Today is National Cream Filled Doughnut Day!! Who knew??

If you feel like celebrating (and really...who wouldn't want to celebrate this one), you could take the easy route and stop by a local doughnut shop, but if you're feeling like doing something from scratch, here's a recipe for indulgent homemade cream filled doughnuts to help you get your doughnut fix.  Heck, you could even call it home economics and do this for school.  It is cooking, and that totally counts!  Enjoy!  http://buff.ly/2cXIUz4

Online Homeschooling Resource

As my kids get older, I'm all about them learning things on their own.  Also, as a one income family, I'm also all about things that don't cost a small fortune.  I recently discovered a new homeschooling resource that covers both those bases.  Its called Schoolhouse Teachers.  Its from the folks at The Old Schoolhouse.  They have hundreds of online classes available for all ages.   Pre-K through high school and even classes for adults.  I showed the website to my 16 year old daughter and she even got excited by some of the classes offered.  The best part is that you can try out their site and see what you think for $1 for the first month.  Its just $12.95 per month after that.  Or, you can choose their buy one get one free deal and buy one year and get the second free.  That's awesome!

One thing I appreciate about the site is that its for your entire family.  You pay the fee and anybody and everybody in your home can learn.  They don't charge per child like so many sites do.  To me, this was a no brainer.  Check it out, you might find some classes that get your kids fired up about learning!

Summer Bug Explorations

Boys being boys, and my having two of them means that we've seen a lot of bugs this summer.  We have had so many cicadas in our yard.  You never know where you're going to find their exoskeletons!  We've had them on the side of our garden boots, my husband's car tire, the house, etc.  My son, the expert, tells me these are common Dog Day cicadas.  I have to say, they are huge and quite impressive!  These guys can measure up to 2" in length.  Its especially cool when you find one in the midst of hatching out of its shell.  I found just such a specimen early one morning.

I came across him just as he was starting to emerge.  He's belly up at this point.  My little expert also tells me that this is a male because of his little cymbal flaps for making the super loud noise they're famous for.  Its how he attacks his mate.  Some people say the sound reminds them of a power saw.  It is certainly loud enough.  See how tiny his little wings are?

Just a few minutes later, his wings have fully unfurled and are almost dry.  He also somehow managed to flip over so he's not belly up any longer.

Now he's just waiting to fully dry before flying off, leaving his empty shell behind.  His color will darken and he'll turn either brown or black.  They vary greatly in color.  He will only live for a few weeks at best, but he'll be very busy during that time trying to continue the species.  Very cool!

This particular bug would make a great subject for any budding bug enthusiasts to study.  They are found everywhere, they big and impressive, and they don't bite.  There are lots of different species and some live underground for as many as 17 years!  You could create your own unit study, notebook pages, or even a lap book.  Happy learning!

Homeschooling Words of Wisdom & Encouragement

As this year comes to an end for most of you, I wanted to share some advice that was given to me by a fellow homeschool mom when I was struggling through our first year of homeschooling high school.  I'm a worrier and have had a seriously hard time adjusting to the rigorous amount of work involved in homeschooling my 9th grader.  Thankfully I reached out to some fellow homeschool moms in my tiny Catholic homeschool group and received these words of wisdom.  I am sharing them with you with her permission.

1 - Prayer. Pray alone, together, and as a family.

2 - Family Unity. Enlist your husband's support to back you up emotionally and practically, if possible. Have him help strategize accountability.

3 - Consistency. Be consistent with expectations and consequences. If it is a situation where respect isn't being given, address that issue. If it's underperforming academically, set benchmarks and enforce them.

4 - Communication. Discuss the situation with your child and strategize ways to resolve disconnects. Chances are that not only you are unhappy about the way things are going, but they are as well. They should have a vested interest in helping to solve these challenges with you.

5 - Listen. Listen to God speaking to you through your heart, your intellect, your husband, and others. Then take steps that will best fit your family's unique challenges. For me, it meant choosing a subject a child loved (acting) and immersing her in set design and acting classes for high school credit (which also motivated her to work harder to complete other work so she could pursue her passion). For another, it meant looking beyond the skipping of lessons/ missed class work to determine that child was bored and needed a more engaging way to learn math beyond textbook (it ended with a math tutor for one and online for another). 

