Author

Are You Too Busy to Homeschool?

April 11, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

We’ve been homeschooling for nine years now. (Wow. It’s been nine years.) And in that time, I’ve heard no end of variations on the “I Want to Homeschool, But…” theme.

“I want to homeschool, but I’m too broke.”

“I want to homeschool, but I need to work.”

“I want to homeschool, but I’m not a teacher.”

“I want to homeschool, but I can’t take being around my kids all day.” (My personal favorite!)

But the one I’ve heard the most is: “I want to homeschool, but I’m too busy!”

Lots of people automatically think they’re too busy to homeschool. So if you’ve thought the same thing, I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone! A lot of us (even veteran homeschoolers) have felt the same way!

If you think you can’t homeschool because you’re too busy, you might not be! Read on to find out just how flexible homeschooling can be, even for your full schedule.

Image c/o: creatista / depositphotos

Are You Too Busy to Homeschool?

I’m not going to begin by telling you that you’re not busy. It’s 2017. We’re ALL busy. Even people who don’t look busy are busy. And if you have kids, you are busy. Busy taking care of them, managing your home, possibly working or caring for aging parents (or both), and trying to maintain some semblance of health. It’s a lot. I’m not going to lie.

So if you’re thinking that homeschooling is something to add on top of all of these things, it’s no wonder that you feel too busy to homeschool. I would too! After all, if you’re already juggling bowling balls, it’s going to be harder if someone throws another one at you, right?

How to Make Homeschooling Fit Your Life

Here’s what I want to encourage you to do: change the way you think about homeschooling. It’s not actually a separate job to add onto your other responsibilities. Instead, it’s a continuous experience that can go on as you do other things.

“Homeschooling is not a separate task. It’s the constant in the background of whatever you do with your children.”

Look at like this: The device you’re using to read this post has several programs that automatically run in the background, no matter what app you use. So as you’re browsing the internet (and reading this post), your device is using a ton of other apps in the background.

These are not applications you have to stop and open up separately. In fact, if your device is running smoothly, you don’t even notice that they’re in operation. But they’re keeping up with every new program you open.

And that’s how homeschooling can be. When you think of it as an educational journey you travel with your children, it’s not a separate task that you have to begin and end at some other time in the day. It’s the constant in the background of whatever you do.

Naturally, you need practical homeschooling suggestions for putting together a schedule, choosing a curriculum, and teaching your kids, especially if you have more than one child. But please, please don’t dismiss homeschooling at the outset because you’re too busy. You CAN make it fit your life. You can.

Need more homeschooling support? Don’t miss these posts!

Plus, see more tips on my Homeschooling Pinterest board!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Earth Craft

April 6, 2017 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

I have to admit: I am NOT the craftiest person on the planet. I like to knit, sew, and write, but it’s hard for me to come up with crafts to make with my kids. The biggest issue is that I hate making a mess. So if the project involves glitter, lots of glue, or tiny pieces of paper, I’m probably going to run screaming in the other direction.

That’s not to say I won’t ever make those kinds of projects with the kids, but it’s a struggle. Have you ever tried to get glitter glue off of a four-year-old’s face? It’s not fun.

So whenever I do a craft with the kids, I prefer to make one that doesn’t take a lot of time, doesn’t need a lot of supplies, and doesn’t make a big mess. And that’s why I love coffee filter crafts for kids! There are plenty that we can make in no time flat.

This coffee filter earth craft is no exception! It’s an easy craft that only needs a few supplies and makes almost no mess at all. I promise. 🙂 Plus, it’s a great activity for kids who are learning about conservation, the universe, or geography!

If you like this craft, don’t miss our easy bouncing basketball coffee filter craft or our simple coffee filter sun craft!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Earth Craft

To make this craft, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Start off by coloring the coffee filter blue. You can use either crayons or colored pencils for this. I went with a blue color that looks aqua – just to give the appearance of water.

After you color the filter, glue it onto a piece of construction paper.

Use a green colored pencil to do a rough outline of the continents. I didn’t really try to draw the actual coastlines, because I…ahem…am not the best artist on the planet either. But I did enough to resemble the continents.

