Just updated the Not Back to School post on the classroom but here's the Reader's Digest version

Here is the newly set up nature study table/art picture study and focal book area.  I have wanted to do this for a long time and was able to get that accomplished today. The other side of the room-well not so much but will finish that this week. (UPDATE:  this has since been removed and our geography center now takes up this area)

I literally just did a treasure hunt about the house to find doo-dads and some display things to pull this together.  Robbed a few of my decorations in the kitchen and such and then added the Safari Ltd. toob birds (backyard and a couple from the exotic b/cuz we have hummingbirds and owls around us)...added the labels so he can start remembering them.  Will have my pop scour his yard for various bird feathers (he has like a sanctuary or something in his back yard-the birds and critters know where to go for food) and those will go in a flatter basket (need to purchase) so he can check those out when we are covering birds in science (which will be right off the bat). I can add/delete as necessary and change the items per season.

 The workboxes used to be under the rain gutter book holders,

 now it displays our current studies 

and future study items 

(cannot wait to start the Laura Ingalls stuff!!!!)

 A necessity is the Mrs. Sharp's Family Traditions book! 

[Left hand corner of table] LOVE IT!

And I taped up the picture study cards I had

from when we first covered Audubon.  We'll

cover him again this year but will spend more time on 

his animal drawings for that.

 This little wood armoire is my dd's. She used it when she 

played with her American Girl Dolls-LOL

  Was just sitting in storage so had to use it.

My goal is to get a nice apothecary cabinet or 

discover chest cabinet to keep all the little fun nature things

in.  Maybe next year's budget will allow for it but for now-

just using what we have around here. 

Not Back to School Blog Hop 2013: Day in the Life

The last installment for this year's NBTSBH is about what we do when we 'school'.

You can join/visit o

ther's blogs on the

Not Back to School Blog Hop Main Page

When our kids were younger, I did my best to maintain a schedule that was pretty regular and wasn't changing constantly . I found my children did better when they had a pretty good idea of what was to come-which included snack/nap time, etc.  But as they grew, we had to morph to accommodate their skill levels (meaning at one time I had a baby/kindergartner/middle elementary student and upper elementary almost jr. high student) to meet the demands of a variety needs.  Then when it came time for scouting or swimming lessons or what-have-you, well, it just made sense to readjust and redefine.  So now we're at this point-one upper elementary aged student. That's it.  So we have a much more relaxed schedule. 

We're not morning peeps.  I also like to take the first hour or so after arising to do my 'office work' and pray. That includes going thru my emails, making appts, prepping or just enjoying a cup of Java without noise, or anyone too nearby.  I think I deserve that after 25 years of parenting-LOL.  I find that when I have a bit quieter morning-the rest of my day goes better which equates to a more tolerable mom and happier student.  :)

Obviously, if we have afternoon commitments (like during baseball season) we work to get his studies done by 1 pm.  That way I have a bit of time to do what needs to be done around here and he has some off time before heading out the door.  

Plus, we do not have a 9-5, M-F dad.  He travels up to 12-14 days per month then works from home the rest.  So when he is gone-I have double duties, making my workload a bit more and therefore, during those times we adjust as needed.  Because of his travel, at times we are also able to do "tag-alongs" which offers us a change of scenery but throws any 'schedule' or major book work out the door (or car window if you prefer).  

So we have no typical day but I do my darnedest to maintain a relative "must do per week" for the following:

M-F:  reading work/spelling (intense to help combat the dyslexic struggles we have going on here)

M-Thur:  Bible (sometimes Friday), Math, art projects

M, W and F:  history, geography

T, Thurs: Science, artist/musician study and if weather permitting some type of nature study activity

F:  catch up for anything I really wanted to cover but couldn't for whatever reason, crafts, art projects wrap-up, etc.

Since I have become a big couponer-I do a blitz shopping every other Thurs. and frankly, that takes pretty much most the day and when I get home I am exhausted...so on those weeks we'll just move any Thurs. assignments to Friday and call it even. 

Monday mornings are also my intense 'office/coupon prep time' which means no teaching from me but he'll have some easier assignments he can do nearby to occupy him.  I found the biggest route to burn-out was using all my weekend time to do school stuff when I should have just been doing home stuff and enjoying the fam. Sometimes, this is unavoidable-but I have drastically reduced that b/cuz it never left me any time to just be me.  And that was not good.  It is just too easy to be drawn back into 'prepping and organizing' and before I knew it my weekend was gone and I never got a recharge.  I learned that one after oh, about 15 years of hsing.  LOL  Now I know better.  

As for the where?  Well some of it is desk work, and usually he does that in the education room which is right nearby the fam room...or he comes to the table I am working at.  Most reading (and we do a lot cuz we use a lot of literature based curriculum) is done on the couch.  But if it is nice, we'll go outside and sit on the porch or back patio.  When we travel and nature study opportunities arise, we work right where it is....so on a beach or nature trail, etc.  Well not on the actual trail, we might get run by a rogue biker or block the path-so we'll use nearby picnic tables and such. 

and that is a basic day in the life-

but that can all change and 

probably will! LOL

Samples of activities for zoology using critter replicas, labels and control cards

We're going to be covering birds and insects and swimming creatures this year for science. I have always enjoyed activities that help reinforce the lessons by using fun little goodies to do so.  Being that I have a Montessori background, and love the Charlotte Mason method-I try to combine the best of both worlds when I can.

