PI Day! Ideas and Resources

What is Pi Day?

Some of you are as excited as I am about Pi day, some of you think I don’t know how to spell, and a few are wondering why we are celebrating a math concept. Pi day is a fun day that in our family also involves pie. While we didn’t celebrate when my children were really young, we have been celebrating Pi day for several years, and last year started celebrating with a group of our friends. It is celebrated on March 14th because the number PI starts with 3.14.

Homeschool Pi Day Celebrations

We gather together with round snacks, anything from sweet pies, pizza pies, and even a few moon pies. Then we have lots of fun with a variety of activities. Last year we did an art activity about pi, read some of the Sir Circumference Books and enjoyed our time together with friends.

We intend to have a very similar Pi day this year though I’ve found a few new resources and come up with a couple of extra ideas to keep things interesting. One thing we are going to do this year is to have the kids work together in teams to come up with as many words that begin with the letters ‘pi’ as they can in a set amount of time. This is a great way to include a little spelling and a lot of fun. We will still enjoy a read aloud from the Sir Circumference series though I will choose a different book this year. They are always so much fun for all ages and do a great job introducing or reinforcing the geometric concepts.

Preschool Pi Day Ideas

In our group each family contributes, so there will be several other activities or ideas included in our Pi Day party. I also found these simple ideas for including preschoolers in Pi Day. While our group is geared towards tweens and teens, as is the case with many home school groups there are plenty of little sibling tag alongs. They will enjoy the some of the other activities but can enjoy one of the simple crafts like cutting out circles or doing some circle painting while the older children focus on the more complex ideas.

Pi Day Snack Ideas

For food you can make your own homemade pies and pizza, find other round foods (burgers, english muffins, etc) or call Papa Johns and let them take care of it. Since I will have a new baby and a busy day we plan to order pizza and let the children either bake a pie or some chocolate chip cookies. This is our favorite easy homemade pie crust and it works great with any filling we have tried. If you want to make a savory pie this recipe uses that pie crust to make a potato bacon torte that is really yummy, or if you’re feeling adventurous and historical you can try onion pie. If we are not all tired of pie by dinner, we may have one of those for dinner.

I hope that you enjoy Pi day! Tell us your Pi day plans in the comments!

A Few Pi Day Resources:

When you sign up for our free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

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Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

You Are An Artist Clubhouse Membership is back open for enrollment!!

Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!

Dr. Seuss is among our favorite children’s authors. There are so many fun options to read aloud and enjoy. While I use his books with our young children as fun stories and to encourage an understanding of rhyme, even my older children will sit and listen as I read them aloud. His birthday, March 2nd, is celebrated in homes, schools and libraries across the country. Often it is used as a day to encourage reading books by many authors.

Reading Ideas for Dr. Seuss’s Birthday

Since reading is such an important part of our educational philosophy and the Dr. Seuss books are such favorites, we typically try to take the day off of our ‘regular’ studies and enjoy a fun day of activities and reading. This year each of the older children will pick a favorite Dr. Seuss book to read aloud to the family. I will also set aside some time for everyone in the family to read independently. Next, we will play some rhyming games. My older children enjoy them and the 3 year old is starting to learn about rhymes so it will be a good opportunity to encourage that skill in a fun way.

Dr. Seuss Book Display

One simple and fun way we encourage reading and a variety of books is to feature books for various holidays, events, or authors on “display’ in our dining room. We set up the books we have for that theme across the top of our cabinet where they will stay out until we change themes (normally every few weeks). The children can take them down to read and just put them back up when they are finished. This helps highlight different books from our shelves and keeps them reading books on a variety of topics.

Seuss

Hands-On Dr. Seuss Learning Ideas

In addition to reading, they will enjoy making ‘oobleck’ to play with and talk about the science behind it. Then we will enjoy some fun Dr. Seuss food. As you can see in the pictures above we enjoy ‘Cat in the Hat’ Pizza and our own version of green eggs and ham (simply adding spinach to the eggs). Depending on how the day is going I may allow my son to pick out an additional snack that we can make together. All of my children love helping in the kitchen.

My three year old really enjoys his dot markers, so he will probably do the Red Fish Blue Fish dot painting activity while we read aloud. I have found at that age having something quiet to work on while we read increases their attention span fr listening to the stories.

There are many other fun crafts, writing prompts, math activities and more to make this day fun and meaningful for children of all ages. I have included a list of resources below with more fun recipes, printables, and activities. I’ve also included a list of a few great Dr. Seuss books in case you do not have any in your collection. Most years we use this as an opportunity to add one more Dr. Seuss book to our growing collection. You may also check with your local library or literacy group to see if they are doing any special activities.

