Song of My Heart

A New School Year

2015-09-04T23:02:00.002-04:00

It's something for me to realize that the last time I posted here we had no teenager in our family.

It's been that long.

The boy just turned fourteen. So hard to fathom. Giggly Girl is twelve, and Sweet Pea, my baby, is almost ten.

When I started blogging they were this little...

And now look at them...

This school year they are in 4th, 6th, and 8th grade.

We're still homeschooling. That looks slightly different for us than it used to, but I hope to share more about that later.

We're busy with classes, hobbies, sports, and continuing to learn our way around sunny Florida. So many terrific field trip adventures to be had here. When time allows I hope to tell more about those too.

But until I have another quiet moment to pop in here, I hope that you and yours have a blessed day.

A Year in A Nutshell

2014-05-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

This is undoubtedly the quietest my blog has ever been. It's been quite a year for our family, and life has left me no time for blogging. I have missed it, and it's good to be here again.

So here's our year (really two) in a nutshell...

In the summer of 2012 Kurt, along with hundreds of other pilots, was furloughed when the company announced that it was shutting down all air operations. The announcement was made on a Tuesday, and he flew his last trip four days later. He had been with this company for twenty-three years, so this really rocked our world. We experienced the whole rollercoaster of emotions for the next six months, but God walked us through it and provided for our family in some amazing ways.

In December of that same year, Kurt was hired by another airline...much rejoicing and thankfulness! We felt incredibly blessed, but this new job meant leaving Cincinnati, our home of almost twenty years, to move to Florida. It was incredibly difficult for us to leave our friends and church family, but we knew God was in control and felt at peace about accepting this job and the move.

The next few months were spent getting our house ready to sell, putting it on the market, and traveling back and forth to Florida to house hunt there. Our house sold quickly, which was such a blessing, and at the end of July we shed many tears as we took leave of our precious friends and our dear, familiar home to set out on this new adventure.

So we've been here in sunny Florida now for nine months and have had lots of adventures so far. There is so much to see and do here, and I'll eventually get around to posting about it all.

Until next time I'll leave you with a very Florida family photo...

Blessings,

Popping in for A Moment

2013-03-26T11:34:00.000-04:00

So things have been quiet around the blog for the last few months.

We've had lots of exciting things going on that have kept us much busier than usual. I don't have time to go into all the details right now, but I did want to check in here to say that we're all well, our school year is rocking right along, and hopefully I'll have time to post again soon. :)

Blessings,

Galloping The Globe: Packing for Italy

2012-11-16T18:21:00.001-05:00

Over the years that we've done unit studies, it's been fun to set up a display table with all sorts of books and other items related to the topic we're learning about.

I usually set it up the night before we start a new unit, and when the kids wake up the next morning they are really excited to check out the display and see what we'll be studying.

This year for our Galloping The Globe adventures, I decided to try a new twist on this idea by creating a travel suitcase filled with items representing the country to which we'll be "traveling".

I began by digging out an old briefcase of Kurt's and decorating it with vintage luggage tag images like the ones used on old steamer trunks. I printed them out after doing a Google image search with the keywords "vintage luggage tags Italy".

The kids really enjoyed these and liked them so much they put them in their notebooks at the end of the unit.

After getting the outside of the suitcase ready, I packed our Italy items:

printouts of Italian money
Italian postcards (made my own using internet images of famous landmarks)
box of biscotti
Papa Piccolo (our Five in A Row story for this country)
Italy ABC's
passports
airline tickets

I hid the suitcase on our front porch and gave the kids a treasure hunt, which they had to follow in order to find the suitcase.

They had a blast checking out the items inside and munching on the biscotti while I read Papa Piccolo. It was a fun and engaging way to begin our study of Italy.

Happy Adoption Day!

2012-11-15T11:08:00.002-05:00

We recently celebrated the eighth anniversary of our sweet Giggly Girl's adoption day.

I will never forget standing in the Civil Affairs Office in China with my husband, anxiously waiting her arrival, and the moment that they placed her in our arms.

It's hard to believe it's been eight years since that moment. She has grown up so very much since then, but she still has her wonderful giggle and smile that warms our hearts. She is daily growing in her love of the Lord, as He continues to work out His beautiful plan for her life.

