Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit

This week, we did a unit on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I have always been fascinated with MLK.  I love that he stood up for what he believed in and never backed down... all while doing it peacefully!  It took a strong person to be able to take on our country and try to change the way people treated and segregated the African American community at that time.  I appreciate what he did and thankful God sent him here to help make the world a better place!!

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I downloaded this unit study off of the Teachers Pay Teachers website- it came with a printable book that was wonderful- it made it easy for both my seven and three year old to understand who he was and what was going on during this time in history!  I highly recommend it for younger kids!!  CLICK HERE FOR UNIT STUDY

The unit study also included this cute MLK color, write and cut!  L wrote, "Peace, Equality, Freedom."

Here are a couple other resources we used

Here L is watching MLK's most famous, "I have a Dream" speech

Here are the three additional books we read throughout the week

I also downloaded from the Teachers Pay Teachers website, a MLK paper bag template- the boys had fun coloring and glueing them on their bags :-)  CLICK HERE FOR PAPER BAG TEMPLATE

I feel that both boys learned a lot about MLK this week and also have a better understanding of what life was like over 50 years ago.

Learning about Ancient Egypt!

We are just finishing up our unit on Ancient Egypt in History!  I was really excited about this unit because I LOVE everything about Ancient Egypt- let's just say, I got really into it!!  L had a lot of fun reading books, watching educational movies and doing many activities that went along with what we were learning.

L & B with their Pharaoh crowns and clay pyramids 

Landon's favorite activity was toilet paper mummy!!

We also talked about archeology in this unit- here L is digging for real fossils!! 

Sad to be moving on, but looking forward to the next ancient civilization!!

FREE Printable Maps!!

I found this great site that has free printable maps- big or small!!  As homeschoolers, this is a wonderful resource.

Here is L working on his African map for science!!

FREE PRINTABLE MAPS

Cold Fall Day

We started our Saturday, freezing our tushes off at L's soccer game at 8am.  It was 37 degrees out with a "feels like" temp of 33- my toes were sooooo cold, it took forever for me to warm them up when we got home!  

We were so PROUD of L at his game, he scored his first goal ever!!  It was the best feeling to watch his excitement and see his face just light up.  He was on top of the world for the rest of the day.

After that, Hubby and the boys went outside to rake the leaves in the front yard- they had so much fun jumping in the pile of leaves!!  I was "updating" my hair, okay who am kidding... I was coloring my hair inside while they were doing it, so I ran out there quick and snapped a picture (before anyone could see me- haha)!! 

Later in the day I decided to run out and go shopping to get all the things that I have needed for the past month.  I have been on Weight Watchers since August and have lost nineteen pounds... so I have needed a new pair of jeans and such.  B wanted to come with me so bad and was super pumped when I told him he could come!  As soon as I pulled up to the store, I looked behind me and B had passed out!! 

He did so great while out shopping with me.  We went to three different store and ended with picking up dinner.  Not one single complain and he enjoyed his time with mommy :-)

Busy, Busy, Friday!!

Today was another busy day!  For us, Fridays are for finishing any schoolwork that we didn't get to throughout the week- plus Spanish, art and our science experiment.

For Spanish today, we talked about "mi casa."  So, after completing the lesson, L was to go outside and  draw a picture of our house.  He really liked doing this and spend a lot of time getting it  "just right" ;-)

After we completed L's schoolwork for the day, we took off to meet up with friends from our homeschool group at the roller skating rink!  Our local rink has homeschool days once a month and the boys just LOVE going and skating with their friends.

Taking a break from skating!!

Since both the boys are still learning how to skate, we rent a "skate mate"- it helps a ton!

When we got home, B still had science to finish.  We talked about different animal habitats and he had to figure out in his book which animal went with what habitat.  After that, we made an ocean habitat!!  B, who is three, really thought it was fun!

What we used: a clear bottle (we used an old vitamin bottle), water, oil, glitter, blue food coloring, shells, rocks and fish stickers.

Add it all together and hot glue the cap on (with moms help of course)

Voila!!  Our sea habitat!!  B wanted to put in a lot of blue food coloring, so it turned out pretty dark, but he was very excited about it.  It is very pretty when you shake it all up!

Why a Homeschooling Blog?

Well, frankly I have so much to share about our daily life as a homeschooling family!!  I love reading other HS family blogs to get ideas and to relate... I figured, I can share what we do and maybe help others who are homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling.

When we first decided to pull our son out of public school and try homeschooling, I was very nervous about how I was going to "socialize" him.  I quickly learned that there are so many groups, co-ops and activities to join, that it is hard to decided on what to do.

I consider ourselves a very active and social family.  During the week my first grader is involved with Lego League on Mondays, choir (and right now soccer practice) on Tuesdays, gym class on Wednesdays and field trips with our group one to two times a week.  So, I pretty much laugh at people who say homeschoolers are "unsocial."  Not true- period!  We are actually busier and more social now, then we have been since the kids were born.

We use Sonlight for our curriculum and absolutely love it!  We are currently using Core B (First Grade) and my son is so into history and science!!  We have been discussing archeology and today he wanted to go to the river to see if he could find and "discoveries" like we read about!  We did and he found one.

We did some research- Trilobite or Shell??


I can not wait to share more about our daily life as Happy Active Homeschoolers :-) 

BLOG UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!