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Autumn Tree Q-Tip Painting – Free Printable Craft Activity for Kids
I put this autumn tree poem printable together last year when we were homeschooling for Kindergarten, and I think I enjoyed it as much as my girls did. There is just something really calming about painting Fall leaves like this. This would be a great Fall craft activity for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade. And it fits perfectly with our Autumn Tree nature study theme this week! I printed the page on cardstock and then glued it to a piece of construction paper. Then we just dotted our papers with paint to represent the Fall leaves. The best part about this craft activity is that it also works on those…
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Best Picture Books about Autumn Trees & Fall Leaves
Are you looking for great picture books about trees? Picture books about Autumn or Fall leaves? Picture books about Autumn Trees for your preschool, kindergarten or first grade classroom? Then look no further! Every year, as part of our nature study in our homeschool we read children’s books about trees in the Fall season. I selected a number of great children’s picture books about Autumn for our first grade homeschool bookshelf. Some of these books related to trees are classics, some are non-fiction for gentle science study. We lean a bit Charlotte Mason in our homeschool style, so I am all about books! Some of these are about trees and…
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Autumn Nature Study Bible Memory Verses
Each week I incorporate Bible memory work into our homeschool. We practice every day until it is memorized. It’s more challenging for my 7 year old, who has Down syndrome, because her auditory processing (short-term memory) is not as strong. This means I often have to repeat sections of the verse, sometimes just one or two words at a time, often many times. It can be tedious, but I believe it is so important that we hide God’s word in our hearts. Her long term memory is quite good, and she is so proud of the accomplishment when she has it memorized. I don’t stress out if there’s a verse…
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Handprint Owl Kid Craft and Free Printable
This week in our homeschool we have been learning about owls. I made a really fun owl themed snack and was thinking I could do something similar as a printable. My girls are in first grade this year, but I think this would be a simple and cute toddler craft, preschool craft, or kindergarten craft. Actually, I think it would be ideal as a craft for toddlers or preschoolers because their hands are smaller. I was pretty surprised to see how big my daughters’ hands have gotten this year! (And yet they are still tiny compared to my teen! Where do the years go?!) It was my husband’s birthday last…
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My New Discbound Personal and Homeschool Planner
This year I decided to combine my personal planner with my homeschool planner and to convert over to a discbound planner. For a long time I’ve used a bullet journal. As a planner junkie who loves to try out new layouts, it suited me perfectly. More recently I’ve been using a bujo in a traveler’s notebook, which was even better. The one big drawback to both of these options is that you can’t add or remove pages. I knew I didn’t want a ringbound planner because the rings tend to be big and get in my way. I like how you can flip over spiral planners, but like with ring bound planners…
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Poetry Teatime!
It’s been a LONG time since I’ve updated the blog. My younger two will begin 1st grade next week after Labor Day, and we are still homeschooling! One thing that we will be incorporating into our regular weekly schedule is a Poetry Teatime. So, we thought it would be fun to invite my mom over to join us for our first tea party of the school year (a week early.) I made a super yummy and entirely gluten free (and mostly dairy free) spread of fancy tea party foods. We picked some flowers from the backyard and lit a candle. It was all so lovely and we can’t wait for our next…
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Treating Down Syndrome
Let me be clear – Down syndrome (T21) is not something that can be “cured”. When people ask things like, “How severe is her Down syndrome?” I’m tempted to respond, “Well, you could say that it’s as severe as possible. It’s also as mild as possible.” A person either has it or they don’t. (This leaves out of the equation the types of Ds, but for our purposes we’ll assume it’s Standard Trisomy 21, which is what most people are familiar with, and also makes up over 90% of the Ds population.) It’s true that there is a broad range of manifestations and a range of symptoms (for lack of…
