I love laid-back summer learning. We just take something we come upon that interests us and go with it! It's been so great! I've also enjoyed taking Eli along for the ride with us!
At the same time I am working diligently on the U.S. History curriculum for both Dawson (9th grade) and Brynne (2nd grade) for next year. I feel like I am taking a super-fun trip through history right now and I am enjoying preparing for it more than they will probably enjoy learning about it! I am hoping my enthusiasm rubs off on them! So far I have completed three, 3-week units and am most of the way through the fourth. That has us at 12 weeks of lessons. I am feeling much-accomplished!
I will be doing a post soon about exactly how I am creating this curriculum using America: The Story of Us from The History Channel.
I received this dvd set for free last year and it is the cornerstone of our curriculum! It is awesome! I also just saw that it is available through our local library, so maybe you can get it through yours, too. And even Walmart.com has it for about $16.99.
So, what learning adventures did we go on this week:
Monday ~ Just our regular reading schedule. Eli and Brynne have been working hard towards completing the Summer Reading Program at our library. (Stay tuned for what happened on Thursday!) Monday is house-cleaning day for me, so we usually stay home.
Tuesday ~ It was the official First Day of Summer. We did a notebooking page that day and spent the afternoon at our local water park. You can read all about that here.
Wednesday ~ We spent the afternoon at our friend's pool. They are on vacation and offered it to us while they were gone. It was just me, Eli, Brynne and Kyndal and it was very relaxing and enjoyable! It also gave Kyndal and I some time to spend together while the littles played. Now that she is a busy teenager, with a job, car and friends, I hardly ever see her!
Thursday ~ Brynne and I picked blueberries at a local berry farm. We picked 6 pounds and brought them home to freeze them and use in a recipe. I just like them on my cereal, and there's plenty of them for that! We had a great time together! We worked hard and were so happy we did it!
Before we headed home we ran by the library so Brynne could get her prizes for finishing the Summer Reading Program! So far she has read 22 books, independently, some in excess of 60 pages, and has a goal to read 60 books by the end of the summer! Way to go Brynne! (Eli is only 5 books away from finishing and he will be done by Monday. Brynne is so sweet. She told Eli that she would share her prizes with him until he got his. I have great kids!)
We also brought home a little surprise from the berry farm (probably shouldn't have done it, but we couldn't resist.)
We are hoping we didn't shake it up too much traveling home. It is "living" in our mini-greenhouse on our back porch and we are hoping for a beautiful butterfly soon!
Today ~ Eli, Brynne and I read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.
Then we made Blueberry Biscuit Yummies (Eli's name for Blueberry Drop Biscuits). It is a super easy recipe and I made a photo flip card recipe for them to use so they could make them "by themselves". Yummmmmmm!!!!!! The house smelled amazing while they were baking! And we got in a great lesson in measurements, patience, taking turns, etc.
Join Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what other families are doing this summer!
At the same time I am working diligently on the U.S. History curriculum for both Dawson (9th grade) and Brynne (2nd grade) for next year. I feel like I am taking a super-fun trip through history right now and I am enjoying preparing for it more than they will probably enjoy learning about it! I am hoping my enthusiasm rubs off on them! So far I have completed three, 3-week units and am most of the way through the fourth. That has us at 12 weeks of lessons. I am feeling much-accomplished!
I will be doing a post soon about exactly how I am creating this curriculum using America: The Story of Us from The History Channel.
I received this dvd set for free last year and it is the cornerstone of our curriculum! It is awesome! I also just saw that it is available through our local library, so maybe you can get it through yours, too. And even Walmart.com has it for about $16.99.
So, what learning adventures did we go on this week:
Monday ~ Just our regular reading schedule. Eli and Brynne have been working hard towards completing the Summer Reading Program at our library. (Stay tuned for what happened on Thursday!) Monday is house-cleaning day for me, so we usually stay home.
Tuesday ~ It was the official First Day of Summer. We did a notebooking page that day and spent the afternoon at our local water park. You can read all about that here.
Wednesday ~ We spent the afternoon at our friend's pool. They are on vacation and offered it to us while they were gone. It was just me, Eli, Brynne and Kyndal and it was very relaxing and enjoyable! It also gave Kyndal and I some time to spend together while the littles played. Now that she is a busy teenager, with a job, car and friends, I hardly ever see her!
Thursday ~ Brynne and I picked blueberries at a local berry farm. We picked 6 pounds and brought them home to freeze them and use in a recipe. I just like them on my cereal, and there's plenty of them for that! We had a great time together! We worked hard and were so happy we did it!
Before we headed home we ran by the library so Brynne could get her prizes for finishing the Summer Reading Program! So far she has read 22 books, independently, some in excess of 60 pages, and has a goal to read 60 books by the end of the summer! Way to go Brynne! (Eli is only 5 books away from finishing and he will be done by Monday. Brynne is so sweet. She told Eli that she would share her prizes with him until he got his. I have great kids!)
We also brought home a little surprise from the berry farm (probably shouldn't have done it, but we couldn't resist.)
We are hoping we didn't shake it up too much traveling home. It is "living" in our mini-greenhouse on our back porch and we are hoping for a beautiful butterfly soon!
Today ~ Eli, Brynne and I read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.
Then we made Blueberry Biscuit Yummies (Eli's name for Blueberry Drop Biscuits). It is a super easy recipe and I made a photo flip card recipe for them to use so they could make them "by themselves". Yummmmmmm!!!!!! The house smelled amazing while they were baking! And we got in a great lesson in measurements, patience, taking turns, etc.
Join Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what other families are doing this summer!
Oh, I'd LOVE to see what you're planning with America: The Story of US videos! We also have them and I plan to use them for my daughter (4th grade) as she gets to those times in American History.
ReplyDeleteYum! Blueberries! We're fortunate that my sister's significant other has land with LOADS of them! We're also out of our 20 quarts from last August!
And Blueberries for Sal is one of my favorite books. Sal was my French teacher in high school for a semester!
I got that DVD free in the mail too but haven't yet watched it. May make that more of a priority now!
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to hearing more about your history plans. Also, WTG Brynne, what a fantastic little reader!
ReplyDeleteThe Blueberry Biscuit thingies have now caused me to crave a blueberry muffin!
OOOooo...we love Blueberries for Sal! I have a vintage copy from my mom :) And those biscuits...yum! What a fun summer week.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great week! I love blueberries on my cereal, too. That's what I eat nearly every day of the week -- unless I opt for strawberries to be different. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI never would have thought about putting blueberries in a salad, but the new fruit salad at Wendy's is really good. I think I'm going to try to replicate it at home one day next week since I have blueberries and strawberries.
Yay to your daughter for reading so many books! She looks so proud of her accomplishment.
I totally thought I had ordered that DVD when the whole free thing came about, but apparently I didn't because it never showed up. *sigh*
Great week! I love your pictures.
ReplyDeleteMy boys love that video series. I am amazed how much they learned- and I learned. A few weeks ago it was available on netflix instant watch for those who might like to take a look.