Winter Wrap Up

Fairytales, Fables, Poetry and Grace~ We start the day with a fairy tale, a fable, and a poem. I like this Eric Carle version of classic Grimm's, Hans Christian Anderson and Aesop. Everyday Graces is a lovely book that uses excepts from classic literature to illustrate manners and virtues. It's going to take us a good long while to go through this book!

Five in a Row Unit Study~ Always a favorite! We enjoyed reading about the Underground Railroad, especially.

Literature~ Our chapter book read alouds have been for our Girls Classic Books Book Club. Everyone loved Anne of Green Gables and it was just long enough since our last reading of Little House in the Big Woods for it to feel brand new to M-8. I have a whole slew of Little House go along books as we work through the series. I liked this picture book, Pioneer Girl, but nothing beats the real thing. The Paddington Treasury was a big part of our winter reading. Every day Paddy Bear would join us on the couch to have a listen.

Nature and Seasons~ Continuing with the animal theme. I love James Herriot and this treasury for kids has beautiful artwork. We have been making animal classification cards with The Burgess Animal Book and learning about North American animal families. I had a basket of lots of winter books but never read them! I did try to read winter themed Five in a Row books, though, so I'm somewhat redeemed.

History~The focus is early American History at History Club so we are reading lots of patriotic stuff! I really like the book Purple Mountain Majesty-The Story of Katherine Lee Bates and America the Beautiful. And once again, what looks like a simple easy reader, George Washington and the General's Dog blew us away with an awesome story of statesmanship! I love this book and the photocopy of an original document in the back!

Art Appreciation~ Along with our Five in a Row art appreciation, we loved Babar's Museum of Art. All of the famous paintings have elephants and it's such a hoot! We then try to find the real painting in our various art books.

Reading~ Basically, everyone has been reading. A lot! That's what rainy days, sick days and really any day is for. I don't have L-14's stack on here because she has her own list on her blog, but she was in on all the HP and Percy Jackson read-a-thons, too. C-12 read books 1-4 in HP and The Lightning Thief but decided he didn't care for the Percy Jackson series and didn't continue on. He did read the Greek Myths book, though. P-10 keeps reading HP 1-4 and PJ 1-5 over and over so I really need to get him hooked on something else! M-8's goal was to read all 43 of the Magic Tree House books in order. She completed her goal!

Math~We love the How Much is a Million and other books. There's a new Sir Cumference book we were excited to get and we had some fun with Penrose the Mathematical Cat. (I believe the papers that are sticking out of the book are from the fractals story.) Most of the kids thought the History of Counting was really interesting, but one of them, (ahem) thought it was super boring! I was disappointed in Volume 2 of Mathematicians Are People, too. I like Vol. 1 much better.

Geography Envelope System~ I read about this years ago and started it when L-14 was about 5. It's been brought out again and M-8 and P-10 really like it! The large manila envelopes are for Continents, the smaller blue envelopes are for Countries and the small white envelopes are for States/Provinces etc. within countries.

The Continent envelope holds a map of the continent and each country is colored in as we study it. The Country envelope has pictures of famous landmarks that the country is known for and an image of it's flag. The small white State/Province envelopes can then hold cards with city names. It is such a nice tangible manipulative to figure out the whole Continent/Country/State/City mystery.

I just remembered a hysterical conversation I had with a 10 year old boy at Legoland a few years ago. As we were chatting while standing in line I asked him where he was from since he said they were staying in a hotel. He confidently stated, "North America!" His dad and I had a good chuckle over that! The fact is, it is a very abstract concept, so I think this envelope system, as you put the proper countries into the proper continent envelope, really helps.

P-10's 3 R's Pile(The drawing of Babar and the mini fig heads are his doodles while I read aloud. No tracing!)

M-8's 3 R's Pile~

The Three R's and Activities~

L-14: Sword of Freedom ( Civil War class), 2nd Semester Shakespeare Conquest (play rehearsals start this week), Math goals with Mentor, Piano, Blogging, Personal Progress/Young Women, Girl Scouts, Show Choir with homeschool group, Ensemble Singing Class with church girls, History Club, Tae Kwon Do, Seminary

C-12: Math practice with Right Start games and Spectrum math sheets, Spelling practice using Phonics Pathways, Writing using Key Word Outline form from Excellence in Writing, History Club, Violin, Boy Scouts

P-10: Math games from Right Start math and Spectrum math sheets, Spelling with Phonics Pathways, Writing using Comprehension Quickies and Draw Write Now books, History Club, Piano, Cub Scouts

M-8: Math games using cuisinaire rods and base ten blocks, Miquon math for concepts, Handwriting Without Tears for handwriting, Primary Language Lessons done verbally for grammar, Punctuation Takes a Vacation for punctuation (obviously), Dictation with Phonics Pathways for spelling and Spectrum Spelling, Oakmeadow Animal Stories reader for reading aloud, but we dropped this in favor of Magic Tree House, Piano, Brownies, Activity Day at church, History Club

I guess that's it for January February, and March!