Dewey’s Showcase: Pocket Microscope

Today is my first time joining in Dewey’s Showcase, where we share some of the tools we use.  I have to say, one of the tools we love using is our pocket microscope.  It really seems to be the perfect microscope for young children because it is portable and can be used like a ‘telescope’, which is a much easier position for little ones to learn.

We have used this to explore in the house and outside, as it removes from it’s little stand easily.  Have you every seen looked at the dirt in your yard?  What about the cat’s fur – while it is still attached to the cat?  Looking at our world close up is something my children all have fun doing, no matter how old or young they are. 

 

If you want to find one of these pocket microscopes you can get them here for only $13.95.  Ours has lived through several children and years.

 

  Be sure to blog about one of the tools you use and link up to Dewey’s Showcase!

A Giveaway I Hope to Win

Okay, I have to be honest, I’ll be thrilled if I’m the only person who enters this giveaway so I can win the MagnaTiles for my children.  These things are so neat, we’ve played with a set at our local Children’s Museum.  The sad part is they are so not cheap!  Of course, The Stay at Home Librarian also has a 15% off discount code you can use now through the end of September, so if we don’t win this giveaway we’ll probably be investing in a set or two for a family Christmas gift. 

The Great Toy Cleanout Date!

I posted earlier in the week that our things seem to multiply like rabbits.  My husband and I had an unusual date last night centered around the overabundance of toys in our home.  The picture above is the before pile of toys.  The only things not in this photo would be dress up clothes (already gone through), the toy kitchen and wooden food, and our Duplos & Legos, which I fully intend on keeping until we have grandchildren! 

For our date night we put all the children to bed and started sorting through the boxes and tubs we had gathered into our living room.  Everything had one of three destinies:

1. Trash – These things that had broken or were missing most parts, papers that were mixed in, you get the idea.  They were bagged and put at the curb for the trash truck.
2. Give Away – These were boxed up immediately and loaded into the van.  Today my husband will deliver them to Goodwill.
3. Keep – These were the toys we elected to keep.  Our big goal here was two-fold: To keep the things they love playing with and to have only what will fit easily in their bedroom.

It was quite a long date, so about halfway through my dear husband made a run to Taco Bell and Dairy Queen.  Yum!  A quick snack break made all the difference between giving up in despair and finishing with enthusiasm.  Instead of showing you pictures of the kids rooms with toys in place, let me share a picture of what we are giving away.  We had to lay the seats down in the van to fit everything!  We also ended up with two bags of trash at the curb. 

This morning as the kids started waking up we carried the remaining toys to their rooms and they happily put everything in place.  It was fun to hear their chatter over old toys they had not seen in a while, or had even forgotten they owned.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning!

Week in Review #57

Things did not go quite like I had planned this week in homeschool workboxes, at least not for my younger students. Joseph, Emma, Daniel, and Oliver had so much fun with math games, manipulatives, and lessons this week that we did more of that than anything else.  We settled for a review of the letters we’ve worked on so far this summer, worked on reading with Rocket Phonics, letters and sounds for Daniel, with just trying to talk for Oliver.  We did finally get their Peter Rabbit lapbooks put together, which you can see in this post.  And Oliver spent a lot of time on top of the table, as you can see from his picture.

We enjoyed several Signing Time DVDs this week and Daniel has started signing letters, which is really cute.  He has had a fascination with letters the last few days, actually.  It is hilarious to listen to him tell you the letters in one of our alphabet books because he mixes saying letter names with saying letter sounds indiscriminately.  So you might hear, “Aaa, ‘b’, cuh, duh, ‘e’, ‘f”, guh”.  I’m glad to know he’s learning the sounds a letter makes and the name for a letter.  He also seems to have no trouble with lowercase letters versus uppercase, with very few that he simply doesn’t recognize.  Not bad for a 2 year old!

Makayla’s week was a bit more along what I had planned for our workboxes.  She seems to be stumbling with clocks for some reason.  She can’t keep straight which hand points to minutes, which to hours, and how to read both without mixing them up.  We’ll keep at it, but we are also continuing on next week as I’m sure she’ll get it figured out with just some regular practice.  She may get tired of being the family clock this week…hehehe, but I’m going to be asking her “What time is it?” an awful lot.

Her All About Spelling lessons went uneventfully this week, which is just the way we like them.  She’ll move to Step 7 next week. 

Writing has gone beautifully.  I think finding the right source text is really what makes or breaks writing for her each week.  If it doesn’t capture her interest or imagination she has no motivation to write.  We used The Princess and the Pea this week as we worked through Unit III of IEW.  I’ll see if she’ll let me post her version tomorrow. 

The last major subject on Makayla’s plate this week was continuing her study of World War I.  I have learned just as much as she has as we’ve read stories, researched facts, and filled in lapbook pieces.  One more week should finish up the unit.  Then we’ll leave a few weeks open for fun units (and a visit from out of state grandma) before moving on to World War II.  Of course, that also gives me time to gather my resources for World War II. 

Other fun things we’ve done this week include playing in the sprinkler, identifying an insect for an aunt on the other side of the country, creating playdoh masterpieces, and watching The Sound of Music.  Do you know how cute it is to see my own little ‘von Trapp singers belting out the music from this classic movie? 

That is all for our week.  I think that’s a pretty good representation of the highlights, and just typing it all up makes me want to go start gathering things for next week’s workboxes, so I’m off to start that, maybe with a side of chocolate!

Peter Rabbit Lapbooks

We had a lot of fun with Peter Rabbit last week and finally put all those mini-books together into lapbooks for Daniel, Emma, and Joseph.  All of our pieces came from The Tale of Peter Rabbit Project Pack from Hands of a Child.  (By the way, making purchases at Hands of a Child through my links gives me a small credit to support my children’s lapbooking habits – thank you!)  First up, Daniel ended up with a regular lapbook because he only did a few pieces.   The basket is a pocket holding some of the vegetables from the story, many of which we ate last week.  Inside Daniel had a rabbit picture he colored, a pocket holding puppets, Peter Rabbit’s jacket, and the letter p cut out of foam for a tactile tracing opportunity. 

Emma’s my drawing girl, so here is the cover to her lapbook.  You will notice that Emma and Joseph’s lapbooks are actually cardstock that I spiral bound with my ProClick(learn more about that here).  It works great and we were able to fit all the pieces they had worked so hard on in one place. 

Inside Emma’s lapbook we go:

Here are Peter’s jacket, flaps about rabbits, a counting flower pots activity, and a flap about what Peter got for dinner compared to what his good little siblings got.  This page has a timeline of neat facts about the Peter Rabbit book, the same basket pocket Daniel has, puppets, and flaps about rabbit colors and where rabbits live. 

