I recently learned there are two ways to homeschool - water skier or deep sea diver.
Water skiers skim along and cover lots of material very quickly but not very in depth. Deep sea divers plod along exploring deeply but not covering much ground.
My boys are definitely deep sea divers which in part are mom inspired but they are starting to dive a little too deep LOL Let me explain:
For a bit of a break from the actually school books this summer, I decided to change things up a bit. I have been making a FUN lesson plan for a Mexico Unit study that loosely goes with the Highlights Top Secret Adventure packs that grandma has so graciously paid for and sent the kids BUT IMHO the Highlights are too easy and lacking in actual learning quality AND I have 3 ds not one so what do I do??? I decide that wouldn't it be great to go along with the same concept but add a bit more information and it include some additional reading (in Top Secret you are a spy in a foreign country trying to solve a case of who stole a missing treasure and as you travel you learn about that country).
I made the boys case folders and start seperating out what I want them to do where and thought it would be nice to have a lapbook to go with it. Of course 1ds reminds me that we ALWAYS have a celebration at the end of our country unit studies and I think that maybe they can prepare some of the items along the way for that celebration as well. And of course we need some crafts too so... Okay yes, a little overboard but the kids are LOVING it (who wouldn't? lol) and I have finally figured out how to organize it in a way that doesn't make me crazy and the kids are learning LOADS so in this particular case I don't mind the deep-sea schooling. Remember too, that this was supposed to be a "break" of sorts (at least for me LOL)
So here is where my frustration comes in. Today ds is doing his mission on the animals of Mexico. There are 8 animals (which IMHO was more than plenty) that they are to read about and write a brief but interesting fact about what they learn (having them learn to research certain things for themselves).
Well, last night I am playing around with a Jacobs Ladder fold -- the paper flips on itself -- hard to explain but really cool. Ds sees this today and asks if he can use this to present his animals in his "spy" lapbook. I say fine. A little later he comes to me and asks if he can add 3 more animals. Why? because there will be 3 blank spots on his Jacob ladder if he doesn't and informs me that he already knows what animals and they are all from Mexico and that he already knows what information he will write and just needs pictures!!! okay she saids a little miffed that ds has researched 3 additional animals and not just gotten the job done but I secede and go online to find the requested animals but ds is not satisfied with the first pictures so I must look for a few more until I realize that I am just falling into the deep sea trap. I put my foot down and say NO -- 3 more that is it & these are what I am printing. Ds realizes that we are going too deep too. BUT is the work finished today???? NOPE not yet anyway and I'm worn out!
On one hand, what the boys come up with EXTRA to do is really terrific. It shows pride, interest, enthusiasm and a desire to learn more. However, on the other hand it wears us all out, makes our studies go tooooo slow and it is discouraging for me not to see things crossed off the school planner. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to put my foot down or what? So this deepsea underwater diver is going down and needs an oxygen tank LOL
We are over the edge ectatic AGAIN! My 2ds8 had WON the Reading Rainbow competition again this year for our state. His book will now go on to nationals and we couldn't be more excited or proud. Here is his winning book:
NOTE: I'm sorry SLIDE is turning the pages so fast and it has cut off some of the words. I'm trying to figure out how to upload this differently so it is actually readable.
These are the lapbooks that the boys did for our Egyptian country study. We fold ours a little differently then most because of how we store them but they are the same idea as the bigger ones. All of our country lapbooks contain relatively the same elements: map of the country, flag of the country, something with the currency, famous people, important events or places, a game and any other information that we want to add. For the most part these are "mom driven" but each lapbook that we do takes on the personality of the owner. My oldest ds10y is, just this year, starting to make his own decisions about what and how, he wants information in his book. I seriously doubt if this is at all what Charlotte Mason had in mine for "doing" school work; as a matter of fact, I think she might even consider these books busy work but my kids enjoy making them and they enjoy showing them off even more. Plus it gives doubtful grandparents something impressive to SEE that we are doing in HOMEschool so we continue to do them. Enjoy!
