have a

Happy Day!

Update:
A blog I follow, livinglifeintentionally, posted a FREE weather unit on her blog. Go here to check it out or find her blog button on my sidebar.

one word: LAUNDRY

Awhile back I purchased this sign to put on my laundry room door because I just couldn't resist it:

This inspired me to get busy and get the Kiddos doing their OWN laundry and to put everyone on a schedule. So over the break that is exactly what we have done:

I assigned everyone a day and we are now on our second week of success with only having hills instead of mountains of laundry. You've heard this from Hilary Weeks right?

If you feel inspired too....here are some posters I created to help you (us) out.

Laundry

Happy Day!

The sounds of C

My son has been struggling with the sounds of C. He has had a hard time remembering when to use the soft sound (s) and when to use the hard sound (k). So this morning I have put together a quick little game for him to practice with.

Download this game for FREE!http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/file/4865

Please do not copy, sell, or host on your site. If you would like to share this file please be kind and link back to my blog....not the download page. Thanks!

Happy Day!

Spring Planning

These are books we bought at last years Scholastic Warehouse Sale!
I got a little excited.....

It is that time again. To gather resources and plan our next couple months of study in more detail. I have our year outlined, but every couple of months I sit down and look at what we will be doing so I can make book and supply lists and plan any other fun activities we might want to do as well. This way I can track with my Kiddos progress as we go, giving focus to their current needs. I also like to set any needed goals and evaluate ones we are already working on.

On my planning list:

Create a Science Unit about Weather with a background theme of Rainbows that spreads to other subjects such as Art, and giving a basis for some fun preschool activities fitting the theme.

Art: Explore the colors of the rainbow and experiment with mixing colors. For the younger ones learn names of colors if not already known and play matching games.

Literature: Read books about Rainbows, Weather, and current Ancient Times studies (Story of the World).

Grammy Award Winner!
I bought the MP3 Album from Deseret Book.
The link below will take you there

Music Study: Create a fun unit based on Jenny Oaks Baker's "When you Wish Upon a Star". I would like us to listen to selections, identify each song within the selections (if you haven't heard it before click on the album title link. She has done amazing mixes of Disney Melodies with her Violin.). I hope to have some copywork pages, and worksheets for filling out song titles, instruments heard, Movies they are in, and a place for writing (or drawing) how the songs make them feel. We will probably spend about a week on each song.

As I have been jotting down ideas for these upcoming Mini Units (I call them "mini" because we usually only spend  from one to six weeks on them and they don't cover every subject) I decided I needed a better planning worksheet than what I already have on hand.

So I created these:

The above worksheets are for the initial brainstorming and gathering of ideas and resources. I may use several drafts of these until I get it right!

The worksheets below are for pulling it all together and planning when to implement all of the fun! I made two different kinds. One is just a general by week planning guide. I would use this one for lessons planned for the whole family, or if you are planning for only one child. The other worksheet is if you want to only view one week at a time and what each individual student will be working on. There are spots for up to 5 students ( because that's how many I have) but you could make extra copies for however many you needed. This one is good if you have many age ranges  and levels of study, so you can give individual assignments and projects required for each. Maybe you will use both...I probably will!

scroll down for the link!

Download it here for FREE!

Happy Planning!

What are you planning for Spring?

Preschool Phonics

Animal Talk:

A way to learn letter sounds.

The following activities are meant to be a fun way to learn letter sounds. From birth our children are subjected to the sounds that animals make. From their little stuffed animals to adults pointing at pictures or real -life animals and imitating the sounds they make.  Animal sounds are among the first "words" that a baby speaks.
Learning that letters make sounds is hard to grasp when you can't "hear" the letters speak.  That is why I created these cards and the following activities . These activities should help  beginning readers to understand letters have sounds like animals have sounds.  The child does not need to know the names of the letters to play these games, so you could do these activities with the very young. It is not important at this stage of learning to have a goal of mastery, Only a basic understanding, preparatory to beginning reading skills (although, these could also be used as a review game for children who have already begun other phonic and beginning reading programs or lessons). I recommend using only one or two letter cards in the activities at a time until the child can handle more. A good place to start is the letters in their name.

Download the Activity ideas HERE!

Next you will want to get these adorable Animal Talk cards:

Download for FREE!

If you don't have lower-case alphabet cards, or you are like me and like things to match, you will want to get these next:

Lower-case alphabet cards

\Download for FREE!

Aren't you glad I learned how to share files? 

Happy Day!

Wildlife Word Work & More!

Here I am again.....it is "quiet time" at my house. I have a few promised uninterrupted moments, where I get to do what I want....and my only response to interruptions is: "It is quiet time", translation: go back to your quiet area. I used be really good about having the Kiddos all have this time everyday, it has been harder as they get older and I have less that nap no more nappers. (sigh) But I have recently been trying to take back that quiet time. We all need it.

So without further ramblings here is what I am going to share with you today:

I created these Wildlife themed worksheets for my 5th grader.

Download the Cover for FREE!

This is the Vocabulary Worksheet:

These are story map worksheets:

I printed these front to back....

Get all 3 of these here for FREE!

Next up...........

Blank cards for word wall or games and punctuation helpers!

Get all 3 of these here for FREE!

The 

Bonus

for today:

This is a list of vocabulary helpers. Words that give movement and direction to sentences.

Download Transition Words for FREE!

Get wild about Words!

That concludes my Word Work series for now. I am sure there is more to come in the future!

Happy Day!

Word Work Freebies

Okay...I have about 20 minutes. So I can sit here and post the next round of worksheets I told you about it my post yesterday.

I created these worksheets for my first grader, but they could easily be used from kindergarten to third grade.

