Journey to Excellence

I found the notebooking page we are using for our The Usborne Treasury of Art artist study. I had a couple of different people ask me where I got it. I thought I had printed it off my Hold that Thought! notebooking cd I purchased. But, it's a pdf file I found when I googled "Artist of Influence". You can go here to print it.

Barb at Handbook of Nature Study has posted the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival: August Newsletter Edition . If you are interested in some great Pond Study posts, head over there. A couple of our nature posts are included! If you would like to receive the monthly newsletter with GREAT nature study ideas, she now has a place where you can subscribe to her blog via e-mail and receive the newsletter directly in your inbox. I highly recommend it! She does all of the work for you. All you have to do is play along.

I've had a couple of commenters say that they can't locate the Episode Guides on The History Channel website. Go directly to this link. They should be right on the left-hand side (scroll down a bit) titled "Classroom Episode Guides". Click on the episode of your choice and it will pull up a pdf for you to print. Here is the link for you to copy and paste if you need to: http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us I hope this helps! Let me know if you are still having problems finding it.

Yesterday was the conclusion of our Pond Study . It was a beautiful day, not like the rainy day we endured last week. Here is a picture of the pond in our neighborhood where we typically do our studies. We were set on seeing some dragonflies while we were there this time because we know they are usually there. Before we went for our Pond Walk, we read the book Pond Walk , written and illustrated by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. This was a great book to prepare us for our walk! It even described the difference between a dragonfly and a damselfly. (Do you know the difference?) ... a dragonfly's wings are expanded when it lands and a damselfly's wings move in close to it's body. We watched them at the pond and determined that they were, in fact, dragonflies. However, we weren't quick enough to get a picture of them being still. Brynne searched around for some rocks and sticks to make a painted rock turtle, as demonstrated in the back of Pond Walk . She revised he...

Welcome to Math Monday! Cindy at love2learn2day hosts a math Linky on Mondays, so I thought I would start joining in since Brynne will be having a Living Math day at the end of each week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each week Brynne does math lessons from MEP (Math Enhancement Programme) . But on Thursdays, I wanted to incorporate a day of Living Math. I plan to just see what types of math lessons we do on the first three days and throw in a book and/or some hands on activities on Thursday to reinforce those lessons. This week we were dabbling in Greater Than and Less Than . Although she mostly "got it", it took me back to my elementary school days when we would draw an alligator mouth with the teeth facing the Greater number. Did you do that?? I searched and found "The Number Eating Alligator" . Click here to listen to it. I also printed off a copy of an alligator stick puppet (found at the bottom of this link). I placed playing cards on the coffee ...

This week we continued, or, rather, really began our study of The Human Body. We started by reading The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole. This week we concentrated on the bones of the body. We read Dem Bones by Bob Barner. Since I was doing a terrible job singing the song, I pulled up this version on Youtube and Brynne watched it a couple of times. Then we did a couple of demonstrations. The first was something I copied from Pink and Green Mama . I took two latex gloves and filled them both with flour. In one I put a craft stick down into each finger. When they were completed they were a perfect demonstration of a hand that did not have bones and one that did. After having some complete fun, we did a couple of visuals about ball joints and synovial fluid. I also had Brynne attempt various movements without moving her joints. Jumping without the ankle joint ... not happenin'. We finished our bones study by applying the bones stickers to ou...

How were your American History studies this week? Write a post about it and link up with us! This week we watched as John Smith and the early settlers made attempts to get Jamestown up and running with the constant threat of the ambushing indians, starvation, illness, and pompous gentlemen who were trying to run the colony. Here is specifically what Dawson (and Brynne, at times) did in their studies: Analysis of "Powhatan letter to John Smith", America: The Story of Us Episode 1 Guide John Smith Character Map notebooking page, Hold that Thought! Beginners History cd "On the Trail with Captain John Smith" , interactive story and game Photo analysis of Revere's Bloody Massacre Engraving, America: The Story of Us Episode 1 Guide Internet research of 13 Colonies and 13 Colonies notebooking page, Hold that Thought! Advanced History cd History of Thanksgiving activities, American Heritage Education Foundation cd We are reading the historical fict...

