More Little House on the Prairie!

Can you believe it’s been five years since I wrote my first Little House on the Prairie post? I read it and am taken back to the simpler days of only having my first two kids to homeschool where we practiced a more relaxed homeschool approach. Now my oldest will be entering high school next year and the next is fully immersed in the world of junior high. How time flies. I’ve added four more kids to the mix of homeschooling with one more still to fit in the next couple of years. Gone are the relaxed, take-your-time days of yore. Now we are fully immersed in a heavy classical school load for the older two and, while the younger ones still have fun and are covering a lot of the same material as the first two, my schedule is much more structured with this next group of younger kids as I have to make sure there is enough mommy teacher time to go around to meet all the needs. Hence the sound of crickets on this here blog!

We are on round two of our history cycle wrapping up modern history this year. We began the year just post Civil War and started right in on Pioneers and the Homestead Act with my younger children. This, of course, is a perfect time to introduce another generation to my love of all things Little House of the Prairie! Oh how I wish I had more time to spend and camp out here. Even though I only had a week to fill, I made the best of it with my very kinetic learners with two great hands-on projects I wanted to share with you all.

Sometimes with homeschooling I get caught up in the wants that cost money. I would’ve loved to have had a big set of Lincoln Logs for my preschooler through fourth grader to play with. This would’ve been great to keep little hands busy while mommy was reading our literature Little House on the Prairie or our living history book selections. This was not in our budget this year. Instead, I decided to concentrate on using what I already had that also keeps little hands busy. Play dough. I decided the best way to help my hands-on learners remember what the Homestead Act meant was to immerse them in the world of sod house making. They absolutely loved this and all decided, at least the first week of school, that history was definitely their favorite subject. Score for mom! We used this play dough recipe that I had used before for a Valentine’s Day party because it smells like heavenly chocolate.

And don’t let the blog pictures deceive you. My first batch turned out horrible. I thought I could get buy without the cream of tartar and it was a disaster. So while my kids were busily, and happily, playing in the sticky muddy mess on the table, it wasn’t the right consistency to make our sod bricks out of and mommy had to do a quick run to the store in order to redo the recipe the right way. But it turned out all right in the end and they were very happy with their sod houses. Note to moms: try to gently encourage your students to stack the bricks in the staggered pattern that real builders use. Otherwise, when this project dries it will fall apart! My kids had to learn this the hard way. As their houses dried they looked great but immediately collapsed in a heap of dried sod bricks when they did not heed my warning.

We also played this fun game online that shows if you have what it takes to make it on the prairie and build a sod house properly. Both my third and fourth grader failed their first two attempts but finally got it right on attempt number three!

Our next project this week was to build this cute little pioneer peg family to live in their built sod houses. My children love to play what they learn. When we studied cowboys they played cowboys. When we studied Indians they played Indians. When we studied women’s suffrage they played making signs and voting. I love watching them play what they learn. It makes my house always chaotic and a bit on the messier side – an uphill battle I struggle with already just having seven kids living here with me all day long – but the extra effort at cleaning is worth it when I hear them ask if we can study something again because they want to play it again.

Now the crafty, OCD mommy part of me had to forcibly take a back seat on the peg project people. I modeled the project for them. I made wonderful suggestions to them. I used scrap material and yarn I already had on hand and only had to buy the peg clothespins – $2 for a bag at Michaels. But my children are nothing if not consistent and hard-headed. They had there own way of doing their dolls and mommy had to let that be okay. They had a lot of fun with this project. And, if they had listened to me with their sod houses, the houses would’ve been built high enough to use and play with the peg people. We will probably revisit making these dolls again this winter while reading “The Long Winter” for literature. Maybe I’ll teach them how to make some snow candy like Laura and Mary did if we get a dumping of good sticky snow. While this experiment didn’t quite turn out how I wanted it to with my oldest kids, it was still very yummy!

For more fun activities to pair with your Little House on the Prairie study or any history study pertaining to the early pioneers, check out my previous Little House on the Prairie Unit Study.  Also, if you wanted to expand on the activities that I listed here today, you could also try your hand at these. I wanted to get to all of them but a week is such a short time and flies by too fast.

• Make your own butter!
• What’s For Lunch pdf – lessons on what homesteaders ate, including color pages and mason jar butter recipe for above activity
• Exploring Sod Houses Lesson Plan
• Short Video on History of Sod Houses
• Make Maple Snow Candy
• Build a Marshmallow & Graham Cracker Covered Wagon
• Covered Wagon Color Page
• Westward Expansion Unit – page 1 is a Homestead Act notebook page (tracing and illustrating)
• Wild West Mega Pack for Tots

We also read a great new book that I’m adding to our list of Pioneer book must-haves. Dandelions by Eve Bunting is a picture story about two girls who move with their parents out to the prairie. I choose this particular book for several reasons. First, it was set in Nebraska – where we live. I love making history personal. It seems to stick more. Second, they build a sod house and talk about the Homestead Act, which went well with our project and notebooking for the week. Third, dandelions are my favorite under-appreciated flower! So many uses and benefits – I have a whole Pinterest Board dedicated to them – and such a bright yellow sign of hope in the spring when the winter blues have seem to permanently set in. In fact, this is kind of the point of the story. Many pioneer wives of that time, while hard and persevering women, experienced depression. While they did set out to try their hand at a new life, they also left everything behind. Being in this harsh new world without shade and trees and the beauty of flowers, without the comfort of their extended family or even neighbors and community, without their furniture (not much could fit on the wagon ride out) and heirlooms, even without wood to build a comfortable house, living in this world of dirt and nothingness must have been so hard for so many women. This story touches on that very hardship and the young girl ends up saving and planting some dandelions on her sod roof for her mother. It is a beautiful story that touches on that hope that so many prairie wives needed. I just loved it.

     

Books I would add to my first list for this time period:

• Dandelions by Eve Bunting
• Pioneer Girl by Andrea Warren (a true memoir about a Nebraska Homesteader)
• Pioneer Girl: The Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson (picture book biography)
• Dakota Dugout by Ann Turner
• Prairie Willow by Maxine Trotter
• Wagon Wheels by Barbara Brenner (and I Can Read! Level 3 book)
• You Wouldn’t Want to be an American Pioneer!
• A Pioneer ABC! by Mary Alice Downie (for the littles with beautiful illustrations)

Another thing I’m excited to do this winter with the kids is work through watching the first season of Little House on the Prairie. They really don’t make shows like this anymore and I mourn the loss of wholesome family values that this show teaches. This will make a perfect wintertime activity to binge on in evenings of our cozy house with the outside world shut out to us. But we will kick it off with this documentary The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I may be a bit of a nerd but I’m so excited about watching this. You must visit the blog Little House of the Prairie and watch the trailer. It looks just divine! While your at their site stay and look around a while. It is chock full of wonderful activities to pair with a Little House study!

They are also offering a one time savings to you homeschool moms in order to add it to your living history library as well. Just click on their Amazon link to buy the documentary and put in the coupon code (LHSCHOOL) to receive an additional 20% off!

Back to School {Weekly Wrap Up}

Back to school already?

Yes, we are doing school already. And, I admit, I wasn’t quite ready to get started this year. Norah Belle just showed up in our lives two months ago. I’m just starting to get my house back in order. But starting early does make sense for us. This will allow us the flexibility to take 2 weeks off in the fall, 3 weeks off at Christmas, and two weeks off in the spring while still getting in a full summer break next year as well as taking everyone’s birthday off and getting a few partial field trip weeks in the mix.

Our Week

Getting back into routine is always hard. This year will be my biggest year teaching. I’m officially teaching four: sixth grade, fourth grade, second grade, and first grade. That said, technically I’m teaching six. Ivy, preschool, is already asking to read and is the most excited about doing school. She wants to be involved and she wants my undivided attention. This will prove tricky since I’m more apt to multi-task between students needing instruction and those needing help or clarification. And Eli is in full-on potty training mode. Then there’s the normal challenges of life like nursing Norah and dealing with Eli’s toddler energy and other learning challenges like attention spans and reading delays.

