Countdown to Our Lord's Arrival Using Our Monthly Oversized Wall Calendar

Let the countdown to our Lord's arrival begin!!

Most children especially love to countdown to important dates or events.  Our children are no different.  As we focus on the first week of Advent, we think about the hope that the promise of our Lord's birth brings for our eternal salvation.  One of the three theological virtues of the church, hope is defined as one truly and strongly trusting in God for the support and attainment of salvation.

Today we offer and remind you to help your children countdown to Christmas using our over-sized family wall calendar for December themed with Christmas Preparations.  Since we are year round learners, we take all of the Advent season off from our regularly scheduled learning activities.  We have found over the years that this eases our parenting/teaching stress levels and allows our family to really focus on the season including activities such as attending daily Masses, visiting and serving those in need, having daily family prayer & devotion time, sharing time together baking, and crafting.  It's really a GREAT time to focus on building and improving home skills or Home EC. as we used to call it in high school.



Today's calendar offers festive graphics as well as pieces to mark the Sundays of Advent, the Nativity of our Lord, St. Nicholas' Feast Day and much more.  Among our most popular resources, these calendars are easy to make using poster board, a black marker and a metre or yard stick.  You can find the directions as well as the December calendar download HERE.

Do you need to be inspired today? 

Why not try reading Isaiah 60:1-3 to secure your own hope in our Lord.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

Join Us Almost Daily During the Season of Advent for Fun Christmas Themed Resources

Nativity of our Lord
Photo by L. LaChance
Thanks, Lil!!

Join us everyday for free Advent and Christmas Fun and Resources.

We are so excited that the season of Advent is here.  The Nativity of our Lord will be here before we know it.  So before we all get too wrapped up in the hustle and bustle and risk losing the peacefulness and focus of the season, let's stop and take a breath for a moment or two during each day in December.  Pop on in and join us for all kinds of holiday goodies - from printable decorations and decorating ideas, easy gifts you can make with the kids, recipes to take with you - let's enjoy our time together getting ready for our Lord.  We'll try and provide something fun, festive and focused almost everyday of the season including a few schooly things here and there as well.

If you have a friend that could use some inspiration or a moment to breath with other families who are also fighting back the holiday chaos temptations - please invite them to stop on in as well, the more the merrier!!

If you are in need of prayers, feel free to drop us a line as well as tomorrow is the day devoted to prayer and a family rosary said for those who have shared feedback, time, talents, or funding to help keep our online ministry going!!  We know that this season can be challenging for many families for many reasons including financial, death or illness of a loved one, and the sheer demands of energy and time placed upon parents and even children.  We just want you to know that you are never alone here at That Resource Site.  We are just one family trying to reach out and help other families.

We hope to see you soon!!

Blessings,

That Resource Team

Let's get ready for the coming of our Lord! New Chore Cards to Help Keep Your Learning Area and Home Organized During Advent and Everyday.

Chore cards let you decide on and delegate tasks for learners to prepare for Advent and help keep them organized and happy in their daily lives.

Advent is here!!  As we begin the season of Advent, we are advised to prepare our hearts, minds, and homes for the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Many Christians "Christmas clean" and decorate their homes with Advent wreaths, hanging wreaths, Christmas trees, candles, a nativity scene and so forth.  But we must clean before we can decorate just as in the same way we must have reconciliation with our Lord for our sins before we can celebrate His arrival into our hearts.  Today's resource helps us to do just that, but not just for Advent and Christmas but all the year through.



Our Family Chore Caddy

 We've all heard it umpteen times before, children like structure and to feel included in family tasks.  By contributing time and energy to keeping their home, living space and learning area neat and clean, children learn to value their belongings, their learning materials, their books and so on.  Not sure about this notion?   Just think about how you feel when things are in such grave disarray in your home.  Do you feel like relaxing in it?  How about reading in that space or being creative and writing in a journal amongst the material chaos that eventually overwhelms every homeschool family at least a few times throughout the year?  And if you are like many homeschool families and have a large size family or run a full time family business out of your home, you know even more about the importance of staying organized.



There are many different approaches to delegating tasks for housekeeping and even learning tasks.  Today we offer a new set of chore cards.  Simply print out these colourful themed sheets, cut apart on lines, write out the chore and glue it onto an index card.  You could also decide to print these out on card stock and simply cut them apart resulting in a slightly smaller card.  We glue ours to index cards and sit them in a caddy or index card box.

