US Geography Ideas for Your Homeschool

I recently posted about a funny song to teach US geography. Here are a few other US geography ideas for your homeschool.

~ Mom is Teaching has a link to an interactive US map that you might be interested in using with your children. I tried it out myself and had a lot of fun with it!

~ We have a US map puzzle that names the state and capital when you place the piece in. This is great for those kids who love doing puzzles. The multisensory nature of this puzzle makes it easier for children to remember the states and capitals.

~ We have flashcards for the United States with information about each state listed on the back of the card. You could make your own flashcards, but make them more like baseball cards. Research each of the states and record important information on the backs of the cards.

~ Make tourist brochures for the states that it would be most appropriate to vacation in. Include a map of the state and information about things important to tourists in it. You can even include photos of great places to visit.

~ Create a topographical map for a state. Use a large piece of cardboard as the base to draw the state on and make the topographical features with air drying clay. Paint the features, too. Create a key for your map.

Have fun learning US geography together!

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Make Way for Ducklings Lapbook: Duck Related Literature

As we are working our way through Make Way for Ducklings, we are also reading lots of other books to compliment the different themes. Here are a few titles that I have found interesting, enjoyable, and helpful.

1. Hunwick’s Egg by Mem Fox – This is a sweet book about how Hunwick finds an “egg” and everyone waits for it to hatch.
2. Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duckby Lisa Westberg Peters – This simple book is about the change of seasons and Mallard Duck migration in rhyme.
3. Dilly Duckling by Claire Freedman – Dilly loses a feather, chases it, and learns about molting.
4. Cock-A-Doodle Quack Quackby Ivor Baddiel and Sophie Jubb – This is a fun book about a young rooster who doesn’t know how to wake everyone up in the morning. It reviews the farm animal sounds.
5. Dawdle Duckling by Toni Buzzeo – This is a cute story about a duckling who doesn’t stay close to Mother duck until… Explore the number 4 with this book. Also try Ready or Not, Dawdle Duckling by the same author.
6. “Behold the Duck” by Ogden Nash – This is a simple, rhyming poem about duck behavior.
7. Duck at the Door by Jackie Urbanovic – This book is about a mallard duck who chooses not to migrate with his flock during his first winter. He knocks on Irene’s door in the middle of the night and stays for the winter. (My kids love this book! We have read it many times.)

Happy reading!

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Homeschool Activities in the Snow

Here are a few more homeschool activities that you can do with your kids in the snow.

~Take your children snowshoeing. It is a lot of fun to hike in the winter with snowshoes! Take the opportunity to see how the woods have changed since the fall.

~Create a map in the snow in your yard. Use water tinted with food coloring in spray bottles to draw the outlines of the continents, for example. Or use cookie cutters in the shape of the United States
as stamps. Put a a paper towel on a cookie sheet and add a little watered down paint on it. Dip the cookie cutter into the paint and stamp the snow with it.

~Go cross country skiing. Skiing in itself is fun, but you can add another dimension to the experience by teaching a geometry lesson. Learn about rays & lines. Explore perpendicular, parallel, and intersecting lines.

~Do some experimenting with the snow. For example, melt some snow and test the pH of the water with a pH testing strip. Or melt the snow and refreeze it to observe the structure changes.

~You can also find some great snow learning activities at The Parenting Exchange.

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“The Perfect Christmas Gift” Homeschool Advent Devotion

Today in our homeschool we learned that Jesus is the perfect Christmas gift. This is an easy activity for your toddler or preschooler as is, but you can modify it to suit older children as well.

I used the Bible Lesson from Bible Kids Fun Zone called “The Best Christmas Gift of All”. I skipped the part about sin and salvation for my purposes, but you could certainly include that in your own lesson.

~Supplies: Coloring Page of Baby Jesus, scissors, wrapping paper, tape, small gift box, Jesus in a manger (I used the Little People figure. You could use the baby Jesus from your creche.)

~Scripture: John 3:16John 3:16
English: World English Bible - WEB
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

~Discuss the ideas in the first two paragraphs of the devotion, I talked about the joy of getting gifts on Christmas morning and how sometimes you get a gift that you didn’t expect and don’t really think is right. God also gives us a gift on Christmas.

~Put the gift box with the baby Jesus in a manger in it in front of your child. “This is from God.” Have your child open it. “The perfect gift that God gave us on Christmas is Jesus! Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. God gave Him to us, and we celebrate His birth on Christmas Day.”

~Have your child color the picture of baby Jesus. Then wrap the picture. I had my children cut a piece of wrapping paper the size of the picture and tape the paper at the top of the picture. You can lift the paper and see baby Jesus.

