Building Blocks

sheep
Originally uploaded by sassyarts.

With blocks before the wagon's wheels,
It's hard to make it go,
And blocks within a person's mind
Make learning very slow.

The word's "I can't" are like a block
Inside your little head
They will not let you understand
The things that you have read.

Use building blocks, "I think I can,
For God is helping me."
Then work with eagerness and joy,
And wonders you will never see.

Poem from Rod & Staff Grade 3 English
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Above originally posted in 2007


Because we can never have enough building blocks:

Melissa & Doug 200-pc. Wood Block Set

And this one! Guidecraft Table Top Building Blocks - Set of 90. I think I'll have fun building too(giggle).

My daughter loves to use her imagination and build things. The prices are always good for the Melissa & Doug wooden play sets. Even their multi-colored pattern sets are stackable. She has been using these to make furniture, plates, food(sandwiches and pizzas), and fences.

I've got my eye on these block sets for Christmas.

Homeschooling Fine Arts: Letting Them Choose

"The great artists of old knew that they needed to focus their energies within their own talent’s sphere. They did venture forth and learn more, but it was all within the confines of their own medium. So how do you choose what to focus on and what to pass over?" ~ A thoughtful post/article about Letting Them Choose.

Young Children's Autumn Picture Study: The Gleaners by Millet

Free and in public domain here, 1907 Teacher's Curriculum Planner. Right click on the image of the pages at the link to print/save.

Teacher's background notes.

Vintage October/November Children's Blackboard Calendar

From a 1909 teacher's magazine. Free and in public domain. Click to enlarge and save, or follow the link to the original and right click on image to save/print. Free and in public domain.

We used a write crayon to fill in the month and numbers after printing. Saturday and Sunday go above the first row.

Young Children's Vintage Autumn Picture Study: The Reapers by Jules Breton

"Isn't this a beautiful out-doors picture! Would you like to tell something about it? No, it is not a garden, why did you think it was? Yes, there is a path with flowers growing beside it, and the little boy has been gathering some. What is he doing now? Why is he running? Where do you think they all are going? Yes, they are going home, and where have they been? You must hear a story about that for you could never guess what they have been doing." Read more here.

More harvest autumn art by Breton for young children(elementary school)  here.

These pages are printable, just right click on the image of the page. Free and in public domain.

October Squirrels: Children's Vintage Calendar and Short Story

I printed this out for my homeschooled Kindergartener. This chalkboard calendar is from 1909 which just happens to have the same beginning day of the week as 2010. It is free and in public domain. I found this in a 1909 teacher's periodical on Google Books. Click on image to enlarge.

A story we read as well - The Disobedient Squirrels, 1853. It's got a rather harsh lesson, the fatal consequences of disobedience, but I remember reading these types of stories as a child. In much the same way that Aesop's fables passed on wisdom, these sorts of stories made me think twice about disobeying my parents, and to trust in their wisdom. Right click on image of the page at the link to print or save. There are a few blank pages, just keep clicking through to get to the second page of the story.

The Good Rain: Free Printable Vintage Children's Stories and Poems

All are in public domain and free to print and/or save. To print or save, right click on the images of the pages at the links.

Fourth Grade Reader: Spring Rain Poem(Christian)
Primer Teacher Plan: The Good Rain 

Independent Fourth Reader: Summer Rain(Advanced by contemporary standards, and could be used for older readers as well.)
"A good summer storm is a rain of riches. If gold and silver rattled down from
the clouds, they would hardly enrich the land so much as soft, long rains. ... "

All theYear Round: A Nature Reader(early elementary)

"See it rain! Where does the rain come from? It comes from the clouds. ... The
cold air changes the water-dust or clouds into drops of rain. ... "

New Geographies(middle school)
"Briefly, — when air rises, it expands and cools ; and then rain usually follows. " 

The Children's Hour, Watering His Garden with Rain(early elementary)

High School Geography: Moisture in the Air

Primary Education: Rain Lesson Plan

The Blodgett Sixth Grade Reader: Before the Rain(poetry)

The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant: To a Cloud(poetry)

Choice Literature, Book 4: The Signs of Rain(poetry)

The Rain(poetry) by Caroline Mason.

