Spring and Easter Activities

Time to get busy on some Spring activities like the recycled flowerpots pictured above! Here is a list of fun unit studies and art projects great for all ages!



Here is a neat craft and science project all in one! Dye carnations by putting cut flowers into colored water for a fun spring bouquet!



Remember how fun it was to blow the middle out of an egg? Well here is a neat way to use up those egg shells by making a bird you can hang and let "fly"!

Got younger ones? How about reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then making this paper inch worm!

What's one of the best things about spring returning? The birds are returning too! This easy bird feeder is great for kids of all ages and can also double as science!



Toysmith Solar Print Kit #4062 is another great way to incorporate science and fun! Use peices of nature and the power of the sun to create works of art!


This popcorn tree is the perfect pre-school project and is yummy too!



Suncatchers are always a hit in our house. Just use some tissue paper and contact paper to make a beautiful suncatcher!



My older kids at co-op love doing origami. Here is an origami basket.



Th fun project for teens, artistic inchies, can be displayed on the wall.

Currclick.com offers a number of easter notebooks and lapbooking kits.




If you have any fun craft ideas for the spring please feel free to post!

Not So Scary Halloween Art, Lesson Plans, Lapbooks and Activities

We don't celebrate Halloween for personal reasons (this is not an attack on those who do, this is just our personal conviction), but there is no getting around the kids knowing it exists so we take this opportunity to do some "not so scary" activities. Besides, you don't have to celebrate halloween to know that bats, bugs and all things creepy crawly are pretty cool!

Check out this cool pumpkin eyeball! This could be a great opportunity to learn about the parts of the eye and how they work.


This terra cotta pot pumpkin would make a cute decoration that you can leave out for Thanksgiving as well!

Who doesn't love learning about mummies? Do this mummy craft and visit the mummy maker to see if you can make your own mummy the ancient Egyptian way!

In this really cool Curiosity Files unit study Anna Lyze takes you into the world of Zombie Fire Ants. Best of all it is currently on sale for just $1!!

And halloween wouldn't be complete without exploring the grossest of body functions. Learn all about what causes zits, vomiting and even scabs and puss. GROSS!!!

These are just a few of the great ideas you can find all over the internet. So if you don't trick or treat, don't worry, you can still have lots of fun exploring the creepy and the disgusting!

Aluminum Foil Crafts

This blog is in honor of my friend Jessica over at Feeding the Family for Less. We had a bit of a joke about her doing a blog on aluminum foil. I got the feeling that she thought I should stick with writing homeschool posts. I agreed, but why can't I do both. So here it is, a homeschool post about aluminum foil:

The History of Aluminum Foil

All About the Element Aluminum

How is Aluminum Recycled?

Aluminum Can Crafts

You can use foil to make models or to do embossing crafts too!

The Mom I'm Bored Jar

If there are any two words that I dislike hearing they are "I'm Bored". Despite the overwhelming number of toys that my children have, the big back yard complete with trampoline and playground, the numerous art supplies and their siblings, my children never seem to have anything to do.

This could be the most amazing idea I have ever seen. The I'm Bored Jar. There are so many variations of things you can do with this that it makes it the perfect customizable summer idea! I sat the girls down and we came up with a list of about 50 different "I'm bored activities". I will have them pull a card and do each activity for 30 minutes. Once the card is drawn I will move it out of the box until all of the other cards are drawn.

Here is our list of I'm Bored Activities. Feel free to use it :)

Make a Puppet
Have a Puppet Show
Blow Bubbles
Write a Book
Write a Letter
Read a Book
Play Outside
Play Stuffed Animals
Dress Up
Finger Paint
Draw a Picture
Play Store
Chore (x's 5)
Snack Time
Go to Neighborhood Park
Paint Toenails
Computer Time
Play Doh
Tea Party
Simon Says
Play Animals
Trains
Science Experiments
Window Markers
Scavenger HuntSoccer
Hopscotch
Mud Pies
Bake with Mama
Music Band
Wii
Tinker Toys
LegosPattern Blocks
Write in Journal
Collect Bugs
Build a Pillow Fort
Make a Bracelet
Ride Bike
Sidewalk Chalk
Water Guns
Make a Movie
Board Game
American Girl Dolls
Water Slide
Nature Walk
Hide and Seek
Tag
Leap Frog
Follow the Leader
Take a Bubble Bath
Work a Puzzle
Mazes
Dot to Dot
Word Search

