Kaake Family Blog

Kids just love to garden, there's no doubt about that. I was trying to figure out what to do with Jon this year to get him more excited about gardening and being more hands on. I decided on bean plants since they grow quickly - which is key in getting younger children more excited about gardening. If it takes too long to grow, you might as well hang it up. The next thing I needed to figure out was how to make things simple as well as little mess as possible. Because of that and cost, we decided to pick up some soil pellets from Walmart. We got 36 pellets for under $3! Not bad. We next picked up some organic bean seeds. We'd only need 3 for what we were doing. Here's what we did. 1. We found a plastic container we didn't care much about and put the pellets in there to rehydrate. Jon loved watching this part! 2. Next, we took 3 bean seeds out of our package (we got organic from WalMart). We took one seed at a time and pushed it down a bit into t...

Thanks to my friend Mandi on amomshideout.com, I've started tons of felt board fun with my son. My church had this felt board they were getting rid of and I started making everything to put on it. So far his favorite thing to put on the board is the coconut tree tailored after Chicka, Chickan, Boom, Boom. As I'm typing he's saying, "mom, you have to come here and see my coconut tree". So off I go.

Here you will find fun and non-toxic/less toxic recipes for your children. If you have one you’d like us to try out and possibly add, please send your name and recipe to homeschoolingthem@gmail.com Enjoy! ******************************************************************************************* Bubbles What you need: 2 cups cool water 1/2 cup dish liquid 2 tablespoons sugar or agave nectar What to do: -Mix all together very slowly trying to not form bubbles. -Dip wand in - do not stir. Depending on the type of dish liquid you use - some can be much more toxic than other’s. I used a natural brand along with agave nectar instead of sugar. I actually purchased premade bubble’s, dumped out the containers, rinsed and used those to put my bubble solution in. ******************************************************************************************* Glitter What you need: 1/2 cup salt 5-6 drops food coloring What to do: -Mix together 1/2 cup salt and 5-6 drops food...

I can at times be stubborn - really I can. lol! I had friends telling me for a few years how amazing Mystery of History was. I finally looked into it for this school year and wish I would have done so sooner. Growing up in the public school system, their view of history did not start when God created the world or in the Garden of Eden. In fact, those times in history are not even mentioned once in a public school text. So, for me there was history from the church's perspective, then from the bibles perspective. How to mesh them all I had no clue. Well, Mystery of History has done just that. I just LOVE this curriculum. It can be used for young children through high school age children. There are activities at the end of each lesson that are age appropriate. While learning about Joseph, my kids were able to make cookies with multi-colored frosting which represented Joseph and his coat of many colors. Where else an you learn about true history, have fun AND eat cookie...

I just recently read a post where someone wanted to know what they should teach their their kindergarten child. That led me way back to the time when I was teaching Allysha in grade K. One of the things that should be taught in pre-k, K is recognition of our different coins and bills. Later on they learn what each coin value is and how to add and subtract. Here's a few ideas that helped us tremendously. You would not believe how fast Allysha learned this way. She had quite the incentive. lol! Oh and before I forget, there's no need at all to go out and purchase fake money. Use what you have on hand. You don't need that much of each coin/bill and it teaches them how to use the real thing. Pre-k I purchased a few items at Dollar Tree and Goodwill - items that would very much capture the interest of my daughter. Each item had a different price tag on it. $.01, $.05, $.10, $25, $.50, $1.00. Next, we got out one of each coin and a dollar bill. We then procee...

Jon and Allysha - First official day of school. What cheesy grins! Joshua - Just finished nursing on first official day of school. lol! My how times flies. It seems like yesterday my little Lyshie was just starting pre-k at age 4. This year she's beginning the 5th grade and Jonathan is beginning pre-k at age 3 1/2. Crazy how each child is different. For example: Lyshie could color perfectly in the lines at age 4. Jonathan still scribbles all over the pictures with 1/2 year to go. Lyshie could write her name correctly before she turned 4. Jonathan can't write very many letters yet. Lyshie knew her alphabet but was struggling with phonetic sounds at 4 1/2. Jonathan at 3 1/2 knows most of his phonetic sounds. Lyshie could count to at least 50 but didn't know how to group things at age 4. Jonathan can count to 20 but can group well and knows what the numbers actually mean. LYshie was carrying on adult conversations at 4 years old - yes adult conversations....

Here is a listing of my current favorites for preschool aged children. I just came across the first one today. It has LOTS of really great printable's which I will be using for my son's age 3 preschool this coming school year. www.kidslearningstation.com - has lots of great printables for all preschool stages. www. starfall.com - ultimately the best interactive site out there for little ones. what a GREAT teaching tool! www.chasingcheerios.blogspot.com - this blog has great crafty ideas for kids. this would be great for those who use more of a waldorf or Charlotte Mason style of learning. lots of hands on fun:) http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html - this is a great way to really reinforce each letter of the alphabet. Have fun teaching your little one:)

What a fun day. We've decided to take a day off and clean, clean, clean. We've been cleaning out like crazy! If we haven't used it for at least a year, it's going. That of course does not count baby items that we'll need soon. Not too long ago I ordered my sons birthday gift from amazon. Along with it I purchased the Cedarmont Kids Action Bible Songs Cd. We got the shipment today and opened up the cd right away. We've been singing and singing like crazy. Both the children love learning new songs. It does my heart good to hear them singing songs about the Lord. It's very precious! Here is a list of songs on this cd. I purchased it for only $3.98. 1. Onward, Christian Soldiers 2. Rise And Shine (Arky, Arky) 3. Zacchaeus 4. Father Abraham 5. I'm In The Lord's Army 6. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 7. His Banner Over Me Is Love 8. Jesus Bids Us Shine 9. O Be Careful Little Eyes 10. Happy All The Time 11. Jesus Loves The Little Ones ...