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King of Kings Homeschool Advent Activity

Today we learned about one of the names of Jesus, King of Kings. This is a great Advent devotion to try in your homeschool. Preschoolers and toddlers will love it! You will need to assist younger children with the craft as it involves cutting. I found a great devotion at Streams of Living Water for me. Then I used the Scripture reference, Revelation 19:16Revelation 19:16
English: World English Bible - WEB
16 He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

, to tailor a devotion for my kids.

~Remind the children that Christmas is all about Jesus, and He has many names in the Bible. Have the children give e few names if they can. Then read the Scripture, Revelation 19:16Revelation 19:16
English: World English Bible - WEB
16 He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

. “Jesus is KING OF KINGS.”

~Explain that the Hallelujah chorus uses the name “King of Kings” in it. “We’re going to listen to the song. Sing along and notice when ‘King of Kings’ comes up.” (This particular YouTube video has the lyrics printed in it.) You can also find the lyrics for the Hallelujah chorus here and for an extension activity learn the vocabulary words in it.)

~What does a king wear on his head? A crown, of course! We’re going to make a crown to remind us that Jesus is KING OF KINGS.” Below there are the instructions for how we made our crowns and pictures. You can also find a crown craft at Kaboose.

Supplies: 1 file folder/child, scissors, foil, stapler, pencil

-Fold a file folder in half length wise and cut along the fold. This will be the crown.

-Take one half of the file folder and fold it in half lengthwise again. Cut along the fold. This will be used to extend the crown to fit on your child’s head properly.

-Cut out a triangle template. Trace the triangle template along the top of the thicker piece of file folder. This makes the points on the crown.

-Shade the upside down triangles and have your child cut out the shaded triangles.

-Staple one side of the extension to the crown.

-Cover the entire crown with foil. (Foil is easy to tear making this craft easier for younger children.)

-Staple the two loose ends together to fit your child’s head.

Enjoy learning about the King of Kings!

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Intentionally Observing

I have been thinking more about the role that observation plays in educating our children. Observing your children is one of the most important things that you can do for them because it helps you to make educated decisions about how you approach your curriculum and your child’s learning.

I would venture a guess that you already make observations informally. You most likely would be able to describe what types of work your child gravitates toward or avoids. I’m sure you are able to list your child’s struggles and strengths. So what am I talking about? I am suggesting that you be more intentional about observing and acting on what you observe.

Create a notebook that you will keep your notes in. Record the date, time, and a description of the task at hand that you make your observations of. Take some time every day to write notes about your child’s learning. Take notice of your child’s reaction to how you presented an assignment. Observe how your child solves problems and what helps your child get unstuck when s/he encounters something difficult. Take notes during those times of the day that you find it difficult for you and your child to get through. Review your notes regularly – every day, every couple of days, or once a week depending on your situation. Try to find patterns in the data that you have collected. Perhaps the method that you are using to teach history is causing problems. Your child may need a movement break between lesson, Maybe your child is ready to take the math concepts you’ve been exploring to a new level. You might find out that your child is a visual learner. Look at things you should do more of, things you should do less of, and things that you want to keep the same. Then make a plan based on those observations. Be intentional about your choices. Then make more observations based on your plan.

You may be surprised by the power of the cycle of observation and planning. Your experiences in your home school will change dramatically when you take the time to really observe your child at work.

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Mallard Math

We have practiced our math skills in a variety of ways through Make Way for Ducklings. There are a few mathematical possibilities in this particular book that you might find helpful if you are also working on this particular lapbook.

Since there are eight ducklings in the book, we have practiced counting the number eight. Since my kiddos are kinesthetic learners, I need to incorparate manipulatives into our math work, and a great manipulative for this particular lesson is plastic Easter eggs. First, we sorted the eight eggs by color and counted how many eggs there were of each color. We compared which color we had more and less of. We also dabbled in addition and subtraction by adding one more egg and removing one egg. After all of that manipulative work, we made a counting book with the numbers 1-8. It’s a graduated page book. On each page the children drew the amount of eggs that correlate with the number on the page. Creating this book is also a great way to address the unique the needs of kinesthetic learners since there is a lot of interaction involved – turning the pages, drawing the eggs, counting the eggs, and coloring the eggs. My children needed a bit of guidance with staying focused on the task, but overall, this was a hit!

We also used the song “Five Little Ducks” to talk about counting backwards from 5. We used it as a finger play while I a read a great picture book of the song, Five Little Ducks illustrated by Ivan Bates. They really love this song and adding a kinesthetic piece to it just makes it more engaging. Having the visuals (pictures) also makes the song more interesting. Lessons are so much more dynamic when you weave multiple disciplines together.

