Strawberry Unit Study

This was a fun summer unit to do!  I thought it would be a great one, based on a field trip I had planned to take…picking strawberries!

I had to search a lot to find info, but I came up with quite a few things to go along with strawberries.

First, I will list some fun downloads I found:

S is for Strawberry -coloring page

Favorite Strawberry Foods

Cute Strawberry Maze

Strawberry Commodity Fact Sheet

Strawberry Anagrams

Strawberry Wordsearch

Here is  a good picture of the anatomy of a strawberry plant:

Here is a link to a great list of fun strawberry facts that I printed out.

I found some good books at the library.  All I could find was fictional titles, but they were cute!

Sweet Strawberries

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear

Molly and the Strawberry Day

The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher

I found a cute game on my iPhone that the boys love to play.  It’s called I Love Strawberries!  Quite appropriate for these guys!

We made some cute Do a Dot strawberries:

I made a sensory bin from some strawberries I purchased at Target a few years ago that I used for decoration.  I got the little baskets from the strawberry farm, along with the fun little hullers for less than a dollar total.  The boys loved this one!  Their tractors ended up hauling off all the berries!

We did a great science experiment!  We extracted the DNA from strawberries.   The results were really amazing!  It was a great time to talk about how amazing our God is!!!

Our trip the strawberry farm was fun.

We have also had a great crop of strawberries in our own garden!  I love this picture…

Between strawberries from home and from the berry farm, we had lots of strawberries to cook with!  The best part!

Andrew requested Papaw’s Strawberry Pie.

We also made Strawberry Leather from the fact sheet I referenced earlier.  That was neat, and the boys ate it up!

We also made smoothies and a dessert while camping.  I got this cute set to use.  The boys loved the slicer!

On my chalkboard I drew a big strawberry and wrote the different fruits of the Spirit as a reminder to us all!  So that was it!  Our first summer unit study!

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Go on a nature hunt!

Our co-op is having a field day this evening.  My part was to put together a type of hunt for the children.  Because it’s being held on a farm, I thought it would be perfect to do a nature hunt!

You can gather your treasures in an egg carton so everything is visible.

Wanna try?  Click on the file above to download!

Today is also a big day here at home!  It’s the last day of school!  I think we will officially celebrate on Monday.  You know, when I really feel the freedom!

Linking up!

Also linking up to Printable Power!  Get more printables at Walking By the Way!

Easter Activities

I really enjoy receiving the Thriving Family magazine.  They had some special Easter ideas.  We  took part in a few of them!

Place a white carnation in a vase. Read 1 Peter 1:18-19. Discuss with your children what it meant that Jesus was a “lamb without blemish or defect.” Add a dozen drops of red food coloring to the water. Watch what happens over the next two or three days. Use the red flower petals as a reminder that Jesus took our sins upon himself when He died on the Cross.

A few days before Easter Chad purchased the flowers.  As part of our betime Bible time, we read the verse together.  The boys dropped the red coloring into the vase of water, and place in the white carnations.  By Easter morning they looked like this…

 The boys thought this was so neat.  What a neat visual!

I got the idea of a scavenger hunt from the same resource.

Send your children on an Easter scavenger hunt. Instruct them to find items that symbolize different parts of the Easter story. Examples: A rock (the tomb), two sticks (the Cross), something black (sin), something red (blood), something white (a clean heart), something green (growing in Christ). Older children can go on a digital scavenger hunt, taking photographs of items that remind them of Easter.

We did this hunt before my boys received their Easter baskets.  Easter is about Jesus, and I want to make sure they know that!  They really enjoyed the hunt.  We took delight in watching them find each item.  As they found each item, they brought it to us on the porch.  Then we would read the verse that corresponds with each item.  Of course they were excited to receive their baskets,  but I really felt like they appreciated what we did.  It’s too late to use this year, but try it next year!

I made this file to share with you:  Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

I pray that you and your family were able to celebrate the true meaning of this special holiday!

Spring has sprung!

I really enjoy that definite change of seasons we have around here in Indiana.  And spring is my absolute favorite!  It makes for some fun teaching moments!