Dr. Seuss Food Ideas:

Dr. Seuss Pizza
Cat in the Hat Smoothie
Cat in the Hat Fruit Snack
Dr. Suess Cheese and ‘Fish’ Snack
Cat in the Hat Pancakes
Green Eggs (we simply scramble eggs and add chopped spinach for the green) with ham. These are yummy, nutritious, and simple to make.

Dr. Seuss Lesson Resources:

Dr. Seuss Copywork
Red Fish Blue Fish Dot Painting
Oobleck
Dr. Seuss Lego Math
Seussical the Musical Music (free with prime)
Lesson Plans for Specific Dr. Seuss Books
Writing Prompts
Name That Dr. Seuss Book
Dr. Seuss Math
Dr. Seuss’s World War 2 Cartoons (for your older children, note that some of them are politically controversial but a great study for mature middle grades or high school students)

Dr. Seuss Books:

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Hooray for Diffendoofer Day (we read this one every year before testing)

There’s a Wocket in My Pocket (great for rhyming)

The Foot Book

One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish

Green Eggs and Ham

Six by Seuss ( a collection of six books in one)

Dr. Seuss Beginner Board Book Collection (a wonderful collection of books)

Little Blue Box of Bright and Early Board Books ( a great starter collection)

Who Was Dr. Seuss? ( A chapter book about Dr. Seuss)

Green Eggs and Hamadeus (This is a CD of an opera based on the book. We had a chance to see it preformed several years ago by our North Carolina Symphony and it was wonderful. )

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Little Women is only .99 on kindle right now! (Amazon prices subject to change always check before purchasing.)

FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!

All About Learning has released the best deal of the day: A FREE Snowman Pack with reading and spelling activities for a variety of ages.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Winter Games Ideas and Resources

Are you looking forward to watching the winter games that are happening February 4th through the 20th? These can be a great opportunity to learn about geography, math, sports, competition, international affairs, and so much more.

Winter Games Geography

You can focus your entire school day around the events or simply add in a few activities. A few years ago we printed out a world map and sat down to watch the opening ceremonies.

As each country came through we would find the country on our map and color it in. This was a simple but fun way to incorporate some geography. You could also learn about the flags of the different countries using coloring pages or a fun sticker book.

Winter Games Reading

There are a a tremendous amount of books available that relate to the winter games. You could choose to focus on biographies of atheletes past or present. Another fun option is to find books about the different sports that are represented at the games.

You could also read about the historical origins and significance of the olympics. We really like Magic Tree House Hour of the Olympics for an introduction to the history of the olympics for elementary school students.

Winter Games Art

Art is always a fun way to include a hands-on component to learning. The Winter Games Chalk Pastel course from you are an artist is the perfect companion to a winter games study. These lessons are simple and easy to complete. They work for any age and only require inecpensive chalk pastels and paper to complete.

The Winter Games Course includes lessons for:

torch
bobsled
downhill skier
skate
hockey stick and puck
winter mountains
medals

You can even try the torch lesson for free!

winter games

Winter Games Unit Study

There are many ways to use these resources in your home school. You may decide to focus entirely on the Winter Games for a few weeks doing a unit study with all of your subjects with that theme.

You may just pick a couple of activities to complete in addition to your regular studies or something in between.

I have shared resources below that range in age primarily from preschool through middle school, though some could be adapted for high school. Feel free to share additional ideas or resources in the comments.

Winter Games Resources:

Official Site of the 2022 Olympic Games

Winter Games Chalk Art Pastel Lessons

Winter Games Math

Dot Marker Olympic Rings

Edible Gold Medals

Olympic Games for Kids

Winter Sports Freebie

Science Winter Games (Middle/High School Level)

Winter Games Research

Winter Games Activity Book (Unit Study geared towards grades 3-6)

Winter Games Books and Movies

Snowman Paul Winter Olympics (included with Kindle Unlimited)

Who is Wayne Gretzky?

A Kids Guide to the 2018 Winter Games

Magic Tree House Hour of the Olympics

G is for Gold Medal: An Olympic Alphabet

Winter Olympics for Children

Mia Hamm Good as Gold

Skating Superstars

Who was Jesse Owens?

Ancient Greece and the Olympics, Fact Tracker

Also check our free resource library with history freebies, recipes, and more! There is a great winter bucket list that would be fun for a snowy day.