6 - Think Outside the Box. If every subject is simply read a chapter and test, that would bore most people. Skip every other chapter test and find another way to pursue learning of those concepts. Write a report on a related project. Cook a meal from a country you are studying. Have them prepare a 4 week exercise routine for you and their siblings to do with them. Watch a documentary and prepare a paper on 10 things learned from that documentary. Research and draw medieval costumes in history. Write a poem about a book they read. Design a PowerPoint presentation about types of mammals in Biology. Pre establish a grading rubric (x points for neatness, x for creativity, x for grammar, x for content, x for using MLA or APA format, etc.), then use these types of projects to break up the testing monotony, and provide other ways to earn grades that aren't solely based on traditional tests.

7 - Keep Goals in Sight. Determine if your goal is college preparatory or not. Do you want to take advantage of free community college classes by grade 11 (only books have to be bought)? If so, make sure they are focusing on those subjects that will best prepare them for their future environment. Reading, writing, and math skills must be strong before entering community college, and a solid science foundation is important as well.

These are some things that come to mind. It's a huge challenge to be seeking ways to challenge and encourage your kids spiritually, academically, emotionally, and socially. 9th grade was a big challenge year for me with my firstborn daughter, 8th and 10th for my son.... Quite honestly, it was prayer, communication, and the support of my husband that got me through it. 
Hang in there, and do what you can to take a step back and re group with your child so that your relationship can grow in a positive way, and you can work together to find ways to make these high school years successful and rewarding for both of you.

Yeah for Election Day!

Can I say how glad I am that all the election hoopla will soon be a thing of the past? It seems that every time I turn on the television there's yet another political ad accusing someone or another of doing less than savory things. Here locally, my least favorite is one that talks about subjects such as abortions and mistresses. Not something I want to explain to my young children! I'm just glad it will soon be behind us.

My husband and I were lucky enough to have an afternoon off on October 31st. We took advantage of it to head downtown and do the early voting. We were able to walk right in and vote. No waiting required. How awesome is that? Because I live in such a small town and the fact that they weren't busy at all, I kept my kids with me. They were able to actually come into the booth with me and read the screens, follow the instructions, etc. We discussed how it all works and they even took turns touching the screen to vote for the various candidates. I really think that allowing my kids to see the process first hand, and teaching them the importance of voting is very important. I'm hoping that even though I really dislike politics in general, I've made it more approachable for my kids.

Tonight as the votes are tallied, we'll color the states either red or blue and follow along until our new president is announced. During our school day we'll be talking about elections and the presidency. Earlier this week we were able to watch a really interesting program called "Flipping the White House". It showed what goes on behind the scenes at the White House when a new first family is on the way. It was amazing! It was also filled with history and photos of presidents from the past. We all learned so much! Lastly, I purchased a unit study from CurrClick called All About the Presidential Election to help them understand the process.

Do you do anything special with your kids during an election year?

Introducing the Elements!

I have to admit, while I find chemistry experiments loads of fun, I get lost in the details when it comes to studying things like the Periodic Table. We touched on this subject a bit last week in reading about atoms. Haley got a bit glassy eyed while I was reading, although the boys seemed to understand. Maybe its that whole math thing again. They just seem to "get" math while Haley and I have to actually work at it. Regardless, in my quest to make the elements fun and more approachable, I found this fun song from They Might Be Giants.



I also printed out black and white copies of the Period Table for them to color and have some fun with. I also found a neat website that allows the kids to see the entire table, and by clicking on any of the individual elements they can find out more about it. It gives a picture and description of each one. This really helped in my opinion. All those numbers and symbols is just WAY too confusing in my opinion! Overall, I think that's enough for right now. I mean seriously, I managed to graduate from highschool and I don't think I even knew that much. Regardless, if you happen to be studying chemistry this year as we are, you might want to give some of these ideas a try!

Protons, Neutrons, Electrons and more...Fun with Atoms!

