We Don't Need No Education

Mind-Fires Academy First Grade Plan Nearing Completion

2011-03-08T15:52:00.002-05:00

I thought that those of you interested in our first grade plans might be interested in knowing that I am almost finished with them! I have some copywork sheets to complete for weeks 26-36 and need to update the week-by-week pages with the changes I have made. That's it! So if you were hoping to use these plans for your first grader next year, you will be able to.

Mind-Fires Academy: First Grade

Now to get to work on second grade before I end up on bedrest with this pregnancy!

Cards for The Burgess Animal Book for Children

2010-12-02T12:39:00.000-05:00

We have really enjoyed the cards for The Burgess Bird Book for Children that I downloaded from That Resource Site, so I decided to go ahead and make some for the animal book.

Please let me know if I made any mistakes so I can fix them.

Cards for The Burgess Animal Book for Children

Arithmetic Village

2010-11-16T22:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, I love the new site but it's not the same as a blog and I feel the need to blog right now. :-)

Many of you may be unaware (due to my lack of blog posts these last couple of months) that we are adding some Waldorf elements to our homeschool day. You may be aware that Noble Knights of Knowledge has been one of our favorite math programs so far, and also that it has been discontinued. So unless you are lucky enough to stumble across a used copy for sale you are out of luck.

I just read a message board post that mentioned Arithmetic Village and I think these books might be just the thing to add to our homeschooling! I'm so excited I feel like I could burst. LOL Sad, I know, the things I get excited over these days. Unfortunately, with the holidays upon us and only one income we're going to have to wait to order them. However, I promise that I will be ordering them as soon as I have the money! (Assuming nobody buys them for me for Christmas....they are at the top of my list, but everyone generally insists on buying things for me, not for homeschool.....bah, humbug!) Cori at Wonder in the Woods has already done a review, but I would love to know what other people think. If you've used these books, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Where Have I Been?

2010-10-16T16:15:00.000-04:00

Wondering where I've disappeared to? We have our own webpage now, which I find much easier to keep up with than the blog! Since the blog has mostly been a place to keep track of links, anyway, I think this will work out better for us.

You're welcome to see what we're doing over at Mind-Fires Academy. I still have a lot of work to do, but the first grade section, at least, is coming along nicely.

If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to e-mail them to us at mind.fires.akademia@gmail.com.

Earth Science Week

2010-09-24T21:37:00.000-04:00

October 10-16 is Earth Science Week. Since we are studying the science of Earth and space this year, I have big plans for the week. Although we don't do much unit study type of stuff, we will be that week!

The video Why Earth Science? was a great find. I wish I had seen this before our first week of school! I'll be showing it to the boys during Earth Science Week.

We'll be watching Journey to the Center of the Earth [again :-)] and using this very cool guide (pdf) to go along with it. In art, we've been talking about and making cartoons/comics, so this came along at the perfect time!

We'll be becoming Junior Paleontologists on October 13th for National Fossil Day.

We will be checking out cloud types and identifying those that we see in our own skies.

We might be playing this Water Cycle Game. I will definitely be printing this water cycle placemat.

We also might be using this Seismic Superheroes pdf document.

That's what I have planned so far. I have a feeling we will spend a lot of time on the Journey to the Center of the Earth and Junior Paleontologists activities, so doubt I'll add more....but with me, you never know!

Art and Picture Study Details

2010-09-01T09:03:00.002-04:00

For artist study we are studying only 3 artist per year in-depth. This year those artists are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. We study six works of art by each artist, which is one work every two weeks.

On the first day of a new artist we read a book about him. So far our favorite books have been the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series by Mike Venezia.

Then we fill out an artist biography notebooking page about the artist. (I've made up my own for other artists based on this basic template.)

Lastly, we begin looking at our first selection of the artist's work. We spend only a couple of minutes looking at it. Then I ask a few questions from this list.

This is the only day that art takes very long, and it only happens three times per school year! That's manageable for me!

The second week that we study a work of art we try to reproduce it, or do a coloring page on the piece if I have one. If we're running short on time we simply study the work for a few more minutes and I ask a few different questions to get them thinking about the art.

For once weekly art projects we're using Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl. I love this book! If you haven't seen it I highly recommend that you use Amazon's Look Inside! feature. (Be sure to read author MaryAnn Kohl's comment below this post, in the comments section!) We read the brief biography of the artist and fill out the name, dates lived, and location born on a biography notebooking page for them, then we get to the project.

I love that the artists are in chronological order, it just seems to fit with the classical model. The boys' art notebooks are like little art timelines.

I take a picture of each project and print it on cardstock (I don't worry about being fancy and printing on photo paper.) Then we tape it to the notebooking page. Done with art!

Song School Latin

2010-08-29T18:04:00.001-04:00

A few months ago I was having a terrible time deciding what to do for foreign language study. Nik finally decided that he wanted to speak Latin like the Romans and like some knights once did. That decision led us to Song School Latin. We've really been enjoying it!

The workbook is all that is needed. It comes with a cd of songs that correspond to the lessons. The songs are catchy, and while it isn't great music I do find myself singing them throughout the day. We've worked through three chapters and Nik is already using his new vocabulary in everyday conversation. What homeschooling mom wouldn't love that?!

Weaving Potholders

2010-08-23T15:37:00.001-04:00

We've recently been talking a bit about weaving and how it was done in the past as compared to how it is done today. On a field trip to Genesse Country Village a couple of months ago we got to see an early American reenacter weaving a rug on a very large loom. Last week the boys tried their hands at weaving potholders with those little kits you can buy in the craft section of your local big-box store. They were so proud of their creations, and only needed a little help to finish off the edges.

It was surprisingly educational and awesome for working on those motor skills! Next up, potholders for their grandmothers and aunts as Christmas presents! (Shhh, don't tell!)

File Crate System

2010-08-22T20:35:00.002-04:00

After reading what must be the longest thread in the forum's history over at The Well-Trained Mind, I decided to organize our school year using the file crate system. With a lot of help from Melanie's posts on her Springs of Joy Homeschooling blog, I finally have mine all set up and I am so happy with it! I'm not going to get too detailed about how to do it since that is covered in the WTM post and on Melanie's blog, but I did want to share some of what I have done because I made a few modifications.

I decided to use 2-pocket folders, like this. I filed all of the work in the left pocket and as we complete things they get placed in the right pocket. It is very easy to see what we still need to accomplish with this system. The index card paper-clipped to the left pocket is the Library List for the following week.

Behind that is a Shopping List for the following week. The index cards fit in my wallet perfectly, and it is so nice to just grab them when I go shopping and be assured that I have all of the items on hand for our science, art, and history projects!

The yellow post-it stuck to the SOTW Activity Book page pictured here lists the pages in the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia that correlate to the weeks' lesson. I stick it in the UILE as a bookmark at the beginning of the week and my son can read about the subject we're studying whenever he desires.

We have green for one child, blue for the other, and red for my files. The week number is in the upper left corner.

I also have yellow folders for each of the months of the year that I've put seasonal ideas, crafts, and notes in.

I have 36 hanging file folders (1 for each week of the school year.) In each hanging file are our 3 folders. I didn't want them in open file crates due to the dust they would collect over the course of the year, so mine are in file totes with lids. Each tote holds 6 weeks of files, plus two monthly seasonal folders.

For work like First Language Lessons and All About Spelling, which I couldn't really rip apart to file, I printed a progress sheet and attached stickers for them to use as we complete each lesson.

For any lessons where another weeks' lesson is printed on the back I attached a small post-it reminder to move it to the next weeks' folder.

Please ignore the very wrinkled tablecloth in the pictures! I've finally relaxed my laundry standards and have started letting the boys help me fold. ;-)

Connecting History and Other Subjects

2010-06-09T21:38:00.000-04:00

My public school education (in a good school, and as an honor student) was seriously lacking in nearly every way. Sure, I learned how to take and pass a test with flying colors, but I retained so very little! My 6-year-old son can tell you more about the history of the world than I can, and he's only had one year of instruction.....and he's retaining the information!

Connecting math, science, and literature, to history is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling. I came across a wonderful way to do so with chemistry today. The American Chemical Society has four interactive features, including a timeline, of "National Historic Chemical Landmarks", or important events in chemical history. They also have a This Week in Chemical History page. We won't be starting chemistry officially for a couple of years, but I hope at least one of my readers can utilize this resource now.

One resource we will be using next year is Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself. What a wonderful way to tie science to history, don't you think!? This book is written for the nine-twelve age bracket and I will be using it with a just-turned seven-year-old. However, he is a serious history buff and already thinks daVinci is one of the coolest guys ever. LOL If things seem to advanced for him to do we'll just set the book aside and use it on our next cycle through history.

I also just purchased Science And Technology In The Middle Ages by Joanne Findon. I have high hopes for this book, I just hope it lives up to them!

And I imagine most of you have heard of Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians, which is the perfect book for tieing math and history together! There is also a second volume in what I hope will become an entire series!

Please comment and share what you use to tie history to other subjects!

