One of the things that having a job has changed in my life - besides, oh, I don't know, EVERYTHING - has been the ability to run errands during the middle of the day. My days of browsing through quiet grocery store aisles and avoiding mall crowds are officially over.
Don't get me wrong. I'm fortunate enough that I do have some time in the afternoon each day where I can run an errand or two without being caught in rush hour traffic, and I also have a somewhat flexible lunch hour (flexible meaning that I can request a certain time slot, not that I have a flexible amount of time) where I can run errands as well. But by and large, errands are now an evening or weekend chore.
Today I wanted to take the last of my homeschooling materials to a local store. They carry a fair amount of curriculum, but they also do some consignment selling as well. However, when I looked up the address and decided to double check the hours, I was very upset to discover that they don't even open until 1 p.m. each day. So much for running that errand over lunch! Thankfully Oz's schedule is far more flexible than mine, and he offered to take in the books for me.
I got a text from him a bit later: "Books are dropped off. There was lots of oohing and aaaahing about what you had and a couple of "are you SURE she wants to sell this one". Bad grammar/punctuation aside, I replied, "HAHAHAHAHA yeah I figured there would be. It's good shit lol"
It was frustrating to me to discover how hard it is to sell secular curriculum, both locally and online. If I sell it online, yes, I want enough to cover shipping. If I sell it locally, yes, you do have to either meet me or come pick it up. I will not schlep it clear across town for you. And yes, for the love of Pete, Jimmy, Tom, Bart, and all the other Apostles, it is secular material! This is why I decided to take it to the consignment shop. Sure, some of it was openly secular - but it's the good stuff. The stuff I had, for the most part, is used by classical homeschoolers across the country, and while I made sure it had a secular slant (or at least not a heavily Christian one), it's still The Good Stuff.
I hope it sells. I really do. Because if I'm going to take the time out of my day to run another errand in a month to go pick up a check from the bookstore, I want it to be a good-sized one!
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
I am NOT a Saleswoman
I went upstairs and started going through the school room today. Yes, I could have waited until later in the summer to do this, but A) that room gets pretty warm in the mornings and then the whole upstairs is warm in the afternoons when it's hot in an Oklahoma summer and B) people are curriculum shopping for next year NOW, and they won't be when it's July. So I figured I'd get 'er dun.
Anyway, so the actual purging of the shelves didn't take too long. There was, naturally, a giant pile of books and papers that had been used or saved in the binders that were overflowing from all the work we'd finished throughout the year. And by giant pile, this pile was - IS, because I haven't moved it yet - a foot deep in the middle and probably 3-4' in diameter. PILE, I tell you. It was a PILE.
Then there was the pile of things to get rid of. I'll come back to that in a minute.
Then I went into the closet and pretended I couldn't see the fact that my children had totally trashed it and took out all the extra resources, all the curricula that I'd been saving in case I needed it for Boo, and went through that. All the resources went onto the bookshelves where curricula had sat before, so that now we have a shelf of history materials, a shelf of literature/writing resources and math manipulatives, and a shelf of science books. The kids already have their own dictionaries and thesauruses that sit under their desks, and there are a few books that don't fit on the shelves, so they sit next to the bookshelves… I may move those up to the top just so they aren't sitting next to the trash can where the electric pencil sharpener gets dumped, but we'll see.
Finally, I took down some of the posters from the walls, put up a few new ones, and then went through the posters to see what I wanted to keep and what I no longer wanted, and I added the latter to the pile of curricula to get rid of.
Then I made the fatal mistake of not writing it all down. You'd think that being as pedantic as I am, I'd know to make a list. But no. My brain was - IS - so done that I just thought, "Oh, yeah, I'll remember." I posted a list of all the posters on a local homeschool curriculum group and told folks they were free - I had gotten them for free and just wanted them gone, honestly - and then posted in another group that I had a bunch of stuff to get rid of.
After that, I walked out of the room. Fatal mistake. We ate lunch, and I sent the kids up to turn the closet back into some semblance of normalcy. I got on the computer again to see if there had been any nibbles… and that's when the trouble started.
For the record, do not allow your children to read you the titles and information off of the sides of books. It does not matter how literate they are, they will screw up. And then you will pass bad information on to prospective curriculum buyers - TWICE, at least - and then you'll go upstairs to start sorting through things for yourself and realize the errors and have to go back and eat your words. Twice, at least.
Clearly I should not be allowed to sell things when my mind is not as organized as it normally is. This, people, THIS is why I'm normally anal retentive to an insane degree. At this point, I *do* have a list of what I'm selling and most of the prices figured out (would've been smart to figure those out before posting, too, but again, I'm not so bright today), but I still have to keep them all straight.
Now I just hope I don't send the wrong items to the wrong people. Can you tell I've never worked retail?
Back to it. Let's see what I can confuse now ;)
Anyway, so the actual purging of the shelves didn't take too long. There was, naturally, a giant pile of books and papers that had been used or saved in the binders that were overflowing from all the work we'd finished throughout the year. And by giant pile, this pile was - IS, because I haven't moved it yet - a foot deep in the middle and probably 3-4' in diameter. PILE, I tell you. It was a PILE.
Then there was the pile of things to get rid of. I'll come back to that in a minute.
Then I went into the closet and pretended I couldn't see the fact that my children had totally trashed it and took out all the extra resources, all the curricula that I'd been saving in case I needed it for Boo, and went through that. All the resources went onto the bookshelves where curricula had sat before, so that now we have a shelf of history materials, a shelf of literature/writing resources and math manipulatives, and a shelf of science books. The kids already have their own dictionaries and thesauruses that sit under their desks, and there are a few books that don't fit on the shelves, so they sit next to the bookshelves… I may move those up to the top just so they aren't sitting next to the trash can where the electric pencil sharpener gets dumped, but we'll see.
Finally, I took down some of the posters from the walls, put up a few new ones, and then went through the posters to see what I wanted to keep and what I no longer wanted, and I added the latter to the pile of curricula to get rid of.
Then I made the fatal mistake of not writing it all down. You'd think that being as pedantic as I am, I'd know to make a list. But no. My brain was - IS - so done that I just thought, "Oh, yeah, I'll remember." I posted a list of all the posters on a local homeschool curriculum group and told folks they were free - I had gotten them for free and just wanted them gone, honestly - and then posted in another group that I had a bunch of stuff to get rid of.
After that, I walked out of the room. Fatal mistake. We ate lunch, and I sent the kids up to turn the closet back into some semblance of normalcy. I got on the computer again to see if there had been any nibbles… and that's when the trouble started.
For the record, do not allow your children to read you the titles and information off of the sides of books. It does not matter how literate they are, they will screw up. And then you will pass bad information on to prospective curriculum buyers - TWICE, at least - and then you'll go upstairs to start sorting through things for yourself and realize the errors and have to go back and eat your words. Twice, at least.
Clearly I should not be allowed to sell things when my mind is not as organized as it normally is. This, people, THIS is why I'm normally anal retentive to an insane degree. At this point, I *do* have a list of what I'm selling and most of the prices figured out (would've been smart to figure those out before posting, too, but again, I'm not so bright today), but I still have to keep them all straight.
Now I just hope I don't send the wrong items to the wrong people. Can you tell I've never worked retail?
Back to it. Let's see what I can confuse now ;)
Friday, October 11, 2013
Homemade History, Week 11
Trying this a different way this week... lemme know your thoughts.
Topic: Bronze Age Europe
Reading Options: Usborne World History Encyclopedia pp. 120-123, Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World pp. 102-107, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia pp. 12-13
Hands-On Learning Options: Map of Ancient Europe from Map Trek, Stonehenge mystery pages from, research European mythology (Celtic, Norse, Saxon, Slavic, etc.)
Definitions/Critical Thinking Questions: Neolithic, brooch, palisade, bronze/Why do you think Stonehenge was built? Do you think it should be preserved?
Electronic Learning Options: BBC for Kids Anglo-Saxons page, Celtic Europe video, for instance. There are also lots of hour-long documentaries including this one about the facts behind the fiction of Lord of the Rings. This is one of my favorite parts of history, so I could go on for days. I'll stop here.