This year we're once again doing our Classically Catholic Memory program.  Last year it was all about earth science and astronomy.  This year we get to delve into the exciting study of chemistry and physics.  We've done some chemistry in the past using Real Science 4 Kids, and really enjoyed it.  We'll be using some of those studies again this year, and adding in lots more. 

Week 1 of our memory work focuses on atoms.  We spent the first two days reading about atoms in our Real Science 4 Kids, Pre-Level 1, and Level 1 books, Fizz, Bubble & Flash chemistry book, and the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science book. On Wednesday and Thursday I decided to do something more interesting and fun.  So, after scouring the internet for resources, here are a few of the fun ones we did.  First and foremost, Bill Nye The Science Guy has a segment on atoms!



Next, we made models of atoms using Play-doh. Adam chose to make a carbon atom. I was seriously amazed at how much he retained from the books we read. He used the Periodic Table of Elements to determine that his atom needed to have 6 protons, which he made out of purple Play-doh. Then, since all elements must have the same number of electrons as protons, he made 6 small balls of light brown Play-doh to zoom around the nucleus of his atom. He then determined that carbon has an atomic weight of 12.011, which allowed him to figure out that he needed 6 neutrons as well. He used mint green Play-doh for this. By the way, he remembered (all by himself), that you take the atomic weight of the element you wanted to make, and subtract the number of protons it has,and you'll know how many neutrons it has. Pretty cool, huh? Why is it that he gets this so easily while Haley and I had to re-read everything multiple times to make sense of it? So not fair!

Lastly, I found a cute little song that is sung to the tune of The Addams Family theme song.  I'm dating myself here...  My kids had no idea who the Addam's were, so that led to another search to give them little background info.  It really helps if you listen to the original theme song first to get an idea of how to sing this. 


Now that you know the tune, plug in these lyrics and have some fun! Hope your week was as fun as ours!

They're tiny and they're teeny 
Much smaller than a beany,
They never can be seeny,  
The Atoms Family.
 
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.  
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
 
Together they make gases,
And liquids like molasses,
And all the solid masses,  
The Atoms Family
 
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)

Neutrons can be found,
Where protons hang around;
Electrons they surround  
The Atoms Family
 
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)

Preparing for Lent

Its truly hard to believe, but the season of Lent is almost upon us.  Where did the time go?  I feel like we just celebrated Christmas and now its already time to prepare for Easter!  I have been sick for over a week now, along with my entire family at one time or another.  At the moment its just two of us and everyone else is feeling much better.  Feeling so bad and spending way too much time in my PJ's laying in bed has given me the time I need to do some planning.  In looking through curriculum for next year and for the remainder of this year I stumbled across a wonderful resource for Catholic lapbooks.  Its called Lapbooks for Catholics.  It was really, really hard to choose just one to do for now, but since Lent is almost here, I decided to start with that.  Here's a summary of what's included with the Lent: A Journey Towards Easter Double Faith Folder.  I'll keep you posted on how we like it!

• Decorative Front Cover
• "The History of Lent in the Catholic Church" Book
• "Words We Hear During Lent" Folder Book
• "Lenten Customs" Open-Up Book Set
• "Ash Wednesday" Unfolding Rectangle Book
• "Palm Sunday" Palm Branch Shape Book
• "Triduum" Triple-Decker Book
• "Growing Spiritually With Common Lenten Practices" Multiple Tabs Book
• "Stations of the Cross" Graduated Pages Book
• "Confession" Pocket with Cards
• "Scripture and Prayers for the Days of Lent" Book Set with Pocket
• "Saints of the Lenten Season" Pick-a-Tab Book
• "Lenten Calendar Count Down"
• "Questions and Answers About Lent" Pick-a-Flap Book
• "My Lenten Commitments" List
• "My Lenten Tree of Spiritual Growth" Back Cover
• Assembly Instructions
• Sample Pictures

Mercury Models!

This particular activity didn't exactly turn out as planned, but the boy's enjoyed it none the less, so I guess we'll call it a success.  We're studying the planets again this year along with lots of other fun earth and space science.  This week we learned about Mercury.  Since Haley was taking AGES to finish up her math, the boys and I did this particular activity without her. 