Resources for Elementary Chemistry

2010-06-09T20:18:00.001-04:00

Inquiry in Action—Investigating Matter Through Inquiry, Third Edition is a free printable resource from the American Chemical Society. The activities in the book are also available separately on the Inquiry in Action website. Designed for grades 3-8 it is something we will likely use when we get around to chemistry as an official subject. (Right now chemistry is something we do for fun!) It addresses the following topics:

● Scientific questions and their investigation
● Physical properties
● Physical change
● Dissolving solids, liquids, and gases
● Chemical change
● States of matter
● Density

Although not free, the American Chemical Society also published a couple of science books that look good for the preschool through second grade set. I just ordered both of them (used, through Amazon, and for cheaper than the links that follow), titled

Apples, Bubbles, and Crystals: Your Science ABCs

and Sunlight, Skycrapers, and Soda Pop: The Wherever-You-Look Science Book.

Since we're just starting to work on writing letters with my 4-year-old I thought the first title would correspond nicely. It seems perfect for a letter-of-the-week type curriculum! I'll let you know how we like them once we've had a chance to use them.

Chemistry Is Fun!

2010-06-09T18:40:00.002-04:00

I had the best time introducing Nik to the wonders of chemistry this afternoon! We started off having a ton of fun with some actvities from The Molecularium™ Project. We built molecular oxygen, molecular hydrogen, water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen peroxide, methane, propane, butane, methanol, ethanol, glucose, fructose, vitamin C, vitamin A, sucrose, and bucky balls in the Nanolab. What a fun and easy way to introduce atoms, elements, and molecules!

We'll be doing some of the activities from the teacher's guides available on the Educator's Resource page (scroll to the bottom to find the pdf download links) over the next few weeks.

Nik was so excited to do this activity, and his understanding of molecules from this brief activity amazes me! I love finding gems like this on the internet, and I hope you all use and enjoy them, too!

Color Me Physics!

2010-06-09T15:33:00.001-04:00

A huge thank you to Doodle (of the WTM forums) for posting the link to Color Me Physics! This is such a wonderful free resource. I'm so excited to use it!

The Coloring Book

The Activity Book

PhysicsQuest looks like a wonderful activity to do with middle schoolers. Physics at Home has some great looking experiments. I encourage you to explore the site and see what it is all about! Very, very cool stuff!

Genesee Country Village

2010-06-08T20:30:00.001-04:00

Last month we went on a field trip with one of the local homeschool groups to Genesee Country Village in Mumford, NY. What a cool place! We're going back in July for a Civil War Reenactment. And in August they are having an event called The Life and Times of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We won't be going to that one, but I had to mention it in case anyone within a couple of hours' drive of Mumford is a fan. It is definitely worth the drive!

Statue Outside of the Carriage House Museum

Pioneer Barn

Sheep

Drug Store

Post Office

Civil War Union Soldier (Sargeant)

At the Weaver's House

General Store

Shoemaker's Shop

Catholic Church

Toll Bridge

Gazebo

Ancient Science by Jim Wiese

2010-06-05T23:12:00.002-04:00

I think Ancient Science by Jim Wiese is such a cool science book, and makes a great companion to ancient history studies! The only thing I'm not crazy about so far is that I don't have a handy shopping list to take with me when I go shopping. I don't know about the rest of you, but science only gets done in this house if I have the supplies on hand well in advance of commencement of projects!

Instead of typing up my shopping list and printing it out for my own use, I thought it might be nice to put it up here so that it is accessible to everyone.

Shopping List for Ancient Science by Jim Wiese

Preschool Printing Readiness

2010-06-04T12:28:00.000-04:00

I have a few minutes to myself because my preschooler is off with his grandmother. So what do I do? I take the time to prepare his schoolwork and blog about it! LOL

Nate will turn 5 at the end of July. I have spent almost no time instructing him in letter formation. I'm not even sure if he would recognize all of the letters of the alphabet yet! He does know how to write his name, and has recently shown great interest in learning how to write the rest of the letters of the alphabet so that he can leave Daddy notes on the chalkboard. As a result, I've spent rediculous amounts of time reading about handwriting programs on the homeschooling message boards, trying to decide which program is right for us.

I think I've settled on Handwriting Without Tears (HWoT), but I haven't placed my order yet. In the meantime, we're going to work on some Donna Young worksheets for printing readiness. We'll start with Printing Readiness and move on to Printing Readiness 2 before starting HWoT.

Creative Kids Music

2010-05-24T19:22:00.001-04:00

Someone on a homeschooling message board that I frequent posted a link to a fabulous opera activity at Classical KUSC and we had so much fun and learned so much that despite my current exhausted state I had to share it with you all!

(Apologies for my lengthy absence; family health issues and a wonderful vacation have kept me occupied for some time now. Also, apologies for the lengty run-on sentence.....but I'm too tired to go fix it!)

Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel: Learning About Opera
Brahms in 1890s Vienna: Learning About Chamber Music
Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade: Learning About Symphonic Music

I sincerely hope that they add more of these activities!!!

Live Animal Cams

2010-03-15T10:19:00.003-04:00

Because we can't seem to get enough of these live animal cams, I have another link to share with you today.

Phoebe Allens Live Hummingbird WebCam

And while I'm at it, I have more live web cam links. Wild Earth TV offers a variety of channels so you can see many different animals around the world in their natural habitats. Very cool!

Updated to add ~ Live Owl Nest Box Cam

The discovery of these links coincides nicely with our new science unit on animals. If you know of any more, please leave a comment and let me know what it is. I don't think we could have too many! :-)

The Franklin Institute Hawk Nest

2010-03-14T12:38:00.001-04:00

Someone sent a link to the K5Science Yahoo Group letting us know about The Franklin Institute Hawk Nest. The momma has an egg in her nest. This should be as much fun as watching Lily the Black Bear!

Enjoy!

Earth and Space Science Plans

2010-03-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

Next year we will be studying Earth & Space. Our primary curriculum is R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, but we'll be adding in plenty of activities from other sources. One wonderful thing about R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey is the Try Before You Buy feature. Click here --> RSO Earth & Space Level 1 (.pdf) to go directly to the try before you buy to see it for yourself.

I'm working on my plans right now and will post them as soon as I am able. I was going to post them right in the blog post, but quickly realized that I need more space than the column allows! I'm working on a Word document that I will upload to Scribd as soon as I get it completed.

Other Blogs

2010-03-11T20:02:00.001-05:00

Ko's Journey

2010-03-03T13:44:00.001-05:00

I just came across the coolest game! If you read my last post about math you know I'm on a search for something to make our math lessons more exciting and enjoyable. Unfortunately the game is for 5th to 8th grade students. Maybe I could buy it for myself?!

Put out by Imagine Education, Ko's Journey looks absolutely amazing and exciting, as well as highly educational. If anyone gets a chance to play it, please let me know how you like it!

Update ~ The game has been released! I haven't bought it yet, but I'm still tempted. Ordering and pricing can be found on this page and is $39/year for one student, or $59/year for 3 students.

Earthquakes & Volcanoes

2010-03-03T10:43:00.001-05:00

Although we'll be studying earth science next year, the recent quakes in Haiti and Chile have sparked conversations in our household that can't be ignored. In my research (because living in the snow belt of NY I have zero experience with severe weather of any kind other than blizzards) I came across some really great resources that I wanted to share. Not all of these will be appropriate for the early elementary years, so please preview.

Easy Fun School - Unit Study on Volcanoes and Earthquakes
Earthquake ABC
Weather Wiz Kids - Earthquakes
Weather Wiz Kids - Volcanoes
Mrs. Thonus's Third Grade Stars - Volcanoes & Earthquakes
Teacher Planet - Earthquake Resource Page
The NASA Sci Files - Just How DO Those Plates Move? Experiment
USGS - Earthquakes for Kids
             (quizzes, coloring pages, animations....awesome site!)
USGS - Learning Links & Earthquake Activities
USGS - Latest Earthquakes in the World
USGS - Latest Earthquakes in the USA
NOVA - Deadly Shadow of Vesuvius Classroom Activity
(Website) (Video not required)
NOVA - Volcano Above the Clouds (Kilimanjaro) Classroom Activity
              (Website) (Video)
PBS - Savage Earth
Exploratorium - Fault Line: Seismic Science at the Epicenter
Juicy Geography - Shaker Maker Earthquake Simulator Project
Lesson Plans for Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
                    (set during 1906 San Francisco earthquake)

Making Math Fun

2010-03-02T19:45:00.002-05:00

I think I've screwed up when it comes to math. My oldest is not a math-loving-kid. He is doing great with the MEP and Math Mammoth that we have been using, but he says he hates it. He spends his days drawing, reading, and immersing himself in imaginative pretend play. Numbers don't excite him. So I'm back-pedaling and trying to come up with something to make him like math, or even love math. I think story-based math is what I need. I thought I might have found it with Noble Knights of Knowledge, but it appears that the company is no longer selling? (ETA~I finally found a used copy of this and Nik loves it!) I found a few lovely lessons called Gnomes and Numbers (and can't find the link now that I'm sitting here tying to post about it, of course!) They were on a Waldorf blog. Hmmmmm.

