Author Archives: Deanna

A New Coat for Anna

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This week the little ones and I rowed A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert, part of Five in a Row, Vol. 2. This is one of the books I never got to with my older children when we did FIAR, so it was fun for me to get to explore a new story with Nathaniel and Clara. I chose this book because it is set in Europe after World War II, a time period we are just about to cover in Classical Conversations Cycle 2.

As we went through our week, we learned about weaving using paper (even 7th grade Elijah was inspired listening from across the room and took a break from his Challenge A work to weave a bit).

We also watched this video for kids about how wool is made into fabric, which went along with the story perfectly.

This is a great book for practicing putting events of a story in order. By the end of our week, both Nathaniel and Clara had absorbed so many details. They retold the story to Grandma, reciting who they went to, what item they traded, and what they received in return.

There are so many great rabbit trails you could take with this book. If you want some ideas, check out HomeschoolShare.com, where you can find a free lapbook to create as you explore some of the topics found in A New Coat for Anna.

Posted in FIAR, Literature Units

The Elephant from Baghdad (a story about Charlemagne)

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Discloser: Affiliate links help support our homeschool.

This week the littles and I took a break from Five in a Row to read The Elephant from Baghdad by Mary Tavener Holmes and John Harris, illustrated by Jon Cannell. Like The Giraffe That Walked to Paris from FIAR Vol. 2, it tells the true story of an exotic animal sent as a gift to a European ruler. (This writing team also told the giraffe’s story in their book A Giraffe Goes to Paris.) I’m hoping to “row” that one later this year when we’re learning about France, but The Elephant from Baghdad was perfect for this week as we kicked off Classical Conversations Cycle 2 with a history sentence about Charlemagne.

We treated it as an ordinary “row,” reading it every day this week except the day we went to CC. There are so many great discussions to come out of this book, so I’m just going to list some suggested topics:

Geography (many places we learn about in CC Cycle 2)

  • Aachen, Germany
  • Baghdad (review from CC Cycle 1)
  • Italy
  • Alps
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Cairo (review from CC Cycle 1)

Science and Technology

  • elephants
  • albinism
  • clockmaking
  • St. Bernard dogs (briefly referenced in an illustration)

History

  • Charlemagne
  • monasteries/monks/abbots
  • Muslim world (review from CC Cycle 1)
  • Hannibal

Art

  • integrating photographs with drawings
  • museum pieces

Expanding with older elementary students

Since I also have a 4th and 5th grader in Foundations with CC, I read the book to them one time as well. We also have been reading through Our Little Frankish Cousin of Long Ago, a chapter book about a 12-year old page at the court of Charlemagne. Not only did the fictional story offer many details about what life would have been like in the time and place, Chapter VIII “Presents for the King” tells of the elephant arriving in Aachen and helps the reader imagine what it must have been like for the Franks to witness such an amazing spectacle.

I’m fascinated by genealogy, so I also showed them how we can trace our family line back to Charlemagne several ways. I explained that it’s not actually that special to be descended from Charlemagne; it’s just not as common to be able to trace exactly how one is connected. Along with my 7th grader, we watched this video, “Is Everyone A Descendant of Royalty?“, which explains that everyone alive today who has at least one European ancestor probably is a descendant of Charlemagne.

All in all, we a had a fun week with The Elephant from Baghdad, and I hope we’ll explore similar books as we make our way through Cycle 2 this year.

Posted in Classical Conversations Cycle 2, Homeschool Resources, Literature Units

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (Take 2)

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It’s been almost ten years since I wrote about rowing How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman with my oldest two boys. Now those rowers are in high school and junior high, but I’m revisiting as many Five in a Row books as I can with my youngest two children (and occasionally a few older ones who like to lurk in the living room to listen in).

With my older kids, I had so much fun doing lots of extras, but now I’m homeschooling a 9th, 7th, 5th, and 4th grader on top of the 2nd grade and Kindergarten rowers, so I’m pretty much just sticking to the original Five in a Row manual (Vol. 1), which means there hasn’t been much to write about. Many of the resources found online and shared in my older post are no longer available, and we had a completely different experience this time around.

With this book, however, we had such a neat experience that I just had to share. Unlike last time, we didn’t go apple picking, make our own butter, or make salt crystals, but somehow I got it into my head that I really wanted to show my kids what sugar cane looks like. I went onto a local Facebook group and did a search for “sugar cane” to see if anyone had ever talked about it. Lo and behold, there were two old posts. The first mentioned four stores where people had sometimes seen it, and the second, from about four months ago, was from a neighbor who had cut several stalks of sugar cane and was offering them up to anyone who wanted them. After leaving the third store empty-handed, I sat in the parking lot and texted the neighbor to see if by any chance she might still have some she could share. Then I drove to the fourth store hoping the results would be different.

