Learning While Away....Part 5

Happy Tuesday my friends! Boy did this weekend go by too quickly but it was an absolute blast of amusement parks, friends, swimming, baseball games and books! Now it's time to discuss another installment of Learning While Away. This is the final installment other than one Sunday School version that will appear on the blog for my Catholic followers. Today, I will share our art projects that also still taught us about the country with reading and writing as well. One thing I love to do to prepare for our trip is to pick up old maps, atlases and travel guides with photos. We make a passport book out of all of the places we visited and using index cards, the kids caption the photos or write descriptions of what they enjoyed.

Due to space being an issue, the kids work together to put in their favorite parts and highlights of the trip and make it look like a small scrapbook with basic information in it. They also include 1 fun fact about what they are writing about.

Keeping the pages simple, allows their words to describe the moment captured on photos. These small passport books can be as small as a few pages where each child gets their own page or as big as 20 pages. It is all a matter of what we do, where we go and how long we are there. Receipts and tickets are also an awesome thing to tape and or staple in as well. We keep these booklets in a box on our sofa table and always have them to look back on.

We looked up famous artists from Mexico and studied a few of them and also looked to see if any of their art would be on display in any of the cities we would be visiting, and if so we would arrange a trip to see the piece but first we would either create our piece of art based on the style of the artist or just printing coloring pages goes far as well! A lesson in art can be as simple or as complex as you would like to make it, but it is always fun! 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

Other segments in this series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4



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Learning Away From Home...Part 3

Hello friends, we are still learning while away and in Mexico and I wanted to share with you another lesson that can be taught while on vacation. Today's lesson focuses on reading, researching, spelling and vocabulary along with map work and history. During my lesson planning time, or as this was a last minute trip, during my flight, I came up with research questions that the kids needed to answer through looking up in different sources. They used maps, books, magazines, the computer and even spoke to local people.

The idea was to spend more time exploring and learning and not just saddled to a desk. The research was to be done for just a couple hours a day, IF that. What better way to learn than by touching, feeling, hearing, seeing and DOING!!

I like to do the research in books part before we leave or after we get back, this allows us more space for other books while we are on the road! In the questions that I ask (about 15-20 a day), I use big words that they may need to look up, to understand what I am asking. I also like them to learn about the history of the places we are learning about and have them make a timeline using index cards to make flashcards for each important year. Once all of it is done, they put them in order to make a timeline of history!

While on location, this is the perfect place to interview people, observe and report, photograph and most of all LEARN! One thing I absolutely love about Mexico, is how social the streets are, everyone is sitting in their gardens and talking to all that walk by. People stop and chat or shout and wave if they are in a hurry, if they are driving by, they honk! These moments are the perfect time to stop and chat with locals, oftentimes many locals open up their homes as restaurants, candy shops or the like. Learning from locals is the best way to learn.

When going on personal interviews, I always give the kids at least 2 questions each to ask people but then they have to come up with at least 2 of their own. They can ask 4 different people or just 1 person. I have them write all the questions down and keep them in their pocket whenever we go out, this keeps the questions always on hand.

Take a moment to enjoy every minute my friends!

Other posts in this series:
Part 1
Part 2

One more part left!

 

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Upcoming...

 

Those that know us, know that we are always on the road, we love to explore and visit and learn about new people and place. I truly believe that I have ants in my pants...I cannot sit still and I must always be on the move, this must be why homeschooling works so well for me. We have been planning out east coast trip for so long, I feel as though we are expecting to do too much on this trip, but I would rather have too much planned, than not enough! We plan on hitting up 7 states along with a jaunt in Canada, this should definitely be quite the learning experience! I am still finishing up the Learning While Away series I started, but wanted to let you know about this trip as well. These are both segments of the blog that will be taking up quite a bit of time and most likely be intersecting. The first series will touch about how we learn while on vacation and the second will take place on the road with more live action shots out of the classroom, not so much of the preparing portion. The second series will be called On the Road to Learning: A homeschoolers guide to hands on learning.

Last week was a total wash as we were busy from sun up to sun down, it was FAIR WEEK! As 4-H kids, they were plenty busy! I am proud to say that  of 7 projects entered into the fair, we had 7 blue ribbons and even 1 class winner! Not bad for 3 kids in their first 6 months of being 4-H members! They have high hopes for this year and I am very excited for this new branch of our life that we have fallen in love with. I plan to share more about our 4H life, but if you are interested, PLEASE message me or contact your local branch, you do NOT have to be a farm kid to join 4H!!! I was always so wrong about this group and only wish that I hadn't missed out on the previous years of this. Some parents in our group are former 4H members themselves, it's awesome!! The fair has packed up and left town yesterday, so now I am ready to get back on focus!