Oh, I found it.......sort of! The person who had the lessons on her blog is now selling her Waldorf curriculum. It's A Little Garden Flower's A Journey Waldorf Math Book and I bought the e-book. I can't wait for it to arrive in my inbox so I can try something new. Nik loves stories, so maybe this approach will get him excited about math.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for story-based math, besides Living Math which we are already incorporating?

While I'm on the subject, I found a really cool site with some fun math things. I particularly like this math worksheet (pdf) Name the Math Term.

Learning Centers

2010-03-01T13:21:00.001-05:00

A post on The Well Trained Mind forums prompted me to take a couple of pictures of some of the learning centers that we have set up.

Geography Center

Maps, LeapFrog Explorer Smart Globe, a basket full of maps, and geography books, puzzle maps

Math Center

Right next to the geography center are our drawers full of math manipulatives and activities,

math games, living math books, math puzzles, calendar, and meter stick.

Science Center

Science encyclopedias, books, planet model, human body poster, a basket full of field guides and parrot feathers, the top of the cabinet holds experiment kits, the top of the filing cabinet holds a rock kit and human body puzzle and shells, a plant to the left of the filing cabinet for them to observe and care for.

The Martian Matter isn't supposed to be there on top of the animal encyclopedia! lol

Grammar-Land Worksheets Part 3

2010-02-28T19:44:00.007-05:00

*** If you are having issues with Scribd, try viewing all of these documents with Google Docs.***

Only two more to go! I should have no problem getting them all done by tomorrow.

You can find the first six worksheets at Grammar-Land Worksheets Part 1
and the second set of six worksheets at Grammar-Land Worksheets Part 2.

Worksheet 13 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

Worksheet 14 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

Worksheet 15 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

Worksheet 16 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

Worksheet 17 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

Grammar-Land Worksheets Part 2

2010-02-28T14:23:00.010-05:00

*** If you are having issues with Scribd, try viewing all of these documents with Google Docs.***

Finally, finally I've had a chance to start working on more of these worksheets. We're taking the day off of school tomorrow so I can hopefully complete the set. Keep your fingers crossed!

I've mentioned Grammar-Land by M.L. Nesbitt, one of the free resources we are using for grammar, in previous posts. It is a wonderful book, and a perfect choice for Charlotte Mason inspired families. You can view it online or download the pdf file, or buy the book. We read it on my Sony Reader (the best homeschooling investment I have made!)

At the end of each chapter are some exercises woven into the story. I've taken those exercises and turned them into worksheets. Without something printed out and ready to go we tend to forget to do the exercises and I really think they are helpful in cementing concepts.

You can view and download the first 6 worksheets in this previous post: Grammar-Land Worksheets

You can view and download the next 6 below. Please let me know if you find any mistakes so I can fix them as quickly as possible!

Worksheet 7 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 8 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 9 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 10 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

Worksheet 11 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

Worksheet 12 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by J...

"Books For Children Concerning Diseases, Disorders, and Learning Differences"

2010-02-25T09:10:00.000-05:00

The Monroe County Public Library of Indiana has a wonderful list of books on their site "Concerning Diseases, Disorders, and Learning Differences." What a wonderful resource!

With Pencil and Pen: Language Lessons for Primary Schools by Sarah Louise Arnold

2010-02-15T14:12:00.001-05:00

With Pencil and Pen: Language Lessons for Primary Schools by Sarah Louise Arnold

What a lovely book this one is! Medieval Mom posted the link on the Well Trained Mind forums and curious me had to take a peek. I am so glad that I did! I wonder if it would be way too much to work these into next year's lessons?

My Apologies

2010-02-04T11:13:00.000-05:00

So much for that New Year's Resolution, huh?! I've been so busy with things that I've barely had time to finish two chapters of the book I'm reading, much less get to the blog once this week. Three times is not likely to happen! :-)

I'm trying to get the Grammar Land Worksheets completed, and I'm also working on formatting The Burgess Bird Book for Children for printing and finding coloring pages to go with it. And while doing those things I'm trying to keep up with the school work as well as preparing my house for some remodeling/painting that will be starting next week. Add in two birthday parties to attend this weekend and I'm beyond busy. In fact, I forgot to eat breakfast this morning and it's now almost lunch time!

If I don't get things up that you're expecting to see (like the Grammar Land Worksheets by mid-February) a gentle reminder would be appreciated! If I can't remember to feed myself, I can't be relied on to get to these things when you expect me to, can I? lol

A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra

2010-01-25T16:17:00.001-05:00

I'm always on the look-out for free audio books and educational songs to listen to in the car. Today's little gem is from Arts Reformation: Children's Vinyl Record Series and is titled A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra. You can find it under the second section (Golden Records) and can download the MP3 (it's a zip file) right to your computer.

Enjoy!

2010/2011 Planning

2010-01-24T09:53:00.018-05:00

I'm trying to plan for next year and it really does help to see it all written out in a list form. Am I doing too much? Not enough?

Math
MEP
Math Mammoth

Reading
books of his choice
Explode the Code to help cement some of the phonics rules

Copywork/Grammar/Spelling
Classical Writing Primer
All About Spelling Level 1

Literature
Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb
Among the Forest People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
The Pied Piper of Hamlin by Robert Browning
Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin
The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess
     (begin w/Mice with Pockets, and Others)

Poetry
Walter De La Mare
Eugene Field
James Whitcombe Riley
Christina Rossetti

History
SOTW 2 + Activity Book
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley
Men of Iron by Howard Pyle
Unknown to History: The Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
     beginning with The Barmecide Feast and ending with The Ungrateful Soldier
   see the chronological order list here for details
The Little Duke by Charlotte Mary Yonge (c. 943) study notes
Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley (1412-1431)

Science
R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Earth & Space
Nature study from Classical Writing Primer

Music/Composer Study
Classical Music Composer Study 2010/2011 using Classics for Kids

Artist/Picture Study
As outlined on my blog: We Don't Need No Education
And we may be working on a foreign language by then.

Geography Lessons

2010-01-23T17:03:00.003-05:00

Links to all of the blog posts on lessons that we're using with our first grader.

Lesson # 1 ~ Better Than Breadcrumbs : Maps and Symbols (maps)
Lesson # 2 ~ National Geographic Xpeditions: Getting Lost (cardinal directions)
Lesson # 3 ~ Houghton Mifflin: Using Grids (maps)
Lesson # 4 ~ Create a map including your home and a familiar destination. Include a key and an index. Write directions from your home to the destination.
Lesson # 5 ~ National Geographic Xpeditions: Introduction to Latitude and Longitude (plus p.88 of The Earth: Geography of our World)
Lesson # 6 ~ hemispheres, poles, & the equator
Lesson # 7 ~ prime meridian and international date line/time zones
Lesson # 8 ~ continents and oceans overview
Lesson # ~ Asia
Lesson # ~ Africa
Lesson # ~ North America
Lesson # ~ South America
Lesson # ~ Antarctica
Lesson # ~ Europe
Lesson # ~ Australia

Geography Lesson #1

2010-01-23T16:59:00.001-05:00

Today's geography lesson was adapted from the Better Than Breadcrumbs : Maps and Symbols lesson plan found at eduref.org.

Materials Needed:
your favorite re-telling of Hansel and Gretel
breadcrumbs, or a group of items to represent breadcrumbs
a map of the room for each student
How to Draw Maps and Charts by Pam Beasant and Alastair Smith (or another book about maps)
a physical map, a political map, and a road map

1 ~ Read your favorite re-telling of Hansel and Gretel to your student(s).

2~ Have the student(s) act out the story using bread crumbs, then discuss why Hansel and Gretel used flint stones and breadcrumbs in the story.

3 ~ Have the student(s) navigate from one location in the room to another. Have them use different colored markers/crayons on their room map to show each path taken. Examples:

     From the couch to the school desk. (orange)
     From the bookcase to the doorway. (blue)
     From the white board to the easel. (green)

4 ~ Discuss how a map can be used to let people know how to find their way from one location to another.

5 ~ Read the portions of How to Draw Maps and Charts that apply. ( pages 2, 4-11, 26 in the 1993 version we own)

Lily the Bear

2010-01-22T14:17:00.000-05:00

We have been having so much fun watching Lily the black bear as she prepared, and then gave birth! Visit the Black Bear Den Cam to see for yourself. (Be patient if it isn't loading and try again. There were over 20,000 viewers when I was watching earlier!) Or check out the videos on YouTube:
Lily the Black Bear Starts Labor
The Birth of Lily's Cub

Geography Revisited

2010-01-21T21:22:00.007-05:00

We've done some re-thinking when it comes to geography lately. Daddy wants to help teach the boys, and geography is one subject he would like to take over. So far we've mainly done geography as it applies to our ancient history studies.

So now I have to come up with plans for geography as a separate subject. I'm thinking lots of living books! I'm also thinking we should start with some lessons in map and globe skills, directional compasses, and we definitely need to start geo-caching or letterboxing! We need to cover the continents and oceans, land formations. Hmm, what else?

