Sharla Kostelyk

Our Schoolroom 2011/2012

Our homeschool room was made last year. We tore out the carpet and painted the floor, painted the walls, moved in some bookcases and cupboards, and decorated the walls with Peel Monkey decals (I love Peel Monkey!).

This year, the room is staying much the same except that I have decided to use workboxes with the two six year olds so I picked up three colourful storage units for that. I have the feeling that the nine year olds are also going to want to do workboxes, so I may have to get even more down the line, but for now, this is how it sits.

Those are the workbox bins. I have never done workboxes before, but was inspired by Jen over at Chestnut Grove Academy and am going to give it a try. I think my bins aren’t deep enough for some things, but these were on sale and I like the amount of bins and that the colours will make organization easier.

Above the workbox bins is our world map and our time zone clocks. We have one for Ethiopia, one for our province, and another for Nova Scotia, where friends of ours live.

This wall graphic of Africa with a cutout of Ethiopia (the birth country of two of our children and where a piece of our hearts will always be) is also courtesy of Peel Monkey.

The reading corner is a favourite in the room with all the kids. That bean bag chair gets a lot of use!

Other than that, I changed the quotes on the wall and of course, did a massive clean-up and de-cluttering of the room. I should have taken “before” photos because there were piles of paper and books everywhere and the bookshelves were a jumbled mess. They should last in their current organized state for at least a few days!

We are planning on doing several unit studies this year and we are starting off with one on Penguins and one on The Body. I have set up some things for each of the themes in the room such as books, models, and toys.

I’m looking forward to catching a glimpse of other people’s homeschool spaces!

Homeschool Curriculum

By Sharla Kostelyk

Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers is hosting a Curriculum link-up and it’s the push I need to really get down to it. As homeschooling is going to look very different for us this year with the older two boys going to a brick and mortar school and just the five younger kids at home. The kids who will be here are all within a few years of each other and most are at approximately the same level.

There are some unique learning needs in the mix with two English as a second language “students”, one with Aspergers, and one with a neurodevelopmental disorder! I need to give this year’s curriculum a lot of thought and have spent most of the summer worrying about it.

I tend to be drawn towards a very relaxed approach to homeschooling, but some of my kids NEED structure and routine and I am working towards that.

Here is what I know I am going to be using because it worked for us last year:

Story of the World

Daily Grams

Nest Videos and Activity Books

Notebooking

Lapbooks (Hands of a Child and various free internet printables)

Unit Studies using notebooking, lapbooks, reading, projects, crafts, activities

-undersea creatures

-penguins

-horses

-dinosaurs

-character traits

Memory Work (poetry, quotes, memory verses)

Color the Classics (Music)

Heroes for Young Readers

Art classes, swimming lessons, gymnastics

I am still completely undecided when it comes to Spelling, Geography, Math, Reading, Handwriting, Devotions, and copywork. I am considering all kinds of things.

It seems like a lot of people are talking about using All About Spelling this year and that is what I am leaning towards for Spelling because it incorporates sight, sound, and touch, which seems like it has the best chance of working with multiple kids. Does anyone have any experience with this curriculum?

For handwriting, I am torn between A Reason for Handwriting and Handwriting Without Tears. I have never used either. Any opinions?

For Science, I’ve looked into several options, but it seems that many of them require a fair amount of prep. work on my part or going to several different stores to purchase materials for experiments and I know that I won’t find success with that. I have a few friends who have suggested Sonlight. Science is not a passion of mine in the least and so I am nervous about the decision.

Math is where I am the most nervous though. I am not strong in the least in Math and feel inadequate to equip my kids with a solid foundation in that area. In the past, we have used Abeka, Switched on Schoolhouse (Fred really liked that, but our computer has been plagued with other problems and so I can’t use a computer based program), Life of Fred, and Math U See (that worked really well for awhile and then Fred hit a brick wall with it). So, I am stuck on what to use with the younger ones. Last year, they just used various workbooks. I may try Math U See with the three 9 year olds and see how it goes. Any other suggestions?

I really want to find a great Devotion to do with the kids this year. Last year, we did 2. We did a Veggie Tales one about honesty that was designed for younger kids, but adapted perfectly for them. The one we did after was a one year devotional and it was too advanced for the kids and the reading parts were too long every day to hold their attention. So, I am looking for suggestions for that too! And for reading and for geography and for anything else!

