Project Fridays

This school year has been so busy that I have not taken the time to write blog posts as often as I have wanted. We have been busily working through spelling lists, learning multiple digit addition and multiplication, memorizing parts of speech, practicing the piano, learning to swim, dancing, tumbling, and so on. Most Fridays, however, we take a break from our day-to-day assignments and work on a project together.

In January, after we finished reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, I gave Hannah and Ben each a box, set out the craft supplies, and told them to make a shadowbox based on the book. Both kids ended up making a model of Sam Gribley's woods and his home in the tree trunk, so I took advantage of that to teach them a little about habitats. On each side of the box, they glued a piece of card stock and labeled them with the title of the book, "Sam Gribley's Habitat," and the different aspects of his habitat: food, water, and shelter. Then, under those headings, they listed ways that Sam was able to obtain those things in the woods. For example, he drank water from a fresh spring, he hunted for animals with his falcon and ate edible plants, and he created a home in a hollow tree. The finished projects are lovely!

On the Friday before the Super Bowl, we dedicated the entire day to football-related activities. I found an amazing free resource on the website for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and combined with with another packet I got as a freebie from Currclick. I printed out a ton of pages, punched holes in them, and put them in folders for each kid. We began the day by bundling up and heading out to a nearby sports field, where we had a punt, pass, and kick contest, raced through various football drills, and performed an experiment to figure out why a football has its shape, instead of being perfectly round. Back at home, they learned about Roman Numerals (since that is how they label Super Bowls), did some football-themed math, read and wrote poems about football, learned about the first African American inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, discovered how to read nutrition labels to eat a healthy diet (like a good athlete should!), and even designed their own football team mascots, pennants, and jerseys!

Also, in February, we had the opportunity for an amazing project on the planets. Now, as a family, we enjoy listening to classical music, and one of our favorites is The Planets by Holst. Josh discovered that the Springfield Symphony would be putting on a show called "Out of This World," featuring a live performance of The Planets, lovely NASA images from space, and dramatic presentations by an astronomy professor and an acting troupe. In preparation, we listened to the music several times and talked about the names of each planet and how the origins of those names inspired the songs. I also found a free space lapbook at www.homeschoolshare.com, and I used portions of that and our Children's Atlas of the Universe to put together a wonderful project on the planets. Additionally, I used the student guide provided by the symphony and resources from our Galloping the Globe study of Italy (which includes a section on space because Galileo was from Italy). I was out of town with the youth group on the evening of the show, but despite the two-hour drive each way, Josh and his mom took the kids to the performance, and they loved it! In fact, Becca announced on the way home that it was "better than Chuck E. Cheese's!"

We have had so much fun with our "Project Fridays" so far this school year. I believe that the kids have learned more from them than anything they have learned out of a text book. Even though I have to work a little harder to fit all of their other school work into only four days each week, I am certain that we will continue with Project Fridays for a long time!

The Wheel on the School

Last week, Hannah and I finished the first chapter book we worked on together - The Wheel on the School by Miendert DeJong. What a lovely book! We both fell in love with it from the very first page. Lina, the main character, is so sweet and thoughtful and full of dreams. She reminds me very much of my Hannah!

At first, the book focuses only on the school children and their teacher, as they are the only "important" characters in the story. But gradually, more and more characters become "important" until the list includes the whole town and even some people in adjacent towns: the oldest man and woman, the young tots, the fathers, the women, the poor tin man, and even the once-outcast legless man with a cherry tree in his back yard. By the end of the book, everyone has come together to make Lina's "impossibly impossible" dream a reality.

Last Friday, Josh surprised Ben by taking him away for the weekend to a Virginia Tech football game with all of the guys on that side of the family. Since I didn't have to plan any school work for Ben that day, I decided to spend the whole day with Hannah working on a project to wrap up our reading of the book. I planned to do three lapbooks - one on the book, one on the Netherlands, and one on storks. In advance, I found a few printables from homeschoolshare.com, and I designed a few booklets myself. Using some non-fiction books from the library about the Netherlands and storks, Hannah and I planned out the rest of the ideas. She did most of the writing, though I wrote the titles on each item and the tiny labels on the timeline. I also filled in the main character list, when her hand became tired. Of course, she helped me by listing characters and describing the main events. Once we finished assembling the lapbooks, Hannah decorated the cover of each one. I am absolutely amazed at how they turned out!

The cover for the book lapbook:

The inside of the book lapbook:

The cover of the Netherlands lapbook:

The inside of the Netherlands lapbook:

The cover of the stork lapbook:

The inside of the stork lapbook:

In addition, during play time yesterday, I noticed that Hannah had used her Legos to build a replica of the village of Shora. The little girl even has on a pair of wooden shoes!

