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I’m loving the way the greens and pinks look in this weeks freebie packet. Be sure to download your copy today by clicking here.
If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price.
Here in Virginia, the leaves have not yet reached their fall color peak, and yet, there is a distinct feeling of winter in the air, and on the ground. Yes, that’s really snow…several inches of snow, in October.
We’re still harvesting our pumpkins, squashes and late vegetables. Here’s my lovely backyard pumpkin patch. So much for the phrase “frost on the pumpkin”.
I captured some lovely photos of the fall foliageand brilliantly blooming flowers in their blanket of snow. So I thought I’d share a few of my favorites.
The kids, and the dog had a blast playing outside today. The poor pup wasn’t too sure what to make of all the snow.
The snow person, “Wilson”, ended up being a fun concoction. The newly fallen leaves stuck to the newly fallen snow as it was being rolled…and well, he just looks like he has some issues. Although the marigold necklace is a nice touch.
We wrapped our day up with a little snack to go along with the fall meets winter theme of the day.
S’mores and hot cocoa!
We left the gardens and snow in good hands though!
We finished our second grading period this week. Both girls did well, although Olivia’s spelling grade dropped to a B, because she failed to review two of her spelling lists and scored poorly on those two tests. We’ve changed her procedure for independent work so hopefully she’ll be less likely to “skip” sections this time.
Geography/History: South Dakota was pretty interesting for several reasons. The first of course being Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Big Horn. It was very interesting at dinner to listen to them retelling Sitting Bulls life story. (Did you know his original name was “Slow” because even as a young child he seemed to be slow and methodical?) The other really interesting thing was Mount Rushmore. I was thrilled that Lindsey could identify all of the Presidents on it, even Roosevelt!
Books we used:
South Dakota; by Karen Sirvaitis
South Dakota; by Dennis Brindell Fradin
Mount Rushmore; by Andrew Santella
George Armstrong Custer; by Zachary Kent
George Armstrong Custer, The Indian Wars and the Battle of Little Big Horn; by Paul Christopher Anderson
Sitting Bull; by Herman J. Viola
A Picture Book of Sitting Bull; by David A. Adler
The Sioux; by Alice Osinski
The Dakota Sioux; by Jeanne Oyawin Eder
Picture of the Past Life of a Sioux Village; by Sally Senzell Isaacs
Math: Olivia started learning how to find the unknown number in an equation. It went well, but it’s going to take a bit to get the hang of it. Finding the number isn’t the issue, it’s all the steps to finding it that is causing her brain to lock up. Lindsey began working with half of an item. In addition to our normal school work, I added some living math books to our reading for the week. I thought this would be a fun and helpful way to see how math is used every day.
Books we used:
Divide and Ride; by Stuart J. Murphy
The Doorbell Rang; by Pat Hutchins
Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar; by Masaichiro and Mitsumasa Anno
Spelling: We plowed through two lessons in All About Spelling this week. We got a bit behind early on and I’m trying to get Olivia caught back up. Lindsey is on her 9th spelling list for the year.
First Language Lessons: Antonyms and synonyms were our new topics for the week. We also worked on improving our memorization of the list of prepositions.
Reading: Olivia is reading The Light and the Glory for Children by Peter Marshall and David Manuel. Lindsey has finished her second Abeka reader, Tiptoes.
Science: We finished up our study of electricity, circuits and switches. We also learned identify natural lights (moon, sun, stars) made by God, and man made lights (flashlight, lamps etc.)
Awana: Olivia’s T&T Awana book has an extra credit section that requires her to read about a missionary to a foreign land. So I decided to combine that with her reading work for the next little while. So she’s currently reading David Livingstone, Africa’s Trailblazer by Janet & Geoff Benge. Lindsey is averaging 2-3 verses each week.
Ballet/tap: Having dance lessons twice a week has really been a great thing for the girls this year. I can see a much bigger improvement in their skill level. They are both preparing for performance awards in addition to Nutcracker work.
Piano: Olivia is playing real songs now (abbreviated versions). This makes it much easier for me to be able to pick up on errors and help her.
