Learning

The best 8 dollars I ever spent

by Stacy on May 5, 2011

Birthday week was quite the whirlwind around here. There were monster cakes, lunch dates, popsicles and concerts in the park and one very special trip to Sea World San Antonio’s Bay of Play. But like most childhood discoveries, the best things are usually not something you’ve planned.

Happy Birthday Stinks!!! We Love YouPoor Shamu, never had a chance ... @SeaWorldTexas
Celebrating the Big 2 @SeaWorldTexas. Love that pirate smileTurning 2 means Popsicles & Concerts at the park <3

My guys have been pining away for some miniature ocean animal figurines they spotted at Sea World for the last few months. I’m not one to buy things every time we go somewhere (or I would be broke) but since they had been wanting them for quite some time and it WAS Little’s birthday … I decided to splurge a little.

Each kid got a small box to fill with as many figurines as the box would carry. We paid and made our way out of the park and I really thought that would be the end of that. But … when we got home, that’s when the excitement really started. They wanted to know about each and every animal and honestly, I didn’t know many of them. We sat down with our sea creatures and began to Google.

We carefully identified each one, using their colors and features as clues – White Beaked Dolphin, Speckled Dolphin, Chinese White Dolphin. The searches got more and more interesting and the process became more and more rewarding. We spent the next 3 days studying, inquiring and absorbing all things marine life. It was a homeschooling dream that cultivated with a trip to the coast this past weekend to talk about all that we had learned at home.

SplashSearching for Coquina

Those little sea creatures are the best $8 dollars I’ve ever spent! There’s no price tag for the love of nature, life and the majesty of the seas they inspired. And what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t send a bit of that magic on to you. Here are a few things we found while researching, perfect for preschoolers.

Animated Ocean Movie (** Highly Recommended & a great way to introduce your child to endangered animals and why we need to keep our oceans clean **)

Animal Ocean Game

Create Your Own Ocean

Online Ocean Find Game

And here’s a few coloring pages, follow the links to print these out for your little marine biologists.

narwhal whale

Narwhal Whale – my new favorite creature!!
Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
whale shark coloring
Whale Shark

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Fun Online Learning Site for Kids

by Stacy on March 1, 2011

I’ve been homeschooling Happy & Sweet since August and I have been terrible about sharing all the fun we’ve been having with you. To make up for it, I’m going to tell you about something really, really cool (AND FREE!!!).

I guess you could say, we’re “unschoolers” because I tend to let Happy & Sweet dictate what we’re going to learn about each day. This morning they were all a go about deer and since deer live in the Forest and I’m knee deep in Forestry class, (what???, I haven’t told you I’m back in school either? Man, I’ve been neglecting you guys) I figured I’d roll both of our lessons into one.

I googled forest preschool activities and stumbled on to this little gem.

Sheppard Software

This image shows you all the fun stuff you can find on Sheppard Software in the preschool/kindergarten ocean, forest, jungle and farm categories. I know, awesome right? And totally interactive. But this image doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the great (FREE) learning materials they have online for kids.

Sweet had a blast creating her little forest world over and over again and Happy had a huge breakthrough in Math today while playing the Fruit Shoot game. I can’t tell you how happy I am about this, I have tried everything I can think of on my own and just wasn’t finding a way to make addition click with him. Two minutes of Fruit Shoot and he was all about it.

Sheppard Software if you’re listening, THANK YOU!!!

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