See? You can kind of see Florida hanging down in the top left. Kind of.

Afterward, just color in the “continents” with the green pencil. I colored these shapes in pretty heavily to make sure they showed up over the blue color.

Really, you could stop here and be finished with the coffee filter earth craft.

Or you can stretch out a cotton ball or two and glue the pieces in random spots to make “clouds”. Either way, you’re basically done. Wasn’t that easy?

Try these other fun crafts for kids!

And see more easy craft ideas on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Sun Craft

March 30, 2017 by Selena Robinson 12 Comments

We’re feeling sunny with the latest one of our coffee filter crafts for kids! This time, we made a coffee filter sun craft and – like all the others – it’s super easy!

Now when I say that this craft is super easy, I mean it is literally SUPER EASY. This whole thing took about five minutes, so it’s a perfect activity for young kids when you’re studying spring, summer, the sun, the solar system, day and night, and plenty of other topics!

Since this project is so easy, your little ones might be looking for more! Be sure to try our coffee filter basketball craft, our coffee filter flowers, and our coffee filter ladybug craft for kids to make!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Sun Craft

To make this craft, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Start by simply coloring the coffee filter bright yellow. The actual color we used is called “Dandelion” and it was a nice bright color that seemed better than ordinary yellow.

Use your glue stick to glue the filter down onto the center of a piece of construction paper. Light blue works well because it resembles the sky.

Now, just use a yellow colored pencil to draw “rays” around the sun’s edge. Simple triangles work just fine. We decided to use an orange colored pencil to add a little more color to our sun and rays. To do so, we just sketched a few lines over the whole filter lightly.

And we’re done! Just easy peasy from start to finish!

If you’re working with a group of kids such as at a daycare, an afterschool program, or a group party, this coffee filter sun craft is a perfect activity since you don’t need a lot of supplies, you don’t need a lot of time, and the kids don’t need a lot of help!

Try some other easy crafts below!

See more crafting fun on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!

25 Free Spring Printables for Preschoolers

March 29, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Are your little ones getting spring fever yet?

My four-year-old is super excited about going to the park now that the skies are turning blue and the air is getting warmer.

Yes, I know we can go to the park during winter, but I’m from Florida, so no.

To help her along with her preschool lessons, I use a lot of printables for preschoolers and so today I’m sharing 25 free spring printables for preschoolers!

These are wonderful for helping young ones work on basic early childhood skills while enjoying a fun spring theme!

Check out the list below for some great resources for early learners!

And be sure to browse our list of spring books for kids that you can read together this year!

Work on essential early childhood skills with these free spring printables for preschoolers!

25 Free Spring Printables for Preschoolers

1. Colorful Birds Color Matching Activity – Look! We’re Learning!

2. Printable Flower Petal Counting Activity – My Mundane and Miraculous Life

3. Name Recognition Flower Garden – Totschooling

4. Spring Preschool Worksheets – Mess for Less

5. Butterfly Identification Cards – Look! We’re Learning!

6. Flower Names Building Printable – A Dab of Glue Will Do

7. Spring Sight Words Flashcards – Look! We’re Learning!

8. Bugs Preschool Worksheets – Learning 2 Walk

9. Rainbow Letter Match Free Printable – A Little Pinch of Perfect

10. Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats – Look! We’re Learning!

11. Printable Flower Counting Book – Fun-A-Day

12. Catch a Bug Printable Game – Picklebums

13. Printable Spring Flower Flashcards – Look! We’re Learning!

See more spring preschool printables on the next page!

Pages: 1 2

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Easy Coffee Filter Turtle Craft

March 16, 2017 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

We’re still using our coffee filters to make coffee filter crafts for kids!

This week, we’re making a really easy (and cute) coffee filter turtle craft!

This easy craft is part of a science and ELA lesson we’ve been working on about animal collective nouns.

In our lesson, we’ve been learning about groups of turtles. It turns out that a group of turtles has some pretty nifty names.

Read on to see how we learned about turtles and made this fun turtle craft. Plus, grab a free collective animal nouns matching activity for use with your students.

