Adventures of a Homeschool Mom is changing! Part 2

We are getting closer to our launch date which will be later this month. I am so excited to share all of the new things we will be doing.

I've been working with a fantastic team of writers and designers to come up with a website that will engage readers and invite you to come back again and again.

This new website will be a place where:

• Families  can follow us on our World Adventure.
• Parents come to plan vacations.
• Travelers come to get ideas and advice on travel planning.
• Families can learn to mix travel and learning.
• Dreamers come to dream.

The new website is also getting a new name! It will now be called A Mom with a Map. The idea behind the name is that I am always planning our next trip. Even when we're on a vacation, I'm already thinking about where we should go next. I don't actually walk around with a paper map, but I do work Google Maps to the bone.

 

I want to share my travel planning knowledge and expertise with other families; families that may not have the time to plan a vacation or they simply need help and advice.

 

I also want to share how we world school; learning while we travel the world. It is an awesome opportunity for our family and especially our kids who are growing up with a deeper understanding of the world they live in.

 

I hope you stop by and stay a while.

Volcano Unit Study

 

Buttercup received a volcano building kit as a gift and of course, I turned it into a whole lesson!

Like all of my other lessons, I had to start from scratch, research the material, and put together our lesson.

Basically this is what we did:

• Make a book to keep all of our information
• Review or learn vocabulary related to volcanoes
• Talk about the Earth's layers
• Learn about the 3 types of volcanoes
• Find pictures of each type of volcano and discuss the differences
• Find famous volcanoes that fit into each of the 3 catergories
• Learn about each one
• Compile our book
• Do the science activity - build our own volcano
• Take pictures to include in our volcano book
• Do an oral presentation!

The volcano mold

Mixing the plaster

Before painting

 

 

Little houses to decorate around the volcano

A graph with important vocabulary

The words to know page of our volcano book

Buttercup had so much fun learning all about volcanoes. She really loves to do her own research on the internet and find pictures and information. I taught her how to search for what she wants and she's gotten really good at it.

I thought it was a good idea to start learning how to give a presentation, so we included that as the final part of the project.

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

DIY wood projects

I live in an area that was affected by Hurricane Sandy. We don't live any where near the coast, so we didn't suffer the same kind of damage that the folks living in coastal towns did. What we got was a lot of wind, rain, downed power lines and trees.

We lost two trees in our yard, but luckily neither fell on the house, so no damage done, except for losing the trees.

After the storm, my husband, a very kind neighbor and I went out to assess the damage and decide how to proceed. Armed with work gloves, goggles, and a chain saw, we spent the day cutting down the trees. Branch by branch we worked tirelessly. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and were left with a huge pile of branches that would hopefully be taken away by the township.

After the dust settled, I started to think about the wood we had sitting in our backyard. What a shame to let all of it go to wasted. What could I do? I'm not much of a DIYer or crafter, but I was excited at the thought of recycling, upcycling, something-cycling...

I went to the place I always go to get inspiration and ideas.....

.........a place that has yet to let me down

                                      ..... a place where people share their ideas, their knowledge, their own stories

....yes, I went to the internet!

And there I found inspiration, ideas, how-to's, much more than I had hoped or expected. I was more excited than ever at the possibilities!

The next part was the tricky part....getting my husband to help! After all, I cannot cut all of that wood by myself. I've used a chainsaw but I'm not very good at it and don't totally feel safe.

I told my husband my ideas and he just chuckled, but went along with it. We headed outside to pick out just what we needed.

My first project was inspired by Kendra, over at Creative Ambitions. I found her on Pinterest and I love her blog. She made a photo ladder using tree branches and I just love the rustic look.

Here is my version of it (definitely NOT as good as hers, but I love it!)

Photo Ladder

I still need to add the bottom picture

Next, I used branches on the windows to hang decorations!!



Shadow box

I had a wooden box and thought I could do something with it. I gave it a shot and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. 

