Our county just went back to school a week ago. 

We started our family's homeschool back-to-classes in July, and this week marked the end of our first term, or 9-weeks. 

My parents are here visiting us, and while the public schoolers were in classes, we were enjoying doing Latin and Addition flashcards in the back seat of the min-van while we drove Grandma & Grandpa to fun places for field trips.  We've watched a cool video together for our Polar Regions Unit Study.  DD read new books that she received from them.  Gpa read aloud a great story about Admiral Peary that both he and DD learned a lot from.  We even had a "spelling bee" one evening, and have been playing Scrabble and other games.

One more reason I'm glad we homeschool -- I could never dream of our kids missing out on all the fun we've had so they could wake up early to catch the bus, be away 8 hours a day, come home to do homework, go to bed early, etc.  What a blessing!  Why would people choose any other way?

I've been thinking about getting Mona Brook's book, "Drawing with Children" -- have perused it in the bookstore, heard wonderful things about it -- just haven't gotten it yet.  It's one of those books on the "Want to Have" list.

Well, today I found a site that has some drawing exercises very similar to her's on Donna Young's site.  I think these will help get us started.....

http://art.donnayoung.org/draw1.htm

On this page are tons of links for reading lists.  Definition is as follows:

"Whether you're looking for booklists to print out for your library binder, need online resources, or want a published book about reading good books, there is something here for everyone involved in educating themselves and their children. Published books follow the online resources."

http://home.att.net/~bandcparker/reading.html

Math: 

1. The stack of 0-9 addition flashcards

Reading:

1. Little House in the Big Woods (Abby read aloud rest of Ch1 & all Ch 2)

2.  Free reading

Lang Arts: 

1.  Handwriting worksheet -- Abby dictated to me what she remembered from Addy, book 1, of the Am. Girl, and then she completed it.  (We read it this summer -- her memory amazes us.)

2.  A couple of Jr. Mad Libs

Science:

1.  Digestive System - played "Anatomia" game.

My, oh my, did I find a marvelous find on the 'net tonight!  It's located at:

http://www.monroe.k12.la.us/~mhen/onlinelearn.htm

Just click the link to see all of the wonderful links

to free online learning activities! 

(Sorry, I can't vouch for all of the links' contents or if any are broken.) 

Abby requested last night to "start school" again.  So with that, I said, "Sure!"

She climbed into bed this morning with me around 8 am and we snuggled for a while.  (Reason #267 that we homeschool, tee, hee.  It's times like these I feel bad for the moms & kids who have to wake up at 6/6:30 am to rush around & get ready for the bus that comes around 7:30am!) 

We checked on Little Guy, who was sleeping, so I opened his door, and went to get breakfast.  This is a switch, because when G&G were here, they said they usually heard him up early -- one time at 3:30 am! -- just playing as happily as can be.  They were pretty impressed that we've trained him to stay in his room until we come and get him.  So either he slept that long, OR he had gotten up early and got tired of playing and waiting for me to get him, and ended up going back to sleep. 

Little Guy came out of his room shortly and we had a leisurely breakfast.  Then the kids got dressed, with breaks for playing.  Finally, we started addition flashcards, and DD surprised me by not being too slow or making a lot of mistakes after 2 weeks off.  We then took a lunchbreak and played for a bit. 

Then it was time for Little Guy's nap and although he had a hard time going down (wanted to play -- I think he is outgrowing his afternoon nap.  YIKES!), he finally fell asleep.

DD then dictated a story that I made into a handwriting worksheet for her at the www.handwritingforkids.com site.  Afterwards, I let her do  reading and she choose to read almost all of the first chapter of "The Little House in the Big Woods."  She would stop and comment on it and ask questions.  We then played "Spell Down" and Kids' Sequence and she worked in a great activity book that her great-aunt gave her for Cmas.  We also read aloud "Just Plain Fancy."  (A very cute book about a little Amish girl who hatches a peacock and is worried it's too fancy for her community!)

Here is Abby's story that she dictated to me today for handwriting: 

Penny

Penny belonged to My Nye.

He did not feed her apples.

He yelled at her.

He beat her.

Felicity gave her apples.

She snuck out and rode Penny.

My. Nye was angry with Felicity.

Felicity helped Penny escape.

(Can you tell that she is an America Girl fan?)

