A Beka Consumer Math

Consumer Math Workbook

This year we are using A Beka Consumer Math with my high school seniors.  They have gotten through Algebra II and wanted something more practical this year. (and easier LOL)

I chose this book because our cousin uses it in her school.  We had never used A Beka products before now.  I know A Beka has their own course schedule and lesson plans and honestly I never looked at them.  I think they are in the teacher's guide which I have yet to open.  Maybe I should have, however, I went through the book and organized a year long plan along with assignments.  I know I will be using this again with my youngest child when she is ready so I need to put it somewhere where I can access it later and thought my blog is as good a place as any.  So here it is.

I based my year on a 36 week year.  I give them a day break after each test day and a break here and there.  I aimed for 4 days of assignments each week and some weeks there are 5 days.  I didn't assign all the exercise problems, as I know my kids don't need all that practice.  I assigned worksheet pages from the workbook but won't be having them do any of the skills check that is on top of the pages.  They will only do the lesson exercises on the bottom half of the workbook pages. So when I assign a "worksheet" and it is two pages, it refers to the workbook page numbers and they will only be doing the reviewing exercises on the bottom half of each page.

Consumer Math Textbook

I didn't look at the calendar when I planned this year.  When there is a holiday one day then I will push the "free" day to the holiday and plan the rest of the week accordingly.  We will probably take the whole week for Thanksgiving but if we don't then they will do the whole week in three days instead of 5 or skip the worksheet if it is scheduled for that week.

You are welcome to use these assignments or adapt them for your own use.  If you do use them, please just comment "thank you" in the bottom so I know others are using these assignments too.  Let me know if you like, how you like them and if you would like me to post more of my curriculum I use with my kids.

You can buy the textbooks at abeka.com. You really only need the student Text, student workbook, and teacher's edition text, teacher's edition workbook.  That way you have the answers.  You might be able to find them used for sale too.

Here is the link to the Google Doc that has the whole plan.
Abeka Consumer Math Year Plan with Daily Assignments

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - Homeschool Literature Unit

Let me first say..... WE LOVED THIS BOOK!!!

It takes a couple chapters to get into it but once you do, if you like a good mystery, then you are hooked!

I borrowed three of the same books (same publisher, same publishing date) from our local library.  I chose this book because my kids love to watch mystery-type shows and thought they would enjoy a good mystery.   I also chose this book because I already had a workbook to do while reading the book.  You can buy it here: The Westing Game .  There are sales throughout the year and I think I bought it on one of the "pay what you want" sales they have every  couple months.

I printed out the workbook pages for the kids and put it in a folder with those three prongs in it.  This way it wasn't in their regular English notebook.  It was special.  I also created bookmarks for the kids with their name on the top of it so we could see whose book was whose from the bookmark.  The bookmark also had a picture of the book and on the back had special vocabulary.  Actually if I were to do this again I would have put the list of characters on the back. Throughout the book it can be a bit confusing who is who.  It would have been helpful to have a basic character sketch on the back of the bookmark. (I hadn't read the book when I created the bookmark).

We cruised right along with reading the introduction and about the author prior to beginning the novel.  We talked about the time period and that they didn't have ready access to computers, no internet, and no cell phones.

As we read we discussed the clues and discussed the characters.  The kids were assigned the workbook work as they read as well.  After a while we gave up on the "before you read" pages and focused on the while you read and after you read pages. By the end, we gave up on the questions all together and just discussed the questions together aloud.  We did focus on vocabulary though (as this was what my kids needed) and created a "murder board" on our white board. (read below for why)

With a bit more research on the book since we finished it, I found this awesome document that gives great study questions and chapter vocabulary.  Beware, it automatically downloads to your computer and takes Microsoft Word to open.  It is worth the download.

Here is another one that gives space for answers but has no vocabulary.  It is all short answer questions.

There are so many characters and clues that it can be hard to keep up with.  We ended up creating a "murder board" on our white board with the clues, characters, etc.  The kids created what they needed to keep track.  However, I found this great graphic for organizing all the information,

I also found an excellent, inciteful character list (don't read it if you don't want to know who wins until you read the book).

