Homeschool Open House - Our Geography Fair

At the last Homeschool Open House, (sponsored by Tammy of Lattes and Lollypops), I had hoped to be far enough long on our Geography Fair project to share with you. However, we were still in the research stage. This was the second year for our local homeschool group to have a Geography Fair. Last year, I was sick with mono and my mom took Joy to make her presentation and set up her exhibit. This year, all was well; I didn't have to miss out on all the fun and it was great!

Joy decided awhile back that she wanted to study the country of India. Last year, we read the book, A Little Princess (through our Sonlight curriculum), and part of it takes place in India. This book sparked the interest. And just a plug for this book, if you haven't read it to your children, it's a must-read. It is just a story that makes you want to do good, be good, and do what's right with a cheerful heart inspite of your circumstances.

But back to India, our first step was a stack of books on India. Joy and I took turns reading them aloud to each other and making notes as we went along. She decided on the parts of India she would like to present the most. With this gathered information, she and I put together an exhibit of India.

Back on our snow day (with big snowflakes falling outside our bay window), we made our salt dough map of India. This was lots of fun!



After shaping the country, Joy made the Himalaya mountains, and then painted the entire map. I made the little flags for her to put on the map. She marked the three major cities (one of them being the capital city of Delhi), Taj Mahal, and the Himalaya mountains with the little flags.



We both had lots of fun doing this and it was just a perfect afternoon for making it. (After there was enough snow on the ground, we were done with it and we went outside to play).

In addition to making the map, she made a lapbook of India. If you don't know what a lapbook is, let me explain a minute. It's a file folder folded together like a shutter.



Inside this folder are mini booklets folded in many ways, such as pop-outs, etc.., that have information accumulated from things studied about India. I found the templates for all of these on India from Homeschool Share. After cutting them out, Joy filled her booklets with all the information she learned. Then together, we worked on placing the booklets inside to fit.



We added an extra fold out sheet because she had so many little booklets.



Not only are lapbooks fun to make, they are great review tools. She can pull out her India lapbook at any time and review all the facts she accumulated about India.

Joy also did some additional research on Taj Mahal (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) , Gandhi (Political figure), Amy Carmichael (missionary to India), and Mother Teresa (Roman Catholic Nun). She made mini reports on each of these and placed all of these on her exhibit board along with photos of other interesting facts, including India's flag and Lotus Temple.



The Geography Fair was held on March 3rd. There were 12 families that participated in the fair. Others families that didn't do an exhibit, still came to enjoy and browse the fair. The idea was to set up an exhibit sharing all she had learned. She had 3-5 minutes for an oral presentation. She shared some little Indian wafer cookies with everyone that we purchased from an Indian store nearby.



After giving her oral presentation (decked out in her sari and sarong), she stamped everyone's passport with a stamp of Taj Mahal.





That was the way it worked. We moved around the gym letting each family share about their country with several of them dressed in traditional attire from the country they represented. The children ranged in ages from 4 to about 14. After they finished, they would stamp the passport of each child.



After all the presentations, were done, we walked around and browsed at each table more and the kids (and adults) sampled foods from around the world.

Here's one for my Canadian friends.....Joy's friend, Molly Grace, presented Canada. She was decked out as a Royal Mountie.



Friends from around the world....Indian girl meets Mountie....


We really had a great time! It was very educational! I can't wait until next year. Next year, our group is considering doing the United States only and every family will pick a state. I think this will be a nice change since we did countries last year. Joy presented South Korea last year and really enjoyed doing that one as the birth country of her brother!

Countries that were represented during this year's Geography Fair were: Serbia, Mexico, (Island of) Okinawa, India, Canada, Ancient Rome, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, Ancient Persia, Ukraine, Italy and Japan. Here's a snapshot taken of the kids after the fair (there could have been some kids missing but we tried to rally them all together).



I hope you enjoyed your trip around the world today! Thanks for stopping by! Next Homeschool Open House, I plan to share some of the field trips we've taken recently.

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I finally had a chance to work on a few of Goodwill finds and give them a makeover. Stop by tomorrow to take a look and with a day or so, my mom's cupboard should be completed and I'll show you how it turned out!

Have a great Tuesday! :)

Homeschool Open House - A Typical Homeschool Day At Our House

Gosh, time passes so quickly! It hardly seems I've been away from my blog for four days! Joy and I have both been sick over the weekend with the nasty cold stuff. We're still not back 100%, but feeling a bit better.