Resource Library

Friday Deals and Freebies:

All About Learning is hosting a $100 giveaway! We use All About Spelling and are hoping to use All About Reading next year with my son who will be in Kindergarten.

A The Proverbial Homemaker is offering up a study on praying the scriptures that is FREE for a limited time.

PhotoSnack for Your Special Events!

I’m a very busy mom this month. Numerous special events coming up at church, out of town visitors coming, our daughter’s graduation to plan, VBS to organize…the list goes on. I want to tell you about my journey to the land of Slide Show Happiness!

I wanted to put together a little slide show for our daughter’s graduation party. I started gathering photos…hunting through Facebook albums, scouring various folders on my computer, editing, formatting, downloading. All very time consuming things. Then came the equally time consuming quest to find a tool to help me put together this slide show…I’d never done one before. **Cue the ominous music.**

I experimented with downloading programs (and then uninstalling them) in what seemed like an endless, disappointing cycle. Why couldn’t I find a tool that was reasonable, had the features I wanted, and didn’t require a manual and an associate’s degree to get it to work?

After the last attempt, I decided to search one more option, called PhotoSnack. I’d never heard of it before, but I liked it immediately. All I had to do was plug in my email address, and I was ready to play with all the tools and options.

I selected a title and description for my project. I found it was super easy to download photos, either by clicking the “Browse” button, or dragging and dropping.

I just had to click and drag photos to rearrange. On the Customize screen, I chose what type of template I wanted…how I wanted the presentation to look when moving from one image to the next. I chose “Simple Fade.”

Next, I selected a color as background (nice patterns and textures are also available). I could include my own background music or choose from those offered on the site. All of this is tweakable, to get it just right.

The free version of the tool allows you to make a presentation with 15 photos, and you can share your final product on Facebook and Twitter.

Here are the packages they offer:

You can check out examples here. You can “Like” their Facebook page here for special discounts and contests!

In addition to the slide show tool, look at this extensive list of other “Snack Apps” which are available! This is literally your “one stop shop” for online, easy to use apps, for sure!

I don’t have a lot of time to play with all these wonderful options at present, but I did go explore snackwebsites and “pretend” I was setting up a blog. It was very intuitive, with immediate response time, and I had this set up in less than ten minutes:

Pretty neat! You really need to go explore this site!

My graduation slide presentation was very easy to put together, and it has a nice, personal feel to it. Inside of an hour, I had everything customized the way I wanted it. I showed it to our daughter, and she just sat there, hugging the laptop, grinning from ear to ear. It was an effortless gift of time and thoughtful organization to me…to her, it was a loving journey of her life, capturing precious memories that can be shared with all the special people at her celebration.

Thank you, PhotoSnack!

"Homeschool Planet" Review

I’m a homeschooler, and creator of the Facebook group, “Schoolin’ Swag”. This past Monday, we hosted a huge giveaway event called the “Planner Palooza”, featuring over 25 prizes. It was a great event!

Well, I’ve been investigating planners for at least 3 years, and in preparation for the Palooza, I did research all over the web, looking for the best products I could find to offer. I thought I’d seen it all. Then I got an email from the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-Op and my life took a new turn!

The Co-Op offers “Homeschool Planet” (click <– that link to see a video!) exclusively. Right now there is an offer to check it out for free for 30 days. It looked interesting, and was totally non-risk (they didn’t even ask for a credit card), so I thought I’d take a peek. I’m sure glad I did!

Now, prepare yourself…because I took a lot of screen shots so you can see what this looks like instead of just reading my descriptions. Ready? Click the images to enlarge:

I love all of these features (and there is SO much more)! I’ve only been using “Homeschool Planet” for a short time. I was going to wait a few weeks to do a review, assuming I’d need to figure things out first. There was very, very little “break in” time for me, so I decided to do the review now so folks could see it in July, before the planning crunch hits! I’ve decided it is definitely a keeper for me!

This planner is pretty much a no-brainer…extremely easy to use and navigate. I do like the fact that there are pretty theme options…if I’m going to look at something as much as I do a planner, I love for it to have visual appeal!

The widgets and different organizational options help me to have my “whole life” in one place…I can schedule classes, appointments, reminders, as well as a to-do list, shopping lists, search options and more via the optional widgets.

I really like that my students can access this via their own logins, and I can choose what they are able to view, and also what they are allowed to edit. They can check off assignments as they complete them, and attendance will be kept.

The data you enter can be shared with smart phones and tablets, using the mobile version.

I especially like that you get *real* people, and prompt replies when you have questions. I saw another blog post in which the writer sent these folks a message about something she wished to see as a practical feature…an improvement…and within a day or so it had been added!

