Kindergarten Homeschool Space

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 21 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

It's happening yall....Kindergarten is upon us.

A new school year (but does it ever really end) means a new school room set up.

My little girl turned 5 this July.  She is such a gentle and nieve child.  I know homeschooling is the best thing for her and her personality.  I am a new director for Classical Conversations, and am totally enthralled with the Charlotte Mason method.  Not to mention we are continuing our love of

  Mother Goose Time!  You will see all 3 coming together to create our current school space. 

Welcome to our once formal unused living room. I has been a playroom, preschool room, and now it is our Kindergarten Homeschool room.

Let me show you around.

This picture is taken from our doorway.  There are no doors, so the kids and I try to pick up this room each night because seeing a clean room just helps me breathe.

Both white bookshelves are from Walmart (link here) and have been in the kids' rooms. We had rain guttering for bookshelves for years, which I loved, but I needed to house more of our books, especially my science books I had stored in cabinets around the house.  Collecting books is my hobby yall.  My husband cut the guttering in half, and now both kids have 3 rain gutter shelves for their books in their room.

I love that the bookshelves create a table top that my son can not reach and destroy... yet lol.

Above the bookshelves are some of our Timeline cards from Classical Conversations.  My husband hung three rows of wire using eye hooks, and I attached the cards with mini clothespins.  The first 7 cards are missing since our first week of CC is coming up and I used them to make my Tutor board.

Do you have those Childcraft books from when you were a kid?

I jacked them from my parents' home long ago, and we have used them numerous times this past year of CC.  Most of the other books on these shelves are Science books, but one shelf is World History/Cultures and the other is American History books.  If I need to add a book to our collection, which happens almost weekly, I always check out Thriftbooks! Best prices fo sho!  Our Melissa and Doug abacus is missing a row, but I bought it for next to nothing when a preschool was going out of business in my town last year.

We love spending time outside and going for walks.  Charlotte Mason is my jam. 

I display our findings in this tray I bought at Dollar Tree. Right now it houses different acorns, an abandoned robin's nest, pinecones, cardinal feathers (and a few others), and a perfectly intact butterfly.  There is a container of fine sand from a friend's trip to the beach that she brought back to me. The giant leaf on the wall is one my girl found on our most recent walk.  She chose it because of it's size.  I didn't want it to crumble as it dried out, so I laminated the leaf and stuck it on our wall.  I am definitely going to laminate more leaves this fall.  Laminators are not that expensive and I am so glad I have one! This one from Amazon is less that $25.

Here are our story books, including Fairy Tales, Classics, Poetry, the Bible, Art, and Math books.  The top far right cubby houses all the books I really want to use for CC this year. I just wanted them in one spot to make them easy to find and grab as I plan out our year. The pink basket on the bottom is home to our Audio books and our Monthly Cds from Mother Goose Time.  The green basket is our recent stash from our library.  On top of the shelf, we have our books for this month from

  Mother Goose Time (Little Red Riding Hood and the Lonely Wolf) and our Tea Time afternoon read, Mercy Watson.  Both my kids love the Mercy Watson books!  

They are an easy and fun read aloud.

During the month os September we will be focusing on Family and Pets with Mother Goose Time.  I set up our monthly calendar (love how it teaches patterns with the colored numbers), monthly number focus, and our Theme Poster.  I found the map at Target for like $3 and had to grab it!  My girl already drew on it though.  She a line from Texas to Siberia because "that's the way you get to Mimi and PopPop's house."  Ugh.  At least she knows that a map is for directions.  Our table was $20 from the preschool that was closing down and I love it!  Perfect size for both kiddos.  

I still want to paint the top in chalkboard paint.

I moved this bookshelf back into our room because I needed a place for my things and for my son's toys.  The tall tower to the right houses our MGT curriculum and supplies I don't want the kids necessarily getting into...but is there really anything a toddler doesn't get into?  He opens these drawers all the time.  He also hears "No, sir" all the time.

My deep book cubbies from Walmart.  I love these things!

I have one for Workbooks, Art Materials (paper), Writing Journals, Mother Goose Time, and Classical Conversations.

This shelf holds a few curriculum binders and our Timeline cards.  The teapot is one my former roommate made in our Ceramics class in college.  I have always loved it.

This year we will explore Space with CC, so I nabbed this craft kit from Alex.  I bought a bunch of learning cards from the Dollar Spot at Target, and our Geoboard (love it!) is from MGT a year or so ago.  The basket holds rubber bands and my girl gets this down and plays with it quite often.

The bottom two shelves are pretty much my son's materials.  The big folder box houses coloring books that they both enjoy using.

We used to have a teepee in here that we read in, but my girl fell on one of the wooden stakes, broke it, and I never have replaced it.  I just stacked our pillows under the window and moved our rug to this side of the room.  We have a little light box that is on the floor and the blue basket on it houses all our transparent blocks that are so fun to use on our light.

I got rid of the really ugly wooden cabinet, and dragged this green beast of a buffet into our room.  It holds more materials that I don't want little hands getting into and it provides another flat top surface for all the things!

