Cycle 3 History Cards

They're ready!
History cards for Weeks 1-12 are available to download at CC Connected!

2 - Minute History Date Review!

I've LOVED all the important dates in history that we learned this past year in CC! And I've just loved them so much that I do not want Mary (or myself!) to forget them. So, I've come up with an extremely simple way for us to review the dates:

Easy cheesy match-up!
In the center of our dining room table, I have a little basket of stuff (art cards, opera cards, etc.). This game also stays in the basket, and we pull it out and do it about three times a week at snack. All I did was take a piece of yellow construction paper, write the name of the wars and other major events and their corresponding dates, cut them into strips, laminate (always optional, btw), and viola!

This quick review literally takes about two minutes, and I love it! And obviously Mary's very pleased with herself when she matches everything up correctly. ;) Love that girl!
Want the game?
Click here to download!
In other news, my Usborne Books & More kick-off par-tay is TOMORROW! Eeeek! I'm SO excited about beginning this new chapter in my life! Click here to learn why I became a consultant for Usborne.

If you'd like to shop the eShow (which will be closing this week) and get exclusive customer specials, please click here. There are just an insane number of books to choose from (over 1,400 titles!), so I made a list of my favorites for the upcoming Cycle 3:

We've had some friends already shop the eShow, and I thank you so much for your support! I'll be starting a VIP guest program soon, too. I'll share more details in just a bit, but basically when you shop with me five times and each order is $35 or over, you'll get a $25 gift certificate after the fifth order. Isn't that awesome?! So, if you shop my eShow and your order qualifies, you'll automatically be entered into the VIP program! I'll keep up with it all - no hassles for you! (yay!)
And if you're curious about how all this book party stuff works, I'll be posting pictures and an update when mine is over so you can see what it's like. Can't wait!

Using Puppets

(trumpet fanfare)
Meet King Arithmetickle of Countalot!

History Sentence Cards - Second Semester

History Sentence Cards for Weeks 13-15 are up on C3!
Search for username: melodystroud
We scramble these up and Mary puts them back in order as she sings the song. I also use them when I tutor, and the kiddos seem to like the pictures. Click here to learn more about the history cards.
I plan to have the rest of the weeks' cards finished before the new year, but we'll have to see. Lots going on around here, as I'm sure it's the same with you, too. :)
Have a restful Sunday, friends!

Tutor, May I? Review Game

Tutor, May I is one of my favorite review games! 
The kids are up and moving, sometimes jumping, hopping, or even crawling. The picture above pretty much explains it all:

The $1 Tutor Trick!

If you're a tutor (or a mom reviewing the CC memory work at home) and you get blank stares with little to no participation when you introduce the cubes, or future perfect tense, or other bodies in our solar system, you may want to fork over $1 at your local Target or Wal-Mart and give this trick a try:

Marble Run Review Game

This review game was quick and easy (the best kind!). And a pool noodle was involved - you can't get more fun than that! ;) Click the picture above for a closer look.
My husband sliced a $1 pool noodle in half with regular scissors, and the kids took turns sending a marble down the chute after answering review questions. I made it a little more interesting by cutting holes in cardboard boxes that they could aim for (cereal boxes turned inside out). I had good intentions of decorating the boxes and making them each unique (like a hotel, a bank, a store), but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe over the upcoming break, maybe not; the kids enjoyed it regardless. As you can see, I did have a mom do the aiming, but my littles didn't mind (whew!).
Check out more review games at Tutor Talk!

Time Periods of Classical Music Song and Game

We'll use this song in Week 19, but I thought I'd go ahead and post it while I have a free minute (so rare nowadays!). Click here to download the free match-up game you see in the video!

Using the Art Cards

Have you tried the Art History Cards yet? If not, click here to learn more. If you do have the cards, thank you for supporting the Chapman family with your purchase! Now, what in the world are you doing with them?! Ha!  Actually, there are many ways to use these cards, and I'd like to share with you what we do at home:

Art History Card Game

Meet the Chapmans, a family that has captured my heart. Amanda and I met in a homeschool preschool group a few years ago; she was the first person to tell me about Classical Conversations! We have grown very close this past year, and I am honored to have her in my life. 