As I walked into the store, my phone alerted me to a new text. The neighbor had responded saying I could come by right then to get some sugar cane! I hopped back in the car and drove over.  As I pulled up to the address, I was greeted by a tall man with a Jamaican accent, who helped me load several stalks into my car! He hadn’t just cut one branch for me to show my kids, he had cut enough for us to have some to plant to grow our own! AND he had stripped several branches already and put them in a baggie so the kids could chew on them right away. He told me he had brought the plant over from Jamaica and gave me instructions on how to plant it. I wish my kids had been with me to meet him!

They were so excited when I showed them our sugar cane. They all tasted some of the sugar cane, amazed at how juicy and sweet it was, and then we planted the stalks we’d been given, hoping to cultivate our own little sugar cane patch in the corner of our yard (although since I have a pretty black thumb, I’m not holding my breath).

We also watched a video on YouTube about turning sugar cane into sugar at home, and of course, we finished our week by baking a pie, which almost everyone in the family enjoyed (just not the two main rowers and my oldest)

Oh well, at least they had fun making it!

To see what other FIAR books we’ve rowed, see my “Index of FIAR Posts.”  Also, a great place to see what other people have done with FIAR books is the FIAR Blog Roll at Delightful Learning.

Posted in FIAR, Literature Units, Preschool

Favorite Fall Picture Books

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Fall is my absolute favorite season. Every year I wish I could hit a button and slow down the speed at which these days fly by, because before I know it, winter will be upon us. What better way to savor these precious days than by snuggling up on the couch and enjoying some books about the season together?

As a family, we try to limit our “holiday” celebrations to actual “holy days,” but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun enjoying pumpkins, scarecrows, harvest, and other fun aspects of fall. For years I’ve been collecting picture books to read with my preschool and elementary kids in the fall that don’t focus on Halloween, yet somehow I’ve never written a post to share about the ones we pull out year after year. So finally, here’s a list of our favorite fall books for preschool and elementary children.

Discloser: Affiliate links help support our homeschool.

For Preschoolers

In It’s Pumpkin Day Mouse! (board book) Mouse paints fun faces on his pumpkins. This has been the #1 favorite for several of my kids.

Good Night, Little Pumpkin is about a little boy named Milo who has having so much fun at a fall festival, he just can’t bear to leave, until he’s experienced all the different things to do, insisting, “I’m not tired, Mama!”

P is for Pumpkin: God’s Harvest Alphabet is a beautifully illustrated celebration of autumn.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin is a super simple story of a boy who plants a pumpkin seed, watches it grow, and then saves some of its seeds to plant the following year.

Stories that share the Gospel

My Happy Pumpkin: God’s Love Shining Through Me (board book) is a simple way to share the gospel with children through the process of carving a pumpkin. I always love Crystal Bowman’s simple rhymes that use holiday traditions to point to Christ.

Along the same lines, but written for older children, The Pumpkin Patch Parable is an award-winning tale by Liz Curtis Higgs, who has written several parables around various holiday traditions.

The Little Pumpkins is another twist on this idea, with Bible verses on each page.

Fun Stories

The Very Best Pumpkin tells the story of a boy who carefully tends a pumpkin on his grandparents’ farm, and helps grow a friendship as well.

Mousekin’s Golden House is a hard-to-find classic that we love about a little mouse who takes shelter in a discarded jack-o-lantern and turns it into a snug home. (This book does have one reference to “Hallowe’en.”)

In Pumpkin Jack, the reader follows the story of a pumpkin “long after the best trick-or-treat candy was eaten,” all the way through the following year, when its seeds have new pumpkin for the boy who carved it.

Too Many Pumpkins is my personal favorite, about a lady who manages to take an unpleasant situation and uses it as a way to joyfully bless others.

Speaking of favorites, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything is the book several of my children read or ask for over and over, though to be honest, I don’t understand the appeal. It tells the story of a lady confronted by various items of clothing that attempt to scare her as she walks through the woods.

The Little Scarecrow Boy is a story we’ve enjoyed for years, about a young scarecrow determined to prove that he’s ready to follow in his father’s footsteps.

The Scarecrow’s Hat follows the dealings of a resourceful chicken who makes a series of transactions to acquire just what she wants for her nest.

Fun Books for Learning

We have all enjoyed How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, which can be used as a fun way of teaching estimation and skip-counting.

