Around the World; Introduction

I tend to lean towards being a Classically minded homeschooler, which means I'm gearing up for a four-year history rotation beginning in first grade. Before getting into that though, I wanted to give the kids some framework to build upon by introducing them to the world...the people and cultures and variety that is on our Earth. I didn't really want anything too heavy in technical geography, because we'll get to that later. I just wanted a nice gentle exposure to the world outside our little town.

I had originally planned to do this during our Kindergarten year, but then I discovered Elemental History and was so intrigued I have to have it. You know what I'm talking about..ooh! Shiny new curriculum! Well, Elemental History is geared for the Kindergarten year (it gives a brief survey of American history, since you don't really get to it again until the end of the four-year history rotation). So. I decided to do my Around the World study during our Pre-K year. Which really reinforced the idea that it had to be basic and gentle and fun.

I took a ton of different resources and hours upon hours of my own research and came up with my own "Curriculum". I laugh, because really...it is so not a "curriculum". I have a very loose outline and an enormous book list and I'm pretty much winging it. But I want to document what we've been doing so I can easily reference it when we come back to Pre-K in a few years. And hey...if you happen to find something useful here too, then we both win!

We started in August with an Introduction Month. My goal for this month was to get the kids familiar with looking at maps and globes, and start learning the continents. To that end, I made sure we had wall maps (I used freebies that came in the mail) and a globe (I bought a super cheap inflatable one. This is Pre-K. I'm not spending the big bucks yet.). I also used the Kingfisher Picture Atlas and a flip chart of the continents I found at a thrift store. Seriously, don't spend a lot here. I'd rather buy a cheap globe and let the kids play with it, instead of buying an expensive one I'm afraid to let them touch.

As you look through our book list, you'll probably notice that many of the books we use are old/out of print/hard to find. That's because 1) I've been buying educational books at thrift shops for years, 2) if I see something we can use later I buy it..hence the Target dollar spot deals, and 3) I have a library card and I'm not afraid to use it. I can't say this enough; this is preschool. Save your money.

Week One
Read Maps and Globes
Read Sandwiches Around the World (an article inside one of those public school reading books you can find in any thrift store)

Week Two
Read Continents and Oceans ( a "Top Readers" book whose ISBN is not found anywhere online. Boo.)
Read World flap book (from the dollar section at Target)
Play Continent Hop

Playing Continent Hop

Week Three
Read What is Your Language
Read Wonders of the World flap book (also from the dollar section of Target)

Week Four
Row How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. (Instead of doing all the activities in the Five in a Row manual for this book I only focused on the ones relating to geography/culture or ones that just looked like a lot of fun. And of course, we made an apple pie.)

Great sequencing cards found here

Supplemental Books
Everybody Cooks Rice
Homes Around the World ABCs
P is for Passport

This was a super light month, except for the last week. I planned it that way, so we didn't jump in over our heads, and it seemed to work well. Their curiosity was piqued, which was my goal!

We spent September in South America. See you there!

We Choose Virtues (GIVEAWAY CLOSED!)

How do you teach your child about virtues? You know, things like patience, kindness, and perseverance. I thought they'd come naturally, taught through observation. But that hasn't happened in my family. I've tried talking to my kids about virtues, or correcting behavior when I see it....but those don't really seem to stick either.

I came across We Choose Virtues a few months back, and thought their virtue flash cards looked like a cute way to reinforce the ideas I was struggling to teach. We ordered a set of cards and started using them right away. My son and I read through the cards every Monday, and then he chooses a card he wants to focus on that week. I clip his chosen card to our weekly calendar and we reference it all week. Then on Friday we review all the cards again.

Sounds simple, right? It is! And amazingly, I'm seeing results! My son gets a kick out of telling everyone he sees what his virtue of the week is, and he really seems to be internalizing what the words mean. One week he chose to work on "self-control", and it was a struggle all week. He's 4...self-control is a bit of a struggle for all kids at this age, right?! When the next week came around, he said he wanted to work on self-control again, so we did! I can't tell you he mastered self-control in two weeks (don't we wish!!), but he did seem to get some insight and was able to rein himself in after a quick reminder.

We Choose Virtues has many more items to help teach virtues besides the virtue cards. They have posters, and teacher/family cards, and many more things that can be used in homes or schools or churches. And they also offer their products in a faith-based or community version, which I LOVE! The faith-based items feature Bible verses to go along with each virtue, and the community versions do not.

You can keep up with We Choose Virtues on their Facebook page.