Like every family, the Chapmans have had struggles, and I'll let Amanda share more on that in a minute. But despite all of the medical problems in their precious family (her son was just declared legally blind in one eye, and her sweet daughter has had numerous eye surgeries herself), the Light of God has been shining brightly through their lives. If I could pick one word to describe Amanda and Brett, it would be

brave.

Cycle 2 Memory Work Flip Chart - REVISED!

A very kind reader has proofed the memory work flip chart for Cycle 2. I've updated the file on C3, so feel free to pull down another copy if you'd like (user name: melodystroud). If you already have the flip chart and would like to just fix the changes with a pencil or print out just the pages with corrections, here they are:

Review Games We've Used So Far

I'm four weeks into my first year of tutoring a CC class, and it is so much fun! We've tried lots of different review games, and here are the class favorites so far:

Say it in a funny voice!

Art Movement Scramble Game and Update

I had a little light bulb pop on in my head early this morning (like 2 a.m. early - uuuugh!). And this is the result:

Art History Game Sample

I've got a sample ready of the art history cards, and I'd love your feedback!

History Sentence Review Cards

I need... hmmm... something, something, something (fingers drumming on table) to help with History each week... maybe something the kids could mix up and put back in order as they sing the song... what could that be...

History Sentence Review Cards!

One of my C3 Superstars, Grismar, is taking a different path this year and won't be doing Classical Conversations. Eeeek! What will I do?! We used a LOT of her resources last year in our community; she's very creative. One of my favorite things she made was an illustrated history sentence (aka history cards) for each week's memory work. Last year, I cut them out, laminated the pieces, mixed them up, and then let Mary put them in order while she sang the songs. Fun, easy, and quick - perfect!

Well, since she won't be doing that this year (sniffle, tear), I decided to go ahead and create these cards for the first semester history sentences. They're on C3 under my user name, melodystroud. Now, I know not everyone has access to C3, but since this is all copyrighted material from the Foundations Guide, C3 is where these have to go. And I'm very sorry, but I really can't email these out. I know, it's a bummer, it really is. But, these didn't take too long to make; so, if you'd like to make your own, just open up Publisher and start searching for some images (but watch out when you get to Week 11; it's a little gory!).

Hopefully these little cards will add some fun to your history review!

Target Practice Review Game!

I've got two little boys in my soon-to-be class, and I wanted to make a review game that might appeal to them a little more than my favorite Hungry Frog game (although, really, that's just the cutest widdle game ever!) So, after seeing something similar to this on Pinterest (of course), I came up with Target Practice! 

Click here to get the pdf and make your own!

It's pretty self-explanatory I think. You set the targets up at varying distances, ask a student (or your own child if playing at home) a question. If he answers correctly, he gets to take a shot. Since I have littles (all Kinders I think), I'll just keep one big class score instead of separate tallies for each student; we'll just see how many points we can get as a class.

To knock over the laminated targets, I bought the cheapest Nerf gun I could find, and it's pretty awesome! I've never bought a boy toy before, seeing as how I have two girly-girls, and I didn't really know if what I was buying would work. But, it did, and if you have boys, you probably already have some kind of toy gun that would work well for this game.

There you have it! If you use Target Practice, I hope it brings some fun and excitement to your review time!

Check out more review games over at Tutor Talk:

Hungry Frog Review Game!

Okay, so, I'm in love with this super-cute review game! I mean, in l-o-v-e! It's the sweetest, cutest, pinch-its-cheeks-and-give-it-a-nosey-nose game ever (well, to me anyway)!

Allow me to introduce you to my newest obsession review game:

HuNgrY FrOg!

I spent 50 cents in the little toy thingy at the grocery store to get this sticky frog (we've named him James). I found some cute cartoon garden bugs online, printed them out, wrote a review subject on the back, laminated, and boom - the cutest review game in the whole wide world!

I can't wait to try this out with my class of littles soon!