I'm going to post each lesson that we complete. You can find the list of links to all lessons in this post.

Geography Books List

* indicates a book that we have already read

A Life Like Mine by DK Publishing
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (world)
B is For Brazil (World Alphabets) by Maria de Fatimo Campos (Brazil, South America)
The Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin (Atlantic ocean)
Brendan the Navigator by Jean Fritz (Atlantic ocean)
The Cay by Theodore Taylor (islands)
Far Beyond the Garden Gate: Alexandra David-Neel's Journey to Lhasa by Don Brown (Asia, Tibet)
Homesick by Jean Fritz (China)
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman (world)
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (islands)
Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling (rivers)
* Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling (rivers)
The Penguin Family Book by Lauritz Somme (Antarctica)
Secret Water by Arthur Ransome (islands)
Somewhere in the World Right Now by Stacey Schuett (timezones)
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack (Asia)
* The Story of Anansi (Africa)
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir (the American south)
Tree in the Trail by Holling C. Holling (the American west)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (oceans)
Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa by Don Brown (Africa)
West From Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915 by Laura Ingalls Wilder (the American west)
Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker (Australia)

Other Links of Interest
Wee Sing Around the World
Geology Coloring Book
kidsgeo.com
National Geographic Kids
Sparklebox: Geography

I Gave In and Bought SOTW!

2010-01-19T15:04:00.001-05:00

I finally broke down and bought Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times and the activity book to go along with it. After spending my morning pulling all of the pages out of the activity book to make for easier copying we spent the afternoon reading the first five chapters of the book and doing a few of the activities to go along with it. We've already covered this material, but I wanted to hear the history from the SOTW perspective, and review never hurts! We enjoyed the first five chapters, and my only regret is not buying it sooner!

We pulled out our Crayola Air-Dry Clay and made some small clay tablets to write on, as the ancient Sumerians did with cuneiform. We decided to stick holes in the corners so we can attach some ribbon and use them for Christmas ornaments next year. It seemed silly to make them only to throw them away in a couple of months.

The top one says "Alexander the Great" and was done by Nik, age 6.

The bottom is, well.....I don't know what it is!.....and was done by Nate, age 4.

Not a bad day, all in all. Now we need to catch up on the next twelve chapters so we can move on to new material.

Planning Next Year

2010-01-15T15:46:00.003-05:00

Next year Nik will most likely be reported as a second grader. It's time to start finalizing plans and getting my shopping lists in order so I can spend my spring and summer in the garden instead of sitting inside and planning!

Most of my shopping will be done at Amazon and Rainbow Resource. I'll update with links later. Right now I need to get to the post office!

Math

MEP (free, but requires paper and ink/toner for printing)

Singapore Math (Standards Edition)

Textbook 2A ($11.95)

Workbook 2A ($11.25)

Home Instructor's Guide 2A ($16.80)

Reading
books of his choice
Explode the Code 4, 5, 6 ($6.75 each)

Copywork/Grammar/Spelling
Classical Writing Primer
Cursive First (I'm still trying to decide whether to use this or not.)

Literature
selections from Ambleside Online’s Year 1 and 2 lists

History
SOTW 2 + Activity Book

Science

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Earth & Space
Nature study from Classical Writing Primer

Music/Composer Study

Visual Arts/Picture Study

The Mastery Club

2010-01-10T12:26:00.003-05:00

Mrs. Renz's Mastery Cub: A Club for Students Interested In Learning

This is a club for students who are interested in achieving "above and beyond" the normal classroom expectations. All you have to do is learn all about the topic, and then come tell Mrs. Renz the answers during your recess or lunch break, or before or after school. You can become a 1 star member, all the way up to an 86 star member! Learning never ends - thank goodness!

Now doesn't that sound cool?! There are 84 challenges, from the categories "Social Studies", "Science", "Language Arts & Linguistics", "Math", and "Miscellaneous." I'm thinking about taking the challenge myself! This is definitely something we are going to work towards.

Architecture and Engineering

2010-01-08T14:19:00.005-05:00

We won't be needing these links for a while, but I wanted to post them in case anyone else is interested in them. They look like very interesting resources.

Frank Lloyd Wright Architect Studio 3D
Engineering for Earthquakes

Visual Arts Links

2010-01-08T14:18:00.001-05:00

Renaissance Connection art
My Pop Studio
Every Line Means Something Street-to-Studio, the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Artist/Picture Study

2010-01-07T15:03:00.003-05:00

I've bounced around a few different ideas for artist/picture study. I'm fairly certain that we will be using Classical Writing Primer as our grammar/copywork program and that also includes picture study. So we'll do those activities, in addition to my plan, whenever the kids show an interest. That should expose them to quite a variety of art over the years. The current plan (subject, and likely, to change) is as follows.

3 artists per year

6 works of art per artist

36 artists over the course of a 12-year study

Grade 1 Artists

Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) Italian (first contributor of the Italian Renaissance)

Jan van Eyck (or Johannes de Eyck) (c.1390-1441) Flemish (Early Netherlands Renaissance)

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) Italian (Florentine, Early Renaissance)

Grade 2 Artists

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian (Florentine, High Renaissance)

Michelangelo (1475-1564) Italian (Florentine, High Renaissance)

Raphael (1483-1520) Italian (Florentine, High Renaissance)

Grade 3 Artists

Titian (1488-1576) Italian (High Renaissance)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) Dutch (Flemish, Netherlands Renaissance)

El Greco (1541-1614) Greek (Spanish, High Renaissance)

Grade 4 Artists

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Flemish (Baroque)

Diego Velásquez (1599-1660) Spanish

Rembrandt (1606-1669) Dutch (Baroque)

Grade 5 Artists

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) Dutch (Baroque)

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) Spanish (father of modern art)

David (1748-1825) French (Neo-Classical)

Grade 6 Artists

John James Audubon (1785-1851) French-American (Naturalist)

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) French (Impressionist)

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) French (Post-Impressionist)

Grade 7 Artists

Claude Monet (1840-1926) French (Impressionist)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) French (Impressionist)

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) American (Impressionist)

Grade 8 Artists

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) French (Post-Impressionist)

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch (Post-Impressionist)

Georges Seurat (1859-1891) French (Post-Impressionist)

Grade 9 Artists

Grandma Moses (1860-1961) American (Folk Art)

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) French (Fauvism)

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish (Cubism)

Grade 10 Artists

M.C. Escher (1898-1972) Netherlander (Graphic Artist)

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) Spanish (Surrealist)

William de Kooning (1904-1997) Hollander (Abstract Expressionist)

Grade 11 Artists

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) Mexican

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) American (Abstract Expressionist)

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) American (Realist)

Grade 12 Artists

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) American (Pop Art)

student’s choice

Symphony of Science

2010-01-07T11:38:00.000-05:00

Someone on the Living Science Yahoo Group shared a link to Symphony of Science and it is awesome! There are four music videos, also available as MP3 downloads, of some very cool science songs. I'm very impressed and have listened to the songs quite a few times already this morning. These will be great to listen to in the car.

Evolutionary content, though, for those of you who avoid that.

My Plan for American History

2010-01-06T15:40:00.093-05:00

ETA ~ My history-loving son has begged me to do history 5 days a week, so the following plans are changing. I'm going to go ahead and do American History as a separate course alongside our world history course. I will still be using the listed resources, just in a different timeframe. I'll try to link to the updated plans when I get them posted.

I've gone around and around trying to figure out how I want to do American History. I think I'm going to pick a plan and stick with it so I don't drive myself to drink. I believe that it's important to know the history of our country in-depth, but I also think that learning our history in context with that of the rest of the world is important. So I'm going to continue to use The Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer for world history but interject extra studies in chapters when American history topics arise.

I'll be pulling book ideas from the Winter Promise Early American History, Living Books Curriculum, and Sonlight book lists, as well as using CoreKnowledge Lesson Plans.

What follows are my plans for second through fourth grades. Grade 1 is the study of ancient world history, so American history doesn't really factor in. We've already read some books and had a few lessons on Vikings and Native Americans, but I'm going to back off for now and wait until next year to really dig in. Some SOTW chapters are missing from the list. I don't have all of the books in front of me, so I'm not positive what the topic is for all of the chapters yet.