Learn even more about turtles with our list of fun turtle books for kids to read!

This simple coffee filter turtle craft is a fun spring or summer craft for kids to make!

What Do You Call a Group of Turtles?

We’ve been learning about animal collective nouns for the past few weeks. Many animals have their own unique collective nouns for groups, so we might refer to a “pride” of lions or a “murder” of crows.

Did you know that a group of turtles can actually be referred to four different ways?

While a “bale” of turtles is the most commonly used term, a group of turtles can also be called a “nest” of turtles, a “dole” of turtles, or (my personal favorite) a “turn” of turtles.

Try saying a “turn of turtles” three times fast.

So – we decided to make our own turn of turtles using coffee filters!

How to Make a Coffee Filter Turtle Craft

To make this easy coffee filter turtle craft, you’ll need a few items. (This post contains affiliate links. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Two white basket coffee filters (One for each turtle)
Washable markers
Crayons
Construction paper
Glue stick
Scissors

Easy Coffee Filter Turtle Craft Supplies

If you’re only making one turtle, you’ll only need one coffee filter. To make a family, grab a few more.

Making a Simple Coffee Filter Turtle Craft

Start by coloring the filter light green. I used green apple here.

Then use a glue stick to glue the green coffee filter onto the center of a piece of green construction paper.

Use a brown marker to outline several turtle shell spots.

Coffee Filter Turtle Craft to Make with Kids

Then go back and fill in the outlines to make your shell markings solid.

Use a pencil to outline the head and four feet.

To keep the turtle body even, I drew the feet at opposite ends of the shell.

Cut the turtle out around the shell. Be careful not to cut the feet or head off!

Because I used green construction paper, I didn’t have to color the head or feet in.

Making a Turtle Craft with Coffee Filters

Add a happy face with a black marker and you’re done!

Working with very young children? Try this even easier version that doesn’t require scissors!

With this one, color in the turtle “shell” as before. But use a green marker to color in the feet and head directly onto the construction paper.

Add a few polka dots or swirls to complete the picture.

Making an Easy Coffee Filter Turtle Craft with Kids

Aw….they love each other!

And that’s it! Our “turn” of coffee filter turtles is complete!

Get the printable instructions below!

Easy Coffee Filter Turtle Craft for Kids

This simple coffee filter turtle craft is a perfect simple animal craft to make with kids!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 10 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Materials

White basket style coffee filter
Construction paper
Markers
Crayons
Glue stick
Scissors

Instructions

Color the entire coffee filter light green.
Glue the filter onto the center of a piece of green construction paper.
Use a brown marker to outline the turtle shell markings. Then color them in.
Lightly sketch the turtle's head and feet using a pencil.
Use scissors to carefully cut the turtle shell out, making sure not to cut off the head and feet.
Draw a face on the turtle's head with a black marker.

Animal Collective Nouns Sorting Activity

Want to learn more about how animal groups are named?

Pick up this printable collective animal nouns matching activity by clicking the image or link below!

You’ll also get our weekly newsletter – this Sunday!

>>> Animal Collective Noun Matching Activity <<<

Don’t miss these other simple crafts for kids!

This simple paper bee craft is a fun way to make an easy spring or summer craft with kids!

Share an easy summer craft with the kids and make this easy paper ladybug craft! So fun for little hands!

Make this easy toilet paper roll lion craft with the kids for a fun art activity!

Check out more fun creative collective animal noun ideas below!

Touring NYC Landmarks with New York City Picture Books

March 14, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

New York City is one of our favorite places to visit. One of our family members lives in Queens and the kids always love traveling through the big city, staring at the buildings, and trying to spot the city’s most famous features.

Usually, though, we don’t have enough time to tour all of the NYC landmarks while we’re in town. So I wanted to put together a New York City landmarks unit study that the kids could use to really get an understanding of these buildings and places and how they fit into the history of New York and the U.S.

Which is why I was thrilled to get a chance to review five beautiful children’s books about New York City from Candlewick Press! These picture books and nonfiction biographies brought the Big Apple to us and helped the kids learn tons about the city!