I guess instead of this being a summary of what we are going to be using this year, it is a plea for help. I need to know what has worked for others. Keep in mind that I need something that takes minimal prep. work for me and that some of my kids have special needs and that I am hopeless when it comes to Math and Science.

Under the Sea Theme Party

By Sharla Kostelyk

Just for fun, and as a kick off for our homeschool “under the sea” unit, I decided to throw together a little party. We invited a few friends at the last minute, which only added to the fun and it was a great day.

Sensory bin: rice (easier clean up than sand), seashells, various undersea creatures, colourful seashell beads, glass rocks

Obviously, I wasn’t going to buy 20 bags of Goldfish crackers to fill the pail with, so I stuffed the pail with plastic grocery bags to almost the top and then added the fish crackers. The popcorn represented coral. The goggles and seashell necklaces we had around the house. The blow-up fish and octopus I found for .99 cents each at Michael’s. I found the cutest seashell cupcake liners and filled them with guppies (candy). That was about the extent of my decorating other than the Finding Nemo cups, plates, napkin, bowls, and placemats that I happened to have in the storage room anyway. I had planned the day already and was in the midst of setting things out the night before when I remembered that years earlier, I had bought a Finding Nemo party set for $9.99 that was still in the storage room!

various fish shaped fruit snacks
octopus chicken hot dog
applesauce ocean w/ blue whale swimming
goldfish crackers
shark and fish cheese
crab seashell pasta salad

These cupcakes were super easy to decorate. I just iced them with buttercream icing tinted blue, added a pretzel stick fishing rod and a candy fish, then drew the fishing line with edible markers. White icing would have looked better for the fishing line though.

To make things go as smoothly as possible, I made up the craft table ahead of time with the glue, scissors, paint, paintbrushes, googly eyes, toilet paper rolls, tissue paper strips I had cut out, and jellyfish bodies my boys had cut out.

To make the octopus craft, make slits all the way around a toilet paper roll about halfway up. Curl each one around a thick marker or your finger. Paint it blue, including underneath the “arms”. Allow to dry and then decorate with googly eyes, bingo dabbers, paint, or clay.

To make the jellyfish craft, cut the body shape out of construction paper and tape or glue strips of tissue paper to the bottom. (when we cut out the body shapes, we used scalloped scissors along the bottom) Decorate by glueing googly eyes and making spots with Bingo dabbers or paint.

The crafts were the biggest hit of the party. Even the youngest kids (2 and 3 years old) enjoyed making these.

I sent each of the kids home with a little bag of just a few things including more seashell beads, a stencil, ring, and sea life grow creature. I got a pack of 12 ocean themed stencils for .99 cents at Michael’s.

Here are some more pictures of how the day went. There were 14 kids there and no major mishaps, so that qualifies as a big success with me!

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Muffin Tin Lunches

By Sharla Kostelyk

When the kids were younger, I found that the most effective way to get them to eat more variety was to serve lunch in muffin tin trays. I used to make them at least 5 days a week for the kids for lunch and they would ask me every morning, “what’s in our tins today?”

muffin-tin-meals-collage I’ve often been asked for ideas for what to put in the trays, so I’ve compiled a bit of a list here of some of our past muffin tin lunches. As you can see from the photos below, the muffin tin trays can be extremely simple, comprised of what I found in the fridge and pantry or the leftovers we had or they can be something that is quite planned out and follows a theme. Either way, your kids will really enjoy them and they are more likely to try new foods when presented in a fun way. This also eliminates those cries of “ewww, my corn touched my potatoes”!

carrots
grapes
Kraft Dinner crackers
Mexi fries (tater tots)
salsa
mini taco pies

cooked, cut up smokies
broccoli
Chocolate Cheerios
mangos
Ranch dressing for dipping
baby tomatoes

FISHING TRAY:

celery
bananas
orange slices
goldfish crackers
peanut butter
pretzels

The idea behind the fishing muffin tin tray is that the kids can take the pretzel stick, dip it in peanut butter, and “fish” the goldfish crackers up. My kids thought it was awesome and had competitions to see how many fish they could catch at a time (4 was the record). Peanut butter also goes well with celery and bananas. I had planned for raisins to go in instead of oranges, so that the kids could make ants-on-a-log, but I forgot to buy the raisins.