First, we mixed up a big batch of salt dough from a recipe in the textbook.  I suppose it should have been thicker and maybe it would've worked better.  We were supposed to have balls, but ours looked like blobs.  The dough was just too soft to hold the sphere shape needed for Mercury.  So, we considered it half of Mercury.

Then, once we had our Mercury model to work with, the boys proceeded to make craters of all depths and sizes to recreate the surface of  Mercury.  You may have noticed that they are in their pajamas...yes, that's a big perk of homeschooling.  They don't have to get dressed!  Nothing says school time like PJ's. 

The boys really had fun figuring out all kinds of objects to make different types of craters.  Pencils, crayons, and even odd shaped Legos were used.  We sat the models aside to dry for a few hours and to share with daddy when he came home.  As I said before, I obviously need more practice on salt dough, because the models dried on the outside, but stayed gooey inside.  We finally gave up and simply threw them away. 

Making Volcanoes!

My children and I are participating in a homeschool co-op for the first time in many years.  We're using a Catholic Classical memorization program called Classically Catholic Memory.  We meet once a week on Fridays with a bunch of other Catholic families.  I'm  teaching science for the co-op and we're getting ready to study volcanoes.  So, to prepare for our lesson and activity this week, my kids and I had the fun task of making a paper mache' volcano.  I've only done paper mache' once in my life, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  Here are the kids having fun making a HUGE mess in my driveway.

Here are the two finished volcanoes.  This week we'll be painting them in preparation for the following week when we'll explode them!  The kids are all SO exicted!

They turned out pretty good I thought.  Now if I can just get the eruption to be impressive enough for the kids to be impressed.  I think they have visions of lava shooting up several feet.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Nature Studies from home...

Lately we've been hearing some rather interesting sounds coming from the trees around our house. We have an abundance of Periodical Cicadas that just came above ground for the first time in 13 years. The boys love them, but Haley is seriously freaked out by them. I personally think any bug that lives for 13 years is something worth learning about. Plus, they are harmless to humans. So, aside from the fact that they are HUGE, have red eyes, are VERY noisy, flying everywhere, and generally making a nuisance of themselves, they're kinda cool.

Check out this cool caterpillar that we found! He was very similar to the inch worms we're all familiar with, only much BIGGER! Ryan loves caterpillars and is fearless in picking them up. He picked this one up and played with him for a bit before sending him on his way. No idea what kind he is...

Next are our resident bluebirds which I love. Mr. Bluebird comes right up on the deck and sits on the hanger for our bird feeder. He likes to eat the cat food out of the bowl on the deck rail. This has allowed me to get some awesome close up pictures of him!

Last are the four little eggs we discovered in a tree in our front yard. They're mockingbird eggs. We've been watching them for days to see when they hatch. Mommy Mockingbird does not like us watching however!

How cool is it that we're currently studying birds? We're using Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. What a great opportunity to have some hands on learning with them so close! I'll keep you posted to see when they hatch.

Celebrating Palm Sunday

Every year my family attends Mass on Palm Sunday. Every year we come home with several palm fronds which end up in my bedroom tucked behind my mirror. This year I decided it was time to learn more about the palm fronds, how to properly dispose of our old ones, and how to make those cool palm frond crosses we've seen other make. So...today we read about Palm Sunday, and found a simple yet effective way to make crosses out of our palms. Here's the tutorial we used.


How to make palm Crosses to tuck behind picture frames and hang on your wall


Take a palm that is about 2 feet long and 1/2" wide (if it tapers at the top, this is good!). Hold the palm upright, so the tapered end points toward the ceiling.
Then bend the top end down and toward you so that the bend is about 5 or 6 inches from the bottom of the palm.
About a third of the way from the bend you just made, twist the section you've pulled down to the right, forming a right angle.

About an inch and a half away from the "stem" of the cross, bend this arm of the palm back behind the palm so that it is now facing to your left. Make the bend at a good length to form the right arm of the Cross.

Folding that same section at a point that equals the length on the right side, bend it on the left side and bring the end forward over what is now the front of the cross.

From the very center of the Cross, fold that arm up and to the upper right (in a "northeast" direction) so that it can wrap around where the upright post of the Cross and the right arm intersect.
Fold this down and to the left behind the Cross...