DS10Y LAPBOOK OPEN:
left flap - Games used (different in each book): SENET, SEEGA, MEHEN
right flap - Ancient Egyptian machines accordion book, Egyptian pounds - pocket, Economy comparision - Wheel book 2 divisions
Files OPENED
and with contents of pockets revealed-
This section includes:
left side: Ancient Pharaohs pocket - picture on one side, info on back, comparison of major religions - accordian fold, Ancient Egyptian pagan gods & goddess on business cards in pocket for matching game with accordian fold
center: map of Egypt, Hieroglyphic & Arabic alphabets, Egyptian history timeline
right side: process of mummification - flaps fold into each other, canopic jars - flaps
(SAME INFORMATION BUT LAYOUT BY DS8Y:)
BACK FLAPS
left side - all about pyramids - compressed triangle book, famous pyramids - matchbook, carouche of childs name
right side - Egyptian flag
(SAME INFORMATION BUT LAYOUT BY DS8Y)
And to show that younger children can do similar but maybe not as informative work, these are the photos of ds6y lapbook (outside, inside & then flaps revealed)(& yes, some of his work is upside down):
(in Egypt these would be Fava beans but difficult to find)
1 onion chopped
6-7 pods garlic peeled and crushed
2 tsp cumin powder roasted and crushed
7-8 peppercorns roasted and crushed
2 tsp lemon juice
2-3 tbsp Olive oil
few fresh coriander leaves chopped (you can use mint leaves if you have)
Salt to taste
Suggested garnishes for serving:
1 onion sliced
1 egg boiled and sliced
radishes
olives
1-2 Limes wedges
Pita Bread
Cook the beans till they become soft. Sauté the garlic and chopped onion in a little oil for few seconds.Mash the cooked beans with the back of a wooden spatula.Add the sautéed onion-garlic.Add the crushed cumin seeds and crushed peppercorns. Add the lemon juice, salt and olive oil. Mix nicely.Serve on a platter with sliced onion, sliced egg and lime wedges.
Chicken Kabob
2 lb boneless chicken
4 minced cloves of garlic
1 tbl salt or to taste
5 tbl lemon juice
2 tbl olive oil
1/4 tsp allspice, black and white pepper
Steps:
Put in a bowl all the seasoning, lemon juice, garlic and salt.
Mix it well and add the chicken.
Combine very well and refrigerate for 5 hours or overnight.
Skewer the chicken and grill over charcoal until desired tenderness.
Cucumber & Yogurt salad
1 large cucumber or 3 small peeled cucumbers cut into slices
2 cup plain yogurt
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 tsp dry mint
2 tbl water
½ tbl salt
Put yogurt in a bowl and add garlic, salt, and water.Stir it very well, then add the mint and the cucumber and mix it again.
I finally found the lost disk of pictures from Christmas and on it was the culmination of our Egypt study.I will post these over the next few days.These are the pictures of our final party where we prepare traditional food, play games from that country, listen to music from that country and the boys dress up and give a speech about something from that country.On this night we had the pharaoh reciting ancient Egyptian poetry, Marc Antony telling of his love for Cleopatra and Howard Carter telling of the marvelous things he discovered in King Tut’s tomb. It was a fun night.
It is Reading Rainbow time (a contest for elemetary kids to write & illustrate an orginal story) so I was looking for the word count at my PBS website and lo and behold MY KIDDOS are reading their winning stories from last year on on the website, which I didn't know (we had seen them on TV but didn't know they would show them on the site too). Here they both are, I hope we do as well this year as we did last year:
Our service project for this month is for Operation Christmas Child run through Samaritan's Purse. Most people are familiar with this but in case you aren't what OCC does is distribute gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children all around the world with a mission to share God's Good News with children who might otherwise not be receiving any Christmas gift at all.
My boys and I really love this project and every year we try to top the number of boxes we filled from the previous year. The boys actually work very hard in the summer time to earn prizes from our local library reading program to fill the boxes (the library gives some great prizes). Every book they read earns them fun toys that they donate to the shoe boxes and throughout the year we watch for items to fill the boxes with. They seem so proud when they fill the boxes and we also pray around the boxes before we take them to the drop off location. The cutoff date was the second week in November but it is not too late to participate. Many of the shoeboxes are filled but the processing fee ($7 per box) is not always taken care of, so you could still make a monetary donation. You can also fill your box and ship it directly to a processing site because the shoeboxes are actually delivered throughout the year and not just at Christmas (although, I gather, the big push is for Christmas). One year I would like to donate my time and help process these boxes or actually go and give out shoeboxes. What an amazing experience that would be for my boys. Ahhh! Some day when they are older.
