Home Schoolroom

Homeschooling Through The Flu: Three Things We Do To Cope

January 11, 2013 | By Heidi

Before I forget, be sure to enter my giveaway of a Heritage History CD!

My daughter has been sick with the flu all week. An illness in one of my children does throw a wrench in my homeschool plan, especially since we combine as many subjects as possible. It doesn’t mean I give up on everything, though! We do a whole lot of adjusting and end up learning quite a bit along the way. Here are my three steps for keeping on learning when someone isn’t feeling 100%, and what we were able to accomplish this week.

Homeschooling During Sickness

#1 Set up a comfortable spot

In our house when someone is ill I institute “The Sick Couch.” What is the sick couch, you ask? Well, I cover the couch with blankets and pillows and the sick child is entitled to lounging on it all day and eating their meals on a tray. It has several benefits–it gives them some special perks to enjoy and encourages them to rest, not to mention it does keep at least some of the germs in one area.

For subjects we do together little brother and I met with the feverish big sister near (but not too close!) the sick couch and found we were still able to learn quite a bit. I recommend having supplies in an easy-to-move caddy (ours are from Target’s dollar section) and making sure everyone has a clipboard. These don’t come in handy just when someone is sick–they’re also great for school by the Christmas tree or out in the fresh air or while camping.

#2 Work in spurts

Be flexible and time your studies appropriately. If she was feeling particularly down or in need of more medicine I would just let her rest. Whenever she felt up to it we’d do something that required a little focus, stopping whenever necessary. So instead of working to finish our schoolwork in the early hours of the day we worked in spurts all throughout the day and it really added up.

#3 Be flexible in subject matter and delivery style

This isn’t the time to practice grammar or long division, but there are many subjects and ways to learn that do make sense. Even when one of the kids isn’t feeling well they can listen to a story read aloud. We use good literature as the starting point for all our studies, so we can touch on main subjects easily.

It is a great time to fit in the “extras” you might not have time for in a typical week of reading, writing, arithmetic, and extracurricular activities. Take the time for all the reading aloud you would like to do on more hectic weeks. Fellow fans of Charlotte Mason can spend extra time on artist and composer studies. And the educational games you just don’t feel like tackling after a full school day fit nicely.

Here’s the rundown of what we accomplished during a fever-filled week:

We enjoyed our current much-loved audio book from the Little House series (Little Town on the Prairie).
We read American Kids in History: Pioneer Days and learned how to tie a square knot
We finished up our study of invertebrates. A Christmas gift of the Smithsonian Natural History book (thanks Aunt Alice!) gave us hours of eye candy reviewing all the invertebrate groups we’d studied so far. We spent the extra time to watch YouTube videos of the amazing things an octopus can do. This one really blew our minds and we had to watch it several times and share with Dad:

We use (and love!) Harmony Fine Arts. Using the ebook on my tablet we could click through and do picture study right from the couch. We also read about our composer of the month in Lives of the Musicians and listened to his music during rest periods.
Believe it or not we also did nature study from the couch! Our focus area is birds so we read from the Burgess Bird Book and our Birds of Maine Field Guide, watched videos and listened to song clips from All About Birds, and completed a coloring page from Cornell (using it like a notebook page to record what we’d learned) all from a warm and cozy spot by the fire.
We broke out some of the new games the kids had received for Christmas. (You’ve Been Sentenced and Catan Junior were the favorites.)
From her “sick couch” my daughter also worked on illustrating her recent Write Shop story and wrote a letter to a friend.

Not only was I happy to be moving forward in our studies, especially since we’d only had two solid days back after a long Christmas break, but I think it kept cabin fever at bay for all of us. Engaging our minds and having something to focus on was actually a blessing throughout a long week inside our own four walls. Now if little brother or I succumb to the flu I may have more opportunities to perfect my “homeschooling while sick” technique!

Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!

Posted in Journal

Heritage History Giveaway!

January 9, 2013 | By Heidi

This giveaway is now closed.

The winner, chosen using RANDOM.ORG, is Sarah.

Congratulations, Sarah!