Here are a ton of links to wonderful Bible timelines. 

http://www.abiblestudy.com/
http://www.mustardseed.net/timeline/timeline-top.html
http://www.achievebalance.com/data/timeline/
http://www.wordsight.org/btl/000_btl-fp.htm
http://tinyurl.com/838vh
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/timeline.stm
http://www.adamictimeline.com/today.html
http://agards-bible-timeline.com/timeline_online.html
http://www.olivetree.com/history/
http://www.sundayschoolresources.com/timeline1.htm
http://www.bible-history.com/rome/RomeTimeline__Biblical_History.htm
http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/parallel/timeline/index.html
http://home.ccil.org/~wood/biblcmp/timeline.html
http://www.catholichomeschooling.com/curr/timeline.htm
http://www.bible.ca/b-bible-timeline-history.htm

And here's an impressive list of various timelines:

http://www.bible-history.com/subcat.php?id=23

Free World History Course from a Christian perspective: http://www.hyperhistory.net/

Sand Dollar Among Sea Foam

~Taken on our Nature Walk on Dec. 29, 2005~

Grandma and Grandpa are visiting, so we went to the beach this afternoon.  (A five-minute ride from our house.)  It was perfect -- no crowd( except for a few locals & Christmas vistors), sunny, jacket weather, with enough wind to not be chilly, but enough to whip up some sea foam from the waves.  Today we found 2 wonderful (and rare) finds.

#1.  Sand Dollars.  Usually these break-up before landing on the beach, but today we were blessed to find 2 - one large and one small.  So G&G will get to take one home with them, while the other one will go in the kids' bathroom which is a beach theme.  These will encourage us to go on a rabbit trail over the next few days to find out more about these neat critters.

• http://www.gma.org/Tidings/sanddollar.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_dollar
• http://www.ehow.com/how_17517_find-sand-dollars.html

#2.  Skate Case.  These are sometimes called "mermaid purses" but a friend calls them "the devil's pocketbook."  This one was very neat because it was INTACT -- usually when they wash up on shore, they have a slit in them where the baby skate hatched out.  We took it home and disected it.  No baby skate was inside, which lead to a lot of questions that my daughter and I batted around.  Did it just not develop?  Was it even fertilized?  Could it have gotten out a different way?  The case is very sturdy, almost like a black leather.  Another fun creature that we to explore ...

• http://www.njmsc.org/Education/Lesson%20Plans/Skates.html  (has facts about skates & neat pictures of baby skates hatching!)
• http://www.elasmodiver.com/big_skate.htm (cool pics of Big Skates)
• http://www.sharktrust.org/cgi/eggcase/index.asp  (very neat site with lots of info, and ideas to encourage your little marine biologists -- perhaps they can do a fact finding mission and count and measure skate cases on your beach)

A fabulous Christmas gift that I got the kids were foamies.  Before Christmas, 3 of my friends and I were going browsing at  Michaels  (on a VERY rare Mom's night out), and braingstorming was high among us.  They were having a sale on foamies (1/2 off so less than $4), so we were coming up with all sorts of uses for them.

STORAGE & GIFT IDEA:  Because so many come in the tub, I divided them in small Rubbermade "Take Alongs," Glad/Ziploc plastic containers, and ziploc baggies that I had gotten at the dollar store, and put them in plastic totes with handles on the lids. (You could do the same with shoe boxes, etc.)  I label the tote with what supplies are inside (in this case, "Tyson's Foamies," etc,  and put them on the shelves for the kids in our school area. 

I also only used HALF of the foamies that come in the orginal packaging because as there are so many,  there will be more for additional gifts for their birthdays, etc.

IDEA #1:   For both of the kids, I got "ABC, 123" shapes that had animals in them too.  They can use them in art projects.  Little Guy is 2, so he will enjoy the animals and will start to recognize the letter and number, while 6 y.o. Darling Daughter can use them for "telling" me the answers to math problems and for spelling out words and short sentences.  They will also use these in art work and letters to send to family and friends, since they are flat and will fit in envelopes easily.

IDEA #2:  I also bought large sheets of foamie "paper" and using templates from my scrapbooking supply and the internet, I cut out people, clothes, shapes, frames, leaves, flowers, etc. for the kids to decorate.  MUCH cheaper that buying the precut packages at the store and I have lots of sheets left over for future projects & presents.

IDEA # 3:  For Darling Daughter, I also got her the big foam beads in different shapes so she could use her creativity in creating necklaces, etc.  It helps prepare little ones for needlework and REALLY helps with fine motor coordination.  For Little Guy, I could use them in the future to help him sort shapes and lacing.  For Darling Daughter, we could also use them for math manipulatives.