Grade 2 ~ The Middle Ages (Pre-colonial and Colonial American)

Chapter 14: The Arrival of the Norsemen (SOTW2)
                 Vikings (link to a blog post of mine)
Chapter 31: Exploring New Worlds (SOTW2)
Chapter 32: The American Kingdoms (SOTW2)
Chapter 33: Spain, Portugal, and the New World (SOTW2)
   Explorers (link to a blog post of mine)
                 Travel to Mesoamerica pdf (CK Lesson Plans)
                 Columbus and the Conquistadors pdf (CK Lesson Plans)

Chapter 40: New Ventures to the Americas (SOTW2)
Thirteen Colonies (link to a blog post of mine)

Land Ho! Early Exploration and Settlement of the Americas pdf (CK Lesson Plans)

Grade 3 ~ Early Modern Times (Birth of a Nation )
Hero Tales From American History by Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt

Chapter 22: Revolution! (SOTW3)

The American Revolution and Its Heroes pdf (CK Lesson Plans)
Chapter 23: The New Country (SOTW3)

Chapter 32: The Opened West (SOTW3)
Go West Young Man! pdf (CK Lesson Plans)
Chapter 33: The End of Napoleon (SOTW3)
Oh, Say Can You See and Learn About the War of 1812? pdf (CK Lesson Plans)
Chapter 36: The Slave Trade Ends (SOTW3)
Chapter 38: American Tragedies (SOTW3)
Chapter 40: Mexico and Her Neighbor (SOTW3)
Chapter 42: The World of Forty-Nine (SOTW3)

Grade 4 ~ The Modern Age
Hero Tales From American History by Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt
Chapter 5: The American Civil War (SOTW4)
A Nation Divided pdf Civil War (CK Lesson Plans)

Chapter 20: Revolution In the Americas … War In the World (WWI)
Chapter 21: A Revolution Begins, and the Great War Ends (WWI)
Chapter 26: The Great Crash, and What Came of It
Chapter 28: The Second World War
Chapter 29: The End of World War II
Chapter 35: The Cold War
Chapter 36: Struggles and Assassinations
Chapter 37: Two Short Wars and One Long One
Chapter 42: The End of the Twentieth Century

American Government

I have found a free online resource, found at the PASS Website and in pdf format, that could be used for a spine for American History, but I'm still exploring it to see if it is age appropriate for the elementary years. So far it looks like a better choice for middle school, and we already have Joy Hakim's A History of US on the shelf.

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Earth & Space

2010-01-05T16:58:00.009-05:00

We've decided to go with R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey for our science curriculum. I want to keep track of the web pages and resources that we use to enhance our studies. Items I want to use will be colored blue, items we actually get around to using will be colored green.

Unit 1: Weather Changes
The Weather Channel Kids - Weather Encyclopedia
Web Weather for Kids
Vortex Storybook
Weather Coloring Pages

Windward: Outsmart the Weather in a Race Around the World game

Wild Weather Adventure
Scholastic Interactive Weather Maker

Unit 2: The Water Cycle

Unit 3: Air Surrounds the Earth

Unit 4: Earth's Surface Is Changing

Unit 5: What Is Inside the Earth?

Unit 6: Rocks Are Made of Minerals

Unit 7: The Earth Recycles Rock

Unit 8: The Weather Makes Rocks Weather

Unit 9: Soil Is Dirt and Dirt Is Good

Unit 10: The Moon Is Staring at Us

Unit 11: The Sun is the Center of the Solar System

Unit 12: What's Out in Space

Grammar-Land Worksheets Part 1

2010-01-05T15:17:00.005-05:00

*** If you are having issues with Scribd, try viewing all of these documents with Google Docs.***

I've mentioned one of the free resources we are using for grammar in a previous post, but I made some worksheets today to go along with the book and I wanted to share them with you all. Grammar-Land by M.L. Nesbitt is a wonderful book, and a perfect choice for Charlotte Mason inspired families. You can view it online or download the pdf file, or buy the book. We read it on my Sony Reader (the best homeschooling investment I have made!)

At the end of each chapter are some exercises woven into the story. I've taken those exercises and turned them into worksheets. Without something printed out and ready to go we tend to forget to do the exercises and I really think they are helpful in cementing concepts. So far I have 6 worksheets completed. I believe there are 17 chapters in the book, and I hope to have them all completed by the end of the week.

Worksheet 1 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 2 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 3 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 4 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 5 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Worksheet 6 for Grammar-Land or, Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire by M.L. Nesbitt (by Je...

Paper Dolls

2010-01-04T15:32:00.001-05:00

My boys adore paper dolls. I am constantly looking for free paper dolls online. They love to re-enact scenes from stories we read, and I love seeing that they are absorbing the material. But I really don't like all of the ink that it takes me to print them, and considering I'm still using an inkjet printer instead of a laser printer this can be an expensive project! I don't know why it never occurred to me to see what Dover Publications offers in the way of historical paper dolls. Check these out.....

American Family Paper Dolls
Byzantine Costumes Paper Dolls
Ancient Greek Costumes Paper Dolls
Medieval Costumes Paper Dolls
Russian Imperial Costumes Paper Dolls
Gothic Costumes Paper Dolls
Japanese Warrior Costumes Paper Dolls
Traditional African Costumes Paper Dolls
Victorian Family Paper Dolls
Mumtaz of the Taj Mahal Paper Dolls

WolframAlpha.....Fact Finder Extraordinaire

2010-01-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

While it won't replace search engines for certain information WolframAlpha is an amazing resource for finding factual data, which makes it perfect for homeschooling parents! My husband shared the site with me earlier today after reading about it in Popular Science Magazine's Best of What's New 2009 article and I was incredibly impressed!

The site answers specific questions, as opposed to supplying information on general topics.

Solve Mathematical Problems
Explore Places & Geography
Learn About Life Science Topics

The list goes on.......

I hope other homeschooling parents utilize this awesome site!

World Religions Links

2010-01-02T10:23:00.003-05:00

My list is so small so far. Please, if you have any good resources for any of the major world religions let me know!

A Starting Small Project (currently inactive with no content ?) Tools for Teaching Tolerance
BBC Schools Religious Festivals List worksheets
Mothering Dot Community: Secular Homeschoolers Teaching Religion (post started by Kleine Hexe)
Race Bridges for Schools Race Relations
Teaching Tolerance Magazine
Zen Homeschool Peace Education Through Culture

Buddhism
A Pebble for Your Pocket (book $)
An Introduction to Buddhism
Buddhist Children's Books
The Magical Monkey King: Mischief in Heaven (book $)
Tibetan Tales for Little Buddhas (book $)
Under the Rose Apple Tree (book $)

Christianity
Catholic Mom
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
Word Sight Bible Timeline

Hinduism
Balagokulam Hindu Dharma for Kids, Teachers, & Parents

Visual Arts Museum Resources

2010-01-02T09:46:00.002-05:00

The Metropolitan Museum of Art   Museum Kids

National Gallery of Art NGA Kids

Museum of Modern Art   Modern Teachers

Guggenheim   Arts Curriculum

Musée d'Orsay

Louvre

Elements of Art

2010-01-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

I just came across a wonderful resource for the seven elements of art: color, shape, line, form, space, texture, value. I would say this resource is for upper level students, not your early elementary students.

Color Color Guide(pdf)
Shape
Line
Form
Space
Texture
Value

Picture Study

2010-01-02T09:19:00.003-05:00

Looking At A Work Of Art, is a wonderful list of questions to ask when discussing a work of art during picture study.

Mozart & Mudpies blog has a wonderful post about how she does Picture Study with her daughter. I think I'm going to implement her "Let's play a game." idea because I have a child who loves games.

Mater Amabilis Picture Study

Ambleside Online Picture Study

Looking at Paintings: Developing a Story From a Painting

Music Links

2010-01-01T23:13:00.001-05:00

Classics for Kids
Making Music Fun
Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
San Francisco Symphony for Kids
New York Philharmonic Kid Zone
Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Kids Listen by Composer
Berklee Shares free music courses
Susan Paradis' Piano Teacher Resources
Lesson Plans Page: Music
G Major Music Theory free music theory worksheets
Ambleside Online Composer Schedule
Composer Study 101 from Higher Up and Further In blog
Music Appreciation from Dewey's Treehouse blog

Game Sites

2010-01-01T22:58:00.001-05:00

Fun Brain
BBC CBeebies
Kids' CBC
Sheppard Software
PBS Kids
Kaboose Funschool
BrainPop Jr. Games
Magic School Bus Games
Games for the Brain
Learning Planet
Lil' Fingers
Gamequarium
RekenWeb Games
UpToTen
TreehouseTV
Pauly's Playhouse
Eyewitness: Can You Speak Like a Pirate?
Fisher-Price Games
Nick Jr. Games
Disney Games

Upper Level Academics Links

2010-01-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

Academic Earth free video courses from universities

Charlotte Mason Links

2010-01-01T21:21:00.004-05:00

Secular Charlotte Mason
Charlotte Mason Home Education Network
Charlotte Mason Help (formerly Higher Up and Further In)
Fresno Family: Secular Charlotte Mason
Penny Gardener Charlotte Mason Links
Simply Charlotte Mason with forums
MacBeth's Opinion
Living Books Curriculum
Books and Schedules from Charlotte Mason Help

Blogs
A Peaceful Day

Math Links

2010-01-01T21:02:00.005-05:00

Math Links
MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Programme)
Living Math
Penny Gardener's list of Living Math Books and Mathematical Classics
Interactive Abacus
Timez Attack
Kitchen Table Math, The Sequel blog
Mathematical Tale Winds
Illuminations resources for teaching math
Bridges in Mathematics
Math Is Fun
Michele's Math
Ambleside Primary Number Bond Machines
NCES Kids' Zone Create a Graph
Math Notebooking from Squidoo
printable Singapore workbooks
Gigglepotz math games
RekenWeb math games

SCORE: California Mathematics Standards

$$$
Your Business Math Series
Singapore Math
RightStart Mathematics
Math in Focus (free sample)

Computer Science Links

2010-01-01T20:26:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to organize my internet bookmarks and I decided to take the opportunity to post some of the links that I have collected. I haven't checked out all of these sites, so forgive me if anything sneaks through that shouldn't have. This list will be updated as I find new links, so check back often!