Heritage History Past Meet The Future

The kind folks at Heritage History have offered to send one of my readers a free library or curriculum CD. I wrote a full review of Heritage History detailing what you’ll find on a Heritage History CD and how we’re using it in our homeschool. The short description is that you’ll find a CD chock full of old-fashioned living history books formatted for any of today’s e-readers. The curriculum CDs also have maps, timelines, and other items so they can function as a stand-alone curriculum. We’re using (and loving!) the book selections from our Early America library CD on both an iPad and a Kindle.

How to enter

Simply leave a comment on this post to be entered in a drawing to win your choice of CD from Heritage History. U.S. or military addresses only. This giveaway is open until Wednesday, January 16th, 3:00pm EST.

If you don’t win, there’s still some good news. Until January 31st you can use the discount code SCHOOLRM to receive the Early America library CD for free with the purchase of any curriculum CD. Simply place a curriculum CD and the Early America Library in your shopping cart and apply the discount code to deduct the price of the Early America CD.

Linking to Hip Homeschool Moms

Posted in Giveaway

Still Learning During Break…and a Little Schedule Adjustment Makes a Big Difference

January 4, 2013 | By Heidi

We had a terrific holiday break, and I hope you all enjoyed some wonderful time with family and friends. If you were smart you didn’t enjoy as much fudge as I did. Luckily we finally got the snow my kids have been wishing for, so I also had to do some shoveling!

Finally Snow to Play In

More than one snowfall occurred over break and we took full advantage. My opinion is if it’s going to be cold we might as well have snow–it’s pretty and lots of fun for kids (and dogs!).

I put aside our formal curriculum during December to focus on Christmas activities (which still involved lots of learning), with a plan for nothing but friends, family and fun from the week before Christmas up until the new year. The part I love is that we just can’t stop learning!

Footprints and Feathers

Nature study has become something that occurs just naturally (pardon the pun) for our family! We found tracks to identify in the fresh snowfall and new-to-us birds to look up in my Christmas gift–the Birds of Maine field guide.

We also met (and fell in love with) my brother-in-law’s Turkish girlfriend and asked her a million questions about her country and culture. Luckily she’s patient and loved us right back so hopefully she didn’t mind. The homeschooler in me chuckled at how much we were learning on our vacation!

On New Year’s Eve I was far too tired to think about staying up until midnight. Here’s a trick I’ve used before: use time zones to cheat. We rang in the New Year with London. At 7:00 pm we toasted while watching the fireworks and listening to Big Ben on the BBC.

We also opened our 2012 time capsule. Last year I typed up a quick questionnaire with things like height and weight, favorite shows and activities, and resolutions for the new year. We rolled them up and put them in a paper towel tube and packed them in with our Christmas decorations (so I wouldn’t forget about them…not that I forget things like that…). We had several giggles reading over them. Oh, and I won the award for most weight gained. I wish I was kidding.

We had a lot of fun over the holidays, and the change was long enough that we were ready to jump back into our regular routine. The break was also a good time for me to evaluate things. One area I wanted to address was our morning start time, which seemed to be later than desirable on too many days.

As I read Charlotte Mason’s writings I was reminded that my habits must be in order if I want to pass on good habits to my children. Some self-reflection helped me notice I sometimes get lost on my computer or throw in a load of laundry or do other things and neglect to get myself ready on time. My daughter also takes longer to “beautify” herself (her word choice!) than when she was younger, so she had to make some adjustments to her morning. She and I brainstormed and came up with a workable plan.

I set a time for myself that I must get in the shower and this begins everyone’s “get ready” routine. Sounds simple, but it was necessary–I had embraced the flexibility of homeschooling a little too much! The other change was that in our previous schedule we had breakfast and watched Student News before heading upstairs to get ready for the day, then met back downstairs for school. With the new plan we’ll be getting ourselves ready earlier and then meeting for breakfast and the news once we’re all dressed. Then it’s easy to hop directly into our work!

We’ve had three mornings to try it out, and I must say the mornings are running more smoothly and we’re starting promptly–which leads to finishing our work and all of us having extra time in the afternoon to pursue our interests. I’ll let you know how I do at sticking to this new routine until it’s a habit!

Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!

Posted in Journal, Nature Study, Organization

Holiday Homeschooling: Learning While Celebrating the Christmas Season

December 16, 2012 | By Heidi

I’ve mentioned that most of our formal schoolwork takes a backseat to the many wonderful activities of the Christmas season, but do we take a whole month off from school? Not exactly. First of all, I’ve come to realize that we’re never really “off” because we never stop learning. We school year round with some periods of the year more relaxed than others. The time from Thanksgiving to Christmas is one of those times I let our formal curriculum sit on the shelves and capitalize on the learning opportunities of the season. This particular week illustrates what I mean perfectly.