I knew the only way I could accomplish my homeschooling goals this year was to make a few changes.

One, get up early.

Two, meet with the Lord daily.

I can’t even begin to tell you how hard this has been. I am a night owl. I LOVE staying up late and talking with the hubby over coffee or getting lost in a new Netflix series together. But it was very clear to me that this year I needed to get up by 6:30 and have some quiet time before my other early birds arose. It has been very hard but very worth it. Just meeting with God first thing on the quiet of my front porch swing has allowed me to face each day’s chaotic challenges in much healthier ways. The bonus is savoring a cup of coffee and some first of the morning conversation with my oldest boy. He is just entering junior high and I am enjoying getting to know him as a friend, not just a son. He’s funny, quirky and we’ve had some good heart to hearts just swinging together or enjoying the flowers in the morning sun.

Our week officially started with ART. Every year our schedule is so full and when unexpected life happens it always seems like the fun stuff gets pushed aside for the essentials. Well, this year I am determined to change that. I decided to make the fun stuff a priority for us. We are living life at home and while we do need to cover the essentials, I want the love of learning to stay passionately ignited in all of us. I want our home to ebb and flow with productivity and rest, creativity and logic.

We are starting with the basics of pencil drawing technique. This week we focused on seeing basic shapes in the world around us and translating that onto paper. We emphasized 3D shapes and practiced drawing cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones. This wonderful youtube tutuorial helped us. I was amazed at my 7 year old’s drawings. He was the only one to listen about how to hold the pencil and how to do the short, light sketching strokes. Maybe we have an artist in our midst! We used our geometric blocks as models which Eli thought was great fun to play with while the others worked.

Reading, reading, and more reading. Reading has been both rewarding and frustrating this year. My oldest two are reading every chance they get including sneaking books to the lunch table. (Brings back memories for me!) And my oldest daughter, nine, has finally discovered Harry Potter.  She has read 3 of the books in the past two weeks and watched the first two movies.

Luc is seven. He is my struggling reader. I pray daily for how to work with Luc. He is completely apathetic about reading and bucks against learning. My gut is to keep pushing but there is a fine line between challenging your child and killing their joy of learning. Luc does love to play. He plays everything he learns. And he would much rather be playing then in “school”. So this year we’ve decided to go with Batman phonics books. He still struggles. He still resists. But after he wades through a page and then practices rereading it a few times, his whole demeanor changes. A smile lights up his face. He can read about one of his favorite super heros and is so proud of himself. I wish I could say that changes his attitude and inspires him to keep practicing. It doesn’t. The next day it is right back to the start of this push and pull reading relationship.

But I’m confident that with enough perseverance we will make some major breakthroughs this year. Just look at that smiling boy reading with his mamma on the porch swing. Beats sitting at a desk, right?

Math for the older two is simple and easy. Teaching Textbooks have been our best friend. The kids LOVE doing their math on the computer. I love not having to teach it. I love that they love doing it and beg to do extra lessons in their free time. I love that it tutors them and grades them and tracks everything for me. The only drawback? It doesn’t start until third grade. That means Pre-K through second grade is still on me.

This year I will be doing all three. Ivy in Pre-K, Lilah in first grade, Luc in 2nd grade. We will be using a multi-level teaching style. I will focus on introducing a concept through a living book. All three will practice the concept through manipulatives at their own level. Each has a dry erase binder with practice sheets of concepts they need to practice. We will also be doing some fun picture mystery math pages. Emphasis will be on playing math to truly understand concepts and LOTS of living books that bring math to life without a textbook.

I’m super excited about science this year and so are the kids. We are using the Max Axiom graphic novel science series as our jumping off point. This is no ordinary science book. Don’t let the comic book style fool you. Each book covers a specific science concept…electricity, magnestism, states of matter, etc…in an in-depth way.  We will follow that up with watching a Bill Nye the Science Guy video and supplement with a hands-on experiment and Magic School Bus books and videos. My kids fell in love with Bill Nye last year and most all of them can be found free on you tube. 

This week we started off learning about the scientific method. We practiced using it with these wonderful printables from Crafty Classroom and used the same experiment they did in the Max Axiom book. In Bill Nye’s Do It Yourself Science we learned that science is repeatable and can be tested again even if you know the outcome. So we retested the experiment in the book of finding out what type of levee keeps more water from flooding a town: rocks, soil, or clay. We recorded our hypothesis and data. This upcoming week the older two will be learning how to share their findings through a science board display.

This year for history we are covering the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Reformation. Adam, who has a passion for history, will be teaching the older two as well as covering philosophy, logic, and the Bible with them. I will be supplementing through a healthy diet of living books, notebooking/lapbooking, and map work. 

This week we started off the year recapping the Roman period and overviewing how the Roman Empire fell and how Christianity spread through Europe. We focused on Constantine and we rounded it out with the story of St. George and the Dragon. Even I learned something new this week. I had heard stories of St. George but, fantastical as they are, they don’t beat the real story of him being a follower of Christ and refusing to bow down to the Roman Gods. He was tortured and martyred by decapitation under Emperor Diocletian for standing up in his faith.

And the best highlight of our week? 

This wonderful pencil sharpener that I bought used for $5 at a homeschool curriculum sale this summer. No more blisters. No more wasting time searching for a sharpened pencil when we should be working. No more pushing off art because the task of resharpening all those colored pencils just seems too daunting. I’m in love with this machine. It is not just an electrical pencil sharpener (had one of those…worked not at all) but an industrial pencil sharpener. My son laughed at me when I took a picture of this. But, to me, it is one of the most beautiful pictures of our week.

Joining up with…

Playing Doctor: Germs and Our Immune System

The kids have had great fun this week studying about germs. I figured, mainly since everyone had a cold, that this was a good place to start. We did a mini overall introduction to the human body last week with a few fun worksheets and watching Osmosis Jones. Of course, as you can see above, we dug out the doctor kit and the littles have been playing all week. They were even fighting over the outfit so their solution was that Lilah got the shirt and Luc the scrub pants. He made up for it by donning a mint green oxford button up. He actually did look like a doctor then! It made me smile.

Although we’ve read several good books and watched several good videos, I think the kids favorite activity was learning how to wash hands properly. Ivy has been in the bathroom every chance she gets now to put soap on her hands (and whatever else she can). Our house mess level has been high but overall the kids have been enjoying themselves. It has been harder sticking to the other schedule of maintaining math and language arts. The first week back is always hardest. My weekend plans, other than Eli’s birthday, is to tweak this part to make sure we stay on schedule. I think what will help the most will be me being even more prepared. I thought I was this time with everything all printed out but I’ve found it’s the little things that will make the biggest difference to us…already-sharpened pencils, papers already on clipboards the night before for each child, as much chores as possible already done the night before to make a smooth morning transition.

We studied how our body works to keep germs out, combat germs once they invade, and how our body naturally heals itself. We also read about the doctor and immunizations. Most of our technical stuff (for the older two) had to do with the job of white and red blood cells. Here is a sampling of what we used.

Free Resources:

• Magic School Bus: The Giant Germ Lapbook at yeeshallknow for the older students
• copywork pages from The Human Body Copywork (only $1.50 for 3 Volumes!!!)
• lapbook pieces from the pre-K Human Body Lapbook for the littles
• mini lapbook piece on the body healing (great for everyone to use) at 1+1+1+1

Living Books:

(There are many other great books to go along with this one.)

