A Couple of Book Sites

Again, thank you to Morgan for sharing this...

This one has 19th Century School Books online. I was especially excited to find the McGuffey Readers there!

And Page by Page Books has books that you can read online for free!

Enjoy!!

Daily Devotions for Kids

Thanks to Morgan for posting this site! I just looked over it for a few minutes tonight, and it looks WONDERFUL! Thank you so much for sharing!!! I can't wait to start doing these daily with "Rupert". http://kids4truth.com/

Free Educational Videos!!

I got these sites from a couple of blogging friends of mine, and they look AWESOME! It's amazing what is out there for the taking, and I am so happy that Morgan and Dana brought these to my attention:

http://www.neok12.com/

http://educationalminimovies.com/

http://www.watchknow.org/

Thanksgiving Activity

I got this idea from the HowStuffWorks website. What a great idea! We've been doing a "Thankful Tree" for the past couple of years (I'll be posting about this year's tree in a few days), but I think we'll do this message box next year, so the whole family can get in on the thankfulness fun!

Thankful Message Box

Help the family get into the Thanksgiving spirit with this message box.

What You'll Need:

Shoe box

Tissue box

Paints

Paintbrush

Assorted decorative art supplies

Pencil

String

Tape

Small slips of notepaper

When the pilgrims first harvested crops in their new country, they held a big party to celebrate and give thanks. When your family sits down to a big Thanksgiving dinner, everyone's stomach is probably very grateful for all that delicious food.

But what else are people thankful for? The week before Thanksgiving, paint and decorate an empty shoe box and tissue box.

Tie one end of a string around a pencil, and tape the other end to the tissue box. Set a stack of notepaper next to the pencil. Invite family and friends to write down what they are thankful for, and put the slips inside the tissue box.

On Thanksgiving Day, take turns reading the slips aloud. The shoe box can be used to store the slips, adding a new bunch of "thankful messages" each year.

You may want to paint traditional Thanksgiving symbols on your boxes, such as turkeys, pilgrims, Native Americans, and harvest foods, such as corn, pumpkin, squash, and apples.

You can print the words "Give Thanks" around the opening of the tissue box and the words "Our Thanks" on top.

1st Grade: Week 14 Highlights

I have lots of pictures this week. Let me start by posting pictures of our Ming bowl from last week. We finished it up this week and it came out pretty cool! I have a feeling this will be on display in our home for years to come. Here, "Rupert" is decorating it:

And here it is all finished!

History: This week we learned about ancient Africa. Not a lot is known about ancient Africa because, unlike Egypt, not many artifacts have been found there. We did learn that the Sahara Desert was not always a desert, though, and we read some old African folk tales. We finished up the week with an African feast! We had Grandma and Grandpa over for the feast and we tried some African dishes like Papaya stir-fried rice:

Fried plantains:

Date Chewies:

Chicken with figs:

And banana and date bars:

We also painted our faces with West African designs that I found here. We made instruments and had a little African concert as well. It was a fun time, and the food was great!

Science: This week we did an experiment to see what would happen to an egg if we left it in a jar of vinegar for three days. Here it is when we first poured the vinegar in. It seems to be sitting on the bottom of the jar and there are tiny bubbles forming all over the shell. The acid in the vinegar is reacting with the calcium carbonate in the shell and carbon dioxide is being released as little bubbles.

Here it is later, floating now. There is a collection of foam floating on the top of the vinegar.

Here the shell is completely gone! All that is left is the thin membranes that were just inside the shell.

And here is our egg compared with a regular one. It is bigger than the regular egg because it has absorbed some of the vinegar through osmosis.

Grammar: I found a song about pronouns that is sung to the tune of "When the Saints go Marching in". I may use it. We'll see how it goes over with the little man.

ASL: As long as we are talking highlights...We finally broke down and looked up the sign for "fart". Ahhh...the joys of parenting a boy. I know you're curious, and it really is a great sign, so here you go. Just click on the letter "F" at the top, and you'll find "fart" in the column on the left. Enjoy!

We're taking next week off for a Thanksgiving break! Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!

English From the Roots Up

This post is just a reminder for me as I plan future school years. Part of Classical Education is learning Latin. I wasn't and am still not convinced that I want to teach Latin as a whole language. I want to continue with ASL and learn Spanish because of the practical application of those languages. Just because I don't want to learn/teach Latin, doesn't mean I want to miss out on the benefits of being familiar with Latin roots. I can certainly see how understanding the Latin roots of words can help with spelling and with decoding the meanings of new words (especially as we study science). I stumbled upon this book at Higher Education, and it looks really good. It looks like something I'd like to do with "Rupert". It teaches not only Latin roots, but Greek as well. I can see these skills coming in handy as he advances through his academic career and into adult life. So, yes, I'll definitely keep this book in mind!

Educational Videos

Thank you, Morgan from Amazing Grace Learning Academy, for sending me this link to tons of educational videos!! What a great collection!!