You know spring means?  Garage sales!  I love them!  We hit one this week that was advertised with teacher items from a teacher that was resigning.  It was so much fun!  I got all of this for $20.  A bucket of those tiles alone cost at least $20 at our teacher store! 

Springs always amazes me with new life all around us.  I always enjoy talking to my boys about it when we make our rounds through the yard and find all the new “babies” popping up.

Hostas are some of my favorite perrenials…

And the lilies…

Some plants are even blooming!

I spruced up the front porch with some new chair pads.  I’ll keep the old red ones for the fall/winter.  It’s cute that my boys really enjoy decorating with me.

Even Oliver is soaking up the nice weather…

Our biggest project this week was cleaning out our little garden pond.  It’s just about ready to go for the season.  We killed our fish from last year, but we are going to get some from a friend in a few days.  School at the pond is always fun!

Visit Homeschool Creations this week for Preschool Corner.  And get ready for her Curriculum Clean-Out!

Don’t miss my giveaway from Dayspring!!!

3 boys = a great vacation

I can’t believe it’s Friday already!  This week has been so busy with so many visitors!  Four of the five days we have had someone come over!  We have completed a full week of lessons, but not a whole lot more than the basics.  I hope to get one or two more unit studies in before we call it a year.  Right now it’s survival mode!

I will have to post a series of pictures from our vacation.  This one is pictures of my three sweeties together.  It’s my favorite way to photograph.  So much love!

We stopped in Montgomery, Alabama to see some friends.  They have been named a new aunt and uncle!  The boys were in awe of the red dirt there!

There’s something about seeing your boys all sleeping together, like little kitty cats.  Precious.

At the beach…

I’m not much on feet, but these are adorable…

In more water…

We stayed with some dear friends (that are like Grandma and Grandpa) that Chad farmed with growing up.  They live in a beautiful village with lots to see and do.  This was a neat place to take a picture!

At the very interactive and fun science museum…

Jumping together on the hotel beds (because that’s absolutely acceptable)…

Having an early Easter egg hunt with our ocean animal eggs…

I hope you all had a good week!  It’s really Spring around here.  We are ready!

Studying China

China is a fun place to study!  We did all kinds of things with all three boys.  That’s one of the great things about a unit study.  We love our Galloping the Globe!  Everyone can be involved!

I chose to do China in February because of the Chinese New Year holiday.

We stamped passports and were on our way.

We located China on the map and looked in the atlas and other good library books to learn more about the country.  Then we made the Chinese Flag by using red paper and gold sticker foam stars.

The boys were excited to receive their Lai See the first day of the Chinese New Year.  They made the envelopes and decorated them.   This was a good opportunity to talk to the boys about luck versus blessings.  We received this awesome kit from a friend who order it from MSM.

We decorated with Chinese lanterns.  A simple and festive way to decorate!

Dragon Art using all 3 boys’ handprints…

We are still enjoying the Chinese Blossom Tree we made.

Painting Chinese Numbers…

We read about Lottie Moon, missionary to China.  We made cookies as we learned about her and her amazing work.  Download this Lottie Moon cookies file I created.

We learned about the Great Wall of China.  Andrew built this…

We watched several YouTube videos on the Chinese New Year.  We watched China Revealed on Netflix.  The boys really enjoyed that show.  One night for our Friday night pizza and a movie we watched Kung Fu Panda.  They had watched it a while ago, so they loved watching it again.

We had lots of good Chinese food.  The first thing we did was eat at Panda Express because I had the coupons in our kit for free kids meals!  Thanks, Jen!  The boys love eating with chopsticks.

We made Good Life Noodles one night.  Rice and dumplings another night.  And more, because we enjoy Chinese food anyway!

We found all kinds of treats when we studied Pandas.  I love when I find fun stuff like this!  The little panda cookies came from the dollar section at Target!

They received a stuffed panda for a Valentine’s Day surprise.  We also enjoy Panda Toob Animals.  Samuel had fun counting them and sorting them.

Andrew did some panda drawing with a tracing kit we got last summer from Chik-Fil-A.

