Teachers Pay Teachers is one of my absolutely favorite places to find creative printables to go along with our homeschool! Whether it's a holiday-themed activity or something to complement a book study, I always jump on there if I need an additional resource. 

Do you have a little detective in the house? My son dreams of being a spy or detective when he grows up! He's always asking for a new spy costume or spy gear. In fact, you can often find him sporting a fake mustache or holding a little notepad in which he's taking notes on. He even loved when Encyclopedia Brown was our read aloud, etc. You can only imagine the excitement he had when we took him to the Spy Museum in DC! 

Well, with Caleb being my detective-loving son, I brought out an old set of printables that I had made years ago for a co-op class I was teaching and it was the perfect fit! 

I had originally made this as a fun way for my students to work on their grammar skills that we had just reviewed. Talk about the perfect match for my son, ha! His obsession with being a detective/spy made this activity exciting for him -- way more than his typical workbook assignment!

And because I love going down memory lane, here's a photo of my oldest working on this same activity way back when I taught in that co-op. Ahhh...it seems like just yesterday!

If this sounds like something your kids might enjoy, be sure to click here...

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We all have them -- those childhood favorites that we can't wait to share with our kids. I still have my Gary Paulsen books from when I was a kid -- Hatchet and The River. I remember absolutely loving these books! Well, the day came when I introduced them to my son. I decided that even though I typically allow my boys to read whatever they want for their daily reading time for school, I was going to require my oldest to read a few specific books this year. They would be books that I either loved as a kid or that I felt were important to cover at his age. First up was Hatchet. To put it lightly, that was a total bust, ha!

He completely HATED it! I thought maybe once he got further into the story, he would enjoy it. Nope. Not one bit. And you know what? That's okay. It just wasn't his cup of tea. He loves documentaries about this sort of thing. He loves movies about this sort of thing. But apparently in book form, it wasn't a winner!

Do you require specific books for your children to read? Or have a set curriculum that requires books outside of the genre that they love? I think it's good to expose them to things outside of what they typically read and I'm still glad I had Sam read it, but I definitely won't be asking him to read the sequel as planned, ha!

That said, are there any novels that you remembering LOVING, but your kids hated?

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Update: So after writing about this, I had my boys sit down with me and watch the movie based on Hatchet. Thankfully, I was able to find it on YouTube. It must've been uploaded from a VHS tape, because the quality was absolutely horrendous! Nevertheless, we watched it. It turns out, Sam really enjoyed the movie! In fact, he's still talking about it randomly. On our way to an appointment earlier today, he asked why the pilot had a heart attack. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about so he had to elaborate. Clearly, the movie won him over way more than the book!

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Side note: For anyone wondering, when I have my boys read books of their choosing -- or books that I choose for them -- I have them knock out one of the activities in their Reading Journal that I blogged about last week. If you think that might be something you'd like your children to do, definitely check out that blog post here.

"The Reading Journal is 168 lessons recommended for grades 2-8. Comprised of 28 unique lessons that focus on vocabulary, word study, comprehension, and higher-level thinking skills, the journal cycles through each lesson 6 times throughout the year, providing just the right amount of practice without too much monotony.

Whether you're a newbie or an OG Homeschooler, curriculum choices can be tough. Do you continue with what you've used before? Try something new? Do a box curriculum? Follow a friend's recommendation? There are SO many options! And honestly, there are way too many amazing options to choose from. I personally struggle with being able to narrow down our choices and actually stick to something. There are so many that I love that I find myself trying to squeeze in more than I should...

In the midst of the craziness that we all live in right now, reading has been a highlight for my boys. Sure, they have had their fair share of time playing Minecraft and we take daily bike rides to the lake nearby, but we have done a LOT of reading over the last month. It's been wonderful!

Well, timing couldn't have been better...A publisher contacted me a few weeks ago asking if I'd be willing to help spread the word about one of their brand new children's books. Due to the pandemic, they decided to release the digital copy earlier than expected and want to get the word out about it. (The print copy will be available later this summer.) Since we're always up for new educational activities, I was happy to do so!

I've got to say...my youngest and I LOVED Jiema and Friends! The story is fun, but to top that, the artwork is beautiful! It's hard to keep the attention of my 5 year old at times unless the book draws him in. Not only was he glued to it, but the book created a great conversation about culture, geography, and friendship. My kinder enjoyed a fun story while learning some new vocabulary in the process -- always a win-win!

