Finishing History.

History has been a whirlwind! We have sped through some units this year and focused more on others. We are using History Odyssey and we really enjoy it!! Their recommended texts are great and it's step by step lesson plans (which I love). Leave what you want and add if you need it.

This week I finally decided to wrap history up. We learned about the middle ages and I feel that we are good to go! Perhaps I didn't focus as much as I would have wanted, but the good thing about a classical education is that we'll come again to this!

For the time being, I have one more thing that I want to finish before really wrapping things up. A study of the Native Americans. We'll be using History Pockets for that and the kids jumped up when they saw me take out the book! Tonight I'll spend some time making copies and I'll organize the unit through the weekend. Then next week, we'll get started!!

My kids LOVE History Pockets, by the way. We've been doing them since preschool and it's right up my kids' alley! I was excited when I saw that History Odyssey included them as part of their curriculum.

For now, I'm off to load up our copy machine with paper!!

American Girl Club. Josefina.

This spring, we became part of an American Girl Club with many of our co-op (and non-co-op) friends. It was a fun and perfect activity for Isabella, who is a giant American Girl fan. The club consisted of choosing a historical AG doll and reading her books (there are 6 in each series). We would then rotate hosting the AG club at our homes. The hostess would have a craft, game, snack, or other activity to go along with the book that was read for the week.

Our first AG doll that we picked was Josefina. It was a great time and I collected what we did each week in case anyone out there wants to start their own American Girl club!! Ideas were collected from the AG books, from Jamin's blog, and from our own brainstorming.

Week 1
Meet Josefina, Book 1
Made rebozos, flour tortillas, and salsa. Watched Fandango dancing on YouTube and discussed parts of the book, Welcome to Josefina's World - 1824.

Week 2
Josefina Learns a Lesson, Book 2
Made waist pouches, learned weaving with a cardboard loom, played a matching game, and ate goat cheese, chips, and grapes for a snack.

Week 3
Josefina's Surprise (A Christmas Story), Book 3
Made tissue paper flower garlands (ramilletes), bookmarks with quotes from the book, and went around the neighborhood for a pretend posada. Mexian hot chocolate, oranges, and Mexican cookies were served as a snack. Mantillas were shown and read a Mexican cinderella story by Tomie dePaola.

Week 4
Happy Birthday Josefina, Book 4
The craft for this meeting was planting seeds and the girls brought things to barter. A game of "find the button" was played and Mexican cookies with herb tea was the snack.

Week 5
Josefina Saves the Day, Book 5
The girls made a memory box and a journal book. What Can You do with a Rebozo? was read and the books were discussed. Snack was Mexican hot chocolate made by the girls and pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread).

Week 6
Changes for Josefina, Book 6
The activities for this meeting were making a 3-d map of the Santa Fe Trail, making handprint flowers, making necklaces (for girls and dolls), and making straw brooms. The girls also made bread and ate watermelon and cupcakes for a snack. House keeping was discussed and the straw brooms were used. There was also a discussion of the Santa Fe Trail.

End of Josefina Series Celebration.
We all met at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. The girls each got a picture to take home.

Next week we will start a new series of AG Club meetings. We will be reading all about Samantha. I will make sure to have my camera handy each week to take plenty of pictures so that I can post all about them.

Brainstorming for First Day of School.

If you caught my first day of school post last year, you probably know that I started giving my kids schultutes as a celebration of the new school year. This year, we'll continue with the tradition and I've started racking my brain as to what theme each cone will have and what will be inside of each one.

Since I'll be adding one more child to our school (Christian is doing nursery level work through Angelicum), I have to plan 4 different schultutes! Images are plenty on the internet, so I can get some ideas there. But I like to personalize them with what each child really likes. I have some ideas, but I really have to narrow them down.

As for what will be inside...that shouldn't be so hard to fill them up! I'm planning on some school supplies, candies, and a small toy (much like last year).

In the mean time, I also have to decide when our first day of school is going to be. From the looks of things, I'm thinking that we'll have our celebration sometime around the beginning of August.

