Literature project ideas

Need some interesting project ideas for your literature unit?  How about

• poster
• diary entry
• time capsule
• cereal or toy designed after the book
• newspaper article or paper
• photo album
• screenplay
• story quilt
• comic strip
• time line
• travel brochure design a game
• write a new ending
• paper dolls made of the characters

Hope these ideas help you out!

Are we hungry?

The tough part about being a growing one year old, is that you're always hungry.  I often find Monkey in the pantry.  Here she is with the pancake mix.  I should have just added syrup and she would have been all set.

Here she is inside the pantry.  She's sitting on the bag of potatoes.  She's brought her doll and stroller with her and both are snacking on pretzels. 

Here's our favorite dessert.  Rainbow Ribbon Jello.  It doesn't last long around here.

Time Traveler Series-review

I just received the Time Traveler Series-American Revolution last week.  We're getting ready to venture into the American Revolution.  This program wasn't really something that I needed.  I have a ton of projects and recipes to do.  What attracted me the most, was the unique projects that the kids would be doing.

We've already gone through the American Revolution once and I'm sure TL would like some other projects to do.  So far, I've viewed the shadow puppets, which are in the first few lessons.  It looks like tons of fun!!

The timeline and vocabulary cards are fantastic and are divided into groups of five lessons.  There are awesome notebooking and lapbooking activities. 

I am anxious to start this program.  It will take me a little longer to finish because I take a world history approach to our studies.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly wrap up

This week has been busy as usual.  I was able to keep up an organized with my homeschool tracker program.  I know I stopped using it when we moved, I'm not quite sure why I never started again.  Well, actually I do.  I moved from overseas, had to unpack an entire house, and had baby number five a month later.

Science
I moved TL into Apologia Astronomy.  He should actually be in a 7th grade program but half way through the year, I didn't want to spend so much and I had this available in a box.  He was able to melt a candy bar and built a pin hole viewing box.  Thankfully the sun was out and he could do both projects.  The girls are continuing on with Exploring God's Creation-Earth Science.  We're working on water this week.


History
This week we discussed the 13 colonies and filled in a map of them.  The Salem witch trials also took center stage.  The kids, especially the girls, did not enjoy hearing about this part of our history.  The slave trade didn't do much either to impress them with our past.  I will be moving into Daniel Boone on Monday.

The Three r's
TL is doing well with his studies.  He's working on the first 15 Latin and Greek roots, a vocabulary study, and Saxon Math.  Math is the only thing he seems to be struggling in.  He still does well, but it takes HOURS for him to finish.  And he refuses to copy the problem to the work paper to do it, which is the reason he makes mistakes from trying to squeeze in problems onto a small space.
Princess is making strides with reading and math, although she's still a little behind, she's making a real effort now to catch up.  She's the one who keeps saying she won't do her work and is the hardest to get to cooperate.  Just lately, she's figured out that her friends are moving ahead and she's not, so she's working hard at catching up to them.
Bug-a-bug is the easiest of all the kids.  She'd finish her work in three hours a day if I could just sit and work with her.  She wants to do extra too.
Little Miss Trouble has been learning her colors and how to count to 10.  She's learned a couple of shapes this year and has been learning how to write a, i, and l.  She actually colors within the lines and writes pretty well.  I have some photos I need to post.

Geography
The girls are studying Australia.  This was something else I changed in January.  We are going to do a continent study, then a habitat study, and then perhaps an animal study. Most of it will be lapbooks.  The girls enjoy them.
TL will continue to work on his world geography.

Projects
The girls are working animal lapbooks.  Princess is doing a horse one and Bug-a-bug is doing one on cheetahs.  TL will start a state project this week for the homeschool fair coming up next month, our theme is American State Fair night.

Next week we will finish our Australia and animal lapbooks on Monday and Tuesday.  My father is arriving on Tuesday night for a week.  Princess' birthday is next week and she's looking forward to seeing Grandpa.  I think we may make a field trip one day, not sure where yet.  The rest of teh time will be spent on quality time with Grandpa.

have a wonderful weekend.  I'll be doing my homework!

I'm still here

School has been really busy for me.  The third week of class I had 300 pages to read, plus discussion question and responses to do.  Last week was midterm week.  I did well, except for my stupid music class.  I say this because I've written six 8-10 page term papers and gotten 95 or higher on all of them.  My instructor would like us to summarize 60 pages of reading into 300 words and include all pieces of music, vocabulary terms, and opinions....and if we miss any we get points off.  The highest grade I've gotten is a 75......and that's the class average.  arrrgghhhh

The kids are doing wonderfully with school.  Its helped that I've been really good at keeping up with homeschool tracker and staying organized.  I've been better at getting everything ready to go before we start the day.

I've also reorganized my cleaning and laundry schedule.  The kids help more with the house, mostly cleaning up their messes.  I need to redo the chore chart but so far my mental schedule seems to be working.  We clean during the week and I do laundry on the weekends, along with most of my homework.  I'm realizing that I can't do homework starting at 9 or 10 pm.  I'm too pooped.  Too old now I guess.  So, I try to do some of what I can during the week, and then do the majority on the weekend.

I can't believe I have to sign up for classes again on Monday.  I only have three weeks left in these two classes.  Only two more terms of going full time and then I'll be taking two terms with only one class at a time and then I'm all done!!  yahoo!!  I'm excited.  I'm tired, but I'm glad I'm getting it done! 

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

The Star Spangled Banner

While watching the Super Bowl, we noticed Christina Aquilera messed up the words to the Star Spangled Banner.  She's not the first big star to do so, nor will she be the last.

Today on yahoo news, they posted an article about the tricky lyrics for the Star Spangled Banner.  Tricky?  Did I miss something?  Myself and almost every other American know the correct lyrics for the Star Spangled Banner.

Pop stars don't seem too.  Maybe its because they're not making a cool million on the song.  I mean really.  Why bother learning the lyrics to the song that symbolized your country?  The song that symbolizes freedom.  Freedom of speech, which by the way, guarantees that you can sing whatever you want.  And earn money from it.

Yeah, those lyrics sure are tricky...........

sick, sick, and more sick

We're going on three weeks of having all kinds of different ailments.  Finally, after Trey was up most of the night with a stomah bug, I decided to officially call a sick day.  We'd been continuing on, even with all the illnesses.  I cleaned, scrubbed, and washed everything in sight downstairs.  All remotes, light switches, phones, wii controllers, and anything else has been cleaned.  I'm doing the upstairs tomorrow night and Saturday.  I'm washing everyone's bedding....again.  I just did it a few weeks ago.

Well, we have managed to keep busy with school, here's some of our shots:

Bug-a-bug's poster for the Great Barrier Reef.  We're studying Australia in Geography

Princess and her poster

Little Miss Trouble wanted to do one too, so I let her cut out photos from some magazines.

Everyone wanted to see pictures of our "lap" dog!

And this is what I spend most of my day doing, saving Monkey when she climbs and can't get down.

And here's Monkey with her daddy.  She loves when he comes home and she gets to wear his hats.

Have a great day everyone!

Food storage

One of the things I've been looking into is storing food up for a few months supply.  You never know what might happen that you might depend on the stored food to feed your family.  Whether something major happens in the country or if we dont' receive a paycheck suddenly or some other major expense comes up.  I'm working on stocking some flour, sugar, and canned goods. 

I found this interesting calculator to determine how much you would need for a year for your family.  Its definitely interesting to look at.  I have some friends that have a few months supply and others that have almost a year.