P.O.E. Unit 1 - Christopher Columbus Resources

We have just received our GeoMatters Paths of Exploration curriculum and I am loving it! Our days are going smoothly...well as smoothly as they can with an almost 9yo, 6yo, and 19mo!

Unit 1 is about Christopher Columbus. We have the student notebook that you can order, and we are enjoying doing it, but I'm not sure it includes very many projects. I also want my children to learn the true story of what happened with Mr. Columbus "discovered" America.

Fridays are our days to just explore what we've learned for the week. We do our math, reading/phonics, and bible study. Anything beyond that is exploration of what we have learned. We have read the first few chapters of Christopher Columbus: Adventurer of Faith and Courage which tells about Christopher's passion for sailing, his brother Bartholomew and their first adventure on a boat during a storm, how little food their family had because of the trade his father was in, and so much more.

There are so many learning opportunities that stem from the books we read. The learning doesn't need to just be about Christopher himself...but about ships, trading and bartering, sailing, how to read a map, etc.

Crafts

-Paper Mache Globe
-Make a Compass!
-Christopher Columbus Character

Websites

-BBC Primary History Christopher Columbus
-BrainPop - Christopher Columbus

Printables

-Copywork & Worksheets
-Lapbook
-Puzzles, crosswords, vocabulary

Free Reads

-The True Story of Christopher Columbus

-D'Aulaire - Christopher Columbus

-The Life of Christopher Columbus

Videos

-The REAL History of Christopher Columbus (for older children, please preview before showing your children.)

-The Physics of Sailing

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Weekly Wrap Up

This week we finally receive the curriculum we ordered...GeoMatters Paths of Exploration! We are loving it. I had/have plans of using Ambleside Online next year but if POE works out for us, we may end up using AO for our loop read aloud selections.

Our dog Smokey likes to get in my chair the minute I get up--He was trying to convince my oldest son that he's the teacher now.

My daughter has been having some letter formation problems, so we are stepping back and using play dough, a tray of rice, and finger paints to 'draw' the letters. We'll get back to handwriting soon. We have plenty of time; she's only in Kindergarten.

We live in the city, so finding a place to have our weekly (seems like daily, now!) nature walks is a bit of a challenge so that it doesn't get too repetitive for the children. Today we took a walk down a path near our house and went the opposite way we normally go. The kids had a great time walking, running, noticing sounds, digging...just doing what kids love to do.

After our nature walks I have the children draw a picture and write something describing it. He even looked up "how to write the tree in Chinese" and wrote the symbols. 

His journal entry was entertaining today...

My oldest son got braces! He's 8.5; this seems so young for braces. I knew it was coming. He was born with a cleft lip and palate, which caused him to have very crooked front teeth. He will have perfect teeth by the end! This first phase is 18 months; this includes braces and an expander (he gets this placed in 3 weeks.)

The kids love to use my iPad to take pictures. We were messing around with PhotoBooth one day and these beauties were created. I could NOT stop laughing! My youngest son looks like some sort of alien mastermind with his crew ready to rule the world!

And last but not least our library book haul for today.

The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes | The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher | The Tale of The Pie and The Patty-Pan | The Tale of Peter Rabbit | The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck | How Lincoln Learned to Read | The Dumbest Idea Ever | Spooksville | Countries of the the World: Spain | The Grasshopper & the Ants | The Tortoise & The Hare | Hollywood Dogs | W is for Webster | Ada Byron Lovalace and the Thinking Machine

I linked up at:

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2016 Kindergarten

Charlotte is our 6 year old and loves everything about art!

She will be following along with everything that is listed for our 2016 curriculum and the following:

Language Arts

• Language Lessons for Little Ones Volume 3
• Bob Books Sight Words Collection (K & 1st)
• McGuffey's Eclectic First Reader

Math

• Living math books from the library

Art

Charlotte loves art, so I'm adding an extra resource for her!

• Artpac 1

Handwriting

• Universal Handwriting - Beginning Manuscript - Grade K

More 2016 Curriculum links

2016 Curriculum
Tot-School
3rd Grade

2016 Curriculum

When I decided on a whole new vision for what our daily lives would look like I had a curriculum plan all laid out that was with free resources around the internet.

We have decided to join a public school charter school. Yes, there is still testing involved. No, we don't mind the testing. It doesn't have any weight on my children and we don't use it as a measure of intelligence. Read about our top 5 reasons a public school charter works for us!

We will still be pulling from several free resources but not as heavily as i had originally planned. With the available funds I was able to buy a boxed curriculum that i'm praying works for us!

Our Morning Basket

This year I have decided to put together a morning basket that will be gone through every morning over breakfast. Some we will read every day, and some will be on a loop schedule.

• Lifepac Bible
• Various poems
• Trial and Triumph
• Parables of Nature
• Burgess Animal Book
• Pilgrim's Progress
• Plutarch

History/Geography

Trail Guide to Learning, Paths of Exploration

This is a unit study, Charlotte Mason based curriculum. We will be covering the following units:

• Christopher Columbus
• Jamestown
• Pilgrims
• Daniel Boone
• Lewis & Clark
• Trails West

Science

This is also included in the Trail Guide to Learning package we purchased, but I will be adding in these resources:

• Ant Farm
• Butterfly Garden
• LEGO Engineering kits
• Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool

Art

Again, this subject is included in the Trail Guide to Learning package, but we will be supplementing with these resources:

• Easy peasy Art - Early American
• Art for Kids Hub

Music/Poetry

We will be using the Ambleside Online schedules for the following:

Composer Study

• Johannes Brahms
• Franz Schubert
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Poetry

• William Blake
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Sara Teasdale 
• Hilda Conkling

Hymns

• A Charge to Keep Have I
• Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven
• Jesus, The Very Thought of Thee
• come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy
• Purer In Heart, O God
• Take My Life and Let It Be

Folksongs

• When the Iceworm Nests Again
• Sown by the Salley Gardens
• I've Been Working On the Railroad
• Tom Dooley
• Skye Boat Song

For individual work, please see these links:

Tot-School
Kindergarten
3rd Grade