Next week: Egypt - The Middle Kingdom, mythology
Topic: Bronze Age Europe
Reading Options: Usborne World History Encyclopedia pp. 120-123, Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World pp. 102-107, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia pp. 12-13
Hands-On Learning Options: Map of Ancient Europe from Map Trek, Stonehenge mystery pages from, research European mythology (Celtic, Norse, Saxon, Slavic, etc.)
Definitions/Critical Thinking Questions: Neolithic, brooch, palisade, bronze/Why do you think Stonehenge was built? Do you think it should be preserved?
Electronic Learning Options: BBC for Kids Anglo-Saxons page, Celtic Europe video, for instance. There are also lots of hour-long documentaries including this one about the facts behind the fiction of Lord of the Rings. This is one of my favorite parts of history, so I could go on for days. I'll stop here.
Next week: Egypt - The Middle Kingdom, mythology
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Homemade History, Week 10
No pictures today; they simply didn't happen this week. Not that we did a lot of things that were photogenic. This will also be short. My back is spasming, and sitting hurts.
Week 10 Topic: Crete - Minoans and Mycenaeans
Monday: Reading, notes, timeline. Our timeline died the ugly death this week after the whiteboard jumped off the wall and attempted to maul Doodlebug, so I broke down and simply ordered a book of completed timelines from Amazon rather than trying to redo our own. So from now on, we'll simply be finding the people we're studying on the timeline vs. creating our own. I'm okay with that. Reading options were: Story of the World Ch. 18 and the first half of Ch. 19, Usborne World History Encyclopedia pp. 126-127, Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World pp. 64-67, and Kingfisher History Encyclopedia pp. 16-17.
Tuesday: Map Trek map of early Greece (the kids recently finished reading various versions of the Iliad and were delighted to learn where Troy was, and I pointed out Ithaca for good measure since they'll be reading simplified versions of the Odyssey soon) and they picked topics for their next history papers. Doodlebug chose Cretan crafting and architecture; Boo chose Japanese mythology.
Wednesday: I let the kids make a book of the ancient Greek gods. It was one of the projects in the Ancient Greece book that I have an e-copy of. They enjoyed that. We also watched some videos, specifically this one on Knossos and this one on the Mycenaeans. We also watched several bull jumping videos; their favorite was this one.
Thursday: Definitions (from History Pockets - agora, chiton, column, and myth) and critical thinking questions - 1) Would you have preferred to live with the Minoans or the Mycenaeans? Why? 2) Would you have wanted to be a bull jumper?
Friday: For their project, I asked them to make a labyrinth. I gave them the choice of using Legos and other 'real' materials or just drawing a maze, and they both opted to just use graph paper and draw their mazes. It was a good challenge for both of them, and they enjoyed it. I was surprised how much they got out of it; the amount of time they spent on it gave them an appreciation for how long it would have taken for Daedalus (or whoever) to design a labyrinth, let alone construct one.
Next week: Bronze Age Europe - henges, palisades, farming methods
Week 10 Topic: Crete - Minoans and Mycenaeans
Monday: Reading, notes, timeline. Our timeline died the ugly death this week after the whiteboard jumped off the wall and attempted to maul Doodlebug, so I broke down and simply ordered a book of completed timelines from Amazon rather than trying to redo our own. So from now on, we'll simply be finding the people we're studying on the timeline vs. creating our own. I'm okay with that. Reading options were: Story of the World Ch. 18 and the first half of Ch. 19, Usborne World History Encyclopedia pp. 126-127, Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World pp. 64-67, and Kingfisher History Encyclopedia pp. 16-17.
Tuesday: Map Trek map of early Greece (the kids recently finished reading various versions of the Iliad and were delighted to learn where Troy was, and I pointed out Ithaca for good measure since they'll be reading simplified versions of the Odyssey soon) and they picked topics for their next history papers. Doodlebug chose Cretan crafting and architecture; Boo chose Japanese mythology.
Wednesday: I let the kids make a book of the ancient Greek gods. It was one of the projects in the Ancient Greece book that I have an e-copy of. They enjoyed that. We also watched some videos, specifically this one on Knossos and this one on the Mycenaeans. We also watched several bull jumping videos; their favorite was this one.
Thursday: Definitions (from History Pockets - agora, chiton, column, and myth) and critical thinking questions - 1) Would you have preferred to live with the Minoans or the Mycenaeans? Why? 2) Would you have wanted to be a bull jumper?
Friday: For their project, I asked them to make a labyrinth. I gave them the choice of using Legos and other 'real' materials or just drawing a maze, and they both opted to just use graph paper and draw their mazes. It was a good challenge for both of them, and they enjoyed it. I was surprised how much they got out of it; the amount of time they spent on it gave them an appreciation for how long it would have taken for Daedalus (or whoever) to design a labyrinth, let alone construct one.
Next week: Bronze Age Europe - henges, palisades, farming methods
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Homemade History, Week 9
History was sort of History Lite this week because of the other projects we had going, but the kids requested and therefore we still did a sort of history study. I'll put in all the stuff that could be used in case you want to do a full week, but we didn't do it all. No way, Jose.
Week 9 Topic: Indus Valley Civilizations, Hindu
Monday: Reading, summary, timeline - Story of the World (Chs. 9 and 30), Life in the Ancient Indus River Valley (pp. 1-15), Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 52-57), Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. 14-15, 33), and Usborne World History Encyclopedia (pp. 118-119, 174) were all given options. The kids poked through some of the choices, and I requested a book from the library on Hinduism for each of them.
Tuesday: Map Trek map of ancient India and discussion of Hindu gods. We didn't get around to the discussion, but we did the map. Score one for geography.
Wednesday: Definitions (plateau, plain, citadel, caste) and critical thinking questions: What do you think happened to the people who lived in Mohenjo-Daro? What do you think of a caste system? Can you think of anything that's good about it? Anything bad? (Doodlebug couldn't think of a single good thing about it unless you were in the upper castes. He was quite indignant. We just answered these orally this week.)
Thursday: We didn't do anything on Thursday since we were out of the house for most of the day, but the plan had been to watch some videos on the ancient Indus Valley peoples like this one on an ancient Aryan settlement or a Crash Course video on the Indus Valley civilizations (note: no mention of scoodily-pooping in this one). Or maybe let them poke around on the BBC site about Hinduism or a similar BBC Kids site on the Indus Valley.
Friday: I had planned to let the kids make rangoli again - giant rangoli on giant pieces of concrete in the driveway and/or on giant pieces of paper that we could save and hang up for Diwali, but the weather didn't cooperate. Hard to make sand art on wet concrete. The kids, however, decided that they weren't to be denied, so they chose to make candles. They initially wanted to make their own little terra-cotta pinch pots and fill those, but when Boo started poking around in her craft supplies, she realized she had a soy candle-making kit and they decided that would probably be safer and easier. I agreed.
They want to place these out on Diwali (November 3) and maybe make some rangoli between now and then as an art project. I'm not about to argue.
Next week (well, OK, this week... I'm behind, I know): Crete - Minoans, Mycenaeans.
Week 9 Topic: Indus Valley Civilizations, Hindu
Monday: Reading, summary, timeline - Story of the World (Chs. 9 and 30), Life in the Ancient Indus River Valley (pp. 1-15), Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 52-57), Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. 14-15, 33), and Usborne World History Encyclopedia (pp. 118-119, 174) were all given options. The kids poked through some of the choices, and I requested a book from the library on Hinduism for each of them.
Tuesday: Map Trek map of ancient India and discussion of Hindu gods. We didn't get around to the discussion, but we did the map. Score one for geography.
Wednesday: Definitions (plateau, plain, citadel, caste) and critical thinking questions: What do you think happened to the people who lived in Mohenjo-Daro? What do you think of a caste system? Can you think of anything that's good about it? Anything bad? (Doodlebug couldn't think of a single good thing about it unless you were in the upper castes. He was quite indignant. We just answered these orally this week.)
Thursday: We didn't do anything on Thursday since we were out of the house for most of the day, but the plan had been to watch some videos on the ancient Indus Valley peoples like this one on an ancient Aryan settlement or a Crash Course video on the Indus Valley civilizations (note: no mention of scoodily-pooping in this one). Or maybe let them poke around on the BBC site about Hinduism or a similar BBC Kids site on the Indus Valley.
