What We're Reading Now

Little Buddy has started a new series of books, Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan.

He's started with Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief, the first book in the series. It's a great series for boys. It's full of adventure, excitement, and I love that it ties into the Ancient History lessons we had last year.

The first book isn't in these photographs, Little Buddy has it stashed under his pillow with his reading light. I know not to disturb that setup.

While he's reading the series, we're discussing plot, character development, and foreshadowing. I love it when he is eager about reading and I have to remind him to turn his reading light out at night.

That's when I know we're on to something.



What books have you found lately that your child loves?

Keeping Kids Organized :: Our Daily Planner

I am a planner. I love to have my daily planner in front of me each morning so I know exactly what things I need to accomplish in the day. I have found days that I stray from using it, I do not get as many things done. Those are the days when I finally go to bed at night, I wonder what in the world I've done all day.

And recently, I discovered Little Buddy needs that same visual element to keep his day together. I started using our daily planner each school day to keep us both on track for the day. Even though I have well-written lesson plans available to me and follow along with those, they did not include everything we needed to accomplish in a day. Therefore, I made my own quick planner for each day.

Little Buddy certainly enjoys having the flexibility of helping to decide the order of subjects we'll be covering for the day and when we'll have a break, etc. Our one hard and fast rule is that our day begins with Bible and prayer.

I had so many emails asking about the planner, I thought I would share it with you. You can easily create your own using your spreadsheet or word processing software. But if you'd like, you are welcome to utilize ours until you have time to make your own.

Download our Daily Planner.

While the planner has helped us tremendously with Little Buddy being able to know the routine for the day, including our homeschooling work, we also use the planner on weekends.




What favorite planning tool do you share with your child?

Capital vs. Capitol

As we've been touring through the country on our cross-country trip, we've passed through many wonderful cities - Birmingham, Nashville, St. Louis, Jefferson City, Kansas City, and Topeka so far.

We started talking about the commonalities in the cities and the differences. We'd left the pine trees of the south long behind and were deep into hardwoods and then into the plains. It was beginning to feel less humid and the spaces were definitely getting more open - even in the cities. Atlanta traffic was far behind us.

And then we realized we'd passed through many state capitals along our route - Birmingham, Nashville, Jefferson City, Topeka. They all shared the same distinction of being their state's select city where their representatives meet and do what they do.





The discussion continued on and on and then wound its way right on over to the grammar lesson of how to spell the word -- was it capital or capitol?

Off the top of my head I blurted, "capitol because capital is for the the uppercase letter." I even typed in this post about being in Jefferson City. 

And then, about 3 am in the morning, my word nerd self woke up with a start. 

My vocabulary lessons from years ago when Mrs. Windom was my teacher rang into my ears. "Remember class, use capitol when you refer to the building. Use the O when you think of the dome and A when you think of place." 

And now you know, too. Well, you probably already knew didn't you?

What word do you have a favorite little "rule" to help you remember the spelling? Please share, it most likely will help me not embarrass myself in the near future. 

The Homeschool Village and Patriotism

 The Homeschool Village is celebrating! One month old and a brand new blog! 

The Homeschool Village is a wonderful place to connect with other homeschool families in this great community. While we all may teach a little differently, approach subjects with our unique viewpoints, we each began with a deep love for our children. The Homeschool Village provides an excellent forum to come together and share in our desires for our families, lean on one another when we need to, and learn from each other every day.


This week, in honor of the 4th of July, The Homeschool Village is  sharing about talking patriotism.



Daily Routines 

In our homeschool we have certain routines we follow each day which help to teach our son about patriotism.

We begin our morning with the Pledge of Allegiance to our schoolroom flag. I'm privileged to be able to teach my son to place his hand over his heart and state the pledge to our country. It is truly a blessing to be able to instill in him a foundation of patriotism to our country.

Next, we bow our heads for our daily prayer.  We lead our prayer requesting God to bless our country, lead our leaders, and protect our servicemen, followed by our family, our neighbors, our schooling, and ourselves.

