Make it a Valentine Week:
We will be learning about the history behind Valentine's Day and reading great love poetry. I made a CD with Valentine's history, stories, and poems from Librivox, Storynory, and Lit2Go to listen to as well while we are doing our driving around. Search for titles with "love" or "valentine." Other suggestions: Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, Elizabeth Barret Browning's Sonnet 43 (or any poems in Sonnets from the Portuguese), A Red Red Rose by Robert Burns, Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and so many more out there. Scroll down on Storynory's main page and there are links to recordings of the history of Saint Valentine and 3 other stories.
Movies with a love/Valentine theme (can you guess how excited my boy is?) - Charlie Brown, The Princess & the Frog and other Disney, Shrek (it counts right?), and whatever else fits :)
Currclick has a couple FREE Valentine items:
Simply Schooling Valentine's Day Free Book - coloring pages and simple writing practice.
Connect the Thoughts has a Creative Writing & History Elective - I am only going to use the history and poetry lessons.
I like to do a Treasure Hunt for my kids on Valentine's Day - I put found a couple online sources to get enough ideas to make up our own treasure hunt:
Party Games clues
Dating Divas clues - this website is for couple dates, but the clues can work for anyone. Be aware there may be pictures/ideas not appropriate for little eyes.
What are your favorite ways to celebrate?
PS. We are having our home school group Valentine's Party on Friday - send me an email if you live near the Salt Lake Valley and want to come!
Books & Mud Puddles - Sharing our homeschooling adventures with our family, friends, and the homeschool community.
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sunday, March 14, 2010
St Patrick's Day
Here are some things we will be doing to celebrate St. patrick's Day this week:
Online Videos- We will probably watch the ones about the History, St. Patrick, shamrocks, and green.
A Yahoo!Answers page with some great looking links to Leprechaun stories, but I don't know which ones or if we will use these - we have several pictures books about Irish fairy tales that we will read. I also found this simple article about the Legend of the Irish Leprechauns (to remind myself about all the little details!).
Here is a link to an Irish Blessing copywork pages - I put this together with some coloring pages I found online (search "st. patrick's day coloring pages") to make a book for my kids for the week.
I found this wonderful new-to-me website that does audio stories - Storynory. There is a great collection of tales about St. Patrick (and I'm super excited about many of the other stories I found!)
I remember in elementary school coming into the classroom and finding leprechaun footprints all over the room leading to a treat, and I aways intend to do it for my own kids but usually forget. I'm already thinking about it a few days ahead of time so maybe it will happen this year. I'm going to use the great idea of tracing an pair of baby shoes to make the footprints.
I've also toyed with the idea of having Lucky Charms for breakfast, but due to my pregnancy I find myself unfortunately suceptible to gobbling up all the sweet goodies in my path so I don't know if I dare bring one of my favorite cereals into the house. Oh come on, be realistic!! That isn't going to stop me.
And we will have a traditional dinner of Corned Beef, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. Austin asks for this dinner year-round, because he loves the corned beef not the veggies, but I'll take dinner successes where I can.
Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!!
Online Videos- We will probably watch the ones about the History, St. Patrick, shamrocks, and green.
A Yahoo!Answers page with some great looking links to Leprechaun stories, but I don't know which ones or if we will use these - we have several pictures books about Irish fairy tales that we will read. I also found this simple article about the Legend of the Irish Leprechauns (to remind myself about all the little details!).
Here is a link to an Irish Blessing copywork pages - I put this together with some coloring pages I found online (search "st. patrick's day coloring pages") to make a book for my kids for the week.
I found this wonderful new-to-me website that does audio stories - Storynory. There is a great collection of tales about St. Patrick (and I'm super excited about many of the other stories I found!)
I remember in elementary school coming into the classroom and finding leprechaun footprints all over the room leading to a treat, and I aways intend to do it for my own kids but usually forget. I'm already thinking about it a few days ahead of time so maybe it will happen this year. I'm going to use the great idea of tracing an pair of baby shoes to make the footprints.
I've also toyed with the idea of having Lucky Charms for breakfast, but due to my pregnancy I find myself unfortunately suceptible to gobbling up all the sweet goodies in my path so I don't know if I dare bring one of my favorite cereals into the house. Oh come on, be realistic!! That isn't going to stop me.
And we will have a traditional dinner of Corned Beef, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. Austin asks for this dinner year-round, because he loves the corned beef not the veggies, but I'll take dinner successes where I can.
Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Christmas Plans
What fun things are you doing this Christmas season?
This year my kids are making some the presents they will give away (mostly to grandparents). I sort of had visions of them being really excited about it and getting them done fast enough to make some for lots of family and friends, but I was delusional. Maybe if we start in January they can do this next year. They are willing and happy to work on their projects most of the time, but they are also kids and get frustrated when things don't go the way they want. And I'm not going to ruin any surprises by telling everyone what we are making, but here are some hints . . .
We usually make some kind of new ornament each year. Last year the kids colored these wooden ornaments from a craft store, but this year we hot glued pinecones to ribbon. We are not elaborate crafters.
LDS About.com Advent figures - I printed these out, let the kids color them, cut them out, and they are using them like paper dolls to act out the story.
We are also singing favorite Christmas hymns (i.e. the ones the kids know) during our morning devotionals. Even O and J are singing Christmas Bells with us. And we are working on classic favorites, such as Jingle Bells and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I also like to play the Christmas cd's we have.
Our favorite is Hilary Knights The Twelve Days of Christmas (I love her Cinderella too - I remember reading it as a kid!!)
And favorite movies!!!
This year my kids are making some the presents they will give away (mostly to grandparents). I sort of had visions of them being really excited about it and getting them done fast enough to make some for lots of family and friends, but I was delusional. Maybe if we start in January they can do this next year. They are willing and happy to work on their projects most of the time, but they are also kids and get frustrated when things don't go the way they want. And I'm not going to ruin any surprises by telling everyone what we are making, but here are some hints . . .
We usually make some kind of new ornament each year. Last year the kids colored these wooden ornaments from a craft store, but this year we hot glued pinecones to ribbon. We are not elaborate crafters.
The kids were given this advent calendar at church. I found it online at Sugardoodle - a great website with lots more ideas (and wonderful helps for many church callings)!! I love how it has pictures to go with each day. 
LDS About.com Advent figures - I printed these out, let the kids color them, cut them out, and they are using them like paper dolls to act out the story.
We are also singing favorite Christmas hymns (i.e. the ones the kids know) during our morning devotionals. Even O and J are singing Christmas Bells with us. And we are working on classic favorites, such as Jingle Bells and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I also like to play the Christmas cd's we have.
I love Christmas stories, so we are reading lots of these as well!!
Our favorite is Hilary Knights The Twelve Days of Christmas (I love her Cinderella too - I remember reading it as a kid!!)
And favorite movies!!!Frosty the Snowman, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Prancer, The Little Princess, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and so many more!!
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