What a miracle and joy she is to us!

We love you, our sweet Giggly Girl!

Galloping The Globe Kickoff Week

2012-11-12T23:21:00.000-05:00

Here's a summary of my lesson plans and the resources we used for our Galloping The Globe kickoff week, which turned into two weeks. I hope you find these helpful!

Read How to Make An Apple Pie and See The World several times throughout the two weeks and played this Apple Pie Geography Game, which ended with our making an apple pie.

Read Me on The Map by Joan Sweeney and made a layer book containing maps of our rooms, house, street, town, state, country, continent, and the world. I made this layer book template which you can download and use for your own Me on the Map booklet.

Read Maps and Globes by Jack Knowlton and There's A Map on My Lap! and made a paper-mâché globe. (The readings and the project were done over a four day period.)

Listened several times to the Continents and Oceans song from Geography Songs from A-Z. We are really enjoying this CD and have already learned so much world geography from listening to this and the other catchy songs on this album. It comes in CD or MP3 formats.

Talked about what an explorer is and read about Christopher Columbus.

Put together our world map floor puzzle. (The one pictured below is not the one we own, but it is the one I'm hoping to get soon.)

Labeled the continents and oceans on a world map.

Learned about the compass rose, went outside and practiced using it to walk N, S, E, W. Filled in a compass rose notebooking page. Used what we learned about the compass and cardinal directions to go on a treasure hunt.

Began memorizing the creation account in Genesis 1. As we "gallop the globe" our science focus will be God's amazing creation, specifically animals from each country, as well as continuing our regular nature studies.

Watched Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution. (This is on Netflix instant streaming, and all of us were riveted. Can't wait to watch the other volumes in this series.)

Other resources we'll use during our travels this year:

This was a fun week for us and a great way to get ready to Gallop The Globe!

Field Trip: Ocmulgee National Monument

2012-11-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

While visiting family in Macon, Georgia, several weeks ago we visited the Ocmulgee National Monument, which is home to several Native American mounds.

People of the Mississippian culture inhabited this area in central Georgia circa 1,000 AD. They were farmers, and the mounds they built were used for things such as ceremonies, council meetings, and burials. Visitors can enter and view the interior of one of the council/ceremonial mounds, and this was a highlight for us.

The visitors center houses an exhibit that gives the history of the area and tribes who lived there; however, we did not spend much time there because it was such a gorgeous day, and we wanted to be outside.

Entrance to Ceremonial Mound

When the Mississippian people inhabited the area, their village was situated between

these two mounds.

It was fun having my Dad along on a field trip!

Gorgeous views from the top of the largest mound, particularly of the wetland areas.

In addition to the rich history of the various peoples who inhabited this area over thousands of years, the park itself is a beautiful place to hike, picnic, and enjoy nature. We saw three deer and a snapping turtle on one of the trails we took through the woods.

Ocmulgee National Monument is operated by the National Park Service and is open daily from

9:00 am to 5:00 pm. It is closed on December 25 and January 1. Admission is free.

If you ever happen to be in Macon, Georgia, and are looking for a field trip, I highly recommend this beautiful spot.

Compass Rose Treasure Hunt

2012-11-08T00:30:00.000-05:00

This treasure hunt was a fun way to practice what we've learned about the compass rose and cardinal directions, and it was quick and easy for me to throw together.

What You Need:

brown paper grocery bag
scissors
black sharpie
some sort of treasure/prize to be found at the end of your hunt

What You Do:

When the kids aren't around, go outside and step off/map out the route you want them to take to find their treasure. I hid ours on the front porch, had them start in the backyard and make several turns in order to get to the prize. (Ours went something like this: Take 8 steps west, 20 steps southeast, 12 steps east, 10 steps north, 15 steps northwest, etc.)

Once you've figured out your "route", write it on the paper bag and crumple it up to make it look old. I chose to draw a compass rose at the top to help out my younger children.

Give them the treasure map and head outdoors for some fun! (You can obviously do this treasure hunt indoors, but I found it easier for them to understand N, E, S, W, when we were outside.)

Enjoy!

Your Vote Counts For Eternity

2012-11-04T23:45:00.002-05:00

I urge you to watch this video before casting your vote for President.

Let's cast our vote based on the things that really matter now and for eternity.