Literature and Life, Book 1: The Cloud, Percy B. Shelley

Merrill Third Grade Reader: The Story of the Water Drops

Henry Longfellow, Summer Rain

Second reader, Rain and Hail

Many more(600) children's texts in my Google Books library that reference "rain" here. It may be a little tricky to print pages from this link. If you can't get to an HTML page, go to "Plain Text", then change the last word in the link address from "text" to "html", and reload. Google books used to have an HTML button, but it has disappeared. I've emailed them about this, but haven't heard back yet. You can still download the books and print in plain text, but the address must be changed to right click on the pages to print and/or save. I've preset the above links, but don't know how to do it from this main search page.

Rain!

Tropical Storm Nicole is dumping a lot of water on us. Hopefully we can get out later this afternoon. Our backyard is flooded, but so far the streets are clear.

Maybe tonight I'll find and post some cute vintage "rain" stories and activities...if we haven't floated away.

Autumn Fruits and Vegetables

September:
Grapes, pomegranates, persimmons,eggplants, pumpkins, tomatoes, spinach, and lettuce.

October:
Cranberries, apples, pomegranates, grapes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, broccoli, spinach, and lettuce.

From The Cheapest Fruits and Vegetables Month-By-Month.








Repost from 2007.

H is for House: Free Printable Cut-out

 Click on image to enlarge and save. More free printable cut-out buildings and structures here.

Skipper the Dog: Free Vintage Short Story and Cut-out

It's not exactly a cheerful story, but rather a story of lessons learned hard. The cut-out turned out very well - easy to make and prints out nicely. This story is so similar to Elizabeth's recent post, The Parable of the Cat and the Glass Door.

The story is on pages 340-341, the cut-out on page 340. To save and/or print, simply right click on the image of the pages at the link and "save as" or print. Story is in public domain, 1906 Primary Plans.

Free Vintage Clip Art for Homeschool Projects

I like to browse Google Books, so I've got a large collection of clip art from their public domain books; however, if you want a quick source of clip art(black and white only), check out Clip Art ETC. They have a large categorized, searchable free public domain clip art collection.

Most recently I've been using clip art for Kindergarten phonics. I've used them in the past for matching, alphabet and penmanship pages, note and report sheets, science sheets, coloring pages, and story starters. Among other things, these would be great for note-booking and time-lines. An efficient way to print out large numbers of images for projects is to choose the "Contact Sheet" option on your image editor. This will size all the images uniformly, all on one page, saving you paper and the hassle of printing out small images page by page.

Natural Fabric Dye: Golden-Rod

This easy natural dye process produces a beautiful natural yellow dye in cotton fabrics. Eva explains the process in a two part series here(1) and here(2).

Instructions for making natural dyes from other fall plants here.

Free Homeschool Curriculum: Vintage Fall/Autumn Nature Study, Literature, and Poetry

Repost from last year:


All are in public domain and are free to read, print, and download.

In the Child's World, K-First, various lessons

Graded Literature Readers, First Grade(Apples)

The Finch First Reader, first quarter of the book covers fall(beautiful illustrations).

Nature Study in Elementary Schools, First Grade Reader

Nature Study in Elementary Schools, Second Grade Reader

The Haliburton Second Grade Reader , poem

The Art-literature Readers, Third Grade, poem and art

The Goose Quill Third Grade, poetry lesson

Good English, Oral and Written Third Grade, see Chapter 3 and 4 for fall themes.

Stepping Stones to Literature Third Reader, How The Oak Tree Became King.

The Children's Friend(LDS) Apple story

The Goose Quill, third grade, entire section on autumn.

Language Through Nature, Literature, and Art(Third grade), nature study and writing assignment

The Story of a Caterpillar (mid-elementary school)

The Cambridge Book of Poetry for Children, Keats - To Autumn; Allingham - Robin Red Breast for younger children.