image from the Safari Ltd. site

So I found (like why didn't I take a closer look at these before? Really? I am not happy with myself for walking right past these little gems for some time now-OY!) Safari Ltd. Toobs.  These containers hold a nice amount of critters, or people or flowers or well-known landmarks that can easily be tied into most lessons. One can use them for map work, science activities, matching lessons, and more.  So my goal is to collect the Toobs we need for our year. I should have all or at least most of them bought before Oct/Nov.  I am of course, focusing on the immediately needed ones first.  I have already purchased both the backyard birds and the exotic birds sets.  Being that I hate paying full price, and the couponer in me demands this-I gathered up my 40% and 50% coupons for JoAnns to save a few bucks-which I could use b/cuz they were not on sale. JoAnns has them for around $9 something and so I was able to get one for about $5 ish and the other around $6ish.  I will continue to use the coupons until I have all the sets I want :)!

image from the Safari Ltd. site

Thankfully, on the Safari Ltd. site, you can click the image to see what is included. If you ctrl/prt sc then go to MS Paint (if you have such programs) you can cut/trim it and then save it to put onto MS Word to create a control card for your activity.  I enlarged one kinda big (for youngers to place the actual bird onto) but it kinda fuzzed the wording. So I also shrunk it to a better size (as a control card for my son) that isn't so bad. I also used the MS Word to create name cards as well.  I then printed and laminated for long term use.

I then will put it on the tray (as pictured, but I am going to paint it white) when we get to those chapters in science.  It is just a kinda fun extra thing for my son to do to stave off boredom.  For the younger set-it is a great activity (very Montessori) to help learn the different birds (or whatever critter you want to study). The basic deal is that the student takes the word card and matches it to the right bird.

I will also be purchasing the N.A. animals and the river ones too.  I need that snapper from the river set to use along the Minn of the Mississippi book (BFB geography). Figured we would have fun occasionally moving the turtle down the great Mississip (with our sense of humor I am sure it'll be interesting) map that he fills in/colors as he goes thru the chapters. And it'll serve as a great replica of what a real one looks like. Mind you-he's already had fun poking at a snapper or two when his dad and him have been out and about on their walks. He knows a snapper and understands just why it is called one. That said, because this is one critter you do not want to handle for real-this is a great option to have! LOL.  Plus, I can pull a lot of those animals from the river set for our history study of the expansion west (in the US) that we're tagging into our Calf. history (by BFB).  Once I get a fun set together for that-I will be sure to post.

The beauty is you can create what you need. 

I also printed off a free coloring page of a snapper to use to teach turtle parts.  He covered that way back when he was in Kindergarten but obviously, it's been a while and why not revisit it?  So I will the laminated pic, some Vis-a-Vis markers and a control card (still need to create) that he can use to remember them. He'll just use different colors for different parts. I will also make an actual turtle control card with the correct areas labeled so he can self-check it.  I will probably do it for the Seagull one I have when we do the book, Seabird.  I have to go thru the Apologia notebooking wkbk I bought to go along with the Zoology 1 I have. If they don't do that-then I will create one.

This is just a simple idea that can create a fun, integrated 'accessory' for your  student's learning experiences. Think outside the one-dimensional when you are looking for different ways of teaching and you'll be surprised at what you find!

**the Toobs use the correct names for most of their sets, which is good b/cuz I prefer the child learns the right name of an animal. For the younger kids, you can get away with saying "bird" or "flower" but it does help significantly if you label it as it should be-their specific name.  I will also make cards with the Latin names for my son to match up because when we do our nature study notebooks (CM way), we always add that and I want to be sure to provide another opportunity for him to learn them.

**I am not an associate for these companies-altho I should be LOL. Just wanted to share what we have found to be very useful for our lessons.

2013-14 Artists/Musician Study choices

I have finally made my decisions on who we will cover for our artists and musicians for the coming year.
Because we're going to be studying American History thru the new Beautiful Feet Books Westward Expansion in combination with their California History, I wanted to zero in on artists who did a good job representing the natural world and the peoples from that time period.


Now we have covered John James Audubon (info on several artists noted on this page) a couple years ago-but we didn't do a total in depth study nor did we cover his animal paintings/drawings.  So we'll do some bird time (esp. since our science covers the flying creatures of the fifth day-and of course birds are a part of that), then move to the critters.  So I am currently researching the books I will need from the library and will get some color copies made of some of the animals-esp. ones that are found out west.

The BFB Westward Expansion does include one of the books with a little ditty on him so I wanted to be sure to revisit him.

I will also tie in George Catlin.  He did some absolutely beautiful paintings of several Native Americans/Tribes.  He also knew (I believe also painted one or the other of the Lewis and Clark dudes) so since we'll cover L and C as well-I wanted to be sure to cover him as well.  I am currently hunting down books to use (from the library) and will get some pics printed for the picture study too.  I am excited to cover him since I know very little about him.





I will also revisit Benjamin West since that is a part of the very early expansion.  We covered him slightly last year (I think it was last year lol) but wanted to expand that study a tad more too.  I found some neat books via the library on him-so we'll do that too!


All of the artists we cover this year will be small and short lived studies since they are pretty much review for us.  Once I get all the materials and activities figured out I will be sure to do a link up of those.


And then I will cover one musician.  I bought a book on Stephen Foster (by Opal Wheeler) and a TG, and the CD so we'll cover him. I will get some music of his via the library.
Visit Zeezok's site because it looks like they have dropped and added different products.  They used to have the book and guide and cd set.  I don't see it anymore tho.  [updated 1/19/16]