I started with this box

I got some branches

I used a glue gun and this is what I got

On my wall

I still have more branches in my garage waiting for the next idea. If you have any, let me know!

Happy Adventures!!

Chalkboard paint rocks!!

I live in an old house. There is definitely charm to some of the original features like the wood trim around doors and windows. But anyone who lives in a really old house knows that some of the materials used back then are just not that nice. In my house it's the doors. They are a dark, cheap looking wood. They are also super thin. I hate them. I wish I could change them all, but that would be way too expensive and totally not worth it.

Well, I see all kinds of projects with chalkboard paint on the internet, especially on Pinterest. Of course, I can't chalkboard paint everydoor in my house, that would look horrendous. But I did come up with a way to spruce up one door; the pantry door.

I purchase a small can of chalkboard paint and the other materials I would need. I taped the area of the door that I would be painting. I should have put a coat of primer, but if you've been reading this blog long enough, you know that I am not very patient at all, so I skipped the primer.

I put on 3 coats of chalkboard paint, letting each coat dry for about 2 hours. That was torture for me, let me tell you.

The next day, once the paint was nice and dry, I peeled off the tape. The back of the paint can says to wait 72 hours before writing on it. Thankfully, I did not have any chalk at home so I was forced to wait.

Ugly door!

 

Attention to detail.

Finished door.

All in all, I am very pleased with the turn out. The door is till kind of ugly but now the focus is more on the chalkboard, less on the ugliness! And it's great to write notes on!

Fall Recipes around the web!

 

Last week I posted some of my favorite Fall decoration ideas; beautiful things I've seen around blogs that I follow.

As the weather turns colder, I can't help but think about all the yummy comfort foods I love to eat. And there are plenty of great recipes out there and I wanted to share with you some that caught my eye.

One of my favorite things to make when its cold outside is SOUP. You really can't beat soup for that blanket of warmth it provides. This Curried Butternut Squash and Lentil soup has it all, it's got spice, it's creamy, and it's healthy. Check out the recipe at Eat Live Run.

This is a new one for me, Pumpkin Carrot Loaf, but boy doesn't it look good? Recipe via Food and Whine

This next recipe comes from Chocolate Chocolate and More and it's a Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cake. Love it! It's perfect for this time of year. In fact, I think I will make this for Thanksgiving this year just to change things up.

Now, I have to say I'm not a huge rice krispies treat fan, but I thought this Thanksgiving treat over at Meaningful Mama was so cute, I had to share!

 



Here's another fun Halloween treat to make with your kids....zombie eyeball cookies via Life as a Lofthouse.

 

   

 

Loving this idea to carve out bread like a pumpkin and fill it with chili or soup! Check out the recipe at Kellis Retro Kitchen Arts!

 

   

 

Well, folks, that's it for now. I have to get in the kitchen and start trying some of these recipes! In the meantime, I would love, love, love for you to share some of your favorite Fall, Halloween, or Thanksgiving recipes!! 

 

2nd Grade Christopher Columbus lesson

This week we focused our History lessons on Christopher Columbus (quite appropriate, wouldn't you say?)

I would love to say that I planned this informative, fun filled week of history. But I can't. Since I decided at the last minute to do a unit on Christopher Columbus, I really didn't have enough time to plan out a great lesson. So off to the internet I go in search of kid friendly information and some fun activities.

I was so lucky to come across a couple of free sites that had some really great information. So, I compiled what I liked and put together my own lesson to make a complete study of Columbus. Everything you need to teach your kids about Christopher Columbus at the elementary school level is right here. Buttercup is doing 2nd grade work, but I think this lesson would be great for a 1st grade level or even a 3rd grade level.

And I am thrilled to let you know that I found the story here and the puzzles and coloring pages here.

I gathered information and activities from both sites and here's what I got:

• A simple story with illustrations
• A worksheet with fill in the blanks and matching activities
• A lesson on past tense verbs
• Two word scramble games
• A search and find word game
• Three pages for coloring (Columbus' three ships)

 

I thought the story was a little simple for my 2nd grader, but it was fun talking about what she read. We took it a step further and got out a huge map of the world and Buttercup showed me where Columbus left from and where he wanted to go. Then she showed me where he wound up.

