Native Americans

I am teaching a Native American class using Evan Moor's History Pockets.  Alex and Nicolas are both taking this class.  We are taking several Native American field trips this fall also.   We studied the Tlingit tribe today, from western Canada and Alaska.  They have celebrations called "potlatches".  They make masks to wear and robes and feast for several days.  In fact, you haven't held a "good" potlatch unless people eat so much that they get sick.  They use these masks for dancing.  Here are the masks my class made.

Think co-op class

Alex is taking a Think! Building Challenge class for co-op this semester.  I wanted to share some of the things he's done so far.

What can you build with spaghetti and mini marshmallows?  Well, Alex and his team found out it wasn't as easy as it looked!



What can you do with a deck of cards and paper clips?  This one looked a little easier.



What about spaghetti and paper clips - by yourself with no other help?  You have to be able to pick it up off the table without it breaking!



Keep watching for more creations!

Hot Diggety Dog!

We did the Hands of a Child Hot Dog unit last week.  Did you know that the average American eats 60 hot dogs in one year?  Did you know that the average number of bites to finish a hot dog is 6.1 bites?  We learned all this and more last week.

How to say "hot dog" in different languages:



Survey of what our friends like on their hot dogs:



Hot dog acrostics:

Nicolas


Alex


To finish up the unit, we had a weenie roast in our backyard. 





 I made my hot dog into an octopus by cutting 8 "legs" into the end of the hot dog, and then roasting it over the fire.

National Left-Handers Day

August 13 was National Left-Handers Day, so I went online to research the holiday.  This is an international holiday that began in 1976.  Left-handers are sometimes called southpaws, which some people think began with left-handed pitchers.  So that made me wonder, did most baseball stadiums face west when this nickname began?

Some famous left-handers that we mentioned:

Barack Obama
Ronald Reagan
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander the Great
Buzz Aldrin
Jay Leno
Michelangelo
Da Vinci
Tim Allen
Kermit the Frog (really?  a puppet can be left-handed?)
Mark Spitz
Jimmy Conners
John McEnroe
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Shoeless Joe Jackson

And then two that we looked at a little more closely were artist Paul Klee and poet/writer Lewis Carroll.  We read a book on Paul Klee's history and looked at some of his artwork.  He loved patterns and used very simple design.  Then we read some of Lewis Carroll's poems, including some from Alice and Wonderland.  (One of these days, we'll get around to reading that book aloud.)

Some others that the adults reading this blog might think are interesting lefties -

Phil Collins
Both Everly Brothers
Jimi Hendrix
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr
Carol Burnett
Charlie Chaplin
Robert DeNiro
Whoopie Goldberg
Cary Grant
Michael Landon
Robert Redford
Jerry Seinfeld
Dick Van Dyke
Oprah Winfrey
Dorothy Hamill
Terry Labonte
Larry Bird

Some of the tests you can do to see just how left handed you are (even if you're right handed to write) are:

Imagine the center of your back is itching.  Which hand do you scratch it with?

Interlock your fingers.  Which thumb is uppermost?

Imagine you are applauding.  Start clapping your hands.  Which hand is uppermost?

Wink at an imaginary friend straight in front of you.  Which eye does the winking?

Fold your arms.  Which forearm is uppermost?

These tests and others are from:

www.lefthandersday.com

2010-11 School Year

We officially started school this week.  I realized that I haven't shared the plans for the year, yet.  So, here goes...

Math - Math - U - See for both boys

Grammar - Easy Grammar for both boys (this is new - so we'll see how it goes)

Spelling - Spelling Power (if I decide to continue with it)

Writing - Writing for 100 days for Alex, and D'Nealian Cursive for Nicolas

Bible - verse memorization (index card style), Character lapbook (from Homeschool Share) and Hymn Study (based on Jimmy's squidoo lens)

History - Mystery of History for Alex (6th grade) and Early American History for Nicolas (3rd grade) using History Pockets - Colonial Life and Life in Plymouth Colony, the following Download and Go units:  Ben Franklin, George Washington and Davy Crockett, along with other resources I have here.

Science - Apologia's Zoology 2 - Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day

And then to add something fun to the mix, I have a book that has holidays for 365 days.  I looked through it this summer and picked out fun holidays that we will base activities on throughout the year.  The following are the h0lidays I picked out:

Aug. 13   National Left-Handers Day (so Aug. 16-20 we will study more about lefties)

Sept. 18  National Play-Doh Day (so Sept.17 will be play-doh fun day here)

Sept. 26  Johnny Appleseeds Birthday (so Sept. 24 we will have apple fun and our read aloud will be The Apple and the Arrow)

Oct. 11   Columbus Day (so Oct. 9 we will study more about Christopher Columbus)

Oct. 16  National Dictionary Day (so Oct. 15 we will learn more about the dictionary and how to use it)

October is national family history month so Oct. 18-22 the boys will draw their own family trees along with pictures, as I have them.  Since losing their last great-grandparent this week, they have been asking questions about which great-grandparents they have met.

