8th Grade Reading Log

Here is my son's reading log for this school year. Books required for school are marked with an *. You can see his 7th grade reading log HERE.

1. Snakehead (Anthony Horowitz)--2x
2. Crocodile Tears (Anthony Horowitz)
3. Ark Angel (Anthony Horowitz)--2x
4. Scorpia (Anthony Horowitz)
5. Eagle Strike (Anthony Horowitz)--2x
6. Skeleton Key (Anthony Horowitz)
7. Point Blanc (Anthony Horowitz)--2x
8. Stormbreaker (Anthony Horowitz)--2x
9. Lincoln: A Photobiography (Russell Freedman)*
10. Surviving Sharks and Other Dangerous Creatures (Allan Zullo)
11. A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt (C. Coco De Young)*
12. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
13. True Survival Stories (Paul Dowswell)
14. Crispin: The Cross of Lead (Avi)
15. Foundlings (Matthew Christian Harding)
16. The Mystery of the Midnight Ghost (Helen Moss)
17. Brighty of the Grand Canyon (Marguerite Henry)*
18. The Tale of Despereaux (Kate DiCamillo)
19. Gregor the Overlander (Suzanne Collins)
20. Basher Five-Two (Scott O'Grady and Miehael French)*
21. Strange Creatures of the Snow and Other Great Mysteries (Edward F. Dolan, Jr.)
22. Sunken Treasure (Katy Lee)
23. The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone (Bill Muir and Alex Kendrick)
24. Truth Seekers: The Machine (Bill Myers)
25. Misty of Chincoteague (Marguerite Henry)*
26. Russian Roulette (Anthony Horowitz)
27. The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)*
28. The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane (Russell Freedman)*
29. King Solomon's Mines (H. Rider Haggard)
30. The Coral Island (R.M. Ballantyne)
31. The Diamond Brothers in Two of Diamonds (Anthony Horowitz)
32. Lost on a Mountain in Maine (Don Fendler)*
33. South by South East (Anthony Horowitz)
34. The Mysterious Island (Jules Verne)*
35. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)*

Summer Reading:
36. Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods (Suzanne Collins)
37. Gregor and the Marks of Secret (Suzanne Collins)
38. Gregor and the Code of Claw (Suzanne Collins)
39. Scorpia (Anthony Horowitz) (2nd reading within a year)
40. The Falcon's Malteser (Anthony Horowitz)
41. The Diamond Brothers in the French Confection and the Greek Who Stole Christmas (Anthony Horowitz)
42. Russian Roulette (Anthony Horowitz) (2nd reading within a year)

5th Grade Reading Log 2014-15

This is my daughter's 5th grade reading log. I'll be adding to it as she reads!
*Required for school

1. Pedro's Journal (Pam Conrad)*
2. Jed Smith: Trailblazer of the West (Frank Latham)*
3. Pocahontas and the Strangers (Clyde Robert Bulla)*
4. Escape to Liechtenstein (Ed Dunlop)*
5. Wagon Wheels (Barbara Brenner)*
6. The Courage of Sarah Noble (Alice Dalgliesh)*
7. The Matchlock Gun (Walter D. Edmonds)*
8. Trouble at Otter Creek (Wilma Pitchford Hays)*
9. Amos Fortune, Free Man (Elizabeth Yates)*
10. Brighty of the Grand Canyon (Marguerite Henry)*
11. Almost Home (Wendy Lawton)*
12. Ben and Me (Robert Lawson)*
13. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O'Brien)*
14. Toliver's Secret (Esther Wood Brady)*
15. The Invisible Friend (Lois Walfrid Johnson)*
16. The Buffalo Knife (William O. Steele)*
17. Knights, Kings and Conquerors: 20 Stories from British History (Geraldine McCaughrean)*
18. Once on This Island (Gloria Whelan)*
19. Carolina's Courage (Elizabeth Yates)*
20. Christian Liberty Nature Reader, Book 4 (Lindstrom and McHugh)*
21. Captive Treasure (Milly Howard)*
22. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)*
23. Freedom Crossing (Margaret Goff Clark)*
24. We'll Race You, Henry: A Story About Henry Ford (Barbara Mitchell)*
25. Meet Samantha: An American Girl (Susan S. Adler)*
26. Meet Molly: An American Girl (Valerie Tripp)*
27. Happy Birthday, Kit! A Springtime Story (Valerie Tripp)*

