Roald Dahl Day!

We took a break from our usual routine and had a Roald Dahl day in honour of one of our favourite authors!!  

Today was his birthday... and so there were some fantastic free resources!

First we watched a Brainpop video all about Roald Dahl!

The kids did some worksheets from the Roald Dahl website, 

we loved the which character are you and what is your name!

When the kidlets were working together on the quiz and crossword puzzle 

they kept running to their room to get the right Dahl book to find the answer! 

 We found some great short videos of fairy tales retold by Dahl...

I had never seen them before.. so fun!

 And now I just need to get the books they are told from, 

Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts!

For art the kids drew a picture of their favourite book or character 

and we may end up watching a  fun Roald Dahl movie tonight!!

The best part... I found the kids curled up on the couch 

rereading their favourite Dahl books!!

 

I think we may have to incorporate an author day more often!!

“There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours
you haven’t even started wondering about yet.”
Roald Dahl- James and the Giant Peach

Not back to school....

September is upon us and the back to school posts on facebook have started!  I have to say this is one of my favourite times of the year, homeschooling wise... the weather is still nice and our favourite spots have emptied out!!  So we are enjoying it and taking it pretty easy as we ease into a routine.  Hanging out in the hammock reading and going to the beach are perfectly acceptable ways of spending the day!

We always start the year with an all about me worksheet.... the kids love looking back at their old ones and I love how the answers change over time :)

I have been using this free download...  All about me poster for a number of years... 

Sweet Pea was looking for something a little more grownup this year... 

so this free download was just perfect...

 And having a record of how the kidlets see themselves is just priceless :)

Goober appears to think he is a minecraft ninja this year...

Complete with the minecraft type printing...

Sweet pea on the other hand is ready for her selfie....

 And always finds the most accurate words to describe herself....

 Hope everyone has a great not-back-to-school day!

Our curriculum choices 2017/18

Wow.. it is nearing the end of August… already!  Where did the summer go?!?!  My kidlets have finished up their summer workbooks and projects and are ready to start a new year.  Some people have asked me what that looks like when we homeschool year round… well part of it means cleaning up… organizing our homeschool closet, filing away projects and artwork, and restocking the kid’s bins with new workbooks, pencils, etc.

The kidlets love getting a new notebook, folder and some cute stickers :)

*Shameless Usborne plug-  I am an Usborne Consultant and would love to find you the perfect books to supplement your learning or help you develop an entire unit!  You can find my Usborne Consultant FacebookPage here or drop me a line!  But if you have a homeschool friend that is a consultant make sure to throw some business her way!*

Here is how our year is shaping up for units and curriculum… lining up with my philosophy of reading, writing and math everyday!
Sweet Pea is 11 years old and Goober is 8 years old.

Math

Both kidlets work through the MathSmart workbooks.  I explain new concepts as needed and we use Khan Academy as a supplement when needed.

I love living math books… this is a great link to a wide variety of math topics.. www.livingmath.net.

The kidlets also love to play Prodigy math game.  I have to be careful not to help too much here as it adapts to the learner and will get difficult if I hep with answers ;)

Usborne books also has a great selection of math activity books. We are adding these to our bins this year….

Times Tables Activity Book 

Decimals and Fractions Activity Book

Math Puzzle Pad

 Language Arts

Goober will be starting cursive writing this year using Handwriting Without Tears.  

Sweet Pea will continue to develop her cursive using this neat workbook....

I love All About Spelling... I find we don't use the whole program... and because we do our own thing we can totally pick and choose what works!  So I usually only purchase the teacher's guide, The LearningHouse has been great at helping us find what we need!

Here are the books we are using for story writing this year... Usborne of course! 

My first story writing book

Write your own story book

For poetry inspiration we are loving A Crow Doesn't Need a Shadow...

Our book lists are usually quite long...
We always have a read aloud on the go and the kidlets have a book on the go...

Here is our current read aloud, we are really enjoying it- The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Sweet Pea is currently reading Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCammilo, one of her favourite authors.

Next on her list is Hidden Figures Young Readers Edition

which will likely lead into a unit on astronomy and astronauts!