Read on to see how we built our unit around lovely children’s books from Candlewick Press! Plus, find out how to score a 25 percent discount on Candlewick books for your family AND see how you can win a set of Judy Moody paperbacks!

Disclosure: I received these books in exchange for this post and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

New York City Picture Books about NYC Landmarks

I love reading great children’s books with the kids and Candlewick Press has made its reputation on excellent children’s literature, so I knew I’d find some wonderful books about NYC in the company’s catalog.

To cover our New York City landmarks unit, we used five excellent books from Candlewick Press:

The first four are absolutely beautiful picture books about New York City, while the fifth is a heartwrenching, but age-appropriate retelling of the events of September 11, 2001.

The book Panorama Pops: New York is unlike any other children’s book I’ve ever seen. It’s an exquisitely cut fold-out book that serves as a 3D map of the city.

You can literally tour the city from the Statue of Liberty to Grand Central Terminal on one side and then travel from Times Square up to Yankee Stadium on the other. Since the landmarks in the book are arranged from north to south, it’s a pretty good geography lesson about NYC as well.

I wish you all could have seen me standing over the boys as they looked at this book. “Don’t pull it!” “Turn the pages carefully!” “No, that part is supposed to fold up!” I was basically treating it as a work of art. It’s that beautiful.

The book features twelve landmarks in all and gives a few facts about each one, along with a lovely illustration.

Plus, there are tiny little foldables. It’s just perfect. In fact, this book is such a little treasure that it would probably make a great gift for an adult.

With the book A Walk in New York, kids can explore more landmarks as they “walk” along the city. We used it for read-aloud time and my eight-year-old did the honors.

My kids were impressed with the size of Macy’s. (As am I whenever I’m in town.)

But that’s nothing compared to the Empire State Building, which has its own fold-out poster in the book.

Then we took a closer look at the city with the book Inside and Out: New York, another quirky book that I’d never seen before. With this book, you can pull out a large wall-sized chart of the city and explore intricate details about New York and its people.

But, then you can flip the book over and see what’s happening “inside” each of the buildings. You can even see people taking the stairs up to the top of the Statue of Liberty!

At the back, there are selected items for kids to find in the pictures. Naturally, my kids started there.

And the first thing they “found” was the New York Knicks playing basketball at Madison Square Garden, which is NOT on the list! (But we’re huge basketball fans, so it was inevitable.)

I knew that the book Pop Up: New York was going to be a big hit and it was. Pop-up books are always popular with kids and my four love them. But this book takes pop-ups to a whole new level.

You can see nearly all of the city’s landmarks in it – to scale! So when you look at the Flatiron Building, you can see the Empire State Building towering behind it. Plus, there are facts about the city tucked away in foldable books throughout.

The kids quickly found the page with Yankee Stadium and tried to find the players. As you can see, on the back sides of each pop-up feature are the names of each place and facts about it.

We spent a little time examining the financial district to find Wall Street and the World Trade Center.

Which led to a discussion about what the World Trade Center used to look like.

Reading about September 11, 2001 with Candlewick Press

September 11, 2001 is a difficult historical event to discuss with kids. It’s still a difficult event to discuss with adults. I didn’t live in New York, so (like so many people) I watched everything happen on television. But whenever I hear the date mentioned, I instantly get a knot in my stomach – even 15 years later.

The kids know that the original World Trade Center was destroyed. And they know how it happened. But now that my middle schooler is getting older, I wanted her to learn more about what that day was like. So we started reading the book September 11, 2001: Attack on New York City.

This book talks about September 11 from the standpoint of people who were there and lived to tell about it. They talk honestly about how they felt, what they saw, and how they processed it all afterward.

It’s a difficult book to read, but it is age-appropriate and the pictures are in black and white, which mutes the horror a little bit.

After skimming a few pages, Tigger disappeared into her bedroom with the book. She came out about five minutes later crying. We hugged and talked about it for a while.

At the back of the book is an afterword that ties in the events of that day with the events that followed: the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the case for weapons of mass destruction, the capture of Osama bin Laden, and more. I’ll be saving this book for a more in-depth middle-grades unit later.

