We have recently been a part of a 'flat traveler' exchange.  This was the first time I'd ever done anything like this and so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was not disappointed and it was very exciting to get our 'traveler' back last week with his little package of goodies!

This is our traveler.  He's a Canadian Goose that my dd drew and we had him laminated.



We sent him all the way over the Atlantic Ocean to a family in Northern Ireland.  Here is the package that he was returned with:



It was so exciting for the kids to see what was inside!  They even sent treats!  They put lots of work into filling our little 'travel log' as well as making their own book filled with postcards and interesting information about Northern Ireland.



One of my favourite items was a sachet made from Irish Linen.  It was beautiful and I could feel the quality in the linen.  My mom was born in Northern Ireland and so to have something like that was special.
Here it is with a sample of the flax and linen thread from the Thomas Ferguson Irish Linen factory:



We are still working on getting our package together to send back. It sure is a neat thing for the kids to do and I would do it again!

(I stand corrected.  It is not a Canadian Goose, but a Canada Goose!  Thanks R!)

My dd has always struggled with spelling.  She would ask how to spell a word and then the very next day get it wrong again.  I was always unsure at how to teach it.  All I knew was the way I had been taught spelling in school; you're given a list of words to memorize for a test at the end of the week.
Well, knowing that my dd is a visual learner, I decided to give Sequential Spelling a try.

Their approach is very visual, grouping the words in such a way that patterns are easily visible.  Also, a new list is given every day, in each lesson and the child corrects their own work seeing any mistakes right away.  I wondered how this would work, having no test to study for, but as it turns out, it is very effective.

My dd came to me the other day and said that the spelling we had been doing was helping her to know how to spell words! Yay! That's what it's all about!  It's so exciting when they are excited about it too and able to realize that they're actually putting something to use.

We have been working through Story of the World Vol. 2 by Susan Wise Bauer.
One of the suggested activities is to make up your own kingdom.
This is what my kids came up with:

Chickadee named hers "Jade Kingdom"


Raven called his "The May",


and Kingfisher named his kingdom "Scotland Yard".
(That prompted the question "Why do they call it 'Scotland Yard' when it's in England?".
My answer: "Well, I don't know, but we'll find out!")


Today is a busy day and so that is all I have to share, but I'll be sure to let you know what we find out about Scotland Yard!!
Blessings!

There are so many reasons that I love homeschooling.  The other day I was wondering if there were actually any 'cons'.  I couldn't come up with any except that my house might be little cleaner if 3 of my kids were absent all day.  That definitely does not out weigh the 'pros'!!

Sometimes I wonder if my children are learning anything and then something like this happens:
We have been reading through the book of Exodus.  I was inspired by another homeschool mom who wanted her children to have read through the entire Bible, so they read a chapter a day.  We are doing the same.   We started in Genesis and are working our way through.  Every day that we do 'school', we read a chapter. 

I have posted before that my 3rd child, Kingfisher is an active one.  He would not survive in public school because he cannot sit still to save his life!! He would be the class clown, constantly goofing off and talking to those around him.  Although I know that learning to sit still is something he will need to master as he grows, the beauty of homeschooling is being able to work with how each of my children are made.

We do a lot of reading aloud and I do allow the kids to stay busy while I read.  As long as they are quiet and listening, their hands can be busy with something.  Well, sometimes Kingfisher is so active that I really do wonder if he's paying attention.

The part of exodus we're reading is all about the tabernacle.  It can be quite boring to listen to I'm sure as so many of the verses sound repetitive. 
Well, Kingfisher was  playing with blocks and  he was so excited to show me what he had made.

It was this:



His own model tabernacle!
He has been listening!! And not only that, it piqued his interest enough to spread into his play.  That excites me so much and confirms in my heart that I am doing the right thing!
Blessings!

Autumn just lends itself to nature study, don't you think?
When I was a kid, I thought Autumn was depressing.  Everything turned brown and dead looking and it rained a lot. (We do get our fair share of rain!)  But so much is going on in nature that I never knew back then.  I tell ya, I'm learning more as a homeschool mom than I ever did as a 'public school' student!
 
