Hi, I'm Heidi and I homeschool my two sweet kids. I want them to know that learning is an exciting lifelong adventure! We love great books, unit studies, notebooking, lapbooking, and hands-on learning.Our Homeschool Journal: Switching to Holiday Homeschooling
I am crazy about Christmas! Yes, I’m one of those people who adores every part of the Christmas season, plays Christmas music as early as I can get away with it, and even wears Christmas earrings. We celebrated Thanksgiving day with my husband at the fire station, then jumped happily into Christmas preparations.
In our homeschool the past two weeks…
In the past two weeks we finished my main goals for our nature study about trees, though like all nature study there was so much left to learn! I won’t be focusing on a nature study topic with the kids during the holiday. We’ll enjoy early winter (and hopefully some snow) and start a focus area on birds in January.
We still did core subjects (language arts, math) a couple days each week. We spent a lot of time listening to audio books. A nasty cold swept through the house and there is nothing better with sore throats and runny noses than cuddling next to the Christmas tree with hot cocoa listening to stories.
I learned a lot our first year homeschooling. One of those things was how hard it was to do all the normal life jobs, prepare for Christmas, plus take advantage of all the wonderful events to attend and traditions to observe and things to make and do! I’ve applied what I learned to our plans this year.
I shared this week how we count down the days until Christmas, and I’ll be posting in the next couple weeks about how we focus on the real reason for the season and how we keep on learning while enjoying all the wonderful things about Christmas time.
Places we went and people we saw…
My son’s Cub Scout troop toured the fire station (with Dad as a tour guide), my daughter had book club and piano lessons, we had our book club meeting on The Hobbit, we began practicing for our church Christmas Pageant, and we attended a play depicting a Christmas on the prairie (a perfect tie-in to our time of year and our history studies).
My favorite thing this week was…
Getting our Christmas tree at a tree farm we’ve been going to for years. My parents go with us, there is a horse-drawn hay ride, warm cider and donuts, and a little shop in a big red barn where we buy everyone a new ornament each year…all in all a cherished tradition.
My favorite resource this week…
My daughter is taking an interest in cooking, and we are thrilled to help her expand her skills. We used a great resource from Allrecipes.com called “Recipes in Motion.” Each video (there are almost 700 right now!) walks you through the steps of making one of the recipes found on their site. You can watch on their website, but we are watching on our television using the Allrecipes channel on Roku. My daughter is ten and at the perfect age to follow along on the video with me in the background to oversee work with things that are hot or sharp. For Thanksgiving at the fire station she made a pumpkin roll. She learned a lot, it was delicious, and she was extremely proud.
Things I’m working on…
Everything Christmas! I’m organizing our holiday/school plans, decorating, getting all my shopping done…
We’re reading…
We finished The Hobbit audio dramatization and it still just is not a story we enjoyed. We had our book club meeting and had a lively discussion with us as the odd family out. It’s always good to be comfortable being different!
On more enjoyable reading we finished On the Shores of Silver Lake and now move on to The Long Winter. The kids and I laughed when I told them the title. We said it doesn’t sound very appealing so we’re guessing some more unfortunate times lay ahead, but that the Ingalls family will be grateful through it all. We are enjoying the Little House series so much.
While we were waiting for the audio version of The Long Winter through interlibrary loan, I grabbed one of our favorites to listen to when we’re in the car. We’ve read or listened to the entire Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series several times and we never tire of them. If you haven’t read the books with your kids you must! They can be enjoyed heartily by all ages. We were having such fun that we popped it in again when we returned home and my daughter and I took the opportunity to put another coat of paint on her dollhouse.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll come back to see how we enjoy holiday homeschooling!
Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!
Holiday Homeschooling: Counting Down the Days
Christmas is my favorite holiday, and not just the day but the whole season. Homeschooling provides the extra blessing of flexibility to enjoy all that this delightful time of year has to offer. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be sharing how we celebrate the holiday while homeschooling. Not in spite of homeschooling, but tying everything together.
Advent calendars are a great tool to savor the season. I use a wooden snowman with 25 drawers that I purchased at a craft store and painted. I fill each drawer with a small piece of candy and a slip of paper with an activity. Having our advent calendar has improved our celebration of the Christmas season:
- It gives my children a visual reminder of how many days before Christmas Day.
- The activities give them so much to enjoy throughout the season that they savor it, rather than just wanting it to be over so the big day arrives.
