Name Games

Still trying to get back in the groove after being in Nashville and quite honestly after getting ready for Nashville prior to actually leaving! Preparing a team of 7 to go to convention and making sure they felt welcomed and loved on and to encourage them to do the same for their local teams that were going. And getting three new team members trained and equipped before leaving...whew...I'm ready for a short MOPS break! Perhaps I will share some of what I saw at Convention soon. I learned a lot of relevant stuff and enjoyed it immensely. However, I have much blogging, reviewing and homeschooling to catch up on so it will be a bit.

On to the topic at hand! One of the goals I have for my preschoolers is to have them learn their name. Pretty early on all of my kids could recognize their names and J4 is no exception. So, once that skill is accomplished I like to work on them writing it and identifying individual letters. I mean it's one thing for a 3-4-5 yr old to recognize the pattern they see when they look at their name and another for them to actually sort of spell it out.

Every day I put a name "game" into J4's workboxes. I made this one from paint chips. I cut a file folder in half and wrote his letters on individual chips. The chips in the picture are turned to protect the innocent. I glued one set down on the folder and the other set are for matching up.

I used a library pocket on the back of the folder to store the loose letters.

Other fun ways to practice names for preschoolers:

• Spell their name on a sentence strip and have them trace it with marker
• Spell their name in yellow marker and have them trace in pencil on a sheet of blank paper (I use drawing paper cut into wide strips)
• Spell their name so they can trace it and decorate it with stickers
• Spell their name out in pencil and let them trace the letters using dot painters.
• Give them the letter molds for playdough and let them make their letters in playdough and then match the order.
  
• When they are a bit older just have them spell out their name with playdough letters
• Use letter chips to match the letters in their name
• Spell out name in letter magnets at the frig or magnetic wall
• Trace letters on the white board/chalk board
• Cut out letters that are in squares and match/arrange depending on age
• Begin teaching last names when they get good at their first name

Share your ideas on how preschoolers can practice their name by leaving a comment!

This Week with Mr. Mom

My wife asked me to guest post a couple of times this week (editor's note: mainly because you all requested it!!), but I was hesitant since I didn't think I could match the quality of work on my last guest post. But, she did ask me to post what we have been up to since she was in Nashville so here it is...

Heather left Tuesday so we hung low on Wednesday and just did work around the house. Thursday we drove to Rochester and enjoyed the always enjoyable Strong National Museum of Play. E11 and I7 had been waiting to go again so they could enjoy the Videotopia display, a working arcade of 80's video game classics. For those 80's arcade enthusiasts, here is a list of the working games you can play there. While we were there, I convinced the kids to go into the Butterfly garden since I had not been in there before. While there we got to see the Atlas Moth, the largest moth in the world.

Friday, we got a call from the local library. Apparently, between me and the kids, we had requested so many books online that they needed us to pick them up since the front desk was running out of room. Sometimes it feels like we have more books from the library in our house than the library has in its own building. Anyhow, since it was a beautiful day, that afternoon we went hiking on a local trail. The trail has benches on it so I stopped a few times to read to the kids Alice in Wonderland. A recent film I had seen drew heavily from it so I was interested in reading the work that I only know bits and pieces of. I got out 'The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition' from the library and had been enjoying reading and learning more about it. One interesting fact about Lewis Carroll is that he was apparently a borderline pedophile... He had quite a love of little girls (although not boys), but all information seems to indicate that his unusual and often long-term and close relationships with the many little girls he befriended was purely platonic. In our more modern times I am sure he would be on some state's public register...

Recently, I had been reading about using a map and compass to sight positions so I was eager to try it out and show the kids. So, we stopped at a point on the trail where we could see points on the map and took two compass sightings, one on a nearby microwave tower, the other on a hilltop we could see. From each sighting you can get a Line of Position (LOP) which should intersect at (or at least near) your position on the map. The pencil line is a bit faint, but it shows our LOPs crossing very close to where we were on the trail!

Saturday was spent at Soccer, doing yard work, and then watching (on TV) Virginia Tech destroy Miami in a pouring rain in Blacksburg, VA! Go Hokies! Today we are all happily awaiting Heather's return and the return to our normal level of chaos.

Editor's Note: Does Dan totally rock the dad thing or what?! What he left out was that when he took the kids out hiking he knew they'd be back late enough that he should start dinner ahead of time. So, he put some potatoes in the oven on timer to have loaded baked potatoes for dinner. The only dinner they had out was the day they went to the museum.

