Johnny Appleseed (aka Massachusetts Week 2)

This week, we ventured into the world of famous folks from Massachusetts.   I decided to start with John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed).  In studying, we found that it’s hard to tell where tall tale and truth cross in the life of Johnny Appleseed.   What we do know for sure is that he was born September 26, 1774 and that he died in March of 1845.  We also know that he was a man of strong conviction, strong work ethics and a missionary wherever he went.

Books we used:

John Chapman – The Man Who Was Johnny Appleseed, by Carol Greene
John Chapman – The Legendary Johnny Appleseed, by Karen Clemens Warrick
Johnny Appleseed, by Jane Yolen
Johnny Appleseed, by Gini Holland
Johhny Appleseed, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet

We also bought several different varieties of apples this week.  Each evening as a snack we’d try a new variety and then log information onto a chart.  Things we charted were the variety of apple, the color, size, taste and texture, as well as counted the seeds in each apple.  We also colored an apple diagram, labeling the various parts of the apple. (What, you don’t have blue apples where you live?)

The girls made these lovely TP replica’s of Johnny Appleseed as well.   You can find the template here.

The Awana Grand Prix is coming up in a few weeks.  Olivia built a “St. Bernard Car”.  Why?  Because everyone knows that dogs are fast!

Isn’t this a cute yet pathetic face?

In other news this week.  Olivia turned 7!!  Gaaaaahh!!  And, by all appearances, she made a pretty important wish!

Lindsey moved from her car seat into her booster seat.  She’s still a smidge under the 40lb mark…but her legs won’t fit in the car seat anymore.  She’s thrilled to be an official “big girl”. Me, not so much.

We are down to only TWO more days of co-op!  And to be honest, I’m planning on playing hookie next week.   The girls have their ballet recital that evening, and so we’re going to let them get some down time before the big show!

Head over to the Weekly Wrap Up to catch up on everyone else’s milestones.  I’ll just go cry by myself for a moment…I’m fine…reeeeaaalllyyy!

 

Lobster Network (Review)

Lobster Network is a new web application that helps you share your stuff safely and securely.  (That, my friend, is a direct quote.)

There is a 27 page PDF available that gives you instructions on how to use the program.  I’ll give you the very abbreviated version for time and space constraints.

Basically, once you set up your FREE account, you enter the “stuff” you have ~ books, music, movies, curriculum etc.  You can then list your items for sell, trade or exchange; as well as request items from others.  The premise behind this of course is that you are sharing your items with people you know…or else you may never see it again.  It also gives you a great way of keeping up with who you’ve loaned things to.

Lobster Network gives you the option of setting up communities that are private or public.  This option would be great for homeschool co-op groups to share resources.

I did set up my free account, and I did enter a few items that I have, just to see how simple it is.  It really doesn’t take long and is pretty self explanatory (although, you always have that 27 pages of instructions if you need it).   However, I don’t really have a “network” of people that I know to share my stuff with.  So for me, this is one of those things that is nice to know about and pass on the info, but it’s just not something I find beneficial to me right now.  This may change at some point, and if it does I know where to go!

To read the reviews of other Crew members, please click here.

Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.

And the winner is….

 

“Three Blessings at Home” is the winner of the Daily Summer Activities giveaway!  I used the very antiquated approach of saying to my husband “hey, quick pick a number between 1 and 78” and he chose #15

 Three Blessings At Home said...

I'm a new follower. :)

Thanks so much to everyone for entering the giveaway!  Special thanks to Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations for organizing the Curriculum Clean-Out!

Lesson Planet (Review)

If you are big on using lesson plans and worksheets, you may be interested in today's product review.
Lesson Planet boasts a whopping 150,000 online teacher reviewed lesson plans and 75,000 worksheets.  Users have the option of searching through lesson plans, worksheets and State Standards of Learning.

Major subject headings are:

• Art and Music
• Health and Nutrition
• Geography
• Research Resources (Encyclopedias and Libraries)
• Social Studies
• Education
• Language Arts
• Math
• Science and Technology

There are several things about this particular product that I really didn't care for.  First of all, the lesson plans were more a list of objectives than an actual plan for a lesson.   The State Standards are a good idea, however almost 100% of the standards listed are 6-12 years old, so I doubt that they are still the standard.  I encountered numerous broken/dead links as well.

