Cheater's Guide to Saint Patrick's Day

Menu:

Breakfast: Lucky Charms cereal - yeah, I know Irish oatmeal would be more nutritional, but want them to eat it Coloring pages to match. :^)

Lunch: Shamrock Toasties - if I get to the store in time to get the pepper

Dinner: Reuben Casserole

Dessert: Minty Irish Chocolate Cream Pie. Rather make a cake? I like this Celtic cross, but we've got two birthday cakes in our near future. These rainbow cupcakes are the coolest cupcakes ever.

Education:

We're doing this lapbook from A Journey Thorugh Learning this week, but there is one for free at Homeschool Helper, that you could pick activities from. Currclick also has a St. Patrick's day resource focusing on St. Patrick the missionary, as their weekly free product.

We started PBS Nature's program on Ireland and will finish it soon. It has that confusing level of Ice Age, poor dating evolutionary stuff that someday I'm going to figure out the correct interpretation of, but really interesting observations of ancient Ireland and the plants and animals of the island.

We watched these fascinating clips from History.com a couple of days ago too.

Crafts:

Cute preschol crafts,

love this one, but I'm way too late to find the supplies - another year

I think I can handle this shamrock pin (or make it a magnet), but I like this even better.




We've got stroybooks and The Quiet Man and Darby O'Gill and so much more to work in too. So many things, so little time. More from me here and here, but be forewarned, I haven't checked these old posts for broken links.

Anna's Mr.Ocax

We read Poppy as one of our read-alouds last month, and this is Anna's impromtu drawing.

Winter Olympics

I'm so excited to be covering the Olympics with my kids! I just wish the best stuff wasn't on so late at night. I'm trying to pick out the best ideas the web has to offer without staying up all night, so I'm posting them here for both of us.

First, I got this fantastically priced Olympics lapbook. It is going to be the centerpiece of this study.

Printers have been the bane of my existence this year. Last week was no exception.

I'd found this Cool Country Poster printable and thought that it would be really neat to choose another country from this list and have each kid do a report ahead of the Olympics, so that they would have a second country to cheer for when the U.S. was not a medal contender. I think we're still going to try to do that this week. Originally, Anna chose Italy, and Ethan, Sweden (he wanted South Africa or a South American country, but apparently those countries don't particularly excel at winter sports.) For some reason, though, we are never seeing Sweden and always seeing Norway, so I think we're going to make a swap. I just hope I can get a new set of library resources fast!

I'm making a preschool version of an Olympics lapbook because Rosie wants one too. Printing some saved documents through windows photo gallery automatically allows me to reduce things to 3x5 or 4x6 so that I can fit lots of things on a folder. Do a google search for coloring pages for your child's preferred sports. How about some of these? Homeschool Share has so many lovely resources for the Olympics here. The Canadian Animal Cards & Pocket and the Canadian Flag pages are perfect for Rose. I've got a good head start now on that.

Okay, first we're supposed to be learning about our countries. You can explore other countries at Time For Kids Around the World and National Geographic Kids People and Places. That will give us a head start on those library books (our library has an inservice day tomorrow.)

Next is Ancient Greece and the Olympic games. All of the information necessary for filling in the lapbook is part of the document, but Mr. Donn's Ancient Greek Olympics site looks excellent. We will definitely be viewing this video he linked to about Olympia. I've also placed a library request for some Magic Tree house books, Hour of the Olympics (Magic Tree House #16), Magic Tree House Research Guide #10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics: A Nonfiction Companion to Hour of the Olympics, and the books on CD set that includes this book. Ethan likes to listen to stories when he goes to bed. Or they can listen while drawing and doing art projects, since he's already reading a book set during the Civil War, the topic that we are momentarily breaking from.

Next is a page on the Olympic mascots. They're really too cute. I look forward to checking out the videos and games with the kids, and I've already downloaded new wallpaper for Ethan's desktop. If you don't care for the mascots, you can download regular Olympic wallpaper.

We'll also be learning about several different sports, and also recording which country won the gold medal for many of the Olympic events.

Along the way, I think we'll make an ice rink, craft a chenille snowboarder, and make our own Olympic rings.

And here is our spelling list:

1. Olympics
2. ski
3. luge
4. skate
5. skating
6. Canada
7. Greece
8. medal
9. hockey
10. torch

Thanks for joining me on my planning run for this week. Hope you found something that you can enjoy.

graphic from Clip Art For Free

Black History Month

This is kind of my pros and cons on the topic.

The first con is the way these things change names. I suspect that African-American History Month is the pc name nowadays, but I'm not looking it up right now. The name thing is, I think, irritating to many "European" Americans. Seriously. Can't we all just be Americans?

That, I suppose, is, albeit it in a somewhat convoluted way, the point. Equality of all Americans, and the historical lack thereof.

Which is why I do, typically, observe in our home school, this focus of history. If we haven't previously focused on the lives of prominent African American, I make a point in February to point out some of the movers and shakers. Read books about their lives. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman. The latter, by the way, was one of Ethan's first favorite historical characters - she was one of mine in elementary school too.

