Personal Scripture Study
Family School
- Devotional
- Nature Study/Outdoor Hour
- Exploring Creation With... (science)
- Country Study
- Art and Composer Study
- Herb Fairies - Herb of the Month
- Patterns of Liberty/Family History
- Read Aloud Book
I cannot believe that my Big Man is 12 this year! Time sure does fly and he is my first to move beyond the Elementary Grades and into the Jr. High stage. He will now be more involved in group settings, volunteer work, service, scouts and working towards Scholar Phase (as outlined in Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning). Using Ambleside Online Year 7 as a rough outline for school this year, we went through together and chose what he wanted to learn and study this year. In addition to all of these subjects he will continue using Math U See, working in Epsilon and doing their online math drills daily. Personal Scripture Study In addition to reading from these materials for scripture study time we also use journals and notebooking pages from both Discover the Scriptures and The Red Headed Hostess, although to be honest, Big Man is not a fan of journal pages so he mainly uses the online notebook and journal available at lds.org, under tools. He will be teaching us devotional on Fridays and also has opportunities to teach at church on Sundays. Family School Family school takes place right after breakfast and starts with devotional. Family school consists of subjects we do together as a family before we break out to do individual studies. Family school was covered in detail in the 2015 school plans post, and includes:
Language Arts Big Man loves reading more than anything but when it comes to language arts, he struggles. Because we work at his own pace he will be working out of the Level 5 All About Spelling program and if he is ready move onto Level 6. We will be starting out with the basics of grammar using Simply Grammar and then follow up with Jensen's Grammar. All of his readings will be accompanied with notebooking pages, an oral narration or book report and he has chosen to study German as his foreign language. LiteratureGeography and Nature Study These are great living books on geography and we use the Old World Style Maps to chart the journey in these books. PoetryHistory and Government This is Big Man's favorite subject. He started the Great Empires last year and only got through Greeks and Romans so he wanted to continue learning about ancient times. We will continue with Proclaim Liberty we started last year and many of these books are on his book list for his Key of Liberty group. Key of Liberty Book ListScience Big Man wanted to finish The Secrets of the Universe series he started last year in addition to our family school, Exploring Creation with Science books. I also have a couple of suggestions from Ambleside Online for him to study on his own. Free Reading Book ListGroups Big Man will be starting a weekly group from LEMI (Leadership Education Mentoring Institute) called Key of Liberty, which is a commonwealth school. In addition to learning about our founding fathers, the constitution and government he will also be studying Shakespeare and working on group service projects. He is also involved with weekly scouts and church group meetings. This fall will be Big Man's last year as a knight at the Mastering Knighthood Summit, but will continue to be involved by volunteering in future Summits. He will also be a volunteer youth leader at Patriot Camp next summer and any other opportunities that may arise.
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Big Woman is definitely in the "Love of Learning" phase according to the phases of A Thomas Jefferson Education. She is very creative and loves to make lapbooks, projects and other hands on activities as well as drawing, painting and journaling. We went through the curriculum from Ambleside Online for Year 4 and decided to use many of recommended books for this year along with a few a my favorites.
Personal Scripture Study
In addition to reading from these materials for scripture study time we also use journals and notebooking pages from both Discover the Scriptures and The Red Headed Hostess. Big Woman has been assigned devotional on Wednesdays and will teach us from her personal scripture study materials here.
Family School
Family school takes place right after breakfast and starts with devotional. Family school consists of subjects we do together as a family before we break out to do individual studies. Family school was covered in detail in the 2015 school plans post, and include:
Language Arts
Each child is encouraged to keep a personal journal. A journal teaches the months and days of the week as they refer to the calender for the date. After their journal entry we check them together for any spelling or grammar errors. Any words that were mis-spelled goes on the spelling list that is reviewed at the end of the week. Big Woman also likes to use All About Spelling and will have notebooking pages to go along with her other studies as well as learning German for her foreign language.
