Holiday posting

So we've done a slew of things I'd consider school-worthy.  We had a huge lifeskills cleaning day with friends.  We decorated, we made cookies, we made clothespin people ornaments, and we crafted with foam sheets, glitter glue, and glass stones.  We painted wood, shirts, and ourselves.  We made presents, ornaments, and painted wood shapes.  We shopped together.  We've read new books:
Snow by PD Eastman
On The Night You Were Born by Nancy Tilman
And Leanna's been reading some of Lorelei's new Eric Carle books to her aloud.
She finished Henry and Ribsey and Henry and the Paper Route both by Beverly Cleary.   She also started and finished How to Train Your Dragon by Cresida Cowell today. 
The kids were given a bunch of Crayola crafts from someone their grandmother knows (some already opened but still usable) and Leanna's been putting them together.  Decorating purses, adding fabric patches to make jewelery and necklaces.  She even started putting together a hanging chandelier.  She put together her new Ikea doll bed (I had to tighten the screws).  She made a Crystal tree today, we'll observe that.  She also did a journal entry today.  There were a few other days where she purposely did something school related like working in a grammar book or writing things.
She entered her new Webkinz onto the site and played some (semi) educational computer games.  She played with the neighbor (the boys rode bikes and raced with him.  They observed with a new telescope they got for Christmas.Leanna worked on several sewing projects.  Justin's been hammering and sawing.  Timothy read some more with me. We sang and danced.  It's been busy!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:
Leanna

*Mini-respect book-corrections & finishing
*Gallileo  lesson
*Journaling
*Cursive Writing
*Silent Reading-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
*http://www.jacksonpollock.org/
*2 chapters of Eight Cousins

*Justin-math workbook, Brain Quest workbook with Leanna
*Timothy-Brain Quest workbook with Leanna

Keeping younger kids busy

Reposting this for my own reference later........
 

Alicia Bayer

Give her a wooden spoon and an assortment of small pots to bang.  Try giving her other instruments that make slightly different noises too, such as metal and plastic spoons.
Tape down some waxed paper and give him some pudding to finger paint with. Want it healthier? Tint some yogurt pink with beet juice or yellow with turmeric, or just use a dollop of any dark or brightly colored baby food.
Give her a bowl of O cereal, a small spoon and an empty bowl. Show her how to scoop from one bowl and fill the other. She can snack as she goes!  You can also give her a fuzzy pipe cleaner and show her how to push the cereal onto it.
Alternately, give her some uncooked spaghetti to poke through the holes.  It's also great fun to break spaghetti!
Give him some homemade playdough and some things to poke and pound it with. My little guy likes to stab it with chopsticks. Every few minutes I make it into a bunch of new shapes like worms, bricks, balls and bowls to give him a new way to play with it.
Put some colored water in an ice cube tray and give him a medicine dropper.  He can squeeze the colored water and transfer it to other containers to make new colors.  You can also put down a coffee filter to drop the colored water onto and make designs.  This activity captivates many toddlers and improves their small motor skills.
It sounds like parental sacrilege, but a box of cheap bandaids will buy you an awful lot of minutes. It's cheaper than stickers and somehow far cooler in most toddler minds.  You may want to get a different brand than usual, so it's clear that regular bandaids aren't for playing.
Garage sale stickers are also great fun and much more affordable than most children's stickers. Give her a whole page of big bright stickers and a piece of paper to stick them to.
Older toddlers can experiment with using safety scissors to cut a variety of materials-- yarn, paper, tissue paper, tin foil, a leaf, etc.
Fill an old purse with a variety of baby-safe items and let him explore it. Some ideas are a mirrored compact to open, an empty change purse, a small notebook, wood or plastic baby keys (real keys often contain lead), a soft ball, etc. The more zippers and pockets the purse has, the better.
Wash out some yogurt, sour cream or cottage cheese containers and show her how to stack and nestle them. When she's tired of that, put the lids on them and put different things in each-- lots of safe cereal in one, a pacifier or other large item in one, and so on. Show her how they each make a different sound. Carefully cut a hole in one lid and show her how to drop cereal into it to extend the fun even more.
This time of year in Minnesota, we have oodles of another perfect toddler toy, too -- snow!  Scoop up a pan of it and give your little one instruments like tiny spoons, chopsticks and little toys to use with it.  You can also save dried out markers to color the snow.  It's a great way to get a second life out of them.
What are your favorite busy activities for little ones?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

Leanna:
*Moon research
*Filled info onto moon lapbook pages after also viewing videos on the moon, space, and the ISS; and playing online related games (plan your own mission, etc.)  (the moon research and games and lapbook stuff was several hours worth of work)
*researched & took notes on frogs
*3 pages of G.W. Copywork
*worked on respect mini book

*Justin- 2 math workbook pages, singing practice with Leanna
*Timothy-1 page in math workbook
*Jacob-cutting and reading about castles.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

Leanna:

*DK math workbook-corrected 2 1/2 pages of incorrect math and did another page
*Silent reading-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
*Girl Scouts-dodge ball
*Music-listened & danced to Celtic music.  She really enjoys this type of music.
*Art-drawings-fruit bowl and holiday themed pictures.
*Eight Cousins

*Timothy-math workbook-3 pages

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:
For multiple reasons, this day did not get recorded so I am going by memory here!  

