Classical Chaos

Under Construction

2011-08-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of moving over all of our schooling posts from another site and creating this blog in time for the start of school after Labor Day. So all of the links may not work yet, sorry!

The Erie Canal

2010-02-08T04:16:00.000-08:00

We're working our way through the Industrial Revolution; did the Cotton Gin last week, Erie Canal this week....here are a few videos that we watched:

The Canal Diggers
lyrics to Erie Canal song
navigating some locks on the Canal today; with song

map of Erie Canal

Cotton Fields - CCR - great imagery of cotton/slavery

Russia

2009-11-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

And we're off to Russia for a week or so. We're reading chapters 17 and 26 in Story of the World, Vol 3; learning about Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.

Russian Coloring Pages with a paper Matroyshka craft
Lots of Russian links
TIME for Kids Russian Teacher Guide
Russian flag coloring page
Enchanted Learning Russia printables

Play Durak - a Russian card game

Make a salt dough map of Russia. My kids love doing them and we rarely do.
2 parts flour
1 part salt
1 part water.

Put an outline map onto cardboard, and use a physical map as a reference to form the country. When it dries in a day or so, then paint it.

Cook Russian food.

Print out a map of the polar regions; color, talk about arctic circle and why Peter the Great needed to find a warm water route to the west.

Listen to Peter and the Wolf - Classics for Kids Lesson Plans

Russian music from library

Some DDS numbers for Russian books:
JF Meyer
E Robbins
E Metaxes
E Tolstoy
J 398.2 SIL
J 947 CAT
J 947.31
J 394.26
J 914.7
947 M

Diane Stanley - Peter the Great

movies: PBS Catherine the Great, A&E Peter the Great Biography, and Peter and the Wolf movie (after listening to it).......and since it's so close to Christmas, Nutcracker ballet and other Russian ballets from Netflix

Grammar worksheets

2009-10-29T05:07:00.000-07:00

I've scaled back a little to just Reading, Writing, and Math for the time being. Here are a bunch of grammar worksheet links that I've found...a lot of them go along really well with First Language Lessons, Level 3. I don't have the student workbook, and even if I did, I think I would still need some more reinforcements, so this is what I'm using and it works great!

1,025 noun worksheets (and more)
6th grade grammar worksheets - yes, I think they could be used for 3rd grade *cringe*
Daily Grammar - these are great, short little sheets, perfect for quick review
a blog with a bunch of grammar links....maybe they're the same as what I'm putting up, lol. I haven't looked through it all yet, but there's a lot! Very helpful!
Gigglepotz - ??? about the name, but a bunch of different worksheets
Language Arts worksheets
Fantastic worksheets - this is the site I go to first.

Preschool/Kindergarten activities/file folder games

2009-03-24T03:18:00.000-07:00

I have a few links on the side from when I first started this blog and my oldest was only in preschool. I was really excited about FFG and the kids liked them, but eventually things tapered off. Well now that I have a 3,2, and almost 1 year old, I'm looking to get back into file folder games and other bagged activities for preschoolers. It's becoming clear that it's a necessity. I'm going to spend a few days, hopefully, working on making a bunch of things and organizing it all and having a preschool bin for them to get activities out of to play with during school. So hopefully I'll have some pictures soon, since pictures are fun!

In the meantime, I was reading a thread on the WTM forums about this very thing and found a bunch of great links, and I also went through my bookmarks folder and here are a bunch of links about preschool activities and file folder games:

My old preschool/kdg links
my old 'lots of games' links

preschool centers ideas/links
preschool activities ideas
LOTS of preschool activity ideas
Montessori preschool ideas
Tot School
ChildCareLand FFG
more TotSchool stuff
Totally Tots - cute blog
Shirley's Preschool Activities
Preschool Education
Preschool Express
a blog with ideas
another blog

Aztec, Inca, Maya

2009-03-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Maya, Aztec & Inca Hands-on Heritage Activity Book
Life in Ancient Mexico Coloring Book
Time Travelers New World Explorers
Story of the World Vol 2 and 3
Trail Guide to World Geography

We actually made it through Meso America in about 3 weeks. And I had it scheduled for 2 weeks, so that's not bad for us!

We did Lesson 11, 13, 12, and 14 out of the Time Travelers, covering Pizarro, Magellan, de Soto, Verrazano, Cortez and Coronado. Along with that, we used SOTW Vol 2. chs 32 and 33, and ch 1 out of Vol 3.

For the first week we did week 6 out of Trail Guide - Mexico geography and the second week was week 7 - Central America. (I love Trail Guide. It's so fast and easy and the kids are learning a lot through it. It takes some time to actually memorize the countries/capitals and we're not totally there yet, but it is a very thorough geography curriculum! And very easy to move weeks around to tie the geography into history.)

We did a Stone of the Sun worksheet from the activity book and looked at pictures of it online. We also looked at a fantastic photo set of Peru/Macchu Picchu on flickr.

We watched a History Channel movie In Search of History: Lost City of the Incas and
Treasures of Peru: Dr. Merry's Nomad Travel and Mexico to the Max.

We also colored Mexico coloring pages, a Mexican flag, a pueblo diorama from Time Travelers, and an Aztec war club and 'feather' headdress from the activity book. There is also a neat Inca artifact craft in the Time Travelers that we didn't get to, but probably will eventually just for fun. I just never had the supplies for it. There was also some handwriting/penmanship sentences in Time Travelers that we used. We also did the explorers books/maps/timelines in Time Travelers....when we get to the end of the unit I'll post pictures of all of that.

I'm so bad about doing the food in the Time Travelers, but I bought some instant mesa flour to make tortillas with the kids for Aztec food.

I have the first Classical Conversations audio cd, and we did history tracks 16 and 17; songs about Meso-America and the Aztecs.

3 more craft ideas I found:
Aztec calendar
Mexican pottery
Aztec Sun

The handle-less clubs and headdresses:

Diorama

2009-03-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

We made the paper dioramas from the Time Traveler's cd.....it's so funny to see the difference between boys and girls. Aiden's Coronado is getting ready to kill, and his soldiers are getting ready to steal a donkey, and all of Alysa's soldiers and Indians are friends. They loved doing this, and this was a fairly easy project to do. The paper people don't really stand up that well, so I taped them down.

Aiden's diorama

Alysa's diorama

Renaissance/Reformation quotations

2009-03-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some more quotes I've found for this time period....I actually don't know when Thomas a Kempis lived, LOL, but he was in the christian history book and they had a couple of quotes that I just loved so I wrote them down....so now I won't forget them, lol.

“The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.” - Leonardo Da Vinci

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” - Leonardo Da Vinci

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.: - Leonardo Da Vinci

In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

— Galileo Galilei

I've loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. — Galileo Galilei

Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross.

- Thomas a Kempis

They who love Jesus for his own sake, and not for the sake of comfort for themselves, bless him in every trial and anguish of the heart, no less than in the greatest joy. And were he never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would still always praise him and give him thanks. - Thomas a Kempis

“...I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s Word, and I cannot and will not recant anything. For to act against conscience is neither safe for us nor open to us.

On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”

– Martin Luther

Multi-Mental Vitamin

2009-03-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

Someone linked to a couple of posts by MMV and they were so great and encouraging, I'm linking them here......

Simple ways to inject fun into your children's learning days

Thoughts on education and parenting- lots of links here

Advice to a new homeschooling mother

We do not bounce off the walls in this house. We only bounce on Dad.

When a parent asks you to do something, you do not whine or complain or refuse. You do it. After you do it, you may whine or complain. And then we can refuse to let you [insert favorite activity here].

It all begins with me.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming...

Parent-teacher

Feed a cold; starve a (spring) fever?

Books, books, books

2009-03-03T05:37:00.000-08:00

We're still plugging away at Explorers...................slowly. I'll have to do another post soon about where we're at. I unpacked more books from the basement and got them on the shelves! Now the kids have almost all their books on their own bookshelf.

pictures from my bookshelf

2009-02-18T02:32:00.000-08:00

My favorite children's book ever: The Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature

up up up up up!!! I love it. I can't even reach the top shelf without a chair! The shelves stop 6 inches away from the ceiling!

my favorite part of my bookshelf - the coloring books! I want to eventually own almost all of Dover's coloring books, LOL. I have a decent selection so far.....these aren't for the kids to color in; I use them to make copies. And no one yell at me I have 5 kids, I'm not going to buy 5 copies of each coloring book when we only use a couple pages out of each one

Trying to be more disciplined

2009-02-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

I really am trying to post regularly on this thing and be disciplined about recording what we're doing....2 steps forward, 1 step back, I guess. We've taken a few weeks off because of a wonderful distraction. I always feel bad when we get way off schedule but I suppose with so many littles, and then life on top of it, I suppose it's ok to cut myself a little slack, but it's hard. Anyway.

Before:

After:

We have since added some trim and other decorations to the doors; we still have a little more finishing work to do and then when it's done done done, I'll post another picture. I'm so proud of my dh! He designed it and built it and it looks great! I combined 3 bookshelves into this one, and also moved the terribly crowded game closet into the cabinet......and now I have a place for all my school books and a desk where I can do my lesson planning and other things. I love it!

Books and Movies for Explorers

2009-01-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

Books:

I like reading good adult books on topics that the kids are learning about, to refresh my mind and give more details that I can throw in to the kids when we're discussing things. There are a few books I have read recently that are about the age of Exploration, that I really enjoyed.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

America's Hidden History - Kenneth C. Davis

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

The author of A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz also has another book called Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before, that looks really good. I'm going to check that out of the library this weekend. A Voyage Long and Strange was my favorite book out of those - it was amazing. It fills in the gap that occurs in our traditional American history education between Columbus and the Mayflower. He actually goes back and starts with the Vikings discovering America, and then goes through Columbus and all the other explorers before the Mayflower lands. It is fascinating, and very well done.

Movies:
I don't know if these links will work; they go to netflix.

Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus This is a 2 hour 2007 documentary, where they re-enact Columbus' voyage. It was a tad boring for the kids, but they watched a fair amount of it; I thought it was interesting.

Columbus: The Lost Voyage - this is in our queue; I'll put a review up after we watch it.

Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed - this is in our queue; I'll put a review up after we watch it.

Empires: The Medici, Godfathers of the Renaissance - this is in our queue; I'll put a review up after we watch it.

Rick Steves: Spain & Portugal - I watched this the other night on PBS and it was really good. I want to get some of his Italian ones, too.

The Agony and the Ecstasy - I've heard this is a good movie; we'll see if the kids agree!

Copywork

2009-01-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of what copywork I have so far for the Explorers/Renaissance time periods. There are also copywork sentences given in Time Traveler's as well, that we're using. They are basically one sentence biographies for the various explorers. Since I am trying to have dd write one sentence a day, I went looking for more copywork sentences. Some of these I've borrowed from other people's lists - Trivium Academy comes to mind.

Explorers/Spain

“I believe that this is a very great continent which until today has been unknown.”
Christoper Columbus

Central America

"We are on a crusade. We are marching as Christians into a land of infidels. We seek not only to subdue boundless territory in the name of our Emperor Don Carlos, but to win millions of unsalvaged souls to the True Faith." – Hernando Cortes

Reformation

“All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.”
Martin Luther

Renaissance

“It is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams...Through it, God will spread His Word. A spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men. - Johann Gutenberg

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves. - Leonardo Da Vinci

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. - Leonardo Da Vinci

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. - Leonardo Da Vinci

In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. - Galileo Galilei

I've loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. - Galileo Galilei

Elizabethan Age

“I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.”
Queen Elizabeth I

First week with Time Traveler's

2009-01-11T06:18:00.000-08:00

Well I think I can count this week as basically a success, considering we still had sick kids and a tired momma! I was able to get up early 2 days this week; eventually I'd like it to be every day. It's hard getting up so early with the baby still waking up during the night.

And we accomplished almost everything on our school schedule; very unusual!   Usually we have several items that keep getting bumped back.

This week started our Time Traveler's New World Explorers unit. We are not doing every single lesson. We are also using Trail Guide to World Geography and I've lined up some of those lessons to coincide with our history.

We do history 3 days a week. So, this week we did lesson 1,3, and 4, covering the why's of exploration and about the ships.   We also did ch. 28 of Story of the World volume 2. We have been using SOTW as our history, and will keep using it alongside TT. For geography, we did week 1, world geography.

About Time Traveler's:   So far, I love it. The one thing I would recommend, and I did it because I found it recommended elsewhere, is to do all the copying ahead of time. There is a lot of printing/copying that needs to be done. I actually did it in 2 big batches. When I first got the cd, I was so excited that I went and printed out all of the text pages and a lot of the masters and put it all in a nice binder.    Last week when I sat down to do my detailed planning, I printed out the rest of the masters and the things that needed to be put on cardstock. It is quite a lengthy ordeal. But it looks great, and once that is done, it won't need to be done again and is easy to use.

The projects in TT are great. They seem to be varied for ages, so I think when we go back through this again in a few years, there will still be stuff for the olders and the youngers to do.

I went to the library and got some books to go along with what we're learning:
Ships - Philip Wilkinson 387.2
DK Eyewitness Boat 623.8
A 16th centry Galleon - Richard Humble, Peter Bedrick 623.822
Exploring the World - Fiona Macdonald 910.9
In 1492 - Jean Marzollo E M
Around the World in a Hundred Years - Jean Fritz 910.922

Here are some pictures of some projects from New World Explorers that we did this week:

5 reasons for exploration, and anatomy of the ship. There are fold up boxes that show the answer to what part of the ship it is.

We weren't going to do the 'build a ship' project because of time and space, so on her own - before we even started the unit, actually, my dd drew up blueprints of her ship, and then proceeded to color it, make the flag, and get her dad to help her build it. I was very impressed.

Schedule

2009-01-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

I'm getting excited about getting back into the swing of things full time on Monday. We are going to be on Week 15. I don't even know how far behind that would be from everyone else, LOL. I know we're a little behind on some things from where I'd like to be, but oh well. Onward we march! Weeks 15-27 are roughly planned out, with weeks 15-21 detailed and everything is printed and copied and in a binder so I can just pick up and go each week. Week 27 ends on April 3rd and I'm tentatively planning on Spring Break the following week. That ends with us finishing up Paddle to the Sea, but I think I might push Spring Break back another week and extend Paddle into a 2 week unit. And then after spring break we will do the New World and Pilgirms. Week 26 is pirates and the finishing up of the Time Traveler's New World Explorers. So that will be a 12 week unit that we are about to begin. The next few entries will hopefully be schedules and links of what I want to do.

Where We're At

2009-01-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

Just a list of how far we're at, for no particular reason.

History - we started Story of the World Volume 2 in September - we are on chapter 28.

Science - we are doing Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy - We are only on Venus

Geography - we are using Trail Guide to World Geography, and have gone way out of order, but have done quite a few weeks of geography.

Grammar - we started First Language Lessons, intending on doing both 1st and 2nd grade in one year; we are almost done with 1st grade.

Reading - We completed Teach Your Child to read in 100 easy lessons. Aiden is reading very, very, well. Alysa has worked through some BOB books, and has also completed ETC book 3, and is almost done with book 4. The goal is to also finish book 5.

Math - Aiden is in Singapore 1 A, and things aren't quite working out like I thought, so I'm going to have to spend some time on that. Alysa is using Math-U-See and is on Beta and has been pretty consistent at working through it and understanding it all; she is on lesson 17, out of 30.

