Category Archives: Homeschool

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Third Grade: Week Twenty-Seven Wrap-Up

This week, we began our studies of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. We learned a lot about Lincoln’s early life this week; next week, we’ll get more in-depth about the war. This is one of my favorite periods of American History to study/teach, possibly because I’ve read Gone With the Wind so many times!

Since we were learning about the Civil War this week and next, we went on a field trip to see a an exhibit entitled “Civil War in the West,” which is currently housed in the Old Ordnance Room at Jefferson Barracks National Park. It was interesting to see the different displays showcasing different aspects of life during the Civil War, including a woman rolling bandages, a doctor performing an amputation, (the children had a morbid curiosity about that one!), and soldiers sitting by a campfire.

The children were also interested in a display which showed the kinds of entertainment that were popular back then. They were quite surprised to discover that playing cards and dominoes haven’t changed much!

While we were at the park, we also stopped in the Powder Magazine to see the World War II exhibit. We got to see a local display, which included an airman’s uniform, and a “victory blanket” his family had made.

We also talked about rationing, especially as we’re looking forward to Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. We discussed how even the royal family had to use ration books, and how people just couldn’t go out and buy whatever they wanted, when they wanted it. I don’t think the children could quite wrap their minds around that concept!

Outside the Powder Magazine is a Battle of the Bulge Memorial. It was nice to stop and look at this, especially as this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend.

Also to honor Memorial Day, we stopped at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, which is adjacent to the park. The children have been there once before, but they were still amazed at the number of graves that are there…to be honest, so am I! It was a good opportunity to talk about how many people have served in the Armed Forces, and how many of them died defending our country.

Only two more weeks of school to go!

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Third Grade: Week Twenty-Six Wrap-Up

This week, we really started moving ahead in Adventures in My Father’s World. We’re doing one state sheet a day until they’re done, (which happens to coincide perfectly with how many math lessons we have left!). We’re ready for summer vacation, and we’ve almost met all of the days the state requires us to have, but we also want to get through every state sheet, because Turkey and Bunny love learning state trivia, so we can’t skip any. I’ve also had to adjust our book basket readings to go with the states we’re studying, but seeing as how Turkey and Bunny have usually finished the book basket selections by Wednesday, anyway, having some extra books to choose from is not a problem! We only have one major topic left in our overview of early American history–Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. We’ll be starting on that next week, and it will last us for two of the remaining three weeks of school.

We also had our annual field trip to Art on the Square this week. I give the children an assignment every year–for example, one year, I picked a few different types of paintings, and told them to find examples of each. This year, the assignment was fairly simple–choose your favorite piece of art, and then explain why it’s your favorite. It was fun hearing their explanations as to why they chose a particular piece–the artists did a good job making their audience feel something! Turkey loved watching these sculptures move in the wind…it’s what he looks forward to the most every year!

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Third Grade: Week Twenty-Five Wrap-Up

Still working hard. Not a whole lot to say about this week. We did learn about John Sutter and the California Gold Rush in American History. Turkey and Bunny really enjoyed learning about the three tests to determine if you’ve really found gold…I think they would have enjoyed it more if they could have tested the theory on some actual gold! Unfortunately, I don’t keep gold nuggets around the house…

We eased back into science by watching the documentary Frozen Planet. This is an excellent series that details what life is like in the Arctic and Antarctic, for both animal and plant life. It’s a fascinating show, very well done with excellent videography. There are some brutal moments…nature is funny that way. The children were OK with that for the most part, except for one unfortunate incident involving a wolf and an arctic hare. There were also some cute, and even humorous, moments, particularly one involving a thieving penguin!

Four weeks of math left, and even less of grammar. We still have quite a few states to go through, but we may skim through some of them to get done sooner. Thanks to our special holiday units, by the time we’re done with math for the year, we’ll have hit our required number of days of school, and by then, I think we’ll be ready for another break!