Making and Baking

Any time of year I enjoy creating with my kids. It’s fun, it’s a great bonding time, and there is a lot to be learned. You can find real-world math in measuring, counting, and fractions, not to mention reading comprehension, following directions, and pride in your final product.

Holiday Homeschooling: Making and Baking Collage

These are the things we created together this week:

We made self-portrait ornaments, which may be one of my favorite homemade ornaments to date. What a fun way to capture their personality and ability at the moment!
A Pinterest find: reindeer cookies. Ours didn’t turn out half as beautiful as the Pinterest photo, didn’t taste as good as I’d hoped, and both my kids burned themselves on the pan (despite repeated warnings from me) while trying to put the antlers on. But we had music playing and were all wearing antlers and ended up laughing over the whole process in the end.
I had to spend half a day finishing up my Christmas shopping. To keep them from asking their Dad (who was working at home) what to do, I left them a list of some chores and more fun tasks. One was to build a Christmas decoration from Legos that I would have to find when I returned. In our Christmas village I found the Grinch and Santa’s new motorized vehicle (you didn’t know he upgraded?).
A yearly tradition is making cinnamon ornaments. As they dry the whole house smells wonderful! It’s all the fun of rolling and cutting out cookies but easier because the dough has only two ingredients and there aren’t clouds of flour all over the place.

Performances

During the holiday season there are countless opportunities to watch and participate in performances. We’re doing both and they provide wonderful experiences. This week we attended an amazing performance of Annie, and weeks of hard work culminated in a piano recital for my daughter and church Christmas pageant for both my children.

Reading

Reading is the homeschool activity that never stops. Both independent reading and reading aloud are the backbone of not just our homeschool but our life. We have a collection of very special Christmas picture books, plus I check out an armload more from the library. Even as my kids get older the artwork and endearing stories of quality picture books are worthwhile.

Christmas Book Basket

The Christmas season is a great time to take advantage of one of my favorite tools: audio books. My hands can be busy making or wrapping gifts or tidying up after a baking session, or we can keep our minds engaged while in the car running errands or driving to visit friends and relatives. Right now we’re listening to The Long Winter from the Little House series and Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

Writing

Opportunities abound to work on writing in a fun and relaxed way. This year my daughter is writing a holiday newsletter to send out with our Christmas card. Both kids write messages in cards and letters to Santa.

Music

Christmas music is the soundtrack of the season. This year we’re adding a study of the carols using the book Christmas Carols for a Kid’s Heart. And you can’t think about holiday music without thinking of Tchaicovsky’s Nutcracker. We did a unit study last year and attended the ballet. This year we’re enjoying the music at home, watched a production on Youtube, and used some of the ideas from the free Nutcracker Unit Study from Mary at Homegrown Learners. It was my favorite resource this week because time seems extra tight this year and her unit study had great free and easy-to-implement resources that we could use for enrichment.

Unit Studies

If we have the time and desire for something a little more formal there are some great holiday topics to be studied. We’ve enjoyed units on The Nutcracker, The Christmas Day Kitten, and the Symbols of Christmas. Homeschool Share has more than a dozen free Christmas-themed units. This year with other activities we haven’t had time to devote to a full unit study, but that’s okay!

It’s also great fun to choose another time period or country and recreate those holiday traditions. Last year we were studying colonial times in history, so it was a perfect time to focus on an Early American Christmas. There were wonderful storybooks available and countless crafts and recipes to add to our Christmas season. This year for our homeschool geography club meeting in December the country was Sweden so we learned about St. Lucia Day. My daughter brought her American Girl Doll dressed in a St. Lucia costume. (Easy to make from items we had: a t-shirt of my daughter’s pinned in the back, a pirate costume belt, mini pine garland, pipe cleaner and felt candles.)

St. Lucia Day Costume for American Girl

Traditions

And though it may not help with spelling words and math facts, Christmas traditions strengthen our family bonds. Our favorite this week was our Christmas lights tour. I packed a bag with surprise snacks (printable ticket thanks to Confessions of a Homeschooler–back this year by special request from my kids), we brought hot cocoa in travel mugs, and the kids wore pajamas and slippers. It’s a magical night each and every year.