These men and woman truly made a difference in history to change this inequality. so learning about them, and how they changed things that were horribly unjust is my biggest "pro" for a month with this theme.

This year we spent a day once again learning about the work of Dr. King. Our primary American history text this year follows a simple timeline of American history with each chapter being a biography, starting with Columbus and ending at the turn of the century with Billy Sunday. Along the way we will learn about Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver (who I fear will generate as much confusion as Martin Luther of the 95 Theses and Dr. King).

But here is my big "con" question. Why are people focused on and studied this month just because they are African American? Famous football players, an astronaut, a newscaster, whatever. If they were the first to break into a field dominated by bias and prejudice,marian Anderson, for example, then, yes, this is historically significant. But if they just happen to have a certain skin color, why are we spending time learning about them anymore than the guy beside them that is white, yellow, or brown? I think it's missing the point. Or at least, what I think the point should be.

Homeschool Freebie Newsletters That You Want in Your Inbox

I love freebie newsletters. I'm building archives in my documents folders. Just save the free files in your documents, creating folders for each subject as you go along. Then when you're putting together a unit on the American West, just check and see if you have anything in you Social Studies folder. The free stuff may even inspire a whole new unit idea.

So here are some of my favorites. I've probably shared them before, but I'll put them all here together this time.

Dover Publications - these samples come to your inbox once a week. Fine art coloring pages, clip art, presidential paper dolls, preschool activities, origami - it'll make you jump up and down and clap. :^)

Currclick- note the "free stuff" link on the left side of the front page. You will get a weekly e-mail with a free product download each week. This is a great site for buying lapbooks and copywork files that you can instantly download. I've gotten great sets of illustrated Scripture copywork for $.50 - $1.50 here.

Learning Page - sign up for a free membership that gives you "no strings attached" access to the worksheets. You'll also receive an e-mail to notify you of new sets of worksheets. This used to be once a month, but the site's been undergoing some changes recently. However it remains a treasure trove for the 3rd grade and under set. Mine it!

Time for Kids - this is Time magazine's student publications newsletter. It will link you to the new worksheets for each month. Most can be done without the publication, and they are usually very relevant. Recent newsletters have contained New Year's resolution and Olympic worksheets, for example. There are also lots of archived articles and worksheets. Find the newsletter link at the bottom right corner of the page.

The Homeschool Freebie of the Day - Add this one to your bloglines! Each day you get a new download. Free products offered by other, often independent, publishers. Books that are public domain in pdf format. Radio shows from the 30s-50s on mp3. You're gonna love it! Right now they're downloading The Big Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, in several parts. Don't miss out. Add this one to your bloglines, or sign up for their mailing list.

Autumn Fires

Need a great Thanksgiving website?

Look no further! Scholastic's got you covered. Take a voyage on the Mayflower, learn about daily life, and the Thanksgiving feast. Than be sure to go to the printables for :

readers theatre script and character puppets

a printable Mayflower board game or "Turkey Teller" game

standing paper Pilgrims and Indians

Thanksgiving stationary and recipe cards

a turkey puppet

period recipe: red pickled eggs

make oiled paper windows like the Pilgrims'

pilgrim draw and write page

bookmarks

Cute calendar and symbols

turkey graphing

make a Wampanoag picture dictionary

reward cards

make a Wampanoag house

cranberry activities

Plant pigment napkin rings are a really cool activity (that I'll probably have to save for another year)

Does anyone else find using an empty toilet paper tube for a Pilgrim hat snack holder (and maybe even the napkin rings) disturbing? Of course, you could cut down a paper towel roll.

There are a few more free printables and gazillions more if you become a site member.

Have fun, and Happy Thanksgiving!

graphic also a free Scholastic printable

Fourth Annual Thanksgiving Psalm Memory Challenge

This year's Psalm is 113. We crashed and burned last year during the worst of the morning sickness. This year's looking good!

Praise the LORD!
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD!

Blessed be the name of the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting
the name of the LORD is to be praised!

The LORD is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens!
Who is like the LORD our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!


We're also memorizing:

"Father We Thank Thee" by Ralph Waldo Emerson - the kids think it's cool to immediately be able to say nearly half of it by just saying "Father, we thank Thee" or Father in heaven, we thanks Thee" at the appropriate times. :^)

"Now Thank We All Our God" is our hymn for the month




We'll also be reviewing Psalm 100, 150, and 67 from past years, as well as "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" and other Thanksgiving and praise hymns.

Our Morning Worship readings are from the Psalms this month. We read Psalm 18 yesterday which lead to learning the praise song "I Will Call Upon the Lord".

For our writing this month we're going to have on ongoing list of things we're thankful for and some nice copywork to make into a Thanksgiving book. That's the plan anyway. :^) Here are some link for nice handwriting paper for this.

a to z teacher stuff here and more here


So will you join me in my Thanksgiving Psalm memory challenge? It can be for your family or just for yourself. Leave me a link to your post with your chosen Psalm or just write it in the comments. Let's make this a month to focus on learning to praise the LORD with every moment and every breath.

