The Importance of Reading Aloud

The single best activity that I have ever done with my kids was reading to them aloud since the very first days of their lives. I am talking about the time when they were still residing in my belly... I would sit most nights and read the same book over and over to my son. I heard somewhere that although they can't understand the words you are reading, they sure recognize the rhythm of your voice. When my son was born, I sat every night in the same rocking chair and read to him Brown Bear Brown Bear book by Eric Carle over and over. Sure enough, it was his very favorite book for years.

Night reading became a habit in our home and we treasure it till today. Even though they can read to themselves, they both race every evening to pick a book that I will read to them aloud before the lights go out. We started with picture books but we recently moved to chapter books. Kids are older now and they can sit through longer reading sessions with no problem.

Here are some good points that could help motivate you to spend more time reading to your kids:

• Reading aloud leads to language development in children
• Reading aloud helps you bond with your child
• Reading aloud helps kids build positive relationships with books
• ... which comes hand in hand with developing love for reading
• If kids love reading, they will have easier time at school learning
• Reading aloud also helps kids practice listening

The above points are oh so true!!! I can't stress it enough how much kids benefit from reading... How much knowledge and vocabulary they build by reading books. Reading goes hand in hand with learning. If kids don't have connection with books, they don't have easy time learning. And it all starts with us parents...

As kids grow older, some parents don't see how reading aloud could be beneficial, since they can read their own books... The truth is that there are so many benefits in reading to your children at any age.

Here are some great benefits of reading aloud to your older children:

• It helps parents and children bond over the topic they are reading about
• It gives parents and children something to talk about
• It helps parents to be role models to their older kids
• It gives them opportunity to spend quality time together

About a year ago, we started reading aloud sessions in the morning by the breakfast table. We start with Bible story, memory verse, and prayer, followed by a chapter book. (Please see the book wheel under this article for the book recommendations based on our experience) I understand that this is not available to everyone and that unhurried morning is one of the perks of homeschooling... but try to choose any time of the day and devote yourself to your kids and a book. You will build treasured moments that will help you bond with your kids ... after all there is never too much time that you can spend with your babies, right?  ;-)

I had people ask me why would I be reading to the kids when they were only few days old... they can't even understand the words and the point of the story... To me it was a bonding activity and a habit that I was creating not only for them but also for myself. Fast forward 8 years later and you will find my kids in the evening snuggled in bed with me or their dad, listening to the book we are reading to them. They love those moments and I know that one day, they will pass it on to their kids.

Have a great time reading, my dear friends!

Monika

How Plants Travel To Find Light

Try this fun experiment with your kids this summer! 

All you need is:

shoe box

tape

small plastic cup

soil

2 bean seeds

(and a little patience)

Cut the shoe box lid into 2 rectangular pieces so the width equals the width of the shoe box and it reaches just right into the middle of the box after you bend it. Tape it to the box the way you see it on the picture below. Cut a hole on top of the box.

Fill cup with soil and place 2 bean seeds on top, covering them little bit with the soil. Now place the cup into the box and place the box by a window so the cup receives direct sunlight. Water it and keep moist throughout the whole experiment. When your plants reach 2 inches, leave the box at the same spot but turn it away from the sun. We turned and tilted ours to have the hole face the sun. 

Over the next couple weeks, watch the plant travel to the light. It's quite amazing how this works!

Talk with the kids how important light is for plants. They will turn, bend over, and bend over backwards to go find it and this is the proof!

Grass Cup Guys project for kids

The season of growing is here and I like to teach my kids about anything that nature has for us to learn. During the next few weeks I would like to show you few projects that will help kids connect with nature and teach them a little something about what surrounds us.

So first meet our handsome cup guys! 

All you need is:

Small see-through cups

grass seeds

soil

hot glue gun

pipe cleaners

googly eyes

pom poms 

First have kids design the face... we used pom poms, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners. You can also print out a face from the web.

Then fill the cup with soil and soak it with water. Sprinkle grass seeds on top (no need to burry them into the soil). Now place it by a light (window will do great) and wait few days (make sure you keep the soil moist at all times). Your kids will have fun watching the "hair" grow and they can even style it if they want... perhaps give the guy a hair cut?