If you found this post helpful, please leave me a quick "thank you" comment, and if you would like me to continue to post our curriculum, let me know that too.  :)

Tom Sawyer ..... Homeschool Literature Unit

It's been a while since I posted a unit that we were working on.  This one is on Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  It is geared for Middle School but you can use it with elementary school and even high school.  We are high schoolers here and I adapted the sources I found to my kids and their learning styles.

The front etching found on the first edition.

Tom Sawyer is an American Classic.  Mark Twain wrote in the preface that he wanted to write a Tom Sawyer as a satire against the other children's books where the main character was always good, helpful, honest, and warm-hearted.  He knew this was not always a reality. He wanted to write a 'real' story about childhood.  He based his characters off people he knew including himself and told stories in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn that really happened to both himself and some other boys he knew.
book.
which kids will enjoy and adults will find themselves reminiscing about their 'good ole days' (my term not his).  When it was written, cities were booming with buildings and hustle and bustle of people everywhere.  Life was busy and people dreamed of simpler times; times when they were younger, without a care in the world.  They dreamed of moving out of the city and into smaller towns.  Twain wrote

In it he describes the scenes so clearly that you can picture them in your mind as they are playing out in the book.  He uses dialogue in real dialect for the times and from his childhood days living in Hannibal, Missouri.

This story is a great 'read aloud'.  It lends itself well in both narration and in dialogue to reading out loud.  With a bit of practice you can get the cadence and dialect of the language.  While reading aloud you may even find yourself reading faster and faster as the action climaxes.  After a few pages the characters begin to come alive and for me, they take on voices of their own.  As a family, we find ourselves laughing at the events in this book, particularly the church scene in chapter 5.

When choosing this novel, I researched online for a study guide or a literature unit that was already done.  I found these:

This one from Scholastic - 4 printables
And this one from Glencoe -this one is a whole workbook that you can print and complete.


Here is a great source for character studies:

Character List
Character Map
Character Analysis - look on the left hand side and scroll down to find the names of the main characters.

Here are some sites for quizzes to take online:

Interactive Quiz
Another Quiz - this one has several kinds of quizzes.
Another one - look on the left column and find the second quiz on this site too.  Submit your answers for grading.
Essay Questions

We borrowed our last novel we read together from the local library, but this time I didn't have time to make a request to the library to gather enough books for us.  So I just went to the book store and bought four.  It is not the most cost effective, but I wanted everyone to have their own book and I needed one too.  The bookstore didn't have four of the exact same book from the same publishing company.  I bought two of the same and one of another and one of yet another publisher.  All books had the same words and didn't paraphrase or rewrite the book in a different way.  So while we weren't all on the "same page" we were all reading the exact same story with the exact same words.  A bonus from getting three different book publishers was that we had a couple different introductions that we read to prepare us for the book.  One book had footnotes that gave additional background information.  One book had pictures throughout.  That was encouraging to one of my kids as they enjoyed seeing the pictures of the scenes while reading.


If this post was helpful for you please leave me a quick "thank you" comment so I know that it is worth my time to post these.  If you would like to see more or would like to suggest a book you want more curriculum on let me know that too.  We may have already read it, but no matter, I enjoy searching for curriculum and creating stuff too. :)

State Archery Tournament

Our middle daughter is the archery "pro" in our family.  The other two kids can't let her do this alone so they participate as well.  Our son is pretty good but archery isn't his favorite sport; baseball is.  Our other daughter loves to shoot for fun.

Archery is a "team" sport in that you will often practice with a team and in some tournaments your team gets points or "credit" for your wins.  Other than that it is very much an individual sport.

Only girl on the line. Respect the pony tail!