Summer Reading
28. Meet Felicity: An American Girl (Valerie Tripp)
29. Meet Kit: An American Girl (Valerie Tripp)
30. Meet Josefina: An American Girl (Valerie Tripp
31. Meet Kirsten: An American Girl (Janet Shaw)
32. Grimm's Fairy Tales (The Brothers Grimm)
33. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Eleanor Coerr)
34. Ballet Shoes for Anna (Noel Streatfeild)
35. Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars (Ellen MacGregor)
36. Abraham Lincoln (Anne Colver)
37. Five O'Clock Tales (Enid Blyton)
38. The Night Crossing (Karen Ackerman)

5th Grade Curriculum 2014-15

We’re due to start school on September 15, which is half a week after we return to the US.  We haven’t been home in over 2 years, so we’re pretty excited.  Our late start to school is due to our travels and the fact that all my son’s curriculum has been shipped to my parents.  Anyway, I’ve posted curriculum choices for my son and youngest daughter (8th and 1st).  This post is the curriculum choices for my middle child.  She’s going into 5th!  Many of these are the same programs I used with my son when he was in 5th, but we’ve changed some things.  Here’s our list:

1.  Math—Teaching Textbooks 5

2.  Reading—Drawn Into the Heart of Reading (using the following literature selections):

Biography: Jed Smith: Trailblazer of the West (Frank Latham)

Adventure: Escape to Leichtenstein (Ed Dunlop)

Historical Fiction: Amos Fortune, Free Man (Elizabeth Yates)

Fantasy: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O’Brien)

Mystery: The Invisible Friend (Lois Walfrid Johnson)

Folk Tales: Knights, Kings and Conquerors (Geraldine McCaughrean)

Nonfiction: Christian Liberty Nature Reader, 4 (Lindstrom and McHugh, eds)

Humor: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)

Realistic Fiction: Swallows and Amazons (Arthur Ransome)

3.  Language—Language Lessons for the Elementary Child 2 (finishing from last year) and Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer

4.  Writing—WriteShop Primer C (continuing from last year) and World of People StoryBuilders

5.  Vocabulary—Vocabulary Cartoons

6.  Spelling—All About Spelling, levels 5-6

7.  Bible—Discover 4 Yourself Series:  Lord, Teach Me to Pray for Kids, Wrong Way, Jonah!, Bible Prophecy for Kids (Rev. 1-7), and A Sneak Peek into the Future (Rev. 8-22)

8.  Science—Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day and Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (Apologia)

9.  History and Geography—A Child’s Story of America, History Pockets (various), literature supplements, my own unit studies of 18 different states

10.  Extracurricular—Rotation

P.E.—Family Time Fitness and/or Swimming

Music—Piano, recorder, singing (Singing Made Easy), Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool Music (Early American)

Art—Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool Art (Early American)

K5 Learning Review

In May, I was offered the opportunity of trying out K5 Learning for a 6-week trial period.  Now that our trial has concluded, I get to tell you my opinion.

K5 Learning is an online program designed to help kids with math, spelling, and reading.  While it can be used after school or during the summer for kids who need extra practice, homeschoolers can benefit from this fun program as well.

I tried K5 Learning with my daughters, who are 6 and 9 (just finishing Kindergarten and 4th grade).  To begin the process, we asked for and received placement tests.  My older daughter took the one for math, and my youngest did the tests for both reading and math.  While my oldest tested out at her grade level, she was a bit low on geometry; therefore, that’s where they started her math lessons. 

Her opinion on the geometry lessons?  She loved them so much that she begged to do extra lessons.  In addition to the brilliant graphics, animation, and sound effects, the lessons are actually fun.  To my daughter, each lesson was like playing a game.  I observed that the instruction was very thorough and easy to understand.  The site is very kid-friendly, by the way.  Both my daughters were easily able to navigate it independently.

