Thursday, May 24, 2012
Posted by Cindy on September 29, 2008
Remember the Field Trip Journals? We’re still using them this year and I couldn’t be happier with them. They are proving to make great writing assignments, and I’m finding the kids absolutely love looking through them for the memories. I love to watch the kids sort through brochures, ticket stubs and pictures trying to decide what to include and how to organize the memories. They’re going to make wonderful keepsakes!
Posted by Cindy on September 28, 2008
What’s an eight-year-old boy to do when he’s been told he has chores to finish before he watches tv AND his mom asks him to watch the toddler for a few minutes? Well, tie the toddler to a leash and make him do your chores, what else?
(The sad thing is – Eli LOVED this and giggled the whole time!) Can you see Caleb’s leash? It’s two belts buckled together. Yes, I’m very proud of my creative son. Thanks for asking.
Posted by Cindy on September 27, 2008
Our nursery at church is lacking in toddler toys, so I put out a plea a few months ago for our church members to look around for free or cheap toys that would be good for adding to the nursery.
Luckily - or so I thought – one of the ladies at our church is the Family and Life Sciences teacher (aka – Home Ec). She told me the board of education had decided to do away with the in-school nursery and they were willing to donate to the church whatever we’d like. Score! All we had to do was visit after school one day this week, pick out what we’d like and cart it away.
Back up three or four months for a moment. As I was deciding what to buy for this year’s homeschooling curriculum, the God’s Design for S*x Series kept calling to me. Mahayla is soon to be 12, so that sort of talk needs to happen *sometime*. So, I bought the first two books in the series. When I got them, The Story of Me
Fast forward again to visiting the high school. After loading up a wonderful haul of toddler toys and buckling ourselves in for a happy little ride to church – the conversation started. The conversation.
It all started so innocently, I just don’t know how it ended up so….so….deep. “Mom, why was there a nursery at the high school?”
Now, I know I could’ve said, “Oh, it was for the teacher’s children.” That would’ve been the end of it, surely. But I didn’t want to lie. You can imagine where the conversation led – teenagers having children, how that could happen when you aren’t married……And then one of my sweet children kept pushing. I tried really hard to give the normal “surface” answers. I tried really hard to divert the conversation. But this child wanted to know. The. Whole. Story.
After a few deep breaths and some quick prayers, I told the whole story. The. Whole. Story. Among many giggles, wide eyes, “No ways”, and “Grosses” we made it through.
The next day, I decided the book that was way too much information before was now a perfect addition to our “learning” time. Many more giggles (from kids and mom) later, I hope we are finished talking about this topic for a while. I thanked the Lord that He led me to buy this book a few months ago, but next time, Dad gets to read it!
Posted by Cindy on September 24, 2008
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine sent out some freebie units not too long ago from Highlights of Homeschooling and one of them worked perfectly for our Pilgrims unit study. It’s called The Mayflower Unit Study.
This isn’t the typical unit that we do around here, as it’s very language arts led and didn’t required much by way of hands-on projects. Considering the in-depth project-based study we just completed and the very hands-on study I’m planning next, this change of pace was perfect. And, as I’m always saying, it gave the kids a different experience, which I see as a positive thing.
Because the unit was short and simple, the explanation is, too. The unit includes a short story from which all the activities and worksheets can be completed. I gave the kids a notebook with all the reproducibles I expected them to complete and they were responsible for spreading the work out over a week’s time. The only restriction I gave was that the notebooks had to be turned (finished and neat) by Friday.
We read library books about the Pilgrims (their voyage, their beliefs, their reasons for coming to America, their hardships and the Native Americans who helped them) daily to add other perspectives. As usual, Mahayla had an assigned chapter book to read. From the Dear America series, she read A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620. Because of the amount of writing involved with the regular unit, I gave her a break on doing a project to go along with the book. She was grateful (to say the least), but thoroughly enjoyed the book.
Now we’re on to a very in-depth, hands-on look at the Thirteen Colonies and life in Colonial Times. I look forward to sharing all sorts of pictures and projects with you in a few weeks.
Posted by Cindy on September 23, 2008
Happy first full day of fall! Today’s Fine Arts Tuesday took us on a nature walk to look for signs of the new season.
We took some clay along with us. The kids were asked to sculpt one sign of autumn and make some sort of autumn print.
We enjoyed reading during our walk so much a couple weeks ago, that we packed our blanket and tea time books (although no tea or snacks came along today.) We so enjoyed Katie Meets The Impressionists
And to round out the day before heading off to a swimming (P.E.) party, we played Made for Trade
Has anyone ever harvested black walnuts for baking? I’m interested to know if it’s easy to do and worth the effort. Oh, and if they taste good! If so, next week’s nature study may be collecting walnuts.