As you see, one of our guys has more successful hair growth than the other ;-) What can you learn from this fun project? You can talk about plants needing sun, air, soil, and water to grow. Also point out that grass regrows after you cut it. If you keep watering the grass it will stay around a for a while. (I think it has been at least a month and they are still going strong)

Using the World Cup as a Learning Tool

There is one thing I am certain of when it comes to educating kids. You focus their study around something they are interested in and they will be more eager to learn then any other time. I see that in my house all the time. When we are doing math worksheets while sitting at the table, everyone is falling apart... but if I add some LEGO bricks or Barbie shoes into the equation, they are hooked and have the best time. So why not use some major events, that has us all excited, to our advantage? The Olympic Games, Indy 500, Tour De France... or in this case The World Cup!!!!!! My son is into soccer so I thought of this quick and easy set up to teach him more about geography of the World and the game itself. I hope this helps... and I am sorry about the pictures, the display is under the window and the light is making a mess out of the photographs giving them a glare and a smudge... 

You will need 

a World map

printer

tape

scissors 

paper

markers/paint/pencils

I bought the World map poster in Hobby Lobby for $5 on sale. (I think it might stay in the room even after the competition is over.) We attached it to the wall on the kids' eye level so they can easily read the names of the countries. (You might have a map in your school room already or you might be using one as a decor in your house.)

After that we looked up the schedule for all the games and printed it out. 

Then I helped the kids make their sign. 

We measured, cut, drew, and colored....

... hard at work

I love our colorful sign!

And now all we need are the flags of each country that qualified for the World Cup. Let me tell you I was so so happy (and I mean close to doing cartwheels happy - because that way I didn't have to come up with it myself) when I found this website with bunch of free printable worksheets about World Cup for kids. I printed all possible worksheets that will be attractive to the kids - word puzzles, word search, coloring pages, acrostic poems, jersey matching etc... I mean there is ton of them, go check it out...

I printed the sheet with flags, we cut them out and to save on laminating, I just used tape to make them durable. 

Lay the tape out and place the cut out cards on top of it...

...then just fold the tape over and cut it up.

 We looked up all the teams and placed the flags on top of the correct countries, (well, Europe was a bit tricky ;-)) using tacky putty for easy removal.  This gave us review of Continents and the Cardinal Points.

Kids had fun with it already and so now I am trying to come up with more interactive options. For example we will move a flag of the country that will be sent home... until we end up with the winner of the whole Cup. Then we will study a bit more about that country. We will also match famous players to their teams...

Any other ideas you have???? Please, leave a comment below. Thank you for stopping by!

One Day in Our Life...

As a homeschooling mom, with a mini farm behind my house, I often feel like there is not enough time in my day to do all that I plan to do. At the end of the day I wonder how in the world do other homeschooling moms do it. Being a mom and a teacher at the same time is very time demanding. 

I am glad that The Simple Homeschool blog is having "Share Your Day With Us" feature! I am so going to peak in everyone's school day ;-) And to be fair, I am joining it as well :-)

So here is my random day I picked last week to share with you

5:30am - Wake up (oh my husband has been already working out for the past hour so don't feel bad for me ;-)

6am - An hour long Yoga class (at this point I feel like I could stay in Shavasana for the rest of today)

7:20am - Bible story, memory verse, and prayer with the kids.

7:45am - Kids are hovered around daddy, watching the Olympics... Breakfast is almost ready

8:15am - They talked me into making a smoothie (at this point I am not sure if I am going to have a chance to shower?)

8:30am - while I shower, kids are getting ready for school, finishing their morning chores (I have to be shouting from the bathroom to make sure they stay on task - works half the time ;-)

8:50am - I realize that T hasn't practiced his piano yet - sigh - school will have to start later

9:15am - School started - today I am just trying to keep everyone focused - it's one of those days

9:15am - (If T was on time with his piano we would have started at 9am). Calendar is first... they write the date, day of the week, and the name of this month (everyday). We also switch our wall calendar...

9:25am - Now we have 2 math workboxes. T is working on Addition using Math-U-See and Money counting using Kumon. B learns basic addition using Kumon workbook and a game.

9:45am - T is doing Spelling using Sonlight Language Arts for 2nd Grade and B is learning Letter Sound of the week "S". She is usually finished before T so I will have her read to me - Bob Book or Dick and Jane.