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Third Grade: Week Twenty-Four Wrap-Up

We finally started back to school this week, after taking a six-week break following Chickadee’s birth. We started back in much the same way as we ended off before she was born…with just the basics. Religion, math, grammar, history, read-alouds, and reading are all that we accomplished this week. Latin, science, and electives are still on the back burner as we figure out the new normal that is our school now. The good news is, Turkey, Bunny, and Ladybug don’t seem to have forgotten too much following their vacation, so we didn’t have to review a whole lot, and we were even able to dive into some new math concepts this week.

I’m not going to lie–trying to do school with a newborn is harder than I thought, and not for a reason I anticipated. Yes, Chickadee fusses some, but that’s usually easily taken care of. And I have to feed her during school, but I’m a good multi-tasker, and doing that while explaining a math concept or reading aloud is no big deal. The real problem is keeping my students’ attention off their baby sister and on their work! Every noise she makes or smile she gives out is reason, (in their minds), to stop what they’re doing and fawn over her. And I understand that, because I want to fawn, myself. But we need to work on staying focused, if only because life itself is full of distractions, and you can’t always stop what you’re doing every time something shiny comes along…this a great time for a life lesson!

So, that was our week. We did some more state sheets and learned about Samuel Morse in “Adventures in My Father’s World,” We also worked on a new spelling list and practiced putting apostrophes where they belong in contractions. The biggest thing we did this week, though, was working on subtracting and multiplying fractions, which was deemed by Turkey as “fun.” And anytime they think that something valuable they’ve learned is also fun to do, I consider it a successful week!

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The First Day of Spring

To celebrate the first day of spring, we made a fun, new project–edible bird’s nests! Conveniently, you can currently find half of the items in the Easter candy aisle, and the rest are staples available year-round.

You start by mixing chow mein noodles (12 oz.) with melted chocolate…I used almond bark (about 20 oz.).

Mold into nest shapes.

Put a few “Robin Eggs” in each nest.

Add Peeps to the nests as desired–we only put one in each nest, but if you’re nests are bigger, or you have more Peeps than we did, you can always have a pair of birds!

This was a fun, hands-on project. And while I despise marshmallow Peeps, the children do not share my feelings, and really enjoyed getting to eat the special treat they made!

And, a glimpse of a few other spring crafts we’ve made over the years…

Coffee filter flowers. Super easy to make–just decorate a basket style coffee filter with markers, then spray with water to allow colors to spread and blend. When dry, pinch the middle, then attach to a green chenille stem. Instant bouquet!

You can also use the same technique to make coffee filter butterflies. Instead of just pinching the middle, wrap the chenille stem around the whole center of the filter, and use the ends to make antennae.

This is a good project for the beginning of any season…you can even assemble it over the course of an entire year. Tissue paper makes up the leaves, (and snow), for three of the seasons, but for spring, we used a flower paper punch to decorate the tree. Fun and pretty!

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St. Patrick’s Day 2012

Today is one of my favorite days of the year–St. Patrick’s Day!

The children started their day with the traditional bowl of Lucky Charms. Since St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Saturday this year, I didn’t even need to feel guilty about it, as Saturday is the one day of the week when they’re allowed sugary cereal. I only wish I could have had some!

I dyed the lunch applesauce green, too. It’s such a small thing, but every year, it really amuses the children. They also got to have Skittles with lunch…it’s really their “lucky” day!

We had our traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage slow-cooked in Guinness…but no roasted potatoes or soda bread this year, so as not to tempt the gestational diabetic. I have absolutely no willpower when it comes to roasted red potatoes.

I did, however, indulge in the chocolate Guinness cake I made…it’s become one of my favorites, and it’s less sugary than a lot of cakes!

We had fun preparing for St. Patrick’s Day in school for the last week or so, as well. We made snakes:

And paper plate Leprechauns:

We also played my one of my favorite games, (The Alphabet Game), with green for the theme. It was fun to see Turkey and Bunny’s creativity with a few of the letters in the alphabet. My favorite part, though, was Turkey’s attempt at writing “gecko.” That’s what he said out loud when sharing his list, but when I actually looked at the list, he had written “Geico”–I guess their advertising is working!

