amandaspace1330

We are enjoying our Christmas vacation. Wonderful times with family and cousins. Last week we read the story The Very Last First Time, Jan Andrews. This is the story of an Inuit girl growing up and doing things on her own. We enjoyed learning about Canada and the Inuit people. We learned about polar bears and arctic life and we did some dot art. It was a fun week. This story was thematically appropriate for the week before Christmas. Tristan enjoyed his subjects this week. He was not too excited about having to read The Very Last First Time to Anastasia but otherwise he had fun. I really enjoyed The King of Prussia and a Peanut Butter Sandwich, Alice Flemming. I wasn't able to source this book until this week, but it should have been paired with Climbing Kansas Mountains . This story made me cry, it is the amazing true story of Prussian Mennonites who relocated to the Crimean Peninsula for religious freedom and then moved to Kansas for the same reason. They grew winter wheat ...

Christmas! The past 3 weeks have flown. The thing about December that gets me is that the weekends are more packed than the weekdays. School has been flowing along relatively well. Sure, we've had the occasional party, or morning out Christmas shopping, but the weekends! That's when the real activity happens. Anyway, Anastasia has enjoyed 3 nice story units in Kindergarten and Tristan is doing well on his second grade work. The first story: You Are Special, Max Lucado. This one I pulled off the shelf the week after Thanksgiving  because our books hadn't come in over the holiday week. The children enjoyed this story and I was able to help them understand the allegory and the deeper meaning of the story. Anastasia did some copy work and a coloring page related to the theme. Ana is joining Tristan for Math lessons; more on that later. The second story Anastasia enjoyed:   Warm as Wool, Scott Russell Sanders. This is a wonderful, true, story of...

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I am excited about December and the first day of Advent (more on that at the end of this post) but we gave Thanksgiving it's due. Two weeks ago our Five in a Row book of the week was Cranberry Thanksgiving, by Wende and Harry Devlin. Anastasia loved this story. She really got excited about cranberry bogs and learning how cranberries grow. This story is set in New England, like most of the stories we've read this semester. Ana seems to finally understand where New England is located on the map. I'm a fan of any book that includes a recipe. All in all, a fun week. Tristan learned about farming in science that week, which paired well with Anastasia's unit on Cranberry bogs. He is tracking along pretty well with his second grade work. We all enjoyed a field trip to Chick-Fil-A to check out their kitchen, and we took a family trip out to Strasburg Railroad to ride on Thomas the Tank Engine. So Fun! Happy B...

Last week we read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, Paul Revere's Ride. Ana said she was tired of it after the first read, but Tristan enjoyed hearing it every day, and he did a very nice job reading the poem to us on Friday. I enjoyed hearing him read formal poetry! Of course, the poem is based on the true story of Paul Revere sounding the alarm about the British movement on the colonial supplies. We did not delve into too much history last week. Two summers ago we spent the whole summer learning about George Washington and the Revolutionary war. We quickly reviewed, and we read a book about Boston. We also defined poetry and discussed colonial style architecture. We got two different illustrated versions of the poem. Ted Rand's is the one recommended by Five in a Row. Charles Santore's illustrations are also beautiful. They are very different styles, but both well done. We differed in opinion on which book had the best illustrations. ...

Two weeks of Five in a row have passed since my last post. We have enjoyed How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, Marjorie Priceman and Night of the MoonJellies, Mark Shasha. We own How to Make an Apple Pie... because the library did not have it available when I went through this week with Tristan. The children love this silly book about sourcing ingredients for a recipe from around the globe. This story provides opportunity to analyze, where does food come from? It is a light-hearted, fun story with bright pictures and simple text. Night of the Moonjellies is a beautiful story! It comes from a real place in Mark Shasha's past and has all of the nostalgia of childhood summer adventure as well as rich family values. I appreciated the author's note at the end of the book. Mark dedicates this story to his parents, though they are not mentioned in it. I was able to remind the children that the extra text in books is often important and interesting, (introductions, forwards...

This week I began Five in a Row properly with Anastasia. We spent the week on, The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. This is such a beautiful story. The illustrations pair well with the rich text. (I am so excited to be back to the old lesson plans! Definitely we are not doing as much as I did with Tristan, however, Ana is benefiting from his second grade lessons as well. I love the home-learning environment.) We learned about horses- obviously- flora and fauna, Nantucket, seasons review, simile and metaphor and emotions. We counted horses by tens, and splatter painted. With Ana learning needs to be active and hands-on. We were making simile together while changing her sheets, "the sheets float to the bed like leaves fall from the trees" etc. She has a shorter attention span for books. This is an area I need adjustment. I have had such a "books" emphasis because of Tristan's love of literature. Ana loves to play and do! She also ...