 

Here is Emma’s last page.  The main thing here is her vocabulary flap.  I really love that this project pack offered cut and paste answers for the vocabulary definitions.  Joseph and Emma are certainly not ready to write out sentences, but they can understand what new words mean.

Joseph, being my typical boy who really does not enjoy drawing or coloring yet, opted to use the Peter Rabbit jacket he had already colored for the cover of his lapbook.  He was willing to write his name, at least.  I suppose I should count my blessings.  A few months ago he would have colored the jacket all one color, probably orange, completely disregarding the idea that he was supposed to remember what Peter’s jacket had been like in the story and color it to match.  :)

Joseph’s first page shows the inside of one book we did about the things Peter ate from Mr. MacGregor’s garden.  We worked on the concepts of first, second, and third.  You can also see his vocabulary book and the outside of his author/illustrator flap. This busy page has the food basket, where rabbits live, what rabbits look like, and the book timeline, among other things.     

Here are Joseph’s puppets, the flap about rabbit colors, and his counting flower pots booklet, which covered #1-5. 

 

 

 

That’s all the lapbooking we got done.  There were more pieces we could have chosen to use, but for three kids ages 5 and younger this was plenty. 

Random Homeschool Thoughts

I just wanted to share a few random thoughts today related to our homeschool. If you like random, read on!

1. We have a new review item that we will start using in the next week. I should get access to it soon. Want to take a peek? Check out America’s Math Teacher. From what I can gather by trolling the website in my free time this subscription combines video tutorials and printable exercises to strengthen a student’s math foundations. I admit I haven’t told Makayla about it yet, she still thinks there is such a thing as too much math and may not be keen on starting this.

2. I sat down and read through our Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology book today. Can I say wow?!?! This will be sitting on our shelf until we finish our history semester, but I am already excited to use this book next semester for our health and science work. Okay, it sometimes will be sitting on our shelf, but other times it makes it’s way up to Makayla’s bed for some reading during quiet time. She really enjoys all the books in the Exploring Creation series by Apologia. You can see chapter two of this book here, which is about the skeletal system. I love how the entire book has ‘Try This’ boxes sprinkled throughout to engage all the ages in my family. We will use the book as a read aloud, taking time to try each fun activity. I’m sure the children will then show off the activities to daddy when he gets home from work each evening. We will narrate what we read, make a notebook, and each chapter ends with an experiment. Which reminds me, I need to gather supplies for all the experiments and stick them in a box.

3. I need to get back in the reading aloud groove with the kids. We are working on Fablehaven at about a chapter every other day. That’s pretty light on reading aloud for us. Of course, they’ve also been listening to audio books. We finished Ella Enchanted yesterday, which means I need to pick the next audio book to start. I downloaded Mary Poppins and The Secret Garden from the library this week, so we will probably use one of those.

4. It’s time to start thinking up some fun for our Happy NOT Back to School Day, also known as Happy Homeschooling Day, which falls on August 19th this year. We celebrate on the first day the public schools resume by taking the day off. We usually begin by making homemade cinnamon rolls and waving as the big yellow bus drives past without stopping. The rest of the day is spent having fun and celebrating our freedom to work education into the family’s schedule instead of family into the government-run education schedule. We play games, go on fun trips, and enjoy time as a family. How will your children spend the day? Do you get to choose or is the government choosing for you? I would love ideas of what your family would do on this holiday, so please leave a comment!

149 Days to Christmas

Seriously, there are only 149 days left until Christmas, so have you started your preparations yet?  I have not.  In a typical year I do most of our Christmas shopping the week after Thanksgiving.  This year I’m having a baby for Thanksgiving and no shopping will happen after that. 

So what’s my plan?  I don’t have one – yet!  I know I need to get the gift shopping or creating for our children and my husband done.  We set a small budget each year and stick to it, so that needs set.  Santa has no place in our home, (neither does the Easter Bunny, and we skip Halloween too), so that simplifies things in some areas. 

Generally we spend December reading through the New Testament and learning Christmas hymns as a family.  We attend very few, if any, Christmas parties.  We bake cookies a lot.  The kids also act out the Nativity story at least a few times, usually with the video camera rolling.

What early Christmas preparations do you do?  I’m looking for ideas, even a step-by-step list works for me.  Do you have a chore list of those special things that need done before Christmas?  What about a traditional Christmas morning breakfast?  (Ours is homemade cinnamon rolls – yum!).

When Stuff Multiplies Like Rabbits

The house seems to be cluttered again. Do you ever get that feeling? I look around and see so many things that just seem to be in the way. Now, in a homeschooling family of 7 there is going to be some amount of stuff out regularly. However, in the last month or so I have had an urge to simplify. Maybe it’s those nesting instincts setting in early?

I’ve already had the urge to declutter the books, as they seem to breed like rabbits. That’s been done, with shelves re-organized and books purged. We now can, generally, find any book we might be looking for. I’m sure it will need done again by Christmas…LOL.

We also went through the tubs of children’s clothing last month to see what we have, and pass along what is more than we need. We have about 20 tubs of clothing for kids divided by size from newborn through Makayla’s size, with a boys tub and a girls tub for most sizes over 18 months. I found that in some sizes the clothing had mostly been worn out/torn/stained, so it was tossed(thanks boys!). I am keeping my eye out for end of season clearance to replace what we need. I found that in other sizes, especially infant, we had an overabundance of some things, which we moved out of our house to Goodwill.

My husband has even gotten in on the urge to declutter and spent one day with the children cleaning the dungeon basement. They carried many things to the curb, some of which were picked up by others before the trash company even came near, others of which were simply trash. He’s not done, but they got a good bit accomplished that day. The attic is on the list to work through once cooler weather comes back, but right now it is simply stifling up there.

Our next project is the kids’ toys. In thinking through the toys we have in bedrooms plus the tubs and boxes in the attic that we rotate through, we have come to the conclusion that something needs to be done. There is simply more there than we need. When we asked the children over the weekend what toys they wanted brought down out of the attic, (to trade with what was in their bedrooms already), they had trouble remembering what was up there! They wanted to go up and look through all those tubs and boxes. I think that is what really made my husband and I realize it was time to pass along some toys to Goodwill. This will be a difficult project due to the five little persons desperately attached to many of those items, you know, the ones they can’t even remember are up there!

I think we have come up with a plan. We are asking the children to name a few favorite toys this week that they want to keep. Then on Friday night my husband and I are going to bring all those boxes and tubs downstairs right before bed. We will tuck the children in for the night and work our way through everything over some yummy dessert or maybe a late pizza, loading it right into the van. We will already know the ‘special’ favorites that a child wants to keep, and can collect a small pile of items we are not sure about. The next morning we will have the children go through the things already in their rooms and choose what to keep and what to pass along. Then daddy will take the van to Goodwill and make the delivery, with no little eyes accompanying him.

