Homeschooling

STEM activities for Early Childhood Children

Huge Kindergarten Earthworm Unit: Visit my page dedicated to all the earthworm activities that 3 homeschooling moms put together. I paired up with No Doubt Learning and The Usual Mayhem to bring you lots of great activities.

Solar Sock Ice Melting Competition: STEM mom shares a solar activity/game involving socks, ice, and you guessed it, SUN.

Wind Farm Changing the Landscape: Wind Turbines are changing the landscape of the midwest, and a wind farm is going up just a few miles away from STEM mom. Photos show the assembly of these massive structures, with some introductory background information.

Making a Nature Boat to Float in the River: Using the natural materials nuts, sticks, and leaves, to build a boat, STEM mom and son design two boat prototypes before launching it into the river. We need help from an engineer, but it was fun!

Using Lab Notebook with Early Elementary: STEM mom shares how she uses a science lab notebook with her kindergarten son. Cicadas and walking sticks are the subject being entered into the notebook.

Free Thematic Corn Unit: This corn unit integrates measurement, seed growth, plant growth, soil, flowers, pollination, soil, and earthworms. Unit designed for early childhood/early elementary level students. Unit includes, history, science, art, drama, sensory play, and hands-on experiments. Free teacher unit planner download.

Measuring Plants-Corn Unit: Finding creative ways to get kids engaged with farming, the STEM mom has her kids count leaves and ears of corn as a way to measure the growth. Page includes a free download of 4 graphs suitable for K-4 students.

Measuring Corn Growth with Lego Guys: Kindergarten spring/summer/fall outdoor unit introducing concepts of measurements (using lego guys), soil, seeds, earthworms, and corn growth.

Glow in the Dark Oobleck: Oobleck, make from cornstarch and water is great fun, great science, and you can make it glow in the dark! Here's how!

Collecting and Dissecting Owl Vomit (pellets): Owl Vomit is so cool! More commonly known as owl pellets, this "specimen" is a common middle school dissection activity. STEM mom collects her own owl pellets and shares the dissection experience with her 5 year old son. Good times!

Using the Battleship Game as a Teaching Tool:  STEM mom talks about how the old-fashioned Battleship game is a great tool for learning numbers, letters, and beginning coordinates.

Digital Scavenger Hunt and Spring Nature Walk: STEM mom shares ideas for having kids photograph items found nature while on your hike. Includes ideas for a list, and what educational opportunities await!

Easter Eggs, Static Electricity, and Math!  Craft morphs into a science/math lesson. STEM mom shares how the tangent of static electricity came up when using balloons for an easter egg craft.

First Data Collection:  STEM mom shares her excitement as her 4 year old enjoys watching a seed grow, and documenting the growth. Data collection for the very young!

My Logical Mathematical Son: As a STEM mom, I share what logical mathematical kids enjoy along with ideas on how to teach them. I am just a little excited that my 5 year old is showing logical-mathematical tendencies. I share the games we play that highlight this Multiple Intelligence (MI).

Organizing Homeschool

Summer Lesson Plan Book for Homeschooling Mom: STEM mom shares lesson plan templates for homeschooling. The printables include loose organization for the week, not daily.


Spanish Number Flashcards: STEM mom shares a nifty way to use plastic sleeves intended for CD/DVD storage to organize calendar time. This post also includes a free download for Spanish number flash cards.

Kid Stuff

Boys will be Boys: Wordless Wednesday.


Countdown Birthday Chain: We used a paper chain to countdown to birthday number 5. It stopped the complaining, and it was fun.


Art in Nature: STEM mom uses leaves to teach science and art!

Glowing Water Beads: STEM mom shares how to make glow in the dark water beads and a light box.

Literacy 

Word Family: Free Sticker Templates: STEM Mom provides a tutorial and free sticker template for creating a word family game using plastic easter eggs.

Choosing and Reading Children's Books: Choosing quality children's books can be tougher than it seems, even if you're in the 26th grade, like me (the STEM mom)! I talk about what I have learned to look for in books, and include a video of my 4 year old "reading" a Mo Willems book.

Using Handwriting Without Tears with Great Success: STEM mom shares how using the "Get Set for School" curriculum from Handwriting Without Tears has worked for her 5 year old. Tips on how to use the Stamp and See Screen and Slate are provided.

Mat Man-Handwriting Without Tears: Five Year old constructs Mat Man (from Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum) for the first time. STEM mom shows how to make the HWT manipulatives out of foam board and then construct Mat Man. Includes a video of her son listening to the song, and putting him together. Mat Man is used to teach children shapes and body awareness.

History and Geography 

Making a Mummy in Kindergarten: STEM mom shares how she used a processed cheese food box, spices, a large Lego guy, and a bottle of wine to help her 5 year old learn about how the ancient Egyptians took care to preserve their dead pharaohs.

Our Homeschooling Journey

Box Day 2012: STEM mom shares the family's first Sonlight "Box Day" 2012. We got Core A and are enjoying it immensely.

First Weeks of Homeschooling-Workboxes: STEM mom, brand new to homeschooling, and early childhood education, shared about her early weeks of homeschooling her pre-K son.

Easy Way to Plan for the School Year: STEM mom shares an easy way to organize a year-long plan for course or class. Materials you'll need? 1 piece of poster board, and super sticky notes! You'll feel better after you make a plan for where the course is headed!

Another Homeschooling Family: STEM mom visits former colleague (fellow biology teacher) who  uses Sonlight curriculum with her 3 kids.

Schooling Confession: STEM mom embarks on her homeschooling adventure by visiting a homeschooling family.

Philosophy

Let Kids Break Stuff--Ode to My Mom: STEM mom shares several Dr. Tyson videos to highlight the importance of letting kids discover by making messes, and breaking things--just like her own mom did for her! How his views may impact parenting and education are explored.

The False Dichotomy of Play vs. Academics: STEM mom talks about how play and academics are not at odds with one another, and that play IS academics, even at the middle school and high school level!

Make a Difference: Water for Life: This organization allows schools (homeschooling groups or church groups too) to pair up with needy communities around the world to help them obtain clean water! Such a simple thing.