- Coming up with activities for the days assures that we enjoy the holiday season together and it won’t be December 22nd when I realize we haven’t done all that we wanted.
So, are you persuaded that you need an advent calendar? There are many options for the actual calendars: most stores sell fabric ones with pockets and wooden ones with drawers, and the Internet is loaded with ideas to make them from everything from paper bags to baby socks.
Are you thinking, “But how can I come up with TWENTY-FIVE activities?” Don’t fret! Trust me, it really isn’t that hard. If you sit down and write the things you enjoy doing during the holiday season you’ll probably be half way there anyway. The activities don’t need to be difficult or time-consuming. Are you going to visit friends or relatives to celebrate? What about scheduled events in your town, homeschool groups or church?
Still not convinced? Let me prove it:
- Make a paper chain to count down the days.
- Look at family Christmas photos (or videos) from previous years.
- Drive around looking at Christmas lights.
- Put up Christmas lights outside.
- Decorate our Christmas tree.
- Wrap Christmas gifts.
- Write a letter to Santa.
- Make paper snowflakes.
- Attend town tree lighting or parade.
- Have a candlelight (and tree lights) dinner at home and dress fancy.
- Visit friends to admire their decorations.
- Deliver homemade treats to friends and neighbors.
- Play games or put together a puzzle by the Christmas tree.
- Read the Christmas story in the Bible.
- Go out for dessert.
- Decorate gingerbread houses.
- Make place cards or place mats for Christmas dinner.
- Go caroling.
- Attend a Christmas concert or sing-a-long.
- Attend a holiday performance (check local theaters/schools for a holiday play or ballet).
- Have hot cocoa with only the tree lights on.
- Make Christmas cards.
- Visit Santa.
- Make cookies for Santa.
- Decorate a tree outside with food for the birds.
- Make a popcorn garland.
- Make a birthday cake for Jesus.
- Make handmade gifts.
- Walk around the neighborhood to enjoy Christmas lights.
- Participate in or watch a church Christmas pageant.
- Have a sleepover beside the Christmas tree.
- Attend a church Christmas Eve service.
- Watch a Christmas movie (many choices for all ages–I use this several times).
- Make a Christmas craft or ornament (I use this more than once, too).
- Bake a Christmas treat (I use this one a few times, too).
Now that is THIRTY-FIVE ideas, and I use a few of the ideas more than once! Are you convinced that this is actually easy? It doesn’t add hustle and bustle–it stretches and slows the season. And in case you think I’m super organized, I don’t actually fill all the drawers ahead of time. I have my list and supplies ready but I schedule specific activities a few days at a time (or the night before!) so I can see what we have time for, add in fun events that come up, and adjust if anyone is sick.
Still think it sounds like a lot? Remember that the food treats don’t have to take hours–and in fact they shouldn’t if you want to work with kids in the kitchen! Grab a box of sugar cones, slather them with frosting and decorate with sprinkles and candy. Making peppermint bark is easy and the kids love crushing the candy canes. The same is true with crafts. Pick up some wooden ornaments at the craft store and let the kids loose with paint. Swirl paint around inside clear glass ball ornaments. You’ll treasure the memories and the ornaments when you unpack them next year.
Check out my Pinterest Christmas Activities with Kids board for fun food and craft ideas that will help you have your advent calendar filled in no time.
Stay tuned, for I’ll be sharing how we focus on the reason for the season and keep on learning while celebrating!
Nature Study ~ Trees
I wrote about how we kicked off our nature study focus on trees by writing poems about trees. Since then we’ve been learning a lot about trees and I still feel like we’re just beginning! I set up our nature table with any tree-related specimens and books and we added more cones and leaves throughout our study. (Just a side note: I keep boxes in our basement for nature items and only display the ones for the nature topic we are focusing on. Rotating what we have out keeps it more interesting.)