Plus, I returned home to a clean house clutterwise, clean dishes, and plenty of clean laundry to be put away. He didn't want to brag so I did it for him. Dan you are amazing! And thank you honey!

Nashville Here I Come!

The MOPS International Convention begins this week and I'm heading out this afternoon. I'm excited to work the convention with other MOPS Field Leaders as we serve the local Steering Team members that are coming to convention for leadership training. As Area Coordinator for NY State, Zone 15 of MOPS Int'l (the pinnacle of my volunteer career), I get to do a few fun things this year and I'm excited to share our time in Nashville with folks back home! I'll be hearing Margaret Feinberg (hopefully there won't be audio issues because it's my job to deal with them while she speaks!), escorting the authors of Kid Concoctions to their seminar room, and greeting lots of women who come in the door for general sessions. Matt Redman and Plumb will be there to help us with worship and to give a concert. Ken Davis is sure to make us laugh!

This year's MOPS theme is Together on Planet Mom. Our theme Bible verse is Matthew 18:20- "Where two or three come together...there I am with them."

Local groups will be talking about not doing mothering alone but instead being in community with one another. If you have a child ages 0 through Kindergarten age, visit www.mops.org to find a MOPS group near you! Your kids are cared for in a fun MOPPETS environment while you get to hear speakers, meet with a discussion group, and do a fun craft!

I've got my slick new Lands' End bathing suit, my laptop, my camera and lots of other goodies packed and ready to go! My roommate for the week is excited we both walk in the early morning so I'll have a gym buddy too. This is my second visit to Nashville and I have yet to see the Grand Ole Opry. Seeing as I'm not at all into the country music scene...I mean at.all. I'm ok with staying in the hotel city that is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I hope to update you all from TN this week. I'll be home on Sunday. Imagine 4000 mamas of young children all in one place without their children!!! I'm really, really looking forward to pushing my own elevator buttons. It'll be a treat. I just hope I don't have to fight for the privilege with other moms on a road trip!

Dan's got big plans for his time with the kids. They are going to be field tripping, playing games, and he has a few other surprises up his sleeves. He'll be navigating the soccer schedule and keeping the gear clean between games and practices. I've left him a stocked pantry and a list of things he has on hand to make and what meals they go with. Left him plenty of chocolate too. He's a pro. Wish him luck!

So, here's a shout out to all the MOPS moms out there! See you in Nashville!

Days of the Week- Preschool style

Can I just tell you how much I love these little pocket charts from the Target dollar aisle?? This just helps to keep us all on the same page so to speak.

I-7 practices reading the days of the week and the other words. J4 gets a reminder of the order of the days of the week. J4 likes to say, "the day after this day" for tomorrow for example, but he's coming around.

I used Post It note word strips for the color word strips and index cards for the days of the week.

This pocket chart hangs next to our weather chart for us to visit each day.

TOS Crew Review: Studypod

We had the chance to review the Studypod and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical of this product. I wasn't sure how I could use it in a homeschool setting. I mean it would have been awesome in college, but especially since we are not text book folks I was having some trouble with this one.

However, it finally occurred to me that there are many times when I want all the kids to see a book at the same time at the school table. I tried it out for an assignment from Draw Write Now. We wanted to draw some sea turtles. The kids thought it was great!

The price for one Studypod is $19.95.

This is definitely one of those products that I would not have thought of having but makes a great addition to our school. I like how it folds up so nicely and even has a pouch for pens and pencils which get tucked inside when you fold it up. It can stash in a back pack and it would probably be neat for taking with you on outings. I will enjoy putting it on our bookshelf unless we need it.


You do need to be careful when setting up the book and taking it down- that you don't rip the book with the prongs that hold the book in place.

Overall a great product if you think you have a use for it. Definitely not a must have, but something that makes book sharing at our house a lot easier!

Planning Five in a Row

Folks often ask how I manage the planning and implementation of Five in a Row (FIAR). I recently put together some thoughts on the FIAR forum and I thought I would share them with my blog readers.