Scouting

Our family is deeply involved in our local Scouting activities. Little Buddy is a Cub Scout, my husband his Den Leader, and I am on the board of leaders for the Pack working specifically on communications. Scouting instills patriotism through various avenues - lessons in leadership, service, and specific programs on the flag and its handling to name just a few.

Additional Materials

Our homeschool curriculum provides excellent materials on the history of America, including the Wee Sing America music CD we utilize each week to learn important classic songs of America's past. This week, we've focused on The Star Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key,  and the meaning behind the song.

I'll be a very proud Mama on July 4th as we stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the National Anthem before the day's festivities. And as Little Buddy recites the Preamble to the Constitution, I'm sure my Mama heart will swell the size of this wonderful land I'm blessed to call home.

Preamble to the Constitution (1787)
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Third Grade

This week was a huge milestone.

It marked Little Buddy's first week of third grade and the first week of our second year homeschooling. It was quiet honestly a pretty big deal around these parts. 

I knew we had a ton of wonderful stuff to cover this year and we were both excited to begin. Even though Little Buddy was already hyped up about the big day, I wanted to build it up even more. I wanted it to be a super duper big deal!  

You only start third grade once. I wanted this to be something he remembered! 

I closed off the doors to the school room and told Little Buddy I wanted him to be surprised on the first day of school. He couldn't come in the whole week before school started back so I could get it all ready.

We went shopping for school supplies the weekend before school started back. He picked out notebooks, pencils, pens, glue, erasers, backpack, and even a few fun items for his desk. He even got to get a new mouse since his hand has gotten so much bigger over the past year. Being able to get his school supplies was such so much fun for him. I guess I'd forgotten how exciting it was for me when I was growing up.

The night before school started back, we started our back to school bedtime routine. Clothes laid out, good bath, and earlier bedtime. I was tickled that he chose a collared polo shirt and khaki shorts for our first day back to school. But when he used shampoo without my reminding him, I knew he was excited! Why do children try to wash their hair without using shampoo? I'll never understand.


The next morning, we had a great family breakfast and of course I had to take photographs of my two favorite guys in the whole world on our big day.

And I do believe he was pretty excited to see the school room all prepped and ready for third grade! I think my trick of keeping the room off limits for the week before while I got everything ready was a pretty good one.

He was able to bring a few "snuggles" to school for the first day. I think the lamb is already taking a nap the way he's chilling on the sofa.





But I think the biggest key to our successful week was having a daily planner. 

There were no questions of, "are we almost finished?" or "what are we doing next?" Everything was right there on the daily planner for him to see. We discussed the planner each morning before we began any of our lessons and would adjust the schedule by moving science before history or a few things like that. Just simple little tweaks to help him feel a part of the plan.

The daily planner also includes any appointments for the day, field trips, and all of his chores. I wish I had thought of it last year. As Martha says, It's a good thing.

We've also been diligent about using our school room this week. At the very least, the rest of my house has stayed a lot cleaner without us strewing books and art projects all over place. It has also helped me to concentrate on school work instead of laundry, cooking, and cleaning. I can become quiet distracted even by the birds coming up to the bird feeder and get an itch to go cook if we're at the kitchen table for a while. The school room has helped us both to concentrate on what we've got to get done - but mostly - it's helped me.



Here's hoping next week goes just as well, if not better!


What were your favorite school supplies when you were in school {or even now}?

Two of My Favorite Books on Homeschooling

I was given a book by my sister-in-law when Little Buddy was first born. Each year around his birthday, I take this book back down off of the bookshelf and read it again. Every year I find another nugget of information meant just for the age we are in, meant just for the adventures we are about to begin.

The book is Bringing Up Boys by Dr. James Dobson. As I re-read the book around Little Buddy's sixth birthday, I was struck by the encouragement for parents to homeschool their children. I knew I'd read these same pages at least five times before, but this time, these words filled my heart with a special knowing. You see, we had been prayerfully considering the appropriate educational path for our son and as I read his words, my heart just soared.