Praise the LORD!

graphic courtesy of Kaboose

Pumpkins and Halloween

We've started working on simple craft projects while the kids listen to our read-aloud. They love to draw and paint and it is a great opportunity for them to do lots of simple projects. I can do the more complicated ones on our Art Day (Thurdays). They listen better and longer when their hands are busy too. :^)



So heading into Halloween week, here are some links I'm using this year:

1. abcteach has a pumpkin page full of fantastic stuff - I'm thinking about making Rose a new seasonal set of letters. ( I love that it has lower case letters to print for a fun matching game too.) I envision Anna's copywork this week being in the Bat and Pumpkin shapebook. Some simple projects for read-aloud time will include the cut and paste jack o lantern faces, the lacing card, and the paper bag puppet. We might even squeeze in the Paper Bag Pumpkin on Art Day. We may use the Experiment pages too, at least the one for describing their pumpkin - I really want to start nature notebooks and this would be perfect.
2. Crayola comes thru as always. This time I have my eye on the halloween message game to work on during read-aloud time - I think we're going to have to read a lot this week :^). Maybe Farmer Boy will get finished after all.
3. On Art Day we'll be using colored pencils to color in a picture of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. (He's our "artist of the month"). Then I'm planning to have them do a thumprint pumpkin patch and glass jar jack 'o lanterns (sorry, can't find links for either right now).
4. For Music Day we'll be using the fantastic Classics for Kids again. This time a program of spooky Halloween music complete with quiz and activity page.
5. Instead of memorizing a new poem this week, we'll be reviewing the ones we've learned and memorizing bones instead. Test your knowledge. I'll also be pulling out Rattle Your Bones: Skeleton Drawing Fun .

We were supposed to tackle Magnets and Electricity this week too, but I can't get to the library until tonight. We'll have to see if we can squeeze it in between the pumpkins. And did I mention that we have free tickets for a pomy ride at the equestrian park that expire this week? And Anna has some extra reading to finish so that she can get her "Book-It" Pizza Hut voucher. We'd better get a lot done this week!

Don't Miss This Homeschool Post (Even If You Don't Homeschool)

Anne at Holy Experience has shared "A Day in the Life of Homeschooling: 7 Rungs". Don't miss this. If it was a book, I'd give it 5 stars and tell you to buy it - so go read the article that will only take you a few minutes, okay? Then tell me if it doesn't renew your vision.

Tidbits

1. Bella got her ears pierced - princess crown earings - Blogger doesn't like pictures today.
2. I took the kids ice skating for the first time today. Anna Kate picked it up fastest, Rose was doing the best by hour's end, Ethan tried hard. :^)
3. After raining for two weeks, the weather has turned beautiful - and fallish. Highs in the 70s this week. I spent the rainy week switching out summer and winter clothes - almost done.
4. Moon names are fascinating and my favorite, the Harvest Moon, is coming up on Sunday.
5. We're studying history via ABEKA's third grade history book, Our American Heritage this year. It travels a timeline of American history by biography. We covered Christopher Columbus, and are now studying John Smith. Next week is Pocahontas.
6. If you're studying John Smith or Jamestown this year, On the Trail of John Smith at National Geographic Kids is such a fun online resource! Animated, narrated videos and interactive games are a great way to remember history.
7. I asked Rose what she wanted for Christmas last night. She wants a pink rubber band.

A Fun Day

We got to study constellations today - fun! The children seemed to all be in good moods and enjoyed their worksheets, the book we read, and the DVD we watched. The man in the DVD on space was standing with a moving outer space background behind him (you couldn't see the ground or his feet). Rose wanted to know if he was on his porch or if he really was in outer space.

Brian got off early like he's supposed to on Fridays, but doesn't as early or as often as he used to these days - so that was a big plus for the day and allowed us to carry out our Family Night plan - a paddle boat rental at the nearby state park (they close at 5PM). It seated four, so the three older kids went with Brian. He and Ethan pedalled while the girls sat on the backseats and dangled their feet in the lake. Bella and I hung out and watched.

The children very much wanted to go swimming in the lake, but we instead hit the trail to a spot on the mountain creek that has a trail to it and some benches and is a nice ankle - knee length depth area. They had fun wading and crossing a fallen log, although, they kept trying to get me to cave in to their idea of swimming back at the lake beach. Rose brought me the prettiest rocks from the creek to look at while I held Bella, I wish I had taken a picture of them. Ethan was sure every unusual rock was a meteorite.

Back at the ranch(house), we cleaned up, got Ethan's earache back under control (swimming in the lake would have been a bad idea), and had some buckwheat pancakes with last years vanilla pear sauce from the freezer. We even got to read a really cool glow in the dark book of the constellations. (And, wow! I just went to find the link for that on Amazon and ended up with a good condition hardcover used copy being shipped to me for a total of $5.03!!)