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie is full of vivid photographs showing the life of a pumpkin from seed to pie and beyond.

So there you go! I hope you can find some new favorites to enjoy with your family as you relish these fleeting autumn days.

Posted in Holidays, Homeschool Resources, Kindergarten

Composer Study: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Take 2)

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It may be cliche, but Mozart has always been my favorite composer, and so I was delighted to spend some time with his music this year in Cycle 1 of Classical Conversations.  In class we just focused one one movement of a piano concerto, but I wanted to take more time than that to help my children become familiar with the man whose name has become synonymous with classical music.  We’ll spend the next few weeks going through some of the resources I’ve pulled together here.  (We used many of these a few years ago when I did a composer study on Mozart with my older kids, but there are a few new ones as well.)

Audio Resources

Of course there are hundreds of recordings of Mozart’s music available (check YouTube or your local library), but here are a few audio resources created especially for children.

The Classical Kids recordings are a wonderful way to introduce children to composers and their music.  Each one tells a captivating story, using the featured composer’s music as a soundtrack.  There are two recordings about Mozart:

The Beethoven’s Wig series is a fun way to help children become familiar with famous pieces of classical music, with comical lyrics being sung to the melodies.

If you want to learn more about Mozart’s life and music, here are a few listening options:

Video Resources

My younger kids’ favorite way learning about classical music is watching Little Einsteins.  There are several episodes that feature music by Mozart:

There is also a fun animated series starring Mozart and his family, Little Amadeus. The DVD set comes with a CD-ROM with lesson plans to go along with each episode, as well as printable sheet music. I haven’t found anywhere to watch the whole series streaming, though the first season is on YouTube, and reruns still play on our local public television station.  

If you want to look at a specific piece of music, The Magic Flute is really a wonderful way to introduce children to opera.  The BBC produced a 30 minute animated version that tells the basic story sung in English.  For a more authentic experience, I recommend the Opéra National de Paris video of the complete opera.

Books

For some biographical information:

  • Mozart (from the Famous Children series) by Ann Rachlins (short enough for younger children)
  • Mozart (from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers series) by Mike Venezia.
  • Mozart, the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler (chapter book)

We have several picture books about Mozart we’ve started going through:

While not about Mozart, The Magic Flute: An Opera by Mozart adapted by Kyra Teis, tells the story of the opera.

Additional Resources

If you want to go a little deeper in your study of Mozart, here are some great ideas to check out!

Posted in Charlotte Mason, Classical Conversations Cycle 1, Composer Study

Composer Study: Johann Sebastian Bach

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I don’t know how we passed over Johann Sebastian Bach when we were doing composer study a few years ago, but I’m glad we’re be listening to some of his music this year with Classical Conversations.  Here are a few of the “extras” I’ve pulled together to expand upon our study at home.

 

Audio Resources

Video Resources

For my younger children, one of their favorite ways of learning about classical music is watching Little Einsteins.  There are several episodes that feature music by Bach:

Books and Other Reading

Posted in Charlotte Mason, Classical Conversations Cycle 1, Composer Study

Composer Study: George Frederick Handel

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George Frederick Handel

Back when my big kids were little, we spent some time learning about several great composers. As our family grew, somehow that got put aside, which is one of the reasons I’m glad we’re doing Classical Conversations. We’re getting ready to head into the last six weeks of CC for this year, and I thought I’d take some time to revisit some of the resources we found the first time we talked about George Frederick Handel. (His name has different spelling variations. This time we’re going with the Anglicized version.)

Since our time in class on CC community day is spent primarily listening to one specific piece of music, I thought I’d share the resources again for others who want to learn more about Handel’s music during their days at home.

Audio Resources

My Name is Handel from Maestro Classics

One of my main resources this time around will be My Name is Handel: The Story of Handel’s Water Music from Maestro Classics. The first track on the CD is a 38 minute story about the story behind Water Music. This is followed by a short biography of Handel, a silly song called “My Name is Handel” with words set to the Hornpipe theme from Water Music, and a closer look at Handel’s music with Maestro Stephen Simon.

If your kids like silly songs, check out “When the Angels Play” from Beethoven’s Wig 3: Many More Sing Along Symphonies, which puts words to Handel’s (Harp Concerto in B♭)

Another great resource that’s available free online is from Classics for Kids. They have four short episodes related to Handel, including one on Water Music.

