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.