"Enjoy the LITTLE THINGS in life for one day you will look back and realize they were the big things."


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Come on in and sit awhile while I talk about the "Little Things" in life. I will share my journey of everyday life.... homeschooling, raising my children, homesteading, gardening, health and wellness, and real life.

Monday, September 26, 2011

The Story of Ping

The Story of Ping is a suggested read aloud in Expedition Earth for the week that China is studied.  There are a lot of aspects of this book that make it great for learning and further study.  I just wanted to point some of these out.  I did not do all this because I noticed this stuff as I was reading the book.  I want to point this out because as I jointly teach all my kids it is wonderful to find ways that I can interconnect their schooling.  The Story of Ping is a great book for lower elementary level students, but it can be used for all ages.  I read it to all my kids as a group two days in a row, but it is a book that could be read by my 5th grader just for fun reading.  My second grader could read it with some assistance.  Either of the two girls could use it for copywork... maybe one page per day for the 2nd grader and maybe more for the 5th grader. 

There are many other ways you could use this book for different age levels.  There is reference in this book about cousins, so you could use this time to talk about relatives and family.  They could draw their family or collect pictures of family members for a collage or poster.  Also, the author adds in an element of counting the ducks some, so this book could be used for talking about counting with the little ones and learning about two digit numbers for children 2nd grade or possibly higher.

Little ones can enjoy marching around the room doing a “duck march” as the author refers to it in the book.  Add in a little “quack-quack-quack” for some noisy animal sound fun! 

The author refers to the “yellow water of the Yangtze River” and this would be a great time to do a little geography.  Look up the location of the Yangtze River.  This can be pointed out during the reading of the book for all the kids.  You might add to this by having the older ones draw the Yangtze River on a blank map of China.  Of course, you could even have the children do a little drawing of the river, etc…  Also, research whether the water in the river is actually “yellow”.  If it is, older chidren could research why it is.

Duck crafts are an endless activity that could be done while reading this book.  I could never list all the ideas and I am sure there are a hundred options out there for free on the internet. 

Snack time could be rice cakes if some variety.  Rice cakes are mentioned in the book.

Play around with discussing the native language.  In case that would be Chinese.

Discuss the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.  Also, study the directions (N, S, E, W) and locate a compass on a map.



Saturday, September 24, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up ... Another "Off" Week

I know I am doing this all wrong.  You see it seems I only do a "wrap-up" on the weeks we take off from our schooling.  I guess I just call it the wrong thing.  The weeks that we do full schooling I call it by Week "x" Expedition Earth, etc..  The other weeks get a "wrap-up" for me.  If this messes anyone up, I truly apologize. 

As I mentioned above I scheduled this as an off week for a couple of reasons.  One... I had dental appointments scheduled for Monday and we had a co-op meeting on Friday.  That only left us with 3 days for schooling and I did not want to squeeze it all in.  This will probably be our last week off until Thanksgiving, though. 

So, anyhow we went to the dentist on Monday, then came home and took Sierra next door for her soccer practice.  Tuesday Savannah's practice was cancelled, which was just as well since she has a hurt foot.  Wednesday I did like 5-6 loads of laundry and the kids went to their Music/Choir classes and other church classes.  Today we went to our co-op and then to the park.  We had a simple dinner and then met up with friends at the local movie theater to see Dolphin Tale (which was fabulous).  And now I sit here nearly falling asleep.  All week has been non-stop, although it looks very simple.  There just do not seem to be enough daylight hours to get everything in.  And we have three hours of soccer games tomorrow morning, so on that note.... Goodnight!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Expedition Earth Week 2: China

