Paddle to the Sea book/map study

I bumped this post up from 2009 (wow-that was eons ago!) since I will now be covering this book study with my youngest.  I will come back and add in any new things we use for idea helps for you but for now-here are some great links.




I found this thru the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival-

Part one of Paddle to the Sea

A gal posted the You Tube link for the Paddle to the Sea movie. How fun is that?! I wish we had had this when I did the study with my daughter a couple years ago. It is broken into 3 parts (10 min. for first 2, about 8 for the last one) to enjoy. My son was mesmerized...and it was filmed in 1966-so there is nothing flashy about it!

This makes a great addition to your geography studies, esp. if you are doing Paddle to the Sea. And if you are looking for a great study guide for geography, I highly recommend the Beautiful Feet Geography Guide. It covers four of the classic Holling C. Holling books-Paddle to the Sea is one of em. BF Books has 4 great maps to go with the study and they make very nice keepsakes-I have done this with 3 of my 4 and when Buddy enters 4-5th grade, he'll do it as well.




In the right sidebar of You Tube, you will find the other 2 parts. Thanks to Established Work (can no longer find this blog-sorry) for posting this info.

Supplementing Heart of Dakota-Creation to Christ Poetry unit and Human Body unit

If you are a follower or if you just pop by to read up on the Heart of Dakota [HOD] program we have been using this year, you are probably familiar with my feelings on it by now, but I wanted to highlight a couple things we have done that has taken outside the box.

I found we (personally-as this may not be for every family so keep that in mind) needed to do something different regarding one recommend book for science; and that one area definitely needed a more in-depth investigation-the poet Robert Frost.

I have the Considering God's Creation [CGC] curricula (which I have been plucking units from for about a year and 1/2 now) that has a section on the body. After we read the book Exploring the History of Medicine (very good book!) we simply have moved into this study.  I ditched the An Illustrated Adventure in Human Anatomy book that was scheduled (I had received it via the library inter-loan prior to the Exploring History one...and it needed to be returned before we came to this section-I didn't feel it was worth trying to re-hold/check out again as I have enough human body books on our shelf that are very similar to this one) and that is why I chose not to follow that part. Plus, being we are lapbooking/notebooking sorta folk-the CGC fit the bill perfectly. So we have been working our way through this unit and are just about done.  I am very satisfied with it and find it is just the right amount of info/work for our boy.  Again-this stresses the need for the instructor to look at what does and does not fit the student or situation when using an all-encompassing type of guide such as HOD.  Just because it is listed and recommended does not mean it must be used.  Esp. when you are at the mercy of library loan books, and other circumstances that require tweaking. [image from eagleswingsed.com]

As for the lack of any biographical data/study on the poet Robert Frost...well here is where I was sadly disappointed with this section.  It is very Charlotte Masony to study the person and not just their work.  So being that I am versed in scrounging up data-I found a few things to offer the boy as a backdrop into who this dude was. The one I got via the library is older-so not everyone will be able to find it.  It is Robert Frost: America's Poet by Doris Faber. I have to say it was a very nicely written book that hits all the key points a book should when following the CM method for choosing books-it was twaddle free. :)  Anyhoo-I saw the other listed book below via Amazon, but was not able to get a hold of it...so not sure how great it is but looks to be written for children and looks lovely.  If I do get my hands on it-I will come back and update my thoughts on it.

Robert Frost: America's Poet by Doris Faber

Papa Is a Poet: A Story About Robert Frost by Natalie Bober

image from Amazon.com

I also downloaded these free notebooking pages on Robert from 

The Notebooking Fairy

to give him some opportunities to jot down 

some essential data and such.

I have also pulled those noted human body books from the shelf and we refer to them when needed. Again-I am using what I have to wrap up this unit and it is all good.  Just not what was originally outlined in the study.

And now for one of my favorite projects the Boy has done so far...and yes, it is a fav because he put some personality into it.  Our floating-head skeleton boy with a Barber of Seville curly mustache and a rocker dude goatee. [I say-if you do this study-dry place the pieces prior to the child gluing unlike us. Otherwise, you too will end up with a lovely floating, non-connected skull]

And that my blogger peeps is how we tweaked our HOD study to fit us and our current needs.  

Lots of neat form downloads for organizing your school

Found this link via the The Homeschool Mom Site (sign up for her free eNewsletter)-

It is a great place to download some most needful forms to help you organize your year:

Highland Heritage Forms

Enjoy!