 

I really liked the writing activities; they were not too long or boring, just enough to keep her interested. Since Buttercup loves puzzles, I knew she'd have no problem with the 3 that were included. Puzzles are like a treat for her, she doesn't think of them as work, even word puzzles! Yay, I love that about her.

 

Of course, her favorite part was the coloring. Even I got in on the fun!!

So if you're looking for some great but simple ways to teach your kids about Columbus, I highly recommend this lesson.

 These are the free sites I used, TeacherVision and Classroom Jr.


Disclosure: I found these sites on my own and was not asked to do a review. I'm simply spreading the love, because I truly think this was an awesome find.

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

CNN article on homeschooling

A couple of months ago I was approached by CNN to write an article about homeschooling for their Schools of Thought blog. My first reaction was "Yes!Yes!Yes!", my immediate second reaction was "Why me? Who am I to write for CNN?" Afterall, I am just a homeschooling mom blogger. I am certainly not an expert on homeschooling. Like I've said many times before, I fell into this thing and am finding my way every single day.

I talked to my husband about it and thought long and hard about it. I finally decided to do it. Mostly because I thought it would be a great challenge for me.

The folks at CNN asked me for a few topic ideas. I came up with topics such as why I chose to homeschool, the challenges of homeschooling, myths about homeschooling and a few others. They chose myths about homeschooling.

Since the title of the article would be "My views: ......", I decided that would be exactly what I wrote about. I wrote an article that shared my own views and experiences. I did not write an article full of facts or statistical data. That is not what I set out to do. I set out to give my opinion. I wrote about the issues/myths I faced as a homeschooling parent. Not anyone else's.

I was very happy with the end result. I happily sent it off to CNN and they loved it as well.

This morning I received an email from CNN letting me know that my article was published and it was a front page feature on their blog. I was so excited. I had never seen my own writing on anything other than my own blog. This was a big accomplishment for me. Those feelings of pride and happiness quickly turned into feelings of frustration, anger, and defensiveness.

I've always known that homeschooling is a hot topic. I just never realized how close- minded, bigotted and down right mean people can be. I sat at my computer in tears as I read many horrible comments; attacks on me personally and people completely twisting my words.

I wanted to respond to those people, to let them know that there were no statistics because these were my opinions, my personal experience. I wanted to let them know that I am not trying to control what my child learns, instead I want to open up her world to all the possibilities. I wanted to make them understand that I respect all religions and I am not a religious zealot. I realized that none of that would matter. I cannot change people's minds.

I sat and read through all of the comments and there were over 350 by the time I decided to close the computer. I respect people's opinions and the fact that not every one agrees with homeschooling or any other topic. My problem is not the fact that people expressed differing opinions. I was distraught by the level of rudeness and ignorance.

Amidst all of that, there were positive comments; homeschooling parents that have faced some of the same things. I appreciated those comments. There were also comments from non homeschooling parents who are objective and non judgemental. I welcomed their points of view as well.

Here is my article if you are interested, CNN. I had hoped to dispel some ridiculous myths about homeschoolers. But the truth is, those close-minded people will never accept any ideas other than their own. They will always be close-minded. They will always judge without knowing. They will always be afraid to challenge the status quo.

After all is said and one, I still believe that my decision to homeschool is the right choice for us. I am grateful for all of those who support homeschooling and I welcome healthy dialog on the topic.

As always.....Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

End of the home school year, tying up loose ends and looking back!

Wow, this time of year gets really busy and I kind of dropped out this past week. I've been planning out our last few weeks of school. I plan on being finished with home school around Memorial Day weekend. Here'a a recap of our homeschool year.

We've covered everything I had planned for and more. We were able to move forward in Math, starting some 2nd grade concepts. Nothing too indepth, but since I had teaching opportunities I didn't want to let them go by without at least an introduction. We started with multiplication and we really went deeper with fractions.

