July 28, 2009

Thank you for visiting HomeschoolBytes again! Feel free to contact me with questions or suggestions. Make sure to subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates any time I post new content.

Does homemade bread seem like too big a ‘project’ sometimes?  Here’s a fun one to do with the kids on a lazy day at home – as long as you help handle the very hot oven. You don’t need a bread machine, mixer, or lots of kneading time. The only piece of special equipment necessary is a oven-safe pot with a cover. A dutch oven or covered Pyrex container will do.

Here’s the recipe

1. Mix together:
   • 3 c flour
   • ¼ t yeast
   • 1 ¼ t. salt
2. Add – 1 ½ c water and mix.
3. Let it sit covered for 12 hours or so
4. Dump out onto some flour and fold into a round shape
5. Sprinkle bran or flour on cloth and lay dough, seam side down, on cloth.
6. Let it rise for 2 hours or so
7. Place pot in oven and preheat both to 450 – 500
8. Flip dough into hot pots and cover
9. Bake for 30 mins covered
10. 15 – 20 mins uncovered
11. Let it cool and enjoy!  Yummy!

I love cooking and baking with the kids.  They feel like they are participating in an ‘adult’ activity, and I’m prepping them to take over!  (Yes, my evil genius plan involves my kids doing all the cooking when they’re older . . . and loving it!)

Posted under Homeschool Activities

July 23, 2009

photo by asteegabo

Homeschooling adds more time with kids at home, plus school supplies for the whole family = clutter trouble!

Since we’re on a de-cluttering theme this week, I thought I’d add a little humor – feel free to add to the list:

10 Signs You’re a Clutter-oholic

1. You don’t startle at thunder, because you’re used to random loud noises when something in the house crashes to the floor from it’s precarious perch at the top of a pile.
2. You love garage sales, always bring treasures home . . . and they never leave.  You shrug off your spouse’s questions about when you’re going to have a garage sale to get rid of all your junk.  (It’s NOT junk!)
3. You just pay the lost fee for the occasional library book.  If you can’t find it in the couch cushions, under the car seat, or between the bed and the wall, there’s no telling where it is.
4. You laugh when you hear others complain about dusting.  You don’t have to dust your surfaces . . .  All of them are covered in stuff.
5. You have to launch into the history of an item to someone who is really listening, before you can throw it away . . . much like a eulogy.  After that, it can respectfully be laid to rest.
6. Your one bottle of furniture polish lasts you 5 years.  You rarely clean all the way down to the wood so you can use it.
7. If asked to throw something away, continual lists of possible uses, categorized by function, run through your mind:  craft ideas, as a food item, sewn into clothing, component of a recycled sculpture, use by other children, neighbors, starving children in Africa, etc., etc.
8. When someone mentions ‘spring cleaning’, you ask, “Which spring?” 
9. You have thick hot pads in the kitchen to give yourself time to dance around with a hot pan from the oven until you can clear a spot to set it down.
10. You “Wow” your husband, kids, and friends by walking straight into a pile of stuff, moving a few things aside, and emerging with the exact item they were looking for.  “Just ‘cuz it looks messy, doesn’t mean I don’t know where everything is!”

Here are some more ideas on making household chores fun.

How about you?  Do you have a ‘clutter-oholic sign’ to add to the list? 

Or maybe a suggestion to help the rest of us keep the clutter under control.  We’d love to hear what you think!

Posted under Thursday Topics, Top 10

July 21, 2009

The Story:

We’re on a declutter kick lately at our house.  It’s more of a panic response to the possibility of moving in the near future.  Suddenly the precariously balanced stacks of toys, books, boxes and more that cover all the flat surfaces in our home make me cringe much more than usual.  I can’t imagine moving it all.  We have to purge!

The only problem is that I’m on the ’once-every-seven year’  cleaning schedule, instead of the usual ‘spring cleaning.’  Who knew that meant I was supposed to declutter every spring?!

If you want a laugh, you’ll love my husband, the engineer’s, solution:  Build pyramid-shaped contraptions to place of every flat surface in the house so nothing can be placed on them!  Yes, the anti-thesis to counter space.

Thank goodness I have a few amazing friends that helped me get started while a herd of all our kids ran rampant together.  After four days, we had filled five huge trash cans, and my kitchen and school room were whipped into shape.

Then came the kids, their toys, and clothes. . . and the tears, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.  Who knew the old, tiny, bike my daughter learned to ride on was precious enough to deserve it’s own shrine and label, “Never to be given away, sold, or otherwise disposed of!”

So, we finally come to The Tuesday Tip:

• Plan a garage sale.
• Tell the kids that they get to run it.
• And the carrot:  Tell the kids they get to split the money among everyone who is willing to do the work and help out.
• THEN- start the decluttering process.  Hopefully they’ll see dollar signs instead of precious treasures being sold.

