| In This Issue | Learning With (and about) Food
Good Stuff on the Web
Blank Game and Puzzle Sale
Fun Stuff You May Have Missed
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See Times Tales in Action!
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Want to see Times Tales in action? Just CLICK HERE to see the amazing results. Even a Kindergartener can do it. Really! |
Grocery Cart Math
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The fun, easy,
practical way
to practice
math skills.
Download a preview HERE.
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Teach your child
in the classical style and have fun at the same time
with Writing Tales
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Writing Journal
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Enjoyable, creative
writing skills
practice
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Wow! I can't believe how quickly summer flew by this year! I still have a list of projects that I didn't get to. I'm hoping I can still squeeze them in over the next few weekends.
This last week marked our first official school week and it went extremely well. Probably the best "first week" ever. Whew! I'm guessing that most of you are back in the swing of things by now as well.
I hope you enjoy this month's newsletter and the resources and ideas inside!
~Dena |
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Learning with (and about) Food
| My husband and I have both been dieting (with much success!) over the summer and have made some major changes in our eating habits. In the process, the kids have been changing what they are eating as well.
Sharing that experience has been a great learning tool. They are now asking how healthy something is, how much sugar it contains, etc. Last week I bought $10 worth of corn from a local farmer. He even delivered it to my porch on his four wheeler! We shucked, and blanched all 80 ears, then cut off the corn and froze it. My helpers were great, and they learned a lot in the process. Now we have healthy, home-grown, local corn for winter. (This also corresponded nicely with our Proverbs study about the diligent man and storing up the harvest.)
This weekend I ground wheatberries and performed a mass baking day. I'm trying to do away with sugared cereal the kids typically eat for breakfast. Terrible, I know! Since I don't have the time to make a hot breakfast every morning I bulk baked a ton of whole wheat waffles, pancakes, apple muffins and bread. Yum! Now the kids can just stick want they want in the microwave or toaster and enjoy. These Whole Wheat, Oatmeal and Banana Pancakes are to die for, by the way!
There are so many learning opportunities based around the food you eat and serve. Here are just a few ideas:
*Let the kids plan the weekly menu, or even the menu for one night a week. Encourage them to use all the food groups and discuss their choices.
*Have a child take responsibility for one meal a week. Besides learning a valuable life skill, they'll practice reading, following instructions, and math. They'll likely even learn some new terminology. As they become more practiced, encourage them to challenge themselves. Check out cookbooks from the library for inspiration.
*Have a cook-off! If you have several children of "cooking age", create a contest for creating the best breakfast or lunch.
*Let older students learn about healthy food substitutions, then give them a recipe to "make over". Make both the old and new versions and do a taste test. Rate both versions.
*Include the kids in the grocery shopping. Make a list before you head out and have them estimate how much the total will be. Compare their estimate with the actual bill.
*Take advantage of Grocery Cart Math (or make up similarly styled worksheets of your own.) for your kids to use while you are shopping. Here is a preview of sample lessons from Grocery Cart Math. Have them find the best buy on specific items. Compare unit costs on different forms of a product. For instance; compare the unit cost of block, sliced and shredded cheese. How much would you save by buying a block and shredding it yourself?
*Do you coupon? We do! Include the kids. Let them match coupons to sales flyers and organize them for you. When you've finished shopping let the kids calculate how much you saved in coupons and with sales. What would the total have been if you'd not taken advantage of either?
These are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing. I'm going to post this on the blog and would love it if you hopped over there and left us your own ideas for incorporating education into cooking, shopping or meal planning! www.PJsAllday.com
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Good Stuff on the Web
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Graphic organizers are an excellent tool for helping your children sort and store information. Freeology offers a great assortment of organizers. Take some time to browse through their selection and consider how you might incorporate them into your lessons. From the website:
Why do they work?
Random facts are quickly lost. However, the brain's ability
to store pictures is unlimited. Since the brain likes to chunk
information, the graphic organizer complements the way the brain
naturally works.
Homeschool Launch offers a huge selection of resources to aid in your teaching. Just check out this long list of free notebooking pages in the left sidebar.
Do you have some students who need encouragement? How about printing off some of these motivational posters? I think that this one is my favorite. It's a bit tricky figuring out how to download these. At the bottom of the page for each poster it says "Download this Motivational Poster". Click on that link.
Hooda Math has a large selection of free math games that your students may enjoy.
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Blank Games & Puzzles - SALE!
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Our blank games and puzzles are a great way to reinforce learning while keeping things fun. Have your students illustrate a new concept on a puzzle and send it to Grandma or let them create a board game about the time period in history that you're studying. What an excellent way to review. At $9.95, these game sets are already a bargain, but if you use the code TOOMUCHFUN you can take an additional 15% off! The discount applies to the blank puzzles as well. (Note: the round puzzles are no longer available.)
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Fun Stuff You May Have Missed
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Happy Homeschooling!
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We wish you every success in your homeschooling journey!
Sincerely,
Dena, Jennie & Marillee
Trigger Memory Systems
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