Homeschooling for the Holidays

Today I'm delighted to be guest posting over at Free Homeschool Deals.


From the post:

Homeschooling for the Holidays

Homeschoolers have a lot of freedom when it comes to how much school and what subjects they will cover during the busy holiday season. My boys are still young, and their workload light, so we'll be continuing our normal routine and working in fun Christmas projects.

Whether you "officially" take the entire month off, do "Christmas School," or just incorporate a few holiday activities here and there, these 5 ideas can help your family keep learning and have fun during the holidays.


Read the full post here.

Valiant Warriors Mini Camp

This week's mini camp was based off of learning about the armor in Eph. 6:11-17. Aaron learned the first verse of this passage and what the pieces of armor represent. Andrew chimes in with the right words occasionally. My husband and I made the armor out of cardboard and a reusable grocery bag, and the boys decorated the pieces over the course of the week. With just two boys this project was very easy. We also read different famous battle stories.

We encouraged the boys to try to act them out too, but they the two year old didn't always think that was fun. The most successful attempt at a "reenactment" was when "David" hurled a kitty cat from his sling at "Goliath" and then ran away really fast. And of course we weren't able to get that part on video.

Oh well, Aaron really got into all of the stories and making the armor. I'm sure in a another year or two if we do something like this again Andrew will be more interested too.

Valiant Warrior in Full Armor

Olympic/Sports Mini Camp

This week partially in honor of the Olympics we have been doing a Olympic/Sports themed mini camp for the boys. The had a lot of fun and got a lot of energy out in the process.

I already mentioned that the first day we did an Olympic ring bean bag toss.

The second day was really nice outside so we went out the boys did some track and field events. They did some short sprint races, discus (mini frisbee) throwing, and tried out this "javelin" throwing activity from I Can Teach My Child. neither boy could really get the hang of throwing the "javelin" though, and Andrew much preferred to simply "shot put" rocks into the puddles the whole time. Then they played a little baseball.

The third day we brought down a playmat that we had put up for a while and let the boys do gymnastics on it. Andrew was so excited when we were getting it out he kept saying, "it's Andrew's birthday!" I love how easily they get excited over things. Nate showed them how to do a few simple gymnastics. Nate took gymnastics and karate as a kid and was really good at both, and quite amazingly he can still do the splits. Somehow the gymnastics turned into a wrestling match at the end. The new baby seemed to be joining in on the fun too as it was quite active inside of be, but I refrained from joining in any gymnastics as baby needs to stay inside for a little while longer yet.

The fourth day we set up an obstacle course in our living room. The boys really got into this and kept going through the course over and over for more than 45 minutes on their own.

The last day was nice again so we went outside and did more track and field. We did long jump, high jump (over straws taped together), running around moguls, and an Olympic torch relay. At the end we gave each boy a gold medal for their excellent participation. Aaron loves that he got a first place medal. Andrew would have probably been more impressed if the medal had been made from a chocolate coin.

Olympic Ring Bean Bag Toss

In honor of the Olympics we are going to do a mini sports camp this week. Our first activity was an Olympic Ring Bean Bag toss, sort of inspired by this post from Makes and Takes. But instead of pipe cleaners, I simply traced around a bowl in each of the five colors to make the Olympic rings. I added numbers also so they could practice their numbers and colors at the same time. Using our mini bean bags, the boys would just stand a few feet away and try to toss them into the rings.

You could do this activity many different ways. You could call out a number or color they are supposed to hit, or you could have them call one out before they throw it. Or they can just try to get one bean bag in each ring some time during their turn. We ended up doing the activity all of these ways, and the boys just kept wanting to play over and over.

For one game Andrew (2.5 years old)
declared he was going to throw at five,
and he got all 6 of his bean bags
to at least touch the five ring.

Mini Science "Camp"

This week instead of music we learned a little about science. We ended up doing quite a few different experiments and science activities. I'll probably post more about how we did each one later, but until I find time many of the experiments can be found at I Can Teach My Child.


The first day we made Oobleck. The boys had lots of fun playing with this weird substance and Aaron learned how to say Non-Newtonian liquid. But the funny kid said, "it really should follow the (Newton's) rules though." :) We also read Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Suess, which has nothing to do with science but was fun.

The second day we made lots of bubbles! We made more bubble fluid together and made bubble snake blowers and then headed outside to blow a bunch of bubbles. We learned that soap bubbles are formed because the hydophillic phospholipids in the soap form a film that wants to have the least surface area possible. That's why when the bubbles are individual they are always a sphere, but when they combine, they make other shapes. We then headed back inside to add food coloring to some of our bubbles and do bubble painting. This was Aaron's (our four-year-old's) favorite day.

On day three the boys went out with daddy to find bugs and plant materiel. They brought some "specimens" back home in jars and "cataloged" (drew) them. Then they were released. Andrew has been trying to find more "specimens" in the house since then and is very proud when he locates one.

The fourth day we did quite a few short experiments. We made it rain in a jar, which showed the different states of matter and a temperature reaction. Then we blew up balloons using vinegar and baking soda, which demonstrated a chemical reaction. The boys got to experiment with squirting green vinegar on baking soda and watching it fizz too. And then we took a piece of something like celery and stuck it in too different colors of water. The boys thought it was cool how the colors had climbed up the stalk hours later.

The last day we made a hover craft out of an old DVD, bottle top, and a balloon. The boys had lots of fun pushing it around as it hovered just off of the floor (like a puck on an air hockey table). Then we made a marshmallow slingshot and shot homemade marshmallows across the room. This illustrated Newton's third law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). Aaron was glad that something finally followed Newton's rules, Andrew was very happy to eat marshmallows, and this was a good note to end the science camp on. :)