We got involved in competitive archery last fall when our middle daughter wanted to shoot competitively.  We got her on a JOAD team in the area.  JOAD is part of USA Archery and is the team that goes to the Olympics.  JOAD stands for Junior Olympic Archery Development.  Basically, the JOAD teams are made up of kids under 20 years old and USA Archery look at these teams as a development program to feed into the Olympic teams.  We have met several kids who go a couple times a year to work with the Olympic trainers.  These kids are being groomed to be on the USA Olympic team eventually.  We aren't there yet.  :)

Anyway, our middle daughter started working with the JOAD team here in town last fall.  Her second practice was a "pin shoot" where they shoot in tournament style for points and they earn pins for progression.  These scores are saved for the team as a way to strive for higher scores.  At this pin shoot, our daughter broke a team record.  A few more practices in and I had a conversation with her coach.  The coach said that she couldn't help our daughter progress any further and that we should look for another coach to help her move further.  After that we began to use the team practices as an other time for practice only.  Her coach there didn't assist our daughter and frankly, ignored her for the most part.

Moving on, we found an awesome coach for her and they began working together in November.  They hit it off well and our daughter has progressed along quite well.  Her first tournament in December, she came in second.

At Christmas the other two wanted bows.  Santa obliged and they all began working with our private coach. (who also happens to have been homeschooled)

Last weekend was the Virginia State Indoor Championships.  It happened to be held not too far from us.  Of course the middle daughter wanted to compete as well as our son.  This would be his first tournament.

Waiting for the tournament to begin.

It was a two day tournament.  Our shoot time was the second day.  Our daughter was pretty confident she would do well.  Our son was out for the fun of it.  Our motto, "Every one (arrow) counts!"

It was a good shoot and both did very, very well.  Our daughter shot the best she has ever shot and our son, as we figured, survived the shoot and didn't quit.  He had fun.

When it came time for the awards, our son's division came first.  We were surprised to hear his name called for 2nd runner up! (That is third place)

And our daughter took 1st runner up! (Second place)

So now you know!

Hoot! By Carl Hiaasen

A week ago we began a new novel.  It is called Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen.  It was published in 2002.

It is a story about a kid who moves to Florida and has some trouble with some bullies.  In the process of dealing with this he ends up in a mystery that involves a new pancake house being built, alligators, poisonous snakes, and some burrowing owls.

We are thoroughly enjoying this novel and find ourselves laughing at the antics.  We are also learning a lot about the nature in Florida including burrowing owls and how to deal with a bully.  This novel does have some "language" in it and I find myself changing some of the cuss words to more appropriate words.  My kids are teenagers so they have heard these words before but still try to replace these words as best we can when we can.

Hoot lends itself to a science research project.  So far we have researched the Burrowing Owls and the laws that protect these creatures.

My older two began to work on lapbooks about the owls. They are not completely finished but so far this is what they look like.

This novel was also made into a movie and we were excited to watch it.  However, when we did we all felt that we enjoyed the book so so so much better.

Here is a You Tube video of burrowing owls.  There is no commentary, just the owls.
This video has commentary and while pretty "dry" gives lots of information about the owls.

This website is all about the Burrowing Owl and has lots of great information and videos about them.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has good information about the Burrowing Owl and other wildlife in Florida.

We love incorporating learning through our reading.  It feels more natural that way.  It feels more purposeful as well.

Carle Hiaasen has also written other novels as well.  We will most likely be reading more of his novels.

Here is a "catch up" about what has been going on with us.

So here is the long and short of it. We will see how far I get before my kids interrupt me with questions on their school work.

We arrived here two weeks ago and found that, yes, there was a law stating that kids can not live in a campground during the school year, no matter where you are from and if you homeschool or not. This county is weird. The schools are HORRIBLE. They are the bottom of the list for Florida schools in testing and graduation. There is a pretty big homeschool community but we haven't tapped into it yet. Anyway, they have a law that says that school aged children can not live in a campground during the school year. So that means that we would have to move every 21 days to a new campground. We wouldn't be able to take advantage of any monthly discounts and such. So it would have been almost three times more expensive to be moving around every 21 days. So our first order of business when we got here was to get a storage unit, get a mailbox, and find a new campground that either wasn't in the county or didn't care about the law. We got the first two done quickly on the first day and the second day we were here we set out to find a new home. We went to 6 different campgrounds that second day and no one would let us "live" there. Even though we told them we were not residents, even though we told them we had paperwork to prove permission to homeschool, even though we told them anything! Finally as I was in tears one nice person at the KOA told us about a campground we hadn't found yet. She told us to go see Shawn and she had lived there and homeschooled her child and he didn't care.