My dry erase board from Hobby Lobby that I have had for years is home to our Routine cards that MGT sent me a few years back.  I never used them because my girl just didn't need them at the time, but they are perfect as we journey into this new year.  Especially since we are exploring the Charlotte Mason method.  She encourages short increments of time for each area of study but using the habits of full attention and best effort for that small amount of time.  

These cards are going to help us stay on track!

With our new September box from MGT, we received some colorful and very sturdy Loose Letter Parts.  I added some magnetic tape ($3 from Hobby Lobby and then used my 40%) and vo-la! Magnetic letter parts!  Cookie sheets make it easy to take this anywhere.

On top of the buffet we have more materials from Mother Goose!

I placed our monthly manipulates which happen to be shapes, our puzzle that matches our story of the month, and our two math baskets for our first day of learning.  We are ready for September!

Our golden Bailey does not miss out on any action that happens in this room.  She loves us so much and is never far from where we are.  This month we will be studying the letters H, F, and T.  I used wide painters tape to put the letter on the floor.  My son tries to practice jumping over the lines.  He's adorable.

Well, that's our Homeschool space this year.  It'll change next year I'm sure.
I am so excited to document our learning adventures here and I wonder what my kids will think years from now as they look back on these posts.


Have a wonderful school year friends!

Science Lab: Living or Non-Living

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 20 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

It's Biology week with Mother Goose Time!

Our week started with Living and Non-Living things. 

The Community Challenge question: "What do you think you need to live?" really solidified some discussions we've been having at home anyway.

Anyone else's kid saying, "Momma, I wish I had...." or "Momma, I want a..."

Not gonna lie... I've been singing an oldie but a goodie that my momma sang to me whenever I started a case of the "I wish I had..." or the "I wants..."

I sing the chorus to You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones.

My girl now sings that chorus all the time. LOL! 

Anyway, we had great discussion about what we truly need to survive .  We made hand motions for the main things we need to survive: 

food, water, oxygen, clothes, and shelter.

MGT sent 2 activities: a Is It Living? question board (with yes' and no's) and a sorting activity called Living/ Non-living Sort.  I combined the two activities.  Using the cards from the sorting activity, I had my daughter answer the questions from the Is It Living? question board.  By doing this, she could determine if something was living or non-living.

After sorting many of the cards, we ventured outdoors to find living and non-living things.  

I grabbed my giant Newsprint paper pad (that I hadn't used since taking art in college, but it has been the most helpful pad of paper lately!), a few crayons off the floorboard of my car, and had my girl look around outdoors.

Some items she found on the ground, some she saw, but all of them she sorted between living and non-living.  I just had to do the writing. 

As we were looking around, she came across this Katydid on one of our zinnias.  I thought it was a grasshopper honestly, but a friend of mine pointed out that it was actually a Katydid.

They are similar to grasshoppers, but the cool thing about this particular Katydid, is we've seen her before!  She has been in our garden quite a few times always perched on this particularly orange zinnia.

Avaleigh watched her new found friend for quite some time.  My daughter tried very hard to coax her new friend on to a stick but to no avail.  That Katydid was not wanting anything from my girl.

Taking time to observe and play in nature is one of the things I really want to instill in my children.  There is something that just makes me feel so good when I can step outside in the sunshine and just breathe in His goodness.

Hoping you get to breathe in some of that this week! 

Have fun with those littles! They won't be little for long I am finding out.

Science Lab: Exploring Electricity

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 20 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

Oh my goodness yall!

Exploring science with littles is so much fun- especially when studying ELECTRICITY!  

Mother Goose Time gave us some excellent ideas and resources to make studying this a blast!

Our day started with a question: What do you turn on and off?

This simple question led to a field trip around the house exploring all the things we turn on and off.

From toys and light switches, to the washer, dryer and diffuser, there are items in every single room that my girl turns on and off.  Taking a quick field trip helped jog her memory to all the things.

We then explored STATIC ELECTRICITY.

I blew up a balloon, and we took turns rubbing it on our heads and watching our hair stand up on end!  My son got such a kick out of seeing his sister's hair attach itself to the balloon, that he too had to have a turn. 

We explored if rubbing the balloon on our head would provide enough static electricity to make the balloon stick to the wall.  It did!  We did several experiments and noticed that the static electricity seemed to diminish over time.  Our balloon stuck to the wall for 12 seconds, then 10, then none, and finally 4 seconds.  We were able to talk about scientists having to repeat experiments over and over again to see it something really works.

During our Math time, MGT sent us Connect the Circuit (connect the dots) worksheet.  Each dot was numbered 1-11, and it was a little too simple for my girl.  However the "Challenge" in the teacher guide suggested for the child to count backwards and start at 11 which she did.  

Grateful for that suggestion!

It was time to explore LIGHTS and FLASHLIGHTS.

We discussed why outlets were dangerous and went around the house finding them, pointing, and then holding our hands up saying "Don't touch!"  My son loved this!  He still says "Don't touch" when he notices an outlet.