BUY IT
If you're interested, head over to We Choose Virtues and look around. When you're ready to order, use promo code "VIRTUE15" to save 15% off your purchase! If you're interested in the Teacher's Virtues Cards for Families or the Homeschool Kit, use promo code "Virtuemom" for 25% off those items through September 2011.

WIN IT 
Winner has been notified. Thanks to all who entered!

The fabulous folks at We Choose Virtues have provided a set of Faith-Based Virtue flash cards for one of you! If you'd like to win, simply leave a comment below. Be sure to provide a valid e-mail address!

Comments will close at midnight EST, October 8, 2011. A winner will be randomly selected and notified via e-mail on October 9, 2011. Winner will have 48-hours to claim their prize. If not claimed, winner forfeits their prize and an alternate winner will be drawn. Open to US addresses only, please.

Keeping it real: My family purchased our Virtue Cards. The giveaway cards were provided by We Choose Virtues at no cost to my family. Links in this post are affiliate links.

Week(s) In Review; 09/07/11

We had SUCH a fun Labor Day Weekend. We did a little staycation, and explored one of the islands here in Coastal Georgia. There were a LOT of educational opportunities, which I can't wait to share with you in another post! Here is what we've been up to for the last few weeks:

LANGUAGE ARTS
We made it to Step 6 in All About Spelling, and that's it. We're done. It started becoming SUCH a chore, and Aiden grumbled every time I brought out the book/white board/letter tiles. The actual material isn't too difficult for him, but the way it's presented is not really a good match for his maturity level. Looking ahead, it's going to jump pretty quickly into dictating sentences, which he is in NO WAY ready for. So I'd rather shelve it for a year or so and then move quickly through it instead of pulling teeth to get it done now. Everything else (reading and handwriting) is coming along fine.

MATH
Some of our math lessons the last few weeks were review (pictographs, ordering by length, patterns, teddy bear counters, and geoboards). Aiden really got into the geoboards so I gave him some free time to explore and this is what he came up with:

SCIENCE
We've kind of been all over the place with science, waiting on library books. We covered a bit of nutrition, reading the books Eat Healthy, Feel Great and Good Enough to Eat. We also did a Food Pyramid, and Aiden glued pictures of different foods into their category. We learned about our sense of taste by reading the book Taste and doing a little experiment where Aiden tasted salt/sugar/cocoa powder/lemon juice. We finished our study of teeth by reading I Know Why I Brush My Teeth and making a fun little guy to demonstrate the different teeth in our mouths.

Finally, we learned about our urinary system and our voices by using our science spine, First Encyclopedia of the Human Body. That got us all caught up so we're back on our regular science schedule!

GEOGRAPHY
We finished our introductory month of our Around the World study. (I'll be posting details in a separate post). We wrapped the month up by rowing How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, which was SO much fun! Naturally, we had to make our own apple pie!

BFIAR
We rowed our final BFIAR book, Angus Lost. Since it was our last, I kind of went overboard on the lapbook and did just about all that HSS had to offer.

I'm a little sad that we're done with BFIAR. We've been rowing these books for so long! But we'll be back soon when my toddler gets a little older.

OTHER FUN STUFF
We haven't done much with our Ocean study lately. Same with Spanish. We have managed to view The Tuneables, and we've been reviewing our virtues (which are going REALLY good! I'll be posting a review/giveaway soon!). I've been trying to get the kids into some good art projects lately, whether it's play dough or finger paint or whatever. I really want to do more art with them. Any suggestions?

I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend! Did you do anything fun? I'd love to hear about it!

Kindergarten Unit Studies at Homeschool Share

You know about Homeschool Share (HSS), right? If you don't, go. Now. Every homeschooler should know about Homeschool Share! They have so many...SO MANY!!!...free unit studies and resources to complement your studies. I've used the site for a few years now, to supplement our Before Five In A Row studies. (In fact, all the lapbooks you've seen here were created using items from HSS!).

This month HSS is adding a new selection of Kindergarten Units! They'll have several different themes to choose from, but I was given a sneak peek at their Pirates Unit. Pirates can be a little tricky with this age range because some pirates are...well...scary! So I was super glad to see that HSS kept the focus on cute kid-friendly pirates! Here is a sampling of what is in the unit:

Scissor Skills, Trace the Path to Treasure, and Count to 100:

Sorting Blends and Finding Treasure Through Numbers:

Can You Follow Directions, Matey? (obviously this matey needs some work in that area!) and Color By Letter:

Pirate Guess Who Game:

There are several other sheets not listed here, as well as a Pirate-themed reading list. It's really a great unit to help reinforce those early learning skills! Even if your child is working a little above some of the skills here, it still makes for a fun afternoon activity.

