Number Flashcards

I love printables!  I made these number tracing flash cards for my kids to practice their numbers with.  I printed them as 4x6 photos at the photo lab and then I laminated them.  This is probably the most expensive way to do it, but I had a friend print them so she could get her hands on the file to make a copy for her entire class.

I did redo the numbers, because I was able to get a new font for tracing.  So they look like this.

I am going to share them for you also.  I am using 4shared to access these files.  It is a total of 10 jpeg files.  To download, go here.

 

I love making flashcards.  If you have any ideas for some other ones, leave me a comment.

~trish

Summer Gardening

  I am probably toiling in vain.  I have not had a great garden in over 3 years, but I still plant on.  I just turned over my last failed garden. I have no idea if I will continue to use the failed garden site or start something new.    Either way, I had to plant!

I am using old seed trays that I get from my friend, who is a watermelon farmer.  I used the dirt pods, but I found that the seed trays work better with potting soil.  So I got these planted on a Saturday and by Thursday morning they looked like this!

Amazing!  I plan to get pumpkins started too.  So far the butternut squash is up the fastest and most consistent.  After 2 weeks being planted they look like this!

I am very excited.  I took the green beans and planted them in a container.  This is not really the best time to plant green beans.   I went ahead and put them in a container, because my garden spot will get too wet. So we will see.

You can see I am using my recycling container.  I did stick a few corn seeds in, just to see what happens.

I am concerned about my squash and cantaloupes.  I will have to plant them in the ground very soon, but I am worried about the water.  Then with my gourds, I have got to figure out where to plant them and let them climb.  I have a few ideas, but it will require work.

 

This is my first time focusing on containers to plant.

~trish

Notebooks for homeschooling

I love workbooks!  I love workbooks for so many reasons.  They are pretty!  You can mindlessly plan.  They remind me of being a small child playing school for some odd reason.  I love them, they get me excited about what adventure I am going to take.  What I do not like, it they cost money, a reasonable amount, but when you are buying multiples, it adds up.

Trying to keep our cost down.  I figured we would use notebooks and at $0.20 each, they are a steal.  For me, they are so boring!  To change that, I decided to go through my untouched scrapbook supplies to see what we could use.  (For those of you gasping that it is obvious that I used Creative Memories AWESOME paper and stickers for notebooks.  Yes I did.  Because I went digital and I can use that artwork over and over {{insert raspberries}} SO ha!)

Well we turned it into a day of making things pretty.  I feel between these 2 selections, I will easily know who’s is who’s.

Here they are all done.  3 for the Kindergartener, 3 for my 1st grader, 1 for the know-it-all 3 year old, who could not handle not being part of something.  Then there are 3 for me, 1 for my thoughts on our homeschooling plans, 2 for plans with my blogs.

 

Here is an example of how I am using the handwriting notebook. first off, all the notebook paper is college rule, this way using 2 lines is a great size for writing for their ages.  This is my 1st graders writing.  She traces and then writes on her own.  I have the lines to show top and bottom to help her know where to stop.  I made the mistake of not highlighting the lines only once. 

I am still fine tuning our curriculum plan for the upcoming year.  We will be reading a lot of books and doing unit studies.  I figured we will linger in each unit study for as long as we are enjoying it.

The other aspect is, I have no idea how long I will stick with this.  I have a thing for notebooks.  I collect them.  There are hundreds of them.  I seem to gravitate to them and here I am conditioning my children to do the same.  Hmm, I might need to set a jar up for therapy at later date for them.

~trish