Art work and a story






Justin's story behind this painting.

two bunnies are running and they are going over the speed limit.
and the police are going over the speed limit too.
Do you know why?

Because there are bad space aliens coming after them from Mars and Jupiter. From Every planet except from earth.

The rock is in front of the sun turning it black.

There are guns shooting through the air at the bunnies.
The bus is trying to get past the bunnies and their car.
The bullets are going in every direction..even after the car!

THEN>>>> do you know how many bullets the alien has in his space gun? A trillion million of them. And he is going to keep shooting them.

the thing that shoots the bullets controls itself. And the space alien can't stop it until it runs all out of bullets.

There is just one space alien but he has different coloured bullets because sometimes he visits planets and takes stuff off their planets to make his bullets. So some are red and yellow and blue ones.. and they all control themselves. One side shoots yellow and red, and the other side shoots ALL blue. AND he's even now shooting some bullets toward the sun!!!!

and the driver of the bus is one of the angry birds and he's talking "oh oh...the sun's going to burn out one of these days". And he's going over the speed limit because he doesn't want to shot by the bad alien.

Off the picture are some bunnies who have landed their rocket and their rocket is on a meteorite and they forgot their coordinates back to earth. The astronaut(who is the space alien) wants the meteorite to go boom because he wants the bunnies to fall back to earth and fall on a building with a flame thingey on it so that he can take over the world.

--- can you catch glimpses of things that have been studied or watched lately? :) We've studied the solar system, watched cats and dogs the movie, played angry birds, Been studying traffic signs and learning about speed limits, ... isn't it fascinating to listen to how it all plays out in a little boys head? :)

____________-
we did some work out of backyard discoveries.

we spent some time at Head of the Class.

and we did some finger painting.... see the story and picture above, the rest of the pictures we did are below.

justin's sea.

my butterfly

More fun and learning was done with the pizza program. he makes pizzas that he thinks bunnies will like, mice will like and that just maybe cats will like. He thinks and tries hard and then has a pizza party with everyone (all his stuffies). he's learned now how to make pictures using pizza toppings. He's doing some really good work. I should scan one in for you all to see. :)

We did some learning here as well. :)

At supper we had a hoot learning some artistic stuff. We went through a couple library books and got out his new art set and had some fun drawing pictures and making stories. It was a good way to spend time together over food. :)

F.O.O.D

Israel and having fun tracing shapes

Today for breakfast we read through two books we got out on Israel.

A is for Abraham by Richard Michelson.



In this book we learned about the Sh'ma that Jewish children learn. We decided that learning it would not be a bad thing. So I made a copywork sheet of it for the lad to copy and we'll be learning it over the next week.

We also read "Count your way through Israel" by Jim Haskins.


the lad asked lots of questions with this book and did some counting.
he was quite intrigued by the fact that the people of Israel have made the desert productive
AND they brought the leopard/jaguar back!

The basis of our study will be the DownloadNGo unit study created by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. It is called Expedition Israel.

While I prepared the study my son had fun tracing out shapes from some templates that I recently picked up from the dollar store. Just another way to increase his awareness of different ways that people can be artists. :) Fun and learning.

we enjoyed this site when studying Israel.

We had fun trying to see if we could lift up a Canaan dog. The result : yes...but it would be really really hard if you are a five year old boy weighing in a 52 lbs (and only a small dog at that). :)

We read a couple more books during lunch about Israel.

Israel by Kristin Thoennes

This was a very informative book.
Lots of pictures and text that fit well with it.

Cooking the Israeli Way

This book just intrigues us as to what to make for our Israeli dinner next week.
Though when shown a picture of a felafal the lad went "ew". :)
So perhaps we won't make that. :)

After lunch it was time to clean house, play the keyboard (working on learning 'rejoice rejoice'), and play computer games. Today it was doing a memory game, a cat discovery game and building a pizza. When that was done we went for a walk on this lovely sunny day.

Appreciated this post

I'm not going to waste my time...

This blogger has a good response or two, to those who would question our ability to homeschool our children. :) Thought others might appreciate it as well.

Curriculum ideas

the question at heart of the home is this
After hours and hours of research, consultation, lists and that big ol’ investment… what did you finally decide for your curriculum? Please share your choices – by age (or grade) if possible.
Well, being in our first year of homeschooling, my methodology at this point is really varied.