My youngest tested out within the early 1st grade level for both reading and math.  She also begged constantly to do lessons on this program.  They began her on the levels she tested for, but she quickly picked up the lessons and seemed to understand what she was doing.  I heard her laughing a lot, so I’m pretty sure she had fun while learning.

Both girls also used the math facts section.  They enjoyed making a character that shows up each time they do the math practice.  They were able to choose hair, eyes, nose, mouth, clothing, and accessories.  That was probably their favorite part!  The math facts include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  You can choose what facts your child needs practice in, and a chart at the end shows his or her progress.  After completing a set of math facts and seeing their progress chart, children are allowed to choose a game from the game arcade.

Although the lessons were a lot like playing games for my children, I will emphasize that they DID learn.  The program is an award-winning curricula.

We didn’t use the spelling program, but I played around with it a little.  The spelling includes spelling by hearing the word and also spelling by learning vocabulary.  With the vocabulary, you are given a clue and a sentence with a blank.  In many cases, two clues are given if the word has more than one definition.  While both were great, I do have one issue with the spelling by hearing section.  The voices for each word are different, which is fine, but a few of the voices are very difficult to understand.

You can open up accounts for more than one student, each with his or her own user name and password.  The parent has a separate user name and password to access the parent section.  One key benefit of this program is that it tracks your child’s progress and provides reports for parents to view.  Parents can also make their own assignments by choosing from any lesson, although the program itself can give your child assignments based on the assessment.

If you’d like to read more about K5 Learning, go to this link for an overview of the program: K5Learning.  Here’s a link to a video tour of the program:  K5 Intro Video.  Better yet, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial!  The website also has links to free sample lessons and thousands of free worksheets.  Even if you can’t pay to use the program, the free worksheets are worth a visit to the K5 Learning site.

The only downside of this program for me is the price.  You pay a subscription of $25/month or $199/year with discounts for extra children.  While the program may be worth the cost, not everyone will be able to afford it.  I certainly can’t.  If money is not an issue for you, and your child needs a math and reading program for homeschool or just extra practice in those subjects, then I highly recommend K5Learning.

Disclaimer:  I was allowed to try out this program for 6 weeks, free of charge, in return for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

K5 Learning Announcement

I've never been asked to try out and review a program before, so this is a first for me. After receiving this invitation, I tried out a few sample games on the K5 Learning website, and my girls really enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Here's the announcement, and stay tuned for my future review!

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

1st Grade Curriculum 2014-15

Here in England, we still have 10 weeks left of school.  That will be the last of kindergarten for this family!  My youngest will be starting 1st grade in September.  Her schedule will be nearly the same as her older brother and sister’s 1st grade schedules.  So anyway, here is our first grade curriculum for next year.

For first grade, we are using Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory, by Heart of Dakota.  I have loved using this curriculum.  I used it only for kindergarten and first grades because I wanted to try other programs, but I’m strongly considering HOD for high school (which will begin with our son the school year after next).  Anyway, for first grade, we’re using this curriculum with a few changes (I have my own Bible, spelling, and reading & phonics programs).

1.  History—The focus is American history, using these books:  American Pioneers and Patriots, Stories of the Pilgrims, and Boys and Girls of Colonial Days.

2.  History-Related Activities—This rotation includes Geography, Science (2x/week), History Activity, and Art.  The activities for these subjects all relate to the history lesson, and the history activity day includes doing a timeline as well as projects.  The science slot uses the book God’s Wonderful Works.

3.  Poetry and Bible—A selection of poems are included in the program manual, one per week.  For Bible I use a different Bible program instead of the recommended devotional.  My older two loved Grapevine Studies’ Stick-Figuring Through the Bible Old Testament Overview (Beginners level), so my youngest will be working on this as well.  We’re still doing the recommended memory verse in Beyond Little Hearts, along with Steve Green’s CD Hide ‘em in Your Heart, Volume 2.

4.  Language Arts—This includes spelling, copywork, and language.  Instead of the included spelling lists, I use All About Spelling (Level One).  The copywork will be from the weekly poems.  The language lessons are included in the manual.