• First of all relax! Whatever you choose from the manual will be wonderful and will make an effective week of school.
• You will likely not get done everything you planned. What's important about that is...that it's ok. Maybe you will find another trail to explore or one of the activities will strike your kids' fancy and you'll play that out a lot and not so much others. It's all good!
• I sit down sometime before the week begins and I look through the manual. I choose two to three lessons for each topic for our week. Generally I go for one longer lesson and one shorter one. I gather the materials for them ahead of time. One thing that can end a good school session is not being prepared!! I learn this lesson OFTEN. One might wonder why I need to learn it over and over but I do. If you have to stop the momentum to get what it is you had planned, well kids scatter and the moment is GONE. Trust me. Ahem.
• I choose activities for a day based on what my week is like. I don't plan heavy things for days when we are not going to have much time. Seems obvious, but if you think a lesson might not happen on a particular day, it probably won't! So don't set yourself up for failure from the start. Choose shorter lessons or those that are more conversational.
  
• Conversation- if this is hard for you then go for the more concrete lessons until you have more of a rhythm reading to the kids. Once you are more at ease with the reading part, the conversations will come. They don't have to follow the book either. You can read the book and be sitting down to lunch later in the day and say, "Hey remember when?" and bring it up at that time. It's always good practice to get your kids thinking about a book and to talk about it all the time. Think about what would be easy for you to try out and go for it.
• Reading aloud- is one of my favorite things to do! Have you ever read, The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease? EXCELLENT read and it will boost your confidence that your efforts are well worth it. We have had soooooo many enjoyable hours reading aloud to our children. The more you do it, the more you get used to it and the better at it you become. Hang in there and add in some other times for reading aloud. Nothing soothes the grumpies in our house like a read aloud. Nothing.
• You might be tempted to add in gobs of lapbooking and extras. My advice is to stick with Jane's lessons. I don't often use the items at Homeschool Share because sometimes I find them not suitable for my kids. I know lots of ladies LOVE it over there and I can understand why. So many items that match FIAR lessons that can be used for free. I find that they do not fit the needs of my kids in terms of fine motor skill- too many small lapbooking elements without room for my younger children's handwriting. So, I make my own stuff. I use StartWrite software to make things for my kids to write on in a lesson. For example, when we did Owl Moon last year, I had my 6yo give me owl facts using some owl words I had given him on paper strips. As he dictated his sentences to me, I typed them into StartWrite and then he used his own sentences as copy work. Not a pretty little lapbooking element, but a great assignment for this notebook.

• Find a way to record your lesson plans and to store the things you prepare ahead of time. Again, I refer back to an earlier point that being unprepared for the teachable moment stinks! I have a file system I like to use and some fabulous planning forms. And let's not forget the workboxes! I use the files to hold items I print off ahead of time or to store other ideas I come across related to a book. This way I don't have to revisit a website. I can just print it off and store it in the book title's pocket file. The workboxes help me to set out the day's work ahead of time without losing it. I use a combination of planning forms including some home made forms (by me or friends) and the FIAR planner.
  

• Try at least one lesson for every subject. You'll be tempted to skip ones that don't appeal to you and/or you are intimidated by. For example, if you skip over the art lessons all the time you'll find yourself down the road going...FIAR doesn't seem to have art or you'll say I think we need an art supplement. What do you guys use? Same for science or history. Trust me...I hear it over and over from FIAR users. My feeling is that it's all there IF you choose to implement the lessons.
• Be consistent. Get up and do school every day or most days. You will catch a groove. There is no perfect way to do the job. There are no perfect times. Just get started and do it each day. Things will become easier. You'll start to see a rhythm. When you do you'll be able to see how things can be tweaked to suit your needs.
• Have FUN! FIAR is designed to be a relaxed, relationship building program for you and your kids. Panic is not part of the package the Lamberts intend to sell. Enjoy it!

Muffin Tin Monday

We did this on Monday, but posting about it right afterward didn't happen. I find it amazing that there are so many people that have posted MTM and I haven't even fed my kids lunch on a Monday yet! That is amazing to me...a time warp of sorts.

This week we had grapes, cheese quesadilla strips and their favorite salsa with Oreos. The Oreos are missing because well...I have one who would eat them first. So, they came in the second wave.

So, I'm posting Muffin Tin Monday on Thursday morning. That's the kind of week I'm having. It's been the kind of week that seems so slow and has gone lightening fast at the same time in light of what I still need to finish before leaving for Nashville on Tuesday.

Did you hear? I'm going to Nashville!!

Happy Birthday Dan!

Yesterday was Dan's birthday. I wanted to get him a new bike this year. But you know how it with dads sometimes. They always put the needs of the family ahead of what they want. So, I thought perhaps drastic measures were necessary. The kids and I decided to kidnap Dan from work and take him to the local bike shop within walking distance of campus.