Literature
Books Should Be Free online listening or reading
Shakespeare
Shakespeare is part of literature but I wanted him to have a section of his own so you can see the many resources available for inspiring children to love and be very familiar with the stories so when they start reading the actual plays they know the characters and stories and will be excited about reading them the way Shakespeare meant them to be. The children love to listen to the Tales from Shakespeare or Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, both great retellings of his plays. Last year Big Woman made her own globe theater from the Renaissance & Reformation Project Passport, complete with characters from the plays. After she reads or listens to the play she can then act it out in her "theater". She also loves to draw and color so sometimes she will do that while listening to a story. Fridays have become our game day and Shakespeare the Bard Game is so fun, even the Little's join us by teaming up and doing the "busking" which brings great laughs and lots of shillings.
Poetry
Each of the children read a poem every day, I like to use the ambleside online schedule of poetry unless I have found something better in my own collection - I have found a lot of great poetry books at my local thrift store. I encourage the children to pick a favorite poem to memorize each month and usually have them copy it into a poetry notebook. Big Woman decided this year she wanted to make a poetry journal from an art sketch pad so she can make drawings to go along with poems.
History and Government
Book of Centuries
Each child keeps a Book of Centuries, which is pretty much a timeline. They decorate the covers for these binders and will use them throughout their entire school experience. Fridays they review what they studied all week and place time line figures in their book. I use pages from Notebookingpages.com and the timeline figures from Homeschool in the Woods. Both have been invaluable to my homeschool and worth every penny. Geography
Big Woman will be mapping the journey of a snapping turtle in Minn of the Mississippi as well as studying one of the fifty states each week. I will be using the Old World Style Maps from Homeschool in the Woods, these are one of my favorite resources and you can find a map for just about everything in this set. The United States set also has several notebooking pages, including a fact sheet that we use with each state and flags for every state. I printed off the state map on one side of paper and print the fact sheet on the other side. At the beginning of the year I fill a binder with all 50 states and then Big Woman chooses which one she wants to study that week and fills in the facts. Notebookingpages.com also offers a state study set that can be included or used separately.
Science
In addition to the family school Exploring Creation series, Big Woman will also be reading The Story Book of Science with notebooking pages to track and chart what she is studying.
Free Reading Book List
I will be the first to admit my children never make it through their entire reading list in a year, but I do like to have a wide variety of books for them to choose from. Every book on these lists have become favorites of my children and they are all wonderful stories that teach living lessons. Not all of these are read by the child, some we listen to in the car (book on cd borrowed from the library), some listened to online while working on a project and some Mom reads aloud. I like to check my local thrift store, library and online before purchasing any, but those that must be purchased are well worth it.
All of these books are found on Books Should Be Free where you can listen to or read them online:
Groups
Big Woman will be participating in a bi-monthly Liberty Girls Club meeting, where she reads the book of the month and then meets with other home school girls where they discuss the book and do activities. The books are usually one of the American Girl Series but one year we did the Little House on the Prairie series. She also meets with a church group bi-monthly where they complete experiences from the Faith in God book. Once a week she has clogging lessons from Just For Clicks, which is a family friendly studio that wants a great experience for each child involved, whether it be recreation or competition clogging. The instructors bring a positive, uplifting atmosphere to the studio and I love the budget friendly pricing and commitment to modesty when it comes to costumes. Didn't mean to go off there on the clogging studio but we have had such a great experience with this studio the last 4 years I think everyone should know how great they are!
During the summer months Big Woman will also participate in Patriot Camp and Handmaidens of Virtue. Both of these character building "camps" are for anyone that want to participate - not just homeschoolers.
