I have not ordered my curriculum, yet (perhaps today!)  I did borrow a friend's for a week or so to get a handle on what we would be studying this year and started doing some shopping and researching.  I am excited to study the U.S, states and some of the prominent historical characters. We probably will not start Adventures until after Labor Day.

One of the things I really want to include in our plans is a couple of "adventures" into America and many within my home state of Oklahoma.  Oklahoma has a rich, if short, heritage - wild west, cowboys and Indians, famous outlaws, ghost towns, etc.  I want to explore, explore, explore, not only on paper and in books, but in the RV!   Our first trip is next week to Louisville, KY and then to the Creation Musuem just West of Cincinnati.  We will take some side trip stops and, if they relate, I will post about them. (If you live between Tulsa, Louisville and Cincinnati and know of a fantastic side trip that would be good for Adventures prep, let me know.)

I tend to like to accumulate related extras if I can get them free or cheap.  I also like to add some things that we are interested in or need work on.  MFW curriculum doesn't really need any extras, it is great all by itself.  I admit that I had 17 years of being a curriculum junkie, so my small purchases and veering are my concession for finally finding the perfect curriculum 3 years ago.

So far, my extras, ideas and plans (besides library books):

Week 1 - Watch The Vikings Who Don't Do Anything, just for fun.  Buy a poster with the pldege so he will learn it quicker.  Let him listen to Red Skelton's explanation of our pledge (There are many versions via video on Youtube). Geo-caching would be fun for mapping.  Watch the Columbus video from Nest Entertainment.

Week 3 - Spend some time singing songs about the Name of Jesus, like "There's Something about the Name" and "Praise the Name of Jesus." (We love music!) I purchased ($3) the Focus on the Family radio theatre "The Legend of Squanto."

Weeks 4-5 - Spend more times in the stars.  I love H.A Rey's books.  Yes, he did write more books than Curious George.  I have his, The Stars. It is an old hard-backed discarded library book.  I bought his paperback version of Find the Constellations at the Planetarium.  I recommend them.  The way he connects the starts to make the constellations makes a lot more sense than the elaborate pictures that they overlay on the stars in most books. I bought this at the planetarium.  We will probably not make the planetarium this year as we went last year, but I am planning on inviting a star gazer, creationist speaker with an 11 inch telescope to visit our support group, either week 4 or 5.  We may or may not watch Disney's Pocohontas since it took so many liberties. We will sing songs about Jesus being the Light of the World, This Little Light of Mine and many more. I have found that the Names of Jesus give you a lot of material for Christian music. Also, I got the free CD from American Vison.org called, "America: The Untold Story."  I think this will be too old for 2nd grade, but I may find some exerpts. Williams Bradford, Nest Video. I'd like to visit the Cherokee Heritage Center and maybe the world's largest totem pole or possibly Gilcrease Museum.  We could also visit a local candle manufacturer for a "light" field trip.

Weeks 6-7 I will explain about Ellis Island and tell of our ancestor that came to America.  I will explain what the bread is in the Lord's Supper.  We will make homemade bread and possible go to a bakery field trip.

Weeks 8-9 We will sing "Rock of Ages," I Go to the Rock," "Praise the Name of Jesus," "The Cornerstone," and any other "rock" songs. We will re-visit the story of the Wise and foolish man.  We will get out our rock collection and try to add to it.  I want to take a trip to a local rock museum and we will also fly a kite (no key!). The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere is a favorite of mine, but we will discuss the discrepancies in it.  Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and Paul Revere Nest videos. We will also be electing a US President so we will read, "Woodrow for President."

Weeks 10-11 Songs about thirsting and living water - "As the Deer,"  The Nutcracker will probably begin about this time, but it is not cheap.  We may go see it, or may just get the video from the library. Will schedule a field trip to a pumpkin patch in the next few weeks.  Save a gourd on a vine for use on weeks 20-21.

Week 12 Birds, Birds, Birds!  We are big bird watchers.  We may go down to the lake and look for Eagles that nest in the winter here.  Song, "His Eye is on the Sparrow." I know a man that has a garage full of canaries and also a man that trains homing pidgeons.  We will read about Maria Tallchief, Indian primadona ballerina (Nutcracker/ballet) who lived not too far from me.  Might travel to her home.

Week 13 Thanksgiving, pumpkins, pilgrims, food!

Week s14-15 Songs about Jesus being the Way the Truth and the Life (Looking for Masterlife songs, anyone?)   Birds again, see week 12 activities. Wk 15, I will do some things on the Erie Canal, sing the song and I am trying to find the old movie about a girl and her father who lived and worked on the canal.

Weeks 16-17 I think this Immanuel week will fall after Christmas for us, but we will sing the songs anyway. I would like to find a weather school going on or a field trip to a local weather station or find a storm watcher that will give us a talk. This would also be a good time for a trip out of state, maybe to Daniel Boones stomping ground, Mammoth cave and Casey Jones for next week (TN)

Weeks 18-19  Sing songs about the Lamb, "Behold the Lamb." See trip above.  Watch SGT. York old movie.  Sing some cotton-pickin' songs like Cotton Eyed Joe or Negro Spirituals. January is a bad time to visit a ranch, there is no sheep shearing going on.  We'll have to do that later, probably April.  Ahh!  Johnny Appleseed.  There's not apple trees blooming or bearing and we can't even plant one, but The Value of Love, the Story of Johnny Appleseed, one of the ValueTale series is a favorite of ours.  We might even wear a pan on our head for the week - not!  There is a lot of Lewis & Clark stuff on the net because of the recent anniversary.  I did get a Jim Weiss CD called, American Tall Tales, with Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Pecos Bill on it.