I got the idea to have a space for a drawing on their vocabulary sheets from some other worksheets I saw on pinterest. I am glad I was finally able to implement at least one of the great ideas I have pinned!

Download it for FREE

Here are the blank word wall or flash cards to go along with this theme:

We use these on our Word Worm Wall and as flashcards or game cards.

Download for FREE!

Enjoy swimming with words Under the Sea!

*Bonus*

The first set of vocabulary worksheets I made were the Pirate themed Word Work pages. That was before I planned on making something for all of my kiddos to have a Word Work workbook. Originally it was just going to be a worksheet on it's own and used when needed. Now I have turned it all into a weekly program that we are going to use (more on that in the future). So here is the Cover for the Pirate themed pages.

Download it for FREE

Next up will be the pages I made for my oldest who is 10. I have included a few extra things in hers to help with her grammar lessons.

(If you don't want to wait....look for me at hslaunch.....I have already shared the files there.....the link is on my left side bar)

Happy Day!

My BIG word PROJECT

Our Word Wall

Whew! I feel like I have been working on this project for months when in reality it has only been a couple of weeks, but it was in my thoughts some time before I actually began.

In our home we have more beginning readers than advanced readers. Actually we only have one advanced reader, and that is my oldest kiddo: Lyllian. She doesn't even need to be told to read during the day, because she always picks up a book at some point. Since I have so many in the beginning stages I have been trying to come up with a way to display the words they are working on, but still be able to separate their reading levels. After some internet searching I finally came up with our customized version of a word wall (pictured above). I have labeled it "The Word Worm Wall", and used several cute worms/bookworm clipart to decorate it. I was going to try to make it fancier (i.e. magnetic, velcro...something) but ended up going for simple: a poster paper glued to a piece of cardboard box (we have plenty of those around). Then I decided on the categories I wanted to display for them, and how I could also put something up for my advanced reader so that she wouldn't feel left out. I decided on these: (from left to right) Sight Words, Build a Sentence (tips for checking: capitals, spacing, punctuation and also commonly misspelled words), Letter Sounds (for phonics lessons), New Words to learn (Vocabulary), and Parts of Speech (yes... I spelled "speech" wrong on my poster. Everybody makes mistakes I will change it before they notice I promise! ).

This was being created at the same time that I created the Pirate Word Work activities and word cards for my son. Boy O Boy did that open up a flood! It inspired me to create similar activities for my girls...each with a different theme (of course) and make it into our own tailored Word Work curriculum. This also allows each to know which "word cards" belong to them on The Word Worm Wall. 

When God sends me blessings in the form of inspiration on how to teach my Kiddos....I just can't stop until I get it done! I spent many late nights either working or laying awake thinking about working!

Now I get to share these blessings with you!

I don't think I will be able to get it all in this one post. But I will begin now and hopefully post the rest throughout the week. 

(If you don't want to wait you can go to hslaunch, the link is on my left side bar, and find my freebies there!)


Warning: I am not perfect (as seen above with my spelling errors). I try to proof read and give correct information, but sometimes I get it wrong. So if you find mistakes...just ignore it  or send me a kind note so I can fix it. Also, I am no perfectionist and there are a lot of crooked and uneven things in my work. There comes a point when I say "That's good enough". If it will get the point across and looks appealing, I call it good. After-all, I have made these primarily for my family, but choose to share them. If you do like what you see-EXCELLENT- save it or print it for use in your home or classroom!


First up is.....(drum roll please)......................


The cutest preschool worksheets EVER! (okay, I have seen many cute things out there....probably on your blog.)

My little preschool girl is the girliest of girls if you have one of these then I am sure they would love for you to make them a workbook with these pages.  

I have printed off several of these pages (front to back) that she will use each week to practice the letter we are on. Currently I am starting with only the letters in her name. She is so excited to be learning to write her name! I am focused more on letter recognition and being able to write it. We are going over the letter sounds too, but not too focused. I just want her to begin to understand the importance of letters. Once she has that we will be moving into our phonics program. 

Since she is learning her name I made this page to go in the workbook as well:

Download these worksheets here for FREE!

For extra practice and games I made these little blank cards to match:

Download these blank cards here  for FREE!

These are for writing letters, words, or numbers on as needed for flashcards and learning games. So far I have just made some with the letters of her name on them. Since there are two of each picture card I made two of each letter in her name (she has 6 letters in her name so it worked perfectly). We laminated them and she cut them apart. Now she can play: 

Memory Match- turn over one card at a time to find all the matches

Letter Search #1- Scramble up the cards face up. I ask her to find a letter.

or

Letter Search #2 - Use an alphabet strip or poster (we used our strips that came with Happy Phonics)

Mix up the cards and place them face down. Have her draw a card, identify the letter, find it on the strip (or poster), and then place a marker to cover it up (we were using some little Easter erasers). I had all of her card in the pile so there were of each letter. She had to find the matching lower-case letter when it was drawn the first time, and then when the same letter was drawn she had to find the matching capital letter.

I would love to hear about what kinds of "name games' you play with your girly girl!

Bonus

To help us remember what she needs to practice everyday I created this Daily worksheet to put in her work binder. I have just slipped it into a page protector so that I can write the letter of the week in the box. I wrote her name at the top so she can see it everyday, and use it as a model to spell it with her letter cards.

You can get it here for FREE!

And that's all Folks!

Well, at least for today. I have two more Word Work themes to share with you. One is geared toward 1-2 grade and the other toward 5-6 grade. Plus a few extras. I already shared the 2-3 grade level with the Pirate Word Work in an earlier post (go here to read about it in the posting and get the links for downloading). One of the extras is a cover page for the Pirate Word Work!

Have you created something super special for your preschool girly girl? Leave me a comment and tell me about it or give share the link!

Happy Day!