Never seen a schultute? Here is a picture of some super cute ones that I found.

Fun Gift.

Last week, a good friend came over with a surprise. It was a hand-made, heirloom rocking horse!! And although it was a belated baby gift, the kids are all enjoying it immensely!


It's beautiful!!! Thanks Carol and Tom!!!

Some Organizational and Planning Thoughts.

For many homeschoolers, this is the time of year where we pour over new curricula and start planning our new years. It's the highlight of the year!! For us, this year is especially exciting (in planning terms). Not only do we get to plan our new daily schedule, but we get to do it in a new house! That means that a lot of our chores and habits have to be re-evaluated.

If you haven't read my previous post on how to set up a schedule, I highly recommend it! Click to read Homeschooling Scheduling Tips. A "How To" Guide. I might not be a planning expert...but I know what works for me as a homeschool mom of 5 young kids.

Because we have so much more house to clean and more kids doing school this year...revamping our schedule is a big "to do" item. I have a bare bones schedule that I've been tinkering with for the past month. I still use MOTH and Managers of Their Chores to help us out and they work!

As for using a planning book...I'm considering trying to decide between using my own again this year or getting the planner from Family Centered Press. The children will be getting their own planners to encourage responsibility and accountability. After looking through many student planners, I chose these from Pflaum (I got the primary version for the kids).

So planning and organizing my thoughts is the next phase of my homeschool life. We still do daily lessons with some fun thrown in the mix, so this keeps me busy all day long. As I get closer to finishing our plans, I'll make sure to let you know how it's going!! For the time being, here is a sneak peek at our daily schedule that we have posted on our board. Not the clearest picture, but we are in a work in progress anyways.

New Look.

Well, today I decided to change my blog up a bit. Try something new. Hope everyone likes the new template!! I'm still working on my heading...but I like it!

Also, I hope everyone got an opportunity to make some Father's Day cards and crafts!!

Getting Ready for Father's Day With Crafts!

I haven't posted any "how to's" in a while. So I figured that since Father's Day is right around the corner, I could post about what my kids are doing for their dad!

Isabella settled on a doctor bag card! It seemed fitting, since DH is a doctor, and it's very easy to do. On the inside she put her "Happy Father's Day" message.




Marco wanted to do something different, so we searched until we found this fun, spinning card from Martha Stewart. It's super cute and not to hard to do. He also added some paper cups in which he stuffed with tissue paper and some candy. Tutorial for that is on this post.


Anthony wanted something totally different from the other kids. It was hard to come up with something because he didn't want a printable to color in. Finally we found this cool measuring tape card from Family Fun (in their current issue). I had to help him along the way, but he is very proud of how it turned out!!




Lastly, I wanted to give my husband something I knew he would treasure. In our home, he is the story teller. He loves telling the kids stories, and he is so good at it too! There is one story in particular that the kids love to hear, all about a special rock. So I got the grand idea of altering his story to send a father's day message to him.

I started out making a bound book (see below). Then I printed out the story lines and cut them with decorative scissors. Each of the kids illustrated a page and it was then all glued into the book.

The back of the book has the father's day message. I thought it turned out really cute and I love the fact that all the kids worked on it together!






To Make the Book: you need paper, scissors, and a ruler.

1. You take two sheets of paper and fold them in half.



2. Measure 1 inch from each side of the folds and mark with a pencil.



3. On one of the sheets, cut up from the bottom to your mark from both sides.



4. On the other sheet, you want to cut a sliver out between both of your pencil marks.



5. Go back to the first sheet you cut from the bottoms and fold it lengthwise. Slide it through the 2nd sheet's sliver opening and open it up. Fold the pages and you have a book!





If my directions for this are confusing...you might want to check out the Big Book of Books and Activities by Dinah Zike.

If you are still searching for more ideas, check out these links!

• Crafty Crow Father's Day Cards To Make

• Catholic Icing (we'll be doing something for our priests this year as well, thanks to the great idea from Lacy!)