February Dollar Tree STEM Boxes | 2018

Where has the time snuck off to? I can’t believe today is the last day of February. We couldn’t finish the month without completing our February Dollar Tree STEM Boxes. Although this was cutting it pretty close, it really was the perfect way to end our homeschooling month.

Challenge #1- Build cupid’s house.

Suggested supplies:

• Gummi candy hearts
• Toothpicks

A few months ago we tried to build houses out of marshmallows and toothpicks, and we found it way more challenging than we expected. We wanted to attempt this with different materials, and I am so glad we did. These little houses turned out so cute!

Challenge #2- Paint a cup of hot cocoa, but first make some of your own scratch-and-sniff paint.

Suggested supplies:

• Glue- 1 tbsp
• Water- 1 tsp
• Hot Cocoa Powder- 3/4 tsp
• Measuring spoons
• Paint Brushes
• Paper Plates

Directions:

1. Combine your glue, water, and hot cocoa powder until blended.
2. Paint your picture.
3. Let your picture dry completely, and then scratch-and-sniff! It should smell like hot cocoa. 

Thank you for checking out our February Dollar Tree STEM Boxes…

We had a blast with these activities. I’m so happy we decided to take the day off from book work, and got our STEM on!  Are you ready to take on the challenge? 

Did you miss our past STEM Box challenges?

You can find them all here. 

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Tea Time Tuesday Muffin Man Edition

Welcome back to Homework and Horseplay. Today I am sharing my Tea Time Tuesday Muffin Man Edition with all of you. One of the goals I set for Jack this year is to work on memorization and public speaking. Our Tea Time Tuesdays are a perfect time for him to practice what he has been working on. So far we have focused on nursery rhymes because they are a little easier for him to read and memorize. I am hoping to move onto more challenging selections soon.

Featured Poem

The Muffin Man

Oh, do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
Who lives on Drury Lane?

Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
Who lives on Drury Lane.

Our Table

This week we kept things pretty simple… Our table is still adorned with our crepe paper table runner, and we cheated and purchased muffins and cookies this week. Even though it is only Tuesday, I have had a pretty busy week already. Our neighbor just had her third baby yesterday, so her older children spent the afternoon with us. Between school and babysitting, we just didn’t find time to make our own homemade muffins. Maybe we will get to it later this week!

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday Muffin Man Edition…

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Don’t forget to join us next week for another Tea Time Tuesday!

Did you miss our past tea times?

You can find them all on my Tea Time page.

 

 

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5 Reasons Why I Homeschool

I started homeschooling back in 2011, and through the years my reasons to homeschool have changed. One of my very first blog posts here on Homework and Horseplay was Why I Homeschool. In this post I share how my homeschooling journey began, but I wanted to get down to the nitty gritty and share the top 5 Reasons Why I Homeschool!

1. Customization

I think by now we know that all children learn differently, and I love being able to customize my children’s school to fit them! This is especially important when it comes to my special needs son. He is a very smart boy and understands a lot, but still has not mastered reading. I don’t ever want him to feel shame in this. I love that I can choose materials that he is interested in, and also matches his abilities.

However, my customizing doesn’t end there! All three of my children have very different interests and goals in life. My oldest son plans to join the Air Force straight out of high school, and he is aiming to become a linguist. Starting next year he will be tackling learning another language, which will hopefully give him a step up in his military career.

My daughter is very art oriented, so I always make sure to include a lot of hands on projects for her. I let her lead the way on what areas of the art world she wants to focus on, and it is amazing watching her abilities bloom. 

2. Sibling Bonding

Having a house full of children can mean a lot of bickering and fighting among each other, but I love how close homeschooling has brought my children. They have learned to depend on each other to work through tough school assignments, and are always there to support each other on. 

A few years ago, my two older children (Kenten and Julia) went back to public school. One of the biggest changes I seen was the separation in sibling relationships. It was heart breaking to me. I am so thankful that all three of my children are back home with me and rebuilding their relationships with each other. 

3. Creating Our Own Schedule

In the early years of homeschooling my husband was in the military Air Force. Being able to set our own schedule was really important since his schedule was all over the place. If we didn’t homeschool, my children would have rarely seen their father. These days we don’t have to worry about a crazy work schedule for my husband, but I still like being able to set our own pace. 

We follow a year round school schedule, and I love that! My children may complain about it once in awhile, but we never have to spend weeks reviewing things that they forgot over summer vacation. It also takes away the pressure of feeling as though we are behind schedule if we have to take a day off.

4. Treasuring Childhood

Kenten and Julia both started out in the public school system, and I couldn’t believe how quickly their childhoods were ending. In the 1st grade my children were being made fun of for believing in Santa… I think that is just heart breaking! Don’t even get me started on the questions they came home with. 

Most of our lives are spent as adults, and I just want my children to hold on to being a child for as long as possible. My almost 11 year old still believes in Santa, and you know what? That’s how it should be in my eyes! 

5. Being With My Children

Without a doubt, like most moms I have days where I just want a break from everything. However, at the end of the day I absolutely love being with my children. When I was growing up I knew that more than anything else in life that I wanted to be a mother. We tried the public school route, and I absolutely hated it for so many reasons. The biggest reason was that I missed my children so much when they were at school.