Memorization - They both learned Luke 2:11-12; Aiden learned Isaiah 9:6, Alysa learned Micah 5:2 and 4; they both know the President's song, and Alysa memorized Rain by R.L. Stevenson, and the Tomorrow speech from Macbeth, and they both learned some of the Classical Conversations history sentences.

It feels like we haven't accomplished nearly what I wanted to by now, but looking at it, we've done more than I thought. Now I'm even more motivated to really get going this year and be more diligent about our schedule.

Getting ready

2009-01-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

I am so hit and miss with this blog. And I keep having kids and keep having to redo things.....I'll have to change the header picture again since we have 5 now, and the baby is already 8 months old and just cut his first teeth! I want to try, or 'resolve' as the case may be, to blog a lot more regularly on here. We'll see how that goes! I am getting ready to start the Time Traveler's Explorers and it looks amazing! I'm going to intersperse it with SOTW 2, and even Paddle to the Sea, so it's going to be a 3-4 month long thing, assuming I can even stay on schedule. But we are working on that. So, hopefully, I'll be able to chronicle what we're doing and how well the TT is working out. I always see a lot of people asking about it, and I was too, before I bought it, so maybe this will help someone, getting to see it used.

New World Explorers

New design

2009-01-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

There we go. A new design. I need to make a couple more entries to bump off my McCain/Palin rally entry....for some reason the text and pictures don't fit now.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T14:59:00.000-08:00

Just another blank entry to fix the template!

McCain and Palin!!!

2008-09-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

ok, details! First off - these 'reports' about the crowd being hand-picked or whatever is just nonsense. They sent out an email on Saturday, and it was on the news, and then it was first come, first serve Monday morning at the GOP offices to get tickets. We got our tickets very fortunately. I called the GOP office on Saturday and talked to the lady and told her we had reserved tickets but that I had 5 kids and wouldn't be able to get there Mon. morning, would there still be tickets left, and she said to call her back on Monday and she'd let me know. So I called her back on Monday and she said all the tickets were gone, and I almost started crying. I told her that I had talked to her on Sat, and she thought there would be plenty of tickets, etc.....and then she says 'I remember talking to you! I set 2 tickets aside for you this morning'.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I couldn't believe it!   How nice was she?   She did that for a couple of other people too. So I went in Mon night and had our tickets!

We got there around 3:30 and there was already a really long line. Turned out we were still towards the front half of the line. Shortly after we got there, the line was really really long, and we were seated for probably an hour and the line was still entering the building. It was so much fun seeing all the media. Being a journalist would be so cool. We saw Carl Cameron from Fox News near the enterance. He paused and smiled for me. (I still haven't forgotten your terrible treatment of Fred, Carl!)

The music and the initial speakers were realllllly loud. Painfully loud. It seemed somewhat better when Sarah and John came out. They stayed in the middle, and talked for 10-15 minutes, and then they started taking questions. It seemed like it was a lot of questions, but the news said they only took 13. The event had been billed to run until 10:30, so when they said they were done right before 8, I was a little bummed. 10:30 would have made for very long, probably getting boring by then, but I wonder how that got advertised like that. They got some good questions and gave some good answers for the most part. Someone asked all the naysayers on her foreign policy and gave her a chance to rebut that, and I thought her answer was kind of shallow, really. But I saw the lady who asked the question on the news and she said she liked Sarah's answer, so whatever. Her answer was basically 'I'm ready on Day 1, I know foreign policy, you can ask me about it' The lady who asked the question was in front of me and she wanted to ask a follow-up question but didn't get a chance. Someone at some point asked Sarah something about oil and she went off saying it was nonsense that Bush went over to Saudi Arabia asking them to increase their production for us. It was awesome.

Sarah was really good. She looked and sounded exactly like she did on TV. John McCain sounded even more passionate about things in his answers than I usually hear on TV. They work really well together. A lot of the questions were for one or the other, and so after they answered it, the other one would jump in and add something, or the other person would say 'do you want to add anything'.   It really seemed like a partnership. I know I've read things implying that Sarah will make the VP slot a useless one, but that really doesn't seem to be the case.   They worked really well together.

Here are pictures!

My cool t-shirt I made.

The quote is from Nancy Pelosi in a Ladies Home Journal interview she gave a year or so ago.
Article link

The protesters.

Campaign Carl gives me a smile!

Campaign Carl on-air!

The media!!! That was so cool.   I love watching the media and journalists.

Sarah!!!

John!!!

I ran over chairs and squeezed my way up when it was over to get pictures and autographs!   I'm almost there! Sarah, wait! Wait for me!

Come back Sarah, come back!!!!!

Oh well, hey, I'll take you Todd!!! I got one autograph. Thanks First Dude!

Ancient Rome projects

2008-06-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

So we are moving moving moving through ancient Rome. They're memorizing the first 11 emperors of Rome, along with Julius Caesar being the first dictator. I'm still trying to come up with some sort of weekly lesson planning. I think I'm going to try a checklist for dd....I think that might help with the 'when can I be done' whining.

Building a Roman Road

Salt Maps of Italy, and yes, they know Italy isn't an island, LOL.

Ancient Rome

2008-05-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

ooh, we're slowing getting it together. I'm so pleased with myself. I actually have 2 weeks scheduled and so far it's been working. We are in week 2 of 4 weeks of Rome, and then we're going to do a couple of weeks on India and a couple of weeks on China. I'm using this time for the kids to learn, obviously but also to figure out how to get a schedule going and figure out how to plan, record our work and keep track of all the information/links, etc.....b/c I really have to start doing better with next year. 2nd grade can't be as laid back as this year was...we're really going to have to keep on in spite of toddlers next year.

So - Ancient Rome

Reading
Story of the World, chapters 27, 28, 34, 35, 36, 38-42
Audio book of 50 famous stories -- The Story of Regulus, Cornelia’s Jewels, Julius Caesar, Androclus and the Lion
Julius Caesar in the book Bravo, Mr. William Shakespeare! –Williams J822.33

City – Macaulay J 711.4

Rome – Barber J945.63

Look what came from Italy – Harvey J945

The Roman Empire J937.06

The Romans J937

and other roman books from the same areas of the library.

Copywork
Rome was not built in a day.

All roads lead to Rome.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. – Shakespeare

Geography
mapwork from SOTW activity guide
customized Italy maps
Geosafari
salt map of Italy

Other
PBS DVD's on Ancient Rome
Dover Ancient Rome coloring book
Famous Men of Ancient Rome
Build a roman road
make a timeline
make mini-books - blank templates country templates

new baby!

2008-04-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

Elias Benaiah was born Friday morning! 6lbs 3 oz, 18 inches. Such a tiny little guy! And he had good timing - we've basically finished ancient Greece so now I can take a couple of weeks off before we get started on Rome for the summer!! Oh, and the name Benaiah is from the Bible - he was one of David's Mighty Men and did some cool stuff - God used him to do some difficult things. And he got to kill a lion on a snowy day, LOL.

greek myth craft

2008-04-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

Medusa Mask

greek myths

2008-04-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

We are going through Ancient Greece right now....hopefully we'll get through it all before the baby is born in May. Today the kids came up with their own idea to make stick puppets and act out the myths. For some reason they are fascinated with the creepy stories - the Minotaur and Medusa. Tomorrow we're making a mask of Medusa that I found. For the puppets, Alysa drew some of her own people and towns, and then I printed off some coloring sheets - I came across several good websites. And I also found a great kids book that tells the story of the Iliad and the Odyssey in comic-book format. It's very well done, and kind of funny, too. Iliad and the Odyssey

coloring page websites:
greek myths
ancient greece coloring pages
a couple of greek myth coloring sheets
great myth/gods coloring sheets

Spring has Sprung!!!

2008-04-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

after a record breaking winter, it is SO NICE to have the windows open and get outside! This was the kids after our trip to the library today!

2008-04-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

2nd day of our new schedule went fairly smoothly again. I went down and dug out some toys that have been packed away. I'm going to make a list of what I'm using for Baelin during his 'Blanket Time'.....today he actually stayed occupied for 10 minutes at a time, so that was nice. This will be a handy list for me to look at so I don't have to think about what to plan for him.

Duplos
Wooden Blocks
Coloring Book
Stickers
Counting Bears
2 felt sets - Thomas and Counting
Busy Bugs
Lacing boards
Flashcards

And for the kids independent schoolwork that isn't 'work' while 2 yo is in Blanket Time:

Geosafari
Math Bingo
Money Flashcards
Culture Flashcards
Boggle Jr
Phonics Flashcards
State worksheets/mini books
Electronic Globe
Nutrition cards
State cards
various worksheets

Trying out a new schedule

2008-04-03T04:30:00.000-07:00

We've been limping along for awhile and I've been thinking and praying and reading lots of info, trying to figure out how I want our days to look and what I want to get accomplished. We have a 2 year old who throws tantrums and is getting out of control, sporadic school stuff getting done with the 7 and 5 yo and they need to improve their concentration and attention span, and I've got to find more ways of doing some subjects with the 7 yo.

Before, we did math right after breakfast. But that wasn't working b/c the 2 yo was wanting to play and color at the same time, but was making messes while I was trying to stand over the kids and teach them their workbook pages and read the directions to them, and all of us were getting terribly frustrated. 7 yo dd is already hating math, and that has to stop.

So I've come up with a loose schedule that I think will work better.   We already had the first part of the morning worked out. We just got a clock for the boy's room, and they are not allowed to come out until 8:30. I usually try to get up at 7/7:30 when dh gets up or leaves. The boys wake up at 8, so for a half hour I'm usually training the 2 yo to stay in his room.   Eventually he'll get it. So the kids get up at 8:30, come out and watch PBS and eat at 9, and get dressed, then watch a little more PBS afterwards.

Then today we started Circle Time at 10.   A much much more pleasant way to start the day than with frustrations over math and the 2 yo getting in the way. Of course, it's only been one day - math started out fine, at the beginning

If you do a google site search of HSB a lot of posts come up talking about Circle Time. Most of them come from the wonderfully helpful and encouraging blog Preschoolers and Peace

Circle Time is for all 3 kids - this will help teach both boys they need to sit still for something. And, I want the 2 yo included when it's possible. The baby sat and ate while we did this. We sang Jesus Loves Me - the 2yo just says Jesus over and over - so cute! Then we sang a song from one of their Seeds cd. We just have a demo cd with 5 songs on it but I love it. It's just verses set to music, but it's a good beat, and not cheesy or annoying at all. It seems like a good way to memorize verses.

Then we prayed, and did some obedience training. That sounds so awful, like I'm training dogs, LOL.   They got out some train pieces and I had them all practice saying 'yes, mommy' when I told them to put them away. They each did that a couple of times. Then I read a few poems out of the Child's Book of Verses by Stevenson, and then we learned about another state for their lapbooks that they've been working on. We started it a couple of months ago and we're only on state 3
Hopefully this will help us get through them a little quicker. Eventually I'd like to have them start memorizing different things from the Bible as part of it, as well.   Circle Time today took 15 minutes, and everyone pretty much sat and obeyed and participated in it all.   Tremendous victory here!!

Then the older two went into the other room to do various independent schoolwork that really doesn't seem like work to them. I'm trying to stay out of the 'sit at the table and do workbooks for 3 hours' mentality......b/c I don't like that, that's not really in line with my educational style or goals - but it's amazing how that's instantly the first thing I think of when I picture us doing school, b/c that's what 'school' is. I need to think of it more as educating and learning instead of 'schooling'.

So they sat and played Boggle Jr, did a couple of phonics worksheets on sight words, did their mini-books on New Jersey for the lapbook, did some money flashcards, and did a couple rounds of 'name the states' on an electronic globe we have. While they were doing that, I was doing 'Mat Time' with Baelin, the 2 yo.

This is going to be a ton of fun to train him in I laid out a blanket that they don't use anymore, so it will be the special time blanket, and the goal is for him to be able to stay on the blanket, doing various activities, playing quietly by himself.   And then I will move to adding some non-blankety activities that he can play by himself with. I would like to get him to at least 30 min, if not an hour. There are a few different sites I ran across talking about ways to get toddlers to sit still and keep them occupied.   The main things kept saying have different activities that you only pull out during school time, so they are special, and then rotate them every 10-15 minutes, before they lose interest. HA!   Well for our first day it didn't go too badly. He was able to last on the blanket for about 20 minutes, with me right there with him the whole time.   He played with the plastic set of 3 bears for about 3 minutes.   Then we played with some cards for another 5 minutes.   Then we colored for 10 minutes, and then he was done. I have some preschool toys in the basement that I need to bring up and let him play with.

So that got us to about 11:00.....only one hour in and we had accomplished a lot more than we normally do, and the kids weren't fighting and I wasn't yelling or crying

Baelin went and played in his room for a while by himself, and the kids worked on sorting out their nutrition flashcards between foods containing carbs and protein.   Then all 3 of them went outside for a nice long energy break. I am SO GLAD spring is finally here.

The afternoon plan is lunch, and then a nap for Baelin, and then more intensive schoolwork with Alysa and Aiden, so I can give them the 1 on 1 they need - we'll do their math workbooks, a couple lessons out of 100 easy lessons, and then some nutrition stuff.   Then they will lay down and rest and we'll listen to a book or story read aloud off the computer. That should get us to about 2 or 3:00, about the time Baelin will get up . I'm so excited that we might actually have found a way to educate in a calmer way.......and right about the time the schedule really gets flowing and Baelin starts learning to stop throwing tantrums and obeying, I'll have the baby and it will all go to pieces

Nutrition Science Experiment

2008-04-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

We did our first science experiment today. This is from Janice VanCleave's Biology for Every Kid    (and while I was looking for the link to this book, I saw that she also has a  JVC Food and Nutrition for Every Kid that looks cool and I bet would be useful for this study).

Hmmm......well this will be interesting.   I was just rereading the experiment and it says to use an uncooked chicken bone - we used cooked ones. I don't think it will make a difference, but we'll see.

So you take a chicken bone (apparently uncooked), and wash it and get all the meat off it and let it dry overnight.   Put the bone in a jar and cover it with white vinegar. Put a lid on it and wait 7 days. As time passes, the bone will become soft - starting at the edges and working towards the middle. You can take it out every couple of days and feel how it's changing.   At the end of the 7 days, it should be a soft, rubbery bone that can be twisted.

Minerals in the bone cause it to be strong and rigid. The vinegar removes the minerals, which makes it soft.

If you make homemade chicken broth (way preferable to store bought broth b/c of lower sodium and much much much higher nutrition contents), you will want to add a cup or so of vinegar to the broth while it cooks.   This helps leach the minerals out of the bones and into your broth. And no, you can't taste the vinegar.   This is why I think using cooked bones for the experiment will probably be fine - I always use cooked bones in my broth. Homemade broth is also why 'Chicken Noodle Soup' is supposed to help you get over a cold - real, homemade soup with homemade broth actually will!   "Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain."    Here's a great article on homemade bone broths - Broth is Beautiful

Nutrition unit study

2008-03-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things I really want our family to know is good nutrition information. Eating and being healthy is very very important to Dh and I. Two fantastic books on food and eating are - In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals both by Michael Pollan. They will change the way you look at food and the way you eat.    Our family has been making the transition over to REAL FOOD and it's been fun.   A slight challenge to do it on a budget - 4 small kids eat way more than I would have thought and with a small freezer to not really store much food, makes it tricky. But, we are feeling so much better, and now when we do eat junk food, it makes us sick. I found a local farm that sells grass-fed meat, and I'm so excited to hopefully start buying some next month. We just got a Sam's Membership (free through dh's work) and I went and did a month's worth of shopping there, so now I have to wait for grocery money again for meat, LOL.    I was amazed at how much stuff we eat that Sam's has.   They have a lot of nuts, frozen veggies and cheese and some produce that was a lot cheaper than a regular store. That and diapers really will save us a lot of money.