What do you do when stuff seems to multiply overnight and you are feeling cluttered? Do you have any tried and true way to keep things from multiplying like little rabbits? I am always open to ideas, so leave me a comment!

** You can go to this post to see how our toy cleanout date went! **

Story Writing from Makayla

I thought I would share the story Makayla wrote last week.  She read the story of the fox and the crow, where a crow has cheese and a fox flatters her until she tries to sing for him, dropping the cheese right into the fox’s mouth.  Makayla was given the choice to change characters around, but she was to keep the general problem (one piece of cheese for two hungry creatures).  This is what she came up with:

Just a Bite of Branches

Once there was a horrid, reddish-brown dragon named Gunk. Now Gunk was an odd dragon who ate cheese, not meat, because he was raised by a mouse. There also was a very kind squirrel named Nutkin, who had pretty gray fur. He liked cheese, but his most favorite food was acorn pancakes.  One day Nutkin found some vanilla cheese on a branch.  Gunk, who was nearby, smelled the cheese too and went to eat it.  But when Gunk got there, what a surprise! A squirrel had the cheese.

Then Gunk growled very unkindly to Nutkin, “Give me that cheese!”

Nutkin, surprised, squeaked very politely, “No, this is my cheese, but we could share.”

“No,” yelled Gunk, “I want the whole piece!” Gunk was furious because he had run out of cheese and vanilla was his favorite. “Well then, I will take it from you,” he cried out and pounced! Nutkin scampered away just in time and all that Gunk got was a mouthful of leaves and branches.

Workbox Plans x 4 – Beatrix Potter and more WWI

Workboxes this week for my two Kindergarteners and their PreK brother will have similar folders, though the preschool folders will be simpler in a few places:

Math – A place value game with our Math U See Blocks and number cards.  We’re working on reading numbers to hundreds.  If that goes smoothly they will move on to recognizing each of the colors/numbers of MUS blocks with some more games.

Letter of the Week – We’ll be doing Oo is for Octopus this week, as well as reviewing all our Peterson Directed Handwriting word cues for letters we have learned.  They’ll be using the color and number word cards pictured in this post as well.

Gospel – Continuing to learn I Pray in Faith, 2 Nephi 32:8-9, and reading scriptures with the family.

Unit Study – Put together their Peter Rabbit lapbooks from last week and read a new Beatrix Potter story each day.

ASL – We’ll practice signs for the animals in the stories we read this week using Signing Time dvds.

Games Folder – File folder games and science centers will rotate through this.

 

Makayla’s fourth grade workboxes will hold much the same as last week:

Math – Lesson 23 in MUS Beta, more practice reading clocks.

All About Spelling – Level 2 Step 6 is combining open and closed syllables in words.

Gospel - Continuing to learn I Pray in Faith, 2 Nephi 32:8-9, and reading scriptures with the family.

World War I unit – She will have a story or part of a book to read each day and 2-4 lapbook pieces to go along.

Writing – We’ll be writing using IEW methods with the story the Princess and the Pea as our jumping off point.  I think she will really enjoy this one.

ASL – She’ll work on signs to go with question words (who, which, why, etc)in the Signing Time dvd “Who Has the Frog?”. 

Games folder – skill appropriate file folder games and science centers.

What will be in your workboxes this week?

A Productive Saturday

Today I have been preparing items for next week’s homeschooling.  Many things were already ready, such as Makayla’s World War I unit study we’re working on already.  Math and spelling are just ‘do the next lesson’.  I have letter Oo is for Octopus printed, laminated, and ready too.  If all this is ready then what have I been working on?  Well, I’m glad you asked!

I made these posters for around Makayla’s desk, for during writing time:

They come from the Institute for Excellence in Writing course I have been watching.  I also found and printed a version of The Princess and the Pea to use for story writing this week.

I laminated and cut out number and color word cards from our Letter of the Week things.   I have a black and white version of the letters along with blank color and number word boards for down the road.  For now we’re just working on getting familiar with the words.  Just in case you were wondering, you can get all of the Letter of the Week printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler for free, one download link at a time, or she offers them all on CD or gathered into easier download sets for just a few dollars.  My time was worth paying for the gathered download files and my children have been enjoying our letter of the week time for a while now. 

I decided not to start a new unit study with my younger 4 children this week.  We will put together their Peter Rabbit lapbooks from last week and read other stories by Beatrix Potter instead.  We have The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter, a wonderful 19 story collection.  Our first choices will be the stories published from 1914-1918 because those are the years of World War I.  Yes, it is a nice way to tie my little ones in with my older daughter’s unit study.  A mom has to be resourceful, don’t you know?

I will post our specific plans for our workboxes tomorrow, but I wanted to share these pictures today.  Now I’m off to watch a movie with my husband and children for a bit!  Have a great Saturday!

A Curriculum Plan in Two Semesters

Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers invited bloggers to post their curriculum plan for 2010-2011 today. This post is also linked to the Not Back to School Blog Hop and the Back to Homeschooling Hop. Since I love planning you would think this is an easy thing to do. It is, and it isn’t. We are dividing our year into two semesters: June 2010 – November 2010, and January 2011 – May 2011. Notice that we homeschool year round, so while we may do less on a particular day, we have more days to get everything done. The only big break we have planned is when I have baby #6 at the end of November, other breaks will just happen when we need them.

Semester 1 is our History and Basics Semester. That means we will complete all 4 of our large history unit studies for my 4th grader before December. We incorporate literature, geography, history, and government into these units. Makayla also writes a story or paper for each unit. The units are:

1. The California Gold Rush – See my booklist and the free printable mini-unit I created. We finished this unit already and it was a ton of fun.
2. The American Civil War – See my booklist, and my daughter’s lapbook. We just finished this unit last week and my children all enjoyed it.
3. World War I – We started Monday on this unit. I expect it will take a full month of reading and work. See my booklist.
4. World War II – This unit is one I really am looking forward to as it is one I really enjoyed learning about when I was younger. I will post a booklist when we get to it, but it will include lots of read alouds and a lapbook.

My 4th grader’s other curriculum for semester 1 includes:

• Gospel studies – We read scriptures, memorize verses, and learn hymns.
• Math U See Beta and Gamma – She’s got 8 weeks left in Beta before starting Gamma around Oct. 1st.
• All About Spelling – Currently in level 2, moving to level 3 when completed. See my review.
• Institute for Excellence in Writing – Technically, Makayla does not have a writing curriculum. I have the teacher’s course, Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, from IEW and am creating lessons for her based on that course.
• Reading and read alouds – She’s a voracious reader, the only problem here is keeping her well supplied with books. We also read aloud a lot.