Taking time away from the computer had the boys and I FINALLY finishing up one of our endless projects that have piled up around here. I taught the boys to crochet and we gathered all our flannel scraps to quilt these two beautiful blankets for Project Linus:
Project Linus is a non-profit organization that provides homemade blankets to children who are seriously ill or have been traumatized. There are chapters throughout the U.S. The boys had a harder time learning to crochet than I expected so we ended up working together on the one blanket until they got the hang of it. They will be crocheting more and will hopefully get faster at it with time. This will be a good handicraft project for the winter as they continue to make more blankets. The quilt is an accumulation of baby flannels I had that were taking up space, so it felt good to use up these and try our hand at quilting our first blanket (no, there isn't any pattern to it because I didn't have enough of each different color but it looks alright the way the boys decided to lay it out).
My boys were very proud of what they accomplished and it felt good to give something handmade from the heart. I hope my boys always see the value in a homemade gift. (PS Yes, that is THE WALL that we have been working on that they are hanging from. Great for biceps LOL)
I have no idea what this yellow flower is or where it came from but it had completely taken over my flower bed and the roots are so thick that it was pushing the rock border out, so it had to go. I hated wasting such pretty foliage and we thought of the idea to add yellow roses to it and deliver them to an assisted care home. We often visit these ladies and one gent so we thought this would be a nice way of brightening their day. We spent the past few weekends begging, borrowing but not stealing bud vases LOL including doing lots of garage sale hopping which turned out to be a great blast for our entire family. The roses were accepted with multitude of thanks and with bitter sweetness because one of our dear lady friends has gone to be with Jesus since our last visit. We hope to gather the vases in a week or two and refill them a little more often. My boy's just love going to visit so this will be a wonderful service project and it is super nice that my flower bed now looks like this:
UPDATE 8/25: The yellow flower that invaded my bed is called Goldenrod. I have found out that it spreads by seed and by root so I will probably get to do this again next summer. It is too bad it takes over like a weed because it really is a very beautiful fluffy flower but it was over growing my zinnas and pushing out the beds. The bumblebees are still a little upset with me LOL.
This idea came up and it was sooo great I thought I would mention it here. This year we have decided to add penpaling to our school day. My objective is to get my children a little more excited about doing their handwriting. We use Getty-Dubay Italics which is super for Charlotte Mason style short lessons but my kiddos are just not seeing the need to have neat handwriting. Sometimes we have to create the reason in our childrens minds. I'm hoping this gives them the incentive and the reason to do so.
There are loads of places that you can find penpals and lots of yahoo groups. We are exchanging with a group of families all over the world but to keep my three boys and their pals straight, this is what we will do:
I purchased a 3 brad folder with pockets for each pal. On the front of the folder we will glue a picture of our pal (if they send one) and we might write the sorts of things that our pal likes all around his or her picture on the front, just to give us writing prompts as we go along. On the inside, on the pocket we will put our pals name & contact information: address & email, so it can always easily be found.
When my child writes a letter we will photocopy it and put it in the brad portion. When we get a letter, we will file it next, behind the previous letter. This allows us to have a "running" correspondence that the child can read and we can see how long ago we wrote a letter (especially good for the anxious child who can't wait for the reply to come) and it gives us a record of when letters came in (for the reluctant or forgetful child to know when they are past due to respond to a letter).
Pockets will allow us to store stationary to write on, stickers, postcards, address labels, envelopes and stamps for our correspondance. It is all together nice and neat and if any of my children decide to have more than one pal to write to, then we will be able to easily keep track of all of them.
We had the boys Reading Rainbow Awards Lunch"Out" today and we all had a great time. It was very excting to read all the winning stories. This is the book 3ds6yr wrote and illustrated for the contest on PBS and since both my boys placed 1st each of their books go on to the National competition with winners for that announced in July. I think he did
For part of our art appreciation, I gave my dks the assignment to write a creative story about what is going on in the picture we are studying.Well my oldest asked if he could write a poem instead and I just have to say that I am so proud of his hard work. What I love even more about this poem is that you see reflections of Rudyard Kipling (we are currently reading Just So Stories) in his work and you see a great eye for details in the painting that tie the poem together.