whole wheat bun
ham
lettuce
cheese slices
mustard
applesauce

My intention was that the kids would make bunwiches out of everything but the applesauce, but most of them chose to add some dressing to their lettuce and eat it as a salad instead of putting it in the bun. It’s fine with me as long as they are eating it! This lunch was a great way to use up ham leftovers.

fish crackers
pepperoni sticks
ravioli
hard boiled egg
applesauce
peas

Letter themed muffin tin trays:

I sometimes make muffin tins where all the foods in it start with the same letter. This is great for littles who are learning letter sounds. Here is a list of foods that could potentially go in a muffin tin tray for the letter “A”:

arrowroot cookies, apples, avocados, asparagus (my kids prefer pickled asparagus), animal crackers, animal crackers, applesauce, almonds, artichokes or artichoke dip, alfredo sauce on angel hair pasta, apricots, alphabits, alphaghetti, antipasto, alfalfa sprouts, ants on a log (raisins on peanut butter on celery), asiago cheese, albacore tuna, All Bran cereal, After Eights, angel food cake, anchovies (good luck on getting your kids to eat those though!), apple juice

letter F lunch

fettucini alfredo
foot shaped cheese
fish crackers
f shaped bread
fruit gummies
fruit cocktail

Themed muffin tin trays:

I’ve also made some really fun themed muffin tin trays such as this Dr. Seuss one. Choosing a theme makes it easy and fun to fill.

Camping Muffin Tin Lunch

Valentine’s Muffin Tin Lunch

Zoo themed muffin tin tray

Picnic Muffin Tin Lunch

Titanic Party

By Sharla Kostelyk

Titanic Party

Einstein is obsessed with Titanic (obsession takes on a whole new meaning when you have a child with Asperger’s!). I have long learned that it is best to just go with his current obsession of choice rather than fight it. April 14 is the anniversary of the day the Titanic sank and he wrote it on the calendar and wanted to know how we were going to commemorate that day.

I told him that we would do something, but as it got closer, I realized that that day I had a hair appointment and that night was The Husband and my date night, so I sat Einstein down and let him know that we would have to do something on Friday instead. In a very serious voice, he told me that Friday would work because the 15th is the anniversary of the day that Titanic first touched down on the ocean floor!!!

On the night the Titanic sank, they were serving a 7 course dinner in the first class dining room, so I decided to do the same for our Titanic party. It may have been a bit on the ambitious side as I forgot to calculate that a 7 course plate service meal for 11 people would mean 77 dishes, so we were mixing and matching plastic plates with our fancy ones!

Here is the menu I made and cooked up for the evening:

The Husband made a playlist that included string quartet music (including the song the orchestra was playing while the ship sank) and songs from the Titanic movie, which we listened to during dinner and danced to. I taught the kids which fork to use for which course and they sipped ginger ale out of wine glasses and loved that their napkins were folded into fans! It was a very fun night!!!

Einstein, Snuggle Puppy, M., and Miss Optimism

Snuggle Puppy and Dancing Queen take a break from dancing in “the ballroom”!

(sorry M. about the eyes closed thing, but this is the only dinner picture I have of the “grown-ups table”!)

Dancing Queen, Granola Girl, and Einstein finish their salad course and sip ginger ale. Note the crayons and Titanic colouring sheets for when boredom set in between courses!

Fireman Theme Party

By Sharla Kostelyk

Einstein wants to be a fireman when he grows up, so a fireman theme party seemed like the perfect way to go for his birthday this year.

Cake. For the cake, I used the Firetruck cake pan by Wilton. I wrote Einstein’s name and age underneath in icing. I was also able to find fireman themed candles such as fire hat and boots that I added on top of the cake.

Food. For our party, I served chilli because we had learnt on a field trip that firemen tend to make a lot of chilli and spaghetti in the firehall. I also served things like raw veggies and chips.

Decorations. I bought firetruck plates, napkins and cups and used a red plastic fire hat and toy firetrucks as decorations on the table.

Activities. The kids played “stick the badge on the fire dog” and made a fire truck foam craft that I bought as a kit. We also had little fire house drills. One game we thought of but didn’t have time to do was to pretend that a house (made from a cardboard refrigerator box) was burning (flames made with orange, red, and yellow tissue paper) and have them pretend to put the fire out.

Extras. I was able to find fireman themed treat bags and filled them with fire chief badges that I found at the Dollar store, candy, and toy fire engines for the party favors. I was also able to find a fire chief shirt for Einstein to wear at the party.