IDEA #4:  My dear friend who is in charge of our children's ministry and I came up with this one.  Our church uses curriculum from 252 Basics and every month, there is a bible verse and character trait definition to memorize.  She picked up the doorknob hangers, and together we come up with the idea to put a frame on the front with an opening on top to slip in a new card every month containing the verse, etc.  The kids can keep them on the door to their rooms and this will help them memorize their verse and virtues for the month.

My lesson at our local homeschool co-op on a Friday before Chrismas Break was "Is There Any Nature in the Wintertime?" & "What Do Animals Do Now?"  I have been teaching Nature Study since this September, and have just loved this little group. 

  Honesty Point:  I’ve taught up to TWELVE 3 to 8 year olds in this class some weeks!  Talk about everybody everywhere!   Thank goodness for the mommies who help me out.  To also help with the “chaos control”, I used a little lesson about our senses.  Before we started each week, I would say and have them point to each part of the body we talked about and we did little actions:

”Our EYES are for LOOKING.”

“Our BRAINS are for THINKING.”

“Our EARS are for LISTENING.”

“Our MOUTHS are for QUIET when Miss Karla is talking.”

“Our HANDS are for FEELING & FINDING.” (And “raising” when you have a question – something we are working on, but in all honesty, I love how they get so excited that they just can’t contain it.)

“Our FEET are for WALKING when its time to WALK.”

“Our BOTTOMS are for SITTING.”

  As six bouncy and sweet 3 to 8 year-olds made spiders at the craft table from foam circles and black thin pieces of paper (along with my 2 yo son who ambled back and forth in the room from the craft table to the toy box), all of them answered my first question with: "Miss Karla, there's no nature to see any more!" 

  I said, "Hum....  yes, the earth can look pretty brown & dead right now with it being so cold."  So we used that time to review: "What does happen to trees in the winter?" and the kiddos were able to recall what we had learned about leaves turning colors, how trees "rest" in the winter and how the sap goes down to the roots -- along with how in the spring it comes up and brings us maple syrup!  Hurray, kids, for remembering all that!

  “So you guys think all of nature is done?”

“Yes!”

 "Did any of you get a Christmas tree?"

“Yes!”

 "Do you see birds in your backyard?”

“Yes!”

 “Are they nature?”

“Yes!”  And then it clicked:  “There IS still nature to see!” they said excited.

  “So you can STILL see nature.  There are still trees with needles like your Christmas tree, and there are leaves on some, like the live oaks and holly.  But what happens to the animals?”

  And from there, we learned about HIBERNATION and MIGRATION and how some animals ADAPT and still come out in the winter months.  I told them we made the spiders because when our family had gone to the mountains in November, we had visited a cavern and saw how the daddy longlegs had crawled in the crevices of it and huddled together.  I love how learning just flows – we got to talk about caverns, how they stay the same temperature year round, what animals live in them, etc.

  From there, someone mentioned that BEARS live in caves.  Smart kids – exactly what I wanted to talk about as an example of HIBERNATION!

  After our talk about that, we discussed MIGRATION and reviewed about BUTTERFLIES, which we had learned in October, and how they go to Mexico.  I showed them the flight paths of geese, and how some come right down to OUR AREA of the Carolinas and the Atlantic South for the winter!  I also shared with them about visiting Desoto National Wildlife Refuge when I was a little girl growing up in Nebraska, and how you could see hundreds of geese, sandhill cranes, etc as they took their flight south.  (For more information, go to http://www.fws.gov/midwest/DeSoto/)

  Finally, we talked about how animals ADAPT.  Some rabbits turn white, animals grow more hair and are fat from eating all summer and fall, some sleep when it’s cold and come out during warmer days.  The little ones added their excited comments and chatter, all squirming with the important things they wanted to share.  I showed them a picture of a squirrel’s nest, and encouraged them to look for them this week at home.  One little girl said, “We have a TON of those!”  (Of course, I’m envious, because I haven’t seen any yet down here – guess I’ll have to “put my eyes on” too.)

  Finally, I showed them a piece of holly with berries that I had brought from my house, sharing with them about how God made the berries for the birds to eat in the winter months (with a caution that God made them for the birds, not little kids). 

How sweet it was to wrap up our class for the semeseter by reviewing about the critters and plants we've studied this fall, what happens to all of them in the winter, and how God provides for them!