It was dinner time by then so we went home, licked our wounds and set out the next day to find this campground. We pulled in and drove around before going to the office. It looked nice and quiet, very pretty. So we go to the office, tell the kids to sit in the car, and crossed our fingers. Shawn was AWESOME! We now have a pull through site on an asphalt pad (which makes everything level and the dirt doesn't get into the trailer as easily), it is a double space so we have room for our two cars (basically we pay for two sites) and we have a palm tree right out our window where my hammock sits and hibiscus bushes lining the site. The only downside is we are fighting fire ants but they aren't that big of a nuisance.

The first week we also rented a booth at the flea market. It was a dismal failure. We made only $21 the whole weekend and $16 of that came from a large bucket of sunflowers a Mennonite farmer gave us because he got tired of selling them one day. That weekend we learned a TON! 1. we were in the wrong place, 2. we needed more space, 3. it is the "slow" season and lots of people don't make any sales and many don't even open their booths which hurts other venders around them, 4. we should look into diversifying our products 5. there is this awesome flea market in Webster that everyone says we MUST go to (LOL).

So we set out to find a better place. We found one double booth on another aisle close to the traffic and a much better environment. The other vendors open all the time and they stay open all day long. We moved the next week. We cleaned out our booth space, tore out old carpet, painted, put up pegboard, and shopped for other decorations. 

Next to us and across the aisle is a large store (9 booths) of leather jackets and biker stuff. The guys who own/run it are Joe and Joe. Joe Sr, and Joe Jr. They are awesome! They have been so nice to us. They used to have the two booths we have now. They sold us the tarp that fits on the front of the booth (how we secure our stuff inside) for cheap and have let us borrow boards and other things we need. Joe and Joe are from Long Island. Neither Joe Sr, or Joe Jr own a bike or are bikers. LOL

Frank has "the Mancave" across the aisle from us and he is also from New York. He sells collectible toy figurines, action figures, super hero stuff and comic books. He came to me on Saturday and told me he had a box of clothes that doesn't really go with his store and was wondering if I wanted to put them in my shop and we would split the profits on them. I told him to bring them in and I would take a look at them. So Sunday he brings in this HUGE box of clothes. All brand new from Nepal. The best I can describe them are "hippie" clothes. There are men's shirts, woman's skirts, dresses, "I Dream Of Jeanie" pants, and other pants. He told me he thought they were ugly and wouldn't sell but it was worth a try if I was game. I looked at them and immediately decided to hang a few and try them out. I KNEW they would sell well. Joe Jr gave us hangers for it and we hung them up and within a few hours I sold two skirts and three dresses! Frank was shocked! So this week I am moving some of my jewelry over to another place to make more room for the clothes. Later in the afternoon Joe Jr comes over to me and says he has some Christmas ornaments that doesn't really go with his stuff and asks if I want to put them in with my Christmas ornaments (I have a few right now). I teased him and told him he was jealous that I was making money with Frank! LOL We put his ornaments (Hawaiian shirt ornaments) with ours and hopefully they will sell too. I love that our neighbors are trying to help us out.

The kids are doing fine, but I know we are living on borrowed time here. They have been without other kids since we moved. While they get along well I know they crave new friendships and other kids. We are going to check out a baseball team this evening with our son. And tomorrow evening we are trying out a new church. They have services on Wednesdays which will be great for us who work on Sundays. I hope that we will like it so the kids can start participating in youth group and other activities at the church. This church also has a large homeschool community in which I hope to tap.

Our biggest panic has been the lack of income. We have money saved and we knew the first month and getting things settled down here would take a nice chunk and we expected and planned for that. What I didn't plan for was the panic I feel inside every time I spend money at the grocery store, or for the shop etc. None is unexpected, I just didn't realize I would feel this way. We also expected that we would start making money at least in the same amounts that we were making in craft shows but we aren't yet. Last weekend we made $119 for three days. We were bringing in around $250 a day with craft shows. But it is very slow right now and people aren't buying. The crowds will get here in two weeks with "biketober fest" and then the snow birds will come down the first of November. 