Leaves
One of Barb’s posts from a couple years ago on Seasonal Tree Observations linked to a great printable for leaf shape and arrangement. It is one of those things I’ll add to my binder and try to learn but I have to reign in the urge to download my brain into my children. Charlotte Mason cautions against talking at your kids so much in nature that you take away their chance to experience it and see what they are interested in. (Here’s an older post of mine about stepping back when we’re in nature with some advice straight from Ms. Mason.) If I focus on learning the information myself I can answer questions and teach vocabulary in context as we marvel at the things we see. The author of the Handbook of Nature Study states it this way:
The child should never be required to learn the name of anything in the nature-study work; but the name should be used so often and so naturally in his presence that he will learn it without being conscious of the process.” ~Anna Botsford Comstock
We’d been enjoying Maine’s beautiful foliage displays so our first quest was to understand how and why leaves change colors in the fall. We watched a short video from the Maine Department of Conservation about the changing colors in leaves. We brought some brilliant yellow leaves in and examined them with the stereoscope and microscope. The kids drew as a way to record what they saw. This quote from my son illustrates why I love using a hand lens, stereoscope and microscope when we can:
“I didn’t know leaves were so interesting!”
We learned about another timely aspect of fall: there is a thin layer that forms between the leaf’s stem (petiole) and the twig, allowing the leaf to drop and most importantly to kids: leading to piles like this to jump in!
Learning about the cycles of leaves forming a separation layer, then falling off and feeding the tree as they break down into the soil, followed by new buds in place just above the scar waiting to be next year’s leaves led us to take a trip around the yard to see these signs of years past, this year, and years to come on our own trees.
With the excitement of brilliant fall leaves we focused on deciduous trees initially, so then it was time to move onto evergreens. We made our annual trek to the Christmas Tree Farm and our studies continued with a beautiful specimen right in our living room!
Flowers, Seeds and Cones
I’ll look forward to revisiting this topic in the spring and early summer when the maple trees in our yard bloom, but fall was a great time to study cones and acorns. We were able to get a good look at two different types of cones and one variety of acorn. I grabbed cones from the ground under two backyard trees and placed them in empty cardboard containers so the kids could watch the transformation and see the treasure inside a cone.
Bark
The bark looked incredible under the stereoscope. We read in one of our books about how bark was like skin to protect the tree, but since it doesn’t stretch it looks wrinkled and peeling and has cracks. That is how the tree expands as it grows!
Roots
We took a couple hikes during the month to enjoy time in the forest. It gave us a good chance to observe some root systems of trees that have fallen. My son said this one looked like a dinosaur with a large eye and mouth coming out of the ground!
Trees just seem to spark the imagination. This tree immediately gave my daughter an idea for a story, with the cut branch being a secret keyboard to access an underground world.
Identification
Our neighborhood is relatively young, and many of the trees in our yard (21 to be exact!) have been planted by me in the past 5 years. I’ve been working to identify those that were already planted. My plan is to make our own field guide beginning with the trees from our yard (Outdoor Hour Challenge #7). We were inspired by a local homeschool family who showed us their leaf collection and this post from Brandy at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood. She includes a free printable notebook page to identify and record the tree and a leaf sample.
Luckily I’d collected and pressed leaves from a few trees this fall. I want to include actual leaves and seeds when possible, and photos of items like cones and bark. We’ll have to continue this project once there are leaves to be seen outside in Maine…like next May. Commercial field guides are a wonderful resource, but there is great value in making your own book of things you have right outside your door.
After we learn a little about our different trees we’ll choose one for a year-long study. We’ll probably start with the large spruce that forms part of what my kids call their “secret hideout” with it’s large drooping branches. Barb has a helpful post with ideas for a year-long seasonal tree study and I also like this post that will persuade you of the benefits of studying one tree over the course of the four seasons.
Book and Internet Resources:
- The Handbook of Nature Study: the resource for all our nature study, used as a reference for me (not a read aloud).
- Barb at The Handbook of Nature Study Blog continually inspires me to study nature with my kids. She has a great reference page with links to many of her tree studies (both specific trees, parts of trees, and seasonal ideas) and a free download.
- National Audubon Society Pocket Guide: Familiar Trees of North America East: I like this small, colorful field guide. For each tree there is a sillhouete to show the overall shape, a full page photo (not drawing) of the leaves, and a small close-up of the bark. My only complaint: I wish it had a photo of the cones or seeds for each tree.
- I came across a great book at our library that I’ll be adding to our collection, though it is only available used. Inside and Outside Trees by Sandra Markle is filled with beautiful photos and easy to understand explanations. This was a perfect read aloud: just a couple pages at a time and then we’d look for the things we read about during our outside time. It helped the kids have lots of “a-ha” moments when they found a leaf scar or something else they could recognize from the pictures in the book.
- Eyewitness Books: Trees is another reference we used. When you can’t observe everything up close and personal in nature the gorgeous photography in the DK Eyewitness Books is a good stand-in.