Last tidbit for the day. Brian charges Anna Kate and Ethan's mp3 players at the desktop CPU. He'd returned Anna's recharged player to her and she immediately immersed herself in her favorite Hannah Montana song - it's very catchy.



A bit later, Brian called to Ethan to let him know that his player was syncing and Anna called back through the house, "yeah, mine's already sunk. "

Well, I can't get the computor to acknowledge my SD card, so I'm giving up for now and can hopefully add pics to this post later.

News and a Great Find

Sorry for the scarcity, it seems that we are trying out any and all available illnesses of the non-life-threatening variety. Still very capable of rendering everything in the household behind schedule. So we've started a bit of school. We're going to the beach in a few weeks, so I'm doing a few multi-subject units until we get back and settle into our regular schedule. This week is comets, asteroids, and constellations in honor of the Perseides, which, incidentally, we won't be seeing this year due to cloud cover. Next week will be insects and the next water and the ocean.

So science being the name of the game, I was once again searching for some really good Creation science stuff that is available on line, kid-friendly, not fifty years old, and not cheesy. Tall task.
Yield: a couple good finds.

Watch this:



This is the stuff that makes me cry. You know, when you do those quizzes and it asks, "last time you cried?", I'm sitting there trying to remember the last time I saw something like this. Or a Hallmark commercial.

Now the best part is, you can order the DVD, or watch it right on their website here. Beautiful.

Another find was the KidsAnswers page at AnswersinGenesis. They've got some great articles and cute videos there. You can order issue reprints of the kids magazine (which is an insert in Answers magazine). I'm thinking of doing that. Wish someone would publish a full size creation science magazine for younger kids, but this is something.

So off I go to try to get some rest. I'm running a fever for the third day in a row, but only have moderate cold symptoms (so what's with the endless fever !?). Ethan has an outer ear infection, I believe, that hasn't gone full-blown yet and I'm trying to home-remedy it unless it should take a turn for the worse. And Rose has had a cold that keeps almost getting better for about three weeks now. I'm calling the doctor tomorrow unless she wakes up snot-free. Anna Kate and Bella are the only two to not have been sick in the past few weeks, and Brian is also well at the time that this post went to press.

So there you have it. It wasn't too shabby of a post after all. I should do this more often. In all my spare time. Yeah.

Toddlers in the Homeschool

Ran across this great list of ideas for incorporating the young family members into learning.

And here's my list from my own archives.

My Quote of the Day

"I'm thinking of at least one job for which I may be the least qualified person in the world. If we could give an aptitude test for this skill, I believe I would fall in dead last. Everyone else on the entire planet, I believe, is better equipped than I am to raise a servant of the state. I'm not the guy to do that job. I am, however, equipped to raise servants of the King."

~ R.C. Sproul, Jr., When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling

Summer Mini-Lesson; Statue of Liberty

Watch this video at HowStuffWorks. (New York Up Close: The Statue of Liberty)

And these at History.com. (various video clips about Ellis Island)

And maybe this one too for fun. (Statue of Liberty laser show)

Choose a crayola coloring page for little ones - here, here, or here.

And have bigger kids do some Time for Kids worksheets here, here, here, here, and here.

Follow the instructions in Draw Write Now Book 5 to draw the Statue of Liberty.

Read The Copper Lady and "The New Colossus".





"Thanks for the free clip-art to the Just A Touch Art Studio of Jonesboro, Georgia; www.justatouch.com"

Summer Mini-Lesson: Pollinators

It started with my e-mail from the NWF. While, I strongly disagree with their position on global warming, I appreciate their children's magazines (Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard, and Animal Baby), love the Green Hour website and blog, and enjoy all of the information on local wildlife and children's and family activities to help them.

So this e-mail informed me that this week is National Pollinators Week and listed five ways to help pollinators in my neighborhood:

1. Use Native Plants



2. Hang Hummingbird Feeders



3. Build a Bee House



4. Plant a Butterfly Garden



5. Certify Your Yard With National Wildlife Federation

We'd just read books about bumble bees and honeybees last week. So today we read "Bad News for Bees" at Time for Kids. Brian's bringing home "A Honeybees Job" worksheet (our printer isn't working). The corresponding teacher guide has an additional worksheet as well.

Then we went to CBS and watched the video "Mystery of Disappearing Bees". We also checked out Haagan Daz's Help the Honeybees website. We then discussed the ways we could help, including the e-mail that started it all. We're planning to hang two hummingbird feeders tonight and soon buy some native plants to add to the butterfly garden.

We ended our mini-lesson with a fingerprint bumblebee craft. We stamped our bees on card stock, drew flower stems along the bottom, and added foam sticker flowers. Another option would be this cute Egg Carton Bumble Bee.