Computer Science Links
Logo Workshop teaches the basics of computer programming

Physical Science Links

2010-01-01T20:23:00.005-05:00

I'm trying to organize my internet bookmarks and I decided to take the opportunity to post some of the links that I have collected. I haven't checked out all of these sites, so forgive me if anything sneaks through that shouldn't have. This list will be updated as I find new links, so check back often!

Physical Science Links
A Little Rebellion blog
Home Science Tools: Physical Science Projects
Crayon Physics
Physics Lapbook free from Squidoo
Physics Experiments for Children (pdf)
Physics Central
Amusement Park Physics from learner.org
PBS: Building BIG

Earth and Space Science Links

2010-01-01T19:52:00.011-05:00

I'm trying to organize my internet bookmarks and I decided to take the opportunity to post some of the links that I have collected. I haven't checked out all of these sites, so forgive me if anything sneaks through that shouldn't have. This list will be updated as I find new links, so check back often!

Earth and Space Science Links
Home Science Tools: Earth and Space Science Projects
Kentucky Geological Survey: Key Earth Science Links
Alphabetized Earth Science Animations
National Resource Defense Council
EPA Environmental Kids Club
Planet Pals
Earth Day Lapbook free from Lapbooking Lessons
Meet the Greens

Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service
National Weather Service JetStream online school for weather
weather links from Thinkfinity

Stellarium free open source planetarium!
Lunabar Digital Almanack
At Home Astronomy from UC Berkley
NASA Mission : Science
NASA: The Space Place teacher's corner
European Space Agency: ESA Kids
Discovery Education: Understanding the Universe
Classical Astronomy
SeaSky.org Astronomy Calendar of Celestial Events

Rocks for Kids
Geologic and Paleontologic Cookbook from Kentucky Geological Survey

Mysteries of Apo Island
ExploringNature.org Biomes of the World
Debbie's Digest blog (forest lapbook)
National Park Service: The Everglades
American Museum of Natural History: Dioramas
Bio-geography of the Earth from U of Wisconsin Stevens Point

Chemistry Science Links

2010-01-01T19:50:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to organize my internet bookmarks and I decided to take the opportunity to post some of the links that I have collected. I haven't checked out all of these sites, so forgive me if anything sneaks through that shouldn't have. This list will be updated periodically (hehehehe) as I find new sites to share.

Chemistry Science Links
PopSci Interactive Periodic Table of the Elements
The Periodic Table of Videos from The University of Nottingham
Home Science Tools: Chemistry Science Projects
Chemical & Engineering News: The Chemistry Behind Everyday Products
Journal of Chemical Education: Chemistry Comes Alive!
Chemical Jigsaw Puzzle
Food & Science: The Chemistry of Cooking
The Periodic Table of Comic Books
Royal Society of Chemistry: Visual Elements Periodic Table
Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab
ChemiCool Periodic Table

Life Science Links

2010-01-01T19:45:00.006-05:00

I'm trying to organize my internet bookmarks and I decided to take the opportunity to post some of the links that I have collected. I haven't checked out all of these sites, so forgive me if anything sneaks through that shouldn't have.

Life Science Links
Classic Science: Elementary Life Science from eequalsmcq.com Free life science curriculum!
Home Science Tools: Life Science Projects
The Biology Corner
Biology Junction
Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop: Life Science free resources
WolfQuest
Zoo Matchmaker

Pest World for Kids Instructor Web: Biology
The Storybook of Science by Jean Henri Fabre
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
Cornell Lab of Ornithology all about birds Education Coloring Book
Bird sounds from Animal Diversity Web
Animal Diversity Web
Project WILD
Tree of Life Web Project
Junior Pest Investigators
Bug Bios
Let's Talk About Insects
Iowa State U's Reiman Gardens Butterfly Identification Cards free printable
Backyard Nature
Handbook of Nature Study blog
Nature Study
Hearts and Trees blog (Nature Study Observation Calendar)
The Burgess Animal Book for Children
Shutterfly album of animals from The Burgess Animal Book for Children
inhabitots Nature Bag $
eNature America's Wildlife Resource
Journey North A Global Study of Wildlife Migration and Seasonal Change
Sheppard Software Animal Classification
BBC Amazing Animals
Wild Games Kid's Planet Defenders of Wildlife
Kid's Planet eSpecies Animal Fact Sheets
Blue World
Kids' Planet Teacher's Table
The Biology Project
National Geographic Coloring Book of Animals
Waterford Activity Zone educational games, activities and quizzes to download and print (must register)
The 100-Species Challenge how many plant species do you recognize?!
The Great Plant Escape
Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body
Inner Body Your Guide to Human Anatomy Online
BBC Human Mind and Body
Teachnology K-2 Health Lesson Plans
LearntobeHealthy.org
KidsHealth.org
Nutrition Detectives
Kids' Health: Your Feelings
My Body Lapbook free
CELLS Alive!
The GEEE! in Genome
Teach Genetics from the University of Utah

General Science Links

2010-01-01T18:37:00.019-05:00

Changes to Our Science Curriculum

2010-01-01T14:36:00.004-05:00

We're studying the sciences in the following order:
Life Science ~ 1st, 5th, 9th
Earth & Space Science ~ 2nd, 6th, 10th
Chemistry ~ 3rd, 7th, 11th
Physics ~ 4th, 8th, 12th

Because I wasn't sure at the beginning of the school year whether Nik would be at a kindergarten or first grade level I wanted to keep things easy, cheap, and flexible. It turned out that he's definitely up to first grade material, so we started using Classic Science: Elementary Life Science because it was free, except for the costs of printing.

At the time that I started using the program it had a font that I found very hard to read, so although we were very happy with the book we ended up switching to R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Life (Level One). Now the font has been changed on the Classic Science, but we're hooked on R.E.A.L Science Odyssey so we're going to stick with it. R.E.A.L Science Odyssey offers a try-before-you-buy option, which is what we did. Now we're almost done with our free chapters and ready to purchase.

One of the things we are doing with our completed labs is putting them into a Great Big Book of Everything. (Does anyone remember the cartoon that comes from, titled Stanley? It was a Disney cartoon.) The song might jog your memory:

It's the great big book of everything
with everything inside.
See the world around us
this book's the perfect guide!

We're also still working through The Burgess Bird Book for Children and trying to get to some of the Outdoor Hour challenges.

All in all I do wish we were doing more science, so I'm going to try to add it in more than once or twice a week if I can. Crossing my fingers that I can make it happen!

New Year's Resolutions & People Colors Pencils

2009-12-31T10:39:00.000-05:00

I received a message today that was just in time to influence my New Year's Resolution. Many thanks to C for letting me know that my blog is receiving some traffic and is of some use to someone out there! So I've made it my New Year's Resolution to post to my blog at least 3 times per week or more. I would love to make it a resolution to post every day, but I don't want to fail at keeping it. ;-)

I want to mention some awesome colored pencils that I came across on Pioneer Woman's Homeschooling blog. They are called People Colors Jumbo Pencils and they are exactly what I need for my 6-year-old! He draws pictures and creates books for hours every single day. In his Batman phase we went through black crayons and black colored pencils like you wouldn't believe. Now that he's moved on to a wider variety of topics he's constantly trying to find the "right skin color". I just wish I had seen these before Christmas! Oh well, it's about time to stock up on supplies for next year, so I'll be adding these to our shopping list, along with the crayons and maybe the paint and paper that they also offer! My little guy is going to be sooooo excited!

Science Spot

2009-12-28T14:06:00.002-05:00

A recent post on the WTM message board has me inspired to set up a science spot in our house now that Little Man (age 4 1/2) is old enough to leave it alone.

Now I just have to convince someone to make this awesome folding workbench for me so I can get started!

Ancient Greece

2009-12-16T09:34:00.010-05:00

I apologize for my long absence; the holidays are always very busy.

We're finally into our studies of Ancient Greece and the boys are so excited! We've only been at it for a week and already I've finished the first three books in Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey series. Once I start reading the boys just won't let me stop! :-) I wish our library carried all six of the series, but unfortunately they only have these three.

