Advent Around the World is going nicely

If anyone would like to see all the fun things we are doing this year for Advent, please pop on over to my other blog Collecting the Moments for the details! 

A moment with the weightless…

I just love this picture.  Of course, it’s horrible quality, and it’s on the wrong setting for the light source… but the looks on Logan’s face is completely “Logan”…  and Cyan is SO proud!  It’s just an adorable capture of a sweet moment with my two middle kiddos. 

Letter Ii is for Ice Cream!

Box #1: Some worksheets from Thanksgiving Pack from Our Little Monkeys.

Box #2: ABC Notebook using worksheets from various places but mostly from Homeschool Share.

In those was an idea from Pinterest that I modified for what Logan is working on.  I punched out 5 big circles and a triangle which I made into an ice-cream cone.  I put the numbers 5 - 9 on the circles and then had Logan put them in order on the cone in his notebook.  After that we had some fun and put “sprinkles” on the ice cream with glitter.

Box #3: Beginning Sounds Bingo.

Box #4: Dot to Dot Count to 10

Box #5: More from Thanksgiving Pack from Our Little Monkeys with patterning cards and matching shadows.

Box #6: Number Apples worksheet. 

Once again it was the numbers 5-9 I was concentrating on. 1 - 5 he has down.

Box #7: A Thanksgiving Puzzle from Thanksgiving Pack from Our Little Monkeys

Box # 8: Number Memory Game.

Box #9: Two books today.  I Spy Spooky Night and Thanksgiving Is Here! by Diane Goode. 

Box #10: Get Ready for the Code pages.

It all seems so repetitive and simple… but I can tell you that this way of learning is working VERY well for my little boy. 

Tonight he brought me a magazine he and Cyan had been looking at.  One the back of it he wrote ‘L-o-g- upside-down V (for an Aa) and a messy Nn’. Then next to them he wrote a ‘s - I - n’  He said “This is for me and Cyan.”  Now I know in text that looks strange, but we pronounce my daughter Cyan’s name like Ryan.  Just with an Ss sound at the start.  So when sounded out it would be Ss sound, long Ii, and then Nn!  He sounded out the word, wrote it the way it sounded, made completely recognizable letters, and knew what they meant in the right order!  That’s just blowing me away.  The level of comprehension that is required to make sense of language that way should be far beyond him, and yet……

Kaya - The American Girl

For the last 9 weeks Cyan has been studying the books about Kaya with a class at our co-op.  She has read 7 chapter books and the book Welcome to Kaya’s World (above) from cover to cover and answered questions about each chapter of each book.  For a girl, who just a year ago was getting rewarded for her first chapter book I was thrilled with the accomplishment! 

For a final project (and for her week off from co-op last week) I had her do a Kaya Lapbook to add to her Co-op binder.  All of these foldouts and minibooks minus the coloring sheet on the front of the lapbook were found at Homeschool Share.

It starts out with a picture Cyan colored of Kaya and her sister playing.  Above that is a fold out booklet of Kaya’s Favorite Things.

The next page is a two page spread of different parts of Kaya’s World. 

On these pages are where Kaya’s tribe lived in America, vocabulary words in Nes Pierce language, facts about the characters from the book and life with the Nes Pierce (called the Nimiipuu, which means ‘pierced noses’ in French). 

This is the vocabulary fold out:

And facts about Kaya and her tribe:

The last page talks about the series and Cyan’s opinion of the stories.  Her favorite book, what she learned, and facts about her favorite parts were all there.  The biggest part of this page for Cyan was the PLOT booklet.  She got a quick course in what a plot was and what parts were the conflict, rising action, climax, and resolution. 

For this portion of the book Cyan chose “Changes for Kaya” as the book and we had a great time talking about the story. I had no idea she was retaining so much information from the things she had read! It was super exciting for me as a mom to see this all take place without much effort from me at all. Cyan LOVES her co-op classes and I have to say, this one has truly impressed me.  After the lapbook we placed all of Cyan’s co-op work from the chapters there.  Then we placed two more card stock pages…  because Cyan said she had to do a lapbook for Josephina and Kirsten too!

They move on to Josephina next week.

And so we have entered that phase….

Logan: "Mom, how long ago was it when those guys started the war by crashing planes into buildings?”

Me: "A long time ago honey. Cyan was a baby. Younger than Luke."

Logan: "Like one hundred days?"

Me: "Many more than that."

Logan: "Like 60? Uh... 62? Um... 70?..... Mom! One hundred IS a lot!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When no number, no matter how high, is bigger than one hundred.  I remember this phase with Cyan especially.  Because my best friend Sarah’s kids were both in the same phase and the three of them had a high number all their own.  155!  We would hear conversations when they were about 5 that started like this:

“There were so many!  Like 10!”

“No, there were more than that!”

“How many?”

“Like a million…. no… a thousand… no, I know!” Hushed and reverent tones ”Like, one hundred and fifty five.”

Conversations like this happened between the three kindergarteners for about a year.  Sarah and I would laugh and joke that one day they would realize that 155 was NOT the biggest number and their brains would explode.  Of course, some time in first grade they were taught place value and the hundreds and thousands were put in their place as the rightful top of the list.  But we have talked about that phase fondly for years now. 