I use books that I've picked up here and there along the way... copywork, math, etc. We go to the library, we do unit studies as I'm on a review team, go on field trips, play a lot :) .. what can I say...he's five. We use a variety of resources on-line, with one of our current favourite places being teachers pay teachers.

and I suppose that's all I've got to say right now. :)

Not Back to School Blog Hop

Library books



Jeffrey and Sloth by Kari-Lynn Winters and Ben Hodson

Oh my, this is just a fun book to read.. for mother and child. :)
Spurs all kinds of questions. Great to use to help a child think and imagine.
What could Jeffrey ask next of the sloth? :)



Tale of a Tadpole by barbara ann porte

A nice read of a little girl watching a tadpole grow up.



Dory Story by Jerry Pallota

This book has a surprise ending that made us both laugh! Good story as well of the web of life.



Swim the silver sea, joshie Otter by Nancy White Carlstrom

"why's he called Joshie Mommy?"
"Why didn't his mommy want to play?"
"why didn't he listen to his mommy?"
These were questions I was asked while reading this book. It was a great cause of wonderment.



The Blizzard by Betty Ren Wright

a good story of a boy with a birthday in the winter and his disappointment at his cousins not being able to help celebrate...because of "The Blizzard". My lad asked tons of questions, and was happy for the boy at the end of the story.



Rabbit by Alison Catley

the value of this book to me was in helping my son understand that more than one person can have a stuffy named Rabbit...and they don't all have to look the same. He was quite amazed by this fact. :)




Rabbit's Good News by Ruth Lercher Bornstein

We've had this book about before. it's just a delightful spring time book. :)



Bicycle Race by Donald Crews

DID NOT like this book. It earned a very hearty frown from a five year old lad.



Five Little Monkeys go Shoppings by Eileen Christelow

What a fun read and a smile inducer. "mommy, those monkeys don't listen!"



Waters by Edith Newlin Chase

This book inspires me to want to do a unit study on it, and perhaps I might. Filled with Canadiana trivia/artwork.



How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry

This book was okay, not great, but a decent read. Groundhog learned to not only grow a garden, but how to share. Always a good thing that. NOT an oft requested book.



I'll be Home soon, snoopy by Charles Schultz

My enjoyment of Charlie brown is NOT shared by a five year old lad. :(



Lucy Comes to Stay by Rosemary Wells

Wells has again written a book to be enjoyed and read well. Reads well outloud, causes questions to be asked. A good book.



Bob the builder, snowed under. by somebody I'm sure..

It's a typical bob the builder book. Something to be built, something to be learned. The lad was very ho-hum with this book.



WAIT!! I want to tell you a story by Tom Williams.

He liked it but... the ending was somewhat less than what the boy wanted it to be. You'll have to read why a cat-loving boy wouldn't appreciate the ending. It even made my hubby chuckle. :)



The Three Swinging Pigs by Vicky Rubin.

If you KNOW the story of the three little pigs you might appreciate this book. We've read a couple books that twist the tale a bit, or at least tell it from a different perspective. This one was an OFT repeated tale.



Shaun the Sheep - Shaun the Farmer and Can't stand the heat.

It's the shaun the sheep videos in book form. Still enjoyed immensely by one five year old boy. He asked lots of questions which he didn't ask in the videos.



Click, clack, moo...and more. by Doreen Cronin et al

Oh..you have to just go get the book and read it. Laugh about what happens. See the farmer's frustration and just enjoy a children's book. really...go get it and just have fun with it. :)



Jack the bear by Christina Leist.

i have to admit, when I first read this book I thought 'eh.. don't need to read this again'. BUT... it grew on me. The lad liked it as well. Probably because the fox was so perplexed by Jack the Bear.





The Great Pig Escape and The Great Pig Search both books by Eileen Christelow.

Boy oh boy were these books read over and over and over again. Those silly pigs. Both were fun reads, both made a boy ask questions, both had decent illustrations, and were just fun to read. They could be made educational should one so desire...but sometimes fun books just need to be read. :)

Up in the air...with the greatest of ease..I saw a Kite




Kite Capers was our main unit study of the past two weeks, day one and Days 2 and 4. Kite Capers has been developed by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. Kite Capers captured my son's imagination. To learn more about Kite Capers click here to view more details. It is an excellent study.


One of the fun moments I have as a homeschooling mom is seeing how my son puts to use the information that he learns. Part of the history aspect of kite capers was learning what one of the first uses of kites was. A man name Han Hsing (or something like that..just going from memory here) was attacking a city and he wanted to know how far to dig a tunnel. So we drew pictures of him flying his kite over the city. We acted out the digging of the tunnel and just had a blast learning about this part of kite history. Then he went to my mom and dad's for a couple of days. When we got there the VERY FIRST thing he did was set up a city and then had an enemy attack that city using a kite.

"How big a tunnel does he have to dig buddy?" I asked
The very excited response was "10 miles mommy! He has to dig 10 miles!"