We stopped on campus and delivered the ransom note. He had to put together the clues to see where he was going. Note the bike sticker on his shirt. He solved the riddle!

He's ready for the test drive! When he came back he was prepared to purchase his Trek 7100 and a new helmet the same model as the one he wearing in the photo.

I made him some yummy jambalaya and an apple pie plus gave him this great little shirt from Union 28

You know these things come in pairs...wearing mine today! I always get the best comments on these type shirts. Everyone loves our "i love my husband/wife" shirts too from David Nasser

R9 gave him quarters for the arcade at the Museum of Play where they will be going next week while I'm in Nashville (heads up...I'm going to Nashville!). She also gave him a piece of dark chocolate and a place to hold his coins.

Happy Birthday Dan! We love you!

E is 11!

E turned 11 on September 10th. 11? Really? Where has the time gone?

For his birthday we gave him a set of college football tickets to see Syracuse University play MN for their game opener and West Virginia for a Big East conference game. Any college football fans out there? Then you might know Virginia Tech is a former member of the Big East. But for the last two years they have been the ACC Champions...and they thought we didn't deserve to move to the ACC. E11 and Dan have been counting the years down to when Syracuse would play Tech again...2010. Unfortunately, Syracuse decided to bail and all hopes were dashed. There will be no Hokie football at the Carrier Dome next fall.

Besides the NXT inventor's guide and the new game for his collection, he will going out on an overnight on a local trail with Dan and his best friend and his dad after the first frost. He can hardly wait.

E11 is a great kid. His world and his current passions can be summed up with the help of photos.

LEGOS- what self respecting American boy does not love LEGOS? The ritual raking of the bricks can be heard at various times throughout the day at my house.

But who am I kidding? He really, really loves Star Wars LEGOS- he actually has this model and a really sweet super star destroyer too. Make no mistake. E11 is a follow the directions to make a model kind of guy unlike I7 who can make an awesome creation out of just the bare minimum. Funny how kids are so different.

This should really be at the top this time of year. Virginia Tech Hokie football is a first priority these days. He checks the rankings weekly and knows all the stats. He's a true blue fan and has even corresponded with Coach Beamer himself. Go Hokies! Oh and in case you are curious as to where the allegiance comes from...Dan is a Virginia Tech alum. E11 plans to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue chemical engineering at Tech. If he does it, he'll be the fourth generation of engineers in that line. For real.

E11 LOVES college football. NCAA football on the PS2 is his favorite video game. He just ordered the 2009 version with some birthday cash. He can hardly wait to see it arrive.

E11 is a fantastic soccer player. He loves to play mid-fielder and forward positions so he can run the field and take shots on goal. He loves his soccer. Right now he is playing on the local U12 team and taking a soccer class at co-op. Who knows...someday maybe he'll play Hokie soccer.

When he isn't watching sports or playing he is reading. He is quite a discerning fellow and prefers epic adventures. He is a member of the Redwall fan club out of the UK. Lastly, E11 is a serious gamer. He loves all kinds of board games and card games and this is the latest in his collection- Carcassone. Great game! Plays well and it's easy for a 4yo to play along.

It's a little like Rivers, Roads, and Rails with some extra strategy thrown in. E11 liked it so much he ordered another version with his birthday money.

There you have it...a picture biography of our oldest son E now 11 years old. He's come a long way since we brought him home from the hospital so long ago now. We're proud of you E11! We love you!

Cooking with Kids

...always a favorite.

Math Moments

We did some frog math last week. J4 had a great time and has asked for more frog math. I7 liked it too. J4 is all kinds of big at preschool time. Very cute.

That is E11 who does not want others to know he does Life of Fred Math. The horror!

E11 is our "show me the page" math boy. He's also the mental math king. Hey E- uh I've got .806 of a yard in the batting remnant. Run the numbers on exactly the fraction of yardage I've got here...BAM answer. Love that.

"Show me the page and leave me alone" means he's a kid who wants to read about how to do the math and then do it. No bells. No whistles. No hands on. Just his pencil. His book. His page of problems. His intellect. He wants to gut it out. And heaven forbid he show is work!!! What work? It's all up here. That's right. Enter mental math king. Who needs "work" for a problem anyway? That's for people who need that.

Meanwhile, R9 and I7 are in living math heaven.