Today's is Tammy's (Lattes and Lollypops), Homeschool Open House. I really had hoped that we would be far enough along on our Geography project...our study of India....to share today, but it looks like it will be next time. Our Homeschool Group's Geography Fair is March 3rd, so I KNOW it will be ready in March! :)

Instead today, I thought I'd share a typical homeschool day with you. I was thinking that it might be interesting to people that have no idea what a homeschooler's day is like. What our day is NOT like is a typical classroom. I know years ago, I pictured myself standing in front of my little students, beginning with the pledge, and going over the calendar and weather, and actually "standing in front of them teaching". Actually our homeschooling day is just a natural part of our day. It is more of an ongoing learning atmosphere that is always present throughout our day. Since we've homeschooled for 15 years now, it really just feels as natural as getting dressed and everything else we do.

We begin our mornings with some basic chores followed by breakfast. If I can sneak a peek at my computer at any point during this time, I usually do, otherwise, it's lunchtime before I get another chance. At the breakfast table, I'm usually finished first, so I begin reading aloud to Joy while she finishes up her breakfast. We've always placed high importance upon reading and reading aloud to our children, even through the high school years. As a matter of fact, if I had to pick the one thing about our homeschooling day that I love best....that's it....READ ALOUD TIME. It builds bonds of togetherness, not to mention the listening skills it requires and develops! After awhile (usually after she finishes eating), we move into the living room, where we either snuggle together in a chair, or Joy lies, sits, or props in more positions than I knew ever existed...(but she's listening!) As a matter of fact, I ask her to tell back to me (or narrate) what she just heard, or at times, I'll have her ask me questions from what I read. After all, she has to listen to know what to ask me! As a matter of fact, I find that she listens well to try to find a question that I might not remember or know! lol! After our read alouds are done (there are usually at least two..sometimes three), then we move onto our oral activities such as spelling and grammar reviews and memorization work. From there, Joy usually works on her independent work such as workbooks and notebooks (Math, Handwriting and Copywork for example) as well as her personal literature readings and Bible reading.





Again, some of this is done at the breakfast table, some at her desk, and some sitting or lying on the couch or recliner. By the time all of this is done, it's usually lunch time.

After lunch we work on any ongoing projects or experiments such as Science, Geography and Creative Writing and practicing her dance, piano and taekwondo. And even free time is spent learning as Joy loves to post on her blog in which case she is practicing her spelling, writing and grammar skills as well as her typing and computer skills. (She learned to type from a computer software program Kids Typing Instructor).



She has a few penpals that she corresponds with as well. So there again, she's practicing her handwriting and working on that spelling and grammar again! I really have found it true that if I gave my kids free time, they will spend it on something in which they're learning (I just don't tell them they're learning)! Then again, you know we don't have cable or Direct TV and only get a couple of channels, so the TV is not on, unless we are watching a DVD that we have received from Netflix. It's amazing what that does for creativity! lol!
She was working on a sewing project (the one for my mom's birthday) the day I took all these pictures.



And then is our homeschooling day over? Well Monday evenings, she has taekwondo for 2 hours. Tuesday evenings, she spends 1 hour in dance. Wednesday evenings she spends at church for about an hour. Thursday evenings, she spends 1 1/2 hours in dance and Friday evenings, she spends 2 more hours in taekwondo. So there's plenty of extra-curricular (and P.E.) activities to keep her busy (of her choice by the way).

Then every night, you can usually find Joy falling asleep with a book in her hand! If I remember correctly, this particular night was a book on friendships.



In addition, every Tuesday afternoon we spend 1 1/2 hours with our local homeschool group for "gym". It's a time for the kids to play together (of all ages). There are many game tables such as ping pong, air hockey, foos ball, pool, as well as basketball court, roller racers, and if they want to play a board game, there are those to choose from as well. And the moms get to visit while we watch the kids. I love our group...or our homeschooling family...as I call it! Once a month, the kids have recitation and skate day. Recitation is a time when they recite, share, or perform something in front of our group. When we finish, we skate in the gymnasium.

And scattered among these activities named above are field trips and parties scheduled by our group that we attend. When Colt was young, I remember being asked if I worried about socialization skills, and honestly, I did sometimes when he was little. I think it was more fear of the unknown than anything. Now I laugh, and say, "Yeah, I worry we do TOO much of it...I need to say No to some things!" lol! Besides, I found out that Colt doesn't have a bit problem socializing and Joy never has! She was born talking and doing! And one day, when this house is quiet, I just might be wishing for this hectic schedule and socializing! :)

Here's Joy showing you our home library! I told you we love books around here! Although we do sell some of our books to make way for new ones, it's hard to depart with some! My kids know my system of keeping the books, but I doubt anyone else could find a particular book! I have my "Geography Section", "History Section", "Resource Section", "Creative Arts Section", etc... One day, I hope to organize our books in a way that more closely resembles a library shelf! Until, then we'll just do it mom's way! (By the way, Jason built me these shelves...below in the cabinets are craft and school supplies). This is in our loft area.