After reading Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning by Oliver DeMille over the summer I got the impression I needed to change things with my school a little bit. I realized the need for my younger children (under age 12) to lead out in what they wanted to study and learn about and that they needed to have fun and enjoy what they were learning. Hubby and I sat down with each child and asked what they wanted to learn, what they have enjoyed and what wasn't so fun. Little Man was so easy as he enjoys learning about everything and loves to read. He has a great love for all things in creation, especially animals as well as experimenting. Based on this, I referenced my favorite curriculum site, Ambleside Online Year 1 and went from there. I put the following things on his list to study for the year but this is open to what he wants to do and learn. If he decides he wants to study something more in depth or he doesn't like a particular book, than that is up for revision. This is a hard concept for me because I am such a schedule and list person, but what I read about the phases of learning rang true and I will follow the spirit's guidance in the education of my children. Personal Scripture Study These are Little Man's scripture study materials. Both the Scripture Stories and the Friend magazine are available to listen to online (so Mom can still do her own personal study the same time as the other children), there are also activities, games and so much more and of course my favorite, Bible videos. Little Man is encouraged to read one page of his scripture reader by himself before listening to more or doing any other activities. He also uses these as resources along with Behold Your Little Ones for his turn to teach devotional on Mondays. Family School Family school takes place right after breakfast and starts with devotional. Family school consists of subjects we do together as a family before we break out to do individual studies. Some subjects we cover I will have additional books or activities for the younger ones so they can still participate. Family school was covered in detail in the2015 school plans post, and include:
Literature & Poetry Little Man will either listen to these books online while coloring or doing a project or I will sit down with him and read them to him. It is whatever he decides to do and what my time looks like that day. Hard copy books Books Should Be Free online listening or reading Language Arts According to the phases of learning this age wouldn't have a structured language arts program, but my Little Man loves the All About Spelling program that we started last year. He sees it as a game because it is multi-sensory and this was one thing he specifically ask for more of this year. We will probably finish up with the Level 1 and move onto Level 2 during this year. They also have a reading program called All About Reading that I think he would've loved! Last year I used what I have used with all my other children, How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Where the other children thrived with these lessons, this active/hands on learner did not enjoy the lessons and we ended up tossing the book half way through and just used the All About Spelling with his reader books. In hind site I wish I would've just gotten the All About Reading Program. This child loves to write so I will also have copywork pages from scriptures, excerpts from the books we read and probably some patriotic things. I love NotebookingPages.com for copywork and notebooking which are a huge part of our home school. I purchased a lifetime membership a couple years ago and it has been worth every penny! Math As with language arts this is not a required subject at this time but Little Man loves math so he wants to continue on with the Math U See we did last year. This year we will do Alpha and just take one day at a time to see how much he wants to do and what he wants to do. I will have the manipulatives available to experiment and play with and also some other fun stuff I have picked up among the years. These would include tangrams, some foam shapes, a clock face with the hands, and some play money with a cash register. All of this is in a bin he can just pull out of the closet and explore at his own will. Science/Geography Little Man's favorite subjects! For family school we will be reading from the Apologia Exploring Creation Astrology and Anatomy. I wanted Little Man to have his own little book to follow along with the anatomy since that will probably be a bit much for him. I will be using Look Inside Your Body which is an Usborne flip book that has lots of flaps to open and discover all about our bodies. I will also let him choose what he wants to do out of Mudpies to Magnets for some hands on experimenting for younger children. After mapping Paddle's journey to the sea, we will watch the short film with the same name, I was able to find this at my local library. Natural History As I mentioned above, Little Man loves anything in creation. Animals are one of his favorites and I have always loved any Thornton Burgess books, he has such a way a weaving a tale around animals that make them so exciting and fun to learn about. I will be having him listen to stories from the Burgess Bird Book about birds in our area while coloring a page for his notebook, Notebookingpages.com has the best bird study pages! I also found a great blog that has the birds from this book linked with their calls and more info. about that bird. We will then try to identify that bird in the wild during our outdoor hour time. He also keeps a little bin of bird figures that he can pull out if he chooses along with some dover coloring books for painting or more coloring. History/Government I believe history and government are just as important to learn as reading, writing and arithmetic. I incorporate them into every level of learning, which is why my Little Man already has the preamble to the constitution memorized. Does he know what it means, maybe not, but he will. This is what I have planned for him to learn this year along with what he has chosen (Knight's, oh yeah!) I will also be using the music, coloring books and DVD's from the Kindergarten plans from last year. Free Reading Books with Mom A fun list of books no child should grow up without reading, all age appropriate for a six year old. Because this child is a hands on/active learner I like to include notebooking pages, coloring pages, lapbook or activities to go along with the story after we have read it. *Peter Pan has a naughty word that Tinkerbell likes to say so I make sure to read this one aloud myself so I can omit it. He loves the Magic Tree House books so he reads those to me and after a book has been read we go to the official website and get a sticker for his passport. He also gets to have 15 minutes of supervised time playing on the Magic Tree House website when he finishes a book. I have been able to find these books at my local thrift store and library. Books Should Be Free Listening or Reading Online Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi
The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams The Red Fairy Book - Andrew Lang The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie (watch out for that naughty word that Tinkerbell says a few times)
It is that time of year again when I put all of my school plans together and get ready for another great year of home school! I always begin with a prayer for each individual child and what their needs my be. I also review my home school education books or study something knew. This past summer I read a great book called, Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning by Oliver Demille, a companion book to A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Demille. These phases rang true for me and I felt I needed to incorporate them into my family and I am excited to see what will happen this year. I highly recommend this reading for everyone, homeschooler or not. With that in mind here is the plan for our 2014/2015 school year
Morning Routine
After morning chores each child and Mom sit around the table for personal scripture study. Each child will have his/her list of age appropriate resources for scripture study. Mom has the following:
We study by ourselves for about 15-20 minutes every morning before breakfast. This is quiet time where no talking is allowed and then during breakfast, right after study time, we can discuss what we learned together. After breakfast we start what I call, Family School, which are subjects we learn about together as a family before separating into individual study. Devotional and outdoor hour are the only ones we do every single day, the others we may do some one day and some another.