Scripture and Education

I just got back from a lovely weekend away with my Brian. But I've had a serious shake-up in my world this past week. I've tried to be open-minded concerning educational choices that I consider to be less than ideal, but after hearing a family's testimony that really struck me as wholly wrong, I have been contemplating and researching his even more and I'm just not feeling as open minded. I have no desire to be judgmental, but I am becoming very concerned with what seems to be a lack of biblical dialogue on what Scripture truly does have to say about educational choices. And if those choices are really so open to private opinion. I have a lot that I have sorted through, and I'm not sure how much I want to throw out here, but I'm just going to start with some scripture. I'd love to hear your opinions on how they do or do not apply to the type of education Christian parents can consider for their children. At the very least, they are food for serious thought.

Deuteronomy 11:18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up (NKJV)

What is the best way to do this?
I recommend this article for some interesting insights and statistics. There are lots of rather consistent statistics out there on varying educational results, but verifying original sources has proven to be obnoxiously difficult.

Luke 6:39 He also told them a parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Can a parent reasonably expect to have more influence than another teacher the child listens to for the majority of his day?


2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.

I've most often heard this applied to marriage, and then to business partnerships. Only this past week did I see someone apply this to education. Do you think that this is valid? Can you work together with an unbelieving, Christ-denying teacher/institution/system to educate you children? When is this unbiblical?

I have lots of questions, and not as many answers.

Give me some feedback.

Saint Patrick's Day Activites

1. Draw a face on the leprechaun at Crayola.
2. Try the mazes from beginner to complex at Kid's Domain.
3. Cute printable preschool workbook from Giggly Games.
4. Read about who Patrick really was as well as his actual writings at A Joyful Heart.
5. Make some pot of gold jello and clover cupcakes from Family Fun.
6. Make and hang the shamrock shimmers at Nestle's Very Best Baking.
7. Find a dancing fairy and other lovely paper crafts at the Toymaker.
8. Choose a celtic cross coloring page at Apples4theTeacher.
9. Try pepper painting shamrocks.
10. Print sweet bookmarks at Jen Brett's website.
11. Do your copywork on St. Patty's handwriting paper from BillyBear4Kids.
12. Make a leprechaun friend at Making Friends.
13. Complete the wordsearch from The Family Corner.

Originally published March 11, 2007

Homeschooling Update

For those of you who might be interested in what we're doing this year:

Bible - Brian does this Bible study with Anna Kate and Ethan in the evenings - they love it! Earlier in the evening he reads the corresponding Bible story from Catherine Vos' fantastic The Child's Story Bible to all of the children. Anna and Ethan also use Samaritan's Purse prayer journals that focus on a different country each month of the year and have a Bible verse for the month. I'd like to get back on track with some more substantial Bible memorization for them soon. This has been a rough year for me.

Math - Anna is almost finished with Horizons K-5 math. Ethan is doing Singapore Math this year and has gone from hating math to loving it as a result. I'll be using Singapore for both next year.

Reading- Anna Kate uses ABeka's Handbook for Reading and some old Dick and Jane books, as well as lots of other kinds of readers and books. She reads everyday, but not always the same kind of things. She can read all kinds of Level 1 readers and when I compared them to the last few Bob Jones kindergarten readers she was far more advanced, so I think that she's reading very well. Ethan reads at least a chapter from a book each day. It's not always quality literature, but he's made great strides this year, and I have focused on providing him with materials that encourage him to love reading. Right now he's reading a Star Wars book. He's read some Usborne readers, including Greek myths and the Canterbury ghost, and also enjoyed some Magic Treehouse books, both the fiction stories and the non-fiction books, like Magic Treehouse:Space.

Writing- The year started with alphabets (Anna manuscript and Ethan cursive) and different copywork sheets, but I frequently got behind finding and printing the free resources that I usually use, thanks to being sick all year. So I finally gave up and bought A Reason for Handwriting. Anna Kate is in book A, and Ethan in book C. They enjoy it, and I don't have to think about it, which for this year, is a very good and helpful thing. We also have Draw-Write-Now Book 3, which they thoroughly enjoy and we use topically. They did the Pilgrim section at Thanksgiving and we're using the Native American section now.

Social Studies - This has been primarily topical. Ethan did read the majority (so far) of ABeka's 2nd grade Social Studies book, but mostly we've done topics, including the Inauguration, Abraham Lincoln, the Pilgrims, 50 states, etc. We also use God's World News : Taking Off! editions for current news. Right now we have several books for Black History month. This week and next week, however, are primarily dedicated to the study of Native Americans. I also want to nail down some world geography objectives soon. Ethan also recently began Cub Scouts which provides us with new social studies and science project opportunities.

Science - Also primarily topical. We've done studies on space and the planets, and I frequently get books on science topics to read - animals, atoms, health, etc. I hope to get in some substantial coverage of electricity and magnets and one on water and the ocean before the end of the school year. I'm also ready to send in our coupon for the butterfly eggs to go in our little pavilion that we bought. I think that that will go well with Lent and Easter topics too. :^) I've been able to read the ABeka K5 science book to Anna Kate, I've just saved the ocean chapter, she also just studied animal groups.