Get cracking on your math skills, homeschoolers!

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Now We’re Composting!

We have finally gotten organized enough to start our very first compost pile. Here is another great instructional video about how to get started on your own compost pile.

We got started by using some plastic chicken wire and fencing off a small area for our pile. (We have a dog, and she would certainly get into our pile if she had a chance!) We, even Dad was in on the conversation, discussed what a compost pile is for and what kinds of things we would put into it. The kiddos put some of our leaves into the fenced in area, too, to get us started. Then we watched this video on YouTube. We’ve decided that adding to the compost pile is now a job for the kids in our house!

Since our garden is growing so nicely even though I have a brown thumb, I hope that our new compost pile will also be a huge success. The kiddos are really excited about it. They are even talking about how we can reduce the amount of trash that we make every day by putting banana peels and apple cores into the compost pile. Perhaps we will have kids who are more “green” and want to do more to protect the environment! I also hope that our children learn a few lessons about how God is the expert recycler, too, since He created the whole decompostition process. I’ll keep you posted on our progress!

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Home School Research: Mallard Duck

In our home school we are continuing to make our lapbook for Make Way for Ducklings, and we have worked on researching Mallard Ducks this week.

We reread the book and discovered that there is a lot of true information about ducks in it, so we decided to do some research on Mallard ducks. One day we listened to songs of the mallard duck online. We looked at photos online as well, and we watched a slide show of ducklings hatching. It was really fun to see the hatching. The kids wanted to listen to the songs over and over, too!

The next time we sat down for some school work, we read a brief article about Mallard ducks and filled out a report form while I read it. We wanted to confirm information on the internet as well, so we used a “Google” search. You could try Wikipedia, too.

On another day we used many resources from Homeschool Share including the From Egg to Animal life cycle wheel and the duck parts printout. The life cycle wheel requires a third page for the back so that you can put it in the lapbook and also for ease of spinning the wheel. I cut out the piece ahead of time so that we would focus more on the life cycle rather than the act of cutting. I had the children put the four events in order and glue them in the book.

Since the children had already noticed the differences in the male and female ducks in the illustrations in Make Way for Ducklings, we colored the duck parts print out as a scientific drawing for the research and discussed the differences. I had to do a bit of directing on this lesson in order to ensure that the parts were colored correctly. Interestingly, the little one even points out the “mommy” and the “daddy” ducks when we are reading now. The children also dictated how they determine if a Mallard is a female or a male.

We also discussed what migration is and used a map to find the migration patterns of the Mallard Duck. The children dictated information about migration to include in the book. They drew a picture of a duck on the cover of the migration book. I described drawing a duck as a big circle with a smaller circle next to it and a triangle on the little circle. I think it came out nicely!

Are you going to try researching Mallard ducks this week?

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Make Way for Our Next Lapbook

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey is the subject of our next lapbook. There will be a series of posts with thoughts and photos as we go through the process of this particular lapbook. I will even include titles of other books we are using. Again, I am making up my own lapbook using library and internet resources that are available for free.

I started this lapbook unit by creating a web of ideas for what we could learn about. This is a great way to get started. Based on my web, I searched the internet to see what was available. I looked at an example of what someone else had done for their lapbook on Homeschool Share, and I printed out what I intended on using for my lessons. I put together the first mini book we were going to make as well.

I introduced the book to the kids by talking about Robert McCloskey since we just read Blueberries for Sal. I read the book just for enjoyment this first time. We simply discussed the book as we went along. My kids’ bedroom is painted in a Make Way for Ducklings theme (painted by Caroline Funchion), so we talked about that connection to the book.

The next time we read the book, I wrote the ducklings’ names on our chalkboard- Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Pack, Ouack, & Quack – to use the ducklings’ names for learning about onsets and rimes. We created a flip book with the names. I wrote the letters, and my kids traced over them. The little one did not do a page for Ouack and Quack as I think it would have been too much work.

As a note for the reasoning behind this particular lesson, rhyming is a great precursor to reading. Try playing with rhymes when you’re waiting in the grocery line or at the doctor’s office. Sing rhyming songs for fun. Using onsets and rhymes is also a great strategy for figuring out unknown words when you are reading. Try pointing them out when you see a good one in a book or on the cereal box. This strategy is also helpful with writing. You can point out that a particular word rhymes with another one while you are writing and show your kids how you use that strategy.

I hope this helps you get started on your Make Way for Ducklings lapbook!

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