I’m always on the look-out for fun educational games, since I hate buying toys that will just increase our clutter and never get picked up.

I thought I’d share a fun one our family has been enjoying: 

This game, Banangrams, comes with a slick little banana-shaped zipping bag to hold all the pieces.  Score one for easy clean-up!

It’s also fun for all ages that can spell – kid up to adult.  And it’s easy to give adults a handicap by giving them more letters to start with, or having them take two tiles each time, instead of one.

So, the game is played with everyone starting with a pile of letter tiles and and trying to form them into a Scrabble/Crossword Puzzle type grid.  As soon as one player has used up all his tiles, he yells “Peel” and everyone has to grab another tile.  This continues until the tiles are gone and whoever finishes first wins! (with correct words – or you’re out)

So, if you’re looking for a gift idea (about $12) or a way to spice up your spelling practice, you’ll love this game.

Do you have other suggestions for good educational games that your kids love?  I’m always on the look out!

Thanks!

Once a year, there is a “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day“, but the public schools are speaking out against it, saying that missing even a single day of school will hurt the children, especially in light of ”high-stakes” testing.

I was wondering what you thought about the article. 

I have to say this seems silly and even moronic to me.  Here are a few of the benefits that came to mind of having kids spend a day at work with their parents:

• Ahhh.  So, that’s why I need to learn math.
• Hmm.  Dad (or Mom) really works hard.  Maybe I should value and appreciate the things I’m given a little more.
• I do (or don’t) want to do this kind of work when I grow up.  What do I need to do now to reach the future I want?
• Hmm, maybe I should start thinking about my future.
• I met a lot of interesting adults today who were really helpful.  Maybe I could find mentors in fields I’m interested in to help me out.
• Maybe I should study more so I can have a more successful future . . . that might help me on those “high-stakes” test
• Dad (or Mom) and I had some great conversations about careers, money, finances, interests, school work, etc. . . . and guess what is the biggest predictor of school success (and yes, high test scores) . . . parental involvement!

Seems silly to think that unplanned snow days, field trips, teacher study days, etc. are all fine reason to have a school free day, yet spending a valuable day with a parent exploring careers and the workplace is dismissed as having no value and even being detrimental to scholastic success.  So sad.

What do you think?

And check out the “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” website for some great ideas.  You may have missed the official day, but there’s no reason you can’t do it another day. 

And another idea for homeschool teens is to help them shadow a whole bunch of the adults in their lives.  Why not shadow someone every month or every week?  What a great way to help chart your future.  How would your college choices or career have changed if you’d been able to shadow a hundred different profressionals during your teen years?  Just a thought.

Of course the older boys had to improve the experience, and soon were trying to bowl each other down.  One boy would roll really fast down the hill while the others would try to dodge and leap over the incoming ‘bowling ball’.

Brooke stuck to sidewalk chalk.  My princess is quite different than my gang of hooligans. 

Have you been doing anything fun outdoors?  We love new ideas.

Enjoy!

Are your kids going a bit stir-crazy being stuck indoors during the winter?  Disney’s Family Fun website has this cool list of table top games the kids can design, make, and play indoors.  It’s a great homeschool day bribe to break up math and Latin.

Here are a few easy favorites:

• Flip Golf
• Sharpshooter
• Tabletop Football (all you need is a piece of paper for this one)

Enjoy! 

P.S.  Do you have any good indoor boy-energy using ideas?  I’ve got 4 stir-crazy boys and both I and my daughter would love some ideas!

One of the kids favorite Christmas traditions is the gingerbread house.  Yes, it’s the candy, candy, candy.    Plus, the anticipation of eating it after we admire it for a week or so.  There’s laughter, chocolate faces, sticky fingers, and a big mess that everyone helps clean up at the end.  The house smells and feels wonderful all day!

And we always invite a family over to participate.  So, the recipe and instructions here are for 2 houses:

First the dough – I’m not much of a plan ahead gal, so I don’t do the whole “refrigerate for 24 hours” that many gingerbread recipes say.  I just add a bit more flour so I can handle the dough. 

Dough for two houses (also a great recipe for gingerbread men!)

Cream

• 1 1/2 c. butter or margerine
• 1 1/2 c. white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 c. molasses

Add dry ingredients and mix well.

• 12 cups flour (I use fresh ground whole white wheat flour)
• 1 T ground ginger
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1 t salt
• 1 T baking soda

Divide into 3 portions on three greased cookie sheets:

Spread with spatula and/or rolling pin

until about 1/4 in thick

Bake at 350 for 20 – 25 mins until not glossy and toothpick comes out clean.  (bake 10 – 12 mins for gingerbread men)

Some people cut out the dough in the house shapes before baking, but that’s too much work for me, plus you don’t get as nice of edges to build with as you do when you cut it after baking.