I hope you enjoyed this little peek into one of our homeschooling days.

Home School Open House

For today's Homeschool Open House, I thought I'd share some of our curriculum with you.



If you want to peek in at other Homeschool Open Houses, visit Tammy's blog for the links to the others!

Our core curriculum that we use for Bible, literature, history and reading is Sonlight. I can't say enough good thngs about Sonlight! It is literature rich. Since we LOVE books, living books in particular, or books that make learning come alive, Sonlight is just wonderful! We ALWAYS look forward to our reading! This is the way I wish I could have learned. You've saw this picture on what we call our box day (the day our Sonlight books arrive at our door), but I thought I'd show you again. These are the books that we will read by the end of this school year.





This is our schedule book. It serves as a guideline for us as to what we will read and do everyday in the above subjects. Since it's very common to hear, "Mom don't stop....keep reading!", I often read two or three days worth at a time. That allows us to do the same thing in say, the history readings the next day. That's what I love about the instructors guide...it's a guide and I use it to my advantage. But I do love having the guide! It keeps us on schedule! If we go out of town, we can read ahead a few days, and accomodate our long weekend, or we just take it along and do the readings there.



For Math, we use Math-U-See. We used this with Colt when he was schooling, and we just love it! It's exactly as it claims, it uses blocks to SHOW the kids WHY we do what we do in math, and it has the teacher on DVD, so Joy and I watch it together. I especially like this in math, because although Jason is a math whiz, it's probably one of my LEAST favorite things to do! (I'd rather be reading or doing something creative).



For Handwriting, we use Handwriting Without Tears. She also gets practice on her handwriting with any copywork she does or letters she sends to friends.



For Spelling, we use Sequential Spelling. This is not set up by grades. You begin in book 1 regardless of what grade you begin and just work your way through it. We will be ready for book 3 in a few days. We do ours orally. It really is a simple, but effective way to teach spelling. It starts with shorter words and builds upon word patterns.



For Grammar, we are using Daily Grams, along with daily practice in writing. This book has short lessons focusing daily on the different categories of grammar such as sentence structure and combining, punctuation, capitalization, alphabetizing, parts of the speech, verb agreement and more...very painless grammar lessons. She also has a couple of penpals, including Tammy's daughter, Allyson. This is a natural way to learn the mechanics of writing, spelling and grammar. Besides that, it's fun!



For Science, we use the God's Design for Science Series. The book we are presently using is the God's Design for the Universe. However, we also love the Magic School Bus books and experiment books. I really like the looks of the Elementary Apologia too. We might add the Astronomy one to this to enhance our study on the universe. We used Apologia with Colt from 7th grade up.



Weaved in among these is also the use of many living books. Joy learned to type from the computer software program, Kids Typing Instructor. After she learned the basics and built a little speed, I allowed her free time to email friends and "use" what she learned. It's amazing how quickly they pick up things when it's useful and fun for them! She now wants her own blog. I think it might be a great avenue (if closely...very closely monitored by mom) for some of her creative writing assignments. We'll see.

And speaking of creative writing assignemnts, I love this little book, If You're Trying to Teach Kids How to Write, You've Got to Have This Book. It's packed with tips and ideas for kids to write. This was one of my favorite books to use when I taught a small co-op class when Colt was younger, and it's still one I pull out for fun writing assignments for Joy too.



As far as what we're working on now...Let's see....Our main read-aloud is Toliver's Secret (we're studying the American Revolution) and Joy is reading Martha Washington independently. We're preparing for our homeschool group's geography fair in early March. Joy chose India as her country to study and exhibit. We're presently in the read and research stage. Maybe at the next open house, her exhibit will possibly be completed or far enough along to share.



And one last thing I'll leave you with is a writing assignment Joy wrote yesterday. I gave her the words "I know" and asked her list things that would follow behind those words....as few or as many as she would like. This is what she came up with.

I know...

1) I know multiplication.
2) I know God is real.
3) I know that nobody's perfect.
4) I know that we are in tough times.
5) I know that we wouldn't be in as much hard times if McCain had been elected.
6) I know God loves me.
7) I know that my parents love me.
8) I know taekwondo.
9) I know dance.
10) I know that I love my parents and family.
11) I know alot about reading.

Thanks for stopping by! And for those of you that aren't homeschooling your children, and you're STILL with me reading this...thank you for hanging in there! Homeschooling is another part of our daily lives that just comes natural for us and from time to time, I like to share what we're doing in that department!