*Comprehensive Curriculum pages, copywork, silent reading, math


Timothy-math workbook,

Monday, December 5, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

Leanna:
*Attended church with Grammy-and Timothy-over the weekend.
*We watched The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Alice (the 2010 version) and then the Pianist.  Though the kids missed most of the last one on purpose. 
*Leanna attended American Girl Club.  
*wrote a Christmas story
*DK Workbook-pg. 14
*We read 8 Cousins


*I walked to then bank and dollar store with the boys and Lorelei. 

Friday, December 2, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

Leanna:
*Read info on mammals & classification
*Geography Lesson 11
*Thanksgiving Analagies
*Answered Ocean animals quiz and cut out Ocean Wheel
*Silent Reading: Nancy Drew and the Bungalo Mystery
*2 pages of G.W. copywork
*DK math workbook- 2 pages

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

Leanna
*Silent Reading-Mystery at Lilac Inn
*Affect/Effect quiz
*Accept/Except quiz
*Page on Crispus  Attucks
*Writing: wrote about what a friend means to you
*Read a booklet on the US Constitution and answered 5 questions about it.
*2 pages of Comprehensive Curriculum-reading comprehension:using prior knowledge,
*Comprehensive Curriculum-writing, sounding out syllables, 2 pages on word families, Spelling-double consonants, writing verb forms, Spelling Math plurals, (8 pages total)6 on her own!!
*Read chapter 17 in Story of the World
*Read another chapter in Eight Cousins

Timothy letter to Aunt Cindy-we decided what to say and he wrote out each letter-this was a very lengthy process!!  He also copied the alphabet, upper case and lower case, & numbers to 20. 
Justin -2 pages of math workbook  He also copied the alphabet, upper case and lower case, & numbers to 20. 

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:
Leanna:

*DK Workbook-5 pages
*Science Journal-wrote about human body experiments
*Finished Cheer postcard for sending to military
*Recycled materials crafts-multiple made for AG Club, for friends, and for fun
*Wrote out some Christmas cards and notes to go in them
*Silent Reading- Nancy's Mysterious Letter by Carolyn Keene
*At night we walked for excersize-to the dollar store, grocery store, CVS, and subway/DD(coffee for me) and home again!  A brisk night walk/ride for the three females in our family.

Timothy-2 pages in his math workbook-days of the week (yesterday, today, tomorrow) and clocks.
Justin-outdoor play, gardening,

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:
Leanna:

*Silent Reading: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
*Copywork-recopied her summation of Eight Cousins so far
*Math-DK workbook-2 pages
*Human Body project-did several experiments from the kit
*Visual Art Journal
*We read  2 chapters in Eight Cousins

Timothy-we read through the entire Hop On Pop in one sitting (though he wanted to quit four times), we did oral quizzes on words he knew, and practice some math skills out loud too.  We started a pattern for a gift for Lorelei for Christmas (his idea). 
Justin-Oral practice with words and math.  Lots of creative play today.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:
Leanna:

*Cursive Alphabet practice
*Atlantic Ocean mini-lesson
*Geography lesson #11
*Math workbook review
*Read George Washington bio.
*She worked a bit on a Tiger lapbook/quiz
*Silent Reading-White Fang by Jack London



Timothy-2 math pages, outdoor play, read through Stuck in the Mud, A Step Into Reading Book.  He began spelling words that he knows for me also. 
Justin-3 math pages, outdoor play, I read him three books.  He-of his own accord- orally worked through 3+3+3 and 2+2+2+2, etc. etc.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Half Day

*Silent Reading-finished H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, finished The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Graham
*Made Christmas lists
*Drawing practice
*Lifeskills-baking, cooking, laundry, cleaning.
*Computer play-in addition to Webkinz and Poptropica she also played educational American Girl Games.  
*Played Apples to Apples with Grammy, Aunt Laura, and Mommy.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

*Geography lesson 10-included the boys in the discussion as well.  Then she used play-doh and clay to make a US Map.  We went over our specific location-continent, country, state, city, address.
*Then it delved into general play doh play. 
*Then Leanna did the questions for Geography Lesson 10
*We listened to some polka music and some band music (curtsey of the local channel 4 background!) then a bit of opera singing (which they imitated).
*I read Maximum Triceratops by Dr. Robert T. Bakker, mainly Leanna and Justin were listening (Timothy and Jacob only listened to parts).  They asked questions and I asked them questions and it was a nice little science lesson.  They were fascinated by the bones in particular.
*Leanna made a "What I've Accomplished This Week" list
*Art Journal
*a self-portrait
*We read two chapters in Eight Cousins
*Computer play on Webkinz
*She made a couple early christmas presents-decorating popsicle sticks with markers, glue, glitter, and googly-eyes.