Other books we used:

• About Me (Childcraft) – great overall resource for a human body study with children. Worded as a living book and keeps the kids interest the entire time. Great for older or smaller children. Use the parts that go with what you are studying. We will use this book each week and just read bits and pieces as we go.
• The Giant Germ – a Magic School Bus chapter book that Gabe read independently this week.
• Judy Moody: The Doctor Is In – a chapter book that Lily read indepdendtly this week.
• Daisy The Doctor (Usborne) – a great read-aloud for the littles
• Bernstein Bears Go to the Doctor – another great picture book for the littles

Free Videos:

• Magic School Bus: Inside Ralphie – you can’t go wrong with Ms. Frizzle! Lots of great scientific information.
• Hand Washing for Kids – an adorable little cartoon kitty shows you the right way to wash hands
• Protect, Don’t Infect: Germ Wars – a great little cartoon similar to those old Saturday morning PSA’s on television…my kids loved this one!

Free Lessons ~ Health, Nutrition, and the Human Body for Healthy Kids

Discovered a great new site for homeschooling moms…

Nutrition for Healthy Kids is a blog dedicated to teaching our children about proper nutrition. This homeschooling momma steps out of the box and teaches young children to think critically about their food. Her lessons go way beyond the public school’s general 4 Food Groups philosophy. What’s the difference between organic and non-organic? Can you taste the difference? See the difference? She explores using the scientific theory to go through lessons on everything from basic food nutrition to grocery store plu codes and knowing what a GMO is. Each lesson comes with a downloadable worksheet for the kids to use in their science investigations. And there is lots of hands-on (with little prep work) and opportunities for field trips.

I was planning on doing a Nutrition, Health and Hygiene, and Anatomy and Physiology unit this upcoming winter anyway. A good can’t-go-outside science unit to work on.  This site will tuck in neatly to what we will already be doing. Besides, flu season is the perfect opportunity for a field trip to our doctor for a seasonal shot! And our kids have all been under-the-weather this week so it will be the perfect time to start studying about germs and how nutrition can heal your body. My goal is for the kids to take an active role in their own health and understand why mommy and daddy make some of the decisions we do. I want them to decide what foods will build their immune systems and I want them to begin the process of learning the basics of cooking. We will also be spending the winter planning our spring garden so that will also tie in nicely. We will also be focusing on two very important key biblical elements…the fruit of self-control paired with the freedom we have under Christ. I will be curious to see how their knowledge plays out over the season of over-indulgence!

Here are some other resources we will be using:

• The Human Anatomy Tour
• Anatomy Arcade
• Magic School Bus – Giant Germ Lapbook pdf
• Magic School Bus – Missing Bones Lapbook pdf
• Human Body Squidoo Lapbook (and other notebook links)
• Label-Me Human Anatomy pdf Worksheets
• Pre-K Nutrition Booklet
• My Body Lapbook (Homeschool Share)
• The Human Body Copywork (only  $1.50 for 3 Volumes!!!!!)
• American Dental Association’s pdf Color and Activity Sheets
• Drop of Blood 3D Model (Creekside Learning)
• Circulatory System Rap
• The Circulation Game
• Body Bingo
• The Immune System Game
• 3D Food Pyramid Craft (features 3 controversial theories)
• Traditional Food Pyramid Cut and Paste
• Brain Hemisphere Hat
• “Ectomy” Brain Game
• Junior High Study Guide Worksheets (to The Children’s Atlas of the Human Body)

If you’ve done any clicking, you can see we are going to have loads of fun with this study! We will use the books we have on our shelf first and then, if needed, supplement with the library. What do we have on our shelf? Take a peek!

I hope to add each week what we’ve done specifically for the week and what resources we used. This will allow for a more detailed list then I can provide here as well as lots of fun, free video links to specific units.

Our schedule:

• Week 1 – Germs, How the body heals, Doctors, Teeth and Dentists
• Week 2 – Nutrition, Vitamins and Minerals, Supermarket
• Week 3 – Anatomy: 5 Senses
• Week 4 – Anatomy: Cells, Bones, Muscles
• Week 5 – Anatomy: Heart, Lungs, Stomach

Fall Break ~ Caterpillars and Remembering 9/11

We’ve been on fall break around here. For me that entails LOTS of extra cleaning and organizing around the house. (Have you noticed it’s been kind of quiet around here?) For the kids it has entailed caterpillars. You may remember our post about our monarch caterpillars? Well, after several died due to Tachinid fly parasites, only one survived and turned into that beautiful Monarch butterfly.

It was a poignant moment. The morning of 9/11 we had read several stories dealing with the tragedy. The kids decided to make their own drawings based on the illustrations of Andrea Patel in On That Day While processing tragedy through art, our caterpillar died and broke free as a creature new, transformed, and utterly beautiful and full of hope. It was a glorious analogy for the hope that came out of that day for the still living. I’d show you a picture (I took beautiful ones of the butterfly with the kids while they were drawing) but, somehow, those pictures got accidentally deleted before I had a chance to post.

Since then, fall has dried the meadow grasses and we have had a caterpillar bonanza as woolly bears are flocking to the warmth of the concrete street. Everyday my kids are caterpillar hunting and coming home with hundreds of soft little fuzzies. And if you think I am exaggerating, proof is in the pictures. EVER DAY they hunt, EVERY DAY buckets and cups and bowls (even shoes) fill our porch with soft little pets to play with. I never knew there could be so many in one area! I think it is beginning to drive my husband crazy. Every night he dumps them out to escape to the wild or be eaten by birds and every night he finds more bucketfuls to empty. I love it. My kids are outside enjoying fresh air, playing, using imagination, and NOT playing video games. (I literally had to ban them the first week of fall break to even get them out the door.)

For more 9/11 inspiration (never too early to plan for next year…or pin it to visually remember), visit Elizabeth Foss at In The Heart of the Home.

~ 9/11 Stories for Kids ~

On That Day: A Book of Hope For Children

Fireboat

The Day America Cried

America Is Under Attack: The Day the Towers Fell

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

New York’s Bravest

I Was Born on 9/11

September 11 2001: A Simple Account for Children

The Little Chapel That Stood

Charlotte Mason Grammar ~ Free Language Lessons

Looking for a Charlotte Mason Grammar book that’s gentle yet thorough? Something with substance yet delightful to look at? A book that  you can curl on the couch and read conversationally? Well, then do I have some gems for you!

Today my oldest daughter (7) came to me requesting the grammar books we used to do (from Queen’s Homeschooling). I stopped buying them because she outgrew the phonics book she was using at the time and my eldest son wanted nitty-gritty grammar. We switched to Barron’s Painless Grammar for him (which he loves and reads in his free time…one of his favorite take-to-the-bathroom books) and just allowed her to concentrate on learning how to read fluently. Now she is asking for grammar again and she wants that Victorian feel to her grammar book. She highly enjoys the Charlotte Mason picture study and oral compositions and narrations whereas that part was drudgery for my son.

But as much as I wanted to grant her wish and order a Queen’s book, I’ve made myself a pledge to use what I have and not spend money on more homeschool supplies. Isn’t there a public domain copy of a Charlotte Mason style language lessons book I thought to myself? Yes, yes there was. But only the advanced Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl. The Primary Language Lessons I would have to buy.

 

 

    Intermediate Language Lessons, Vol II – Emma Serl

Oh, but what’s this? Primary Language Lessons by another author? Could it be the same? Would it work for us? I was very excited to find this set that covers all of the Grammar stage. I showed my daughter and she was excited and wanted to print it out today. I downloaded it for free, happy with myself for finding a solution when out of the corner of my eye I caught some other titles.                        

 

 

 Sheldon’s Primary Language Lessons

Sheldon’s advanced language lessons: Grammar and composition

And I started clicking and reading and getting very excited. Do others know this is out here???? A veritable treasure trove of elegant words and noble ideas and substantial, rare English usage. I feel like I won the homeschool lottery today! My only vice now is coveting the Kindle or iPad…how nice to skip printer and ink and download these 150+page books directly to a tablet for the young student to use. I see this perfect blending of antiquated substance and modern technology! Sigh. Next year maybe!