Friday: I had planned to let the kids make rangoli again - giant rangoli on giant pieces of concrete in the driveway and/or on giant pieces of paper that we could save and hang up for Diwali, but the weather didn't cooperate. Hard to make sand art on wet concrete. The kids, however, decided that they weren't to be denied, so they chose to make candles. They initially wanted to make their own little terra-cotta pinch pots and fill those, but when Boo started poking around in her craft supplies, she realized she had a soy candle-making kit and they decided that would probably be safer and easier. I agreed.
They want to place these out on Diwali (November 3) and maybe make some rangoli between now and then as an art project. I'm not about to argue.
Next week (well, OK, this week... I'm behind, I know): Crete - Minoans, Mycenaeans.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Homemade History, Week 8
The kids turned in their papers this week. I thought they did well, and I may post those separately. Or not. I haven't decided yet. For week 9, even though it's primarily an interest-led week, the kids will still be doing history and math and a couple other electives. So I'll be back next weekend with yet another installment.
Week 8 Topic: Phoenicians and Sea Peoples
Monday: Reading and timeline. Reading options came from Story of the World (Ch. 15), Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. 28-29), Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 88-91), and/or the Usborne World History Encyclopedia (pp. 144-145). Boo was fascinated with the idea of city-states and alliances between the cities.
Tuesday: We filled in the Phoenicia's Trading Empire map from Map Trek and they started typing up their papers.
Wednesday: Videos! We watched a bunch: One on glassblowing (we also searched for Phoenician glass images so they could see some of the stuff the Phoenicians actually produced), one on the Phoenician Ship Expedition, and one on extracting dye. There's another video out there, called Quest for the Phoenicians, that is available in parts on Youtube or for legitimate sale in the National Geographic Store, that we caught the preview for. I may check it out another time, because both kids really, really like the Phoenician peoples.
Thursday: Definitions (city-state, colony, obelisk, alphabet) and Doodlebug's critical thinking questions (What were some advantages and disadvantages of having cooperating city-states vs. a unified country? Which of the Phoenician's inventions [alphabet, dye methods, glassblowing, shipbuilding, colonization, etc.] is the most significant to us today? Why do you think that?)
Friday: I was going to suggest that the kids help me make pita bread, but they had other (and better!) ideas. Doodlebug decided he wanted me to find him a map of Mediterranean currents and winds so that he could work out different sailing routes that the Phoenicians would have used to get to their colonies.
Boo decided she wanted to see if she could build her own boat.
Both kids ran into different problems with their projects - Boo had originally wanted to make a curved boat and Doodlebug wanted to figure out one route that would work for all seasons - but they both overcame their frustrations and were happy with their final results... even if the boat didn't float for more than a few seconds before sinking catastrophically.
Next week: The Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro, Hindu beliefs
Week 8 Topic: Phoenicians and Sea Peoples
Monday: Reading and timeline. Reading options came from Story of the World (Ch. 15), Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. 28-29), Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 88-91), and/or the Usborne World History Encyclopedia (pp. 144-145). Boo was fascinated with the idea of city-states and alliances between the cities.
Tuesday: We filled in the Phoenicia's Trading Empire map from Map Trek and they started typing up their papers.
Wednesday: Videos! We watched a bunch: One on glassblowing (we also searched for Phoenician glass images so they could see some of the stuff the Phoenicians actually produced), one on the Phoenician Ship Expedition, and one on extracting dye. There's another video out there, called Quest for the Phoenicians, that is available in parts on Youtube or for legitimate sale in the National Geographic Store, that we caught the preview for. I may check it out another time, because both kids really, really like the Phoenician peoples.
Thursday: Definitions (city-state, colony, obelisk, alphabet) and Doodlebug's critical thinking questions (What were some advantages and disadvantages of having cooperating city-states vs. a unified country? Which of the Phoenician's inventions [alphabet, dye methods, glassblowing, shipbuilding, colonization, etc.] is the most significant to us today? Why do you think that?)
Friday: I was going to suggest that the kids help me make pita bread, but they had other (and better!) ideas. Doodlebug decided he wanted me to find him a map of Mediterranean currents and winds so that he could work out different sailing routes that the Phoenicians would have used to get to their colonies.
Boo decided she wanted to see if she could build her own boat.
Both kids ran into different problems with their projects - Boo had originally wanted to make a curved boat and Doodlebug wanted to figure out one route that would work for all seasons - but they both overcame their frustrations and were happy with their final results... even if the boat didn't float for more than a few seconds before sinking catastrophically.
Next week: The Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro, Hindu beliefs
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Homemade History, Week 7
Just as we get into the really interesting stuff, it's time for a break. It's Labor Day week here in the ol' US of A, and I don't do four-day weeks. I find them unproductive. So instead, we just take the entire week off. Since we've been going hard for seven weeks, it's time. This first block is one of the longest continuous stretches of school we'll have all year.
Week 7 Topic: Egypt's Old Kingdom + mastabas, pyramids, mummies
Monday: Reading and notes. The kids picked two of the following choices: Story of the World chapters 2 and 4, Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World pages 28-31, Usborne World History Encyclopedia pages 114-117, or Life in Ancient Egypt pages 4-9, 20-22, and 26-27.
Tuesday: The kids finished their reading, and we noted any necessary revisions to their nine weeks' papers. They'll finish revising the paper and type them up in weeks 8 and 9, and hopefully I'll be allowed to post their work here. Doodlebug especially has surprised me - he decided to write his paper entirely from second-person perspective. It's an odd choice, but I think it works.
Wednesday: We filled in a map of Ancient Egypt, complete with the locations of pyramids, ancient cities along the Nile, and the general geography in and around Egypt like the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sahara.
Thursday: Definitions (hieroglyphics, pyramid, pharaoh, and papyrus - Doodlebug was fascinated with the method of making papyrus) and critical thinking questions: How did geography affect the lives of ancient Egyptians? What were some of the problems that Pharaoh may have faced? That second question is to get him thinking about the problems all rulers face, but he doesn't know that yet.
Friday: On Friday the kids played a game called Mummy Maker on the BBC Kids web site. Then they wanted to make their own cartouches. We discussed the function of a true cartouche, and then I told the kids that if they wanted to make their own, they had a choice. I could look up some close hieroglyphic representations of their names and they could make Egyptian cartouches or they could make their own indecipherable cartouches based on their interests and things that are important to them. Of course, being Generation 2.0 children, they wanted their own custom images. Doodlebug made his out of clay; Boo made hers from paper. Both are designed to be hung from strings like necklaces so they could, theoretically, wear their cartouches everywhere.
I have to say, you can see the differences between them just by looking at the images!
I also gave them options of making scented oil - basil, rosemary, garlic - or virtually touring the inside of the Great Pyramid. These are definitely other project/video options to consider.
Week 8 Topic (when we return): Phoenicians and "Sea People"
Week 7 Topic: Egypt's Old Kingdom + mastabas, pyramids, mummies
Monday: Reading and notes. The kids picked two of the following choices: Story of the World chapters 2 and 4, Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World pages 28-31, Usborne World History Encyclopedia pages 114-117, or Life in Ancient Egypt pages 4-9, 20-22, and 26-27.
Tuesday: The kids finished their reading, and we noted any necessary revisions to their nine weeks' papers. They'll finish revising the paper and type them up in weeks 8 and 9, and hopefully I'll be allowed to post their work here. Doodlebug especially has surprised me - he decided to write his paper entirely from second-person perspective. It's an odd choice, but I think it works.
Wednesday: We filled in a map of Ancient Egypt, complete with the locations of pyramids, ancient cities along the Nile, and the general geography in and around Egypt like the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sahara.
Thursday: Definitions (hieroglyphics, pyramid, pharaoh, and papyrus - Doodlebug was fascinated with the method of making papyrus) and critical thinking questions: How did geography affect the lives of ancient Egyptians? What were some of the problems that Pharaoh may have faced? That second question is to get him thinking about the problems all rulers face, but he doesn't know that yet.
Friday: On Friday the kids played a game called Mummy Maker on the BBC Kids web site. Then they wanted to make their own cartouches. We discussed the function of a true cartouche, and then I told the kids that if they wanted to make their own, they had a choice. I could look up some close hieroglyphic representations of their names and they could make Egyptian cartouches or they could make their own indecipherable cartouches based on their interests and things that are important to them. Of course, being Generation 2.0 children, they wanted their own custom images. Doodlebug made his out of clay; Boo made hers from paper. Both are designed to be hung from strings like necklaces so they could, theoretically, wear their cartouches everywhere.
