Plans: Cycle 1 - Weeks 23 and 24

also called

Giving Myself Grace.

It takes many hours to put together a planning post, time that I just don't have right now. Anna's on Spring Break this week, so we're not even thinking about school at the moment. However, I do want to share what we'll probably be doing for the remaining weeks of CC, but in a much shorter version:

Click here to see my Week 23 Pinterest board.

Click here to see my Week 24 Pinterest board.

Pinterest has been an invaluable tool in planning and organizing my school year. Have you tried it yet?

Also, to finish out our year of CC, we'll do pretty much whatever Grismar puts up on her fabulous blog, The Wise Nest. Honestly, if she makes it, we usually do it. :)

Well, there we go! I'm sorry that I didn't do the usual big post for my plans, but time is just getting away from me, and I know that most of you are already ahead of us anyway. I've really enjoyed pulling together different ideas and putting all of my favorites in one place. I'm telling you, if planning for Cycle 1 in three years isn't a piece of cake, I'm going to be disappointed - big time! ;) 

I hope you're all having a wonderful start to Spring. Enjoy the upcoming weekend!

Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 22

More Canada, eh?

(just couldn't resist)

History & Geography

Y'all, I just could not find much for this week (at this time. Grismar will usually put stuff up on her site a little closer to time, so be sure to check there, too!). Click here to read a little more about the British North America Act. And click here for another quick read.

Science

* Read some books:

* We'll check out this free 40-page weather unit for ages 3-9:

* We'll do some weather experiments, too, of course (that's the fun part!). Check out this post from Sola Gratia Mom; she uses the experiments from this blog. I haven't decided yet which ones we'll do, but I'm sure it will be some of these. Excited!

* Need more ideas or want to see some videos about weather fronts? Check out my Pinterest board for this week by clicking here.

Fine Arts

* C3 goodies that we'll use:

file name: AJT W22 Mozart.pdf

user name: NoGreaterJoy5

* We'll look at Brandy's absolutely amazing flow chart:

All of her great flow charts are on C3 under Brandy's user name: brandyferrell

* Listen to this audio about Mozart:

* This is a cute 5-minute video:

* And we'll do some SQUILT, too.

(Love this!)

Christian Missionary/Hero

* Click here to see my Cycle 1 schedule.

And let's end with one of my favorite little happies:

Ooooh! Gotta love that, right?! 

This post is being submitted to Brandy's Weekly Link-Up at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood.

Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 21

O Canada!

History
* Read SOTW2: Ch. 41, Exploration of Canada.
* Read SOTW3: Ch. 4, Exploration of Canada.
* Read some books:

* Perhaps do parts of this free Explorer Lapbook from Living Life Intentionally:

* Watch this short video on YouTube about the history of Canada:

Our family believes the earth is only 6,000 years old (approximately), so we'll have to correct the first statement in this video, but besides that, it's really, really good! This is the best video I've found that ties in with the entire history sentence.

* Watch this absolutely adorable cartoon singing about the Maple Leaf and other Canadian symbols:

Mary's going to LOVE this video above!

* And we'll watch this five-minute cartoon about Samuel de Champlain:

Click here to see the cartoon about John Cabot.

Geography
* Watch this video about the provinces of Canada:

It's a catchy song teaching all the provinces and territories, so it's a little different from our memory work this week - but I still like it. :)

* 2 Big, 2 Little has a great round-up of Canadian-themed crafts! I'd like to get a little crafty with Mary this week, so we'll pick something from this list.

Science
* We use all of NoGreaterJoy5's songs for our memory work, and this week's song is really great:

file name: AJT Cy1 Science W21 Circles of Latitude Song 2012.mp3

user name: NoGreaterJoy5

* Create this hemisphere mini book from Practical Pages:

I also LOVE her idea of touching parts of the body to help remember the memory work.

For example:

Top of head: Arctic Circle

Shoulders: Tropic of Cancer

Middle: Equator

Knees: Tropic of Capricorn (think of knee caps!)

Toes: Antarctic Circle

* Watch this video on YouTube about longitude and latitude. I'm loving these catchy songs!

* If you want to get really crafty this week, you could help your kids make a paper mache globe and draw the five major circles of latitude. I definitely want to do this one day with my girls!

* Check out my Pinterest board this week for more ideas and videos, too.