The Arts - We're blessed to have many opportunities for student performances of theatre and music productions. We've seen several children's theatre productions and The Nutcracker, among other things. We recently dedicated a couple of weeks to a study of famous composers. Art projects usually go along with topical studies, and I like to throw in books about famous artists or books of fine art too. Anna Kate also takes ballet lessons and Ethan does piano with me (unfortunately sporadically again this year), and also wants to begin lessons on his new guitar.

Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial - February 12, 2009

1. Pick up some storybook biographies of Abraham Lincoln at your library, or dig out the stories and books you have at home.
2. I even lucked out with a Lincoln Logs building guide book. We'll be making Lincoln Log cabins for our table centerpiece again.
3. Apples4theteacher has a nice selection of coloring pages.
4. Check out the National Lincoln Bicentennial website. Several states have their own sites. Check the left sidebar for events near you. I like the kids section better than the teacher's section.
5. Four variations on a pretzel log cabin here, here, here, and here.
6. An Abraham Lincoln bank craft for all of those pennies.
7. A Paper Plate Abe Lincoln Hat.
8. An Abe Lincoln maze.
9. Mr. Lincoln's White House is a rather fascinating site.
10. Time for Kids has Lincoln worksheets in PDF files here, here, here, and a cut and paste activity here.

More ideas from last year.

Inauguration Day for Kids

I'm actually doing a music theme this week. It's crazy being a former music teacher and knowing that your kids are actually getting very little music training. But now that the pregnancy symptoms seem to finally be easing up a bit (hopefully it wasn't just another short stretch of decent days that just get my hopes up before smashing them), I'm hoping to get music lessons back on track. More on the music stuff later...


We're breaking for a bit of Inauguration stuff on Tuesday. Some TV viewing, though I have to admit it's more to watch Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman than Mr.Obama - see a music week tie-in!- just kidding. Seriously, he's swearing in on the Lincoln Bible, which my kids will find very cool. Of course, we have the possibility of snow being on the ground in the morning, in which case all bets are off about any viewing or doing of things inaugural. All of you out there that are snowless or sick of snow will have to use these links instead. :^)


Without further ado:

1. Time for Kids is our first stop. They have their teacher guides available online with some great worksheets for younger (K5-1st) and slightly older (2nd-5th grade) students. And another one on the White House here.
2. A linked schedule of Inauguration Day events
3. Scholastic has some really nice worksheets as well as lesson plans.
4. This is a great page of links . I recommend the links to streaming news sites for the inauguration, coloring pages, and a pretty nice powerpoint on the inauguration in lew of a lower elementary book on the topic. And actually the 44 Presidents rap song, while irritating, has really nice portraits of all of the presidents. If you already know their names, maybe you could watch it on mute. :^)
5. This is an interesting Obama Inauguration Q&A page. It includes information about the first daughters that my kids will be interested in.
6. National Geographic Kids has an interactive Inauguration Trivia Quiz. I scored only a 70% - see if you can do better.

Don't forget to let your voice be heard in the fight against the Freedom of Choice Act. Millions of children will thank you.

Free God's World News student editions

Some of the God's World News student magazines are only released online. And those issues are available for everyone to read. Here is the December issues link. Last year we subscribed to Early Edition and this year we get Taking Off. The kids really enjoy them and I like their new format this year of fewer, but larger issues. They often come with great posters as an added bonus.

More Christmas for kids

1. Going carolling is easy with this ready to print Christmas carol book.
2. At Christian Preschool Printables you can print Christmas bingo pages made up of the nativity story pictures. And on the next page is a Road to Bethlehem file folder game and a nativity puzzle.
3. No kids activity list would be complete without The Toymaker. This year I'm planning to have the kids make the Dodechahedron of Little Snow Guys after reading (or rather looking at - it's perfectly wordless) The Snowman (this version is an easy reader just right for Anna Kate) and watching it on DVD. And I think that I have a resident artist or two that will enjoy learning to draw this Santa.
4. And Edhelper has a lot of Christmas worksheets, some are free, some are only available with a site subscription.

Christmas for Kids

1. Easy Christmas Star craft - we've been slowly working on these the past few days, allowing the glue to dry and doing the next step the next day. We are covering ours in glue and glitter and they're turning out very well - we're even going to flip them over and glitter the back so that we can hang them anywhere.
2. Lots of simple paper crafts at first-school - my girls thoroughly enjoyed cutting out the snowman and pasting him and their chosen hat and scarf to a bright piece of construction paper. I have my eye on the Christmas Bell Angel and the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus Craft for this upcoming week.
3. We're going to see The Nutcracker on Thursday, and I'd like to work on this printable stage production. At the very least, I'm planning to make these cute Nutcracker finger puppets. You could enjoy these while watching a video of the Nutcracker (this version is my favorite) or even just listening to highlights.
4. Isn't this Reindeer Six Pack the cutest thing ever? It would make a great gift for the soft drink-loving grandparent in your kid's life.
5. Ooo. We have plans to use our half gallon of peppermint ice cream to try to imitate Chick-Fil-A's heavenly peppermint chocolate chip milkshakes, but if that hadn't already been the plan, I'd be making this Peppermint Christmas Punch.
6. Build a virtual snowman at Holiday spot
7. Print Christmas-themed math worksheets at kidzone- and here is a Christmas word problem sheet - and some more colorful math sheets here
8. Print a Christmas Bible readings chart and let your older kids read the Christmas passages for themselves.
9. Fun set of language arts related North Pole worksheets from Kids Domain
10. Do your kids love the Grinch?
11. I've got so many more links to share, but must get some shut-eye. Here's a page full of lovely links for you to explore on your own. I'll try for installment 2 soon.