So, don't let E11 fool you if he tells you he's not doing math. He's just not sure what to do with himself when he's not filling out 5 pages of problems a day. So, you know...he hasn't done any programming this week on his NXT or figured out what's going wrong with the programming of his football game. No math there. He didn't just stand up in front of his lego team today and provide a rockin' illustration and explanation of his NXT robot and how does its thing. Nope no math there.

What am I thinking??

Katy No Pocket- Before FIAR

For the last week or so J4 and I have been doing Katy No Pocket as his Before Five in a Row book. He loves this book! He will tell anyone he is doing home preschool. He is very much enjoying his status as an official preschooler. I can't believe he is our last preschooler!

We have the B4 fold n learn for Katy No Pocket. We made them the summer before last with I-7 who was getting ready for Kindergarten at the time. J4 and I decided to fill them with some of our puppets. Click the link if you want to see more of our puppets.

Something for J4's workbox this week

The alphabet mat has been out all week. I almost got away with putting it away last night. Nope...J4 pulled it right back out!

Alphabet Resources- This is a post I did a while ago all about alphabet resources. Enjoy them and stay tuned for more Katy No Pocket this coming week.

Zipcode Zoo

Just visited a site I enjoy called Home Biology and guess what I found?

Information about ZipcodeZoo.com. What a FUN site! It uses your ISP address to determine where you live and give you information on local wildlife, weather, endangered species, etc. Though I'm not going to vouch for the accuracy of your location. You might have to tweak that once on the site!

What a great resource for nature study! Go to there. Have fun!

LEGO FIRST Fever!

It's that time of year! For my contribution to our homeschool co-op I am coaching three LEGO FIRST teams. I'm coaching two JrFLL teams which I've been doing for three years now. However, for the first time we are able to field a FLL team for the middle school level!! This is exciting news and is a possibility because of two corporate sponsors. Co-op begins next Monday and we will be ready to go. I'm not an engineer, but I'm a science teacher and a motivator and hopefully an adequate facilitator! The FLL team will participate in a competition where the robot they build will perform a few tasks all around the theme of transportation this year. The JrFLL teams will build a model and do research on the same theme. The Jr teams will participate in the Expo held at the university. Dan coordinates that expo and it will be held in January. FIRST is a great organization and I encourage you to hit the link and read all about it. Dan has even been a judge at the World Competition in Atlanta, GA. We recently acquired our team kit. Today I registered all of our teams. Check out the fun stuff we get to work with during our FLL season!

The extras set for the base NXT kit- we want to make sure the team is all set.

The team kit- getting familar with what's inside

E11 gets started on building his own bot. He's holding one of the motors.

Good news! We bought a used NXT kit for our own homeschool. The kids were so excited!! I-7 wants to have daily robot time.

The first invention with our own kit- now that it's built it's time to do some programming of that brain brick there on top. The software is a basic drag and drop programming format to tell the motors how to move. E11 is excited to work with it after using Scratch to write games and other programs.

For his birthday today E11 received this manual on Mindstorms NXT inventions. I hope many hours of robot building and programming are in store for us!

Dan became interested in FIRST when its founder Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) came to speak at the university where Dan is a staff engineer. He came to encourage folks to start FLL programming. Since then Dan has sought out the opportunities to bring the program to us locally. Three years ago he started coordinating the JrFLL expo.

If you've never heard of FIRST you might be interested in its mission and vision below.

Vision

"To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes."

Dean Kamen, Founder

Mission

Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and tireless advocate for science and technology. His passion and determination to help young people discover the excitement and rewards of science and technology are the cornerstones of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).

FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. Based in Manchester, NH, the 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit public charity designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.

The Garden at Summer's End

So, here's a parting shot of our first garden...

Ok so we had lots of pumpkin flowers and I saw lots of bees and we got two pumpkins which both fell off the vine prematurely. So Jana...apparently I can't grow a pumpkin.

Cherry tomatoes...so that's what kind they were (the kids planted them at a garden party and I never saw the package). I kept waiting for them to grow bigger. The plant started out so healthy and I wonder if it ended up with the blight. Or is this what they always look like at season's end?

Hands down the best plants in the garden! I plan to save the seeds from some of these flowers to plant in the spring.