What a full and exciting week (and exhausting ... whew! In fact, it's 4:30 p.m. right now and I am laying in bed writing this post. I am whooped!) We have completed our first full week of the 2011-2012 school year and it was a good one. I must say that some tweaking has already had to be done .. like a change in Brynne's history curriculum and changes to our schedule. But overall it has all gone well. I'll start with the highlight of our week .. Art! This year I purchased The Usborne Art Treasury . It is such a cool book and just might be the best homeschooling find ever ! It has twenty-some chapters, each one showcasing a different artist (some historic, some current-ish). The chapter shows a piece of that artist's work, gives a short biographical section, and then gives a step-by-step of how to do a similar piece of art based on the artist's work. This week it was Van Gogh . I read the biographical information while Dawson and Brynne completed a notebookin...

As part of The Outdoor Hour Challenge's August Newsletter , the kids and I partook in the first part of our pond study . It was drizzling the whole time we were there, so there wasn't much activity. And, it was slippery, slimy wet and Brynne and I were terrified of the possibility of a slippery, slimy snake, so we didn't dig into our study like we would normally do. Walking around the pond we did find an egg. It was small and a tad bit squishy. A snake egg, perhaps? I collected tons of different leaves for Dawson's Apologia Biology Module 14 study while he and Brynne sat down to sketch. I had them look for something big to sketch and then concentrate on a smaller detail of it to sketch in a detail box (suggested by the newsletter). Brynne sketched a leaf, some water, a rose (that wasn't there) and a log and made a detail box of the bark on the log from an up-close photo I took. (Again, she was too scared of snakes to get too close, so she sketched from t...

I haven't been. Well, I heard, but I wasn't really listening! Sounds like my interaction with my kids sometimes. I wasn't listening to my parent, either. This time, it was my Father. My Heavenly Father. I spent ALL SUMMER planning Dawson and Brynne's U.S. History curriculum. But all through it I felt that it just wasn't "right" for Brynne. But, I wanted them to study the same thing. I wanted her to be a super-smarty. I had some great plans. But everywhere I turned, there were the U.S. States. There were wipeable maps, flash cards, unit studies I saw on websites, cookbooks, fun ideas, a puzzle Brynne just "happened" to get from my mom for her birthday, the postcard swap sponsored by Heidi at Starts at Eight that we signed up for, the U.S. Geography notebooking cd we received FOR FREE from  Hold That Thought! that I didn't request. I was ignoring the whispers from God telling me that a state study would be more fun and informat...

A little exercise, a whole lot of coffee, and some quiet time for Mom before the kids get up. D awson and Eli are up and getting ready for school at 8 a.m. Kyndal was gone by 7 a.m. A bout 9 a.m. Dawson and I are in full swing. Brynne is up, has had breakfast, and is ready. Y es, we're on the couch at 10 a.m. doing a history read-a-loud while Brynne does copywork. I nteresting American History lessons follow. It takes us at least an hour. N ext is lunch and personal reading time, even for Mom. T ime for Dawson to get to his Apologia Biology textbook and experiments. H appiness abounds for Brynne with her MEP math lessons and Living math. E verybody gathers back together for art time, with nature or artist studies. L iterature grabs Brynne and Mom as we read history living books. Thursdays, it's science. I t's time for Dawson to start wrapping up his day, with grammar, typing and/or Spanish. F inally it's 3:00 and school is over. Eli and Kynd...

We are in the full swing of things now. And I couldn't be happier. In my life this week ... I would call this the first week of normal for me. I have a schedule in place, loads to do, but excitement to do it all. I thrive on "normal" and routine, so am happy to be where I am. In our homeschool this week… Our full schedule starts, with the exception of a couple of extra-curricular activities that start in the next couple of weeks.. Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… We'll mostly be home, getting used to our new schedule. On Friday, Brynne and I will go hang out with our friends for a while. We saw them a lot this summer and have been too busy to hang out lately. My favorite thing this week was… watching Dawson take his first IEW assignment seriously, and then producing a beautiful poem about America! What’s working /not working for us me… Having my laptop sitting on my desk in the kitchen. It is entirely too easy for me to "check" my e-mail...