Author: Ann

Blessed to homeschool in rural east Texas. Two graduated, one to go!

Oakie, the Nature Study Tree

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Following a particular tree for a year is a fun nature study activity.  The tree does not need to be at your home, it could be in a park , library or anywhere you can have access to the tree year-round.  Our family chose a tree on our property to follow for a year, but have found that, three years later, we are still keeping track of the life of our favorite tree.  Let me introduce you to Oakie, our nature study tree.

As a supplement to our nature studies, three years ago,  my children and I decided to choose one tree on our property to focus on for nature study. I thought it would be an easy choice, but with nearly 30 trees on our 2 acres, there was a  bit of debate. Finally, we made a choice.

This tree is not the largest or loveliest tree in our yard by any means, but it gets lots of attention and action in and around it. Oakie is right next to the children’s play set, and it is where we hang three bird feeders. We have watched this tree every day for nearly 3 years.

We started out by naming the tree Oakie and then collected some leaves for our nature notebooks. We drew  pictures of the tree for each season and discussed theories on why the tree leans to one side. (hard to tell in the photo) We compared the leaves and acorns of this oak to the other oak trees in the yard and discovered we have at least 3 different types of oak trees on our property!  We made bark rubbings, measured the circumference of the tree several times during the school year and studied the wildlife that visit the tree. The Handbook of Nature Study gave me some good discussion points to share, and we had a great time getting to know our tree.

Three years later, we still check the upper branches to see what bird is waiting on a refill at the feeders.  We know which branches the squirrels like to use most, and where the woodpecker likes to hunt for insects. We still press its petite red leaves in books every fall.   Oakie survived a straight-line windstorm that threw the children’s play set against it.  The play set sustained serious damage, but Oakie came through unscathed.   Compared to the larger, more stately oaks and hickories on our property, Oakie is not much to look at, but  we love our scraggly little nature-study tree.   We encourage you to find a tree to study and love as well.

Motivation Monday

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This Work Pays.

It costs something to bring children up in the way of God.  It costs a mother’s tears and a father’s prayers.  It calls for unflagging effort, for patient instruction, here a little and there a little.  But this work pays.  Parents can thus build around their children bulwarks which will preserve them from the evil that is flooding our world.

Child Guidance, 479

July Brings

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Hot July brings cooling showers,

Apricots and gillyflowers…

Our July themed post is a bit late thanks to General Conference, but let’s celebrate anyway, shall we?

Those of you who missed any of the General Conference programs can catch up at the Hope Channel’s Media Library.

July always brings hot temperatures, now is a great time to learn how to read a thermometer. Hang up an outdoor thermometer and track the weather for a week. You can even make your own thermometer HERE! Create a simple bar graph and you’ve done a simple summer math project.

July 13 is Go West Day, so let’s join Lewis and Clark in an online adventure from National Geographic!

Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, commemorate the day with some fun activities found HERE.

Play Dough For More Than Just Playtime

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It’s time to rethink play dough.   More than just a playtime toy, play dough can also be a fun addition to your collection of manipulatives to facilitate creative learning. There lots of ways to use play dough as part of your lessons, but first we need to start our learning by making some homemade dough! Let your older children join the fun by having them make the recipe for younger siblings. The older children will get valuable practice in reading a recipe and following directions, as well as proper measuring. Once the play dough is made, you will find that older children will enjoy using it as much as younger ones!

Play Dough

2 cups flour
3 tbsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup salt
4 tbsp oil
1/2 cup boiling water
food coloring
Mix dry ingredients together. Mix oil, food coloring and boiling water in a separate container. Stir liquid mixture until cool enough to knead. Knead until smooth. If play-dough is too dry, add more water, a little at a time. If play-dough is too crumbly, knead in a small amount of oil. Store in an airtight container.

No-Cook Play Dough

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 tbsp oil
1 and 1/2 cup water
Mix oil and food color together before adding to dry mixture. Mix until pliable. Keep in container or plastic bag.

