Draw and Write..Through History

Since the beginning of this year we have been sampling many different history curriculum's. Our problem has been finding something that we could actually 'get into'. History is obviously not our favorite subject. So far, trying to do book curriculum has just been a bust. We started the audio version of Story of the World. We do not use the books with this. Instead, we made a timeline and memorization cards. So far we have really enjoyed this curriculum.

Recently, as I was looking to expand on the Story of the World curriculum, I ran into the Draw and Write through History series. My 9 year old has a passion for drawing and art so I though I'd give it a whirl.

This curriculum has a 4 book series: (1) Creation though Jonah, (2)Greece and Rome,(3) Vikings, The Middle Ages, and The Renaissance, (4) Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots. They also have a brand new book out, Napoleon to Lady Liberty. All books are suited for ages 8 and up, but can be used for younger students.

It combines history, drawing, and zaner-bloser cursive copy work. My 9 yr old is still pretty new to cursive, so the page long copy work is often too much for him. I will have him only do a portion in cursive and the rest in print.

My verdict on this.... Super fun. I actually enjoy sitting down and trying to do the drawings with him. Even though his are always better than mine :) Below are some of his drawing from book 3. Now, this could not be an entire curriculum, but it is a wonderful extra, or beginning. You could very easily dive into to each of these sections to create a school years worth of studies.

Winter Nature Studies

With the first snow on the ground, it is time to transition from our Autumn to Winter nature studies. I know, some of you are thinking, I am NOT going outside in this weather. Believe me I feel that way often, but by golly if the kids can do it and have fun, I can too. We can all cuddle under blankets with hot cocoa afterward. THAT I look forward too.

Our studies for this season will include:
Weekly:
1. Animal Tracks
2. How salt melts ice and snow
3. Snowflakes: Up close and personal
4.Outdoor observation box
You can find note-booking pages for all of the weekly studies to the right in the winter nature study section. Observation box note-booking is listed under 'created by me' section.

Daily:
Bird Watch- We are going to watch our bird feeders to see what is coming to visit.
Weather Watch- Self Explanatory :)
Moon Transition watch- Viewing the moon at night and watch its transitions from full moon to full moon.(This is also going along with our astronomy lessons.
For this I have created a few charts for these daily watches. You can find them to the right in the 'created by me' section.

Lesson Explanations:

1.Animal Tracks- Try to find any animal print in the snow. In your neighborhood, you might find rabbit, dog, cat, squirrel, bird or raccoon. We are going to the state park to try to find some lesson common prints like snake or deer. Have your child complete the note-booking page. You can take this a step further by making casts of the prints and then exploring them at home.

2. How salt melts ice and snow- You can use household or industrial salt for this project. The directions for this are explained on the note-booking page.

3. Snowflakes: Up close and personal- Catch some snow on a black piece of cloth, glove, or small piece of cardboard. Then view through the magnifying glass. You can put them in the freezer to prolong the project if needed. I would suggest pre-freezing your collection item and then putting back in the freezer for a few minutes before observing it. Complete the note-booking page. I am going to have my schoolers write(and/or dictate) a story about snow or snowflakes. Also, we will make snowflakes out of paper.
4.Outdoor observation box- With the outdoor observation box, you find a small area in your yard or local park that won't be disturbed. Measure out your box. We are going to do 1 ft by 1 ft. As you measure, place rocks or stakes in the corners of your observation box. The use yarn to square off the box. Everyday make observations, and take or draw a picture, of what has changed in the box since the last observation. For right now we plan to only do this for a week, but if the kids enjoy it like they did in other seasons we will continue. I fear they might only see a new cover of snow everyday :)

I will be sharing our studies as we complete them. Feel free to work along with us. Do you have other nature studies that you and your family enjoy?

Snow...Through a child's eyes.