10:00am - Handwriting time for both of them - we are using Handwriting Without Tears.

10:15am - Bible story reading (notice the heater... we are freezing around here ;-)

10:30pm - We go back to writing. This one might be longer or shorter, depends on the day but we use Sonlight Language Arts for 2nd grade with T and Letter Sound worksheets I printed from the internet with B.

10:50am or so - It's Social Studies time. They both work together. We are learning about the USA. Right now we focus mainly on learning the state names and capitols, as well as their location on the map. We start with this video most of the days

And go on to some fun facts about the state we are talking about that week - we do one state per week. This takes usually 2 workboxes and 30 minutes. We get to color, draw, do fun projects, read books or watch videos. We follow this curriculum Road Trip USA

11:30am - Czech School - I just added this to our day and we are all trying to adjust. I teach them my native language in detail (grammar, reading, vocabulary) The advantage is that they understand and somewhat speak it anyway. But they need to learn more.

12:00pm - Lunch and right after that T has to leave for piano lesson

12:15pm - Going to feed the girls and gather eggs (if this was summer there would be way more to do out there)

Since daddy is home I take the next hour to run some errands (I love Bed, Bath and Beyond return policy!!!)

1:30pm - Just got to B's ballet class. I will have the next hour to catch up on some blog stuff. T is skiing with daddy. (Usually I have T finish some extra school work he didn't get to last week or give him his extra activities. The next 30 minutes he would be free to play games)

2:30pm - Time to go back home

3pm - Xtramath - we love this online program and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to practice math problems!

3:30pm - Get kids to a playdate - yahoo!!! I will spend the next 2 hours organizing my office and school room #notenoughtime

6pm - Dinner and evening routine starts. I will confess that this is not my favorite time of the day. I am tired and need to still finish laundry and dishes and prepare for the next day school. And the kids are trying to prolong their bedtime as much as possible... But I do enjoy reading with the kiddos - that is our special time of the day :-)

8pm - On a good day this is when my evening chores start. After about an hour I am ready to wind down with a book or a show. Sometimes I get to knit or finish up on my blog posts.

(one of my late night creations)

11pm is usually my bedtime - on a good day ;-)

I should add that 2x a week we have longer school during which my nephews and my sister-in-law join us. We have snack at around 11am and then go on to study Science, Art, and Social Studies together till probably 2:00. During this time we try to incorporate team projects, art projects, parties and other group related activities :-) We love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Old fashion catapult fun

Sometimes we come across the best books in our library. One of them is "How things work in the house" by Lisa Campbell Ernst. The kids are obsessed with this book. They looked thru it about million times and every time they do, they come up to me and ask to make a project they are showing on one of the pages. On the page about Spoons, there was a catapult made out of a plastic spoon and a piece of wood. Since we had all the supplies, I couldn't say no. And the fact that we used marshmallows could not have been any better for the kids. Try it! I guarantee you hours of laughter!

Fancy Nancy inspired

What little girl doesn't like the story of Fancy Nancy? The fabulous little girl, who loves everything French, fancy, and sparkly. My little girl sure loves her and we read Fancy nancy books often ( boy, am I glad our library has a great supply of them because otherwise my account would literally pay for it ;-)

If you are not familiar with this story, you should know that Fancy Nancy has this fabulous pink clubhouse in her backyard, made entirely from fabric. Both of my kids have been asking me whole winter to build one like that in our yard and I finally got to it the other day. It didn't take that long and the kids' reaction was worth all the sweating!

During projects like this I am glad that I am such a little hoarder and collect everything possible that has something to do with crafting. It so happens that I had lots of different kinds of fabric stashed on a shelf in my craft room and I could finally put it to good use.

Now the only issue was to find the right spot. T had an excellent idea to tie one end of the string to the tree and the tree house. And luckily I had enough fabric for that big of a stretch. And then all it took was hammering the pole into the ground, wrapping the string around that and it all created a triangle which allowed me to drape the fabric over for a small "roof". 

Clothes pins are the magic things that are holding it all together. And I should mention something that they don't show you in the book - and that is how to deal with an extremely high winds ;-) Oh yes, I had to run around a bit, try to catch the fly away fabric. But extra clothes pins was all I needed (I wonder if the neighbors were having a ball watching me run around like that).

