Germany

We're finally getting around... the world that is. We've focused a lot on our own country the first half of our school year, with conversations about other countries, this was the first week we did a "study" of a country. We started in Germany, which seemed fitting for us because of family history that goes back to that country. We're at a place in our Creation Studying where we are focusing on God creating man, we're doing fun art work showing our personalities, our 5 senses, our feelings, etc. And now we're transitioning into our family, and family history a little bit. So there ya go, that brings us to Germany.

We painted the flag of Germany today and displayed it with our own country's flag, then included them in our prayers.

We made a family tree to add to our devotional time this week.

We read some Grimm's childrens fairytales, and The Bremen-town Musicians

We had Beethoven (courtesy of Baby Einstein's cd's) blaring in the background. The Bible has a lot to say about music and instruments, so we sampled some of the greats from Germany- Ludwig Van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Brahms

We learned about Albert Einstein, and how much math applies to everything like flying into space, or building a computer, I think Kellan has a new hero since he loves math so much.

Young Albert Einstein- Laurence Santrey

Albert Einstein coloring page

And what would a miniature princess like Maren be without the mention of all of the castles in Germany?

Castle Maze

Today wraps up our study of Germany by reading The Dutchess Bakes a Cake- Virginia Kahl and making a German Chocolate cake for a certain (newly) SEVEN year old's birthday party tomorrow. I wonder if she'll be just as excited about saurkraut and potatoes for dinner tonight?

After dinner, we'll watch The Sound of Music (yeah yeah, I know it's Austria. But they speak German. And it's a great movie ;) close enough!)

Our world

This year so far, our curriculum has largely been focusing on Geography. For my kids, knowing they were born in Utah and a lot of their family lives there, but we now live in North Carolina, they've been super curious. So I'll take that and run with it as long as I can! I've loved using ideas and activities from Erica@confessionsofahomeschooler in addition to Galloping the Globe printables. And I was super excited to see this post on a giveaway for National Geographic personalized atlas!

Hop on over to Erica's blog by clicking here to enter to win the drawing too. But honestly, I hope that I win!

Winter what-have-you's

We haven't been on a hiatus. Well, much of one anyway :)

In true April fashion, I delusions of grandeur of how much we would get done this past holiday season. Throw in a trip to Utah with the kids that I wasn't planning on per-say, James having a kidney stone attack and in the ER Christmas eve, and all around craziness... I literally just threw all of the planning out the window. Part of homeschooling is to enjoy this fleeting time with my little ones, right? Maren is in 1st grade age range, doing 3rd-4th grade grammar and reading and vocabulary. Kellan is in kindergarten, doing 1st grade Math and science. I'm not worried in the least to throw out several weeks of planning. I want them to accelerate at their own readiness for it instead of being slowed based on a large group, but then again, to slow the pace for the greater good of nurturing family values and qualities is a benefit unsurpassed of why we do homeschool.

We recently had a good snow storm move through our area, a rare and delightful treat. Even though the kids thought we were taking a day off, little did they know that they would be learning about isosceles triangles. Which when folded, and cut, make very feel-good snow day decorations! (instructions here)

And they learned about dimensions, and how folding the paper differently changes it entirely. (instructions here)

So we decorated around the place, for our January theme of winter.

Then today in our Geography time, we reviewed different terrains around the world, and learned how climates are defined. For arts and crafts we made this fun little water bottle cover, and made sure to classify this animal and add it to the list on our wall chart of all of the animals God created.

Using a 16 or 20 oz water or soda bottle, we covered it first with black construction paper. For my kindergartner, drawing and cutting the shapes such as circle, triangle, and oval (the arms) was good fine motor skills for him to work on.

We filled our bottles with hot water and learned how to read a mercury thermometer, my kindergartner made a hypothesis of what would happen if we took the hot water bottles and left them outside in the snow. His hypothesis was right ;) We rechecked with our thermometers. Then we put them in the freezer in preparation for our science discussion tomorrow of how water freezes.

Another lesson on freezing, changing a liquid into a solid, came from making old fashioned candy Little House on the Prairie style by boiling sugar, molasses, and rootbeer extract, then drizzling it in a shallow pan filled with packed snow.

I'm loving KB Teacher's as a supplemental resource for a lot of different worksheets, activities, and ideas to mix up the routine a bit. Check them out!

Clearly, we're enjoying winter around here. Even if I wish I could hibernate through it instead!