Well, it seems I am definitely not one to do things by the book... no matter what book I am supposed to be following.  ;)  We mostly followed the plan this week, though.  We mixed it up a lot when we got to the crafts options. 
We started out by stamping our passport and boarding our imaginary plan to China with Caden as our pilot.  Sorry.... no pics.  I tend to live in the moment and with a baby in my arms and one hanging on my leg I just don't worry too much with juggling a camera.  Anyway, we located China on the map and completed a mapping and information worksheet from EE.  We read some some informational facts about China and listened to your China song.  We decided not to learn the Chinese portion of the song (too hard for us), but we sing the English portion.  My kids are already a bit familiar with some BASIC Chinese facts as we have a "China lover" in the house.  They already know how to say "hello", but enjoyed reviewing it, as well as, saying their names in Chinese and writing it.  They got a chuckle out of hearing their names!  Very interesting!  Throughout the week we learned more about their writings and did a little simple math with the writing the Chinese numbers (1 + 2 = 3, etc.).  The kids really like the Children Just Like Me book because it highlights one child from that country and tells some details of their lifestyle.  In Windows of the World we learned about their religious beliefs or lack there of.  We learned that their country really tries to control the people and there was an attempt to have one religion (non-Christian) about 60 years ago.  And I don't know details of how they "limit" family size, but you have to realize that it would be by sterilization, birth control, or abortion.  I know there is an over population issue there, but we found this very heartbreaking.  Children are a gift from God.  When we filled out our weekly prayer card my kids wanted to pray that "China would stop killing babies".  And that was a touchy subject to address.  We did re-word our prayer card to pray that "they will want babies".  Our little ones heard talk of killing babies a couple of times and I had to tell my older ones to stop talking about that in front of the little ones that do not understand.

The fact is we really are not that much different as a whole here in America.  Let's face it... most people here think that everyone should have two children and then, use birth control methods of some sort.  I am guilty of using it for most of my twenties and that is one of my biggest regrets.  I am not trying to step on toes here.... just MY thoughts.  And as far as that goes I may not be having other children in the future, so I am certainly not trying to force my convictions on others.

Back to the topic.... We made a mini-book for the "Animals of China" and started using our "Animal Classification" wall (or window in our case... sometime in the future I will try to post a pic.)  This is one of the Science portions that is incorporated into this curriculum.  We also began making a lapbook for the countries we study throughout the year.  Each week we will add a country.  We looked up some information about China via internet (National Geographic Kids, etc.) and I like that that is incorporated into the curriculum as technology is such a part of the world we live in. 

The Story of Ping is a suggested read aloud for one day.  We extended that to two days and discussed it more.  There are a lot of aspects of this book that make it great for learning and further study. 

We were waiting on the Usborne Encyclopedia of World Geography book to arrive, so I just talked about some of the information with the kids.  It did arrive and we used it by the end of the week.  This book is much thicker than I realized.  It is a large oversized book and is about 1 inch thick.  I am really impressed with this book and could easily see this book being used for our entire homeschooling life... all age levels!!!  My local library oredered it and I was so happy because I was hesitant to spend more money on books that I am not certain we will like.  I am sure I will be ordering my own copy in the future.  I am so thankful that I got a chance to preview it without it costing me!!

So, on to the crafts.... We did NOT spend $20+ on building that really cool Great Wall of China.  We were going to do a paper version that we printed from Papertoys.com, but some little sister scribbled on it and we were busy enough already.  ;)  Actually, we ended up having another unforeseen doctors appointment for Savannah's foot, so the Chinese fan got skipped, also.  Never fear though!  Instead we (joined by our little ones) made Chinese lanterns, Chinese stick puppet dragons, and Chinese masks.  We turned on our little Chinese song and set it to repeat and had a little Chinese parade with all our goods.  We wrapped up the week and our day with dinner out to the Grand China Buffet in Lumberton, Texas.  I rarely post locations for security reasons, but I have to do it here because Chinese restaurants have always scared me a little, but this one was really good... awesome really.  I was amazed and the kids really loved it and being that is was a buffet we were able to see what we were getting BEFORE we were stuck with it on our plates.  And we even got fortune cookies.
Here you can see us heading out to eat with each of the kids showing off their laterns, dragons, and masks... By the way Sienna was very frightened by these masks.  Poor baby girl screamed her little head off and only wanted Momma.

This pic shows the details of the dragon a little better.  One point I would like to make is that I try to use things we have without setting out on a special shopping trip for craft items.  When I found this dreagon pattern online I knew it would require two sticks for each one.  Dowel rods would work wonderfully, but sticks from the yard that are carefully selected work just as well.  ;)d

And pay no attention to the clothing.  We were not trying to make a fashion statement.  For those of you that have seen us all matchy-matchy this is what gets worn most of the time.  Also, I am not a Hollister fan.... I do not approve of their advertising.  The shirt was free.

These are our fortune cookies... and no, we do not believe in such things AT ALL.  It can be fun to read them, though.. just to see what they say.