Please remember to pray for our new President, all of our leaders in Congress and the Senate and for the American people in the times ahead. I urge everyone to be alert and active in the issues that lie ahead. The future of our country is at stake and we are going to have be involved and sometimes be ready to fight for our freedoms!

Have a great day! :)

"Zu Zu's Petals", Home School Open House, Award & Giveaway

For my next post, I have been searching earnestly for a picture I wanted to share, and then I remembered it was the Tuesday for Tammy's Home School Open House (okay,really Tammy reminded me).....so I thought I would combine the two today, along with an award and giveaway too. (I hope you don't mind, Tammy...but being the old movie lover that you are, I figured I'd be okay putting this on here today)! And if you came just for the Home School Open House....just scroll on down until you see the button and that's where that part begins!

First of all, about Zu Zu. Do you recognize the name?



If you guessed, It's a Wonderful Life....you're right! Zu Zu was George Bailey's daughter...the little girl that caught a cold and was upstairs in bed sick. Remember him sitting on the side of the bed as she showed him her broken rose petals? Her daddy "fixed" it for her (by putting the broken one in his pocket and handing her back a perfect rose)! I always loved that because isn't that what all little girls (and big ones too) think about their daddies...they can fix anything and make it better?

It's a Wonderful Life is a favorite Christmas movie at our house. It's not a question of IF we watch it during the Christmas season, it's how many times. If you're a fan, you probably know the lines...."Hee Haw", "Hot Dog", "Teacher says, every time a bells rings an angel gets its wings"......And I could go on!

Well around Christmas of 1997, we found out that Karolyn Grimes, who played Zu Zu was going to be visiting our local library and signing autographs. Colt and I stood in line (before a ball game) to meet her. Colt was 8 years old at the time (and Joy hadn't come along yet). He took her a vase of pink roses "to replace the broken petals". She loved it! She was super nice! Here she is with Colt.



Notice the "Z" pin on her suit? Would you believe I've never noticed that EVER before today, and Joy pointed it out to me right when she looked at it. She said, "Look she has a Z on her for Zu Zu." How could I have missed that?

She signed our copy of It's a Wonderful Life.



We bought this ornament (that I absolutely love and treasure) and she signed the back of it too. It always gets a place of honor on our tree and I make sure it's wound tight around the branch.....because my heart would break if it fell off and broke!



This particular picture on the ornament is a shot of her when her daddy (George Bailey) is holding her at the end as all his friends, relatives and neighbors pour in to help George out!

Here's the back:



I love what she wrote! Life is wonderful!

If you've never seen the movies, you're really missing out....it's a favorite here! And speaking of favorites, on another day, I will share my very favorite Christmas movies and I'm also going to ask all my family for THEIR favorites and I'll share that too!



Now on to the Home School Open House sponsored by Tammy of Lattes and Lollypops. Again this time, I don't have a big project to show you...but as usual we have been reading....lots of reading. This particular book has been our read-aloud (from Sonlight) for the past couple of weeks and we sure have loved it....it's probably been our favorite actually so far this year (Joy's and mine).




The name of it is The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. I remember reading this with Colt when he was younger. It's a wonderful story set in the Colonial Days in the colony of Connecticut during the times when the Puritans would "accuse" people of being witches. It's much more than that though....it has history & courtship weaved throughout too. It also brought the opportunity for Joy and I to discuss what gossip and judging people can do. We also discussed desirable character, how to be a true friend and what to look for in a mate. It's hard to believe one little book could pack that much punch to discuss, but it did......and we loved it! Don't let the title fool you either.....it's a GREAT book to share with your family (or read alone).

And speaking of character, here's a book that Joy and I just started reading together and discussing. This an old book republished...it's been around a long time.



The back says, "What can be more beautiful than the budding and blossoming of girlhood? Those years of transition from childhood to womanhood are filled with wonderful interest and promise. But the young feet that travel this way may be unsteady and unsure. Each could use guidance, a helping hand along the way. To encourage our girls to a nobler life and truer ideals is the task of this book."

And since all that I've shared is reading...here's a picture of Joy doing an experiment she did at home and showed at recitation last Tuesday. Since we are studying astronomy (God's Design Series), we discussed the laws of thermodynamics as an introduction to earth science. This experiment showed the 2nd law of thermodynamics.....that all objects tend to go to a state of rest. (or slow down because it loses energy).



We tied a string around a tennis ball and taped it to the top of a doorway. She stood back the length of the string...holding it to her nose and let it go. By just releasing and not giving it any motion, it just swings out and back without touching her, because it's losing energy as it swings through the air.