We made popcorn balls last night (and no, I didn’t think to take photos). Then tonight we headed out to our annual October weenie roast…in the SNOW!! I kid you not, we have at least an inch of snow on the ground already. Photos tomorrow I hope!
Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up and link up!
Every year there are used curriculum sales…and most of my used stuff comes back home after the sale is ended. Twice a year Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations hostesses the Curriculum Clean Out, and I do manage to give away a few things. Yet my used, no longer needed, or didn’t work for us box of supplies has continued to grow.
What’s a homeschool mom to do?
Well today I found out about a great group called The Book Samaritan. This is a non-profit group based out of Oklahoma, who take in donated curriculum and then ship it out to homeschooling families who have felt the financial crunch and can’t afford the needed supplies.
What?? Give away stuff? To a stranger?? Yes, you can donate your used, unwanted curriculum and manipulatives to help out another homeschooling family in need. Your donation AND your shipping fees are tax deductible, but that pales in comparison to being able to help another family to homeschool.
How to help:
* Book donations: We accept any used books, workbooks, flash cards, kits, DVDs, CD-ROMS, and school supplies. They will be catalogued for immediate redistribution.
* Cash donations: Be assured that 100% of all contributions will be used to purchase much-needed curriculum.
*Books, curriculum, cash contributions and postage are all tax deductible gifts.
* Please pray for our continued efforts to reach out to homeschooling families through this ministry.
Please forward donations to:
The Book Samaritan
1715 Grandview Ave
Pawhuska, OK 74056
NOTE: Shipping via "Media Mail" is the most inexpensive rate available. Just ask the clerk for the "Media Mail" rate when shipping books, curriculum, or other materials.
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Circles and polka dots are so much fun to work with! These layouts are just plain fun!
Remember Christmas is coming soon, scrapbooking software makes a great gift for new moms, or busy moms who just don’t have time to drag out all the scrapbook supplies on a regular basis! If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price.
Busy busy busy!! Yes, really…I’m sure you can’t relate at all, right?
Early in the week be headed to the woods to gather walnuts and acorns for the animals at the Virginia Wildlife Center.
Midweek was a flurry of doctor appointments, job interviews and playing catch up.
On Thursday we had our first Activity Day of the year. I’m teaching on famous women in history and this month we focused on Helen Keller.
Friday we hit the pumpkin patch with my brother and brought home WAY too many pumpkins! But, for $25 for all you can fit in a wagon, it was still a great deal!
In between all of that we actually managed to get some education in!
History/Geography: North Dakota was our state of the week. We also read about blizzards as North Dakota can get some extreme winter weather.
Books we used:
History of North Dakota; by Elwyn B. Robinson
North Dakota; by Darlene R. Stille
North Dakota; by Robin L. Silverman
North Dakota; by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin
Blizzard; by Jim Murphy
The Blizzard; by Betty Ren Wright
City of Snow, The Great Blizzard of 1888; by Linda Oatman High
Science: I’m not going to lie to you here…we never got around to it this week.
Spelling: Yep, ditto.
Language Lessons: Ditto, again.
Latin: We did work on Latin and now know our number 1-10.
Math: More 4 digit division for Olivia. Lindsey learned to identify the hundreds column.
Ballet/tap: Both girls are working on their performance awards pieces. In addition, Nutcracker practices have started too.
Piano: Olivia memorized “Oh When The Saints” this week.
To my knowledge, Kris will not be hosting a Weekly Wrap Up this week due to a tragic loss in her close circle of friends. Please keep both Kris and Christina’s families in your prayers this week.
This year for activity day I’m teaching the 7 & 8 year old girls class. I thought it would be fun to do a study of famous women in history and tie it in with career options for women. Sounds like a plan, right?
I’m sure you’ve already guessed that this month we learned about Helen Keller. I’m not sure why, but most little girls are totally enthralled with Helen’s life. We read about Helen’s childhood, her illness and the incredible accomplishments she achieved as she matured.
