Our homeschooling winter break has officially started!    Though practicing skills with last minute shopping, crafting, baking, parties, and parts in a  Christmas play, the learning doesn’t stop.

Since studies won’t be mandatory, our thoughts can be focused on Christmas, fun, and playing Santa, (We decided when our oldest was young not to encourage a “belief” in Santa, but to encourage idea and play of Santa.  We each  draw a name and are responsible for filling  that family members stocking, wrapping a gift or two and eating the cookies left out.)

Without lessons, my kids will no doubt be asking for extra computer time.  I found these fun “Santa” sites for the kids to play on.

Track Santa on the map, play interactive games and more  http://www.noradsanta.org/

Join Raymond the Reindeer for a tour of the North Pole, short stories, and interactive games  http://www.northpole.com/

A wonderful selection of Christmas themed games…

Happy Monday and

betty jo

Are you extra busy this time of year?  We are!  Our calendar is filled with Christmas program rehearsals, a holiday workshop, caroling, and parties.  We’re decorating, crafting and baking.  And of course, there’s light displays to drive by, extra shopping, and gifts to wrap and deliver.  Oh yeah, there’s homeschool lessons, too.

Not only are we counting the days down until Christmas, we’re counting the days left in our semester.  I know some homeschooling families that take off the month of December, as nice as that sounds, it isn’t for us. We keep on learning through December, and we have about two more weeks of homeschooling before we’ll be ready for a break .   However, with the added busy-ness, regular lessons won’t give us the time we need to pursue the activities that make this time of year so special.

Below are  the online links to Advent and Christmas…

Happy Monday , Happy Homeschooling, and Happy Thanksgiving!

betty jo

October 2 marks the anniversary of the very first publication of Peanuts (1950)!  This is one of the October “special days” the kids were interested in.  Yeah, I’m interested, too.  I grew up on Peanuts.   Below are some resource links to follow as we learn and have fun with Peanuts.  

Charles Schultz biography and printables  http://makingartfun.com/htm/f-maf-art-library/charles-m-schultz-biography.htm

Read Peanuts comic strips free online  http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts

Step by step instructions for how to draw Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and other Peanuts characters  http://www.dragoart.com/tags/tuts/1/2945/how-to-draw-charlie-brown-characters.htm

Blank Comic Strip Printables for making our own comics  http://www.printablepaper.net/category/comics

The Peanuts  theme song   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQybajU2GNk

Printable Piano Sheet Music (beginner level) for Linus and Lucy  http://www.magicmusictutor.com/?q=node/182

Peanuts Quiz (easy)-

http://brainfall.com/quizzes/whats-your-peanuts-iq/

Peanuts Quiz (difficult) –

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/peanuts-quiz9.htm

And in case you’re wondering, I am going to give this study credit for literature (winks), art, music, history, and creative writing.  We may get a PE credit too  –  football kicking…

September 17th, 1787 is the anniversary of the United States Constitution and the start of Constitution Week.  So often we hear or read about “Constitutional Rights” and freedoms being debated, taken away, or altered in various ways.

This week my kids will be reviewing, researching, and notebooking all things constitutional so it will be clear to them just what our constitutional rights are.

Below are some of the resources we will be incorporating into our Constitution Week homeschool studies.

Constitution Day History and Quizzes  http://www.ducksters.com/holidays/constitution_day.php

US Government Learning Adventures, Glossary, and Games for all ages and levels  https://bensguide.gpo.gov/

Mini posters of how a bill becomes a law, the Bill of Rights, and branches of government (you will need an account to get the downloads, but it isn’t complicated and it’s free) http://www.kidsdiscover.com/celebrate-constitution-day/

This  song is from my childhood (from Saturday morning cartoons) and it is how I’ve always remembered the…

I doubt that anyone needs a special day calendar reminder that September 11, 2001 is the anniversary of a major historic event.   As homeschoolers, we learn about important events.  Usually it’s not stressful to teach history, even though some of the world’s past is tragic, we still learn about those times.  But, teaching the history of 9-11 is the most difficult subject that I’ve ever attempted to teach.  It was such a horrible and painful day and that horror and pain is still fresh for so many.

Home educating parents are asking,  ” How much are we supposed to expose our children to about the events and aftermath of this day?”  I’m asking that myself.   Even the minimal historic account is overwhelming.   However,  I don’t think we should just continue with school as usual.

My older kids remember vividly watching the news and seeing the devastation.  They have had…

According to Special Days in August (https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2016/07/26/special-days-in-august-2016/), the 26th is Mother Teresa’s birthday.  This means that she will be our study and timeline addition of the day.  Below are the online resources I found for us as we learn about this wonderful lady and perhaps one of the greatest and most inspiring humanitarians of modern history.

A short biography for kids http://www.pitara.com/magazine/people/online.asp?story=16

Timeline – http://www.softschools.com/timelines/mother_teresa_timeline/48/

Worksheet Printables – http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/cat.php?id=2655

The Life of a Healer a video biography – http://www.watchmojo.com/video/id/10485/

A wonderful selection of quotes – http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html

And because Mother Teresa will be such an inspiration to us, we can’t complete the study without trying to feed the poor and hungry. We’ll cover all the rest of our subjects (math, geography, science, art, grammar) through this site today  http://freerice.com/category

Just in case you don’t know about about the Free Rice site…
To simply explain, you play educational quiz games (lots of…