     Language Lessons: A First Book of English – Wilbur Fisk Gordy, William Edward Mead

Practical Composition and Rhetoric – William Edward Mead, Wilbur Fisk Gordy

I was very excited to see this Practical Composition and Rhetoric. what a perfect carry-over to learn and practice great writing skills…writing skills lost to most of our public school system today. I admit, being a public schooled child, that I will most likely learn as much as my junior high – high school student with this book!

 

 

Introductory Language Lessons – Lawton Bryan Evans

Elements of English – Lawton Bryan Evans

I know that sometimes following a more Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum leaves me feeling as if I’m not doing enough…what with shorter lessons, less subjects, less drill and a more gentle approach. Yet looking through these wonderful public domain treasures  left me in awe. We have lost the art of language. In our rush to get better test scores we have left behind words and ideas and language that shaped nations. Sure, we know grammar. Sure, we can diagram a sentence (well, some of us anyway). But can we take that technical knowledge and turn it into ideas and thoughts that capture the spirit and move us forward? I see very little of that these days. And I believe that may be why it is so hard (even for us…gasp…adults) to pick up a classical work and read it. We feel like we are wading through it and I believe it is because that sort of language doesn’t come naturally for us anymore. Reading it feels like going against the grain and leaves us tired and frustrated. How I don’t want that for my children!

Thought breeds thought; children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.”  ~ Charlotte Mason

P.S. I added all of these wonderful works to my Free Resources Page! Go check it out.

The Elements ~ a Lapbook and Trading Cards

We had a full school week here despite strep visiting our house. There was plenty of sunshine for outside play and bike rides and plenty of rain for inside work. I set up the workboxes for older independent study this week. And the littles got to have fun with a Mario math activity and this cute princess sorting game.

Most of the work was catchup of miscellaneous stuff that just needs to be done…those last few grammar and phonics lessons and the dreaded end-of-the-year-this-is-too-hard-mom math workbook pages. I threw in some history-oriented literature ~ Tom Sawyer for Gabe and the first Meet Samantha book for Lily ~ light history with no extra activities for a little break.

To break up the monotony of the school that needs to be done, I threw in some fun stuff. For Lily, she got to spend each day playing with the Math Interactive Dictionary. She looked up what she was specifically studying for that day and had fun play learning some more about it (base ten, symmetry, inches).

Gabe finally got to start the elements lapbook he’s been wanting to get to. (More science mom, less history has been his rally cry for the past month.) I found a wonderful lapbook on elements over at Homeschoolshare.com based on the book Fizz, Bubble, & Flash: Element Explorations and Atom Adventures ~ a wonderfully living book on elements with lots of fun experiment opportunities. We added these make-your-own Element Trading Cards to the mix (he is cutting them out and using them as the base for his lapbooking) and using The Elements and The Periodic Table: Elements with Style as reference books for looking up information.

And for copywork and poetry memorization he is learning a poem right out of the book.

A Periodic Poem

Each element has a spot on the Periodic Table,

Whether metal or gas, radioactive or stable.

You can find out its number, its symbol, its weight,

And from its position, its physical state.

Elements lined up in columns and rows,

The reason for this order, as each chemist knows,

Is that atoms are made up of still smaller bits,

(Figuring this out tested scientists’ wits!).

In the nucleus, protons and neutrons are found,

And a cloud of electrons is buzzing around.

First take one proton, put in its place;

Now you have hydrogen, the simplest case.

Add two neutrons and one more proton,

and suddenly, the hydrogen’s gone!

Now you have helium, quite different stuff…

You get the picture; I’ve said enough.

These tiny particles: they’re like building blocks

That make people and buldings, flowers and rocks.

They create all of the elements we find

In everyday things of every kind!

I feel like we got a good chunk of work done despite not getting to everything on my list. But my list never gets done. Even when I think I’ve only planned a little, it always turns out to be more then we have time for! How was your week?

Joining Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers @

A Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie

A Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie…

No, we don’t have an Aunt Bessie. That is the title of a new book we are using…or rather an old book reprinted and revamped by Queen’s Homeschool Supply. One of those true living books about nature that I longed to read to my children but had no clue how to expand that over into an actual study of nature.

Sandi Queen must have had that same thought and she did something wonderful with it by putting together a Discovering Nature Series just for busy moms like me who are mulit-level teaching and just can’t squeeze one more thing into our already-busy planning sessions!  I just love grass roots efforts of other talented homeschool moms that really fill a need that is not there. That is just what this book does. It is a great mix of living book and Charlotte Mason teaching style!

Sandi cleverly breaks the lessons into chapters from the original book. You read a chapter to wet your appetite and then use the corresponding activities to further your study. It’s perfect. Some activities are coloring, some are researching, some are drawing, some are hands-on. There is enough activities after each lesson to pick one or two of your favorites or match according to level of grade but not so many so that you may just decide to do them all.

This book has been a favorite of the kids. We’ve been doing it for three weeks now and have learned all about spiders and swallows and sparrows. I will definately be ordering the next two books after we are through with this one. Here are some pics of the kids enjoying their new nature study.

Other spider books we read (from our own home library collection) ~

Book Finds

There is no greater joy on a Saturday afternoon then coming home from the library with a bag stuffed with new books…that is, unless you also hit the bi-annual library sale and happened to walk home with 15 new living books for $13.50!!!!! Especially when 13 of the books were hardback and library bound (i.e. see kids can’t chew corners), 5 of the books we’ve already checked out several times and loved, and one of the books was a Nature Journal that has been on our Amazon wish list for a year!

Here’s our loot ~

History Living Books

Science Living Books

Math Living Books

And, as if that wasn’t enough, our monthly homeschool group provided a great opportunity to swap out some of my old for something new. And someone else’s old Junie. B. Jones books and Magic Tree House books became my children’s cherished new treasures that are being toted everywhere and devoured at unimaginable rates! Upcycling. Just love it!

The Learning Room ~ of Mice and Men

This week was a productive school week despite our whole crew getting reinfected and having another sick week! Daddy had to go in early all this week and that always allows us to get more schooling done. (Daddy is very distracting for momma in the best sort of ways!)

Between bleaching everything, boiling toothbrushes, cleaning puke bowls, double hot-washing sheets, and cleaning carpet, we amazingly started a new unit study on how our government works. And I’m so excited to share with you the books we found.

First, let me just say I will be putting together a post soon on all our resources for others to share so come back and visit us again!

I’ve been wondering when to do the whole government study thing for a while now. How do you fit that into a history schedule that you’ve got going that is rather chronological in order? But then Gabe casually walked up to me one day and asked what a President’s cabinet was if it wasn’t the kind in your kitchen. And Pop came up to me and casually asked if very soon he could take the kiddos down to the state capitol for a field trip. So I guess now would be as good as time as any to get started.

We read Vote! and We Are Citizens to start the week. These were both very helpful in getting a foundation of understanding about why all this government stuff even matters.

Then we read through this sweet little series by Peter and Cheryl Barnes that explores the three branches of our government. Why hasn’t anyone told me about these books? May I just rave for a minute about how well done they are!!! It is about a group of mice that go through the government process just as we people do. It is told in lyrical rhyme and just flows beautifully. And the attention to detail is amazing. It is a true living book that captures my youngest non-readers, who get a great introduction to concepts, and gives a great overview to my emerging readers, and provides great detail (architectural and historical) to an older child who is ready to dig in for a bit of research. It provides more complete information then I ever received in elementary social studies and it pulls everything together into a neat little package about why these things get done.