If you’ve been wondering how to broach this topic with your older kids, this book is a tough, but excellent resource to use.

Get to know the other reading selections for kids from Candlewick Press! Sign up for the Candlewick newsletter to get news about the latest book releases! Plus, you can read about some of the newest book collections below:

For more about Candlewick Press, follow the company on social media!

Now – for the goodies!

Score a 25 percent discount on any purchase from Candlewick Press when you use the promo code CANDLEWICK at checkout! AND – enter to win a set of eight Judy Moody paperbacks FREE! One winner will receive a boxed set of books 1-8 from Candlewick Press! Use the Giveaway Tools widget below to enter.

Entry -Form

For more awesome ways to use children’s lit with your family, follow my Reading for Kids board on Pinterest!

Hands-On Ancient History with Project Passport!

March 7, 2017 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Personally, I love history, even ancient history. Trying to make those subjects interesting to an eight-year-old, though, poses its own set of challenges. It can be tough to help kids to “see” the people and events so that they can understand what happened and why it has meaning for our modern world.

And that’s why I was so excited to have a chance to review the Project Passport unit study series from Home School in the Woods! Each unit focuses on a specific time period in ancient history and is chock-full with hands-on ancient history activities, lessons, and readings that make history exciting for kids!

Take a look at this fabulous history curriculum in our review! Plus, one reader will win all four of the current Project Passport History Unit Studies CDs! Read on to get the details and see how you can score these incredible products for yourself!

Disclosure: I received this product in exchange for this post and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review. (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Preparing a Project Passport Hands-On History Unit Study

We had planned to cover ancient history with Pooh this year, so the unit studies from Home School in the Woods was a great fit! The newest unit study is Project Passport: Ancient Greece and it is AH. MAZING.

Here’s a quick look at just some of the resources in this fabulous unit. The CD contains all of the available downloads, printables, and instructions you’ll need to assemble the unit study. By the way, Project Passport unit studies are also available as digital downloads, with all of the same goodies.

Now here’s a look at how we got started putting our unit together!

Home School in the Woods has done a LOT of the work on this unit for you, so take advantage of every single download, instruction sheet, and PDF in the program. We printed the teacher’s guides, key’s and instructions for one binder. Then we started working on the “Scrapbook of Sights” for Pooh to complete as we went along.

At the beginning of the CD (or digital download), you’ll find a comprehensive Travel Itinerary, which gives you an overview of the entire unit. This is super helpful for scheduling your lessons.

There are also a lot of travel “tips” listed at the beginning. DO NOT SKIP THIS. This is a great reference sheet as you go along, especially if you’re a need-to-know-everything-at-the-start person (like yours truly).

I want to add a couple of caveats here:

Project Passport is loaded and, I mean, loaded with printables. Invest in a reliable printer. (Here’s the one we use.)
There is a lot of information to read through to see which activities to complete with each section of the unit. I have ADD, so I had to break each section down, highlight the action steps on each lesson, and then check off each printable as I printed it. That was the only way I could keep my activities organized.

Pooh and I started off by creating our “Scrapbook of Sights” – a visual memento binder of our “trip” through Ancient Greece.

I loved this activity so much, because it gave him a chance to keep up with little reminders of everything he learned through the unit. In fact, we’re still filling it up as we continue the program!

At the first “stop”, you and your child complete several activities that will be completed along the way. Two of these include the actual “passport” (as in “Project Passport”) and your “luggage”, which will collect your travel memories.

The passport is designed to be used as you travel through all of the Project Passport unit studies, including:

Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece (which we’re showcasing in this post)
The Middle Ages
Renaissance and Reformation
Ancient Rome (will be released in 2018)

As you finish each unit, your child gets to add a new “stamp” to his passport!

Now that we were all packed, it was time to head on our trip!

How to Use Project Passport Hands-On Ancient History Unit Studies

Whew! That was just the getting started part! See what I mean about this unit study being chock-full of activities?

Project Passport units are designed to last for six to twelve weeks of study. Really, though, I think you could stretch them out to a full school year (36 weeks), especially if you only cover history once or twice a week. These units are that comprehensive.