- An online guide to the parts of a tree: this has some of the same information from the printable in Barb’s post (on leaf shape and arrangement), but also has nice graphics for tree shape, twig structures, and the different types of flowers, seeds and cones. It does not give you the identification, but helps you learn about the structures used in identifying trees. That way if you read details about a tree’s stipule scars, incised or pinnately compound leaves, or drupes you know what on earth to look for.
- The online guide from the Arbor Day Foundation called “What Tree is That?” is the best resource I’ve found for identifying a tree. It is so easy to use: just answer one question at a time to arrive at the identification. My kids enjoy using this with me as I ask them the questions and they tell me which choice on the screen applies to the tree we’re looking at. We used this to identify our Christmas tree as a balsam fir.
- I always try to find a few related picture books for fun. This time we’re enjoying: Christmas Tree Farm by David Budbill, an illustrated picture book of a Robert Frost poem called Christmas Trees, and Arbor Day Square by Kathryn O. Galbraith (which also ties into our history studies–it’s about the beginning of Arbor Day out on the prairie in the 1800’s).
Now our nature table has been cleared off to make room for our Christmas Village. Our homeschool runs pretty differently during December. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be sharing how we focus on the holiday and still learn a lot. And then looking ahead in our nature study we’ll start a focus area on birds in January. That way we’ll be ready for our second year participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count!
Our Homeschool Journal: Paint and Mud
I didn’t have a single picture of school-related activities this week! It was a sort of odd week.
Monday was 60 degrees. For those of you not in Maine, that is really odd for November! I had to take the opportunity to spray paint a free bed we were given for my son. It was one of those now-or-never jobs.
I had to share this picture of “swamp dog.” Martha is our four year old yellow (nearly white!) Lab and is the sweetheart of our family. But…she just loves mud and swamps. She doesn’t want to walk through, she must immediately flip over and roll delightedly in the gooey mess. I would like to note that a mere 24 hours before this picture I had given her a bath. Before this walk she had lovely, fluffy, white, sweet-smelling fur.
Thursday should have been a normal school day. Then Daddy returned from an overnight shift and said, “Hey, let’s go out to breakfast! The cafe in town has new owners!” You know what I said? “Yes!” (Thanks, Mary, for reminding me not to be the drill sergeant mom!)
I got a new electronic device this week. Normally I’m afraid of new technology, but the tablet is so much like my much-loved smartphone (that I initially fought changing to) that I wasn’t afraid, just excited! I like being able to bring the tablet to bed instead of my laptop to catch up on blog reading and Pinterest. Also of note is the theme in the other items in my cart–cat litter, litter box liners, dog waste pick up bags, and toilet paper. Very glamorous.
In our homeschool this week…
Other than spray-painting, dog-bathing, and playing with my new toy we accomplished a fair amount of schoolwork.
I’m happy with all that is happening in language arts in our schoolroom. My son’s reading skills are really expanding and it’s rewarding to watch him. He’s finally seeing that he can read and tries reading words outside of his reading program more often. He was writing a letter to send to a soldier this week and I used the “Friendly Letter Boogie” to teach him the parts of a letter. Writeshop’s blog is full of great ideas.
The ability to be so flexible with my daughter is wonderful. In Writeshop Junior D she is working on an adventure story and expanded well beyond the few paragraphs that is expected. I like that I can hold the new lesson and work with her for a longer time on this lesson. I also noticed that although we’ve covered the frequently misused homophones (their/they’re/there, to/too/two, your/you’re) and she knows the differences, in her own writing she isn’t careful to use the correct one. I’m now doing dictation with her daily just working on homophones. I simply open one of our current books and find a sentence to dictate for her to write. I love that I can see an area that needs work and target that area specifically for as long as it takes. Individualized education is easy in homeschooling.
Places we went and people we saw…
The usual: book club, Boy Scouts, piano lessons. We had our last geography club meeting on Egypt. I’ll share a post on that soon with the resources I used and activities that were shared at our meetings.
Things I’m working on…
Christmas! I’m planning our school-related activities, crafts, gifts, and our family Christmas card.
We’re reading…
- The audio version of By the Shores of Silver Lake from the Little House Series.
- American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt from Heritage History on the iPad. You can read my review of Heritage History.
