Our Rainforest Learning Adventure!

Books to read

Living in a rainforest by Winne, Joanne.

Deep in a rainforest by Pascoe, Gwen

Animals of the rain forest by Savage, Stephen

Videos/movies to watch

Magic school bus in the rain forest [videorecording]

Rainforest animals [juvenile videotape]

People of the rainforest [juvenile videotape]

At the zoo 2 [videorecording]

Maps/charts to look at

Locate rain forests on world map.

Vocabulary words to discuss

We will focus on learning the names of the animals and maybe some of the plants.

Writing project and/or worksheets

Write the names of the rainforest animals we learn about each day on notecards. We will use these at the end of the study for a game of rainforest animal charades.

Click here to go to The Rainforest Cafe website where you can find the printable activity books that we may use.


Art project or appreciation

Looking for jaguar and other rainforest poems by Katz, Susan.

Draw! rainforest animals by DuBosque, D. C.

Physical activity

Rainforest animal charades

We will also play a rainforests card game we have.

Field trips

Dessert or a shake and (hopefully) a tour at The Rainforest Cafe.

The countdown begins...

Only 15 more days left of our homeschool year! We're getting down to the last pages of our math workbooks and moving into our "unschooling" mode of learning, we're playing outside more and working on fun projects. This seems to be the mode we assume toward the end of each school year and for the first time ever it is comfortable to me. I used to always worry that we weren't ending the year strong, but after sitting at the table all winter with workbooks a little creativity is just what we need!

I can't go into the details now but I have a feeling that this summer may be full of transition for our oldest son and the family as we learn and grow with him. Please pray for us if you think about it.

Learning about worms

Books to read-

Garden wigglers : earthworms in your backyard by Loewen, Nancy

Inchworm and a half by Pinczes, Elinor J.

It could still be a worm by Fowler, Allan

The inside-out stomach : an introduction to animals without backbones by Loewer, H. Peter

Wonderful worms by Glaser, Linda

Videos/Movies to watch-

Creepy creatures & slimy stuff [videorecording]

Slither & slime and other yucky things [juvenile DVD]

Maps/Charts to look at (or create)-

We'll be collecting worms in the yard to start our own worm farm and will keep track of how many other insects and critters we find in the dirt. We will then create a simple bar graph to organize and compare the information we've gathered about the underground habitat in our back yard. We will probably do this with legos.

Vocabulary words to discuss-

• Burrow - to make a hole or passage in, into, or under something.


• Clitellum - a ring or saddle-shaped region of glandular tissue in the body wall of certain annelids, as earthworms and some leeches, that after copulation secretes a cocoon in which the eggs and sperm are deposited for fertilization and development.


• Setae - A stiff hair, bristle, or bristlelike process or part on an organism


• Wormcast - cylindrical mass of earth voided by a burrowing earthworm or lugworm


• Invertebrate - not vertebrate; without a backbone

The three we will focus on the most are burrow, wormcast and invertebrate.

Writing project-

I will encourage my big boy to either create a short comic book type story about a worm (this will take all week) or write two sentences a day telling me what he is learning about worms (this, of course, would be done each day.) My little boy will probably choose a couple of words a day to write for me (such as earthworm or dirt).

Art Project or appreciation-

We will chose a project from this book -

Insects, bugs, & art activities by Parker, Steve

Physical activity-

We will enjoy pretending to be worms by slithering around the house

and will read

Pets in a jar / collecting and caring for small wild animals by Simon, Seymour

and try our hand at a worm farm.

Field trips-

Go in the back yard a collect worms and dirt for our worm farm and probably go fishing with Dad! (Notice I did not say "with Mom". Yuck!)

They want to learn/I want to teach

Every week or two I'd like to explore a subject of my children's choosing in our homeschool. I will let them pick the topic (They want to learn) and I will include learning materials from the following list in each "unit" (I want to teach).

• Books to read
• Videos/movies to watch
• Maps/charts to look at
• Vocabulary words to discuss
• Writing project
• Art project or appreciation
• Physical activity
• Field trips

Although I will be thinking through this list and providing materials and assignments, I'd like these subjects to be approached in a way that is less unit study and more child led exploration. I want them to do the majority of the work, not me, so we may not end up always following my plan.

Last week we studied motorcycles and my big boy wrote a little book on motorcycles that included illustrations on each page. My little boy drew lots of pictures and wrote words like; Harley - Davidson, Motorcycles and lots of big and little M's. We read 4 or 5 books on motorcycles, 1 on the history of Harley-Davidson, watched 2 videos on motorcycles and motorcycle safety and then visited a Harley retail store where they were given a few free things and checked out all the bikes with tremendous enthusiasm.

The one thing I wish we would've done that we didn't is find Milwaukee (home of the original Harley-Davidson factory) on a map. That's why I now have a list.

I'll post more on our studies as we do them.

Homeschool Joy!

One of the greatest joys of homeschooling is watching my second grader help my kindergartner with his school work.

Warning: I'm about to share some homeschooling enthusiasm...this post is not for the easily annoyed!

