Old Crow Goes to Paris

Our latest FIAR book was Madeline.  Madeline is one of the most honored children's books and with its rhyme and precocious character it was a favorite for us too.  It gave us many areas of study including a visit to Paris!

Here is a tour through our week with Madeline. 

Monday

On the first day after reading aloud Madeline, we found France on the map and attached our story disk.  

Old Crow colored a picture of the flag of France, which we added to our Lapbook of Flags.

We also watched a short video clip showing kids visiting the Eiffel Tower and listened to someone speaking French.  Then he colored a picture of the Eiffel Tower.

While the kids had some free time later that day, I streamed the Madeline movie on the computer.  It matched the book exactly and they loved it!

 Tuesday

Old Crow wanted to have a Pajama and Movie Day like his younger siblings did at their preschool.  So on Tuesday we stayed in our PJs, ate popcorn, and watched a movie. :)

Of course we watched a Madeline movie...Madeline Goes to Paris.  She gave us a tour of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. ;)

Later that day we made a French treat...chocolate croissants.  They were really just chocolate chips rolled in canned crescent rolls. ;)   But he got the idea!

Wednesday

The next day we took a look at Claude Monet and his art.  Old Crow looked through several of his paintings and then he put together a puzzle of one of them...La Promenade.

After looking at Monet's style of painting, Old Crow tried his hand at painting.

Thursday

Today was Daddy's day for lessons...as the focus was on the appendix.  Dr. Daddy explained where the appendix is located and its function.  Old Crow was fascinated by Madeline's scar and the fact that the book didn't show a picture of it.  So we found some images of an appendix scar and that satisfied him.

To go along with our discussion of the human body and health, we had a science center on germs.  Old Crow rubbed his hands in glitter which represented germs.  He tried to wipe them off with a paper towel and that didn't work.  He tried to rub his hands together to get them off...that didn't work either.  I then asked him to try water.  He ran water over his hands and some glitter came off but not all.  I asked him how he thought he could get it all off.  He then tried soap and water.  Voila!!!  All of the "germs" came off.  We shall see how long our lesson on soap and water lasts. ;)

   

Jenny

Lessons from Japan (and one for Mom too)

Last week was our unit on Japan...I had the whole week planned with many activities to help Old Crow experience Japan.  It quickly turned into a lesson for mom...a lesson on "we can't do it all."  With scheduling conflicts and unexpected outings, we weren't able to complete everything.  And I'm ok with that!

Here's what we were able to work on:

Our Japan unit centered around our Five in a Row book for this week...A Pair of Red Clogs.  A story of a little girl who tries to trick her mom into buying her a new pair of red clogs.  

Our virtue this week was honesty...a perfect chance to study it along side this wonderful story.

Monday:  We located Japan on our world map and discussed how the country is a group of islands.  We watched a short youtube video on Japan and then used playdough to depict the island and surrounding ocean.  Old Crow also colored a Japanese flag and added it to his lapbook of flags.  As another read aloud, we read Hiromi's Hands...the perfect book to introduce sushi.  It also gave a wonderful opportunity to view Japanese culture. 

Tuesday:  After reading A Pair of Red Clogs again, we looked closely at the illustrations.  We talked about the use of shading and mixing of colors especially in a sunset scene.  Old Crow attempted this with his colored pencils.

We also learned about Children's Day in Japan...a special holiday where they celebrate and honor boys.   Families with boys fly carp kites outside.  After reading I Live in Tokyo which had several pictures of carp kites, we created our own carp kite to fly on our porch.  You can get step-by-step directions here.

Wednesday:  We read A Pair of Red Clogs along with Suki's Kimono.  We discussed the culture and clothes depicted.  We also talked about special Japanese gardens made of sand and rocks.  Old Crow made his own mini-garden.  You can visit Confessions of a Homeschooler to learn more about this activity.

Thursday:  We read Look What Came From Japan and focused on the animals from Japan.  We talked about their habitats and compared them to animals we had already studied in other countries.

So that's our experience with Japan...and after typing all of that out I'd say Old Crow was properly introduced. :)

Anywho....here are some of the other activities that would have been a great addition (had we had time).

1.  visit a restaurant and watch someone make sushi (perfect with Hiromi's Hands)

2.  make our own "sushi" using turkey and cheese rolled up     

3.  have a Japanese festival and dress in kimonos and eat on pillows with chopsticks 

4.  make a salt-dough map of Japan

5.  make origami art

6.  read Little Oh, Tea with Milk, Pink Paper Swans, How My Parents Learned to Eat

Jenny

Love, Hearts, and Valentines

As Valentine's Day rolled around this year, I began to worry how Old Crow would react to not having a class party and passing out valentines to friends.  But I realized that those were my memories...not his.  While I do look back on those memories with fondness, I must journey forth in this new adventure of learning at home and embrace a new style of learning.  One where family parties replace class parties and valentines are given to brothers and sisters.

Here is how we celebrated Valentine's Day homeschool style:

Bible    

• Our virtue for this week is forgiveness.  I thought this would go perfectly with our study of all things love, hearts, and valentines.  We talked about how we should express our love for one another every day and not just on Valentine's Day.  We also talked about the greatest example of love...Jesus, who forgives our sins and asks that we do the same for one another.