- I mentioned last week that our homeschool book club title is The Hobbit and none of us are in love with it so we switched to an audio dramatization. My son fell asleep during it again. I know it’s a classic and millions of people love it but it’s on the list of our least favorites.
- Our current poetry readings are from It’s Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky. What a fun book, and both my kids have chosen a poem to memorize. My son chose “If Turkeys Thought” and my daughter (who is about to get braces) chose “I Went Hungry on Thanksgiving.”
- My daughter is reading Masterpiece by Elise Broach for her library book club. We’re looking for a new personal choice selection for her. I had filled up her reading time with history selections last month so I’m giving her a little break to choose a book she wants to read just for fun.
- I’m reading Charlotte Mason’s original books from Ambleside Online. It’s not easy reading that I can sit and do for hours, but I’m digesting a little bit each day, taking notes as I go, and rereading some sections in the modern English version.
Last year I planned a literature-based unit study for the week of Thanksgiving. This year we’re taking the whole week off! We’ll fill the week with reading aloud, cooking, extra time in nature and enjoying time with family. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!
Our Homeschool Journal: Jumping in Leaves and Playing in Snow!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
We had our first real snowfall this week. The kids were very excited when they woke up and immediately bundled up and headed outside. They played for an hour and a half before breakfast! Our flexible schedule was key, because by afternoon the weather changed to sleet and then rain and melted all the snow. By the way, being able to sit inside with my coffee while they built forts and a snowman was quite nice. I only had to wipe a nose and fix mittens a couple times when they came to the door. Our tradition on the day of the first “real” snowfall (enough to accumulate on the ground) is to make snowflake sugar cookies.
In our homeschool this week…
We finished our election unit study and lapbooks, and of course took our field trip to vote! I’m happy I did this unit with my kids. My ten year old daughter was especially engaged in the topic, and we had so many important conversations throughout the election season and after the results were in. I’m glad for the opportunity to homeschool and be the one to educate my children on such weighty topics. Now my daughter wants to run for state representative when she’s 18!
We had a whole day at home (finally!) on Thursday and that gave us time for an art project. These two cute scarecrows, made using a tutorial from Art Projects for Kids (our favorite resource this week) now brighten up our art wall. When possible I like reading a related picture book before art projects, and the beautiful illustrations by David Diaz in The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown helped inspire our art. It was our first time using wax resist with watercolor and I enjoyed watching their amazement at the effect.
The rest of our time we filled with the three R’s, history, and nature study (focusing on trees).
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
Don’t be afraid to cut out an activity–even if it’s a good one–to balance your time out and time at home. Our first year of homeschooling I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to meet homeschoolers in our area and have activities with others to balance our time alone at home. Luckily my fears were unfounded, but this year I’ve found we had a little too much going on. Our geography club was meeting once a week, and in addition to going to the meetings there was quite a bit of preparation involved. We finally talked about it as a group and found we were all feeling over scheduled! We’ve changed to one meeting a month and hope that allows us to carry on a good activity without burning out.
Places we went and people we saw…
At my daughter’s Girl Scout meeting my husband taught them all about geocaching. He hid a temporary one for them to find and despite frigid temperatures they had a blast! My daughter also had a piano lesson and my son had Boy Scouts. It was a good week with a little more time at home than we’d had lately due to the change in geography club and a cancellation of a Friday meeting.
My favorite thing this week was…
Taking down the Halloween decorations and putting up the Thanskgiving ones–my favorite is our “Thankful Tree” which helps us focus on our blessings.
And we may or may not have played Christmas music on the day it snowed.
What’s working and not working for us…
I already mentioned the change in schedule that has helped ease the feeling of always being on the run. The other thing I added this week was a different chore system. We’d been using a pocket chart with little cards for chores. It wasn’t working as well this year for several reasons: it was outdated because my kids can help with more jobs now, it made extra work for me switching cards in pockets, and it wasn’t easy to have jobs that they do once a week versus daily (unless I kept track of what days to put them in their pockets). I was inspired by Mary’s chore chart at Homegrown Learners and created a simple spreadsheet:
Now the kids have the morning chores that they previously had, plus I’ve added an afternoon job that helps keep the house cleaner over the course of the week. The initial reaction to the news of an extra job was pretty poor, but after the first week they found it wasn’t too bad, and they liked the variety of a different job each day.