Books We Read:
Pegasus by Jane Yolen
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky
The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum
Tales from the Odyssey #1: The One-Eyed Giant by Mary Pope Osborne
Tales from the Odyssey #2: The Land of the Dead by Mary Pope Osborne
Tales from the Odyssey #3: Sirens and Sea Monsters by Mary Pope Osborne

Links:
PASS World History Part 1 - Unit 5: Ancient Greece Part A Part B

KidsPast.com - Ancient Greece

On the Shores of the Great Sea by M.B. Synge, we are beginning with the chapter "The Story of Carthage"

Digging Up Greece printable game by Ellen McHenry (we're saving this for the logic stage)

MythWeb - Greek mythology
History for Kids - Greek History

"Discovering Great Artists"

2009-11-16T09:07:00.002-05:00

Have you seen this book yet? No?! Go find a copy! Having finished up the Art Book that we've been working on since the beginning of the year, we're now moving on to lessons from Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga. When we first bought the book we pulled it out and did one of the activities, Botticelli "Art in the Round". Then I decided that we should probably cover some basics like primary and secondary colors, warm and cool colors, texture, etc, before we moved on to creating actual works of art. I'm so glad we did, but we are ready to get back to Discovering Great Artists!

We concentrate on visual arts on Fridays, and this week we will be completing the Giotto "Egg Paint" activity. I'll be back with photos once I have them!

Butterflies

2009-11-15T16:02:00.006-05:00

My mother just returned from a trip to Florida and came bearing gifts for my boys. One of those things was a little booklet of butterfly tattoos. The boys love them! We looked up their butterflies online and during my search I came across these beautiful printable Butterfly Identification Cards from Iowa State University's Reiman Gardens. I'm going to print the ones found in our area out on cardstock and maybe laminate them. I'll stick them in a basket by the window or near the door and I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time reading them, and in the future (when fair weather returns again) searching for them on our summertime nature walks.

Bird Notebooking

2009-11-02T13:55:00.008-05:00

After coming across Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Feeder Birds Coloring Book (pdf file) I was inspired to have Nik create a bird notebook highlighting the birds we read about in The Burgess Bird Book for Children. I'm so pleased with it and how much interest Nik has shown in the birds we've read about. He continues to ask me to play bird sounds in the background while he completes his notebooking pages. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds page is my favorite guide and includes sound clips of the typical voice of each bird. I wish I could carry it with me when we go on nature walks!

ETA ~ Angela posted a wonderful companion guide to The Burgess Bird Book on her blog, Satori Smiles. She calls it A Burgess Bird Book Companion and it is awesome!!!

Although we have read the first five chapters of The Burgess Bird Book For Children he has not completed notebooking pages for all of the birds highlighted. I will continue to update this post as he completes new pages. And yes, he picked the background papers himself. :-)

Pages 2 & 3

Carolina Wren

American Robin

Eastern Bluebird

Reading Skills Assessment

2009-11-01T13:10:00.004-05:00

Earlier this week I decided to give Nik a reading skills assessment out of curiosity. He seems to be reading really well, and I wanted to see if I was imagining things. :-)

I used the first assessment in this article. It doesn't assess reading comprehension, but it was free and quick, and I was only looking for a general idea anyway.

So for the 3rd month of his kindergarten/1st grade combined year, Nik is reading at approximately a 2nd grade, 4th month level.

I plan to use the assessment a couple of times throughout the year to see how he progresses.

Halloween Costumes

2009-11-01T11:56:00.000-05:00

Nik

Nate

(who wouldn't stand still long enough for a good picture)

Science Blogs

2009-10-30T12:18:00.005-04:00

These blogs, all by the same person, look amazing!

Home Biology

Home Chemistry

Home Physics

Handicrafts

2009-10-30T11:37:00.000-04:00

Secular Charlotte Mason has my favorite list of handicrafts. I've printed it out so I can use it as a checklist and for inspiration.

Grammar Links

2009-10-30T08:42:00.002-04:00

Living Books
Grammar-Land by M.L. Nesbit

Printables
SparkleBox KS2 Grammar

Online Games
Crazy Libs
Clean Up Your Grammar
The Grammar Gorillas
Grammar Practice Park

Etc
play Mad Libs (for beginners, print out flashcards and let them pick from a stack of noun, adjectives, etc. until they are comfortable coming up with ones on their own)

Organizing and Checklists

2009-10-29T17:16:00.002-04:00

I love Ambleside Online, but I have found organizing all of the information to make it usable for our family to be a bit of a headache. I finally created a bunch of checklists for Year 1 and shared them in a previous blog entry. I also created a checklist for the Formidable List of Attainments For a Child of Six and shared it in a separate blog entry. Lastly, this literature list from Higher Up and Further In (which she has since moved to Charlotte Mason Help) has been a huge help!

What I have done is to print off a copy of Lindafay's Higher Up and Further In booklist, which was originally a list of Ambleside Online's suggestions. I 3-hole punched the list and put it in a folder like this:

Then I created my own little key and wrote in on the first page, like this:

In a separate folder, I placed all of the checklists I created (and linked to above) with the Daily/Weekly checklist placed inside a page protector in the front so I can use a dry-erase marker on it.

The other pages follow, for example:

Now, whenever I want to peruse the used bookstores I can take along my booklist folder so I buy the things we need. And when we accomplish a task or finish a book we can check it off of our list.

Devolve Me

2009-10-28T16:00:00.003-04:00

Wow! After receiving the newest e-mail from Charlie's Playhouse I immediately went to the site and discovered a really fun link. It's called Devolve Me and it's from The Open University.

Check out my kids:
Nate Devolved
Nikolai Devolved

Some other fun links from Charlie's Playhouse

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklists

2009-10-28T15:40:00.004-04:00

I needed to create a document that I could laminate and use as a checklist when I schedule our lesson plans in Homeschool Skedtrack and thought it would be nice to share it with anyone else who wants to use it.
Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist

And some more:

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for History and Geography

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for Literature

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for Poetry

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for Natural History & Science

A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six

2009-10-28T15:24:00.001-04:00

Have you heard of Charlotte Mason? No?! What rock have you been hiding under? ;-) To learn more, I highly recommend that you visit Ambleside Online and do some reading!

A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six
from a curriculum outline of a CM school in the 1890's

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns.
2. To recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm.
3. To add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters.
4. To read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child.
5. To copy in print-hand from a book.
6. To know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows.
7. To describe the boundries of their own home.
8. To describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach.
9. To tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (*Note ~ Americans might want to substitute early American for early English).
10. To be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views.
11. To mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. To do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees.
13. To know 6 birds by song, colour and shape.
14. To send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed.
15. To tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. To name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences.
17. To sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song.
18. To keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

Here is the checklist I created to keep track of what my children have accomplished.
Ambleside Online a Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six Checklist

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-28T13:24:00.001-04:00

Balance Scale

2009-10-27T12:03:00.002-04:00

Some of Nik's math problems have been giving him a bit of trouble. He does excellent with the following types of problems:

2 + 3 = __
5 - 2 = __
__ + 4 = 4
__ - 2 = 2
2 + 2 + 1 = __
5 - 2 - 3 = __
3 - 2 + 2 = __

But if he sees problems like the following he gets very confused:

2 + 3 = __ + 1
5 - 2 = 4 - __
4 - __ = 3 - 0

So to help him out, I drew a balance scale similar to those he has seen in other MEP problems and told him that both sides of the equation need to be equal to each other (or balanced). I think he gets it! Woohoo! I'm going to make up a sheet of problems for him to do tomorrow to see if he did truly get it.

Here's a pic of the balance scale. I have no idea why the paper looks pink, though! lol It was just a white sheet of cardstock.

Viking Voyages

2009-10-26T12:57:00.005-04:00

The Viking Voyages game from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop is an awesome FREE game that goes along with any study of Vikings very nicely. You need to supply your own die and 4 playing pieces. I used pieces of Bendaroos rolled into a spiral. This is our board all put together. See the little Bendaroos spirals sitting on France?

Egypt and a Very Happy Birthday Boy

2009-10-25T20:06:00.000-04:00

We adore Playmobil toys! The very happy birthday boy received a ton of really nice gifts today, including some Egyptian grave robbers and the Sphinx, and he has spent the last 5 hours playing with them! lol Now I need to pry him away for bedtime.

Learning a Foreign Language

2009-10-23T19:58:00.000-04:00

I can't decide when to start. Now or in a few years?

I can't decide what to use. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur? (Our library system carries Pimsleur, so I'm leaning towards that or a combo of both.)

I can't even settle on what language to study! Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, French?

Thoughts?

Grammar-Land

2009-10-23T19:40:00.002-04:00

Wow! I have another great find today. It's a public domain book titled Grammar-Land (pdf file) by M.L. Nesbitt that I downloaded to my Sony Reader and it looks awesome! I highly recommend you check it out.

Noble Knights of Knowledge

2009-10-23T19:28:00.003-04:00

I need to win the lottery! I re-discovered a math program named Noble Knights of Knowledge that I read about a couple of years ago, when Nik was far too young to think about math curricula, and I NEED it! :-)

Seriously, I think Nik would love it, considering he enjoys math and is all about knights these days. I printed a couple of the sample pages so I can try it out, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be saving my pennies so we can buy this program to supplement the MEP program we're using as our main math curricula.

I would love to hear you review if you have used the program.