The painting is of I and the Village by Marc Chagall:
A Day in the Life of a Painting by 1ds9.9
There once was a man, and a green man at that,
And to a goat he liked to chat.
He lived on a farm and had lots of mares,
Sometimes to the fair he went to sell wares.
His father, Mister Narmer was a hard working farmer.
His sister was always quite a bit calmer.
His sister’s name was Natalie --- she stayed in the barn and fed the cattle-e,
And his mother floated along quite happily.
They were Christians, so they went to church,
And one day the pastor gave a leaf from a birch.
They then went to their yellow house where all the lights were lit;
They had no idea what to do with it.
The goat was hungry ‘til the man of green,
Came up and gave her the leaf from the tree.
When the goat was done, to him she said,
“Thank you very much, my young green friend.”
“I was thinking about Natalie, but then I stopped,”
“When you gave me the leaf from the tree that I topped.”
And if you want to see it all, one day a man named Marc Chagall –
I and the Village he captured for all.
This is the book ds wrote and illustrated for the Reading Rainbow contest on PBS. I think he did
Super dee Dupper
but I'm a little bias
My dog died January 9, 2006. It was a very sad day. My dog was a Blue Heeler named Gitty Girl. She was black, grey, and white. Her fur was soft. Her eyes were black and brown. She would protect me. She was a really good dog.
She was Papa's Christmas present and she was really cute when she was little. I wasn't there when my dad brang her home because I wasn't born yet but I saw pictures of her. She was little enough to fit in your hand.
My dog did tricks. She would jump up and grab the bone I had in my hand. She had more tricks too. She would stand up on her hind feet and turn all around. We called that dancing. My favorite trick that she did was when I said, "shame, shame" to her. She would put her paws over her nose. That was one of her best tricks.
The day that we put her in her grave we had silence because we wanted to remember all the best things about her. She was the best dog. I really loved her. We were all very sad about her. I will miss her.
This year on January 16, 2007 we got a new dog. It took us a long time before we wanted a new dog because we just loved Gitty so much. Her name is Rylee & she is also a Blue Heeler. Rylee is black & white too but she has more white than black. She is funny because she likes to bite at our ankles. She wakes me up first in the morning.
She loves to play with us and she really loves snow because she likes to eat it. Whenever we come home and we leave her home she waggles her tail really hard and runs crazy all over the house. We are training Rylee to be obedient. I think Rylee is going to be a great dog but she's not like Gitty.
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It is nice to have Rylee but in my heart I will always love Gitty
You know those days when you really can't stop schooling but nobody really wants to do anything --let alone school --- especially YOU? Well that is when I decided to incorporate Doodle Days.
Doodle Days are good on those days when just one of your children are sick and you really can't do the lessons designed for everyone to participate. Doodle Days are good when you have something to do later in the day and can't really get too involved in a full lesson or full day of school. Doodle Days are good for when mom is having a rough day (pms'ing) and needs a break but isn't really prepared for school to be out on vacation. I wish I could say that I didn't amass a stockpile of homeschooling STUFF but I have an insatiable desire for educational curricula not to mention my well meaning relatives and homeschooling friends that give us more good STUFF (don't tell me you don't do it too). We have more than I could possibly use on a daily basis with our already planned and scheduled curricula. Our Doodle Day list includes all the things that are fun, educational and that the kids really want to do but I never seem to fit into our school day. Maybe this list will inspire you to look through your closets and make a list of the things you could do on your next...
Doodle Day!
1. Weather permitting the number one thing you should do on a Doodle Day, if nothing else, is go outside for a nature walk, a hike or if you are really ambitious go letterboxing. Being outside is hands down the best classroom. You can take watercolors and paint, nature journals to record discoveries, binocular's (and bread) to bird or duck watch, cameras to take pictures or take nothing at all; no matter what you do it will refresh you and your kids, EVEN IF IT IS ONLY TO THE PARK!!!!