Fine Arts
* There are some good pages and activities about Bach on C3. We're going to do these:

file name: AJT W21 Bach Well Tempered Clavier.pdf

user name: NoGreaterJoy5

file name: bachcoloringpage.pdf

user name: TammyOostdyk

* We'll listen to this CD about Bach and his music:

Christian Missionary/Hero

* Click here to see my Cycle 1 schedule.

That's it for this week, friends!

How is your year winding down? Have you started looking at curriculum for next year? We just bought a terrific program to help Mary learn to write her letters, it's called TV Teacher. We'll start that up as soon as CC is over. To help us get into the Bible, we're going to do Bible Study Guide For All Ages starting this Summer. And then we'll start Singapore Math in the Fall. We'll keep reading books, too, of course, but we're not going to start any formal Language Arts program until first grade. That's really all we're doing for kindergarten next year, aside from our CC stuff.

I still can't believe that I've already ordered some kindergarten curriculum. Wow! The days are long, but the years are short. 

This post is being submitted to Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood's Weekly Link-Up. Need more ideas for this week? See what other mamas are doing:

Cycle 1 Weekly Plan List

Here's my list of Cycle 1 plans for littles at home. I never, ever do everything I plan, of course, but I do like to have plenty of ideas and options to choose from. I hope these can be of some help as you're planning out your school year. Enjoy!

(It's been a while since I've checked all the links, so please forgive broken/old ones. I just don't have the time to go back through and fix anything right now, so please just glean what you can. Thanks for your understanding! Enjoy!) 

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
Weeks 23 and 24

More...

and

Cycle 1 Christian Missionaries & Heroes List

Timeline Card & Bible Stories List

Cycle 1 Flip Chart (Only Available on C3)

Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 20

Mexico!

History
* Read SOTW3: Ch. 35 - Mexican Independence.
* Read SOTW4: Ch. 20 - Mexican Revolution.
* Color these Mexican coloring pages while I read aloud.
* Color the Mexican flag. I'm not a member of Enchanted Learning, but the page has some good information about the flag.
* Read some books:

* I won't show this to Mary yet (too young), but if you would like to learn more about Pancho Villa, you can watch the Biography episode of his life on Hulu for free by clicking here. 

* Want to learn ten interesting facts about Pancho Villa that you might not know? Check out this page. 

* If you really want to go all-out for this week's History, you can surprise your little ones with their very own Zapata doll (I kid you not):

He's even on sale, y'all! You know you want a cute and cuddly Revolutionary. It's okay to like him, really. ;)

Geography
* I printed page 23 of this lesson plan, and I'll have Mary color it while I read. It's a very basic, quick, and child-friendly map of Mexico, which will be just right for her.
* This sombrero craft looks fun! Mary loves to paint, so this should be great:

If we actually do this, I'll have to post a picture. I'm sure our sombrero won't be as nice and tidy as this one!

* If you'd like to try your hand at creating a Mexico lapbook, Homeschool Share has a good one available for free.

* And if you need more ideas, check out what Walking by the Way did when they studied Mexico! 

Warning: If you tend to compare yourself to other moms and then feel horrible that you're not as super and creative as others, you may want to skip this link. This is a fabulous way to learn about Mexico, and the mama did a great job making it fun and interesting for her kids, but don't compare yourself to her. I used to feel horrible after looking at others' plans, but not so much anymore. Moms and kids are different, and God knew that I was the perfect mom with just the right temperament and creativity for MY family. What works for one family will crash-and-burn for the next. So, get ideas, get inspired and motivated - but just don't get discouraged. That's my little pep talk. ;)

* Of course, we'll have to enjoy some Mexican food this week!

* And I would LOVE to make our own pinata! Seeing this just brings back memories of my 11th birthday party. Good times, good times. . .

Will we really do this? Ehh, probably not. But any excuse to bust open one of these babies should be seriously considered. I mean, this is educational, right? ;)

Math

* Who can resist some pizza math?!

Click here to get the worksheet. You will have to have an Education.com membership, but it's free, and I still don't get any spam from them (fingers crossed!). If your child prefers cookies, try this worksheet instead.

Science
* Watch this quick video from NASA about atmospheric pressure. Thanks, Kathy, for sharing this with me!
* Sola Gratia Mom is just rockin' it each and every week, y'all! We'll definitely copy her craft to help us learn about the layers of the atmosphere:

Isn't that awesome!

* We'll watch this video on the atmosphere from National Geographic on Youtube. It's pretty quick at just under five minutes, and the sky diver at the end is really cool!

* Kid's Geo has some good information, as well, on the layers of the atmosphere.