I printed a copy of the Braille Alphabet for each girl to keep. The girls then practiced writing their names in Braille.
Then each child was given a copy of a Braille magazine (National Geographic, Science World etc.) The magazines were donated to us by a two ladies from my church, twins who are both blind since birth. We learned about the heavy paper used for braille books and magazines and spent some time trying to translate the magazines using our alphabet printable.
The absolute best part of the class was operating as a blind person for a while. I found the coolest black head band (for a DOLLAR) that covered the girls eyes completely and kept out any light.
We practiced finding our way around the room (and later to a field trip throughout the church with our eyes closed and only the sound of my voice, and their hands as a guide.
We practiced getting dressed without sight.
We practiced pouring drinks for guests using our finger tips as a guide for when the cup was full enough. Each time I changed the setting. Some girls had two or more cups to fill, some of the cups were upside down, some were already full of water. I have to admit, I was expecting a lot of spilled water during this activity, but the girls concentrated and did a great job!
Books we used:
All About Braille, Reading By Touch; by Laura S. Jeffrey
Helen Keller; by Muriel L. Dubois
Helen Keller, Her Life in Pictures; by George Sullivan
Helen Keller, A Light For The Blind; by Kathleen V. Kudlinski
We also went to the gym and played a short game of blind mans bluff, but I forgot to take the camera along. This was a really great class, lots of enthusiasm and pardon the pun, but it was very eye-opening for the girls to get a taste of how blindness affects people’s daily lives.
I’m loving the browns and blues in this weeks freebie pack! So many options for these great color schemes. Download your freebie here.
If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price.
Earlier this month we went to the Virginia Wildlife Center on a field trip. While we were there they told us about the 168 baby squirrels that had been brought in after a hurricane blew through the state, knocking down trees and squirrel nests.
One of the items we picked up while there was a list of ways kids can help the Center. One of the ideas on the list was to collect native nuts and berries. Berry season is long gone, but nuts are plentiful, so we hit the woods and set the girls to work.
Acorns were hard to find for some reason. Between the two girls they collected only one grocery bag full of acorns.
Walnuts are another story. We ended up with nineteen bags of walnuts!
We didn’t find any hickory nuts or chestnuts. But there should be some happy little squirrel tummies full of walnuts. This is our first service project of the school year.
This has been a crazy weather week. We had temperatures in the 80’s one day, in the 50’s a coupe days, low 40’s at night, a thunderstorm, some tornadoes and another earthquake, followed by three days of rain. This is October? In Virginia?
Besides the ever changing outside world, we had a pretty productive week. We didn’t get in as much walking because of the weather, but we did enjoy a couple of spur of the moment afternoon teas.
Geography/history: Colorado was our state of the week. We also learned about Quanah Parke. Although Quanah was not born in Colorado, he tied in because of his legacy with the Comanche people, who’s homeland was in part of Colorado. Truthfully, my girls love any opportunity to study about Native Americans.
Books we used:
Colorado, Land of Liberty; by Sandra J. Christian
Colorado; by Barbara A. Somervill
The Comanche; by Willard H. Rollings
The Comanche Indians; by Martin J. Mooney
The Last Comanche Chief; The Life and Times of Quanah Parker; by Bill Neeley
Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief; by Claire Wilson
Plains Warrior, Chief Quanah Parker and the Comanche's; by Albert Marrin
Purple Mountain Majesties; by Barbara Younger
Reading: Olivia read Prairie School by Avi. It was a short read, but it went with our study of Colorado. Lindsey finished up the Beehive Reader this week.
Language Arts: We continue to work on prepositions. We also reviewed all of our memorized poems as well.
Spelling: Lindsey’s spelling lists work on the special sounds she’s learned in phonics. Olivia finished up lesson 8 in All About Spelling and spelling list number 10 from Super Teacher Worksheets.
Math: Lindsey began working with calendars this week. Olivia began working with triple digit division. Early in the week we were doing well…by mid week, not so much. Much of Friday was spent in review.