Mother's Day Gifts-Tea Cup Bird Feeders

I found this neat idea on my friend Heidi's blog, and just couldn't resist making a few for Mother's Day.  I ended up making myself a couple too!  Why not?  So the only thing I tweaked was the post.  I saw some metal rods right by where I was getting the copper caps at the hardware store, and knew that is what I wanted.  They are zinc plated, smooth rods (1/2") and will do nicely for us.  Then the hardest part of the craft mission-well, that was finding the darn tea cups!  Now I have been seeing these big mugs all over the place and sure thing-when I wanted to actually buy some-I couldn't find any! Well, I did find a few but they were way too spency~ and I just about gave up.  I spent an entire day hunting well over 7 or more stores to try to find them-I couldn't believe it~ but isn't that the way it goes?  Then the Lord popped "donation store" into my head.  So I gave the local Salvation Army a quick call and sure enough-they had several of them~! Whoop it up.  So off I went and I had fun trying to mix and match cups to plates.  Then I went back for another plate, similar to the house/maroon one because I couldn't get it out of my mind-and I knew it was perfect for my mom.  [the blue polka dot one was what I originally wanted for her, I found out it was simply too heavy and I worry it will fall off, or the cap will pop off due to the weight. So, I have decided to use that one as a ground or deck hand railing feeder.  In fact, I am giving my  MIL the option between 2 (one being the blue polka dot one) b/cuz she has trouble with raccoons in her feeders, so this way she can just pull it in at night.  Plus, there are not a lot of areas in her yard where a feeder on a pole could be seen (for her to enjoy watching the birds)...so that is where we are at with these.

I don't have a pic of my mom's here-it is similar but with a boat/bay theme (similar to the house one in the lower right of the pic) with a white cup.

The top one is what I originally thought for my MIL, the watermelon is for me.  I just love the whimsical nature of it and am a big fan of watermelons (even tho I am not into the taste of em-I like the colors)

The top one is mine too (for the front yard) I just love it~ and I couldn't believe I found that cup which looks like it was made for it.  The heavy weight champion of the group-ole Polka Dottie.  

Thanks to Heidi for linking that project, as I was in a bad state of affairs trying to think of something original and unique to give the mums this year.  I am planning on making a few more for birthday gifts....this is a very versatile gift!  

I have this idea for organizing your eBooks on my other blog and wanted to share

I have this ditty up on my Scrapbooks and Lapbooks by Sheri, that shows you how to organize all those eBooks you have in your computer/CDs.  It shows how I am doing my lapbooks, but one could easily do this for any type of Ebooks (TOS eBooks/Weebooks/Molly etc.) and was not sure if you followed that blog or not. Wanted to share the idea just in case.  HTH you out.

I have posted the links for the All About Spelling Workbox listing charts on my other blog

I have finally been able to get these posted without them moving all over the place. You can use these charts to help you fill the workboxes with the very items and supplies you need for each Step. Sometimes, not all the goodies are listed in the top section, and so I found I was hunting for the specific tiles and such-more than I was teaching. Hopefully, these will help reduce that for you as well.

Links to the Scribd pages

Oh, Carol Topp responded to my to eBook or Not to eBook post

So very happy she (Carol) took the time to read my post-I am honored. I pulled her post comment up here for all to see another side to this crazy debate:

Sheri, You did cover the pros and cons very well. As an author, I have gone back and forth on ebooks, too. My first book, Homeschool Co-ops, is in print and I plan to offer it in ebook format now that it is about a year old.

I'm working on another book, Micro Business for Teens, that will start as an ebook and then after a year or so I'll offer it in print also. The reason I am doing this is cost. I hope to make enough from the ebook version of Micro Business, that I can pay to set up the print version (minimum of $500). I also hope that the younger generation is more willing to buy an ebook. We'll see how my plans turn out.

Just thought you might want to hear from the author/seller side. Consider this: there are some books that you would never see if the author only had the printed option because of the cost. So ebooks are opening up an entire new world to authors and their readers.


I agree-you posted a [great] different view to this issue.  The cost of printing is pretty prohibitive to many authors...and I totally get that.  I also understand that one can make a bigger profit by selling eBooks, which can help sustain smaller businesses, and provide avenues for the author to afford running print versions,  too. I still need to do my second part to this-one in which I was/am going to highlight the very things Carol pointed out. :0)

It is a love/hate relationship with me.  I guess it is hard to convince a print loving gal to switch sides-LOL. 

Well, hopefully, once I have a handle on the rest of this month's reviews, I will be able to focus my brain and come up with the second section for this debate.

Oh, and if you don't know who Carol Topp is-well, she is such a blessing to the homeschool community. She has a great book on how to set-up and keep your co-op running and it looks like some other great ones coming out!

You can visit her site:Homeschool CPA for more info.

Thanks Carol for taking the time to read and respond to my blog-

eBook article up on Heart of the Matter Meme

Take a peek over there-tons of great posts/articles for ya.
Go here for the links

Spreading the word on a great FREEBIE site

I dunno if you have heard of this great resource, but Jim Erskine and the fam offer this site which has free downloadable e-Sources for you! Yeppers. I have downloaded a boat load and they are awesome. You can use them to supplement your homeschooling and again-did I mention it is for free? So all you do is join the mailing list to get the reminder notice and head over to the site every day to download something new....oh, and they do have a homeschool resource store too-now those aren't free but they have some great stuff available for resonable prices. Hey, and you support a homeschooling family in the process!

Homeschool Freebie of the Day