Year 4, Week 3: Ziggurat

     We're studying the Sumerians this week!  The kiddos got to build their own ziggurat out of Legos:

     They wanted to make it our of sugar cubes but that would just be wasteful, especially in our Paleo house.

     We've also begun our looping schedule.  If you're not familiar with looping please check out Sarah Mackenzie on Amongst Lovely Things or read one of her posts about looping here.  Anyway, our loop so far looks like this:

• Draw Africa
• Art
• Geography Game
• Music

     We began drawing Africa this week:

     They did great!  I didn't get to draw with them as this was our first time using the book so I was in charge of reading the directions to them.  We had so much geography last year and we all loved it.  This year since the focus is history, there isn't a whole lot of geography so between this, our Classical Conversations map and the Geography Game (from My Father's World) I think we'll have geography covered.

     With that, I'll catch you next week!

Year 3: Exploring Countries and Cultures, Week 3

     There was no world cake to bake this week but we're now focusing on countries of North America.  The United States were up first and thanks to Cycle 3 of Classical Conversations, my kids can name all the states and know their location.  We made a game to see how much of their map they can fill in correctly (using their CC maps).  I set the timer for 5 minutes and they label as much of the U.S. as they can.  My daughter, since she can't spell all of the states correctly yet, uses initials to label hers.

     At the end of the 5 minutes they both had all but a couple of East coast states labeled.  Much better than what I can do!

     We also began reading Kingdom Tales.  Book one (Tales of the Kingdom) is our current read-aloud and we're all enjoying the stories.

     We begin our 4th week tomorrow.  It's going a lot faster (and smoother) than I expected, but I have to say we are all enjoying My Father's World so far.

Year 3: Exploring Countries and Cultures, Week 2

     We love My Father's World.  I mean, what curriculum suggests baking a cake and decorating it with the continents?

     I baked the cake ahead of time and frosted the ocean for them.  They thought I was baking a cake for a potluck at church and that they weren't going to have any.  They were surprised when I told them the real purpose of the cake and that they would indeed, have a small piece (At least it was gluten-free.  I have no idea how it tasted.  I didn't have any).

     To wrap up the week they also made paper dolls to show some of the different countries and cultures we'll be studying this year.  I even purchased People Crayons!

     That's all for now.  Can't wait to see what next week brings!  God bless you and yours.

Homeschooling, Week 4

     Yawn.  That is how our homeschool week started.  My daughter was extra sleepy after a very active Monday.  She woke up late and said, "I'm tired." then laid her head back down.  On Monday we headed out to meet with our Classical Conversations family to discuss The Core while the kids played on the field.  If you are interested in homeschooling or even just supplementing your child's education, I highly recommend reading The Core, now.  While your little ones are still little.  It will make a huge difference as they get along further in school.

     During our book club discussion we covered Math and Geography.  Admittedly, math was not my favorite subject in school.  I was a fan of English and Art.  My husband is a math whiz and I find myself being lazy and turning to him to calculate something instead of taking it upon myself to solve.  That bad habit ends now.  Or, at least I'll try.

     Anyway, the wonderful moms shared some great ways to incorporate math into daily routines:

• Cooking, especially teaching kids how to halve or double a recipe.
• Flash Cards (for speed and accuracy)  You can make your own and personalize to your child's level.
• A deck of cards (or two) which you can use to have your child either add, subtract or multiply as you lay the card(s) down.  I actually want to play this myself.
• Use a ruler to measure things different things and then either add or subtract the difference (again, depending on your child's level).

     While shopping I give the kids our budget and then as we put items into our grocery cart we add things up and see how close we are to either meeting our budget or going over it.  This isn't easy for my Kindergartner since she can't add yet, but this also serves as a lesson in smart purchasing choices and how to stick to a budget. My son adds things up (with the help of my husband, the walking calculator) and lets us know when we're over our budget.

     Our group also discussed Geography and I shared with the lovely ladies a great website that provided printable maps.  I'm currently working with the kids to help them learn the Continents and their location on a World Atlas.  Worldatlas.com is another source for larger, colorful maps.  We have a map of South America printed out and in my school binder from this site.  Last year in CC, thanks to a delightful song taught by my daughter's teacher, both of my kids have the countries of South America memorized.  There was even a question on Jeopardy last week about South America and my son was able to answer it because of the song (my daughter was napping and missed out).

     That was just part of our Monday.  The rest of the day was filled with activities, before and after the book club meeting.  We were so busy that when Tuesday morning came around, both kids were still feeling the need for rest.  Our school day started slowly (and later than usual).  I could tell that they weren't ready for class, so we took it easy; only doing our Bible study and some reading.  Afterwards, I let them relax.  My Little Toughie opted to draw and this is what she came up with:

     We just finished our study on weather last week and while she didn't have the energy to go over new material that day, I was happy to see that she wanted to share what she had learned with a picture.  She explained to me that the girl got caught in a thunderstorm.

     This is the prettiest thunderstorm I've ever seen!