Homeschool Curriculum, Homeschool Love

I am coming back to this blog. This place of words. And school. And pictures that tell stories of what we have lived and loved in an education journey after a hard year. A year we added a sweet new baby, a year we gained a medically fragile child, a year we pushed through a curriculum we did enjoy and liked enough, but did not love and thrive with. 

And we are healing.

And we are coming into a new year ready for  gentle, intentional, wild and free,

 we cannot stop finding and exploring learning. 

It's a beautiful thing and one I am thankful for. We have been seeking, looking, praying over where we would be heading for our curriculum in the 2017-2018 school year and the more we looked the less I found what my heart was looking for.

Then one day I found The Peaceful Press. I was looking to read the Little House on the Prairie collection, and I was searching for a curriculum to use as a base for our learning, but many things I found did not have the simplicity, gentleness, and exploration I was looking for. They did not direct towards well written, living books that our family enjoys gathering around to read and imagine with.  But The Peaceful Press was offering a newer curriculum called "The Playful Pioneers" that looked like it might fit well. And as I poured over the full curriculum, after purchasing, I knew. It fit. It was everything we needed and wanted. 

And I breathed a sigh of relief. We were ready. And when we are ready to gather, and light fires of learning, traveling into new places and into hearts of people in between the lines of the stories, we are ready to begin.

So, here we are, beginning, learning, over cups of tea and stacks of books, around our worn and wonderful kitchen table. I'll be back with more of our journey this year, with all of things that we study and we take flight in. 

For now, I encourage you to take a peek at The Peaceful Press and consider it for your sweet rhythm, as well, as you gather and build your home nests this year.

You can also following along on Instagram, too, where I will be sharing more words and daily pictures of our journey. 

Curriculum we use and love

Right Start Mathematics

The Homegrown Preschooler

Playful Pioneers

My Father’s World First Grade

My Father’s World Adventures in US History

Beautiful Feet Books Early American History

Exploring Nature with Children
The Good and The Beautiful

Week 22: Wagon Trains and the Human Body

Week 22

State Studies 

(Illinois and Alabama)

Illinois

The girls completed their state pages for Illinois. They came out so nicely this week.

The girls really enjoyed the Growing Seasons book (by Elsie Lee Splear) we read this week. It is full of beautiful photos and information on American history and seasons that sparked more questions and studying. We loved that it was a story about sisters, too. I cannot recommend this book enough.

We also pulled out our cardinal projects and resources from Week 15.

and two more postcards were added to our portfolio

Alabama

We added these Alabama pages to our completed pages, also this very special post card.

We made sweet potato pie and learned about George Washington Carver. 

Did you know he created 118 products from sweet potatoes? 

We also read about Rosa Parks this week, taking some extra time, really brainstorming what her life, and her decisions would have been like. We discussed making bold, right decisions, and also living a life of humility, which Rosa Parks did beautifully!

We completed this Rosa Parks bus and writing activity.

On the inside they wrote some of what they had learned, in their own words.

Oh, those little windows are just so full of sweet. I love their little colorings at this stage of life.

We watched all the versions of the Helen Keller movie we could find on youtube and learned so many things about her life and were reminded how blessed we are! 

We also sent away for this Braille Alphabet card.

You can send away for one  here, It is free and a great addition to this week's learning. 

Wagon Trains

We read "West by Wagon Train" in our American Pioneer and Patriots book. 

And we looked through this book, as well.

We also created wagon crafts this week.

These crafts just use things we already had around our home.. And they are definitely imperfect. I love that about them, though.

Abraham Lincoln

(on money)

We talked about Abraham Lincoln a little bit and what US currency his face can be found on.

This girl completed this penny worksheet.

Here she is observing a five dollar bill.

Human Body Unit

We really enjoyed spending time in the afternoons learning and exploring more about the human body this week. 