I have to say, you can see the differences between them just by looking at the images!
I also gave them options of making scented oil - basil, rosemary, garlic - or virtually touring the inside of the Great Pyramid. These are definitely other project/video options to consider.
Week 8 Topic (when we return): Phoenicians and "Sea People"
Friday, August 30, 2013
"Writing" Projects
Right before we started school in July, Brave Writer came out with their latest book, Partnership Writing. It was on sale initially, so I purchased a copy. It goes through some of the Writer's Jungle basics, but then it also has a monthly project list. Some I liked; some I don't. Still, I figured I'd give some of them a shot. We started by spending a few weeks working on codes and ciphers. I snapped a couple of shots of the kids writing/painting messages with lemon juice 'invisible ink.'
M1, who is now Doodlebug for this blog's intents and purposes (I dunno... I'm just tired of referring to him by something that doesn't even remotely resemble a name, even if it does contain an initial, and I do call him Doodlebug at home on a regular basis), really enjoyed the code project. This is my child who is more naturally drawn to codes and ciphers and spy equipment at the store. M2, who is now Boo (because we started by calling her Beangirl, then Tinkerbean, then Tinkerboo, and now just Boo), enjoyed parts of it.
This week, however, instead of doing the next project on the list, I decided we'd do the homophone mini-book. We started making a homophone list on Monday and worked on it until Thursday. It's nowhere near comprehensive (at dinner tonight we realized steak/stake wasn't on the board... guess what our main dish was?), but we got about 60 sets of homophones.
I came up with some of them, but the kids came up with the majority. They really enjoyed the challenge! Then we created little books - three pieces of paper cut in half, then put together, folded in half, and stapled in the middle created nice little booklets.
Doodlebug let me photograph his.
His sense of humor really shines through, and I love that he took the time to really work on his illustrations. I gave them the choice of writing a sentence with the word or drawing an image, and his book is a good mixture of both. Boo went more for sentences, but then, she likes to write (she also wrote only one word per page... I'm not sure why Doodlebug did two per page. It certainly went beyond the initial scope of the project). She likes to draw, too, but only on her terms.
In the next day or so, I'll post our history lesson for this week. There won't be one for next week; we take Labor Day week as a break from school - our first break this year! The kids are excited, and so am I. It's time for some relaxation - as if that'll really happen. But it'll be nice to change up the schedule for a bit and relax.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
M1, who is now Doodlebug for this blog's intents and purposes (I dunno... I'm just tired of referring to him by something that doesn't even remotely resemble a name, even if it does contain an initial, and I do call him Doodlebug at home on a regular basis), really enjoyed the code project. This is my child who is more naturally drawn to codes and ciphers and spy equipment at the store. M2, who is now Boo (because we started by calling her Beangirl, then Tinkerbean, then Tinkerboo, and now just Boo), enjoyed parts of it.
This week, however, instead of doing the next project on the list, I decided we'd do the homophone mini-book. We started making a homophone list on Monday and worked on it until Thursday. It's nowhere near comprehensive (at dinner tonight we realized steak/stake wasn't on the board... guess what our main dish was?), but we got about 60 sets of homophones.
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| That's a lot of homophones |
Doodlebug let me photograph his.
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| Yes, son, toe jam IS stinky. |
In the next day or so, I'll post our history lesson for this week. There won't be one for next week; we take Labor Day week as a break from school - our first break this year! The kids are excited, and so am I. It's time for some relaxation - as if that'll really happen. But it'll be nice to change up the schedule for a bit and relax.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Homemade History, Week 6
Because the past three weeks make me want to disavow all knowledge of my children and go hide in a Buddhist commune until they're grown and gone...
Because the stress level in my back and shoulders is so high I wake up feeling like I've just had a hard workout every day when, in fact, I haven't lifted a proper weight in months...
Because this upcoming week is the last week before our first break (we take Labor Day week off of school)...
Let's just say my school planning this week was less than spectacular. We didn't do much. Enjoy what little is here. Thanks, as always, for reading.
Week 6 Topic: Mesopotamia - Sumer and Akkad
Monday: Reading and notes. I purchased a book called Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, and M1 perused that while M2 read chapters 3 and 5 from Story of the World. (If you want shorter reading excerpts, the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World has similar information on pages 20-21 and the Usborne World History Encyclopedia has some on pages 110-113.)
Tuesday: The kids finished up their rough drafts for their papers and swapped reading material. M2 has informed me that while the Sumerians might have been inventive, she wouldn't have wanted to live there. They were mean. I couldn't argue with that one.
Wednesday: Definitions (ziggurat, stylus, irrigate, relief) and critical thinking questions: Why is trading with other cities and cultures important? Why are records important? Why did the Mesopotamians settle in the Fertile Crescent? M1 found the questions fairly easy to answer after we watched a couple of videos, one from National Geographic Kids and one from a Youtube Channel called CrashCourse. The kids definitely preferred the second video, but M2 commented that the guy talks really, really fast. She was right. Also, in the interest of parental disclosure, the video does mention the word 'scoodilypooping,' which is a cutesy euphemism for sex. If that might bother you or your kids... well, you're smart. You know how this works. Watch at your own risk. But overall the information was informative and rather fun, as far as movies go. Oh, and I should mention that I handed the Epic of Gilgamesh to M1 to read this week, too.
Thursday: We put together a map of Mesopotamia using the Map Trek map (lots of Christian-based maps in that download, but there are enough that aren't for my purposes) for that particular region of Earth and talked about how the trade routes from Mesopotamia to Egypt went right through what is now Israel and how stories/myths can ALSO follow trade routes, which led right into discussing the myths of Sargon and Moses and comparing and contrasting the two. Interesting chat with the munchkins.
Friday: Project Day! M2 did some mystery pages on where the alphabet came from, concluding that our modern alphabet might be either Greek or Hebrew but definitely isn't Egyptian or Sumerian, and M1 built a Lego ziggurat.
OK, so I guess this doesn't sound too bad after all.
Next week: Egypt - The Old Kingdom (mastabas and pyramids, mummies, and the Hyksos)
Because the stress level in my back and shoulders is so high I wake up feeling like I've just had a hard workout every day when, in fact, I haven't lifted a proper weight in months...
Because this upcoming week is the last week before our first break (we take Labor Day week off of school)...
Let's just say my school planning this week was less than spectacular. We didn't do much. Enjoy what little is here. Thanks, as always, for reading.
Week 6 Topic: Mesopotamia - Sumer and Akkad
Monday: Reading and notes. I purchased a book called Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, and M1 perused that while M2 read chapters 3 and 5 from Story of the World. (If you want shorter reading excerpts, the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World has similar information on pages 20-21 and the Usborne World History Encyclopedia has some on pages 110-113.)
Tuesday: The kids finished up their rough drafts for their papers and swapped reading material. M2 has informed me that while the Sumerians might have been inventive, she wouldn't have wanted to live there. They were mean. I couldn't argue with that one.
Wednesday: Definitions (ziggurat, stylus, irrigate, relief) and critical thinking questions: Why is trading with other cities and cultures important? Why are records important? Why did the Mesopotamians settle in the Fertile Crescent? M1 found the questions fairly easy to answer after we watched a couple of videos, one from National Geographic Kids and one from a Youtube Channel called CrashCourse. The kids definitely preferred the second video, but M2 commented that the guy talks really, really fast. She was right. Also, in the interest of parental disclosure, the video does mention the word 'scoodilypooping,' which is a cutesy euphemism for sex. If that might bother you or your kids... well, you're smart. You know how this works. Watch at your own risk. But overall the information was informative and rather fun, as far as movies go. Oh, and I should mention that I handed the Epic of Gilgamesh to M1 to read this week, too.
Thursday: We put together a map of Mesopotamia using the Map Trek map (lots of Christian-based maps in that download, but there are enough that aren't for my purposes) for that particular region of Earth and talked about how the trade routes from Mesopotamia to Egypt went right through what is now Israel and how stories/myths can ALSO follow trade routes, which led right into discussing the myths of Sargon and Moses and comparing and contrasting the two. Interesting chat with the munchkins.