The Results:

• The Prize:  The boys have drooled over a Nintendo DS for ages and I’ve refused to buy them one.  So, they decided to combine their resources and buy one together.  They had about half the money and hoped to earn the rest at the garage sale.  Boy, did the toys and clothes start flying into the garage sale boxes! 
• Math, math, and more math!  After every sale, my oldest jotted down the amount, added it to the running total, divided it by the three kids working the sale, and then added his and his brother’s two parts to the previous total and their original money.   They even went hopping around the sale, making a running total of possible income if everything sold.  Whew!  That’s more math than they’ve done in a month.
• Delayed gratification!  At the end of the day they were bursting with excitement because they had enough to buy the DS.  But I found a code to get almost $20 off a DS on Dell.com.  The $20 off was exciting for them, BUT they would have to wait 4 days to get it shipped instead of going straight to ToysRUs that evening.  I was so proud.  They reluctantly decided to wait and save the money, even though they had the extra $20 to spend.  If they can do that now, there’s hope they will do well with credit cards as young adults.

So, what do your houses look like this summer?  How do you control the clutter?  How do you mix housecleaning with homeschooling?  Have you had any luck getting your kids to do the “out with the old”? 

Or do you have any other ideas that have worked well for you lately and would help us all out?  Please share by commenting!

Posted under Homeschool Life, Tuesday Tips

July 16, 2009

Have your kids discovered a chapter book or series of books that bumped them from the “Do I have to read?” stage to the “Turn off the light.  Stop reading, and go to bed!” stage?

My 7-year-old daughter is still turning her nose up at reading, so I’d love some new ideas for a ‘princess’ reader.

Here are the ones that sparked my oldest son’s love of reading:

1. Comic books – To get over the big change from picture books to ones with pages of just text, the classic comic books were perfect for my son.  We found the hardbound “Action Comic Archives” at our local library, which I was much happier with than current comic books.



2. The Magic Treehouse Series – This series was tons of fun for my kids.  Jack and Annie discover a magic treehouse where books transport them to all kinds of places and adventures.  The series mixes a bit of history, mystery, and adventure, plus frequent illustrations that together keep things fun for a beginning reader.  I would consider them at the 1st to 2nd grade level.



3. The Animorphs Series – What a great science fiction series for kids!  The kids in the series are given the power to ‘morph’ into any animal they can touch in order to help fight alien invaders.  My son loved learning what it might be like to be a hawk or a dog first hand.  The plots are full of battles, adventures, and mysteries.  A great read.



4. And no kids ‘love of reading’ list would be complete without all 7 of the Harry Potter Series.  There is something great about seeing a 9-year-old kid curled up on the couch with a book thicker than a dictionary and loving it.

I’d love to hear your book suggestions.  My son just finished the 7th Harry Potter book and is in the middle of the Hobbit, but I need some new ideas for my boy adventurer.  Please share in the comment section.  Thanks!

Posted under Books to Read, Reading Curriculum, Thursday Topics

July 15, 2009

Grab a snack and a drink, and spend a few minutes perusing these excellent blog carnivals.

If you haven’t seen a blog carnival before, they are blog posts full of great ideas and links from many different homeschool and math bloggers who share their ideas and tips with all of us.  Like a carnival with booths, there are lots of interesting things to see, all in one place.

1. The Math Teachers at Play Carnival is up at Math Momma Writes Blog.  Check out the post on the “Michigan Smith” game, a simple idea for math and fun with a printed game page, some rulers, and colored pencils.
2. The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Tami Fox’s Blog.  There’s a fun idea for a whole unit study on the kid’s picture book: Chocolate Fever.  I think I’ve had that illness before! 
3. And if you didn’t catch last weeks Carnival of Homeschooling, it was a Founding Father’s Edition in honor of the 4th of July.  Some great reading there on freedom, independence, responsibility, and more.

Enjoy!

Posted under Blog Carnivals

July 14, 2009

If you find yourself spending more and more time in the car, try preparing a few portable school activities ahead of time to take with you.  It’ll make the travel time more fun for everyone, and you can squeeze a little more learning into the day.

Here are some ideas we’ve done:

• Books on CD from the local library
• Listen to Story of the World CDs - this series tells history in a chronological order and in a story format that my kids love to listen to.
• Try out Brain Quest Card Games if you haven’t before.  They fit easily in your hand, have fun questions geared toward grade levels, and cover many topic areas.
• Keep a box of story and/or picture books in the car.  Have older kids read the stories out loud to the rest of the family.  If you keep an exciting chapter book only for the car, the kids will look forward to car trips to hear the next part of the story.
• Use fact card sets to teach, quiz, and play question games with, like this selection of Brighter Child Fact Cards.
• Print up a map for the older kids, or get a Kids’ Road Atlas to help teach navigation.

We also like having an activity book or two to keep in the car:

- Best Travel Activity Book Ever (Backseat Books)

- Miles of Smiles: 101 Great Car Games and Activities
 

- Are We There Yet (Backseat Books)
 

Do you have a schooling, parenting, or household tip to share with us?  We can all use new ideas!  Please share in the comment section.

