[LBC] FREE Holiday Helper with Picture Study, Copywork, Poetry....

I remember Labor Days past when I had no idea what the holiday meant. Was it more than a day off?
When I looked into it, I was quite surprised...and moved... by what I discovered.
Here's all I learned about the holiday as one of our very popular Holiday Helpers. In its pages you will find all you need to make the holiday meaningful and rich: living ideas, poems, stories, copywork and a fascinating picture study by Ford Maddox Ford entitled, "Work." ~    Sheila Carroll www.LivingBooksCurriculum.com & www.CharlotteMasonHighSchool.com

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Weekly Wrap-up #3

I skipped the last two Weekly Wrap-ups. There wasn't much going on around here besides taking our dog to the animal hospital. Poor thing got a bad skin infection. He wouldn't eat or move so we took him in, and he had to say at the hospital for two nights!

St. Bernard + 2 night stay at animal hospital = a huge chunk of change :(

This week was our official first week of school. 5 more weeks and then we will take a two-week break. Yay!

Here's what we did -

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Week 1

Circle Time:
x Habit of the Month - Cleanliness: Keep bedroom clean, aired, & ordor-free.
x Recitation - Psalm 150:1
x Singing - Gypsy Rover & Holy, Holy, Holy!
x Picture Study - Come Look With Me: World of Play - Bull Jumping
x Composer Study - Claude Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun
x Nature Study - Rabbits
x Personal Devolment - Recite address & full name
x Weather Chart

Trista:

x Youth Bible Study (you can get this free by joining charlottemasonhelp.com's yahoo group)

x Khan Academy Math - 20 minutes/day

x Daily Word Problems - 5 days

x Child's Intro to Poetry - Intro

x Daily Geography - 5 days

x Story of the World Vol4 - ch 21

x McGuffey Spelling - 10 spelling words

x Scott Foresman Grammar - 4 pages

x Word Roots - 4 page

x Daily 6-Trait Writing - 5 days

x Building Thinking Skills - 10 pages

x Editor in Cheif - 1 lesson

x Stories of Beowulf - ch 1

x Spectrum Science - 2 lessons 

x The Story of Inventions - ch. 1 first half

x DK 20th Century - p 70-75 (1917-21)

x  An Island Story - ch 1

x Lab Mice

Joel:

x Story of the Bible - Part 1; Stories 1-3 

x Wisdom and the Millers - ch 1

x Child's History of the World - ch 1 Creation

x Daily 6-Trait Writing - 5 days

x The Llama Who Had No Pajama - 2 pgs

x Phonics Pathways 

x Daily Geography - 5 days

x Khan Academy Math - 10 minutes/day

x Daily Word Problems - 5 days

x Discovering Nature: All Nature Sings - 5 lessons

x Paddle to the Sea - ch. 2

x Primary Language Lessons - 3 lessons

x Building Thinking Skills - 9 pages

x Aesop - The Wolf and the Kid & Tortoise and the Ducks

x James Herriot's Treasury for Children - Moses the Kitten 1/2

x Just So Stories - Whale 1/2

x Leif the Lucky by D'Aulaire - 1/2

x Math Wrap-ups

x Electronics Learning Circuits - 2 experiments
x Draw Write Now - 2 lessons

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Here are some pics!

You can barely see the rabbit we saw during our nature walk.

Free Music

Classics for Kids
Weekly lessons on different composers. Archive of past composers. Grades K-12.

KIDiddles: The Best in Children's Music
Words, activity sheets and music for popular children's songs. Grades K-3.

Linkware Graphics.com
Free downloadable music flashcards. Grades 4-12.

Making Music Fun
Printables on composer, practice charts, and more. Caters to homeschoolers. Grades K-12.

Music Tech Teacher
Worksheets, quizzes, games and more related to teaching music and music theory. Grades 4-12.

Ricci Adams' Music Theory.net
Over 30 lessons in music theory online. Grades 4-12.

Weekly Wrap-up #2

No school this week but I have pictures to share. We spent Wednesday at a lake and just enjoyed the outdoors.

Blue Heron

Great Egret

We also saw some kind of sandpiper birds, but I couldn't get a good picture. 

Weekly Wrap-up #1

I'm going to start doing these "Weekly Wrap-ups" each week, as a way to record what we have done. 
We actually started our new school year this week. Everyone else is enjoying their summer break, and we are doing school work. The kids would not hear of this summer break thing. We got our new books, and they were begging to start them right away. Joel even said in his whiniest voice, "Mom, If we don't do summer school, we will forget everything." I love that they love to learn so I gave in and let them so some work. 

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What we learned:

Trista 

x Genesis 1 to 3 - read to Joel

x Rod and Staff english - 3 lessons

x Editor in Cheif - 1 lesson

x McGuffey Spelling - 10 spelling words

x Khan Academy Math - 20 minutes

x Math lessons - 3 exercises

x Daily Word Problems - 3 days 

x This Country of Ours - Ch. 29 - The Founding of Connecticut And War With the   Indians 1636-39

x Child's History of the World - Ch. 71 - Charles I

x Trial and Triumph - Ch. 28 - Richard Cameron, Lion of the Covenant (1644-1680)

x Minn of the Mississippi - Ch. 1

x Daily Geography - 3 days

x Spectrum Science - Lesson 1.1 

x Storybook of Science - Ch. 1 - The Six & Ch. 2 - The Fairy Tale and the True Story

x Building Thinking Skills - 6 pages

Word Roots - 1 page

PLUS - Notebooking and Timeline activities!