* Crecia at CCing it one day at a time has some GREAT video links for this week; I know we'll watch 'em!

Fine Arts

* We'll listen to this great audio on Handel:

* Brandy at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood has an incredible list of resources for studying the orchestra and famous composers. We'll be using a lot of her suggestions, like her awesome listening guide/flow chart and the Water Music activity page.

Christian Missionary/Hero

* This week we'll learn about Cameron Townsend, a missionary to Mexico.

UPDATE: Want to see what we really did this week? Click here!

This post is being submitted to Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood's Cycle 1 Weekly Link-Up. 

Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 19

The Anasazi People

(and the coolest History Sentence song on the CD!)

History

* Read this page about the Anasazi.
* This page is packed with information on the 'Ancient Ones.'
* Click here to see rock art from the Anasazi.
* Make an Anasazi-style plate:

* This video is really interesting, although it's over my 4-year-old's head. If you have older kiddos, or if you'd like to learn a little more about the Anasazi yourself, check out this 8-minute segment from The History Channel:

* And we'll read this book from our library:

Geography

* Read SOTW3: Chapters 22 and 23.
* This site has some great ideas for learning more about the differences between the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Be sure to scroll down to Week 4: Day 2 to get the good stuff for this week.

* This very quick video is fun to watch:

* I think I'm going to go ahead and teach Mary the names of all the 13 colonies. So we'll read this story together from Memory Joggers and draw little pictures (this looks like it will really work, by the way. I'm very excited about it!). Then we'll do this worksheet:

But since she can't write, I'll turn it into a Map Friends thing and put some Velcro stickies on it. She still thinks it's fun to put her little people on places, so maybe Tinkerbell will visit Delaware this week.

(I did have to join Education.com to access the file, but it's free, and I haven't gotten any spam from it - yet!) ;)

* Click here to see a hip-hop way to help your older student learn more about the 13 colonies. Pretty cool!
* This video is also good and really informative.

* Read some books:

* And then, of course, we'll watch some episodes of Liberty's Kids!

You can find episodes on Youtube and Netflix. Don't buy the series on Amazon right now; the price is outrageous! Wait until it gets down close to $30, which it has been in the past. These are EXCELLENT videos; our whole family loves them!

Science
* There are tons of ways to study the three ocean zones this week (just check Pinterest!), and I've chosen this awesome project by Sola Gratia Mom:

* We'll also read this week's section in our Earth Sciences Unit.

Math
* There are some neat videos on Youtube about finding the area of a circle:

This first one is not very exciting, but it helps explain why we use the formula we use. It's geared towards 7th and 8th graders.

The video above is a little more fun to watch.

* And if you have some kinesthetic learners, this math project from Our Fun Homeschool might be right up their alley:

We're definitely going to do this when Mary gets older!

Fine Arts (the Orchestra - YES!)

* We are a music-lovin' family, so I've been waiting and waiting for this fun week! The hubs plays in our church orchestra, and we already own a good amount of children's books on the subject. I'd love to share with you one of our favorites:

Farkle is a GREAT book about all the sections of the orchestra. My girls have loved this book!

Since the hubs plays the tuba, we'll have to check out this book and CD. When we were dating, I surprised him with an old VHS copy of Tubby the Tuba starring Dick Van Dyke. Good times. :)

* There are also a bunch of videos available online to help introduce the orchestra:

Click here to see Sesame Street's all-animal orchestra. This is a silly one, but it's good to show how hard the conductor works. Click here to see another one from Sesame Street that features a famous conductor and Elmo (this one is newer).

And this crazy little video we will watch numerous times, I have no doubt about it. It's cheesy as all get-out, and my girls will love it. Ha!

* This site has free downloadable coloring pages.
* DSO Kids is a great site to explore for this week. It has an interactive seating chart and online games!
* I'd love to get this Orchestra Toob for Mary:

Hobby Lobby carries this, so I can use my 40% off coupon!

* Mary is a little too young for these next resources, but they are definitely on my list of activities to look into again next year:

This first lapbook is the Composers Activity-Pak from Homeschool In The Woods. I LOVE this, and I really can't wait until Mary and I can make this together. Have you ever checked out Homeschool in the Woods? Wow, is it an awesome resource! They have an ahhh-mazing new Project Passport: Middle Ages that I'm looking into for next cycle. They also have tons of timeline resources. We haven't started a timeline yet, but that's certainly on my to-do list for the upcoming years.