I admit it! I am one of those annoying homeschool moms who love to pour over curriculum catalogs, write lesson plans, etc. When new homeschool materials are delivered to my door it's like Christmas to me! I get so excited and I can't wait to read every book, workbook and text and see if it really lives up to my expectations.
That being said, I wanted to share with you that I placed my first order for next years materials last night. I ordered the Ancient Egypt Fun Kit pictured above, an American Composers Coloring Book for each of the boys and a couple of books I've had my eye on.

I'm thinking the coloring books are going to be fun. What we'll do is color one page a week and then listen to some music by that composer and talk about it. It's not going to be very in depth and will focus more on exposure than anything else. They're both taking piano lessons, and we end up hanging out with and listening to lots of musicians (one night a week I work at a Christian coffeehouse that has live music every weekend) so I figure we're good as far as music class goes and this coloring book should be a fun addition.

Anyway, it's nice to have a place to gush and be annoying about my homeschool with out having to face anyone! Hope you're having a great day!

How we do what we do (for now anyway)

A run down of our formal studies and the resources we're using to achieve our goals.

Prayer and Bible -
We have a prayer chart I made myself to guide us -
Sunday - praise and thanks
Monday - missionaries
Tuesday - home and school
Wednesday - our leaders
Thursday - friends and neighbors
Friday - our family
Saturday - people who are sick or hurting
We use sticky notes to keep track of requests in each category and then move them to Sunday when they are answered.
As for Bible, in addition to what we do in the Bible/ History category (see below) we read one chapter of Proverbs each day.

Geography -
We use Evan Moor's Daily Geography Practice Grade 2. I really like it because it's just a little each day and every week they introduce a new map, new vocabulary and new skills.

Latin -
It took me a long time to figure out how to work this in but now we just do one page orally each day. We use Prima Latina and have found it to be very appropriate for our needs.

The 3 R's -

Second grader -
Singapore math 1B
Evan Moor's Daily Math Practice Grade 2. We use this because it is formatted like standardised tests.
Explode the Code 3 1/2
Handwriting with out Tears Cursive
Scott Foresman Grammar and writing

Kindergartner -
Horizon math K
Phonics Museum K
Explode the Code 1
Handwriting with out Tears, Letters and Numbers for Me

Bible and History -
We're using the Veritas Press Genesis through Joshua series for Bible and the Veritas Press Old Testament and Ancient Egypt series for History.

Reading-
My oldest is required to read aloud to me each day and is keeping a reading log for his grandma, who will reward him after he reads 40 books.

Science -
We have no formal plan for science. We read a lot of books, watch a lot of Magic School Bus, and keep nature journals.

Literature -
We read books from the Sonlight reading list and the Veritas Press reading list. We get most of these from the library. We don't use the Sonlight Curriculum or the Veritas Press Reading Comprehension Guides. (Not that they are not great products.)

Piano -
is taught by a wonderful teacher who is also a homeschooling mother.

PE-
Once a week the boys and I take a karate class. We also swim, shoot hoops, play outside, garden and wrestle. (Well Dad wrestles with them not me.)

Missions -
Once a month I teach on missions at our church. I did this because I wanted it to be part of our homeschool and this way all the kids at our church get it AND it holds me accountable to getting it done. These lessons typically include one or more of the following; Bible, Geography, Social Studies, Science and Art. By the way, I publish all my lesson plans on missions on this blog under the label "Teaching kids about missions".

We also belong to a homeschool group and a family friendly church.

wrapping up our school year...

click here to purchase this poster from instructional images

Isn't it amazing that the school year is already almost over? This has been by far our best homeschooling year and on one hand I'm not sure I'm ready for it to end. On the other hand that's been the goal I've been working toward for the last 8 months!

Each day that we do school I keep track of the day of the week, the actual date and what day it is in our homeschool. It ends up looking like this.

Friday

3/21/08

Day 139

So I always know exactly where we are with attendance. (Our state requires 186 days of school.) I am constantly calculating how many weeks we have left and if we are on track to finish by the end of May. (We are.)

And yet now that the end is in sight I'm a bit sad. Like I said before this has been our best school year by far. Not so much complaining, good choices about materials and an overall sense of comfort have been our companions this year. I just hope they know they're invited back in the fall!

"Day off" ...*wink wink*

My boys have begged me for a day off today and I agreed with a couple of exceptions.

• My big boy had to do his reading lessons and read at least one book to me.
• We are finishing, Adam and His Kin, today.
• We are still doing Bible.
• Math must be done by playing a computer math game.
• We're doing an art project related to voting.

Guess what?!! They totally agreed. Sounds like more of a half day than a day off to me but whatever!

Life and Love Learning Center update, Day 100

School in our house is going rather well. All the things I expect to be getting accomplished are...for the most part. We're having trouble fitting in Latin every day and sometimes piano too, but we're working on it.

Our Bible/History cirriculum is awesome. We love it and we're learning so much. I've been a Christian for 9 years and I'm learning more each week and when people ask questions about what they're learning the kids share with confidence! Who could ask for more?