The biggest frustration so far has been grocery shopping! OH my! Where is my Kroger????? I will even take a Food Lion! We have a Publix. The prices are so HIGH. Also the layout of the store is frustrating. I can't seem to find anything! You don't start with produce. You start with bakery and frozen foods (Ice cream is first) or if you start from the other side it is dairy products. I personally don't want my milk or my ice cream to be in my cart the whole time I shop. It seems the only other stores to shop in is Target Super store (and I have tried that and the produce seems very old and there is not a good variety of products) Walmart (and this one seems dirty and gross), or Winn Dixie. I am going to give Winn Dixie a try soon.

A Homeschool Mama's Rant (and a bit of that Teacher in Me too!)

Before I became a homeschool mom I was a teacher for 20 years.  I studied under the best of the best in the world of learning disabilities, Dyslexia, and social studies.  I went to conferences and learned all about brain development, learning, and how to make learning happen.  I studied with some of the best experts in the field of history and learned all about American Colonial times, wars, and our founding fathers.  I started a private school for children with multiple disabilities, Autism, Asberger's syndrome, seizure disorders, Dyslexia, and other learning issues. I worked in both private and public schools, teaching children from kindergarten up through high school.  I tested kids in both the school system and for a private organization to determine their learning aptitude, IQ and help to set educational plans with families.

Now I am just a homeschool mom.

I am on many forums and I read lots of posts from other homeschooling parents who ask for advice on lots of different things.

There are a few things that I would like to say to them but always retract my comment because it might be taken as "snarky" or "rude".

Here are a few thoughts I have.

1.  For the mom of the 6 year old boy who refuses to sit still and do math: let him play.  Why does he need to do 45 minutes of math a day?  Why can't he practice counting and adding up his Legos or his Goldfish crackers at snnack time?  And if it is the math that he is not ready for then why can't he just not do it for a while?  Kids (especially boys) are not really ready for formal/traditional learning yet.  Their brains aren't ready for abstract concepts like math or even reading(will get to that in a minute).  Let them run and be kids and explore their surroundings.  Provide opportunities for exploration, examination, and for inquisitive minds to learn on their own.  Trust me, they WILL learn to do math, but may not ever really enjoy sitting for 45 minutes of hard, traditional math learning, ever.  Don't force it.

2. For the mom of the 8 year old who is reading above grade level and has a hard time finding age appropriate books on her instructional reading level: my question to you is why does she have to be pleasure reading above her age level?  Why can't she read books that are age appropriate even though they are easy reads? Most adults pleasure read below their instructional reading level.  I can read on a post graduate level however, when I am reading for pleasure I don't want to be reading books that are on that level.  I want to enjoy the story and not struggle through the vocabulary.  Reading a year or two below your reading level for pleasure is what makes reading pleasurable. Let your daughter read the Junie B. Jones books and the Amber Brown stories and the Judy Moody books for fun.  It increases her fluency in reading, increases her speed and comprehension in reading AND teaches her that reading can be fun.  You will develop a life long reader this way.  Don't push her in reading.  Relax and enjoy that you aren't having to force her to read.

3.  For the mom of the 4 year old who is looking for a year long curriculum for her child: SERIOUSLY???? Your child is 4!  In the USA 4 years old is not a mandatory school age.  Don't force them into something they aren't ready for.  Take them out in the community and explore.  Take them to museums, take them out to eat, take them shopping, take them everywhere and let them learn from their surroundings.  Yes,  you can buy educational toys and yes you can read read read to them.  But why do you need a formal curriculum for a 4 year old? (oh, and this goes for the mom who has the 2 year old who won't sit through a full 30 minutes of lessons too.)

4. For the mom who is struggling with a child who has Autism or Asberger's Syndrome or Pervasive Developmental Delay: Bless you.  I know it can be hard day after day to teach your child at home.  Don't be embarrassed to take them everywhere with you.  Know your child's limits and expose them to the world and community.  Work with other professionals to develop a plan for education and behavior management.  Know that you are not alone.