Goober is currently reading Fergus Crane (Far-Flung Adventures#1)

which will likely lead to a science unit on inventions!

Social Studies

We are continuing our study of Canadian History...

check out my blog posts to see how we are tackling this huge topic!

We have already covered First Nations and Vikings, next up Explorers, Fur Trade and Voyageurs!

Science

Science is by far our most random subject.... we go where the questions and interest leads us.  Anything and everything is up for grabs... check out my science blogs!

Sweet Pea has spent the last few years working through chemistry, biology and physics so this year she is going to read The Magic of Reality and The Science of Why.  I'm guessing they will lead us down some great paths of learning :)

For Goober we are going to pick some Magic School Bus Chapter Books and make a unit study, a lapbook of the topic or even some lego stop motion animation :)

Together we are going to work through this book I was recommended...Two Truths and a Lie... 

I like how it incorporates science and critical thinking!

Art

Now I'm not an art person... but my kidlets love it!  

We love ArtHub for Kids youtube channel for drawing, painting and folding tutorials, 

it really does give the kids a boost of confidence in their art skills.

We will also work through ArtTango.com , free art lesson plans for kinder through Grade 5... we used it sporadically last year and I was really impressed with the projects! 

French

I am very grateful to my parents for sending me to french immersion when I was young...  however teaching my kids to speak french after more than a decade of practice is pretty interesting!  For french I find a varied approach seems to be working best for us.  We mix it up with nursery rhymes and simple songs, reading french pictures books, watching french tv shows, and simple worksheets.  French is most definitely our work in progress, however I have noticed the more consistent we are the more the kids pick up and retain... so my goal this year is a little something french everyday!

Hope everyone's homeschool planning is going well... 

and that you find some great resources that work for your family :)

All about physics.....Part I

That was what my Sweet Pea suggested for science last year... all physics!  I have to admit this one was tricky... there are so many topics and lots to potentially cover!  Sweet pea was 10 and Goober was 7 when we did this unit.

Sweet Pea did a physics interactive notebook (our first!)... see below for pictures.  Goober did an activity here and there, mostly he listened to the books, watched the videos and did the experiments, definitely not as much writing as Sweet Pea... but he learned tons!

Here is how we broke it down....

Part I

Big Bang

Forces and Motion

Light

Sound

Part II - separate post!

Magnets

Electricity

Simple machines

Flight

Engineering

We used Usborne's book What's Physics All About? as a spine...

I love this book also from Usborne, 365 Science Activities many an experiment was taken directly from this book!

We also used Brainpop Junior and Brainpop videos/activities/quizzes.  *Note* Brainpop is a subscription based website.. several DL schools will have a subscription you can access... if not I highly recommend adding it to your homeschooling budget, it is worth every penny!!

I also used a number of printables from TeachersPayTeachers.... Sweet Pea wanted some notebooking elements that I was too lazy to make!

The Big Bang was as good a spot as any to start the study of matter and its motion and behaviour through space and time...

We read through our spine book and watched some great videos....

Brainpop- Big Bang

The Big Bang- Crash Course Astronomy

The Beginning of Everything - In a nutshell

There are a few picture books about the Big Bang... I didn't delve into too much detail.. you could probably spend awhile on this topic... maybe a future unit when my kidlets are a bit older!

I do love this book however..The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins it has a chapter titled, When and how did everything begin?  A perfect reference for some of those tough questions!

Forces and Motion

We read the corresponding section in What's Physics all About? and then I ended up buying these notebooking pages from TeachersPayTeachers...  Force and Motion Interactive Notebook..

Great videos....

Brainpop Jr- Pushes and Pulls

Brainpop- Forces

Goober loved this book... lots of discussion about friction!

Magic School Bus- Plays Ball

I overheard the kidlets at the park... pushing each other down the slide and talking about balanced vs unbalanced forces.... then some talk about friction!  The playground is the perfect place for physics experiments and demonstrations!

More great videos...

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Motion episode 

Introduction to gravity- Crash Course Kids 

Brainpop- Gravity

Our scientist study was on Isaac Newton... we read this book aloud..Who was Isaac Newton?

