A great first day

What a great day we had!!! Today was our first day of school and what a blessing it was. First things first. Usually I am a big flake and I always kick myself thinking...oh I should have done that - whatever that was that I didn't do. But one thing I can proudly say is that I have been religious in taking pictures of the girls on their first day of school.





Well, here it is...a clean classroom!!! Take a good look. It won't stay this way for long.

This is what I started with (and pretty close to what it normally looks like)




I read them this sweet book about the meaning of our Pledge of Allegiance, got up and looked back and seriously this is how I found them. We recited the pledge many times last year but I never had sense about me to explain it to them. I think this REALLY meant something to them.

Adventures in MFW starts out the year with having you discuss names and your child's names. They suggest you discuss their names' meanings. Well, one of my DD's name meaning has a negative connotation. I have NEVER shared with her what her name meaning is defined as. I have a bit of a problem with the whole name meaning idea, anyway. Anyway, my philosophy is that name meanings honestly are of little or no value. Rather name meanings have come about because of the personality traits or lives of historical individuals who had those names. (This may be a classic argument like which came first, the chicken or the egg too, I guess).

So I altered the dialogue a little bit. Instead of what is in the TM, I said this instead:

When you meet someone new, one of the first things you learn is their name. Everyone has a name. And names are very special. We remember people by their names. When you make an impression/memory on someone they remember you by your name. Even though you didn't pick your name it is part of what makes you, YOU. So how do you want your name remembered?

I wrote down some things that they and I thought about them and put their name at the top of the page. They WANTED to add to the list so it went in one of their workboxes to be completed later on. And the completed sheet? It will go in their notebook. Have I mentioned I love this curriculum.




Finally, our Red, White and Blue snack. I knew I was stretching it to get Ms. Priss to eat strawberries and I knew better than to even consider blueberries. But I figure, you can eat just about anything dipped in chocolate then sprinkles. Needless to say it was a hit.

Oh my gosh...this is soooo good!

Thumbs up!

Anywhooo...thought I'd share how I'm incorporating workboxes. At least for this week (and maybe even for a few more days) I am following the advice of MFW and using a gentle approach. And uh...making my life easier in the process. Therefore, some of the group activities I am going ahead and filling workbox drawers with. These are my filled workbox drawers for the 2nd day of week 1.

Drawer #1: My "Why You're Named..." letter to her.
(Oh yes, did I mention how much I love this curriculum?)

Drawer #2: Map/Geography Activity

Drawer #3: Science

Drawer #4: Read Aloud.
(This is a Beautiful Feet book - wonderful books)

Drawer #5: Pattern Block Activity Sheet
(the one extra thing that I threw in)

Drawer #6: Silent Reading - 10 min.
(they will choose one of the Book Basket books)

Both sets of drawers this week are pretty much identical. In future weeks I will post a schedule and we will probably do our Calendar activities, Bible, History and/or Science first thing. Then I will load up workboxes with Primary Language Lessons, Spelling Power, Saxon Math, Art assignments and any other extra manipulatives I'd like them to do.

Timeline - check

I finished an accordian style timeline that we will use for our history studies this year. I don't have much wall space and I wanted something that could be folded and put away easily. This is what I decided on.

Since most of the history we will study this year is American History and ranges from the 1400's to present day, I used one piece of cardstock for each century from 1400 to 2000. I was pretty bothered with the timeline not being "to scale" but oh well. Otherwise, we would have had a timeline that stretched A---L---L around our house.

Part of the other reason I used one page per century on this timeline is because when we're done this year, I wanted to be able to cut it apart insert the completed pages in our Book of Centuries, which I've not used to date and plan to use when the girls are a little older. I read somewhere that conceptually it was harder for children to understand dates and times in a book. That is why I put the timeline with the current century highlited in red up at the top. But for now I will follow the "rules" and do a full fledged timeline. If you're interested and want the publisher file for the Book of Centuries just leave a comment with your email and I will email it to you. I can't upload that one to Scrib'd because it is a Publisher file. Sigh...



