September Giveaway!

September is almost over, but I still have time to sneak in a giveaway for this month!

There are 5 great prizes in this giveaway - TpT gift certificates and store credit - don't miss it!

Enter by using the Rafflecopter below!
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Spreading the Homeschool Love Blog Hop

I'm so excited to be a part of this blog hop! I love homeschooling, and I love TpT, so this is a great way to share about both! We're joining together to give away a great prize bundle!

You can enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post!

I'd like to share a little about how we manage homeschooling with younger siblings around. I started some preschool with my first child when he was 3. We didn't do much, but he just really liked it and wanted to learn, so we jumped right in! Now he is 6 and in 1st grade, my oldest daughter is 4 and started PreK this year, and we also have 2 more little sisters, ages 2 and 1.

It has definitely been challenging to find a routine that works for all of us and allows the big kids and I to get any work done. And we still don't have it down perfectly. I'm constantly changing things up to try and be more efficient! So, here's a little glimpse into our day:

Even though the kids are up by 7:00, we don't usually start school until 8:45 or 9:00. This gives us some unrushed time to eat breakfast, get dressed, and have a family devotional. Then I always like to have the kids do something active before we start any work. So we'll go for a short walk, play outside, or just watch some fun YouTube videos that we can dance to.

Then around 9, the 1 year old goes down for a nap, and the big kids start their work. We started using workboxes this year, and I love it!

I switched the boxes around so each of the big kids have a red, orange, green, blue, and purple box. They both start at their red box and work their way down. The first box is always calendar pages, number of the day, etc. Then they each have some pages they can do mostly on their own: alphabet and numbers stuff for my 4 year old, and math practice, spelling words, and journal writing for my 1st grader. I also try to include one fun activity for each of them in a box, like a mystery picture, tangrams, puzzles, dice rolling game, etc. While the big kids start their workboxes, I get some table work for my 2 year old. Sometimes she'll sit and do an activity, and sometimes she won't! Our school room is in a converted garage, and the other half of the room is a playroom. So, sometimes she will just play with toys while we work.

Our homeschool room (well, half a room)

Around 10:00, the girls will watch a show on Netflix and I'll do some language arts with my son. The baby usually wakes up around this time, so I'll bring her in with us and let her play. Then at 10:30 my son plays on the computer and the girls finish up TV time and then play. We eat lunch early, around 11:00, and then have a little free time. Around 11:45, My 4 yr old will do a lesson on the computer (we love Reading Eggs) and I'll get the 2 littles ready for a nap. When they go down, my son reads his library book and I'm able to work with my 4 yr old on some beginning reading stuff, and then I read some books to her and she lays down for a nap.

Finally around 1:00, I'm able to spend about an hour with my son, working on the rest of his subjects, and then we usually end our school day around 2:00.  About this time the little ones are waking up and chaos ensues for the rest of the afternoon and evening :-)

I always love reading about how other homeschoolers structure their day, so I hope this has been fun and maybe even helpful for you if you are homeschooling with toddlers and babies around!


I'd also love to share with you some FREEBIES I have in my TpT store for the fall!

Pumpkins Emergent Reader - Count & Color (PreK-K)

 

Halloween Multiplication Mystery Picture (3-5)

 

 

 

Pumpkin Hundreds Chart Mystery Picture (K-2)

Learning With Candy Corn - Sort & Tally - (PreK-1)

 

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, and visit some other awesome homeschooling teacher-authors by clicking their links below!!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Now I Know My ABC's

Learning the alphabet can be so much fun! There are so many great ways to teach kids letters and sounds. I've made a list of some of the things we've loved doing!

1. Sing the ABC song (and find fun versions on YouTube to watch).

2. Use magnetic letters on a white board or the fridge.

3. Go on an alphabet letter hunt around the house - find each letter.

4. Go on an alphabet letter hunt while riding in the car - look on license plates and signs.

5. Do a scavenger hunt around the house and find objects that start with each letter.

6. Skywrite the letters - stand up and use a straight arm to write the letter as big as you can in the air.

7. Make letters out of playdough.

8. Paint letters freehand - or paint in bubble letters (get some printables here).

9. Fill bubble letters with objects that start with that letter (ex: bandaids on B, popcorn on P)

10. Rainbow write letters - trace letters over and over with different colors of crayons.

11. Draw letters on a chalkboard or whiteboard, and have kids erase them as you call them out.

12. Letter hopscotch - write letters on the sidewalk with chalk, or inside, just put paper circles with letters on them spread around on the ground. Call out letters and have kids hop to the right one.