5.  For the mom who struggles with the decision to take her child out of school and homeschool:  DO IT!  We have chosen this path for our family and we love it.  We can't imagine going back to a public or private school now.  The kids are kids again, they are growing faster than we can keep up with, and we are happy with our decision.  We have sacrificed a lot to make this happen for us.  We also didn't have support from family or friends.  That is okay.  We are happy and I love that I am home every day with my kids.  They are only kids for a little bit of time and I don't want to miss another minute of their childhood and teen years.

Whew, I am glad that is off my chest.

How to Create a Unit Study around a Book. Snowflake Bentley, By Jacqueline Briggs Martin

There are so many different methodology for creating curriculum for your child.  Homeschooling allows you to cater to your child's interests and needs.  Here I give you just a few of many ways to create a unit study around a book of interest.

FIRST, choose a book or novel that interests your child.  Often it is easiest to create a unit study from a book that is historically based, about a real person, or has a science theme.

Let's take the book Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.


This is a nice little book that you can read in about 5-20 minutes. It is a nice story about a man named Wilson Bentley.  He was homeschooled for most of his schooling. It talks about his interests and what he did with his interests and how he made an impact on the science and weather communities.

NEXT, determine the subjects that you can pull from the book. This book has a science theme along with a history piece, and we are reading a biography.  This lends itself to having a science component, a history component, a literature/writing component, and because of the topic of photographing snowflakes, art.

List the subjects:
1. Science
2. History/Social Studies
3. Literature/Writing
4. Art
maybe even Math.


THIRD, depending on your child's age and abilities you will want to create the lessons.

Let's start with History/social studies.  Bentley was born in 1865.  This was right at the end of the Civil War.  You can discuss this.  You can find on a map where he was born.  You can create a timeline of his life, noting all the ages and events in his life. You can add to the time line other major events going on during his life time. (ie. wars, presidents, etc)

Science: This book lends itself well to so many different facets of science.  First, he studies weather.  You can study and record the weather for a two week period noting differences in temperature, humidity, or even as simple as recording sunny, rainy, and cloudy days. Next, he studies snowflakes. You can study how snow is formed, how snowflakes are formed and look at microscopic photos of snowflakes including the actual photos that Bentley took. (see notes and links below)  You can study how microscopes are used and what they do. You can look in a microscope at raindrops, snow if you have some, and other items.

Literature/writing: Because this is a biography, you can look up Wilson Bentley in the encyclopedia or online and gather more information about this man and his work.  You can also use this opportunity to define new words/vocabulary from the book and research using encyclopedias or online,  snow, snowflakes, microscopic cameras and the sort.  Have your child write a biography of him/herself or summarize Bentley's life and work.  You can have your child keep a journal during this unit study of the weather, what he/she is learning, and what they think about Bentley and his works.

Art: Create paper snowflakes. Draw snowflakes on black paper with white crayon, copy some of the photos by drawing them on black paper as Bentley did. Discuss how the snowflakes are 6 sided and all the same.

Math: Chart the weather on a graph, count the six sides of the snowflake, use snowflakes to practice math facts, multiply and divide according to numbers of spikes on the six spokes of the snowflake.  Just make it up as you go along. Predict rainy weather according to probability.  You can do anything with math.

Be open to new ideas that arise as you read the book.  Pay attention to your child and the interest level that he/she shows.  Make new activities using these interests.

Create lessons to cover across your children's ages.  You can beef up any of these plans for older children including having them act out his life, make a stop animation video of his life from Legos or other figures, or ask them to further research the science of snow and forecasting the snow and write a report.  Also, the story is written in poem form. You can do a ton with this topic for your older children, but remember, the older kids like to make paper snowflakes just as much as the younger ones. {wink wink}  Listen to your older kids' questions.  That will clue you into what they want to learn and can guide you to creating meaningful projects for them too.  I can't tell you how many times they ask me a question and I say, "I don't know but we can look that up.  Why don't you research that and bring us the answer?"

