Charlotte Mason Geography Lesson

This year I decided to add Geography to our lessons. Yes, the kids get plenty of Geography from their history studies but I was looking for something a little more relevant for today especially since our time period we will be studying this year is from 30AD to 1799.

With my younger two students I chose to use Ambelside online's Charlotte Mason geography. It is available directly from their website and for Free! Can't beat this. It is a great introduction to Geography and so simple to use. Charlotte Mason breaks it down earth as a planet, days/nights, seasons, hemispheres, etc.

The lesson I will share with you today was from the section about how the earth revolves and rotates. I combined it with the next lesson on poles, axes and hemispheres too.

After reading this section with the kids and demonstrating the concept of rotating and revolving with the kids. I had each one role play the earth and the sun. Spinning around each other slowly.

Next I had them color a picture of our earth. By doing a google search I found a coloring page of the earth.

After they colored their earth pages I had them fold it in half and cut it along the fold. Once that was done. They pasted them onto a piece of construction paper.

From here Dancer who is in fourth grade this year needed to label north and south pole, equator and both hemispheres from her memory. Great way to practice her narration/memory skills. My youngest, Racer told me verbally and pointed while I wrote it for him.


Here is the finished example.


I hope you are able to use this for your homeschooling lessons. Enjoy!

Trouble with Latin

Over the past couple of years I have attempted each year to teach my kids Latin. Each year always facing the same struggle. Our main frustration was trying to find the right Latin curriculum to fit each child and for myself.

This year we set out again with high hopes with a new Latin curriculum....


You ask why teach Latin? You don't need to learn a dead language. Yes, Latin is not a language openly used today but it has roots in many languages used today. It is also found that those that study Latin improve their language proficiency scores and helps them learn other related languages. If your kids love Science or Charlotte Mason styled Nature Studies like mine than Latin becomes quite useful.

Fortunately, the past two curriculums didn't scare my kids away from wanting to. They still have the desire and motivation to learn Latin. I just pray that I can keep up with it and make it an enjoyable subject for them the best I can. Praying that our third try at this will be a charm.

Will keep you updated on our Latin study progress.

Camping in Lake Arrowhead

We had fun this past weekend camping with friends up in our local mountains. Our joining campsites with two other families was a huge child paradise this weekend. The kids had fun building forts, watching birds, grinding nuts for wild animals and using old trees as their playground. There was also plenty of food, laughter and campfire smores.

Charlotte Mason: Artist Tea

Over the past few years I have made a real effort to implement more Charlotte Mason style learning in our home. Here is just one I would like to share with you....

Every Tuesday in our home I host an artist tea. It is very simple and the kids look forward to this every week.

It can be as simple as cookies and tea or a full tea with fancy tea sandwiches, fruit, cookies and tea. I just use what food I have on hand here at home. This time it was taquitos that I cut in half, diced mangoes, carrots and apple juice. It was too warm for tea.

Yesterday, the artist that we discussed was Cimabue (Chee-ma-boo'ay). Cimabue lived in Florence, Italy. He had lived between (1240?-1302). He is considered an artist that helped shape the world. Cimabue is credited with resurrecting the art of painting by using live models, something that was unheard of at the time. He is most noted for having Giotto as his pupil.

This week we studied Madonna Enthroned (1285?).

They shared about the colors and lines. We discussed how painters used halos and why they did.

This painting is over 12 feet high. This was quite a stretch at the time since most were just painted on small canvases. This painting here followed the Byzantine style at the time but he was able to give his paintings a life like feel something that traditional Byzantine styles did not.

Next week we will continue to study Cimabue. I hope you will try to implement an artist tea into your homeschooling day. It is a real treat to any given day.

First Day of School Traditions 09-10 School year

Summer went way too fast again this year. Last week my kids were begging to start school again. Yes... I did say begging. Let me just say this is not always the case. Last week we were pretty much house bound out of choice. I just needed the free time to get things together for school to begin. Summer has been busy days filled with swimming, play dates, VBS, vacation and just leisure days. By God's grace I was able to accomplish all what I needed to finally begin our year.

Here is a brief description of our first day back to school and some traditions to share with all of you.....

We have a few back to school traditions that we do around here. Breakfast is one of them. Usually I make them a fancy breakfast. This year I opted for something different...new. I took them out to a local restaurant. They specialize in breakfast. In fact they serve just about any style of omelet, waffle, pancake or crepe. Absolute yummy! Definitely not a place to go if one is on a diet. The kids loved it and it was a great way to get them back into the routine of waking up early.