This product was not a good fit for our family, but like I said, for the Lesson Plan/Worksheet kind of person, this may be a really good resource.   Luckily, Lesson Planet offers a 10 day free trial membership for parents and teachers.  After your 10 day trial is up, membership is $39.95 annually.

To read more Crew member reviews, click here.

Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.

Massachusetts ~ Week 1

We started our study of Massachusetts off by delving into the history of the State.    We revisited our study of the Pilgrims and Squanto and the Wampanoag, and the Mayflower Compact.

Books we used:

The History of Massachusetts Colony, 1620-1776, by Roberta Wiener and James R. Arnold
A Historical Album of Massachusetts, by Monique Avakian
The Colony of Massachusetts, by Susan Whitehurst
Land of Liberty Massachusetts, by Fran Hodgkins
This Land is Your Land Massachusetts, by Ann Heinrichs

We labeled and colored our state map and state flag.  We also spent time studying the state flower, the mayflower, isn’t is lovely?

Olivia is finishing up Aesop’s Fables this week.  She is also working her way through the Little House chapter book set.  She’s already finished “Pioneer Sisters” and “School Days”.  This week she’s reading “Laura’s Ma”.  (I secretly wonder if Caroline Ingalls was really as sweet and proper as Laura perceived her to be.)

We are in the last few weeks of our curriculum for the year.  Language arts isn’t really introducing any new concepts other than new spelling lists.  There are lots of tedious worksheets, but Olivia enjoys doing them.  Thankfully, I can leave the majority of her worksheets for her to do on her own while I’m at work.   I check them for errors, go over anything that she may have had questions on and then move on for the day. 

Lindsey is doing well with her work.  She’s reading fairly well.  I’m thinking about using “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” over the summer and see how that works for her.  She’s asking to do more reading than the 3-4 sentences in her “readers” and I really think she could jump way ahead. 

We worked on Olivia’s derby car for Awana.  She wanted it to be a “dog car” because everyone knows dogs can run really fast.  (Translation:  they (Thomas and Olivia) have never built a fast car, and she’s wanting to win this year!)

Baseball is going great!  Olivia’s team had an incredible game on Monday, they won 15 – 0!  Their coach has been doing a lot of group activities with them, to build their friendship and team thinking.  It’s paying off!  They worked really well together this week, no one-man shows!  Lindsey’s baseball is fun for her.  I’m disappointed in how little of the fundamentals they are being taught, but I guess it’s not all about learning (I cringed just typing it).

Only THREE more weeks of Co-op!!  I had seriously considered not going this week since I have a lot to get done on Friday and not enough time.  I had already told the husband that I thought we’d skip it…next thing you know, one of the teachers who I assist called and needed me to fill in as the teacher for her class and my hopes of playing hooky were dashed upon the rocks of responsibility….sigh.

Visit the Weekly Wrap Up to see how everyone else managed this week.

Top 100?

I always find it interesting when I get emails that say I’ve made it onto a top 100 list.  Then I spend way too much time checking out the other blogs on the list, and wondering why mine was selected.

None the less, Learning Curve was listed on the Top 100 Blogs for Parenting Advice.  I didn’t realize that I give parenting advice, however I looked at the list and I’m under Homeschooling Advice, so I guess I can live with that. 

So, if you’re in need of something else to do, go check it out!

Joesette

Hahahaaaaa!

Since I have a friend with a badly broken ankle, this comic struck me as particularly funny.

National Park Week

This is National Park week, and that means entry fees to all National Parks are waived!  WOOHOOO!   We took advantage of this freebie this week and went on a field trip to the Shenandoah National Park/Skyline Drive in Virginia.

The weather was PERFECT!  It wasn’t crowded and the husband and I really enjoyed it.  The kids, not so much.  The lack of visible wildlife was oh so disappointing.    However, I still took some lovely photos.

The mountain range in the background is West Virginia.

And we only heard “are we almost home?” 3,892 times on this trip.

Joesette

Blastball

Blastball is a precursor to t-ball.  T-ball being a precursor to little league.   Another way to describe it is mass chaos, and an accident looking to happen.

Each team consists of 12-14 four year olds.  The entire team plays the outfield at one time, as the other team bats.  When the batter hits the ball EVERYONE tries to get the ball at once…and well, it just gets ugly from there.

But really, it’s all about the uniform, or at least to Lindsey anyway. I mean really, how much cuter can she be?

 

She can hit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She can run!  (Just call her the blur!)

 

 

  

 

 

But cute is her strong point.