Making A Paper Mache-Globe

2012-11-03T19:07:00.000-04:00

During our Galloping The Globe Kickoff Week one thing we focused on was maps and globes.

The highlight activity for the week was making a paper-mache globe. It was a very messy project, but loads of fun and definitely worth the time and effort.

Here's how we did it:

Materials

1 round balloon or punch ball, blown up to a diameter of 12" or whatever size globe you would like

newspaper cut into 1"x10" strips

plastic table cover or lots of newspaper to cover work surface

4 cups water

1 cup flour

1 cup water (separate from the first 4 cups)

pencils

tempera paint: blue, green, and white

paint brushes

Directions
1. Put 4 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

2. While waiting for water to boil, mix/whisk 1 cup flour with 1 cup water in a bowl.

3. Pour this flour/water mixture into the boiling water, and simmer 2 or 3 minutes to thicken, stirring occasionally, preferably with a whisk.

4. Pour into a 9"x13" casserole and let cool. We cut our newspaper strips while our paste cooled.

5. Dip 1 newspaper strip into cooled paste, squeezing off excess with fingers, and smooth it onto the balloon. Repeat until balloon is covered.

6. Hang to dry overnight.

7. Cover with a second layer and possibly a third.

8. Use a pencil to draw outlines of the continents.

9. Paint with tempera. It will possibly take two coats.

10. Hang once again to dry.

11. If you want, you can have your students label the continents and oceans (or anything else for that matter) with a black sharpie marker.

A whisk helps smooth out the lumps.

Simmering

Cooling in the Pyrex

The gooey-ness takes some getting used to.

One layer down...two to go!

The kids enjoyed this, and my littlest grew tired of laying on the newspaper strips before we finished.

A couple of tips that we learned while doing this project:

1. Do this on a nice, leisurely day when you have an empty schedule and are under no time constraints if possible. It is a messy project that takes patience on your part and on the part of your children. However, it is fun and rewarding!

2. Our paste mixture got lumpy over time as we were dipping our strips of newspaper in it. To remedy this we had to occasionally stir it with a whisk, sometimes adding a teaspoon or so of water as we whisked.

3. Do not wait longer than a day in between pasting on each layer of newspaper. If you do, the balloon might start to separate from the first layer prematurely, and you'll have a caved-in globe and will have to start over. Can you guess how I know this?

4. If drawing the continents free-hand onto the globe is too much for your students, you can print out continent outlines and cut them apart. Then your student can either color them and glue them on the globe or use them as templates to trace around on the globe and then paint.

This project is not the sort of thing we do very often around here. It takes several days and a lot of patience to complete, but it was well worth our time and effort.

Hope these directions were helpful to some of you!

Science Experiment: Salt Water Evaporation

2012-11-02T15:19:00.002-04:00

This is an easy experiment that we did while rowing How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World.

In the story, the little girl collects saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean. She takes it home, sets it out in the sun to evaporate the water, and uses the leftover salt in her apple pie.

We evaporated some salt water too with some impressive results.

Materials You Need:

a sunny day :)
1 or 2 cups water
2 tbsp. salt
1 piece black construction paper
baking sheet with a lip around the edge (or shallow baking pan)

Procedure:

Combine salt and water. Stir until thoroughly dissolved.
Lay black paper in baking sheet.
Pour water over paper.
Set out in a sunny spot for several hours.
Ask your students to predict what will happen to the water and the salt.
Anchor the paper down on the baking sheet with a couple of small rocks if it's a windy day. Check the paper after several hours to see what has happened. The water should be evaporated, and all of the salt crystals should be visible in the black paper.
This is a great opportunity to discuss Evaporation and The Water Cycle.
You can use this booklet from The Notebooking Fairy to record your experiment and results.

Hope you enjoy this experiment as much as we did!

How to Make An Apple Pie And See the World: Game and Recipe

2012-10-30T00:20:00.000-04:00

We are eight weeks into our school year and currently visiting our third country in our Around The World adventure, but I'd like to backtrack a bit to share some of the things we did at the beginning of our travels.

To kickoff our adventures we began with a sort of Geography Overview Week.

During that time we read one of our all time favorite books, How to Make An Apple Pie And See The World by Marjorie Priceman.