Joel

x Genesis 1 to 3 - listened to Trista read

x Missionary Stories - Introduction

x Primary Language Lessons - Lesson 1

x Phonics Pathways - 2 pages

x The Boxcar Children (RA) - Ch. 1-2

x Real Mother Goose - 1 page

x Math Lessons - 2 exercise

x An Island Story - Ch. 1 - The Stories of Albion and Brutus

x Paddle to the Sea - Ch. 1

x Discovering Nature: All Nature Sings - 2 exercises

x Building Thinking Skills - 4 pages

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Mom's Education

I started Don Quixote exactly one month ago and am now on Chapter 26. This is actually my third time reading it, and I am seeing things in a different perspective. It is slightly difficult to motivate myself to read it everyday, since I have already read it, but I am still enjoying it.

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We had fun roasting marshmallows over a bonfire Thursday night!

Quote from John Taylor Gatto, former New York (Public School) Teacher of the Year, and promoter of homeschooling

I read this today and had to share: 

"What you should be doing is exactly what you are doing now: spending about 90 percent of your time solving the problems of rearing your family decently and bringing the best out of your kids, and giving them a sense of religious purpose and civic purpose and personal power and strength. I've come to believe that most of the power that this other side has is not through their armies; it's through our fear that if we don't do what they tell us to do that somehow we'll lose out. Ignore these people's attempts to infect you with fear. If your kid knows how to read well (I think that's very important), count well, has a good attitude, loves work (sees that work is a grace and not a curse), your kid is practically impregnable."

- from an interview published in Homeschooling Today magazine, January/February 2001

I also wanted to share this post for anyone doubting that they can educate their children:

You are Qualified to Homeschool!

Enjoy!

Mom's Education

Background: As a homeschooling Mom I am pretty much learning new things right along with my children. When I went to government schools, I tuned just about everything out. It was so boring; I thought. By the time I got to high school I didn't care anymore. I didn't even try to make good grades. I remember being rather shocked when I was told I was going to graduate on time. I'm not really sure how that happened?

After school is when my love for learning actually began. I suppose my sense of autonomy helped spark a thirst for knowledge. I always loved to read, but I used to read "teen dramas" and "fan fiction" nothing beyond that. My love for classics began when the movie Lord of the Rings came out. I wanted to read the books, too! After reading the rich language of these books I couldn't go back to what I was used to read. I tried reading a Star Trek fan fiction book and remember thinking it seemed so elementary. Ever since, I started reading any classics I could get my hands on!

Flash Forward: I just recently discovered the book The Well-Educated Mind. Not to be confuse with the book written by the same author The Well-Trained Mind (I never read this, by the way). I am so excited to get this book! This book teaches you how to read the Great Conversation.  You learn the process of understanding, evaluating, and expressing an opinion. The niftiest thing about this book is the list of books to read in chronological order in different genres. (Find the list here) They include: Fiction, Autobiographies, Histories, Dramas, and Poetry. I have already read many of the books in the fiction list; I don't mind reading them again to possibly get a new perspective. Oh, by the way, the very first book in the fiction list is DON QUIXOTE!! One of my favorite books, EVER! Can you tell I'm excited?!

Right now, I'm reading the beginning chapters. I Can't wait to get into the reading list!

Win a Kindle!

If your anything like me, you love reading and you love reading classics. There is such an amazing abundance of free classics all over the web. You can find many of these classics at websites like:

Google Books

Project Gutenberg

ManyBooks

Amazon's Free Kindle ebooks

And I'm sure if you searched you could find many more!

I read most of my free books using Amazon's Free Kindle Apps. I've been wanting to splurge and buy myself an actual Kindle, but haven't actually done it yet. Seems there are always other expenses needing my money. 

Thanks to Freely Educate I now have an opportunity to win a Kindle! And so can YOU!! (said in my most cheesiest commercial voice)

So if you are anything like me (or not) go enter to win, ASAP, this contest ends Monday.

Hey, while you're there be sure to check out all the awesome free stuff to be found. 

Thanksgiving School ideas

THANKSGIV'ING, n. The act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies.
Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if received with thanksgiving. 1 Tim.4.
1. A public celebration of divine goodness; also, a day set apart for religious services, specially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of his bounties. The practice of appointing an annual thanksgiving originated in New England. --1828 edition of Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language

Thanksgiving Poems

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott

Holiday Bundle - 5 Thanksgiving Units ($2.00)

LBCs Thanksgiving Holiday Helper

MayflowerHistory.com

Thanksgiving Resources  Long list @ The Home School Mom

Talk Like a Pilgrim

Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trips

My Little Man is Growing Up

November 6th was the day Joel turned 7. Can you believe it? Well, I can't. He has always been my baby and now look at him.

My Big Boy

I didn't make his cake because I was sick pretty much the entire week before his birthday, so I was a little low on energy.

Why are their birthdays always so bittersweet?