I LOVE seeing him excited. I LOVE knowing what he remembers.

It's winter where we live so flying a kite isn't on our immediate agenda but we stopped at a store to see what treat/toy the lad could buy with his rabbit money and we spotted a couple kits (packed together, inexpensive) and I heard "MOMMY!!! Diamond kites!" So well...of COURSE we had to get them. So now Daddy has a big kite to fly (from last year) and I have a delta and the lad has a diamond kite. I think we'll have fun this year. :)

Each DownloadN'Go unit is a complete unit study designed for grades K-4, not saying you can't revamp a bit if you have older children. There are 5 days of lessons - which can be done as separate days, or combined two into one, or extending a day as you take small rabbit trails. In Kite Capers you will find the following plan of action:

Day 1: What Is a Kite?
Day 2: The History of Kites
Day 3: Kite People and Places
Day 4: Science Secrets of Kites
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Kites

We didn't do the entire study, after all...it's March Break up this way and little boys need to play and get to know their grandparents. :)

I particularly enjoyed going through the section on Wind. Learning what my boy knew, helping him to expand his knowledge and use new words. It always interesting to learn just what your child knows. :)

If you want to know more Click here to visit Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. You can read more blog reviews by going here.

As part of the the Download N Go review team, I have been provided with a copy of this unit to use, review, and post about on my blog.

Kites Again :)

worked on Day Two and Day Four of Kite Capers from DNG. Made a sheet to go with it from here. The actual page is made is here.
Published by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.



cool to learn fact
Andre Cassagne designed a series of ring kites to celebrate the Olympics. He is the best known kitemaker in France and the original inventor of the Etch-a-Sketch.
The lad drew and coloured and learned some geography and science and history. It was a good lesson for him today...even though both of us a dog-tired and highly distractable as a result.

Library of Congress

NGA Classroom

Women's History Month

Women's Suffrage

Cat Unit Study

Kitten's first full moon.

Cat's Lapbook.

interesting blog

St. Patrick's Day

Different things I'm considering preparing for the Lad for St. Patrick's Day. ONLY because it can be a fun holiday for a boy child. :

A colouring page of the Irish flag. Not sure if I"ll do this as we did one for our study on Ireland.

According to legend, Saint Patrick used a shamrock to explain about God. The shamrock, which looks like clover, has three leaves on each stem. Saint Patrick told the people that the shamrock was like the idea of the Trinity – that in the one God there are three divine beings: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The shamrock was sacred to the Druids, so Saint Patrick’s use of it in explaining the trinity was very wise.

In light of this I'm considering having him do this activity.

If I can figure out how to print this maze off I would use it. :)

and here's a nice little unit study that I might pull ideas from.

DLTK has an anagram. one is easy, one is more difficult. Same site has an easier to access maze.
:)

there's this neat green on green craft that I think the lad will enjoy. :)

Fairly certain I'm going to be doing this one. it's a file folder game.

and there are lots of ideas on this page. Not sure what I'll use at this point, if anything. Though I do like this 3 in 1 craft/song.

TOS information



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TOS would love to have you join them on Monday, May 16—Friday, May 20 for The Schoolhouse Expo. They only have 300 tickets left and once they are gone, that’s it! Don’t miss out on this encouraging event!

Today's Activities

Signed up for a trial period of Reading Kingdom. It's a whole word based reading program. So far, the lad is bored silly with it. He doesn't like that he has to find letters on the keyboard and it doesn't give him enough time to do so. I'll encourage him to keep at it, the sessions are really short so it shouldn't be too onerous for him. I do have to admit that part of it he likes (where he has to find pictures or click on things on the computer screen), but mommy isn't allowed to help him at all so he finds that a challenge - particularly when it comes to using the keyboard.

The program takes a multi approach to learning how to read. not only knowing how to see the word and read it, but also learning how to spell it at the same time.

I like learning to read phonetically as I think it will serve a person well in the long run, but I don't see the harm is blending methodologies of learning to read either. Some words just don't sound out well... and for those words you need to recognize the pattern of them in order to read them. So we'll work with this for a month and see what we think at the end of it.

The lad also played some thinking and logic games on the computer today. One was a math game where he had to accumulate points in order to progress in the game, and the rest were thinking games. I found it interesting that sometimes he was able to figure things out sooner than I was. :)

Playing with Lego was a big thing today as well. It was a snow day, and a Friday so we take things easy. It was a good day and he learned a thing or two so it's all good. :)

Carnival of homeschooling is up

The Carnival of Homeschooling - Mardi Gras!!