5.  Story Time—We read and do activities for books in the following genres of literature:  biography, adventure, historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, nonfiction, humor, realistic fiction, and folktales.  Our book choices for this year are:  Helen Keller (Davidson), The Twenty-One Balloons (du Boise), Little House in the Big Woods (Wilder), Charlotte’s Web (White), The Railway Children (Nesbit), …If You Lived 100 Years Ago (McGovern), A World of Winnie-the-Pooh (Milne),  Mountain Born (Yates), and Aesop’s Fables.  These are books I will read aloud to her.

6.  Reading—For 1st-3rd, I’ve been using the Reading to Learn Series from Christian Light Publications.  The first grade book is called I Wonder.  When that book is complete, I plan to start her on a simple chapter book to finish out the year.  For phonics, we will continue with the Explode the Code series.  She’s already finished the primers and is currently working on book 1, so I don’t know where we’ll be by first grade.

7.  Math—We’re continuing with Singapore Math (1st grade)

8.  Extracurricular—I’m not 100% sure where we’ll end up on this, but it will probably include P.E., music, and possibly Spanish.  For the first four months, we’ll be in the US, so we’ll probably do normal sorts of P.E. activities.  When we return to England, we’ll try to get back into swimming.  After 8 months being on a waiting list, the girls are just now getting to start swimming lessons.  With a 4-month stay in America, we’ll lose our place, so I’m hoping the wait won’t be as long when we get back.  Music will be basic piano and singing (Singing Made Easy), with a few other activities (rhythm instruments, music games).  For Spanish, we use Teach Them Spanish! (grade 1), though I may consider a different program or find something to supplement it, as it’s mostly just a workbook.

For more information and links to this curriculum list, see THIS post.

Geography Travels: China Revisited

My son studied China 4 years ago (3rd grade).  My post on that geography unit is HERE.  My daughter did the China unit last school year (also 3rd grade).  Since her unit differed slightly, I thought I would post an updated version in a new post.

Week 1

• Located China on world map and globe, found capital and largest cities
• Stamped passport (passport from Guest Hollow; we use flag stickers or glue printed flags from the internet; then, we use a date stamper to stamp the date we start our “travels”)
• Listened to the national anthem

• Watched a China video on YouTube

• Began China prayer calendar (from Bold Believers in China, a free download from Kids of Courage)
• Began reading daily Li Lun: Lad of Courage
• Listened to Asia Song from Geography Songs
• Read about China in The Not-for-Parents Travel Book
• Began our notebooking page on China (Country Fact Sheet from Homeschool Creations)
• Read about China in Galloping the Globe
• Read several pages about China in Bold Believers in China
• Read A Visit to China
• Labeled a map of China (Homeschool Creations) and did an online map puzzle
• Read from Geography from A to Z: sea, plains, plateau, grasslands, hills, mountains, rivers, deltas, desert, glaciers, coast, lowlands, lakes
• Discussed Mt. Everest
• Ate Chinese food (we did chicken chow mein from a Chinese take-away)

• Read The Seven Chinese Brothers

Week 2

• Colored a flag of China (Homeschool Creations)
• Discussed government, currency and religion
• Looked at several websites about China (listed below)
• Read Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China
• Learned about the Great Wall of China, the terracotta warriors, the Forbidden City

• Played Mahjong on the computer and attempted to play an actual mahjong game we own (setting up tiles is very time-consuming)

• Read Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures: Imperial China
• Studied pandas

• Read panda books
• Drew and colored a panda from Draw-Write-Now, Book 7

Week 3

• Learned some Mandarin

• Read Look What Came from China
• Read The Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters
• Learned about the native costume (paper dolls)

• Learned some Chinese culture and holidays

• Read Mei Li
• Made Chinese paper lanterns

• Read Tikki Tikki Tembo
• Read from Children Just Like Me and completed a notebooking page (from Homeschool Creations)
• Learned some vocabulary words (from Galloping the Globe)
• Talked about the Beijing Olympics and fireworks
• Read The Empty Pot

Week 4

• Did a focus on missions in China (Hudson Taylor, Gladys Aylward, Robert Morrison, Eric Liddell)
• Discussed the persecuted (underground) church in China (Bold Believers in China)
• Made a China prayer reminder (a coaster craft from Bold Believers--made from an old CD, the printed picture, and contact paper)

