Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care! (The above photo is our latest chalkboard mural)
It’s Christmas Eve and our family is wrapping presents (yes, science toys and art supplies and books), baking cookies for neighbors, and listening to Christmas music! As busy as I am today, I just had to stop by the blog, and wish you all TIDINGS OF COMFORT AND JOY! And send you our family’s new favorite Christmas song.
Have a very merry CHRISTmas!
betty jo
The first week of homeschooling Christmas we had 4 sick kids, 3 canceled events, 2 visitors, and roads closing due to a winter storm. Hey, that could (almost) be sung to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”!
We are making a slight change of plans this week with our “Christmas in Early America” studies, too. After a three day study/review of the original colonies, we started researching Christmas in the colonies. That was when we learned that in Boston, Christmas celebrations were against the law! In the other early colonies, Christmas was decorated , foods prepared, and celebrated by whatever traditions those early colonists brought with them when they sailed over.
So, for the rest of our learning days before we break for the holidays, our new lesson focus will be more of a “Christmas Around the World” theme.
This study will not actually take us away from our years course of study of Early American History, it truly relates to an early American theme…”The Melting Pot”. America is called this because we, the people, came from everywhere around the world, but coming to America made us one nation.
Below are the best of the internet links I’ve found for studying Christmas Around the World!
Interactive advent calendar which features Christmas facts and information from a different country each day http://projectbritain.com/Xmas/calendar/index.html#calendar
Clever video from Team Marco Polo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCxRLo8rGs&list=PLlQeGlB7ezHZhmCjzXrQGvMAg2rTC9ct_
Christmas customs, traditions, and how to say “Merry Christmas” in more than 50 languages http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/
Free Christmas Around the World printables for all grades and subjects (you will need an account to access, but it’s simple to set up and worth the effort for printable resources to use throughout the year) http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:christmas+around+the+world/Price-Range/Free
Unit Study and Lapbook Printables – http://www.homeschoolshare.com/christmas_around_the_world.php
Fun Fact Note Cards Printable – http://teachmama.com/holiday-time-fun-fact-lunchbox-notes/
Though we already have our crafting ideas and supplies ready to add to our learning, we may try to include an idea or two that goes along with our new theme. Christmas Around the World craft ideas http://www.benandme.com/2010/12/christmas-crafts-from-around-world.html
A nice collection Christmas songs from around the world
And just thinking of “melting pot” conjures images of melting chocolate chips for fruits, cookies, and pretzels and also of warm soupy cheeses for breads, veggies, and meats.
Our holiday cooking lessons and potluck dishes to share will most definitely have to be fondues!
Kid friendly instructions, tips, and fondue recipies
https://www.momjunction.com/articles/cheese-fondue-recipes-for-your-kids_00359234/#gref
For other Christmas study related posts see here
https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/11/26/special-days-in-december/
May our Christmas plans not just be merry and bright, but FLEXIBLE!
betty jo
Our weather has turned much cooler this week but that has not kept us indoors. Our beautiful maple tree is loosing it’s yellow leaves and has created an opportunity for work, nature observation, and play.
Our garden science project from this past spring is still amazing. Even though we have had a few frosts, and nearly everything we had planted is finished, the peppers and onions are still producing! And weeds are coming up like crazy. We are hoping to get the remnants of the tomato vines chopped up into mulch this coming up week.
Our lessons this week focused on the establishment of the Plymouth Colony, this day in history and science, and adding Montana, Washington, and Oklahoma more states to our board. (We add a state every time it’s statehood anniversary comes up on the special days calendar.)
After a week of word games and random drawing, we started on a new mural for our chalkboard wall. It should be finished next week.
Our homeschooling support group held a Pre-Thanksgiving cooking class. E and I taught cornbread cranberry stuffing and acorn treats. The kids also learned to make rolls (regular and gluten free), butter, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, and turkey carving. Kitchen skills and safety with a little science and history thrown in made for a great school day! The class was followed by our monthly family night with more friends and more food!