Christmas Lights Tour 2012

So that’s how we homeschool through the holidays. We have the flexibility to enjoy the Christmas season, but the learning never really stops!

I’m linking up with these terrific hostesses:

Posted in Journal, Planning

Our Homeschool Journal: Holiday Busyness and a Visit to our State Capitol Building

December 7, 2012 | By Heidi

My, don’t these days in December fly by? Most of the formal schoolwork falls by the wayside and our days fill with practicing for pageants and recitals, handmade goodness, and enjoying the wonder of the Christmas season.

Holiday Busyness Collage

In our homeschool this week…

Our house is filled with Christmas songs, some of it being played by my daughter on piano. She has been working on a difficult song for her Christmas recital. It takes roughly 2 1/2 minutes to play, so I’m practicing holding my breath that long. I usually can’t breathe when she’s performing.
As I said in my post about remembering the reason for the season, we are reading Jotham’s Journey as a devotional when we light our advent candles. I switched to reading it in the morning today even though the ambiance of the candles is diminished. Each reading tends to leave you on the edge of your seat and it was a little too much for my sensitive kids at bedtime.
Another way we’re remembering Christ at Christmas time is with a Jesse Tree (details here).
Our hands are busy–here my daughter is making a Christmas tree for her dollhouse…
…and here she’s making gifts for people she loves.
One way we enjoy counting down the days is with crafts, and here it’s a simple wooden tree decorated with paint. I joined the fun!

Places we went and people we saw…

Both kids had Christmas parties for their Scout troops. Other than that we had our church pageant rehearsal, piano practice, a homeschool playtime at our town’s recreation center, and a big field trip to the Maine State House! We were invited by a friend who was being sworn in as a state senator. It was a great experience after all we’d learned in our government and elections study. The building was beautiful and the formality was fascinating.

Capitol Collage

A funny story for you: after the official swearing-in there were other speeches and business to attend to, so we slipped out and wandered the building. The governor and his entourage of half a dozen people were moving back and forth between the House and Senate. We were coming down a set of stairs and my husband says, “Oh, here comes the governor!”

Here is where our personalities diverge. My reaction is to immediately try and hustle the kids out of the way and blend into the wall. My husband’s reaction is the opposite:

“Governor, do you mind if I take a picture?”

I hear this and can’t believe he said it. My face flushes crimson–did I mention the governor is moving back and forth between chambers? That everyone is waiting for him to appear to swear in the president of the senate? Did I mention there is a whole crew in full suits with him and they weren’t just sauntering by shaking hands?

The governor flashes a big smile, stops in his tracks and says, “Sure! Bring the kids in here!” I have one second to tuck in my son’s dangling shirt tail and still try to pretend I don’t exist while my husband snaps a great photo of my kids and the governor, all smiling ear to ear. We relived that moment all day. Thank goodness my husband isn’t just like me!

Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!

Posted in Journal

Holiday Homeschooling: Remembering the Reason for the Season

December 4, 2012 | By Heidi

Remembering the Reason for the Season

I shared last week how we count down the days until Christmas. This year I added two daily activities to our Advent plans to remind my kids of the real reason for all this celebrating. I wanted a daily reminder to balance out visits with Santa and thoughts of gifts.

Jotham’s Journey

There are three books in this series of advent devotionals by Arnold Ytreeide: Jotham’s Journey, Bartholomew’s Passage, and Tabitha’s Travels. The author describes them as an ADVENTure story that will help your family appreciate the true meaning of Christmas. This is our first year so we’re starting with Jotham’s Journey. You begin daily readings on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, so we began this past Sunday, December 2nd. So far my kids are on the edge of their seats and begged me not to stop after last night’s reading.

We didn’t have our own set of advent candles until this year, and this devotional prompted me that it was about time. It adds special ambiance and symbolism as we read the book by the light of the advent candles.

Jesse Tree

I had read about Jesse Tree devotionals that trace events of the Bible beginning with Creation and leading up to Jesus. Though it was a wonderful idea I didn’t think I would add it in since I’d already purchased supplies and planned for Jotham’s Journey. Then I saw that Ann Voskamp was offering a free download of a Jesse Tree Study with printable ornaments. How could I resist?

