Crafts: Fishy Scales Painting

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Painting is always a favorite pastime of our children so I love coming up with new ways to paint. Whether we are using nonconventional paints or inks (such as using raspberry juice to paint), new techniques, or new methods, painting always brings joy and happiness to our homeschool. It is the perfect activity for the summer too! 

Fish Facts 

Let's focus on some fun fish facts for preschoolers! 

How are fish similar to us? They have eyes, nares (for smelling), a mouth, and skin, but a lot of the similarities end there. They spend their entire lives in water, while humans spend most, if not all, of their lives on land. They are specially adapted to live in water with protected skin (via their scales), fins, and a special way of breathing.

There are over 20,000 different species of fish! If you live near a baseball, football, or sports arena, find out how many seats it has. You can help your preschool visualize how many fish there are by visiting the arena to see all the seats. 

How do fish breathe? They use gills to help them breathe. Water runs over the gills, and capillaries in the gills gather the oxygen that is dissolved in the water. The blood then travels through the fish's body to deliver oxygen (just like in humans).

Materials 

• Construction paper of different colors
• Pencil
• Paints
• Bubble wrap
• Glue
• Scissors
• Trays

Steps 

1. Gather all of your materials. 

2. Draw a fish on one color of construction paper. 

3. Cut out the fish and then glue it onto a second sheet of construction paper of a different color. 

4. Cut the bubble wrap into smaller pieces that you can easily handle. 

5. Pour paint on washable, recyclable, or disposable paint trays. We used old yogurt lids. 

6. Gently dip the bubble wrap into the paint. Make sure it is the side with the bubbles. You can also use a paintbrush to paint the different colors onto your bubble wrap. 

7. Gently stamp your fish with the painted bubble wrap. 

8. When your fish looks like it has lots of scales, your painting is complete. 

9. Hang up after the fish is dry.

Tips and Tricks 

When I first dipped the bubble wrap into the paint, I got way too much paint on it. It really didn't create the small dots or scale effect I wanted. Our children gently dipped the bubble wrap into the paint after seeing my mistake. We would also recommend only dipping the bubble wrap into the paint once before transferring the paint to your fish. If you do get too much paint on the bubble wrap, use a piece of scrap paper to get the excess off. 

You can also drag the bubble wrap across your painting and pat down slowly but carefully on your fish. This will create a neat effect for your fish painting.  

Resources 

If you are looking for some fun activities for the summer, Everyday Games on SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers a variety of fish-themed mathematics and language arts games. You can find games that review rhyming, the silent letter e, counting by 5s, multiplication, and more! 

Study fish in more detail with Exploring God’s World with Third Grade Science. In semester one, you and your third grader will spend a week learning about fish. Or study a variety of interesting creations with your fourth-sixth graders with Discovering Disgusting Creatures. 

Crafts: Sea Turtles

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Since it is summertime, why don't we dive under the water and create a fun sea turtle craft? This craft does not require a lot of materials and provides a wonderful opportunity to learn more about these beautiful creatures.

Sea Turtle Facts 

Sea turtles, also known as marine turtles, are migratory species that live primarily in the ocean or sea. The females will come to land to lay eggs (most often returning to the same beach where they hatched), but they spend the majority of their time in the ocean. There are seven species of sea turtles which include the

• Loggerhead
• Green
• Hawksbill 
• Leatherback
• Kemp's Ridley
• Olive Ridley 
• Flatback

Turtles are part of the Reptile Class. They are the only reptiles with shells! Their shell is actually part of their body, and – unlike scenes depicted in cartoons – they can not remove their shells. The carapace (upper part of the shell) is attached to its backbone and ribs.

The carapace is covered in scales, also known as scutes. The scutes are made up of the same thing that fingernails are – keratin. The scutes are generally square-shaped and will grow with the turtle. Some species shed the scutes, while others just have ones that grow larger as they grow.

Materials 

• Coffee Filter
• Brown or green construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue or tape 
• Pencil 
• Brown or green markers 

Steps 

1. Gather all of your materials. 

2. Draw or trace the head, tail, and flippers for your sea turtle. 

3. After cutting out the head, tail, and flippers, make sure they are the right size for your turtle shell. 

4. Draw the scales or scutes for your turtle shell on the coffee filter. (Place a piece of scrap paper under your coffee filter as the markers will bleed through the coffee filter.) 

