Home School Stats STAT!

It's 11 pm so I'm not even going to attempt to make this infographic fit on my blog. Just click on it and you will be magically carried away to the real full-size version.


Via: DegreeSearch.org

Swiss Family Long-inson

When Tasha recommended The Swiss Family Robinson as our next group book, I was all for it. We trudged through it for 3 weeks before we discovered that Tasha actually had the condensed version, and we've been trying to attack the 400 page original! I think we'll switch soon.

We've still been enjoying it, and have done this so far:

1. Look up and learn about the animals and plants mentioned in each chapter.
2. Built another fort, but made it predator-proof.
3. Cracked open a coconut and sampled its insides.

We've also been using it for Liv's math. She's been doing her multiplication and used it to determine how many rungs we'd need for our own rope ladder to get on the roof. We added and multiplied to find out how much food we would need for a day, a week, a month, and a year. This book is also full of great new vocabulary words, and we've really been learning a lot. I think I'll finish the original version myself.

The Family Under the Bridge

Okay, for the tenth time, I swear I'll update this more regularly.

November's book was "The Family Under the Bridge" by Natalie Carlson, about a homeless man in Paris whose heart gets stolen by a family of 3 young children and their mother. My kids gave this book a rating of: Okay.

Our activiities included:

1. Used foam shapes to make an Eiffel Tower.
2. The Cooking Club made French bread from scratch and it was delicious!
3. Reviewed 3 more books about Paris, its history, and architecture.
4. Constructing a "gypsie camp":

In October, we read The Witches by Road Dahl. My kids rated this book as: totally cool. We did the following:

1. Made witches potions, like glittery goo, sugar crystals, and a color changing bubbling potion.
2. Went to the pet shop to play with mice and ask questions about training them.
3. Create a strategy plan for if a witch comes after you.
4. Online quizzes.
5. Dress up!

Happy Halloween!

Give me that!

Can you even imagine the things you could do with this bike? I could, and I want one BAD!

School-homed

I found this rather funny, particularly the last sentence:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/increasing-number-of-parents-opting-to-have-childr,17159/

Books are Life!

I read a book a while ago about a woman who insisted on hauling along a wagon full of heavy old books across the plains of early America, much to the chagrin of her fellow travelers. When I first read it, I thought it was kind of silly, too. Aren't there much more important things for a person to take across the plains? Food, for example?

But I can understand, now, in my wise old age. I haven't had a book to read for the last 10 days or so and I'm going batty. During that hour of "me" time, I instead surf the web or doing some other meaningless drivel. I feel like I have no purpose if I don't have a book! They truly open the gates of the universe right before your eyes. Books are sanity. Books are comfort. Books are life.

It's also been a revelation to see what books do for my kids. We read "Old Yeller" with Gage, and thought since he was turning circles in the living room that he wasn't listening. Several weeks after finishing, he's quoting the book and drawing parallels from our every day lives. Many dinner conversations are peppered with, "Remember when Old Yeller did this..." It was getting through!

Vee identifies wholly with Anne of Green Gables and we're nearly finished with the 3rd book of the series. I sometimes hear her playing with her Barbie dolls, naming them from the book, and having them act in the prim and proper ways of those yester-years. At seven years old, she's using words I didn't even know the meaning of until I was in my late teens! "Oh, dear, I'm rather dubious about that!"

We don't have a TV, which is something some folks marvel at. But seeing that the role playing, learning, and laughter can easily be fulfilled in books gives me encouragement. And there are no commercials!

Here's what we've read recently and what's on the list:

Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Old Yeller, Judy Moody, Junie B. Jones series, The Tale of Despereaux, The Jungle Book,

To come: The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Charlotte's Web, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia series.