She includes the ornaments in color and black and white for coloring yourself. I used the black and white option to trace the designs onto shrink film. (Never heard of shrink film? Remember Shrinky Dinks? Thin plastic sheets that shrink, becoming thicker, after heating.) My kids colored them and I shrunk them so we have a nice, durable set of ornaments we can use year after year.

Shrink Film Jesse Tree Ornaments

*In the photo the two on the left are full size, the two on the right have been shrunk.*

How do I schedule two devotionals? We do the Jesse Tree reading and hang the ornament in the morning, and in the evening after dinner we read Jotham’s Journey by the light of our Advent candles. I’m so glad we’re doing both because we start and end our days during this wonderful season with a Christmas activity that focuses on Christ.

I hope you’re having a delightful Christmas season, and will come back when I share how we keep learning all month while celebrating!

Posted in Unit Studies

Our Homeschool Journal: Switching to Holiday Homeschooling

November 30, 2012 | By Heidi

Getting Our Tree Collage

I am crazy about Christmas! Yes, I’m one of those people who adores every part of the Christmas season, plays Christmas music as early as I can get away with it, and even wears Christmas earrings. We celebrated Thanksgiving day with my husband at the fire station, then jumped happily into Christmas preparations.

In our homeschool the past two weeks…

In the past two weeks we finished my main goals for our nature study about trees, though like all nature study there was so much left to learn! I won’t be focusing on a nature study topic with the kids during the holiday. We’ll enjoy early winter (and hopefully some snow) and start a focus area on birds in January.

We still did core subjects (language arts, math) a couple days each week. We spent a lot of time listening to audio books. A nasty cold swept through the house and there is nothing better with sore throats and runny noses than cuddling next to the Christmas tree with hot cocoa listening to stories.

I learned a lot our first year homeschooling. One of those things was how hard it was to do all the normal life jobs, prepare for Christmas, plus take advantage of all the wonderful events to attend and traditions to observe and things to make and do! I’ve applied what I learned to our plans this year.

I shared this week how we count down the days until Christmas, and I’ll be posting in the next couple weeks about how we focus on the real reason for the season and how we keep on learning while enjoying all the wonderful things about Christmas time.

Places we went and people we saw…

My son’s Cub Scout troop toured the fire station (with Dad as a tour guide), my daughter had book club and piano lessons, we had our book club meeting on The Hobbit, we began practicing for our church Christmas Pageant, and we attended a play depicting a Christmas on the prairie (a perfect tie-in to our time of year and our history studies).

Holiday Play

My favorite thing this week was…

Getting our Christmas tree at a tree farm we’ve been going to for years. My parents go with us, there is a horse-drawn hay ride, warm cider and donuts, and a little shop in a big red barn where we buy everyone a new ornament each year…all in all a cherished tradition.

My favorite resource this week…

My daughter is taking an interest in cooking, and we are thrilled to help her expand her skills. We used a great resource from Allrecipes.com called “Recipes in Motion.” Each video (there are almost 700 right now!) walks you through the steps of making one of the recipes found on their site. You can watch on their website, but we are watching on our television using the Allrecipes channel on Roku. My daughter is ten and at the perfect age to follow along on the video with me in the background to oversee work with things that are hot or sharp. For Thanksgiving at the fire station she made a pumpkin roll. She learned a lot, it was delicious, and she was extremely proud.

Things I’m working on…

Everything Christmas! I’m organizing our holiday/school plans, decorating, getting all my shopping done…

We’re reading…

We finished The Hobbit audio dramatization and it still just is not a story we enjoyed. We had our book club meeting and had a lively discussion with us as the odd family out. It’s always good to be comfortable being different!

On more enjoyable reading we finished On the Shores of Silver Lake and now move on to The Long Winter. The kids and I laughed when I told them the title. We said it doesn’t sound very appealing so we’re guessing some more unfortunate times lay ahead, but that the Ingalls family will be grateful through it all. We are enjoying the Little House series so much.

While we were waiting for the audio version of The Long Winter through interlibrary loan, I grabbed one of our favorites to listen to when we’re in the car. We’ve read or listened to the entire Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series several times and we never tire of them. If you haven’t read the books with your kids you must! They can be enjoyed heartily by all ages. We were having such fun that we popped it in again when we returned home and my daughter and I took the opportunity to put another coat of paint on her dollhouse.