Connecticut…I’ve Lost Count of the Weeks

 

I keep saying that we’ll only spend 2 weeks on each state.  Apparently, I haven’t convinced myself yet, because we’re still taking 4-6 weeks on each one.   Oh well….such is life.

This week we focused mostly on famous writers of Connecticut, as well as a few stories that took place there.   The kids have fallen in love with Tomie DePaola!

Books we used:

Too Many Hopkins, by Tomie DePaola
Tomie DePaola’s Book of Poems, by Tomie DePaola
The Courage of Sarah Noble, by Alice Dalgliesh

We also completed our 2 page layout in the United States Coloring Book by Rod and Staff Publishing.

We ended our week with our state meal of New England Pot Roast and crumb cake.  The yummy recipes are from Eat Your Way Through the USA, by Loree` Pettit.

Early on in the week we went on a field trip to the Wildlife Center of Virginia.  This facility is an emergency care center for injured/sick/orphaned native animals.  You can read more about our trip by going here.

Our core subjects went well.  Nothing horribly traumatic, or overly brilliant so we’re good.   Lindsey’s reading has improved pretty quickly though.

We had our monthly homeschool activity day this week.  I taught on Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce.  Friday was co-op and I ended up teaching 5 out of 5 class periods instead of my standard 3.  (Did I mention only 4 more days of co-op are left!!)

Baseball is in full swing.  Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn and we almost froze at the Tuesday night game.   Seriously, we had on multiple layers and Lindsey and I ended up huddling under a blanket in the bleachers…it was only 48 degrees.

Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers is on spring break this week.  However, she still diligently posted a Weekly Wrap Up for us, so head over and take a look!

Joesette

Beetle Barn

 

My girls received this as a Christmas gift. It’s one of those “you know you’re a homeschooling family when” kinda gifts.

 

The kids were in love an immediately wanted to order larvae, but I opted to wait until warmer weather.  So here it is, warm weather and we are ready to get started.  The larvae you order are mealworms, that are supposed to turn into Darkling Beetles.  My husband insists that I can use regular ole mealworms from the fishing department at the sporting goods place.

Who am I to argue?  And since he’s in charge of bug activities, let him give it a go.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress, or lack thereof, depending.

Joesette

It’s a Wild, Wild Life!

 

We are blessed to live in an area that has ample opportunities for field trips.  This week we were able to attend an open house at the Wildlife Center of Virginia.  This facility is a hospital for native wildlife.  In an average year, the Wildlife Center treats 2000 patients, with the goal of being able to release the animal back into the wild.

In the initial phase of our tour, we watched a brief video presentation about the facility and how they operate.  Then we were introduced to Hillary, a young opossum who was kept as a pet briefly…but long enough to make her unable to survive in the wild.  She is now a teaching animal for the Center.   Having just completed a study on opossums, this was especially exciting for Olivia and Lindsey.

Next we were given a tour of the facility.  Below are photos of the examination area, x-ray room and operating room.   Much of this equipment was donated by a local hospital…although it’s “out of date” for humans, it comes in real handy with animals in need.

 

Next we toured the kitchen area.  The kitchen was interesting with it’s wide array of foods – fruits, veggies, dead mice, worms- yum.   In order to make sure that the animals are getting the proper foods, the staff has made up menu cards showing just the right amount of “food for each type of animal.

Outside, we were able to view several larger birds of prey who will not be able to return to the wild.  The facility houses a golden eagle, bald eagle, red tailed hawk, barred owl and horned owl.   Each of these animals are unable to return to the wild due to injury or illness.

Olivia, the future vet, LOVED this field trip.  She was disappointed that she couldn’t see the baby bear that is onsite, however hopes are high that he will return to the wild, so he gets minimal human contact.

We were also able to pick up a flyer listing easy ways kids can help the center.  Besides purchasing items children can collect native nuts (acorn, hickory, walnut), collect native berries, and my husbands favorite…harvest earthworms (gag).  So we will be adding some of these activities to our lives, the husband will be in charge of handling the earthworms.

Joesette

Daily Summer Activities – Moving From PreK to Kindergarten Giveaway (U.S.Only)

 

 

Here is the first (I hope not the only) freebie that I’ll have up for grabs during the Big Curriculum Clean Out!

Keep learning alive during the summer!  Research shows that short sessions of daily practice help to maintain, and even increase, what has been learned.   Daily Summer Activities provides ten weeks of appropriate, teacher-developed practice acitivities and resources to help your child make a successful transition from PreK to Kindergarten.