A sample of a few of the chore cards in this new set

Here are a few ways to consider using these cards:

• Assign certain tasks to specific children.
• Write individual tasks on cards and have children randomly pick a specific number to complete for the day.  This is good for children or siblings who have about the same level of personal skills.
• Create a personalized stack for each child to do on a regular basis.  You could even assign certain graphics to a specific child or use coloured index cards for specific children.  They will always know which cards and tasks are theirs to complete.

You can find this new set of 14 different cleaning themed graphics for both boys and girls as well as the original set of 14 chore cards we previously created with fun themes in .pdf files ready to go for this busy holiday season.  This resource was originally part of our Climb a Ladder to Heaven family learning project.

Click HERE to find our new set of chore cards as well as our original set of chore cards.


Blessings,

That Resource Team

Advent. . .the Coming F3 Lapbook Style Activity and Go-Along Notebooking Sheet

Fun activities help children learn about and invite the season of Advent into their hearts and minds.

Advent begins this weekend.  It is the season that prepares us for the nativity of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Today we offer a very fun and effective way of reviewing the main points of Advent using our F3 lapbook style activity sheet and a specialized set of notebooking papers.

The F3 activity presents the concept of your child being a Faith Detective as they learn about their faith.  It is self contained and can be used alone or added to a current F3 folder or project you may already have on the go.   In a question filled, clue-finding way, children are presented with the following questions and asked to figure them out.

Who's coming?

When are they coming?

Why are they coming?

Where are they coming?

Using the sheets provided, scissors and glue, they can create and write the answers to the questions out themselves using resources they have at home or info from formal lessons or they can use the answers provided for them in boxes that they simply cut and glue into place.  This helps younger learners who are not confident writers to easily complete this activity as well as CCD classes who may have a time constraint to work around or with.  answers are given.  Instructions are included on the individual sheets and labels are provided in gray to help children glue things properly into place.

As an additional fun activity, older learners may want to complete one of our newspaper style notebooking sheets to write an "article" about Advent or the Nativity itself.  The notebooking sheets are available in different styles with opportunities for drawing or attaching a photograph about the forthcoming important events.

We hope this helps you start your season of preparation for our Lord with thoughtfulness, smiles and joy!!

Click HERE to get the Advent Faith Detective F3 Activity.

Click HERE to get the Newspaper Style Notebooking Sheets.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

Thanksgiving Keepsake Recipe Sheets for Your Cookbook

Mama's Thanksgiving Turkey Cookbook Entry

 Help keep your recipes organized or preserve memories for the next generation of little chefs with this set of Thanksgiving themed recipe sheets.

Special meals are part of the festivity of many of our favourite holidays - Christmas, Easter, Birthdays and of course, Thanksgiving.  Handing down special recipes is a tradition in almost every part of the world whether it be for Thanksgiving or any meal that we should give thanks to be receiving.  In many families, preparing the food is an opportunity for fun, fellowship and building family bonds. Today's resource is a set of Thanksgiving themed keepsake recipe pages that coincide with our recipe project.  They can also be used separately in any binder style recipe book that you may already have in the works. 

One of our most popular projects we have created for homeschoolers is the Create Your Own Family Recipe Book.  You can see the entire project here.  Today's resource is a special addition which matches the same format and style of the current project.  You will find tabs on the ends and special pages that allow for pictures to be affixed.  This really is such a wonderful projects for families to create together.  We like to set aside time to work on this ever so often.  It allows the children to recall memories, learn new skills and practice writing neatly.  As my children cook things, we simply take pictures of the finished products and add them in.



Jr. Version Recipe Page Set



Sets are available in Jr. Versions (four pages and spaces to add in tools needed etc.) and Sr. Versions (three pages of lined, themed recipe sheets).  These differences in the versions allows for both young cooks and seasoned chefs to make use of our resources.

We hope you have fun creating yummy memories together.

Click Here to download the Jr. Version of the Thanksgiving Recipe Sheets.
Click Here to download the Sr. Version of the Thanksgiving Recipe Sheets.


Blessings,

That Resource Team

Thankfulness Game is a Great Addition to Your Thanksgiving Evening or Virtue Study

Thanks Bingo Game

Game play can help foster fun as well as discussions about Thankfulness.