I love Autumn and I love showing my kids all the wonderful things about it.  This is our Father's world indeed!

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch.  It was pouring rain, but we donned our boots and my handy plastic stroller cover and went exploring.  This particular 'patch' is an actual working farm with a dairy, apple orchard, Christmas trees and of course, pumpkins.   There were lots of animals to see; llamas, goats, bunnies, chickens, clydesdales, and big oxen. Oh yeah, and sows with the most adorable piglets!
There were lots of groups of children from day care centers and pre schools.  They all wore little identifying vests  and moved about in herds.  At times it felt hectic when they all gathered around the animals, but it was nice to be able to linger and explore on our own.  I did not take any photos as it was raining, but in spite of the rain we had a great day.

Today, naturally, the sun has come out, and as much as I want to 'hit the books' after our field trip yesterday, I feel a nature walk coming on!!

I've just received "A Child's Geography" and "A Child's Geography Vol.2", by Ann Voskamp and Tonia Peckover.

They look absolutely wonderful.  I ordered them sight unseen.  My only research had been online.  As I opened them up they looked just as wonderful as I thought they'd be.  I can't wait to to use them.  I hope my kids are as excited!  I hope to at least get through the first one this year and then move on to  volume 2.  It focuses on the Holy Land.  Check them out at: www.achildsgeography.com

I love to get new books, but old ones can be just as fun! 
My hubby did some work on a house that belonged to a homeschooling family.  Their children are in their teens and they were getting rid of some of their old(some is actually new!) school stuff.  She,the mom, knew that we homeschooled and asked my hubby if we would be interested in it.  I was pretty excited when he called and said he was bringing home some homeschool books.  When he showed up with eight boxes it was like Christmas in August for me!  What a blessing!  Most of it we will use and I'm going to pass on the rest to my homeschool friends and our support group library.

Well, the work on getting our schoolroom organized slow, but steady.  Hopefully it will be ready by next week when I plan to start. 
In the meantime, I'm working on schedules and sorting out what it is that everybody is going to be working on this year.  I'll post it when I've got it figured out.
Blessings!

So much to blog about, so little time!
I'll just share some recent goings on:

My two wee ones have a cold.  It's especially hard with the 5mos old.  She's been in and out of a low grade fever all weekend and wouldn't sleep unless she was held.  It made for tiring weekend for me.   She seems more herself today, but still has a cough.

We had a funeral for a little bird today.  The kids found it dead in the backyard.  I think it was a Black-capped Chickadee, although part of it's head was, well, missing.  So I dug a hole and we burried it in the bush.  I said a prayer(I even began to feel emotional! ) and my dd made a little grave marker.

My 8yrds is hooked on Google Maps.  He discovered it a little while ago when we were looking for directions for something.  He's been cruising the globe ever since.  He's found the pyramids in Egypt, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, our house, and much more.  Now, whenever we're discussing a place or if he reads about something, he has to go and look it up on Google Maps.   It's great for a geography lesson!

I have a great idea if you have a kid who is distracted easily during school.  We don't have the luxury of having a separate school school room and so seat work is done at the kitchen table.  My 9yrdd gets distracted very easily.  To help her concentrate she sometimes wears industrial headphones!  It helps to block out any background noise.
My hubby also wears them when there's a fussy baby and he's got to get to sleep!

Something I've been wanting to include in our homeschool is Afternoon Tea Time.  I've been reading about it at some other blogs,(I'll post a link at the end, for some reason it wont let me here.)  and I really like the idea. 
I already have a collection of tea cups that I need to use more often.  I like a cup of tea in the afternoon as it is and it'd be a good chance to teach proper manners by creating a formal atmoshpere.  I hope to include some kind of short devotional or poetry reading and I don't think we'd be able to do it every day, but maybe two days a week and maybe I'll coincide it with baking day.  I'll let you know how it goes when I do it.  I'm still taking mental notes on how I want to implement it. 

Well, those are my rambling thoughts for the day,
Blessings!

This is one of the blogs where I've read about Tea Time:
Grace Like Rain