Posts Tagged ‘geography’

M’s first day of school

{ September 2, 2009 @ 7:42 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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actual brick and mortar school!  She;s the only child of mine that actually attends school and she thrives there.  I won’t pretend that doesn’t make me a little sad :(   but I am glad she enjoys her days in school as much as her sibs and I do at home.  For those who don’t know, M has autism.  The school here has an excellent autism program that she has been part of for the past 7 years.  They truly treasure her for who she is!  We are very lucky and I am very grateful. 

Here is a picture of her as she was leaving to catch the bus.

DSCF1836

Just so this post has something to do with our homeschool ;)   I signed K up for two more classes this morning; one writing class-Writing a Term Paper and one geography class-Around the World in 80 days.  She’s more excited about the latter then the former and I’m the other way round LOL!  Two more to add to the schedule 8^O

We have been planning some field trips as well, I’m hoping to go to a workshop at a local living museum and probably apple picking.  I would love to get a group together for either of these and need one for the workshop.  Wish me luck getting some people to sign on! 

And while you are at it could you send me some sign up vibes for our cheer program too?  It’s been slow going :(

A Map of the World

{ March 31, 2008 @ 5:09 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Remember how I posted a couple of weeks ago about our trip to the DeLorme map store?  And why did we go?  To get a world map that I could mount on foam board and put up on the wall.  Well, I finally did it!!

It took four pieces of foam-board 8^O  I wasn’t expecting it to take so many and had only bought 3 pieces.  Luckily we were able to recycle one we had left over from K’s science presentation last spring. 

I taped the pieces together with duct tape and then trimmed them to fit the map:

2008_0331stuff0002.jpg you can see the recycled bit in the lower right :)

Then W and I attached the map to the other side:

2008_0331stuff0001.jpg

The map was rather disagreeable to get on the foam-board.  We tried a glue stick but the map kept curling up and coming up.  We tried just using tape, but that left too many gaps around the edge.  Finally, we ended up using a combo of glue stick and tape.  The tape held the map down long enough for the glue stick to set.

Here is the final product, hung on the wall:

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I’d have given you a wider view of it’s place in my living room, but the room is in complete anarchy due to some remodeling. 

Now we have to go and get some push pins so we can mark our Postcrossing destinations!

Cool Things-Postcrossing

{ February 17, 2008 @ 6:48 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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I just heard about this from a fellow homeschooling mama on the MotheringDotCommune forums.  It sounded so interesting that I signed up immediately!

Basically when you sign up they give you a random address to which you send a postcard.  Once your postcard is logged in by the recipient your address gets sent to someone else and you receive a postcard.  You can request a certain kind of card in your profile (I requested historic sites and recipes) and list the languages you speak.  The best thing is that it’s free (well besides postage and the cost of postcards). 

We have already received three addresses; one from Germany, one from Spain and one from Finland.  The kids are uber excited to start sending and receiving!

Here’s the link:

http://www.postcrossing.com/

Check it out!

Unit Study-Harry Potter*

{ February 16, 2008 @ 11:01 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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We did this about two years ago (well, whenever the Goblet of Fire movie came out) but I recently dug it out when someone wanted to take a look at it and thought I would post it here as well! 

This one is going to look more like a typical unit study then my units typically do.

Harry Potter Unit Study

Learning Objectives:

To understand more about Harry Potter as literature and to incorporate other subjects into HP cannon as follows

Science

Botany (herbology)-how to grow herbs and their use in the home

Animal Care (care of magical creatures)-life cycles and care of cats, bats, rats and owls

Chemistry (potions)-several *potions* using acid/base reaction, invisible ink, etc

Cryptozoology-Big Foot, Nessie, Giant Squid

Math

Basic arithmetic practice (arithmancy)-figuring of birth and destiny numbers

Numbers in Nature (Fibonacci numbers)

Language Arts

Sustained silent reading

Read alouds

Harry Potter writing prompts

Hogwarts anagrams

Creative Writing

Book and Movie reviews

Comparison of HP with Greek myths and Arthurian Legend

Discussion of things like foreshadowing, plot points and character development w/in the series

Art

Drawing Dragons

Making Fairy houses

Making bat houses

Wand Making

Geography

Learning about supposed mystical places like Easter Island, Stonehenge and the Bermuda triangle

Locating and learning about Ireland, Scotland, England, Bulgaria, France and India

Home Ec

Cauldron Cakes

Butter Beer

RESOURCES

Books

Harry Potter series

Harry Potter Study Guide (from HogwortsSCS)

The Once and Future King

Greek Myths and Legends

Jan Van Cleaves Plants

JVC Chemistry for Every Kid

The Magical World of Harry Potter

Cryptids

DVDS

Harry Potter DVDs 1-5

Discovering the Real World of Harry Potter

Dragons-A Fantasy Made Real

Monster Quest (this is actually a TV series, and a recent one)

Internet Resources

http://www.mugglenet.com

http://www.classbrain.com/artmovies/publish/cat_index_24.shtml

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/HogwartsSCS

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_17.htm

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1612.html

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/pdf/numbersnature/numbersnature.pdf

*Just to be completely clear; I lay no claim to Harry Potter, the character or the books or anything else bearing his name.  They (and he) are the property of JK Rowling and her publishers and such.  I wouldn’t even attempt it, I am not worthy. 

Culture, math and geography-our faux trip to London

{ February 4, 2008 @ 6:00 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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I gave K an extended project to do right after Christmas break; she was a plan a trip to London. 

She had a budget, a (somewhat outdated) DK Eyewitness Travel Guide-London and free reign.  I won’t go into the budget since the travel book was outdated and it isn’t likely to be accurate anyway.  Suffice it to say she paid for expenses with plenty left for buying souveniers!  It was quite a project; K tried to group her sight seeing so she saw a different part of the city each day (geography), budgeted her money so she could see more (math) and picked and chose which parts of the city she wanted to see most (culture).  As you can see Sherlock was right at the top of her list LOL! Other must sees were the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey.  The London Eye was there for my benefit, she will not go on it herself ;)

Here is what she came up with:

                                                  Trip to London

                                                   Budget-___

                                           Length of stay-one week

                      Staying at-Landmark Trust apartment, Notting Hill

Day 1

traveling by underground to Baker Street

Lunch at Reagent’s Park

Sherlock Homes Museum

Dinner at Malbar Restaurant

Day 2

Travel by cab

Westminster Abbey

Houses of Parliement

Lunch at Tate Gallery

Big Ben

Londone Eye

Dinner at the Sea Shell

 Day 3

Travel by cab

London Museum

Lunch at the Museum

Eat dinner at our flat

Day 4

Traveling by cab

Harrods store

Lunch at Harrods

Shakespeare Globe Museum

Dinner at flat

Day 5

travel by cab

The tower of London

Lunch at Tower Cafe

Tower bridge

Dinner at flat

Day 6

travel by cab

St Paul’s Catherdral

John Soane’s Museum

Lunch at Ye Old Chesshire Cheese

Roman Baths

Dinner at Lamb and Flag

Day 7

Eat breakfast in flat

Pack and ready for travel

I don’t know about you, but it sounds like fun to me!!  Maybe someday we’ll actually go :)