It's hard to find old lights when everything is going LED, but I found this bulb in one of our lamps, and we were able to look at the filament inside.  Then she screwed it into the lamp and I plugged it into the wall.  She pulled the switch and Vo-la! Let there be light!

My teacher guide then suggested a Broken Flashlight activity where I supplied some disassembled flashlights.  My daughter explored putting the flashlight back together.  The challenge was getting the batteries turned in the right direction.  When she got it to work, her brother had a blast chasing after the light she shined around the room.

During our Creative Art time, my kiddos used our Do a Dot paint markers to color their lightbulb cutouts MGT provided.  I love these markers!  Whenever we have a painting activity that I just do not want to break out the paint, these markers are the next best thing!  

We added a black twist tie later for the filament. 

Our day ended with us curling up together and reading out of our Ingenuity book that MGT provided this month in our Science box.  I LOVE this book!  It's a great biography for preschoolers covering 5 different scientists.  I loved reading to my little perfectionist that it took Thomas Edison so many tries to get the lightbulb to work.  She really struggles with trying over and over again.

Whew!  What a fun filled day!  

Which one of these activities will you try with your littles?

Happy learning friends!

Science Lab: Exploring Sounds

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 20 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

Our schoolroom has turned into a Science Lab this past month with our Mother Goose Time curriculum.  This past week we explored Physics and had so much fun on our Sound Day.  

Our Day started with singing and dancing during our Community Challenge.

Watching my son stomp around and laugh gleefully was such a joy for this momma's heart.  I love when he gets involved with our learning.

We then made a string phone.  I have to admit .... I kinda did an "ugh" sigh when I saw this in the lesson plan.  Whenever I have done these in the past, it just hasn't turned out great, but I learned something new!!! Please allow me to share...

All you need are 2 paper cups and some yarn.  Punch a small hole through the bottom of the 2 cups and push the yarn through the hole and tie the end.  You have a string phone.  Now here's the kicker (maybe some of you already know this, but I didn't)....

You have to make sure the string it taut!  If it is loose between you and the person on the other end, the sound will not travel well.  Also, when placing the cup to your ear, have it kind of angled up towards your ear.  This allows the sound to not seem so muffled.   It took some experimenting to figure this out but that's what you do in the Science Lab: experiment!  

We played with our string phones for a long time!  We took turns asking each other questions through the phone and answering back.  It really was a lot of fun, and my girl took her phone with her everywhere the rest of the day.

My son on the other hand had lots of fun chewing on the cups. 

We ventured outside to listen to the Sounds of Nature.

There are so many birds, and you can hear each making their distinct call.  We might not know which bird is which but my girl could point out that the bird chirping was different than the last.

We could hear the water sprinklers going, water dripping, birds chirping, and cicadas making their sounds. 

While I prepped lunch, I gave them an assortment of baskets turned into guitars with the help of some big rubber bands.  This was our STEAM Station for the day. 

They had fun plucking the strings and seeing which sounds they created.

Our day ended with a symphony of Egg Shakers.  I just grabbed ones I made back at Christmas, and we just danced arounds shaking our eggs.  Some eggs are loud (filled with beans) while some are soft (filled with sugar) but they have been loved and played with for a long time.  

You can read about how I made them here.

Our week of Physics science lab started with studying Sound, but we also enjoyed experimenting with light, force, friction and gravity as well.  All of which will be amazing as we cover Physics in Classical Conversations this fall. 

Have fun experimenting my friends! 

Science Lab: Exploring Our Senses

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 20 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

Three years ago we started our homeschool journey with Mother Goose Time.

We started with this box- the Science Lab.

A lot has changed including some of the activities.  I actually blogged about doing this particular activity 3 years ago, and here it is again but with new graphics and twists on the activity from long ago. Here's how it went to you can try it today with your littles.

Scientists use their 5 senses to make observations; it's actually called "Qualitative Observations."

My scientist and her research partner (little brother, Everett), explored all sorts of items we had around the house using their 5 senses.

However, first things first... read a book.  Today I chose My Five Senses by Aliki.

As we read the book, the scientists pointed to that particular body part.

When talking about smelling, my kids  researchers pointed to their noses.

After reading the book and poking at all sorts of body parts, I cut out the 5 Senses Cards provided from MGT.  I laid them in front of my older scientist.  She would grab an item from the tray of research materials (aka anything you can find around the house), and then decide which sense she used when making observations of that object.  She would move the card if she used that sense.

For example, with the banana, she used all her senses except hearing.  

observing a banana

Observing how this candle smells... mmmm...... gardenias!

You can't have an observation day without SLIME.

Don't forget sound!  Grab those bells you have hidden in your cabinet!  That's where mine are and where they will be returning soon. Ha! #truth

We had so much fun with this activity!  It was a perfect one to coincide with snack time too.  Get those taste buds working!   My favorite part was watching her really chew her goldfish slowly, trying to think of words to describe what was going on in her mouth.

The scientists favorite parts:  eating the banana or ringing those bells over and over again.

Stay tuned for more adventures this month as we revisit the Science Lab!