Friday: Project Day! M2 did some mystery pages on where the alphabet came from, concluding that our modern alphabet might be either Greek or Hebrew but definitely isn't Egyptian or Sumerian, and M1 built a Lego ziggurat.
OK, so I guess this doesn't sound too bad after all.
Next week: Egypt - The Old Kingdom (mastabas and pyramids, mummies, and the Hyksos)
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Homemade History, Week 5
This is our last week of traveling around the world at what seems like warp time/speed. In week 6, we're headed back to Mesopotamia. Still, this week was fun! We watched several videos, sketched maps, and even built our own version of a calendar in the round.
Week 5 Topic: Ancient America - Mesoamerica, Olmecs and Maya
Monday: Reading and notes. M2 read the Story of the World (chapter 26) and Usborne World History (pp. 178-181); M1 read the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 130-137) and the Usborne pages as well.
Tuesday: The kids worked on their papers. M1 felt especially prepared for this week's lesson due to the studying he'd already been doing on the Olmecs, so I let him share some of his findings with M1 and me. He liked that.
Wednesday: We put together a map on Wednesday. We started by using a blank black-line map of the Americas, both north and south. Using the following maps, we drew a rough map of SOME of the ancient tribes in the Americas:
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| Eastern North America |
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| Southwestern North America |
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| Mesoamerica |
We also talked a bit about the fact that there were tribes in what is now Canada, South America, etc. but that they simply aren't discussed very often and that we aren't going to cover them in this class... and I made sure the kids were aware that not all of these tribes overlapped, either. It's hard to pick and choose, ya know?
I also gave M2 his questions on Wednesday:
1. Would you have preferred living with the Olmecs or the Maya? (The Olmecs won his vote.)
2. Both of these peoples played ball games. If you were going to invent a ball game, what would you call it? What would some of the rules be? (M1 really liked this question and came up with a sort of hand ball/lacrosse game that I thought would be quite interesting.)
Thursday: We started with definitions (temple, sacrifice, fortification, peninsula) and moved from there to videos. We didn't watch all of this video on the Olmecs, but we did watch some of it; we also watched this video on Mayan math.
Friday: Friday project! First, we watched this short video about the basics of the Mayan calendar. I explained to the kids that the Maya didn't have weeks - only years, months, and days, as well as longer epochs on the (not shown in the video) Long Count calendar. This confused the heck out of M2, so we set out to make our own mostly-Mayan-based calendar in the round. Wikipedia to the rescue! Soon after (and I apologize for the poor photography) we constructed our own calendar in the round. The kids loved finding their birthdays in rough Mayan equivalent. Some other activities that we considered were resurrecting the atlatl idea, drinking spiced hot chocolate, and playing around with Mayan math/numbers (which M1 had done in the past).
Next week: The Fertile Crescent/Mesopotamia, Sumerians, Akkadians
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Homemade History, Week 4
This week was an odd week for us, mostly because we decided not to do school on Friday and the kids had decided to squeeze any potential Friday work into the previous four days. So I have a few things that we didn't do this week that we could have done in the extra day. I'll put them in here, just in case you're interested.
Week 4 Topic: Ancient Americas - Folsom, Clovis, Anasazi, Hopewells
Monday: Reading and notes, as usual, from the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 124-129) and the Usborne World History Encyclopedia (pp. 176-177).
Tuesday: I let the kids read their books for their papers and take notes. They also did this on Thursday, and they're pretty close to being done with note-taking, at least from the library books. Both kids also have a bunch of questions that the books didn't answer that they want to research on the Internet. That'll probably show up on the schedule in the next week or two. After they got done taking a few notes, we watched some movies. The PBS videos that weren't working a couple of weeks ago actually are available now, and we watched probably five or six of the clips, and the kids want to sit down and watch some of the full episodes another day.
Wednesday: Definitions (adobe, atlatl, culture, and population) and critical thinking questions for M1: "Would you prefer to live in an adobe home or an Inuit igloo?" (He prefers a warm climate to a cold one.) and "What do you think it was like to hunt mammoth and other megafauna?" (The videos we'd watched on Tuesday colored his answer significantly.)
Thursday: This was our final day of work for this week. I'd checked out a video on the mound builder cultures from the library, and we watched it. It was about 30 minutes long, and while I thought it was fairly dry, the kids were upset when it ended. So I guess they got something out of it. They also added to their notes, as I mentioned.
Friday: OK, we didn't do this stuff, but what I had planned to do was to take some of M1's arrows and try to use them as small throwing spears to see how difficult it was to hit a target. I also wanted to hunt down some videos or web sites about how archaeologists know where to dig for sites relating to prehistory. I still might do these at some point.
Next week: The Ancient Americas - Mesoamerica and the Olmecs
Week 4 Topic: Ancient Americas - Folsom, Clovis, Anasazi, Hopewells
Monday: Reading and notes, as usual, from the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 124-129) and the Usborne World History Encyclopedia (pp. 176-177).
Tuesday: I let the kids read their books for their papers and take notes. They also did this on Thursday, and they're pretty close to being done with note-taking, at least from the library books. Both kids also have a bunch of questions that the books didn't answer that they want to research on the Internet. That'll probably show up on the schedule in the next week or two. After they got done taking a few notes, we watched some movies. The PBS videos that weren't working a couple of weeks ago actually are available now, and we watched probably five or six of the clips, and the kids want to sit down and watch some of the full episodes another day.
Wednesday: Definitions (adobe, atlatl, culture, and population) and critical thinking questions for M1: "Would you prefer to live in an adobe home or an Inuit igloo?" (He prefers a warm climate to a cold one.) and "What do you think it was like to hunt mammoth and other megafauna?" (The videos we'd watched on Tuesday colored his answer significantly.)
Thursday: This was our final day of work for this week. I'd checked out a video on the mound builder cultures from the library, and we watched it. It was about 30 minutes long, and while I thought it was fairly dry, the kids were upset when it ended. So I guess they got something out of it. They also added to their notes, as I mentioned.
Friday: OK, we didn't do this stuff, but what I had planned to do was to take some of M1's arrows and try to use them as small throwing spears to see how difficult it was to hit a target. I also wanted to hunt down some videos or web sites about how archaeologists know where to dig for sites relating to prehistory. I still might do these at some point.
Next week: The Ancient Americas - Mesoamerica and the Olmecs
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Homemade History, Week 3
I didn't have any pictures to share this week, for which I apologize. There just wasn't anything particularly camera-worthy to share, but the kids learned a lot!
Week 3 Topic: Aborigines and Pacific Islanders
Monday: Reading and notes from the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 138-144) or the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. 88-89). The kids both desperately want to find and try breadfruit.
Tuesday: We poked around on the Internet and read several myths from Australia and Polynesia. The kids love listening to different myths, and they always like it when they just get to lay on the floor and listen.
Wednesday: We looked up words (aborigine, sacred, migrate, and domesticate), and the kids each wrote a short story - sort of a free-written paragraph - where they imagined themselves as Polynesian explorers. M1 included monkey as well as fish and plants in his imaginary diet, and M2 focused quite a bit on family structure. They both played off one another to develop ideas, which I liked, and I answered questions when I could.
Thursday: We took the day to let the kids read books about their selected writing topics and write a few notes.
Friday: Project day was low-key as well. We ate sweet potato chips, looked up Southern hemisphere constellations, and watched a few videos about how the Polynesians used wave patterns and stars to navigate extremely long distances across the ocean. M1 contemplated doing some mystery pages about Easter Island, but we decided to call it a day instead. We were headed to a friend's house, and the kids were eager to get on the way. Fine by me.
Next week: The Ancient Americas
Week 3 Topic: Aborigines and Pacific Islanders
Monday: Reading and notes from the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 138-144) or the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. 88-89). The kids both desperately want to find and try breadfruit.
Tuesday: We poked around on the Internet and read several myths from Australia and Polynesia. The kids love listening to different myths, and they always like it when they just get to lay on the floor and listen.
Wednesday: We looked up words (aborigine, sacred, migrate, and domesticate), and the kids each wrote a short story - sort of a free-written paragraph - where they imagined themselves as Polynesian explorers. M1 included monkey as well as fish and plants in his imaginary diet, and M2 focused quite a bit on family structure. They both played off one another to develop ideas, which I liked, and I answered questions when I could.
