Amazing Race Study Notebook

We love to watch The Amazing Race! Why not turn it into a great way to study geography and social science? This one printable will help your students engage deeper with what they see in the show and learn about the countries that the contestants visit.

Pages one and two give you art for your binder. Page three is a page to put in information about the country visited (map, flag, country stats).  The fourth page is a place to record the events that occurred in the episode ind interesting facts or situations that arose. The last page is a place to record information about the culture of the countries visited. 

Pages 3-5 will be printed as needed, depending on the season being watched. We have had a lot of fun using this workbook over the years and we hope you and you kids do too!

This unit is available for all of our Patrons at any level, so come check it out and get started learning with the show.

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Lewis and Clark: A 3 Week Unit Study

This unit study is available for our patrons over on Patreon and covers science, language arts, history, and art. You will be doing a Minecraft reenactment of the journey, working with maps, studying animals and tracks, and playing Discoveries, The Journals of Lewis and Clark. It is geared toward grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8  but can be adjusted for higher or lower grades.

This unit study contains a list of resources and  activities for you to use in your studies. Choose those that will best suit  your students, time, and learning environment. My hope is that you will enjoy  the process of learning and not feel constricted by the timeline or  activities. Make changes as they suit your needs and enjoy your time learning  together! 

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Historical Napkins

We enjoyed the Living Long Ago book that came with our Sonlight curriculum. It often has fun little activities to tie in with what you are learning. This was one such day.

We learned about dinner parties in the 1800's and the book showed us how to fold napkins. It was so easy and I was able to use this new found knowledge to thoroughly impress some dinner guests of my own not long after. Who says only the kids are learning in a homeschool?

Lots of Learning

We had a great homeschool week! This is the windmill generator that Mister got with his World Travels letter. He put it together with his Daddy during "boy night". They had a blast with it!

Jayne finished All About Reading Level 1! After a long hard think, I decided to give Alpha Phonics a try as our next level. Mister seems to really like it and I was able to get it for free from the Kindle Prime lenders library. We loved AAR, but it is very slow paced and Alpha Phonics will end with him at a 2nd-3rd grade reading level. He is looking forward to the many Boxcar Children and Magic Tree House books we plan to spend the saved money on.

He drew a picture of how he felt about my having covered his face in stickers!

Adam got a chance to read to Mister on Friday, giving me a vocal break. This book really sucks our  Little  Guy in! It is Usborne's Time Traveler. They read 10 pages!  I usually cut him off at 6 because I know I need my voice for all the other subjects. I expect that I am going to have quite the reader when he has the skills.

A Bed for Taylor

This week we have been learning about the french nobles and a little about the revolution. For some hands on time we made a 4 post bed for Taylor, Little Guy's little guy. It turned out great and Little Guy made sure all the details were just so. Here are some pics:

Pencils, a box, and some scraps of fabric are about to transform!

Lots of  glue!

We have since glued down a fitted sheet, because Little Guys bed has 2 sheets and so should Taylor's

The finished bed with Taylor all tucked in!

October

Have you missed me? I have! Last Sunday I pulled into the driveway with our dog in the kid carrier. It hit the curb and flipped. The dog is fine, but I came out with a sprained right wrist. That means I can do very little, typing included. I did want to pop in and say hello though and share a bit of what we have been doing the last couple of weeks...

Jayne makes a ruff for history class

Halloween decor went up

Jayne and I made this just days before the sprain...thank you pintrest!

Jayne learns about cells!

on the left is the animal cell, on the right is the plant cell. Our organelles are dried currants and the nucleus is a prune.

Oh What a Week

Sewing his pouch pocket

A fun week, that is! Our school week has been just great. We did an especially large amount of hands on activities this week and that may have been a part of it. We learned all about living in medieval times, castles, bathrooms, food and the like. He always wants to know about the bathrooms each time period uses and he has yet to be disappointed by the information. Jayne even got to try his hand at swing his own pouch (pocket) like they used to wear.

In science we spent a lot of time learning about the ocean. We learned about waves, the tide, and coasts. Jayne saw a glimpse of how waves work when we made a wave bottle. He also got to see how things freeze and melt. We put some fun stuff n the ice tray in the freezer and some ice cubes insulated and not insulated mugs.

The wave bottle

Our little Passports came in this week too. Sam and Sophia went to Japan this month. Jayne got a little sushi eraser and an origami set. We made a book all about Japan and spent a lot of time folding paper.

Origami galore! You can tel which is mine by drawing ability only.

This week we finished reading Th Hundred Dresses. This book did not keep Little Guy's attention like the last 2 books did, but t did teach some great lessons that we have already been able to apply in real life. We will be reading The Family Under the Bridge next. This should be good! I just hope it draws him in better than the last one.

K Week 2

Still having a blast here! A certain someone, I'll let you guess who, has been quite a bit less attentive the last 2 days because his daddy has been home during school time. We still got everything done including some fun projects. We are both enjoying the curriculum a lot and I don't think we will be making many changes next year. I'll share a bit of what we did this week...

The first part of the week we continued to learn about the first people. We made these coracle boats out of wiki sticks and plastic bags. They did not take on water, but I certainly would not have wanted to ride in one!

Jayne "leveled up" in reading and was so very proud of himself. Leveling up on anything that is real (not a video game) is very exciting because he didn't realize you could level up for real!

History moved to ancient Egypt this week. Jayne is painting an ancient Egyptian gold collar. That has to sit and dry for the next step.

We are still learning about air and weather this week. Today we made a snake and  and held it over the heat of the oven. Adam had to force himself to bake a cake to make the heat worth the time. He will be especially sad to have to eat the cake, I'm sure. The snake spun and excitement was to be had.

Here is the finished collar, thank you foamie shapes, the fantastic snake, and out first country marked on the map, Egypt!

It is fun to see what really sticks. He asks me questions about stories he tells me because, "well you know, you ask me questions about The Boxcar Children!" He also is aware of new words in the real world. They mentioned the atmosphere during the weather on the news and Jayne asked how they new about the atmosphere. I love that he thinks our home holds all the secrets to the universe. I'm glad he think he has a great teacher at least.