Getting Caught Up!

Well, it's the new year. I reckon this one will go by faster than last year.
We read a great book Monday called "Mailing May" by Michael O. Tunnell. Ted Rand illustrated it and I love, love , love Ted Rand's illustrations. It is a great story of ingenuity. May is a little girl who wants to go visit her Grandmother Mary who, unfortunately lives across the mountains in Idaho. The only way to get there is by train and May's parents can't afford a train ticket. So her father hatches an ingenious plan. He decides to mail May to her Grandmothers. He takes her to the post office, they weigh her, and put a stamp and an address label on her. Her uncle is the mailsorter on the train and she boards with him and makes it to Grandma's house. The best part, this story is absolutely true! It really happened. It was charming and the kids loved it. So we've centered some activities around the book. Lillie is embarking on a 50 states notebook, using the literature we read as a guideline. The book took place in Idaho, so she completed a notebooking page for Idaho. You can get a blank of the notebooking page here and some great info on a 50 states unit from Jimmie here. Here's a pic of the page she completed...

We made our cards for our story journal pockets...

Well, it stands to reason, that while reading the story, the thought came to me...How much would it cost to mail each of my children to their grandparents. Since both sets live about the same distance, it's safe to bet the price would be similar. So....I got on the USPS website and they have a postage calculator for non rectangular packages. I made each child a sheet and we got to measuring and weighing each other. Here's the pics...

The results: To ship Chloe to her Nannie's or her Mimi's would be $14.00 for 1 day priority mail.

To send Lillie would cost $22.85

Jackson came in as the most expensive with a rate of $24.40

Grandparents! Watch the mail...it can get awfully noisy here at my house!

I've started more organized work with Jack this year. He's working on an ABC Scrapbook...

He did 4 worksheets today and he's so proud...

Jack has shown alot of interest in cooking and he's been becoming quit the little pancake maker!


Hope everyone's year is goin good so far! Blessings, Della

And the Journey Begins...

This is one of those catch-up posts I'm bad to do. Kinda just a summary of what we've been into this week. Lillie has officially memorized the Old Testament books of the Bible, so we were able to mark that off our goal sheet for the year. We have started our Thanksgiving unit this week, and though circumstances caused us to miss two days, we've still learned alot.

Wednesday we read Kate Water's "On the Mayflower" and talked a little about why the Pilgrims came here and discussed the book. Lillie did the virtual tour of the Mayflower off the Scholastic site.We did a coloring page and Anna did her copywork of Psalms 92:1. We decorated our family blessing box, which , I think is going to be a very special project for our family. Every night at dinner, we each put in what we are thankful for that day. Then when we have our little Thanksgiving with just us, we will "count" our blessings and read them aloud.

In this unit, I really wanted to focus, not so much on the facts of the Pilgrims journey(though they will have their place), but on the providential hand of God in their circumstances. How this country's history would be changed if the Pilgrim's had not been so brave! Some of the children on the Mayflower weren't even traveling with their parents. Other's left children and other family behind to make the dangerous journey. Though snares and difficulties , sickness and heartaches came their way, they pressed on, believing in the plan God had for them. Today I introduced the kids to a compass and the four basic directions. Captains had to chart their courses using compasses, maps and the stars. They had to be really good at math! I knew there was I reason I never was a ship captain (that and I sink better than I swim). I made a large compass out of masking tape and I told the kids to stand in the middle. Then I'd shout out directions and they'd have to turn their bodies that direction. The faster I got, the more the turning became hopping. It was quite amusing...

I drew a crude and simple map of our neighborhood and some of the places we go .(cause I can't draw all that great) and let them tell me what direction we go to go to the bank, grocery, library, etc. Lillie filled in a compass rose worksheet and then we made a puppet of the Mayflower. The ship came from the Toymaker.com site and I just attached a dowel rod to the back and made the background out of construction paper, only glueing the waves on the sides so the bottom was left free to thread the puppet through. The kids thought it was super neat...