We made a shadow puppet theater.

There were loads of fun books on our book shelf!

From Galloping the Globe resources:

Children Like Me -always their fav

Stories Around the World

Missionary Stories with the Millers

Marvels of Creation

Eat Your Way Around the World

And from the wonderful library:

China reference books

A Grain of Rice

Eyes of the Dragon

The Story of Noodles – their favorite!!

The Story about Ping

Three Pandas – I loved this one!

Wan Hu is in the Stars

Emma’s Dragon Hunt

Panda Foo and the New Friend

And more!

Preschool Corner- Prayer Week

Not much in the way of Preschool Corner this week.  I think this week’s theme could be PRAYER.  It’s those real life lessons that mean the most, right?

Prayer is powerful, and it’s personal.

“…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

I’ve seen prayer work in so many ways this week.

We have seen our sweet little  niece less than 2 years of age recover and return home from being in ICU with illness.  Her grandma is just about back to normal after a brain hemorrhage.

Monday I watched some children of a friend of mine in our homeschool co-op.  She had a baby 3 months early and is going back and forth to the hospital every day.  I can imagine the stress she is going through.  Many prayers are being lifted up for that little guy.  He’s  a miracle.

Wednesday we had co-op, came home for some lunch and then took off again.  Ethan and Samuel stayed with a friend.  Chad, Andrew and I took off south to look at a popup camper.  It was really nice, so we decided we wanted to buy it  We really felt like this was the one God had for us.  The week prior we had “lost” a deal with another one, but we were confident God had bigger and better plans.  He never fails us.  This one is four years newer and a whole lot nicer…for the same price!  I am so thankful and so excited for camping time to come.  I wasn’t so sure about such a big purchase, but I knew this was something Chad wanted to do for our family.  I then felt like God was leading us to treasure this time while these boys are young and build memories together.  I love camping, although I never thought I would!  It’s so relaxing.  The boys really enjoy it.  Here’s how they were playing with Playmobil this week:

So we bought the camper and headed home.  Little did we know our adventures with it would begin so soon!  We were cruising along down one of the state highways.  Chad told us how he really felt God was telling him to go that road instead of the highway.  We were about to find out why.  A tire got too hot (probably not enough air from sitting in storage) and blew.  We had to pull over right away.  And we happened to were led right to the home of someone Chad knew.  Only out in rural Indiana, and only my Lord.  The man graciously took care of us and we were on our way.  We were now into the town right next to ours when the dash lights on our truck went off, along with the camper’s running lights.  We felt scared that we might get hit before we were able to pull over, but we all prayed.  We pulled safely over but couldn’t find the problem.  The brake lights were working, so we decided to go on the four more miles ahead to home.  We turn the corner and were stopped by a police  officer!  He was very kind and gave us a warning.  I thought we might not ever get home!  But we knew God was right there with us the whole time.  And through prayer, we did.

I guess we really are a homeschooling family now!  Ha!  We are really ready for Spring now!  Except that a snow storm came through last night leaving a couple inches of snow!

I had an oral surgery done on my mouth yesterday.  An apicoectomy to be exact.  Ouch.  I have a sore and a swollen mouth.  But I’m thankful I have a sweet and loving husband and understanding children.  I also have some dear friends who call, pray for me and send me flowers…

So we all have had lessons in prayer this week.  It’s real stuff.  Stuff that I hope they always remember.

Head on over to Homeschool Creations for this week’s Preschool Corner.  Her kiddos are praying to have school!

Preschool Corner – Valentine’s Day

It’s been a real light week due to some sickies in our house this week.  We learned more about China and Panda Bears, and we had some Valentine fun.

Samuel did a Valentine Power Magnet sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler:

We made some adorable little mosaic hearts using a crayon rubbing technique.  First, take some card stock and cut some random pieces.  Glue those on a piece of paper and let dry.  Speed it up with a hairdryer like I did!!  Take a light colored construction paper and place on top of your mosaic pieces.  Rub over them with some peeled crayons.  Cut heart shapes out!  Easy, yet so pretty.