• Read the stories Daisy Comes Home and A Story About Ping
• Discussed kites

• Discussed Chinese music & art

• Read Ma Lien and the Magic Brush
• Read Chinese folktale from Around the World in 80 Tales
• Discussed Chinese sports
• Watched Kung Fu Panda
• Explored our Asia box (from our continent boxes)

• Watched selections from a DVD series called Wild China

Online Resources

A China Family Adventure (Chinese New Year for Kids)

Enchanted Learning (Chinese Lantern craft)

Chinese New Year

Chinese Provinces Map Puzzle (online game)

DLTK--China and Chinese New Year (has plenty of information, crafts, and other activities)

Homeschool Creations (lesson plans, panda lapbook, and currency pdf file, map and flag)

Making Friends: China Friends (paper dolls)

National Geographic for Kids

Time for Kids

More YouTube Videos

Giant Panda in China (footage of panda ripping off man’s jacket; also footage of baby pandas)

Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony (fireworks)

Hong Kong Welcomes 2010 (fireworks)

Xin-Xue Feng, 7-year-old Chinese ping-pong prodigy (on The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2009)

Everest 2009—Summit of Mt Everest

Everest Summit Day

Hillary Climbs Everest, 1953

Shaolin Kung Fu

Chinese Acrobats

Books We Used

I'm linking this post to History & Geography at Adventures in Mommydom.

8th Grade Curriculum Choices

Yes, it’s only January.  I do this pretty much every January, but I’m almost certain that I now have my curriculum choices made for next school year.  If you have any input on my choices, now is the time to tell me!  I’ll start ordering soon, so that I can buy a little at a time.

1.  Social Studies/Bible/Language: Civics and State History

I've chosen the Uncle Sam and You curriculum package from Notgrass.  I’ve heard only good about this program, and I like the samples I saw.  My son has had very little study in civics, and he enjoys reading, so I decided this was the perfect program for him.

This social studies course includes several assignments in writing, reading (literature), Bible, and vocabulary, so I’m not planning to buy separate curriculum for those subjects. 

I don’t know if this is still the case, but 8th graders used to do some state history.  He did a lapbook state history on Missouri in 4th grade.  I haven’t definitely decided which state to study (since we don’t actually live in a state), but I’m planning to use State History from a Christian Perspective for whichever state we choose.

2.  Math: Pre-Algebra

I hate to say it, but Life of Fred hasn’t worked out so great for my son this year.  He likes the stories, but he’s struggling with the material and how it’s presented.  We’ll continue for the rest of this school year, with supplemental help from Khan Academy and some Math Mammoth ebooks I just purchased.  Next year, we’re going back to Teaching Textbooks, which he liked and understood.

Teaching Textbooks: Pre-Algebra

3.  Science: Life Science

This year we used Interactive Science: Earth Science, which is not a Christian textbook.  My dad, who is a geologist and science teacher, selected this program.  Other than a few sections we disagree with, he felt the rest was more accurate than other science programs. 

Next year, I want to teach life science, but I’m having difficulty finding what I want.  I would have liked a Christian biology, but everything I’ve looked at so far is either too easy (as in listed for K-8 but way too easy for 8th graders) or too hard (high school).  For now, I’m going to stick with Interactive Science.

Interactive Science: Life Science

4.  Language Arts: Grammar and Spelling

While the Notgrass social studies program has a lot of reading, writing, and vocabulary, I feel that Isaac still needs a lot of practice with grammar and spelling, so we’re continuing with what we’ve been using for both.

Easy Grammar Ultimate Grade 8 Teacher’s Guide

All About Spelling Level 7

5.  Thinking Skills/Foreign Language

I’m planning to alternate these two programs.  Thinking Toolbox is the sequel to the Fallacy Detective book we used this year.  My son tried a bit of Spanish when he was in grades 1-2, but we never continued.  I decided to plunk down the money for what is considered one of the best language programs, and I let him choose his language.  French it is!  (Unless he changes his mind before I buy.)