I encourage you to check out this planner while the 30-day free trial is still available! Run! Better yet, grab a friend or two or twenty to come along!

Note: I received a free 1-year subscription to Homeschool Planet in exchange for an honest review of the software. All opinions expressed above are my own.

K B Teachers

As I’ve consolidated my blogs into one, I’ve added more homeschooling information here. Today, while searching for freebies for my Facebook page, “Schoolin’ Swag,” I came across a great site for homeschool teachers. The name is K B Teachers, and if you visit, you won’t be disappointed! Some wonderful freebies there! Be sure to sign up for their free newsletter to get a heads up on new offers.

The One-Armed Paper Hanger Lives!

school2 — The only things I needed to buy for school this year…and it came to less than $30! 🙂

Oh yes…I’m still here. 🙂 Things have been a whirlwind here lately, so I’m having to juggle some priorities.

As you may know, in the space of a few weeks, we candidated at a church, which called my husband as their pastor, we packed, cleaned, and moved all our stuff (with the gracious help of friends). We then had VBS at our church (the Lord blessed with a wonderful turn out for both the children’s morning program and the teen’s evening activities). I was corralling kids from 9 until noon, unpacking like a crazy woman all afternoon, and then back to the church for the teens from 6:30-9:30. Very busy days!

Now, we have only a few boxes remaining in the house, and things are feeling more like home. This past week, I put my nose to the grindstone and got (at least) the first month of lesson plans done for school…which we’ve bumped to the first week in September, all things considered. Wow, so grateful for amazing internet tools! I began combing through resources several months ago to set up lessons for all three kids (1st, 7th and 10th grades). The Lord helped me to find wonderful things (every bit of it free) as well as a superabundance of things I did not need, but simply could not allow to disappear back into the abyss of I’ll-never-find-it-again-unless-I-bookmark-it-but-how-many-things-does-a-person-really-need-in-their-favorites. So I started “Schoolin’ Swag.”

If you are on Facebook, and have an interest in homeschooling, come join the group! We have 300+ members now, with new friends being added every day. Each day there are new freebies, tips and deals from all over the web. I figured it was one way to help others who were in the same boat as I was…feeling overwhelmed, combing through scads of URL’s (some dead, some great, some not so much).

I’ll just share two tools here that I have really enjoyed. The first is from GoalForIt. This site offers free chore charts, with lots of templates and options. There are very cute ones, and some that are more streamlined for tweens and teens. Here is a screen shot of our Katie’s, for example:

The kids get to choose what buttons they want for checking off their responsibilities, and they can earn “moolah” if you wish (which translates into minutes for computer time in our house).

Another tool I am grateful for is Home School, Inc. At this free site, I have set up all my lesson plans for all three students, and the various options allow me to print attendance records, report cards, etc. I can keep track of each student’s progress daily, and it gives them one easy place (for older students) to independently move through their day, checking off their work as they go. I just entered instructions for each course, and URL’s for where they need to go to find their work for the day. It required a few hours of my time, but it will help things to go much more smoothly when school has begun. Here is a screen shot of my main page for all of our courses:

Here is a “School Today” page for our 10th grader:

inc erin — This view shows here how many courses she has each day. If she clicks on “View Week,” it gives her the week’s assignments at a glance. She also has the option of clicking the down arrow on any given day to see that day’s work. The small boxes next to each date indicate if that day’s work has been complete.

So this gives you a pretty good idea about where I’ve been. Looking forward to a great year. Once the dust settles, I’ll share more postings with you here. TTFN! 🙂

Free Ebook: 20 Homeschool Grads Tip Their Hats to Homeschool Parents

Ever feel overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of homeschooling? You might be asking, “Will my kids turn out okay?” What if you could hear from homeschool graduates who have been there? In this e-book, 20 graduates share how thankful they are for the opportunity they had to be homeschooled, and they want to pass on their gratitude to you. Each chapter is full of motivational stories that will encourage you to continue with the journey of home education. This inspiring e-book is a must for every homeschooling parent!

Join the Homeschool Freebies list by going here.

Free EBook: What Every High Schooler Should Know About Credit and Finance

This is a freebie from The Old Schoolhouse. If the crunch of the Christmas season (we have several birthdays and anniversaries to add to the financial load too) has got you thinking more seriously about dollars and sense, or if you are already pondering those New Year’s resolutions to manage your credit or eliminate it altogether, OR if you simply want to use this to help prepare your kids to be responsible stewards, this is a good free tool. Go here to cash in.