Science: We began studying electricity this week. We worked on simple circuits, and circuit breakers. We also identified things throughout the house that need electricity to operate.
Latin: The main focus in Lesson 9 was the numbers 1-5. The girls keep switching mid-stream into Spanish, which is similar but not what we’re going for.
Awana: Moving along quickly here. This week both girls will be reciting the books of the New Testament. This was an easy week as they both have these memorized already. I had a very light class this week…1 student is all!
Ballet: Both girls have been learning dances for the performance awards (in March). This weekend begins Nutcracker rehearsals so it’s full steam ahead now!
Piano: Olivia’s piano instructor has gone back to work full time and we’re doing a different day and time for her lessons. The new time/day works well for us, but so far the instructor has been late or had to reschedule each week…so we may need to make a change here, which I truly don’t want to do.
Remember its time to nominate your favorite blogs for the Homeschool Blog Awards!
That’s pretty much our week. Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!
Each week (if I don’t’ forget) I’ll be offering you a freebie pack to go with your My Memories software. I love the colors and shapes in todays freebie pack. You can download your freebie by clicking here.
If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price.
To learn more, and to nominate your favorite blogs, go over to the The Homeschool Post. (Yes you CAN nominate your own blog.) There are incredible awards, and you can check that out on the Awards Update Page.
Our week started out with several field trips. We attended homeschooler day at the Frontier Culture Museum, attended an open house at the Virginia Wildlife Center and Lindsey sang at WorshipFest 2011.
Geography/history: Nebraska was our focal state this week. President Gerald Ford was our famous person in our state study. It’s amazing how homeschooling the kids points out the huge gaps in my education. I did not know that 1) Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. Nor did I know that he was the only president to ever fill the office without being elected to either vice president or president. (He replaced Vice President Spiro Agnew and then President Richard Nixon after his resignation.)
Books we used:
Nebraska; by Ruth Bjorklund
Nebraska; by Ann Heinrichs
Nebraska; by Myra S. Weatherly
Sod Houses of the Great Plains; by Glen Rounds
Dandelions; by Eve Bunting
Encyclopedia of Presidents, Gerald Ford; by Paul P. Siperia
Getting to Know the Presidents, Gerald R. Ford; by Mike Venezia
Profiles of the Presidents, Gerald R. Ford; by Andrew Santella
Science: We finished studying magnets and electromagnets this week.
Reading: Olivia read Anna’s Blizzard by Alison Hart. She devoured this book in 2 sittings! As we read the authors information in the back of the book we learned that Mrs. Hart lives locally and teaches creative writing at the local community college. Pretty cool stuff! Lindsey read through the Beehive Reader (now known as Cobweb the Cat).
Math: Lindsey’s new skill this week is measuring with a ruler. This went well, once she consistently started measuring from the right end of the ruler. Olivia’s newest skill was dividing with a remainder…and it went good…whew!
Latin: We finished up lesson 8 in Prima Latina this week. The girls are doing well with this program and it’s flowing nicely. We’re a week off where I’d hoped to be, but I skipped one week just because we were too busy and I need the extra time in other areas.
Language Arts: I have NEVER understood prepositions I hated sentence diagraming because I always had to guess at what the heck a preposition was. Then low and behold First Language Lessons explained it in a simple form and gave me a list of words and tada!! I understand it now, and so do the girls. LOVE this program!!
Writing: Olivia is working through her Abeka Cursive Skillbook and is loving it. (I mean seriously, it’s all about animals, need I say more?) She’s also working through the first of the Writing Strands books. Lindsey is continuing to work on her cursive writing and is getting much neater in her work.
Awana: Both girls have their new books for the year. Lindsey recited her first 6 scriptures this week. Olivia received her book this week so she’ll start the new recitations next week. My kindergarten girls class is small, which is good because at least one of them really needs a lot of one on one work. I’m really enjoying working with this group of kids!
Ballet/tap: This will be our last free weekend before Nutcracker practices take over our lives! Lots of dancing around the house going on here!