In fact, we read it more than once, and after a few readings we played the following simple game to review what we learned...

What You Need:

A copy of the book How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World

World Map (wall, atlas, or globe)

Dice with the countries mentioned in the story written on them. Here's a blank paper dice template, or you can make your own spinner or cards to draw - whatever is easy to throw together. You just need a random way for players to "choose" a country. The countries are Italy, England, France, Sri Lanka, Atlantic Ocean, Jamaica, Vermont.

Ingredients for the apple pie listed in the story. If you don't want this game to end with the making of an apple pie, you can simply write or draw each ingredient onto separate index cards.

Flour

Eggs

Butter

Cinnamon

Salt

Sugar

Apples

If making the pie, you'll need a recipe that you like. The one at the end of the story is too time-consuming for me. :) See the bottom of this post for an easier version.

How to Play:

1. Players take turns rolling the dice (drawing a card, however you want to do it) to choose a country.

2. After rolling the dice, they must find that country on the map, name the continent where it is located, and then go and get the ingredient that came from that country (or find the card with the correct ingredient on it).

3. After all of the countries and ingredients have been selected and identified, then it's time to make your pie!

That's it! This was such a simple game, but even my oldest enjoyed playing it, and it was a great way to finish up our Geography Overview Week.

Now here's the yummy but Easy Apple Pie Recipe I promised (courtesy my good friend Debbie):

Filling Ingredients:

5 to 6 baking apples (diced)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 stick butter

*You'll also need 1 store bought frozen pie crust.

Directions:

1. Mix all filling ingredients together and put into store bought crust.

2. Combine all topping ingredients until you have a crumb mixture.

3. Sprinkle over apple mixture.

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until topping is dark, golden brown.

(Quick plug for this apple corer, peeler, slicer.

It makes apple pie baking so easy. You can get them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and other places too for around $20.00. Best birthday gift ever! )

Our pie was delicious, and so fun for the kids because they basically made it themselves. It was gone in two days, and we just couldn't help wanting more, so we made another one. :)

Hope you enjoy this story, game and recipe as much as we did!

(This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. Thanks for supporting my blog!)

Composer Study: Antonio Vivaldi

2012-09-30T22:11:00.002-04:00

Since we are currently studying Italy in our Trip Around The World, I chose one of Italy's most famous composers, Antonio Vivaldi, for our first composer study of this school year.

A few things we learned about Antonio Vivaldi...

He was born in Venice in 1678.
He composed during the Baroque Period.
He studied to be a priest, but soon after his ordination he gave that up to compose music.
He had red hair, and was given the nickname "The Red Priest".
His father taught him to play the violin.
For most of his working life, he taught music at the Ospidale della Pieta, a sort of orphanage for girls. There he composed music and conducted an all girls orchestra. This orchestra was made up entirely of girls who lived in the orphanage. They gained an excellent musical reputation, and royalty and other important people traveled to Venice to hear their performances.
Vivaldi is most famous for the many concertos he composed, but he also composed numerous other works including operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas.
Vivaldi's most famous work is his Four Seasons, a set of four concertos (concerti) composed to accompany four sonnets. It is supposed that Vivaldi wrote the sonnets, but this is not known for sure.

Listening List

We only studied Vivaldi for two weeks, so we mainly listened to portions of his Four Seasons and his famous choral work, Gloria. You can find good quality performances of both of these on Youtube. I particularly recommend the Four Seasons performed by Itzhak Perlman and the Israel Philharmonic.

As always on Youtube, please use caution when viewing with your children. More and more I'm finding that inappropriate ads and videos are popping up on otherwise innocent pages. I typically pull up the video we need when my children are not in the room, and then enlarge it to full screen so that their little eyes can't see all of the garbage in the sidebars.

Vivaldi Resources

Some of these we used and enjoyed. The others are resources on my wishlist that were unavailable at our local library, so I cannot vouch for everything here.

Websites

A brief biographical sketch from Classics for Kids.

Making Music Fun: some biographical information, along with the sonnets that were written to accompany The Four Seasons.

Another short biography plus a coloring page from Making Music Praying Twice.

Classics for Kids radio broadcasts. We listened to the first two.

Vivaldi Notebooking Pages from Nadene at Practical Pages (scroll down the page for a link to the download).