I also was inspired by Colleen at Raising Lifelong Learners and will be adding a “job jar” with chores listed on popsicle sticks. I will use this for punishments, and it will include rarely-done jobs like wiping down the baseboards, windowsills or kitchen cabinets. Colleen’s philosophy behind this system is worth reading.
We’re reading…
- We are listening to the audio version of By the Shores of Silver Lake. We enjoy it, but not as much as the other Little House titles so far.
- We are loving American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt from Heritage History on the iPad. You can read my review of Heritage History.
- Our homeschool book club title is The Hobbit. I have to say I’m not a fan of fantasy, my daughter appears to have the same opinion, and my son fell asleep while I was reading. I am usually a stickler for avoiding abridged versions–we just finished the unabridged Treasure Island and loved it. This time I gave up and we are listening to an audio dramatization.
- Our current poetry anthology is Nature in Verse by Mary Lovejoy, and we’ve had cozy mornings reading through the autumn section. It is a free selection from Google Books that was recommended by Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study blog.
- My daughter is reading Little House by Boston Bay by Melissa Wiley, Masterpiece by Elise Broach, and So You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Fritz.
- What am I reading? I have a couple lofty goals all of a sudden. While reading the section on trees in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock I realized I’d love to go through the whole book cover-to-cover. It’s filled with great information, and though I’ve used it to look things up I feel like I’m getting just bits and pieces of a treasure trove. The other lofty goal: I downloaded Charlotte Mason’s original books from Ambleside Online. I would like to read them. I’ll let you know how that goes. Perhaps I will think better of this goal once I start and switch to one of the modern English versions.
A photo, video, link or quote to share…
Just thought I’d show you the additions our cat made to my writing on our family mission statement when she sat on my computer keyboard. She loves to sit there because of the warmth. Once she hit a key sequence that turned everything on my screen sideways. Another time my computer began reading aloud anything I moused over.
Continue reading
Review: Heritage History
It is important to note the difference between history books and textbooks. A history book tells true stories from the past, while a textbook focuses on facts, names and dates without room for the the story. The distinction is so important to me! I disliked history classes in school, probably because I’m just horrid at remembering names and dates. I love a good story, though, and have been falling in love with history as I teach it to my kids using living books. A company called Heritage History has this philosophy:
What we consider essential is not perfect retention of a particular set of historical facts and concepts but an abiding interest in history itself.”
Sign me up for that! The more I homeschool the less I feel I learned in school, and the more I realize I can’t teach them everything that is valuable to know in all subjects. I really have to focus on creating lifelong learners so that they will continue to learn and be curious their whole lives.
Heritage History collects historical books in the public domain and re-formats them for use with digital e-readers. Hundreds of these books for young people are available for free to read on their website, but they also sell CDs with collections of books formatted specially for printing or reading on several different devices. Titles are limited to only those with expired copyrights and therefore the time period covered does not extend beyond the early 1900’s.
There are two types of CDs offered: one is a library CD that is a grouping of books on a specific time period or civilization, the other is a curriculum CD that can function as a stand-alone history curriculum because it includes the books plus maps, timelines, recommendations and accountability forms. Heritage History also promotes using their books as a supplement to other history programs.
I was given the opportunity to review a Heritage History CD and chose Early America because that is the time period we are already studying. The CD contains the book files as MOBI (for the Kindle), EPUB (for devices like the iPad) and also pdf (so you can print them). I am trying to avoid using reams of paper and loads of ink, but needed both the other files for my daughter’s Kindle and our iPad.
Loading the Books onto Multiple Devices
The CD arrived on a day my husband (better known around here as Mr. Tech Support) was working one of his 24-hour shifts. I placed it on my desk figuring to wait for his assistance; my usual routine with technology is to wait for Tech Support. You can read about my technology phobia here. Later in the day I was struck by the desire to figure this one out for myself. Perhaps I’d had too much coffee.
I sat down with my multiple electronic devices (that could cause hives all on its own!) and popped in the CD. Very simple instructions are available right on the CD case and on Heritage History’s website. Ten minutes later I had books loaded on the iPad. Can I just pause for a moment to say that the iBooks interface with the wooden bookshelf is so cute? I love the attractive visual, and though it was a new program for me I quickly figured out how to open books, check the table of contents, and bookmark pages.
I texted Mr. Tech Support that I was now the technology guru of the house. I was totally impressed with myself, but really it’s a testament to the super-easy-to-follow instructions.