In our first “stop”, we talked about the origin of Ancient Greece. Pooh started adding to his “Snapshots in History” pages in the scrapbook.

We cut out character/place cards, colored them, and glued them in the scrapbook. At each “stop”, you collect a few of these.

We also began working on our maps of the Aegean Civilizations and the Ancient Greek World.

Coming along! (This is another activity that you add to as you go through the unit.)

A really cute part of Project Passport is receiving postcards from historical figures. Each postcard is written as if it came from a person in history, describing what they’re doing and where they’re at. Our first card came from Agamemnon and it briefly explained the origin of the Trojan War.

Pooh drew a ship sailing to Troy on the front of the postcard…

…and then added to it our Postcard Rack in our scrapbook.

At the beginning of each stop, you can print a guide text that serves as the basis for the unit. It’s really the “textbook” part of the unit. It’s good to read through this with the kids before you try the activities. Otherwise, they won’t have any context for what they’re learning.

A quick note here: Project Passport unit studies are not secular. The guide texts mention the Bible, Biblical characters, and God. We’re Christians, but we typically use secular homeschooling curriculum, and I didn’t expect those references. But, they’re very few and far between, so you can skip them if you want. I didn’t see any overtly religious information in the activities.

Another of the activities we’ll be building on is the “Greek Weekly” newspaper. At each stop, kids can write their own news stories about what’s happening in the Greek World. (Stories can be based on what they learned from the guide text.)

Hmmm….interesting stories in the paper today! (Just kidding, he’d only written one story so far.)

In our later “stops”, we collected more character cards and colored them.

And then pasted them in our Scrapbook, which was getting pretty full by this point. 🙂

And we got another postcard for our scrapbook too!

Project Passport also has a mega lapbook you can complete along the way. And what’s really nice is that kids are working their way into it through the unit. In this stop, Pooh worked on making matchbooks that each contained information about life in Ancient Athens.

Each matchbook contained information and pictures about an aspect of the city. We added the base page to our scrapbook and started assembling.

This activity alone could last a week. I mean, you’re studying about the cultural, political, social, and economic features of the city of Athens in ONE activity.

And we’re finished! (With that activity, that is. We easily have another nine weeks of activities in the unit.)

What you’ve seen in this review is just a few of the activities in three “stops” on the Project Passport: Ancient Greece unit study. Know how many stops there are altogether? 25. Now that’s a serious hands-on ancient history homeschool curriculum!

Stop by and pick up a Project Passport unit study yourself! If you want to go in chronological order, start with Ancient Egypt, then move on to Ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance and Reformation. It will be an awesome history education for your kids!

Now: for the great giveaway news! One winner will receive all four Project Passport CDs – FREE! (If the winner lives outside the U.S., he or she will receive digital downloads instead of CDs.) Enter for your chance to win using the Giveaway Tools widget below!

Entry -Form

Find out more about the entire Project Passport product line by following Home School in the Woods on social media!

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google +
And sign up for the Home School in the Woods newsletter in the upper right corner of the website!

For more ideas to teach hands-on history to your kids, follow my Living History for Kids Pinterest board!

Advanced Coding Lessons for Kids with Bitsbox

March 3, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Since we’ve been working on coding with our middle schooler this year, she’s learned how to write code for apps, video games, and more! So in this month’s Bitsbox box, we were excited to see her branching into some advanced coding lessons for kids, including if – else statements and sin() functions.

And to top if all off, she got to explore these coding techniques while creating fun fairy-tale inspired apps and art! See how we used the Bitsbox A Land Far Away box to introduce advanced coding skills with absolutely no tears!

If you want to see more Bitsbox coding in action, be sure to check out how we used our first box to introduce coding for kids to our tween and how we used our second box to explore robotics!

Disclosure: I received this product in exchange for this post and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

Bitsbox A Land Far Away Subscription Box Unboxing

I always like to begin these posts with a look at what’s inside the Bitsbox deluxe subscription box. Each month’s box has a different theme, so when you purchase a Bitsbox subscription, your child get a new set of apps to create based on a new theme in each box. This month’s theme was “A Land Far Away” and all of the apps were inspired by fairy tales.