Carnival of Homeschooling

Links to All Things Free for Homeschoolers

this Site looks very interesting to me. I think this link leads to the main page.

I believe it’s possible to fill out your whole curriculum online–for free. This site is basically the curriculum our family uses. all sorts of freebies on it. :)
the person who puts it together even teaches you how to use freebies to build a curriculum. How cool is that? :)

so that site led me to this site called skedtrack which led me to their best sites which listed some good sites I'd like to explore more...mostly with my boy. :)

Kites


the twisting box kit was just fascinating.


the lad thought this was rather cool to see. "it looks like a dragon mommy!"


justin likes the cat one

Can you tell what the theme was for this afternoons study?

yes indeed, we undertook the study of Kites. We did Day One from Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett on Kites. Click here to view more details

We had fun. We got a bit hung up watching various videos with kites in them. Just kept following the links from one to the next. There are some quite neat kites out there. :)

We looked at Charlie Brown's mistake with kites, What makes a kite, and talked about wind and how it makes a kite work. The lad surprised me with just how much he knew about wind and lift. (good for a mom to be surprised). :)

Looking forward to doing more of this study on Friday.

What we Learned today - March 8, 2011

Today we practiced opposites. First I had to teach the lad what opposite meant.

And we read a poem on cats, and did some work about Tabby Cats. We're feeling VERY disorganized and muddle headed this morning so I'm pulling together things that I think will work for us today as book work ain't where it's at today. :) So we did some lap book work on cats. Poem, parts of a cat, practicing the letter C, Spelling the words Tabby Cat,

Pulled a poem from a cat study from reading-tutors.com. We read through it a couple of times.

We did this page from Enchanted Learning. And we read books looking for the letter C (easy to do when you have LOTS of cat books). :) We did this maze as well.

Then upstairs to read books for a half hour.

Time for a late lunch. and the cleaning up the house and playing. We done good on a day when we just want to veg so it's all good. :)

Programs to look at

this place makes blank board games. :) it's called Bare Books

then there's a reading program called FUNNIX. I need to do some research on it. But it looks interesting.

What we Learned today - March 4, 2011

Today the lad and I worked on telling time and writing out the long I, long U and short o sounds as well as figuring out first letters in words from a choice of three.

We also did colouring and designing of some of our own art work.

Then we made a Canada puzzle. I tried to find a pic of it for you but was unable to do so. I do know that I bought it at "the bargain shop" though. It's a really good puzzle as it has all the provincial flags on it. and has basic coordinates on the outside edge of the map. It's a really good one to do with a five year old as it helps him practice his numbers and alphabet, and the flags are easy for them to figure out so they are able to help well making a bigger then normal for them puzzle. We practiced finding coordinates (map reading), learning the province names (geography) and team work.

The rest of the day was spent watching a movie (stuart little 3) and doing laundry. :)

Nyiragongo Crater

This was interesting to learn about.

Hubby found that tidbit of information about the Nyiragongo Crater. The lad and I sat and looked at the pictures and talked about it. It's very hard to convey to a five year old lad how dangerous all that melted rock would be, and how the gases are dangerous.

He found it quite interesting how they had to protect the cameras too. :)

Hopping Popcorn Review

I've been a bit lax this week in keeping up with the blog.

We've been busy doing popcorn! :) And just so you know...with this review I'm allowed to give away a copy of it! You have until the 7th to leave me a message saying why you'd be interested in getting a copy of it. Numbers will be assigned and my son will pick it out of a hat.

Have you ever wondered just what makes popcorn special? Why does it pop? Why doesn't it pop? How many kinds of popcorn are there? What makes popcorn different than other corn?

ALL these questions and more are laid out for you in an easy to use format of Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. called Hopping Popcorn. Click here to view more details

Day One was done with dad as I was called into work. You can find how that went here. :)
On Tuesday this week we did day 2-3 and today we did day 4-5. Like always, we picked and chose what we wanted to do, and we never did an entire day.

We drew pictures, we ate popcorn, we thought about making necklaces for the trees but one five year old thought that wouldn't be very nice for the trees...to be all pretty and then have the birds come and make them all unpretty...it would make the trees sad apparently. (go figure). :) We had fun learning about the different types of popcorn and learned there's a company that makes.... COTTON CANDY popcorn!!!! That was a real shocker to a five year old.

"Though mommy... I like ordinary popcorn". This was an oft repeated phrase ... particularly when I mentioned trying out some of the different recipes we encountered.

Today we had fun going around to our neighbours homes and asking them what type of popcorn was there favourite. We also asked on my facebook account what variety was the best. The lad was VERY pleased that his favourite ended up being the favourite overall.