We also used my favorite part of the hymn often attributed to St. Patrick, “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” as our dictation for the week. I know he likely didn’t write it, but it doesn’t change the beauty of the lyrics:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

We read an old favorite book–St. Patrick’s Day. This is a very simplified story about St. Patrick, along with simplified explanations of a few traditions, but the children still like it.

We learned more about Irish traditions with a new favorite book–Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs: The Story of the St. Patrick’s Day Symbols. This is a great book, and full of interesting tales. I learned a lot from it myself, and the children really enjoyed the different stories, some of which we read out loud, (the chapters “St. Patrick Himself,” “The Irish Shamrock,” “St. Patrick and the Serpents,” “A Sprig of Shillelagh,” “Leprechauns,” and “St. Patrick’s Day Parades”), and some they read on their own, (“The Wearin’ of the Green” was especially popular).

The most popular activity, however, was helping Moose make his “Leprechaun Trap” for school:

The trap was even successful, thanks to Turkey’s creativity with Legos:

As long as we read about the history of the legend of the leprechaun in Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs, and read the legend referenced in that book, (“Lazy Tom”), in The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book, and attempted to “trap” a leprechaun, I decided to give Turkey and Bunny a creative writing assignment about leprechauns, as well. The topic? “If I caught a leprechaun…” It’s always fun to hear the things they come up with when they’re writing about something mythical! Turkey was focused on having a fun day with the leprechaun, and getting him to lead the way to other leprechauns’ pots of gold, while Bunny was determined to make sure her leprechaun didn’t get away so that she could get his gold and go shopping!

I’d count this as a successful St. Patrick’s Day. I know it’s kind of silly, because I’m not Irish, (and not even Catholic!), but I really have a lot of fun with this holiday, and I seem to have made it a special day in our household in the children’s opinions, without even having to try too hard…it just came naturally!

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The Leprechaun Trap

For school this week, Moose had to make a “Leprechaun Trap.” We all had fun helping him design and assemble this project! We were also able to use things from around the house…a ubiquitous Amazon box, wrapping paper, glitter, a pencil, and embroidery thread. The only thing I actually bought for the project was a package of shamrock stickers…and if I had looked hard, I probably could have found some of those around here, too! It may not be the world’s best or most creative trap, but it sure was a lot of fun to make…Moose’s favorite part was putting stickers and glitter everywhere!

According to the instruction sheet we received with the assignment, Leprechauns like shiny things:

They also, of course, like green:

Being mischievous, they often do the opposite of what they’re told:

It was important to Turkey that Moose “actually” catch a Leprechaun, so he helped out with that task:

I love St. Patrick’s Day, so this project wasn’t even work for me…it was just a lot of fun, and I think it was great that we could all help Moose with his homework!

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Third Grade: Week Twenty-Three Wrap-Up

We finally finished all of the schoolwork we needed to do before Chickadee’s birth! This included a math and spelling test, our continued readings to correspond with the Jesus Tree and studying baptism in Luther’s Small Catechism in religion, a lot of state sheets from “Adventures in My Father’s World,” read-alouds scheduled in our curriculum, (as well as some scheduled by me for St. Patrick’s Day from a great book–Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs), and handwriting and grammar. It did not, however, include Latin, because I just don’t care at this point!

We did start a new concept in math, this week. I’m not entirely thrilled with that, because I was hoping that the break in our math lessons would be a little cleaner, and I wouldn’t have to worry about them either forgetting the concept and/or me needing to reteach it once we start back to school. If I had looked ahead, I may have just ended our math lessons last week, like I did with Latin; on the other hand, I really wanted to finish up the unit and have the test before our break. I do have some worksheets that hopefully I’ll remember to have them do while I’m recovering, though, and that should help keep the idea fresh in their minds, so we don’t have to back up and start the whole process over.

Ladybug finished the first Explode the Code primer this week, as well. We had to do a few extra pages in order to finish the book, but I really wanted to get it done, and she really loves workbooks, so neither of us had any complaints. I continue to be impressed with this series, and can already see how a foundation for reading is being laid, in the way she’s trying to sound things out on her own now. It will be fun to get into the next book, and add more letter sounds…but not until after I’ve had a chance to recover from the c-section!