Hallelujah Handel from Classical Kids

The main thing we listened to last time we studied Handel was Hallelujah Handel by Classical Kids, which tells the story of Handel and an orphan boy.  My kids love Classical Kids CDs because they tell entertaining stories while introducing the music of the featured composer, who is always a character in the audio drama. Hallelujah Handel is one of our favorites in the collection, and since I think everyone should be familiar with Handel’s Messiah, I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

If you just want to learn more about Handel’s life, check out The Story of Handel . My kids aren’t wild about this series because they’re pretty much just composer biographies with their music playing in the background, but I still think they’re worthwhile. We’ll get out some building toys or coloring pages and listen while we play,

Books and Other Reading

The book Hallelujah Handel tells the same story as the Classical Kids CD, but from a totally different perspective.  I enjoyed it just as much, especially the illustrations.  Last time Ian and I both enjoyed Handel (from the Famous Children series), as well as Handel and the Famous Sword Swallower of Halle, which weaves biographical information around a fascinating incident from Handel’s hometown.  This time around I’d like to try reading Handel at the Court of Kings by Opal Wheeler and Handel (from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers series) by Mike Venezia.

Video Resources

For younger children there are two Little Einsteins episodes have music by Handel: “Annie, Get Your Microphone”  and “Rocket the Bug” (both feature Water Music).

For older children and adults, Musical Contexts: All About Handel is short by informative.  Also, if your library has videos available from Films On Demand like ours, there are three documentaries on Handel. For an extended study on Handel’s oratorio Messiah, check out Handel’s Messiah: The Biblical Message Behind the Musical Masterpiece.

I’ll be adding a post about Bach and updating my resource list soon since we’ll be talking about them over the next few weeks as well!

Posted in Classical Conversations Cycle 1, Composer Study

Handprint/Footprint Nativity Scene Tree Skirt

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Every Christmas growing up I looked forward to seeing the handprint with a poem my preschool teachers helped me make as a Christmas gift for my parents back when I was two.  I really wanted to do something to capture my own children’s sweet little hands and feet, and while I was searching for ideas for our Father’s Day gifts last spring, I found several ideas for making pictures from a Nativity scene.  I decided to combine them to decorate a skirt to go around our Christmas tree.

I bought a burlap tree skirt (I chose this one because it was a little nicer quality and was lined, but there are cheaper ones out there) and used acrylic paint I already had. The browns were a little lumpy, so those prints didn’t turn out quite as nicely as I’d have liked, but over all I’m pleased with how it turned out.

My three older boys provided the handprint camels and full fingerprint wise men, robed in their favorite colors.  Nathaniel’s hand made a sweet donkey.  Nico and Arianna provided the footprints for Joseph and Mary, while Clara’s little foot made the manger for Baby Jesus.

Then the Ian, Elijah, and Nico used their footprints for shepherds, and Nathaniel’s and Arianna’s hands were the sheep.  (Clara’s seven months and it’s really hard to get a good handprint, so I didn’t dare trying the two colors for a sheep with her.  She made the little brown cow instead.)  I painted both girls’ feet white to make the angels and then just added a few details.

I probably should have ironed the skirt before we started the painting, but I figure it’s going to get covered up with gifts anyway.  I hope the kids will enjoy getting it out every year and marveling over how small their hands and feet were back in 2017.

Merry Christmas!

Posted in Holidays

“Roadschooling” Around Flagstaff, Arizona

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I have dreams of being a “roadschooling” family, hopping in an RV and flitting around the country educating our children as we visit amazing places.  Alas, my husband’s job (which, thankfully, he loves) isn’t the kind that can be done remotely, so the chances of us becoming full-time roadschoolers are pretty slim.

We do the best we can, however, to take advantage of learning opportunities whenever we do manage to get away, and we recently had one of my favorite trips ever.  We were headed to Flagstaff, Arizona for a car show in which my husband’s family was participating, and we decided to take a few extra days to explore the area.  Thanks to our 4th grader, we even got into the National Parks for free!  Here are some of the places we visited during our week in Flagstaff.

Grand Canyon National Park

The one thing we knew we wanted to do as soon as we started planning this trip was visiting the Grand Canyon.  I actually decided to spend our whole year studying geology just because I knew we’d want to know what we were seeing.

So much of the information out there about the Grand Canyon tries to explain its formation from a secular worldview, and I knew that as we walked through the park, the information being thrown at the kids would similarly attempt to discuss its history without considering the Bible’s account of the early years of the earth and the catastrophic impact of the Flood of Noah’s day.  Therefore we spent some time as a family learning about what scientists with a biblical worldview say about the history of the Grand Canyon.

Here are some of the resources we used before and during our trip.