Thursday: We took the day to let the kids read books about their selected writing topics and write a few notes.
Friday: Project day was low-key as well. We ate sweet potato chips, looked up Southern hemisphere constellations, and watched a few videos about how the Polynesians used wave patterns and stars to navigate extremely long distances across the ocean. M1 contemplated doing some mystery pages about Easter Island, but we decided to call it a day instead. We were headed to a friend's house, and the kids were eager to get on the way. Fine by me.
Next week: The Ancient Americas
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Homemade History - Week 2
Last week we discussed prehistory; this week we moved forward a little bit. Enjoy!
Week 2 Topics: Nomads; The First Farmers
Monday: Reading and notes. This week's reading suggestions were from Story of the World (chapter 1 - M2 particularly enjoyed this, as it was new to her), Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 14-19), and Usborne World History (pp. 84-108).
Tuesday: M1 had a little more reading that he wanted to finish, so he did that, and then the kids and I discussed topics for the mini-reports they're going to do. M1 is going to write a short (perhaps four- or five-paragraph) report; M2 is only required to write one paragraph. They got to pick their topic - anything ancient history was fair game. M1 selected the Olmecs, and M2 wanted to learn about Egyptian clothes, jewelry, and home decor. We'll work on these projects a little each week for the next few weeks and finish them up in week 8. In week 10 they'll pick a new topic. We'll wind up doing four 'reports' total by the end of the year.
Wednesday: Video day! We started with History Pockets and went over topics that civilizations share (specialization of labor, religion, arts/entertainment, a system of government, etc.) and what the basic needs of a human are (food, water, shelter, and possibly clothing... M1 also made sure we knew air was essential). Then we watched a few videos. We started with Making Stone Age Weapons and Irrigation in Egypt before visiting National Geographic and watching a video about some ancient springs in Texas. I really wanted the kids to watch a PBS video about an atlatl, but I couldn't get it to work and haven't heard back from them yet about whether this issue is going to be resolved or not (maybe a little more pestering couldn't hurt?), so we bounced over to Youtube and watched an atlatl video there instead. Finally, we wound up watching a few more videos on Youtube by searching for "ancient homes." I think M2 might use at one of them as a reference in her report.
Thursday: Again, we used History Pockets. The kids wrote down definitions for the words civilization, ancient, and history and outlined the basic human needs that we covered on Wednesday. Then M1 answered the question, "Why were ancient cities usually built near large bodies of water?" His first answer about drinking water didn't hold water when I reminded him that many of them were beside an ocean, so he actually had to think about the rest of his answer, which was the point. Score one for Mama on critical thinking.
Friday: Project day! I don't have any photos of M2 this time, because she elected to play the Iron Age Life game from the BBC For Kids history site. She liked it so well that she actually played it twice.
M1 asked if he could make his own pottery. I had purchased some terra-cotta air-drying clay, and he requested to use that to make his pottery more 'authentic.' (For the record, he does know that clay normally gets fired in a kiln. Nobody that's related to my dad - or me, if I'm honest - could grow up not knowing that.)
He made a lovely little pot and a lid to match. He's very excited about his creation and is eager for it to finish drying.
Then, then we all went to the kitchen...
... for a little lesson on grains.
First we went through the pantry and found as many different grains as possible and discussed where in the world each grain originated.
The kids were surprised how many different grains... and legumes... and regions of the world... we had represented in our kitchen alone.
After we demonstrated our grain-fed diversity, we cooked a few of the grains - particularly the couscous and quinoa I'd picked up especially for the project - and tasted them. For fun, I also cooked up the barley and the popcorn, and I'd already roasted and seasoned the chickpeas the previous evening. The kids liked everything, but our Western palates craved more flavor. I wound up adding a touch of kosher salt to everything except the chickpeas.
Next week: Aborigines and Pacific Islanders
Week 2 Topics: Nomads; The First Farmers
Monday: Reading and notes. This week's reading suggestions were from Story of the World (chapter 1 - M2 particularly enjoyed this, as it was new to her), Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 14-19), and Usborne World History (pp. 84-108).
Tuesday: M1 had a little more reading that he wanted to finish, so he did that, and then the kids and I discussed topics for the mini-reports they're going to do. M1 is going to write a short (perhaps four- or five-paragraph) report; M2 is only required to write one paragraph. They got to pick their topic - anything ancient history was fair game. M1 selected the Olmecs, and M2 wanted to learn about Egyptian clothes, jewelry, and home decor. We'll work on these projects a little each week for the next few weeks and finish them up in week 8. In week 10 they'll pick a new topic. We'll wind up doing four 'reports' total by the end of the year.
Wednesday: Video day! We started with History Pockets and went over topics that civilizations share (specialization of labor, religion, arts/entertainment, a system of government, etc.) and what the basic needs of a human are (food, water, shelter, and possibly clothing... M1 also made sure we knew air was essential). Then we watched a few videos. We started with Making Stone Age Weapons and Irrigation in Egypt before visiting National Geographic and watching a video about some ancient springs in Texas. I really wanted the kids to watch a PBS video about an atlatl, but I couldn't get it to work and haven't heard back from them yet about whether this issue is going to be resolved or not (maybe a little more pestering couldn't hurt?), so we bounced over to Youtube and watched an atlatl video there instead. Finally, we wound up watching a few more videos on Youtube by searching for "ancient homes." I think M2 might use at one of them as a reference in her report.
Thursday: Again, we used History Pockets. The kids wrote down definitions for the words civilization, ancient, and history and outlined the basic human needs that we covered on Wednesday. Then M1 answered the question, "Why were ancient cities usually built near large bodies of water?" His first answer about drinking water didn't hold water when I reminded him that many of them were beside an ocean, so he actually had to think about the rest of his answer, which was the point. Score one for Mama on critical thinking.
Friday: Project day! I don't have any photos of M2 this time, because she elected to play the Iron Age Life game from the BBC For Kids history site. She liked it so well that she actually played it twice.
M1 asked if he could make his own pottery. I had purchased some terra-cotta air-drying clay, and he requested to use that to make his pottery more 'authentic.' (For the record, he does know that clay normally gets fired in a kiln. Nobody that's related to my dad - or me, if I'm honest - could grow up not knowing that.)
He made a lovely little pot and a lid to match. He's very excited about his creation and is eager for it to finish drying.
Then, then we all went to the kitchen...
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| Steel-cut oats |
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| Flax cereal and wheat grown from birdseed that fell in our garden area this spring |
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| Cornmeal and buckwheat flour |
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| Clockwise from top left: white rice, roasted and seasoned chickpeas, navy beans, popcorn, couscous, quinoa, barley; Center: red lentils |
Next week: Aborigines and Pacific Islanders
Friday, July 19, 2013
Homemade History - Week 1
Because I'm excited about our homemade history program this year, I really want to share it with you. I've gotten feedback from my kids, and they're happy with it so far. To be fair, we're only one week in, but I hope it's a plan that will stick.
Week 1 Topic: Prehistory
Monday and Tuesday: Reading and notes. I pulled readings from the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 6-13), Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. viii-7), and Usborne World History (pp. 10-82). I also requested a couple of library books. I did not require the kids to read all of this (most of the time we will have far fewer reading options with far fewer pages, but I started off with a big chunk o' history, so there were a lot of choices). We spent these days discussing interesting tidbits from the books that the kids did read. I wanted to give them a wide range of reading choices so they didn't feel stuck with something they considered drudgery. M1 really liked the Usborne book; M2 preferred the library books that we picked up on Wednesday. Perfect.
Tuesday: After we finished our reading and discussion, we looked at the world map from Map Trek and labeled continents, oceans, and a few other notable landforms and bodies of water.
Wednesday: We picked up our library books on Wednesday. We also took a look into History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations - we briefly discussed the progression of ancient civilizations that we'll study this year and compared the length of each empire/dynasty to time in general, specifically prehistory and the millions and millions of years before humankind even walked the earth. We visited ChronoZoom and National Geographic and watched several videos about dinosaurs, pre-human earth, etc.
Thursday: The kids defined a few words (archaeology, nomad, artifact, evolution), and M1 also answered the question, "Why should we study history?" We also talked about what each child wanted to learn in history this year. I loved their answers. Technology Boy Loves Technology. Now I know even more how to cater to him. M2 is easy - she just wants to learn more about mythology!