If you have a Preschool or Kinder-age child, keep your eyes on HSS this month for their new Kindergarten Units. You can also keep up with HSS on Facebook (they've been sharing sneak peeks of other Kindergarten Unit Themes on their wall!).

Keeping it real: We received a complementary Pirate Unit for review purposes.

The Tuneables

I have agonized over music curriculum. Truly, I have. I've spent hours upon hours looking at curriculum and books and CDs. I know research shows that exposure to good music at an early age is beneficial, so I want to make sure our homeschool lessons provide some musical exposure. But, I'm not the least bit musically inclined. I don't know anything about music theory, and I've never played an instrument. I don't have a clue how to teach music beyond popping a CD in the CD player.

So...I was thrilled...THRILLED!!!! to discover The Tuneables. This DVD/CD collection is sponsored by The Music Intelligence Project, and offers a unique approach to music education. As you probably have experienced, many musical DVDs/CDs encourage kids to sing and dance along, or (at worst) expect them to passively listen. But The Tuneables really engages the kids and requires them to focus and actively participate while they learn music skills. Here is a clip from the DVD to show you what I mean:


I was curious at first about what exact music skills could be taught by a 30-minute animated DVD. Well, to start with, The Tuneables is full of great music influenced by well-known classical works. Beyond that, kids are encouraged to hear tonal patterns and then sing them, develop rhythmic skills, and expand the range of their singing voices. The Tuneables use an approach they call, "hear it, do it, and name it", which builds aural perception, kinesthetic response and verbal association".

In plain English? Your kids will hear the music/tonal pattern/rhythm on the DVD. Then they will sing/tap the rhythm/march. And finally they'll learn the names of some of the musical tones and instruments. It really works! I've tried to teach rhythm to my son before (and like I said, I have no musical background), but we didn't get anywhere. After watching The Tuneables a few times, he's able to tap along in rhythm to the songs. Check out this quick video clip of him watching the DVD (and, please, ignore his play clothes. I swear...it never fails...whenever I take a video or photo to share either the kids are in their play clothes or the house is a mess!):


He's also starting to learn the names of the musical tones Do, Mi and Sol (the three tones focused on in the DVD). The scales are taught using an adorable cartoon Bell Family. All the characters in The Tuneables are super cute, actually. Each character resembles a different musical instrument! Meet them all in this video clip from the DVD:


The Tuneables also have a CD which is getting constant play around here. It features songs from the DVD plus extras! And you can download a Parent's Guide to help you make the most of the songs. It tells you the objective of each song, an action you can do (such as identifying the tonal patterns in the song or patting/tapping to the rhythm), and the lyrics. The Guide has been super helpful to me, so I don't just let the music idly play in the background.

If you're looking for a great introduction to music for your kids, definitely check out The Tuneables. You have a few different options when it comes time to purchase. You can buy the DVD/CD combo, or buy each on its own. They also offer downloadable products.This is the first in a series, and I can't wait to see what else they develop! Keep up with The Tuneables on Facebook and YouTube!

Keeping it real: I received a complementary copy of The Tuneables DVD/CD combo for review purposes.

Week(s) in Review; August 19, 2011

As usual, my planned week off turned into longer than a week...and then it took awhile for us to get back on track. But we did it! And we started some new things that have turned out to be a lot of fun! So here is a recap of our last few weeks...

LANGUAGE ARTS
Aiden is still plugging away at the SSRW readers. I have him read one story a day from those, and then he does a ton of reading on his own. For our read-aloud we started The Original Winnie-the Pooh stories and they have been a BIG hit! They're so precious and sweet...it's been a great choice for this age. Handwriting is coming along nicely. We're almost ready to start lower case letters, which Aiden is THRILLED for. He's been wanting to do lower case for quite awhile. Finally, we began spelling with All About Spelling. It is so much fun! The first few lessons were kind of slow and boring, but once we got further in we started using letter tiles and a big white board:

At the start of each new lesson (AAS calls them Steps), Aiden alphabetizes the letter tiles (he's a little annoyed that the "q" tile is "qu", but I keep telling him that's just how we're going to do it for spelling...). Then we use them to spell words. We just finished Step 5, where I spelled a word like "hat", and then I asked Aiden to turn it into "hot" or "hit". He'd replace the "a" tile with the other vowel tile. It was so exciting to watch him do this! Then later in the week he wanted to get on Starfall.com, so my husband told him to type the word Starfall on the computer...AND HE DID! He totally spelled it on his own. So cool!