Look at all this coding goodness! What I love about Bitsbox is that they make coding fun for kids, so when you buy the deluxe subscription, you always get a few extra toys along with your coding cards for the month.

This month we had trading cards for making mini apps, supersize cards for building advanced applications, temporary fairy-tale tattoos, a sheet of app stickers for keeping track of her progress through the unit, a Cata-pencil (yep, you guessed it – a pencil with a catapult on top) and a movable wooden snake.

Shortly after this picture was taken, my sons discovered the snake and ran off with it. I’ll probably never see it again.

The first thing we did was to add our new coding cards to our Bitsbox binder. We received that along with our second box last month. As we shuffled through the cards, Tigger found two apps she wanted to make right away.

A mini app called “Dream Catcher”.

And a supersized app called “Bling This Thing”. Color me surprised.

Once we had all of the app cards in the binder, it was time to get started!

Advanced Coding Lessons for Kids with Bitsbox

In the Grown-Up Guide (seen in the unboxing picture at the beginning), Bitsbox adds a bit of explanation for parents about exactly what our kids will learn in this box. By the way, that guide is a life-saver. A lot of us parents are like “Huh?” when we hear coding terminology, so that overview was very helpful.

One of the skills used this month is the if-else statement, which is an important skill to use for JavaScript programming. If-else statements are also used in Microsoft Excel and in basic logic, so they’re very useful.

The apps Tigger wanted to work with first don’t use this function. But one does use the sin() function, a skill used in C programming. When she saw that one app let her make art, she was off and running with that one, no matter what programming functions it used.

Since Dream Catcher is a mini app, it only requires a few lines of code. She had it completed in just a few minutes. And it creates this:

Pretty neat, right? It’s a look at how math can be used to create actual art!

After that, it was on to the app “Bling This Thing” – the one she was most excited to create this month.

“Bling This Thing” lets kids choose an object to decorate with jewels. And you can choose really any of the available coding stamps in the unit: cupcakes, crowns, thrones, even monsters!

You can also choose which jewels you’d like to show up as available stones, whether you want the app to select random jewels, and if you want to add any sounds when the jewels appear. It’s a really great exercise in customizing coding to create a desired result – super helpful if your kids are thinking about coding or graphic design for a living.

This app was such a big hit that my third-grader tore himself away from the wooden snake to come out and watch. (Side note: There is no doubt that these children are siblings. Wow.)

It works! Tigger found that she could customize the app even more, slowing down or speeding up the appearance of each jewel or deciding which way the jewels would rotate as they showed up.

After we were done, she added the “Bling This Thing” sticker to her app tracker guide to mark it as completed.

We have absolutely loved learning to code with Bitsbox! In just three months, my tween has learned that computer coding is used to create apps, video games, graphic design, sound effects, and images.

Plus, she’s learned how to use coordinate geometry, sin() functions, and JavaScript programming language – without any mind-numbing boredom. After all, when your twelve-year-old asks you to code for fun, you know you’re on the right track.

Sign up for a Bitsbox subscription yourself and let your children take some advanced coding lessons for kids at home! If you want to try just one box to see how you like it, visit the One-Time Product Shop to buy a single box!

Don’t forget: You can save 20 percent on a brand new Bitsbox subscription with you use the promo code SELENA20! (This code is only valid on new subscriptions and does not apply to purchases from the One-Time Product Shop. All subscriptions automatically renew on the first of the month.)

Want to learn more about Bitsbox? Sign up for the Bitsbox mailing list to learn about new products, boxes, and upcoming promotions! And if you want more ideas for teaching with Bitsbox, sign up for the educator mailing list!

Be sure to check out Bitsbox on social media:

See our other Bitsbox reviews below!

And follow my STEM for Homeschoolers Pinterest board for more engineering inspiration!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Basketball Craft

March 1, 2017 by Selena Robinson 4 Comments

Last summer, we went out of town and stayed at a cottage for a weekend. It was amazing.

(If you’re wondering what on earth this has to do with coffee filter crafts, stay with me. It’s related.)