Cut the following out of each cookie sheet:

1. 4 side walls – 7 in x 5 in rectangles
2. 4 roof pieces – 8 in x 5 in rectangles
3. 4 end pieces (the fronts and backs of the houses) – a 6 in wide x 5 in tall rectangle topped by a triangle whose tip is 3 inches tall from the center top of the 6 in side of the square.  I hope that makes sense:  Draw a 6 x 5 rectangle.  Find the center of one of the 6 inch sides.  Measure up 3 inches.  Draw a triangle coming to a point at that 3 inch mark = a triangle on top of a rectangle.

Whip up the frosting (a double batch):

• 5 c powdered sugar
• 1/2 t cream of tartar
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 t. vanilla

Beat until it stiffens and will stand up a bit when you pull the beaters out of it.  It dries fast, so keep it covered if you’re not using it right away.

Glue the walls together and let them dry a bit (5-15 mins) before attaching the roof if you’re having trouble keeping things together.  The longer you can let the house dry, the better.  Make sure you use the smaller rectangles for the walls and save the longer ones for the roof.  You could even break up the activity by gluing the house first, and then working on getting the candy out in bowls, play a game together, etc., while the houses dry.  (If you’re desperate, a hair dryer can help a bit, just don’t let it get hot.  Use the low setting.)

The fun part:  Decorate with candy and try not to eat too much!

Here are some fun ideas to try and build:

• Snowmen out of marshmallows held together with toothpicks, candy corn noses, mini-chocolate chip eyes, and Skittle buttons.
• A pile of logs or fences out of Tootsie Rolls.
• Windows and benches with Keebler chocolate graham or grasshopper cookies.
• Build cars out of cookies with round candies for wheels.
• Line edges and paths with pull apart licorice.
• Make a pond by spreading some frosting with a bit of blue food coloring, line with licorice and add some Swedish Fish.
• Put gummi worms in a garden with broken oreos stuck to frosting for dirt.
• Starbursts make great bricks.

Try not to eat it for at least a day

What a fun evening!

Enjoy!

Here are a few highlights from where we’ve been for the last few weeks:

A backyard trampoline was the main attraction of the trip and outshined the museums, fun centers, and aquariums. 

Lots of wonderful girly girl cousin time for our princess who loved getting away from her brothers.

Gardening and quiet chats with Grandma – we miss her!

Silly time with Grandpa – even balloons can be made into swords. (Thanks Aunt Heather!)

Best friend cousins

Dad joined us with a week to go, and here he is helping with the ‘fun’ task of maneuvering a family of 7 and all their stuff through the airport on the way home.  You should have seen the looks I got doing it on my own on the way there.

And here are a few ideas to while away the boredom while waiting for your meal at a restaurant. (It’s not like your mom taught you anything about manners – at least that you can remember.)

We loved seeing all our family and I so enjoy seeing my kids play with their cousins and get to know all their aunts and uncles!  What a fun vacation!

The mishaps – there are always a handful.

 The first mishap on the third day of our trip - I broke my pinky toe on the leg of a couch!  My husband laughed over the phone and said, “You mean to tell me you spent 20 years doing karate without ever breaking your toe, and now you broke it on a couch?!” 

Good thing my sister-in-law had some comfrey growing in the backyard.  I simmered some and then draped the hot leaves over my toe.  It healed in a couple days instead of a week.

That same day, the baby got a fever that spiked over 104 and stayed high for 3 days prompting a visit to the Urgent Care, a blood draw that missed the first time (so sad!), and nothing found after all.  Just a virus as I thought.  My 6-year-old followed with his own fever the very next day.  With 10 kids in the house, we felt lucky the fever only spread to 2! 

Oh, and on our first morning back, I and Alex were knocked flat by a vicious stomach flu, fever, muscle aches, and other yuckies!  I’m just glad it didn’t happen on the flight home.  One of these days, we’ll have an illness-free vacation (fingers crossed).

I have a question for you larger homeschool families:  Do you have any tips or tricks to make traveling with a big family easier?  How do you keep the whole age range interested and having fun?  I’d appreciate any good ideas!!

If you are trying to be creative with your homeschool lesson plans, why not consider a scavenger hunt? They are easy to organize and tons of fun for all ages.

Scavenger hunts are experiential by nature. Kids learn in a hands on fashion as they explore the world around them, and we all know that the more hands-on the learning, the more the kids learn and remember. Hunts can be done indoors, outdoors, in the classroom and even as fun car games.