Amazingly, Hannah has nearly finished reading the entire book for a second time on her own! The reading level is fairly challenging, but she loves the story so much that she does not mind. This is one reason why we opted to homeschool this year. Last year, school exhausted her so much that she never wanted to read on her own anymore. She seemed to have lost her love of reading. Obviously, that love returned once we provided a more restful and academically stimulating school environment. I am very excited by how this project turned out, and I am already considering our next one when we finish our new chapter book. I love how much fun learning can be - for my kids and for me!

Loving Literature

One morning, after I had been out the night before, I was surprised to discover Hannah reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I loved the book when I read it in fifth grade, but the story deals with death and sadness and growing up, and I did not know if my six year old could understand the themes of the book. Additionally, the book has 249 pages with no pictures, and I doubted that she would have the patience the finish it. About a month later, Hannah has proven me wrong!

As she read the story, she often discussed the story and the themes with us, celebrating the victories and mourning the losses. She became so attached to Old Dan and Little Ann that I began to worry about how she would handle their deaths at the end of the book. But, though she definitely expressed sadness when she finished, she also says that the book is her new favorite book.

Today, I suggested that she write a book report about the story, perhaps to read to her class at school. She happily agreed. This is what she wrote, with some corrected punctuation and spelling (though she only spelled two or three words wrong and used periods fairly well this time).

"I read Where the Red Fern Grows! At the beginning, a boy wanted two coon hounds. Then he prayed to God so he could get two coon hound pups. He got two coon hound pups. On the first day of hunting, his dogs treed a coon. He chopped a tree down and got a coon.

Then, he caught another coon! And another coon. Then, one night there was a blizzard. Little Anne got stuck on the ice! How could he help her? He got a cane and helped little Ann! They went home. The next day he went hunting with with some kids for two dollars. He did not want to kill the ghost coon. One kid died. Then he went home.

One day, he entered a contest. Little Ann won a silver cup. Then he caught the most coons and won the gold cup. They camped. They went home and he gave a gold cup to his sister, a silver cup to his other sister, and a dollar to his third sister. The next day, he went hunting again.

Then, a mountain lion attacked them. Then, Old Dan died, and Little Ann was so sad she died. They were in graves. There was a red fern in the middle. The red fern was very special. It helped him not be sad."

Hannah added a cover page and a couple of pictures at the end, and she plans to bring the whole thing in to school to share with her class on Monday. Her love of books continues to amaze and delight me. I wonder what she will decide to read next...

March Comes in Like a Lion But Goes Out Like...

A couple years ago, my parents purchased a beautiful cabin in the woods, about halfway between Philadelphia and Ohio. We love to meet them there for weekends and enjoy spending time outdoors. Last weekend, now that the threat of surprise snowstorms and dangerous driving has passed, we made the trek for the first time this spring.

The kids love being outside and exploring, but our urban backyard near a busy street limits their freedom quite a bit here at home.

They poked sticks in the pond...

collected pine cones and floated them in the stream...

and ran around to their hearts' content!

We even caught a small newt near the pond. After everyone examined it, we returned him to the water where he would be safe from little fingers. Becca still affectionately talks about the "nude" we found!

On Saturday evening, despite the slight, misty drizzle, my dad suggested going on a "bear hunt" referencing one of the kids' favorite books. The kids jumped up and down excitedly, as I snapped raincoats and my dad passed out flashlights.

We walked back past the pond and into the woods, which largely consist of widely spaced evergreen trees and acres of rhododendrons. The kids ran ahead, shining their flashlights behind trees and under bushes, looking for bears.

The closest they got to a bear was a "scary" old rusty pipe that they thought was a bear until they ran up and touched it. Good thing we didn't expect to find any real bears!

The next morning, my mom pulled out two kits for planting sunflower seeds. We filled the pots with dirt, and the kids put seeds in the little holes we made and then soaked the soil with water. Even Becca joined in the fun. My parents and I each took a pot home to sprout, and then we will plant the sunflowers in our yards once they are big enough.

We always hate leaving, but we had a beautiful drive home. The clouds looked spectacular, and at one rest stop, the sun peeked through the clouds in the middle of a brief rainstorm and created the most beautiful rainbow. Ben yelled, excitedly, "A rainbow tells us about God's love!" I am glad to know that he is learning from our family Bible time and from Sunday School... and that he gets the important ideas and not just the stories.

About an hour from home the snow started... perhaps spring has not quite arrived after all!

A Sweet Adventure

A local farm hosted its annual Maple Syrup Festival this weekend. We missed last year's festival due to snow, so we made a point of attending this year. We knew the kids would love it, and we also needed to buy some more maple syrup, as the gallon we bought two years ago was beginning to run low.