I found this idea at this site and loved it! What a great way to ease into a Monday after a busy weekend and use up some little bits of food here and there. The kids are totally loving it. Lyshie's Tin has the following: Baked Wheat Crackers Dates and Bananas Refried Beans Carrots Tortilla Chips Celery and Dip Jon's tin is a mini tin so it has duplicates in it: Cottage Cheese Baked Wheat Crackers Swiss Cheese Cubes Carrots Dates Refried Beans Bananas Celery

I was frustrated that my daughter's 4th grade science book did not cover anatomy this year. She learned some different things about it in the years past but I feel this age/grade has much more understanding. So, here's some links I've found useful. We drew her body on a large piece of paper and will soon be adding organs to it. I have a feeling this is going to take a month to really hit hard on the point of it - but I'm ok with that:) Below are the links I found to be most helpful as well as a list of books I have on hand here at home that are going to prove to be helpful. Here's the Proof! It Couldn't Just Happen by Lawrence Richards Christian Liberty Nature Reader #5 Easy Science Activity Journals by Scholastic God's Creation Series - God's Wonderful Works - The Creation in Six Days by Eric D. Bristley and Edward J. Shewan Uncover The Human Body by Luann Colombo http://www.proteacher.org/c/461_Human_Body_Systems.html http://www.innerbody.co...

Please make sure to check back here periodically for more pictures and information. If you click on the pictures, you will be able to see a much larger and defined picture for identification. The Praying Mantis This gentleman was found just outside our back door. We quickly got a jar to figure out whether "it" was a girl or boy. From reading online we think it is a boy because it did not have a large abdomen. Can you see in the picture how he was looking at the camera? I took this picture at the neighbors house. My daughter wasn't sure whether or not it was a butterfly or a moth. Here's a link that will help you determine what this little creature is. http://insects.about.com/od/learningaboutinsects/a/butterflyormoth.htm Here is an update from one of our fellow homeschoolers, Madeline age 11 1/2 "It is a, "Painted Lady" from the large subfamily of butterflies known as brushfoots (Nymphalinae). A Painted Lady has a white crescent at ...

Jan Brett has a lovely selection of coloring pages and other activities for children online. In fact there are to date over 4,000 of them. Today I'm currently speaking of the drawing video tutorials she has up online. These can be found here . This is such a lovely resource for any family. Especially for those with children who love to draw.

I had been introduced to this site quite awhile ago. However, I'm ashamed to admit we had never vhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifisited it, even with the links coming in my inbox. Today we went on the website and learned about the center of gravity. I know this is definately going to be one of those sites that we visit very frequently. I am not the greatest at science, but this was something very easy to understand and learn. Yeah for Robert Krampf and all his hard work. You can visit his site here .

Ok so fall doesn't officially start for several more days but I just can't help myself. Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. What goes better with fall than apples? The kids were just loving up the apples we recently purchased. Now I'm getting the fever to go to an apple orchard. I don't think our homeschool group can plan this field trip fast enough for me. lol. My charge to you today is make sure to get those kiddo's outside. Charlotte Mason always said, whatever the weather, get the children outside every day. You would not believe how much more smoothly your day will be if they simply have some time to frolic and explore God's creation - on their own.

“You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning...you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain utterly “illiterate,” un-educated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book...you are forever more in some measure an educated person.” by John Ruskin (1819-1900) As a child, my grandmother instilled a love for reading within me. She was and is still such a saintly woman. We always knew we were of importance to her. Strolling down memory lane, here is what I remember of my dear Grandma Good. Grandma would always make us our favorite breakfast as soon as we awoke in the morning. Even if it was a package of Ramen Noodles. I personally picked ham, onion and cheese omelets and boy were they good. We would make sawdust “cakes” with mud frosting and use some of our grandmother’s happy violets for the decorations. Grandma always had on hand extra clothes for us to wear if we forgot ...

I realized I had worked so much more with Allysha by the time she was two than what I am with Jon. So....I decided to start getting very serious about making time for his school every day too. In the picture below it shows what his sister, Allysha, and I have been making for him. We cut out two of each letter from felt. We then matched them together and quickly whip-stitched around them. Yes you can tell it's quickly. lol. We figured since we already had the felt and thread at home it'd be essentially free to make verses going out and getting something from the store. We have watched a few youtube videos with the alphabet including a youtube movie entitled Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, which is taken from a book. Very cute! We'll also be using letter of the week for some of our teaching. I will soon have lesson plans up on homeschool.mandikaake.com for teaching basic letter recognition. Within just a couple times of showing him the felt letter A, he is already able to recogni...

I realized I had worked so much more with Allysha by the time she was two than what I am with Jon. So....I decided to start getting very serious about making time for his school every day too. In the picture below it shows what his sister, Allysha, and I have been making for him. We cut out two of each letter from felt. We then matched them together and quickly whip-stitched around them. Yes you can tell it's quickly. lol. We figured since we already had the felt and thread at home it'd be essentially free to make verses going out and getting something from the store. We have watched a few youtube videos with the alphabet including a youtube movie entitled Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, which is taken from a book. Very cute! We'll also be using letter of the week for some of our teaching. I will soon have lesson plans up on homeschool.mandikaake.com for teaching basic letter recognition. Within just a couple times of showing him the felt letter A, he is already abl...