Now I have another one in that phase.  And it sure is fun!

The start of the month of Thankfulness and the letter Ii

Box #1: Get Ready for the Code

Box #2: Worksheets for math and the letter Ii from Homeschool Share.

Box #3: the beloved Ecojournal!  Today in the adventures of Trickle Creek we read about feeding the birds in the fall and winter and when a full grown turkey came to Trickle Creek and got chased by their cat! 

We decided to fill up our bird feeder and count how many birds visited in the next 10 minutes:

Box #4: Cutting practice from Thanksgiving Pack from Our Little Monkeys

Box #5: a glue and grains activity to make pictures with beans and split peas from the pantry:

Cyan and Logan:

Box #6: Beginning Sounds game!  He loves it… the orange level was a bit hard for him (contains Ss and Zz on the same list!) but the other three are loved and played often.

Box #7: Nomenclature cards from the same Thanksgiving Pack above. 

Box #8: Handwriting activity with Hh and Ii

Box #9 Dot to Dot count to 10.  This time he did it with a yellow highlighter and a ruler!  It was fun.

Box #10: Feeling Faces board game and a piece of Hh is for Halloween Candy! 

We are traveling around the world for Christmas!

This year we are traveling around the world for Christmastime!  I am excited to see what types of traditions happen in other cultures during this magical time of year.  For some (Northern Hem) it is the coldest darkest portion of the year, but for others (Australia) it is mid Summer!  The traditions are just as varied as the weather this time of year and I am excited to share that with my kids. 

Our Christmas Around the World advent list:

1. Put up lights with daddy

2. Pagoda Manger & Fried Wonton cookies (China)

3. Fish tree ornament (Japan)

4. Metryoshka doll Christmas card (Russia)

5. Pamander oranges & put your shoes out for St Nicholas Day (Great Britain)

6. *Small gifts left in their shoes overnight* Christmas Party Crackers & Wassail (Great Britain)

7. Straw Ornaments and hidden bean cake! (Scandinavia)

8. Gingerbread Manger Scene (Germany) *only cooking and cooling*

9. Gingerbread Manger Scene (Italy) and making a St Lucy Wreath

10. Getting our Christmas Tree

11. Journey to Bethlehem!!

12. Shopping with daddy

13. Write love notes to parents to open on Christmas Eve (Greece/Italy)

14. Make a Christmas drum (Africa)

15. Make Christmas Stars out of whatever we can (sticks, straw, beads and wire... all kinds. Philippines.)

16. Celery Rose print wrapping paper & making S’mores (Australia)

17. *This starts the weekend of lights that leads right up to Hanukkah* Zoo lights w/ hot cider

18. Fantasy Lights w/ cocoa

19. Driving through Gem Heights looking at lights w/ warm honeyed milk

20. *Happy Hanukkah!* Dreidle for Chocolate coins and Challah bread. (USA)

21. We are sending a Christmas tree to a friend! (Canada) *cookies to neighbors*

22. Making paper poinsettias (Mexico)

23. Sawdust Ornaments (Guatemala)

24. Family Christmas Movie

25. Open Stockings!!

We got some ideas from our curriculum “Children Around the World” from Winter’s Promise, but many other great ideas come from free websites.  My two favorites:

http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/

http://www.teachingheart.net/worldmas.html

Swamp final project

The final project for Cyan’s swamp unit was a diorama of the swamp.  She spent hours on it and it looks amazing! 

I asked her about each part of the background and the she explained each bit with perfect clarity… at one point she even grabbed a reference book to show me the Mangrove tree “knees” during a flood.  It has been a great study! 

I am hoping that sometime soon we will get back to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge to see the changes that have happened over the last 6 wks since we started this unit, but for now, I am really happy she got so much out of it. 

Hh is for Harvest Leaves and Horses… and Moose??

Box #1: Pages for the Alphabet Notebook for Hh!

Box #2: The same books that were in the box yesterday.  We only got to read one… so the second one was today!

We collected leaves from our yard and photocopied them to make a page similar to the one in the book:

They even got labeled:

And we had a little fun along the way:

Box #4 was Get Ready for the Code book.  This lesson in on the letter Mm, so it is kind of like we are still doing two lessons at once.

Box #5 was wipe off ABC handwriting worksheets.  Idea from here.  He did Bb, Hh, and Mm today.

Box #6 was a sheet of color wonder paper with pens!  He made “A Man” which looks more like a potato with legs, but it’s stinkin’ cute!

Box #7 was the current issue of ‘Big Backyard’.  And I kinda ran with the Mm thing today as well so we read two articles on Moose! 

Box #8 was Beginning Sounds Bingo.  This is borrowed from a friend and it is a really neat game!  Logan loved it!

Box # 8 Hh is for Horse lacing card.

Box # 9 was strips with our names on them to match to clothes pins with the same letters.  It is really great letter recognition work!

Box #10 was to assemble all our Hh work into our notebook.  We won’t be officially done until tomorrow, but I want to do Hh is for Halloween and have a bunch of things centered around that instead!