I think that the image we have of snow as a child compared to as adults is pretty opposite. As a child, snow is magical. Its exciting. Its fun, and we never seem to be cold while we sled and make our snow men. As adults, we freeze easy. We think about how terrible it makes the traffic, what a pain it is to shovel the drive and walkways, being driven insane by kids who cant go outside.

Could you imagine how enjoyable winter would be if we looked at snow through the eyes of our childhood? We would see the majestic image that we see in Christmas paintings. We would see the calmness, the serenity, the beauty of a street or field covered with fresh fallen snow. My goal for the rest of winter(or at least until Christmas) is to try to view winter, to view snow, through the eyes of my children. To remind myself about my childhood. The excitement I felt when I looked out the window and saw fresh snow. To look past the hustle and bustle, look past the traffic and the shoveling, look past the cold and just see...magic.

What's your favorite memory of snow from your childhood?

Cold Weather Crafts

For us here in Indiana, the 1st of December brought about the 1st snow. Now, 5 days later, we have some where between 2-4 inches. I think our top outdoor time has been 15 minutes. So, time for the crafts. Basic, simple crafts are always an easy way to keep the kiddos entertained during the cold weather. I wanted to find somethings that we could do, that would coincide with some lessons for this month. We are learning a lot about Christmas. The story of Jesus, the history behind certain Christmas symbols such as the tree, the nativity, even the yule log, reindeer(they actually exsist), and Christmas in other cultures. So, I have been able to google some kind of craft that goes with any of these lessons. Enchanted learning.com has many as well.

I have added 3 PDF files to the right in the PDF link. It has Unit studies on Reindeer, Christmas traditions(with crafts), and Christmas around the world. We are doing all 3 through out December, but focusing on the Christmas traditions as it has a craft with each lesson. You could actually do a couple a day. The other 2 unit studies contains LA, geography, science, and history.

I will be posting many of the Christmas tradition stories along with the crafts we are doing with them.

What are your favorite indoor winter activities?

Week 3 Nature Study: BIRDS

An injured Red tail hawk. On display while healing.

My apologies for lacking the past few weeks. We have completed all of our Autumn nature studies except for our pumpkin studies. For week 2:Trees. The boys went out with grandpa for a hike and discovered many oak trees and talked about acorns. Also, what the purpose of acorns are. They completed the note-booking pages with all of the information. I will post the pictures of their note booking pages soon.

I have to say that the bird and squirrel study was the best study this season. We tried to find birds that we are not use to seeing everyday, like cardinals and robins.
We are lucky to have a state park that has an amazing ornithology center. We were able to use interactive computers, view taxidermy birds in a habitat and watch live birds in their natural habitat through a huge viewing window.



M6 choose the hairy woodpecker. We did get to see this bird on the feeders, but could not get a picture so we had to look at it more in the research books. They had an interactive section on the computer for this bird as well. So, we got to hear its 'song'(Which is compared to that of a toucan) and its migration pattern.



L9 Chose a killdeer. (Because he liked his name) It was not around to view this season so hopefully we can actually view it in spring. However, there was a taxidermy version to view as well as the interactive section on the computer. We realized that the 'song' of this bird is one that we hear often on walks and such, but don't ever see. Here is a website to hear the killdeer song:
http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=18

They each filled out a note booking page for their bird of choice.



K3 was all over the place with excitement. He enjoyed walking around with binoculars around his neck pretending to be an explorer. KJ2 Enjoyed listening to the sounds on the interactive programs. He especially enjoyed all the crazy duck sounds.

We focused a lot more on the birds than the squirrels. They boys got a kick out of the fact that the squirrels in this park are ...well....kind of obese. They looked like huge cuddly mini-cats :) They named the fattest one..chunky butt. Hey, they are boys.

I mentioned in the original post describing this nature study that you could make this a a more in depth study. You could focus a week on the new bird, its sound, and habitat. Then the 2ND week on a birds structural and internal structures, feathers, and purpose of wings.

What birds do you choose for this study? Are they local to only your state or to the U.S.?