Woodrow for President takes us through the voting process including campaigning, primary versus general elections, parties, qualifications, virtues of good citizenship and so forth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woodrow, the White House Mouse takes us on a journey through the jobs of our President as well as an introduction to the White House and it’s different rooms and purposes. There is more information here then I ever learned in elementary school!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House Mouse, Senate Mouse teaches what the Legislative branch does and how the senate and house of represantives works together to pass a bill into a law. It also gives us an introduction into the workings of Washington D.C. and where all this takes place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marshall, the Courthouse Mouse introduces them to the Supreme Court and how that works. It also takes us inside the Supreme Court and compares to a courthouse that might appear in your town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can get the teacher guide to go with (which I did) and it is a wonderful resource full of discussion ideas, prompts for activities and research projects, how to get involved (through correspondance ~ complete with addresses they will need!), additional reading and kid-friendly websites for additional research. It also has a few coloring pages for the littles to feel involved and some copy-friendly templates for activity worksheets.

My kids LOVED reading these. I’m glad I sprung for them since my library didn’t carry them. We received used copies in good condition and the kids were tickled that all of our copies were autographed by the authors. One even had a typo in the book that the author had fixed and signed “Oops!” with her name underneath.

Gabe also read How the U.S. Government Works which is a bit dry but concisely explains concepts that he will need to know more about being the oldest. Mainly I wanted him to see why the three branches of government were started and this book does a good job of explaining in simplistic, yet detailed terms. He did an oral narration to me on the book and we went over how to say each of the branch names. I laugh everytime I think of how he was pronouncing legislative!

The older two worked on their math, of course, and Lily was excited to have finished her Kumon: Counting Coins book and her Kumon: Telling Time book. And I reread all the Moncure vowel books to the littles as well as Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosuars which rekindled Luc’s first love and spurred on a conversation about the tools needed for digging up real bones. (I love this book. It is perfect for homeschoolers who are trying to teach creation-based science even though this book is secular.)

That was all we did “formally” (due to the sick thing and all). But there was a lot of unschooling going on as well.

Lily was wondering about day and night and how God didn’t create the sun and moon till after the first days of creation so how could there be day and night yet and when did the first day actually start? Man, does she have some deep thinking in there! My husband and I were just discussing this the other night concerning our version of day compared to God’s in relation to the whole young earth-old earth theories. I had her flip through What Makes Day and Night after our discussion and set up a little hands-on experiment for her to observe for herself how the sun is connected to us counting days.

Gabe decided to get creative this week. He spent days working on this project of writing his own story. (Could be that his Mario game was taken away in a discipline decision. Imagine that…imagination blooms!) He was very serious about his work and frustrated when he finally put it all together and then couldn’t read it right beacause he had no idea what a margin was. We discussed the importance of margins and he went back and took the time to redo the whole booklet in order to get it just right. I was pretty impressed at how well he did with the quotes and comma usage.

Gabe was also seen carrying around his Painless Grammar book wherever he went…the living room, the dining room, the bathroom, to bed. That boy cracks me up. Who reads grammar?

Lily’s new Highlights magazine came in the mail and she just discovered the Table of Contents. I explained to her what this was, why it is used, and how to use it. She excitedly spent the next hour looking things up in her magazine.

Language Arts…check!

Gabe also found this Word Processing book in my pile of library books to go through (you know, that pile of books you have going that need a decision on whether to write this title down for future use.) I noticed him reading it on quite a few different occasions and finally said, as casually as I could, that he could use the computer if he actually wanted to try any of the exercises. He jumped on the chance and learned how to open and save a document, create a folder, store documents in his folder, and write a letter.

The Learning Room – School Shenanigans

Spring is upon us and it is bearing green. I will admit it is making me not want to work. I open the windows and smell the breeze, listen to the sound of the birds and it all makes me want to sit outside with a good book and a hot cup of coffee. And you should, I hear you saying. I know, I know. But I am inside looking at heaps of laundry that needs putting away and dishes piled up, a kitchen floor that needs mopping, more laundry that needs done, toys that need sorting ~ again ~ and a learning room that desperately needs to be organized now that all our new books for the year have come in. Sigh. It has been a rough week of kids being sick. But we went outside anyway. We declared it school. We were finding green for St. Patrick’s Day and looking for new signs of spring returning. Plus P.E. right? Can’t forget the exercise. It was good for our souls despite the wind whipping my hair at 60 mph! And the kids came back with quite the treasure trove of miscellaneous rocks and twigs.

Our school theme this week concentrated on the holiday. I love weeks like that. Some homeschoolers look at holiday worksheets and crafts and unit studies as too much extra busy work.  Let them enjoy it. Take a school break. But I have found that my kids actually look forward to it. Not a one was asking to not do school. And when it got too late in the day (since we were having company over) and I had to finish up dinner and have the kids get to chores, there was a loud chorus of groaning and please can we do some more school coming from their lips.

We found the most wonderful little freebie this week from Living Books Curriculum. It was a little holiday package with a living biography of St. Patrick and mapwork, copywork, and a fabulous color sheet. I let the kids color with the coveted color pencils while I read Amy Steedman’s Our Island Saints (Love her work! You can find more of it here.). It was a phenonomal example of a living book. I stopped periodically to have the kids narrate back what had happened and they did flawless narrations and remembered much more detail then I thought they would. One of those yeah-Charlotte-Mason-really-works!!! kind of days.

We then, as a group, worked on the Trinity Shamrock from Little Blots. This is a beloved favorite every year and we’ve done a different project for it each year. I love the depth that this tradition will bring to their adult faith when they get older.

Since we ran out of time we finished up the next day with a wonderful, simple phonics game for the littles and a St. Patrick’s Day Lapbook for the two older kids.

I worked with the two younger ones and we read My “e” Sound Box and Play with “a” and “t” to supplement.

The two older students had to use this time to practice working together. They each read St. Patrick’s Day and Let’s Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day then had to use teamwork to figure out how to fill out and put together their lapbooks. I stayed out of it and allowed them all the time they needed and the freedom for their result to turn out how they saw fit.

We used these fun little cards in the children’s treat bag and then again as copywork. So our little St. Patrick study took care of language arts, history, and art this week.

And for math we broke out the Monopoly game for the first time. I helped Luc along but we let Gabe and Lily fend for themselves. Gabe did excellent and had no problem using his multiplication and money counting skills. For him it was more about learning what a mortgage is and what property value means. For Lily it was a chance to do practical work with the money counting skills she’s been learning and some practice in triple-digit hundreds addition. For Luc we kept it simple in allowing him to count out his spaces on the board. The kids loved it. I think this game will start coming into rotation often.

Linking with Weird, Unsocialized Unschoolers @

Living Math for Elementary Students

In the process of ordering upcoming curriculum for the year, Ive been thinking a lot about Luc and how we want to do kindergarten with him this fall.  I knew we were going to be using the free online Progressive Phonics and our Bob books and Leap Frog videos. I just wasn’t sure about math. That is, until I found this book over at Queen’s Homeschooling Supplies.

We’ve done living math in the sense of reading a living math book from the library or our own collection. And the kids love this but it is, obviously, not enough for a full school year’s curriculum. Now, if you took the time to map out enough living math books and set up hands-on activities to go with them I am sure you can have a very fulfilling living math experience. But, since this isn’t my season for adding extra, this is the first, truly, Charlotte Mason style math book with a full scope and sequence for elementary students. It is really for students age 4-7 (hoping they’ll add more to the series) but will be a blessing for us this upcoming fall. I will be able to use it with Luc (5) and Lilah (3 1/2) at the same time. It is so endearing. Click the preview pdf to take a look!

We are doing the Life of Fred: Fractions with Gabe this fall instead of Math U See to see how he does with this style of living math. I think, because he is math oriented, that he will love it. How can you not love Fred? I am hoping that this dipping our toes into the world of living math will be a good thing for us. Here’s hoping!