So we've quit eating virtually anything with High-Fructose Corn Syrup in it, and we've cut out a lot of artificial flavorings and colors, msg, soy additives.....no more canned soups, boxed meals, cereal.......I do buy some things like ketchup and mayo and mustard that I'm not picky about - if it's an ingredient that we truly do eat in moderation, then that's fine.   But if you're getting it in every little thing of food you eat, then it's not moderation anymore.   Everyone says eating healthy is a lot more expensive, but I'm finding that now that I've been doing it for a few months and am getting a decent list of foods and recipes, it's not too bad. It just takes a lot of time and effort. Which is getting harder to do being nearly 8 months pregnant

oh and another excellent book on vitamins and minerals and learning how they work and interact and what foods they're in, what deficiencies are caused by a lack of them, etc...is Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements and a great website with lots of food and nutrients info is www.whfoods.org

So anyway, since talking about all of this and explaining to the kids why I don't buy yogurt from the store and why we make our own, why we only buy certain breads, why we don't eat hot dogs or boxed macaroni and cheese anymore (altho I found out that they will eat homemade mac 'n cheese if I use Velveeta - so that is their one big splurge meal - they love the cheese so much they don't even notice the whole wheat noodles Maybe that makes up for the truckload of chemicals in the 'cheese loaf' ) has been such normal part of our life, and the kids are really interested in it, I figured we'll spend some time actually learning about nutrition in depth.    Maybe this will help break up the monotony of reading, writing, and math, that we've found ourselves in.    I've just started looking stuff up, so I'll probably be adding a lot more links and updating this over the next couple of weeks.

I found a great book at the library that I'm using as our jumping off point. Good Enough to Eat: A Kid's Guide to Food and Nutrition    It actually gets into nutrients and what they are and what they do and where they can be found, and it's more than just 'follow the FDA pyramid', but yet it's not too deep so as to overwhelm the kids or give them too many little details.

Here are a few links I've found so far. I also found a few experiments from Janice Van Cleave's Biology book, that I'll type up when we do them. I also have this Nutrition Pocket Chart Card Set that the kids have been using to help classify foods by food group, what foods contain protein, what contains carbs, etc. The only thing I don't like, and I think is fairly typical for most food/nutrition school things - is that it just has a bowl of rice for rice. And one kind of bread, etc.   So I have to keep saying 'some of this food is bad for you, but some of it can be made good - brown rice instead of white, if you make your own muffins you can put good stuff in and not have chemicals in it, etc...'     It would be so nice if I could find a truly healthy nutritional learning supplements or curriculum or something. Oh well.

hands-on digestion
Nutrition/Food Pyramid Ideas compilation
food and nutrition lesson plans
plan a meal

kids health - protein
WHFoods - protein
great clipart site
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM LESSON
Digestive System Resources

what we've been up to

2008-03-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

It feels so good to be getting school stuff accomplished for once It has been such a tiring year. I already know we're going to be going through July or August. But that's ok. Learning happens all the time, right? 7 yo dd is in 1st, 5 yo ds is in K, and then 2 yo ds is a busy busy busy boy, and 1 yo dd is getting to be a cute stinker    And I'm due with #5 (should be the final one!) in 2 months. So I've been sufficiently tired with being pregnant and chasing after the 2 little ones. But the biggest problem was 2 yo ds who I couldn't leave alone for even 30 seconds for months. I'd be drinking my coffee at the computer in the morning, and go to the bathroom, and come back and he'd have dumped it all over Fun stuff like that. So that made school very difficult.

So I dropped history and science for the time being, realizing I was just way overwhelmed and burning out in October, LOL! That was really disappointing b/c I really really like the WTM adaptated plan we've come up with, but I'm realizing that if dd doesn't learn about every little bit of ancient history in 1st grade, it's not the end of the world

So, for the past couple of months we've been concentrating on reading, writing, and math. And, now that ds is 2, he's become much more of a boy and not so much of a toddler, so I can finally leave him alone to play and he doesn't destroy everything. And he'll sit and color now, and play in his room by himself, or just sit and watch a movie. So that's a relief.

We are using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons, and that has been working fairly well.   DD is taking longer to get it than ds is - ds 5 is just flying through it.   So I stopped and worked on phonics with dd using flash cards and working on trouble words, and that has really helped her, so they are still both on the same lessons, which helps.     They are not terribly fond of doing reading lessons, so I came up with an incentive for them, since apparently learning to read isn't a big enough one :P We have a nice set of fake money, and for every lesson they do with a good attitude, do without crying, and finish in a reasonable amount of time, they get 15 cents - a nickel for each one.    And then every 10 lessons, they can take their money to my 'store' and buy things - sticker books, coloring books, etc.....cheap stuff I've gotten from Dover.      And when they hit 100 lessons, they get to rent a movie and have ice cream sundaes - a HUGE treat since we rarely eat ice cream.    So that has really motivated them to do their lessons without whining and arguing.

Math was hit and miss and I realized that she really needs a consistent program to follow, especially to get the basics down really solid. I really don't like following a set curriculum, but I did get some workbooks for them for Math.   I got the Alpha Omega Horizon workbooks, and that has been amazing.   They sit down right after breakfast and do math for a half hour. They've only been doing it for a couple of weeks, but there has been so much improvement in dd, especially. She is finally really understanding all the stuff she's been trying to learn for a couple months. I never thought I'd find so much satisfaction in seeing a child learn to count by 2's and 5's

I'm finding that I'm able to slowly build a bigger schedule with the kids now that I got a short schedule to work. After breakfast, they do math for a half hour, and then dd usually does writing while ds takes a break. And then we do a reading lesson or work on phonics flashcards, and the kids play a few different games, do Geosafari, and play with flashcards for awhile while I clean up, rest, and take care of the baby. Then we eat lunch and after lunch the two younger ones take a nap, and the kids do a Bible coloring page - this week we're doing Easter stuff, but I'm going to start doing a chapter of Proverbs a day with them and picking out one verse to talk about.   Then, for their rest time, they 'll sit down and listen to audiobooks. I've found two awesome sites that I love.    I hate reading out loud and I kept trying to make myself do it, but usually we'd just end up not doing it at all, and I was getting so discouraged that the kids weren't listening to good literature like I want them to.   So I found these and realized it's ok if I don't do the reading. That has been such a nice relief. These are just fantastic sites.

Librivox
Lit2Go

So that's what we've been doing the last few months.   Now that we're doing more, I'm hoping to get more science and history in this spring and summer. I think we'll start reading through Story of the World, even if we don't do all the activities like we were doing.

another Easter/Holy Week game

2008-03-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

This one I think is going to be a lot of fun. This game is about all the events of Easter. The goal is for the kids to understand the timeline of events, and have visual aids to help them really grasp everything. I made the spaces on the board bigger - probably too big - so I used 6 pieces of paper that I trimmed down for the base.   Like the previous game, I printed out all the spaces, cut them out and glued them to paper and copied them onto cardstock.    I used the trivia cards from this game - trivia questions and I edited out the ones I didn't want to use. I also used scripture cards from another website.
scripture cards

and then I also made up some 'Who is this person' cards. Who is this person

I printed them all out and copied them onto cardstock.

I went around my house and gathered up a bunch of little items that go with the Easter story. You could just print out the game cards and cut out the images and glue them to the game board, too.   Or get a set of Resurrection Eggs and use the items in there. But those cost $$, LOL. I try to do things cheap. At least until the toner on my copy machine wears out

All of these pdf's should work. If not, let me know. I'm all excited I figured out how to save a file as a pdf.    So, you have 3 pages of space cards for the board, 1 page of little pieces, and then the game card.

page1.pdf
page2.pdf
page3.pdf
littlepieces.pdf
gamecard.pdf

The object of the game is to move around the board and 'collect' all 12 pieces of the Easter story. You start on Palm Sunday, and move around the board to get to all the items. You have to turn down the little spaces and on the last spot, you answer a trivia question. If you get it right, you can cross off that item off your list. Then backtrack and continue moving around the board. You can keep going around the board until you collect all your items. For the various types of trivia questions, I only used a couple different images for the large background spaces.   So if you land on a cross image, you have to answer a trivia question. If you land on a last supper image, you'll answer a 'who is this person' card, and if you land on a crown of thorns image, you'll answer a scripture card.   And all other spaces don't have questions. If you get the question right, you get to go again. The kids really like it. I think having the visual aids really help them to remember both the events, and the sequence of events for Holy Week.    Eventually I would like to get little charms or something to make several sets of items, so they can physically collect all the pieces.

The items are:
a vial of perfume for when Jesus is anointed
a plastic coin for the 30 pieces of silver
bread and wine buttons for the last supper - they have to answer 2 questions to cross them off
rope for Judas hanging himself
GI Joe for the soldiers mocking Jesus
cross, for crucifixion
dice for casting lots
sword for piercing Jesus' side
linen and a stone for the tomb and burial cloth - again, 2 questions to answer
a vial of spices for the women going to anoint his body

Easter/Holy Week file folder game

2008-03-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here is one easter game I made.

I used the trivia questions from this game - holy week game questions
I copied them onto blue cardstock so they'd be sturdier. I did take out some of the questions that I felt were too detailed or were redundant. I think I ended up with 40 some questions.

I also created the Holy Week day cards, to be collected in the game.   I figured out how to turn it into a PDF - let's see if I can figure out how to host it    If these PDF's don't work for some reason, let me know - they work fine for me, but that might not mean much I copied these onto white cardstock.

day1-4.pdf
day4-8.pdf
gameboard.pdf

To make the gameboard - I cut out the gameboard squares and glued them down in the order I wanted them. I spread out the days of the week and the gain a day/lose a day pieces. I copied a map of Jerusalem in Jesus' time out of my Bible, enlarged it, and cut that out and glued it onto the board. Then I copied the whole thing onto 2 pieces cardstock. (I have had so much fun since we bought a copy machine ) And then taped them together. Eventually I'll probably laminate it or cover it with contact paper or something.     You could skip all the copying and glue the pieces right into a file folder, if you wanted.

The object of the game is to collect all 8 days of Holy Week. You start on Palm Sunday - roll the die and move. If you land on a day of the week, you get a trivia question. If you get it right, you get that day of the week. Sometimes you end up circling the board a lot, but it moves pretty quickly.   We did have a rule where you could move in either direction, and that helped, but then realized we were all avoiding the lose a day/lose a turn spots and always landing on the gain a day spot. Not exactly what I was going for, LOL.

Easter/Holy Week

2008-03-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

Now that the kids are old enough to really get Easter, I want to have them learn about Palm Sunday through Easter, knowing the facts and the order of things. So here are a bunch of links and ideas that I've found.

Some new things I got in an email from HSB:
easter scripture/quote cards
story of easter craft book
Make Your Own Resurrection Eggs
Printable Resurrection Egg items

We're using the questions from the Antioch Arcade game and some of their map ideas.
Games and other ideas

easter printables

clip art/coloring pages

tons of bible coloring pages

garden, peter, judas links/ideas

holy week info

some holy week links - more liturgical

lots of bible lessons/links

map of Jerusalem

route Jesus took

another, more detailed map of Jerusalem

christianity today easter

Christianity Today Easter Ideas

CT Holy Week activities/ideas

Listen to/Download dramatic Easter Story

trivia/facts to include

1. D. Palm Sunday. Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem (John 12:12-16), publicly proclaimed he was the long-awaited Messiah of Zechariah's prophecy. He rode a donkey and not a war horse to symbolize his kingdom would be one of peace.

2. A. Jonah. Jesus explained (Matt. 12:38-40) that just as Jonah spent three days "buried" inside the fish, he would spend three days in the grave before his resurrection. The men of Nineveh repented at Jonah's miraculous return (Jonah 1-4), but the wicked people of Jesus' day would not.

3. C. 30 pieces (Matt. 27:3-10). According to Exodus 21:32, thirty shekels of silver was the price of a male slave in Old Testament times. During Jesus' time, it was equivalent to four months' wages for a common laborer.

4. B. Psalms (Psa. 22:1). Although David wrote this psalm centuries earlier, it provides almost an eyewitness account of the crucifixion. At Calvary, the weight of humanity's sin truly separated Jesus from his Father; David merely felt abandoned.

5. A. Jesus' bones. John 19:36-37 records that the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves to hasten their deaths, but Jesus was already dead. In Exodus 12:46, the Israelites were told not to break the bones of the Passover Lamb. Slain at Passover, Jesus' death fulfills this sacrifice.

6. C. Isaiah (Isa. 53:5). Written 700 years before Christ, this prophecy pictures the Messiah's sacrificial death as a guilt offering (v. 10). According to Leviticus 5:15-16, a lamb or ram was sacrificed for the guilt offering, providing atonement for sin and cleansing from defilement.

7. B. David. The apostles were quick to recognize Jesus' resurrection as the fulfillment of David's psalm (Psa. 16:10). Peter quoted this verse in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, and Paul used it when he preach-ed (Acts 2:27, 13:35.)

Palm Sunday
make your own cryptograms
colt/disciple coloring page
donkey picture

I enlarged the donkey picture and converted it to b/w in Photoshop. Then we cut it out and glued it to purple construction paper (purple for royalty).   Then they colored the hooves black, and painted glue all over his body except for the eye and nose and mane. Then we sprinkled dry tea leaves from tea bags all over the glue and let it dry. Glue on wiggly eye, some string for a halter, and material for a blanket if wanted.

draw and cut out palm leaves, of course.   We read the story of the blind men being healed,, along with the prophecy in Zechariah, and then the Palm Sunday story. I made 2 cryptograms - one said Hosanna, and the other said Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Holy Monday
The Cleansing of the Temple takes place.
cleansing temple coloring page
cleansing coloring page

Reading the cleansing of the temple story, and the fig tree story. Eat some figs - the kids love them. Make soft pretzels - arms folded in prayer. Recipe at the last link at the top of the post.

Holy Tuesday
Jesus teaches in the temple.
Jesus teaching coloring page - very authentic - excellent page!
Learn the Shema & most important commandment verse.   Make bread dough and freeze it for Good Friday activity.
Do some kind of map activity with map of Jerusalem/Israel.
Play a game with questions about facts learned so far. I'll probably modify these games somewhat.

Holy Week File Folder Game
holy week question cards

Spy Wednesday
this is an old name for the day, but I have a 5 year old boy, so that's what we're using

Jesus is anointed, Judas decides to betray Jesus.
Read the stories. Read Colossians 3:23 and 2 Corinthians 2:15-16
Light a fragrant candle. other devotional ideas
talk about betraying Jesus
Judas betrays Jesus coloring page I know he doesn't really betray him until Friday - but there's not much out there for this one
Mary anoints Jesus coloring page
talk about 30 pieces of silver - Exodus.21:32
play games/trivia questions again

Maundy Thursday
The Last Supper
Have a mini-passover.   We've done a full one before at church and it's fun, and the kids remember it. I don't think we're having one this year, so we'll just do a mini-one at home.