Farm Arithmetic, Apple word problem (about fifth grade)

The Farmer and His Friends - apples and corn, about fifth grade, very factual

Insect Life, upper elementary

The Stars and Their Stories - The Winged Horse(Autumn constellation), elementary

Poetry of the Seasons, middle elementary and up.

Poems by Grades, middle elementary and up

Independent Fifth Reader , poem

Nature Study Made Easy, ages 10-11, fifth grade. Select Autumn plant chapters.

The American Normal Readers Fifth Grade, October poem

Sixth Grade Nature Study

Nature Study Lessons for Primary Grades

The Outdoor Handy Book, Autumn ( Classic Boy's Outdoors Book)

Nature in Verse, elementary

A Child's Book of Saints, Golden Apples and Roses Red(Patroness of Gardeners)

Nature Study, by Grades - see fall work for fourth and fifth grades

Sharp Eyes, A day-by-day nature study(fall), middle school

Eighth Reader, poem

The Fun of Cooking, Jams and Jellies

Peter and Polly in Autumn(late second-third grade reader)
An Evening in Autumn(fourth-fifth grade reader)

All the year round: a nature reader, Autumn(late elementary)


Teacher Helps, Lesson Plans:

How Nature Study Should be Taught(Autumn, elementary)

Nature Study by Months, elementary.

Type Lessons for Primary Teachers in the Study of Nature, Literature and Art for grades One through Four. Fall nature study.

Trees that Every Child Should Know

Home Games and Parties: A Corn Husking and An Apple-Paring Bee


School Arts: Autumn.

Also see Free Thanksgiving Printable Stories.

Classic Tuna Casserole

Starkist tuna in water was on sale at Save-A-Lot for .50 cents a can, so I thought I'd try this old standby recipe for a thrifty dinner. It was much better than I remembered, and the children had two helpings. I used macaroni noodles instead of egg noodles(less sog).

Hmmm, maybe I'll try a retro SPAM dinner next.

Ingredients:
Two cans of tuna drained
One can of sweet peas, drained
About two cups of cooked noodles
One can of cream of mushroom soup(or make your own)
3/4 cup of shredded cheese(we used a pizza cheese blend)
3/4 cup milk

Spread noodles in a medium sized casserole dish(I made mine in a round cake pan). Mix peas, milk, tuna, and soup, then pour over noodles. Mix gently to distribute sauce. Cook at 375 degrees until bubbly, about 30 minutes. Add shredded cheese to top, and return to oven until melted.

Serves six to eight.

Frugal Dinner with Family Dollar Meat

I found some Pampa brand canned beef and gravy(Brazil) for $1.60 a can at our local Family Dollar. It had been reduced from $2.00, and didn't look too bad from the picture. I took a chance, and surprisingly it was good quality meat. I cooked it with a can of Save-A-Lot mixed vegetables with potatoes, and about 1/3 cup of left over homemade chicken broth. The top was lightly sprinkled with some wheat germ and Parmesan cheese. After about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven, it was ready.

My daughter didn't have any of this meal, so it was stretched three ways tonight. I figure I spent about $2.60 for the meal, or about .86 cents a person. Not bad for a beef meal made with tender cuts.

I spend less per serving on chicken, veggie and rice dinners, but beef was a nice change.

Free Vintage Cut-outs and a Story Starter

Cut and paste using vintage public domain printables.
The cat is precious in a particularly silly way. Just look at her expression and crossed paws. This was fun to cut and paste. We also used the cup(letter C) from the tea set drawing, and a vintage story page. Click to enlarge and save/print. I have only a black and white laser printer, so if we want color, we do it ourselves with crayons or colored pencils. This is a big money saver with the ink, so I don't miss the color too much. The cat comes out nicely in black and white.

I've got some squirrel printables which I'll  post later.

Silly cat courtesy of The Paper Collector.

Conversation starter from Appletons' Chart-primer, 1884.