After completing the notebooking page, we printed the image at the top of this post and placed Vivaldi on our timeline.

I hope you enjoy the music of Vivaldi as much as we have!

(Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.)

Me on The Map Free Printable

2012-09-20T00:23:00.000-04:00

This year we are taking a trip around the world! We began our travels last week and are using Galloping The Globe along with many other resources for our country studies.

We kicked off our adventures with a sort of geography overview week, during which we read lots of great books and did a few activities to go along with them.

One of the first things we did was read a fun little book called Me on The Map by Joan Sweeney.

This book does an excellent job of explaining the concept of city, state, country, etc. to children. Even though it is geared for younger ages, our whole family enjoyed it - even my 11-year old.

After reading the book we made our own Me on The Map layer booklets using these templates I made.

The booklet consists of 8 different maps:

my room
my house
my street
my city
my state
my country
my continent
my world

I had the children draw one map each day, beginning with their rooms and working their way through the list. For the map of our street, it was helpful to walk down our street together with paper on clipboards, making our sketches outside.

Another (quicker) option would be to have your child draw only the maps of their room, house, and street. Then they could color maps that you print out of your city, state, country, etc.

This was a time-consuming project, but one that required problem-solving skills and taught us quite a bit about map-making. It was worth the time and effort that was put into it. The finished booklets will go into our Galloping The Globe Scrapbooks.

Feel free to download and print my templates for your children to make their own Me on The Map booklets.
Enjoy!

(Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.)

Our Daily Schedule for 2012-13

2012-09-14T17:04:00.000-04:00

So we've been back at it for two weeks now. The first couple of days we did the 3 R's and since then have gradually been adding things.

This week we are almost up to what I envision our full schedule to be and are finding our rhythm and getting settled into a routine.

My goal is for our day to start around the breakfast table at 9:00 am. This hasn't happened yet, but we're almost there. :)

Here's a look at our day:

9:00 am: Breakfast/Bible/Scripture Memory

9:30 am: Morning Meeting (calendar, any other memory work, Mom does the Paths of Exploration read-aloud and then gets the older two started on their copywork.)

10:00 am: Copywork for olders/Alphabet Path for Sweet Pea and me.

10:20 am: Math with Giggly Girl (Sweet Pea works on HSS Alphabet Notebook activities; Superman finishes copywork and begins Rightstart Math warm-up sheet.)

10:45 am: Math with Sweet Pea (Giggly girl finishes copywork and begins math fact sheet; Superman continues his work and if he finishes, moves onto independent reading.)

11:05 am: Math with Superman/Explain POE Word Study assignment (Giggly Girl and Sweet Pea choose a puzzle, game, craft, etc. to work on separately or together.)

11:30 am: Break for snack and possibly step outside for breath of fresh air. :)

11:45 am: All About Spelling with Giggly Girl (Sweet Pea plays; Superman works on POE Word Study)

12:05 pm: Reading Made Easy with Sweet Pea (Giggly Girl practices spelling words; Superman is onto next POE activity)

12:25 pm: All About Spelling with Superman (Sweet Pea does RME copywork; Giggly Girl does independent reading.)

Lunch Break!! (Kids head outside for a quick recess while I devour several Hershey's kisses and prepare lunch.)

Most days during lunch we cover a special such as poetry, composer study, or artist study.

After lunch, the kids head back outside while I tidy up the kitchen and get things ready for the afternoon.

1:30 pm: Galloping the Globe or Paths of Exploration group activity (geography, history, nature study, science experiments, art, i.e., the fun stuff!)

3:00 pm: Superman finishes up any written work that needs to be completed and does his independent reading while I read with Giggly Girl and Sweet Pea.

3:30 pm: Done for the day! People can then practice piano and play outside, read, etc.

I really want to add in a foreign language, but I'm not even thinking about that until we've got a few weeks under our belts.

Hope your year is off to a great start!

First Day of School 2012

2012-09-11T19:41:00.000-04:00

We've officially been back to school for two weeks now, and we're steadily finding our new rhythm.

We started our year off with a gentle first day of 3 R's and a trip to our favorite icecream parlor, Graeter's.

First day of...

3rd grade

1st grade

5th grade

Good attitudes and enthusiasm abounded, along with lots of chocolate chunks and yummy icecream goodness.