You will notice some of these are outside but I thought that limiting them to 30 minutes at a time would help with avoiding sunburns and heat exhaustion. You will also notice that I have snuck in 5 chore cards, hehe. We will probably add to these as we think of other fun activities. If you have any ideas for us please feel free to let me know!

Lego Lesson Plans

My kids have buckets of them and we can never seem to have enough, I vaccuum them up by the dozens and my son likes to collect the little yellow heads and leave them in piles on the floor. What am I talking about? Lego of course! Legos are a wonderfully diverse manipulative that kids think are toys(wink wink). Besides the hours of fun provided by these simple plastic bricks, there are also hours of learning to be had! Here are some fun Lego lesson plans and educational activities I found.

Build a windmill and learn all about windmill architecture and renewable energy.

Center of mass-This activity explores the concept of 'center of mass.' It gives students a hands-on, discovery-based way to understand one of the most fundamental concepts in physics.

Use Legos to study geography.

Build a Lego boat and study bouyancy with this fun activity.

This can you build it? Lego lesson plan teaches cooperation and problem solving as one student describes the pieces needed to build an object as the other builds it.

Lego Math


Finally, my favorite Lego find so far is this Lego Lapbook!

For more ideas for Lego lesson plans visit Lego Eduction.

Using Color in Your Art Giveaway

I am not sure I could ever have enough art books. My children are allowed free reign of the art supplies, under the condition they clean up after themselves. I love the creations that come out of having this freedom to create, but I also love teaching them about technique. The only problem is that I am not an artist, so I need curriculum that teaches technique but is still fun!

How do you tell the difference between primaries and intermediate colors? How do you know which colors compliment and which clash? Have you ever wondered why some colors make us feel warm and fuzzy while others make us feel cold? Using Color in Your Art!: Choosing Colors for Impact & Pizzazz (Williamson Kids Can Books) helps parents teach these concepts and more.

Appropriate for ages 9-12 but could be adapted.

Teaches with other children's art but also introduces famous artists work as well.

Doesn't require a ton of "strange" art materials. Just some paint, brushes and paper.

Now for the fun part! I am giving away FOUR(4) Copies of Using Color in Your Art!! For one(1) entry you can Follow My Blog. For one(1) entry you can "Like" Molding Minds Homeschool on Facebook. For one(1) entry you can Share On Facebook or on on your favorite social media site (to share just cut and paste this blog into your status and let me know where you shared). For one(1) entry you can follow Molding Minds on Twitter. And for one (1) entry you can like Like The Homeschool Exchange! This is a total of FIVE(5) chances to win!

Please post a SEPARATE COMMENT for each entry and be sure to leave an email address for me to contact you at if you win!

Winners will be chose JUNE 15th and will be notified via email. Winners will have 72 hours to respond.

*Note: I am currently in the process of swapping from a group page to a fan page on facebook. You MUST LIKE THE FAN PAGE for your entry to count. The group page will be changed over to just North Texas homeschoolers in a few weeks so feel free to unlike the group page once you have liked the fan page.

US Residents Only. I was not compensated for this post. I picked these books up personally to giveaway. All opinions are 100% mine. Please take a moment to read my disclosure policy.

Ice Cream Lesson Plans and Printables

Summer is here and you know what that means, ICE CREAM!!! For school today we are going to be doing all of our lesson plans with a sweet treat twist! Because I teach pre-kers on Mondays I will be including in some of the printables I used with them. July is technically National Ice Cream month but we finish with the pre-k in May so we are doing it early. You will have to excuse my excessive use of exclamation points. How can you help it when you are doing something so fun?!


