Calendar Connections

As we end one month and begin another, I wanted to share an idea with you.

Carisa over at 1+1+1=1, has created these wonderful Calendar Connections that we’ve been using for a few months now and love!  I don’t remember how I first stumbled onto her post about these, but I do remember thinking that not only was it a great idea, it seemed so DO-able.  You see, most of the time when I read about everyone else’s great ideas I just end up feeling inadequate and insecure about my own projects – or lack thereof (tell me I’m not alone?).  But this one seemed like something I could actually do!

It’s possible that much of the allure was in the need to laminate things. I’ve written about my love of laminating before.

Carisa has a variety of Calendar Connection themes on her website and so far we’ve done three of them; Botany, Astronomy and the Arctic and Antarctic.  I purchased this pocket calendar, after much searching for the best price, and it’s been perfect. As a bonus, the cards that come with it (for the months, seasons, etc…) are in English and Spanish! My kids aren’t doing any formal language instruction right now, but have learned a little Spanish, so it’s been fun to use the calendar cards to learn new words.

I had wanted a large, visual way to help my younger boys learn the months, days of the week, etc… and this has been just what we needed.  It also comes with cards for the different holidays or birthdays, which helps us all to see what special things are happening during the month.

So far, I’ve let my boys choose which theme they wanted to do for the month, but this month I chose for them, since Carisa has a Thanksgiving theme.  At the end of the month I just go to her site, print out the cards for the theme we want to do the next month, laminate them, cut them out and enlist a little helper in putting them in the right pockets – easy!

Each day, usually at dinnertime, we pull out that day’s card and read it. This usually leads to some discussion or commentary by the boys. I also gather whatever books we have lying around the house or check out new ones from the library that fit our theme and keep them in our book basket for the boys to peruse. Of course whenever we can tie in our other school work with the theme (i.e. doing our science chapter on botany and our Magic School Bus kit about the solar system) we do that, too.

We’ve really enjoyed adding this to our day – my boys look forward to it and remind me to read the new card each day! It’s been a very simple way to learn new facts about topics the boys are interested in and I’m looking forward to making our way through all of the themes. You can find all of the Calendar Connections here.

Happy Halloween!

~ Dori

Patterson Fruit Farm

Last week my littlest guy turned two (I’m sorry, didn’t we JUST bring him home from the hospital?!).  We racked our brains to come up with a suitable way to celebrate his birthday and ended up spending the afternoon at nearby Patterson Fruit Farm.  You see, our little guy absolutely LOVES to be outside. Mention that you want to go for a walk and he’ll be off in a flash, returning holding his shoes. So the fruit farm, and their Family Fun Fest, was the perfect plan to make him happy for a day.

Along with plenty of cake, of course.

If you’ve never been to Patterson Fruit Farm, then you should abandon all plans for a day and take the kids on a field trip. There is some beautiful weather in our Cleveland forecast this week and it’s also the last week of the Family Fun Fest(through the 28th).  I can’t think of a better way to savor a beautiful fall day.

During the week it’s $4 a person (2 and under free) and that includes a wagon ride out to the enormous play ground. There’s a wide variety of things for kids to enjoy – they can play in the hay stacks, climb the tree house in the woods and slide down the 50 foot double slide, wander through the corn maze and take a wonderful nature hike through the ravines and hills of Geauga County.

If you’ve lived in the Cleveland area for any length of time, you probably already know about this gem, but I wanted to mention it for anyone who may not be familiar with it.  They also have a Farm Market, of course – full of goodies like maple syrup, apple cider and freshly prepared pies and donuts.

And now I’m hungry. Great.

Needless to say, we really enjoyed our visit  – we hadn’t been in quite awhile and it was the first time my husband had a chance to go with us.

So take a day off this week and enjoy these beautiful days of fall!

~ Dori

Laminating Leaves

I love fall. It's definitely my favorite season. We've been celebrating this season as much as possible around here lately and I wanted to share a very simple craft that I did with my Cub Scout Den last week.  The boys thought it was really cool! Or maybe they were just humoring me...but still.

If you have a laminator, then this may be the easiest craft ever. But even if you don't, you can still accomplish basically the same thing (more on that later). Here's what we used:

I've written about my new found love of laminating before, where I also talk about my particular laminating machine.   But if you want to get a laminating machine on a tight budget, I understand that the Scotch Thermal Laminator is really great and a bargain at less than $30.  Also - I use the generic laminating sheets that you can buy on the cheap at wholesale clubs like Sam's, Costco or BJ's and they work great.

Yes, I realize that taking pictures of leaves on a tree-patterned tablecloth wasn't too great. I was too lazy to do anything else.

Step One: Force the kids outdoors take the kids on a walk and collect a variety of leaves.

Step Two: Remove stems from leaves and arrange on one side of laminating sheet.

Step Three:  Close up the laminating sheet and make sure leaves are as flat as possible between sheets (you may need to enlist the help of a good, heavy book placed on top for a few minutes to accomplish this).

Step Four: The really fun part! Carefully run the whole thing through your laminating machine! (You did turn it on, right?)

Watch the magic happen...

If you don't have a laminating machine, you can get similar results using wax paper - place leaves between two pieces and then iron. Clear contact paper would probably work, too.

Voila! Instant fall decor! You could three-hole punch these and add them to a science notebook, use as place mats, or hang in the window, like we did. If you really want to make more of a science project out of it, you could have the kids look up and label the individual leaves.

We were much too lazy to do anything like that, though.

~ Dori

What are some ways that you enjoy fall and bring it into your homeschooling?