Some of our favorite resources for this unit were

The Human Body Flip Book

The Human Anatomy Felt Set

The Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body

Usborne's "See Inside Your Body" 

The Squishy Human Body by SmartLab Toys

On a different note, we were supposed to make a quilt this week and my heart is so torn over it. I have fabric, even a US map panel, and we just cannot do it. I do not have the time without a baby or a toddler to sew. It hurts a little to just set the fabric aside, but it is what it is. That is life. Sometimes things get done, but sometimes they just do not. It is such a delicate balance in our homeschooling. My girls are always so gracious about these things, too. I really appreciate their tender, thoughtful hearts in these times of needed mommy grace. Really.

and if you have extra time and talent and want to help them make a quilt, the fabric is still sitting in a basket, just waiting to be a quilt someday, any day.

Week 21: Robert Fulton, Sink and Float, Fruit of the Spirit

Week 21

Robert Fulton

We learned about Robert Fulton in The Story of the U.S book this week.
He invented the steamboat, which the girls enjoyed coloring on their notebooking page and also crafting a little paper example to play with, as well.

these origami style steamboats were very fun (and easy) to create

You may notice that I am correcting a bit more of the handwriting and punctuation these days. I think they are ready for that correction and handling it well, while still having fun learning about our history as a country. I also noted how wonderful their coloring was this week. I was proud of them for taking their time and doing their best work Coloring can be something they rush to get done but I can always tell when they take time to slow down and try to create something special.

State Studies

We completed two more state sheets

Indiana

and Mississippi

and adding them to the growing stack of states we have completed.

Sink or Float

We had fun with our experiments this week. I found a simple sink and float printout online for free. We used one sheet to cut up (and laminate) to label our result jars on our tray and one to write out both our predictions and our results. We gathered objects in our schoolroom for our experiment and took turns placing them in our jar of water, one by one, jotting down the results as we went. 

Here is what our tray looked like when we had finished. My girls did really well predicting most of these objects, which was really surprising to me, since we have not talked a lot about this topic.

In the end, whether or not an object will float or sink depends on its own density, and the density of the liquid it is placed in.

Making Juice

We read some of our Science in the Kitchen book, experimenting with fruit. We learned about plant cells and how much water they hold. 

In plant cells, the vacuoles are much larger than in animal cells. When a plant cell has stopped growing, there is usually one very large vacuole. Sometimes that vacuole can take up more than half of the cell's volume. The vacuole holds large amounts of water.

The girls squeezed some orange segments to see how much juice those segments held. We also observed  how the orange pieces looked after the juice was removed. 

Next, we gathered several different fruit to see how much juice each would have
 and how hard it would be to extract it. 

There was a lot of squeezing, mashing and banging going on in my kitchen, all while a happy baby and toddler enjoyed snacks of leftovers.... and pulp.

and here is what we ended up with in the end.

The best part is my girls (and littles) ate or drank all of our experiment so nothing was wasted.

Jesus the Vine

We learned about Jesus as the Vine this week. On Sunday, we were fighting a virus and needed to stay home from worshiping with our church family, so I thought it would give us a perfect opportunity to create a few special crafts and reread what we had learned this week in our Bible lessons.

We created two crafts to review the story of 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego 
(you can read about their story in Daniel 3)

these sweet crafts can be found here 

They were really easy to put together. It was simply coloring, cutting, piecing together, and gluing.

I found the idea for this cute puppet theater here.
The girls really enjoyed these! My preschooler also really liked this craft. 

Fruit of the Spirit

We also created these watercolor paintings with punched out "grapes", each with a fruit of the spirit written on them.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

Galatians 5:22-23

I always love how unique my girls' pictures are, just like how God created them, unique and beautiful.