Regardless if you homeschool, if you have sons, I fully recommend this book. It has truly been a gift that has continued to give in my family.

As we continued on our path of researching homeschooling, a family friend who is a veteran homeschooler loaned me her copy of The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise-Bauer. Well, within just a few chapters, I just had to order a copy for my own home library. This book is a treasure! My own copy is now so dog-earred from all of the late night thumbing through and the many post-it notes that have marked sections I read and read again.

These are two of my favorite homeschooling books where I have found the most information and practical advice. What's your favorite?






The entire Homeschool Village team is so excited about the wonderful response you've shown for the community! Y'all have just amazed us with all of your wonderful ideas, encouragement and love of fellowship!!! We can't wait to see what's next for the HSVillage!

Considering Homeschooling? 5 Tips from Our First Year

Are you considering homeschooling? If so, I have just a few tips to share with you from our experience.

Tip 1. Summer break is perfect time to start. We began our homeschooling journey the summer between Little Buddy's first and second grade year. This gives you a great introduction to homeschooling while reducing any of the risks. Our thought was if we can homeschool successfully over the summer, we'll continue into the school year. If not, we'll still have time to enroll him in traditional school without him missing anything.

Tip 2. Don't worry about a school room. Having dedicated space for schooling is nice, but definitely not required. While we do have a school room, on any given week, we use it less frequently than we do the back porch, the barn, the kitchen table, and yes, sometimes even the car or RV. I do like having a space to put books and materials when they aren't in use, but really, our books go where we go.

Tip 3. You'll find a groove. It may take a little while, buy yes, you will find your groove. Not only are you learning how your child learns best, you are also learning how you teach best. The melding of the two is when you find your groove. Don't worry, it took me a while to find mine and there are still days when I wonder if I did. Then, the next day, sure enough, there it is again.

Tip 4. A year at a time. A friend who is a homeschool veteran and has been homeschooling for 13 years gave me this advice, "don't plan to always homeschool. Take it a year at a time. If it works and he's learning, keep going. If not, do something different." This sounds too easy, but honestly, it made my heart stop pounding out of my chest with nervousness over the decision.

Tip 5.  Have fun. Yes, it is a serious decision you are making to educate your children, but remember to enjoy it and have fun. Not only will you enjoy it more, you'll be surprised how much more your children learn and retain when the are having fun. Reciting multiplication tables while doing flips or the boogie and reinforcing our grammar with Mad Libs has definitely worked for us.


Above all, pray about your decision. You'll know what is right for you and your family.

Good luck!

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Homeschooler's Inspire Me

Even before we officially began homeschooling, I was inspired by homeschooling families.

A good friend of our family began homeschooling her daughter when she was in second grade (sound familiar?) and then as she had other children, she added them into her homeschooling fold.

Having grown up in the traditional public school environment, at first I was taken aback that my friend felt competent to educate her own children. And then I took the time to talk with her personally about it. Not investigating, just a true desire to learn and understand.

She shared with me her and her husband's desire for the type of education for her children to receive, the connection she had built with each of her children, and the ability to know each other in a way she would not have known them had they been in a traditional school setting each day. I'll never forget her comment, "We've had to work on character issues." I immediately said, "In training your children?" Her reply was, "No, in training myself."

The impact of our conversation stuck with me for years. When my husband and I began seriously considering home education for our family, I scheduled a time to spend the day in her homeschool with her and her children. I was the proverbial fly on the wall, seeing what their entire day entailed.

I was amazed. I had helped in my son's classroom since he was in two year old pre-school and I had not witnessed as much organization, discipline, and love in any classroom I had had the priviledge to help in. How could I? My friend, the teacher, was rearing her own children to be ready to go into the world. Her priority was for them to have full hearts for God and his purpose for each of them. Her day was based on love and prayer.

