Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Egypt and Morocco Week

This week in our Around the World Homeschool Curriculum we focused on Egypt and Morocco.

Books:

As always, we read many great spines on these countries, but here are some extra picture books we read:


One Wish (Morocco)
He read about sand cats from Morocco in 

Activities:

Cairo page from Seek and Find Around the World

Recipe:

We tried Shakshuka from Morocco from the Global Feast cookbook. Not our favorite, unfortunately.

Read Aloud:

Since we are working on deserts in our biome unit studies, this week we read The Secret Explorers Desert Disappearance. Archer really liked it and had me read extra each day.


Art:

Archer watched an Art for Kids Hub video on how to draw pyramids. I think it turned out really well!

Videos:


See other Africa posts here:







Sunday, March 24, 2024

How to Prepare Your Kids for College

  CC0 Licensed Image Courtesy of Pexels

Before you know it, the kids are ready to fly the nest. Love, life, and college come for us all, and pretty soon, your little ones are off to begin their own life adventure. As a parent, it's all you can do to prepare your kid for college. Before they leave, here are some ideas for a better start.

Enhancing Advanced Subjects

There are many complex subjects within college courses. Students are expected to meet some pretty high standards when it comes to completing coursework. Mathematics is a perfect example. Most people struggle with math, especially advanced subjects. Fortunately, your students can access a TSI math practice test to prepare them for college-level coursework. There are also other services offering practice tests for IT, languages, and the sciences.

Visit Some Establishments Beforehand

All colleges and universities have open days. These are essential because your child can attend for a day and see if the place is right for them. Most kids have their heart set on one establishment. And this completely changes after visiting the place first. Some find that it isn't what they expected and change their minds. Others find that a college they didn't consider suddenly appeals to what they want. The people, the place, and the academia are vital.

Prepare Your Kids for College with Life Skills

Life skills are often learned as we go. As a parent, you can do your kids a massive favor by teaching them some valuable skills as part of letting the kids grow up. This would be a welcome scenario as over 20% of students claim they aren't ready for college. This is often down to not preparing academically and not being emotionally ready. Simple skills such as meal planning, shopping responsibly, and self-care will make a massive difference in their college life.

Consider the Hows of College Life

Just getting to class on time can be a challenge for some kids. Without proper preparation, time management is a lost skill for some people. The logistics of college life are a huge wake-up call for some students. They are now treated as adults and are expected to behave as such. Consider whether your child will live on campus or not. This can make a big difference in time. Living near a college is great, but a car or bike would be more suitable than public transport.

Don't Forget About Financial Planning

The starving student is something of a cliché. However, this is often true for many students. Living on ramen and other cheap foods is a reality for many new college students. Most colleges don't recommend that students work. But this is impossible for many. Yet, with some financial knowledge, your kids can make the most of what little money they have available. Daily and weekly spending limits, using credit cards wisely as a student, and money rules will help.

Summary

Practicing complex tests for advanced knowledge will help prepare your kid for college on an academic level. But there is more to it than that. They will also need to learn some life skills, such as cooking. It also helps to teach students about managing their finances at college.

*This is a contributed post


Friday, March 22, 2024

Tot School Easter Activities

Gotta love a fun theme! Juniper was about 21 months old for these activities.
Easter egg decorating on the light table. I just printed eggs on a blank transparency and gave her a bunch of pastel colored translucent manipulatives.
I recently introduced some little tray puzzles. The rabbit and bird felt perfect for Easter.
We tried a pattern block template for the first time! I set it up on our magnetic easel with magnetic pattern blocks and she did great!
Easter Roll and Cover Game. This was her second time doing a roll and cover, and she did much better than the first time! She's starting to get the idea of finding the number from the die, she just lost interest easily. Hat because she's a fashionista.
Pom pom sorting activity.
Easter egg skewers and a cheese container has been a huge hit for all three kids! (They're definitely done after this year, they're literally falling apart).
Easter egg sound sorting. I put some jingle bells in half of the eggs and had her sort them into "sound" and "no sound." She did ok with the sorting, but mostly preferred shaking and opening them.
Easter play dough was a pretty simple set up. I just set out our themed cookie cutters and our little Play Doh set and she played with it almost every day.
I found these little chicks and nests at Hobby Lobby, so we did a quick sorting activity. She loved it and loved the chicks, but the chicks are not surviving play very well.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Africa Activities and Resources

 
As we go through our Around the World Homeschool studies, I thought I'd share some of the resources we used. Here are some of the things we did for Africa. I will post the individual country units as we do them.

General books about Africa or set in Africa
The Storyteller (supposed to go with Morocco)
He did the Africa pages in the Barefoot Books World Atlas Sticker Book.
Africa pages in his Flag Sticker Atlas
Africa page from Beginning Geography
He used his Flag Book to help him color each country into its flag on a map of Africa. This is his preferred way to color.
Africa Page from A World of Gratitude
He did his Africa tray puzzle and Africa GeoPuzzle.
We also looked through the Asian pages in our various atlases (you can see which ones we use here). This spread is from the Lift-The-Flap Picture Atlas
For art he made a giraffe paper chain from this book.

African Countries Units:





Monday, March 18, 2024

Art Supplies Vocabulary Cards

 

Montessori 3 Part Cards or vocabulary cards have been a huge tool for me in teaching my kids to read. My third baby is less "into" words than her brothers were, but she LOVES the Little Reader lessons I have made (I've been having trouble uploading lessons, so send me a message if you'd like the file). She also seems to like matching the cards. That means, I need to make more for her and this Art Supplies set is first up.




Check out other vocabulary cards:
Free Printable Montessori 3 Part Vocabulary Cards

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Easter Egg Pattern Matching Activity

When my kids hit the point of matching colors and shapes well, but I am not ready to introduce letters and numbers yet, pattern matching has been our logical transition activity (I've made mittens, shamrocks and hearts). This time, I made some fun patterned hearts that we can use for Valentine's Day and for our shape activities.


What is nice about these activities, is that they can start off as a matching activity and eventually progress to a memory activity. I do laminate mine for longevity.



Check out more Easter ideas:
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...