Spooky Apple Teeth Kid Craft

We recently finished an apple theme curriculum in our homeschool and celebrated by making some spooky apple teeth. Perfect for fall and Halloween, we enjoyed this easy fall food craft and yummy snack.

Directions:
1. All you need for this activity are some apples, peanut butter and some mini marshmallows.
2. Wash and dry your apples, cut the apple into large wedges scooping out the seeds.

3. Take each wedge and on the outside of the apple, cut a wedge lengthwise but make sure you don't cut     all the way through.
4. Now in the wedge, put some peanut butter and place the mini marshmallows in two rows, making           some nice pearly white giant teeth for your spooky mouth!

If you aren't going to enjoy right away, I would toss the cut apple slices in lemon juice so the apples don't turn brown.

5 Fun Back To School Centerpieces

It's that time again. New books, a new school year and to celebrate, how about some back to school decorating ideas.

I like to cheer the kids on and help get them excited by doing something special with apples, school themed decor, chalkboards, pencils. A back to school centerpiece adds a special touch to the new school year.

Homeschool Decorations for Motivation

As a homeschool mom for over 24 years, I need to get myself excited as well for the new year. I am schooling my 4th and last student right now so we like to jazz up our school table for the seasons and back to school decor is probably the most important of the year. You can find all my homeschooling posts here.

And finally, how about a couple ideas from us.

This first back to school display is really not a centerpiece but shows if you collect items with an educational them, you can make a sweet back to school vignette.

And this little back to school table idea I just threw together last year when school was upon us but I wanted to do something special for the girls.

Please check out our other back to school posts.

Best No Sand In The Pants Sandbox Idea

Year after year we roll out our best no sand in the pants sandbox idea.

When my other kids were small we had the traditional sand box and you know what that would always lead to; sand in the pants, on your couch, on your carpet, floors EVERYWHERE.

I just didn't want to go that route with our youngest this time so I came up with what I think is my best mom idea to date and there aren't many. Took the weathered old wheel barrow at perfect toddler height and poured on bag of play sand in. It is perfect. She plays and no sand in the clothes so no sand to grind into my wood floors.

I have put an umbrella over the sandbox to shade my little one and to keep it cool.

You can move it around into the shade or under cover if it rains. She has had the best time with it for two years now.

The wheel barrow is super steady too so it won't tip over. I just throw a cover on it at night if I remember so the kitties don't use it. Thankfully they have never discovered it.

Teaching Kindergarten Math with Manipulatives

When you begin teaching basic math concepts in Kindergarten or first grade, I have found using manipulatives help to connect the concept for little ones.

We have had a set of little rubber animals for  almost 20 years that I used with each of the kids. It does not matter what you use as long as you have a lot of them. You could use any small similar items. This particular set has been great cause I use it to teach patterns, color grouping and many other preschool items plus they are fun to play with for the little ones.

Here we are beginning to start addition. I take a sheet of paper and write out five problems a day and provide a handful of the rubber animals. My daughter uses the manipulatives to figure out the problems. Many children are very visual so this really helps them "see" the math problem. Also, the kids find this fun and it keeps them engaged.

Sharing with:
Hip Homeschool Hop

Getting Your Homeschooled (and non-homeschooled) Kids Ready for College and Life

** I am transferring over a few posts from my homeschooling blog and combining them into one as this is really home for me so I will do all future homeschool topics here on sunnysimplelife.com.

I am going to share some of my many years of teaching homeschool and let you know how we prepared our homeschooled kids for college and life. Of course this is a lengthy topic so I will break this up into parts.

First off, I have four kids but two are older and college age,  one has graduated and is a RN. She had her degree at 21, and was the youngest to ever be admitted to the program. She was 18 by a few days. She was able to be admitted so young because she started junior college in 11th grade and completed all the prerequisite classes quickly. She never took a summer or winter term off. That was her choice, not mine. She knew what she wanted and wanted to get it done. Her sister is 20 and a mechanical engineering major. She is still in college.