Family SchoolDevotional
Devotional consists of a song or hymn, prayer, pledge of allegiance, memorization scripture, article of faith and Family Proclamation. We then have a short lesson given by either Mom or one of the children. Each person is assigned a day of the week and they are in charge of putting together a thought or lesson. These are some of the resources we use in addition to our personal scripture study materials. The Little's teach from Behold Your Little Ones and use the activity folders or they teach us what they learned at church that week since they usually come home with handouts or activities.
Outdoor Hour/Nature Study
We love outdoor hour around here, even in the winter. I like to print out the monthly challenge from the Handbook of Nature Study blog and we use that as a "guide". The children are really free to explore and observe whatever their hearts desire. We then come in and if they choose, draw or write about what they observed in their nature journals or nature notebooking pages. Big Man is the only one that does not like to use his nature journal, but I do require him to have at least one entry during the month. We also have a nature table that was Little Man's project last winter and everyone has enjoyed it, especially the Little's, they are always bringing in some treasure to display and continue to observe and play with. We also have lots of nature books in this area and we use the Handbook of Nature Study as our resource and guidebook.
The Nature Table (shelf)
We set up a small bookshelf in a little part of our living room to house all of our nature study materials. We post the outdoor hour challenge right above the shelf and have that wall for drawings the children may have, posters of what we may be studying and our weather chart. The shelf itself has a book bin that keeps our garden journals, the outdoor hour monthly newsletter, our weather lapbooks, the Ranger Rick magazines and any seasonal books we are using a lot. There are also baskets to house the "treasures" brought in by the children and this is changed from season to season as we retire old treasures and bring in the new. All of our field guides and nature books are on the shelf as well as the nature journals, binoculars and magnifying glass. Little Man helped put the shelf together and organize all of the contents in and on it, this is his love so he was the one in charge. His prize possession is a snake skin given to him by a neighbor with a corral snake, he has to show this to everyone that comes to the house and since the shelf is located right next to the front door, literally everyone gets a peek.
The children love science and we love the Exploring Creation Series by Jeannie Fulbright. This year we are going to study the last two in the series we haven't yet covered, Astronomy and Anatomy. We also use notebooking pages for each section in the book we cover. The children still look back in their notebooks from past years as a reference guide. Because we do this as a family I also use books on the same subject for the Little's but more for their level of learning and exploration.
Exploring Creation - ScienceHerb Fairies
We study an herb every month and because we love it so much, this usually happens everyday. This spring I came across Herb Fairies and it quickly became my children's favorite part of the day. They love the stories (if you aren't into fairy tales though this is not for you) and it gets them so excited to learn more about the herb of the month. We keep an herb journal, do some herbal crafting with the herb and observe it up close and personal for those that are in the yard or around the neighborhood. I also love to use Herbal Roots Zine and of course my herbal library.
Art and Composer Study
I think it is important to study the arts but we keep it pretty loosey, goosey around here. I usually have a piece of artwork displayed for a 2 week period in the main school area and we talk about it here and there. I like to use the Ambleside Online schedule of artist and composer because they have done all the work for me, complete with a PDF picture to print and post. We also just listen to classical music in the background rather than an actual period of listening. If you want an actual program to follow Harmony Fine Arts has some great lesson plans and study materials. Homeschool in the Woods also has a fun Activity-Pak for bothartists and composers that we have used and loved.