Matzo bread
horseradish
haroset (apples, nuts, honey)
parsley
grape juice

Garden of Gethsemane, Judas' betrayal, Peter's denial
act out Peter's denial
last supper word search
talk about Jesus' prayers
Last Supper Coloring Page

Good Friday

stations of the cross FFG
stations of the cross coloring pages - I reduced this in the printing option, putting 4 pages on one page, so it will be a mini-book. I liked this one because this ends with the resurrection, which the typical stations of the cross do not have.

make bread crown of thorns - take frozen bread dough, divide into thirds and braid together, making a circle. Let it rise a final time, and place toothpicks sticking out all over the braid. Bake.

crucifixion coloring page

Saturday
Festival of Lights - light candles and read verses. Isaiah 9:2, Matthew 4:16, Isaiah 60, Matthew5:14, 5:16, John 8:12, 12:46, Matthew 5:14, John 8:12.

Make Resurrection Cookies Resurrection Cookies recipe

Easter Sunday
easter word search
resurrection coloring page
Resurrection Eggs - make your own or buy them from the link at the bottom - resurrection eggs and story

Unit Study/Lesson Plan Links

2008-02-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

Here are a bunch of Unit Study and Lesson Plan links

Teacher Vision
a bunch of Unit Study Links
Homeschool Helper studies
Easy Fun School Units
Education World Lesson Plans
Teachers.net Lesson Plans/Games
TeacherHelp Lessons
about.com unit studies
Squidoo Unit Study lenses

no more Egypt!

2007-09-17T01:42:00.000-07:00

Finally. I'm done with Ancient Egypt. I am so sick of that topic, LOL. We've been going through Exodus at church for several months, and now to spend 2 weeks on all things Egypt..........I am so pharoahed out (what happened to all the cool smilies that used to be available??)

Those 2 weeks were interesting to say the least. Hopefully I can look back on this at the end of the year and see markable progress. My patience was so severely tested. My 6 yo dd can space out so easily and not pay attention to what we're reading, and not be able to answer a question when I just read the answer 20 seconds ago. But, she's learning. We're using Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Trained Mind. We're not solidly classical, but I like a lot of the things she has to say. We're also using Galloping the Globe, and then an eclectic mix of other books and supplies.

I came across a neat tool to help organize things I find on the internet. Google Notebook

a couple other egyptian links I came across:
http://www.neferchichi.com/
a fantastic clipart/photo site
inside the pyramids and other photos
egypt ideas

back in action!

2007-08-31T05:16:00.000-07:00

alright. It's a new year! A real year this time. I'm so excited to finally be doing 'real' school! Alysa is in 1st grade, Aiden is only 4 and a half, but he wants to tag along for a lot of Alysa's stuff. So we'll see if this ends up being preschool or kdg for him. Baelin is 21 mos, so this should be very interesting to work around him, and the baby, Sydney, is 6 mos old and so adorable!!! She's such a happy baby so I'm not too worried about her interfering much.

We are still doing the unit study method. I am using Story of the World as my basis, and also using the E.D.Hirsch Core Knowledge Sequence as my other guide. I have a 1st grade math book I picked up at a sale awhile back, and it turns out that a lot of the stuff in there is what Alysa needs to work on, so I'm just going to use that for awhile and not worry about a math curric. for right now.

We like the idea that Bauer has in The Well-Trained Mind, and SOTW, of doing a 4 year span of history, repeating it 3 times. However, we've decided to shrink that down to 3 years instead of 4, and repeat that 3 years, so that they will only be doing school like that for 9 years. So, we'll see how that works out this year.

catching up

2006-09-28T04:52:00.000-07:00

So it's been a few weeks since I've posted. It seems I go in spurts - posting a lot, not posting. Maybe eventually I'll settle into a better pattern. I have a bunch of things I want and need to get up here soon. We're in our third week of school, and we've sort of been easing into it. The first three weeks of topics weren't that heavy anyway, so it's been a nice transition. I realized I was probably scheduling too much stuff anyways, and I've got to get us on a better schedule timewise. Anyway. I came across a fascinating and dreadful newspaper article and report today. Tragic. Newspaper article

American Civic Literacy website, with report

a couple exerpts -

"America's colleges and universities fail to increase knowledge about
America's history and institutions. There is a trivial difference
between college seniors and their freshmen counterparts regarding
knowledge of America's heritage. Seniors scored just 1.5 percent higher
on average than freshmen, and at many schools, seniors know less than
freshmen about America's history, government, foreign affairs, and
economy. Overall, college seniors failed the civic literacy exam, with
an average score of 53.2 percent, or F, on a traditional grading
scale."

we included in our survey six questions from the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, which is designed to test high
school seniors' knowledge of America's history and institutions.
Overall, college students scored even more poorly on these six
questions than they did on the remaining 54, which were created
specifically for this survey.

In summary, though a university education can cost upwards of
$200,000 and the average under-graduate leaves campus $19,300 in debt,
they are no better off than when they arrived in terms of acquiring
knowledge about key areas of America's constitutional and economic
systems.

Bible Story ideas

2006-08-30T04:30:00.000-07:00

For our unit studies, I just listed the name of the Bible story and
didn't say what we were going to do with them. Here are some
things that we'll be doing.

A couple of years ago I
got something in the mail and it looked neat, so I sent away for
it. We now have a huge collection of these Bible
cards. I don't get them any longer, but they are really
neat. Great
Bible Adventures You get 9 cards that tell a Bible
story, and then on the back is a puzzle that they put
together. And there is a reuseable activity card with a few
pages in it, as well as a coloring sheet. It also has some
craft and activity ideas and discussion questions. I think
each packet is 5 or 6 bucks. A little bit pricey,
but the kids love them and it's a fun, easy way for them to really get
to know the Bible stories. It came in handy this summer -
I've been using them for sunday school at church.

Creation

Rice Crispie Earth Recipe

Basically, just your basic rice crispie squares recipe with
food coloring added.

1/4 cup
margarine

40
regular marshmallows

1/2 tsp. vanilla

6 cups rice crispies

green and blue food
coloring

Melt margine and marshmallows over medium heat in a large
pot, stir in vanilla and rice
crispies.

Divide into two bowls

Add green food coloring to one bowl and blue food coloring
to the second.

Stir

Allow the children to take a scoop from the
blue bowl and a scoop from the green bowl and mash them together in a
ball (the earth).

Set the balls aside until completely cool.

creation
worksheets
fish craft
- use sequins
soak seeds in water, put on a wet
paper towel and put inside a ziplock bag, tape to window...watch it
sprout!
talk about rules and why we have to obey
God. Have them help make a list of house rules they should
obey.

Noah's Ark
coloring pages
rainbow
cookies

Abraham
Get a big piece of poster
board and make a family tree, starting with Abraham. Add onto
it as we go through the Bible. Another idea is to get plain
paper dolls and decorate them as the people, and post them on
the board.

Abraham and Lot
talk about
fighting and being selfish

Abraham and the promise

talk about how Abraham recognized that one of them was
God. Can we lie to God?

Abraham
and Issac
make an altar out of cheerios and
frosting

ACTING ON
SCRIPTURE - WILL YOU DO IT? GAME

Have
the children line up in a horizontal line across the back of the
room. This game is similar to Mother-May-I. Instead
of taking turns all the children listen to your question and respond
with, "Yes, I do". You then issue the command and they all
may respond. In this game everyone will be a winner when they
reach you.

1. Mother asks you
to turn the TV off. Will you get up and do it without saying,
"wait"?
2. Teacher asks you to stop
talking in class when she's talking. Will you stop
talking?
3. Big brother asks you not to
play in his room while he is at school. Will you stay out of
his room?
4. Grandmother tells you
eating cookie dough is bad for you. Will you keep your
fingers out of the mixing bowl when she's not looking?

5. Daddy tells you to come straight home from
school and not stop for any reason. Will you go straight home
even though your friend calls from his house to come see his new
kittens?

Talk about how we have to obey
even though we can't understand the reason for it. Only Jesus can help
us do that. When someone asks you to do something and you
feel like saying, "no" say a prayer for Jesus to help
you.

Issac
Issac and
Rebekah
egg
carton camel

Jacob
Jacob and
Esau
re-enact the
story

GETTING INTO
SCRIPTURE - BIBLE STORY DRAMATIZATION

Materials
needed:
2 small pieces of fur felt 
 (to place on a
child's forearms like Jacob did)
4 large rubber bands (to hold
the fur in place on arms)
Sleeping bag or blanket
2
baby dolls
Small stuffed lamb or beanie baby lamb
Bow
and arrow or slingshot
Small serving
bowl

WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare
ahead)
There are no advance preparations
necessary.

WHAT THE CHILDREN DO:
Tell the
story using the children to dramatize the
following
scenes:
1. The angel making the announcement to Rebekah
that
 she was going to give birth to twins. Include
the
 message that the younger of the twins would
receive
 the birthright.
2. Rebekah holding her twin
babies
3. Jacob holding the lamb, Esau holding the bow
and
 arrow or slingshot
4. Rebekah planning with
Jacob how to deceive Isaac
5. Jacob receiving the birthright
blessing from Isaac
6. Esau returning and finding out that
Jacob has
 already been blessed with the
birthright
7. Jacob having to leave
home

Jacob's Ladder
go camping in the living
room. Build an alter out of boxes. Use a rock for a
pillow

Tagged! Homeschool resources

2006-08-29T05:07:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Two Kid Schoolhouse

1) One homeschooling book you have enjoyed.

Well, since we're so early into homeschooling, I haven't read a ton of resources yet. So I'd have to say my favorite one is The Well-Trained Mind.

2) One resource you wouldn't be without.

The library and the internet. Garage sales and used book sales are also great!

3) One resource you wish you had never bought.

none, yet, since I haven't bought much at all. I've bought lots of small, hands-on toys and activities.

4) One resource you enjoyed last year.

Last year was preschool so again, didn't buy or use a whole lot. So I'll say the internet :D

5) One resource you will be using next year.

umm.....I'd like to buy a good world history book/s. I will probably look into that more next year.

6) One resource you would like to buy.

A nice set of McGuffy readers. I'll either ask for that for christmas this year, or get a set for next year.

7) One resource you wish existed.

I copied this one, a great answer!   Something to keep me from using time unwisely.

8) One homeschooling catalog you enjoy reading.

Learning Resources and Oriental Trading Company.

9)   One homeschooling website you use regularly.

I need to find some good ones. Right now it's a few random yahoo groups that I use occasionally, and HSB.

10) Tag 5 people... Following the Ancient Paths Homeschooling Grandma    In Good Company     Higher Up and Further In   Four in a Row

an excellent book

2006-08-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Left Back by Diane Ravitch. It is very very good. Very well written and well documented. It is incredibly mind-blowing and angering read. It is unfathomable to me how people could be that stupid and could do so much damage to the public schools. Half-way through the book I told dh that my biggest fear was him dying and me having to put my kids in public school. By the end of the book I told him that if I die, he is not to put the kids into public school. There is no way on God's green earth that my kids are stepping foot into a public school until we are finished thoroughly educating them and they go to public high school when they are 16, as missionaries, as we've already planned. This book was that influential. I linked to the amazon page for this book and you can see excerpts and other reviews of it. I have her other book The Language Police on hold at the library....that should be just as good of a read.

games, file folder games

2006-08-23T01:53:00.000-07:00

A lot of the file folder games I've found online are very preschool based. Very simple skills. Which is nice, for preschool, but now that I'm starting to move towards actual subjects, is frustrating. So I've been searching the internet for games that I can put into a file folder game, that is science, history, geography, or bible based. I've come across some ideas, so I'm going to be making some today. I'll post pictures in a day or two when I'm done. But here is a bunch of links to various ideas, and some ideas that I'm going to use.

Printable manipulatives resources I'm going to use the rulers for a measuring game, I think
Blank Clock I saved this to my computer and then resized it to use in a FFG
Clock Rummy
A lot of teacher created games
Telling Time Worksheets
A LOT of math worksheets, games, ideas
free good Bible maps I'm going to make an Egypt/Exodus game with the Exodus map
Games for Learning
tips, techniques, and ideas for making games
59 different games, different ages
game boards
educational games
file folder game links

Free Lewis and Clark cd-rom curriculum

2006-08-23T01:03:00.000-07:00

Very cool. I just emailed them yesterday asking for one, and they are sending me one today. Back to School with Lewis and Clark

neat cheap resource

2006-08-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

We went to Wal-mart today to get some school supplies. While I was browsing the normal aisle for crayons and folders (totally didn't see the temporary school supply aisle, LOL), I came across something kind of neat. They were Learning Playground Tiles. They were only 5 bucks. I couldn't find them on the website to show you, but I found some at Office Depot. I got the Letter Tiles and also the Phonics Tiles (which OD apparantly doesn't carry). And, at the OD website, I see they have telling time tiles, coin and currency, numbers, and animals. Very cool. They are little plastic 1 inch square tiles in bright colors. I think they'll be fun for Alysa to use to practice making words and learning the phonics aspect of words.

cleaning out my bookmark

2006-08-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

I have a ton of links in my favorites and I need to clean them up, organize them, and probably delete some. So I figure since I'm doing that, I will also post a lot of them here, since a lot of them are blog/school related.

Links

Preschool Bible Stories
Preschool Bible Coloring Pages
OT Bible Coloring Pages
Bible Crafts for Kids
Sunday School Resources
Lots of Old Testament Stories and ideas - my favorite Bible resource
Mom's Minivan - lots of car trip ideas
Bible Gameboards
Bible Crafts
Book Adventure

Blogs

A Second Generation
Mrs. Sam Sack
A Large Family
My Little Ones and Me
Following the Ancient Paths - I love this one
Small Town Homeschool
The Lilting House - lots of stuff here
It's an Incredible Life
Beginning Our Journey
Why Homeschool - very very good blog
B Avenue Boys School
Teaching Miss Smarty Pants

Family Choice Act

2006-08-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

from onemillionmoms.com

Cable Choice Bill Introduced in U.S. House - Real Choice for Parents

Last week, Representative Dan Lipinski (R-IL) introduced The Family Choice Act of 2006 (H.R.5919), giving parents real control over television by choosing and paying only for the cable channels they want.

OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com strongly supports this bill and needs you to take action to help get it passed!

Under
this bill, cable companies will be no longer be allowed to force you to
pay for indecent channels as part of your cable package.

If you are "Fed Up With FX Network" or any other filthy channel, your cable provider will have to block them from your home and deduct the cost from your cable bill.

The
entertainment industry already has their Washington lobbyists lined up
in rows, opposing this bill and beating down the doors trying to
convince legislators to let it die a slow death. I'm sure this doesn't
surprise you.

That's why we need to make every effort to let our Representatives know that voters want real cable choice with no excuses.

Action Needed!

Take a moment to personally call your representative's office and tell him/her to co-sponsor H.R. 5919, The Family Choice Act of 2006 today!

To
really make a difference, would you also call his district office with
the same message? We need thousands of phone calls flooding their
offices to make sure they understand that protecting our children is
more important than satisfying the whims of greedy cable company
executives.

Click Here to find the phone number of your representative's offices. While at their website, consider sending them an email.

Here's a recommended message:

Dear Representative ________,

I
support H.R. 5919, The Family Choice Act of 2006, and strongly
encourage you to do likewise by becoming a co-sponsor of this bill.