Once again, I’m posting my Weekly Wrap Up a day early. I’ll be heading out of town tomorrow to the Extraordinary Women Conference, so I’ll post a link to W.U.S. when I get back home!
Olivia’s hearts desire is to be a veterinarian. She loves anything that involves animals, so I try to give her as many opportunities to be exposed to animals as possible. The Virginia Wildlife Center is a great opportunity to learn about caring for wildlife, and they open their facilities up in spring and fall for open houses to the public. They also schedule field trips for groups and travel to schools as well.
The staff does a 30 minute presentation, during which you get to meet one of their educational animals (an animal who is unable to be returned to the wild for various reasons). This time, we met Pignoli, a red screech owl.
During an open house, you get a guided tour of the facility (including the x-ray room, operating room (from outside the glass viewing window) and evaluation/treatment rooms, kitchen and a tour of the outdoor facilities and animals that will not be able to go back into the wild.
Baby animals, and animals and adult animals who are being rehabilitated for release are not open for display as the amount of human contact is VERY limited so as not to endanger the animals when they are released.
Below is Buddy the bald eagle. He suffered from avian pox and a large lesion on his beak caused the beak to become severely damaged. He cannot be released because he wouldn’t be able to feed himself due to the beak condition.
We also picked up a list of how kids can help the center. One of the ways is by supplying the center with native nuts in the shell (acorn, hickory, walnuts). So we’ll be heading out in the upcoming weeks collecting food for the critters.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by to enter my most recent giveaway. I was really surprised that there weren’t more entries, but I’m guessing that most of us already have our planners for the year. Maybe??
Congratulations to Jessy at Our Side of the Mountain, you’re the winner of the On the Go Planner! Look for an email from me soon!
If you live in or near the Shenandoah Valley, or if you are going to be traveling through the area a MUST do field trip is the Frontier Culture Museum. You can schedule group field trips or do a family trip.
This past week was homeschooler day (lower rates, and extra things to do). My kids LOVED it. We got to see lots of friends, some that we didn’t even know were homeschooling until we ran into them. We were fortunate as well to be in a position to help someone while there. We found a lost younger sibling of one of Olivia’s baseball teammates from several years ago. She recognized Lindsey (they have ballet on the same day) and came over and said she couldn’t find her mom. Some 30 minutes later, I’d found her panic stricken mom and siblings and reunited the family.
Our first stop was at the Igbo village. 90% of the slaves brought to America were from this tribe and so the museum wanted to include their history. Olivia loved working in the yam fields, Lindsey as usual was more of the “home body” and preferred working in Wife #1’s summer kitchen.
Then we moved on to the English farm. The girls worked in the kitchen grating bread to make fritters. We moved into the parlor where the girls were shown how to card wool and prepare it for spinning. We then headed out into the yard to play ring toss.
The Irish farm was our next stop. The girls love the pigs and chickens, although I personally wouldn’t be too thrilled about having the pigpen right outside my front door. Then we went inside to grind oats for flour, do a little house keeping and see how flax is weaved to make linen.
The German farm is a favorite with the girls. I’m not sure why, but they could spend the day there! Lindsey loves taking the flax through the process from “weed” to fibers for spinning.
As we landed in the frontier of Virginia, the girls stopped to help build a log cabin and take lesson on loading and firing a musket.
What’s the frontier without and Indian? Not much. We visited the new Indian wigwam, and met a truly fascinating (white guy), who was very knowledgeable about making bows and arrows, hunting and herbs. The fact that he reminded me of Mel Gibson in Braveheart made it a favorite of mine….but he used the word “groovy” several times which totally ruined my fantasy of him. (Just being real.)
Anyway, back to the American frontier! We visited two houses that would have been upgrades from the log cabin. The girls helped make homemade egg noodles and watched some wood work.
We ended our day at a visit to the market place. Their were various artisans on-site, anxious to show their skills and sell their wares.
As you see, there are LOTS of things to see, do and learn while visiting the Frontier Culture Museum. Like I said, it’s a MUST do field trip. For those who live close, they also have a week long summer camp for kids!