5. After your child has drawn the scutes/scales on the coffee filter, attach the head, tail, and flippers to your sea turtle shell. 

6. After the project is completed, you can hang it up in the window. 

Learn More About Sea Turtles and Other Ocean Creatures 

For children who are in middle school to high school, SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers Animal Science with an entire lesson on turtles and tortoises. Learn about the differences between turtles and tortoises, their physiological makeup, and how to build a habitat for a local one. 

For younger children in later elementary school, you can study turtles in Wildlife Adventures. Over 15 weeks, children will study sea turtles, bald eagles, pelicans, and more as they learn new vocabulary, study geography, and read Bible passages. 

If you are looking for your homeschool curriculum for next year, check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com! There are over 400 courses for your entire family – preschool to high school and courses for parents, too. Your membership also includes the Schoolhouse SmartMama Planner, a monthly menu, virtual events, and access to many videos for your family. 

Book Club: Book Review of Rocky Mountain Rendezvous

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page for more information. Thank you.

I enjoy a good historical fiction novel, especially those that involve a mission. I was very pleased to read and review Rocky Mountain Rendezvous by Misty M. Beller. Her latest adventure is set in 1837, telling the story of four sisters seeking the woman who helped their father. 

About the Book 

We join four sisters—Rosemary, Juniper, Faith, and Lorelei Collins—in July 1837 at a trapper-trading rendezvous in Green River Valley (future Wyoming). They have traveled to the locale with the trading wagons. They are seeking the Piegan Blackfoot woman who helped heal their father years ago. On their father's deathbed, he asked his daughters to seek her out and return her beads to her. Even though the trip and the mission were dangerous, all four sisters agreed to try and find Steps Right to honor their father. 

When they arrived at the camp, they met Riley Turner when the coyote pup Lorelei was nursing escaped. Riley took it upon himself to escort and protect the girls. The men at the rendezvous had not seen a white woman - especially one from the East - in at least a year or more. So Riley wanted to protect the girls' virtue and honor. The Collins sisters hired Riley and, eventually, his campmates to help them on the journey and mission to find Steps Right. 

In addition to the dangers at the camp rendezvous, the Collins sisters and Riley also faced dangers in the wilderness and from the different tribes they questioned regarding the whereabouts of Steps Right.

 

My Thoughts 

Misty M. Beller has crafted another well-written and intriguing work of historical fiction. Her words in Rocky Mountain Rendezvous brought the location to life. While reading the book, I really felt like I was on the trail with Juniper (the Collins sister the story focuses upon) and Riley.

"The sun beat down on Juniper relentlessly as they rode past the morning hours and into early afternoon. Dragoon's tracks—and those of the horses he'd been following—had been winding around several mountains, staying to the lower rocky terrain" (218). 

I also felt like Beller did a good job of being respectful of different groups and beliefs. With recent anger towards other Christian authors telling stories set in the West during the 18th and 19th centuries, I can only hope critics will read Beller's book before making a decision. 

At no point does Beller write disrespectfully of the Native American tribes that the main characters come across on their mission. I am eager to see how Beller continues the story in the series as the Collins work more closely with the tribes in the area. 

While Rocky Mountain Rendezvous is published by Bethany House Publishers, the story focuses on the journey and mission and less on God and His hand in the Collins sisters' lives. God is still present but not as central as He is in some other Bethany House publications. 

I would recommend Rocky Mountain Rendezvous to those who enjoy historical fiction and Christian Romance. The pace of the story is excellent, and the characters are well developed and interesting. 

Read my review of Hope's Highest Mountain, too! 

How Do I Teach in My Homeschool?

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New and seasoned homeschoolers are always interested in how others homeschool. Whether they want to know because they are starting on the homeschool journey themselves or they want to see if there is a better way to homeschool, the goings on in other homeschool households are always fun to read about! And as we modify and adapt our homeschool lessons and days as our children grow, we might need some new tips and tools, too. 

