Homeschool Open House & Weekly Report--Week 9

Homeschool Idea Share of the Week:

This is how we display all our artwork--on a string (using small colored bull clips or pretty paper clips) that hangs across an empty wall in our hall/great room area. I use the 3M Command Strips that allow me to easily remove it when I want a change.

For Christmas, we put up our numbered string of socks that is our Advent Calendar here. The socks are store-bought (I collected most from Gap and Old Navy outlets), Christmas-themed, multi-colored/patterned, and in mostly toddler and children's sizes. They are numbered 1-24 with red and white scrapbooking stickers, and I spelled out C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s on the 25th sock. In each sock, I put a rolled up slip of paper with a mini-lesson or activity related to Christmas typed out on each slip, and a small treat. These lessons/activities include all the traditions we have for Christmas, like cutting and trimming the tree while listening to Christmas music, baking Christmas cookies, and making and wrapping homemade gifts. They also include acitvities appealing to the different ages of our children, as we read through our variety of Christmas books and do extensions. For example, a simple preschool activity is reading our Christmas board book about the manger scene, then making a birthday cake out of whip cream, adding sprinkles and a candle, and singing 'Happy Birthday to Jesus'. They are easy to switch around if we change our minds about when we want to do a certain activity. We open one sock and do the activity each night to countdown the 25 days of Christmas.

Homeschool Humor of the Week:
Someone needs a puppy bad...this is Jessica dressing up and pretending with my old Cabbage Patch horse. She is walking it like a dog in a winter outfit. She was so pleased with herself, that she wanted me to share these photos on my blog...


Co-op Class Photos of the week:
I got a few pictures in these classes because they are the classes I'm teaching/assisting in. Jessica's other class is a Science class studying animals. Andrew is studying the human body in the pre/k class, and Cate is learning a new letter each week.

1st/2nd Grade Holiday Unit Study Class

Fall trees art with Thanksgiving poem--(the tree trunk is the child's arm traced and colored in)

Sorting/classifying buttons in small groups

Class discussion during snack time

Thanksgiving BINGO with buttons as markers

1st/2nd Grade Game and Craft Club Class

Making homemade Christmas gifts

The fun is in getting messy, right?

Photos at Home this Week:

Coloring a picture for Daddy

Lunch-time Reading

A tea-party with Mommy



A turkey craft Andrew made in a class.