Friday: Project day! I let the kids pick what sort of project they wanted to do, and true to form, M1 picked a mystery and M2 picked an art project.
M1 read about the Ice Man Otzi, compared hypotheses of his death, and formulated his own theory about how the mummy came to exist on the mountain. Then he read the link above and compared his theory to the facts known today. (He was really proud that he deduced that the cause of death was the arrow.)
M2 wanted to do cave art, a la Cueva de los Manos.
I wanted her to add more color/handprints, but she was simply appalled at how dirty/painted her hands got just doing this much. So we stopped. I think it would be fun to add other hands to the piece and see if we can really get it going, but we'll see. It's her project, and if she's happy, I'm happy.
First week of school is over and done. What a ride! Now M1 and Oz are off on a weekend jaunt to tour a couple of caves, and the girl and I are going to get some boy-free time. Hope everyone stays cool and has a lovely weekend!
Week 1 Topic: Prehistory
Monday and Tuesday: Reading and notes. I pulled readings from the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 6-13), Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. viii-7), and Usborne World History (pp. 10-82). I also requested a couple of library books. I did not require the kids to read all of this (most of the time we will have far fewer reading options with far fewer pages, but I started off with a big chunk o' history, so there were a lot of choices). We spent these days discussing interesting tidbits from the books that the kids did read. I wanted to give them a wide range of reading choices so they didn't feel stuck with something they considered drudgery. M1 really liked the Usborne book; M2 preferred the library books that we picked up on Wednesday. Perfect.
Tuesday: After we finished our reading and discussion, we looked at the world map from Map Trek and labeled continents, oceans, and a few other notable landforms and bodies of water.
Wednesday: We picked up our library books on Wednesday. We also took a look into History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations - we briefly discussed the progression of ancient civilizations that we'll study this year and compared the length of each empire/dynasty to time in general, specifically prehistory and the millions and millions of years before humankind even walked the earth. We visited ChronoZoom and National Geographic and watched several videos about dinosaurs, pre-human earth, etc.
Thursday: The kids defined a few words (archaeology, nomad, artifact, evolution), and M1 also answered the question, "Why should we study history?" We also talked about what each child wanted to learn in history this year. I loved their answers. Technology Boy Loves Technology. Now I know even more how to cater to him. M2 is easy - she just wants to learn more about mythology!
Friday: Project day! I let the kids pick what sort of project they wanted to do, and true to form, M1 picked a mystery and M2 picked an art project.
M1 read about the Ice Man Otzi, compared hypotheses of his death, and formulated his own theory about how the mummy came to exist on the mountain. Then he read the link above and compared his theory to the facts known today. (He was really proud that he deduced that the cause of death was the arrow.)
M2 wanted to do cave art, a la Cueva de los Manos.
I wanted her to add more color/handprints, but she was simply appalled at how dirty/painted her hands got just doing this much. So we stopped. I think it would be fun to add other hands to the piece and see if we can really get it going, but we'll see. It's her project, and if she's happy, I'm happy.
First week of school is over and done. What a ride! Now M1 and Oz are off on a weekend jaunt to tour a couple of caves, and the girl and I are going to get some boy-free time. Hope everyone stays cool and has a lovely weekend!
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Homemade History - How I Did It
Since my two children are at polar opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to knowing anything about ancient history (with the exception of the Greek gods, thanks in large part to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series), I struggled to find a history curriculum that I thought would work this year.
M1 had already covered the basics once by using Story of the World, so using that as a primary source was out. I looked into some unit studies, but I gave them up as not deep enough for M1 or too advanced for M2, assuming I could find studies on the topics I wanted to cover, anyway. History Odyssey, by Pandia Press, looked the most promising, as it covers a wide range of topics and uses various resources to do so, but... I don't know... it all just seemed so paper-based. Where were the activities? When did the kids get to have fun? Looking at the lesson plans, it seemed like everything was 'read this,' 'write that.' No, thanks. Story of the World may not be the greatest history curriculum out there, either, but at least there were ways to illustrate what the kids were learning with a few activities now and then.
Finally, I gave up. I sat down with the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (one of the several history encyclopedias I own at this point) and asked myself, "What do I want them to learn?"
I came up with several topics. I knew I wanted to start with prehistory. Mankind's history is rich to us, yes, but I felt the kids needed to know something of the world before we came along. After all, at this point we're nothing more than a blip on the timeline of the universe. I knew I wanted to dig deeper into some of the civilizations - Egypt, Greece, Rome, China - and touch on the technological advances, the gods, the humanities that made up these peoples. Finally, I had my list. Next it was time to put it in order. So I did, assigning a certain number of weeks to each civilization.
Then came the hard part - finding resources. I started by picking out reading selections for each week from the encyclopedias that I own and scouring our library's web site for corresponding fiction and/or nonfiction works. Then I moved to external resources. I made several purchases from Teacher Created Resources, specifically the books on Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Mysteries in History: Ancient History. About the same time, someone pointed me toward Map Trek: Ancient World, and I purchased the ebook version of it. It's a bit too Christian-centric for my liking, but I can pull out the maps that are relevant to me and ignore the rest (I will happily not use the maps on Noah, Abraham, and Solomon, for example). When combined, these books provide a fairly solid basis for a number of activities we can do throughout the school year.
Something else I wanted to provide for the kids was a video reference library. M2 is visual, so reading might have been enough, but M1 is auditory and watching videos or playing computer games really helps him get information tucked away in his often-overly-active brain. Whether the videos are about tribal cultures, archaeology, or even a demonstration of an ancient technique, I wanted them to have something to do on the computer, if possible.
As we go through this curriculum, I plan to share what we've done, from the dry stuff like the reading, definitions, and questions about our existence (M1 is old enough that he needs to start comparing our lives today to the lives of those who came before) to the fun stuff like the timeline, art projects, and videos. I would love feedback and further suggestions, if you have any!
M1 had already covered the basics once by using Story of the World, so using that as a primary source was out. I looked into some unit studies, but I gave them up as not deep enough for M1 or too advanced for M2, assuming I could find studies on the topics I wanted to cover, anyway. History Odyssey, by Pandia Press, looked the most promising, as it covers a wide range of topics and uses various resources to do so, but... I don't know... it all just seemed so paper-based. Where were the activities? When did the kids get to have fun? Looking at the lesson plans, it seemed like everything was 'read this,' 'write that.' No, thanks. Story of the World may not be the greatest history curriculum out there, either, but at least there were ways to illustrate what the kids were learning with a few activities now and then.
Finally, I gave up. I sat down with the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (one of the several history encyclopedias I own at this point) and asked myself, "What do I want them to learn?"
I came up with several topics. I knew I wanted to start with prehistory. Mankind's history is rich to us, yes, but I felt the kids needed to know something of the world before we came along. After all, at this point we're nothing more than a blip on the timeline of the universe. I knew I wanted to dig deeper into some of the civilizations - Egypt, Greece, Rome, China - and touch on the technological advances, the gods, the humanities that made up these peoples. Finally, I had my list. Next it was time to put it in order. So I did, assigning a certain number of weeks to each civilization.
Then came the hard part - finding resources. I started by picking out reading selections for each week from the encyclopedias that I own and scouring our library's web site for corresponding fiction and/or nonfiction works. Then I moved to external resources. I made several purchases from Teacher Created Resources, specifically the books on Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Mysteries in History: Ancient History. About the same time, someone pointed me toward Map Trek: Ancient World, and I purchased the ebook version of it. It's a bit too Christian-centric for my liking, but I can pull out the maps that are relevant to me and ignore the rest (I will happily not use the maps on Noah, Abraham, and Solomon, for example). When combined, these books provide a fairly solid basis for a number of activities we can do throughout the school year.
Something else I wanted to provide for the kids was a video reference library. M2 is visual, so reading might have been enough, but M1 is auditory and watching videos or playing computer games really helps him get information tucked away in his often-overly-active brain. Whether the videos are about tribal cultures, archaeology, or even a demonstration of an ancient technique, I wanted them to have something to do on the computer, if possible.