At 21, our oldest  had a full time job making a nice living. But let me back up a bit and start at the beginning. My other daughter is still in college and works part time. She is a mathematics/engineering major and was just given a grant for science and mathematics to continue her schooling. We are thrilled and feel lucky to have kids who are motivated and independent and have their heads on straight. But kids becoming independent and motivated to do well does not happen in a vacuum. You as a parent must do your part. And then some just may depend on the kiddo but this is our story and I will share.

First thing to teach your kids in homeschooling and life: HOW TO WORK!!

So let's start at the beginning. In life when you are are homeschooling, you are around your kids a lot and they are home all day most days. To keep your sanity and to most importantly teach your kids about life and how to function in this world, they need to work. At a young age, about three, my kids were given chores. Simple things like bringing small trash cans to be dumped or setting the table but regular, everyday jobs you must do because you are a part of the family and you have to help.

No allowance was ever given for regular household chores. You did these because you lived here and you need to contribute. Extra money earning jobs were given that the older kids could do to get paid for their own spending choices. These could be lawn mowing, washing cars, harder jobs around the house etc.

This establishes a work ethic in children very young. They had to learn to do the jobs without complaining either. I would warn them but if complaining continued, they would be given extra chores. This may sound tough but honestly you enforce this once, you won't have to say it again. My youngest, who is six, is learning this fact right now. After four kids I am more patient about teaching this so I tell her, "this ain't my first rodeo kid!"

The same goes for doing school work. Seems like around first grade when school work became serious and we had to complete larger amounts of it, some of our kids would complain about things. Frequent reminders that a good attitude is needed and breaks when little ones are getting squirmy help to make things easier on mom and student. So first thing to teach kids is how to work hard without complaining. None of us are perfect but life is hard and learning to do a good job because that is what you need to do is so important. Many parents today are not instilling good work ethics in their kids.

Next time I will talk about what subjects you HAVE to cover in homeschooling in preparation for college and life. The list may surprise you.

Sharing with: Strangers and Pilgrims

Setting Up Our Homeschool

Since I have had a long break between first graders, I have needed to organize and set up our homeschool supplies once again. I do not have a school room and we usually use our kitchen table for most work.

In order to celebrate back to school for our two youngest I set up a small table display. I am serious about thinning out all my old decorative junk. I no longer want to or desire to set up huge holiday displays like I have in the past. I want enough to make my little one happy but I am serious about reducing our belongings.

This summer I had two large donation pick ups, three large item haul aways and lots of things tossed or put in our recycling bins. I feel better and better as order is made out of drawers that are almost empty and space reclaimed in our garage. Clutter literally stresses me.

In years past we had boxes that held the girls stuff and I didn't want that this time around. I cleared this shelf again in the service porch right next to our kitchen. It is literally five feet from the table. It holds our school books and I dug an old craft carrier from the garage, scrubbed it and put our daily supplies in it. Literally, one trip for all needed school items and no looking around for supplies. A few more items we need will be added but all is clean and organized and easy to see and reach what we need. More empty space!! Yay!!

Back to School and Homeschool

In less than two weeks my older girls will all be back in school or college or about to be and soon we will begin homeschooling first grade. This will be my 18th year of homeschooling and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. If you have ever considered it, do it. You will not be sorry. My older girls are all very independent, focused young people and I see the fruit of our labors.

For now I am taking a short blogging break to set up our homeschool year since I have had a big break between first graders (ten years). It is exciting though, and I want to have our year mapped out and our supplies all organized so we get off to a smooth start. You can find many of my previous posts on back to school decor and organizational ideas here.

Back to School Decor

Every year we like to do something special to herald Back to School time.

This year the hubs made a special are for our youngest. Made of a chair given to us and a ruler trimmed chalkboard shelf found on clearance.

Though I don't want summer to end, we are ready are you? Do you do anything special to celebrate Back to School? Please share. I'd love to know.

Back to School Centerpiece

Grabbed my last bits of back to school items and made up a simple centerpiece on our dining room table.

We eat dinner here each night so I like to make it seasonal and fun but it can't take up too much space as there are six of us.

An apple scented candle sets off the right mood for those approaching September days.

A nod to all the teachers that have patiently taught my girls over the years.