Thinking Toolbox

Rosetta Stone (French, Level 1)

6.  Other Electives:

I’m not 100% sure how we’re doing all of this.  I may choose less or rotate them.  These are the electives he’s interested in:

Typing—I’d like this to be almost daily at this point, for the whole year.  We use Typing Instructor for Kids Platinum.

Programming—He is definitely interested in this, so I’ll probably keep it as an all-year subject.  I’ll probably alternate it with typing.  We’re going to use Hour of Code.

Either Health & Fitness (Family Time Fitness and internet research for health) OR Football (meaning soccer, for those of you in the US) and/or Swimming.  The football will depend on if we can find an affordable program for his age (he currently takes football lessons but is going to be too old for that program next year).  The swimming will depend on finances.  He enjoys both sports.

Here are a few other possibilities, if I can possibly rotate them from quarter to quarter:

Cooking—He wants to learn how to cook, so we’ll work it in somehow.

Drafting—We might do this while we’re in America, as my dad has some of the necessary tools.  We’re looking at a program called Practical Drafting.  This is a maybe.

Clay sculpting—This is another craft he wants to learn.  I’m thinking sculpting tools, clay, and YouTube videos.

Stop Motion Animation—He has a kit, but he doesn’t get to use it much.  If we can manage to get an extra computer, I may add this on the list as a school subject.

I would love to have included some kind of music, but we may have to wait on that.  Although I believe every child and young person should have some experience with music (whether vocal, instrument, theory, or music appreciation), I’m trying to go with his interests for this coming year.  Music is not his thing at the moment.  Give him the music soundtrack for Star Wars, and he’s good!

That’s it!  I’m pretty pleased with my decisions for 8th grade curriculum.  I know my son, and I’m confident these programs will work best for him, but I’d love to hear your comments.  Have you used any of those programs with your children?

Geography Travels: Greece

Here are our lesson plans for our unit on Greece.  This is a geography unit about Greece as a nation.  So, while Ancient Greece was discussed, it is not the focus of this unit.  We did this last year when my daughter was in 3rd grade.

Week 1

Located Greece on world map and globe, found the capital and largest cities

Stamped passport, listened to the national anthem

Watched travel videos about Greece (follow link for a page with several videos)

Listened to the “Southern Europe Song” (Geography Songs)

Read about Greece in The Not-for-Parents Travel Book.

Started notebook page (Country Fact Sheet from Homeschool Creations)

Labeled a map of Greece—I don’t remember where we got our map to label, but here’s one from About.com Geography.  I usually have my kids label surrounding countries, bodies of water, the capital city, other major cities, and major land areas (mountains, deserts, etc).

Read from Geography from A to Z: mountains, peninsula, coast, islands, isthmus, strait, sea, hills, lakes, wetlands, peaks, canyon, gorge, bay, forest, plains

Week 2

Colored the Greek flag (the one we used has disappeared from the web—try the Greek flag printable at Coloring Castle)

Discussed government, currency, and religion

Looked at websites on Greece (see links below)

Talked about Greek history and historical places

Children Just Like Me, p. 33, notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

Week 3

Greek language

Read Look What Comes from Greece

Discussed Greek culture (music, dance, art, architecture, food, customs)

Snacked on tzatziki dip and pita bread

Discussed the Olympics

Week 4

Read An Island for a Pelican

Snacked on olives

Discussed Greek mythology and Greece in the Bible

Read from Around the World in 80 Tales story

Online Resources

Activity Village (Ancient Greece)

Activity Village (Make a Greek Vase)—We wanted to do this, but it didn’t happen.

DLTK Kids (Another pottery craft)

Greece 4 Kids

Greek Embassy (An Amazing Culture)

National Geographic Kids

Time for Kids

Travel for Kids

Travel Greece (pictures)

YouTube videos

Explore Greece with Travel Channel (Mainland)

Explore Greece with Travel Channel (Sea & Sun)

Explore Greece with Travel Channel (City Break)

Greek 101 (Common Words & Phrases)

Greek 101 (Greetings)

Greek 101 (Numbers & Days)

Greek Arts and Architecture

Greek Folk Dances

Traditional Greek Music by KAFENEION

Books We Used

Geography Travels: India

My daughter did this geography unit last year for 3rd grade.  When my son was in 3rd grade, we did a lapbook of India for our studies (follow link to see it).  We learned a lot about India by doing the lapbook, so I think it’s a nice way to study a country; however, I personally enjoy teaching unit studies more than doing lapbooks.  I like the variety of activities.  Anyway, here’s our India study!