For more about our garden science project click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/04/14/homeschool-gardening/
For photos of past chalkboard wall murals click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/one-of-our-favorite-things-the-wall/
For more about our local homeschooling support group click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/02/23/what-do-you-get-when-you-cross/
The printable resources for our year long state study come from here http://www.homeschoolshare.com/connections__usa.php
For more about our Plymouth Colony study and the links we are using click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/11/08/thanksgiving-unit-study-ideas-and-resources/
For the special days listing for November click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/10/29/special-days-in-november/
It was a busy, but good week for our family. I hope yours was good, too!
betty jo
This week we have been studying about life in the Plymouth Colony. We have gained much understanding of the pilgrims and the hardships they encountered. You can access the links we’ve been using and will continue learning with here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/11/08/thanksgiving-unit-study-ideas-and-resources/
It never fails! I get a study ready to go and I see a new link. So, I added this short but serious “Mayflower Compact” worksheet to our Thanksgiving lessons. http://www.education.com/activity/article/mayflower_compact/?cid=50.200
We were needing a hands-on activity or two to add some fun to our Thanksgiving studies. Also, I was in need of a Thanksgiving themed “something” for our Wednesday night church group and our homeschool groups November family night. I asked my friend, Fran, if she had any Thanksgiving games. And this is the wonderful way she answered http://www.franw.com/2013/11/thanksgiving-turkey-games-and-activities.html
I also found this Iroquois plate game craft http://www.education.com/activity/article/Iroquois_Plate_Game/
Of course cooking is on the lesson plans for the next two weeks. This site has several kid friendly Thanksgiving recipes with a little bit of history thrown in http://www.education.com/results/?q=thanksgiving+recipes
Lots of fantastic articles from the Native Speakers Academy’s weekly newsletter. I especially liked “Baby’s Scent Works Like Drugs on Mother’s Brains” http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8fb495371ca5be23e1601ecc0&id=3f20863e4c&e=3bba501884
This is an awesome family project for after Thanksgiving and most of these ideas will even work with our budget! http://courtneydefeo.com/light-em-up-2013/
This site has been around for a while, but was new to me. They have resources for most any holiday studies as well as everyday studies http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Holidays/
Of course, November has special days other than Thanksgiving . For the listing of special days in November see here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/10/29/special-days-in-november/
I hope you’ll be able to use these resources to add to your homeschooling studies.
betty jo
These are some of the links to sites which we tried out and learned from this week. We’ll be visiting these sites again, they’re all great!
The younger boys practiced math facts with pumpkin patch math games from http://www.fun4thebrain.com/index.html
We played the Daniel themed word games from http://kidsonlinebiblegames.com/
We started a couple of research projects using this interactive information site with over 900,000 topics! http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/
This music site sells music, but has free lyrics and a short sample of the songs. We read and sang the October themed songs. http://www.songsforteaching.com/themeunits/octobersongs.htm
The younger boys and I enjoyed some short stories from http://www.short-story-time.com/
I got some awesome craft and lesson plan ideas from http://www.franw.com/
We all played dictionary games and even submitted some made up words to the “Build Your Own Dictionary” from this Merriam-Webster site. http://www.wordcentral.com/home.html
The kid from this poetry competition responds to the accusation the he has been brainwashed. Brainwashing is a topic that comes up occasionally when discussing homeschooling. It was a wonderful presentation to share with my high schoolers. http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=27292&alias=my-parents-brainwashed-me#.Ul-DAOWOMog.facebook
Every day free resources are posted in the homeschooling social media groups. If you’re interested in finding your own great links for free teaching resources, need some advice, or have something to share I recommend joining these homeschool networking groups.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/210519735725683/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/567122276640599/
I hope you had a productive and fun homeschooling week. Enjoy the weekend!
betty jo
This past week was our fall break, and let me tell you, we enjoyed it. Once I got the 1st quarter grades recorded, that was it for school! We stayed up late and slept even later. The kids and I watched movies, played games, and spent a good deal of time outside. I never took so many naps in my adult life as I took this week. I should have been working on a few things, but resting and relaxing is what a break is supposed to be about, and I took full advantage of that.
However, we did finish the new mural on the chalkboard wall! This was the first time trying silhouettes. I think I like drawing/coloring by erasing! 
With the week off now over, I hope the kids are ready to get back to our regular schedule for they may need to motivate me. I so enjoyed my break from lesson planning and teaching.
I hope you had a terrific week and that you’re enjoying the weekend.
For more about our chalkboard wall see https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/one-of-our-favorite-things-the-wall/
betty jo
This week is our fall break! And after near flooding over the weekend and very little sleep I’m thankful this morning that we are out of school for a few days. Also over the weekend, we were greatly blessed by our “life group” from our church. Some of those sweet people came over and worked on my car! They brought the parts and everything! There’s still a couple of other things left to be done for it but soon we will be able to get to the library and our homeschooling activities again!