...and then fold it toward the right so that it is parallel and under the transverse arms of the Cross.
Bring it up behind the Cross again, this time folding it up toward the "northwest" direction.

Tuck the tapered end into the transverse section you made in step 7...

...and pull through.

Turn the Cross over; this side will be the front. Trim the tapered end if necessary, remembering that the palm is a sacramental and any part you trim away should be kept and respected as a sacramental! Use that piece for burning during storms.

My son Ryan is afraid of storms. Now he's telling me he's going to burn a piece of his palm frond to keep our family safe during the next storm. Gotta love that kid! All three of them were able to make a cross for their room from the palm frond they brought home from Mass. How cool is that?

Science Experiment Time - Sour or Not?

This week we ended up doing the science experiment from last week's lesson on Monday. We simply had too many things going on last Friday to fit it in. We also had to get lots of different items from the grocery store to use in our experiment. So, here's what we did...

We had a bunch of cups labeled with various types of liquids. Milk, white grape juice, grape fruit juice, distilled water, mineral water, baking soda water, and antacid water. The kids took turns tasting the various cups to determine whether they were sour, sweet or salty. Grape fruit juice is really sour!

Next, we separated everything into which ones were sour and which ones weren't. Most everything was on the not sour side.

Lastly, we used our red cabbage dyed purple water we made to test for acidity in our various cups. We got some really cool colors!! One ever turned green! How fun is that?

If you're wondering where we're getting all of these neat experiments we're doing from, they are all from Real Science 4 Kids, Chemistry, Pre-Level 1. I absolutely LOVE this science program!

Works for Me Wednesday - Times Tales

This week, I found what I believe will be the solution to my daughter's multiplication memorization problems. I saw a link on a website I was visiting and found a program called Times Tales. They offered a free trial of their multiplication memorization product. Having struggled with multiplication daily lately, I'm game for just about anything at the moment.

I read through the program, and then excitedly showed it to Haley. She loved it! I explained the characters, read through the stories, discussed them, and poof...just like that she knew her upper nine multiplication facts. It took less than 10 minutes. Never in my entire life have I seen anything that was this effective. She is now begging me to buy the program. She likes it that well. Here's a picture of what's included in the Times Tales program.

Times Tales is a creative, innovative mnemonic-based program that makes it
fun and easy to memorize the upper multiplication facts. Times Tales uses
cute, simple stories to provide students with a "memory peg", allowing them to
quickly recall otherwise abstract facts.

- Covers the most difficult to memorize times tables:
3x6,3x7,3x8,3x9,4x6,4x7,4x8,4x9,6x6,6x7,6x8,6x9,7x7,7x8,7x9,8x8,8x9,9x9

- FAST - most children learn in two 45 minute sessions!

- Non-consumable - can be used by the whole family.

- FUN - kids love this learning method and ask for more!

So, if you've got a child who's struggling with the times tables, do yourself a favor and download the free trial. You will not be disappointed. In my opinion this program is a real bargain at just $29.95. If you download the trial first you will even receive a $3.00 off coupon code. This product has received rave reviews, and is even endorsed by Cathy Duffy & Jeannie Fulbright of Apologia. You'll find literally hundreds of glowing reviews on the website.

We'll be using this product over the next week or so to see how fast she learns them, but so far it really works for me!

Science Fun...Chemical Reactions!!

We finished up our chapter on chemical reactions today and had some science experiment fun. We are currently using Real Science 4 Kids by Gravitas Publications. We started out with Chemistry Pre-level 1. So far, we are all absolutely loving it. The best program we've used yet. Short, sweet, very informative, and lots of fun experiments. We're currently doing science twice a week. We read the text on Tuesday, and then do the experiment on either Thursday or Friday depending on time. The student texts are books that my kids would probably enjoy having hard copies of in our library. They are engaging, and the graphics are very child friendly. They have really enjoyed learning about molecules and atoms. When we finish this text we'll move on to physics and then biology. I highly recommend taking a look at this science program. Enjoy!

Week in Review - Sick Kids & Fun with Atoms!