Week 1

Located India on world map and globe, found the capital and largest cities; stamped her passport, and listened to the national anthem.

Read about India from Peoples of the World

Listened to “South Asia Song” (Geography Songs)

Read the India entry in The Not-for-Parents Travel Book

Started a notebook page (Country Fact Sheet from Homeschool Creations)

Read about India from Galloping the Globe

Read about India in Bold Believers in India (Kids of Courage)

Labeled a map of India (Homeschool Creations)

Read from Geography from A to Z: peninsula, mountains, bay, sea, ocean, desert, jungle, plain, rivers

Read the book The King’s Choice

Week 2

Colored the flag of India (Homeschool Creations)

Learned about the government, currency and religion

Learned about historical places in India, including the Taj Mahal; read about the Taj Mahal in the book Amazing Buildings (Dorling Kindersley)

Drew a picture of the Taj Mahal

Looked through her brother’s India lapbook

Learned about animals of India:  Bengal tiger, peacock, Asian elephant

National Geographic video on the Indian peacock

Read story Once a Mouse

Drew and colored a tiger from Draw-Write-Now, Book 7

Week 3

Learned some Hindi and Bengali language

Learned some Bengali from Bold Believers

Drew an Asian elephant from Draw-Write-Now, Book 7

Read book Look What Came from India

Discussed some of the culture of India, including native costume.  Colored some costume pictures from Bold Believers in India.

Made paper dolls (Making Friends)

Read the story The Sheep of the Lal Bagh (a book I’ve loved since I was a child).  Here’s video of a well-known garden in India called Lal Bagh (was this the garden in the book?)

Read from Children Just Like Me—This time, there were two children featured.  We did a notebook page for each (Homeschool Creations)

Learned some vocabulary words from Galloping the Globe

Read the story Sanji and the Baker

Week 4

Missions focus: Learned about Amy Carmichael and William Carey.  We also discussed Mother Teresa and persecuted church in India

We had some Indian food (as is typical in British Indian restaurants)—chicken tikka masala with rice, naan bread, pompadoms, raita, and mango chutney—YUM!  This is a meal we have a lot, and our kids love it just as much as we do.

Watched some YouTube videos about Rangoli designs (see YouTube links below) and made some for art (DLTK’s Crafts for Kids)

We also learned about the art of mehendi (or henna) application.  First we watched a video:

I cut out a paper hand for her to decorate, after we looked at several designs. 

Not long after we had finished our unit on India, we attended a small fun day event in a local park.  One of the booths was run by some Bangladeshi women, who were offering to do mehendi for 50 pence.  I allowed Moriah to have her hand done, and she was thrilled.  It made our India study that much more real to her (I did show her the location of Bangladesh on a map).  While I understand the Hindu roots of decorating skin in this way, I viewed this as a purely cultural experience rather than religious.  I think it is very beautiful.  The stain lasted about 5 days.

Read the story One Grain of Rice

Read a folktale from Around the World in 80 Tales 

Explored our Asia (continent) box, with particular focus on India

Online Resources

Activity Village

Bold Believers in India (free download when you register)

Geographia

Homeschool Creations (scroll down to India for links to lesson plans and a tiger lapbook)

India Video (Preview videos before showing to children)

National Geographic Kids

Time for Kids

YouTube Videos

11 Things to Do in Kolkata (Calcutta)

Cobra Dancing to Flute

Indian Peafowl

Mass Elephants Rally

Mother Teresa: How to Love God

On the Ganges River

Sanskar Bharti (Rangoli designs)

Tiger Cubs

Time Lapse Rangoli

Books We Used

One book I couldn't get to come up on the carousel widget was Look What Came from India by Miles Harvey.

I'm linking this post to History & Geography at Adventures in Mommydom.