Back to the timeline...here it is all nice and neatly folded, ready to go for our first day next Monday!

Mr. Kistler

My latest find at the Homeschool Buyers Co-op

Mr. Kistler

MFW Weekly ideas

OK...these are not my ideas. I got them from another blog, A Homeschooling Grandma. But they are some good ones.

• Week 1 - Watch The Vikings Who Don't Do Anything, just for fun. Buy a poster with the pldege so he will learn it quicker. Let him listen to Red Skelton's explanation of our pledge (There are many versions via video on Youtube). Geo-caching would be fun for mapping. Watch the Columbus video from Nest Entertainment.
• Week 3 - Spend some time singing songs about the Name of Jesus, like "There's Something about the Name" and "Praise the Name of Jesus." (We love music!) I purchased ($3) the Focus on the Family radio theatre "The Legend of Squanto."
• Weeks 4-5 - Spend more times in the stars. I love H.A Rey's books. Yes, he did write more books than Curious George. I have his, The Stars. It is an old hard-backed discarded library book. I bought his paperback version of Find the Constellations at the Planetarium. I recommend them. The way he connects the starts to make the constellations makes a lot more sense than the elaborate pictures that they overlay on the stars in most books. I bought this at the planetarium. We will probably not make the planetarium this year as we went last year, but I am planning on inviting a star gazer, creationist speaker with an 11 inch telescope to visit our support group, either week 4 or 5. We may or may not watch Disney's Pocohontas since it took so many liberties. We will sing songs about Jesus being the Light of the World, This Little Light of Mine and many more. I have found that the Names of Jesus give you a lot of material for Christian music. Also, I got the free CD from American Vison.org called, "America: The Untold Story." I think this will be too old for 2nd grade, but I may find some exerpts. Williams Bradford, Nest Video. I'd like to visit the Cherokee Heritage Center and maybe the world's largest totem pole or possibly Gilcrease Museum. We could also visit a local candle manufacturer for a "light" field trip.
• Weeks 6-7 I will explain about Ellis Island and tell of our ancestor that came to America. I will explain what the bread is in the Lord's Supper. We will make homemade bread and possible go to a bakery field trip.
• Weeks 8-9 We will sing "Rock of Ages," I Go to the Rock," "Praise the Name of Jesus," "The Cornerstone," and any other "rock" songs. We will re-visit the story of the Wise and foolish man. We will get out our rock collection and try to add to it. I want to take a trip to a local rock museum and we will also fly a kite (no key!). The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere is a favorite of mine, but we will discuss the discrepancies in it. Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and Paul Revere Nest videos. We will also be electing a US President so we will read, "Woodrow for President."
• Weeks 10-11 Songs about thirsting and living water - "As the Deer," The Nutcracker will probably begin about this time, but it is not cheap. We may go see it, or may just get the video from the library. Will schedule a field trip to a pumpkin patch in the next few weeks. Save a gourd on a vine for use on weeks 20-21.
• Week 12 Birds, Birds, Birds! We are big bird watchers. We may go down to the lake and look for Eagles that nest in the winter here. Song, "His Eye is on the Sparrow." I know a man that has a garage full of canaries and also a man that trains homing pidgeons. We will read about Maria Tallchief, Indian primadona ballerina (Nutcracker/ballet) who lived not too far from me. Might travel to her home.
• Week 13 Thanksgiving, pumpkins, pilgrims, food!
• Week s14-15 Songs about Jesus being the Way the Truth and the Life (Looking for Masterlife songs, anyone?) Birds again, see week 12 activities. Wk 15, I will do some things on the Erie Canal, sing the song and I am trying to find the old movie about a girl and her father who lived and worked on the canal.