As we discussed more about what home education really meant to her, she also was quick to tell me. "Robyn, I am not a lady who lunches. I don't have time. That's not my priority. I'll have time to lunch when these children are taught and on their own. For now, my place is here, teaching and loving them."

Since that wonderful day and many conversations since, I have had the honor of meeting and getting to know many home educators. Many I have met through our local homeschool groups, co-ops, and yes, I've met many more online through my blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

Regardless of the manner in which they teach in their homeschools, they all share the same desire - to educate their children to be ready to go out into the world. The majority also desire for their children to have a heart full for God.

I would like to share the blogs of three of the home educators who continually inspire me and just a little bit about why they do.

Marsha at Other Such Happenings - Marsha's heart is so full of love for God it just spills out in everything she does. Her writing and photography make me laugh, smile, and often cry. She inspires me to honor God in all of his decisions and actions while not taking a second of the precious time he's given us for granted.




Melissa at A Familiar Path - Melissa tells it like it is - poetically. Her gifts of writing and photography draw me into her family every day. I can't wait to see what her children have done throughout the week. Her practical and honest take on life in general, especially homeschooling, helps me to keep things in perspective, to not beat myself up on a daily basis for what I should have done but haven't yet. Melissa inspires me to be my authentic self and share that on my blog.


Heather at Sprittibee and The Homeschool Post - Heather lays her heart open on a regular basis for the whole world to see - and what a beautiful heart it is. You can tell how full of love her heart is for her children in each photograph she shares. I can just picture her grinning the entire time she's taking each picture and then again as she shares it. You can also tell how full of love her heart is for the homeschooling community with her founding and managing The Homeschool Post. She inspires me to encourage other homeschoolers while keeping the priority on my own homeschooling journey.


I hope you will take a few moments to visit these three ladies. If you aren't already subscribing to their blogs, you will most certainly want to do so and quickly so you don't miss anything. They are that awesome. If you are already subscribing to them, congratulations - you know exactly what I'm talking about!

I am sharing three of my favorite homeschooling blogs as part of Homeschool Village Blog Fair. To read about other favorite homeschooling blogs, click on the button below.

A Play on a Book Report

Second grade comes to a big, resounding close on Thursday. Sound of the horns, call in the band! There are just a few more things we need to wrap up to be able to claim, all done. I assigned a book report - with a twist.

Here is the assignment:

Pick one classic book read this school year and write a one act play. Create costumes from items we have around the house and then perform the play for us on Thursday afternoon.

I made this assignment last week. Right after Little Buddy announced that he had completed all of his work and was bored. Have I ever told you how much I detest boredom?

There are days when I just dream of having a little boredom for myself, but if I hear Little Buddy say those three words, "I am bored," something just goes off in me. It raises the hair on the back of my neck. I start looking for things for him to do, things for him to learn.

Little Buddy selected his book, Alice's Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The scene has been selected, play writing nearing completion, and costumes have been chosen. And today he announced that this was his favorite book report all year.

Well, at least he thinks my boredom buster is fun.

What "assignments" do you give when the word bored pops out of your child's mouth?


Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Good Morning America Segment :: Radical Parenting & Unschooling

I was forwarded the link to this segment aired by Good Morning America. It's a family in Massachusetts that chooses to unschool their children.



I personally believe children need structure and discipline and guidance. I do believe self-led learning is important. It fosters a child's desire to learn.

While I personally do not follow their parenting style, I do agree with their right to have a choice. I just humbly pray their choice does not impact my own.

As a homeschooling community, how do you feel?

Our Lesson in the Post Office

Image via Wikipedia

Since Little Buddy is homeschooled, he gets to enjoy all that life has to offer his dear Mother, too. {Well, I hope you know by all I don't really mean ALL!}

I make several trips each week to the post office for my businesses. Usually I'm in a great big hurry running in, checking the box, dropping off packages and rushing back out to the car to make it to the bank or to UPS or Federal Express or to some other time limited spot.  This trip, I didn't have to rush off to anywhere else. We could spend as little or as long here as needed. And sometimes, you know how it is at the post office, you should plan to spend a looong time.