Patterns of Liberty and Family History
I mentioned before that Patterns of Liberty was the basis for Patriot Camp this year and I am excited to have it available to use in our school this year. I will be reading a story and doing activities based around that story or person once a week. I also will be telling stories from our family history and encouraging the older children to get involved in researching their ancestors and helping in uploading pictures and histories to FamilySearch.com, where this information can be viewed by others. FamilySearch is a free resource available for everyone to use not just those of us that are LDS, I encourage everyone to utilize this amazing resource for bringing us closer to our family members and ancestors.
Read Aloud Book List
I like to have a book we are always listening to as a family. This may be one we borrowed from the library on cd that we listen to in the car or while doing chores. It may also be one I sit and read to the children while they work on quiet activities, needle work, quiet play for the Little's or whittling for Big Man. I let this go last year because I allowed myself to get too busy but we all loved it and it is something I will put on my priority list this year. These are just a few of the books I have in mind for our read alouds this year. I may also pick some off the first grade and fourth grade free reading lists.
Personal Study Time
Once we finish our family school the children go off to do their personal studies and I get to read some more with my Littles and guide and help them where needed (and wanted). They will mostly explore and play on their own both indoors and out and I will be available to all for guidance.
Phases For My Children This YearNotebooking
Just a quick note about notebooking. As I post the plans for each child for the year you will notice many links to different notebooking pages from notebookingpages.com. At first I would purchase one set here and one set there but realized I would be much better off joining the notebooking pages treasury. That has been one of my best purchases! With the treasury you have access to all of their notebooking pages, with more to be released each year. You also have access to the notebooking web-app, which allows the child to design his own page online and then print it out for his notebook. These have been a big part of our homeschool, something the children enjoy making and a way for them to write, narrate and be creative in expressing what they are learning.
We had our annual Utah Patriot Camp this week and had a ton of fun learning about the patterns of liberty throughout history. Patriot Camp is designed for ages 4-11 to learn about our freedom, liberty, our founding, and most importantly our constitution. They learn through stories, crafts, games, history, and song. There are many teen and adult volunteers that make this camp possible. Big man is excited to be a volunteer next year since this was his last year attending as a "camper". I was over the craft station and was so amazed at how much the children were able to tell me what they were taught in the learning stations. We have some amazing "little patriots" that I can't wait to become "big patriots". Several visitors came to camp this year including: Joan of Arc, a Mountain Man, a Frontiersman, a soldier from Washington's continental army, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington himself! These children are the future of our country. It is so important for them to know the true principles of freedom and liberty and to understand our constitution. It is even more important for them to learn the patterns of liberty throughout history so we can copy the patterns that lead to freedom and prosperity and not repeat those that lead to captivity and misery. Patriot camp was based on the teachings in this book called Patterns of Liberty. This book was written to use as families to teach these principles and also how to apply them, in an easy to understand way. I will have this as part of my homeschool curriculum next year and I am so excited to use it. Tenna Hartman, the author, was our "Joan of Arc" here at patriot camp, she will be coming out with a follow up book and an activity book to have a hands on experience with implementing these principles. You can purchase your own copy and find out more about this inspired book, here.
Taraxacum officinale Family: Asteraceae (was Compositae - daisy, echinacea, marigold) Subfamily: Cichorioideae (Chicory/Dandelion) Parts Used: Whole plant *roots have the strongest medicinal properties For most people dandelions are simply a noxious weed that they work hard to eradicate each spring. For me it is another healing herb the Lord has blessed us with. Last year we focused an entire month on the dandelion for our nature study and have come to love and adore this despised little plant (although we still don't want it taking over lawn:)) One of my favorite uses for dandelion is to dissolve warts. I tried many natural remedies for getting rid of warts, including very strong essential oils. What finally worked was applying the milk from snapping off a dandelion head, directly on the wart every day for several weeks. It gradually disappeared! Properties
Uses
Methods of Use
In the KitchenMix with other greens in salad, steam with olive oil and lemon, mix in pesto and smoothies, make an herbal sprinkle or infuse vinegar with the leaf, flower and root. The root can be chopped, roasted and used as a brewed beverage or thrown into soups and stir fries. Use the root as you would a root vegetable. *Adding olive to to fresh steamed dandelion greens helps the body absorb the minerals more fully. Lemon juice makes the iron more available to the body. Wildcrafting/HarvestingDon’t spray the lawn with weed killer and there is your fresh supply, ready to go.