• Weeks 16-17 I think this Immanuel week will fall after Christmas for us, but we will sing the songs anyway. I would like to find a weather school going on or a field trip to a local weather station or find a storm watcher that will give us a talk. This would also be a good time for a trip out of state, maybe to Daniel Boones stomping ground, Mammoth cave and Casey Jones for next week (TN)
• Weeks 18-19 Sing songs about the Lamb, "Behold the Lamb." See trip above. Watch SGT. York old movie. Sing some cotton-pickin' songs like Cotton Eyed Joe or Negro Spirituals. January is a bad time to visit a ranch, there is no sheep shearing going on. We'll have to do that later, probably April. Ahh! Johnny Appleseed. There's not apple trees blooming or bearing and we can't even plant one, but The Value of Love, the Story of Johnny Appleseed, one of the ValueTale series is a favorite of ours. We might even wear a pan on our head for the week - not! There is a lot of Lewis & Clark stuff on the net because of the recent anniversary. I did get a Jim Weiss CD called, American Tall Tales, with Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Pecos Bill on it.
• Weeks 20-21 Sing songs about the vine. I can only think of one and it was also a Masterlife song. I wish someone would help me find where I can get hold of the Masterlife scripture songs. We will definately sing "The Battle of New Orleans." It is a fun song. I will buy a poster with the national anthem words. We'll watch the Swan Lake ballet and dance around with it. Not a good month to plant anything.
• Weeks 22-23 Human Body studies. Still looking for my old favorite book about this. We will watch the movie, "The Miracle Worker." Ranger Bruce at the yahoo group, SequoiaMinistry has some interesting kid friendly stories from an old, out-of-print book about the Poney Express. We'll watch the Nest video, Helen Keller.
• Weeks 24-25 Songs about King Jesus. We will probably watch "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Good time to watch Little House on the Prairie or find the video series cheap. I wish the circus was in March.
• Weeks 26-27 The song, "Lord, Make me Like You," comes to mind.
• Weeks 28-29 "The Lord is My Shepherd, I walk with him Always," song comes to mind as well as "The 90 and 9." and "Savior, Like a Shepherd led us." Abraham Lincoln, he could not tell a lie! I have a ValueTales book about Abraham Lincoln, called Respect. There is also a Nest Video about Lincoln. Appalachian Music and the movie "Christy."(WV), Field trip to the Little House on the Prairie in Kansas.
• Weeks 30-31 Another MasterLife song, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Waaah, I wish I still had my book. Trains will get a lot of our attention this week.
• Weeks 32-33 Songs about the Word, "Thy Word," "The B-i-b-l-e." The Pledge to the Bible. We'll probably do another volcano experiment, it's always a kick. It might be a good time for another extended trip out West - Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore. Week 33 is our homestate. Plenty to do here. The re-enactments of the Land Run take place in April. The movie, "Far and Away" has the most fantastic scenes of the Land Run and is about Irish immigrants, but it is not a children's movie. I will skip through it and explain the times, the poverty, the American Dream, the Sooners and watch the Land Run at the end. We will extend the Oklahoma study into the summer with field trips to see the outdoor musical, "Oklahoma!," Pawnee Bill's Wild West show in Pawnee, Frontier City in OKC, Cherokee Stip Museum in Perry, National Cowboy & Western Hall of Fame in OKC, Fort Gibson, Woolarc, Will Rogers Museum, Frankoma, Harn Homestead 1998er Museum, Rose Hill One Room Schoolhouse and more. The Wright Brothers and Edison videos from Nest will be watched also.
• Week 34 We can't make an igloo in May, but maybe with sugar cubes. We will discuss the Idititod, Sled dogs, watch, "Iron Will" and "Snow Dogs" and maybe "8 below." We will listen to a CD of "The Call of the Wild." We have been to Hawaii, so the pictures will come out. Maybe we will learn the hula. I'll be there is a video at the library to teach you.