For too long, the cable industry has forced consumers to pay for raunchy channels we dont want or watch.

Give
parents REAL CHOICE by co-sponsoring H.R. 5919. By doing so, you will
prove to me that families are more important than special interests.

I look forward to your positive reply to my request to co-sponsor H.R. 5919.

Sincerely,

Ancient Egypt Links

2006-08-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

The month of October is going to be spent on Ancient Egypt. So I'm starting to gather resources and ideas to form the individual weeks and topics, so I'm just going to post everything I come across here. I really dislike what I'm currently doing, of just posting a lot of links to various websites....because usually, eventually, websites get taken down and you end up with dead links, along with the loss of that information. But it seems just as silly and pointless and a waste of a lot of space, not to mention time, to copy everything down and put it here. So I guess this will be a gathering spot for links, and then when I actually form my lesson plans, I will detail what items I've chosen to do, so at least some information will be here.

some ideas, some dead links, at this website
A ton of links
egyptian fonts
a good site with a gazillion links
maps of ancient egypt they even have a map of the exodus here

well duh!

2006-08-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Matthew 6: 22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But
if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then
the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Study: Sexually Explicit Song Lyrics Prompt Teens to Have Sex Earlier

CHICAGO Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found.

Whether
it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens
contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behavior appears to
depend on how the sex is portrayed, researchers found.

Songs
depicting men as "sex-driven studs," women as sex objects and with
explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual
behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and
relationships appear more committed, the study found.

Teens
who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages
were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual
activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to
little or no sexually degrading music.

Among
heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years, versus
29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually
degrading music.

the rest of the article is at Fox News

A Nation of Wimps??

2006-08-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

I just read a really interesting Psychology Today article. It is pretty long. But the author makes some really good points. Here are a few excerpts from it:

Behold the wholly sanitized childhood, without
skinned knees or the occasional C in history. "Kids need to feel badly
sometimes," says child psychologist David Elkind, professor at Tufts
University. "We learn through experience and we learn through bad
experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope."

Messing
up, however, even in the playground, is wildly out of style. Although
error and experimentation are the true mothers of success, parents are
taking pains to remove failure from the equation.

"Life
is planned out for us," says Elise Kramer, a Cornell University junior.
"But we don't know what to want." As Elkind puts it, "Parents and
schools are no longer geared toward child development, they're geared
to academic achievement."

But taking all the discomfort, disappointment and even the play out of
development, especially while increasing pressure for success, turns
out to be misguided by just about 180 degrees. With few challenges all
their own, kids are unable to forge their creative adaptations to the
normal vicissitudes of life. That not only makes them risk-averse, it
makes them psychologically fragile, riddled with anxiety. In the
process they're robbed of identity, meaning and a sense of
accomplishment, to say nothing of a shot at real happiness. Forget,
too, about perseverance, not simply a moral virtue but a necessary life
skill.

Enter: grade inflation. When he took over as president of Harvard in
July 2001, Lawrence Summers publicly ridiculed the value of honors
after discovering that 94 percent of the college's seniors were
graduating with them. Safer to lower the bar than raise the discomfort
level. Grade inflation is the institutional response to parental
anxiety about school demands on children, contends social historian
Peter Stearns of George Mason University. As such, it is a pure index
of emotional overinvestment in a child's success. And it rests on a
notion of juvenile frailtythe assumption that children are easily
bruised and need explicit uplift," Stearns argues in his book, Anxious Parenting: A History of Modern Childrearing in America. [I might have to look at this book!]

Kids are having a hard time even playing neighborhood pick-up games
because they've never done it, observes Barbara Carlson, president and
cofounder of Putting Families First. "They've been told by their
coaches where on the field to stand, told by their parents what color
socks to wear, told by the referees who's won and what's fair. Kids are
losing leadership skills."

It's bad enough that today's children are raised in a psychological
hothouse where they are overmonitored and oversheltered. But that
hothouse no longer has geographical or temporal boundaries. For that
you can thank the cell phone. Even in collegeor perhaps especially at
collegestudents are typically in contact with their parents several
times a day, reporting every flicker of experience.

The perpetual access to parents infantilizes the young, keeping them in
a permanent state of dependency. Whenever the slightest difficulty
arises, "they're constantly referring to their parents for guidance,"
reports Kramer. They're not learning how to manage for themselves.

Some psychologists think we have yet to
recognize the full impact of the cell phone on child development,
because its use is so new. Although there are far too many variables to
establish clear causes and effects, Indiana's Carducci believes that
reliance on cell phones undermines the young by destroying the ability
to plan ahead. "The first thing students do when they walk out the door
of my classroom is flip open the cell phone. Ninety-five percent of the
conversations go like this: 'I just got out of class; I'll see you in
the library in five minutes.' Absent the phone, you'd have to make
arrangements ahead of time; you'd have to think ahead."

Herein
lies another possible pathway to depression. The ability to plan
resides in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the executive branch of the
brain. The PFC is a critical part of the self-regulation system, and
it's deeply implicated in depression, a disorder increasingly seen as
caused or maintained by unregulated thought patternslack of
intellectual rigor, if you will. Cognitive therapy owes its very
effectiveness to the systematic application of critical thinking to
emotional reactions. Further, it's in the setting of goals and progress
in working toward them, however mundane they are, that positive
feelings are generated. From such everyday activity, resistance to
depression is born.

What's more, cell
phonesalong with the instant availability of cash and almost any
consumer good your heart desirespromote fragility by weakening
self-regulation. "You get used to things happening right away," says
Carducci. You not only want the pizza now, you generalize that
expectation to other domains, like friendship and intimate
relationships. You become frustrated and impatient easily. You become
unwilling to work out problems. And so relationships failperhaps the
single most powerful experience leading to depression.

Virginia's Portmann feels the effects are even more pernicious; they
weaken the whole fabric of society. He sees young people becoming
weaker right before his eyes, more responsive to the herd, too eager to
fit inless assertive in the classroom, unwilling to disagree with
their peers, afraid to question authority, more willing to conform to
the expectations of those on the next rung of power above them.

Using the classic benchmarks of adulthood, 65 percent of males had
reached adulthood by the age of 30 in 1960. By contrast, in 2000, only
31 percent had. Among women, 77 percent met the benchmarks of adulthood
by age 30 in 1960. By 2000, the number had fallen to 46 percent.

Bill Gates Teams Up With UNESCO

2006-08-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is a few months old, but my jaw just dropped when I read it. I found a link to this on Spunky's blog. You all should read this: Bill Gates Teams Up
With UNESCO
It's about the globalization of the public school curriculum.

awesome coloring books

2006-08-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

I just found this site today.....fantastic coloring books for not too much $$. I just ordered some; I can't wait to see them in person. Dover Coloring Books I did find that a few other resource places were selling them for slightly cheaper, but they didn't have a very wide selection, so I ended up getting all mine from Dover.

who is Green Helmet??

2006-08-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

this story is being reported on a bunch of other pundit blogs. This one has a nice rundown of all the various pictures. It's so bizarre, it makes me laugh.

Green Helmet

cool blogs about Israel happenings

2006-07-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

this is a daily, frequently updated blog about what is happening in Israel. I think there are 2 or 3 ppl who write the postings, and some of them are in the IDF, or on the ambulance team or something....I'm not real postive. But really good updates and some good photos, too.

The Muqata

another good one I read occasionally is Yoni

Dingbat Fonts

2006-07-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

I love fonts. I use them in my scrapbooking and paper arts, but they can also come in very handy with school things. There are so many kinds of dingbat fonts out there, it's amazing. Here are 2 sites that have a lot of free dingbat fonts:

Dingbat Fonts

Dafont

Here are a few good categories under Dingbats at Dafont - Animals, Ancient, there are some cool fairy tale fonts under Fantastic, Nature, and there are a lot under Various. Since there are 21 pages of various, here are a few that look good: Biblical, Biblish Pictures, Ding Maps, Famous Buildings, Weather Dings, Music for a while, SC by the sea, ShipsNBoats, US-bats, We Inside, We love America's wisdom.

All of these fonts are free, so you will just have to download them and unzip them with Winzip. Then save them into your C://Windows/Fonts folder. Now that you have all these cool fonts downloaded, what can you do with them? You can make them a very very large size, so that one letter takes up a whole page, and print it off and let your kids color it. You could make bingo pages out of different fonts. You could use them as spaces on a homemade game board. You could use the states and famous buildings ones as trivia questions. For animals and nature fonts, you could print off various pictures and use them in crafts. I am looking at making some more file folder games, some social studies ones, since I have some math ones already, and so that is what got me looking at fonts. Here is a link to an old post I have about FFG's, and ways that you can use the dingbat fonts in them: File Folder Games. The possibilites for these fonts are endless. So, download and enjoy!!

cool decks of cards

2006-07-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

I came across a neat find tonight at Dollar General. While I was in the checkout line, I noticed this little display of decks of cards. They were National Geographic cards, 2 different sets. There was a Culture set and an Expedition set. The Culture set has 52 pictures of famous places around the world. The Expedition set has images from various expeditions throughout the last 100 years or so, and has little factoids on each card as well. And, these still have all the numbers and suits printed on them, so they can be used as playing cards. I think they would be neat to use as trivia cards in different games, with older kids. And they were only 2 bucks each.

So, I was going to try and look up and see if these are in any stores..........and the only place I can find them is on a few british websites, and ebay. Here is a link to the manufacturer, so you can see what I'm talking about. I don't know if you can order from him or not. Cartamundi If not, check out your Dollar General. How this British deck of cards made it to DG in Michigan, I have no idea.

Week 3 - Year 1 - Dinosaurs

2006-07-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

Monday

Social Studies - Isaac
retell with the felt pieces
100 easy lessons
time
Art Lesson 3

Tuesday

Social Studies - Isaac
retell with the felt pieces
Fossil cast
Write letters
Workbook pages out of the activity book
Measure dinosaurs
Coloring pages warm colors

Wednesday

Social Studies - Jacob
retell with the felt pieces
Dinosaur Sandwiches
100 easy lessons
time
Art Lesson 3

Thursday

Social Studies - Jacob
retell with the felt pieces
Dig up dinos
Write letters
Workbook pages out of the activity book
measurements
Coloring pages cool colors

Friday

Social Studies - St. George and the dragon
Dinosaur Cookies
100 easy lessons
time
Coloring pages

Week 3 Dinosaurs

Social Studies
St. George and the dragon
Isaac
Jacob

Math
time
Measure dinosaurs, compare to each other and against kids

Science

Dig up dinos - Go out in the sandbox or garden.have buried
dinosaurs or bones. Grid it off and have them dig to find things. Use brushes and dig cautiously.
Fossil cast

Language Arts

Write letters
100 easy lessons
Workbook pages out of the activity book
For all Bible stories, have her retell them with the felt pieces

Misc. links

Dinosaurs
pro teacher dinosaur

Dinosaur Sandwiches
Make open face dinosaur sandwiches by cutting dinosaur shapes from wheat bread. Spread with peanut butter or cheese spread and add raisin eyes.

Dinosaur Cookies
Let students bake sugar cookies. Use cookie cutters to cut dinosaur shapes. Bake, cool, and let students decorate with different colored frostings.

Art curriculum Lesson 3 warm and cool colors
Dinosaur coloring pages

Books

Dinosaurs by Design - Creation Research Institue
The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible Creation Research Institue
look at J 567.97 to see if there are any decent dinosaur books
Archeology J 930.1 M

Lapbooking

2006-07-26T02:23:00.000-07:00

I am looking at lapbooking and thinking about incorporating that as a way to keep track of some of what we do in our unit studies. Lapbooking is basically taking file folders and making mini books to store various information in, so you have a whole theme inside the file folder. So, here are a some sites that have a lot of information and links that I've found.

Lapbook Learning
Yahoo Group for Lapbooking
Cindy Rushton Lapbooking Links
In the Hands of a Child

books about Israel

2006-07-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

I have read several books about Israel and thought I would list them here. These are all very good and very well-written, very factual, etc.

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
If a Place Can Make You Cry: Dispatches from an Anxious State by Daniel Gordis He also has a website, DanielGordis
From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters
When I was a Soldier by Valerie Zanetti

there is also a great fictional series by Brock and Bodie Thoene, called the Zion Chronicles (5 book series) about the founding of Israel.

and one great website that I came across was For Zion's Sake. This is a christain organization and it looks amazing. They also have a really neat store that helps to benefit the Israeli's and this organization: Jerusalem Gifts

Cleaning Kids

2006-07-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Last night we were getting ready to brush our teeth, and I looked down at our sink and saw all of this dirt and mustard all over. I sighed as I realized I was going to have to clean the sink yet again, because Aiden cannot manage to wash his hands without getting everything else dirty.

Then.......I had a revelation.

If Aiden made the mess, why doesn't Aiden clean it up?   I know, I know, a very unique concept

So.............I told him today that he is old enough to start learning how to clean things, and for that matter, so was Alysa................and they were thrilled. They were so excited to clean, it was funny.

Here is collaged pictures of the dirty sink....

and here is the nice, clean sink:

I showed Aiden how to clean the sink, and Alysa how to clean the tub. We clean with vinegar, so don't worry, they weren't covered in chemicals, LOL. They were so excited, that they wanted to switch jobs. So I told them next time we do the bathroom, Aiden can do the tub and Alysa can do the sink.   They both did a really good job. I didn't have to touch up anything Alysa did. I really didn't have to touch up the sink, either, but I wiped it all down anyways, just to make sure that the vinegar touched everywhere, so I would know all the germs were gone, LOL.

And tomorrow......they get to clean the glass door that goes out to the backyard that is covered with fingerprints!!

Week 2 - Year 1 - Ice Age

2006-07-24T02:01:00.000-07:00

This is Week 2, the Ice Age. The things that are italicized are because there are links at the bottom, that go into a more detailed description.

Monday

Noah

retell with felt

Evaporation Station

Write letters

time

100 easy lessons

Paint animal plaster of Paris casts

J 530.4 PIP

J 530.4 F

Tuesday

Babel

retell with felt

Write letters

Build tower of Babel out of boxes and blocks

Workbook pages

Learn about complementary colors use to paint Babel coloring sheet

J 551.453 K

J 551.31 F

Wednesday

Abraham

retell with felt

Excavate the ice

Write letters

100 easy lessons

time

Abraham coloring pages

J 551.576 G

J 551.577 B

Thursday

Abraham

retell with felt

Melting Ice

Write letters

Workbook pages

Abraham coloring pages

Learn about complementary colors do paper weaving

J 569 DIX

J 569 W

Friday

Abraham

retell with felt

Write letters

100 easy lessons

time

Learn about complementary colors use to paint Abraham coloring pages

J 560 STE

J 560 R

Week 2 The Ice Age

Social Studies  Read Bible

Noah

Babel

Abraham

Abraham coloring pages
Babel coloring sheet

Science

Evaporation Station

Excavate the ice

Take a roasting pan and fill it with water, glitter, marbles, plastic dinosaurs and animals, sea shells, rocks, and , finally, some ice cubes to help get it freezing. Freeze until edges, bottom and top are really solid but some water remains inside. Give the children a chance, one at a time, to don safety glasses and use the rubber mallet and a dull old chisel to excavate the ice.

Melting Ice

Children predict and experiment what will melt ice the fastest. Salt or water or both. Three pie pans of ice. One for the salt. One for the water. And one for both. Make a chart for the children's predictions and for the outcomes of their experiment.