Each day as a theme, and throughout the week a similar layout is done on a day to day basis. There are LOTS of videos to watch which is always a highlight. Check it out. See all the child friendly graphics? :)

One thing I would have changed about this study is not make it so US focused. Corn is grown ALL over the world. So why did we only learn about how it is grown here in the US? I just didn't understand that aspect of this study. Wish that basis had been broadened a bit. HEY... I got an answer to the focus on US cornbelt. Here it is below:
the reason the focus was on the US is because almost all of the popcorn grown in the world is grown in the US. The US exports much of the popcorn to over 90 other countries. The 2 countries that receive the greatest amount of the exported popcorn is Canada and Mexico. Popcorn is also native to North America, though it likely originated in Mexico.
HA! We learned something new! :)

You can read what other folks have to say here.

The folks over at Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. are having a $5 Friday sale tomorrow. So go check it out. :)

Don't forget to let me know why you want a copy and once I have a winner you'll get your copy from the publisher. Make sure I have your email address please. :) March 7th is the deadline! :)

I received a copy of this unit study in return for my fair and honest review.



Sight, Sound, Taste, Hear, Touch

Today the lad and I learned about the five senses.

We cut out pictures of mouths, ears, noses, eyes, and hands.

We talked abit about how fish hear (vibrations in the water), and how people can hear better by cupping their hands over their ears (we had fun with this one whispering up and down the stairs).

We then played with a bunny and a cat for a while and used our five senses to learn different things about them. How bunnies smell like bunnies and cats smell like cats and people smell like people. :) Bunny fur is different than cat fur. Bunnies ears are shaped differently than a cat and so are their eyes. it was VERY interesting to a cat and bunny crazy lad of five.

We then traced out the words for the five senses. Then mommy wrote down different words for each sense that the lad could come up with.

Sight: looking, seeing, pretty, ugly, nice, colour, differences
Taste: tasting a chip, sweet, sour, salty, hot, spicy, yummy, "sometimes good, sometimes not good"
Hear: hear, listening, sounds "too much noise", "milo comes when he hears you calling Milo come here".
Smell: Chip eating, yuck, nose, "ew" "mmm" "cats - can smell like cats"
Touch: hands, fingers, somethings don't mind if you touch them, "helps blind people pay money".

All in all, a good time learning by a five year old. :)

Freebie of the day...whatever number this is :)

For some decent freebies of the day relating to homeschooling go there. :)

and because i don't want to lose track of these, I'm copying them down here. :)

Khan Academy. It is located at this addie.

An Old Fashioned Education. Go here to connect with the site directly.


EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY.COM. Go here to connect with the site directly.

Pocket College. Go here to connect to the site directly.

Nineteenth Century American Children & What They Read. Click here to go to today's featured site. And don't miss the page on Children.

and then there's this toymakers site. :)

this week and hopping popcorn

This week has been an interesting one.
Tuesday we cleaned the bookroom and read poems, books, and talked alot about all kinds of different things.
Wednesday we went to Dufflebag Theatre in London. We saw the Three Musketeers. We had a total hoot.
Thursday we did more reading, some book work with numbers and what not.

Friday I was called into work so Dad and son worked on Hopping Popcorn, Day One. The Lad had told me that he wanted dad to do day one of hopping popcorn with him. So I got it ready for them to do. Hopping Popcorn is produced by Amanda Bennett Unit Studies.

I created this copysheet for them. :) I had them use this site to learn the parts of the corn plant. :)

They apparently did well doing the lesson, the lad learned that there are 6 kinds of corn, but only ONE kind pops and that corn came from a type of grass.

In evening we went to gymnastics. It has been changed from Monday due to the Family Day holiday. Boy...it certainly was not nearly as busy as it usually is on Mondays.

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c shortening (or butter)
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. peanut butter (we use natural)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c. milk
4 cups quick oatmeal
6 oz chocolate or butterscotch chips.. we more or less wing this. :)

Mix in order of appearance.

Drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.

Enjoy them.
We enjoyed making them. :)

Expedition Ireland Review



Click here to visit Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. Amanda has put together an excellent study on Ireland. Called Expedition Ireland we had ALOT of fun doing this. We took the week to do it you can find each day here: Day one, day 2-3 with our Irish meal day,and day 4-5.

Expedition Ireland is a great study, one that we've enjoyed doing. I can't say that we did everything in it, but we did a lot of it. We did most of the animals of the day, all of the geographic daily items, we practiced saying "prata, and diah duit", we enjoyed watching hurling, and learning about Irish hares. Just a lovely study...great for a curious five year old. :)

One of the things I like about these studies is that I'm not forced to do them a certain way. If I want to do something, but not something else...it doesn't affect the integrity of the unit. For instance... sheep...No interest in studying a sheep... but we did look up the place where those sheep came from. No biggie. We took a rabbit trail when we learned about the Irish hare and then came back to the study. it's all good.