Thanksgiving Kids Stuff

1. Printable Thanksgiving memory match cards and lots of other fun activity sheets from Crayola
2. Pilgrim hat handwriting paper from Notebook Learning
3. Handprint Thanksgiving Wreath at Amazing Moms - we made a simple one last year with fall-colored construction paper and a paper plate. A raffia bow added a nice touch, and Gran has it up with her other Thanksgiving decor again this year.
4. The Oklahomea Homeschool site has six Pilgrim/Thanksgiving worksheets that would make a nice little unit notebook. 1,2,3,4,5,6
5. Colorful activity sheet, Thanksgiving Day Bingo (there's an easier picture version at Crayola's link above), Handprint Turkey - and lots more at Family Fun Thanksgiving Printables
6. Learn to talk like a Pilgrim at Plimoth Plantation
7. Beautiful things, including a gorgeous Mayflower from the Toymaker

What are we doing this week? Well...

1. We're reading lots of Thanksgiving books
2. Using the Pilgrim section of Draw-Write-Now 3 for art and handwriting, and we'll put them all in a portfolio
3. We have an old Thanksgiving minipage on turkeys and John James Audubon. Our newspaper doesn't carry the minipage, but my mom mails them to us from her paper. They're so fun to do!
4. We're working on our Psalm - only three days left - gulp!
5. We'll be doing lots of fun worksheets from Learning Pages Thanksgiving collections
6. We watched a neat DVD on Willliam Bradford and have another Thanksgiving video from the library
7. We'll be printing Thanksgiving bingo and a matching game for Thanksgiving day
8. We're making crafts from ABEKA's art books, like Pilgrim puppets
9. We need to dust off "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come", but I keep forgetting :^)

Leave it to my kids to need a song

They needed a song to help them memorize the poem. Fortunately for me, there already was one.

In Flander's Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

~Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

1. Print the poem here and the minibook version here
2. Wear poppies in remembrance - I love to find the ones made by veterans at the VA hospitals, but if they're not available use these

In case you actually wonder how this happened

Children of the State by WORLD magazine



hat tip to Kendra

The election for kids

Update: Check out the links for election printables at LaPaz Home Learning

1. If possible, take your kids with you to vote. Try to avoid voting between 7-9 AM, noon-2 PM, and 5-7 PM.
2. Then head to Krispy Kreme for your free patriotic donut with your "I Voted" sticker - buy one for your kids too. :^)
3. Make a Future Voter button from Kaboose's election page.
4. Solve election word problems for math or print other election day worksheets from abc teach.
5. Need a mind-numbing game? Try the online election word search at the weekly reader election pages. Not really for younger kids - it took me four times to beat the timer!
6. There's lots of interesting stuff at Scholastic's election page.
7. And, of course - Time for Kids. The page of worksheets is a real gem. My fav on that page is the electoral college map. I alos like this candidate comparison sheet for young kids. Older kids can read this article, then fill out these worksheets.
8. Check you local PBS station for some of these new Election day episodes:

Electoral College

A Night of Reformation

Hey, all! While we enjoy celebrating Halloween from great costumes to the Great Pumpkin, I know that some of you do not.

This is a great resource for all of us - the opportunity to celebrate the Reformation. I don't own this book, but I do have a couple of their other books and they are fantastic.

We will have the pleasure of celebrating both this year. Our friends are having a Reformation party, focusing on the life of John Calvin this year. So we'll put aside our spiders and bats for a few hours and enjoy some Reformation history.

And then off we'll go to secure our year's supply of candy - because everyone knows that that's what it's all about (at least in our book)!



For some fun halloween activites, check out last year's post.

Columbus Day activities

1. Journal and coloring pages from the Teacher's Corner
2. A printable board game
3. The coloring page we used this year (we celebrated early on Friday)
4. Great worksheets for young kids from Time for Kids here and here
5. A great poem and Columbus Day song from Teaching Heart
6. Another great worksheet from Schoolexpress
7. The Library of Congress has a nice history of Columbus day with lots of links, so does Kaboose.
8. We made these ships from FirstSchool last year. DTLK has a fancier ship .
9. And just for fun Today's Kitchen's "Columbus Day recipes"

Stuff I'm printing today

1. Crayola's Nature Walk activity page - my kids are going to take this to do at their Gran's for a seasonal little science/art/writing activity
2. Crayola's Autumn Leaves coloring page - I'm going to have the kids color these with their crayola :^) markers and then cut them out and make a border over the deck doors
3. There are other fall Crayola activity pages here.
4. Wondertime's Autumn Adventure cutting pages for Rose
5. Halloween bookmarks from Jan Brett to enjoy this month.