Check out more games over at Tutor Talk:

Speaking of littles, I'll be tutoring Mary's CC class this year! I've very, very excited! To help make things run smoother on CC days, I've made my own tri-fold dry erase board to bring with me each week. Suzanne at Suzanne Shares shared how she made one and loved it, and, since I'm the biggest copycat this side of the Mason-Dixon, I made one, too! I used white panel board from Lowe's and hot pink duct tape (because, why wouldn't you?!), and the whole project cost less than $20. I actually was able to make two boards (by myself, I might add!) out of the one sheet of panel, so Mary now has her very own school board. She loves it!

She had Kitten School this morning, which turned into CC School with her huggable loveables as her students. Adorable! This was a very simple project (Lowe's cut the panel for free!), and I'm so excited about all the time it will save me on busy CC mornings (CC tutors write all the memory work for the week on a white board before class begins. Now I can write it all out at home and not be rushed in the mornings!) Check out Suzanne's awesome post about other ways to use the board at home! Thanks so much, Suzanne, for sharing!

And just so Anna's not left out, here's what happens when she's left to her own devices:

I just turned my back for a minute! She's my cutie-pie. :) I'll do a little Anna update soon, too; we've had some new developments with her health. Nothing to worry about, though. :)

I hope you have a happy day!

Bang! Review Game Freebie

Don't you just love review games?!

I'll be tutoring Mary's class at our new CC campus this year (so excited!), so I've been keeping my eyes open for cute games to use in class.

I found Bang! at a wonderful piano teacher blog called Color In My Piano. Wow, is her site amazing! We've used some of Joy Morin's other games with our music practice at home, so I was very excited to come across something I could adapt for use with CC review!

I took an empty tissue box, wrapped it in pretty pink duct tape, printed off some cards, and viola! To play, students pull out a card and answer a review question in that category. If she says the correct answer, the student keeps the card. If she misses it, the class helps, and I'll probably still let her keep the card, depending on the ages in the class (at home, Mary will only get to keep the card if she answers correctly). If a student pulls out a Bang! card, all the cards she's collected must be returned to the pink box. Pretty easy!

Click here to download the Bang! cards and see more of Joy Morin's awesome games!

If you'd like to download the review category cards that I made, please click here. I printed on colored card stock and laminated (because, hey, if it can be laminated, I will laminate). ;)

Have you found any fun review games to use in class or at home? I'm always on the lookout, so holla back!

Check out more review games at Tutor Talk:

Classical Notebook and Music Game Freebie

I'm a copycat. A big one.

So, when I was checking out last week's Trivium Tuesday over at Living and Learning at Home (which really is awesome, by the way. I get so much inspiration from this link-up! Thanks, Amy!), I ran across Brandy's post at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood about the notebook.

I loved Brandy's idea of turning her breakfast notebook into a 'classical' notebook, which now has memory work review things added to the obligatory calendar stuff. I liked it so much that I made one for each of my girls:

(What you can't see in this picture is the bright pink sparkly binder cover. Sheesh!)

I have a divider for 

• Calendar - this has days of the week, days in school, a traceable calendar
• Handwriting - beginning handwriting sheets (from Staples), and plain lined paper
• Geography - maps of the world and Europe, labeled and non-labeled, and a continent blob tracing map from Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood
• History - Cycle 2, Week 1's history sentence to trace (from C3)
• Fine Arts - my classical music game (see below), and plain staff paper to practice drawing notes (both girls take piano)
• Presidents - one page with all the presidents' pictures (from C3)
• Latin - review stuff from Cycles 1 and 2
• Math - skip counting mazes

If you want to know exactly where I got everything, check out Brandy's post at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood, because I totally just copied her, which is pretty standard for me. ;)

I love how so much great stuff is in one binder. I anticipate Mary and I doing school on-the-go sometimes this coming year as we take Anna different places. Now I can just say, "Mary, bring your binder," and we can practice handwriting, review math, and lots of other fun stuff wherever we happen to be. Pretty neat!

Now, onto the freebie!

We're big music fans here. I really want my girls to know the five time periods of Classical music. It may sound nerdy, but hey, I'm cool with that. So, I created a little matching game to keep in Mary's binder:

We learned this last year in Week 19 of Classical Conversations to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I've included the lyrics we use in the game download. This could easily be made into a file folder game, if you're so inclined. For the composers, I included all the ones we study in each cycle of CC.