One of our family traditions for almost every birthday and holiday year round is playing family bingo.  Whoever comes for the holiday meal is invited to play with our cute colourful, non-reading versions.  Our guests usually range from the littlest non-reader to our almost eighty year old Poppa.  We keep a prize platter of goodies and each winner is invited to take a prize.  The prizes are all kinds of little goodies, treats, and neats that must appeal to all ages.  It is a good way to teach about winning and losing gracefully.  We truly believe that this tradition will be one of the memory markers for our children.  Not to mention, every so often you will see charity erupt as we did this past game time as one of our children went up and picked a prize and turned around and gave it to their Poppa who hadn't won all evening.  It lets you know that you are doing something right in your parenting and training. Amen!! :)



The Prize Platter

 This year we built a new set to directly coincide with Our Virtue Lesson on Thankfulness as well as the extra people who joined us for Thanksgiving supper, which we celebrated last month here in Canada.  Today we share our 20 page, full colour Thanks Bingo Game with you.

 



 This game is easy to play and accommodates up to 15 players.  Simply print out the playing cards and laminate if desired.  Print out the call-out cards and cut them apart on the black lines.  Printing them on cardstock or heavier bond paper is best.  Once cut, you may place them all face down in a stack and simply flip a new card each turn or you can choose to glue them onto a juice can lid for added fun and suspenseful play.  We usually just put all of our juice can lid pieces in a big plastic bowl or jar, whip them around a few times and put them out one at a time. 

If you chose to laminate your cards with a heat laminant, then you could use a crayon, wipe off overhead projector pen, dry erase pen, or washable felt marker to mark the cards.  If not you can use beans, buttons, macaroni, or plastic chips from the dollar store.

Discussion Sheet

Each of the graphics used in this game has been specially selected to  represent things we should be thankful for.  As an added bonus to this game, there are three discussion sheets with suggestions for how each individual graphic can tie into our modern and spiritual life.  As a teaching aid for your Virtue Lesson, this is a great way to begin a discussion about what and why we should be thankful for different things in our life and the world around us.  This could also be a game in itself using just the call-out cards and asking children to come up with as many different reasons that each graphic was chosen. 

We hope you have fun with this game and perhaps let it become one of your new family traditions for Thanksgiving.

Click Here to download this Thanks Bingo Game. 
Please be patient with this 20 page .PDF as this is a larger file with tons of graphics.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

Little Box of Learning - Mathematical Flower Shop Role Playing Game

Who knew that one little box could bring so much hands-on flowery math fun?

Did you like to play store when you were younger?  Many people did.  That's why the Tycoon style software games have become so popular over the past few years.  People, young and old, like pretending that they run a business of some sort.  We are so happy that we have finally gotten around to sharing one of the most beloved Math games in our little homeschool.  Using the prepared files below, some popsicle sticks and a craft box - your child could literally have hours of math fun by themselves, with a friend or even with their favourite doll or action figure. 

 Most learners love to play games.  Many learners enjoy imaginative play as well.  This game is a definite addition for Montessori style and hands-on learners.  This activity allows the craft box to not only hold the game itself, but also to become an interactive part of the game.  The box becomes a display case in the store or garden centre.  You may choose to use a white box and decorate it or use a brown box and just pretend you are picking the flowers straight from the ground.  Daily bouquets are put on special and the players must prepare the bouquets for sale.  They will pick the flowers required on the Daily Special card and put them in the box for the desired number of customers.  Older learners can practice using multiplication using decimals as well as conducting the transaction using your own money or play money from the toy store. 

Price list attached to box.

To prep for this game, first cut apart playing cards and signs on the lines and laminate if desired.  Glue one popsicle stick to the bottom of the price list and attach to the box if able.
  

Prepared flower front and back.

Next simply print out the flower pages and cut out the pieces on the dotted circles.  Create as many flowers as your child's skill level requires.  Children could easily be involved in this step to make it fast and fun.  Glue the circles onto the popsicle sticks.  Let dry well.  We used coloured sticks to be able to sort things faster.  You may want to use all green sticks for stems or plain sticks could be used as well.  They sell for about $1.00 for a pack of 100 at the five and dime stores.  Consider making at least one page of each flower but two pages per makes for loads more fun.  That works out to be between 100-200 sticks.

Watch your fingers! :)

Carefully using a very sharp exacto knife, cut five 4-inch slits along the cover of the shoe box about 2-inches apart.  There should be enough space to easily insert the bouquets in the slit rows.  The outside of the box can be decorated to match your local garden centre or flower shop if you like.

