Here is a little game I made for my 4 year old to practice his number recognition and counting dice. I think even my almost 3 year olds would be able to do this one. It is a simple game of number recognition. The child rolls a die and counts the number of dots, then circles that number on the path. For example a number 2 is rolled, the child would find the line with the number 2’s and circle the first 2 in the line for that bug. The first number rolled 10 times wins. Draw a star or a ribbon in the box for the bug who won the race. I laminated mine so that we could do it a few times, then we just used the dry erase markers on it. For fun we have used big fat dice and also little tiny dice for variety. A full color and a black and white version are both included in the PDF.

This set is created for you by me, a fellow homeshcooling mom. The bug images and graphics are from a digital scrapbook collection called Little One Collection Biggie. It contains these bug images as well as other backgrounds images and word art perfect for Little Ones.

There are many other great Digital Scrapbooking Collections in many themes to make your own custom printed items for your homeschool. You can find them at ScrapGirls, along with tutorials and free movies to show you how to use the graphics to put together a page.

You can download this activity by clicking on this link: Bug Race Game or clicking on the image above.

Do you use a white board for your homeschool? One of the things that I have been trying to figure out is how to draw lines for primary cursive that would be semi-permanent and I could use the dry erase markers over the top. Well, I finally found something that works GREAT. Have you heard of wet erase markers? They are the ones used for transparencies. They stay put and don't wipe off on contact. You have to use water or a cleaner to get them off, then they will come off nicely. What I started doing was drawing the primary lines on the white board with the wet erase markers. Then I could use the dry erase markers for writing our words or our reference pages for Spell to Write and Read. I could use a dry paper towell to erase the dry erase markers and it would leave the lines on the board. This also worked great for word webs and graphic organizers where we may change the information but use the same drawings on the board. I could just draw it once and we could use it for several different stories.


The lines don't last forever, sweaty little hands will make it messy after a few days. So, it was still taking me a while to put up the lines for our phonics work each time. Then I remembered in gradeschool that the teachers had a chalk holder that would hold 3 pieces of chalk an make perfect primary line on the board. Do you remember those? Well, I had to try it out with my modern board. I got a paper tube left over from a roll of paper towells. I punched holes in the tube, and placed my wet erase markers in the holes, spaced just right for our primary lines. I did black on the top and bottom and red for the middle line. It takes a little practice to get a straight line, but it is so quick! This has truly been a time saver, and helps the boys write neater when they can see my handwriting and how it fits on the lines.

I have been telling a lot of people about my magnet board recently so I thought I should share some photos. At the end of our school year last year I did some major organization of our school room. I set up our workboxes (magazine files) and painted one of the walls in our room bright red. This red is truly joyful to look at, it is just the perfect shade. We already had the tile board on one side of the room for a white board. This is where I teach all of our lessons, but I wanted a magnet board as well. I knew there had to be sheets of metal somewhere for super cheap but I really couldn't find them. I would wander around Home Depot and Lowe's in the building materials section looking for something that would work. FINALLY, I thought of the metal ductwork that is installed for heating and cooling. I went down the aisle with the ductworking supplies and there it was! A sheet of galvanized metal, flat, smooth and perfect for magnets. It was only $13.50, I believe. We literally just screwed it to the wall. The edges aren't treated so I am sure they are somewhat sharp if you were to run a finger along it, but since we screwed it directly into the wall, it is totally flush and has not been a problem.

One of the cool things we have done is take our magnetic poetry words and organize them. With the metal you can use dry erase markers on the surface. I set up circles for nouns and verbs and had my son sort the words into parts of speech. Then we made up silly sentences with some of the combinations. We just started our school for this fall, but I have more ideas for setting up the magnet board with graphic organizers like this, learning about venn diagrams and properties. The possibilities are endless when you add into it the option of printing out your own magnets from your computer on magnet backed paper.

Now this is what I call cleaning house! We got a new playhouse.... thanks Freecycle. We picked it up the other day and it needed a good scrub so today I got out a big bucket of suds and let Daniel and Andrew clean their own house. I think they will really enjoy having something just for them. I think John will play with them too, if they let him. :) I will have to remember to get out the bucket of sudsy water again soon.

I have had a few requests for extra cards, and blank templates that you could use to make your own cards for custom workbox themes. I made this set of templates for you to make it easier to make your own box numbers. So here goes! You can reach the download page by clicking HERE, or on the image above.

These templates will help you to create custom workbox numbers, a custom schedule strip, and additional activity cards. These files are useful for those who are using Sue Patrick’s Workbox System. If you are unfamiliar with this system it is an organizational system that is useful to almost all types of homeschooling curriculum.

These files are created to work with Photoshop Elements 3.0 or higher, or Adobe Photoshop CS or higher. I have included the PSD file as well as folders with the PNG files for you to work with if you use other programs. However, the variety of programs out there makes it difficult for me to know how they would work in every program.

For use in PSE or PS, the PSD files are a layered file which should open in your program. You will see the layers in your layers palette. You can fill each layer with a pretty background paper, and you can add as many layers, stickers or elements on top of this to complete the look you want. Please use these files for your own personal use. These files are zipped, so you will have to unzip them to use the files.

Basic Instructions are included as well as a link to a Free Digital Scrapbooking Collection (The Refresh Collection Biggie from ScrapGirls) that you can use to try out these templates if you like.

There are many beautiful graphics available in the ScrapGirls Boutique for you to customize your own workbox themes.

Enjoy!

This Dinosaur workbox theme printable set will give you a sheet to print out to make schedule cards and a sheet to print out to make workbox numbers and a front cover for your schedule strip. These are useful for those who are using Sue Patrick’s Workbox System and would like to customize their workboxes for their children. If you aren’t familiar with this system it is a great organizational system for any homeschool curriculum.

This set is created for you by Melissa Renfro, a fellow homeshooling mom. The dinosaur images and graphics are from a digital scrapbook collection called Extinct Collection Biggie. These images are copyrighted and are for personal use only, not to be distributed except by Melissa Renfro. The Extinct Collection Biggie has a selection of images and word art with dinosaurs, museums and other boy themes. When you purchase these digital images you can use them over and over again for your personal use. If you want to make coordinating schedule cards or other dinosaur themed items for your children, these digital scrapbooking sets are perfect.

There are many other great Digital Scrapbooking Collections in many themes to make your own custom printed items for your homeschool. You can find them at ScrapGirls, along with tutorials and free movies to show you how to use the graphics to put together a page.

Click on the preview images or HERE to go to the download page.

This Pretty in Pink workbox theme printable set will give you a sheet to print out to make schedule cards and a sheet to print out to make workbox numbers and a front cover for your schedule strip. These are useful for those who are using Sue Patrick’s Workbox System and would like to customize their workboxes for their children. If you aren’t familiar with this system it is a great organizational system for any homeschool curriculum.

This set is created for you by Melissa Renfro, a fellow homeshooling mom. The images and graphics are from a digital scrapbook collection called Pink Lemonade. These images are copyrighted and are for personal use only, not to be distributed except by Melissa Renfro. The Pink Lemonade Collection has a selection of images and word art with pretty, feminine and summer themes. When you purchase these digital images you can use them over and over again for your personal use. If you want to make coordinating schedule cards or other themed items for your children, these digital scrapbooking sets are perfect.

There are many other great Digital Scrapbooking Collections in many themes to make your own custom printed items for your homeschool. You can find them at ScrapGirls, along with tutorials and free movies to show you how to use the graphics to put together a page.

Click on the preview image to go to download page or click HERE.