That’s it. Notice what didn’t make the list: art, science, composers, health.

My two Kindergarteners (Joseph and Emma) join in for gospel studies and read alouds. They also have:

• Math U See Primer – This is fun and gentle, we’re in no hurry here.
• Rocket Phonics – Tons of fun, we’re enjoying this. Read my review.
• Letter of the Week – This material gives them a good review of what they know with a dose of fun. They both think of it more as play than work.
• Peterson Directed Handwriting – We’re learning the word cues as we practice our letters. Most of this is done with air writing, though Joseph and Emma do put pencil to paper for a few minutes as well.
• A Unit Study – This is not planned out, we choose as we go. We really enjoy the Download N’ Go units (and my 9yo likes teaching her siblings with them), and we also enjoy lapbooks.

Are you starting to notice how relaxed I am on Kindergarten? I really do not think the kids need to ‘start learning addition’. Nor do I worry that they need to ‘hurry up and learn to read’. It will happen at their own pace. I put in a little work on the skills they need for these basics for a few minutes most days, but our big goal is to nourish their love of learning while we wait for the basic skills to develop.

Semester 2 for my Kindergarteners will be much the same, though their unit studies will more often be what big sister is doing as she heads into her science semester. What can I say? Science is interesting!

Semester 2 for my 4th grader is science central. She will again be doing unit studies, though the goal is to have her begin with Apologia’s Elementary Creation with Anatomy and Physiology to double as health and science. Then each month we will simply re-evaluate if she wants to keep learning about the human body or if she wants to choose one of the other Apologia Elementary books for the next month. We own the rest of Apologia’s Elementary series: Botany, Astronomy, Zoology 1(flying creatures), Zoology 2(swimming creatures), and Zoology 3(land animals). I won’t know what we’re studying until we get there, but considering Makayla reads the Apologia textbooks in her free time, I know she’s going to enjoy it. (We used part of the Zoology 3 book last year, read my review here.)

Makayla will continue her gospel studies, Math U See, All About Spelling, and IEW second semester. To that she will add:

• Composer studies – We’ll use A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers and just pick up where we left off. This will probably begin over break in December as it is super easy to do. Read my review(scroll down).
• Artistic Pursuits – We will grab out our two Artistic Pursuits books and do a lesson a week. I love that these incorporate studying artists, art history, and doing our own art. Until second semester the kids have access to these books and all our art materials, but I have no plans to lead ‘official lessons’. I have a review of one AP book here.

The other big curriculum we will do this year is called God’s Curriculum. We are a part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew for the second year in a row, which means we receive products from vendors to use and review. The products arrive on God’s timing, and He’s the one directing which products we will end up reviewing. All I have to do is fit them in when they come, and if that means dropping my plans to do so, that’s what we’ll do.

What about you? Have you made curriculum plans yet? Are any of our picks on your list for the year?

Week in Review #56 – Peter Rabbit and WWI

It has been a busy week now that we are back to using workboxes. I have to say I love it and so do the kids! It took five minutes to put their new work in each evening, and then we were set for productive days.

Highlights for the week are as follows:

1. Joseph and Emma grasped hundreds without blinking an eye. Thank you Math U See Primer! They did their little practice page each day and were working independently on it after day 1.

2. Makayla has come under the misguided notion that when she is given an assignment it is up for discussion or debate. Yes, welcome to the battle of wills between myself(an oldest child) and my oldest child. Sigh. Still, she got her math chapter done, including the chapter test and the end of unit test. She also wrote a story for Unit 3 of IEW about a dragon and a squirrel.

3. The Tale of Peter Rabbit unit has been wonderful with the younger children! We have enjoyed reading the story, as well as several others by Beatrix Potter, and the lapbooks are nearly finished as well. We had a Peter Rabbit snack day this week with this yummy set of veggies from Mr. MacGregor’s garden: Nobody liked the radishes, but we tried them! Thanks to a tip from a friend I also rented the movie Miss Potter just for myself and watched it in the evenings after the children were in bed – a lovely story.

4. Makayla and I began our study of World War I this week. We’ve learned how an assassination between two tiny countries provoked the largest war between the most countries up to that time. We have delved into life in the trenches and discovered just what a U-Boat is and how it relates to the United States entering the war. This unit will definitely take several weeks to accomplish.

5. The children have learned the two verses to I Pray in Faith. They even sang for the missionaries who came to dinner Thursday evening. Next week we’ll work on splitting into two groups to sing both verses at the same time.

6. They are halfway done memorizing our current scripture passage, 2 Nephi 32: 8-9, which is also on prayer.

Keep an eye out this weekend for our workbox plans (x4!) for another week, and see what others have done at the Weekly Wrap-Up.

A Food Secret

I have discovered a secret about my children this week.  We typically make everyone’s plate of food in the kitchen and bring it to the table.  Honestly, the biggest reason is we have a small table.  It seats 6 barely, and we already have 7 eating at the table.  (Yep, add a new table to the list of things we need, along with a larger vehicle.)  This week we have put the food dishes actually on the table to serve from. 

The first time was in desperation.  I made chicken tacos, which involved handing everyone flour tortillas and letting them choose what to put inside.  I knew it would be a toss up to see if anyone would eat much besides the cheese, tortilla, and lettuce.  Much to my surprise all of my children tried most of the foods on the table.  We had put out chicken, cheese, beans, rice, salsa, lettuce, and sour cream, along with some fruits and veggies for the sides.  Being able to grab what they wanted was a hit and they made choices I would never have put on their plates.

The second attempt at food on the table was last night.  We had two missionaries over for dinner and because the weather was so miserably hot we made subs.  Again, I had no clue what my children would eat from the offerings beyond a slice of ham and yellow cheese(cheddar), the watermelon, and carrots.  I was not ever sure if they would like the sub buns I had picked up from the store!  Well, the food ended up on the table and the nearby piano because there just wasn’t enough room, and here is what happened.  Each child, including my pickiest eaters, tried:

• the sub buns
• all four meats –ham, turkey, salami, pepperoni
• at least two of the three cheeses – cheddar, provolone, and Swiss, which they dubbed mouse cheese due to the holes.
• carrots and cucumber
• watermelon
• chips

I know if I had been making their plates in the kitchen there is no way I would have put many of those things on them, because my kids ‘just don’t eat them’.  Ha!  Shows you what I know.  I think the big key to both of these experiences was letting the kids get their own food.  The ability to choose made them brave enough to experiment.  I have seen this in action before with the garden.  A child who will not touch most veggies with a ten foot pole happily munches on them straight out of the garden (until you bring them in the house and put them on a plate).  They like the ability to choose and try things on their own terms.  