 And the backs:

Friday, September 9, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up... Hehehe! (Scheduling Our Year & Random)

Okay... well, this is a bit of a joke because we did not have a school week this week.  At the beginning of our school year I sat down with a calendar and wrote in all the details that I already new about.  Then, I sat back and looked at it.  If we had more than one day in week that had outside commitments I put a little "x" out in the margin by that week.  The rest of the weeks got a little week number out by those.  Right away I noticed that this week my husband would be home for Labor Day and I knew that we would have our first week of co-op this Friday (today).  Also, I knew there was a short appointment that would require us to break away on Wednesday morning and I do not like even short disruptions in the day.  This week got one of my little "x" marks.  And that equals no school for us! 

So, what we did do this week was stay busy... sometimes busy doing nothing.  But I guarantee you that busy doing nothing is still busy here.  No matter how lazy you feel there is always someone that needs something done for them or there is a spill or other small disaster going on.  Ahhh.. and I must not forget... someone has to flush the toilets and I seem to be the official toilet flusher.  ;)  But I want tell you too much detail about all that. 

Monday was spent playing with friends that came over (and skipping Sierra's soccer practice because I think spending time with out of town friends is important) and then, spending time with more friends that dropped by.  I think I did laundry or something that morning, but that is all a blur.

Tuesday was spent lazing around and making that Apple/Pear Pie.

Wednesday was spent doing appointments... and that was pretty much it.  I had the one little quick appointment and then, I had to call the pediatrician about a rash that Sahara has had for over a month.  She has been to the doctors three times now for this rash.  It was one of those mystery rashes that just was not going away on her inner thighs.  She saw her actual doctor this time and he diagnosed it completely different... eczema.  And it seems he diagnosed it right because it looks better.  And that is a huge victory!  And I need to remember to send out a praise request to my Sunday School class about this one.  After all that appointment business we rushed home to hurry the kids off to church.   Errrrrkkkk.... (the sound of squealling brakes).... I forgot about half our day and this was the good stuff.  I intended to surprise the kids with lunch out someplace because I have never taken all five of them to eat alone.  I had considered Pizza Hut buffet, Chik-Fil-A, or McDonald's (ughhh McD's) and I was going to even get them kid's meals!!!.  Oh happy day!  See... we do not allow kid's meals.  First of all, we only drink water most of the time, especially when dining out.  Second, I do not like my kids lusting after toys and not eating their food.  Lastly, it is just too expensive and I can feed them way cheaper for about half the cost.  Well, I ended up wasting some of the day away and losing track of time.  That gave us 20 minutes to dine.  That eliminated Pizza Hut.  And I really wanted to take them to CFA... not McD's.  I told them that I would take them to CFA if they were super good and super fast.  And they were... and so I promised to bring them back to play in the playground.  And that is what we did.  It was nice.  I think I could move in there... they played... I sat.... I even ordered ice cream of which they shared with me... and we ordered more for them to eat on the way home.  Then, it was rush home to quickly eat a simple meal and take them to church. 

Thursday was a lot of laundry and a going through the family closet some.  What fun.  Not... When done somewhat we emerged with two boxes of clothes to get rid of.  And those will be going to help fire victims in Bastrop, Texas.  I still need to get that laundry put away....

Friday it was off to the first day of co-op and to the park.  We meet lots of new people and we got to see our old friends.  Yeah!  We came home and chilled... really...to cool off... kids played the Wii and we all sat around and ate ice cream out of the container.  Yes, because we are gross like that and I am a bad influence on my kids.  ;)  After that it was time to get serious in a lighthearted way.  A childhood friend of mine is now a co-worker of my husbands and she is taking chemo for breast cancer.  They caught it early and did a masectomy and now are doing the chemo...and her hair is falling out in clumps.  So, a couple days ago Cody offered to help her shave her head.  And today she decided she wanted to.  They arrived and she looked a little nervous, but good.  I asked her how SHE wanted to do this... behind closed doors or in the open?... her shave it, Cody, or me?... Pics or no pics?.... all those "little" details... And then, we just did it the way she wanted.  And she went home to her husband with the help of a friend.  We ordered pizza and rented a kid movie and that is how the week went..... and now I am going to bed.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Apple Pie!




Well, we made the Apple Pie that we were supposed to make Friday for Expedition Earth to go with the book "How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World".  Actually, we made Pear Pie, since someone shared some local pears with us.  I really turned out yummy.  Unfortunately, my kids don't like Apple/Pear Pie and I knew this, but I was hoping it might be different with the whole book and helping make it thing.  Nope!  Caden ate a little, but not much.  They did enjoy the ice cream.....

