Ships Ahoy!

We started following the Beautiful Feet Early American History reading list last year. We just finished learning about Vikings and Leif the Lucky. We are moving on and studying Christopher Columbus. I found a super little unit study on www.justmommies.com that I pulled some hands on activities from. We will be using "Columbus" by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire as our core book. Please stayed tuned for photos of our completed projects.

For Little Hands time this week, I will be introducing the JUNGLE, the letter B, the number 1, and the color green. We have a few fun projects to do, too. Twizzlers make yummy jungle vines, which is our vocabulary word this week.

MOO!

After a very busy summer of packing up a family of 8 and moving about 30 miles south, we are back in full swing. The children just seem to really thrive once we start with a routine that involves brain stimulation.
I have starting using a free online program called Letter of the week with the littler children and they are ALL really enjoying. We have been studying cows, the letter A, the number 1, and squares this week. We have read some wonderful books, including The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down and Blossom Comes Home. There have been multiple crafts and hands on activities that we have enjoyed. Letter of the week is a super resource for those with younger children, trying to add a bit of structure, but still have fun. They offer a great list of recommended resources to go along with each theme and links to add lots of extras if you have the time. You can check it out at www.letteroftheweek.com
When I mentioned that all of the children were enjoying the program, I did mean all. That would be my 12 year old hiding behind his invention of a cow he named "Da Bull." Yesterday the children made shapes and letters out of cookie dough. We baked them and they watched a movie from the book called Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that Type.

Pond Study

We wrapped up our Pond Unit Study with a Pond Party with our friends last weekend. It was so nice to see the kids get together and present some of what they learn through songs, poetry, stories, and pictures. We have allowed the boys to keep their turtles for the time being. The turtles are a true source of enjoyment and seem to be relatively happy in their backyard tank.

Life skills and good character

How rewarding to watch my 11 year old open a box of Kinex that he received for Christmas and follow a super detailed instruction manual and put together and amazing 2 foot high amusement park ride. He was tickled with himself for being able to do it own his own. This is such an important life skills task and character quality...to be able to follow instructions from start to finish and complete a project even when it is challenging...diligence.

Pond Adventures

Amber passed along this super unit study by NaturEd on tadpoles and frogs. I am going to pick out a few of the activities and let the kids enjoy some light hearted learning about frogs. I wanted to post a couple of pictures from our second trip to the pond last week. The kids tromped and romped around the ponds for a few hours collecting turtles, frogs, tadpoles, and all kinds of slimy pond fun. Unfortunately, most of the critters did not survive the weekend, but the 3 turtles that Dante found did. Rich told him he could keep one if he researched what of turtle it was and what was needed to keep it healthy.

Memorial Day

Rich surprised me this Memorial Day by putting together a little presentation on the computer to do with the children. It was so unique. He did a few slides explaining the significance and history of Memorial Day, a video presentation by John Wayne on the reasons to love America, and statistics of all of the war victims. The kids were so into it, just like they are so into daddy. I am blessed to have a husband who cares so deeply about every aspect of his children. It is so great to be able to incorporate "school" into the every day.

Our Nature Studies

What a fabulous time of year to embark on a Nature Study. No more textbooks, but some good ole fashioned, hands-on, nitty, gritty Science. I am sure this is my children's favorite way to "do school." At Dante's request, we took an adventure to the pond behind our local Walmart last week and filled up a huge bucket full of tadpoles. Lots and lots of tadpoles. What a great opportunity to complete a unit study on pond life. We are teaming together with some friends who also have access to pond life and are going to spend the rest of this school year celebrating ponds. Dante and Elijah took some pictures of a few of the different things that have shown up in their aquarium. Many many tadpoles, a dragonfly larvae, and some sort of disgusting slug looking thing that we need to research.
Dante also caught a beautiful butterfly that we will enjoy for a few days and then let go.
We have the kid's pond sitting in the middle of the picnic table outside so that they have access to it whenever they wish. I am looking forward to some fun schooling to end the year.