I think it’s time to put a bigger table on the priority list so we can have the food on the table more often.  Then my job will be to let the kids create their meals and not stress over the resulting mess.

Travel Kits Review

The Old Schoolhouse offers a wide variety of e-books in their store, and I own quite a few. One such gem is Travel Kits: A Simple Way to Bless Others written by Donna Rees, which I am reviewing as part of TOS Crew. This e-book costs $12.45 and is written for adults, though I could see teens using this to bless others as well.

The premise behind Travel Kits is that travel, especially long drives with children, can be made enjoyable with a little bit of planning ahead. From themed kits for your destination (such as the beach) to kits of activities your child can do in the car, a travel kit can be anything that fits your family. One of the ideas I really thought was cute is to take the ingredients for a child’s snack mix and put each item in the sections of a pill box. We love snack mix, but each child has things they don’t like, so this can be personalized easily for each of them. This container could also be used for beads or foam stickers for a project, or once empty of snacks it can be used to hold nature treasures they find on the trip. Or are my children the only ones who want to bring home rocks, leaves, and other bits of nature they find?

I like that the e-book is full of photos to give ideas of the variety and versatility of travel kits for different ages and situations.

If you are intrigued by Travel Kits be sure to check out the 8 page free sample.

How Are We Using Travel Kits? Right now we have no extended trips on the horizon. Instead, I am planning mini-kits for those days where we run errands or travel to the big city to go to the zoo or science center. One of my favorite places to look for inexpensive surprises is the Dollar Spot at my local Target store. You just never know what fun things will be there!

I really like Travel Kits because, let’s face it, I’m not able to be creative every moment of every day. This e-book is a wealth of ideas and has already sparked more ideas that fit my family in particular. It has even given me ideas for fun Christmas and birthday party gifts.

You can learn what my TOS Crewmates thought about Travel Kits here. Be sure to check out the many products available from The Old Schoolhouse Store if you are looking for inspiration or ideas for your home and homeschool.

{Disclaimer: I received Travel Kits free for review purposes from The Old Schoolhouse. All opinions presented herein are my own and I received no other compensation.}

Reader Question from Christy

A reader sent me a question through email today and for some reason my answer keeps bouncing back to me, so I thought I would just answer her right here on the blog, as some of you may be interested in a similar topic.  Here is Christy’s question:

“I would like to do unit studies for history and science.  Here's my question:  how involved should I get for a second grader, almost 5-y-o and a 3-y-o?  We don't have to register or turn anything in to the state for our oldest until 3rd grade.  Right now, I'm tentatively planning on learning about early American history from the Explorers-1850's with lots of books from the Sonlight catalog and other projects and crafts. 

Should I be planning something much simpler for this year?  I am a history buff and so this interests me very much but I don't want to "burn-out" at the beginning.  (Also, we are expecting our fourth child just a week or two after you.)”

So here is my answer -

What I do to plan my science or history unit is first decide how long I want to learn about the topic - 1 week, 1 month, or somewhere in between.  Then I find at least one story that I can read aloud to all the kids.  On top of our read aloud I try having several library books to flip through and look at specific topics, and an activity, be it a lapbook, a craft, etc. 

With your kids not having to report to the state yet I say simpler is better!  Find a story to read and do an activity to go along.  Don't worry about doing something that leaves a paper trail (for a portfolio).  Just enjoy it! 

We really liked Magic School Bus books (both regular and chapter books) for fun science topics to read aloud, though you’ll have to be ready for discussions on ‘millions of years’ and other evolutionary bits of a similar vein.  

I honestly think that when you have the baby you can take time off, lots of time.  Kids are always learning, especially if you simply keep interesting books around.  When everyone is ready to get back to work just do some reading aloud.  They will learn more from diving in the story than from a 'facts and dates' textbook on a topic at this age. 

Oh, and Christy, congratulations on baby #4!  It is always an adventure, isn't it? 

While we’re here let me ask my readers – when you don’t have to report things officially to the state yet, and your oldest is still focusing on learning to read, write, and do basic math how would you study history and science?  I would love to hear your answers in the comments (hint hint!).

Giveaway Winner - iLive Math Oceans

I used Random.org to choose a winner for the iLive Math Oceans giveaway and comment #1 was the lucky number:

Jennifer said...

Honestly, I think Alexis would like the ocean one the best. She's really into dolphins right now. But I'm sure they would also like one of the other animal ones like the Asia or African apps.

July 17, 2010 7:56 AM

Congratulations Jennifer, I have sent you an email!

For those of you who did not win, be sure to check out iHome Educator and buy one of their neat math apps for your family!

Pacing Your Days

(I wrote this post last March on Latter-Day Homeschooling.  I thought as we approached August some families might appreciate ideas on how to get back to a routine.)

There are about as many ways to schedule your family as there are families. No two will have the same mix of ages, personalities, and academics. In this post I will outline several possibilities for scheduling homeschooling with a mix of ages. Feel free to use the ideas as a springboard for the right schedule for your family.

The Time Slot Schedule

In the time slot schedule you take the basics of your day that don’t change, such as meals, naps, and family scripture study and plug those into your plan first. For example:

7:30am – 8:00am Breakfast and chores.

12:00pm – 12:30pm Lunch

1:00pm – 3:00pm Naps

5:00pm – 6:00pm Dinner and Scriptures

Next choose your wake up time and when you expect the kids to be up. I suggest mom gets up at least a half hour before the children for some time to pray and read God’s word. This time will fill you more than sleeping in another 30 minutes ever could. Add in subjects for each time, or a specific child to work with during each time, and off you go.

If you start running behind remember that your schedule is a tool and you are the boss. Jump in where you are and let go of what you’ve missed.

The Routine Schedule

Basically a relaxed version of the Time Slot schedule, this is what we use. It works well with unit studies. Instead of specific times for work you have large blocks of time to complete X number of subjects(or a unit study/group work). Between breakfast and lunch you may expect all math, writing, and two independent subjects to be done. Then after lunch you might do history on Mon/Wed/Fri and science on Tues/Thur.

Mom rotates through the group to help children as needed.

