California Christmas

4th Grade is learn your state year. This year we are learning about California in our history. As Christmas came around I thought it'd be fun to make a memory of this years learning. We made salt dough California Christmas ornaments. Such a fun way to make learning memorable. Measuring was a great way to apply out math skills too.  Moms, this is where extra patience and tolerance comes into play. If you're going to let the kids measure the ingredients (which I would encourage), then know there will be a mess.

Ingredients:

4 cups of flour

2 cups of salt

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

 (we needed to add a tad bit more water, so add water or more flour till desired consistency reached)

This recipe allows us to make two seven by three inch ornaments and a one by one foot size mold for teaching and learning. My boys didn't enjoy getting their hands messy as many other kids I read about had. 

 Molding wasn't easy, and the boy's got a little frustrated. Just let them do the best they can. California is an awkward state to mold. But you capture your child's uniqueness in the project. Some mom's (I read), made an outline for their kids to mold the dough into. I just winged it, made it more exciting :)
*Don't forget to poke a little hole on the top if you intend to hang it on the tree.

We also made a large California salt dough for some projects and hands on learning I have planned for later in the year. 

The boy's are looking at a map I pulled up on my ipad to design the landscaping.

End product! It took about three days for drying. We did this project at the end of the week which gave it the weekend to dry.

Paint day! This is always the best part. I love placing memories on our tree. My boy's are only eight and nine but it's such a beautiful thing to walk past our Christmas tree and see their work on it. In ten years these gifts will be like gold. Enjoy state history year! 

The fine balance of the Homeschooling Momma

 My motto for this homeschooling year was "to make learning fun!" And, as any homeschooling Momma's will know, the checklist of things to complete with a limited schedule gets the best of you and you become this yelling stressed beast long before the word "fun" was ever defined. This is me. Although, my heart was aiming to be fun, adventurous, explorative, my type A personality beat it to the punch.

Its a fine balance between meeting a checklist of criteria that needs to be taught/learned and creating a fun way to learn it. I believe one of the greatest opportunities in homeschooling is having the freedom to design a fun agenda of events (curriculum, crafts, activities, field trips, etc) that allow our children to learn great and exciting things. 

Here are just a few examples of the events I've worked on to become more of that fun adventurous mom.

Homeschool Monday's are one day a month that the Hidden Valley Nature Preserve offers a two hour class for 2nd grade to 6th grade homeschool students. Classes are just $8 and are great for outside the home learning and lesson plans mom's don't have to think up. Today we learned about bats (appropriate for Halloween) and had a great little hike. 

Black Walnut tree

Dormant Elderberry Tree

Salt bush

Willow Tree

Note the leaves. Wherever you find a Cottonwood Tree know that there is water nearby!

What we believe to be mountain lion paw prints.

Recently, the preserve placed these bat boxes for bats to come hang on. Bat poop is called bat guano. Bats interestingly have a heart rate that ranges from 1,000 bpm and 11 bpm, just dependent on if they're sleeping or flying.

Here are some neat preserved bats and skeletons.

A micro bats skull as small as a penny.

Fun crafting time.

We have three more classes scheduled at the Nature Center and the boys have already expressed their excitement to return. 

I don't want to detour any mom's of littles. The Hidden Valley Nature center has events for preschool aged kids as well. Here are a picture of my boy's five years ago doing a craft at the nature center. 

For those of you living in the surrounding area, a new treasure we found locally was the El Cerrito Public Library. El Cerrito is also a school with a school/public library. The boy's loved their library and their books. It's just another option of libraries to venture off to. We recently joined a local homeschool facebook page and we got a great opportunity to have a tour of the library. Great learning day!

 The boy's were able to scan some books for a better understanding of the process and tracking of books.

In 3rd and 4th grade it's the year to explore California (our state) and it's history. Another perk of homeschooling is having friends over and just including them along in our studies. We explored the maps of California's neighboring states, major cities, oceans, and different climates. Pinterest was a great avenue of fun ideas and crafts to do with the boys.  

Making our state flower. The golden poppy. Or as the boy's got a kick out of it "poopie". #motherofboys

Identifying the different types of climates in California.  We used snap peas, pinto beans, rice and corn kernals to identify the coastal, mountain, desert, and valleys of California. 

Major pinterest nab but well worth it. We have started creating a 'My state book'.  This is another page added to our state book!

Stay tuned for hopefully more great ideas and sources for making your homeschooling a fun filled opportunity to learn.