Did a good object lesson for bible time this morning. Read in Matthew 7:13-14 where it talks about the strait and narrow way. Then read Hebrews 12:1 where the writer tells us to lay aside the weight and sin that so easily besets us. I made a line of masking tape on the floor (yes, again! It's the new duct tape!) and had the kids walk it with their arms out to the sides ala balance beam. I explained that the line is the narrow path that leads to God. Though a challenge to stay on it, it still wasn't impossible. Then, I made the kids balance a small book in each hand as they walked the line. It became a little more difficult. Then I kept adding books until they couldn't take anymore. Lillie said,"Momma! Those books are too heavy, I can't stay on the path!" I then explained that the books are like sin. They weigh us down, they separate us from God and they make it hard to stay on the path. It was a challenge to walk the line without the books, but it was easier than trying to walk it weighed down. We can walk it if it's just us and God! I then told the kids to throw down the books and walk the line again, explaining that if we repent and ask the Lord to help us get rid of those sins, he'll do it and we can once again travel the path easier.

Here are some random pics over the last week...Christmas shopping is HARD WORK!She looks real spiritual, but she's actually just asleep on the Lord!Here are two pages from our Solar System book kinda showing how we used notebooking. I created the sheets myself and we added a lapbook mini book with facts to each page. You can see, the kids had to color in the planet showing one unique characteristic of each planet to help with recollection. Here is Jupiter and the Great Red Spot...And Saturn with it's rings...Swinging on trees...

More Pilgrim excitement to follow! Have a blessed day!

Down To Earth...

The day is just flying by! I seem to be spinning wheels...it'll take a miracle to get all our schoolwork and housework done today! Yesterday, took a nature walk with the kids and my dad, had a nice time. It was a beautiful day! Then, I had to go settle up with the library. Can you believe I owed them $11 and ten cents!!!!!!!! Gasp! I have never ...NEVER...paid that much in late charges! If I keep up with this memory loss thing, I can kiss "Homeschool on a Shoestring" goodbye! Yesterday, however, I booked it and we completed ALL our schoolwork for the day!

Studied Venus yesterday and I have decided that, although Mercury would help my weight, moving to Venus would help with my time management. Did you know 1 day on Venus=243 days on earth! Now, I'm in hot water! Where do I move, now?????? Earth and Venus are roughly the same size, so my weight won't be much different, like 10 pounds! However, Venus is HOT HOT HOT and I burn easily and they don't make SPF 500000000000. Oh well...

The kids filled in their Solar System Notebook pages for Mercury, Earth and Venus today. I'll have to post pictures of the notebook pages I created later on. My children spent most of this morning playing with their lapbooks (Lillie's got a new phonics lapbook hot off the inkjet!) and exploring the solar system using this site. You must go check it out. It really is alot of fun! Today we focused on Earth and made a nifty little craft. Get it here.

The kids then sat down to do their notebooking. They are really learning so much using this unit, I've learned quite a bit too. I love homeschooling, cause I get to learn right along side them! I meant to do an activity to tie in with studying Venus, but didn't have the materials on hand, so will have to try it out tommorrow!

Added Earth to our Solar System poster...

And tried to keep Chloe from crashing the party!We will be finishing up our Indian Lapbook tommorrow, so I'll be sure to post the finished product for you. Well, I'm off to tackle the three R's...wish me luck!

Back To It!