Scavenger Hunts

Can you tell that I'm an all or nothing sort of person. I break my blog silence, and now I can't shut up!

After some political posts - did you call your senators yet?! - here's some fun for you and your kids.

Wondertime has posted some great scavenger hunts, and links to even more. My favorite is the "Get the Green" scavenger hunt. So print and go have a green afternoon tomorrow.

New 50 States Project

A while back, Family Fun (I think) wrote about a project where a neighborhood of kids set out to collect a postcard from each of the fifty states by summer's end.

I thought, why not?

So I enlisted my facebook friends, and have yet to beg by e-mail and we already have pledges from VA, NC, AK!, HI!, TN, MI, AL, and FL! How cool is that?!

Discovery

Have I told you about Currclick before? If not, then you should go check it out now. All kinds of downloadable curriculum awaits. And the best part? When you create an account for free, you get their weekly e-letter that always includes a free product to download each week. From a book on pioneer projects to beautiful copywork pages to an Egyptian mummy lapbook - I've gotten lots of cool stuff - all free! Ethan using a once-free set of copywork pages from them for his copywork right now. They have great quotes and charming old-fashioned illustrations.

On to the real discovery.

Browsing around Currclick this afternoon, I ran across a free sample for online Kidswonder magazine. The September 2008 issue is their first issue and it's pretty good. At first I began to reject it based on rather lame graphics, but the 110 page issue improved as I went along. It has a fantastic 5 lesson unit study on leaves at the end. I'm thinking a themed "Leaf Day" might be happening at my house. It also has great apple activities. So check it out. And if you like it, you can, it seems, pay a $10 one-time fee by Paypal or credit card which will then allow you to receive a code for each upcoming issue (forever?).

Either way, the free issue will be fun.

First Week of School

We're rolling (somewhat) merrily along. We are mainly getting warmed up to the 3 Rs again and tackling the 50 states. Which has been very fun! From state websites to library books to youtube and national geographic videos, we've been exploring our United States. This has definitely been the fun part. I remember learning the states in third grade. We learned the names and the nicknames and we all loved learning each state's nickname. So for the Heart of Dixie we watched a video of scenic pictures, learned state symbols (I'm using this site for every state) and listened to the state song, then, of course, we ended with "Sweet Home Alabama". For the Last Frontier, we learned about the aurora borealis (and here), watched a Ntl Geographic video about Denali National Park, and Ethan read about Balto (again). And for the Grand Canyon state, we read a storybook history of the desert and founding of Phoenix, as well as a book and videos of the Grand Canyon. We also have workbooks from last year's Target dollar bins that have a half page of activities and info on each state, as well as placemat maps. I also have a Chick-Fil-A card game and cool board game. I think we're going to attempt to collect postcards from all fifty states - just tio make sure the overkill is complete.

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I decided today to start a one-year Bible reading program with the kids. It said 15 minutes a day, but with our many questions and discussions, it took us 30. I like the check boxes and undated format. We just dove in.

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Oh, and I got a kick out of this. The kids were filling out a first day "about me" page and Ethan listed "Starlight" by Muse as his new favorite song. It was my favorite song two weeks ago. I love being a good influence.

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So have you started school yet? (I know some of you have) How's it going?

Olympics for Kids

1. Read articles (Olympic-Medal-Winning Countries, Heading to Beijing, A Big Day for Gymnastics, etc.), tour China , and more at Time for Kids
2. Make an Olympic torch , Olympic flags, or winner's medals at Kaboose
3. Learning Pages has fun worksheets and activity sheets both here (from the Athens Olympics) and new ones here. Remember, you have to be a member to access these, but it's free - no strings attached.
4. Find out All About the Olympic Games, do really cool Olympic printables, writing paper, and worksheets, All kinds of China activities , really cool Olympic ring cookies , cool crafts, including an Olympics window flag and Olive Leaf Crown and more at Activity Village.co.uk.
5. Check out the Beijing 2008 educational kit.
6. Scholastic has a great Olympics site originally developed for the Athens Olympics. It includes a cool online game, It's Greek to Me and a Global Trek to China.
7. Associated Content has an good article, Parent's Guide: Watching the 2008 Summer Olympics with Kids.
8. And Wikipedia has a great 2008 Summer Olympics page too.
9. Teacher Vision has a cool slideshow of the Summer Olympic Game Events that includes the dates for each event, another fascinating slideshow Top 10 Olympic Controversies (about specific athletes), as well as lesson plans and other articles.

I may add more later, but since the right click on my mouse has frozen and I'm too dumb or lazy to cut and paste links any other way, this is all you're getting right now. :^)