As we waited in line, Little Buddy started asking me about the different stamps on the wall. He asked me about the types of packages and if they would be working on Good Friday. He asked what time people arrived at work and what time they got off. He asked if I'd ever been to the back part of the post office. Had I ever seen the back of the post office boxes? Did they have a lot of equipment?

Yes, this was a day when the lines were long and moved slowly.

But, his questions were wonderful. I could tell he thought a great deal about each one before he asked it. And I was proud he was curious. And that pride helped me to endure the stares from all of the other people in the line wondering why my child was out of school when all of our area schools were certainly not on break.

I carefully answered each of his questions the absolute best that I could. I remembered seeing the work area [the back] of the post office when I was a child. There were two people who worked at that post office and you could easily see everything. The scene in Sweet Home Alabama when Reese Witherspoon asks the postman if he remembers her is very familiar to the post office of my childhood.

Then, it was our turn at the counter and the post lady asked if she could help us. Before I could say anything, Little Buddy says, "May we have a tour?"

Now, I don't know about you, but that made this homeschooling Mama pretty proud.

{We go back in a few days for our tour and meeting with the postmaster.}

What a Difference Two Years Makes

I sat in our homeschooling group listening intently to the speaker.

She was encouraging and inspiring all of the mothers to take time for ourselves. She went on to say mothers naturally put their children and husbands ahead of themselves in priority, but that for homeschooling mothers, there is rarely a break. No drop off at school so you can run errands. You and your children are usually always together.



As she went on talking, I was lost in my own thoughts.

Two years ago, I wouldn't have been here. If anyone had told me I would be sitting with a group of women in the middle of the day, at a table made for children, in a child's seat, drinking cherry kool-aide and eating cucumber sandwiches, I would have surely said they were joking.

Two years ago, I was knee deep and at least a mile high. I was constantly working 14 hours days, weekends, and traveling like the world would stop spinning if I took time for my family let alone for myself.

Two years ago, I felt like a stranger in my child's life. I would make school events as much as possible but frequently had to have my son's nanny or my mother stand in for me as I was called to this or that for work. I would come home from work, prepare a meal, work with my son on his schoolwork for hours and then put him to bed. Only to start again the next day.

And I knew our world had to change. God showed me in so many ways. He showed me my son needed me so much more than anyone else possibly could. We prayed and He answered. Homeschooling was the decision for our family. It comes with sacrifices. It comes with blessings.

I left my job and the comfort of two incomes, prepared myself as much as possible for homeschooling our son, and began working with my mother to grow our own businesses.

I'm so proud of the mother I've become in the last two years. God surely caught me at just the right time.

I just can't wait to see what He has in store for the next two years.

We Are Addicted :: Molly the Barn Owl

Image via Wikipedia

It's official, we are addicts. We can not get enough of the sights and sounds of Molly the Barn Owl.

Our regularly scheduled science lessons have been put aside as we spend time studying all about Molly and other barn owls.



But I warn you, watch with care or you may become addicted as well.

Grammar Games

I love to reinforce our lessons with fun games. Little Buddy loves it when they are on the computer.

Kelly Tenkely of iLearnTechnology always provides great resources to meet my goals while satisfying Little Buddy's need for electronics. Regardless if you homeschool or not, Kelly provides excellent resources to help your child's education. Best part, they have fun while doing it. And that my friends, helps them to really learn.

The latest discovery that we found thanks to Kelly was Grammaropolis.  Grammaropolis provides a fun, online experience for reinforcing those grammar lessons. And, who doesn't need reinforcement in grammar. 

Another excellent site for games in our homeschool is Game Classroom. I especially enjoy their games on plurals and contractions for reinforcement. And their math games, those are quiet excellent as well. But for today's electronic lesson reinforcement, we're concentrating on our grammar.