Letter of the Day: I is for Ice Cream! Print this out for some penmanship work. If you have a younger child this page can be colored or stamped.

K5 and up will enjoy this Free Ice Cream Lapbook! With plenty of printables you can easily adapt this to your older or younger children. We are going to have alot of fun doing this Acrostic Poem!

For art we are going paint with popsicles that I made in advance. I used popsicle molds but ice trays and popsicle sticks are a good way to do it too!

This is a "vintage" audio clip about how ice cream is made!

Picture Credit


Of course an ice cream themed lesson plan would not be the same without some ice cream chemistry. Otherwise known as, ice cream in a bag! Learn all about the whys and hows of making ice cream and enjoy a yummy reward at the end!


Here are a few other printables I thought you might enjoy, all ice cream themed! We used this survey sheet to collect data on our friends and family's favorite flavor and then graphed it here on this ice cream themed graph paper!

Homemade Corn Starch Sidewalk Chalk Recipe

Corn starch has to be one of the most versatile craft products I have ever come across. After making yarn hearts with corn starch glue, I did a little search and found out you can also make side walk chalk paint! Best of all it is so easy!

Materials Needed:

Corn Starch
Water
Bowls
Food Coloring

Procedure:

Mix 1/4 cup corn starch to 1/4 cup of water. Stir until well mixed. It it is a little tough at first so hang in there; I found a fork worked best for mixing. Add food coloring.

The "paint" will go on the sidewalk a bit watery but will soon dry into a chalky picture. The kids had fun with this for hours today! I did double the recipe because we had extra friends today, so if you have several children you may want to do the same. You might also want to double it just to store some for later use.

Review and Give Away for Artistic Pursiuits!

Congrats to Twinkle Mom! You have won your choice of books from Artistic Pursuits!

ALERT: Plagerized copies of Artistic Pursuits are currently being sold. Remeber that Artistic Pursuits is color printed through out the entire book, not just on the cover! If you have purchased a copy that turned out to be fraudulent please let Dan or Brenda at Artistic Pursuits know.

I am one of those parents. The one whose stick figures can only be recognized by turning off the lights, squinting your eyes and tilting your head slightly to the left. Ok, so maybe it isn't that bad, but I will be the first to admit, I am not an artist, which means I thought I couldn't teach art. Have you ever priced art lessons?! The few that I have found locally are close to $200 for just 2 hours. Needless to say we can't afford that for one child, much less two and a third later on. My choice was to find a great art curriculum that I could teach with no skill of my own. I also wanted it to be real art, not crafts, that incorporated a bit of art history. I found all of that in Artistic Pursuits. Brenda Ellis' art programs provide children of all age levels and abilities with a comprehensive art studies program. Students are taught the basics of art and art history while engaging in real art, hands on projects. Fresco paintings, sculpture, screen printing, water color and oil pastels are just a few of the techniques found in these books. The books are also illustrated with pictures from real children so your child will not be intimidated by a professional artists work. As your students progresses the books get more detailed. Best off there is NO teacher preparation needed! For the younger children you simply read the pages associated with the lesson. Older children can read and do the work completely independent of you! Materials can be purchased through the Artistic Pursuits site or you can do what we did and purchased as the items went on sale at our local Hobby Lobby. If you pay full price, the pricing is comparable. It just depends on if you want the convenience of purchasing all at once. Now for the fun part. Brenda at Artistic Pursuits has given me one book to give away! The winner will get to choose which ever book they want!! For one(1) entry you can "Like" Molding Minds Homeschool on Facebook. For one(1) entry you can Share On Facebook or on on your favorite social media site (to share just cut and paste this blog into your status and let me know where you shared). For one(1) entry you can follow Molding Minds on Twitter. This is a total of THREE(3) chances to win! Please post a SEPARATE COMMENT for each entry and be sure to leave an email address for me to contact you at if you win!