This next lapbook is made to be used with Classical Conversations, so we'll also get this at some point:

The Cycle 1 Orchestra Study Guide with Lapbook from Wisdom and Righteousness looks absolutely fabulous, and I love how it's tailor-made to go along with the remaining weeks of CC! And, at under $5 for the instant download, it's very affordable.

* And finally, I absolutely want to make the Stand-Up Symphony:

How cool is this?! We can color a few at a time and put them all together at the end of the year!

Christian Missionary/Hero
* George Muller, Abraham Lincoln, and Harriet Tubman are the focus of this week; however, I'm sure we won't get to all of them at this point. It works best for Mary to focus on one person, but it's always good to have other options, right?

Click here for a good, brief children's biography of George Muller with questions at the end. Here's an idea: Before you introduce Muller to your kids, read this to them. Wow!

Mater Magistra's family made their own George Muller lapbook; too cool!

Click here for the full schedule of Cycle 1 Christian missionaries and heroes.

Well, that's it for this week! I hope your school year is wrapping up nicely; I really can't believe it's almost over (I know, I've been saying that a lot lately). Now, who's ready for the Summer practicums?! I never made it to one last year, but I plan to go this year. Can't wait! Have you been to one before? Is it totally awesome?

Want more ideas for Week 19? Head over to Brandy's Cycle 1 Weekly Link-Up at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood and prepare to be amazed at all the planning goodness! ;)

Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 18

Moundbuilders!

(How cool is that?!)

History

* Read this article on the Adena civilization.
* Use this fun idea from Luv and Learning and make our own mounds:

* Watch this little introduction from Searching For the Great Hopewell Road on youtube:

It's just under two minutes and serves as a great (and quick!) visual of the mounds.

* Watch one more quick video on youtube:

This one is just under five minutes and goes into a little more detail.

* Read this book from the library:

I was soooo excited to run across a children's book about the Moundbuilders!

* Take a family field trip to the Moundville Archaeological Park in Tuscaloosa, Alabama!
* Update: Click here to see what we actually did (and the memorable melt-down).

Geography

* Read SOTW2: Ch. 32 - Mesoamerica.
* Use our map friends with our updated Geography Review Book.

* Use Crecia's Geography Cards from CCing it one day at a time. I use these and my review book e-ve-ry week!

Math
* So, I know won't use this with Mary right now, but I just had to share this; it's waaaay too cool! Have you ever heard of Flocabulary? It's a method of teaching with hip-hop music. Now, being a former high school teacher, I know this would absolutely get the students' attentions and have them singing math formulas with no problem. It's awesome! Click here to see their video for the area of a triangle. The video itself is very, very helpful, even if you don't care for the beat. If you have older kids who are losing interest with geometry, this just may be helpful.

Science

* Make this super-simple craft that has very little educational value but will be lots of fun:

Click here to see another version of the Ocean-in-a-Bottle craft on a grander scale (2-liter).

Click here to see a cool (and easy) fish craft for the younger set.

* If you need something for your littles to work on, perhaps while working with your older kids, check out the Ocean Preschool Pack from 3 Dinosaurs:

And here's the cutest-ever girl version from 1 + 1 + 1 = 1:

* We'll read this book:

* I found this book at church and fell in LOVE with it! God Made the Ocean is an absolutely perfect introduction to the ocean for preschool and elementary kiddos:

* If you want to spend $3 on one worksheet, you can get an ocean floor to label by clicking here. Do y'all use Teachers Pay Teachers much? I actually have a 'store' on that site, but it's nothing I can use with my girls right now; it's all high school English stuff. However, if you're ever looking for figurative language and essay-writing PowerPoints, I'd be honored to have you take a look!

* And we'll keep working in our Science book:

Latin
* Are your declensions running together and your kids can't remember which is which? Click here to get some absolutely fabulous ideas to help with Latin from the blog Teaching Boys. I printed off all the stories and plan to really work with Mary using these aids. We're horrible at Latin!

Christian Missionary/Hero

* David Brainerd is this week's Christian missionary. We'll read this great biography for children, and hopefully this book below:

Click here to see the full schedule for Cycle 1.

Sometimes I like to find an inspirational or motivation quote to end with, but this one caught my attention tonight instead. Ha! Enjoy, friends!

Poor empty pants

With nobody inside them.

~ Dr. Seuss

(Sometimes you just feel a little silly, y'know?)

This post is being submitted to the Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood CC Cycle 1 Link-Up.