Field Guides as Living Books

A field guide ~ that handy little book (or big book, as the case may be) that tells you factually exactly what you need to know about what you wanted to know about.

Not exactly what we think of when we think living books. Living books for me usually encompass thoughts about a really great story that captures my heart and emotions…ties me to a piece of knowledge, whether that be history or science or art or music or even math. Isn’t that the Charlotte Mason way?

It is, but oh can it be so much more!

Around this house it is the field guides that are the beloved books that steal my children’s hearts. It is the field guides that are in tatters with missing covers and a few torn pages, well-worn from the turning and turning that happens to them. It is the field guides that my children will turn to over and over that lead to the most interesting discussions and interest-led learning opportunities. It is the pictures that capture their imagination at the pre-reading level and then grow with them as they enter into the reading fold. It is the realist that touches them as their natural curiosity is insatiable.

And it was the same for me when I was a child. Yes, I remember falling in love with Laura Ingalls and Nancy Drew and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But, really, it was the Golden Guide’s pocket book on butterflies that captured me and stirred up my heart for later adult hobbies. So why shouldn’t it be the same for my children?

After all, Charlotte did say ~

…knowledge, that is, roughly, ideas clothed upon with facts, is the proper pabulum for mind. This food a child requires in large quantities and in great variety. The wide syllabus I have in view is intended in every point to meet some particular demand of the mind.   ~A Philosophy of Education p. 256.

And our favorite field guides around here:

Borders bargain at $9.99!

Hammond’s Animal Atlas

The same from my childhood with a new spiffy cover!

As well as all the other Golden Guide Pocket Books…especially the Pond Life

(Although, I personally like the older shabby chic cover better.)

Of course, we all remember this review! Great book, great bargain!

Extensive and up to date! Another Borders bargain!

(find here used at Amazon)

Universe…what can I say except this is a must see book! (another Borders bargain)

It takes you across our galaxy from stars to planets and moons to meteors all in the order of how many light years away from earth it is. And the pictures are phenomenal. One of my personal faves!

Visual Dictionary…bargain for us at Barnes and Nobles and now you can get it bargain priced as used!

Smithsonian’s Rock and Gem

Animal Tracks & Signs…a gift from Grandma!

(The poop quiz is their favorite, of course!)

Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Birds

I think we use this one on almost a daily basis in the spring time! And the diminutive size means it is constantly getting lost as little hands snatch it and carry it around in pockets and purses.

The Bird Songs Anthology…which they’ve looked at so much that we’ve had to glue the sound part on several times and now we just set it in with the stuffed birds basket. Most listened to bird? The ptarmigan. This erupts in giggles for hours! (And the giggling is contagious…just to warn you! Don’t believe me? Go hear for yourself!)

Field Guide to Wildflowers

(native to our forests in Nebraska…will update later with a picture since I can’t find one online)

Trees of North America

One of the best identifying books ever whether you have a pinecone, a leaf, a piece of bark or a tree seed. Real time pictures of each part of the tree…just flip pages until you see what you’re holding in your hand from that nature walk!

And, of course, we can’t forget the Crinkleroot Guides! I don’t think there is a book alive by him that we don’t love!

 

Guided Project Work

January 31 – February 4

At the beginning of the week I mentioned that during my potty training time with Ivy I would have the two older kids working on guided project work. I was very excited about this concept and the kids were too. We’ve done project work in the past with trying to allow the kids to pick and work on something that they were interested in but have had little success with this style (no matter how promising it seems at Camp Creek!!!). Mainly, it seems, because my kids seem to still want me there to guide them and I, having too many littles, end up not being able to be there in the way they want. Or the littles constantly get into their stuff thereby defeating the purpose of taking their time to complete a project.

I thought our new method would be more constructive. I let them pick out library books they were interested in. Then, unknowingly to them, I read through their books and put together a few mini projects they could use with their books. I incorporated their specific learning styles and what they need work on currently.  That way it would still be interest-led (i.e. no reading books mom made them read) yet still accomplish goals I had for them (i.e. math, reading practice, science, history, copywork, etc.) while freeing up mommy for toddler-devoted training time.

Lily’s Projects (seven years old)

• Reading 4 Fancy Nancy books (reading practice), writing new “fancy” words on heart templates with one word to describe their meaning (vocabulary, handwriting practice), paste those heart templates onto cardstock and decorate in a fancy way, paper punch each one and bind it into her very own fancy flashcard vocabulary set (project work, crafting).
• Read Mission Addition and solve the question at the end of each chapter (math with emphais on adding and value place). I made my own worksheet for her. Maybe if I ever learn how to do that whole pdf thing then I’ll share!
• Read Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying , tell mom an oral narration after each chapter, draw a picture narration, copy down a small portion of narration (that mom dictated) to go with picture narration, bind together in a folder (narration, reading practice with a chapter book, reading comprehension, copywork/penmanship, spelling, punctuation grammar practice).

 

Gabe’s Projects (nine years old)

• Read Mistakes That Worked and Accidents May Happen, pick top three favorite inventions from each book (six total), draw a picture narration of invention, include a short narration on who invented it, when invented, and the accident or mistake that caused the invention, copy a famous quote by Mark Twain, bind and make into a folder for show and tell to mom and dad (science, history, copywork, narration/reading comprehension, researching skills, project work, oral speech skills).
• Read Go Figure and Why Pi?, pick one project and one puzzle from each book, take the Go Figure math quiz, read specifically about pi from each book and do a notebooking page, copy a famous quote by Galileo, bind all work into a folder for show and tell to mom and dad (math with emphasis on story problems, math in the read world, how science and math merge, and introduction to pi and geometry; science; copywork; logic and problem solving skills, oral speech skills).

So, how did our week go?

Lily did very well. She really enjoyed all her projects and has been working diligently daily with little help from me other than asking how the occassional word is pronounced and having me help with the dictation for her copywork. I did discover that she needed coaching in narration, or more to the point summarization. She has never had a problem narrating for me and actually quite enjoys it. But this is her first chapter book that she’s methodically read through. So I noticed on her narration that she was having a hard time summarizing her thoughts as this is a much bigger story then she normally reads. So we talked about how a narration is just a summary of what happened so we needed to know what happened at the beginning of the chapter, in the middle of the chapter, and at the end of the chapter. We practiced on one of her Fancy Nancy books and then I think it clicked for her so her narration today was much improved!

Gabe started the week off strong. He loved working independently and that he was working through books that he already loved to read. But the novelty quickly wore off for him. Once he realized that he was actually going to be doing work and that some of his work was going to challenge him (i.e. that he wasn’t going to get it right the first time sort of thing) then he wanted to quit and give up. Even with the puzzles he first picked, not being able to do it in five minutes and perfect frustrated him and he sank to the lowest denomonator and did the puzzles that he’s already done before or were easy to figure out. (A homeschooling mother’s worst nightmare!) We talked a lot about perserverance and how rewarding it will feel to figure it out on his own. He seems dubious and is still coming to me for help instead of trying to do things on his own. I just keep redirecting him and reminding him why mommy is not helping this week. This may be one to talk over with the hubby.

Other unschooling fun ~

• Continued reading Little House in the Big Woods at lunch time. The kids just love this story and it has come up several times during other discussions such as why we are not buying lettuce right now for lunch sandwiches and grocery store food versus growing your own and preserving.
• Several independent crafting projects – mainly to make their own toys. We’ve got sock puppets galore and cereal boxes being made into cardboard houses.
• A lunch discussion today involving living math. Lily wanted to know just why it was that I was always saying (mainly at lunch) that we are having water so that the milk stretches  till I get to the store next (we go through 7+ gallons a week!). So I explained to Lily and Gabe about milk and pricing, which they didn’t think was very much. Then I had them guestimate how much we spent on food in one week and then for one month. (Gabe’s answer about $300 a month or $70 a week, Lily’s answer about $20 a week or $60 for the month.) I told them the real answer (between $500 – $600) and we talked about just why daddy works and what that money is used for. Then we talked again about milk prices and the sale and normal price of milk. We worked on averages to come up with a round figure and then practiced multiplying that by 7 gallons and then that number times 4 weeks (about $80 per month on just milk!) It was a good eye opener for them both. Lily is just now starting to understand the value of money and Gabe has a better grasp due to his lack of winter chore money from gram and pop.