On to the last couple of things for today...Here's an award given to me from my bloggin' buddy over at Cat Nap Inn! Thank you so much! I've met so many wonderful bloggers and enjoy so many blogs that I don't want to have to choose, so I pass this award along to ALL my blog readers!


And last of all, if you love Christmas and love to read, you'll love Trudy's giveaway. Click over and pick out your favorite Christmas book she has and if she draws your name out, you'll win your favorite book!



Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments! I enjoy them all so much and I enjoy visiting your blogs too! I don't get to do so everyday, but I try as often as I can, and I usually catch up a few days a week.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving week too! Check back for more Christmas decor pictures!

Blessings,
Tammy

Homeschool Open House & a Giveaway!

Tammy, over at Lattes and Lollypops, just started up a Home School Open House where we could share what we've been up to, books we're reading, or just anything really that we'd like to share about our learning adventures. Well, today is the first day and I sure wish we had some fantastic science project or geography project to show you, but we don't. However, we're ALWAYS reading, reading, reading around here...so I figure that's what we'll show you today!



Very rarely do you ever see the kids or me leave the house without a book in hand. We just don't want to be caught somewhere without a book!


Here's a picture of Joy, my little 4th grader, hanging out this weekend on the tire swing!

And some of you may remember from awhile back how excited we were when our Sonlight Box came in the mail full of our reading goodies! Well, Joy has both the regular and advanced readers from the Core and is a little over 7 weeks ahead on her personal reading (I mean how can you tell them NOT to read, right?). Here's what she's been reading since the second week in September on her own:



And the book that we're really into right now that I'm reading aloud to her is The Sign of the Beaver. We just don't want to quit reading, so we're ahead in that too...but we also have another motive....I have the movie that is based on the book that she's never seen.....Keeping the Promise.....and I won't let her watch it until we read the book! That's the general rule around here....first read the book...THEN you can watch the movie! And it's funny how most of the time, the movie just never measures up to the images that our minds have created for the characters in the books! :)



And she's reading this one right now. I wish I had gotten a picture of her when she goes to bed...the book is either lying on her where she falls asleep or just beside her opened up to the page where she quit for the night!



And while we're talking about books....she was on the phone with a friend the other day (Molly Grace), who was doing a book report. She decided SHE wanted to do a book report. So in her spare time, she decided to read another book, Eleanor Roosevelt, and wrote this report. Now had I given her an assignment, I would have asked for better paper and writing, but mind you...she just DECIDED to do this! So here's her report. I typed it up for her so she could share it today at our homeschool recitation. We have recitation once a month with our homeschool support group so the children get a chance to recite or perform in front of a group. She will be sharing this today during recitation.



And last of all, we have been reading and learning a bit every week about different styles of poetry.




Well last week we read about the haiku and I asked her to write one. If you remember anything about those...they are 3 lines...with the first line being 5 syllables, second line has 7 syllables and the last line has 5 syllables.



She wrote this one for her first one. (We were sitting in Colt's room at the time and the first thing she spied was his fan).

A Fan

Twirling all around,
You can hear it's whirling sound.
Summer cannot hide.
Since then, she's been on a haiku roll....she's written several more!


Snowflakes

White, flaky, and cold.
Each one is so different.
Can't resist, must play!


Christmas Time

Baking, wrapping gifts,
Twinkling lights all over town!
Yummy smells, sleigh bells.


Taekwondo

Kicking, yelling....Yaaa!
Breaking boards....Smash! Bang! Shatter!
I am yellow belt!


Our Cats

Polly pocket, Run!
Clawing felines want to play.
Don't be swept away!

(Our cats LOVE to play with Joy's polly pockets...they get into them all the time and drag them all over the house....they want to play with them MUCH more than any of THEIR toys!)



And sometimes situations just call for a poem I guess! She's had a cold and I've been having her take medicine (which you know how kids LOVE that) so yesterday as I told her I needed to get her medicine...she created this haiku! lol!

Medicine

Have a cough and cold.
Dreaded medicine mom seeks!
Grosses me out, Yuch!


And in awhile we're off to gym for our homeschool co-op day! Joy will go to her last Art Class and I will go to the Lapbooking Class. We will then have our recitation and hope to see the robot perform that our robotics team created and then have skate day (we skate once a month on the gym floor). Then we're off to dance class!

Maybe next time, I'll have an interesting project to show you...until then...you'll find us......on some adventure that our book takes us! :)

And I wanted to tell you all about a great giveaway in honor of Char's daughter's birthday! Char of the Pickled Pepper Patch is giving away this wonderful prim toaster cover. Click on over and sign up today!