Read most of a chapter in Little House in the Big Woods to the boys.


http://www.homeschoolshare.com/little_house_in_the_big_woods.php

Monday, November 21, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

*Multiplication practice
*Silent Reading: An Old Fashioned Girl & Kitchen Experiments
*Art Journaling
*Clay sculpting
*Story of the World Chapter 16
*Discussion on what to do in emergency situations-fire, medical emergency, etc. 

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Schoolwork accomplished:
(Weekend Catch-Up Day since Thursday was an entire day of lifeskills)
*Multiplication Page with word problems too.
*Decimals worksheet
*Read a short piece on Galileo
*lifeskills
*drawings of people and a Bible story.
*Silent Reading-Huck Finn

Friday, November 18, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

*Silent Reading: Finished The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, re-reading The Rip Roaring Mystery on the African Safari by Carolee Marsh
*Helping Justin and Timothy with school
*She rewrote and added to her summary of chapters 1-10 of Eight Cousins.
*Discussed and read more from the American Revolutionary War for Kids.  Talked about ways to non-violently protest. 
*Outdoor play & photography practice
*


*Timothy did three pages in his math workbook and practiced reading with Leanna.  He also worked in his draw and write book with her, writing and drawing. 
*Justin attempted some math, but needed more help than I could give at the time, so he worked on a Cowboy Woody story with pictures.  This time he wrote his own letters and sounded out some of the words. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

*Leanna:
*Wrote a summary of the first three chapters of Eight Cousins.  Then she made corrections.  Then she continued writing it. 
*She did a page on subject and verb agreement. 
*Wrote short stories for read and draw book.
*George Washington Copywork-3 pages
*Decimal number line and we orally did several online worksheets.
*We also looked at some famous paintings online and admired them. 



*Timothy-Did 3 pages in his math workbook.  We read Chinta the Chinchilla together. He did 6 pages in his Consonants workbook. 
*Justin-did 2 pages in his math workbook. 
*Jacob-colored a page and decorated a Christmas tree picture.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:
Leanna:
 *baking math page completed (Yay!)
*Ocean research with Exploring Ocean Life(read info, colored pages, quizzed herself)
*Prepositional Phrases page from Writing Well: Grade 5
*Make a story book
*Began to Make a graph:
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

I read half a chapter of Little House In the Big Woods to the boys. 
Timothy-2 pages in his math workbook.
*Justin-2 pages in his math workbook.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Schoolwork Accomplished:

* Silent Reading: The Mystery of  National Yellowstone Park by Carolee Marsh
*Tv Program on Mcdonalds-nutrition
*G. Washington Copywork-3 pages
*math workbook-we attempted baking fraction math in her workbook, but she wasn't getting it and I have to find a better way to explain.  So we did a bit with Roman Numerals, she struggled through that.
*We read two chapters in Eight Cousins.
*She did a postcard to send to the USO to send cheer to soldiers.  




*We walked to the bank and D&D and subway, then home again.  Then we stopped at the playground and they played with a couple kids there.
*Justin and I counted the rows of potato smiles on the baking sheet.  We noted how to count by fours, how many total, and multiplication-six rows of four.  I called Timothy did to do the same, though he was less enthusiastic and didn't seem to get the multiplication.
*We got 12 munchkins and I let each child (except Jacob) tell me how to fairly divide them up between four kids.
*Timothy went through Hop On Pop with me and we wrote down all the words he can read easily from the book.  I didn't count them if he needed too much prompting. 
*

Revolutionary War Stuff

Ideas from this blog:
http://homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/american-revolution.html


Narration Variations

I also want to show you some interesting variations of narrations that can be done for history topics. Katie (several years ago) wrote a newspaper article about an incident in the Revolutionary War. She typed it out on the computer in a column and then stained the paper with a tea bag to make it look aged.

She even made it look more like a newspaper clipping by including a piece of article on the opposite side, and some ink stains, which were not uncommon in those days of printing.

Another similiar type of narration is to make a letter as if from a soldier to his family, including some factual information. This also was typed on the computer in a handwriting type font and aged with tea bags.

The third example is more of a cultural narration, a recipe written as they were then and made to look like a piece of aged torn paper.

Next Fall...
Ideas we will explore when we start school in the fall:

Examining the problems of Eyewittness Accounts.