Last week we borrowed Sarah Dees' new book Awesome LEGO Creations with Bricks You Already Have. I'm excited that Tristan wanted to borrow this book and actually opened it up and tried some of the projects. Turns out, we didn't have all the recommended pieces, however, we were able to improvise. What a great mind stretching and confidence building afternoon we had. For more from Sarah Dees, check out her blog:  Frugal Fun for Boys . This is his dragon and one of the little cars. (we did not build outside, these were brought outside after being assembled)

This week we read a few exciting books. Since we are now finished with the Frances Study Guide, I used The Raft, by Jim LaMarche as Anastasia's book for this week. This is a beautifully illustrated story about a young boy discovering his love of nature and art. It captures the river habitat perfectly, and allows the reader to explore the river with Nicky (the story's main character). We did a scaled down Five in a Row style unit. She made a character map, narrated the story to me and learned about muskrats. Every morning for the past two weeks we've worked on identifying pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and making patterns using the coins. She still struggles to get them all straight. The Raft, was one of Tristan's books for science class. He learned about rivers this week as we continued our Earth science unit. This story worked well for both children. Tristan also enjoyed a few other books exploring rivers and their habitats (see book list below). We al...

Two weeks have flown by, and I have neglected to blog! Anastasia and I are still working through the Frances Study Guide. We enjoyed Bread and Jam for Frances and A Birthday for Frances, by Russell Hoban. During the Bread and Jam week, we learned about healthy eating and our digestive system. For art we explored food art. Andy Warhol's Tomato Soup Can inspired our lunch menu, and we attempted to paint an apple using 3 shades of the same color for 3d shading effect. Anastasia made a book jacket for the story, and learned about the information we can obtain from the cover of a book. Last week we read A Birthday for Frances and we learned about the calendar and birthdays. Anastasia is still learning how to count money. We counted out different amounts of money each day using nickels and pennies. She enjoyed filling in a few calendar pages and marking family birthdays for those months. She also decorated place cards for an upcoming get-together. Second grade is a blast! We ...

Last week in Kindergarten we read the second story in the Frances Study Guide: A Baby Sister for Frances, by Russell Hoban. This story hit home for us, because we recently added a baby to our family. Anastasia could relate to how Frances felt neglected, or overlooked. I heard her repeat the line, "Things are not very good around here anymore" several times. We learned about what pretend means and we pretended to talk on the phone to each other. During circle time I incorporated the unit Learning about Telephones from Ruth Beechick's Language and Thinking for Young Children. I filled the same container with different items, we shook the containers and she guessed what was inside. This was fun for her, and built her vocabulary as she described the sound each item made. I put all of the items together in one container when we were finished to be used later in a problem solving activity. We also baked a chocolate cake this week. Great way for Ana to use her measuring skill...

Last week we began Kindergarten properly and amped up some of our 2nd grade subjects. I am using the 6 week Frances Study Guide by Valerie Bendt for these first weeks. It is a lot less prep than 5 in a Row. We read Bedtime for Frances,  by Lillian Hoban this week and enjoyed the story sequence strips, alphabet puzzle and poetry moment. Ana also learned about the clock, how to tell time to the hour. We compared and contrasted Bedtime for Frances and Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown, and she learned about moths and badgers. I began reading Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechick to Tristan for history. He narrates what he remembers to me. I am also using the Draw and Write Through History: Creation to Jonah. This counts as History, handwriting- cursive- and Art. I love activities that span multiple subjects. We are learning about Earth in Science. It has been great this week to hear the Biblical account of Earth's beginning in History class and then to jump into science an...

This week I started school with the kids. I wanted to get into a bit of a rhythm before baby arrives. For Anastasia's first week of kindergarten I used ideas from another blog: http://kindergartensmiles.blogspot.com/2015/06/starting-centers-first-week-of-school.html. Ana enjoyed the activities that we used for table time. I started Tristan on his math, language, handwriting, geography and history/art curricula, more on those later. This week we did an archaeology unit to jump start our history of the world. This was fun and merged history, science and language activities. Our main text was The Usborne Young Scientist Archaeology. I used the Teacher Created Materials Thematic Unit on Archaeology for reproducible activities and  hands-on ideas. Tristan completed multiple worksheets, an Archaeology word web, and created a piece of pottery out of clay. I hope to get an Artifact box put together this weekend, as a follow-up activity. We also enjoyed these books during the week's...

The calendar turned to August, and I began to think about school. I know we will be off to an interesting start since baby will come right as we begin, but that can't be helped. I am still  excited about second grade and kindergarten this upcoming school-year. We have been enjoying lots of reading and math review this summer. Tristan loves geography and we are still pacing with memorizing our state capitals. All of the kids have enjoyed little doses of Song School Latin this summer, and sporadic piano lessons. Tristan is learning so much Spanish using Rosetta stone. So the learning continues. We have also enjoyed so much fun time! End of July-August we haven't travelled, but we've celebrated birthdays, visited Philly Zoo, Played Putt-Putt and enjoyed other spur of the moment outings. We owe a big thank-you to Coventry Parlor for one such spur of the moment outing. Last week they offered free ice-cream to WCU Alumni/Students and their families. We enjoy ice cream! And C...