Flag Notebooks & 100 day stuff

Adventures in My Father's World requires that each child have 2 notebooks for the year. One is for their U.S. History things. They recommended a Red, White, or Blue notebook. I wanted something a little snazzier and I didn't want to have to go out and buy a new notebook (and white would just never suffice in this house). Here's what I came up with:


Notice I did make a concession and leave the back plain. Hmphh!

I found this little gem in Target's Dollar section.



OK...you want directions and a few helpful hints? Here goes:

I advise precutting everything before your lovely little darlings come in to "help". I tried it first with Lil Bit helping and it went much more smoothly with Ms. Priss when I had everything already cut and marked. Here are the diminsions I used for a standard 1" binder

(I used 12x12 scrapbooking cardstock)
Cut 1 white piece of cardstock 11.25" (h) x 10.75" (w)
Cut 7 red strips 13/16"(h) x 10.75" (w) ---I will detail another way to do this below
Cut 1 blue piece of cardstock 6" (h) x 7.25" (w)
You will need some kind of stars. We used stickers but if you have a star punch you could punch them out of white cardstock and glue them on

These dimensions should work fine for most notebooks. But in case you have an odd sized notebook or you simply want to use this technique later here's a neat little trick. This is something my Dad, a draftsman, showed us years ago. Take the white and red pcs of cardstock and cut them to fit the inside front opening of your notebook and add 1" to the width (or whatever the width of the spine). Now, because the flag has 13 stripes, you will need a 13" or longer ruler to do this part. Simply place your ruler on the diagonal with the zero mark at the bottom of your page and the 13" mark at the top of the page (in our case remember "top to bottom" or the "height" is the 11.25" measurement).


Now, make marks at each 1" increment:



Voila! You will have 13 evenly space lines. For the white sheet, I flipped the ruler (think an imaginary X) so that there were 2 marks for each row. For the red sheet, one mark should do. Simply use a paper trimmer and cut at the markings.

It doesn't have to be perfect. We're not building a rocket. It just seems like it.

Then glue the red strips onto the white sheet. (Remember a red stripe is at the top and bottom of the US Flag).


I know you can't SEE the 2 marks but this is where it is nice to have the 2 marks on the white sheet so that the lines are nice and even...



Now, for the blue part. After some experience I found that it was best to pencil where each star goes and then have them put the stickers down. (Remember there are 6,5,6,5,6,5,6,5,6 rows of stars). Start by locating the 4 corners:

Then put a star (or mark) in between those like this:
Then put a star in between those and that will give you your "6-star rows". You're going to have to eyeball the horizontal spacing though.


See the little pencil marks for all the 6-star rows? I just had her fill-in the remaining ones in the "windows". I fear I am making this sound far more difficult than it actually was.

After they glue the blue piece onto the top left corner, cut away a 1" strip (for the spine)


Slip it into your notebook and you're done! Whew!

Now, if you haven't already I highly recommend you start thinking about some 100-day activities. It really helps reinforce number sense. If you've read my blog for long you'll remember I posted about it this past spring. One of our daily calendar activities involves putting in a puzzle piece for every day (until the 100th day). Well, low and behold, I found 100 piece USA map puzzles in the $ section of Tar-jay.


Here's how to do it. Put the puzzle together on a cookie sheet (keep these for the kids to put their puzzles together on when you start your school days - if you've already started just tell your kids what you're going to start doing. I'm sure they'd be thrilled to start by putting in 10 or 15 days worth of pieces at one time).


Invert the puzzle by nesting the puzzle between 2 cookie sheets Now, label the pieces from 1 to 100. Skip around some so it's not always so predictable where each piece will go but you need to always label next to a piece that is already labeled.



Lastly, take it back apart and put the pieces in 5 different ziplocs labeled 1-20, 21-40... so that the pieces are easier to find.

Last year I kept the puzzle design a surprise from my girls but since I'm sure they can figure out it is a map I probably won't do that this year.

MFW Adventures

Yay!!! I just got my package from Ms. Cuddles with the Adventures in My Father's World curriculum. I am SO excited to do this curriculum this year. I think the thing that excites me the most is the fact that everything is already planned for me. (No thinking - my brain is frazzled). I was going to copy the timeline cards but I didn't really have it "in me" to color all of those graphics so I decided to google some graphics. I thought I'd share the first page I've completed. As I finish the rest I will post. Happy Adventures!

MFW Adventures Timeline Pieces