Math

We took our time with Math, because I think it's really important to have a strong foundation, since Math builds on itself. I feel very confident with how my daughter performed. She really loves math. She has a good grasp of Geometry, Algebra, Graphing, Fractions, Addition, Subtraction and Patterns. With addition and subtraction, she is doing two digit addition/subraction with carry over (we don't do re-grouping).

Reading

My 6 yeard old daughter is reading so well, we've moved to level 3 books and chapter books.

Writing

This year we focused on cursive. Now that is the only way she writes and does it very well. I'm so proud of her! I gave her plenty of opportunities for writing. She wrote about herself and her family. She wrote notes, cards, how to's, and tail gating on our history lesson on occupations, she made a book about different occupatations. There were many other writing assignments, I can't remember them all right now.

Science

We covered the Water Cycle, Clouds, Recycling, we had a weather sheet that she completed everyday. We predicted the weather by looking at the clouds. We made graphs to study weather patterns. We made a rain gauge. We studied habitats, the rainforest, oceans, etc. We studied energy sources. We had fun doing science experiments in our own kitchen!

We had some rainy weather so my lessons on rocks and soil had to be postponed, so we still have to do those.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we did a lot of geography and learned how to read a map. I also taught geographical terms, such as equator, hemispheres, etc. We also did history lessons on families throughout time, we studied how families lived in the 1800s, the 1950s, and today.

We studied cultures, especially around the holidays.

Art/Music

She started taking piano lessons! In art we learned about different artists such as Seurat, Degas, Edward Hopper, and Geogia O'Keefe. We did lots of art projects based on those artists and did lots of other ones on our own, like paper snow flakes, tissue paper art, etc.

We also went to museums, plays and concerts. We had a very busy first year in homeschool!! Looking back I am very happy and proud of what we accomplished. I have learned a lot too. There are things that I plan to do differently(I'll leave that to another blog entry).

The one thing I have learned is that I do not want to follow any curriculum or book to a tee. Thankfully, I had my school district's curriculum as a guideline (I didn't want to go completely alone). But it was just that, a guideline, more like suggestions. The reason that was important for me was that I wanted to make sure that my daughter had a good foundation and learned what she needed to within the state's requirements. Beyond that, we spread our wings and really took off. We liked being able to learn and explore freely without too many restrictions. Although I must say that I am very organized and like structure. I did plan out every homeschool day and week, knowing that things could change. Having that flexibility was priceless.

I started this journey saying we would do it for one year and see how things went. I had no long terms plans. But as our first homeschool year is coming to a close, I can confidently say we will continue!! I am so happy. My daughter is so happy. That's what matters.

I hope this blog has helped other homeschool parents along their own journeys. I hope my lessons helped as well. I will continue the blog throughout the summer but on a more relaxed schedule.

In the meantime, look out for my Summer Reading list!

"Merry Christmas" in different languages

If you're interested in teaching your kids some culture this holiday season and making it part of homeschool, here's an idea that my daughter loved.

We were doing a lesson on Christmas around the world and how people celebrate the holidays. We found some traditions that are completely different than ours, but we also found some traditions in common. It was a very fun lesson and it teaches kids that our way is not the only way. It also teaches kids to respect other cultures and other people's traditions.

To make the lesson even more fun, we looked up how people say "Merry Christmas" in other languages. Here are our favorites:

Spanish - Feliz Navidad
Portuguese - Feliz Natal
French - Joyeux Noel
Italian - Buon Natale
German - Frohe Weihnachten

We wanted to learn some other ones, but couldn't find phonetic spellings for them. If anyone wants to add to this list, please do in the comments section and I will add them to the list.

We hope you enjoy your holidays and we look forward to a New Year full of great homeschool opportunities as well as lots of health, happiness, hope and joy!

So from our family to yours,
Merry Christmas!
Feliz Natal!
Joyeux Noel!
Feliz Navidad!
Buon Natale!
Frohe Weihnachten!