This week has been a crazy one at our house.  Poor Ryan got sick over the weekend and had to wait until Tuesday to get in to see the doctor.  I thought he had a nasty cold, but it turns out he has strep throat and a double ear infection too.  Fun times!  Now we're just hoping he keeps it to himself and spares the other two.

I'm trying something a bit different for science this week...you know me, I'm always looking for something fun and exciting to do. Well, we are trying out Real Science 4 Kids from Gravitas Publications.  I'm impressed so far and the kids seem to really enjoy it.  I can totally see my kids picking up the text and reading it on their own just for fun.  Friday we did an experiment on atoms and molecules.  The kids used marshmallows to make molecules following the rules given on the lab sheets.  What started out as a fun way to learn about how molecules always follow the rules quickly turned into something completely different.  What can I say, when you give kids toothpicks and two sizes of marshmallows, you're bound to have some fun, right?

Ryan made some sort of really cool molecule with lots of connections.  He said it looked like a snowflake.  What do you think?

Adam did a better job of following the rules.  Haley on the other hand had a great time making molecule giraffes.  Here she's working on the baby giraffe.  See the mommy giraffe in the front?

Who knew that chemistry could be so much fun.  First you read something, discuss it, then you do a fun lab.  They were supposed to draw pictures of their "molecule creations" for their science notebooks, but they ended up eating them before they drew them.  This series of Science books is such fun!  I highly recommend trying it out.  There are 3 levels, and each level includes the text, teachers guide and lab book.  Each level includes biology, chemistry and physics.  You can sample all of the products online, and most everything is available as an instant download.  Gotta love that!  If you'd rather have a hard copy you can go that route too.  Their prices are very reasonable.  http://www.gravitaspublications.com/products

I think the funniest thing about learning about atoms was Adam laughing over his name sounding the same.  He kept saying "I'm Adam and I'm made from atoms."  Too funny!  Hope all of you had a great week as well.

Week in Review - Groundhog Day Fun!

This year we decided to do something fun for Groundhog Day.  Instead of the usual boring groundhog stuff, we made a lapbook.  We started on Monday and spent a good part of our afternoon printing out and assembling our lapbooks.  On Tuesday we watched Puxatony Phil give his annual prediction and used that information to complete an activity in our lapbooks.  Yes, it was messy...3 young kids with many pages to be cut, colored, and pasted equals a big mess no matter how hard you try.  But, I think it was well worth it in that we have a really cool lapbook to refer back to to keep everything we learned fresh in our minds.  Here they are hard at work...

 

Since the boys have trouble spelling some of the longer words, and just don't have the ability to write out the long definitions and wording required for some of the activities, I used a writing program called StartWrite to type out copywork pages for them to complete which could then be added to the lapbooks.  

Do you want to hear the best part about the whole groundhog lapbook project?  It was free!  Unless you count all of the paper and ink we used that is.  All of the wonderful pieces that make up this really cool, well done lapbook may be found here.

If you haven't tried lapbooking before, I highly recommend it.  My kids really seem to enjoy taking a break for traditional learning and doing something different.  Lapbooking not only provides "something different" to do, but it them something tangible that they can see and hold.  These are so much fun to refer back to months or even years later.

Great Ideas for Science Studies

A friend forwarded something to me via email last night (thank you Felicia), and I wanted to share.  How I've missed this all these years is beyond me...

Home Science Tools is more than just another place to find great science curriculum, lab equipment and supplies.  They have a wonderful resource available for free.  Since my kids love hands on learning, I just had to check it out.  Apparently, my friend was signed up for their monthly newsletter.  She was forwarding this months learning idea.  It was completely awesome!  Better yet, you can access old newsletters as well.  Each offers teaching tips, labs, and ideas based on a specific topic.  They also have the newsletter geared to specific age groups.  For instance, the newsletter she forwarded me was all about fingerprinting and offered labs on how to make and discover fingerprints.  Tons of cool ideas.

For the younger kids, there's also a wonderful lab on bubbles.  I can't wait to try it out with my kids.  It is all about the science behind the bubbles.  Kids learn how bubbles are formed, why they're formed, make their own solution.  You make two different types and experiment with it to see which works best.  They get to make their own wands and try to make shaped bubbles.  Very, very cool!

