Summer Classroom

We almost always take the month of May off from school. However, homeschooling is more of a way of life for us. We make a conscious choice to seize every opportunity to learn. We never take a break from math or reading. I am just less rigid about it when we are on "break".

So here we are, approaching the month of May. It's my favorite month of the whole year. The weather is perfect. Everything is green with new life. We are all usually just itching to spend more time outside.

We spend a lot of time on the back deck. It has sort of morphed into an extension of our "classroom". We have a weather center, botany projects, and even an art project going right now. There are also little lessons on conservation (rain bucket to catch water, clothes line to save electricity, and compost to reduce waste). Sometimes we listen to culturally diverse music and just rock out in our Summer Classroom.





We are trying our hands at cucumber this year.



This paper mache dragon is over 6 feet long! He is going to be hunted by some brave knights during our Homeschool Field Day next week.

Reading Incentive

I found these fun little bookmarks at Staples. They had a whole stack of them for a couple of dollars. In each box I write the chapters or page numbers that I want the kids to read. Then when they complete a box they mark it with an "X". I only do this for their extra reading. I want my kids to read for fun. They can turn in a completed bookmark for a dollar. The faster they finish the more money they can earn.



So far it's working. They boys picked out some really great books that they are enjoying!

Friday's Homeschool Feature

Welcome to Friday's Homeschool Feature. I'm excited about getting this going. I love homeschooling my kids. I love our many adventures!

Today my Homeschool Feature is Geography. You really don't need a curriculum for geography. You just need maps.

My kids love maps, all kinds of maps. We have road maps, physical maps, political maps, and ancient maps. Often I will hand them a student notebook atlas to look at while I read the history lesson for the day. This is especially great when my history lesson takes them from one place to another or discusses a particular region. These can be found for less than $5.00. I have one for each student. This way they don't distract me from my reading while they pass it around.

One like this:


I've mentioned in my post, History and Geography, how much I love the laminated maps from Geography Matters. I only gave them a short blurb. These maps are fantastic. They are just the right size for more than one kid to work with. Typically we write on them with wet erase markers, simply because the kids won't smear eachother's answers when they are reaching across to the other side.

Sometimes I pull out a map just for fun and have them fill in as much as they can from memory. Being competitive little creatures, (...don't know where they got that gene as Leon and I are both very uncompetitive) they turn it into a game of seeing who can label the most. Notice they are using different color markers.

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