Homeschool Wish List, Have List and Fun List

Today I will share with you a few things that I dying to get for our homeschool. Tomorrow I'll be sharing my sewing wish list! ;)

They are in no certain order.



Young Scientist's Heart Dissection Kit

Yes, I know.... GROOOOOOSSSSS! But my older kids really love this kind of thing.





Young Scientist's Animal Dissection Kit







Venus Flytrap Carnivorous Plant 3 Inch Pot

How cool is that??? All the kids would get a kick out of it!!





Cailey LOOOVES to draw. She has ever since she was old enough to hold a crayon! LOL







Fascinations GreenEarth Praying Mantis Kit

Cailey also loves bugs! LOL Especially praying mantises. She loves to catch them but would love even more to hatch them! LOL  She's such a girly girl that it always tickles me to see her chasing after bugs!



           

Owl Puke, the Book            Student Owl Pellet Kit
These two go together in my mind! LOL





Thames & Kosmos Biology Genetics and DNA



Yes, I have LOTS of science kits on my wish list! To me, science is one of those subjects that just HAS to be hands on!! I can't imagine sticking with a boring old text book for this subject!





Green Science Enviro Battery





Magic School Bus: The Complete Series

The Cs LOOOOVE Magic School Bus!! We have a couple DVDs and VHSs but I would LOOOVE to have the whole set!!





Kid's Animated History with Pipo

Doesn't that look awesome?? I have never seen it before but it looks like it would be a great resource! I love history and my kids do, too, but I know that some people see history as being dry and boring. This DVD set looks like it would be just the thing for those people. ;)





Peanuts - This Is America, Charlie Brown

I <3 Snoopy!!!! And another great way to get kids excited about history!!





Liberty's Kids: Complete Series

I believe this series is still on Netflix, but I could be wrong(GASP)!! All of the kids have loved this series. It just draws them right in and they enjoy learning about the birth of our nation!





Plastic Spanish Conquistador Helmet Costume Hat

I have GOT to get these when we do explorers!! How cool!!





Uncle Milton Uncle Milton T-Rexcavator

Colin is a major dinosaur freak. LOL He would LOVE this and drag the other kids into playing with him! LOL







I am in LOVE with the history kits from Hands and Hearts. I don't own any, YET! But one day.... one day I will own them ALL!!! Bwha ha ha ha!! Oh, sorry, excuse me... I got a little carried away there.... ;)





This book series is AMAZING! We have a few of them and I am always on the lookout for them on sale!

Here is a complete list of the book series - You Wouldn't Want to Be



Now, here are some things that I do have and I wouldn't want to do without!





DK Eyewitness books. LOVE them and I am trying to collect them all! LOL The kids love to pull these off the shelves and dive right into them.





If You Lived series is another set of books that I wouldn't want to be without. They are all set in different times in American history. They are perfect for lapbooks and notebooking.





Horrible Histories!! SO awesome! I love reading these with the kids. I have quite a few of them but again, I am always on the lookout for others. They make history fun! They are factual and funny at the same time. ;)





Horrible Science- Written by a different author than the Horrible Histories but still very factual and entertaining. We use both sets for our lapbooks and notebooks, too!





Dead Famous Series- Again, very factual and entertaining. The kids would rather read these than a regular biography.





Another set of biographies that the kids really enjoy.

Books like the ones I have been sharing with you are wonderful for kids. They show them that learning doesn't have to be a dead bore! LOL They can enjoy learning about people and things from the past!





We started out the school year LAST year with this kit from Magic School Bus. The Cs LOVED it and still remember so much from using it! We have a couple more of the Magic School Bus kits to do but so far we have done the human body and dinosaurs (of course).





I have talked about The Young Scientist Kits before, we still love them! But we will definitely be buying them from Amazon! LOL Much cheaper that way! ;)





Little Passports, another club that we LOVE. And now they have introduced kits for the 50 states! YAY!!! It is a wonderful, fun way to learn geography!



Another thing I like to do for our country studies/geography is to go to World Market and buy stuff made in whatever country we are learning about at the time. It's very fun for the kids to try different foods and touch different things made in other countries. I think it makes it more "real" for them.





The Squishy Brain!!! The Cs love the Squishy Brain and have been BEGGING for the Squishy Body! LOL

AND we just bought this-



Colin is LOVING the Squishy T-Rex! LOL







So, there are just a few things that I want and a few things that have and love! ;) I hope this helps someone!

I like to keep our schooling as hands on as possible. My older kids do not appreciate it as much... I think it was too many years in public school! LOL They just want to know what they HAVE to do, then give them a book and let them do it. :/

Here are just a few pictures from past themes we have done and places we have gone that I considered part of schooling. ;) I have a LOT more pictures but I will share those with you later. ;)













Here are pics of Cailey and Colin from when we had our Ancient Egypt study. We had a book with masks in it that you cut out and put together. I can't for the life of me remember what the book was called! LOL We still have some masks in it to do but I can't find it. SIGH... It has to be here somewhere!













Here are Cailey and Colin's pictures they made from glue and shaving cream for our arctic study. She did an arctic fox and he did a polar bear.

The glue and shaving cream mixture dries puffy. It's pretty cool and a lot cheaper than puffy paint! LOL You just mix one part glue to one part shaving cream, stir and paint! Voila!











Both of these pictures were taken at Bass Pro. We go there quite often and I think it's a great place for learning. They have a mock cave and a huge aquarium. Then there are all of those stuffed animals like the bear! LOL I am going to miss it when we move. Right now the closest Bass Pro is 15 mins away. When we move the closest one will be in Savannah which is an hour away! WAH!!!









The kids at the art museum 2 years ago. Richmond has an AMAZING art museum and it's FREE!! Well, you have to pay to see the special exhibits like the Picasso one they had a couple of years ago. BUT the exhibits they have year round are excellent AND free! We really need to plan another trip before we move. It's a great place not only for learning about art but history, too.







The Botanical Gardens. LOVE that place!! The kids can learn about flora and fauna AND other countries. In the children's part they have different types of homes from different countries and TONS of hands on activities. I hope they have a nice on in Savannah.







At the zoo!! I can't find any of the pictures I took of the animals. LOL But naturally the zoo is an awesome place for learning. At the Richmond Zoo they have a HUGE giraffe exhibit and you actually get to feed them. The kids got a kick out of that! LOL













The top picture is of Cailey's poster she did for Australia! Right as we were finishing that country up I found out that the fair would have   an Australian animal exhibit! PERFECT timing! LOL We even saw albino wallabies!





For Brazil we did a lapbook but on the last day I made a special treat, Brazilian banana fritas! YUMMY!!!!









This is Cailey's rendition of Manet's Amazon. Not to bad! LOL She was 7 when she did this one.









This is Cailey's moth. She found a caterpillar at the park and brought it home. We had the same type of tree in our yard that she found it on so we put it in the bug carrier with some branches off that tree. The next day it starting making it's cocoon! It was so cool! We watched and waited and after a while we had a tent moth! LOL



So, there you have it! Just a few of the things we have done in the past. I think I will post more tomorrow! :)

I am looking forward to having new places to explore for school! LOL