Posted under Homeschool Curriculum, Tuesday Tips

July 10, 2009

I’d love to add some homeschool videos to my blog, but I’m having a hard time deciding what would be the most helpful, interesting, and/or entertaining to all of you awesome people who read my blog.

Would you take a moment to comment and give me an idea of what kind of video you’d like to see?

Here are some I’m thinking of.  What do you think?  Do you have any more/better ideas?

• Science Experiments
• Craft and Art How-to’s like making playdough, flubber, etc.
• Toddler and younger ages hands-on activities ideas.
• Actual lessons with ideas - like, “Here are three ways we practice the times tables.”
• Kid productions: puppet shows, poetry readings, ‘special numbers’, talents, etc.

I’d love to make a few videos that are not only fun to watch, but also teach something.  Anyway, I’d love your input if you have a second to help me out.  Thanks in advance!

Posted under Homeschool Bargains

July 9, 2009

photo by tomeppy

When the kids’ bedroom floors are covered with toys and I’ve got a painful imprint of a lego on the bottom of my bare foot, I vow to never buy another toy until the kids can take care of the ones they have.

What should I buy for gifts instead?  With birthdays coming up, I could really use some good gift ideas that AREN’T toys.  I’d love to find some ‘educational’ gift ideas that will keep my kids busy playing and learning, instead of toys that end up on the floor or stuffed under the bed.  Is it just wishful thinking?

Here are some ideas that have worked for me in the past:

• Board games – these have a cupboard, so they don’t contribute as much to the toy mess, and they get the kids playing and interacting together.  Some of our favorites are SET, Sequence for Kids,  Apples to Apples Junior,  Monopoly Junior,  Carcassonne, and Zingo.
• A Mini-Vacation.  A night at a local indoor waterpark was a hit for Christmas one year.
• A Microscope – We’ve really enjoyed our “My First Lab” Microscope.
• Snap Circuits - an awesome electronics board with projects and real circuit pieces easily manipulated by kid hands.

What about you?  Is there a ‘non-toy’ gift that your kids really enjoyed?  I’d love to get some new ideas.  Please share in the comment section. 

Thanks!

Posted under Homeschool Tips, Thursday Topics

July 7, 2009

If you’re looking for a project to get your kids outside, teach some responsibility and science, try a tomato plant!

I normally dread my kids seeing commercials on TV, but when my 6-year-old begged for a ‘Topsy-Turvy Tomato planter, I was intrigued.  It’s a hanging sack that holds the tomato roots and potting soil, while the plant itself grows out of the bottom of the sack, in the air and off the ground.

What a great homeschool project!

We quickly figured out you can do the same thing by cutting a hole in the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket.  We gathered 4 buckets, each kid chose a plant, and the buckets are now hanging from a couple of 2 x 4′s suspended between the slide structure and our fence.  One of the kids chose a zucchini plant.  Who knew they could all grow upside down?

Each child is responsible for watering, fertilizing, and . . . picking and eating the produce - the best part.  It’s a fun introduction to responsibility, work, and its rewards.  Not to mention a good precurser to getting a pet.  If they can’t keep their tomato plant alive and watered, they aren’t ready for a pet.

Did you find something that worked well for you this week?  Share your tips with the rest of us!

Posted under Science Curriculum, Tuesday Tips

July 2, 2009

Being asked to write seems to get some of the biggest groans from my 9-year-old son. (Yes, even more than math!)  He always says that he HATES to write.  I think some of his difficulties are that he doesn’t spell perfectly and has to go back and correct a lot.  He also doesn’t like how slow it is to write and the actual process of putting letters on paper with a pencil seems like too much work for him.

So, I need some help.  I was wondering if you could give me some suggestions on ways you’ve helped your children get excited about writing.  I’m also trying to find something to stimulate his interest instead of assigning work he hates and grumbles about.

Here are some of my ideas (but, I could really use some more!):

• Find a pen pal and start writing letters:  A cousin or a friend who has moved away are easy to start exchanging letters with.
• Write and illustrate a comic book.  Since they are heavy on illustration and light on text, the actual writing is less overwhelming and the project is more fun.  A simple comic book can be made by stacking blank paper together, bending it in the middle, and stapling along the fold.
• Pick a topic and start a blog.  It doesn’t take much computer savy to start a free blog at a site like www.Blogger.com and distant family members will love the updates.
• Start a journal.
• Use a story starter – sometimes a question or fantasy idea can help kids start thinking.  “What if . . .” questions are a great place to start.  Here is a fun list of story starters.

What ideas do you have? 

I was thinking my son might need something to make the actual process of writing a bit easier so he doesn’t get so impatient with how slowly he writes. 

Thank you for your help!

Posted under Thursday Topics, Writing Curriculum