Do you have any grammar games you use that you would like to share with us?

St. Patrick's Day Lesson

Enjoy this lesson with your children on St. Patrick's Day by Veggie Tales.




I just love Veggie Tales. I hope we never outgrow them.

Learning Money with Alexander

My son has always loved Alexander stories by Judith Viorst. I think he has them just about memorized we've read them so much.


There are days when I think Ms. Viorst was surely peeking in our windows when she wrote these stories, but she wrote them before I even had a window to peek in. Meaning the stories are timeless, right?


As we were having a refresher on money this week, I thought of combining one of Little Buddy's favorite characters with money. In Alexander, Who Used To Be Rich Last Sunday, Alexander recounts how his money was gained and lost.


Here's how I turned it into a lesson.


We started a sheet of paper with how much money Alexander was given. Then, each time he mentioned how much money he spent, Little Buddy had to write it down and calculate how much was left.


Then, throughout the week, I would call out an amount of money that was spent and ask him to tell me how much that was. For example: Alexander spent two dimes and three nickels. How much did he spend? How much money does he now have left?


Not only has Little Buddy had a great time using Alexander as part of his lesson, he's gotten quicker in mentally calculating his money. And, that makes for a positively, wonderful, very good day.


Any great lessons you'd like to share with us?

Other Lessons you may enjoy:
Add a Scientist Spotlight
Haiti Earthquake Lesson Plan

Add a Scientist Spotlight to Your Routine

We have added Scientist Spotlight to our homeschooling routine. 


Each month, we shine the spotlight on one scientist and go in-depth into that scientist’s life and discoveries. 


We also love hands-on “lab” (my kitchen, the back porch, the laundry room - it’s all our lab) time where we conduct experiments of the scientists discoveries.

I have to say, it has made a dramatic impression on our homeschool. We are both excited about science, mathematics, and learning!

To add a scientist spotlight to your homeschooling routine, consider these tips:


Pre-plan the scientists you would like to study for two to three months in advance. This allows you to gather materials, supplies, and information ahead of time. A wonderful resource to utilize is Edquest for a listing of the Science Nobility and their contributions.

Include language arts and mathematics in your plan to emphasize their importance in all fields of study. For instance, for language include reading stories about their lives, how they made their discoveries, and age-appropriate books about the scientist. 


You may also like to include words from their work in your vocabulary listing, have your child look up the words in the dictionary for pronunciation and definition, and have a word search specific to the scientist. 


For mathematics, calculate how old the scientist was at different points of discovery, discuss how important mathematics was for the scientist to be able to make his discoveries, and use mathematics when doing experiments.

Plan at least one experiment for each day of science in your routine. This hands-on approach will help your child to understand the lesson at a different level than simply reading the concept. 


Be sure your child has an experiment notebook or journal. Ask your child to write his hypothesis of what he believes will happen in the experiment. Then, have him record how the experiment was conducted and the actual outcome. Then discuss and record the differences in his hypothesis and the actual outcome.


You’ll soon discover your child will request to have science lessons more frequently! I don’t know about you, but that was one of my goals!


To get you started, I have included a great resource we used for our first Scientist Spotlight. This allows you to start with materials already laid out for you! How great is that?


Happy learning!

Do you have a great tip for adding something to your homeschool routine? Please share!

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Planning for Next Year

Is it crazy to admit that I am already planning our school materials and curriculum for next year? 


While we school year round and our "official" paperwork has our school year as September 1 - August 31, I am already out there researching and reading about curriculum. 


Participating in our homeschool co-op group has afforded me the opportunity to get some real-world insights into different curriculum and how it works. Knowing these families personally also helps me to gauge time commitments, learning styles, etc. 


I certainly do not want to be a homeschooling mama that hops from curriculum to curriculum always thinking the grass is surely greener on the other side. I'm happy with what we have done this year. We tweaked as I learned what worked for Little Buddy's learning style and what worked for my teaching style. With that said, it appears we just might just try out some different things this next year. (So, I guess that means I'm a hopper.)


