Half Birthday Party for the Twins

The twins celebrated their half birthdays last weekend.  In L's words: "It's not our real birthday.  It's just a holiday that Mommy made up".  I didn't invite any other kids in fear that their parents would think that celebrating a half-birthday was a little too self-indulgent, so we just kept the day low-key and fun.  Childhood goes by so quickly - why not take the time to celebrate all the little milestones?  Here's how our "party" went...

Chinese Paper Lantern Craft {for Chinese New Year}

One of our crafts for Chinese New Year (and our Kindergarten thematic unit on China) was to make this cute paper lantern craft.  I thought the kids would enjoy this activity because they love arts and crafts, but I had no idea how much they would get into it.  The girls kept asking to make more and more lanterns and now our house is completely covered in them!  It was a great way for the twins to practice following directions and to use their scissor skills.  Here's how you make them..

Felt Fortune Cookies {Chinese New Year or Valentines Day Craft}

Earlier this month I read A Cricket in Times Square aloud to the twins.  In one of the chapters, the main character was invited to a Chinese dinner and was introduced to his first fortune cookie.  The girls and I made these adorable felt fortune cookies to go with the book and our "China" theme for January.  They would make perfect little crafts for both Chinese New Year or Valentines Day!  They were surprisingly simple to make.  Here's how its done..

The Art of Green Tea

I'm a daily tea drinker and have been sharing my love of tea with my kids since they were toddlers.  So you can just imagine how excited I was to receive a VoxBox with samples of Celestial Seasonings tea from Influenster.  If you're not familiar with Influenster, it's a great program that will send you free boxes of products to try out and share with social media.  If you're interested in an invitation to join too (I have 5 left), send me an email at creativetotmom at gmail dot com.  Here's what was in "The Art of Green Tea" box:

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Week 20

We're starting to get back into a decent daily routine with our homeschool.  Baby brother (28 months) has been waking up early lately, so instead of trying to rush to get the girl's school done before he gets up in the morning, I've been doing circle time with all three kids every morning.  It's a lot of fun and I'm realizing that just because I see the twins (4.5 years old) as academically advanced, it doesn't mean that I should forget that they enjoy singing, dancing, and listening to me read aloud picture books too.  Then in the afternoon (while baby brother naps) we focus on a single 'subject':  Sunday is Latin, Monday is Social Studies, Tuesday is Art, Wednesday is Science, Thursday is Music, Friday is History/Geography, and Saturday is 'Virtues'.  It sounds like a lot but we totally play it by ear and 'school time' usually isn't more than 1-2 hours max these days.  This past week we learned about China, families, Benjamin Franklin, and more.  Here's a taste of how our week went...

Tot School - 28 Months

Baby H is almost 2.5!  My little boy is really going through a big developmental growth spurt right now as he's communicating more effectively, following directions, and craving more challenging learning activities.  He always asks to "do school" (so he can be like his big sisters, of course).  Here are some of the activities I've been giving him..

Tu B'Shevat in Homeschool Kindergarten

Tu B'Shevat is a Jewish festival celebrating the "New Year for Trees".  I happened to find these books in our home library (I think we got them for free from the PJ Library when the twins were babies), which inspired me to do some tree-themed activities in our Homeschool Kindergarten today in celebration of this holiday.  Here's how our day went..

DIY Lego Table for Under $30

I totally forgot to share this little DIY project when I made it back in November.  This homemade Lego table was ridiculously easy to make, and the price-tag of under $30 provides huge savings over the $70-$100+ Lego tables that are out there.  Here's what I did...

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Weeks 15-19 {Plus Christmas & New Years}

I trying to be a more consistent blogger this year and would love to resume the weekly summaries of our homeschool activities (I know that now that Baby H is nearing the age that I started this blog I'm having a lot of fun looking back at old posts and remembering what activities I did with the twins at age 2.5)  Anyway here's a glimpse of the Christmas and New Years themed activities we did this year.  December seemed to just go by in a flash...

Unit Study - Snow {Homeschool Kindergarten}

After a snowfall last weekend, the girls and I did a mini-unit on "snow" in our homeschool Kindergarten.  It was simple, but a lot of fun.  Here's what we did:

Homemade Plantable Paper (AKA Seed Bombs)

One of the homemade presents that the girls made for Christmas were these colorful pieces of plantable paper (also known as "seed bombs").  They make a cute holiday gift and make planting flowers really easy (just put them on the ground, sprinkle with soil, make sure they get enough water and soon flowers will appear).  This was a great way to incorporate two of the topics we've been learning about in Homeschool Kindergarten - seeds and recycling.  Here's what we did..

Homemade Gift - Toddler Crayons

This week the girls and I have been creating a variety of homemade gifts.  One of these projects was to recycle broken crayon pieces into new multicolored crayons for their little brother.  It was really easy (and not as messy as I thought it would be).  Here's how we did it..

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Weeks 11-14

Are we really almost half way through the school year?  If you follow my blog, you'll see some of the unit studies we've been doing in Kindergarten, but I want to share some of the "other stuff" that I've been working on with the girls that don't fall into our weekly themes...

Thanksgiving 2013 in Homeschool Kindergarten

I'm about a week late posting this, but here's a look at some of the activities we did in Homeschool Kindergarten leading up to Thanksgiving.  I started off the week by having the girls read Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving and watching The Mayflower Voyages (Charlie Brown).  Then we made this cute Mayflower craft from Family Fun magazine.  The girls helped me cut the base out of a paper back and the sails out of white printer paper.  They enjoyed decorating the ships and writing messages on the sails - E wrote "Give to others" and L wrote "Friend".  Throughout the week we wrote the things we were thankful for on little strips of paper and put them in the boats.  Here's more of what we did..

Kindergarten Unit: All About Me!

Last week's thematic unit in Homeschool Kindergarten was "All About Me!"  It was a lot of fun for the girls to learn more about both their physical bodies and their personalities.  As usual, I had so many ideas that we didn't get to, but the activities we fit in were a lot of fun and I know that we have many years of homeschooling to come for revisiting the subject!  Here are the highlights of our week:

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Week 10

We're getting into a good rhythm with our homeschooling time and the girls have been enjoying a wide variety of learning activities.  I've been starting to integrate some themed units 2-3 days a week (like our mini unit on Johnny Appleseed and more learning units I'll post about next week), so this really helps to break up the monotony and makes the kids more receptive to the 'regular' school activities that we do the rest of the week.  Here's the latest from this week...

Johnny Appleseed - Kindergarten/Pre-K Mini Unit

Earlier this week, the girls read a story about Johnny Appleseed and we decided to turn it into a mini-unit.  E actually refused to participate, but L and I had a great time with Johnny Appleseed crafts, learning about the parts of a plant, making observations about apples and more!  Take a look...

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Week 9 {and Halloween!}

 

This was a fun and laid back Homeschool Kindergarten / Pre-K week for us.  I tried to make most of our activities centered around the Halloween theme to give the girls something special to get excited about.  Here's what we did:

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Weeks 7 & 8

 

We went on vacation for a week, so our school has been less formal lately (but still a lot of fun).  While we were visiting my in-laws, the kids had a great time playing in corn kernels, feeding goats, riding on a barrel train, exploring a corn maze, and picking out mini pumpkins.  We're continuing our fall theme with some seasonal crafts and learning games.  Here's some of what we've been doing..

Tot School - 25 Months

H (25 months) wants to do everything his older sisters do, so when he gets to work on his own learning activities, he just glows and I can tell he feels like a "big boy".  I've been trying out some new tot trays on him lately and he tackles each new challenge with so much enthusiasm.  Here's a glimpse into what he's been up to..