First day of school can't get much better than that!

Owl Pellet Dissection: Gross Science Fun

2012-07-07T23:38:00.001-04:00

Back in February we "rowed" Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. (Can you tell I'm working through a backlog of posts and pictures?)

We did this Five in A Row unit three years ago and had so much fun with it. Since the girls were so little at the time, they don't remember most of what we did, so we are re-rowing it for them.

One of our favorite activities we did with this unit was owl pellet dissection...some truly gross science fun!

An owl pellet is the regurgitated contents of an owl's tummy. Nice, right? The owl coughs the pellet up after digesting his meal, and it contains the bones of its prey. In fact, the bones of an entire skeleton can often be found in a single pellet.

Don't worry...we don't venture into the woods and collect these little gems ourselves. I buy them heat-sterilized and packaged at my local school supply store. You can also order them online from school science lab supply companies and on Amazon.

The first time we dissected these I purchased the kit pictured below. At that time it included one sterilized owl pellet and an information-packed little book that I found extremely helpful. (I'm not sure if the product link below contains an owl pellet.)

The book, aptly titled Owl Puke, contains handy, kid-friendly diagrams that aid you in identifying the different bones you find, and in figuring out what kind of varmint the owl had for dinner. (It's typically either a bird or some type of mouse, mole, or other rodent. This just keeps getting better doesn't it?)

All joking aside, dissecting the pellet isn't really all that bad, and this comes from someone who is somewhat squeamish around certain kinds of grossness. I highly recommend owl pellet dissection as a rich, hands-on learning experience.

From our previous owl pellet experience I learned a couple of things:

1. Owl pellet dissection can get messy (i.e. bits of fur tend to go everywhere). But the mess can be controlled as long as you contain the pellets in something, such as a plastic container or tray, while you're working with them. Also consider spreading a disposable plastic tablecloth or newspaper on top of your work area for easy clean-up.

2. Owl pellet dissection can take awhile to finish. It takes a long time to pick out all of those bones, so if you want to try to piece together a skeleton, or even a partial one, plan on letting your children work on their pellets a little bit each day for a few days.

3. At least one of your children will more than likely put up a fuss when the time comes to dispose of the dissected pellets. I'll let a lot of different things go on permanent display on our nature table, but I had to draw the line at owl pellet.

We recorded our findings with this nifty Owl Pellet Dissection page courtesy of The Notebooking Fairy. While you're there check out the other owl notebooking pages she has created.

In my next post I'll list all of our owl resources, links to printables, and photos of our Owl Lapbooks.

(Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.)

Summer Happenings

2012-06-29T18:49:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd pop in for a quick summer update...

As I sit here typing, we're in the midst of a record-breaking heatwave, and I am more grateful than words can express for air conditioning!

Our summer has been busy with swimming, camps, trips to the zoo, gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do, and time spent with friends. We're continuing with reading, math, and writing throughout the summer, but we're mainly relaxing and playing.

The kids are gung-ho about our library's summer reading program. Except for one summer several years ago when our oldest was five or so, this is the first year we've participated. I'm realizing that I have some competitive readers who are all about redeeming their reading time for some cool prizes.

Hope you're all having a fun and relaxing summer!

One Thousand Gifts

2012-02-27T01:01:00.000-05:00

Counting my gifts today...

1. Three small bodies stuffed in snowsuits.

2. A counselor with a plan.

3. Some quiet time.

4. Hot vegetable soup.

5. Sunshine.

6. An uncluttered day.

7. Friends who pray and encourage me.

8. Shoulders to cry on.

9. My husband who helps me greatly.

10. Snuggling up with my children under quilts.

11. Bedtime prayers.

12. A place to worship freely.

13. Sermons preached with Holy Spirit Power that give hope and vision.

14. Rest

15. Piecing together puzzles at the kitchen table.

16. Patch

17. Telephone conversations with my Mother.

18. Anticipation of the week ahead...so much to learn and a field trip too.

19. A phone call from Kurt.

20. God's Word.

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation… Ps. 68:19

My Battle with Depression

2012-02-24T10:51:00.000-05:00

(Update: Thank you to everyone who informed me that the link to my depression post at The Homeschool Post was broken. I have fixed it now!)