Each day has an overall topic. Each day follows a similar plan. Geographic feature of the day, animal of the day, word of the day etc.

Day 1: Where on Earth is Ireland?
Day 2: The Places of Ireland
Day 3: A Bit of History
Day 4: Cool Things to Know about Ireland
Day 5: Fun and Games in Ireland


Full of child friendly graphics.
Lots of drawing.
Some math.
Lots of suggested reading. We got a ton of books out of the library...none of which were suggested, but they were what we had available. :) We had fun reading about leprechauns , and other such tales of Ireland. We learned that Ireland is a lad of music and storytellers. And we touched just a wee bit on the "troubles" of Ireland and how sad it is that they can't just agree to disagree about their differences.

I have to tell you that I got a copy of this study for my honest review of it. Seriously, St. Patrick's day is just around the corner, why not get this study and learn more of the people for whom this is their national holiday?

You can read what other people thought of this study here.

If you would like to hear more from Amanda Bennett, you will not want to miss the MidSouth Homeschool Convention in Memphis! Check out all the details on how you can win a FREE FAMILY REGISTRATION!! The contest will end at 4:00pm EST on February 19, 2011, so be sure to head on over there and enter.

They also have a bunch of $5 sales going on right now. Head on over here to learn more about that.

Ireland

We finished the study for Expedition Ireland today produced by Amanda Bennett Unit Studies. . Boy... we had fun doing this. I think it's funny. The lad has trouble sitting still, and keeps asking "are we done yet". BUT when asked what he thinks of Ireland and what we learned "I liked it mommy! Ireland is interesting".
We found this video while we were studying the Irish Hare for the Ireland study from Amanda Bennett Unit Studies. It made both of us laugh...watching this silly hare binkying. :

We played a game showing how a hare can turn really fast, and that's why hares can soon turn into too many. We had fun racing around the house and learning. We did this because one of the youtube links led to a hare being chased by some hawks and getting away from them because it zigged and zagged.

Today we found the longest river in Ireland, we made a brochure of places to visit, did an animal matching activity, and had fun looking at hare videos.

Twas a good day to learn a thing or two. :)

Irish Meal Day

Boy, the lad and I had fun today. Yesterday we did days 2 & 3 of Expedition Ireland put out by Amanda Bennett Unit Studies. We learned prata is potato, that Ireland has beautiful scenery and interesting stories. We had fun colouring their flag and learning about Burren and Crystal.

Instead of doing more studying of Ireland we decided to have a cooking Irish food day.

We started the day off with pancakes of course.

Here is an easy way to make thin pancakes:


4 oz/ 125g/ 1 cup plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/2 pt/ 250ml/ 1 cup milk
1 tbsp melted butter

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend for about 30 seconds. The batter should then be allowed to stand for 30 minutes in a cool place. Heat a small pan over a medium heat. Grease with a little butter and wipe out with kitchen paper. Fry about 2 tbsp of batter at a time, swirling to cover the base of the pan. Keep them thin and there will be no need to turn. Serve rolled up with sugar.

We did two things with them. MOST we put cinnamon sugar on and rolled them up.
A few we added some gooseberry jam and rolled.
We learned we like the cinnamon sugar best and NOT to be shy with it either. :)

here the lad is learning to apply the cinnamon sugar.
Here I teach him how to roll it. He was a bit hestitant to do it himself as they were quite warm yet.
And the finished product...the cinnamon sugar ones in front, the jam ones behind.
We had thought about dusting them with icing sugar but "Mommy, I think plain is better."

Then off to go grocery shopping for the rest of the days meals....The lad looked hard for the buttermilk, and thought it funny that evaporated milk has a cow picture on the front of the can.

For lunch, due to hunger issues, we decided that the Irish part of our lunch would be GREEN salad. :) The rest we just ate as we wanted to. (sandwiches).

This afternoon we made

Irish Soda Bread

mix together:

4 cups bread flour

1 tbsp double action baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Add 2 c. buttermilk

Mix well

Knead 1 minute

Cut in half and form into two balls

Place on greased cookie sheet

cut an 'x' in the top of each ½ inch deep

cook 350 oven for 45-55 minutes.

