Unschool-ology

Unschool-ology
Unschooling: Living Without School; Living Free Range-Freedom to Learn What One Wants When One Wants

Friday, May 20, 2011

Week Eight: Temperate Climates

Long story short, again, off week, for the same reason as last. I just don't like these topics for her age. Guess I'll have to think in through better next time. I am pretty excited about next week though. Maybe it will be a little bit better. 

Monday: We read the book "First Book About Animals of the Plains," a book we checked out from the Library. It was alright. Not my favorite. It was simple though, and easy for her to understand. 

Tuesday: We went outside. We didn't do much with this activity, so I didn't get any pictures. I basically just talked about the climate we live in and the different animals in our climate.

Wednesday:Brennon joined us again this day. We just colored some pictures of animals of the grasslands.

Thursday: We did not do a baking activity. I couldn't find one, and wee will be doing something Saturday night for our Family Reunion on Sunday anyway. It is sort of like a potluck.

Friday: Sid the Science Kid The Bug Club...We have bugs here...Trust me, it isn't easy finding interesting children's videos on climates...I am using my resources here. lol. 



Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Library Fun

I really want to get Samantha familiar with the library, so I thought a bi-weekly trip would help. (If I could drive, we would probably go twice a week, but I know Jessie doesn't want to spend all his free time at the library, so we are going every other week.) I am going to get two weeks' worth of books for her lessons each time we go. This week we got "My First Book..." about plains and one on the arctic. We also got a DVD that goes over the sounds of each letter, and then I got a book on "The First Year of Homeschooling." They didn't have any about curriculums, so I figured I would get the book this time, and then next time I will get online and have the library order one from another location.
Samantha had a blast. She stayed quiet and she sat at a table with Daddy and they read books. He said he must have read a million books, and she sat quietly for each one of them! She LOVES to read. And I found out that she can get a card now. She doesn't have to wait until she is in school. She will be SO EXCITED to get her own card. I just know it! I am excited too. 
They were reading. It was real sweet.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Week Seven: Hot Climates

Ya I am going to be honest, this was an off week with the lessons because I had another unit planned, Dessert, but decided not to do that without going over other hot climates like the Savannah and the Jungle. The Savannah is kind of hard to find activities for because every time I type it in, Google thinks I am talking about Savannah, GA. And it gives me a list of activities to do with children in Savannah. Anyway, this week was special, however, because my little brother joined in the fun with us. 

Monday: We read the book "Cool Time Song," another book she got from the Dolly Parton Library, about the Savannah. It has great illustrations. That is why I Love the Dolly Parton Library. They send you such an array of books that they will get to experience all types of writing and illustration styles, things I would have otherwise never picked out. 
Tuesday: The activity I had planned was ruined. We were going to play in the sand and talk about Desert animals, but when I got her sand box, I saw that it was flooded from the storms awhile back. So instead we crushed up some vanilla wafers to symbolize sand, and then we used animals crackers as the animals. (Animal Crackers have camels and such in them. We were going to do gummy lizards and try to find something for cactuses, but it was sort of last minute, and I was not going to walk BOTH the babies down the road to the store. By the way, this activity, not the brightest one. Didn't really turn out great.

Wednesday:We made rain sticks. The actually turned out pretty nice. We just used markers to decorate them and they decided on popcorn and beans to fill them with. 

Here is a link: http://www.ehow.com/how_15892_make-rain-stick.html

Thursday: We made frozen chocolate covered bananas. They weren't able to do much to help, but they enjoyed watching me make them and then eating them. They didn't turn out looking as well as I thought they would, but the recipe called for 8 bananas, and I only had one that I split in half, so I tried to divide the recipe, and I don't think I had enough chocolate to melt right on the stove...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/chocolate-dipped-frozen-bananas-recipe/index.html

Friday: No activity. Couldn't find a good show. 


Next week is Temperate Climates. We are going to start making bi-weekly trips to the library I believe. I really want Samantha to get familiar with the library, to go to story time, to know the people who work there, and to really LOVE reading and look forward to going. So I think we are going to do that and while we are there, I want to get books on the next two weeks' topics so that I don't have to buy books that she may or may not even like. 


I just thought this was a cute picture.



This REALLY did not turn out right.



The shorter rain stick is Samantha-Anne's.




Monday, May 9, 2011

Week Six: Mother's Day

This week was Mother's Day, and finally, we got things calmed down and back on track.

Monday: We read the book "I Love My Mommy Because..." the section about Spring. We listened to the song "Here's A Kiss Because I Love You." That is one of our favorite songs.
Tuesday: Samantha and I had some special alone time together because we haven't been able to do that in awhile.

Wednesday:I let Samantha go crazy with the art supplies and make me whatever she wanted.

Thursday: We made a dinner together, spaghetti and meat sauce.

Friday: We watched a movie together. I got to pick though because it was "Mother's Day." lol. I picked Legally Blonde"s". She sat through the whole movie with me. We watched it first thing in the morning when she woke up. We ate muffins together and stayed in bed. It was nice. I just enjoyed having so much together time this week since things have been so hectic. I think she really liked it too.

Next week, we are doing Warm Climates of the World-Savannah, Rain Forrest, etc. (I didn't have enough time to do each one of them separately. Since she is so young, it really doesn't matter though. Honestly, we do the activities, and I may explain why we are doing it in 1 or 2 sentences, but I am not going to shove a bunch of information in her brain and force her to learn. I am hoping she will just learn through the activities right now.)

We went outside as part as our special time together.

Ha Ha. She made a smiley face all by herself!


Making the Meat Sauce

Mom and Daughter

Just chillin'-Watching the Movie