Today, I officially started Lillie's Kindergarten (As far as she would be considered in the school system) Fact is, it's so hard for me to peg down what would be my "first" day of school. Since Lillie was old enough to begin showing an interest (which was about 2 1/2 to 3 years) we've done "school work" Shapes, numbers, letters, sounds the usual stuff. We've worked as she is comfortable, read ALOT, lots of nature study, basically taking what Charlotte Mason called "Education as a Life." We've used our everyday, mundane lives as opportunities to learn. But, for planning sakes, today was our first day of 'kindergarten'.
Chloe had quite the fever yesterday and her nose was nasty , so we missed out on church. I was up most of last night with her, as she was very restless. That being said,we started lessons about 10 am and were done by 11:30! Can't beat that Charlotte Mason when it comes to short lessons. I believe this to be so key in education. If you push a child too much and they become disinterested, you can MAKE them complete the lesson, but it is unlikely they will 'learn' anything from it.
We began with a lesson from our McGuffey's Primer. I love the McGuffey readers. Trusted for years in the public (one room) schoolhouse, you just can't beat tradition of excellence. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we will be using McGuffeys. On Tuesday and Thursday, we will be working through the Dolch lists using activities found here.
Math was our first page in Math Mammoth Addition 1. Me and my big sis were just talking last night how surprising that when we tell people about the Math Mammoth series, they have NEVER heard of it. Well, you can order them for about $4 bucks a piece most of the time off of Currclick. Currclick, if you haven't checked it out yet is great. You pay and then you immediately download whatever product or curriculum you just ordered. NO shipping and No waiting! Okay, product placement over with. Just check into it and Math Mammoth because it is nifty beyond words! Lillie really liked the workbook pages and she usually fakes a need to go to the bathroom when you bust out a math workbook. Today's lesson focused on grouping items. There are 5 balls and Lillie had to group them (for example, 2 (balls) and 3(balls). She had to circle two balls, then the three balls and read it like a sentence "2 and 3 is 5" Next, she was given a set of 4 or 5 balls and the problem read "2 and _" Lillie had to circle two and then count and circle the remaining balls to fill in the blank. I made up another similar worksheet using a printshop program and some more numbers and also we will be using manipulatives as well until I'm sure she's mastered this concept.
I am using Studying Gods Word Book A from Chrisitan Liberty Press and todays lesson was Cain and Abel. I printed off a little activity book off this great bible lesson site to go along with the story and then we talked about Acceptable and Unacceptable worship and why it is important to follow God's guidelines for worship.
On Mondays, we will be reading from our Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader. Today was about Giraffes, we did a story page and added a giraffe to our animal chart. We also made paper bag puppets. I just love to watch how Jack just haphazardly glues things on with no regard for what is right and proper! His puppets always look like odd mutations.


I'll take this time to share how we notebook and document things. Since my children don't read or write fluently, notebooking is virtually impossible. But we do have our ways around the traditional notebooking process and it accomplishes the same thing. When we study an animal, I print out a story page from this site. Lillie glues a picture of the animal on and then uses the writing lines to "write" a brief tidbit of knowledge she gained. By writing, I mean I hold her hand steady but let her move the pencil to see if she truly understands how each letter is formed. If she has no idea, I kick in to guide her. Then, we put them in a 3 prong folder called "Some Animals I Know".

To also aid in our animal study, I have a posterboard divided into columns labeled Mammal, fish, Amphibian, etc. Then a smaller picture of the current animal being studied is glued in the correct column.

We are using living books to study people from the American Revolution. When we get through with a person, I print out a coloring page (if I can find it, if not just a regular picture) and a short biography and we add it to this notebook...

The state that the person is from or lived goes in this notebook...

These are what the pages look like. I print out a black line map of the US and then Lillie colors in the state and then glues (in leau of writing) pictures of the state bird, flag, and flower and we write and mark the capital.This is our weather log, which we don't do everyday but every week or so. I made the sheet using clipart of different weather conditions and then Lillie circles the current weather and we look up the temperature on weather.com.

I secured from Currclick, this knifty little writing curriculum. It's called the "Visual, Kinesthetic , Auditory Alphabet" It teaches writing using a mixture of fun activities and stories that relate the form of all the letters. I can't begin to explain it in detail, but click here and check out a sample of it. Here are two videos, the first is Lillie doing the "thin man" which teaches the straight line up and down, top to bottom that is needed in such letters as lowercase 'b'. The second is the kiddos writing the stroke on paper. We will go through all the basic strokes before moving onto the actual letters. This way, Jack may be able to learn some writing as well, putting us all that more ahead on him. Thus making momma's life so much easier!

All went pretty smoothly and I was hoping to take the kids out to the lake and walk around a little, but it looks like rain. I sure hope so, we need it!