The AM/PM Schedule

This is where you teach half the children in the morning the subjects you have to help them with, while the other half of the children work on independent things (math flashcards, instrument practice, typing or handwriting, writing a story, art, reading, etc.). In the afternoon the children switch. My best suggestions if you want to try this are to take children’s personalities into account. Let the cheerful morning children work independently while those who take a while to wake up get mom working with them to motivate them. Or let the ones who hit their stride after lunch to do the hardest subjects(that need mom) in the afternoon. Be sure the young children get some time right after breakfast with mom, even 10 minutes, so their love tank is filled and they can play happily with others.

The Alternating Schedule

Similar to the AM/PM schedule but on a grander scale. Work with half the children on Mondays and Wednesdays, and half the children on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On a child’s off days they do independent work, complete projects started with mom, or just play depending on their age. You can set aside an hour in the morning for things you do together daily such as scripture memorization or history read-alouds. This together time could be scheduled in the afternoon right after lunch, maybe even at night with dad. What works for your family?

The Weekly List Schedule

At the beginning of the week each child is given a list of assignments. They work independently all week, seeking mom out when they need help. For beginning readers there will be a chunk of time every day that they

need to work directly with mom. Here is how it could work:

Child 1’s list might read:

- Do 5 pages in math.

- Read chapters 8-10 in Charlotte’s Web and write a paper about the relationship Wilbur has with each animal in the barn.

- Practice piano 30 minutes daily.

- Do 1 chapter in science book and the note booking and experiments included.

- Complete project on the the history of farms, be sure to make one item for display.

Child 4’s List might be more like this:

- Read with mom every morning.

- Practice writing spelling words 3 times each day.

- Draw two of your favorite animals from our family read aloud (Charlotte’s Web) and tell an older sibling why they are your favorite.

- Practice addition facts while jumping on the trampoline each afternoon.

- Build a Lego creation.

The Rollover Schedule

You’ve heard of roll over cell phone minutes? Why not try a rollover plan for your homeschool? There are so many fun or non-essential subjects that we want to do but never seem to get around to. These are the ones that usually get pushed to the side when life interrupts our homeschool schedule. Here is what you do:

1. Choose your homeschooling times for the day.

2. List the subjects you want done in homeschool:

• Math
• Read-alouds
• Writing
• Science
• Spelling
• Piano
• Art
• French
• Board Games
• Nature Study
• History

3. Now you start at the top of the list in the morning. Each time you have set for homeschooling do the next thing on the list. At the end of your scheduled times stop where you are. The next morning pick up where you left off in the list. When you reach the bottom, roll back up to the top and begin again!

For example on Monday you might start at the top of the list and make it through Piano before your homeschooling time is up. Tuesday morning just start with Art and keep going. Perhaps Tuesday you only get through Nature Study because your family gets caught up exploring the local park for signs of spring. No problem! On Wednesday everyone starts in History. Time to roll over! Now you make it clear through French because everyone is on the ball today and enjoying the subjects they haven’t done since earlier in the week.

Does that idea make some of you moms cringe?

“Math and writing need to be every day!” you think to yourself.

Great! Tweak it! What about doing a set block in the morning of daily work (math and writing). Then the rest of your homeschool day is on the rollover schedule, rotating through list of things you would love to get to regularly, but that do not have to be done daily.

Summer is here and it is a great time to try something new! The most important part of any schedule is getting on your knees to seek the Lord’s approval or direction, then getting on your feet and doing it. No, every day will not go exactly according to plan. But having a plan smoothes out your day. Everyone gets to know how things generally go, and they fall into it willingly once it is a habit.

Let Them Make Messes . . .

In a growing family with many young children there are plenty of messes to go around.  Thankfully, with a little training, there are also plenty of helpers.  I have learned to encourage my children to help out around the house from a young age, even though sometimes it means the job takes much longer.   See how proud Oliver is of himself?  Not bad for only 16 months old!  I think he got that one area on the carpet really clean before finally getting bored enough to let someone bigger do the rest of the floors.  I can only imagine what my life will be like when he’s a few years older, with 4 bigger, more capable siblings.  So I say let them make messes, just teach them to clean up afterward.

Travel the World! Review

My children’s imaginations are often caught by distant lands and other cultures. The earth itself is amazing to them and things I take for granted knowing, like why we have seasons, are a joyful discovery to my children. As part of TOS Crew I received Travel the World! to review. This e-book from The Old Schoolhouse costs $7.95 and is written for elementary through middle school ages (in my opinion) but also includes a high school expansion section to bring the whole family together.

This unit covers the basics of geography and why Earth has seasons (axis, rotation, tilt, etc), as well as internet linked sections about each continent. Activity pages include the following:

• A fill in the blank page.
• Crossword and word search pages.
• A few lapbook pieces.
• Coloring pages of a few continents.
• Copywork
• Writing and research ideas for high school ages.

There is a free sample if you want to see the entire table of contents and a few pages of Travel the World.

How We Used the Module:

After reading through Travel the World I realized my younger children (ages 5, 4, 2, 1) were not ready for the information presented, so they simply used the coloring pages. I had my 9 year old choose a few activity pages to print and use. She chose the fill in the blank sheet, crossword puzzle, and lapbook pieces. We sat at the computer and read the information pages together, clicking on links to maps, articles, and continent games along the way. For each continent she had her little lapbook piece ready to record interesting facts.

On the first day Makayla finish a lapbook piece for each continent as well as the fill in the blank sheet. The second day Makayla played the mapping games online, which she enjoyed. She then worked on the crossword puzzle, which she finished up on day 3.

What We Thought:

We are a unit study family, however we prefer to have lots of stories to make the subject come alive. Travel the World was too bare-bones for our taste and did not include a list of literature for my elementary and younger children. It could be a quick overview of the subject, perhaps as a preface to a more in-depth study, if you have a child who wants the big picture in place before filling in the details.

Read reviews of Travel the World by some of my TOS Crewmates if you want to see how it worked for other families. You can also check out the many other unit studies offered by The Old Schoolhouse, including Download N’ Go units, Hands of a Child lapbooks, and explore careers with the Wanna Be series.

{Disclaimer: I received Travel the World free for review purposes from The Old Schoolhouse. All opinions presented herein are my own and I received no other compensation.}

Workbox Plans x 4: Rabbits and War

Don’t forget to enter my iPod app giveaway!

Welcome to workboxes times four!  Now that we have newly organized our space to fit workboxes for my four older children I’ll tell you about our homeschool plans for the week and detail a bit about what’s in each child’s crate, as well as what’s not in the box.  We’re entering World War I this week, hoping to make it out relatively unscathed.  Can I just mention here how much I’ve learned in preparing for this unit?  I had no clue what started WWI, or what kept it going and who participated.  I didn’t know that it went on for several years before the U.S. even entered the war.  