We did not get peppers or peas, but we are not too discouraged. We learned a few things and next year we'll start planning in January and planting seeds in March. I may go for a new location that gets more sun. Of course, discussions have already begun with the groundskeeper and I'm not sure what a new space will look like. We have plenty of yard for a good garden, but in the end we may be container gardeners until our skill shows up and the groundskeeper is a believer.

Bloggy Give Away- Temperature Recorders

Since some of you left comments on our temperature recorder adventures, Dan has been on the look out for more at the lab. So, he brought home four earlier this summer and I'm finally getting around to giving them away!


In case you have no idea what I'm talking about you can read about them in part 1 and part 2. We used these to record the temperature in various places around the house and homestead including our van in the hot sun. They also got the chance to see how the recorders work. There's a lot of good science in there!

So, if you'd like to win a pair of these just leave your name in a comment. If you want two names in the hat, become a follower.

Now this is not your average bloggy giveaway...so we'll see how many readers really loved these when I showed them off the first time!

I will choose the winners Friday, September 11, 2009!

Also, don't forget to leave me information with which to contact you!!!

Hurricanes

As part of our Nim Study we've been looking at weather and the other day specifically hurricanes. Here are a few links I'd like to share.

Many are from the site Weather Kidz which is a really nice resource. We used the tracking maps to plot the movements of two hurricanes this week.

Hurricane Tracking Map

Weather Kidz

Hurricanes

Create a Cane Game
allows the kids to create conditions conducive to making a hurricane

I also incorporated hurricanes into the Daily Quest this past week by having the kids investigate hurricanes in general and then Hurricane Agnes the next day. That was an interesting Quest to put together.

I'm trying to get all my thoughts together on the rest of our unit study with Nim's Island. It actually started with the Live Class through CurrClick so I need to revisit those weekly videos and see what else is in store there. I also need to choose and end date for this study. Ever had a study like that? There doesn't seem to be an end? Sometimes it's like that with summer studies. Stay tuned for more Nim.

Growing Your Children's Passions...

...In Your Homeschool.

My new post is up at Heart of the Matter.

Enjoy!

Morning Gathering Time

Every so often I throw around the idea of starting our day with some time together before we set about the school task for the day. Call it what you want...Circle Time, Meeting Time or my pick Morning Meeting Time but the idea is to gather together and hit some highlights before we do our school day.

Kendra at Preschoolers and Peace has been chatting about her Circle Time for quite a long time. She even sells a Circle Time document which has lots of ideas in it- by all appearances anyway. I have not purchased it to see it for myself. Perhaps at some point I will try it out...if my plans need help!

The first thing I did was to decide what I wanted to be part of our Morning Meeting Time. Here's my list:

• weather- checking our weather station, making weather observations
  
• Bible- devotion, morning prayer (from the Book of Common Prayer, Episcopal Church), and church calendar stuff goes here- we may be attending a non-denominational church right now, but my kids will know the liturgical year!
  
• Songs- we are working through a book about hymns right now and we do a for fun song too
• Prayer- we cycle through family, friends, and community (ours and beyond)
• Pledge- every homeschooler should know the Pledge of Allegiance!
• Calendar Time- pointing out the day, date, year and what day was yesterday and will be tomorrow. We do the same thing with months. This is helpful to the preschooler in our lives.
• Day in History- you can use This Day in History (from History.com) to see what happened on any day in history. That's been a fun exercise.
• Daily Quest- this is when I announce and go over the Daily Quest with the kids. I need to tweak this some. Stay tuned for updates.
• Geography- not everyday but some days there will be a daily geography exercise or drill. I have all kinds of geography resources perfect for this. The Trail Guides to US and World Geography come to mind with their format of daily drills.
• Sketch Tuesday- when we aren't doing geography we can do our Sketch Tuesday assignments. That way we are ready to turn them in well for the next Monday's deadline.
• Nature Journal- after we've been out to discover or we've made a find and want to document it, this will be a good time of day to follow up with our drawings and descriptions in our journals.

After thinking of what might be included in a Morning Meeting Time, I knew I'd need to plan it. Of course! Below is the form I made for planning our Morning Meeting Time. I will attempt to load it up to my page at Homeschool Launch if you would like to download it for yourself. Nothing fancy, but I think it does the job.

Another site for ideas on what to do with calendar time is Mathwire.com. Check out this link for
Morning Math Routines.

You can follow this link to my Homeschool Launch page if you'd like to download a copy of my Morning Meeting Planner. It's been a long time since I put anything up over there so I had to sort of start over. Blah. But it's done now...