Here's a little summary of the story...

After reading Jiemba and Friends, my kinder and I had fun talking about who our favorite characters were -- he especially loved Darwin, the dingo, because he LOVES dogs. Mine was Hetta, the koala bear, because well...koala bears are adorable!


I highly encourage you to check it out! If you're like me -- sad that libraries are closed for the time being -- new digital books are a great option to mix things up a little with our daily reading. Plus, they're offering *free* educational resources (coloring sheets, activity pages, art lessons with the illustrator, etc.) to go along with the book! This is offered as a weekly email -- you just need to sign up on their website -  https://hiddenshelfpublishinghouse.com/jiemba-and-friends/.

Clearly, I've completely dropped the ball on this blog. It's been over a YEAR since I've gotten on here! Between homeschooling while also teaching a set of classes, a cross-country move, then adding my youngest into our daily homeschool schedule -- this completely fell on the back burner. That said, this whole quarantine situation has given me a little extra time and with all the new temporary homeschoolers out there, I figured I might share some of the activities we've been working on...






So...my boys aren't exactly huge fans of fairy tales. Are yours? I have all sorts of versions of them -- some from my childhood, the Little Critters set that I had bought my boys during one of those Kohl's Cares promotions, and others I've randomly collected at garage sales. Sadly, when given the option, they're still not what either boy opts for when choosing a book. However, as part of our homeschool curriculum, we use the Jot It Down program by Brave Writer. This awesome program includes a fairy tales project that my boys have loved! (Though they won't admit it, ha...) Along with this program, I've also added the Evan Moor Literature Pockets: Folktales and Fairy Tales workbook to the mix for additional activities.

People approach this project in all sorts of ways, but this is how it has worked for us...

It has been a slow, ongoing, project for awhile now. So far, we've completed 3 fairy tales over the course of several months, but my goal is to complete 10 before putting them all together. I've seen some families make their collection into a book, but we have chosen to make large crafts for each fairy tale (some on 12x18 paper, etc.) so that won't work. My goal is to put them together with loose leaf binder rings when we're all done.

With each fairy tale, we read as many versions as we can get our hands on -- this is usually just from my own stash, but I'll go to the library if I need to. For today's fairy tale, we resorted to ABC Mouse. Social distancing prevented us from utilizing the library, but it still worked out wonderfully! Did you know ABC Mouse is FREE right now due to the pandemic?!?! We had used the app with my oldest when he was in preschool, but so much as changed since then! As it turns out, they have a TON of digital books on the app now. As luck may have it, we found out today that they had two different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears on the app! Score! Between those two and my Evan Moor workbook, we had 3 different versions to compare!

After my boys read all three versions of the story, we compared each version. How were they different? The same? Which version did they like more? Why? Etc. We talked about the history behind the original story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and then worked on a sequence activity in the Evan Moor workbook. The best part came next...

The boys LOVE painting! Any excuse to paint will win them over. That said, I let them paint a scene from their favorite version of the story. This brought joy in the midst of the craziness going on right now. They loved it!


After they completed their paintings, they presented them to me and explained the scene that they chose. They each retold the whole story in their own words as well. As part of the Jot It Down program, you are encouraged to dictate what they say. I adjust that to fit our style...



I then have him do a small piece of copywork based on his retelling of the story. Here's his finished product (with the dictation on the back). I love the look on his face after he completes any project -- beaming with pride. Hard work pays off!



At this point, we haven't had a chance to do it yet, but we usually end each fairy tale with a movie. I have yet to look up a Goldilocks and the Three Bears movie, but that will be on the list of things to do over the weekend.


We've been alternating between working on that and working on the fairy tales. (Perhaps I'll try and write about that next.) Once we finish these fairy tales, I'm probably going to let them pick a new theme and go with it. I have no doubt my youngest would pick super heroes and their origin stories if I let him, ha!

I love these types of projects. They incorporate so much! My boys willingly do more reading, writing, and discussion on both when we do these projects than with anything else. Having fun while learning in the process is all we can ask for, right?!

Have you done any projects like this? I'd love to hear about them!