Winner will be draw on March 31st!

Valentine's Day Craft: Yarn Hearts with Corn Starch Glue

The girls wanted a Valentine's Day craft and after seeing this in my Family Fun Magazine, I thought we would give it a try.

Supplies:
Corn Starch Glue
Multi-color Yarn
Cookie Cutters in Desired Shapes
Parchment Paper

Corn Starch Glue Recipe:

1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of corn starch

Mix in a sauce pan until combined then slowly heat until the mixture becomes an opaque sticky paste. It will resemble shortening. You will want to stir constantly and stay with the pan because it changes fast!

Procedure:

Cut yarn (I found a skein that had blended colors at walmart for $1.47) into 8"-12" strips
Place cookie cutter on parchment (works best on shiny side)
Push into glue and run fingers down to get excess off (this gets messy so best to have a paper towel near!)
Lay yarn into cookie cutter
After you put as much yarn as you want into the cookie cutter, tear a small piece of parchment off and use it to press the yarn down into the cookie cutter. When you are satisfied with the way it looks gently remove the cookie cutter.
Allow to dry for at least 24 hours.

Enjoy! Great for Pre-school on up!

Valentine's Day Lesson Plans and Activities

Crafts are all over the Internet so I am going to give you a few resources for lesson plans and educational activities with a Valentine's Day Theme. Some of these would also make great gifts for your special someone(s).

Lesson Plans:

Valentine Lapbook Ages 5 and up
Will you be my Valentine? Valentine’s Day is a day to send cards, candy, and maybe even flowers to loved ones. Learn the history, customs, and traditions of this lovable holiday in the Valentine’s Day Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. This 64-page project pack includes a 10-page research guide and 16 hands-on activities to help your student learn and celebrate Valentine’s Day!

L is for Love
L is or Love introduces preschoolers to two greatest commandments as presented by Jesus. Biblical references include Matthew 22:37-40, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and Romans 5:8. L is for Love includes basic preschool skills such as phonics, less than, writing practice, bar graphing, L words and counting. Easy to assemble, hands on activities encourage interaction and retention!

Designed to prepare preschoolers for kindergarten by introducing Biblical knowledge, language skills, math skills, social studies skills, and science skills to preschool age children through hands on activities and practice. All lap-books include an art activity, sight words and a memory verse. In addition, there is a list of extension activities to strengthen the skills presented in the lap-book



Valentine's Day Bible Verse Copy Work




Valentine's Day Science:


Fizzy Bath Bomb

Candy Science

The Science of Sugar

Language Arts, Math, Cooking, Art and Other Subjects:

Valentine's Day Recipes

Box of Chocolate Adjectives

Graphing Conversation Hearts

Healthy Hearts Musical Chairs

For more great ideas visit Teach-nology.

Shared at Raising Homemakers.

A Homeschooler's Christmas List

Cyber Monday is tomorrow!! When we shop for our kids I really try not to buy junk. They get so much from their grandmother and other family that we often just end up overwhelmed. This year I am making a list and trying to stick with toys that can be "educational" as well as fun! Here is a list of my favorite Cyber Monday gifts!

Kidkraft Deluxe Let's Cook Kitchen- We love our wooden pretend kitchen. So much that we are going to replace it this year with this one. It has been played to pieces! Let your kids whip you up a yummy meal plus get a great deal! This one is marked down quite a bit!

Supermarket Cash Register - Before they can cook in their new kitchen they will need to run to the store to get supplies! Teach money math skills with this cash register and have a ton of fun playing store!

LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System - Green - Marked down 50%! Offers several educational games that teach anything from art to math.

Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards - Melissa and Doug offers many wooden educational toys. Kids learn pattern, geometry, sorting and more, while playing with toys you know are safe from harmful chemicals.

Melissa & Doug Abby & Emma Deluxe Magnetic Dress-Up- These are the number one played with item in our house. A fun take on classic paper dolls, these come with several different magnetic outfits for hours of fun!