This week was not how I planned, but it was a very fruitful week.

to give you a little more detail on where and what we are studying

you can check out our classroom reveal HERE

and our curriculum  for 2014-2015 HERE

 and Week One here

Week 20 MFW Adventures: Lewis and Clark and Plants

Week 20

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

Lewis and Clark

We read a lot about Lewis and Clark this week. We sometimes have a hard time getting through the readings in the book The Story of the US, so it was really great that our library had The Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark book, by Rhoda Blumberg, that had beautiful photos and well written facts. It was definitely a book that was out of the book basket more than it was in it.

We created this Lewis and Clark lapbook. It was a pretty big undertaking, but the girls were pretty happy with the result, so it was worth the extra time we spent on it.

We spent some extra time just learning about Sacagawea and exploring what it would have been like to be her. We even found these Sacagawea paper dolls  to cut out, color, and reenact the story.

Louisiana (State Studies)

The girls completed their  Louisiana pages and the Louisiana Purchase student sheets.

We read these books on Ruby Bridges from our book basket.

And we created these simple dolls as we watched the Ruby Bridges movie (1998). I was definitely in tears as we watched and was really touched. I know we all were glad we watched it. It brought up so much in our hearts.

Plants

Lowe's Field Trip 

We were really excited to head over to Lowe's for this Build and Grow Workshop, which went so well with our studies. The little planters were fun (and not too hard) to put together.

This girl worked very hard and had some help from the best. We love our Lowe's.

Look at her face. It is so special to build something yourself.

We added some planting soil and flower seeds and waited... and waited....

and look at all of that green sprouting up!

I loved how the girls were quick to remind me that we needed to water these flowers often.
Lessons were learned this week!

If you have a Lowe's in your area, you should see what workshops they offer for children.
They are completely free and provide basic building skills and a sweet project for your child to take home that they have created.


Music 

Swan Lake

We also pulled out our Ballet Stories book again, and listened to Swan lake, as we looked at the lovely photos.  This recommended book basket book is an excellent addition to your My Father's World Adventures school year.

The Star-Spangled Banner

We also learned the words to the song The Star-Spangled Banner. We found a free printout to color and fill in.

It was a really great week! We learned, were challenged, and were very busy, but in the best way. 

to give you a little more detail on where and what we are studying

you can check out our classroom reveal HERE

and our curriculum  for 2014-2015 HERE

 and Week One here

Week 19 MFW Adventures: Wool and State Studies

Week 19

The Lamb of God

(name of God)

We took some time reading about how Jesus is the lamb of God this week. We were able to create, read and explore this topic fully this week, too, which was a huge blessing for our learning.

We read one of our favorite books A New Coat for Anna.

We also went on a sheep and wool field trip to one of our favorite local farms
Remick Country Doctor Museum and Farm

(if you are a local homeschooling family you can see what upcoming field trips they are offering here)

We learned so much about the whole process of sheep to wool.

After the field trip we came back to our schoolroom to create the lamb handprint from our lessons with the wool we were allowed to keep from field trip.

I love that no matter what I give them for an activity, they always create them uniquely. They are never the same and I love how I can see their own unique personalities in their work.

Pioneers on the Ohio River/Ohio

We continued reading from one of our favorite books this year, American Pioneers and Patriots, including learning a little about pioneer schools.

We used our Adventures student sheets to create our very own
New England Primers

We completed our Ohio page while drinking some tomato juice, since it is their state drink!

and we read Lentil (from the book basket list) which takes place in Ohio.

We also read about Johnny Appleseed and completed this fact and legend activity.
The girls really enjoyed this interactive color, cut, and glue notebooking.

Animals

We studied about animals this week. It was just an overview, but  the animal memory game was a huge hit. It was fun to learn and play at the same time.

We pulled out some animal flashcards from our homeschool closet and had these girls read them to our little tag-a-longs.

These moments captured just makes my heart explode. This is homeschooling. This is life. This is joy.

If you are interested in these Pretty Studio Flash Cards, you can find them here.


It was a full week. A wild one. A great one.

to give you a little more detail on where and what we are studying

you can check out our classroom reveal HERE

and our curriculum  for 2014-2015 HERE

 and Week One here