How I Teach a High Schooler 

I was a high school history teacher for several years, so homeschooling a high schooler should be easy, right? Well, the skills and methods needed to teach a classroom of teenagers are a bit different from those required to teach one high schooler who happens to be your stepson. The differences between teaching in a public school setting and a homeschool setting make almost all of the skills I acquired as a high school teacher unnecessary.

When you are homeschooling your high schooler, you have a relationship with that child already. Whether or not you homeschooled them from their first days of school or started at some point along the way, your bond with your child is stronger than any bond you will form with a student. Parents will also find that a lot of the problems of the high school classroom are not there in the same way. There will be distractions but not necessarily from other high schoolers. It is easier to discuss the common things that pop up when teaching high schoolers. From body odor to relationships, you have more authority as a parent, so you can more easily address these delicate topics. 

So how did I teach our high schooler? We used SchoolhouseTeachers.com as our primary curriculum for 10th-12th grades. Our oldest joined his younger siblings in the homeschooling journey after he had attended public school from preschool to ninth grade. Since SchoolhouseTeachers.com is an online curriculum, our son and I utilized email and shared documents as a way of sharing lesson plans, materials, assignments, and more. 

Takeaways from homeschooling a high schooler: 

• High schoolers are pretty self-sufficient. 
• Even though they can do things on their own, you still should check in with them. Whether that is through reminders sent or daily chats, you can easily find their struggles and missing assignments through communication. 
• Communication is key. 
• Allow them to participate in course selection when possible. 
• Don't be afraid to change things if you need to during the homeschool year. 

If you want to read more about how we picked courses, set up a schedule, and more, I have shared several posts over the years: 

Day in the Life of a Homeschooled 11th Grader

Day in the Life of a Homeschooled 12th Grader

Homeschooling During the High School Years

How I Teach an Elementary-Aged Child 

Currently, on our homeschool journey, I have taught preschool through fourth grade and tenth through twelfth grade. Each grade brings different joys, challenges, and requirements. When homeschooling younger elementary-aged children, a variety of resources and curriculum has been important for our son, but a box curriculum has been the key to homeschooling our daughter. 

For our daughter, we were fortunate enough to review the kindergarten level of My Father's World, God's Creation from A to Z in 2020. This curriculum was a great fit, so we have been using it ever since for her. This year we are including her older brother (who is in fourth grade) in some of the lessons, too. Having everything laid out in a teacher's manual makes homeschooling our daughter so easy. 

Our younger son seems to thrive on variety. We use a mix of curriculum resources for him, including the history and Bible components of his sister's box curriculum. We are currently using materials from Memoria Press for Latin, penmanship, science, and some additional history, as well as mathematics from both CTCMath and Math Mammoth. And we have two books from The Critical Thinking Co.™ that have helped build his language arts and critical thinking skills. And finally, we are finishing up a study guide from Progeny Press for The Cricket in Times Square (please note we did not read the edited version). 

I write out the tasks for each day in our children's agenda books. All the materials that they can complete independently, I put in a pile with their agenda. They can get started working right after breakfast by themselves or wait until I start working with them. I try to save the assignments they both do together to serve as breaks in between difficult work. That way we can have our read-aloud time or work on our memory verse as a break. 

Takeaways from homeschooling an elementary-aged child: 

• Be prepared to change things if they are not working. 
• Allow for time for siblings to work together and work independently. (Or if you belong to a co-op, make sure you have some courses that you do alone at home.) 
•  School when your children are ready. You do not have to start at 7 am or be finished by 3 pm. You can school after dinner if you want or need to. 

How I Teach a Preschooler 

Preschoolers do not need a lot of formal education. Play is the most important thing for homeschooling a preschooler. But what do you do when they want to school because they have older siblings who are homeschooling? Well, that all depends on the child. 

Both our younger son and daughter enjoyed coloring, painting, and playing with Play Doh and educational toys to different degrees. They went through phases where they wanted worksheets to complete because their older brother was homeschooling with worksheets. Or they wanted to use scissors to cut but not practice cutting using the fancy book we bought for them. 

Takeaways from homeschooling a preschooler: 

• Preschoolers are never predictable. 
• Keep things simple with games, toys, etc., that you already own. 
• If you want to use a curriculum, you can! 