I’m wondering what kind of learning and reading is going to be happening over the next few days. It seems that some of the best lessons learned over the years have been learned without any planning, record keeping, grading, or scheduling.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that this week will be a great one!
Blessings,
betty jo
Most of our homeschooling weeks are rather routine and not blog worthy. However, this past week was not just another average week.
We started the week off with the celebration of E’s 18th birthday!
We have finally completed our pirate unit studies. Our lapbook board is full and ready to be put in file folders.
We attempted to make a treasure chest cake, but it didn’t quite turn out like it should have. Although it tasted great!
And our week ended with another party. Our homeschooling support group got together for a “If We Build It…” Lego party!
I hope you had a great week and that you’re enjoying the weekend.
betty jo
According to the special days in September calendar, the 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day! And on our planner, it’s the last day of our pirate unit study that we have been working on a couple of days a week for the past several weeks. It’s been a fun and interesting study. Below are some of the resources we have been using.
For pirate biographies, dictionary, lore, sea sickness, and more http://the-pirate-ship.com/
For learning about how much work it was to sail a full-rigged ship http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6DZIvMZWzQ
Since pirates needed sewing skills for sail repairs we have added some sewing instruction to our lessons.
https://sewing.com/hand-sewing-stitching-basics/
How to tie knots was also a valuable pirate expertise, so we gave that a try as well. This site has step by step knot tying instructions http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/
Navigation by stars was another important sailor skill https://seahistory.org/sea-history-for-kids/navigating-by-the-stars/
Instructions for making a cork and needle compass https://www.nps.gov/articles/compass.htm
Our lapbook board (we glued these to file folders once the unit study was finished).
Free unit studies and lapbook printables along with book lists and other links to follow http://www.homeschoolshare.com/connections__pirates.php
“Why are pirates called pirates?” – “They just arrrrrr!” and, lots of other pirate jokes for kids http://www.enchantedlearning.com/jokes/topics/pirate.shtml
Blackbeard, pirate, and treasure chest printable notebooking pages http://www.teacherfiles.com/resources_bp_ss.htm
More pirate themed notebooking pages http://edgalaxy.com/printable-paper-for-teachers/2012/9/22/pirate-themed-writing-pack.html
Pirate Adventure Writing Prompts https://writeshop.com/pirate-printable/
These are a few of our library finds.
Movies and music!
Interactive sunken treasure game http://nationalgeographic.org/education/multimedia/interactive/maps-tools-find-sunken-treasure/
Interactive “Walk the Plank” and Pirate themed Math Games https://www.math4childrenplus.com/?s=pirate
And “Talk Like a Pirate Day” Math Lesson https://www.yummymath.com/2018/talk-like-a-pirate-day-viral-growth/
Our chalkboard wall mural. The instructions for how to draw a pirate ship from here were quite helpful. http://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/crafts/drawing/how-to-draw-pirate-ships.htm
In conclusion to our pirate unit studies we attempted to make this treasure chest cake! https://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/category/other/pirate/treasure-chest/
Haha! Another “Pinterest Fail”, but still tasted good!
For more resources for special days in September click here
Wishing you smooth sailing!
betty jo
This was our third week of the new school year. E17 had her 12th Day of the 12th Grade photo taken for our yearbook.
Now that the kids photos in front of the chalkboard wall are finished, we’ve been able to start on the next mural. We’ve got a lot left to do on it, but so far we’re liking it.
J10 and Z8 have been working on their pirate lapbook. I like to put the booklets on the bulletin board as we make them. Later, they will be transferred to a file folder.
E17 and B15 have been researching pirate facts and superstitions for their notebooking assignments. Some of the things they are learning are pretty strange. For example, when a pirate said “Shiver me timbers” it was actually a request for another pirate to shave an especially difficult to reach portion of his back ( “shiver” means “shave” and “timbers” means “lower back”). Now if only the research could help us in answering why would a pirate need his lower back shaved because that was the question we had.
We’ve been reading more pirate themed books. 
Our movie of the week was Muppet Treasure Island.
The movie lead us to our next pirate lesson, music! We all enjoyed the soundtrack as we listened to identify instruments and applied what we have been learning about music theory . This was the most popular sing along of the week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltWirB6jKh0
Next week we’re looking forward to more pirate adventures as we continue with our first unit study of the school year. And I’m looking forward to finishing the mural and getting the dust mess cleaned up, argh!
Still Learning Something New 