We learned that if you subsitute whole wheat flour for white, adding more fluid a good idea.
That it is fun to alternate kneading bread.
That is it HARD for a five year to cut an "x" in the top of a ball of bread with a big knife.

the boy working hard at kneading
I neglected to take a picture of the finished product. Turned out a bit dry, but the inside was yummy. We'll do this again sometime.

I was HIGHLY intimidated by the thought of making candy and was VERY nervous that I would mess it up. BUT it worked!!!! I was delighted.
Grandmom's Irish Potatoes Candy

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar

  • 1 tablespoon butter

  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk

  • 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Directions

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, cream of tartar and salt. Mix well and bring to a boil. Cook to the soft ball stage at 234 degrees F (115 degrees C). A few drops will form a soft ball when dropped into cold water. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla and beat until creamy and stiff. Roll into balls and shape like little potatoes. Roll each ball in cinnamon to coat, then press in pieces of chopped nuts to look like eyes. You can also dust with cocoa to simulate dirt.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 62 | Total Fat: 0.9g | Cholesterol: 3mg


They are pretty good. Hubby says they are kinda like fudge, but different. We were supposed to put nuts on them to look like potato eyes, but the lad nixed that idea and I didn't mind since I'm not a huge nuts in candy person anyways. :)

Oh... we also made cookies!

Irish Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

  • 1 cup white sugar

  • 1 egg

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 3/4 cup shortening

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves

  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

  2. Cream sugar, egg, salt and shortening together. Add flour, baking soda and spices. Mix well. Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and roll the balls in sugar.

  3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes.


Nutritional Information open nutritional information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 87 | Total Fat: 4.5g | Cholesterol: 6mg

NOTE: in our oven... 15 minutes.



We spontaneously decided to invite gramma up to share our Irish meal. Apparently all the ladies at the bank wanted to come and share it as well. Gramma turned them down. :) Our Irish meal was ham, potatoes, and bread.
The brown furry guy in the forefront is "super Jeff". He's an all powerful rabbit who helps make all types of things. This time he helped make cookies! He was a VERY curious rabbit and got flour on his nose in the process. :) He isn't the lad's favourite stuffy, but he is a good comrade in arms. :)

Tuesday Learning - Feb 15

This was a typical Tuesday for us. Play for 20 minutes, work for 20 minutes, play for 30 minutes, work for 20 minutes and so forth. We had a lot of fun, and got a fair amount of learning done as well.

Today we did four pages in this book. Writing out ending sounds to words, matching words to pictures and so forth.


We worked on a couple of workbooks upstairs as well. Math, letters, matching and what not.

We continued to go through a Kumon math book for 4-5-6 year olds. We did another four pages.


We sorted through pencil crayons and sharpened them. The lad spent about 20 minutes working through Time4Learning. You can read my review of the program here.

And to finish off our learning time.. we went for a walk outside. We had fun pretending to be watching out for made up animals and how to avoid them. :)

Valentines and more

Different lapbooks etc.

Jesus Loves Me

Heart File Folder

Bible File Folder

Love file folder

achy breaky hearts

Homeschooling in Ontario

Rules to know

information to read through.

Letter of intent

Lego Contest and more

I know I'm a bit late in posting what we've been doing this week.

We are now back to saying and pointing at the different letters in the alphabet. We do this once or twice a day. This in an effort to combat that "but I forgot what that letter looks like mommy". :) he knows them if I show him, but when it comes to writing them "i forget".

We are starting to work on telling time. He's really pretty good with the o'clocks and he's starting to get the 1/2 hour but that is still very much a work in progress. We use an old clock that we got at a yard sale or something for 25 cents. We also have a reader rabbit tell the time book that we do exercises in.

We've started going through a Kumon math book for 4-5-6 year olds.

He finds it amazing that in time he'll be able to count to 120! :) he's having fun doing the book though "why do they want me to hold the pencil that way mommy?" (the book shows him the proper way of holding a writing implement). he'd rather write in his hamfisted way but that isn't the correct way to hold it, so I'm using the book to teach him the correct method (as well as practice his numbers). :)

On Friday we focused on doing Lego. We had a lot of fun building and playing with Lego. Then in the evening we went to the Stratford for a Lego Contest with HOPE (my homeschool group).
I thought some of the designs were quite interesting, and one young man did stop-action photography with his. The lad thoroughly enjoyed it, and parts of it were funny too. :) IF I can figure out how to download the photos off my camera's memory I'll post of the contest entries. OH...before I forget...one of the fascinating things at the contest were these puzzle houses made of lego. You make a path in them...one two or three stories high that have mazes in them for a marble to roll through. Quite intriguing and fun they were. :)

Oh, on Thursday we started to work on a unit study that has been produced by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett..about Ireland. We're having some fun with it, we just did Day One. Have to admit though that Justin DID NOT like that the word of the day meant Pony...as he said "I don't like ponies mommy". But he did find it fun learning some of the stories of Ireland and he thought the Great Causeway was quite fascinating. Watching the videos of Ireland and seeing the castles was simply a cause of lots of exclamations! MOMMY!!!! it's a castle!!! So we might try building our own castle next week as we work on more of the Ireland study. ... wouldn't that be fun?