13. Write letters on a big beach ball with permanent marker. Throw the ball for your kids to catch. When they catch it, they look at the letter closest to their pointer finger and say it - they could also name something that starts with that letter.

14. Form letters from string or yarn

15. Sound shoot out - say a letter, then the kids tell you the sound it makes, or something that starts with that letter, then if they get it right, they can throw a ball into a basketball hoop or bucket.

16. Play with foam letters in the bathtub

17. Use a (clean) fly swatter and have kids splat letters as you call them out.

18. Make an alphabet parking lot on paper, writing one letter in each space, then have kids drive their cars and "park" on the letter you call out. Or put a small piece of masking tape on the cars with the lower case letters and have them park in the space with the capital letter.

19. Write letters in salt or sand on a tin pie plate or tray.

20. Get a letter puzzle and bury the pieces in a tray of rice. Kids dig through the rice to find pieces and put the puzzle together.

21. Write letters on ping pong balls, put them in a container of water, and use a little net to go fishing for letters.

22. Paint letters with water on a sidewalk, fence, or chalkboard.

23. Get letter cookie cutters and make alphabet cookies.

24. Get some old magazines and cut out letters. For an extension, gather a lot of one letter, then arrange and glue them on a piece of paper in the shape of that letter.

25. Invest in some great resources! While there are a multitude of free things you can do to introduce the alphabet, there are also some great resources that you can buy for just a few dollars to take your kids to the next level after they recognize letters and sounds.

I've created some fun ways to practice letters, like this adorable Animal Alphabet Emergent Reader and Interactive Notebook Set, which includes a colorful class book, student book to color, cut, and put together, and pieces to make their very own animal alphabet interactive notebook!

 

I've also created these fun Dot Marker Mystery Pictures that use Do-a-Dot markers (also known as bingo daubers) to find and dot letters to create a mystery picture!

 

 

And when  your kids are ready to practice writing the letters, I've created this fun Alphabet Letters Practice Pack of worksheets where kids can trace, write, find and dot, cut and sort all the letters of the alphabet!

 

 

I hope your kids have fun with all these activities!

Freebie Friday - On the Farm

This week's freebies are all about having fun on the farm!

Farm Kids Addition Math Center

By: Kamp Kindergarten

 

Farm Vocabulary Pictures

By: Michelle Walter

 

 

Farm Friends Calendar Set

By: Mary Doerge

 

Farm Friends Emergent Reader

By: Juls Kinder Teach

 

 

Farm Animal Graphing

By: Randi

 

Farm BINGO

By: Expressly Speaking

 

 

Farm Words Initial Sounds Count & Clip Cards

By: Teaching With Nancy

 

 

On The Farm Cut & Paste Activities

By: Deborah Perrot

 

 

 *Disclaimer - All these products are listed as free at the time of this post. Sometimes authors change the price or availability of items. I'm sorry if any of these are no longer free or available!

Superhero Mystery Pictures - Exclusive Fan Freebie

**Update** I forgot that I am only allowed to send one note to followers each month on TpT - so it will be another week or so before I'm able to send the fan freebie - but it's coming, I promise! Thanks for understanding! **

I am excited to be working on my first ever exclusive TpT follower FREEBIE! When I reach 1600 followers on TpT, I will be sending a link to all my followers for free access to my newest Superhero Mystery Pictures! These are not yet in my store, and when I do put them in there, they will be paid.

There will be 2 different mystery pictures - one using a hundreds chart that will be great for grades K-2, and another more challenging coordinate graphing mystery picture for grades 3-5!

Here's a sneak peek:

 

So, help me get to 1600 by making sure you are following me on TpT here - and when I do, I'll share this awesome freebie with all my wonderful followers!