Stone Castles

We have been in the middle ages for history this year, and we are currently learning about the rise of stone castle building and knights and chivalry and feudalism and all. So, what to do but build a castle, right?!

Notice the outer and inner walls, outer shorter for archers to be able to shoot over it, inner taller for defense.

Notice the crenels and merlons and drawbridges (and the extra-wide windows because narrow slits were too difficult...)

And the rounded corners that are less easily destroyed than straight corners....

And can I mention how wonderful glue guns are?!!! Why do I never remember to bring mine out for crafts like this??! We finished up quickly, and then they could actually play with them right away!
Next is the painting process, so stay tuned.....

Recommended Games

We have recently been enjoying these:

• Math Dice Jr.
• Quirkle
• Blokus
• Perplexus

Just wanted to share what we have been enjoying. :)

J-Term

January is such a hard month to come back to after the holidays. It is long and cold and often snowy, so it's hard to get out much. So, I planned a J-term as an experiment for this year. Instead of jumping right back into what we have already been doing, we are going to take a break from some things and do some more "fun" stuff. What will we be studying?

Math (continue with Singapore and the flash card system I made for review of math facts, as well as Sprints on Thursdays)
Spelling (continue with All About Spelling and spelling bees on Thursdays)
Grammar (continue with First Language Lessons)
Piano (continue)

And what are we adding/changing?

History - take a break from Story of the World (after we finish the castles we have been working on this week) and do a short unit study on Felicity and Kirsten (American Girl).
Science - we finished up our Botany course a week ago, so instead of jumping in with a new curriculum in January, we are going to review chunks of it at a time and then have a written test and "field" test each week. I am considering this chemistry course for Feb.
Writing: I purchased a new writing book that my friend, a 2nd grade teacher, uses in her class - Steps to Writing Success (level 2). We will be working through it beginning in January, and I am getting excited about how it is laid out!
Music History (time permitting) - Use the books, The Story of the Orchestra and The Story of Music
Sewing - so far we have sewn several pillowcases and bags for church/co-op; now we need to work on our book covers and laundry bags

So, we'll see how much we actually accomplish, but at least I have tentative plans. :)

Some Fun Accessories!

I thought I'd post some sites where I have found helpful activities for reinforcing things we are doing in school:

Lapbook for Story of the World - We are using this as a review at the end of each "term" of school.  We school 6 weeks on and one week off, so every 6th week, we take a break from reading our history and instead review what we have already covered using the lapbook as a fun way to interact with the material in a different way. This lapbook is offered free by a mom who has worked hard to put it all together.  She has years 1 & 2 done so far. 

Lapbook for our Botany lessons - Similarly, we will be (just bought this) using this as a review of what we have covered in our science lessons.  This lapbook does have to be purchased, but I think it is worth the price ($20) to not have to create something on my own.

Lapbooks for my preschooler - I could take the time to make my own, but here are some resources that I have found helpful in gathering things for him to do with me:

• Homeschoolshare lapbooks
• Preschool Packs
• Tot Packs

How Things Work

This morning, one of my girls' notebooks had incorrectly cut pages, and she wondered why it was like that. Having just seen a video on how books are made last week, I quickly found it again and watched it with the kids. In the spirit of invention and machinery, we also watched a video on how toilet paper is made. Then, while we were on the topic, I challenged them to each come up with a machine that would clean their rooms for them. Here are the results:

PE

I was inspired by this post about PE that I Read last week, and we have been doing running and other exercises together since (even my 4-year-old).  I just wanted to share it in case someone else can be encouraged about how easy homeschool PE can be. 

Another Project!

Another fun project we are working on this year is a study of the 50 states. The girls each have a notebook with pages to include information that they learn about each state, and we are taking a state per week in order of their dates of statehood. This week, of course, we have been learning a little more about Delaware. On Tuesday, each girl sent an email to the Delaware tourism office requesting information about the state, and today that information came! We had a blast spreading out their full-size road maps on the living room floor and tracing major highways and railroads in different colors. We looked that the map legend and located different symbols on the map. We highlighted certain cities that we are familiar with (two of their siblings were born in Wilmington) and then noted the canal connecting the Delaware and Chesapeake Rivers. It was also fun to look through the travel booklet and see pictures from across the state. When we were finished looking at all of our information, the girls filed everything away in the (alphabetically arranged) state folder we labeled for Delaware. I think we might be getting excited about this project (who wouldn't be excited about the prospect of mail each week?!)!

A New Year!