Math - time

Build tower of Babel out of blocks or boxes

Language Arts

Write letters

Workbook pages out of the activity book

For all Bible stories, have her retell them with the felt pieces

Art 

Go through art curriculum 1 lesson a week

Paint animal plaster of Paris casts

be strong and resolute

2006-07-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

I read a book a couple of months ago called Dispatches from an Anxious State, by Daniel Gordis. He was an American Jew who moved to Israel a few years ago. This book is a collection of emails he wrote to family and friends, eventually some of them making it to the New York Times. He's written a couple of other books as well, and he also continues to periodically post these dispatches on his website. Here are some exerpts from the latest dispatch, today.

That small block of Haifa, with its shattered shell of a building,
rubble all along the street, citizens dazed as they wandered about
looking at it all, appeared to be exactly what it was a war zone.

And yet, the people in the street stayed near their homes, going
nowhere. The newscaster asked them why they didnt go somewhere else,
where it might be safer. One man answered with statistics. Why leave
now? Weve already been hit. The chances of us being hit again are one
in a million. To which another man responded almost with outrage.
What do numbers have to do with it? he asked. And then, he turned to
the camera, almost screaming, pointed to the broken building, and said,
This is our home. Mi-po ani lo zaz. From here, I am not budging. And
he repeated his refrain over and over again. This is my home. And from
here, I am not budging. Mi-po ani lo zaz.

Israelis understand what this is. This is a war over our homes. Over
our homes in the north, for now, but eventually, as the rockets get
better and larger, all of our homes. This is not about the territories.
This is not about the occupation. This is not about creating a
Palestinian State. This is about whether there will be a state called
Israel...............................................

.....................Now, the bitter reality of which Israels right wing had warned about
all along is beginning to settle in. It is not lost on virtually any
Israelis that the two primary fronts on which this war is being
conducted are precisely the two fronts from which we withdrew to
internationally recognized borders. We withdrew from Gaza, despite all
the internal objections, hoping to move Palestinian statehood and
peace one step closer. But all we got in return was the election of
Hamas, and a barrage of more than 800 Qassams that they refused to end.
And then they stole Gilad Shalit {one of the kidnapped soldiers}. Not from Gaza. Not from some
contested no mans land. From inside the internationally recognized
borders of Israel. As if to make sure that we got the point There is
no place that youre safe. There is no place to which we wont take
this war. You cant stay here.

Because as much as we have wanted to believe otherwise, they have
no interest in building their homeland. They only care about destroying
ours............................

....................And which is why this incredibly divided and divisive society has
rallied so monolithically around a Prime Minister who until last week
wasnt terribly popular, and around a war that may or may not
accomplish all its military objectives. It explains why, even as the
air raid sirens go off across the country, and may eventually start
their wail in Tel Aviv, too, as people dash across streets, panicked,
trying to find the nearest bomb shelter, no one complains about the
government. No ones complaining about the amount of time its taking
the air force to put a stop to this. It explains why all over this
city, advertisements on bus stops have been replaced with a photo of an
Israeli flag and the phrase Chazak Ve-ematz be strong and resolute
(Moses words to Joshua in Deut. 31:7)..................

....................Its sad, because deep down, people are starting to wonder. Would going
there be the only way to get beyond their hate? We got out of Lebanon.
We left Gaza. Olmert was elected after he openly declared his intention
to give back the majority of the West Bank. But without intending to,
we called their bluff. And now we know: the issue isnt their
statehood. Its ours..........................

..........................Its the eighth war, or the ninth. But it isnt the last war. Its the
first war, all over again. Weve got this war for the same reason that
we had all the others. We have this war for the same reason that people
in Haifa are still saying mi-po ani lo zaz. We got this war for the
same reason that we got the first, and the second.

We know why they attacked then. And we know why theyre still
attacking. And were determined to hold on for the same reason that
theyre so determined never to stop. Theres one reason, and one reason
only:

The Jewish People has no where else to go.

the Hoff

2006-07-21T02:06:00.000-07:00

So when I was writing my other post, I saw the dancing baby icon.

and it reminded me of a video that everyone must see. Awesome Hoff Video

You will laugh so hard. If not........well, I don't know what to tell you. Life must be tough without a sense of humor. The fish in the mouth part is my favorite scene.

I won!

2006-07-21T01:59:00.000-07:00

My cool mug shown down below won the mug contest! I get some free coffee! Cool beans

Week 1 - Year 1 - Creation

2006-07-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

I am going to do a 3 year cycle through history. And then repeat that cycle a couple of times. And I'm going to go ahead and start that cycle with Kindergarten. So, this is week number 1, and we started at the beginning, of course :) The things that are italicized are because there are links at the bottom, that go into a more detailed description. We'll see how this week goes. Hopefully I didn't plan too much for each day. We will also use many more books than I have listed. I just wanted a jumping off point for where to look in the library. When we actually do this week, I'll post more details about how it goes and what we do, and actual books and other things we end up using.

Monday

Day 1 - God created the light, and day and night. 2 - God created the sky/atmosphere.

Retell with felt

100 easy lessons

Air takes space

Make a cloud

Coloring pages, mini-book

Tuesday

God created the waters, the land and the vegetation.

Retell with felt

Write words

Memorize days of creation

Workbook pages

Learn about primary and secondary colors paint coloring sheets from primary colors.

J 551.46 H

J 551.46 RIC

Wednesday

God created the sun, moon and stars.

Retell with felt

100 easy lessons

Constellations

Make planets out of clay

Write words

Memorize days of creation

start learning about time

Coloring pages, mini-book

J 525 BIR

J 523.8 VOG

Thursday

God created the birds and the fish.

Retell with felt

Saltwater and Sun

Write words

Memorize days of creation

Workbook pages

Paint coloring sheets from secondary colors.

J 598 K

J 591.92 K

Friday

God created the animals and man.

Retell with felt

Write words

100 easy lessons

Memorize days of creation

start learning about time

Coloring pages, mini-book

Week 1 Creation

Social Studies  Read Bible

Coloring pages

Mini-book

Days of creation crafts

Science

Air takes space

Clouds

Saltwater and Sun

Constellations put glow in the dark sticker stars on black paper in shape of various constellations.

Take modeling clay, and using proper dimensions, made each of the planets with a different color (sun=yellow, earth = green, Uranus = blue, etc.) and of the proper proportionate size.

Math - start learning about time

Language Arts -

learn to write alphabet properly - use a vocab word from each day to ease the boredom :)

For all Bible stories, have her retell them with the felt pieces

Art 

Go through art curriculum 1 lesson a week

Do workbook pages out of the activity book

Memorize all 7 days

New Look!

2006-07-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

I finished giving my blog a new look. More of an artsy feel for right now. And I have 2 units finished, so I'll be posting them soon, too!

planning Kindergarten!

2006-07-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

I'm gearing up to start Kindergarten this fall, so I've started working on our yearly plan and unit studies and all of that. I'm also going to redo the look of my blog a bit :) I can't wait!!

Mug Contest

2006-07-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

So I was just browsing a few blogs and came across this contest at Under His Construction So, here is my entry for favorite coffee mug. This is called Monday Morning Mug.

Lewis and Clark

2006-07-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

We took a 3 day road trip to Mt Rushmore a couple of weeks ago, and on the way there, we stopped at the rest area on the Missouri River near Chamberlain, SD. This is a spot where Lewis and Clark camped on their journey. They had a neat little museum inside. On the way home, we went south through Wyoming down to Fort Laramie, and then took part of the Oregon Trail east through Nebraska, driving by Scotts Bluffs and stopping at Chimney Rock before driving back home.

So the kids have been all excited about all of that. So I checked out a few books out of the library and we are doing some Lewis and Clark things. I have got to say (again) that I just loooooove love love love the Williamson Publishers books. fantastic. I would love to own all of them. If you do an amazon advanced search, you can search by Publisher and search for Williamson Publishing Company, you can see all of their books.

I also found this book at the library and was using that as well.

So.....we did 2 things today. One was making 'vermillion' like Lewis made and gave to the indians as a gift...they used it to paint their bodies. So, we made it and the kids painted their bodies. Then, we made journals and went and inspected some plants and drew pictures and colored them, like Lewis and Clark recorded the various plants they saw.

Easter stuff

2006-04-05T05:46:00.000-07:00

Here are a few links/ideas for Easter/Passover.

Preschool Easter Themed stuff
Jesus on the cross coloring sheet PDF
Perpetual Preschool Passover ideas
Perpetual Preschool Easter ideas
DLTK Easter
I'm not real keen on eggs and chicks and bunnies for Easter, but here's a site with a few craft ideas: Easter crafts
Passover coloring pages
DLTK Palm Sunday

EASTER STORY COOKIES: Make the evening before Easter... 1c. Whole Pecans 1
tsp. Vinegar 1c. Sugar Zipper Baggie 3 Egg Whites Tape Wooden Spoon Pinch Salt
Bible

Preheat oven to 300° (This is important-- Do it now!) Place pecans in zipper
baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small
pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested He was beaten by the Roman
soldiers. (John 19:1-3.) Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar
into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given
vinegar to drink. (John 19:28-30.) Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent
life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. (John 10:10-11.)
Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the
rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus'
followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. (Luke 23:27.) So far the
ingredients are not appetizing. Add 1c. sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of
the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong
to Him. (Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.) Beat with a mixer for 12-15 minutes until
stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the white represents the purity in God's
eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. (Isa. 1:18 and John
3:1-3.) Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie
sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was
laid. (Matt. 27:57-60.) Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and
turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.
Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. (Matt. 27:65-66.) GO TO BED! Explain that
they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers
were in despair when the tomb was sealed. (John 16:20 and 22.) On Easter
morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface
and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter Jesus' followers
were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. (Matt. 28:1-9.)

dress clipart website

2006-03-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

great site I just stumbled across. Costumes Clipart

school??

2006-03-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

What's that??? LOL. I've been
trying to get caught up on house things, so 'school' has been pushed to
the wayside for awhile. Good news is, I have brand new flooring
in my kitchen and laundry room. We had nasty brown stained carpet
in the kitchen, and orange shag carpet in the laundry room. Now
we have nice laminate flooring, woo-hoo! I've been watching the
kids the past few days and realized that even though I'm not actively
'doing school', they are still doing school stuff somewhat. I
thought I'd note what they were doing, to help me feel better about it,
LOL.

They have been playing with their train set a ton, learning how to make
a track by themselves. They've been playing Hi-Ho Cherry-O,
Candyland, etc by themselves. They have been playing with the
leapfrog leappad, playing with blocks and lincoln logs, playing with
educational flashcards, playing Boggle jr, and doing some coloring and
drawing, as well as reading a bunch of books. So, I guess
they are doing something even if I'm not, LOL.

Valentine's Day U.S. 5 Day plan

2006-02-05T11:08:00.000-08:00

Monday
Read Books
Do reading lesson
Valentine's Day Coloring Pages
Storytime at library

Cut out several paper hearts of various colors (red, pink,
purple). Have her sort the hearts, count the number of each color, and
record this info on a simple graph. Use a basic square grid, and
add the heading, pictures, numbers, etc. as needed. This activity could
be repeated with heart sizes as well. (do with candy conversation hearts instead of paper hearts)
Read bible verses about love.

Tuesday
Do worksheets more worksheets using valentine's candy as counters.
Color and put together Arthur Valentine's Puzzles

Wednesday
Make patterns with various valentine's candy.
Cut a strip of
paper towel 4x1.5 inches. Put a spot of red ink near one
end. Make a hole near the top of the other end and put a pencil
through it. Hang the strip of paper in a glass. Put just
enough water in the glass to reach the bottom of the strip - don't let
the water touch the ink. Wait about 15 min and see what
happens.
Get a box of
conversation hearts. Have her write down the words that are on
the hearts. After she practices writing each one, she can eat the
heart.
Look at Jim Dine heart prints
Take 4 6x9 papers and fold them in half. Draw half a heart along
the edge. Have her cut out the heart, careful not to cut along
the fold. Open it up and you have 4 heart shapes. Using a
variety of art mediums, create 4 different hearts. Mount
individually onto black paper, or all together on one large piece of
paper.

Friday
Make red Jello jigglers, cut out with heart cookie cutter. Talk about measurements while making it.
Buy a
couple white carnations and mix together red food coloring and water.
Then cut the stem to fit in your vase and cut a vertical X in the base
of the stem. Place the flowers in the red water. Over the next couple
of days they will start changing colors.
Make valentines to mail to family and friends. Have her write out a short message inside.

Yahoo groups

2006-02-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

Here are a bunch of Yahoo groups that have a lot of good stuff - if you know of any others, post the link!!

Kindergarten_at_Home
Unit Safari
Homeschool Paper Crafts
Unit Study Collaborative
Pre-K File Folder Games
preschool homeschool
GamesForLearning
File Folder Game Printables

South America Unit Study

2006-01-27T07:30:00.000-08:00

This study isn't completely done, but I'm posting it anyway since I probably won't finish planning it.

Map of SA
to color

I had a hard time finding
coloring pages of the animals, so I'm just going to buy a rainforest
coloring book.

Anaconda
Piranha
Peccary
Sloths
Parrot
Macaw
- coloring
page
Jaguar

Science
Terrariums

Terrariums are easy to make from plastic soda or water bottles. Have

everyone bring a bottle with the label off. Cut bottle in half. Put

pebbles and potting soil in the bottom half. Plant some small plants

and water it sparingly. Use the top half with the cap on as the lid.

Cut 4 1" places on the cut edge of the lid so as to allow it to fit

over the bottom planted part. The plants will then water themselves

from condensation on the inside of the bottle. They last a long time

without care. You add a ceramic rainforest animal.

learn about rainforest products - sugar, coffee, etc

go in the bathroom and run the shower on hot....sit in the
steam for a few minutes, to get the feel of the rainforest.

learn about the 4 levels: The

emergent level is the top level of the rainforest. The canopy is the

next layer where monkeys, apes and exotic plants live. The canopy is

like living under a big green umbrella. The understory is the next

layer. It is the home of bats, frogs, butterflies and many other

animals. Finally is the forest floor. It's dark on the rainforest
floor

because the trees keep most of the light out.

water
cycle

Math
find or draw
a snake pattern on different colors of paper. You

can also laminate the pieces so that you can use a dry erase marker
and

change the letters to spell new words, instead of making all new

pieces. This

pattern can be used to review just about anything you happen to be

studying. Children will love this activity because they can get down
on

the floor and move around while making a great big
snake.You

can also use this snake for anything that your child is studying that

has an order such as numbers, letters, books of the Bible, counting by

certain numbers, alphabetizing, etc.

Crafts
Rainforest
Mural

As a class activity, the children will be dipping their palms in green

paint to make palm prints covering several large sheets of paper. Once

dry, these will serve as a background for your class rainforest. As
you

learn about the rainforest add food, plants, and animals to your
mural.

Snake
Sock

white tube
sock

markers

craft
eyes

super
glue

red felt (approx
3" x 1")

Allow

the child to decorate the white tube sock snake with the markers.

Supervise the child as they cut a snake tongue from the red felt.
Super

glue craft eyes to "top" of toe end of snake. Super glue tongue where

the sock will naturally fit in the child's hand (think puppet).

Play.