2. Leap Frog Explorer Globe This is incredibly expensive and one that should be put on the list for grandparents to buy for Christmas. It is worth its money and in the link you can actually sample how it works. There is information about area, population, capitals and music from each country and the game portion is one I even like playing. Totally worth it. Recomended for All ages that know the value of this "toy".
3. The Global Puzzle This puzzle is great in that each piece is shaped like the actual continent. There are tons of facts in the Oceans and it is a challenge for even some adults to put together. I reccommend ages 7 and up.
4. Take Off Board Game Yep another geography game. I found this at a garage sale and we really enjoy it. Each player has jets that race to see who can go around the world first. What is really great about this game is that even my 5 year old can play with a tad bit of help from his brothers.
5. Listen to classical music "stories" --- not sure what else you would call these but my boys love these especially when I let them pull out all the pillows, blankets, stuffed animals and fix hot chocolate with marshmellows (slow sipping while listening). They pile up on the living room floor and I set down a few ground rules about arguing, talking during the story and spilling hot chocolate before starting and then they cozy in. These are a few that they love that we have found at our library:
Peter and The Wolf & Carnival of Animals - (This is OP but worth keeping any eye out for. There are many other recordings of both of these selections to choose from)
Or any other narrative composer CD's you find at your library
6. Listen to a book on tape. Again check your library. Pillow up and pop some corn with some ground rules about throwing the popcorn. My little one likes to color while he is listening. If your library doesn't have any, then you can try these on-line:
8. Have a back up supply of pre-taped educational videos of your favorite shows. We like to tape Plaza Sesamo the Spanish version of Sesame Street and see how much we can actually pick up and understand (we are trying to learn Spanish). There is also some great videos at your library by National Geographics as well as on PBS. If you are lucky enough to have cable, tape lots of stuff to view later especially for doodle days. Or maybe you could give a tape or two to those grandparents with cable and ask them to record a few episodes of History or Discovery channel. Look also for cheap videos at garage sales and thrift stores. We found all of the Schoolhouse Rock VHS series and a space video called Blast Off at the Goodwill for very reasonable.
9. Bake something - anything: cookies comes to mind first and dessert for dinner is a close second but bread, biscuits, breadsticks, pretzels and pizza would also be good. Remember this is ALL you do - bake, eat, smile, giggle, laugh and enjoy the fact that our homeschools are flexiable. I often forget that with my boys and I have to kick myself and remember that these days are numbered and fleeting. Don't let the chance of making memories slip you by.
10. Make something - anything: teach your children to craft -- scrapbooking (I know you have boxes of pictures you can work on - ask me how I know!), Knifty Knitter, loom weaving, self-drying clay, Crayola model magic, Origami folding (practice with patty paper --the paper used between hamburgers-- each box contains 1,000 sheets of paper perfect for practicing folding. They are perfectly square, they don't have wax on them and they are cheaper than origami paper.). Even my boys like learning new crafts, rekindling an old craft or if all else fails just painting pictures out side on the patio (so you can hose it off).
11. Play something - strategy games are good like chess or checkers, we also like Scrabble and dominos. We play WAR with the math flash cards to practice multiplication/division or addition/subtraction facts. Games played in another language are good too like Mille Bornes (French). We tend to look for Spanish games.
12. Build something - Legos, the electric or wooden trains, the race car track -- all of which take up the entire room and are nearly banned any other time --- can you tell I have boys?
13. And last but not least is allowing my boys to play games on the computer--- they don't get to do that often so that is a real treat in our family.
My kiddos hands down, absolute, without a doubt, favorite school subject is Shakespeare & Tea. Now, I'm not sure if it is the tea that my dks adore more or the Shakespeare (and yes, it is highway bribery on my part "if you want cookies you WILL listen to Shakespeare") They honestly LOVE IT (I really don't have to bribe them but forgive the man who does Shakespeare without TEA They have their own special teacups and we have some sort of fancy dessert (usually nice cookies). Even my ds5y enjoys it (although we have had to get him a few coloring pages when we get to the audio but he sticks around and does listen AND he even gave a really funny, a little messed up narration to me just yesterday - we straightened him out )
Now, we do these a little different than the Ambleside Online rotation because I try to coordinate them with a culmination of live performance of the play or the video. You can check your local theaters and this site to find out what will be showing in your area: http://www.curtainrising.com/shakes/shakefest.php
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS use caution when scheduling a Shakespeare live play or watching a video. Always preview every Shakespeare video before showing to your dks. There is a lot of interpretation out there and what is tolerable to your family may not be to another so I suggest you view it before hand. This is also a good way for "mom" to get up to speed on the play. I am limited to what my library has so I can't recommend any videos in particular. We prefer going to a live play over a video but even then, I try to question the director or creative artist to see if their production will be true to Shakespeare and suitable for children. So far everyone I've ever talked with were soooo receptive of me taking my kids to the performance and they were more than willing to answer my questions. The play is the reward for it all.