 

Brainpop- Newton's Laws of Motion

Brainpop- Isaac Newton

We also did this activity on Isaac Newton...  I like that it was only $3 and had a couple difficulty levels so I could use it for both kidlets..

 

There are loads of experiments for Newton's Laws of Motion... here are a couple...

First Law- Inertia

An object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it.

Kick a ball...  push a toy car..... sit on a swing :)

Second Law- Force = Mass x Acceleration

The bigger the force the more something will accelerated.  The more mass something has the bigger the force needed to make it accelerate.

Use two books... a light one and a heavy one- try to push with one finger.

Weigh two toy cars and send them down a ramp, time how fast they go... compare the weight, speed and distance :)

Third Law- Reaction

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

We made balloon cars... so much fun!  Similar to this one but we used cardstock to make the car....

Light

We read the corresponding sections on light in What Physics is All About?  I found this great printable on the Electromagnetic Spectrum.

 Great videos... 

Brainpop- Electromagnetic Spectrum 

Brainpop- Refraction and Diffraction

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Light Optics, Bending and Bouncing

Great experiments if you have a prism... or we did some out of the Usborne 365 Science Activities.... bending straws, flipping arrows... fun!

More videos....

Brainpop- Rainbows

Brainpop- Colour

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Light and Colour 

The Magic School Bus is also a great resource for light and rainbows!

We also love this song, RoyGBiv by They Might Be Giants!

Summer is a great time to find rainbows in the sprinkler... and rainbow art is always fun!

Sound

We read the corresponding sections in What Physics is All About?

Great videos....

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Sound episode

Brainpop- Waves

Brainpop- Sound

Our scientist study was on Isaac Newton... we read this book aloud.....Who was Alexander Graham Bell?

We also did this activity on Alexander Graham Bell....  I like that it was free and had a couple difficulty levels so I could use it for both kidlets..

 

The kidlets made a string phone.... and then proceeded to tell each other jokes..... so much fun!

Make sure to watch a thunderstorm....

 nothing demonstrates the speed of sound vs light better than a good thunderstorm :)

Stay tuned for Part II!

Learning all summer....

We home school year round.. because after all life is learning right?!   I must admit our spring/summer learning looks a lot different than our fall/winter.  In the spring and summer we take a break from our usual routine... there is much more outdoor time and exploring!

We also work through Summer Bridge activity books (a different company than our usual workbooks).  I really love these.. the kidlets get a chance to review concepts, they are also introduced to some new or different ways of doing things and they like that there is only 2 pages to do per day! 

My daily mantra of read something, write something and do some math remains the same!

Sweet Pea, who is 11, likes to make her own schedule and her summer learning looks like this....

"Can I bake something?"

"Mom, check out this dishcloth I knitted!"

"Can I look on Pinterest for something to sew?"

She also has at least two novels on the go.... This summer she is really enjoying the Artemis Fowl series.  There is also a graphic novels of the first few books!

Her latest selections from the library look like this....

I am loving The Daring Book for Girls... it has a little of everything in it.. from knots to skipping rope rhymes to how to make a willow whistle and stories about daring girls!

Her science choice of Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World looked so good, I may be stealing it after she goes to sleep to read it myself!!

And I may be a bit biased since I do sell Usborne Books.... but The Usborne Book of Art might be added into our curriculum rotation!

Goober, who is 8, is a bit more eclectic in his choice of activities....  there is plenty of lego on my floor and frequent requests to play Minecraft or Prodigy (which I don't mind because it is a great math game)....

When those Minecraft requests are denied he will turn to paper and start planning his next building!

 

Goober is currently working his way through Book One of The Elementia Chronicles...  it is definitely the most challenging of the books he has read so far but he is enjoying it!

 His latest library selections also center around his current obsession.... 

As far as I'm concerned he can read these Minecraft Handbooks all day... and I must say he doesn't waste his minecraft time when he gets it, between the planning and reading he knows exactly what he needs to do!

For the rainy days when Goober chooses a board game.. 

this is usually his go to... Minecraft Card Game 

What does your summer learning look like?