World Travels France Letter

 

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Find the rest of our series here.

 

Hello!

Dinah and I enjoyed our first trip on the hot air balloon so much! It was amazing seeing the earth from so high up. We floated through the sky for a very long time, going wherever the wind blew. The wind brought us from the United States of America, across the Atlantic Ocean, to a huge city!


Standing in the middle of the skyline was an incredible tower, the Eiffel Tower. We saw so many cafes, bakeries, and architecture. In Paris, France there is so much to see and I wanted to see it all.


Dinah reminded me that not everyone can see the sights that we were able to see. She told me that about 200 years ago there was a boy named Louis Braille. He lived here in France. When he was just three years old, he had an accident in his father's workshop that caused him to be blind. As he grew up, the one thing he wanted to do was read. Louis left his family to attend a school for the blind in Paris.


In Paris, he was able to learn to read. The letters were raised so he could read with his fingers. There weren't many books to read though. Louis began to think of a new way for the blind to read, a way that could make books for the blind easier to make and to read. He created the Braille Alphabet Code. Each letter was made with a series of dots that are easy to create, feel, and read. Braille's alphabet is still being used by the blind today.


I can't wait to learn more about countries all over the world. They are all bound to have their own amazing stories.


Till next time,





 

Image via Nicole Codega


 

France is our first stop on our study around the world. Netflix and Amazon Instant Video should be great resources to find documentaries about Paris and France as a whole. This is your chance to break out your flag sticker book for the first time too. At my house, we put the big flag for the country in our passport and the little flag on or near the country in the book. Then we color in the country. Here are some other things you can add to make your study of France more enjoyable and hands on.

What I'm Reading

An escalating stack, I can tell you. This month I am starting 3 books. They all look great, one is as I have been through it before. Here is a sum up...

James: Mercy Triumphs by Beth Moore

Beth is one of my favorite bible study authors! I did this study about a year ago at my church and it was so deep and really struck a chord with me. It is an incredible look at the person and book of James. When planning a women's study in my home this was my first pick! I am loving it the second time around. It has varying levels of activity, from just watching the weekly videos to memorizing the book of James. I am taking a stab at memorizing the book because it has become on of my favorites. I have the first 4 verses down already and am working on #5. We started the study on Thursday, so I think this is a good pace. If you are looking for somewhere to start on study, James: Mercy Triumphs and Becoming a Woman of Simplicity, by Cynthia Heald have been my all time faves.

Fight Like a Girl by Lisa Bevere

I got a call from Adam's Mom on Saturday morning in which she asked if I wanted to come to the women's study at her church starting 5 minutes before she called me. I did not attend, but I did pick up the book on my Kindle and got started reading for next week. So far it looks pretty good. It isn't capturing my full attention at this point, but I am still on the first chapter. I think it will make great conversation and I am looking forward to seeing the corresponding video.

The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

This one I downloaded tonight. It is my first book for review with Blogging for Books. I am really excited to read this one. It really stuck out among my book choices. Since I haven't started reading it yet, I don't have much to say about this one. You will have to wait till my book review I suppose.

What are all of you reading this winter?

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.

Getting Ready For School

My blogging break is going to be shorter than I thought! We have decided to start school on August 6th. That is a whole month earlier than I originally thought we would do. It will work out great for our family though. Running from August through the end of April is going to be great because we had a really hard time doing anything in May. It was busy and nice and we just didn't hit the books like we intended. Jayne and I are both very excited to get started on school and I actually gave Jayne the decision on the start date and he is the one who chose sooner.

In the last 4 weeks of our summer break we are going to be doing lots of reading and swimming at the pool. Our book reading slowed after we started The Borrowers. The book is quite a bit slower than the movie and Jayne just wasn't connecting with it. Today we started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it is a huge hit! It is very readable and has a couple of pictures per chapter to keep his mind from wandering so much. He loves the movies and can't wait to compare them to the book.

As we are getting ready to get started for the school year, I came across the "So You Wanna Homeschool Class" I signed up and am going to give it a try. I found it on samsnoggin.com and here is a little of what they are going to cover during the 1 week online class:

Here’s what you’ll learn over the seven days of the course:

• How to find the legal requirements in your area and fulfill those
• How to find and choose curricula and other resources that work with your values, style, and needs
• Specific ways to organize your homeschooling materials
• The secret to successful homeschool planning and goal-setting
• Stellar record-keeping techniques
• Where to find your people {how to build your support system}
• The things nobody tells you to do during your first week of homeschooling

I am really looking forward to the class and learning some new things to grow my homeschool confidence. If you want to join me, I am in the very first class, which is also half off and comes with a free copy of the book I might add!

Here is The Class link: http://starthomeschoolingnow.com/the-class/

November Goals

My guys on halloween

Have you thought about your goals for the month yet? Well, it's high time! It is already November 3rd, if you can believe it. To update on last month's goals:

*I have decided to let our schedule come naturally and is starting to come together.
*We have lots of family time ideas, they just aren't written down, and it has been great not watching as much tv.
*I hit 100 listings in my shop, now I just need to maintain it.

I am leaving this weekend to go on a crafting weekend with my mom and her friends. I am going to be sewing like a maniac filling orders and making merchandise. I will also be missing my family. Adam tells me I need the time away and to have fun. They are also having a boy weekend with Adam's brothers, so I hope they will be having fun too. I am excited to come back and get on top of my goals though and be back in my family's arms.

*Goal #1 is to make studying the bible an every day occurrence. I even added it to my daily checklist so I make sure to get it in. I am not as familiar with the Word as I should be, but each day I learn and grow.

*Goal #2 is to add at least 100 minutes to my Wii Fit Plus each week. I am not doing anything in particular to loose weight, I just want to get moving more. In the cold months it is harder to do that. This is also on my calendar.

*Goal #3 is to organize gifts for the holidays. We have roughly half of the gifts taken care of now, but we need a list to make sure we don't double buy for people. We also have lots of giving to do for those in need and those need to get organized as well.

I guess that is it for this month. I am also brainstorming blog ideas for December. If you have a stretch it topic you would like me to cover, let me know.