Young Heroes Child Police officer Costume, Medium - Let your little hero dress up! Learn about community helpers and let him emulate local role models! Be sure to take a trip up to your local police station to learn all about what policemen do!


There are many Amazon Educational Toys on sale this season, so be sure to check it out. Don't forget that orders over $25 always ship free!

Fruit Gobbler Healthy Thanksgiving Recipe

Because we homeschool we wouldn't usually have holiday parties, but because of the in home school I run we did this year!

I wanted to do something super fun that we could also eat and fell into the healthy category and I was so excited when I came across this Fruit Gobbler Recipe.

Ingredients
Bosc pear (head)
Melon (body)
Cheese (beak and tail feathers)
Red pepper (snood, feet and side feathers)
Raisins (eyes)
Grapes (tail feathers)
Bamboo skewers
Toothpicks
X
Instructions
Stabilize the melon body by cutting a shallow slice off the rind to form a flat base. Using a section of bamboo skewer, attach a Bosc pear head to the melon, as shown.

Cut a cheese triangle beak and red pepper snood. Attach both, along with raisin eyes, to the head with sections of toothpick.

Cut red pepper feet and set them in place. For tail feathers, skewer cheese cubes and red grapes, then insert the skewers as shown. Pin pepper side feathers in place with toothpicks.


I changed a few things so that I could use up some food I already had and I used a cantaloupe for the body and I couldn't get him to sit up so had to stuff some tissue paper "grass" around him. We had a lot of fun making him and he was a big hit at our party.

Thanksgiving Lesson Plans and Resources

I wish I had gotten these up a bit earlier, but better late than never right?

There is just so much on the Internet that I could never hope to post it all but here are a few of my favorite sites for Thankgsiving Lesson Plans and Resources:

Thanksgiving Lapbook

Thanksgiving Lesson Plans

Thanksgiving Printables

Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving Unit Study

Thanksgiving Book List

Enjoy!

Fall Craft: Broken Shaved Crayon Tree

I love it when I find fun ways to use up things that I would normally throw away! I found this Broken Shaved Crayon Fall Tree and knew we had to try it!

Supplies:

Iron

Paper Bag or something else to protect surface (it will bleed!)

Broken Crayons

Wax Paper

Trunk Cut Out

Procedure:

Heat iron. Crayons melt pretty easily so no need to have it on full, but you want it pretty hot.

Shave the crayons either by using a pencil sharpener or a peeling tool. Use fall colors such as oranges, reds, browns, and yellows. I separated our colors onto different plates so that we could layer the brighter colors on top of the darker ones. Otherwise you would just get a big brown tree.

Lay out whatever you are using to protect your surface and lay a sheet of wax paper down on top of that. Place your tree trunk on the wax paper and then have your child sprinkle the shavings starting with the darkest color.

Lay a second sheet of wax paper over the entire tree and gently iron and watch the colors spread! I found it worked best to press and lift in each spot rather than rubbing.

Once your tree is cool you can trim around it and use it for decoration!

Pumpkin Seed Art

What do you do with all of those seeds after you have cleaned out the pumpkin? Well, if you don't like to eat them, then here is great way to use up those seeds and have a lot of fun at the same time.

Supplies:

Pumpkin Seeds (either in a bag or prepared in the oven)
White Vinegar
Food Coloring
Plastic Cups
Construction Paper
Tree with No Leaves (or other template)
Glue

Procedure:

The night before you plan on using the seeds, pour white vinegar into the plastic cups, add a few drops of food coloring and dump dried seeds into the cup. Stir to make sure all the seeds are covered. Stir seeds occasionally.

The next day strain off the water and spread the seeds out on a cookie sheet. Place in low heat oven (around 250F) for approx 20 min. Stir occasionally.

Once the colored seeds are dry you are ready to start using them as leaves on your tree! Have child use a q-tip to place some glue on the seed and stick it down to the paper!

There are so many ways to use these seeds. You can do mosaics, flowers, leaves...Your child's imagination is the limit!