To set up your hunt, simply print out a list of clues and let them go! It’s fun to add a fun quote or graphics to the scavenger hunt list, but not entirely necessary. It just depends on how creative you are feeling.

Here are a few educational scavenger hunts for you to try:

• Online Scavenger Hunt: to introduce the non-profit world.
• Library Scavenger Hunt: go explore your local library.
• Dictionary Game: to help build vocabulary.
• Gardening Games: get outside and explore your community garden.
• Newspaper Scavenger Hunt: a fun way to explore the daily news.
• Nature Scavenger Hunt: to build awareness.

The important thing is to be prepared, have fun with it and end while the kids are still wanting more. Try doing one scavenger hunt a week with your kids. They’ll love it!  The scavenger hunt for kids section has a comprehensive collection of hunts to get you started. Also be sure to check out the free stuff for teachers section for more ways to spice up your lesson plans.

And last, but not least, if you are looking to create your own hunt, this site has that covered too with a list of scavenger hunt ideas already brainstormed and broken down by location: indoor, outdoor, classroom and crazy! Simply pick and choose what you want to put on your list.

Happy teaching and happy hunting!!

Homeschoolers have Style!  Lots of it, in all kinds of flavors.

With the freedom homeschooling affords, comes individual style.  We can afford to experiment, jump around, take a leisurely path through phonics, or whatever suits our family best.

Check out these styles!

Proactive

ChristineMM of The Thinking Mother shares thoughts about unique classes taught by subject matter experts that homeschoolers can take advantage of in her article The Thinking Mother: Homeschool Filmmaking Class for My Kids This Fall.

Shannon tells of her experience with filing a “notice of intent” to homeschool: Get this . . . posted at Mountaineer Country.

If you’ve wondered why public schools don’t teach based on skill level instead of age, Susan Gaissert writes about how that may be changing in:  Who is Leading When It Comes to Educational Innovations? posted at The Expanding Life.

Elena LaVictoire presents A few tips for Ohio homeschoolers posted at My Domestic Church.

If you’ve given some thought to a homeschool name or ID cards, Beverly has some tips in “Do You Name Your Homeschool?” at Beverly’s Homeschooling Blog.

Barbara, from Barbara Frank Online, motivates us with some encouragement for the new school year in Fasten Your Seat Belts…..

And Christine gives us her take on planning the school year and juggling paperwork in Planning the School Year at Our Curious Home.

Playful

Need a fun, make-at-home, game to liven up your school drills?  Kris presents Giant Board Game posted at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Kaye presents Rainy Day + Chuck E. Cheese = Happy Grandkids & Grandparents! posted at SandwichINK.com.  “Chuck E. Cheese can be a great “friend” to grandparents who help with their grandkids’ homeschooling programs!”

Summer presents A Day In Our Homeschooling Life posted at Wired For Noise.

Beautiful

In How to Educate for Beautiful Results, posted at Pajama School Blog, Natalie Wickham shares the importance of identifying and working on the parts that ultimately contribute to a whole education.

Make sure to check out these great art ideas:  Julie Moses presents Follow the Yellow Brick Road- More Oz projects! posted at Kids Art Projects and Lessons at Ms. Julie’s Place.  “Just a few projects to get us going somewhere over the rainbow!”

Annette Berlin presents 37 Ways To Share Crafts With Kids posted at Craft Stew.  “If you love crafting, chances are good you want to share that love with your children. Here are some easy (and frugal) ways to help your child also develop an interest in crafting.”

Studious

Kathy presents her review of Andrew Peterson’s North! Or Be Eaten: The Wingfeather Saga Book 2: Homeschool Review posted at Homeschoolbuzz.com Reviews.

Dave Roller presents Reading Programs posted at Home School Dad.  “I wanted to share some of the reading programs my children have been participating in.”

Amanda gives an in-depth look into the history of the atomic bombs dropped at the end of WWII in The Daily Planet » Blog Archive » The “Little Boy” Was Dropped posted at The Daily Planet.

Stephanie shares her excitement about learning Latin for the first time together with her children in I Am Just The Lead Student, That’s All at All About Homeschool.

Ruby shares her insight into using computers, the internet, and online learning to have a positive impact in schooling with one article at Freehold2 called “Internet as a Teaching Tool” and another titled “Online Learning Benefits” at School’s Out.

Adventuresome

Need some ideas for field trips?  Kristen Hamilton presents A Day in the Life – Field Trips posted at A Day in the Life – Homeschool Blogger.

If you’re trying to plan for fun AND learning this fall, check out this post:  The Family presents What to do, what not to do posted at Once Upon a Family.