MATH
Saxon K Math is all over the place, so we've been doing a lot of different things. We used geoboards to make and copy designs, we learned about dimes and counting by tens, and we started doing some basic measuring exercises. In one, Aiden used a one-cup measuring cup to follow a "recipe", and mixed yellow and blue water to make green. In the other exercise, Aiden learned how many cups of water will fill a quart container, and what full/half-full/empty mean:

SCIENCE
My Library system is moving veeerrryyy slow again, so our science books are taking forever to get to us. Because of that, science has been a little hit or miss. We finished our study of digestion by reading I Know Where My Food Goes and What Happens to a Hamburger. We watched a cute movie about digestion and created a model of the digestive system, which was quite entertaining! The small intestine took up almost our entire living room!

We tried to do our lesson on taste, but the book was delayed. So we're going to restart that lesson this coming week. Instead we moved on to teeth, and read the book How Many Teeth. Aiden did a worksheet where he had to cut and paste different foods into columns (good for teeth or bad for teeth). He really took it to heart too, because I made chocolate chip banana bread that day and he wouldn't eat any because it was a sweet, and bad for his teeth! Ha! We're going to have to revisit our teeth lesson though, because the rest of our library books haven't arrived.

GEOGRAPHY
We started our Around the World study and I am SO EXCITED! I've been working on this for months! We're starting with a basic introduction to the world this month. I'll post a recap of each month as we progress, but for now I want to share a photo of the kids doing the Continent Hop (doesn't everyone do school in a purple fairy dress and monster paws?).

BFIAR
We rowed The Listening Walk, which isn't that exciting. There isn't a whole lot to do to accompany the story, so we only rowed this book for three days. Or maybe two. I can't remember. It wasn't really a big hit. Then we rowed The Snowy Day. I know, it's August. Oh well. It was kind of fun to paint glitter snowflakes and make construction paper snowmen during the summer. We've been waiting a few weeks for our final BFIAR title to arrive (Angus Lost) and then we'll be done!

OCEAN
We're still doing our Ocean Study using Evan Moor Thematic Units. It seems so scattered though and I'm not sure how to best use the material. I'm thinking that I may just do it once a week instead of two or three times. But regardless, it's full of super cute preschool activities. We've made whale puppets, played Memory Match with ocean cards, and learned ocean rhymes and songs.

OTHER FUN STUFF
We began learning virtues, using We Choose Virtues. (I'll be reviewing these soon...and offering a discount code! Stay tuned!). They've been a big hit, and Aiden has been choosing one virtue to focus on each week. We also began using an adorable music program called The Tuneables (Stay tuned for a review of this as well!). The kids have fallen in love with The Tuneables, and although my intentions were to watch the DVD once a week, it's been played almost daily. Finally, we're still watching Salsa for Spanish. We finished all the activities for Episode One, so we'll be moving on to Episode Two next week.

Did you start anything new this school year? How is it going so far?

Week in Review; 07/16/11

Aiden seems to want school all the time...or not at all. This week was a not at all week. He didn't ask to "do school", and when I suggested it he scowled and said he didn't want to. So, we didn't.

Before he got in his anti-"school" mood, we did a math lesson that was lots of fun. I made pattern strips and he used Unifix cubes to copy them.

Even though we didn't do any other formal lessons this week, we did a ton of reading. I introduced Aiden to The Magic Tree House and he was captivated! Well, he was captivated with the first book, anyway. He asked me to read it over and over, and when my voice gave out he read it on his own.

He had to tell his Daddy all about the adventure, and then Daddy got conned into reading it at bedtime. The first book was a huge hit! The second book...eh...not so much. Knights and castles just aren't as exciting as dinosaurs!

The only thing I made sure we kept up with this week was our BFIAR book. We rowed The Little Rabbit, which is such a great classic. We really expanded on the theme too, and included all the other books in the series (The Little Lamb, The Little Duck, and The Little Goat). When Buttercup the rabbit met up with the wild rabbit in the book, we discussed the differences between them, and then read Rabbits and Raindrops, which is about a wild mother rabbit and her babies. When Buttercup gave birth, we read another book about animal babies. We even did a math activity, where Aiden "fed" carrots to the rabbit to match the number I had on the paper.

We did some just-for-fun stuff too, like fingerplays and a hilarious version of the Hokey Pokey called the Bunny Pokey. It was a super fun week, and of course we turned it into a lapbook (printables from Homeschoolshare.com).

I had already planned a week off next week, so this light week was pretty good timing. Have any of you rowed The Little Rabbit? I'd love to hear what you added to the lesson!