Homeschool Share Back to School Blast 2008

Okay, I don't normally get into the whole "Blog" thing because I use this blog to keep our favorite people up to date with what's going on in school for us. But I wanted to share an opportunity that I am excited about. Over at Homeschool Share, they are having a contest for new unit study curriculum. I am interested in submitting a unit study for the First Time Unit Study Writers. We have 2 years under our belt using unit studies and I would love to actually write one! Plus, they have this super-cool shirt to give away if you post their contest on your blog; hence the reason why I'm writing this post!

So if you have a moment, visit one of my new favorite websites, Homeschool Share, and check out all of their great resources!

Benjamin Franklin Lapbook

Our most recent Lapbook
*Note: If the advertisement is up on the screen, just "X" out of it and the slideshow will play

Weaving

In line with our study of Moses and the Nile River, we also did some braiding and weaving. First the girls braided some raffia to make a basket. I don't know where I got the idea that this would make a good basket but with some trial and error, we managed to make a few, with the help of my handy-dandy gluegun! Grace's turned out looking like a straw hat -- perfect for her Build-A-Bear, Lilli! Emily's looked more like a basket and here she is with her Build-A-Bear poodle, Pinki.

The girls also tried their hand at the real act of weaving (once I watched a you tube video on it!). They made little placemats. We are going to convert their placemats into hearts to decorate for Valentine's Day. They loved weaving and seeing the final piece of art!

In March we are going to watch basket weaving from Longaberger themselves (You know, the really beautiful but very expensive baskets) at the Jelly Belly factory. We've been on that tour many times but this will be fun to see actual weaving going on.

Volume 2, Unit 2, Chapter 2

For the past 2.5 weeks, we have been learning about lots of things! For Bible, we are in Exodus 2, learning about Moses' family. Just when you think you know everything you can possibly know... So, in Social Studies, we have been studying the Nile River. We are trying to compose a lapbook for it, but my creativity is on the low end. We'll see if it gets done now or later! In Science, we have looked at the composition of the earth: land/water, crust, mantle, outer core, inner core. I found a great hands-on project for this:

Greenish-yellow: land mass; Blue: water; purple:crust; lt. orange: mantle; pink:outer core; dark orange: inner core.

The girls created their "earths" and then we cut away a section to see what it looked like inside. What a neat visual!

Thanksgiving Unit Study

I decided to take a break from our curriculum unit studies to do a short unit study on Thanksgiving. It was so interesting! There were so many new things that I learned! I used information from several different resources and developed our study from there.

We went in this order:

• The Mayflower


• The passengers aboard the Mayflower


• The reasons for going to the New World


• The Wampanoag people who lived on the land originally


• The arrival of the English Colonists and their first year


• The Mayflower Compact


• The different dialects and languages of the Colonists and the Indians


• The harvest festival, now commonly known as Thanksgiving

There is so much information on this topic so we read a lot and tried to apply it as often to things that we already know about. I was concerned that some of it would go right over Grace and Emily's head but they surprised me about how much they understood. In fact, as we covered the Mayflower Compact and the reason for it and this early American type of government, Grace put it all together in her mind and compared it the government of the show we like to watch, Kid Nation. That opened a whole new door to talk about as we covered that subject! My fears were for naught!

One of my favorite books was Sarah Morton's Day, A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim girl. At the suggestion of some of the material I had, we began documenting the things that the girls did each day. We are starting to put it in a little book now.

Lastly, we made the "trip" from England/Holland to the New World on our dining room table using Play-doh to make the ships - Mayflower, Fortune, Anne and Little James. They also had to pack a bag to take with them on the trip. They had a limited space because there was limited room for such things for 102 people on the Mayflower. Here are a few pictures of that little excursion:

Happy Thanksgiving! (By the way, days of thanksgiving were days of prayer and fasting. Boy do we have it backward!!!)

Summer is a faint memory

Well, we've been back to school since the end of July and this is the first chance that I've had to post. Right now we are half-way through the unit study of the human body, which has been very interesting. We started with cells, talked about bones and touched on the progression of a child from the moment of conception. Then we moved on into the digestive system, which has brought on some giggles and looks of disgust from the girls! Grace doesn't exactly like talking about how our body gets rid of it's waste! For me, and something I try to impress on the girls, is how marvelous our bodies are and perfectly created by an awesome, genius and imaginative Creator! Psalm 139:13-14 says, "For You formed my inward parts and covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works and that my soul knows very well." Try reading the entire 139th Psalm. It shows you the many attributes of God and I know I stand in awe of Him whenever I read it.
As you can see, we made cut-outs of the girls' bodies and we are adding parts as we study them. Grace loves science because of all the hands-on activity! We still have a lot to cover and may not finish in a month. There is so much information and so much to be amazed by, I don't want to just graze over it, even though every year we'll go a little more in-depth. Also, in an effort to take good care of our bodies, we've added a one and a half mile walk/ride (I walk, the girls ride) into our mornings so that we are getting some exercise.

Our homeschool group started back up last Friday and we are looking forward to many activities. Every year we seem to do it a little different. This year we will be a little less structured in our activities (we did 6-week classes last year) and have some more fun, stress-busting activities. The first project that we are going to do is a terrarium, so that should be fun. The girls are trying to see how they can incorporate Polly Pockets and horses into them. We'll post pictures of our progress.

Check back with us soon!

Oops, busted! My secret to energy is displayed in the background -- Iced Mochas from Starbucks! And don't forget the whip!

Solar System - Beyond Our Imaginations

Well, it's been awhile since I've been able to get back here! We studied animals after the plants and then went on to the solar system, which was a month long unit study. It truly is astounding how incredible the universe is! Have you ever really thought about it? I love studying along with the girls because it ignites my own passion to learn! We began by learning about the stars, the sun being the closest one to us. Then we went on to planets, the Milky Way system, the moon and so on. Just the little bit we touched upon left me totally in awe of God's creation. We did something different at the end of this unit, something I've been wanting to do for so long. It's called a lapbook.

I first heard of lap/notebooking a year ago when I decided that the workbook approach to learning was just not up to par. The curriculum that I was using was very "workbook" oriented. Then someone told me about lap/notebooking. After some research, I decided I loved this hands-on approach and knew the kids would, too. Then, in order to keep things structured, we went with a new curriculum that would allow me to incorporate this type of learning. However, as things go, we rarely had time (or so I thought) to actually do it. So, I determined that with this last unit, we were going to take what we learned and apply it to a lapbook and here it is! Grace now wants to end every unit with a lapbook! Emily, I think, has her reservations. It's a little more hands-on work than she would like. Emily learns a lot just from reading and listening. Or being outside! Grace is my crafty one. I knew she would be hooked! By the way, in case you were wondering -- yes, we did include Pluto as a planet. When I told the girls that scientists were now no longer considering Pluto a planet, they rebelled! "That's not fair! Pluto's so cute!!" So, we included Pluto and deal with that when they're older and more mature :)

So, we completed our year and are looking forward to a nice break. We do our official promotion tomorrow. Grace is promoting to 3rd grade and Emily to 1st. I'll post again for the promotion and then we'll send you more updates on the family page of what we do this summer!