I can't recommend highly enough the Your Story Hour series of CDs. Two years ago, we purchased a volume of CDs on the Heritage of Our Country as a recommended resource to Beautiful Feet's Early American History curriculum. What a find these CD's have been. We have listened over and over to the fascinating details of men and women who have made their mark on American History. Each story is introduced by the voices of Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue. After the last two years we feel as though we're family; our very own Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue.

One of our favorite stories has been the story of Thomas Alva Edison. For the last twenty or so minutes I have been listening to my 10-year old daughter, Bethany, recite word for word, accent by accent, the story of Thomas Edison. What a pleasure it has been. I knew I had to share this resource with you.

After I located their website (which I have yet to fully scour!) I learned there are Activity Books to accompany each volume, with approximately four pages on each lesson. Additionally, these stories can be purchased and downloaded as an MP3 by volume or by individual story.  (Click here for a free audio podcast.) If you happen to have an Auditory learner as I have then you will want to purchase one or more of these volumes for listening and learning.  Our volume has been to California, Montana, and Georgia as we have travelled for vacations and family outings, and we each have our favorite story. While you may purchase your volumes with a particular individual in mind, you'll find it to be a gift to your entire family.

We're enjoying a leisurly stroll through the remaining portion of our history curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books, Early American History. We just completed the life of Benjamin Franklin and events such as the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party. I decided we needed to change things around just a bit, and stage a re-enactment. King George III was hot under the collar when he discovered how many crates of tea were dumped into the harbor to the tune of what I am told would be 1 million dollars worth of tea at today's value. I think he had other plans for the tea and especially the dough that would come from selling the tea.

Now, if you were from Boston, the word party would sound like.... what I think this picture looks like!
Go ahead and guess.You guessed the word _ _ _ _ _ ( Please fill in the blank. Remember, this is SCHOOL!) You're right! Daniel looks like he's having a good time - at the party!

Yes, we had a Boston Tea Party. The best part was setting it up. The kids gathered their favorite animals and people and we placed them around the tub. We forgot to dress up like Indians, but we did rip open some gallon tea bags to toss in the tub.

May I go ahead and confess they both were permitted to drink tea out of the bathtub? I know, "Yulk!" My thoughts exactly. Trust me, I discouraged it, but their persistance paid off. Honestly, they had a blast and I did too.

If anyone is reading this, you may pray for me, teacher Mom in choosing a math curriculum. There are reasons we're not using some, and the reasons seem to be varied making it difficult to choose what we should use. I think I'll be making a trip to the Resource Center on Wednesday to do some parousing!

I like supplementary materials. Now, the key is remembering that I have some and using them! These are great tools to put in a grab and go school bag for errands, Dr.'s appointments, or staff meetings, should such a thing exist for you! These are helpful also for changing up your schedule, or filling in some blanks.

Today I picked up these items:
Skill Builders: Grammar, Grade 4. Short lessons focusing on parts of speech, sentence types etc.
Skill Builders: Reading, Grade 4. Skills include comprehension, vocabulary, logic etc.

Both of these are published by Rainbow Bridge Publishing. They are reproducibles and easy to understand so that the student can do the work themselves. Two pages per week would take you through the year. They are small in size so easy to pack and carry. See also summerbridgeactivities.com.

Also: Cursive Writing Practice Grades 2-3 by Teacher Created Resources. Cursive has been the challenge for us as of late, and as far as I can see it, these will help jump start our hesitancy to really jump into cursive. The book is small with very self explanatory lessons. Two pages a week and you're done!

Finally: Math Detective(Beginning) for Grades 3-4 by The Critical Thinking Company. I love these books. They challenge me! They also have grade appropriate Science and Reading Detective series. Visit CriticalThinking.com or call 800-458-4849 for resources. We have used Mathematical Reason with Daniel, and it's a great tool. It helps them look at math in a whole new way. One that I would have liked to have seen at some point is Can You Find Me, for PreK-1. It develops skills in reading readiness, science, math and social studies.....just sounds like fun!

I also picked up Teachers Daily Lesson Plans by The Riegle Press Inc. I will be using it to plan out our Geography Studies over the next couple of years. It can be used to plan art, reading, music, cooking, crafts, service projects, reports etc....all focused around Geography, a particular continent or people group. It was in the bargain bin for $3. I hope it will work.

I also purchased a nice-sized wall chart of the World and the United States, the 13 colonies, plus a cute border (that I thought included more countries and continents) that I will use as a border round our bulletin board and white board. Now I am just sorting through which Geography books and/or curriculum we will use. Geography, here we come!

Today we read two chapters from American Pioneers and Patriots published by Christian Liberty Press. I think almost anything by CLP is excellent. We have used several of their books for history and science readers. These history books also have some fun hands-on acitivites and questions which conclude each chapter. It's written at about a 3rd or 4th grade level, and is written in narrative form making it very easy and fun to listen to. The children have loved it. Even though it's been many weeks since we have needed this book, they still remember the stories.

Today the chapter was on when George Washington became President. We also read a special section on the use of the fireplace, and how important it was in early homes.

To add to our historical study we watched Washington, D. C. put out by 100% Educational Videos. This is one video in a collection called Our United States. A young student and her mother narrarate the video. I found it at our local library and highly recommend it.

One of the things I learned is that the original White House burned to the ground during the 1812 War. I do not recall learning that, but I have learned it now. One of the reasons I love teaching!

Also: Lessons 106 & 107/Horizons Math, LLATL, Calculadder
Daniel: Explode the Code book 2, Calculadder, Spelling, HW
This afternoon: soccer league

Last night I reviewed National Audobon's EAGLE Aventures video from their Animal Adventure Series. The video is about 30 minutes long and is pretty fascinating. It's not too terribly laced with agendas, but seems to be pretty straight forward.

We're using Apologia Zoology currently and are studying birds and insects. Our next section is on feathers, so this should be a helpful supplement. (I was also able to pick up some goose feathers while in Georgia this week. Five really nice ones which will help in our study. Nothing like hands-on.)

I found this video at my local library.

Regarding: Art Gadget

My goal is to increase reader's and my own appreciation of beautiful art. So, if there's an artist's rendition of a biblical event or scene please know that....yikes, just watch your eyes. Many artists leave off cloaks, wraps, etc. which may make the painting or sketch one you would prefer not to view. I think we all understand that, so just be advised.

Oh, click on the pic and you will be able to read the history of the artwork.

Today is our first day back to school for the new year. We plan to begin today, and go through this date next year with about 12 weeks of vacation and free days scattered thoughout. Planned, but scattered.

Today will be a very light day. We will play Make 'N Break, a fun and fast moving thinking game using colored blocks to build the image on the card. This is a timed game which can be played at varying levels. We will do Calculadder drills, read together, make a bird feeder, and paint. We will also go to the library.

Yesterday I purchased supplies for a back to school bag for the children. Here is a picture of their first day of school with their bags!


Daniel is 6 and 1/2 and is in 2nd grade mostly.
Bethany is 9 and entering 4th grade.

This summer we will finish leftover curriculum from last year and begin our geography focus. The children will also participate in summer soccer league, swimming lessons, and other activities with friends. Planned also are two more vacations, one to Missouri to celebrate my Mom's 70th birthday, plus a trip to Alaska to visit with our friends the Torkelsons. These vacations will be the first 2-week break planned for this school year.

Once our curriculum choices are made I will post the selections.