For a chance or two to win:

1.  Leave a comment below. 
2.  If you already follow my blog, give yourself another entry. 
3.  Sign up as a new follower, and giver yourself TWO entries!

Remember to post each comment/entry separately.  Winner will be announced on April 26, 2010.  U.S. residents only please!

Be sure to check out all the other giveaways at the Big Curriculum Clean Out!

Joesette

Welcome!

Welcome to the new and improved version of Learning Curve! Have a look around and check out all the new features! While you are here, feel free to grab a button from my side bar and sign up to follow us in our homeschooling journey.

Please feel free to leave a message and let me know what you think of the new set up. I'll have an exciting announcement about the design coming soon!

Connecticut, Week 3

This has been yet another crazy week for me (shocking I know)!   My husband was moved to first shift for the week.  This worked out well for our evening activities, but it also meant I had to take the kids to work with me.  We packed up their schoolwork and lunches each morning and they set up camp in the waiting room while I worked.   Thankfully, I'm the only one in my office and this was spring break for the music teachers...so we had the building to ourselves.

Olivia finished up her 1st Little House on the Prairie book and has moved onto another in the series.  Although, at the moment, the name escapes me and I'm not walking upstairs to look.  Forgive me.

We also studied the praying mantis (this IS the state insect of Connecticut).  I headed back over to Enchanted Learning to find some anatomy diagrams and printouts of the mantis.  Olivia and Lindsey especially liked this study because of our beloved "Queen Esther" who met an untimely end last summer.  We also made our own paper praying mantis from the printables at Danielles Place.

Books we used:

Praying Mantises, by Larry Dane Brimner
Mantises, by Sylvia A. Johnson
Backyard Hunter The Praying Mantis, by Bianca Lavies
Praying Mantis, by Rebecca Stefoff

The Connecticut state bird is the robin.  This was a wonderful time to be studying robins, as they have appeared in abundance in the neighborhood now that spring has sprung.   The girls had fun counting robins together in addition to our reading.  We incorporated poetry month with our robin studies by using some rhyming books.

Books we used:
My Spring Robin, by Anne Rockwell
Little Robin Redbreast, Mother Goose Rhyme

On Thursday we made a trip to the pediatrician with Olivia.  I thought she had strep, but she doesn't.  They also checked her for mono, which was negative as well.   She does have tonsillitis...and they are HUGE, even worse than Lindsey's were (which is hard to comprehend).   She's on three days of steroids, and then we go back on Monday to see if there is any noticeable and lasting improvement.  If not, we go to the ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor) and start that process.

Both girls had ballet and baseball this week.  There was no Awana because of spring break.   Co-op today had a very low attendance level, not sure if it's the beautiful weather, or everyone is sick.  Either way, only 5 more days of co-op to go!  WOOHOOO!!

I'm also working on getting my blog fully moved over to Blogger.  It's a slow process, but I'm working on it!    If you want to go by and check it our go to the new Learning Curve.   I'll be dual posting until I get everything swapped and set up.

Head over to the Weekly Wrap Up to catch up on everyone else's week.

Time 4 Learning (Review)

We've reviewed a lot of on-line curriculum choices this year. They have all been geared for the elementary age and up. We recently were given a free 30 day membership toTime 4 Learning for the preschooler in our home. Lindsey has been super excited to finally get to do something on the computer!

As you can see below, the graphics are bright and catchy for the younger crowd. The areas designated for clicking the mouse on are large enough for little hands to be able to maneuver to without becoming frustrated or clicking the wrong thing in error.



In the preschool age range, there are 20 different theme packages to choose from. These packages range from school supplies to zoo animals. When I say packages, I mean it quite literally, as each theme is displayed as a box of goodies as shown below.



Inside each package there are different activities to choose from; including but not limited too:

• Storybook
  
• Puzzles
  
• Stories You Write
  
• Find It
  
• Which
  
• Memory Match
  
• Match It
  
• Show Time
  
• Recall
  
• Paint It
  
• Patterns
  
• Syllable Drum
  
• Brainy Bots

Lindsey really enjoyed the activities. Olivia participated more as a cheering section for her sister, except on the Paint It section, then it was every little girl for herself.