Make

binoculars with toilet paper rolls - decorate, punch holes in, and tie

together with yarn. Tape up pictures of animals/birds, and go
for

a walk, looking for animals in the rainforest.

Parrot
craft
Sloth
craft
rain forest mobile

Food/Cooking
Buy different food found in the
rainforest: bananas, star fruit, coconut, chocolate, papaya, papaya,
bananas, mangos, etc.

Misc.
Tribal
Faces

Get a book on indigenous people of the rainforest and face paint the

children to look like the tribal people. Then string beads for tribal

necklaces.

Have students cut out animals and glue
them in the proper layer.

go on a smell hunt with food items
from the rainforest

Do 1,2,3,4,5
Fish nursery rhyme.
Learn about right and left hands

anteater maze
worksheet

Rainforest
Links
more
links

North America Unit Study

2006-01-27T03:50:00.000-08:00

Objectives

Develop ability to print letters and copy words.
Form upper and lower case letters.
Follow directions.
Compare length and weight of objects by comparing to reference objects, and
use terms such as shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier.
Compare two or more objects by length, weight and capacity, e.g., which is
shorter, longer, taller?
Recognize rhyming words.

Math

Find measurements of animals, cut out pieces of string as tall
as each animal. Compare their sizes to each other and to members
of our family.
write down weights of the animals. See which is heavier, which is lighter.
Make patterns with animal paw prints

Science

Prairie Dogs at the bottom of the page is a link to a video of them Coloring Page
Roadrunner Coloring Page
Duck Coloring Page
Coyote Coloring Page Nat'l Geographic Coyote
Bear Bear sounds Coloring Page Coloring Page2
ice/heat demonstration

Water flows downhill.
Use wooden blocks to raise one end of a plastic tub. Pour water into
the tub at the high end. Observe how it flows. Have her try to figure
out how to get the water to move uphill. Talk about:

Which way did your water move?
Did you find a way to get the water to move uphill?
Did the water stay up?
Why do you think water always moves downward?

(day
or two before) Make a mountain out of clay, let it harden.
After water experiment, take some snow and place on top of
mountain. Watch where the water goes as the snow melts. If
no snow available, pour a little water on top of mountain.

Sink or Float. Have various items and have her guess whether they will sink or float in water. Put in water and see what happens.
Print off images of animals, let them color. Match the animals to their environment.

Reading

Do worksheet
write the names of each animal

Geography

Desert - printables more printables
Mountains
Rivers
Great Lakes

Make a map: blank map of north america

Take a plastic tablecloth and spread it out. Draw an outline of
the United States onto the cloth. Make some salt dough and use
the dough to make the physical features onto the map. Use paint
to draw in the main rivers and lakes.

Art

Make a desert diorama OR just print off, color, and glue images onto background without the shoebox.
Sandpaper Rubbing Cut out sandpaper in cactus shape.
Tape it to the table. Give each child a piece of paper and a crayon.
The child will place the paper over the sandpaper and rub the crayon
over the paper to make the shape appear on their paper.

Books

Shanna's Animal Riddles
Scorpion book
A living desert / by Guy J. Spencer J 574.5 S
Alpine meadow / Paul Fleisher J 577.538 F
America's magnificent mountains 917.3 N
What's inside lakes? Jane Kelly Kosek J 577.63 K
Coyote / by Jalma Barrett J 599.77 B
Bears J 599.78
The friendly prairie dog / Denise Casey J 599.32 C
North America / Cass R. Sandak J 970 S

Links

DesertUSA
Great Lakes-Big Rivers
Activity Pages
North American Wildlife (on the individual animal pages, you can hear their sounds)

Valentine's Day Unit Study

2006-01-27T03:39:00.000-08:00

Objectives

Understand the concept of addition
Complete patterns.
Identify, sort and classify objects by attribute
Develop ability to print letters and copy words.

Math

Make red Jello jigglers, cut out with heart cookie cutter. Talk about measurements while making it.
Do worksheets more worksheets using valentine's candy as counters. (if you refresh the page, you'll get new worksheets)
Make patterns with various valentine's candy.
Cut out several paper hearts of various colors (red, pink,
purple). Have her sort the hearts, count the number of each color, and
record this info on a simple graph. Use a basic square grid, and
add the heading, pictures, numbers, etc. as needed. This activity could
be repeated with heart sizes as well.

Science

Buy a
couple white carnations and mix together red food coloring and water.
Then cut the stem to fit in your vase and cut a vertical X in the base
of the stem. Place the flowers in the red water. Over the next couple
of days they will start changing colors.
Cut a strip of
paper towel 4x1.5 inches. Put a spot of red ink near one
end. Make a hole near the top of the other end and put a pencil
through it. Hang the strip of paper in a glass. Put just
enough water in the glass to reach the bottom of the strip - don't let
the water touch the ink. Wait about 15 min and see what
happens.

Reading

Get a box of
conversation hearts. Have her write down the words that are on
the hearts. After she practices writing each one, she can eat the
heart.
Make valentines to mail to family and friends. Have her write out a short message inside.

Art

Look at Jim Dine heart prints
Take 4 6x9 papers and fold them in half. Draw half a heart along
the edge. Have her cut out the heart, careful not to cut along
the fold. Open it up and you have 4 heart shapes. Using a
variety of art mediums, create 4 different hearts. Mount
individually onto black paper, or all together on one large piece of
paper.
Valentine's Day Coloring Pages

Tissue paper hearts - Paint an entire piece of paper with vinegar and
then cover it with hearts cut out of tissue paper.. After the vinegar
has dried, peel off the hearts to reveal hearts stamps on their paper.

Books

Arthur's Valentine
Clifford, We Love You
The story of Valentine's Day / by Clyde Robert Bulla J 394.2618 BUL
A valentine for you / Wendy Watson E W
Clifford's valentines / Norman Bridwell
Be my valentine

Links

Lots of Valentine's Links
History of Valentine's Day
Lots of Valentine's crafts
Activity Idea Place

Misc.

Fold a small square of construction paper in half. Trace
their thumb at an angle, along the folded edge, to make half a
heart. Have them cut out the shape, being careful not to cut on
the fold. Open it up and it's a small heart.
Color and put together Arthur Valentine's Puzzles
Talk about emotions. Write down different types of
emotions on index cards. Have her find images from magazines that
depict those emotions, cut out and glue onto card. Have her write
each word.
Read bible verses about love.

Resource Books

Teaching with Favorite Clifford Books
Teaching with Favorite Marc Brown Books

Book Sale

2006-01-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

I went to a Scholastic Warehouse Sale
tonight. It was awesome! I got a ton ton ton of
books. Nothing was over 5 bucks. I got 500 dollars worth of
books for 140. Still kind of a lot - oops, LOL. But
they are really good resource books and some other assorted books and
activity things. These sales are for teachers, librarians, school
personnel, book fair people, and registered homeschoolers. You
can check and see which sale is near you - I think they have them 2 or
3 times a year:

Scholastic Warehouse Sale

Very Helpful Site

2006-01-17T03:51:00.000-08:00

This is a great site I just found: Discovery School
They have a lot of things on this site, and registering is free and
fast. You have to register to use the Custom Classroom, which has
puzzlemakers, quizmakers, worksheet makers, and best of all, a lesson
planner. I've just started playing around with it, but it looks
like it's going to be very helpful, especially the lesson planner part
of it.
Custom Classroom

back to school

2006-01-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm getting back in gear. I've
started implementing the S.H.E. file card system of cleaning and
organizing and it seems like it's really going to help me with keeping
up with the house and the baby and still have time for school and other things. I tried Flylady but those emails were soooo annoying.
So now, I have 2 weeks to get some lessons planned. I hit a
resource jackpot with my brother's girlfriend. She's in college
to be an elementary school teacher and has tons of info that she's
letting me look through and use.

I'm also trying to reorganize my blog so it's a little easier to look through it. I started looking for things and I was getting lost and confused
One thing I'm going to do to help me with all of my hard copies of
everything isto set up a spreadsheet with the different information and
objectives I want to cover. I think that will help me stay
focused, and then by putting that in a binder with the work that was
accomplished, I'll have a nice portfolio going in case anyone ever
wants to see proof that we home-educate. It'd be nice if I could
post the spreadsheet on here with all the other info each week but I
don't know if that's possible or not. We'll find out in a couple
weeks, LOL.

How about another cute picture???

Revised topics for the year

2006-01-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

Here
is my revised list of topics for this year. There is no Nov-Jan
because of me being too pregnant and then finally having Baelin.

September
Africa
Neighborhood
Asia
Insects

October
Australia
Fall
South America
Farm

February
North America
Valentine's
Castle/Princess
Planes, Trains, Boats

March
Ocean
Space
Magnets
Dinosaurs
5 Senses

April
Passover/Easter
Spring
Butterflies
Weather

May
Flowers
Construction
Birds
Garden/Plants
Michigan

websites for reading

2006-01-10T06:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some websites I was told
about. I haven't really checked them out yet, but they look
good. I figure if I post the links here I don't have to worry
about forgetting about the sites, LOL.

Dolch Word List - Preschool

Practice with Abstract Sight Words

Dolch Sight Word Pre-primer Resources

winter activities

2005-12-30T02:57:00.000-08:00

Early Childhood website - Winter Activities for toddlers/preschoolers.

Long Time No See

2005-12-16T04:06:00.000-08:00

The reason I've been away for a couple of months is that I was so tired
and not feeling good from getting so pregnant that I just quit doing
school and most other stuff, too, LOL. But now, I am all done with
that, thank goodness. Baelin David was born at 5:50 am,
December 6, and was 7lbs, 18.5 inches long. Sometime
in January I'm going to get back to posting stuff and doing school
again with the kids!

Bobbie Kalman

2005-10-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

I am finding that Bobbie Kalman has a
ton of excellent books for preschool-2nd(ish) grade. They're
written for early elementary kids to read, and so they are sometimes
too texty for preschoolers, so I just summarize it when we read
them. But they have tons of pictures, and the information is
really good. It's a good review for mom Here's a link to all of her books on Amazon - Bobbie Kalman
She's worth checking out at the library - we have a small-town library
but it is suprisingly well-stocked. I've been really impressed.
And they have a ton of her books, which have been really
helpful.

good book

2005-10-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

This is a book I picked up at the library today. It's a good book, with lots and lots of simple ideas in it. The Ultimate Preschool Playbook : Easy, Educational, and Entertaining Activities for Your Two- to Five-Year-Old by Dorothy Einon.
It's linked to Amazon....I see they have them used for $1.25 - not
bad. Some of her other books look good, too. Worth
checking to see if your library has it.

Fun food ideas

2005-10-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

I'm
trying to come up with fun ways to eat/serve food for the kids lunches
and breakfast. Here are some links that have some good ideas.

Kid's Recipes
Family Fun recipes and ideas
Fun Kraft Food ideas
Snacking Fun
lots of fun food ideas

Chinese Music

2005-10-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

I was looking up asian music and came across this:

Chinese Children's songs - mp3's

I had to LOL - one of the songs is called Communist Young Pioneers.

Here's a bunch more Chinese music

Learning Objectives

2005-10-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here
is a list of learning objectives that I think Alysa should know by the
end of the year. Most of these are taken off the Michigan Dept.
of Ed. website. Most of them are actually kindergarten goals, but
I picked all the ones that I thought she should/could know. This
is more to give me an idea of what to work on casually with her, and
not really have it be an intense learning experience.

Reading

Recognize colors.
Recognize and name capital and lower case letters and sounds.
Comprehend beginning sound-symbol relationships.
Identify opposites.
Match letters, words and designs.
Recognize rhyming words.
Develop listening and speaking skills.
Follow directions.
Sequence events.
Develop ability to print letters and copy words.
Recognize that literature comes in many forms.
Recognize that writing goes from left to right.
Acquire emergent (beginning) reading skills.
Recognize a few basic sight words.
Follow familiar written text while pointing to matching words.
Identify a variety of narrative genre including
stories
nursery rhymes
poetry
songs.
Discuss simple story elements in narrative text
setting
characters
events
Form upper and lower case letters.

Math

Identify basic shapes.
Complete patterns.
Identify and reproduce sets 1-10.
Classify by shape, color, and size.
Print numbers 0-20.
Understand the concept of addition and subtraction.
Develop problem solving skills.
Develop concepts and comparisons of measurement.
Read and write numerals to 30 and connect them to the quantities they represent.
Count orally to 100 by ones. Count to 30 by 2s, 5s and10s using grouped
objects as needed.
Create, describe, and extend simple number patterns.
Know and use the common words for the parts of the day (morning, afternoon,
evening, night) and relative time (yesterday, today, tomorrow, last week, next year).
Identify tools that measure time (clocks measure hours and minutes; calendars
measure days, weeks, and months).
Compare two or more objects by length, weight and capacity, e.g., which is
shorter, longer, taller?
Compare length and weight of objects by comparing to reference objects, and
use terms such as shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier.
Identify, sort and classify objects by attribute and identify objects that do not
belong in a particular group.
Create, describe, and extend simple geometric patterns.
Know and understand money values

Science

Identify characteristics associated with the four seasons.
Understand the importance and functions of the five senses.
Observe and discuss concept of change.
Describe seasonal changes in weather.

October Unit Studies

2005-10-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

Australia Unit Study
Fall Unit Study
South America Unit Study
Farm Unit Study

Australia 5 Day Plan
Fall 5 Day Plan
South America 5 Day Plan
Farm 5 Day Plan

Australia 5 Day Plan

2005-10-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

Do coloring sheets all week,
using different art methods

Monday
Math
Money Flashcards
Buried
Treasure
Science
Air activities
Crafts
Lesson 1 art curriculum
Sandpaper prints
Misc.
Look up
Australia on Google Earth
Color map

Tuesday
Math
Money
Flashcards
Coin Rubbings
Science
Straw
Glider
Crafts
Lesson 2 art
curriculum
Puzzle prints
Misc.
Paint
flag

Wednesday
Math
File Folder
Games
Crafts
Map collage
Food/Cooking
Anzac Biscuits
Science
talk about ecosystems of Australia

Thursday
Math
Money
Flashcards
Coin Patterns
Science
Materials
Crafts
Jumping Kangaroo

Friday
Math
File Folder
Games
sorting and sizing
Crafts
Boomerang
Koala Craft

Food/Cooking
Pavlova

Farm 5 Day Plan

2005-10-02T05:59:00.000-07:00

Do animal flashcards and coloring sheets all
week
Monday

Science
Animal
Match
Math
Eggs are
Hatching
Crafts
Little Boy
Blue
Paper Plate
Pig
Misc.

Little Boy Blue little
book

Tuesday
Science
Make
Butter
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
Little Bo Peep
Mobile
Misc.

Little Bo Peep little
book

Wednesday
Science
Dairy
Products
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
3 Pigs Houses
Muddy
Pig
Misc.

Animal 3-in-a-row

Thursday
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
Sponge Paint Farm, Sheep,
Cow
Food/Cooking
Bake
Bread
Misc.

Do patterns with 3-in-a-row
cards

Friday
Science
Animal
Sort
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
Farm
Mobile
Food/Cooking

Milkshakes

Fall 5 Day Plan

2005-10-02T05:04:00.000-07:00

To get some more fun crafts for fall,
I did a swap with a few other women. We picked out a few
crafts from Oriental
Trading Company,

and then we each got a few of each craft - that way we weren't each

stuck with 12 of the same craft. So the kids will be doing
those,

too.