Technically, I had scheduled this whole week off, so I am trying to decide still just how much school we will actually do.  I am thinking not too much.  It is early in the year to be taking breaks, but this week Cody was off for Labor Day, we have a short appointment on Wednesday, I really want to do the Spelling since it is a "Review Week", but I am thinking that special projects might be the way we go! 


Friday, September 2, 2011

A COMPLETE Week! Started Expedition Earth: PART 2 (Completion): Week 1

I did this in two parts because I wanted to blog seperately about our actual experience with Expedition Earth rather than all my life catastrophes.  ;)    I am not going to go into a lot of detail but rather will hit the highlights for us of what we did.  And I am not certain how much I will blog about our experiences, so do not take this as a commitment to do weekly blog posts.  I know my limits and when things get crazy blogging takes a back burner.  With that being said I will proceed.  {wink wink}

We had already started with some of these books with ECC, so this week was light for us (and I needed that {wink wink} ).  A couple of the books we had already read like Maps and Globes, but it was a great review of the information.  In fact I think this is a much better way to learn.  I think I might just read that book to the girls a few more times throughout the year even if it is not scheduled in (and I need to check this).  For a kid book it is a little heavy on facts and the repitition is good, since they really do not like it when it is read word for word.  They prefer it being summarized as I did this week and "brought it to life" as I walked around the room referring to the map and globe and drawing some details on the dry erase board.  I even had them find the points on the world map as I explained the pages about longitude and latitude.  We used a scrap of paper and a page out of an Atlas to understand the pages that describe "scale and distance". 

We will be learning about other countries and their religions, so we will be using Windows on the World.  Again, this is book we had already started with and we just reviewed the information.  For music we listened to and sang The Children of the World song and we all have this down after singing it for the last five weeks.  Even my husband can be caught singing it from time to time.  ;)  We used the Geography from A-Z book to learn seven new words and this week they were all pretty understandable for the kids.  I won't list all the words due to EE copyright, but I will say that one word was "polar", so that is easy for the kids to relate that polar bears live in the cold and that would be near the "poles"...polar.  I am not saying the seven words were easy words because they were not, but they were just enough to kind of stretch the mind without being too much.  And we did not do a worksheet or draw on index cards are write the words "x" number of times or anything like that.  We simply talked about them and discussed them and I could tell they understood and had them explain the words.  That is good for me.  I like some things to just be simple.  Another book that is the same is Living World Encyclopedia and it is and Usborne book.  And I am just going to say this.... I know that I am the only person that feels this way on the planet, but I just do not care for a lot of Usborne books.  I have felt this way with the ones that My Father's World suggests for K, 1st, Adventures, and ECC.  I have used them, but they are just too all over the page busy for me.  My kids like them and the information is good, but I would like things a little more storybook like.  Put that same info that is on a two page spread onto six pages and I would love it.  The action of flipping a page gives my mind a little break and I like that better.  BUT it works and as it is I will just read and summarize to make it more enjoyable to use.  We are still awaiting the arrival of the Usborne Encyclopedia of World Geography that is used for EE.  Our local library offered to purchase some of the books and I am so grateful as I will not have to buy this book to see if I like it.  Woo hoo!  If it turns out that I do like it, then I will probably buy my own copy. 


For EE we were given a couple of project ideas, so made the world... out of paper mache.  Above is the finished project.  We opted not to label our countries because ours are more of random blobs and not necessarily even the correct amount of "continents".  We just had a little fun.  The pic below is while our "oceans" were drying (ironic, huh?  Oceans drying.)  Anyway, you can see how we used paperclips to stick through the balloon tie and hung them from the chandeliers.  We made it a three day project instead of two day.
Day 1 = blow up balloon and add paper mache
Day 2 = paint it all blue (we waited on the other colors to avoid mixing paint)
Day 3 = paint the continents green and added a little white at the north and south poles

In the upper pic you can also do a project we had already made with ECC that was our "children of the world".  My brilliant seven year old, Sierra, to form them in a circle and balance them on our blow up globe.  I love this! 



This is a little snapshot of something I did for my tot and pre-ker.  They are learning to recognize their names, so I decided to simply write their names on their notebooks (used for storing past work and for them to show off to Daddy).  Then, I had the idea to make a little set of game cards for them to do each day to start recognizing their own name.  If you notice in the first pic way up high (of our worlds), you will see their super large names on the wall that we used to help them recognize their names.  For those I printed them the night before and taped them together like a banner.  The next day they used bingo markters to trace their names... then they used regular markers, or crayons, etc...