Things I like:

• ease of use
  
• fun graphics and characters
  
• short projects for short attention spans
  
• modeling of proper response to being told yes and no (each time you click on an activity you are asked "do you want to ____?" then you can click on a head smiling and nodding yes, or one smiling and nodding no; if you click on no, a very polite voice says something along the lines of "ok, sorry you don't want to do this activity right now, maybe you can try it next time you visit".

The only thing I didn't like is there were some glitches with the sound. On several occasions we only got one or two words of the question. On a few other occasions, there was no verbal question heard so Lindsey had to randomly pick an answer and hope it was the response to the unheard question. For a little girl with a very strong sense of doing things in order, this was a BIT of a problem.

The cost of this product is $19.95 a month per child; $14.95 a month for each additional child. This may or may not be a deterrent for your family based on your needs and your budget. Time 4Learning does offer a two week money back guarantee. You can sign up for grades preschool through 8th grade. Subjects covered are language arts, math, social studies and science.

If you'd like to check out the sites free demo's, click here.

To read more Crew member reviews, click here.



Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.

Don't Panic!!

I'm moving over....it's in progress....check back soon!

Connecticut, Week 2

The ballet performance awards were on Saturday, March 27. This was Olivia's first year to compete, and to be honest I was super nervous. Olivia was much more relaxed than I was. She did a wonderful job and earned a Silver Medal with Distinction honors. We were all so proud of her!



We colored Easter eggs on Saturday evening. It's amazing how many different egg kits you can buy now! I refused to buy the one with glitters and sparkles...it always winds up in the strangest places! We had a great time. My brother the biker comes by every year to color eggs with the girls, and this year was no exception.









Monday was a sick day. Olivia picked up a nasty stomach bug at church on Sunday and it landed her in bed or with her head in the toilet a great part of the day...sigh. Thankfully, it appears to have bypassed the rest of us. Lindsey had ballet and thankfully Olivia had finished puking...so she and I sat in the van while Lindsey danced and got her costume for the ballet recital!

Tuesday we were back in the saddle with our core subjects and our Connecticut study. I prepared a lovely study on skunks to go along with out Connecticut study, because Cantering the Country has it listed as an area to study for science. I assumed it was the state animal....I was wrong, the sperm whale is the state animal. I have no earthly idea why we're studying the skunk in concection with Connecticut. However, once the kids saw the books and the cute little hand puppet that I picked up from the library, there was no chance of NOT learning about skunks. I found a wonderful skunk printable at Enchanted Learning that was fun to color and discuss and it helped us learn to recognize skunk paw prints, which could come in handy and save us tomato juice bath one day!

Books we used:

The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk, by Thornton W. Burgess
Skunks, by Emilie U. Lepthien
Skunks Do More Than Stink, by D.M. Souza
Is There Room on the Feather Bed?, by Libby Moore Gray

Our famous person from Connecticut for the week was Noah Webster. Besides studying his life, we spent time working on using a dictionary more readily. This proved to be a time consuming task, due to the fact that we have 2 really great dictionaries that have lots of wonderful pictures and we got sidetracked, a lot!

Books we used:

Noah Wester and the First American Dictionary, by Luisanna Fodde Melis
Noah Webster Weaver of Words, by Pegi Deitz Shea
Webster's Elemnetary Dictionary
MacMillan Fully Illustrated Dictionary for Children


Olivia had a baseball scrimmage on Tuesday evening. During warm up she got plowed in the face with a wild ball thrown at really close range. Thankfully, it caught her on the jaw line instead of in the mouth. She's been rather subdued since then...go figure.

Wednesday was regular lessons and Awana in the evening. Between our school time and Awana, we worked in our flower beds. We put down12 bags of mulch, and I had to go back for several more to finish the task. On a side note, colored mulch stains your hands pretty badly...so if you see me anytime soon I really have bathed recently...it just doesn't look like it.


Thursday I worked till 1, then we had lunch and schoolwork. Back to the baseball field at 5 for a scrimmage for Olivia's team, and then Lindsey had her first Blastball practice at 7pm. The temperatures were near 80 and it was wonderful!


Friday there was no co-op so I'd hoped to make up an extra day this week. However, after missing a sick day on Monday we were no further ahead by the end of the week. The good news was it was also my birthday, and this year I didn't have to make my own birthday cake! We had company and she brought dinner AND a cake with homemade frosting that was too good!

Overall, it was a great week. We had fun, and it was great to get outdoors again. Head over to the Weekly Wrap Up to catch up on everyone else's happenings.