Once we got home from breakfast another tradition we have around here is that I take pictures of them with a sign of their current grade level.

I also make a point to measure their height and the kids love to jump on the scale to check how much they weigh. (They are still young...mind you. LOL).

Another neat tradition that we do in our home is to write an welcome letter to the new school year written especially for them. They get a big kick out of this and Daddy usually throws in a small gift.

I hope you had fun reading about our first day. May God bless you with a special school year.

Blessings,

Amy

Homemade Lollipops

Do your kids suffer from the boredom syndrome in the summer? My kids do on occasion. This week I was prepared with a few tricks up my sleeve to elevate their boredom blues.

We made lollipops. I know what your thinking, why on earth would you be using your oven in the summer. It is in the triple digits outside as I type this but after you read on you will see I only had to use it for a total of 10 to 16 minutes.

I found the recipe from the blog titled The Crafty Crow. The craft was titled Homemade Lollipops and can be found directly by going to The Decorated Cookie blog. If you are in a hurry here is the simple version with a few photos to share....

Here is the list of ingredients you will need to have on hand:

lollipop sticks ( found mine at Michael's-I cut them in half)

Bag of Jolly Rancher Candies

Baking tray

Aluminum foil

parchment paper

Step 1: Have your kids unwrap all the individual Jolly Rancher candies. This is a big temptation teaser for kids.

Step 2: Line a baking tray with one sheet of aluminum foil and on top of that place a sheet of parchment paper.

Step 3: Assemble your candies in stacks of three as shown. They had fun coming up with their own patterns and designs. Please be sure to leave room (2") on either side of the candy patterns for room for melting.

Step 4: While the kids are busy making their lollipop patterns preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Once the oven has reached this temperature slide your trays in for just 6minutes.

Step 5: Once the pops have been pulled out of the oven act quickly to press the sticks into the candy creations. Be sure to try to coat the stick completely. Cool.

Enjoy some summer fun to beat the boredom blues.

New School Year Plans for 09-10

I am just about finished planning and have been spending time in prayer for the new school year. Curriculum choices have all been made except for one additional subject I am still pondering. All the boxes have arrived and excitingly opened. New books for a homeschool Mom is an exciting day.

This year my kids will be in sixth, fourth and first grade! My where did all those years go. It seems just like yesterday I was just venturing out into the homeschool world. Hard to believe this will be our seventh year.

Just like every year I tend to tweek a few things. This year my main goal with my sixth grader is to transition him into more independent learning. After much research I have found a free program for homeschoolers that is basically an online planner. The teacher records all the required courses and assignments on given days and all the student does is log in and their daily plan is laid out for them. The program is called Skedtrack. Feel free to google it.

I would also like to keep with our Charlotte Mason learning style approach. Short lessons from living books which also include art and music appreciation. The artist teas from last year were a big hit. I am hoping to include them for next year as well.

I am looking forward to our new history curriculum for the new school year too. After reading through it it seems to fit my learning style like a glove and it leaves plenty of room for the different learning styles of my kids.

Here is an overall view what we will be covering.
For Math the older two will be using Teaching Textbooks. We will pick up from where we left off in Math 7 for my oldest finish that in the first semester and jump into Pre Algebra the second semester. My fourth grader will be using their Math 4. My first grader, Racer will be using Horizons Math 1. Sadly, he complained with Saxon. He wanted something with more color. It never was a problem for the older two but what works for one may not work for another.....this is the freedom in homeschooling.

We will begin a more formal grammar with the older two. I decided to use Growing with Grammar. Short lessons with a practice page to complete.

Spelling will stay the same with Sport (Spelling Power) and I have been working over the summer with Dancer with Sequential Spelling. It appears to be a good fit for her.

Our historical period of time will be studying this year is form 30AD to 1799. After much prayer God directed me to Romans, Reformers and Revolutions from Diana Waring. I am looking forward to this.

Science will be the year of animals. The kids have been wanting to study Ocean animals more in depth so we are taking the dive into Zoology 2 and will finish our school year with Zoology 3 (kids choice too!)

I found a long list of Renaissance artists and composer studies to add to our school year. Please check back at what we are doing with these.

It is shaping out to be a full year. I still need to purchase our writing program and I am considering a Latin program. We shall see.

Amy