School has officially begun this week, and we are enjoying it so far!  I just wanted to make note of some special projects we are doing this fall:

• All About Me booklets - It has been fun to go back and look at the booklets made in previous years and see their handwriting, likes and dislikes, statistics, etc!  This year I added a page for "When I grow up, I want to be...", and it was especially fun listening to my 4-year-old tell me all of the things that, in his mind, are special grown-up things (washing dishes, being asked to return library books, driving all sorts of vehicles, etc.) 
• Oral History Project - We are going to slowly work our way through our entire family, interviewing them via email with questions about their families and growing up and special memories that they have.  Just this week we have begun with my 89 year old grandmother, and it has been really neat to read her responses to the girls' emails and to share these stories together!  I'm looking forward to compiling an entire family "history" with the girls this year!  
• Weekly Projects - We told the girls that they get a chance to "teach" us every Friday and can even ask us questions to see if we were paying attention!  They have to pick out a book at the library on Monday (not sure if I will assign different parameters here each week), read it and pick out three things they learned that they want to teach us.  Then they have to draw a picture and prepare a short presentation.  They seem excited so far and have done well with it this week.  I'm looking forward to Friday! 
• Blogging as Creative Writing - Both girls have balked a bit at creative writing, mostly not knowing what to write about and not really being motivated to write in the journals I had them use last year.  So, this year we are doing a different writing exercise each day.  I did wonder if having an actual audience might help with motivation to write, so we came up with the idea to start a blog for each of them.  They will write a weekly post to share with their family and maybe some friends.  I figure they will learn typing, internet, scanning and uploading skills in addition to creative writing!  And, more importantly, they are excited about it so far!  

I'll port more later on what we have finally decided to use for our curriculum this year.  

Mosaics

We have been working our way through A Child's History of Art and got to a chapter on the ancient peoples of the two-river region (Fertile Crescent area). Apparently, they first began working with mosaics and tiles, so we got to do our own little mosaic pieces.

self-portrait

a beach scene

pickup truck

Summer School!

Summer school has begun around here, and so far we are having fun! Today was the kids' first sewing lesson, and they were thrilled! They already have great designs on sewing elaborate doll costumes by the end of the summer. I think we'll at least get the pillowcases, tote bags, book covers, doll quilts, laundry bags and pot holders made!
Today the point was to introduce them to the machine and let them try the pedal. Then, they got to practice sewing straight lines on a piece of paper and even learned to backstitch at the beginning and end of every seam.

Ahhhh, Summer!

Summer has officially begun at our house! So, our summer schedule is in full swing! Movie Mondays, Living Room Play Tuesdays, Game (or Water) Wednesdays, Cooking Thursdays, Library Fridays! We will be doing some "summer school" in a few weeks, but that is fun stuff, like art, sewing, science, first aid, and a summer reading challenge for the girls with new reading lights as the prize!
We've also added a 30-minute tidy-up time right after our morning devotions and a 10-minute laundry time.  We're slowly attacking the stuff we just didn't get to during the school year cleaning-wise, and the laundry mounds (mostly clean clothes, I'll have you know!) are slowly dissolving as we get to them daily instead of twice or so per week!  My goal for the kids (and myself!) this summer is for them to learn to do it right the first time, working with all their hearts. 

Looking Back

I just revised my post on planning for 2010-2011 to include comments on what has worked this year and what has not, why we have chosen some things over others, and what we are considering doing the same or differently next year.  You can read it here.

Planning Ahead

We are in process of deciding what we want to study and use next year for 2nd and 3rd grades with our girls. Here is a partial list of what we are looking at so far:

Math - Singapore Math – Lessons and Math Sprints (levels 2 and 3)

History - Story of the World vol. 2 & activity book.  As I am looking at the time frame, Fall of Rome through the Rise of the Renaissance, I am thinking we can incorporate lots of music and art history.  Hmmm...where are my old music history CDs and books? 

Science - Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany and then probably Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Language Arts – All About Spelling (I am switching because one of my kids is having some writing/motor skill issues and I am hoping this program will address that a bit), weekly composition writing (on computer, use to reinforce spelling, grammar concepts), Writing With Ease vol. 2

Spanish – Rosetta Stone (if I can find a good deal on it!)

Latin - not decided on this yet (3rd grader only)

Geography – continue to use our geography songs CD and map them (this year, we've learned the continents and oceans and the countries of Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe and the US and Canada so far!)

US & PA History – make up units in PA and US History as we are interested

For our preschooler, I am looking at the following:

Praise Factory Big Questions and Answers for Little People

Nature studies

Botany

We just began Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany course and are really enjoying it! Our first big project was building a light hut so we could grow some seeds. Here is our light box building project (we had several sick kids, so school was done in pjs all week if at all).






We planted our seeds a week ago and kept peeking in at them. Here they are a week later!
Broccoli, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini and a green onion! Now to prepare the garden!

Rock Cycle Studies

We have been enjoying learning about rocks in anticipation of a field trip to Stone Mountain Park next week. The site I have found to be most helpful in our studies these past weeks is here.

Yesterday, we learned about the rock cycle using a fun website (that I think looks promising for other studies, too!) and then drew our own interpretations. Then, the girls were given an assignment when we went to the park later in the day. They had to plan and act out a rock cycle show for us. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure. :)

Notice that they even get weathering, erosion, deposition, compaction (into sedimentary rock), metamorphism, melting and crystallization (into granite) and extrusion (volcano)! I think they're ready for our file trip. :)