SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

I am super excited to announce to everyone that I have been selected to be part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew!  Just in case you are not sure what that is, it is a group of homeschooling families who get to check out a variety of homeschooling products, use the products with their families and then share with their readers their thoughts about the products.  So, I am super excited to get to be a part of this group!!  And guess what- today I am going to share with you the first product I was able to review!

I have been able to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com and see what it has to offer to homeschoolers.  I was given the Yearly Membership Option and I have spent quite a bit of time looking around the site.  So, what exactly is SchoolhouseTeacher.com?  You might be familiar with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine– well, SchoolhouseTeacher.com is a division of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, so you know you are in good hands 🙂  Basically, it’s a site that is full of lesson plans and fun activities for all of your children.  There are things you can do with your toddlers right up through your high school aged students.  There are so many activities and lesson plans that you can even use it as your core curriculum.  Or, if you’re like us, and you already have a core curriculum, you can use the lesson plans on SchoolhouseTeacher.com to supplement what you are already using.  In addition to the lesson plans you will also find great planning help as well as ebooks.

We had a great time using some of the ideas I found on the site!

I think my absolute favorite part of the site is the Homegrown Preschool section.  There are amazing ideas for preschoolers!  I know I am going to be using this section a lot with Hunter (he’s a toddler, so a lot of the ideas can be used with toddlers too).  Plus, Hailey wanted to join in on the activities we did, so it’s fun for school aged kids too.  We decided to make the Glittery Peppermint Playdough!  We didn’t have any green playdough, but that was no problem, we just made our own.  Then I couldn’t find any peppermint oil to make it peppermint, so that was a bit of an issue.  I decided to just put some cinnamon in it instead and it smells super good!!  So, obviously you can modify the plans as needed.

Hunter worked on cutting up his glittery green playdough.

Hailey made hers into a Christmas tree.

Then we used the pegs from our Lite Bright game and added some decorations to the tree.

Hunter loved it!!  This kept him occupied for a very long time.

Hunter’s finished tree.

Hailey’s finished tree.

The next section I explored was Nature/Outdoors.  For the month of December there was a 4 week study about winter weather in cold climates or winter weather in warm climates, so no matter where you live there is content you can use.  The timing was perfect and we had a nice big snow storm on Saturday, so I did one of the activities with Hailey.  Don’t tell her that she was learning, she thought we were just having fun 🙂

We took a piece of black construction paper and put it in the freezer for about an hour.

Then we brought it outside so we could catch some snowflakes.

We took some pictures of the snowflakes we caught.  I wish I could take pictures like these absolutely amazing Wilson Bentley Snowflakes, but I think I have a bit of practicing to do before that ever happens.

So- what do I think about SchoolhouseTeachers.com?  I love it!!  There is a wealth of information and activities on their site.  I think it is well worth the price- SchoolhouseTeachers.com will let you try out their site for $3 for the first month.  If you like it, you can continue at a monthly rate of $12.95.  Or, once you see how totally amazing this site is, you will probably want to pay for a yearly subscription which is $139 which saves you 10% rather than paying the monthly amount.  Plus, if you sign up before the end of December- you will get a free 1 year membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com to share with a friend!  The only negative I found was that it is a bit hard to navigate at first.  I was kind of overwhelmed with everything available on the site.  But, after spending a lot of time looking around, I really love it!

Want to check out the reviews from the other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew?  Click below:

Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 11

The weeks are really flying by!  I can’t believe it will be Christmas next week.  Anyway, we just finished unit 11 and had a great week.

History/Geography:

This week in history we learned about the pilgrims working to build their homes now that they had decided where to settle.

Hailey looked over a map to see the route that the pilgrims took and looked to see the routes that other explorers before them had taken.

The pilgrims did not have glass to use for windows as they built their homes.  Instead they used brown paper and brushed oil on them to let more sunlight through.  So, Hailey rubbed some oil on a brown paper bag to see what happened.

Hunter made one too, but he did not cover his whole paper with oil.  So we held it up to the window to see the difference in the light that came through.

Hailey built a pilgrim house using Lincoln Logs

The finished house

We cut some pieces from the brown oiled paper to use as windows in the house.  Those windows must have let in a lot of cold air.

Science:

We have been doing a unit all about owls.  Our favorite part of the unit was dissecting some owl pellets.