Lynda at The Adventures of A Princess and the Bear writes Bear’ Geography: “about our doing geography and learning the continents with literature and lapbooking. We are making an apple pie in this post, to go along with the book, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World”

John shares thoughts along with the inspirational story of a Zac, a homeschool teen who sailed around the world alone.  He writes Home School Encourages Independence In  Learning and Life at Independent Learning and Home Schooling.  He says, “Rather than isolating students, home school encourages students to develop independence in the way they handle the way they live and the way they learn.”

Amy shares her summertime adventures in Summer Time Learning posted at Kids Love Learning.

We can all empathize with Janine at Why Homeschool who writes about struggles with starting backup with school in “Not Quite Ready to Start School.”

Successful

Margaret writes about her plans for not teaching history this school year at Semi-Schooling History posted at Two Kid Schoolhouse

Barbra Sundquist presents Do You Need to Get Angry Before Anyone Listens? posted at Barbra Sundquist.  “Have you ever found yourself thinking, “Why is it that I have to get angry to get what I want?”

Lynn shares her successful first week of school along with some great resources, ideas, and links.  Check out First Week of School Done! posted at Eclectic Education – Homeschool Blogger.

Ben presents 7 Ways to Save Money on Back to School Shopping posted at Money Smart Life.

Scott Palat presents Parental Involvement Affects the Academic Success of Children posted at TutorFi.

Freestyle – a bit of everything

Susan Ryan presents Open Education – It’s the Learning that Counts posted at Corn and Oil.  “There are many high quality, free learning resources available for homeschoolers, including MIT’s free online courses.”

Shelly presents Vintage Video – Jay Can Do It posted at Homemade Homeschoolers.  “This episode of Vintage Video – Jay Can Do It – is part of the Homemade Homeschoolers Podcasts. The post includes thoughts about the difference between how non-homeschoolers define “socialization” and how we at Homemade Homeschoolers define it. We hope you enjoy!”

And if you haven’t settled into a homeschooling style yet, check out Choosyhomeschooler’s article PURLs of Wisdom Blog » Choosing a Teaching Style or Homeschooling Method posted at PURLs of Wisdom Blog.

Help Aimee out with some new lunch ideas as she shares hers in Homeschool Talk: School lunches at Aimee’s Land.

Experimental

If you haven’t done the soda bottle and Mentos experiment, you’re in for some fun.  See how Lara DeHaven did it in A Homemade Geyser posted at Texas Homesteader.  My boys are itching to do this!

And if you need some ideas to let your enjoyment and study of nature branch out into other science topics, check out Katie Glennon and her article: Using Nature Study to Study all Areas of Science posted at Katie’s Homeschool Cottage.

Grateful

Leah at The Courtney Six shares Just In Case I Haven’t Mentioned It Lately…:  “My thoughts on why I’m so glad we homeschool.”

Amy at Raising Arrows presents “The Shame On Me Sea“.  The homeschooling parent’s life is often fraught with guilt. Amy writes about her own personal struggle to stay out of the Shame On Me Sea.

I’m grateful, too!

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Homeschool Carnival.  Thank you for all your contributions!

Please take a moment to comment and/or spread the word by posting to your blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Next week the carnival will be held at Home Grown Mommy.com and submissions are due Monday, Aug. 31st at 6 pm.  Visit here to submit your post.

Or if you’d like to peruse previous editions, they are listed at Why Homeschool.

Thank you again to all those who took the time to submit posts and share!

– Misty

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!)

Venn diagrams sound like a fancy and difficult math concept, but instead they make a great math activity for toddlers and up:

1. Grab a handful of candy, colorful cereal, a set of toys, or anything else you can think of that can be classified into groups.
2. Make two circles with shoelaces, cut-out from card stock, chalk on the sidewalk, etc.
3. Have your child start describing characteristics of your set:  colors, sizes, shapes, number of legs, clothing, etc.  Pick two.  Then start sorting them into the appropriate circles, with items that have BOTH characteristics in the middle where the two circles intersect.

Here are a few examples:

• Colors:  Blue candy in the left circle, red candy in the right circle, purple candy (it is BOTH red and blue) in the center where the circles intersect.
• Shapes:  Shapes with straight lines in the left circle, shapes with curved lines in the right, a shape like a heart that has both in the center.
• Toy animal:  Animals with hooves in the left circle, animals with tails in the right, and animals with both hooves and tails in the center.

More fun ideas:

• Eat the ones in the middle when you’re done.
• Close your eyes and the other person moves one item to the wrong section – see if you can figure it out.
• Sort without telling the other the criteria and see if they can guess your sorting rules.
• Add a third circle to make it more tricky.

Enjoy!