ETA~ I finally found a used copy and Nik LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it!!! I really wish they were still selling this program. If you have a child who is into everything story-based and resists "regular" math, do try to get your hands on a used copy of this program!

Nature Study

2009-10-23T12:05:00.004-04:00

We don't get to nature study as much as I would like, but we are trying. I simply adore the Outdoor Hour challenges from the Handbook Of Nature Study blog. The challenges utilize the book Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, which is available for free online.

We also do a lot of reading about animals found in our area. We really enjoy books by Thornton W. Burgess (The Burgess Bird Book for Children, The Burgess Animal Book for Children, and Mother West Wind's Children are favorites.)

We've been focusing this year on the Burgess Bird Book for Children, as scheduled for year 1 by Ambleside Online (more about this free online curriculum in another post, coming soon!) To go along with it, I found these awesome cards that I can't seem to find online again! lol Isn't that the way it always goes? I'll try to find them again and post them, because they are awesome. Also, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology there is a coloring book that has some of the birds in it.

A book that we discovered at the thrift store yesterday instantly became a favorite; it is Feathers For Lunch by Lois Ehlert. We sat down a few minutes ago to read the story together and Nik said, "I can read this one!" So he did read it, and with very little help. It has illustrations of some common birds and lists their names and shows the sounds they make.

We also had an opportunity to observe some non-native birds when we pet-sat some parakeets for my cousin, a fellow homeschooler. The birds go home today, and we're very sad to see them go. Jay-Jay (the jet plane) and Twilight gave us many hours of fun and allowed us to observe birds up-close. Mom and Dad might just have to buy themselves some birds as a Christmas present to ourselves. ;-)

The Art Book

2009-10-23T10:00:00.003-04:00

One of the free resources we are using for visual arts this year is The Art Book by Maryanne Messier. The lessons instruct you to use 12x18 construction paper to make the book, but we just printed the handouts smaller and fit everything onto letter-size paper so we could insert them into page protectors.

Learning About Art and Ninja Turtles

2009-10-21T16:19:00.009-04:00

It sounds like a funny combo until you think about it! After all, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after four famous artists: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi or Donatello.

My 6-year-old loves all things super-heroish, and TMNT qualifies. My husband planted the idea to study these 4 artists after I mentioned the book we read a few minutes ago titled "Portraits: A First Discovery Art Book" and the picture of the TMNT Leonardo that my son was drawing while I talked to Dad on the phone.

I had to get the idea down, but I don't have a plan formed yet. As always, I'll continue to update with links as I find interesting resources.

Rafael
Rafael
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery

Michelangelo
ArtsEdge: Let's Talk About Painting
Michelangelo
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery
Michelangelo.com
Stanford - The Digital Michelangelo Project

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Institute and Museum of the History of Science
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery
Museo Scienza
Museum of Science
Vinci: Leonardo's Home Town

Donatello
Donatello
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Web Gallery of Art

Homeschooling in NY State

2009-10-21T10:31:00.000-04:00

Links:
New York State Education Department (NYSED)
NYSED Home Instruction
New York Home Educators' Network (NYHEN) I highly recommend you visit this site!
Diploma Requirements For Students Entering Grade 9 (pdf file)
New York State Education Department Virtual Learning System
Learning Standards of New York State

Math Links

2009-10-20T19:36:00.004-04:00

MEP
MEP Main Page
MEP 101
The School Bell: Number Families
NOVA | Hunting the Hidden Dimension
ABC Teach: Shapes
Tux of Math Command
Count On Math Games
Math Fact Cafe
HomeschoolMath.net Free Math Worksheets
DadsWorksheets.com free worksheets
CSMP Mini Computer
Learn NC Math
Think Zone Shortest Shortcut
Don Potter Math
Learning Wave
Aunty Math
Geometric Paper Constructions
Money Instructor
Funschool Math Games
Hands on Equations
Math Printables from SEN Teacher
Houghton Mifflin Math
McGraw-Hill Math
Roman Numerals Snakes and Ladders Game
Triangular Math Facts Cards from Donna Young
Addition Facts Copywork from S.J. Murphy (look along the left under the heading "Math Downloadable Worksheets"

Geography Links

2009-10-20T19:21:00.002-04:00

Time For Kids: Around the World
Growing Up Around the World: Books as Passports to Global Understanding for Children in the United States
World Atlas "The List"
World Atlas Outline Maps
National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure
National Geographic: Geography Action!
Houghton Mifflin Education Place: Outline Maps
Library of Congress: Cities and Towns Maps
Holling C. Holling: A Literature Approach to Geography
World Landmark Cards Created by Susanne von Saalfeld
Kids Konnect World Geography
Ideas on How to Study the Middle East from TWTM message board
National Geographic Earth Pulse
Visual Geography Series
Geography Matters

China

2009-10-20T19:09:00.004-04:00

PASS World History Part 1 - Unit 4: Ancient Civilizations in India and China Part A Part B
KidsGeo Asia Map Match Game
Draw Dragon Dot Eyes: An Old Chinese Fable from StarFall
EDSITEMent: The Great Wall of China
Time For Kids: China

World History Links

2009-10-20T18:50:00.001-04:00

Middle East Interactive Atlas
Story of the World Ancients Google Map
CIA World Factbook
Paula's Archives Movies to Supplement History list
Google Books preview: A Little History of the World by Ernst Hans Gombrich
MacroHistory and World Report
Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoonists Index Teacher's Guide
Woodlands Junior School: World History

Thanksgiving

2009-10-20T18:30:00.002-04:00

Scholastic: The First Thanksgiving
Plimoth Plantation's You Are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving

American History Links

2009-10-20T18:21:00.002-04:00

Links that don't fit in just one category or don't warrant an entire post to themselves.

This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall (free online)
Ambleside Online's This Country of Ours breakdown
Jump Back In Time from America's Library
The Pledge of Allegiance: A Short History
Freedom: A History of Us from PBS
Betwixt Fate and Folly (1774 Williamsburg)
George Washington's World for Kids
Harvest of History (1845)
Command the U-505 (WWII)
American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement
Guest Hollow's Memorable Places American History Curriculum
Liberty's Kids episode Midnight Ride
Ben's Guide to U.S. Government (grades K-2)
From Colonies to Revolution from TeacherOz
Slavery in America
From Revolution to Reconstruction

Dinosaurs

2009-10-20T15:11:00.008-04:00

Useful links:
Dinosaur SUE at the Field Museum
YouTube: Bill Nye the Science Guy - Dinosaurs
YouTube: Bill Nye the Science Guy - Fossils
PBS: What Killed The Dinosaurs? game (requires Flash)
Dinosaurs: Discovery Channel
Dinosaur Crafts from Kaboose
Dinosaur Illustrations
D'Aiguebelle Dinosaur Skeletons

Related blog posts:
Dinosaur Lapbook

Vikings

2009-10-20T14:45:00.006-04:00

TCOO: How the Vikings of Old Sought and Found New Lands

Viking Tales by Jennie Hall

Vikingapyssel This site isn't in English, but there are some neat things to check out.

BBC Primary History: Vikings

Viking ship coloring page from Crayola

Classical Music Composer Study for Second Grade

2009-10-16T20:23:00.016-04:00

I explained how I have planned to do Composer Study in a previous post. Now I'll list the actual composers we're studying for second grade and link to the resources we're using.

1. Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b. 1840)
(Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

2. Antonin Dvorak (b. 1841)
(Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

3. Edvard Grieg (b. 1843)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

4. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (b. 1844)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)
    Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade: Learning About Symphonic Music

5. Claude Debussy (b. 1862)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

6. Zoltan Kodaly (b.1882)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

7. Sergei Prokofiev (b. 1891)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

8. George Gershwin (b. 1898)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

9. Aaron Copland (b. 1900)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

Classical Music Composer Study for First Grade

2009-10-16T20:22:00.026-04:00

I explained how I have planned to do Composer Study in a previous post. Now I'll list the actual composers we're studying this year and link to the resources we're using.

We're trying to study them chronologically, but I've found it hard to decide exactly how to do that! I've gone mostly by date of birth, but some composers may be slightly out of order because I also tried to keep composers of certain eras together.

I'll update any missing links as soon as possible. We're all sick right now, so if I don't get around to it feel free to remind me!

(Podcasts to Download) Unfortunately this list won't take you directly to the composer, so you'll have to look through the whole list to find the composer that you want.

1. Antonio Vivaldi (b. 1678)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)
    ArtsAlive ~ Vivaldi Activities

2. George Frideric Handel (b. 1685)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

3. Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1685)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

4. Franz Josef Haydn (b.1736)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1756)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)

6. Ludwig van Beethoven (b. 1770)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)
    ArtsAlive ~ Beethoven Activites

7. Franz Schubert (b. 1797)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)
    ArtsAlive ~ Schubert Activities

8. Johannes Brahms (b. 1833)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)
    Brahms in 1890s Vienna: Learning About Chamber Music

9. Modest Mussorgsky (b. 1839)
    (Activity Sheet - pdf) (Listen Online) (My YouTube Playlist)
    NY Philharmonic Kids ~ Orchestration Station