Free Range Kids

Free Range Kids!
Raising children to be healthy and self-reliant in an unpredictable world can be tough. You've come to the right place. I am a homeschooler taking a stand for my kids to "be kids". I love the title "Free Range Kids" as is accurately depicts my teaching and parenting style. While learning can be serious business, so is play time! I use a Montessori approach in my teaching... allowing my children to touch, taste, feel and experience a little thing called LIFE. Teaching from love and not fear has been an obstacle I've had to overcome. Come on this journey with me as we teach, love and raise strong independent children!

Monday, June 30, 2014

Spelling Words for the week: Farm words

Last week we learned all about farms. I came up with a farm words spelling list that Dax would copy. 



I had these little sticky notes with each letter of the alphabet on them 3 times. I would give him three words to spell and he would use the sticky notes to spell the words. 


Then a farm coloring page contest between him, sister and myself....(I won of course)


We looked up our farm words in our encyclopedias checked out from the library. We learned a lot about how farms work and what kids of things are grown on farms. 


Then we put together our Melissa and Doug farm puzzle. I absolutely love these large sturdy puzzles. 



We talked about farm animals and even played with them on our puzzle.


More farm books that we read. 


Then a healthy farm snack (no we didn't eat the butter plain) Cheese, ham, yogurt and milk. 



our glorious puzzle



We really used our imaginations and played with all our animals on top of our farm puzzle. I sat down on the floor with the kids for a good hour just pretending I was some of these animals. The kids loved it. 


Monday, June 16, 2014

3 Things That Will Automatically Make You A Better Parent!

1) Get off your phone!  I know you don't want to hear this one but you gotta. I decided one day that I wouldn't let my children see me on my phone ever! This did not include talking to my parents or a friend occasionally. But if I want to check my email, facebook or instagram I need to do that on my own time. This would be during nap or quiet time 1-3pm or after bedtime hours 7:30pm. If all your kid does is see you on your phone 24/7 you are going to have one kranky kid wondering why his mom or dad spend more time on their phone then actually playing with them. This includes computer devices too. Prioritize your time better so you make the time with your kids quality. I promise they will be happier and more cooperative. Plus you don't want them growing up believing that our society is based on virtual relationships. Try it for just a day....then a week...then a month! You will see that you have a completely different child and you will enjoy parenting way more. It only becomes a burden when they are interrupting something you really want to do...i.e..smartphone time. So just put that down until they go down and you'll have a happier home.


2) Be with them! Next time you get invited to a mommy play group, instead of just associating with the moms while your kids go off and play, go play with them. Jump in and build that lego tower, jump on the tramp, cook that pretend meal with them...just be with them. This will strengthen their trust in you and your relationship. So next time you're at the pool, jump in that water and play shark or mermaid or marco polo with them instead of grouping up with the moms or dads and wondering where your kid is the entire time and then getting mad at them when they get into something they shouldn't have. This is also a great time to teach them how to share and play well with others. Be their mentor and teacher. I promise it's okay if you seem like the anti-social mom. There are other times when you can socialize with your mommy buddies.

3) Read this book....It will change the way you do everything! You will begin to understand yourself and your child more. A mutual respect and appreciation will grow as you apply the teachings of this book!   The Child Whisperer by Carol Tuttle


Phonograms and Fun

Dax and I worked on Phonograms and Suffixes the other day. I used different sticky notes with suffix endings and phonogram beginnings (Wh as in Whale, Ph- as in phone) Suffix endings (es, s, en, ing etc..) He really got the hang of it and picked it up quickly. It was fun for him to add ending to words and see how it all worked out. 



We tried to make the soap cloud thing, but didn't have Ivory soap. I foolishly thought any soap would do, but it really didn't get very big. It does float in the water though and turns bath water completely white. 



We played a bowling game with some empty containers I collected and different things for balls...i.e a balloon. The kids were quick to see that the balloon is not heavy enough to knock down the containers, and those little balls are hard to get right on target. 


They had a great time stacking the containers in different ways. 



Thursday, June 5, 2014

Continent Box: Asia


This week and next week we will be studying Asia. Here are some of the goodies in our Continent Box






 I have this really cool leap frog globe I got at a yard sale a few years ago. It's really coming in handy now. Dax would pick a flag from the flag page, we'd find that country on the map, he'd color it, then we would listen to a song from that country and find out the population. The Leap Frog globe has many facts about each country including the songs for each.

Every day we will watch an episode of "Wild China"
He really loved learning about the Panda Bears and all the cool animals there. I thought he'd get bored because I was falling asleep myself, but he was fascinated with it. 

We will be talking about famous landmarks throughout Asia

We watched a couple of youtube videos on each famous landmark. 
This is Merlion Park in Singapore. 
Dax loved it and spent a good 45 minutes just watching videos on this park. 
Then we watched vidoes about the Dead Sea in Jordan. 
We talked about the salt content in the water making you bouyant. 
People get rubbed down with mud and soak in the sea. It makes their skin silky soft. 
And then we got to Mount Everest in China. 

And going over Money and production and how much things might cost there compared to here. 

Then we'll cover animals and their symbols in Mandarine. 


I'll have the children trace paint these symbols which describes each of their personalities. 

Then the kids got to paint (trace) their chinese or mandrin symbol. 


And these are the books in our Asia Box that I got from the library. So many wonderful resources to be found at the library. I am in love!