Last November over at The Homeschool Post I wrote about my battle with depression.

I had never shared this part of my life online before, but God began to nudge my heart to write about it.

I pray that if anyone reading this struggles with depression, you will feel encouraged in knowing that you are not alone and that there is hope for your journey.

I invite you to read my post here.

Blessings,

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

2012-02-21T21:04:00.003-05:00

This edition is hosted by Cindy at Our Journey Westward and the theme is "An Atmosphere of Learning."

It's chock full of some great posts, covering a variety of Charlotte Mason topics...poetry, living books, nature study, living math, and more.

There is lots of refreshment and inspiration to be had. Just click on the button above to visit the carnival.

Enjoy!

Harold and The Purple Crayon

2012-02-19T23:30:00.000-05:00

This past week we've had some Five in A Row fun with Harold And The Purple Crayon.

We have used Five in A Row off and on throughout the six years we have been homeschooling, and some of our fondest learning memories have been made while "rowing". This is not a curriculum review and I'm receiving nothing in return for writing about it, but I do want to give it a quick plug for those of you with younger children who may be looking at curriculum and trying to make decisions for next year.

Five in A Row is not the only thing we use around here, but it is the very first curriculum we used, and I am drawn to it again and again because of how well it fits into a Charlotte Mason education. The short lessons, gentle learning, and cuddling up on the couch each day to enjoy memorable living books with my children are all things that have laid a foundation for loving to learn in our home. Things that all of us can enjoy doing no matter what kind of curriculum we use.

To see and read about some of the Five in A Row memories we've made over the years, you can visit this page.

Even if you never check out the curriculum, I highly recommend visiting their site and printing out the list of books for which the lessons are written. It makes a great reading list to keep handy on trips to the library or used bookstore. These titles are some of the most wonderful children's books you'll ever read with your family. Many of them are old classics such as Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (one of our favorties), but there are plenty of newer titles included as well, like Arabella by Wendy Orr.

Now on to our week with Harold...

Written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson, Harold is the story of a little boy with a purple crayon and a big imagination. One day Harold decides to take a walk with his crayon and ends up drawing all kinds of adventures for himself, some intended and some accidental. Harold is always able to think fast and draw himself right out of any trouble he falls into though, and the end of the story finds him safe at home where he started.

We began our week by pulling out the butcher paper and drawing our own adventures. Even Superman couldn't resist joining in.

An Ocean Adventure

A visit to a big city

On Tuesday we delved into a lesson on fractions. (Harold draws and eats several pies in the story.) I found these free templates for "fraction pies" at Homeschool Share. They have some wonderful "Harold" resources there...all free and ready for you to download and use. :)

After working with the fraction circles for awhile, the girls came up with the idea of creating fraction pie critters. I love seeing their creative minds at work with absolutely no input from me.

Next up was a lesson on the phases of the moon. To go along with it, we read
The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn Branley, a Let's-Read-And-Find-Out-Science book. Many of the books in this series have some great experiments that you can do to illustrate the content you've read about. This title's experiment involved an orange stuck on a pencil, a flashlight, three children, and a dark room. It illustrated how and why the moon changes throughout the month, and the kids had a blast with it.

We used a little flap booklet from Homeschool Share to illustrate the moon phases, and we'll include this in a lapbook we're putting together about Harold. You can download the flap book from this HSS page. Just scroll down to the Sun, Moon, Stars download, and it's on pages 22 and 23 of that pdf. By the way, this is an awesome free space lapbook that the wonderful Homeschool Share ladies have created.

Here are some other printables and activities we completed throughout our week. Once again you can find the links to all of these at Homeschool Share. Just go to this page and scroll down for the download link you're looking for.

We illustrated the poem Johnny Drew A Monster.
We played Harold's Drawing Game.
We made a Book of Purple.
We made a Ways to Travel booklet.
We watched a video about how crayons are made.

We also learned to draw a moose using the lesson from Draw, Write, Now book 7.

Thanks for reading along as I chronicled our Harold adventures. I hope you can check this story out at your local library and enjoy it with your children.

Have a blessed week!

.

Disclosure: This post contains images of books which are Amazon affiliate links.

