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Free Handwriting Story Pages
I created this homeschool writing and notebooking resource for my own kids, and thought I’d share it with you! I’ve included 4 size options that will work for children in preschool through elementary age. Every student is unique, so you can choose whichever works best. They have traditional blue and red lines to give visual cues on where to start and stop. For black and white, you may just choose to print in grayscale. I’ve included one version with a box at the top for a visual cue of where to draw, as well as one without for those who prefer it. This free homeschool resource if available to subscribers…
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Spring Tree Q-Tip Painting – Free Printable Craft Activity for Kids
I originally put this together for Fall when we were studying Autumn trees. However, we enjoyed it so much that I decided to turn it into a Spring craft activity! We love the cherry blossoms and it’s really calming and fun to paint the pink blossoms all over the paper. This would be a great Spring craft activity for toddlers, preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or beyond. (Honestly, I really enjoy it too!) And it fits perfectly with our Spring Tree nature study theme this week! I printed the page on cardstock and then glued it to a piece of construction paper. Then we just dotted our papers with paint to…
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Free Reading Tracker for Kids
All of my kids love to read, and honestly don’t really need a lot of incentive. But they LOVE working towards a goal. My youngest finished her homeschool reading curriculum All About Reading, but missed the progress chart. So, I created a reading tracker for her to work toward a goal of reading 50 books. I bought these cute and simple round stickers for her to put on each of the little books on the tracker. We could have just as easily just checked off each one, but what kid doesn’t love stickers?! When she reaches her goal, she’ll get a one-on-one date with me. As a homeschool family, we…
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Autumn Tree Q-Tip Painting – Free Printable Craft Activity for Kids
I put this autumn tree poem printable together last year when we were homeschooling for Kindergarten, and I think I enjoyed it as much as my girls did. There is just something really calming about painting Fall leaves like this. This would be a great Fall craft activity for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade. And it fits perfectly with our Autumn Tree nature study theme this week! I printed the page on cardstock and then glued it to a piece of construction paper. Then we just dotted our papers with paint to represent the Fall leaves. The best part about this craft activity is that it also works on those…
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Autumn Nature Study Bible Memory Verses
Each week I incorporate Bible memory work into our homeschool. We practice every day until it is memorized. It’s more challenging for my 7 year old, who has Down syndrome, because her auditory processing (short-term memory) is not as strong. This means I often have to repeat sections of the verse, sometimes just one or two words at a time, often many times. It can be tedious, but I believe it is so important that we hide God’s word in our hearts. Her long term memory is quite good, and she is so proud of the accomplishment when she has it memorized. I don’t stress out if there’s a verse…
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Handprint Owl Kid Craft and Free Printable
This week in our homeschool we have been learning about owls. I made a really fun owl themed snack and was thinking I could do something similar as a printable. My girls are in first grade this year, but I think this would be a simple and cute toddler craft, preschool craft, or kindergarten craft. Actually, I think it would be ideal as a craft for toddlers or preschoolers because their hands are smaller. I was pretty surprised to see how big my daughters’ hands have gotten this year! (And yet they are still tiny compared to my teen! Where do the years go?!) It was my husband’s birthday last…
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Poetry for Kids
This year as I homeschool my daughters for 1st grade I’m being more intentional about including poetry. We’ve always had poetry books and such, but this year I am also displaying a new nature related poem every week and we read it during our morning basket time. The girls really look forward to hearing it each day! We’ve also been really enjoying our weekly Poetry Teatime! I make gluten and dairy free treats, we sip tea, and we read poetry! People often ask which books are currently in our poetry basket, so here you go! Where the Sidewalk Ends A Light in the Attic Sing a Song of Seasons: A…
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My New Discbound Personal and Homeschool Planner
This year I decided to combine my personal planner with my homeschool planner and to convert over to a discbound planner. For a long time I’ve used a bullet journal. As a planner junkie who loves to try out new layouts, it suited me perfectly. More recently I’ve been using a bujo in a traveler’s notebook, which was even better. The one big drawback to both of these options is that you can’t add or remove pages. I knew I didn’t want a ringbound planner because the rings tend to be big and get in my way. I like how you can flip over spiral planners, but like with ring bound planners…
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Flash Cards and Simple Books
One of the things we do with Lily is to select simple books that have the same words repeated throughout the book. As I’ve posted about before, I first make flashcards from all the words in the book. I put the word on both sides of the card, using a different font on each side. Not only does this make it easier to flash the cards, but it also helps her recognize the same word can look slightly different. If we already have a flash card for any particular word I don’t make a new one, but depending on how long ago we reviewed it, I may pull it out…
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Fast Flashing to Teach Reading – Flash Cards
Even before we started Lily on a neurodevelopmental (ND) program through ICAN, I was using flash cards with her. This is one area that I think is confusing for parents new to an ND program. There are a few different types of flash card activities, such as receptive picture cards, language cards, and word cards, with various interpretations and even different names for these card activities. Picture cards – you are just rapidly showing pictures and giving the child a word to associate with each picture. The goal is to build vocabulary, not teach them to read. You are not showing words, just pictures. This is a fast flashing activity, done in short, frequent sessions each day. I…