Christmas break is finally over!

Today was our first day back to school since our Christmas break! I admit that I've been anxious to get started again. I spent the break time decluttering and deep cleaning. I got most of what I hoped to done and feel great about my progress. I very much needed a homeschool schedule and got that made up a few days ago. All went so well today!! I love it when a plan comes together.

We've finally started the Bible and History curriculum that I've had my eyes on since my 2ND grader was in preschool! You can check it out here. It's listed under second grade and you'll have to click on Bible and then History (or vise versa). Anyway, for the next 2 semesters we will cover Genesis through Joshua and Ancient Egypt. In looking over the teacher's manual the last week or so it seems to be very easy to adapt and use. I did not purchase all of the reference materials that they recommend but I think I can still get a very good grasp on the material. I'll be checking out lots of library books and such. We'll also be adding to our Bible notebooks as we study the major events and people in the Bible. We'll include some of the worksheets provided but will also be looking for lap booking elements that we can include to make some of our notebook pages 3-D! I'm so looking forward to this adventure and I'm sure that I will be learning quite a bit as well!

Finally, I'd like to share that much to my amazement my morning, night and homeschool routines have provided me with more free time than I've ever had as a parent...well, that and the new bedtime for the boys, so I am a happy wife and mommy. It's too bad it took me so long to realize that structure allows for the freedom I've always longed for minus the chaos I've always dreaded!

Homeschool Schedule Winter 2008

The beginning of each new semester is always a good time for me to re-evaluate our homeschool. Upon doing so I realized that the one thing we really lacked this last semester has been a good plan. So below is the solution to that proplem. Just for explaination, table time mostly includes the 3 R's. One boy will sit with me at the table for math, reading, writing and any memory work while the other plays on the computer (usually at starfall.com or this typing game), then when the one at the table with me is done, they will switch. All other subjects are studied together, mostly in the living room. Also we belong to a very small homeschool co-op and a homeschool group that both meet only twice and month and are on opposite schedules, so that works well for us!

Mon, Tue, Wed
9 am chore hour
10-11:30 table time
11:30-12 break time or finish chore time
12-lunch and Between the Lions
Boys read out loud to me
Bible and history time...also includes art and science
do a quick clean up of main living space then go have fun!

Thurs
9 am chore hour (45 minutes)
piano at 10 am
come home and watch Latin dvd
eat lunch and watch Between the Lions
Table time
Boys read out loud to me
Bible and history time...also includes art and science
clean up and then go have fun!

Fri
9 am chore hour
10-11:30 table time
11:30 leave for homeschool group or co-op
eat a packed lunch in the car
go to the library after group or co-op
go somewhere fun!

Day 90 at Life and Love Learning Center

I had a wonderful day with the boys today making Christmas gifts from them to our extended family! It's always so nice to spend a day thinking of those we love and being creative. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to share but I do have a funny story!

When I decided to make today our crafting day I also decided that the only school we would do would be our memory work. For my 2ND grader this included counting by 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's and 10's, consonant and vowel digraphs, Isaiah 7:14, Ecclesiastes 11:5 and Latin vocabulary review. My Kindergartner counted by 2's, 5's and 10's, reviewed the most common sounds of the ABC's and did the same Bible and Latin work as his brother. I should also mention that they both practiced piano.

So between the memory work, piano and the Christmas crafts I thought it would be OK to count it as a school day. We don't usually slide by like this but once in a while it happens and I don't worry about it.

We were feeling so sentimental about our family that we headed over to my sister's house just as soon as she picked her kids up from school, and I overheard my 11 year old niece talking about what her school day was like. She said that all they did was have a holiday party, eat pizza and watch "It's a Wonderful Life".

I was so excited! It made me feel much better about day 90 in our homeschool!

Our Christmas Unit Study/Notebooks

Last year one of my blogger friends listed several different free Christmas unit study links on her blog...thanks to her willingness to share information I printed 3 of them out and took what I liked from each one to make my own. We had lots of fun with it last year and I couldn't wait to get to it this year. Each day we study a specific aspect of Jesus and/or the Christmas story or season and then make a page to go into our Christmas notebooks.

This is the illustration for the front cover of my bigger boy's notebook. All the green dots are Christmas lights!

A page on John 4:42.

A page on Malachi 4:2.

worth a thousand words

In light the realization that prompted my last post I thought I'd share some pictures...(since I now have a digital camera!) instead of trying to share words.

This is my littlest boy drawing a picture for his Grandma Scottia.

Here is my big boys drawing of a very special house. I love the heart shaped window on the door. He got that from a Thomas Kincaid painting.

These are my homeschooling bookshelves in their normal state of chaos. Anytime I go to another homeschoolers house I always want to see where they keep their supplies...not sure why...

This is the view from our kitchen table to the wall it faces. This map is great because it has the flags on the bottom and they always catch the kids attention and they say "Where is the country that goes with this flag?" It sparks the best discussions on history and geography!