Here are just a few of the bones we found in the owl pellet.

Language Arts:

We are still reading through Little House in the Big Woods.  Hailey really is not enjoying this book.  I had hoped we would love it but we are just having a hard time getting into the book.  Instead of begging me to read more like she usually does, she asks if we can skip reading for the day 🙁

Hailey did a little mapping activity to go along with the book.  She had to use the key on the map and then follow the directions to see where to add the different details on the map.

Copywork using her poem for the week.

We are working through a super fun Gingerbread Unit and I’m pretty sure we have read every version of the Gingerbread Man that there is.  There are lots of cute books and ideas to go along with them.

We read both “Gingerbread Baby” and then “Gingerbread Friends” and we really enjoyed both.  After we read “Gingerbread Friends” Hailey made this cute beginning, middle and end project.

We also enjoyed “Gingerbread Man Loose in the School” and then Hailey made a gingerbread man that looked like the one from the book and a missing poster to go along with him.  We took turns hiding the gingerbread man and then searching for him.

After we read “The Gingerbread Cowboy,” Hailey made this candy cane cactus.

The candy cane cactus hanging on our classroom tree.

We played Hangman to practice Hailey’s spelling words.

Other:

We added this cute tree to our classroom and then added decorations to it throughout the week.

One day we decided that, rather than doing our regular schedule, Hailey would throw a ball at our routine and whatever the ball hit was what we would do next.

One more week until our Christmas vacation!!  We are excited!

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Tot School

Hunter is 23 months and 364 days (he’ll be 2 tomorrow, sniff sniff)

We had a great time at Tot School!!  Hunter learned about the letter H, owls and gingerbread men.

Hailey does the calendar every morning with Hunter.  She is such a good little teacher and Hunter loves it when she works with him!

Hunter loves the printables from Royal Baloo.  Here he is using several of them for the letter H:

Hunter really enjoyed this mini book about helicopters.

Hunter worked on coloring a helicopter

Pointing out the letter H

Gluing helicopters onto an H.

Hunter also made an H for house.

We added a wreath above the door since it’s Christmas time 🙂

Hailey has been learning all about owls in science, so Hunter has been joining in and doing some owl activities too.  Several of the ideas are from an owl unit by Deanna Jump.

Hunter made this cute little owl.

He really enjoyed this owl poem and loved pointing and saying parts of the poem.

He spent a lot of time looking at this cute little owl book.

I have been doing a Gingerbread Man unit with Hailey in language arts, so of course Hunter wanted to do everything she was doing too.

He worked hard on his coloring.

Putting together a gingerbread house.

Hunter’s completed gingerbread house.

I think we have read every version of the Gingerbread Man that there is 🙂  It was a lot of fun and I have really enjoyed the stories.

After we read “The Gingerbread Cowboy,” Hunter made a candy cane cactus.

The finished cactus hanging up on the tree in our classroom.

Hunter colored this after we read “Gingerbread Baby” and “Gingerbread Friends.”

We made this to go along with “Gingerbread Man Loose in the School.”

It was a fun week!!  One more week and then we’ll be on Christmas vacation- I can’t wait!!

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Bee Crafty Kids- Christmas Decorations

 Welcome back to the Bee Crafty Kids link up that I am co-hosting with To The Moon and Back and Look! We’re Learning.

We added a little Christmas tree to our classroom, so we have been busy making ornaments to put on it.

We used Model Magic and cookie cutters to make some Christmas shaped ornaments.  We let them dry for a couple of days and then painted them and put some glitter on them.

Hunter was very careful while he painted his Christmas tree.

Hailey worked on her stocking.

Our completed cut out ornaments.

We also made some snowflake ornaments.

One of the finished snowflakes

Hunter working on a cute snowman.

Completed snowmen

Our cute little tree full of homemade ornaments 🙂

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Now it’s your turn! Link up and share what you and your kids have been busy making. Grab a button so others can join in the crafting fun too 🙂

<div align="center"><a href="http://ourcraftsnthings.com/" title="Our Crafts N Things"><img src="http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q594/dustybug83/BeeCraftyKids3_zps44074ad6.png" alt="Our Crafts N Things" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Rules are simple:

~Enter the direct link to one or more of your own posts that showcase a craft or hands on activity for children.

~A link back with the above button is appreciated, but not required

~Try to at least comment on one or two of the other blogs that took the time to share and join!