Click here to download the 5 Time Periods of Classical Music match-up game!

What about you? Have you made a Calendar Notebook or a Classical Notebook (or anything similar)? How did it work out? Any tips for a first-timer?

Funday Mondays

In attempt to make reviewing fun (because I tend to suck the fun out of things at times), we've started Funday Mondays. Every Monday, we just play review games to prepare for Tuesday's CC day. Here's what we do (although we never do everything each Monday):

Clockwise from top:

CC Quest by Karin Dewey

Mary just rolls a die and tries to get across the board by answering review questions. The real game is more involved, but going across the board is just right for her now.

Cat Tails Review Sticks by Brandy at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood

I think Brandy calls them Wiggly Worms. We had this cat can left over from another activity, so we just put the sticks in it and have Mary 'pull a tail' and answer a question. It's really funny when I make a cat noise when she pulls out a stick. Ha!

File folder games for Math and Latin (links further down)

Mini Timeline Cards - homemade

I mix up the current week's cards and she puts them in the correct order.

Counting Up the Mountain by Susan Paradis

We have renamed this game Race to the Top. Mary rolls a die and answers a review question to move toward the top. I play too, and the winner is the first one up the mountain.

Geography Cards by Crecia at CCing it one day at a time

I mix these up and let Mary pick one. Then she has to find that location on a map.

Review Spinner & Funny Voices Cards

She spins and answers a question in one of the funny voices. Cute.

The spinner can be found on C3:

username: meljohnson

file name: GameSpinner.pdf

Education Cubes by Mama Jenn

Simply roll and answer. Easy cheesy.

Here's a little more info. on the Math file folder game:

This game is called Math Match Game: Weeks 12-20, and it's on C3:

username: kkillingsworth

file name: Match game for Wks 12-20_4th Edition.pdf

Her Latin game below is also really cool! 

 

username: kkillingsworth

file name: C1 Latin Match Game - Noun Endings.pdf

This picture above is a close-up of the Cat Tail game. She pulls a tail with a category, and then I ask a question. You really do have to sound like a cranky cat to maximize the fun. ;)

The big finale of Funday Mondays is The Challenge!

The Challenge is a review game I came up with using Karin Dewey's Memory Master Sticker Chart (I asked Karin to laminate it so I could use it over and over again. She'll do it for a little extra if you ask her when ordering). Now, Mary is not going for Memory Master, but I do want to review everything we've learned so far, hence this little game.

Okay, here's how it works:

This chart has every CC category and a box for each week (click here and scroll down for a better picture). I start at the top and ask Mary to tell me the review work for that subject and the first week. If she gets it right, I put an M&M (her favorite candy) on the box, and then we continue to go down the column until she misses one. If she misses one, we go over what she missed and move on to the next subject. However, if she fills up a column (one semester) with M&Ms, like below . . .

She gets this:

A trip to the Treasure Chest!

Every's girl's dream come true! ;)

Bribing, you say? Hmm . . . I prefer to call it . . . motivation!

I found the treasure chest at Target for around $10, and then I filled it up with junk cute stuff from Party City, Target's dollar aisle, and Dollar General.

She's known her prepositions for a long time, so she knocked out the English Grammar first semester column with no problems. She picked out a Tinkerbell bracelet for her hard work.

Check out that look! Ha! She's working on History in the picture above, and she knows she's almost earned the Treasure Chest. Only one more week's sentence to go! Can she do it? (Those X's you see on the board are where the M&Ms were - the weeks she knew. Now I can quickly see the areas we need to work on more.)

Yep! Look at that chocolatey-goodness face! (Of course, she gets to eat the M&Ms when she's done!)

I really like The Challenge because it's a great visual for me as her teacher to see where we need to spend more time (Math, Latin, and Geography). I'm also treating this game as a really big deal; we only do it on Funday Mondays. So far, it's working! She's pumped about reviewing, and I'm happy that we're having fun together.

Do you have any fun ways to review? Don't be shy; leave a comment and share!