I could go on and on about all the wonderful learning ideas available on this website, but you really just need to go check it out yourself.  In addition to all the learning labs, they also sell just about every science curriculum you can imagine, and all of the necessary supplies to go along with them.  You'll find microscopes, prepared slides, telescopes, weather station items, rock tumblers, and so much more.  My kids were practically drooling looking at all the awesome supplies!

Unit Studies on the Holidays

Well, whether we're prepared or not, the holidays are officially upon us.  Santa is currently scheduled for his official arrival at shopping malls all across the country.  This year, I plan on doing some unit studies in our homeschool to learn more about the holidays.  Here are some of the products I'm looking at:

• Homeschool in the Woods the History of Holidays.  If you read my blog, you kn and folding involved in lapbooking.  My kids don't enjoy writing enough to do the notebooking.  These products have a nice mix of everything.  Not at all overwhelming for a lapbook phobicow that we have the New World Explorers product from Homeschool in the Woods.  I simply can't say enough good things about it.  Its well written, illustrated and thought out.  I love doing unit studies, but don't like all the printing like me.  Very simple to implement and use.  Lesson plans are even included along with more activities and projects than you can imagine.  This one is my favorite by far! Especially since its just $18.95 and includes every holiday you can imagine.

• Live and Learn Press has tons of lapbooks for most of the major holidays.  I own one of the Apologia science lapbooks and have to say that I'm impressed.  The illustrations are great and my kids really enjoy doing them.  However, it does involved lots of printing and folding.  I am a novice at the whole lapbook thing and had quite a bit of trouble figuring out some of the folds.  Maybe they need to have a folding for dummies download available?  These are a bit more expensive, ranging in price from $10 - $21 per e-book.  Keep in mind that these only cover one subject or holiday.  One tip is that you can join their Yahoo group and get some awesome e-books for free.  I was able to download a Thanksgiving e-book there that looks really good.

• CurrClick - Here you can find anything and everything you're looking for.  All of their products are available for instant download and the prices are very reasonable.  You'll find e-books from many of the companies you're already familiar with.

• Hand of a Child - Here you'll find tons of great lapbooks for all the holidays.  My only problem with the products I've used is that they require tons and tons of printing.  The graphics are all black and white, and to make them colorful you either have to get the kids to color them, or print them on colored paper.  I have a child that hates to color, so this doesn't work too well.  Other than that though, I have been pleased with what we've purchased.  The cost is a bit higher than some of the others though at around $20 per lapbook. 

These are just a few of the places you can find great products for doing a holiday unit study.  If you really want to get ambitious, you could always make your own.  Try doing a Google search for Holiday Unit Studies and you'll be amazed at all the possibilities.  Me, I'm not that ambitious...

Science Fun!

Today, I decided to try something different.  Have I mentioned that I get completely bored to death if we do the same thing for too long.  We've been studying Science using Apologia's Flying Creature of the Fifth Day for quite some time now.  Well, today I decided to pull out our other science book and learn about something new.  So, I found where we left off in our Pandia Press R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Earth & Space book and proceeded to learn all about the ratio of land to water on our planet.  First, the kids came up with their hypothesis and filled out the graph on their lab sheets.

Next, they took turns tossing the globe (removed from the stand) back and forth to see how many times their right index finger landed on land or water.  We were supposed to use a blow up globe, but we didn't have one handy.  So...we took a chance and were VERY careful not to drop our globe.  Hey, sometimes you have to improvise.  The kids loved this part.

Let's see, that's one for land, then another, then water, then land.  Oddly enough, we seemed to hit land more than water.  Go figure.  So we throw the globe twenty times, recording our findings as we go.  Haley did an awesome job at keeping track.

Lastly, we filled out a graph showing our findings, and then one showing the correct ratio of land to water.  In comparing their hypothesis to the answer, Adam got it right.  Haley was close, and Ryan was a bit off.  This was a fun way to learn about land versus water.  Much more exciting than just reading about it in a textbook.  If you like fun, hands on science, you're sure to enjoy R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey.   If you'd like to try out any of their awesome products, you can download several lessons to try them before you buy them.