I’m starting with Daniel’s workbox today.  Daniel is 2 years 9 months old.  His workbox has:

• Math manipulatives in a folder.  These change every few days.
• A dry erase board and two dry erase books for shapes, sizes, and any drawing or writing he wants to do.
• A games folder.  This holds two file folder games and a folder center from Evan-Moor’s science centers. 
• A letter of the week folder holding a few activities.  The activities will change each day, switching with activities in his siblings’ boxes as I simply rotate the folders between their crates.
• A unit study folder – this holds just one lapbook piece each day related to the unit Joseph and Emma are doing.

Emma (4 years 7 months old) and Joseph’s (5 years 9 months) workboxes match this week.  If a folder is like one listed above I won’t describe what’s inside.

• Her math folder holds a Math U See Primer page each day.
• Dry erase board and books.  Their books are letters and numbers.
• A Games folder with file folder games and a science center.
• A letter of the week folder.  Uu is for Umbrella this week.
• Unit Study: The Tale of Peter Rabbit lapbook from Hands of a Child.  Each day the younger children will listen to the story, do the lapbook pieces in this folder(they’ll have 2-3), and help mommy make a new vegetable to eat each day from the story. 

Why are we doing The Tale of Peter Rabbit?  Believe it or not, this corresponds with Makayla’s unit study on World War I.  Beatrix Potter lived through WWI and published several of her stories during the war years.  We own the complete collection of Beatrix Potter stories in one hardback volume, so I imagine we will read all the tales related to Peter Rabbit and other characters in the next few weeks.

Makayla’s (9 years 1 month) workbox is the last one.

• Math U See Beta – she’ll do lesson 22 this week, taking the test on Wed.  Thursday and Friday she will do the unit test over the last several chapters.
• Spelling – All About Spelling Lvl 2 Step 5.  We do a little work each day.
• World War I unit and lapbook – Each day we’ll read a book about the war and she will do 3 lapbook pieces related to our reading.  See our booklist.
• Writing – We’re supposed to be moving in to unit 3 for Institute for Excellence in Writing.  This is story writing.
• Games folder – age appropriate file folder games and science centers in here. 
• Dry Erase folder – cursive and a board.

So with all of that, what’s NOT in the box?  Just a few things, actually. 

Our gospel studies are done as a group first thing, so it didn’t make sense to split it up into four folders.  This week we will be learning the song “I Pray in Faith”.  I think this will take us a few weeks to learn.  It has two verses, and after singing the first and second verse you are to split into two groups and sing the verses at the same time.  I’m not sure we’ll manage that with mostly little ones here, but we’re going to try.  Our scripture is also on prayer:  

“8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the devil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.”

                                                           -2 Nephi 32: 8-9

Our read aloud book is Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. Again, no need to put it in a box.  The kids will still have computer learning time.  Typing for Makayla, other games for the younger kids. I also did not put our Signing Time DVDs in a box.  We’ll be learning signs to go with the vegetables and animals in The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Oliver is not in the box either.  Well, at least not yet.  I am sure if I offer him an empty crate this week he’ll climb right in, and I may do just that.  At 16 months old he’s in to everything of course.

I have everything gathered for the week and in my own crate.  Each evening I just grab the next thing and put it in their folders.  I’ve already cut out all the lapbook pieces for Joseph, Emma, and Daniel.  Makayla cuts her own usually.  I’ve pulled math pages out, grabbed the letter of the week folder, etc.  We’re all set for another fun week!

What are you planning for homeschool this week?  Are you using some form of workboxes right now?

Workboxes and Organizing a Room

We have used workboxes in many forms over the last 18 months, including:

•  magazine holders
• tubs per the ‘system’
• crates with hanging file folders (scroll down in the linked post)
• and a family work-crate. 
• We even abandoned the workboxes completely for the last few months during morning sickness. 

When Wal-Mart brought out crates for $3.00 in their back-to-school supplies we let the big kids pick one for a workbox.  That posed a problem.  We had nowhere to set them, other than the floor. Our shelving was either too full or too small, and between 4 big kids crates and two for mommy to keep books and printed things in we were in trouble.  We use our dining room for the majority of our homeschool storage, and one corner had two oddly sized shelf sets with books, games, and art supplies, as well as a 4 drawer filing cabinet that held containers of math manipulatives, science supplies, and papers.  We’ve acquired all our shelving for free or nearly free over the years, but we wanted something specific this time.

A few minutes of internet research later we found a commercial grade shelving set with 6 adjustable shelves.  It would fit in the spot beside our piano perfectly, was deep enough for the extra-long crates, and each shelf could hold 600 lbs.  Our local Home Depot is 7 minutes away and they even had it in stock (for a hefty price – eek!).  This morning we took a family trip to Home Depot to buy it.  We have since spent all day cleaning out, organizing, and moving things around in the dining room.  Want to see the results?

 

• Top shelf: Board games.
• Second shelf: Art and science supplies.
• Third shelf: Flash cards, art paper, etc.
• Fourth Shelf: Math manipulatives!
• Fifth shelf: Mommy’s two crates, Makayla’s workbox crate.
• Sixth shelf: Joseph, Emma, and Daniel’s workboxes.

Ahh, that is so much better and freed up a lot of space in the dining room.  It sits right across from the largest bookcase in the house, one we were given for free a few years back.  Isn’t that one pretty too?  Well, maybe not pretty, but it sure is organized!  This one bookcase holds a shelf of read alouds, two shelves of curriculum resources, a shelf of science type books, and a shelf of history related books.

I think that is enough pictures for today.  These are the two areas that are making me happy right now.  I love the feeling I get after a good re-arranging of our things!  My poor husband, it will only get worse when I am nearer my due date and those nesting instincts kick in.  {grin}

Watch for our workbox plans to start back up this week, I’ll post those tomorrow.

iLive Math Oceans (iPod App Giveaway)

This giveaway has closed.

I love my iPod Touch almost as much as my children do. One of the reasons my children love it are the fun, educational games they get to play on it. Today I’m going to tell you about a math application that one lucky reader will win for free! The app is iLive Math Oceans from iHome Educator.

iLive Math Oceans covers addition, subtraction, and fractions for grades K-6 in three levels. The app randomly generates word problems centered around more than 30 types of sea creatures. A simple spinner allows the child to choose their answer, and immediate feedback is given.

The graphics are beautiful photographs. I mean truly beautiful. Even my littlest children want to use this app just to see the animals. The animal theme especially appeals to my 9 year old daughter, and anything that makes her want to do math for fun is great in my book.

The app includes other neat features. One area allows the child to learn more about the animals in iLive Math Oceans through a child-safe site. Another feature is educational videos ready to watch after answering a number of questions(set by the parent).

Now on to the giveaway! One winner will receive iLive Math Oceans.