Before I know it all of my children will be grown and on their own. I don’t want to miss out on the ups and downs of childhood. Watching the excitement my children feel when they finally master something really hard in school is so amazing. Being the person my children turn to when they are struggling melts my heart. I want to watch my children grow into the amazing people I know they will be, and if they were in school for eight hours a day I would miss out on so much.

Thank you for checking out the 5 Reasons Why I Homeschool…

Why do you homeschool? I would love to hear your story so comment below, or join me over on the link up!

 

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Tea Time Tuesday Hot Cocoa Edition

Welcome to Tea Time Tuesday Hot Cocoa Edition! Just when we thought the winter weather was on the way out the snow fell on and off all day yesterday, and we woke to a sheet of ice coating everything. I figure if the cold is here to stay we might as well embrace it, and enjoy a cozy afternoon sipping hot cocoa.

Featured Poem

The Perfect Cup of Cocoa by Barbara Vance

The perfect cup of cocoa
Is rich and chocolatey;

You can read the rest of this poem here. Personally I am pretty simple when it comes to my hot cocoa… I like mine plain or with just a single scoop of cool whip. 

Our Table

This week I set up a little cocoa bar. I wanted my children to have several options to personalize their hot cocoa, so I set up a few bowls with:

• Cool Whip
• sprinkles
• chocolate chips
• caramel chips
• mini marshmallows

They absolutely loved this… However, I have a feeling I may have created little monsters who will want this every time they have hot cocoa.

Thank you for joining me for Tea Time Tuesday Hot Cocoa Edition…

I hope you had a cozy afternoon, and were able to get in some snuggle time with your sweet children. 

Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesday posts?
You can find them all on my Tea Time page.

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Tea Time Tuesday Valentine Edition

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and we are celebrating a little early with Tea Time Tuesday Valentine Edition! I just love this time of year because Julia and I can bring out all the girly stuff, but I do try not to go to crazy since the boys outnumber the girls in our house. 

Featured Poem

Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river 

   And the rivers with the ocean, 

The winds of heaven mix for ever 

   With a sweet emotion; 

To read the rest of this beautiful poem head on over to Poetry Foundation. I think this poem was more for me than the children. I think it is absolutely beautiful, and wanted to share it with all of you.

 

Our Table

This week I wanted to dress up the table a little bit, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money to get a new tablecloth or runner… So I decided to use some left over crepe paper from our Tea Time Tuesday Back to School Edition photo wall. I just put a small piece of tape on each end of the table to keep the crepe paper in place. I love how it turned out!

For a special treat we made our own chocolate covered strawberries and Oreos. I’m not going to lie… I ate way too many of these cookies and now have a major stomach ache… Totally worth it!

Since we had so many sweet treats already, and it is not quite Valentine’s Day, I am making my kiddos wait to see what is in their giftbags until tomorrow! Haha, mean mom here. Jack is going crazy not knowing what is in his bag.

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday Valentine Edition…

I hope all of you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day tomorrow! Are you doing anything special this year? Comment below-We would love to hear all about your special day.

Did you  miss our past Tea Time Tuesdays?

You can find them all on my Tea Time page.

 

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Tea Time Tuesday 100th Day of School Edition

Today is our 100th day, and what better way to celebrate than with Tea Time Tuesday 100th Day of School Edition! I am a little in shock that we have already reached 100 days. I feel as though the school year has just begun, but we are more than half way done. Ok, not really since we school year round… However, we do scale back in the summer months so maybe this is kinda true?!?!

Featured Poem

10oth Day of School

The 100th day of school is here
It’s time to celebrate and cheer

To get the rest of this fun poem head over to Teachers Pay Teachers, and get your 100th day freebie! Just like last week Jack will be using this poem as his copywork for the week. I think it is great practice for him all around.

Our Table

Every year on our 100th day of school we have fun snacks! This year we made “100th  Donuts” and “100 Day Trail Mix”. To make your own 100th day snacks you will need:

100th Day Snack

• 1 Strawberry Shortcake Roll
• 2 Glazed Donuts

This one is simple… Just open your shortcake roll and place it on the plate with two donuts! 

100th Day Trail Mix

1. M&M’s (10)
2. Chocolate Chips (10)
3. Gummi Rainbow Candy (10)
4. Mini Marshmallows (10)
5. Chocolate Teddy Grahams(10)
6. Bugles Chips (10)
7. Goldfish (10)
8. Mini Charleston Chews (10)
9. Gardetto’s Rye Chips (10)
10. Popcorn (10)

As you can see in the picture above, I set out all the snacks on the table and my children count out 10 of each item and simply mix it all together! This is one of our favorite school traditions. In case you are wondering… Yes, they totally had gut rot all afternoon! haha

(Note: You may have noticed that we only had 9 different snacks on the table instead of 10, but we added popcorn later in the afternoon. We saved this snack for our traditional 101 Dalmatians 100th Day movie afternoon, and we didn’t want the popcorn to be stale.)

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday 100th Day of School Edition…

When is your 100th day of school? If you have something special planned let us know! We love seeing what everyone else does for their 100th day.

Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesdays?

You can find them all on my Tea Time page.

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