Dollhouse paint done

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll come back to see how we enjoy holiday homeschooling!

Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!

Posted in Journal

Holiday Homeschooling: Counting Down the Days

November 28, 2012 | By Heidi

Using an Advent Calendar to Count Down the Days

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and not just the day but the whole season. Homeschooling provides the extra blessing of flexibility to enjoy all that this delightful time of year has to offer. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be sharing how we celebrate the holiday while homeschooling. Not in spite of homeschooling, but tying everything together.

Advent calendars are a great tool to savor the season. I use a wooden snowman with 25 drawers that I purchased at a craft store and painted. I fill each drawer with a small piece of candy and a slip of paper with an activity. Having our advent calendar has improved our celebration of the Christmas season:

It gives my children a visual reminder of how many days before Christmas Day.

The activities give them so much to enjoy throughout the season that they savor it, rather than just wanting it to be over so the big day arrives.

Coming up with activities for the days assures that we enjoy the holiday season together and it won’t be December 22nd when I realize we haven’t done all that we wanted.

So, are you persuaded that you need an advent calendar? There are many options for the actual calendars: most stores sell fabric ones with pockets and wooden ones with drawers, and the Internet is loaded with ideas to make them from everything from paper bags to baby socks.

Are you thinking, “But how can I come up with TWENTY-FIVE activities?” Don’t fret! Trust me, it really isn’t that hard. If you sit down and write the things you enjoy doing during the holiday season you’ll probably be half way there anyway. The activities don’t need to be difficult or time-consuming. Are you going to visit friends or relatives to celebrate? What about scheduled events in your town, homeschool groups or church?

Still not convinced? Let me prove it:

Make a paper chain to count down the days.
Look at family Christmas photos (or videos) from previous years.
Drive around looking at Christmas lights.
Put up Christmas lights outside.
Decorate our Christmas tree.
Wrap Christmas gifts.
Write a letter to Santa.
Make paper snowflakes.
Attend town tree lighting or parade.
Have a candlelight (and tree lights) dinner at home and dress fancy.
Visit friends to admire their decorations.
Deliver homemade treats to friends and neighbors.
Play games or put together a puzzle by the Christmas tree.
Read the Christmas story in the Bible.
Go out for dessert.
Decorate gingerbread houses.
Make place cards or place mats for Christmas dinner.
Go caroling.
Attend a Christmas concert or sing-a-long.
Attend a holiday performance (check local theaters/schools for a holiday play or ballet).
Have hot cocoa with only the tree lights on.
Make Christmas cards.
Visit Santa.
Make cookies for Santa.
Decorate a tree outside with food for the birds.
Make a popcorn garland.
Make a birthday cake for Jesus.
Make handmade gifts.
Walk around the neighborhood to enjoy Christmas lights.
Participate in or watch a church Christmas pageant.
Have a sleepover beside the Christmas tree.
Attend a church Christmas Eve service.
Watch a Christmas movie (many choices for all ages–I use this several times).
Make a Christmas craft or ornament (I use this more than once, too).
Bake a Christmas treat (I use this one a few times, too).

Now that is THIRTY-FIVE ideas, and I use a few of the ideas more than once! Are you convinced that this is actually easy? It doesn’t add hustle and bustle–it stretches and slows the season. And in case you think I’m super organized, I don’t actually fill all the drawers ahead of time. I have my list and supplies ready but I schedule specific activities a few days at a time (or the night before!) so I can see what we have time for, add in fun events that come up, and adjust if anyone is sick.

Still think it sounds like a lot? Remember that the food treats don’t have to take hours–and in fact they shouldn’t if you want to work with kids in the kitchen! Grab a box of sugar cones, slather them with frosting and decorate with sprinkles and candy. Making peppermint bark is easy and the kids love crushing the candy canes. The same is true with crafts. Pick up some wooden ornaments at the craft store and let the kids loose with paint. Swirl paint around inside clear glass ball ornaments. You’ll treasure the memories and the ornaments when you unpack them next year.

Check out my Pinterest Christmas Activities with Kids board for fun food and craft ideas that will help you have your advent calendar filled in no time.