Maps, of course.

Reporting the events that lead up to the Revolutionary War and the events within it.

Tea (tasting) Party

Define Liberty...it was what the war was about, so what is it?

Facts about the 18th Century -what was it like then?

Spies and spying-how hard it is to retain oral information -could you remember facts you heard correctly?

Codes and Cyphers

Paper Doll of a Revolutionary figure

A Revolutionary figure's pocket...what would you find there? Can you match the item to the person?

Paul Revere's Ride

Battle of Bunker Hill Reenactment

You're the General...what would you have done?

Winter Encampment Writing Exercise

Gunnery Drills

Sketch of George Washington's Portrait

Make an Almanac.

Music of the period.

 

American Revolution; Troubles in Boston, First Contiental Congress, The Shot Heard 'Round the World

This week I decided to start our history lesson by showing the episode of Andy Griffith (Andy Discovers America) in with there is a discussion about history. Here is the part of the episode where Andy ignites the children' interest in American history.

After this fun introduction, we read this version of Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride.

I copied the map on the inside cover of the book, and they colored the routes, Revere, Dawes and Prescott took.

They took turns building the Old North Church and putting lanterns in them.

And then we decided to have our own Tea Party Teatime.

Quentin decided to make placecards.

 James decided to make a game to play.

Suddenly they were all caught up in the excitement and happily working on their own projects, needing no direction from me.

For the teatime, I poured the hot water into a bowl instead of a teapot (If you do this, be careful not to have the water boiling, or it might break a glass bowl. Our kids don't like their tea too hot, so it worked out well for this.) I floated a (washed) plastic boat with teabags in it. The steam coming off the water lended to the atmosphere.

 One by one we became Sons of Liberty and dumped the tea from the boat into the water.

And once the tea was dumped, we shared the teatime snack Katie had made for us...

homemade caramel popcorn, or sweetened parched corn, as they would have called it.

I ladled out cups of tea from the bowl...

 

A couple science and geography ideas

More ideas I found and would love to use:

A great free geography resource:  http://homeschoolcreations.com/Geography.html

 http://finallyinfirst.blogspot.com/2011/02/me-on-map.html

A Chemistry lapbook: http://www.squidoo.com/chemistry-lapbook

A model lung

  Here's a fun science experiment to do with the kids that's quick, educational and involves things you probably already have at home.  Best of all, it's really fun!
I found the directions here but this experiment can be found all over the internet.
This is a messy experiment that would be well suited for outside, but this time of year in Southern Minnesota it's also a great inside experiment to cure cabin fever.
Here's what you need:

• An empty 20 or 24 ounce plastic bottle (another container of about the same size will work too, but the narrow opening helps make the toothpaste-like shape)
• 3% hydrogen peroxide (this is the standard stuff available at most stores)
• Liquid dishwashing detergent
• Warm water
• Food coloring (optional, but highly recommended)
• One packet or 2 1/2 teaspoons of active yeast (the type used for bread making)
• A big pot, bucket or other container to contain the mess (or do this in the sink or outside)

Here's what you do:

1. Dissolve the yeast in a little warm water and stir well.  Use just enough water to make a pourable liquid.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes while you prepare the rest of the experiment.
2. Pour 1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of dish soap and a little bit of food coloring in the bottle.  Swirl to mix and put the bottle in the middle of your large pot, container or sink.
3. Pour the yeast solution into the bottle.  A funnel can help, but be prepared to pour fairly quickly and remove it again because the reaction will start as soon as you start pouring.
4. Stand back and watch the fun!

If kids want to touch the solution, it's messy but safe.  They'll notice that it feels warm and you can tell them that it's an exothermic reaction, meaning a reaction that produces heat.  Do keep in mind that the food coloring will probably stain, so protect surfaces and clothes.
Here's what's happening:
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a reactive molecule that readily decomposes into water (H2O) and oxygen (O2):
2H2O2 --> 2H2O + O2
This happens all the time with hydrogen peroxide, but usually it happens so slowly it's hard to see.  When we put hydrogen peroxide on a cut, an enzyme in our blood is the catalyst that causes the hydrogen peroxide to break down (the bubbles are oxygen being released).  In this demonstration, yeast is the catalyst.  It causes the decomposition to speed up much more rapidly than normal. The dishwashing detergent captures the oxygen that is released, making foam. Food coloring can color the film of the bubbles so that you get colored foam.
This experiment demonstrates three kinds of reactions in one:  an exothermic reaction (giving off heat), a catalyzed reaction (caused by the addition of something that speeds up a reaction without being destroyed itself) and a decomposition reaction (where something breaks down).
If you want to see lots of videos of elephant toothpaste experiments, click here.  For a great kid-friendly site about it, click here.
Click on the slide show to see our family's results.