It wasn't a great week last week for homeschooling, but we managed to keep busy and we did manage to learn a thing or two so overall...that's what counts right? :)

Teach Art at Home

looks to be an interesting site.

you can find it here.

Your art instruction resource for self-learners and home schoolers. You will find homeschool art curriculum, online art courses, and free art projects.

Freebie of the Day

You should go here if you don't already... you get helpful stuff for your homeschool needs.. FOR FREE!

yes, once in a while they ask if you want to buy something...choose to or not..it's up to you. (I mostly don't but I did get the kindergarten book from them.. worth the $7 I paid for it). But mostly I just ignore those emails and just get the free stuff.

Today the freebie was PDF's the periodic tables and more. So go there, get it. :)

Sites I would like to look at again

Story Sites

The Story Home.
Here you will find original and classic children's audio stories. Every other week, The Story Home will offer a brand new story read to you by a very special storyteller named Alan, for FREE!
Kids Audio
We have over 200 audio stories in MP3 format for you to download and enjoy with your family and friends

Why not try our Reading Books? Or if you enjoy Colouring, choose from the Colouring Books section
teaching sites

Illuminations

I got the above site through Teach-nology.

Family Life

Families with purpose.
From the joyful celebrations of family nights to the wild and wacky fun of science experiments, our family fun section offers a host of great ideas for every family.

George Washington - DNG - A review

ICE CREAM!! This was a favourite food of George Washington. "It's not as good as a sprinkle sandwich though, is it mommy? Though it is pretty good isn't it?"


This is a unit study that has been produced by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett..

The lad and I did this unit study over the course of three days. We took a day to read a couple of books about George Washington, then a day to do
day one and two, and then another day to do days 3-5.

We discovered how difficult it is to find books on George Washington. This despite the fact that Amanda Bennett lists several in the unit study, we couldn't find a single one! Part of that's living in small town Ontario, but we couldn't find but the two in the London (and that's NOT small town Ontario), neither of them was in her list of suggested reading. We enjoyed the one book on George, it was written in a fairly engaging story style. It had some pictures as well so the boy could see some of how it was back in the day of George Washington.

I know that he enjoyed some of the study on George and that he learned something because suddenly Bunny Town (a make believe world that all that is good in the world occurs there) had a "bunny washington" in it. :) Made me smile. Here's a lad having 'Bunny Washington' explain that cutting down trees will make your dad angry, and that sometimes you have to help people even if you want to do something else (aka George wanted to be a farmer, but instead because president of the USA).



Amanda Bennett unit studies are laid out in such away that it makes it very easy to do the study. They have lap book elements and fully printable pages for notebooking, drawing and such like. The graphics are child-friendly. If you want to go off on rabbit trails, it is easy enough to do. If you want to skip certain sections, you can do that too. :) We skipped ALL the stuff that had to do with American government or that I thought too difficult to do with a wiggly five year old. ALL I wanted to do was touch on the basics, and that's what I was easily enabled to do.

Day 1: Who Was George Washington?
Day 2: People and Places in George Washington’s Life
Day 3: The Accomplishments of George Washington
Day 4: Lessons to Learn From George Washington
Day 5: Remembering George Washington

One thing I like is that I can copy the questions into my own word program and instead of printing out five pages of material, I can print out two. Save on the printer ink. I can pick and choose what pages I want to copy in their original format as well.

I was given a copy of this unit study for my honest review.

The blog tour is over here. Go there to read some excellent reviews.

Download N Go is having a number of specials on right now. Go here to learn more about them please. :)

Fun 4 Mom Giveaway

The Winner will receive his/her choice of either a $75 Amazon gift card or a Be Mine Spa and Chocolate Valentine's Gift Basket from Amazon.com with an approximate retail value of $99.95.

To enter the Contest send your full name and mailing address to contestentries @ unitstudy.com with a subject line reading "Fun 4 Mom Entry" no later than 11:59 p.m. (EST), February 13, 2011. The contest rules can be found here. A winner will be chosen on February 14, 2011.


Blog is being weird lately

not sure what's up with the blog lately, but it seems to be displaying incorrectly.

Will have to see if I can figure out just what is up with it.