FINALLY, determine how you will put this all together.  Often times, we use lapbooks (folders) to keep and present the material we have learned.  It keeps it all organized and makes an easily transportable and easy to store package.

Resources for Snowflake Bentley online.

The Snowflake Bentley official website.

A beautiful YouTube video of Snowflake Bentley's snowflakes set to music.

A Quia Quiz on Snowflake Bentley.

A great website all about Snowflake Bentley and snow.

The beauty of the internet is that as parents/teachers we have the world at our fingertips.  We can search any topic and we have a multitude of great resources available to us.

Fun books to use for Unit Studies:

Magic Treehouse Books, by Mary Osborne Pope (K-4th grades)

Dear America series books (4-9th grades)

American Girl books (3-8th grades)

I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis (4-9th grades)

Don't be afraid to create your own unit study for your children. It is not hard and you don't have to spend a lot of time on it.  Sometimes just reading the book together and listening to the questions your child asks you will help to create activities surrounding the book.

There are many times I just choose a book and begin to read it with my kids and the unit study evolves while we read.

And now for something completely different....

Wasn't that the "headline" for a tv variety show or something many, many years ago???

Today we spent our morning with our school work and mid-day while the kids were finishing up some lessons, I packed a few boxes to take to storage.  This afternoon we ALL needed a bit of something completely different.

We piled in the car and went to a local park down by the river.

We headed into the woods on a path and took a nature walk.

The middle child decided to capture a few of her own photos.  She brought along her camera.

Her taking a photo of me taking a photo of her.

A cool centipede we saw on the trail.

Heading deep into the woods.

It is hard to see in this photo above but we recently had a flood.  You can see the dirt tinted leaves.  The river (this is just a stream you see) rose about 12 feet here.

Pretty butterfly we found.

The clan looking at the river.

A fun squirrel to watch.

Looking down the river.  So pretty  and peaceful today.

The green ferns and foliage was so pretty today.

We found and tasted honeysuckles.

Along the path near the boat ramp are scattered beautiful sculptures of the local wildlife.  This is part of a sculpture of egrets called "Family".

We SO needed a break from packing and the mess of the house.  We needed the fresh air and the long walk as a family.

The Great Wheel - Homeschool Lesson on The Ferris Wheel, 1893

Several months ago we bought a curriculum that we thought we would use solely, however that didn't pan out but I kept the books and such and have been pulling this and that from it all year long.

I pulled this one off the shelf a week or so ago and we began reading it.


The Great Wheel, by Robert Lawson.  It is about the building of the first Ferris Wheel for the Chicago's World's Fair in 1893.  The fictional story is weaved in with factual information about the construction of the wheel.  The main character, Conn is an Irish immigrant and we follow him from Ireland, on the boat to America, and his involvement with the Ferris Wheel. The story is intriguing and both me and my preteen children enjoyed the story.

I picked it up with really no plan other than to read it together as a family.  From our read much has sparked our interest.  We are at this point half way through the story and we have already done quite a bit of research on the first Ferris wheel as well as on Mr. Ferris himself.  We have also had great discussions on concrete and how it sets, setting footings for large buildings and structures, and on weight disbursement.

I thought I would offer a few sites that we found some great information to help your lesson if you choose to read this wonderful story.

Here is a wonderful "Mixbook" that someone created with photos of the great wheel which gave us a better understanding of how big this thing was and what it all looked like.  It also has photos of typical homes in Ireland at the time and typical people who would have worked on the wheel.

Here is an great article of the creation and end of the Ferris Wheel of the Exposition of 1893.  It uses higher vocabulary as much of it is from news articles of the time.  Meant for older students and adults.

Here is a pretty thorough article of the 1893 World's Fair.  It includes information about Nicola Tesla's experiments, women's rights, a telautograph, and lots more.  It also has pictures of the fair as well as the advertising art and maps of the grounds.

Here is a good picture of the carriages.

Here is a great picture of the Ferris Wheel.

Here is a good picture of how big the carriages were.

Here is a picture of it towering over all the buildings of the Fair. It stood 296 ft tall.


