Sticky Garden Wall

Raahub Yasar!!!

Today, the plan was to make tricky word dominos (Found here http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2013/01/sight-word-dominoes-speed-racer-game.html) , which we did, but I the wrong number of dominos and it's kept blocking the game, so we abandoned it and moved onto plan b which was much more fun. 

I got the idea from another page on the No Time For Flashcards Site (find the original post here http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2013/04/alphabet-flower-garden.html) . It's a great site with lots of simple learning activities, normally based around art and crafts. 

I call is a sticky garden, but you can create any wall mural using the same idea and I'll probably do other variations of this soon as it went down well. But you basically get sticky back plastic (also called contact paper or cover film), stick it to a plain wall with the sticky side facing outwards then let your child stick things to it. 

I cut out flower heads, stems, butterflies and circles, squares and triangles in different colours of paper, but you could let your children cut their own shapes. 

I added the grass at the bottom of the plastic to give it a garden feel :-) 

If you use a good quality paper, they can stick them, then pull them off and stick them somewhere else, just like reusable stickers. I've only just put mine up so I don't know how long it lasts, but I'll probably take it down in a few days or let them create another type of scene on it like an ocean, space or jungle. 

Here are some pictures of them sticking the pieces on then the end of the first stage. They went onto use felt tip pens to draw faces on the people and butterflies they made.

The whole activity, including getting muldud involved in helping me put the plastic up, took about an hour, 20 mins set up and 40 mins of them playing with it before they drifted off to other things, which is pretty good. 

If you do one, let me know how it goes

Hatap yasar

Mut / Leah

Our Homeschool Supplies Lists & Cost

Raahub Yasar!

Even though the cost of homeschooling can be high, you can absolutely get by very well on a tight shoe string  budget. 

Today I wanted to share my homeschool supply list so you can work out what it will cost in terms of resources and costs to get started or to restock if you're already started. It's broken up into 

1) Learning materials 

2) Basic materials for everyday use

3) Equipment that's really useful 

4) fancy extra stuff.

These list are by no means exhaustive, just what comes to mind right now:

1) Learning Materials (some free, some paid for that I find useful, but just opitional)

A few work books on the subjects you want your children to learn (you can start with maths, spelling, reading, writing, phonics and a language or science

A good supply of reading books for the child's age and a few years above and preferably a library card to go and read different books ever so often

Links to a few free websites with learning activities

A subscription to an online learning system or a computer learning program to make learning a bit more interesting (and to get them familiar with using computers at the same time)

2) Basic materials for everyday use

Plain white paper 

Lined white paper 

Pencils

Colouring pens or pencils

Crayons

Sharpeners

Rubbers/Erasers

Rulers - 6inch, 12inch and 

Sticky tape

Glue sticks

Scissors

Coloured paper

Folders

3) Really Useful Equipment (some of which you may have in your home anyway)
Colour or black and white printer

Black  and Coloured printer ink

Laminator and pouches

Digital camera 

4) Fancy Extra Stuff

Glitter

Fancy art bits and bobs - Spangles, those shiny sparkly decoration that come in different colours, googly eyes, feathers, craft sticks etc

Paints and brushes

Tissue paper

Crepe paper

Playdough, plastercine (or ingredients to make your own)

Playdough cutters and tools (you can get set of playdough shape cutters, little rolling pins, rolling blades for cutting etc) 

String

Elastic bands

Cd player and cd's 

Musical instruments (preferably mainly wooden and cultural i.e. drums)

As far as costs are concerned, you can get started with 3 children for as little as £30 a month or spend up to £100 a month on 1 child if you include educational magazine subscriptions, private tutors and drama, dance and music classes. 

We probably spent £30 to get started (mainly on printer ink to print of lots of free worksheets, tracing sheets and coloring sheets, then paints, craft materials, pencils, colours etc), then maybe £40 a month thereafter, made up of £10 a week picking things up as we went along. 

Now I use an online learning program for the older 2 children now called Time 4 Learning which is about £25 a month and covers a lot of maths, science, language arts and language art extension which I like so in total we spend an average of £40 a month on all 4 children, not include the occassional trips and restocking workbooks 2-3 times a year. 

There are some months when we actually don't spend anything but the £25 online program fee and other months when I might go crazy and spend £60 or really fancy art supplies, brand new books gadgets and more. 

I'd love to hear what other homeschooling families are using and spending on their homeschool supplies, so please comment below. 

Remember to subscribe to the blog by adding your email address in the box above and share this with anyone you think would find it useful

Hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re

What style of homeschooling do we use?

Raahub yasar,

Homeschooling families typically get asked  'What do you do with your children all day?' In many ways, that depends on the style of homeschooling or home education you choose for your children.

The 2 ends of the home education spectrum to my knowledge are:

The strictest form is 'A School At Home' - This is where you pretty much aim to create a school structure and environment in your home, so in this home, you'd expect to see set hours for studies and teaching times, a set curriculum, text books, lesson plans etc. Some people will even get uniforms that their children wear during their school time, a black board, desk and chairs.

The most relaxed form is 'Unschooling' (aka free range learning, child centred learning, de schooling etc) - This type of home education in based on the concept that a child learns from any and everything, without the need for structure, text books, computers, curriculum or anything else you'd typically find in a conventional school environment. So in this home, you probably find ample books, instruments, art supplies, educational toys, games and activities, but not many 'lessons times'

You also have different more specific schools of thought that families use to with their children like

Montessouri (child centred learning) - http://www.montessori.org.uk/what_is_montessori
Steiner Schooling -Click here to learn about Steiner Homeschooling
Waldorf Schooling - Click here to learn more about Waldorf homeschooling 

Now, what do we do in our Nuwaupian homeschool?

I like the concept of our children learning from life itself and becoming self reliant, able to make their own decisions about what they learn and when in the unschooling kind of way, but I'm also pretty sure that our educationally advanced ancestors, the ancient tamareans would have had a learning structure of some sort. There was always order in our culture, so that's what I aim to create in our home.

I have images of little tamamrean children carrying their books into a big granite pyramid in ancient tamare discussing molecular science and the electromagnetic lay lines of the earth as they rushed to get to their desks or hall of learning in time to hear their mustalameed begin class. Super smart little 7yr olds asking questions that a 15yr old in this society would be baffled by - this is what our children should be able to achieve and will achieve in the right environment.

There are loads of educational and stimulating things around our home, from computer programs, to books, art activities, toys and gadgets and so on, so even away from a structure lesson time, there are opportunities for them to learn.

So I'd describe our homeschooling style as a relaxed, child centred school at home. In any given day, you can expect to find us enjoying meals as a family, teaching a few structured lessons from nuwaupic language to science, biology or nature, the kharadu working through their workbooks and online learning systems, reading reading and more reading, either independently or me reading to them and lots of play play and more play.

Hatep yasar

Mut