Play dough recipes courtesy of Prekinders.com

Now that you have a batch of dough in fun colors, what can you do with it to add educational value?

FIDGET WIDGET – My favorite use for play dough is as a “fidget widget”. A small ball of dough kneaded in an active child’s hands can help them listen more carefully as a lesson is being taught. Having something to hold and squeeze instead of wiggling in a seat or tapping a pencil or foot can help a kinesthetic child concentrate more easily.

COUNTERS – Beginning math students will have fun creating their own counters for the day’s lesson. Line them up and teach ordinal numbers, create patterns with different colors or practice simple addition and subtraction.

ROPE LETTER/NUMBERS – Print a single letter of the alphabet on a sheet of paper, and let your student make a long rope with the dough, then form the letter over the outline on the paper. Your kinesthetic learner will love the hands-on time. Works great with numbers as well.

READING COMPREHENSION – At the start of your read-aloud time, give each child a portion of the play dough Have them create something from the story to share with everyone at the end of the read-aloud session. It could be an important character or item from the story, an aspect of the setting, or a symbol representing something from the reading.

EARLY MATH SKILLS – Play dough is a fun and easy way to teach concepts like large/small, tall/short, etc. Add some fun cookie cutters and you can work on learning shapes.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS – Practice cutting with a small slab of play dough and an extra pair of safety scissors. Little fingers will find play dough much easier to cut and handle than a sheet of paper.

NATURE IMPRESSIONS – Items collected on nature walks often make interesting impressions. You could even create a guess-the-nature-item game based on the impression in the play dough.

Motivation Monday

Ann1 Comment

” Knowledge is power, either for good or for evil.

Bible religion is the only safeguard for human beings.”


Fundamentals of Christian Education, 111

Moore Homeschooling Podcast Series

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If you haven’t heard thatmom.com’s podcast  interview with Ellen Dana from the Moore Academy, you owe it to yourself to take time to listen.  Ellen Dana, a veteran homeschool mom who was homeschooled herself for a time, talks about the practical application of True Education principles.

New homeschooling parents will be blessed and inspired, and experienced homeschool parents will be re-invigorated.   The podcasts are also available on itunes – look for thatmom’s podcasts 93-100.

Geocaching – Part 3 ~ Guest Post

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Many thanks to Vicky for sharing her family’s interest in geocaching with us!

Read Part One or Part Two

What do I do if I want to hide a cache?

First of all, I would suggest you find a few caches first. You’ll never know what you will find, and the more you look, the more ideas you’ll have.

Have you hidden a cache? If so, what did you do?

Yes, I have one cache hidden. But, I hid it after I’d found about 35 others myself. (Just so you know there are people who have found thousands!!!). What I did to hide my cache is first decide where I wanted people to come – and where it would be OK for them to come. Since I live in a townhome complex, bringing strangers in where there are many children present wasn’t too good an idea for me. So, after seeking permission, I placed a micro (very, very small cache) on the property of my son’s boy choir. I did this because I want people to come and see the sign for the Land of Lakes

C’mon, give geocaching a try, it’s fun!

Choirboys, thus helping to spread the choir name to those who might not have heard of them before. I created a listing on geocaching.com; and, once a geocaching.com volunteer reviewed my cache site, my cache was listed on the website. Within 18 hours of the listing, I already had people finding it. Currently I have 17 finds and 0 Did Not Finds.

There are several places that you should NOT put a cache – under overpasses, near government offices or in places where placing an item could create a panic (“there’s a bomb!”).

Do you have any resources we can go to find out more?

Yes, I do. Of course www.geocaching.com has some great FAQ’s as well as a couple of video clips. You can also go to youtube and search “geocaching.” As always, please prescreen clips you choose before letting your kids see them. As new clips are being put up, I cannot guarantee the quality of what’s there. However, generally what I’ve seen has been fairly acceptable. Here is a good clip to get started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7SF-Axvyg

clever hides:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKEFMYKN1wk&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP8mE4HipJk&feature=related