Here is a great YOU TUBE video created by a group of students on the 1893 World's Fair.  It gives a wonderful overview of the fair.

I will continue to add to this post as we continue to read the book and find more interesting things to research.

If you found this post helpful, please leave me a quick "thank you" comment.  This way I know that posting things like this is worth my time.  If you have any questions or comments or suggestions please post those in the comments as well. :)

Happy Reading!

Using Technology in Homeschooling Lessons

While we want to work on the basics with the kids we also want them to continue to be proficient in new technology.  It is the way the world is going and we don't want them to go back in time technologically.  Hopefully over the summer two of the three will work on typing skills.  They are enthralled with watching their father and me type without looking at the keyboard.  They want to be able to do that, so typing lessons will commence!

This year Santa brought them all android tablets.  Santa chose to get them the Motorola Family Edition Tablet.  It is very user friendly, uses an android/Google system.  The kids love it and they use them almost everyday. I decided that with this technology they need to use them in their studies.  We downloaded some great apps on there and also started putting their assignments on a "homeschooling" calendar for them to access.

This has worked out great.  I load their assignments on the calendar and if it is web-based then they click the link on the calendar and it opens right into a browser and directly to the page where they need to be.  Much of their science and social studies is on the calendar.  They can click to watch the video or read the book or website page.  I can individualize for each child and on the calendar they just click on their name to get their assignments.  We use the Google calendar and share it among everyone.  It took about 30 minutes to set it up so they could all see it on their tablets but once it was done then it was super easy.

Why we Homeschool, part II

Our Trip to Daytona Beach, February, 2013

Because we homeschool we are able to take advantage of the offers that come our way.  This trip was given to us by a friend who couldn't use her time share this year. Because our calendar is flexible we were able to go. 

Beautiful beach and skies

Fun in the pool.  Yes, it was a heated pool.

Beautiful scenery.

Wearing shorts in the winter.

Learning about chocolate in a chocolate factory.

Getting up early to see the sun rise over the ocean.

Practicing handwriting.

Reading with the sound of the waves.

Putting our feet in the water and contemplating our big seas.

Learning about giant sloths that roamed this area many years ago.

Finding our own secret gardens.

Learning from our environment.  We went to the farmers market and learned that the produce was grown locally and that the growing season is just about year round here.  Loving the huge strawberries we bought.  Enjoying the big beefsteak tomatoes that have so much flavor. Walking the beach daily looking at what ever came our way.

Seaweed.

Portuguese Man-o-War.

We chased seagulls, searched for seashells, and did a bit of metal detecting. 

The last night we were there we went to a local college and joined their astronomy club in looking through the large telescopes into the night sky.  We saw Jupiter and three of its moons, Orion's Nebula, the Seven Sisters, and more.  We learned so much about our night sky.

This IS why we homeschool.

Why we HOMESCHOOL

 Roanoke, VA (Aug.2012)

 New Kent Museum (Sept, 2012)

 Shark Tooth Unit, searching for ancient sharks teeth in sand we got from Calvert County, MD (Sept, 2012)

 Identifying what we found.

 Exploring a butterfly (Sept, 2012)

 Midlothian Mines Tour with Homeschool Group (Sept 2012)

 

Working on a blog entry at home.

 Making masa, Native Americans Unit (October 2012)

 Political Rally (October 2012)

 Seeing our candidate at the Political Rally (October 2012)

 Exploring the James River (November, 2012)

 VA Museum of Fine Arts (Nov, 2012)

 Back to the James River (Nov, 2013)

 Civil War Workshop with homeschool group (Nov, 2012)

 Outer Banks, NC (Nov. 2012)

 NC Aquarium (Jan, 2013)

 Petting Sting Rays

 Playing with sharks (after a great lesson in plate tectonics)

VA Science Museum (Jan, 2013)

 Steam Engine Lesson by Dad.

 Tin Can Telephones (A. Bell Unit, Jan 2013)

 Shelling and ID- Pea Island, NC (Jan, 2013)

And that is why we homeschool!  Most of these activities happened during a regular school day for most students.  We explored our world and learned much more than we could if we were sitting in a desk in a school building.