CautionSome people are allergic to dandelion so patch test before using. Recipes and Other ResourcesEdible Wild Food: Dandelion Herbal Legacy: Dandelion Dandelion recipe roundup from Little Owl Crunchy Mama Things to Do with Dandelions from The Nerdy Farm Wife Dandelions from Learning and Yearning Dandelion Greens by Dr. Axe Dandelion Root by Dr. Axe Dandelion Tea by Dr. Axe Purchase pre-cut and dried leaves and rootsIf you would prefer to purchase this herb instead of harvesting yourself Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop, Mountain Rose Herb or Bulk Herb Store have good quality herbs. Nature StudyThis is a precious poem from one of our most beloved books called Flower Fairies by Cecily Mary Barker. She has the sweetest artwork of children like fairies that are dressed to match their special plant. We use this book all the time for nature study and love including the poems and artwork in our nature journals as we study different plants and flowers. The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock has some great information about dandelions told in a "living" context and not a textbook context. We really enjoyed learning about the dandelion from this book. You can find it in various formats for free online here, or you can purchase the book from Amazon, here. I highly recommend this book for any nature loving family.
As I mentioned in my garden planning post, the children each have and care for their own garden squares. Every year they look through my seed catalogs and decide what they want to plant in their gardens. Last year Little Man wanted to plant a pumpkin and we followed the book Kid's Pumpkin Projects: Planting and Harvest Fun. One of the projects was starting a pumpkin journal and because he and Big Man were the only ones doing pumpkins we just made a journal for everyone and called them garden journals. These were so fun, the children drew their garden plans, taped the seeds of what they were planting in them, drew pictures as their plants grew, and Big Woman even wrote the cutest poem in hers.
Other ideas for journal entries were keeping track of the weather, writing a short story about your plants, taking pictures of your garden and then glue them in, include pressed leaves and buds, chart the growth of your plants, and when you have harvested your plant, include what you made with it or how you ate it. These are personal and can include artwork, thoughts, predictions, observations and feelings.
To make the journals you could purchase a bound art book from the craft store and cover them with printed paper. Or for a frugal version like we did, just take a stack of printer paper and two pieces of printed scrapbook paper for the front and the back and staple them together. I also glued a strip of paper running along the stapled side so the kids wouldn't get poked by the staples. They made labels for the cover and decorated them with stickers. Little Woman even wanted to water color her cover so I let her have at it. She loves to cut and glue so I gave her my old seed catalogs and she cut out what she wanted to plant and glued them on her planning page.
The nature table finally got an actual shelf, rather than the floor, so we put a basket filled with our weather lapbooks, Handbook of Nature study newsletters, seed catalogs, Ranger Rick Jr. magazines and now our garden journals. When the kiddos want to make an entry they can just grab them out of the basket and create away.
This week we worked on garden plans for 2014 and Big Woman decided to grow a bunny garden to feed her precious bunny. Big Man always does whatever is the easiest, so pumpkin it was for the 5th year in a row. Little Man however wanted to plant just about everything in the garden catalog while Little Woman just wants pink flowers. We are so excited to start another year of gardening fun!
This post has been linked with the following blog hops - please visit them for further inspiration.