Linking up with…

@ Wierd, Unsocialized Homeschoolers today! 

The Learning Room and an Amazing Book Review!

January  10 – 21, 2011

We have been spelling, spelling, spelling around here. Next Friday is the spelling bee. We got a late start this year because they didn’t have the lists prepared and I admit, I feel a bit nervous this time around. I know Gabe will do great but his competitive edge will either make for a really great day for him or make him miserable despite all our talks about good sportsmanship and just doing your best. But, really, I’m not that nervous for him. He’s gotten through three pages of list words at the fourth grade level and is aceing all his tests on spellingcity.com. Who I’m really nervous for is Lily. She wants so bad to do well and keep up and is getting frustrated with herself (she is not a naturally good speller) at still having to work on certain words over and over and over again. I’m trying to be as encouraging and supportive as I know how.

On the positive side, our Little House studies are going fantastic. We read two chapters yesterday and Gabe was begging for more. They really enjoy doing the lapbook work and we listened to some jigs yesterday (like Pa played on his fiddle) and we had quite the group of bouncing kids jigging around the house (bet our downstairs neighbors loved that!). Along with jigging we tried our hand at making maple syrup candy with our plethora of snow days. The kids gobbled it up but it was too soft. Would have been better had we had a candy thermometer. They also loved sampling the difference between “real” maple syrup and the hybrid stuff from the store. They noted the difference in flavor and had fun reading the ingredients label but thought each were equally tasty…especially when compared to the sample of more-common molasses they had which they thought tasted like medicine.

Speaking of snow…there has also been quite a lot of sledding going on around here. We have a perfect sledding hill next to our house and my husband has felt extra inspired to be taking the kids out in it. Better him then me, I say! Although, I did sneak outside for a few pics and to rescue my baby who was standing in a snow pile up to her knees, stuck, with tears iced to her cheeks. As much as you want to be a part of the gang at 20 months old, some things aren’t quite as much fun as anticipated!

But our most favorite part of the past 2 weeks…

This little gem of a book that I found on clearance (1/2 price!!!!!) at Barnes and Nobles.

It showcases all the elements in order, like a field guide, with a picture of each elemant in its natural state on one page and then a brief history with pictures of how and what it is used in on the opposite page.

It also showcases a mini-map of where it is on the periodic table; its atomic weight, density, radius, and crystal structure; and where it lies on the atomic emmission spectrum.

It is written by an author, Theodore Gray, who truly is passionate about this subject (a true living book!) and has a knack of drawing you right in despite the fact that you’re learning college level science! Case in point:

The very last column is the noble gases. Noble is used here in the sense of “above the business of the comman riffraff.” Noble gases almost never form compounds with each other or with any other elements.

Or

Alkali metals react with water to release hydrogen gas, which is highly flammable. When you throw a large enough lump of sodium into a lake, the result is a huge explosion a few seconds later. Depending on whether you took the right precaustions, this is either a thrilling and beautiful experience or the end of your life as you have known it when molten sodium sprays into your eyes, permanently blinding you.

Or

Almost everything you see in this book is sitting somewhere in my office, except that one thing the FBI confiscated and a few historical objects. I had a great time collecting these examples of the vibrant diversity of the elements, and I hope you have as much fun reading about them.

It is truly one of the most fascinating books I’ve looked at! And, to put the icing on the cake, it comes with a bonus DVD that plays The Elements Song by Tom Lehrer (a mathematician who wrote satirical educational songs, all of which I find greatly amusing!) . This song is already on our much-played science CD and the kids LOVE it! As the DVD is playing the song, you see the pictures of the elements flash on the screen then find their place on the periodic table. My husband bet the kids that whoever can memorize it first will win $10! If you listen to the song here you will know what a challenge that will be! Phonics? Pisshhh. That’s nothing on pronouncing ununoctium or yanomanmite!

My husband decided that we go through the book with the kids as a full science course. The kids seconded that vote. Then the kids decided (their idea…really, I didn’t even suggest it) that they draw a picture of each element. I just added the nice touch of putting a mini blank periodic table for them at the bottom of the page to “map” where that element is found. They thought that was a great addition and today a new science notebook was born! I loved how their first pages turned out and I would love to show you except my camera is on the fritz. (Hmm…maybe I’ll try scanning?) Gabe even mentioned today that even though they were doing school during their free time (a consequence of not finishing morning chores on time) that it was okay because this was cool and not really like school at all so he didn’t mind missing any free time.

Oh, how my homeschooling mom’s heart went pitter patter just then! Blessings this weekend!

Linked to:

Living Math

Today started out not quite as serene as yesterday…ironic considering I actually got the most amount of sleep last night then all other nights combined. I still woke up feeling like a train had run over me…head hurting, body aching, hip bones moving back together, sore throat. Maybe last’s night trip to the grocery store was a little premature on my part! Guess I still have some healing to do.

Yesterday we focused on language arts, today we focused on math. I had our two hour block all planned out but God had other plans. Gabe decided to do his workbook early so he would have time to play his new lego brickmaster kit. Adam came home from work unexpectedly when his lunch got canceled. Doing school while dad is home is always a chaotic struggle at best. But I was determined that we would forge ahead. I couldn’t give up on day two! Luckily, daddy set to giving kids baths and allowing for me to have a bath, much needed all around. This gave the older two time to get morning chores done while I was still groggily moving around trying to get things together and nurse the baby. Our two hour block turned in to a little here and a little there. But get done it did and I feel good about our day overall!

Here is what we did:

Formal Math

Gabe – Math U See Delta chapter 8 (video, 3 practice pages, and the test) over division

Lily – Kumon My Book of Time Minutes book and Kumon Counting Coins book (about 3 pages in each)

Informal Math

Living Books – Read first two chapters of Fractals, Googols and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas over lunch. The first chapter was on two dimensional objects and the second chapter was on decimals. The kids loved listening to these stories and begged for more. This is an excellent living book on math – one of the best I have ever seen! And the story on decimals sparked a learning moment conversation between Lily and I. She loved the story but had trouble understanding what it was about. We visually worked it out on paper together. I will be ordering his other two books this spring for the upcoming year!

Memory & Music – Listened to a compilation of math songs. Some of the songs came off the Best of Schoolhouse Rock while most of them were downloaded from the Counting Songs CD through Amazon. The kids absolutely LOVE these songs. They concentrate on skip counting and all ages love to dance and count to the rap-style beats.

Games/Spacial/Logic – Gabe played the flashcards game at Math Fact Cafe. All the kids played legos at the kitchen table. This carried over into most of the day for all of them.

Each week we will do one day of math with formal work first then a sensory break with the memory work through music, settling down with a living book and then free time spent playing a different math game either on the computer or physically with mom. I figure this gives us a wide variety of math choices and topics to pick from without tiring the kids while still focusing on math concepts for one whole day. We are working on this one subject a day thing (my husband’s idea). So far I like it. It is more easy going and is giving me a chance to do those things I always mean to do but always get pushed aside for what has to be done like the music and the games.

Saint Nicholas Day

It is back to the grindstone…back to school. And it feels, well, refreshing. The baby sleeps during our two hours of morning work. Spelling lists are downloaded for the HEN spelling bee and the kids are excited to practice spelling. Lily squeals in delight over her phonics II book. We read on the couch while muffins are baking. And we only concentrate on language arts today. No trying to squeeze in too much per dad’s request. There is order and it’s like a little slice of heaven!