We also worked on our St. Patrick’s Day activities a little early…more on that later, but here’s a sneak peek at some of the fun we had:

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Third Grade: Week Twenty-Two Wrap-Up

I’d like to say that we accomplished a lot this week, especially in light of the fact that we only have one more week of school before we take off for a good month for Chickadee’s arrival. In actuality, however, this week was all about the bare minimum. Between doctor’s appointments and errands that need to be taken care of before I’m in the hospital, it was hard enough just getting through the stuff I consider mandatory–namely religion, math, spelling, handwriting, grammar, Latin, read-alouds, and reading. We did manage to squeeze in history, too, (although none of the fun extras), and some fun games, but electives and science? Well, they’re just a fond memory at this point. I’d like to think we’ll do better next week, but to be honest, between more doctor’s appointments and more errands, plus the St. Patrick’s Day activities I want to do, we’ll probably just be covering the basics again. Oh well…that’s one of the perks of homeschooling, right? And I still think my children are learning a lot more than their public school counterparts, even with my slacking.

We did do one fun craft this week, in anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day.

We talked about the legend of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland as we made paper plate snakes. (What would I do without paper plate crafts?) I was especially impressed with Turkey’s snake, as it is quite detailed. He labored over it for quite some time to get it right. The children’s only sorrow is the fact that the weather has been so mild, there hasn’t been any air (heat) coming out of the vents to turn their snakes when suspended from the ceiling…but that’s a first world problem if I ever heard one!

When we went errand-running, one of our stops was at a fantastic local bakery, to order cakes for Turkey and Bunny’s Confirmation on Palm Sunday, as well as Chickadee’s Baptism that same day. Normally I would make the cakes myself, but ten days after major abdominal surgery…well, that’s just not happening! Anyway, while we were there, we noticed that they had green, snake-shaped donuts in honor of our favorite Irish holiday, so we splurged and got some, (none for me…I had my donut last week!). Another chance to discuss Irish legends, and have some delicious fun to boot!

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Homeschool Review: Presidential Blocks

I haven’t reviewed any homeschool products for quite some time, mostly because I haven’t found anything new that I’m really excited about. At least I hadn’t until I stumbled across the Uncle Goose Presidential Blocks Set.

I like this for several reasons. First, it’s a great tool for helping children become familiar with our nation’s presidents, even while playing. It’s also a different way of learning, aside from just reading about the presidents…this set gives a lot of basic information, (name, nickname, number of presidency, years served, birth and death dates and locations, and political party, as well as a facial sketch), that children will absorb just by looking at and building and playing with the blocks.

I also like this set because it’s handmade in Michigan with Michigan resources and child-safe inks. Now, I’m not normally a huge “Made in America” type, if only because I realize that most of the stuff I need to buy just isn’t made here. But every once in a while, I find something really cool that is made here, and I want to support that effort and buy it. That explains why I bought this set, even though it was pretty expensive for our homeschool!

Because of the way the blocks sit in the included tray, you can have an overview of the presidents’ names or faces, or, my personal favorite, the American flag. The sixth side of each cube is designed to be a part of the flag, and when the blocks are all placed in the correct order, you can see Old Glory…very cool!

The tray allows the blocks to be laid out in a 9×5 grid. I know what you’re thinking…we’ve only had 44 presidents, so how can there be 45 blocks? The answer is simple, and rather ingenious, I think…there’s an extra block for the Oath of Office, the pledge that the President takes when he is sworn in. It’s not necessary to the set, but a nice little bonus, and a good way to fill the space. The only other thing I could have imagined working with this set would have been a block for the White House, but you just can’t include everything!

I realize that this set will quickly become somewhat obsolete, either this fall, or in four years, when another president is added. It’s worth it to me, though, because this is such a unique, well-made resource, and even when we elect a new president, the other blocks themselves will still remain accurate, and useful for teaching. And Uncle Goose makes other block sets that are equally impressive, including the Periodic Table, Foreign Language Blocks, and even a set that has Braille and American Sign Language!