Stay tuned, for I’ll be sharing how we focus on the reason for the season and keep on learning while celebrating!

Posted in Crafts & Art Projects

Nature Study ~ Trees

November 25, 2012 | By Heidi

Nature Study Focus Area: Trees

I wrote about how we kicked off our nature study focus on trees by writing poems about trees. Since then we’ve been learning a lot about trees and I still feel like we’re just beginning! I set up our nature table with any tree-related specimens and books and we added more cones and leaves throughout our study. (Just a side note: I keep boxes in our basement for nature items and only display the ones for the nature topic we are focusing on. Rotating what we have out keeps it more interesting.)

Leaves

One of Barb’s posts from a couple years ago on Seasonal Tree Observations linked to a great printable for leaf shape and arrangement. It is one of those things I’ll add to my binder and try to learn but I have to reign in the urge to download my brain into my children. Charlotte Mason cautions against talking at your kids so much in nature that you take away their chance to experience it and see what they are interested in. (Here’s an older post of mine about stepping back when we’re in nature with some advice straight from Ms. Mason.) If I focus on learning the information myself I can answer questions and teach vocabulary in context as we marvel at the things we see. The author of the Handbook of Nature Study states it this way:

The child should never be required to learn the name of anything in the nature-study work; but the name should be used so often and so naturally in his presence that he will learn it without being conscious of the process.” ~Anna Botsford Comstock

We’d been enjoying Maine’s beautiful foliage displays so our first quest was to understand how and why leaves change colors in the fall. We watched a short video from the Maine Department of Conservation about the changing colors in leaves. We brought some brilliant yellow leaves in and examined them with the stereoscope and microscope. The kids drew as a way to record what they saw. This quote from my son illustrates why I love using a hand lens, stereoscope and microscope when we can:

Leaves Magnified

“I didn’t know leaves were so interesting!”

We learned about another timely aspect of fall: there is a thin layer that forms between the leaf’s stem (petiole) and the twig, allowing the leaf to drop and most importantly to kids: leading to piles like this to jump in!

Leaf Pile

Learning about the cycles of leaves forming a separation layer, then falling off and feeding the tree as they break down into the soil, followed by new buds in place just above the scar waiting to be next year’s leaves led us to take a trip around the yard to see these signs of years past, this year, and years to come on our own trees.

Seeing History on a Twig

With the excitement of brilliant fall leaves we focused on deciduous trees initially, so then it was time to move onto evergreens. We made our annual trek to the Christmas Tree Farm and our studies continued with a beautiful specimen right in our living room!

Cutting Down our Christmas Tree

Flowers, Seeds and Cones

I’ll look forward to revisiting this topic in the spring and early summer when the maple trees in our yard bloom, but fall was a great time to study cones and acorns. We were able to get a good look at two different types of cones and one variety of acorn. I grabbed cones from the ground under two backyard trees and placed them in empty cardboard containers so the kids could watch the transformation and see the treasure inside a cone.

Seeds From a Cone

Bark

The bark looked incredible under the stereoscope. We read in one of our books about how bark was like skin to protect the tree, but since it doesn’t stretch it looks wrinkled and peeling and has cracks. That is how the tree expands as it grows!

Tree Bark Collage

Roots

We took a couple hikes during the month to enjoy time in the forest. It gave us a good chance to observe some root systems of trees that have fallen. My son said this one looked like a dinosaur with a large eye and mouth coming out of the ground!

Tree Root System

Trees just seem to spark the imagination. This tree immediately gave my daughter an idea for a story, with the cut branch being a secret keyboard to access an underground world.

Tree Sparks a Story Idea

Identification

Our neighborhood is relatively young, and many of the trees in our yard (21 to be exact!) have been planted by me in the past 5 years. I’ve been working to identify those that were already planted. My plan is to make our own field guide beginning with the trees from our yard (Outdoor Hour Challenge #7). We were inspired by a local homeschool family who showed us their leaf collection and this post from Brandy at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood. She includes a free printable notebook page to identify and record the tree and a leaf sample.

Luckily I’d collected and pressed leaves from a few trees this fall. I want to include actual leaves and seeds when possible, and photos of items like cones and bark. We’ll have to continue this project once there are leaves to be seen outside in Maine…like next May. Commercial field guides are a wonderful resource, but there is great value in making your own book of things you have right outside your door.