We began the morning by eating pancakes with syrup, and then we headed out to the farm. A tractor drove cart-loads of people from the parking lot to the waiting area down the road. From there, several teams of draft horses pulled people in wagons back into the woods to the place where they made the maple syrup.

All along the road and on all of the paths, metal buckets hung from trees to collect the sap. Many of the buckets were full, with a thin layer of ice across the top because of the freezing nighttime temperatures.

Once we got out of the wagon, we walked through a small trail with a few stations showing the early methods of processing sugar maple sap. At the first station, people wearing period costumes and traditional Native American dress explained how Indians in the region first harvested maple sugar. They collected sap in wooden buckets and poured it into troughs carved into large logs. Then, they heated rocks in a fire and placed those rocks into the sap-filled logs. The hot rocks boiled the water and condensed the syrup, eventually leaving nothing but maple sugar. The Native Americans formed the sugar into cakes and used it on everything until their supply diminished. Unfortunately, this method left a lot of sand in the sugar, which shortened the people's lifespan by wearing down their teeth rapidly.

At the next station, women demonstrated how European settlers later used large kettles to boil down the sap and make syrup.

They needed to stir the sap frequently to prevent it from burning. Many gallons of sap are needed to make a single gallon of maple syrup.

Finally, we entered the "Sugar Shack" where they currently process their maple syrup. Steam filled the room as it evaporated constantly from a large heated vat of sap. In this more modern facility, sap comes directly through tubing that taps into the maple trees, so that people do not have to collect it from buckets every morning.

A man explained the current process of making maple syrup and gave everyone tiny samples of fresh syrup. It tasted wonderful!

After a quick picnic lunch and a stop in another small museum, we purchased some freshly made maple syrup, a piece of maple sugar candy for each of us, and a wonderful smelling maple sugar candle for our house. Once the kids settled into the warm car and the sugar rush began to wear off, they became quite drowsy and literally begged for their beds when we got home! We had a wonderful day, and the kids learned a lot. Hannah and I have already read Little House in the Big Woods together, but I think I will finish off this adventure by reading them all the two chapters from the book that describe how they made maple sugar. Overall, I would say that we had a very sweet adventure!

Animal Teeth and Tales

Now that the holidays are over, we are beginning to get into a new routine for school. Ben is much more interested in "doing preschool" recently, so I have been doing almost as much with him as I have with Hannah. We have had a fun couple of days.

Yesterday, we read One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey. In the book, Sal wakes up one morning with a lose tooth. At first, she worries, but she grows excited when her mother tells her that it means she is growing up. She wonders about different animals' teeth, and she plans out the wish she will make when the tooth finally comes out. The book paints a lovely picture of a family living on the coast of Maine, while also exploring an important milestone in a little girl's life.

At Hannah's last trip to the dentist, the dentist told her that she would likely begin losing her teeth within the next year, and she is very excited about the idea, so she enjoyed this story quite a bit. Several months ago, I saved a portion of a My Big Backyard magazine about animal teeth, so I used those pages to talk about different kinds of teeth and what uses they have. The kids enjoyed figuring out which types of teeth different animals have. Additionally, we located Maine on a map and talked about animals that don't have any teeth at all.

Today, we reread the book Little Beaver and the Echo by Amy MacDonald. This is a beautifully illustrated and adorable tale about a lonely little beaver who hears his echo and goes looking for a friend. Though he never finds the voice he is seeking, he finds three new friends along the way.

We used this book, combined with another My Big Backyard to learn about beavers, which fit very well with the teeth lesson from yesterday. I jokingly told Ben that next year, instead of bringing a saw with us, he can chew down our Christmas tree instead. I chmped my teeth dramatically in the direction of our tree (and yes, we still have not taken down our tree...). The kids laughed and laughed, but I think they will always remember what a beaver uses his teeth for!

We also discussed echoes and how they work. We took turns yelling and pretending to hear our echoes, which the kids loved! Ben tells me now that an echo is when you say, "Hello!" or "Who's there?" and your voice bounces off of something hard and comes back to you, and you hear, "Hello! Who's there?" I think they've got it!

We're also moving bit by bit through Sing, Spell, Read and Write and a few other workbooks. Ben can read short-vowel words fairly easily now, and he really enjoys practicing his new skill. Hannah is moving a little more slowly through her book, now that it consists of more writing and less coloring and other fun activities. We do a smaller amount each day, and I supplement with more engaging reading comprehension and phonics worksheets from a second grade workbook I purchased.

So, we are back to work and getting into a routine. Though have a lot I want to accomplish before the end of the year, my biggest desire is that the kids will love learning! I think we are finding a good balance...