Monday
Math
Leaf
Graph
Number
Matching
Science
Planting Acorns
Crafts
Scarecrow Fun
Scarecrow Art
Food/Cooking
Pumpkin Pudding
Misc.
Fall Book

Tuesday
Math
Leaf
Match
Science
Fall Sensory Box
Crafts
Apple Wreaths
Apple
Printing
Food/Cooking
Apple
Pancakes
Misc.
Fall Book

Wednesday
Math
Acorn
Numbers
Science
Open and Closed Pinecone
Crafts
Pinecone
Squirrel
Corn Cob painting
Food/Cooking
Leaf Sugar
Cookies
Misc.
Fall Book

Thursday
Math
Apple
Puzzles
Science
talk about
hibernation
Fall Smells
Crafts
Tissue Paper Pumpkin
Food/Cooking
Leaf
Piles
Misc.
Fall Book
Apple Hide
and Seek

Friday
Math
More or
Less
Pumpkin Patch
book
Science
Fall Smells
Crafts
Scented/Pumpkin Playdough
Food/Cooking
Leaf
Toast
Misc.
Fall Book

Australia Unit Study

2005-10-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

Australia 5 Day Plan

Animals to Study:
Tasmanian Devil - Coloring Sheet (convert to b/w)
Koala - Coloring Sheet
Kangaroo - Coloring Sheet
Platypus - Coloring Sheet
Sugar Glider - Coloring Sheet (convert to b/w)
Bandicoot - coloring sheet (convert to b/w)
Frilly-Necked Lizard - coloring sheet (convert to b/w)
Goanna
Geography
Look up Australia on Google Earth
Color map of Australia
Paint the flag
Math
work on money
Buried Treasure: Bury coins in a bowl of rice or sand. Have her find specific coins.
Coin Rubbing:
Hot-glue several coins onto index cards. Lay thin paper on top
and clip it with clothespins to hold the paper it place. Use the flat
side of a crayon to rub over the paper and make an impression of the
coins.
Patterns: Make patterns with coins. For example, heads, tails, heads, tails; or, penny, nickel, penny, nickel.
work on recognizing and writing numbers 1-20
sorting and sizing with koala craft

Science
air/gliding activities

Fill a bowl with water. Place a cup in it, open side down.
Tip the edge up and watch what happens. Talk about the air
bubbles and the air leaving the cup, letting water in. Blow
up a balloon. Talk about air from our lungs; slowly let the air
out of the balloon and feel it. Blow up a balloon and let go of
it - watch it fly around.

Straw Glider

What You Need

Straw
Construction paper
Scissors
Tape
Pencil
Ruler

What You Do

First,
lay a piece of construction paper down on your table. With your ruler,
measure and mark with your pencil a strip that is 1 inch wide and 8
inches long. Then carefully cut out this strip.
With
your ruler and pencil, measure and mark a second strip of paper that is
1/2 inch wide and 6 inches long. Cut this strip out of the paper.
Take the longer strip and form a circle or loop. Tape the two ends together.
Take the shorter strip of paper and form a circle or loop. Tape the two ends together.
Put the longer strip on one end of your straw. Tape it in place.
Put the shorter strip on the other end of your straw. Tape it in place.
Try
sailing or flying your straw glider. Try sailing it with the smaller
loop at the front; try sailing it with the bigger loop at the front.
What happens?
You might try adding
some more loops or wings to the straw. Or try making a glider with two
straws taped together. Or try twisting paper strips to see if that
makes a difference.

The paper rings or loops are like wings. The air pressure that is on
top and below the loops create what we call "lift." This lift makes it
possible for the object or straw glider to sail in the air.

Australia is the leading producer of wool.
Gather clothes made of different material such as wool, rayon/silk,
cotton, etc. Compare textures and weight. Do an experiment
with the clothes. "Which material will dry the fastest?
Soak each piece of material in water.
Place the wet pieces on a tray and place the tray in the sun.
Check them periodically and record the order in which the different materials dried.

Talk about the different ecosystems/habitats in Australia.

Cooking/Food

Pavlova
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 drops vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
pinch of salt
Passion fruit pulp, fruit salad, or strawberries
1 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until frothy.
3. Gradually beat in sugar a little at a time.
 4. Continue beating until stiff and sugar is dissolved. Beat in vanilla.
5. Cover a cookie sheet with brown paper. Draw a 9" circle and spread meringue
evenly within the lines. Make a slight hollow, in the center for filling.
6. Bake 1 hour.
7. Turn off heat and let dry at least 2 hours.
8. When ready to serve, whip cream until thick, fold in fruit and fill center of pavlova.

Anzac Biscuits
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup white flour (sifted)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup shredded coconut
4 oz. butter or margarine
2 tblsp light-colored pancake syrup, molasses, or treacle
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tblsp boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar, and coconut.
3. Combine butter/margarine with syrup in sauce pan; stir over low heat until
melted and thoroughly blended.
4. Mix baking soda with boiling water and add to butter and syrup mixture.
5. Stir liquid mixture into dry ingredients until batter is formed.
6. Place teaspoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart to
allow for spreading.
7. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
8. Place biscuits on rack to cool.

Crafts
Jumping Kangaroo
Australia map collage
Cut a boomerang shape out of cardboard, let them paint it.
Puzzle prints (from kinderart.com)

What You Need:

old puzzle pieces
white glue
cereal box cardboard
safety scissors
paint or printmaking ink
paintbrush or printmaking brayer (or roller)
Printmaking 101 (click here)
Basic printmaking supply list (see below)
Printing with a brayer instructions (see below)
A word about paper (see below)
construction paper

What You Do:

Read through Printmaking 101 and Printmaking 102
Talk about printmaking and how when you make a print, you can make several of the same image.
Cut a piece of cereal box down to a nice size (about 6" x 8")
Take
several puzzle pieces and arrange them on the cereal box cardboard. The
pieces can be arranged to create a picture, or they can just be laid
down in a random pattern.
Once you are happy with the way the pieces look, glue them down and let the glue dry for an hour or so.
If
you have a printmaking brayer, follow the directions below for printing
with a brayer. If you don't have a printmaking brayer, use a paintbrush
to cover the puzzle pieces with paint (or ink).
Lay a sheet of paper on top of the painted puzzle pieces and rub gently with the palm of your hand.
Remove the paper and sign the print and add the numbers 1/4
Do
3 more prints so you have four all together. The second print should
have the numbers 2/4; the third soul have the numbers 3/4 and the
fourth should have the number 4/4 (of course you can do more than four,
but then you have to number accordingly)

Do lesson 1 and 2 from the art curriculum
Koala Craft
Sandpaper Prints (mock aboriginal cave drawings)
Use crayons to draw and color a design on sandpaper, pressing
hard. Color in as much as possible. Place the sandpaper
colored side down onto white construction paper. Place both
pieces of paper in between two pieces of newspaper. Press the
newspaper with a hot iron. Let cool and then remove the
newspaper. Peel the sandpaper off of the white paper. The
print is now on the white paper.

Music
listen to some opera (Sydney Opera House)
The rough guide to Australian Aboriginal music CD
Books to Read
In search of the real Tasmanian devil / by James Preller J 599.2 P
Australia J 994
Into wild Australia / John Woodward J590
The aboriginal peoples of Australia / Anne Bartlett J 305.89915 BAR
Coco's surprise / written by Karen van Holst Pellekaan E H
Koalas / by Gail Saunders-Smith E S
The koala : the bear that's not a bear / Diana Star Helmer J 599.25 H
platypus 599.29
Wombat & Bandicoot : best of friends :three stories / by Kerry Argent. E A
Bush walkabout. Lowe, Beulah. J 398.2 P
Island ancestors Oceanic art from the Masco Collection Allen Wardwell 709.011099 W
Misc.
World of the koala [videorecording]
Kangaroos faces in the mob / [videorecording]
Good Links:
Australian Animals -since this isn't an 'official' site, I would double check all the facts they have on there.
Australian Theme links
Rainforest Australia (I didn't know they had one)
Arthur's Australian Clipart
22 Australian Activities/Lessons
Australia at San Diego Zoo - includes video clips of animals

Africa WebCam animal question

2005-10-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

You can see a live webcam out in Botswana 24/7 - it's awesome. Tons of animals all the time. Africa Cam
I have a question though - this is probably dumb but oh well LOL.
Those of you that are watching this, do you know what
those little birds are? There are always tons of them around -
the little gray ones that look like the size of a chicken. I
want to say it's a pheasant, but I have no idea if a pheasant even
lives in Africa. It's driving me nuts though, b/c they are
always there.

And does anyone else think it would be cool to see a cheetah or a lion come over sometime and attack an animal???? (deep down you know it would )

Farm Unit Study

2005-10-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

Farm 5 Day Plan

Science

Make butter with real cream.
Taste a variety of dairy products.

Animal Sort
Have their barn set out (or a picture of a barn) and have their safari
mat set out (or a picture of a safari area). Gather all
their plastic animals into one pile, and have them separate the animals
between safari and farm, putting the animals in their correct homes.

Animal Match
Print
out images of animals, cut in half, and have them match them up.
To make it harder, cut into a couple of pieces. Arthur's Clipart Images

Math

Eggs Are Hatching - activity in a reproducible math book I have
Farm Animal Shadow Matching worksheet
make farm animal pattern worksheets
dot to dot worksheets 1 2
maze worksheets 1 2
more/less worksheet

Crafts

Little Boy Blue shape craft hay
* Ask and help child to identify the shapes Talk about the different shades of blue.
* Encourage child to glue the template pieces to the body outline template.
* When Little Boy Blue is assembled cut around and then glue
Little Boy Blue to "sleep" over the hay mat template (suggest to color
the mat in different shades of yellow & brown). You can also
have the children glue some real hay, or cut-up raffia, construction
paper in a coordinating color to the hay mat first and then glue Little
Boy Blue on top (beige, brown).
* There is a small marking on the
hay mat marking to use a hole punch to insert a piece of yarn, string
or raffia to hang as a decoration.

Little Bo Peep Mobile

Muddy Pig
Cut out a pig out of construction paper and have children fingerpaint the pig with chocolate pudding.

Cow Prints
Cut
sponges into chunks. Pour black paint into shallow dishes. Paint cow
spots on large sheets of paper. Later after the paint dries you can cut
the paper into the shape of a cow if so desired.

Paper Plate Pig Craft

Sponge Print Farm

Obtain sponges shaped as cows, pigs, farm houses, fences, clouds, etc.
Have your child dip the sponges into paint and press on a piece of
paper to create a farm scene.

Paint with tractors - run through paint, and then onto paper to make tracks.

Three Pigs House
What You Need: Paper, Twigs, Spaghetti or straw, Glue, Paint
What You Do: Let
your children create the three little pigs houses by using red paper
(bricks), spaghetti (straw), and small twigs (sticks).

Sponge Painted Black Sheep

Print
the sheep template onto heavy construction paper. Dip a sponge in black
paint and sponge paint the sheep's black wool. Let dry. Cut out
and glue onto a popsicle stick for a puppet.

Farm Mobile

Food/Cooking

Cow Milk Shakes
Blend the following together: Milk, Ice Cream, Chocolate Syrup
Bake bread

Misc.
Play with animal flashcards - matching mothers to babies

Farm Animals coloring sheets
Farm coloring sheet
animal coloring sheets
good coloring sheets

With
the coloring sheets, have them use a variety of art mediums to color -
different paints, pastels, colored pencils, chalks, etc.

Do Little Boy Blue and Little Bo-Peep little books
Animal 3-in-a-row
both from Early Childhood Units for Nursery Rhymes
Books
I've discovered the Bobbie Kalman books are great.

The Usborne book of tractors / Caroline Young J 629.225 Y
All about farm animals / Brenda Cook J 636.01 C
Hooray for sheep farming! / Bobbie Kalman J 636.3145 KAL
Hooray for orchards! / Bobbie Kalman J 634 K
Life on a cattle farm / by Judy Wolfman J 636.222 WOL
Life on a crop farm / by Judy Wolfman J 630 WOL
Life on a pig farm / by Judy Wolfman J 636.4 WOL
Richard Scarry's On the farm
Little Red Hen
Pioneer projects / Bobbie Kalman J 745.5 K
Pioneer life from A to Z / created by Bobbie Kalman J 973 K
Pioneer farm cooking / by Mary Gunderson : J 641.5973 G
Pioneer farm : living on a farm in the 1880s ; by Megan O'Hara J 630 0
Nursery Rhymes
Baa Baa Black Sheep - coloring pages
Little Bo Peep (read Jesus and lost sheep - compare) - coloring sheets
Little Boy Blue
3 Little Pigs - coloring pages

First Day of Fall!!!!

2005-09-22T03:10:00.000-07:00

Finally!   Fall is here. After such a hot, hot, hot, humid summer, I am so glad it is finally the first day of Autumn!
In honor of the new season, I did a little redecorating.
Fall is definately my favorite season. I love the cooler nights
and mornings, and being able to be comfy in a sweater and
jeans.   And the smells....I love the smell of leaves, and
now it's finally cool enough that I can have my windows open throughout
the house.   I always have a pan of potpourri simmering on
the stove - water with cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and vanilla, and
apple slices when I have them handy.    Fall just smells
so good. The only bad thing about fall is that it means that 5
months of cold winter is just around the corner.

Images from http://www.spundreams.com/holiday/thanksgiving/fallfun.htm

Classical Chaos

Under Construction

The Erie Canal

Russia

Grammar worksheets

Preschool/Kindergarten activities/file folder games

Aztec, Inca, Maya

Diorama

Renaissance/Reformation quotations

Multi-Mental Vitamin

Books, books, books

pictures from my bookshelf

Trying to be more disciplined

Books and Movies for Explorers

Copywork

First week with Time Traveler's

Schedule

Where We're At

Getting ready

New design

Happy New Year!

McCain and Palin!!!

Ancient Rome projects

Ancient Rome

new baby!

greek myth craft

greek myths

Spring has Sprung!!!

Trying out a new schedule

Nutrition Science Experiment

Nutrition unit study

what we've been up to

another Easter/Holy Week game

Easter/Holy Week file folder game

Easter/Holy Week

Unit Study/Lesson Plan Links

no more Egypt!

back in action!

catching up

Bible Story ideas

Creation

Rice Crispie Earth Recipe

Basically, just your basic rice crispie squares recipe withfood coloring added.

Tagged! Homeschool resources

an excellent book

games, file folder games

Free Lewis and Clark cd-rom curriculum

neat cheap resource

cleaning out my bookmark

Family Choice Act

from onemillionmoms.com

Cable Choice Bill Introduced in U.S. House - Real Choice for Parents

Ancient Egypt Links

well duh!

A Nation of Wimps??

Bill Gates Teams Up With UNESCO

awesome coloring books

who is Green Helmet??

cool blogs about Israel happenings

Dingbat Fonts

cool decks of cards

Week 3 - Year 1 - Dinosaurs

Lapbooking

books about Israel

Cleaning Kids

Week 2 - Year 1 - Ice Age

be strong and resolute

the Hoff

I won!

Week 1 - Year 1 - Creation

New Look!

planning Kindergarten!

Mug Contest

Lewis and Clark

Easter stuff

dress clipart website

school??

Valentine's Day U.S. 5 Day plan

Yahoo groups

South America Unit Study

Basically, just your basic rice crispie squares recipe with
food coloring added.