After we learn a little about our different trees we’ll choose one for a year-long study. We’ll probably start with the large spruce that forms part of what my kids call their “secret hideout” with it’s large drooping branches. Barb has a helpful post with ideas for a year-long seasonal tree study and I also like this post that will persuade you of the benefits of studying one tree over the course of the four seasons.

Book and Internet Resources:

The Handbook of Nature Study: the resource for all our nature study, used as a reference for me (not a read aloud).
Barb at The Handbook of Nature Study Blog continually inspires me to study nature with my kids. She has a great reference page with links to many of her tree studies (both specific trees, parts of trees, and seasonal ideas) and a free download.
National Audubon Society Pocket Guide: Familiar Trees of North America East: I like this small, colorful field guide. For each tree there is a sillhouete to show the overall shape, a full page photo (not drawing) of the leaves, and a small close-up of the bark. My only complaint: I wish it had a photo of the cones or seeds for each tree.
I came across a great book at our library that I’ll be adding to our collection, though it is only available used. Inside and Outside Trees by Sandra Markle is filled with beautiful photos and easy to understand explanations. This was a perfect read aloud: just a couple pages at a time and then we’d look for the things we read about during our outside time. It helped the kids have lots of “a-ha” moments when they found a leaf scar or something else they could recognize from the pictures in the book.
Eyewitness Books: Trees is another reference we used. When you can’t observe everything up close and personal in nature the gorgeous photography in the DK Eyewitness Books is a good stand-in.
An online guide to the parts of a tree: this has some of the same information from the printable in Barb’s post (on leaf shape and arrangement), but also has nice graphics for tree shape, twig structures, and the different types of flowers, seeds and cones. It does not give you the identification, but helps you learn about the structures used in identifying trees. That way if you read details about a tree’s stipule scars, incised or pinnately compound leaves, or drupes you know what on earth to look for.
The online guide from the Arbor Day Foundation called “What Tree is That?” is the best resource I’ve found for identifying a tree. It is so easy to use: just answer one question at a time to arrive at the identification. My kids enjoy using this with me as I ask them the questions and they tell me which choice on the screen applies to the tree we’re looking at. We used this to identify our Christmas tree as a balsam fir.
I always try to find a few related picture books for fun. This time we’re enjoying: Christmas Tree Farm by David Budbill, an illustrated picture book of a Robert Frost poem called Christmas Trees, and Arbor Day Square by Kathryn O. Galbraith (which also ties into our history studies–it’s about the beginning of Arbor Day out on the prairie in the 1800’s).

Now our nature table has been cleared off to make room for our Christmas Village. Our homeschool runs pretty differently during December. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be sharing how we focus on the holiday and still learn a lot. And then looking ahead in our nature study we’ll start a focus area on birds in January. That way we’ll be ready for our second year participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count!

Posted in Nature Study

Our Homeschool Journal: Paint and Mud

November 16, 2012 | By Heidi

I didn’t have a single picture of school-related activities this week! It was a sort of odd week.

Unrelated to School Collage

Monday was 60 degrees. For those of you not in Maine, that is really odd for November! I had to take the opportunity to spray paint a free bed we were given for my son. It was one of those now-or-never jobs.

I had to share this picture of “swamp dog.” Martha is our four year old yellow (nearly white!) Lab and is the sweetheart of our family. But…she just loves mud and swamps. She doesn’t want to walk through, she must immediately flip over and roll delightedly in the gooey mess. I would like to note that a mere 24 hours before this picture I had given her a bath. Before this walk she had lovely, fluffy, white, sweet-smelling fur.

Thursday should have been a normal school day. Then Daddy returned from an overnight shift and said, “Hey, let’s go out to breakfast! The cafe in town has new owners!” You know what I said? “Yes!” (Thanks, Mary, for reminding me not to be the drill sergeant mom!)

I got a new electronic device this week. Normally I’m afraid of new technology, but the tablet is so much like my much-loved smartphone (that I initially fought changing to) that I wasn’t afraid, just excited! I like being able to bring the tablet to bed instead of my laptop to catch up on blog reading and Pinterest. Also of note is the theme in the other items in my cart–cat litter, litter box liners, dog waste pick up bags, and toilet paper. Very glamorous.