Friday, December 19, 2014

13 Days of Homeschool Holidays - Days 6-10!

Week 2 of our Homeschool Holidays series! There aren't as many pictures this week because we didn't do as many crafts, but we still had a ton of fun. We also found time to having a holiday baking party where Mimzy helped make and decorate sugar cookies, make oreo truffles, thumbprint cookies, and more. She also advanced in rank in her karate lessons, which made her feel very proud!



Mimzy's Christmas Tree shape poem.






Making potato latkes!



Monday Dec 15 -
Hanukkah summary and questions
Dreidel Game

Recipe : Potato Latkes





















Tues Dec 16 -
Yule summary and questions
Santa and Newton’s Laws activity.

(We were supposed to make wassail this day but ran out of time, so we hope to make this next week!)



















Wednesday Dec 17 - 
Homeschool Day at Zoo












Thurs Dec 18 -
Omisoka summary and questions
“osoji” on our house and items (cleaning and purging of things you don't need/use)
Take items for donation





















Fri Dec 19 -
Kwanzaa summary and questions
Christmas Tree Poems activity

Cards and Bookmark craft for family gifts










Image property of the karate school.






Friday, December 12, 2014

13 Days of Homeschool Holidays - First 5 Days!


Photo property of Mimzy's Karate school.

This was our first week of our special Holiday-themed lesson plan! If anyone would like a copy of the complete plan, send me a message and I'd be happy to share!












Monday Dec 8 -
Saint Nicholas Day summary and questions.
Saint Nicholas Day finding activity
Shop for Christmas for Kids gifts!










Tuesday Dec 9 -
Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
How to say “Merry Christmas” or “Season’s Greetings” around the world Activity

Read “Jack Frost” by Helen Bayley Davis and journal








Wednesday Dec 10 -
Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe summary and questions
Painting watercolor roses
Locate Mexico and Spain on a world map.












Thursday Dec 11 -
Make handprint wreaths
Will we have a white Christmas? ActivityMake God's Eye ornaments



























Friday Dec 12 –
St. Lucia Day summary and questions
12-Days writing activity
Identify Scandanavia on a world map.











The wreath is one of my favorites because Mimzy's hands make up the outside, 
and Shark's make up the bow.

Check us out next week for more holiday fun!





Saturday, December 6, 2014

13 Days of Homeschool Holidays Plan!

It took me all week and a lot of planning, but I finally have our plan worked out! I'm posting the schedule here and I will post lots of pictures each week! :)

Monday Dec 8 -
Saint Nicholas Day summary and questions.
Saint Nicholas Day finding activity
Shop for Christmas for Kids gifts!

Tuesday Dec 9 -
Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
How to say “Merry Christmas” or “Season’s Greetings” around the world Activity

Read “Jack Frost” by Helen Bayley Davis and journal

Wednesday Dec 10 -
Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe summary and questions
Painting watercolor roses
Locate Mexico and Spain on a world map.

Thursday Dec 11 -
Make handprint wreaths
Will we have a white Christmas? Activity

Friday Dec 12 –
St. Lucia Day summary and questions
12-Days writing activity
Identify Scandanavia on a world map.

Monday Dec 15 -

Hanukkah summary and questions
Dreidel Game
Recipe : Potato Latkes

Tues Dec 16 -
Yule summary and questions
Santa and Newton’s Laws activity.
Recipe : Wassail

Wednesday Dec 17 -
Homeschool at Zoo

Thurs Dec 18 -
Omisoka summary and questions
“osoji” on our house and items
Take items for donation

Fri Dec 19 -
Kwanzaa summary and questions
Christmas Tree Poems activity
Cards and Bookmark craft for family gifts

Monday Dec 22 -
Christmas Day summary and questions
Christmas Tree Sales Worksheet

Tues Dec 23 -
Boxing Day summary and questions
Comparing Holidays Activity

Wed Dec 24 -
Read “The Night Before Christmas”
Draw picture in journal.

Week of 11/30/2014-12/06/2014

Reading/Language Arts : Finished Solomon Owl and wrote about his adventures in her reading journal.

Math : Reviewed our time tables, did splashmath.com, etc as usual. We did mixed problems using all 4 processes, and volume measurement and money-counting worksheets.

Social Studies : Located where we lived on a map and a globe, discussed the climate of our area as well as important geography (lakes, rivers, mountains) nearby. Discussed how seasons work in our area. She made an entry in her journal about her enjoying time outside during her favorite season. (She drew herself at the beach in the middle of summer.)

Science : We watched videos and read about spiders homes. She was wary about studying spiders at first because she's scared of them, but she enjoyed learning more about them in the end. She also drew a beautiful picture of a spider web in a tree in a forest.

Health : We discussed how to relax and cool down in times of stress, and practiced meditation. She wrote about ways to calm down and relax in her journal.

Art : Nothing special this week, most of our extra time was spent preparing for our special Holiday set next week!

Music : We used rhythm work with her multiplication tables and sang a LOT of Christmas Carols! She started learning to play the keyboard.

Craft : Nothing special this week, most of our extra time was spent preparing for our special Holiday set next week!

Extra : Karate lessons, swim team, spanish lessons at Duolingo, typing lessons using Dance Mat Typing.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Working on a special December lesson plan!!