The cottage was filled with all kinds of comforts and appliances, just like you’d have at home. At home, though, we use a French press for our coffee, so I haven’t used a drip coffeemaker in years. Naturally, I assumed I’d need to bring coffee filters.

I got to the cottage and they already had coffee filters there. Awesome! But then I had 150 coffee filters and no drip coffeemaker at home to use them.

Fast forward to this past winter. We went to spend the weekend at a different cottage, which also had a coffeemaker. Naturally, I assumed that there would be coffee filters provided….there were not.

I had to run down to the local Dollar General and buy yet ANOTHER 150 pack of coffee filters. Which means that when I got home, I had nearly 300 coffee filters and no coffeemaker to use them with.

So a new crafting project series was born: Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids! Since it’s March and college basketball is a huge deal in our family, I thought we’d kick off the series with this simple coffee filter basketball craft. It even “bounces”!

Read on to see how to make this easy craft with your kids!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Basketball Craft

To make this easy coffee filter basketball craft, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

To start, simply flatten out the coffee filter with your hands.

Then use an orange crayon to color the entire filter.

Next, use a black crayon to draw the basketball lines on the filter.

I kept it simple with just four lines: two intersecting mid-section lines and half-curves at the top and bottom. (If you need to see a picture of a basketball to get an idea, pick up our free basketball skip counting flashcards for inspiration.)

Add one center black line running horizontally across the lines you just made. Now, glue the “basketball” onto a piece of colored construction paper. Place it on the right to have bouncing in from the left or on the left to have it bouncing it from the right.

A word of caution here: Do NOT use liquid glue. It will bleed through the coffee filter and discolor it. In fact, in the picture above, I’ve actually placed a second coffee filter “basketball” over the first after finding this out for myself. Always, always, always use a glue stick with coffee filter crafts. Lesson learned.

Finally, add your bouncing “lines” with a black crayon and you’re done!

This is a perfect craft for preschoolers, because it only needs a few supplies, it’s simple, and it’s done in just a few minutes!

By the way, if you’re having a party to watch the NCAA Tournament this year, this is a fantastic way for kids to get involved!

Did you enjoy this easy coffee filter basketball craft? Check out these ideas while you’re here!

And grab some easy craft ideas for children on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!

Want to get exclusive learning ideas and activities in your inbox? Sign up for our email newsletter!

Homeschool Unit Studies: Rainbow Unit Study

February 28, 2017 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Spring is a wonderful time of year for spotting rainbows! With pop-up showers happening regularly, the conditions are perfect for rainbows to form.

How exactly do rainbows form anyway? That and a lot of other questions are answered in this fun rainbow unit study – one of our homeschool unit studies you can use at home with your kids! Read on to see fun rainbow activities, rainbow books for kids, and rainbow facts you can learn together!

If you love this post, don’t miss our Rainbow Tally Marks Worksheets – a rainbow-themed math activity for elementary students!

Homeschool Unit Studies: Rainbow Unit Study

How Are Rainbows Formed?

Watch the YouTube video below and then have your child answer the following questions.

1. What are the three ingredients needed to form a rainbow? (Answer: sunlight, water, and you)

2. What is the process called when light enters water and exits at a different angle? (Answer: refraction)

3. Why do rainbows display various colors? (Answer: Because colors have different wavelengths and light produces them at different degrees.)

4. At what degree measurement does red light exit the water droplet? (Answer: 42 degrees)

5. At what degree measurement does blue light exit the water droplet? (Answer: 40 degrees)

6. Why do rainbows always appear in an arc? (Answer: They actually form complete circles, but the bottom half disappears into the ground and is invisible to us.)

7. BONUS QUESTION: What does the abbreviation ROY G BIV stand for? (Answer: The colors of the rainbow – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)

Rainbow Books for Kids

These books about rainbows are wonderful for learning more about these scientific wonders! (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Rainbow Activities for Kids

Add these fun rainbow activities to your unit!

Want more ideas for this rainbow unit study? Don’t miss these activities!

Check out more spring learning resources for kids on my Spring Activities for Kids Pinterest board!