Typical Day 

What is a typical day? There really isn't one. We homeschool year-round so that we can take off days or weeks when we need to. And even though we start the new year in September, we keep moving along with our curriculum from the previous 'year' if it is not completed and I see value in finishing it. We do not have to follow the tradition of the public school and try to cover the curriculum by a certain time. We can finish books, lessons, and more because we have the time and freedom to do so. 

How do you teach in your homeschool? Do you have a typical day? 

Book Club: Book Review of The Bible Recap Compact Edition

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page for more information. Thank you.

Do you use a Bible reading plan to help you stay on track when reading the Bible? Or perhaps you like a plan to learn more about what you are reading? A Bible reading plan can also help you focus your prayers while reading. The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble can help with all those goals. Following a chronological Bible reading plan, The Bible Recap summarizes each day's reading, explains, and connects the Scriptures for you. 

The new edition of The Bible Recap is a 759-page compact edition. It has an imitation leather cover with a ribbon marker and a place to list your name in the front. The content is the same as the original edition, providing a one-year guide to help you read and understand the entire Bible. 

About the Book 

A chronological reading plan is listed as part of the contents, taking you through the entire Bible in 365 days. After an introduction from the author, there is an explanation as to how to use the Book. The Bible Recap quotes from the English Standard Version (ESV), but Cobble mentions other translations you might read. She recommends taking notes and writing questions. You should also keep an eye out for God as you read the Scripture, according to Cobble.

Each day is laid out over two pages. The summary and information are accompanied by "Today's God Shot." This is where Cobble relates how she thinks readers can see God's character. In some of the summaries, the information is simple and straight-forward such as when relating the searching of the sacks of Joseph's brothers:

"The squad opens the bags one by one, oldest to youngest, to heighten the suspense, and finds the cup in Ben's bag" (76). 

Sometimes, it is easy to see where Cobble shares her own thoughts, perspective, and ideas in the summaries. For example, when talking about Psalms 102-104, Cobble writes: 

"He segues from sharing God's sovereignty and might over all creation into asking God to use His power to wipe out the wicked. While this may sound harsh, we can probably view it less as some kind of personal vendetta and more as a desire for God's glory to be magnified" (263). 

At other times, you may need to look for context clues and be discerning to see where Cobble shares her own opinion or that of others on the Bible. Please remember every author of a book about the Bible brings their own knowledge, perspective, and ideas to their work. 

My Thoughts 

I really appreciate using a chronological Bible reading plan. My husband first introduced the idea to me, but I didn't start reading through the Bible in a year using a chronological plan until I reviewed the first edition of The Bible Recap. For me, it really helps put into perspective the events of the Bible as they took place rather than reading about the same event multiple times spread out through days, weeks, or months. 

With Cobble's focus upon looking for God on every page of the Bible, it is sometimes easier to see the common thread in the Bible. God speaks to us on every page – even those that are difficult to understand. I like to read her "God Shot" to see what her thoughts are on the day's reading. Using my own research and knowledge, I can accept what she says or look for a bigger interpretation. 

This new compact edition is quite lovely. The first one I received is very large and difficult to take with you. It is actually bigger than my Bible. So having a smaller, compact edition with a ribbon marker makes it very easy to bring The Bible Recap with me. And I love the ribbon marker. Now my bookmark won't fall out! 

The imitation leather cover makes this a nice gift option. If the inside cover had "presented to" rather than "this book belongs to," it would be even more appropriate as a gift. 

One thing I did like better about the first edition is that with the size of the book, you gained a lot more room to make notes in the margins. This compact edition does not leave much room for note-taking. And the pages are very thin so the ink shows through on the printed text. I haven't written in this book, but I would think anything I write would also bleed through or show through on the other side. 

If you enjoyed the earlier edition or accompanying materials to The Bible Recap, this will make a nice addition to your bookshelf. It would be a lovely gift for a family member, church member, or friend. 

Reviews of Other Books by Tara-Leigh Cobble 

Book Club: Book Review of The Bible Recap Discussion Guide

Book Club: Book Review of The God Shot by Tara-Leigh Cobble

Book Club: Book Review of The Bible Recap