(This post contains affiliate links.) Night at the Museum Movie: Watch and Learn Short and Sweet Version: Co-op Class Only Meets Twice First Meeting: Everyone watches the movie, Night at the Museum, together. This meeting is strictly for fun. At Home: Each child chooses either an historical character from the movie, another interesting person from…
Lewis and Clark kept wonderfully detailed journals as they charted unknown American territory in the early 1800’s. Their journals included everything from a daily diary of events to sketches and descriptions of new plants and animals along the way to maps of the land around them. To help my children understand the scope of what…
We’re finishing up our Thirteen Colonies & Colonial Life Unit this week! I’ll be posting soon about the biggest chunk of the unit, but I wanted to take a minute to highlight the 13 Colonies lapbook/notebook we put together using: I had to do the legwork of locating library books about each of the Thirteen…
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…
Enjoy Language Arts at the Library Here are some ideas for a scavenger hunt at the library that will build all sorts of academic muscle. Questions can easily be altered for younger or older children. This was planned for my 5th grader and it will probably take a couple trips to finish. (By the way, the…
A friend from Singapore asked this question recently: I have a 6y+ son who just started public school in Singapore. He can read pretty well but he can’t spell. He has simple spelling list from school which he has problems learning. Do you have any advice? Many children need hands-on or movement-based lessons when they…
Here’s the latest edition of the Westward Gazette.
We’re having such a good time creating our monthly, er, every six-eight week newsletter! Here’s the latest installment…..
We are SO pleased with the first edition of the Westward Gazette! I bought a $20 software program from WalMart called Perfect Pro Office that made our computer work simple. (Word Perfect is the only office-type program that came on my computer and it stinks for projects.) The newsletter includes a story or journal entry from…
If writing isn’t a natural passion for your child, it can be a subject full of drudgery. Believe me, I know. Up until this year Mahayla has fought me tooth and nail over any sort of writing assignment. This year has been different, though. I believe she’s enjoying writing partly because of maturity, but I’ve made…
(This post contains affiliate links.) Picture Prompts Inspire Writing Here’s a fun way to get your kids to write – and it’s VERY easy! Use homemade picture prompts. Simply cut out interesting pictures from magazines, old calendars, old books, etc. and paste them on card stock. Let your child choose a picture, then write a…