To begin play, put out the "open" sign.  Next, select one Daily Special card and one Customer Scenario card.  Complete the task using both cards.  Create as many bouquets as stated in the scenario.  Figure out how much each bouquet will cost using the provided price lists or make one of your own.  Check your learner's finished product for accuracy.  Learners playing in pairs could check each other's work or create daily specials for their play partner.  Players simply play according to their skill levels. 

A nice added feature of this game is that we have chosen to highlight realistic flowers so that children can begin identifying flowers while learning math. There are eight different varieties of plants used in the game: pansy, tulip, ivy, daffodil, dahlia, primevere, peach rose, and magenta rose. Included are a twelve sample Daily Special cards, six scenario cards, templates for you to make your own specials or scenarios, a cost sign board with plain numbers (no decimals - for younger players) as well as a cost sign with decimal numbers.  The file is 18 pages in all including directions.  This game helps with:

number recognition

following directions

sorting

simple addition

using decimals

using money

multiplication

flower nomenclature

pattern recognition

good manners in business relations

We hope you find this Little Box of Learning resource game loads of fun to create and useful for your child's learning adventures. 

Click Here to download this Flower Shop Play Pack.
(This is an 18 page download with lots of graphics.  Please be patient with this larger file as it downloads.)

 

Blessings,

That Resource Team

Thoughts? Comments?  Questions?  Reach us HERE through our website. 

 

New Math Puzzle sheets - 100 Squares for Fun in Counting

Colourful Puzzle sheets help children learn to count to 100

Counting is a very basic math skill.  As children move up the primary grade scale so do their counting skills and abilities.  Using a 100 square can make counting fun and challenging.  Instead of have children just sing-song-say each number from 1 to 100, these puzzles require real thinking skills to properly complete them. 

Today's resources are five different themed 100 square counting puzzle sheets.  Each is bright and visually appealing with easy to read numbers in a variety of counting tasks.  Some sheets are more challenging than others keeping the activity fresh and fun.  Some 100 squares begin on the numeral 1 and others with the numeral 0 to provide a bit of a challenge.  Answer sheets are provided for all puzzle sheets so that children can check their own counting if needed. 

To extend the life of these sheets simply laminate them with a heat laminating sheet and have learners use a crayon, wipe off pen, dry erase pen, or a washable fat tipped colouring marker to complete.  Wipe clean with a paper towel (and water if needed).

Space theme sample puzzle and answer sheet



Nature study themed sample puzzle and answer sheet


We hope your learners enjoy using these puzzles as much as ours do.

Click Here to download this 10 page 100 Square counting resource set.


Blessings,

That Resource Team

New Greek and Latin Language Worksheets for Kids

 New worksheets to help kids learn Latin and Greek languages.

We love seeing how creative other people can be.  We find it inspirational to see how other moms or teachers design resources for the same topics we cover in our own little homeschool.  Oh the creative fun and joy that makes homeschooling so unique and effective.

Today we share resources created by Michelle over at Thinking Love, No Twaddle blog that help kids learn about the Greek and Latin languages.  The first worksheet is one that helps children learn about the Greek letters in a review form using matching strategies and a review of simple sentences that go with the Kids Greek curriculum put together by Bill Mounce.

The second resource offered today is one for Latin language lovers and those using the Latin program Getting Started With Latin by William Linney.  This two page resource is a neat little cut and paste review activity to go with lesson 24.  Very cool.

Thanks so much, Michelle for sharing your energy and creativity with us.  God bless you and yours!

Click Here to download the Little Latin Lesson 24 Sheet

Click Here to download the Little Greek, Kids Greek Review Lesson Sheets

Blessings,


That Resource team

Dino Themed Resources Continue With Game Play and Reading

Encourage themed reading and exploration of prehistoric animals with simple but challenging game play.

Game play is a great way to teach and learn.  Really!!  If you have never thought of using game play in your teaching, you may want to reconsider this idea.  In our little homeschool we have used simple games to teach some very important concepts very successfully.  Think back to your own childhood.  How many things can you remember learning through game play?  Can't think of any?  How about your alphabets using hand clapping games, multiplication tables using rhyming tunes, counting money or giving change using board games or playing store, remembering number order playing card games, skipping rope to learn rhymes and poems, vocabulary using crossword puzzles, spelling playing hangman, and the list could go on and on.  We have all learned a lot of information over the course of our lives using game play, even if we don't realize it.