There was a whole lot of playing going on with our Valentine’s Day sensory bin.

We had super fun time making Magic Marbles.  Ethan received these as a birthday gift.  None of us can keep our hands out of them!  They are so neat!  I couldn’t resist the funny photos!

We always love getting these LOVE printables out.  This is our third using these.  From 1+1+1=1, we learned about what love is.  It’s a great reminder for all of us!  I put a magnet on the back of these little hearts and each day we would draw a few out and learn about the meaning of love from I Corinthians 13.

And speaking of love…these three boys can’t stand being away from each other.  I tried to keep this sickness to a minimum, but it’s just impossible.  This is what I would find…

or…

Now I believe Ethan is getting better and the other two are getting sick.  Boo.

We did a Valentine treasure hunt.  I’ll tell you about that in my next post!

Being sick is a great time to get a lot of reading in.  I got all the Valentine’s books out of bookcase.

Books we enjoyed:

Panda’s Valentine’s Day

My Valentine for Jesus

The Night Before Valentine’s Day

The Story of Valentine’s Day

Kiss Goodnight

Winnie the Pooh and Valentine’s, Too

And I must admit that a whole lot of television was watched this week, too.  Sick=TV.  So we finished our week off by watching  The Cat in the Hat Valentine’s show!

Preschool Corner – Using New Stuff!

I don’t know about the rest of y’all out there, but it has been hard getting completely back into the routine of things after our Christmas break!

I wanted to share with you some of the new items they received for Christmas to be used during school time…

Learning Resources Gears

This picture cracks me up!

Learning Resources Cash Register Set – They all love this!  I love it, too!  It was one of my favorite things to do as a girl.  I had dreams of being a “clark” at Kmart.  Haha.  The one Samuel got was from Target.  It came with the basket, food, signs, etc.

Transportation Lace It! Cards

Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Stamp Set

Pickets are a fun construction toy.

These are fun crayons from Michaels held by some cute little chubby hands.

He has his very own Leapster now.  He’s so proud of that thing!  He has two new games for that, too.

Playing with the bulldozer his amazingly talented Daddy made is always fun.

Wednesday was Samuel’s birthday!  He and Ethan were anxious to use their free Steak n Shake birthday coupons.  So we went there for lunch.

He’s 4 now, but he reassured me the night of his birthday that he is still my baby, and that he will still be giving me kisses and hugs.  :)

Visit Homeschool Creation’s Preschool Corner to see more!

Snow Days

We’ve been playing with snow!  We are in the middle of our studies on Italy.  We had to pretend we were living in the Alps, I guess!  This little mini study was sparked by our canceled co-op day on Wednesday!

We have about 6-7  inches of snow here in Indiana.  I like the snow, and my boys love it!  We’ve done a lot of playing in it…

I love all the squinty noses.  And my hot husband working hard snowblowing the driveway.  Do you see our attempt at a snowman?  He’s so little, but oh so cute.  The snow was a dry one this time.  A friend gave us the snowman kit for Christmas.  He was too small to use the carrot nose and the pipe this time!

We cut many a  snowflakes and made a whole lot of mess.  Chad and I both did one, too.  Something about cutting a snowflake reminds me of being a kid again.

Samuel’s trays had some snow related fun to them.  He enjoyed transferring “snow balls” into bowls…

He also enjoyed putting little snowflake table scatter on the Power Magnet Counting Cards.

We made some snow cream.  The boys love, love, love to do this!  This time it was their idea to make it blue.  It turned out so pretty, and quite delicious! (Ethan was a kitty that day!)

As if we didn’t have enough snow around here, we made some Insta-Snow Powder.  That’s always some messy fun!

We made another Winter Sun Catcher since it was a big hit last year.  No worries of it melting around here!

Ethan even learned “sn” words this week!  How appropriate!

And it’s always so special to have conversations with my boys on the topic of how very unique and special they are, just like the snowflake!  The Bible tells us how we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  We are made in the image of the One who created us!

Books we read…

The Snowy Day

Little Snowflakes Big Adventure

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow

Millions of Snowflakes

I’m also linked up to Kids Get Crafty!