Life-Sized Lincoln Logs & the Freedom Train : Half a Hundred Acre Wood

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Another week down, and all’s quiet on the home front aside from the laughter of my children. Oh, how sweet “quiet” can be… I keep wondering when this school year will “start.” It. has. been. so. interrupted.

As of now, the boys have homework this weekend. We just couldn’t get it done with the saws and sanders in full swing with the added dose of the 1000 dB air compressor kicking on and off. OH THE NOISE, NOISE, NOISE!! I feel like the Grinch right now, though I haven’t raided the house in a state of malicious deception just yet. What would I do, anyway? Tear off the wallpaper? I’ve got to do that, anyway.

Oh, I forgot to mention that it was raining the past few days, so we couldn’t even escape to do schoolwork outside. So imagine me hollering, “Okay, Stephen, what type of quality adjective do you think should go here?” over the noise. It’s just plain ludicrous! I laugh at the thought of what we look like right now….

Even though building onto our home has been challenging in some regards, we have gotten to do some really fun stuff, like play with GARGANTUAN Lincoln Logs.

We built a fort out of scrap pieces and pretended it was the Alamo for about 30 seconds, and then it became a secret hideout for some Hot Wheels cars that had magical flying powers.

Speaking of the Alamo, Stephen made me laugh during his presentation this week – zooming around with all sorts of animated excitement. And then when he ran out of time: “Mom, there’s STILL SO MUCH STUFF I want to TELL THEM!!”

We made up a history sentence and song to go with it, though we didn’t record that part. I’m too embarrassed at the way my voice sounds to do such a thing…

History Sentence:

Tell me about the Alamo

Tune to The Home on the Range

In 1836,

William Travis, Davy Crockett,

and James Bowie lost their lives

defending the Al-

amo from Santa Anna

and his Mexican army.

Later, Sam Houston won

the Battle of San Jacinto

claiming Texas inde-

pendence from Mexico,

crying, “Remember the Alamo!”

History:

The biggest deal this week for history has been Adventure Tales of the Civil War & Reconstruction. If you have a student in 3rd through ??, I highly recommend this free download. We worked through page 17 this week, and I had to slow Stephen down because I want it to sink in! It is so fantastic!

We also caught up a bit by visiting some sites that tell about the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, and his impact on Abraham Lincoln.

And we spent a good deal of time learning about the history of slavery in the United States:

National Geographic’s Underground Railroad Journey, which includes some lesson ideas and some photos of how slaves were hidden.
Slavery in America Timeline
The Underground Railroad Interactive Journey (which includes a Teacher Guide)
We started listening to the Free Audiobook: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Slavery and the Making of America (PBS)

In the coming weeks we hope to:

Listen to the Free Audiobook: Up from Slavery by Booker T Washington.
Color this page on Harriet Tubman while reading this summary about her life.
Watch the Origins of Slavery in America and other videos leading up through the Civil War
And use some of the resources on History Summaries (Search for topic)

Reading:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Audio
. . . If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine

For our history readings, we will use some of American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt:

Volume 3: The First President through the Fugitive Slave Law pdf
Volume 4: Abraham Lincoln through The War Between the States pdf

Science:

For science, we’re still working on it. But, here’s what we hope to get around to doing? One of these days? Maybe?

Reading about the Lymph System
Watch the Kidshealth video on the Lymph system
Immune System (Reading & Comprehension Sheet for intermediate grades)
And then if you have a group of intermediate to middle school children: The Immune System Game (a large group game similar to human chess)

We at least caught up on our Human Body Cut-outs. Anyone notice the nice, black, plastic, trashbag-looking drapery there? One of these days that will open up into our new family room. Right?

Oh, and we also read Unit Nine of Elementary Life Science curriculum. (For the parent copy, which has a unit test and science experiments & activities, click here.)

Fine Arts

For Tin Whistle, I really just tried to keep the kids from playing it. I know, I know, I know. I’m terrible. But I’m already insane enough right now!

My Big Accomplishment!
I have FINALLY figured out a planner that will provide us our memory work at-a-glance plus the categories in a daily format. My inspiration came from Money Saving Mom’s Homeschool planner, which is great just by itself; it has attendance forms, 6-week subject plans, goal sheets, and 1-week daily plans. You can even input information into it! But here’s my personal creation after seeing the Money-Saving Mom Planner.

Now I have it all right there, along with my children’s presentation schedule. For those that like more room to write, I also created a 2-page version.

A few random things…

We just now noticed that our calendar was still on September. This has been one of the greatest tools to teach the calendar and counting to David and Levi. The key is to upDATE it.