Here is what I am thinking so far. I would love any insights that you might have.



Bible - The Bible, Abeka Bible (finish)

Math - Math U See Gamma, Academic Skill Builders, Singapore 3a (We love the way MUS cements lessons addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; however, we also want to move along in other areas. Combining MUS and Singapore is a thought/ trial.)

Grammar - Daily Grams

Spelling - Spelling Workout C

Writing - Excellence in Writing Combo

History - Story of the World (Middle Ages), Sonlight 3+4 (we have testing at 3rd grade so we need to get in our US History and Geography, but so love our SOTW)

Reading - Sonlight 3

Science - Sonlight 3, Professor Noggins


Latin - Latina Christina (finish)

Art/ Music - Private lessons




Please do let me know any thoughts/ suggestions. I'm definitely not about to buy anything just yet, but I am such a planner I need to go ahead and start processing this. :)


Thanks much.

Teachable Moments - Weather

There are just so many teachable moments in everyday life. This week is a perfect example.

Groundhog's Day

Tuesday, February 2nd was Groundhog Day. I'm sure you knew that, unless you were hibernating yourself.

While for many, the day is just a novelty, we decided to take it just a little bit further. You know, learn something from it. We studied the history of Groundhog Day and watched the news to see if Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow. We reviewed hibernation and the animals that hibernate. And we created a calendar and are now tracking the weather each day for the next six weeks. We want to see how the real weather compares to the Groundhog's Day tale.

Here's how we track:

1. 1. Print a two month calendar from your favorite online source.
2. 2. Place a thermometer by an outside door and check it at the same time each day. If you are traveling like we are, simply check your area weather online.
3. 3. Record your weather findings each day. Include: High temperature, Low temperature, and whether or not it is Sunny, Stormy, Cloudy, or Snowy.
4. 4. Keep at it each day for six weeks. Make it enjoyable so you all look forward to weather tracking each day.
5. 5. At the end of the period, review together and determine if Pawxatawny Phil was indeed correct. Did we get six more weeks or winter as predicted or not.

(Photo courtesy WSBTV)

Weather Alerts

We also studied the importance of weather alerts and preparedness. I hadn't exactly planned on this lesson, but within an hour of our reaching the Daytona International Speedway a tornado watch, quickly followed by a warning, was issued. Again, a teachable moment.

We studied about NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). We talked about important information provided in weather alerts and monitoring the skies. We kept the discussion light since we were in the middle of a warning, but it reminded me to note in my homeschool notebook that we need to spend more time indepth on this subject.

And now, I'm off to have a teachable moment about some grub. We're starving!

I'd love it if you'd share about teachable moments you've discovered. We're still learning how to turn everyday life into a world of learning.

Olympics Unit Study Plan

I have been working for the past few weeks on gathering and reviewing materials for our Olympics Unit Study Plan. Let me just say, it was an undertaking but was also a great deal of fun. We began with our study today on the ancient games. I'm proud to say, Little Buddy enjoyed it and learned so much for the study.

I decided I would share the plan we are following for a few reasons.

 - you may want to include all or part of it in your homeschool/ afterschool plans.
 - it will save you a ton of time.
 - I actually typed it all up so I had to show it to you!



2010 Winter Olympic Unit Study Plan


Winter Olympics Unit Study Plan

Diet and Exercise Journal


I also created a Diet and Exercise Journal to go along with the study. You are welcome to download it as well.

Diet Exercise Journal


Olympic Word Search


And last but not least, I created a Winter Olympics word search. Little Buddy loves word searches, so I subscribe to Wordsheets to keep us in stock with them for whatever we are studying.

Winter Olympic Word Search

I hope you enjoy these printables as you follow the Olympics this month. 

Are you gearing up your family for the Winter Olympics? What's your favorite event?