November is National Aviation Month, so Friday, Nov. 5 we will try to watch Those Amazing Men and Their Flying Machines

Then leading up to Thanksgiving, we will focus on being thankful in different ways (yet to be determined by me.)

The week after Thanksgiving, we will start our Advent activities with Jotham's Journey.

Jan. 10 is National Pizza week, so we will do our Download and Go unit study on Pizza and have a pizza party that Friday.

Jan. 29 is National Puzzle Day, so Jan. 28 we will do various puzzle type activities, or just spend time putting together a puzzle.

Leading up to Valentine's Day, we will do our Download and Go Chocolate study along with making Valentines.

Feb. 23 is the anniversary of the creation of the Tootsie Roll, so this will go right along with our Chocolate study.  We might have to extend our chocolate study for the whole month!!

March is National Craft month, so every Friday for the month, I will have a fun craft for them to complete.

Mar. 17 is St. Patrick's Day, so we will have fun St. Patrick's Day unit to complete.

Easter- study the death and resurrection of Jesus.

May 5  is Cinco de Mayo, so we will do Download and Go's Expedition Mexico

Along the way, where there needed to be other fun activities filled in, I have included the following:

Hands of a Child's Hot Dog Unit study
Download and Go's Birthday Unit for each boy to do the week of their birthday
Homeschool Share's M is for Melody unit (to get our music in for the year)
Hands of a Child's Mary Cassatt Unit Study (to get our art in for the year)
Download and Go's Expedition Australia
Download and Go's Twisting Tornadoes (in the spring - since we are in tornado alley)
Download and Go's Expedition China
Download and Go's Mother's Day (possibly, if we can fit it in.)

And as we study different sea animals with our Zoology 2 book, I will throw in some animal studies from Homeschool Share (octopus, whale, manatee, sea turtle, shark,  hermit crab, and mollusk.

I'm excited about all we will learn about this year.  I'm not sure the boys are as excited, but hopefully I can spark a fire in them.

July family vacation

We took a trip to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana last week with Ryan's side of the family.  We had a lot of fun.  Alex and Nicolas each took their first roller coaster rides.  Nicolas was okay with just one, but Alex returned several times for more. 



We rode the Pilgrim's Plunge, the world's tallest water ride.  (Nicolas sat this one out.)  We all rode the Wildebeast, the world's longest water coaster.  We all enjoyed that one so much we would've ridden again had the line not been an hour and a half wait!  Nicolas really liked the water rides and Alex liked the Revolution (think human centrifuge.)


Ryan in the far left, then his sister, then our neice, next is Nicolas, then Alex and then Jodi

After our fun was over, we turned the rest of the trip into field trips.  We went to the Santa Claus, Indiana post office and the boys mailed themselves postcards from Holiday World and wrote about their roller coaster experiences.



We stopped at Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Home National Memorial.  The boys each took the Junior Ranger test and passed.


This was Abe Lincoln's house when is was 7 years old until 21 years old.



We stopped at Spring Mill State Park to camp for 2 nights.  They have a boat cave tour that we took.  It felt very good after the high heat and humidity to be in 54 degrees in the cave.






This is a picture of our campsite at Spring Mill.

The park hosted Gus Grissom day on Saturday.  Gus Grissom was from Mitchell, Indiana, where the park is located.  Grissom Air Force Base is very close to where we live.  There is a Grissom Memorial in the park.  Outside the memorial the Stargazers Club had special telescopes set up during the day to view the sun.  We saw 2 sun spots and solar flares.  They also had their telescopes set up after dark where we viewed a binary star system.  The 2 stars were yellow and blue in color.  We also saw a nebula.  The moon was very bright, so the nebula was a little blurry, but it was still neat to see these things.

Summer Camps

To catch up with my blogging on our summer activities, I'm posting some pictures from the boys' summer camps.  They each went to scout camp and church camp this month.




Alex at Camp Buffalo




Nicolas at Cary Camp, Cub Adventure camp


Nicolas at Junior Bible Camp (his roommate wasn't there yet.)


Alex at Junior Bible Camp with his cousin, Matthew.