Once we know what is playing, we start reading one of the children's versions of the play. Shakespeare is so rich that you could read it again and again and every time get a different aspect of the story. Each of the children’s versions are so different that your child will walk away with another puzzle piece to complete his story (I recommend these in hardback editions because they will be used for years):
Once we have read enough to have a good understanding of the play, we then get the audio version of the play and listen to it. My ds are very young (5, 7 & 9) so we do not read parts (yet) however, after we have read each of the children's versions we borrow the audio version of the original from the library and listen to it (rather than mom trying to stumble through reading aloud). In the future I plan to have copies for each person so that we can read through the parts but since 2 out of 3 dks are barely reading it will be a while. But even in the future, I would still use the audio because one must remember that Shakespeare is a PLAY, meant to be read & listened to out-loud. Some audios can be found online here: http://wiredforbooks.org/shakespeare/
Check your local library for others and keep an eye on BBC radio. They often do radio dramatizations of Shakespeare that you can listen to online.
We use paperdolls that I print off the computer to keep the story and characters straight and they sometimes find key props to go along with the paperdolls (i.e. a goblet and swords for Hamlet). I know some older kids use the paperdoll characters on index cards to take notes on each character on the back. Some people use puppets, playmobil toys, Barbie’s, Beanies or make their own. My thought is use what you have or whatever is easiest for you and your dks to remember the story.
My goal at this point is only to get a good understanding of the play, and to get an ear for the olde English so that later when they have to dig deeper they will already have some idea of what the story is about. For understanding and for the questions that come up we use:
Many times our readings have irrupted into spontaneous ad-lib puppet shows with amazing accuracy and some great lines like, "Yes, my lord", "As you wish my liege" and "Me bethinks thou art mad"; all from our most recent evening entertainment. It was a fantastic puppet show! Pictures to come!
Found this recipe over at Training Godly Little Ladies and decided that it would be a fabulous addition to "Teaching My Little Men" how to cook and it would be something that they will love to make.
Cheesy Stuffed Meatballs
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
1 egg
1 jar Ragu pasta sauce
2 ounces cubed mozzarella cheese
8 ounces spaghetti pasta
In a medium bowl combine ground beef, bread crumbs and egg; shape into 12 meatballs. Press 1 cheese cube into each meatball, enclosing completely.
In a saucepan, bring sauce to a boil. Gently stir in uncooked meatballs.
Reduce heat to low and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes or until meatballs are done. serve over hot spaghetti. Sprinke with grated Parmesan cheese.
One of the neatest things my dks have ever done was put on a magic show at Thanksgiving for all our relatives. Now before you start throwing God's word at me about magic - this wasn't that kind of magic. Every trick we did made my dks realize that magic is just a trick of the eye and it was a really good lesson on how Satan can easily trick us if we aren't watching carefully. We also used some chemical experiments that had to be tried and practiced to make sure they would work. It was another way of getting science into our days in a fun way.
In this post I thought I would list some of the great science books we have found that you can use to make your science fun. Check your library:
Conversations with myself about the triumphs and tribulations of being a Mama Bear to 3 baby bears, a helpmeet, a CM AO Hs teacher, a Flybaby, a daughter of Eve and a princess to the King.
© Copyright 2008 Jacque Ward http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/wacque/
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). We have more than I could possibly use on a daily basis with our already planned and scheduled curricula. Our Doodle Day list includes all the things that are fun, educational and that the kids really want to do but I never seem to fit into our school day. Maybe this list will inspire you to look through your closets and make a list of the things you could do on your next... 