Isn't this an awesome place to hang out?

Fairy garden

We finally got around to build our fairy garden! I kept thinking where in the world would we do it without the dog digging thru it, the chickens and the turkeys stomp all over it and visitor kids destroying it! The perfect site was right in front of me! This wooden planter under a tree looked like the perfect location. These plants were placed in the pot last year, completely forgotten about, and hardly ever watered. That's why they are so small. I guess things happen for reason ;-)

First get your area nice and ready, remove all the weeds and add new soil if you need to.

Then help the kids decide what fairies need in order to enjoy your garden. Their first response was swimming pool! We added a plastic container that will serve that purpose. I am hoping to find a small ceramic one to give it a better look. We decorated the area with small pebbles we found on the Lake Michigan Beach earlier this summer.

Here comes the water!

Don't you just love garage sales? You junk becomes my treasure! And that is what happened to this small bird house we found with the kids at our neighborhood garage sale. And the name sounded so perfect for a fairy garden! The solar light came from Home Depot ;-) It is used for the night so fairies find their way back to us <3

The small cage came from the same garage sale. T is worried that the fairies might think it's a trap but I keep telling him that it's their garden house ;-)

Sorry for this blurry picture, but I tried to capture the garden at night, all lit up. It looks magical. And did you notice the small chair? lol - the kids found it in Target in their dollar section (it's really a cell phone holder) and they thought it would be a perfect lounge chair for the fairies. I was hoping for something wooden but you can't say no to those begging little eyes! Now we are looking up what fairies like to eat so they really like our garden the best!!!

When the kids want to send message to grandma

Here is an idea for a cute and thoughtful present for grandma's, daddy's, grandpa's or mom's birthday or any other special occasion! 

We made this to send grandma a special message for her birthday. Something she can read over and over again. 

All we needed was a chalk and chalk board. We thought about what the message should say and came up with this:

And I had both kids hold that up for the first picture.

T told me why he loves grandma so much, I wrote it down, and took a picture of him with his note. 

Next up was B and her note to grandma. 

Then I just had to send it through the internet to have the pictures developed, buy the frame, and put it all together. We sent it to grandma and she loved it!

I am linking this to the Creative Friday Linky Party at the fabulous www.jenniferrizzo.com.

10 things to do with your kids this summer

Are you looking for some fun activities to do with your kids this summer? I thought I would share some simple fun we have been having around our house for the past couple of weeks.

1. Pick herbs together

and tell them what they can use them for. Show them how to dry the herbs and finally how to store them. It is fun for the kids to find out what makes them better when they get sick.

2. Learn to hoola hoop

Find a hoola hoop and learn how to use it. This guarantees hours of fun on and off during the day. And you will be surprised who will join in on the fun ;-)

3. Grow butterflies

Who doesn't want to witness the miracle of a caterpillar changing into a cocoon and then into a butterfly? You can order caterpillars online or you can find them in your backyard - if you have milkweed growing in your garden. 

4. Have a bon fire

I have many memories as a child having bon fires at our cabin, singing songs, and making sausages above the fire. Stay up later and watch the stars if you can see them or try to catch fireflies.

5. Tie dye some shirts

Summer is the perfect time for tie dying because you can work outside and not risk any smudges around your house. Kids will be so proud to wear their creations!

6. Build a fairy garden

We are still in the process but the kids are so excited to welcome some good fairies into our backyard! Pick a large container, fill it up with dirt, plant small plants and then let your imagination roll. I will post the whole process once it's finished and link it up here. 

7. Go to the beach. 

You don't have to live by the ocean, lake will do as well! Go and soak up the sun, get some sand into your hair (and everywhere else), and splash in the waves.

8. Visit local attractions

If the weather lets you, go to the ZOO, park, forest preserves, or waterparks. Once you get home, talk about their favorite things and follow up with some art work about the experience. 

9. Paint outside

Get your art supplies outside and start creating some messy art! We did some spray painting using large easel paper, spray bottles, water and paint. This was a huge hit!

10. Bake Bake Bake

Kids love their sweets and they love participating in the process of making them. Have fun together this summer in your kitchen making magic and then eating it too!

There is tons more we have been doing so it was difficult to find 10 activities. But I hope this will help you schedule some fun with your little ones this summer!