Journey to Excellence

Tomorrow's book is A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe. This charming tale of an overgrown pine that was always passed over for Christmas, and what his woodland friends do to help him. We will be doing two activities with this book. First, we will make sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and then decorate them. Then we are going to take extra tree decorations and decorate our lone little pine tree that is in our backyard. It was our Christmas tree last year, and we planted it after Christmas was over. I think we will cover some pine cones with peanut butter and bird seed and add some suet bars, as well. That tree is a favorite of our local birds. I will post pictures of all our activities from this week on our Weekly Wrap-up.

Tomorrow's book is Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner. Snowmen at Night shared with us the magical, slip-sliding adventures of snowmen after dark . . . but have you ever wondered what snowmen do for Christmas? Well, now’s your chance to find out! The snowmen are back, and this time they’re celebrating Christmas—the snowman way! We will be making, and playing with, the ever-popular Snow Playdoh. It's easy to make and so fun to play with, making snowmen and other snowy creations. Photo Credit Here is the link for how to make it. Have fun!

It's time to start counting down the days until Christmas. One of our favorite activities for Christmas is the simple paper Christmas countdown chain. My kids love to wake up each morning to decide whose turn it is to tear off the chain. We keep it pretty simple. We use green and red construction paper (or two patterns of Christmas scrapbook paper if we have some), cut them into strips, and staple them together into a chain. The only link that is not a Christmas color is the one for December 22nd. That's Eli's birthday, so we always dazzle it up with birthday paper and ribbons. Here is a picture of our Christmas chain from last year. This week we will read the book Snowbear's Christmas Countdown by Theresa Smythe and make our countdown chain so it's ready for December 1st. On the first day he wrote a list of all the presents he wanted Santa to bring him. Come celebrate with Snowbear as the days leading to Christmas fly by in merry preparation! December is f...

Are you planning to join us in our journey through our planned Christmas Books and Activities ? If you are, here is a list of the supplies you will need for the activities for the first six books (the first two weeks): about four sheets of Christmas scrapbook paper flour salt oil cream of tartar silver and/or iridescent glitter white paper towels red and white craft paint shaving cream white glue construction paper to make Christmas trees, snowmen, or foam ones sugar cookies (either prepared or homemade) Christmas tree cookie cutter frosting and cookie decorations popsicle or craft sticks hot glue gun We will be making Christmas countdown chains, snow playdoh, paper towel poinsettias, shaving cream snow scenes, popsicle stick snowflakes, and will decorate Christmas tree sugar cookies. We will be starting these projects on Tuesday. I'll post the specifics about the first activity on Monday. See you then!

We actually had a couple of days of school this week. We follow the public school calendar, because two of mine are still in public school. So we had school on Monday and Tuesday. Of course I wanted our focus to be on Thanksgiving. But since we are going to see replicas of the Nina and Pinta next Monday, I wanted to throw in a little Columbus and ship study, too. So we did a little mash up. Dawson finished watching The Andromeda Strain for Biology and answered questions about it. He sure thought that learning the effects of deadly viruses on ph balances and amino acids through a movie (albiet low-quality) was much better than just reading about it in a book! It was obvious from our question-answer discussion that he picked up some good stuff. On Monday we will actually be starting our first chapter on Energy. Our focus has been on cells and the patterns of life so we are ready to jump into our first major topic! In addition to his Biology studies, Dawson plugged away at Algebra,...

Our Weekly Wrap-up is going to look a little different this week. We did normal schoolwork this week, but I thought I would share where our focus has been ... This week we have been on a journey of Dreaming by exploring the Dream Exhibit by The Legacy Project. The jumping point for our study was the book Dream by Susan Bosak. Believe, Do, Think: This triad represents what author Susan Bosak calls the "core essence" of reaching for life dreams. It's based on social science research that has looked at how people achieve dreams and goals throughout their life. It has multiple meanings: 1) Pursuing a dream requires believing in it, acting upon it, and making strategic, thoughtful choices; 2) There must be a unity of spirit, body, and mind; 3) We need psychological and social qualities from all stages of life – childhood, young adulthood, and older adulthood – to succeed; 4) We also need to learn from the past (think), live fully in the present (do), and continue to ...

My son goes to public school and they use, extensively, a SmartBoard! The SmartBoard allows the teacher to pull up computer programs on a large screen and the kids can touch it to play it. It is so cool. It's almost creepy what all it can do. Now there is an HP TouchSmart 320 that does basically the same thing. It look sooooo coooool and would be the most amazing homeschool tool! Big Mama is giving one away on her blog. I have entered and you should, too! If you would like the chance to enter to win it, go to Big Mama's blog and register. Then read some of her posts. She is hilarious!