Mandatory Entry: Go to iHomeEducator’s website and tell me in your comment another iLive Math app that you think your family would enjoy.

Optional Entries (please leave a separate comment for each entry):

• Follow this blog.
• Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link to your post.
• Like iHomeEducator on Facebook.

This giveaway will close Wednesday July 21, 2010 at 6:00am. Please be sure I can contact you or another winner will be chosen.

Thank you to iHome Educator for offering this giveaway!

Week in Review #55 – Goodbye Civil War!

Another week has come and gone with lots of busy children.  The highlights for our week are as follows, be sure to click the links to see photos of things I have already blogged about:

1. Makayla finished her Civil War Lapbook and unit study.  She even made cute paper dolls on her own.  

2. Joseph and Emma, with Makayla’s help, finished their Kite Capers Download N’ Go.  It only took two weeks.  Those DNG’s really do have a ton in them!  Setting up stations worked well this week for our Letter of the Week work.  Thursday they did lipstick kisses on letter K papers and made Rice Krispy Treats.

3. Math went smoothly for Makayla with multiple digit subtraction.  She actually aced the test on Wednesday, and completed another entire chapter on Thursday (telling time to the minute).  Joseph and Emma can look at a number between 1 and 100 and tell you what it is now too(usually). 

4. We’re finally back in the All About Spelling groove!  Makayla really enjoys the lessons and we keep them short enough that it’s fun to do every day.  

5. Everyone enjoyed computer learning all week.  Makayla passed the first big challenge on her typing game and knows the home row keys pretty well.  Joseph and Emma keep rotating through the Blue’s Clues and Dora games.  Daniel has mostly been using Starfall.com for his time.

That’s the report for this week.  I will be posting next week’s plans sometime this weekend, we’re looking at another war.  Be watching for two review posts next week as well, one on Monday and one on Thursday, and don’t forget to come back tomorrow to enter my next giveaway!

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up.

Giveaway Winner + News

It’s official, the iLive Math Speed giveaway has closed and the winner was comment number 6:

Heidi said...

I follow your blog (and LOVE the new look!)

July 9, 2010 8:38 AM

Way to go Heidi, I’ve sent you an email!

Now just in case you didn’t win this iPod app, come tomorrow because I have another giveaway starting then!

Thank you to iHome Educator for offering this giveaway!

Civil War Creativity

The children all received new crayons, paper, and school supplies this week and have been busily creating ever since.  Makayla asked that I share ‘paper dolls’ she has made all by herself.  This Civil War set is the first completed.  As you can see, there is a Red Cross nurse with medical supplies, and a Union Soldier and Confederate Soldier, also with the appropriate accessories.  She is now working on an animal careers set, which I’ll show later.

I love when they bring their learning into their playtime!

World War I Booklist and Resources

World War I is coming!  This is our third of four major history unit studies planned for this school year, all to be finished first semester.  Our goal with this unit is to simply get an idea of basic things related to this war, to put the story in place that leads to the next war.  Remember, I’m working with 4th grade and younger, we’re keeping this one pretty gentle.  I have a few books at home, more from the library, and a lapbook of course. 

World War I Project Pack from Hands of a Child – This lapbook is for grades 3-8, with lots of information covered in 23 minibooks.  This is the main way we will record what Makayla learns for her portfolio.  She will also write a paper on some topic that interests her from our WWI study.

Warfare in the 20th Century by Andrew Robertshaw – A twelve page section covers World War I with informative two page spreads and child-friendly drawings.

Scholastic Encyclopedia of The United States at War by June English – Aimed at grades 5-8, each war begins with a timeline, map, and overview before diving into the story.  I really like this one, so we own it.

Children’s Encyclopedia of American History by DK/Smithsonian – This comprehensive tome has two chapters covering this time period.  First is The Progressive Era, detailing life in the U.S. from 1900 – 1920.  It gives the kids a good understanding of the times.  The second chapter we’ll use is America Becomes a World Power, covering 1898-1920.  This one details World War I among other things.  We own this one as well.

The Aces by Christopher Maynard – A brief introduction to some of the pilots and planes of World War I.

Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon – A true story from the war in 1914 when, for one night, soldiers on both sides of the war met in the middle to remember our Savior’s birth.  Written for grades 2-4, I think this will be an interesting book for my children.

The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough - Anna's father repairs dolls for a living with parts he special orders from Germany.  When WWI breaks out Anna's father can no longer get his parts and the shop begins to suffer.  Then Anna comes up with the idea . . . This 116 page chapter book is based on a true story and has sweet pencil and ink illustrations.

The Letter Home by Timothy Decker - Styled as an illustrated letter from an American medic to his child at the end of WW I, we will save this until we are familiar with most of the war I think, then use the pictures to help us recognize the war.

The Red Baron by Nicolas Wright - A biography of the World War I ace known as the Red Baron who shot down 80 Allied planes before he himself was killed, a month before his twenty-sixth birthday.  We’ll skip this and use the photos most.

Fly, Cher Ami, Fly! The Pigeon Who Saved the Lost Battalion by Robert Burleigh - Burleigh sticks to the happier aspects of this last flight carrier pigeon whose message enabled the rescue of a stranded American battalion during the waning days of World War I. In the afterword, readers learn that Cher Ami was badly wounded during this flight—blinded in one eye and crippled when one of his legs was shot off.

Remember the Lusitania by Diane Preston - On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British passenger steamer Lusitania was hit by a torpedo fired from a German U-boat.  In addition to describing the wartime setting, the transatlantic voyage, and the U-boat's patrol, the author follows up with details on many victims' post-Lusitania lives.

World War I (DK Eyewitness Book) – This one is stated to be for ages 9-12.  Some of the photos are actual, while others are re-creations from London’s Imperial War Museum.  I’m going to look through it and just pick a few pages I think, to keep it child-friendly.

I also have two websites bookmarked:

1. PBS’ The Great War – a comprehensive website that even has a teacher resource section with lesson plans and extensive website links.
2. Neo K-12’s World War I section – Free online videos, puzzles, and quizzes.

My next task is to plan what we will do each day in the unit.  A big part of that planning will take place as I print out the lapbook pieces.  Then all we need to do is match minibooks to reading books and remember to do vocabulary as we go along. 

What will my younger children be doing during this unit?  I have no idea!  They will be welcome to listen to the books we read, look at the pictures, and talk about it all with us.  While I can see them being interested in some of the topics (submarines, airplanes), I am going to plan some other unit to do with them as well.  I will be working on that in the next few days, so I will update you when I get it figured out!

Have you studied World War I in your homeschool before?  Do you have any favorite books, activities, or ideas?