Homestead Barn Hop, Homemade Mondays, Thank Goodness It's Monday, Natural Living Monday, Mama Moments Monday, Mostly Homemade, Modest Monday, The Gathering Spot, Hearth and Soul Hop, Fat Tuesday, Tuned-in Tuesday, Tuesday Greens, Titus 2 Tuesday, Growing Homemakers, Tuesday Garden Party, Oil Me Up Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesdays, Wed Fresh Foods, Wellness Wednesday, Homemaking Link-up, Christian Homemaking Link Up, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Homeacre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Homemaking Link, Pintastic Pinteresting Party, Real food Fridays, Old Fashioned Fridays, From the Farm, Small Footprint Friday, Healing with Food Friday, Farmgirl Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays, Pin it Saturday. I have a special occasions binder that I pull out for holidays, filled with stories and activities I have collected over the years. Today Little Woman wanted to do an "activtee" so I pulled out my folder and found this story/activity. I remember putting this together years ago for Big Man and for some reason haven't pulled it out since then. Little Woman loved the story and wanted to keep "hiding" the valentine. Here is the link to the story. You'll want to gather a few items to go along with it; shape cut outs of a circle, square, and heart, pair of mittens, hand puppet (if you don't have one you can make a simple puppet with a paper bag and this print out), brown paper bag or lunch box, long white envelope, heart with "I Love You" written on it cut into three parts to form a puzzle. Hide the parts to the heart in your silverware drawer, a bookshelf in the living room and on the child's pillow. Tell the story letting the child pick out the item that matches the line you are reading. When you come to the hide and seek valentine, let them seek and find the valentine. Put the pieces together at the end of the hunt and read it to them. Give them a hug and say I love you just like Grandma. Let your little one make their own hide and seek valentine.
We had so much fun studying snow this month and the Lord blessed us with a snowstorm the first day we took on the challenge. We tried to catch snow flakes on dark paper but the snow crystals were too tiny and hard, once we came inside it decided to snow big, fat, fluffy flakes - figures. Little Man had the grand idea of making snow balls to include on the Nature Table, which is actually a floor until we can find us a bookshelf or table to use. They all thought that was a great idea and love touching and playing with them, until their hands froze. Later in the day Little Man told me his snowballs had disappeared and turned into water, what a great impromptu science lesson.
Our favorite part about January is we always bring out our favorite snow and winter books. We keep these in our seasonal book basket that we have included on our Nature Table (floor). The first book of the new year is always Snowflake Bently followed by his book of photographs Snow Crystals. Little Man will spend the days pouring over the snow crystals, he is so intrigued by them. We then had to create our own snow flakes to display on the seasonal artwork door.
The best part about snow is playing in it, right? I mixed up some food coloring in water and filled some spray bottles, squirt bottles and buckets with paint brushes and let them have at it. They had so much fun coloring their snow sculptures and then creating their own snow ball colors. We also built a snowman and Big Woman wanted to do as the children did in Stranger in the Woods and fill the snowman's head with bird seed.
Our Favorite Winter Time Books The Outdoor Hour Challenge this month was to find the extraordinary in the ordinary in our December world. Our Northern Utah weather did not disappoint in the least! We had a beautiful snow storm and I only wish I had a good camera to capture the awe of what we were able to witness. I love to go out on my front porch and slowly take in the scenery around me, smelling the fresh air and feeling the cold air on my face. Then hop back in my warm house and be grateful I have heater and some hot chocolate. Here in Utah, we never get ice storms, but this year was a little different. We had an ice storm that coated everything in ice and then it snowed on top of the ice, leaving the trees and bushes covered in this gorgeous white for days. We went out in the early morning before the sun had melted what we call "God's Artwork" from the car windows. The children were fascinated by the frost designs when we took an up close look and found something very extraordinary in something so ordinary in the winter. We were also amazed at the sea of "crystals" so prominent in the backyard with the morning sun shining on all the fresh fallen snow. Big woman noticed an "ice tree forest" along the bottom edge of the car window, big man was just interested in making his own designs in the frosted window, and I was fascinated by all those "diamonds" sparkling in my backyard. When we came inside the kiddos opted to use thenotebooking page Barb provided while I used my nature journal to record our observations. After drawing our pictures and journaling, we added a little glitter glue to our pages for the sparkle effect the snow and the frost gave in the sunlight. And then of course, after school time all the children had to go back out and build a snow cave and pull each other on the sled through all those "ice crystals". I feel so blessed to have a Father in Heaven that loves us so much to give us all this beauty to enjoy through the dark, cold winter.
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Hi, I’m Annie, a child of God, Mother of Influence and Herbalist. Welcome to my place where I share what I have learned of natural and frugal living, healthy eating and living, gardening, homeschooling, herbal crafting, preparing temporally and spiritually, and love for God and Country.
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January 2023
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