Tissue Paper Silhouette Ornaments

2011-12-06T00:11:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite things about Christmas is making ornaments with my children. Not only do we craft something pretty to hang on our tree, but we make some wonderful memories as well. I love it that these memories are unpacked and relived each year as we decorate our tree.

We made these tissue paper silhouettes a couple of years ago during our mini-unit on Christmas Symbols. They were simple and fun to make, and they turned out beautifully.

I found the idea and directions over at The Crafty Crow (one of my favorite craft sites).

Before making these, we talked about ornaments being a symbol of Christmas and how they remind us of the beauty of God and His creation and all of the beautiful blessings He gives us.

A sweet story to read as a go-along with this craft is Mouse and Mole and The Christmas Walk by Doug Cushman. Our family has enjoyed this story for several Christmases now.

Mouse and Mole go on a walk through the woods in search of the perfect Christmas tree to decorate. Mouse wants to take the tree with them, but Mole suggests that they wait. They go to Mole's house to make some lovely ornaments, and when they return to the woods for the tree, Mouse is in for a delightful surprise.

I'd love to hear about favorite handmade Christmas ornaments your children have made!

Blessings,

Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown: Homeschool Days

2011-10-23T20:38:00.017-04:00

We recently returned from Virginia's Historic Triangle which includes Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. I have to say that it was one of the best field trips/family vacations we've ever taken. It was fun, affordable, educational, and I highly recommend it!

Before I dive into the details of our trip, I'd like to use this post to give you some information and links that will help you to plan a trip of your own.

Planning your visit during a Colonial Williamsburg Homeschooler Experience Week gives you an extremely deep discount off regular admission there. Here's a quick comparison of regular admission with the prices we paid for the Fall 2011 Experience.

Homeschooler Experience 1-Day Ticket: Adult - $7.50/Child - $5.50 Regular Admission for same ticket: Adult - $37.95/Child - $18.95

Homeschooler Experience 5-Day Ticket: Adult - $15.50/Child - $13.50 Regular Admission for 3-Day ticket: Adult - $41.95/Child - $18.95

All of the above prices are advance purchase, and children 5 and under are free.

Add-on programs for homeschoolers are also available at $5.00 per person (all ages). We attended one of these called "Life of A Soldier", and it was well worth the price.

Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center also offer Homeschool Programs at huge discounts with dates that typically overlap Colonial Williamsburg's Homeschooler Experience. We enjoyed our visits to these locations just as much as we did Colonial Williamsburg.

The Spring 2012 dates for all three locations are as follows:

Colonial Williamsburg: February 11-26
Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center: February 18-26

You can visit the following links for more information:

Colonial Williamsburg Special Events for Homeschoolers

Colonial Williamsburg: Fall 2011 Homeschool Event Calendar and Program Descriptions: There are no programs descriptions available yet for Spring 2012, but browsing this 2011 link will give you a taste of what was offered when we attended.

Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center 2012 Information Flyer

Historic Jamestowne - This is the original site of Jamestown, owned and operated by the National Park Service, and has no affiliation with Jamestown Settlement. I strongly suggest visiting both sites if you are able. You can visit Historic Jamestown for free by simply filling out an Entrance Fee Waiver Request - scroll down to "Homeschool Groups" for more information.

Yorktown National Battlefield - This is the actual site of the famous siege and battle and, like Historic Jamestowne, is a National Park. There is no affiliation between this site and Yorktown Victory Center. I strongly suggest visiting both sites if you are able. Again, free admission is offered to homeschoolers who fill out an Entrance Fee Waiver.

I'll soon be writing separate posts about each location we visited, so stay tuned!

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Homeschool Blog Awards

2011-09-25T16:30:00.000-04:00

Just got back from a wonderful field trip/vacation to Colonial Williamsburg, and this weekend I'm doing lots of laundry and getting things organized for our school week.

While I'm on a little coffee break I wanted to spread the word about the upcoming Homeschool Blog Awards at The Homeschool Post, the group blog I'm honored to be a part of with a bunch of fabulous homeschool Mom authors.

The prize page is already up, and nominations will be accepted October 15-21. Once nominations are posted you'll have a ball checking out all of the wonderful homeschool blogs that are out there.

So just click on the button below, and it will take you to a page with all of the details. (And feel free to grab a button yourself and spread the word!)

Have a blessed Sunday!