About 3 weeks back, Jason and I watched the movie Chariots of Fire. The story of Scottish Olympic runner/missionary to China, Eric Liddell. The movie was very well-done, but it left me wanting to know the whole story. Chariots of Fire focuses on Eric Liddell's journey to the 1924 Olympics, and that's the story. His missionary career to follow is given honorable mention, but the film is about running in the Olympics. I wanted to know more about his life as a missionary, so off the Library website I went. I have since listened to Something Greater than Gold, by Janet and Geoff Benge. Their Heroes Then and Now Series is awesome and I enjoyed listening to this book on CD in the car with the kids. I also checked out the book For the Glory: Eric Liddell's Journey from Olympic Champion to Modern Martyr, by Duncan Hamilton. I am not sure I will get through this biography, but I am enjoying it. Mr. Hamilton writes the story assuming his reader has viewed the film Chariots of Fire...

Baby Pickering has not arrived yet! The birthday cake this post is about is mine! Jason and kids allowed me to make my own birthday cake this year. It's good for me to bake when I'm getting close to due date, call it nesting. Anyway, I made a vegan vanilla/chocolate swirl cake with my favorite chocolate frosting. I topped it with chocolate covered strawberries. It was super rich, and yummy and put out my cake light for sure! Perhaps we will still have some when baby arrives, and we can eat it in celebration of his birth also. Only time will tell... Recipe for Dark Chocolate Frosting: (From TidyMom.net ) 1/2 Cup +1 Tbsp boiling water 1/2 Cup + 1 Tbsp Cocoa powder 2 1/4 Cup unsalted butter (4 1/2 sticks) 2 Cup powdered sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 lbs semisweet chocolate melted and cooled Combine cocoa and water till dissolved Beat butter sugar and salt reduce speed to low, add melted semisweet beat in cocoa mixture Frosting is very soft, not decora...

The past few weeks have been true summer. Heat index hovering around 100 degrees Farenheit everyday. We go swimming with Grandma once a week, and have had some time with friends. Summer reading is in full swing, and I am very excited with Anastasia's interest and progress in reading. Tristan is also gaining confidence and able to read longer books. He is beginning to read on his own with retention. I have been trying to walk every day in preparation for the coming birth of baby #4. I am ready to go any day, though we are still a few weeks out from due date. I am excited to meet the little guy. To keep myself busy and happy during this time, I picked up some new sewing projects. Mostly baby  gifts for friends and family. I got kind-of addicted to the bib/burp cloth combo. Fun little projects that I can sew up in an hour of free time and then put the sewing stuff away if necessary. We are still reading about the Civil War and Abraha...

I just finished reading Unbroken , by Laura Hillenbrand. The story of former Olympic runner, Louie Zamperini, who flew in a bomber crew during WW11 in the pacific theatre. His plane crashed at sea and he and the other survivor, the pilot, were captured by Japan and served as Prisoners of War. I was able to read this book quickly, mostly reading while we were in the Poconos by the lake. My Mom gave me this book a few years back, and my sister-in-law saw the movie, if not for those two facts, I would not have picked this book for myself, nor do I recommend it. I will not see the movie. The majority of the story, pages 183-337, is about Louie's time in Japanese prison of War camp. The first 183 pages give the story of his childhood, some information about WW11 bombers and his missions before the final crash. Then he gets captured by the Japanese and the next 15 chapters are filled with detailed accounts of bea...

The last few weeks have been very full. Following our weekend to D.C. the kids and I had routine visits to the doctor, and our weekly swim with Grandma. Then we got our library pass to the Reading Public Museum to see the animatronic Dinosaurs! Having never been to the museum, we explored more than just the dinosaur exhibit, and the kids had a blast! We were able to meet up with friends there as well, which is always fun. The next day we were off to Gettysburg, PA for a reenactment of the battle, and to walk the sacred ground. We didn't walk as much of the sacred ground as we hoped. The day flew! We were able to visit the Cemetery (where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address), and walk a bit of the trail across Cemetery Ridge, we drove through The Peach Orchard, Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, and we were able to romp around Little Round Top. The kids loved that, except Anastasia became a casualty of the day, falling on rocks and skinning her knee. It's a great sto...

In keeping with my new years' resolution, oh so many months ago. I continue to read... a little. May-June I read Washington's Spies, by Alexander Rose. Jason and I have seen some of the amc tv show based on this book, and after seeing the book at the gift shop in Williamsburg, VA, I decided to read it. I can't say enough about the library system! If ever I want to read a book, our library has it! Washington's Spies took a renewal and I still returned it overdue while skimming the last pages. It was interesting, but still history, presented in a dry manner. Sorry if that's a bit harsh! I enjoyed parts of the book. I enjoyed getting more, and accurate, information on the characters involved in the TV show, Benjamin Talmadge is still my favorite. I enjoyed the pictures. I learned what role Nathaniel Hale played in the revolution, not much of one, but he's famous. I learned a lot about the Benedict Arnold story, and I was introduced to the Culper ring of spies, s...