I'm working on a very special lesson plan for this month. I'm planning on doing a "13 Days of Homeschool and Holidays" set from December 8th-December 24th in which we'll discuss different December holidays each day. If it works out as I'm hoping we'll set aside our boxed Oak Meadows curriculum for the rest of the month starting next week and all our lessons will involve cultural and religious exploration. I don't have it all worked out yet, but I'll share my lesson plan once it's in place before the beginning of the week, in case anyone else wants to follow along!

The holidays we'll be learning about are :

Saint Nicholas Day (Dec 6th) (Christian)
Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec 12th) (Mexican)
St. Lucia Day (Dec 13th) (Swedish)
Hanukkah (Dec 16-24) (Jewish)
Christmas Day (Dec 25) (Christian)
Boxing Day Dec 26) (Australian, Canadian, English, Irish)
Kwanzaa (Dec 26-Jan 1) (African American)
Omisoka (Dec 31) (Japanese)
Yule (Dec 21) (Pagan)

Week of 11/23/2014-11/29/2014

This week was a rough one, as evidenced by the fact that this blog update is 4 days later than usual. The car broke down and much of our school time was spent trying to find rides to necessary locations, the adults had their turns at being ill, and Thanksgiving took up an entire day of school time. So, unfortunately the arts and crafts we had planned for the week were what really suffered. 



Reading/Language Arts : Read Solomon Owl and wrote about his adventures in her reading journal.

Math : Reviewed our time tables, did splashmath.com, etc as usual. We did mixed problems using all 4 processes, and measurement and money-counting worksheets.

Social Studies : Mimzy used her map from last week and added the Isle of Iona, where Columcille lived, and also arrows representing the migration of the Celtic people. She added these to her legend. 

Science : We watched videos, read, and discussed different kinds of animal homes. For example: caves, holes in the ground, thickets, nests, tree hollows, etc and the animals that lived in them. She then chose three different animals and different homes and wrote about them in her journal.

Health : We discussed her body's need for both exercise and sleep. Mimzy worked out for 10 minutes straight and then made notes about how her body felt (ie: racing heart, short of breath), and then we thought up different ways she could get rest through a busy day.

Art : Nothing special this week!

Music : We used rhythm work with her multiplication tables.

Craft : Nothing special this week!

Extra : Karate lessons, swim team, spanish lessons at Duolingo, typing lessons using Dance Mat Typing.


Thursday, November 20, 2014

Week of 11/16/2014-11/22/2014

Reading/Language Arts : We got back onto schedule this week, reading Solomon Owl every day and writing about his adventures in her reading journal.

Math : We reviewed our time tables, did splashmath.com, etc as usual. We did mixed problems using all 4 processes, and read a math story that helped to introduce and explain the long division sign for presenting division problems. She also had fun doing some measurement and money-counting worksheets.

Social Studies : Mimzy identified the British Isles on the globe and drew a map showing the United Kingdom and Ireland. She colored and marked each location on the map and created a legend and a compass rose to help explain the map.

Science : This week we read a science story about bees, then wrote and drew about it in the Science workbook. She had fun molding beeswax into her own honeycomb, and of course we had to eat some honey as well.

Health : The lesson for the week was all about stovetop cooking! Mimzy learned how to make tea (pre-bagged and loose leaf) and grilled cheese sandwiches, and also experimented with honey, sugar, and milk to decide how she liked her tea the best. Turns out she liked all 3! Though it wasn't stove-top, she decided to make an apple pie from scratch instead of the soup recommended in the lesson. Given all the prep work involved, and how much she enjoyed it, I figured it was a good substitution!

Art : Mimzy started working on making her own calendar. This week we did January and February of 2015!

Music : We used rhythm work with her multiplication tables.


Craft : We made the honeycomb using beeswax, worked on her calendar, and she also learned how to use origami to make fortune tellers.

Extra : Karate lessons, swim team, spanish lessons at Duolingo, as usual. We also started typing lessons using Dance Mat Typing!





Friday, November 14, 2014

Week of 11/09/2014-11/15/2014

We had a rough week! Ear aches, migraines, vomiting, fever, colds ... you name it, someone in this house had it. So some things didn't get finished, but hopefully we'll be able to get back on track in the next week!


Reading/Language Arts : This week was a bit of a break week since no one was feeling well. Mimzy just read her own books for pleasure each night, no reporting necessary. We'll get back to Solomon Owl next week!

Math : We went over our 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 11 times tables, did mixed multiplication problems, and splashmath.com. We also started on three-digit addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division word problems.

Social Studies : Mimzy identified the 7 continents and 5 oceans on a map and entered them into her journal. We played a game where we'd randomly pick a location and discuss what the climate would be like and how that would affect people's lifestyles. She located our continent and country, and we also discussed some places that she'd like the visit globally.

Science : We continued playing games with the animal flashcards we made last week. Mimzy picked a favorite animal (dolphins) and entered information about them along with pictures into her journal.


Health : We charted all the food Mimzy ate for one day, and the next day we discussed MyPlate. She colored in one MyPlate graph and we discussed some foods that belonged in each category, then we cut and pasted the foods she'd eaten the day before onto another MyPlate graph.

Art : Mimzy drew a beautiful picture of our family that was full of life and color!

Music : We practiced rhythm and learned the lyrics to several patriotic songs for Veterans Day, including The Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful.

Craft : We made necklaces using thread and beads.

Extra : Karate lessons, swim team, spanish lessons at Duolingo, as usual. She had her monthly homeschool day at the zoo this week. The topic this time was North America! Mimzy got to meet a screech owl and pet an opossom, among other things.