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:

Disappearing Snowman Cookies

Here is a cute little Snowman finger play that your toddler or preschooler will love!

[Four] cookie snowmen sitting on a tray.
(Hold up [4] fingers.)

[Four] cookie snowmen, smiling all day.
(Point to smiling mouth.)

Along came a little child, rubbing his tummy.
(Rub tummy.)

One cookie disappeared.  Yum, yum, yummy!
(Hold up 1 finger then lick lips.)

Repeat rhyme replacing numbers with three, two and then one.

I made this little poster to go with it:

It’s just a piece of construction paper with contact paper on it.  Then I put Velcro on the paper and on the back of the snowmen.  I also wrote the words to the finger play on the back of the paper.

After we did it together a few times Hailey took over and did the finger play by herself.  Here she is pretending to eat the snowman cookie.

Hailey shared the snowman cookies with Dottie.  As you can see Dottie is thrilled to get to be a part of this!

A Simple Snowman

Here is a really simple, really cute and really fun snowman craft:

You’ll need: 3 white circles- small, medium and large, construction paper to glue your snowman on, glue and some items to decorate your snowman.

Glue your circles onto your paper.

Add your decorations to your snowman.

The finished snowman.

Boxy Snowman

It has been so cold where we live that it’s just not possible to get outside to play in the snow.  Plus Hailey has been sick and I just don’t want to take her outside.  So, I came up with this idea so we could build a snowman inside.

Here’s what you’ll need:

3 boxes- small, medium and large, wrapping paper, scissors, tape, glue, construction paper and 2 things you can use for the snowman’s arms.

In the medium sized box- cut a small hole on 2 sides for the arms.

Turn your wrapping paper inside out and wrap the boxes with the white side showing.  Put the arms through the holes in the middle sized box.

Make a face on the smallest box and add a hat.

Add some buttons to the medium sized box.

Hailey loved the snowman.

She loved taking him apart and putting him back together (we had to change the hat because the other one would not stay on).

Hailey dancing with the snowman.

And she thought it was funny to put him together the “wrong” way.