How We’re Using Heritage History
Our main history curriculum is the Early 19th Century Time Traveler’s History Unit from Homeschool in the Woods. I chose it for the general schedule of topics, top-notch printables and hands-on activities, but planned to supplement heavily with living books. We’ve been working through the unit, but finding the living books is not always easy. Our town’s library is small so I make frequent use of inter-library loan. One problem is timing my requests so I have it in our home by the time I need it, but not too early or I’ll have to return it before I’m done. I am also limited in the overall number of books I can request. I’m trying to keep our budget low so buying a lot is not an option. Heritage History is filling a real need in our homeschool and has simplified my life.
I began American History Stories by Mara Pratt as our read aloud for history.
It is a four-volume set covering American history from early explorers to the end of the Civil War. I am delighted with this selection! It’s so enjoyable I decided to back up and pause our other program as we read from the beginning to refresh our memories from when we started studying American History last year. Mara Pratt’s writing style is very engaging as a read aloud: she draws us in and makes us feel as if we’re watching the story unfold before our eyes. Here’s an example as she talks about the Pilgrims on the Mayflower arriving in Plymouth Harbor in December:
Now, it seems rather cruel to leave these wanderers out in the cold storm; but we must for a few moments, while we hurry over to England to learn what had happened there to force these men and women across the ocean at this stormy time of the year.”
My kids are enthralled! They are listening like they do to exciting books like Treasure Island. They stop me to ask questions or share their feelings. You should have seen their faces when I read about the missing colony at Roanoke! We had studied that colony but it didn’t hit their emotions the way it was presented last year.
With my new-found technology guru status I also loaded up my daughter’s Kindle. I printed the book summaries from the CD and allowed her to pick any books in green (everything is color-coded so you know what reading levels the books are).
Ten minutes later she had a dozen new books on her Kindle which made her one happy girl.
My ten-year-old daughter’s opinion: She was very excited that there were illustrations (most of the free books we were loading onto her Kindle did not contain the original illustrations). She has been reading through America First, a collection of “100 interesting and romantic incidents from America’s history.” My daughter’s quote: “the stories are told very nicely in a straightforward way and are easy to understand.” She is enjoying America First for quick reading, as each chapter can stand alone as an interesting story. In fact, it prompted her to begin writing a historical fiction story about a girl on the Mayflower. I was thrilled that already right on her Kindle are several history books she can use for research on this time period.
The Early American CD is a library CD, not a curriculum CD. I enjoy hands-on learning and interesting ways to narrate what they’ve learned (minibooks, notebook pages, unique writing assignments) so using another main curriculum for activities, printables, and other suggestions along with reading quality literature like the books from Heritage History works well for me. I can see this being a part of our history studies for years to come. This one CD has over 80 books for reading levels up to high school–at a retail price of $19.99 that is only a quarter per book, not to mention that each book is available in multiple formats! There are books I can just imagine my son loving when he is older that cover military history and inventors. It’s an economical choice–both financially and in terms of space on our already-full bookshelves.
Check it Out for Yourself:
The Heritage History website is full of information–lists of all their books, their library and curriculum CDs, more on their philosophy and even suggested courses of study.
If you decide it would work in your homeschool, Heritage History has a special offer for my readers. Until December 31st you can get the Early America library CD (regular price of $19.99) for FREE with the purchase of any of their curriculum CDs (regular price of $24.99). Simply add a curriculum CD and the Early America CD to your shopping cart and enter the discount code SCHOOLRM at checkout and the cost of the Early America CD will be deducted.
I received the CD for free for the purpose of reviewing it. These opinions are my honest thoughts after using the product in our homeschool. As an affiliate I receive a commission from Heritage History when you use the discount code.
Our Thankful Tree
Our favorite decoration for the Thanksgiving season is our Thankful Tree.
I made the tree from brown craft paper that comes on a roll. I taped a piece onto a door in our main living area and sketched a tall tree. Don’t worry, it’s easy–I used this tutorial for how to draw a fall tree from Art Projects for Kids, minus the leaves! I covered the sketch with contact paper before cutting it out so I can reuse it year after year. I simply tape it to the door and we’re ready to add our leaves.
For leaves we use leaf shapes I cut out with my Cricut. If you don’t have a Cricut or similar paper cutting device, there are lots of other options: have your kids cut out leaves (hey, just call it fine motor skills practice), buy a leaf paper punch at a craft store, and I’ve also seen packets of silk and paper leaves for decorating and bulletin boards at craft and dollar stores.