Weeks 20-21 Sing songs about the vine.  I can only think of one and it was also a Masterlife song.  I wish someone would help me find where I can get hold of the Masterlife scripture songs. We will definately sing "The Battle of New Orleans."  It is a fun song. I will buy a poster with the national anthem words. We'll watch the Swan Lake ballet and dance around with it.  Not a good month to plant anything.

Weeks 22-23 Human Body studies.  Still looking for my old favorite book about this.  We will watch the movie, "The Miracle Worker." Ranger Bruce at the yahoo group, SequoiaMinistry has some interesting kid friendly stories from an old, out-of-print book about the Poney Express.  We'll watch the Nest video, Helen Keller.

Weeks 24-25 Songs about King Jesus.  We will probably watch "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."  Good time to watch Little House on the Prairie or find the video series cheap. I wish the circus was in March.

Weeks 26-27 The song, "Lord, Make me Like You," comes to mind.

Weeks 28-29 "The Lord is My Shepherd, I walk with him Always," song comes to mind as well as "The 90 and 9." and "Savior, Like a Shepherd led us."  Abraham Lincoln, he could not tell a lie!  I have a ValueTales book about Abraham Lincoln, called Respect.   There is also a Nest Video about Lincoln. Appalachian Music and the movie "Christy."(WV),  Field trip to the Little House on the Prairie in Kansas.

Weeks 30-31 Another MasterLife song, "I am the Resurrection and the Life."  Waaah, I wish I still had my book.  Trains will get a lot of our attention this week.

Weeks 32-33 Songs about the Word, "Thy Word," "The B-i-b-l-e." The Pledge to the Bible. We'll probably do another volcano experiment, it's always a kick.  It might be a good time for another extended trip out West - Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore. Week 33 is our homestate.  Plenty to do here.  The re-enactments of the Land Run take place in April.  The movie, "Far and Away" has the most fantastic scenes of the Land Run and is about Irish immigrants, but it is not a children's movie.  I will skip through it and explain the times, the poverty, the American Dream, the Sooners and watch the Land Run at the end. We will extend the Oklahoma study into the summer with field trips to see the outdoor musical, "Oklahoma!," Pawnee Bill's Wild West show in Pawnee, Frontier City in OKC, Cherokee Stip Museum in Perry, National Cowboy & Western Hall of Fame in OKC, Fort Gibson, Woolarc, Will Rogers Museum, Frankoma, Harn Homestead 1998er Museum, Rose Hill One Room Schoolhouse and more.  The Wright Brothers and Edison videos from Nest will be watched also.

Week 34 We can't make an igloo in May, but maybe with sugar cubes.  We will discuss the Idititod, Sled dogs, watch, "Iron Will" and "Snow Dogs" and maybe "8 below."  We will listen to a CD of "The Call of the Wild."  We have been to Hawaii, so the pictures will come out.  Maybe we will learn the hula.  I'll be there is a video at the library to teach you.

If I can schedule half of the field trips that I want to do with our support group, I will be happy.  I have already told my husband that we need to start socking away gas money for this year.  Next year, in ECC, I don't foresee any trips to other countries.

Believe it or not, there are many more places that I want to go and do this year.  I want to keep that RV humming. 

Non-specific to weeks:

I got "The Star-Spangled Statebook" on a free download.

Oklahoma History checklist download from Cindy Downes website, Oklahomahomeschool.com.  She has many great Oklahoma resources on her website.

Patriotic Songs Copywork from CurrClick.com

Birds Notebooking Pages from CurrClick.com

Presidential Election Lapbook from NotebookLearning.com

We will finish up Joseph, the Canada Goose art book.

I bought Singapore 1A and 1B to do in this summer, but we have not done it so we will be behind.  I also bought Math-It for games

I still have not decided whether to use Spanish of French and how much of a curriculum I want to buy.  I have seen a cute calendar with a word a day that make a sentence every week, Flip-flop foreign languages, The Easy Spanish/French and more.  I have Rosetta Stone, but I don't think I will use it yet.

I think journaling/diary will become a part of our homeschool this year. No corrections on spelling or sentence structure, just writing about feelings and activities.

I'll start sharing what we really end up doing after school starts.  Can't wait!

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Posted by Training Hearts

Great thoughts! I know that you will enjoy your "Adventure" next year. It was one of our favorite years.

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Posted by Quinne

Hi Liz :) It's going to be a great year! We are looking so forward to September 2nd (our first day). Blessings as you plan! Love, Q

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Posted by stevecindy@verizon.net

So did you ever find the Masterlife song you were looking for? I have the song book, but would like to order some more if they are still in print. So far I have searched & no luck.

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