 

These travel segments take a lot of time, planning and research and I really want to share so much of them with you, I only hope you can bear with me as I get everything organized and try not to mix up the 2 segments I will be sharing. There are countless trips to the library, so many that our lack of presence was actually noticed in the library while in Mexico! I try not to buy what I can find at the library, and that has helped me save plenty of pretty travel pennies! This upcoming trip promises to be quite the undertaking! Not only are we driving, but we plan on stopping and seeing things in each state, from Illinois to New York with plenty of stops in between! From Philadelphia to Niagara Falls in Canada and then going home through Canada and down Michigan and back home again...oh the excitement is unbearable, but I can even admit that we are NOT ready to leave yet, too many loose ends to tie up and too many things left to plan!!

Enjoy every minute of it my friends! My notebooks are bursting and my pencil tips keep breaking, I have too much to write and not enough time to plan...oh how will I ever be able to properly plan a month in Mexico? A month in Europe with 12 countries to hit up? Ahhh..the life of an adventurer...

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Learning While Away...Part 2

Yesterday, I shared our learning while away lesson on how we can always be learning, even when on the road. A lot goes into planning a vacation, why not get some learning squeezed in there too. This has helped so much in this time of emergency, when I didn't have time to come up with a real lesson plan. You can read part 1 HERE!

Today's lesson is a very important one when traveling, it involves a lot of math and all of it is mental math. It is important to know how to do your math in your head when travelling, because you will purchase most items at outdoor stalls and booths, in open air markets and from people that may not be as educated as you wish they would be when dealing with money. Everyone makes mistakes, it is important to not have them made to you.

Today's lesson was on changing money. It is important to only change the amount of money you will need for the day, unless you think it is a very good exchange rate. The rates fluctuate daily and even multiple times during the day. Also keep in mind that not all places pay out the same amount, so keep checking with more than your hotel front desk and houses of change, banks tend to pay out higher amounts but also have longer lines.

1. The first step was to find the days exchange rate, this can be found by a quick Google search.
2. I gave the children the amount of money that would be exchanged and they had to calculate what I would get back if the exchange rate we came across was the exact same as what we found online.
3. We headed out and went to buy PESOS, we went to 3 different places and they had to write down the exchange rate at each place and calculate how much we would get back. Out of the 3 places, they then told me where we would get the most for our USD and we headed back there to exchange money.

Because we were spending most of our time in hospitals, much of our trip was spent eating out at food stalls, stands and some restaurants and our souvenir shopping (if any) was done in open air markets, this was where it was time to prepare the mind mentally as you don't have the time to pull out a calculator, and you should always be prepared!
1. If the kids wanted to buy something, I sent them to several stalls to compare prices, once the best price was found, they had to exchange it to USD at the price we paid and find out if in fact it was a good deal or worth the price.

2. When paying, the children had to show me which bills and or coins to pay with and then they had to tell me how much change they would get in advance of paying, so that they were ready when the change came.

3. At the end of each day, they would look at the amount we started out with and the amount left and then they would calculate how much money was spent and if we were on budget if a budget was given ahead of time. As this was an emergency trip, we were not going on a budget.

I hope you enjoyed this part of our lesson, stay tuned for more on part 3 next week!
Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Junk Drawer Learning

If there is one thing I love doing the most, it's making art from items that would normally be thrown away, something else I love to do, is to make learning manipulatives! A few simple ingredients that we had around the house and 1 hour of Criminal Minds and I had a Color Spelling Game!

This game is perfect for a literacy center for kids to work on quietly alone or in a group. All you need are:

1. Used File Folder
2. Water Bottle Caps
3. Circle Labels (But you can use a sharpie right on the labels if you want!)
4. Dark Marker
5. Crayons

Once you have gathered all your items, just make up the alphabet on labels or righto on the caps and then add in the extra letters you will need for colors that double letters in their spelling. My game is for color spelling, but once you have the caps made, you can just make multiple file folder games using the same caps! Use your folder as your game mat and add on whatever you need to do and then draw circles or lines, so they know how many letters are in each word!

The caps can be used with the game or alone as an alphabet game or even for use with some spelling list words, to spell names and numbers as well!

Use cardstock or cut down an old file folder to make self checking cards with the correct spelling and the same picture that you used on the game mat. These cards can be used alone or with the game mat.