As we go through this curriculum, I plan to share what we've done, from the dry stuff like the reading, definitions, and questions about our existence (M1 is old enough that he needs to start comparing our lives today to the lives of those who came before) to the fun stuff like the timeline, art projects, and videos. I would love feedback and further suggestions, if you have any!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Curriculum 2013-2014
I've updated the curriculum page for the 2013-2014 school year. Feel free to check it out, ask questions, give feedback. Thanks!
Saturday, January 5, 2013
The 2013-2014 School Year; Or, Why I'm a Dork
It's January now. That means it's socially acceptable to start planning for the 2013-2014 school year, right?
I know some people school year-round, but we don't. We'll get done with this school year in early May, take two months off, and go back in early to mid-July. I had considered taking a longer vacation and having more of a traditional school year next year, but M2 nixed that idea pretty quickly by requesting the same schedule because "I like it," and M1 backed her up.
All righty then.
M1 will be in fifth grade next year, M2 in third. Technically they're ahead in a few subjects, but it's easier for me to keep track of things if I use their age-based grade levels, so that's what I tell them.
I am really, really looking forward to next year, primarily because of the fifth-grade component. This will be M1's second run through some of the material, but he'll get to delve more deeply, and I love that. I love that we have a microscope and slides. I love that he's old enough to research and write papers. I love that he'll get to ask the big questions like, "WHY did that happen?"
Mostly I love this with regard to history. I love that instead of just learning that the Greeks were renowned philosophers, he'll get to learn about the philosophers themselves. Instead of learning that the Visigoths sacked Rome, he'll get to learn that Alaric was a disgruntled former Roman army commander who came back with a vengeance. Yes, there's more work involved, because there's a lot more writing required, but the payoffs should be amazing. I think I'm more excited than the boy.
Part of the reason I'm excited about history is because for the first time, I'm making the curriculum. I've done a few things here and there, mostly with writing, but for the most part, I wing all that. For example, for the next two weeks we're doing a poetry unit, and I still have no idea exactly what we're doing (I'll be panicking tomorrow). I've never sat down and planned out an entire year's worth of assignments, from the reading selections to the writing assignments to everything else. So far, it's been fun. I've decided what topics to cover and in what order; next I have to find what to read and how it's going to be covered for each child at his/her age level. M1 needs to write independent outlines; M2 needs to fill in summary prompts. I'm hopeful that I can find some good videos, either at the library or through various web sites/streaming sites, to supplement as well.
And since M2 hasn't learned ANY of this stuff yet, I'm excited to teach it all to her, too. There's just so many fun things to teach about the ancient civilizations, and I love that I get to impart all this knowledge to her.
I know I'm still a bit premature in planning for the next school year. I realize that probably makes me a giant dork. But if I can make the kids half as excited about history as I am... well, I can handle being a dork for that.
I know some people school year-round, but we don't. We'll get done with this school year in early May, take two months off, and go back in early to mid-July. I had considered taking a longer vacation and having more of a traditional school year next year, but M2 nixed that idea pretty quickly by requesting the same schedule because "I like it," and M1 backed her up.
All righty then.
M1 will be in fifth grade next year, M2 in third. Technically they're ahead in a few subjects, but it's easier for me to keep track of things if I use their age-based grade levels, so that's what I tell them.
I am really, really looking forward to next year, primarily because of the fifth-grade component. This will be M1's second run through some of the material, but he'll get to delve more deeply, and I love that. I love that we have a microscope and slides. I love that he's old enough to research and write papers. I love that he'll get to ask the big questions like, "WHY did that happen?"
Mostly I love this with regard to history. I love that instead of just learning that the Greeks were renowned philosophers, he'll get to learn about the philosophers themselves. Instead of learning that the Visigoths sacked Rome, he'll get to learn that Alaric was a disgruntled former Roman army commander who came back with a vengeance. Yes, there's more work involved, because there's a lot more writing required, but the payoffs should be amazing. I think I'm more excited than the boy.
Part of the reason I'm excited about history is because for the first time, I'm making the curriculum. I've done a few things here and there, mostly with writing, but for the most part, I wing all that. For example, for the next two weeks we're doing a poetry unit, and I still have no idea exactly what we're doing (I'll be panicking tomorrow). I've never sat down and planned out an entire year's worth of assignments, from the reading selections to the writing assignments to everything else. So far, it's been fun. I've decided what topics to cover and in what order; next I have to find what to read and how it's going to be covered for each child at his/her age level. M1 needs to write independent outlines; M2 needs to fill in summary prompts. I'm hopeful that I can find some good videos, either at the library or through various web sites/streaming sites, to supplement as well.
And since M2 hasn't learned ANY of this stuff yet, I'm excited to teach it all to her, too. There's just so many fun things to teach about the ancient civilizations, and I love that I get to impart all this knowledge to her.
I know I'm still a bit premature in planning for the next school year. I realize that probably makes me a giant dork. But if I can make the kids half as excited about history as I am... well, I can handle being a dork for that.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Electronics Win
Electronics are supposed to be anathema in a classical education if you follow the strict guidelines set up by the "Well-Trained Mind" folks.
I've never been one to let others tell me exactly how to do things.
Math-U-See has been M1's math program from the start. Last year we adopted La Clase Divertida as our Spanish curriculum. Both of these are DVD-based. I'm also not entirely sure how a child is supposed to learn to type without sitting in front of a screen. But never mind... let's just accept that the modern family is typically pretty well immersed in electronic media, no matter what the form - television, movies, computer games, video games, handheld devices, etc.
We are no exception here. And one of the things I'm pretty sure I couldn't live without these days is the iPad. I'm obviously not saying you have to go out and buy one - they're pricey! But since I do have one, I utilize it.
We have all the games by Dan Russell-Pinson (Presidents vs. Aliens, Stack the States, etc.), Brainpop, Khan Academy, SkySafari, etc. And yes, those are fun and can be useful. But lately I've been browsing through the Kindle and iBooks stores just to see what educational things they have, and I've been surprised by the amount of material out there. I've checked these out before, and I'll be honest - I wasn't impressed. But now... well, the number of apps and educational books for both kids and older students is growing by leaps and bounds.
CK-12 has listed their textbooks on both the iBooks store and the Kindle store. The high school biology book even has a workbook and teacher's guide to accompany it. I've purchased an atlas; this saves me both money and shelf space and is much easier for the kids to search than flipping through the index of a 'real' book. Today they used it to do a geography activity. Since both of them enjoy geography quite a bit, I think this book will see a lot of use in the future.
I'm going to keep hunting over the next few days to see what I can come up with. I'm excited about the possibility that next year our science curriculum won't be a pre-planned, purchased curriculum. I just might make my own.
And without the iPad and the numerous resources that it can provide, that wouldn't be possible. This is definitely an electronics win!
I've never been one to let others tell me exactly how to do things.
Math-U-See has been M1's math program from the start. Last year we adopted La Clase Divertida as our Spanish curriculum. Both of these are DVD-based. I'm also not entirely sure how a child is supposed to learn to type without sitting in front of a screen. But never mind... let's just accept that the modern family is typically pretty well immersed in electronic media, no matter what the form - television, movies, computer games, video games, handheld devices, etc.
We are no exception here. And one of the things I'm pretty sure I couldn't live without these days is the iPad. I'm obviously not saying you have to go out and buy one - they're pricey! But since I do have one, I utilize it.
We have all the games by Dan Russell-Pinson (Presidents vs. Aliens, Stack the States, etc.), Brainpop, Khan Academy, SkySafari, etc. And yes, those are fun and can be useful. But lately I've been browsing through the Kindle and iBooks stores just to see what educational things they have, and I've been surprised by the amount of material out there. I've checked these out before, and I'll be honest - I wasn't impressed. But now... well, the number of apps and educational books for both kids and older students is growing by leaps and bounds.
CK-12 has listed their textbooks on both the iBooks store and the Kindle store. The high school biology book even has a workbook and teacher's guide to accompany it. I've purchased an atlas; this saves me both money and shelf space and is much easier for the kids to search than flipping through the index of a 'real' book. Today they used it to do a geography activity. Since both of them enjoy geography quite a bit, I think this book will see a lot of use in the future.
I'm going to keep hunting over the next few days to see what I can come up with. I'm excited about the possibility that next year our science curriculum won't be a pre-planned, purchased curriculum. I just might make my own.
And without the iPad and the numerous resources that it can provide, that wouldn't be possible. This is definitely an electronics win!
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