Keeping It Simple

We (my three boys, two grandsons, and hubby) were standing in front of a used bookstore waiting for our daughter to make her purchases and return. Mark (11yo) spies some picture books displayed in the front window. Mark loves his books. Our picture book reads are his friends. As a matter of fact, a few weeks ago, he came out of a public speaking class slightly embarrassed because he had not realized that "Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel" is not a cool answer to give when asked the question "what is your favorite book?" Looking at the books, he begins to reminisce as he recognizes many of the titles from our FIAR days. "Make Way for Ducklings", "Ping", "Wee Gillis" , and then... "Ferdinand"! Ferdinand got him going (as a matter of fact, Mark kind of reminds me of that bull!). But this is what made me pause- James (9yo) said he doesn't remember reading that book!!! No! Say it isn't so. I have been missing our FI...

Last week, we had little time to do school. This week, I have little time to post about school! So, here is our week- "in brief". Spanish:  This is my 4th year of hosting a Spanish co op at my house. The lovely lady in the back left of the picture, my sister's mother-in-law, teaches the children. We use Sing and Speak Spanish for the most part- Senorita Joyce also brings games and books for extras. My kids treasure this time with their friends. And, they love their Spanish class. Geography: New to this year, we have added a geography class to our co op. We are using the Literature Guide to Geography by Beautiful Feet books. Our first lessons will follow "Paddle-to-the-Sea", a toy canoe carved by a young Indian boy, from Lake Nipigon in Canada through the Great Lakes and out to the Sea. Above is a sampling of the maps we are working on. My youngest student is 7 and my oldest 13, and I think they are all doing a great job.  For a b...

Five in a Row- Wee Gillis This is a book that we have not "rowed" before- or even read!! I truly was not prepared, so I just picked a book, pulled out the Five in a Row manual, and began on the first lesson for Wee Gillis. This has been "conversational" style learning all the way. We have had a great time finding out about Scotland, learning about our family names (Grandma was a helpful resource for this one), discussing "foreshadowing", doing all of the art lessons (just on a little note pad), and are finishing up today with doing math and science. Some encouragement to "just do it!"--- every lesson does not have to be perfect. :) Classical Charlotte::: Wee Gillis Worsley School::: Bag Pipes DLTK's Story of Saint Andrew's Cross and the Flag of Scotland All About Spelling I love this curriculum!! This will be another post (soon), but we are on lesson 21 and have planned a Chuck E. Cheese celebration for when we complete level 1. ...

We don't usually check out this many books to go along with our Five in a Row- there just happened to be a lot of fun books available at the library! :) Fortune Cookie Fortunes by Grace Lin Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin Author Grace Lin writes from her own experience, so these books are not written to take place in China, but offer a fun peek in to her Chinese American family. The pictures are wonderful! C is for China by Sungwan So China, A True Book by Ann Heinrichs Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop and Kurt Wiese Brothers by Yin and Chris Soentpiet Good Morning China by hu yong yi Bird Boy by Elizabeth Starr Hill The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett Fisher (my boys preferred this one about the Great Wall) Structural Wonders- The Great Wall of China by Christine Webster

While picking up some go-alongs from the library for our Five in a Row studies, I walked right by The Young Chef's Chinese Cookbook . It seemed like it was meant to be, so I picked it up. We don't always (or even usually) make a recipe to go with our FIAR book, but I thought it would be fun. James and I chose a recipe for Shrimp and pork dim sum. One of our go-along books is named Dim Sum, so it seem like perfect fit!  James was a bit suspicious of the shrimp as a main ingredient.   First he measured... then he stirred... and filled the wonton skins...   and tasted them. They were... okay . We probably have a bit to learn about Chinese cooking. :) The process was fun- the results were iffy. None of us loved them. Although, dad and big sis, Michelle, gave them a pretty strong thumbs-up.

James has been "rowing" The Story About Ping . Years ago this story was a favorite of Erin's (16yo), then the older boys' (especially Mark- he was pretty happy to hang out with us for this book :)) and now James (6yo). James used the Ping FIAR Fold-and-Learn and a few elements from a HOAC Project Pack for his notebook pages.

This week's boxes have been filled with Thanksgiving projects. The main one that we have been working on is a lapbook to go along with our FIAR book, Cranberry Thanksgiving . We printed the mini books from homeschool share . Workboxes definitely keep our lapbooks moving more smoothly, but trying to finish by Thanksgiving put us under a bit of a time crunch even still! James, my 6yo, is usually the only one who does Five in a Row now, but his big brothers joined us for our Cranberry Thanksgiving row. About mid-day today, Mark and James were too excited about Thanksgiving being tomorrow to be of much help finishing the assembly of the lapbook. Paul, my very kind  11yo, didn't abandon me, but stepped up to help complete it. We still have a few things to fill in, but figured it would be best to get it put together and be done for the day!   Something to be thankful for! Big kids who do help...sometimes. We did not do many extras for this book. We watched a cranberry h...

For our notebook, we used the FIAR Fold-and-Learn pretty much as is. It was just the perfect amount of work for James and it fit well with the lessons presented in the FIAR manual . Cover page: Things you might need in a Salamander Room: Life Cycle of a Salamander: Scavenger Hunt Check List, Vocabulary Words and Picture of a Tiger Salamander: Picture drawn by James (6yo) and Lilly Pads Seen on Scavenger Hunt: Pictures from Scavenger Hunt that big sister, Michelle, took James and his brothers on: View of Open Notebook (you can spy the blank animal report page in back- still working on that:)) We had a great time with this book. We had a few fun read- alongs (see previous post), watched Bill Nye's video show on Amphibians, and had fun frog hunting (rather, amphibian hunting) in our back yard. I found that we were much more efficient at completing our notebook because of the workboxes . I just placed the notebook, the printout for the day, s...

Pip's Magic by Ellen Stoll Walsh Newt (I Can Read) by Matt Novak A Salamander's Life (Nature Upclose) by John Himmelman Fun Facts About Salamanders! (I Like Reptiles and Amphibians!) by Carmen Bredeson Salamanders by Emery Bernhard The Salamander Room (Dragonfly Books) by Anne Mazer

Cover Transportation list. The route to get the ingredients to make an apple pie. I think James insisted on adding the ocean for salt. He is a stickler for details. :) Water cycle information and the a booklet with the results of our water evaporation experiment. 1- James measuring, pouring, stirring and bake a yummy apple crisp! 2- Cards for liquid measure. Most of the elements for the lapbook are from our FIAR fold n learn. I really like these. They are usually just the right amount of work for James and fit nicely with the lesson plans. We may have pulled in an element from An Eencie, Weencie Spider and The Water Cycle by Teacher Book Bag.

James had the most fun "rowing" The Bee Tree. We even got to visit a real bee keeper!! Most of the mini books for the lapbook came from Homeschool Share . One (anatomy of a bee) came from HOAC project pack. I posted about our bee book list here . 

Brilliant Bees by: Linda Glaser Who is in the Garden by: Vera Rosenberry The Honeymakers by: Gail Gibbons Let's Take a Trip to a Beehive by: Kathy Furgang Honey in a Hive by: Anne Rockwell The Bee by: Sabrina Crewe The Lifecycle of a Honeybee by: Bobby Kalman The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive by: Joanna Cole The Bee Tree by: Patricia Polacco