Pop everything loose into a baggie and staple it to the back of the file folder, now it all stores neatly and together.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Wordless Wednesday...Not Really

Field trip to the police station ends with my daughter in handcuffs! 

Bag of books sale at the library! 

A reading club WITH snacks? Yup, he's loving it!

Cross country practice ended with an egg run in honor of Easter! 

My little seamstress enjoyed her tween sewing club and making a treat pouch! 

Loving every minute of watching this big hearted boy of mine grow up!

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Field Trip Friday

Friday brought with it the excitement of a field trip and the simple fact that it was Friday! Our Homeschool Group (The Rockford Homeschoolers) was meeting up at the ComEd Discovery Lab and I have to admit that this one ranks up there as one of our top field trips! A great big thank you to Field Trip Factory for making this one happen!

This field trip was chock full of information, laughter and so much more. The kids had many hands on experiences, which was perfect for visual learners and kids that just want to get up and learn!

Linemen from ComEd came out and showed the kids what their job entails and with that had many kids in the palm of their hands! They climbed poles, answered questions and let us all take a look at their gear. 

Their training facilities are so large that it allowed us many places to explore and learn about. 

Not only do they have indoor facilities but plenty of outdoor sections as well. There seemed to be no place that was off limits to the kids as long as they were with the tour guide!

We even got to see a training class in session, which showed the kids that not only were they in a field trip facility but a working school as well!

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Sunday School Post #3

It's Sunday and I am very late in posting, for this I apologize! We havde had a busy day and last night was rough with my youngest having growing pains all night and up until 4:30. Now, let's get on with the post! Has anyone out there done the Love Dare? My husband and I plan on doing both the one for couples and parents as our challenge for Lent. It is definitely something that strengthens our bond as a couple and as parents, gotta love it! Read More HERE!

I created that worksheet on the left of the Our Father prayer, for our lapbook. Little did I know that as I was preparing other portions of the lapbook, that this would be fun in itself. My kids all know this prayer, but a friend asked us to make a lapbook for a fun learning resource for her and this is what we came up with. For just this game print out THESE TWO PAGES. Laminate the page with the words and just slip the other page of blocks into a page protector. Cut out each block of words and mix them up and now have your student try and put them in order.

Here is our lapbook! The cover is a coloring page, my daughter added a little heart that says Jesus Loves Me. Open it up and on the left hand side are trivia questions pertaining to the Our Father as well as prayer in general. In the file folder is an Our Father holy card and will soon be home to Vocabulary Cards, using words from the Our Father:

art, hallowed, will, tresspasses, temptation
In the middle is the sheet of blank squares and on the right hand side is an envelope with all the pieces in it. I also have a little sticker that says how many pieces should be in the envelope. It's a fairly simple design, but should be a great teaching tool for this awesome prayer. I have not decided what to put on the back side yet.

Do your kids get Magnifikid? This is a great magazine to help children follow along in mass and learn along the way, but not only that, we use it in our homeschool as well! Each child gets a magazine subscription and there is always excitement when it arrives. The first thing I do is grab the one for this coming week and place an AVERY removeable tab with writing space on the last page. This is where the children jot ONE line from the homily that stood out to them, we then discuss their line that evening as a family. It's amazing how different things stand out to everyone. I love this part of our Sundays! Next, I tuck in their offering envelope that I picked up from Family Christian.

My children must put their money away in 3 ways: Save, Spend & Church. They are free to divide it up as they wish and that is where the money for their offering comes from. They tuck them all away into one of their Veggietales bags. 

These magazines are a wealth of information and we absolutely love using them to prepare for Mass. On Monday we read the comic and then discuss the project it would like us to do throughout the week. We then read the letter from the editor as well, next we write down all the difficult words from the readings that they have highlighted onto the board and discuss their meanings. We leave these words up all week to discuss or use in conversation each day. On Tuesday, we read the spotlight of the week and go through the order of the Mass as we read the readings that we will hear on Sunday. On Wednesday we discuss the readings and psalm along with going over the difficult words again. Thursday brings us back to that week's project it had us do and we talk about all that we learned and or collected for that week and then do the activity page. On Friday, we read about the Saint that they have shared with us and once again go over the difficult words. Each day we say the morning prayer they have provided us with in class and every evening we pray the evening prayer together as a family before the children head to bed. Now they are prepared for Sunday mass and can listen attentively and know everything that is being read or said. 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

Find Links to my other Sunday School posts in my Little Catholic Homeschool post HERE

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