Every night at dinner we each write something we’re thankful for on a leaf and add it to our tree. Our leaves usually include everything from family members and our health to Legos and coffee.
We started doing this a couple years ago and it has become a cherished tradition. It’s a way to focus on all we have to be thankful for during the Thanksgiving season, not to mention a reminder of our blessings before the season that encourages kids to think of lists of wants.
Our Homeschool Journal: Halloween Fun & Lots of Socializing
In our homeschool this week…
We slipped back into nature study with tree poetry (and rescued a baby bird in the process). We worked on our election lapbooks. My daughter sewed the bonnet to go with her Laura Ingalls costume (sewing is a tremendous living math lesson). I made the last-minute decision that we would not do our regular schoolwork on Halloween and instead we made caramel corn and homemade slime and carved pumpkins!
Places we went and people we saw…
We had a few normal events: Girl Scouts, Book Club and piano for my daughter, and Geography Club (Egypt this month) for both. We had great Halloween fun at a friend’s house with games and lots of food. I took the kids swimming at the pool. My son is now old enough that I don’t have to get in the pool with him…sitting on the bench reading while they burned off loads of energy was great fun for all. Today we’re meeting our fellow book club members for a Treasure Island play. Saturday is a day of Scout activities for both kids. (This is one of those weeks when people’s concerns about socialization make me giggle. Or pull my hair out.)
My favorite thing this week was…
The yearly jumping-in-leaves ritual. We had a big raking and jumping party since a storm was coming and those crunchy leaves would soon be a big soggy mess. As I watch the kids laugh and jump slideshows play in my head of them doing this same thing together through the years. So many giggles and my camera snapping away. When will they be too old to jump in leaves? Hopefully never!
My favorite resource this week…
My daughter and I started the next lesson in WriteShop Junior D and it was my favorite resource this week. We are both really enjoying the structure of the whole program. One of the brainstorming games this week was so fun that she and her little brother played it after school time. I’d say that’s a winner!
What’s working for me…
One of the chapters in Jamie Martin’s ebook Mindset for Moms was “Only do six things today.” I keep a to-do list going at all times, rewriting and transferring to a new list when needed. I love lists, and when I feel overwhelmed it often calms me to make a list. My to-do lists are a bit monstrous by necessity, but I also tend to put crazy things on there like “organize the garage” or “finally pack up all our tax paperwork from 2011–perhaps before 2013.”
I like getting things out of my brain and onto a list…the problem is the sheer size of the list and going about my day without actually crossing things off. Jamie’s idea of “six things” made a lot of sense. Now in addition to my loooong list where I can put things that I need to be working on (like planning a unit study or preparing for Girl Scouts or Sunday School) and things I would like to do when I have time, I have a list of six things that need to be done that day.
I make it the night before or in the morning, checking our schedule and my long list to prioritize. It could be related to paperwork, housework or homeschool…do-able tasks that I will complete that day. I feel more accomplished at the end of the day and the must-do’s aren’t getting lost in my long list of would-like-to-do’s. I’m not sure Jamie meant have a super long slightly unrealistic list and then a six things list, but this seems to work for me.
We’re reading…
We are listening to the next audiobook in the Little House series: By the Shores of Silver Lake. I have been reading American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt from Heritage History on the iPad. (I was sent a CD of their Early America library to review–post coming soon.) My daughter is reading Little House by Boston Bay by Melissa Wiley, Masterpiece by Elise Broach, So You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Fritz, and also some Heritage History titles on her Kindle.
I’m grateful for…
I could probably say “our flexible schedule” every week, but I was reminded of it yet again. As we get ready to head to a play together of a book we read together and even Daddy gets to go I was hit by the unusual amount of family time we enjoy because we homeschool. My husband is a firefighter/paramedic with an irregular schedule and homeschooling allows us to catch his days off to be together. Not to mention how many different directions we’d be heading in if the kids were at separate public schools.
I’m praying for…
All those affected by the hurricane. I feel silly for complaining about my mini basement flood last week which was nothing compared to the devastation many have experienced this week.
A photo, video, link or quote to share…
Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!
Hi, I'm Heidi and I homeschool my two sweet kids. I want them to know that learning is an exciting lifelong adventure! We love great books, unit studies, notebooking, lapbooking, and hands-on learning.