Preparation:

My husband and I also watched a few videos on our own so we could be prepared to answer some of the kids questions.  (Older kids could learn a lot from these, but I don’t think my kids could sit through them very well yet.)

Our visit

We decided to add a little extra fun to this excursion by taking the train. Grand Canyon Railway takes you 60 miles from the town of Williams (about 35 miles from Flagstaff) to the South Rim of the canyon.  The scheduled departure for the return trip left us about three and half hours to explore.  I would have liked more on my own, but that was just about the perfect amount of time for my kids.

We walked along the rim enjoying the scenic views, ate lunch at one of the lodges, then enjoyed the Native American dance presentation at Hopi House before heading back.

       

Slide Rock State Park

Okay, so this was more about fun, but the drive down to Sedona and this whole area has some amazing geological features as well.  We were there at the end of September, so the crowds were less than what I’ve heard it can be in the summer.  The water was still really cold, but we had a great time!

Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest National Park

East of Flagstaff are two great educational spots to visit.  Meteor Crater has a great visitor center to learn more about meteors in general and this site in particular.

Nearby, the Painted Desert in Petrified Forest National Park is like no place I’ve ever been.  It was unbelievable beautiful, and the kids could tell right away that the area was formed by volcanic activity.

Preparation:

  • Awesome Science: Explore Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest National Park (streaming or DVD)
  • study meteorites

Our visit

We did both of these in one day, but we probably could have spent the whole day driving around Petrified Forest National Park and spending time in the visitor centers.  There were several places you could stop and get out to walk around and see the petrified logs.

Montezuma Castle National Park

That 4th Grader’s National Park Pass came in handy again on the day we went to see some of the Native American ruins down south of Sedona at Montezuma Castle National Park.  The museum and trail signs gave a lot of information about the people who once lived here.  There’s also a second location that is a part of this park (Montezuma Well), but we had some little ones ready for a nap and decided to head back up to Flagstaff without stopping for that.

Walnut Canyon National Park

My husband took the older boys off to explore more Native American ruins one day while the little ones and I stayed home.  After hearing his report, I’m glad we did since he said there were a lot of stairs that wouldn’t have been fun with babies to wear or carry.  I’m glad they got to go, and this site was special because they were actually able to go into some of the ruins.

Lowell Observatory

Our trip to the Lowell Observatory one evening was the highlight of the trip for Arianna. It was my first time visiting an observatory at night, and we loved getting to look through some of their enormous telescopes to see things like the rings of Saturn, as well as listening to a presentation about the constellations visible at that time.

This is the place where Pluto was first discovered!  There is a whole room about it, which the older kids and adults found fascinating.  There is also a fabulous “SpaceGuard Academy” exhibit for kids that was a major hit with our family.  We were literally the last ones to leave the observatory when they closed that night because my children wanted to stay in that exhibit longer.

Superstition Mountain Museum

Okay, so our final stop for the week was not exactly near Flagstaff, but Ian was begging to go, so we made a little detour on the way home to visit Superstition Mountain, which is east of Phoenix.  One of his favorite books is Missing on Superstition Mountain by Elise Broach.  He has checked the audiobook out from our library multiple times, and he liked it so much he was even willing to read the second book in the series since there was no audio version available.

This little town has a fascinating history, and Ian was astounded as we went through the museum and he realized how much of those books was based on true events and real people who have lived there.  Our whole family enjoyed walking around the museum area, and I bought all three books in that series for our family library as a souvenir.  Someday I hope we can go back and spend a day on the Apache Trail, which is supposed to be a beautiful scenic drive.

And that was our week of roadschooling around Flagstaff.  If you’ve visited other great sites around Flagstaff, please share in the comments!

Posted in Parenting Resources

Veritas Press Courses are on Sale!

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At the Back-to-School picnic with our homeschool support group on Sunday, one of the dads asked Eli about his favorite subject.  It only took a second for him to decide.

“History!”

We are now starting our third year using a Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course (we’ve made it to the 1815-the Present course!), and the boys still enjoy it as much as they did when we first discovered these fantastic programs.  They love the review games that make it feel like they’re playing video games for school, and I love how much they are learning in process.  Win-win!

If you’re looking for something your kids can do independently for history, I highly recommend these Veritas Press courses. They even have recommended literature to along with the online portion, with the books broken down into daily assignments to help students know what they should be reading that after they complete their lesson. (We like to do these as family read-alouds.)

We’ve also done two of the Bible courses and they were equally well done. All the self-paced online course are on sale right now, so it’s a great time to check them out!

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