• He memorized John 3:16 and made an acrostic with the word "Valentine" using the scripture.

Math

• In his workbox, he found a box of conversation hearts.  He sorted them by color and then graphed them...telling me the color with the greatest and fewest.  These printables can be found here.

• In his math journal, Old Crow also glued hearts in order from largest to smallest, and then from smallest to largest.

Science

• Since it was a day focused on hearts, I thought it appropriate to study our heart and its function.  So we discussed the heart's job and watched a short video describing this.  Then he used a stethoscope to listen to his own heart beating.  We also used an anatomy apron to correctly place the heart and other organs on the body.  He found it fascinating that our heart isn't shaped like a heart at all.  :)

• On day two of our unit, we talked about nutrition and food choices that would keep our heart healthy.  He had to choose the best food choices, and then he glued them to his "Healthy Heart".  

Sensory Play

• I put together a Valentine themed sensory bin with heart stickers, small heart shaped springs, cupcake liners, funnels, spoons, measuring cups, red colored pasta, and a valentine card that I had cut into pieces.  He found all the pieces to the valentine card and put the puzzle together. 

Art

• Old Crow made his own valentine to give away using heart stickers and hearts we cut out of construction paper.

 

• He also learned how to make a heart...I can still remember when I learned this skill. :)

Read Alouds

These are wonderful books, and we enjoyed reading these together.

The Biggest Valentine Ever

The Kissing Hand

I Love You the Purplest

So that's how we celebrated the day of love...at home with those we love the most

(and it was pretty perfect). 

Jenny

A Week in China

As we read The Story About Ping this week, we took a journey throughout China and along the Yangtze River.  Here is our week in China:

Monday

We traveled across the ocean and entered China.  We then went searching for the Yangtze River where Ping lives.  The Great Wall of China was our next scheduled stop.  Old Crow was fascinated by the language we heard spoken along the way.  Back in our room, we rested and then created our own Paper Plate Ping as a keepsake.

Tuesday

Today we saw boats along the yellow water of the Yangtze River and learned that boys used to wear barrels on their backs to float.  So we also experimented with buoyancy and played in the water (learn more about our adventure)

After we dried off, we went in search of the elusive panda.  What an awesome creature!!  We saw them in their natural habitats, and they do love to snack on tons of bamboo.  We were able to compare and contrast them with the ducks we had seen.  Back in our room, we decided to make panda cupcakes!  They were cute and yummy!

Wednesday

Bright and early, we went out and saw many Chinese flags.  We attempted to make our own Chinese flag and we added it to our collection of flags.  

While in town we heard news of a well-known missionary in China, Lottie Moon.  She was known as the "cookie lady" because she made cookies for the natives to help build relations and familiarity in a foreign land.  So we made cookies in her memory.

Thursday

Today we studied illustrations in The Story About Ping and noticed how the pictures give the impression of water moving.  So we practiced drawing Ping and portraying his movement through the water.

While out touring, Old Crow noticed the people using chopsticks while eating.  So we let him give it a try.

Then we came across several felt ducks and used them to practice math story problems.  Old Crow began giving a dramatic retelling of Ping's story, and he did quite well.

Friday

Our last day in China we went in search of some authentic Chinese cuisine.  We filled up on rice and egg rolls!  And of course we had to practice again with the chopsticks.

Our time in China was drawing to a close.  On the way home we read Two of Everything, Tikki Tikki Tembo, Children Just Like Me, and Look What Came From China! Chinese culture is fascinating and I'm sure we'll be talking about this trip for a while.  We made it back home safe and sound...but with some exhausted and sleepy kiddos in tow.  :)

Jenny

Mike Mulligan and some "Fun Learning"

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel was the second book we "rowed" in the Five in a Row series.  This is a wonderful book, and we learned many valuable lessons from Mike Mulligan and his beloved steam shovel, Mary Anne.

The setting for this book is fictitious Popperville, USA.  So we had a discussion about where to place the story disk on our map.  Old Crow noticed that it showed snow in the winter scene so he chose North Dakota as the location of the story...good reasoning skills ;)

To learn about steam and how it could make power, we boiled some water and let the steam "power" our pinwheel.  This didn't work quite as well as I wanted.  Maybe I should buy a tea kettle for this next time.

Mary Anne had to dig a cellar that was "neat and square."  So we talked about the need for math in construction.  We used Legos and built our own cellar "near and square."

To act out how steam shovels had to dig through the mountains in order for railroads to be built, we did a recreation in our yard.  :)  I made a "mountain" of dirt and the boys used small construction trucks to remove the dirt in the center of the mountain.  Then we were able to lay the railroad tracks.  

For art, we studied the way to draw trees.  We looked through the book and found trees that were small and seemed far away.  We also found trees that appeared close-up and showed lots of branches.  We attempted to make our own close-up and far away trees.

 This book offers a lesson on personification.  So we looked through our playroom and found some examples of personification.

And with Mike Mulligan taking such good care of his Mary Anne, it was a great chance to talk about being a good steward.  We had teachable moments on the value and virtue of stewardship.  

Next up is The Story about Ping and our study of China.  Lots of fun things planned!! Old Crow calls it "fun learning."  I would agree. ;)

Jenny