Today we offer the new game quest sheet, A-Z of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals to help children learn the names of prehistoric animals. To play, simply provide the name of one animal for each letter of the alphabet.  Points are given for letters completed.  Any age could play this game as you simply use the resources you may have on-hand to complete the sheet.  The player with the most points wins.  A family could also play it together trying to complete it together without the use of points.  Our second grader finished all but one letter on her own, and then we looked up a Dino for the last letter on the Internet together.

You will notice that answers are not provided for most A-Z Quest sheets. We do not provide the answers as many times there can be more than one answer and we don't want to limit players or stifle their creativity. This also allows for open minded thinking and good research opportunities. Learners can play alone or in teams and keep track of who gets the most letters or play for points using the point gauge.
Words Beginning With the Letters/Points

AEIOUW 1
DHLNRST 2
CFGMPVJK 3
QXYZ 4

Total score for a fully completed A-Z Quest is 60pts.*

*Note: You may decide that extra points can be given for more than one answer in a letter. Establish rules at the beginning of each quest and feel free to make changes subsequent quests as research skills improve.

Are you looking for a way to keep track of the Dinosaur themed books your child reads or perhaps a fun way to track and encourage daily reading?  How about using our new Dino themed reading bookmark?  This little bookmark has been a favourite daily task for our second grader to independently fill out and keep track of her daily Dino reading.  Simply print out the file, cut out, fold, glue and fill in.






Click Here to download our Dino themed reading log bookmark.  See our collection of bookmarks here.
Click Here to download the A-Z Quest of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. 
Learn more about A-Z Quests here.

We hope you have a joyful learning day!!

Blessings,

That Resource Team

More Dino Resources - Math Counters and Colouring Sheets

More hands-on dinosaur resources help bring learning to life

As we continue our dinosaur themed learning, we thought that we would share more goodies that help keep with the theme and encourage more tactile learning and 'outta the box' learning.  These printable resources are fast, easy to prepare and fun to do.

Dino counters used in a simple way.

Dino Math Counters add fun to learning for many different ages.  The focus of this set includes cards for the numbers from 0-100, even & odd numbers, and the math symbols: + - ÷ = < > .  This resource is perfect for Montessori style learners and are always a hit or the boost to success when a change of pace is needed in studying one of the most difficult of subjects.
This set can be used to reinforce numeral names, number order, math symbols, number sentences and also odd and even numbers. Each coloured set of Dino graphics has been assigned even or odd numbers to help players learn independently. Also, odd and even usage can be worked into other usage games as well. For example, if number sentences are created, players can be asked if the answers are odd or even.  Another simple game is to have siblings try to stump one another by calling out a number sentence and the other player must put it together and correctly figure it out using only the cards.  You may want to print two sets to do more advanced games. You can find this set as well as our entire collection of math counter sets here, each with a slightly different focus.

Our Dino colouring sheets were a direct request from our daughter.  She requested that there be an animal to colour, their name to trace and the pronunciation of their name as well.  So we managed to come up with a few using public domain images.  We hope your children enjoy them as much as ours do. 

Click Here to download our Dino colouring sheet set.
We also have other colouring sheets that can be found here including Aesop's Fables and some Burgess books go-alongs as well.


We hope your learner enjoys some hands-on fun today learning about these giants of the past.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

New Dino Fun Printable Resources including Montessori Cards

New resources help children learn about some of the largest animals that God ever created.

Inspired by our latest Faith lesson on creation and the Little Lessons on science from Michelle Scott over at Thinking Love, No Twaddle, our youngest became interested in dinosaurs.  So to help in this study we created some printable resources that we hope your learners will enjoy using as much as ours do.  Today we offer the Dino-detective Science Sheet and a set of 24 dinosaur Montessori cards.

The Dino science worksheet (pictured at left) offers learners the opportunity to explore the details of the dinosaur of their choice.  Learners will be asked to find out such information as the meaning of their selected Dino's name, their size, eating habits and where have fossils of this animal been found in the world.  There is also a spot for a picture to be drawn or pasted in.  These detective style sheets are always a favourite with our children.  You can see other detective sheets we have available here.

The other resource offered today is set of 24 Montessori Cards depicting some lesser known dinosaurs and prehistoric animals that children may want to get to know.   These cards are perfect for laminating and game play.  The images are in colour and very engaging.

We have a few more fun Dino resources to share this week so stop in again soon or better yet subscribe to our feed so that you don't miss them. 

Click Here to download our Dino Detective Sheet.

Click Here to download our Dino Montessori Card Set.

Blessings,

That Resource Team