We ease into structure on the perfect day ~ Saint Nicholas Day. The kids put out shoes by the fireplace the night before anticipating a treat as a new tradition is started!

We read about the true history of Santa Claus (okay…maybe there is some history thrown in! Go here for some great links and info!) and tied it in with the legend of the candy cane (fun site here and here). This afternoon we will decorate our tree and make paper snowflakes (here and here). There is activity and it motions the day forward…the momentum carrying us past many discipline issues that have been cropping up due to idle hands and too much freedom while mommy is trying to cope with a new house and new baby.

The day is far from perfect. Chocolate ends up on bed sheets and extra laundry is created. Two little kids still need to be quieted numerous times during the stories. A muffin ends up in a trillion pieces all over the couch and just-vacuumed living floor. A poopy diaper comes off prematurely due to eager toddler hands. There is still sibling squabbling and reminders to quiet down. Chores are still slow-going despite the numerous proddings from me. But overall there is normalcy and that is huge in my book right now! It is a light at the end of the tunnel and I get excited just thinking of sharing an actual learning day with you!

Language Arts Day

• Phonics: Lily works on silent ‘e’ and ‘ing’ words; I work with Luc on reading some Bob books
• Grammar & Mechanics: Gabe shows Lily how to look up the word ‘ridiculous‘ in the dictionary (from our morning reading at their request) and introduces her how to use guide words; Lily works on a Christmas worksheet on alphabetizing words
• Latin: Gabe reviews flashcards from Volumes I & II of workbooks
• Spelling: Both review the wordlist for the spelling bee and practice spelling words for me. We dot (with red pen) the words they hesitate over or get wrong. Dotted words are practiced at SpellingCity.com until mastery is achieved.
• Literature: read Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend and The Legend of Saint Nicholas and The Legend of the Candy Cane and (just for fun) The Christmas Troll by Eugene Peterson (author of The Message ~ and by far the fave of today’s reading for the kids)

Little House on the Prairie Lapbook Unit Study

Updated 10/11/15 – check below for more links including this incredible documentary! Like what you see in this post? Come join me for More Little House on the Prairie for more activities and book suggestions!

Now that we are done with the Civil War era (will back post on books and links this winter when I have a bit more downtime at home – but notice how I finally updated the book bar on the side!) we will be moving on to the Pioneer era. And what better way to do this then through the Little House on the Prairie book series? In fact, I know of very little who don’t love this series.  I remember watching the TV series as a small girl and falling in love with this time period. I can’t wait to share this with my children and let it become a memory of their’s as well. We will be studying the period lazily over the winter. By lazily I mean taking our time, delving deep, letting the books speak and guide our direction and interests. I have no idea how long it will take us.

We will be continuing our use of lapbooks with this study. We have found, through a bit of dabbling in it this year, that the kids respond to my choice of books better and remember the information better if they have this to look forward to after the readings. Lily loves lapbooks because it is much like scrapbooking our history information. Gabe loves it because it frees him of the burden of narrations. I have narrowed narrations down to one main narration per time period that they will stick in their lapbook/scrapbook and it will be based on a book of their choice to read from that time period. I know this isn’t quite the Charlotte Mason way but it still fits and I have to do what is right for my family as God whispered to a dear church friend who wrote it to me in an encouraging note. This worked so well while studying the Civil War and Gabe ended up doing a lovely narration effortlessly when allowed to choose what he thought was an exciting book, not what I thought.

Luckily, Homeschool Share has a free lapbook for each of the original Little House series beautifully made by Heather L. This is the main site I used to download pdf files for our use. I have fallen in love with this site! I encourage every homeschooling mother to go there and poke around.

First of all, here are the living books we will be using:

The Little House on the Prairie Book Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

starting with

Little House in the Big Woods (perfect now that we have a forest in our backyard!)

We will also read all of the My First Little House Picture Books concentrating on the winter ones first since we are in that season.

And read a living biography on Laura Ingalls Wilder

As spines alongside our literature study we will use If You Were a Pioneer on the Prairie

as well as A Pioneer Sample: Daily Life of a Pioneer Family in 1840

and Look Inside a Log Cabin by Mari Schuh

These three books will be great sources of information for making the lapbooks and answering questions about the time period. And to delve into the science of the period we will be, obviously, studying prairie grassland habitats through these books:

One Day in the Prairie by Jean Craighead George

A Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet by Claudia McGehee

Prairie Food Chains by Kelley MacAulay

and America’s Prairies and Grasslands Guide to Plant and Animals by Marianne D. Wallace

And for activities to supplement or add to the study:

• Lapbook for Little House in the Big Woods
• Additional Lapbook Templates for Little House in the Big Woods
• Watching the DVD series of Little House on the Prairie
• Cooking from The Little House Cookbook
• Crafting from the My Little House Sewing Book
• Host a Little House on the Prairie Party
• Make Pioneer Children Paper Dolls
• Make Your Own Butter
• Make Your Own Rock Candy
• Make Play dough Sod Houses
• Make Pioneer Peg Clothespin People
• Listening to Pa’s Fiddle on Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Wilder audio CD
• Maybe learning some songs from The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook

Updated – 10/11/15

I’d have never guessed when I first wrote this post almost 5 years ago how popular it would become! Besides my Rock and Mineral Unit Study post, this page keeps my tiny blog afloat amid the absence of current posts that my seven kids lovingly prevent me from writing! 

And today I’m excited to add a few nuggets to the Little House extravaganza. Thanks to the generosity of the blog Little House on the Prairie, I’ve been able to add a number of free activities above such as how to host a Little House on the Prairie party, how to make rock candy, and even free printable Little House paper dolls – which are way super cute! They are also sending me a copy of their new documentary “The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder” to review which I’m super excited about. Will be reviewing and linking back to here very soon. You must go over and watch the trailer. Maybe I’m a bit of a nerd, but watching this has me like a child running to check the mailbox everyday looking for that package! 

And now you can also enjoy a little slice of this Americana too. The people behind  Little House on the Prairie are offering a coupon code which allows you 20% off the already low price of $19.95. This is an excellent addition to any homeschool living history library. Just click on their  Amazon link and add to your cart. Enter LHSCHOOL into the promotion code box when checking out. Voila! Instant savings!

What we are reading…

OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!!

Slow Reading

Are you a slow reader?

I don’t mean slow in that it takes you a week to read a book that might take someone else 3 days. What I mean is do you slow down enough in life to read? Whether for pleasure or information, reading is enjoyable and takes time to digest. The internet often interferes with this and actually worsens peoples reading attention spans turning us into hopeless skimmers (for a great article click here).

And what about these new-fangled e-readers? Do they serve a purpose? Can they replace books? Should they? For a positive spin from a true bookworm read here. After reading I was almost convinced that maybe they would have value. But then I picked up a book and took it to bed with me and changed my mind.

And then there’s this whole green movement. For those of us (and who isn’t in the homeschooling community?) who are very aware of the global impact and how it will affect our children, maybe e-readers wouldn’t be such a bad thing? But, yet again, I was rescued from the flawed logic by reading this wonderful post at a slow-reading blog entitled “Read a Book, Save a Tree”. Now who isn’t tempted by that?

It, of course, makes me think of my children and how I want them brought up…influenced…what memories I want them to cherish. Reading is a memory I want etched on their hearts forever. I do not want “education” to spoil this or the use of too much technology. I want to keep my kids immersed in fertile soil, always strewing books around that they can’t help but want to pick up, curl up in a chair and let time slip away. These are where the seeds of a new generation are born.

And the next book I will be putting on my library request list to curl up with in a cozy chair with a hot cup of coffee: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr.

Enjoy your weekend and read a book!