Our Four Ring Circus

Sep. 27, 2006

Astronomy

In thinking about an entry for the latest contest, I had to share the system we use with our favorite course. It isn't a single lesson plan but a series of lessons plans. I'm also including the results of a few of our favorite lessons from the course.

I've been around Christian curricula for more than 30 years but I have not encountered any with which I could not find some fault until I discovered Apologia Astronomy by Jeannie Fulbright. I just don't know how you could improve upon this course.

In order to get the most out of the wonderful information she has included, I make review worksheets which we fill out at the end of each chapter.

Here is a sample worksheet for the chapter on the planet Earth: Earth Review. (The rest of the chapters are available in my sidebar under the Astronomy heading. All worksheets are in Microsoft Word.)

When we have completed the reading for the chapter, each child gets a copy of the worksheet which we go over together and they each fill it out for their Astronomy Notebook.

At the beginning of each year, we take the first week to go back through our notebooks and review all the information we learned. By including this fairly thorough review, I hope we will be able to retain much of the information presented in this fantastic course.

Since we only completed part of the course last year, we went over our notebook at the start of this year and I was amazed at how much detail they remembered.

One of our favorite lessons in this course included an assignment to come up with a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets. Of course we completed this last year when Pluto was still counted among them. Here is the result of our effort:

Many
Very
Excited
Monkeys
Jumped
Screaming
Under
Noxious
P@@p

At 3, 6 & 7 years of age, they thought this was great and have never forgotten it.

Today the children made Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our solar system. As you can see, when it comes to science, everyone wants a piece of the action.

This post is my entry to win a camera in the "Share Your Favorite Lesson Plan" Contest sponsored by Sprittibee and Academic Superstore.

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Comments

Sep. 28, 2006 - Cool Volcano

Posted by Ruth

It is very hard to find just the right curriculum to fit all your needs. I would like to be able to do history and science with both of my children together next year and am trying to find the right curriculum. I will have to look into the Apologia. Do you recommend a good history curriculum I could use with both of my kids? My daughter will be in 9th grade next year and my son in 5th. Where can I find out about these cool contests I read about on so many blogs?
Have a blessed day!

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Sep. 28, 2006 - Volcanoes are fun!

Posted by sprittibee

We've done that type of volcano, too... much safer than the Amonium Dichromate. ;) *sheepish grin*

Thanks for entering the contest!

Have you ever tried KONOS? The Science and History included are wonderful! We had fun doing the solar system unit not long ago (this past winter... like February?). I blogged about it and included lots of links and stuff. We put the solar system on the ceiling and did it "to scale" (size of globes respectively, and size of distance from eachother also!). We learned a lot.

God is an amazing artist. ;) My favorite planet is Saturn (besides Earth of course!).

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Oct. 19, 2006 - Jeannie Fulbright

Posted by beadsandbooks

I've met her. I didn't try to get to know her, based on many factors. They attended our church for awhile, and now come every six weeks or so. I've never seen her curriculum, but have heard good things about it, increasingly over the years... but your completely enthusiastic review is the highest praise yet.

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Jun. 4, 2008 - apologia astronomy

Posted by Anonymous

Thanks for the worksheets for the apologia astronomy! I was unable to open Mercury and the Solar System Cover. Would it be possible to email those to me? Also, do you have any additional ones?
Thanks
darci@vingster.com

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A few years ago, when our oldest was 4 and her two brothers were both in diapers, my in-laws were a few days into a visit from their home 3000 miles away when my father-in-law noticed that the rug under the dining room table was in serious need of vacuuming. He is not prone to domestic duties (his wife is a great housekeeper) but seeing the need, he decided to try his hand with the Hoover. As soon as 'Grandpa' declared his intention to get out the vacuum, four little feet ran for the toy box to get vacuums of their own. We had one toy vacuum and we improvised a second from a 'popper' push toy. The baby, who was not yet walking, was right in the thick of things on all fours, never one to be left out. Grandpa, trying to maneuver the self-propelled 'Wind-tunnel' around the 10 foot rug while avoiding the table legs and dodging his three little helpers, remarked in exasperation, "I just wanted to clean the rug, I wasn't looking to start a three ring circus." Welcome to my life!

About Me

My name is Tiffany. I am a 39 year old mother of 4. My husband, John, and I planned to homeschool even before we married 17 years ago but it would be several years before our oldest would be ready to start on this journey. We had our children in alphabetical order, quite by accident at first, but once we got started, we figured we had to keep it going. They are Alyssa 10, Brendan 8, Chase 6, and Emily 3. Our 4th baby, D, miscarried at 13 weeks. We have no intention of making it to Z.

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Cubbies

Below are downloads for several craft sheets I use with our Awana Cubbies program. These are all in Microsoft Word format and correspond to the Jumper book. I have also included my lesson plans for the current year. If you have any questions or would like other Jumper craft ideas or Hopper book craft sheets, please e-mail me.

Jumper

Cubbies Key Verse Song

Jumper Lesson Plans

Bear Hug Brochure Lesson 2 Craft Page 1

Bear Hug Brochure Lesson 2 Craft Page 2

Bear Hug 6 Coloring Sheet

Bear Hug 6 Craft

Any of Bear Hugs 1-6 Creation Craft Page1

Creation Craft Page 2

Creation Craft Page 3

Bear Hug 9 Craft

Bear Hug 10 Craft