Anyway, back to EE... We skipped doing the Continent Hop Scotch game that is suggested, but I fully intend to do this later.  I just have this vision of another concussion and want to find a safer way to do this game.  It is printed continent sheets that are laminated and although she suggests using something to make it slipproof I decided to think on it a little longer.  Maybe I am being paranoid, but I just can not see how they can hop on it and it not slip and them fall.  I have a few ideas that I will try out to make this work for us.  {It is very important to avoid a second head trauma after a concussion... I am normally not this paranoid... just sayin'.}

And lastly, we read How To Bake An Apple Pie and See The World.  I pointed out the locations on the world map to make them realize how silly the book is.  They truly enjoyed this book and are excited about making pie.  And so, we were supposed to make pie last night, but we ran out of stream.  And so, we are supposed to make it today... sometime.... really.... I will... maybe I will go do that right now.  Only thing is we are having pear pie because someone so graciously shared some pears with us!  Yeah!  And I think I will read that book to them, again! 

Oh yeah!  They got their passports and we studied some Bible verses and stuff.  We are doing some things in our "own way".  One of which is using Draw To Learn (Jesus) in which we read a passage of scripture and draw according to suggestions in the book.  I am also going to use key verses that come up with EE in this same manner.  And this week we prayed for the "lost souls all over the world".  The verse this week was:
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  Matthew 28: 18-20
I made a copywork page for them with a portion of the verse on it and they were given instructions to illustrate it.



As you can see with both of the girls I choose a portion of the verse for them to focus on.  Being that Sierra is in second grade I underlined key words to bring it down even more for her copywork.  For her I used a highlighter to write the words and then, have her trace them.  She is being a bit sloppy with her handwriting and I think this may help.  If she is tracing the letters she will learn to form them correctly is this way.  These two pages show how we are using the same work and tailoring to meet each age.  I hope to be able to find time to share our future weeks with you, also.  We are headed to China next week.  {wink wink}

A COMPLETE Week! Started Expedition Earth: PART 1 (The Concussion)

Well, it is with great relief that I can say that we finished a complete week of our new curriculum, Expedition Earth.  I was all set to start this curriculum the previous week and had stayed up into some crazy, obscene, long hours of the night the weekend before to get everything ready.  On that Monday we jumped in... or rather, I did.... but the kids did not... they had already experienced the boredom of the three weeks prior with our other curriculum and let's just say they were resistant and cranky... I did not go well.  We got enough ready to move on to day two and had gotten up that morning and gotten off to a good start.  Most of our core subjects were done and I think the two older girls only had math to do.  I was feeling like it was going to be a better day and then, we went out to feed the animals since it had not been done at the correct time.  Caden was inside watching TV and the rest of us went out.  Sahara and Sierra tired of our animal duties and went back inside.  Shortly after, Sierra opened the back door and said that Sahara was hurt and had fallen.  I honestly did not take it serious until I got to the door and saw Sahara trying to stand and walk and stumbling around.  I took her in my arms and tried to calm her, but she was just crying and groaning.  I tried the usual tricks to see if she would "forget".  It was just not happening, but she was not screaming hysterically.  That was odd in itself.  Cody called and I told him I was dealing with a head trauma, but even then I did not take it too seriously.  I thought she would cry a little and be okay.  She was starting to fall asleep and I tried to keep her awake, but she drifted out.  I lay her in my bed and then, nurse the baby who also fell asleep.  I put her in the bed away from Sahara and checked on Sahara, again.  She was fine.. or seemed so.  A few minutes later I her rousing and crying and I went to her quickly.  I got her up carried her to the living room couch to keep from waking Sienna.  She began throwing up.  That's when I knew this was not just a little bump on the head.  Called the pediatrician.  They said to take her in.  Called Cody.  He came.  Long story short... it got scary... She was disoriented, dozing in and out, slurred speech, hard to understand, made little sense, was abnormally quiet.  Five hours later and CT scan later she was clear of major injuries and it was determined that she had a concussion and could go home. 

For this reason we only did core subjects the rest of the week and stopped with Expedition Earth, so my focus could be more on watching Sahara closely.  I am happy to say that she is doing well and we managed to complete a full school week this week.  Yeah!