Coupon Deals and Freezer Meals

Coupon Deals:
For the longest time I struggled with using coupons. It is just a lot of time, and sorting...ugh. I could never just sit and do it and when I did, the savings were never worth the time.
Well, recently I was introduced and revised a way to use coupons to save a good amount of money while having an organized menu.
I normally only use Meijer because they double coupons. Meaning any coupon under .50 cents, you get it twice. They also offer good sales and savings in their ads,
First, I will go through the add and circle everything that we will eat or need as a type of ingredient.

Then, I will go through all the coupons(some friends recommend a Sunday paper per member of the household). You can use more than one of the same coupon if you have the items for it.

Once I have my coupons cut and my items circled, I will make a menu off of these items.
Our menu is only based off of whats on sale or has a coupon. In most cases after the menu is complete, I look back through the ad or coupons and I am able to find a few more things that are needed for the meals.

When I started doing this, I lowered our grocery bill to $100-$160 every 2 weeks. Before, our normal bill was closer to $125 a week. I think this drop in amount is due to the fact that we don't buy unnecessary things now. When we went shopping before we would buy whatever and then we would have ingredients laying around that we wouldn't use or we would need something for dinner and not have it and have to run and get it. This way we only have what we need and have an "order" of when we will eat them.
Using this method, we have lowered our grocery cost, created a menu that just makes life easier, and has also helped us to eat healthier.

Freezer Meals:
We all know how dinner time can be. Whiny kids who are hunger, mom getting frustrated because her water isn't boiling fast enough, did I mention hungry kids? Freezer meals are a way to save you a bunch of time at dinner time.
Here are some different options:

Marinated Meat:
Buy meat such as chicken or pork in bulk. Separate it into dinner size portions and put it in a freezer safe container(or Ziploc). Add your own marinade or a bottled marinade(or BBQ sauce) and freeze it.
It will marinade as it thaws. Then just make a simple salad or veggie and boil in a bag rice and your set.

Bulking Burger:
Buy excess in ground beef, turkey, or pork. Cook it all at once and place it in meal-size portions, pre-seasoned for tacos, spaghetti, or sloppy Joe's and freeze. You can do this when you are already cooking the meat for your current dinner.

Double Dinners:
As you are making dinner for your family, make a double batch. Freeze the second batch. My favorite meals to do this with are lasagna, chili, and sloppy Joe's.

TV Trays
I have not tried this one yet, but it sounds do-able. Use your leftovers by making TV trays. After the meal put serving size portions into a pie pan or good freezable dish and cover well. This would work well for the hubby's lunch or again, a quick dinner.

Productive Pancakes:
Easy enough. Make the entire box of pancake mix(or triple your batch if yours are homemade). Freeze the rest. We love pancakes, but all the flapjack flipping can last a while when feeding 6. Great, quick alternative for breakfast.

Happy Saving and Happy Freezing.

Week 1 Autumn Study- Apples

Here was the lessons for week 1 of our Autumn Nature Study: Apples.
*Read Child's biography on Johnny Appleseed
*Apple Note booking page *See Nature Study:Autumn to the right*
*Venn Diagram, comparing apples
PRE-K- A is for Apple sheet *to the right in the created by me section*
Art project- Apple stamps or tree with finger print apples.
I also added a link to a Johnny Appleseed lapbook to the right if you'd like to go more in depth. Its a good history lesson.

We added an extra snack. We took apple slices and had chocolate sauce and peanut butter for dipping. Then had sprinkles, chocolate chips, and nuts for toppings.



L9 / M6

We were hoping to get to the orchard this week so we could use "not so common" apples, but instead we went with your basic grocery store golden and red delicious.
We did a lot of comparing this week. Learning how to tell the difference between two different or similar items. We used this as a lesson in adjectives as well. We found as many words as we could to describe the apples and their appearance.

Hope you had fun this week with apples. Now to move on our week 2 nature study: Trees. You can check back on my original post to find the lessons for this week.