Puffins and Pemaquid

Have you ever seen a Puffin? They're really cool looking birds, but we've never actually SEEN one until yesterday! 

Check Out That Beak! Photo Credit by www.oddanimals.com

J, C and I joined our friend and her grand-daughter for a 2 1/2 hour drive up to New Harbor, ME, joining a group of homeschoolers from around the state on a Puffin cruise. Despite my, um, navigating "skills", we arrived early and had time to stretch our legs and explore around Shaw's wharf.

J as a Lobster

C as a Happy Clam

Once on the boat, J headed to the top deck with some boys we know, while C stayed on the first deck with the rest of us, meeting some new homeschoolers from the Bucksport area. (We knew it was going to be SUPER chilly up top and opted for the more sheltered botton one.) We cruised to Egg Rock Island in search of Puffins.

The Boat We Went on

On the Way We Went Past This Little Island

And Here's Egg Rock With an Scientists Hut (for Observations) and LOTS of Birds

Our ONE Puffin...Who Flew Around and Finally Landed

We headed back to the dock after seeing some Harbor Seals, walked to the parking lot, and headed to Colonial Pemaquid. We had a picnic lunch on tables by the bay then joined a smaller group of homeschoolers for an educational tour of the fort.

A park ranger explained the ruins seen by the museum and the history of the area, which included French, English and Native American.

Perhaps a Jail or Animal Stockade?

Most People Living in the 1700s Grew Herb Gardens Outside Their Front Doors

And These Gardens Had a Variety of Plants

A man dressed in period clothing conducted the rest of the tour. He was a hoot! Although his stories and information became long at times, the kids were attentive and enjoyed him!

The fort itself has been rebuilt and renamed several times. It was named Charles for the English King for a while and then William Henry, another king, and then Frederick, a general. The current fort was built to replicate the original William Henry.

Some Part of the Fort that was Found

French, USA, Maine, and England Flags - French and English are 1700s

The Story Goes That Enemies Hid Behind this Rock so the Fort Was Built Around it

The bay and the outlying island are named for John Smith - Pocohontos's John Smith - for when he explored this area: John Island and John's Bay. Interestingly, John Smith also coined the phrase "New English" according to our guide.

I think the kids favorite part was learning about tinderboxes and seeing our period-dressed guide shoot his musket. (J got a cool video on his cell phone, but I can't seem to get it uploaded.)

We had a GREAT day! We headed out at 6:45 in the morning and arrived home at 5:30pm - a full, fun, educational experience!

Weekly Wrap: Days 97-100 and Making Changes!

We've completed 100 days this year! Excellent! We have just 75 days left in our 7th year of homeschooling! Alright! It's not that we don't enjoy our days - WE DO! - but we also REALLY enjoy and look forward to those fleeting warm, sunny late Spring and Summer days when we can play at the state parks, go on LONG afternoon strolls through the woods, grow veggies in our Square Foot Garden, and read books together while swaying in the hammock under the shade of the broadleaf trees. The warm weather season in  Maine seems to slip by quicker and quicker every year, and we want to be out there unscheduled and without textbooks! (OK, well, at least somewhat unscheduled! LOL)

Summer at the Atlantic - Something to look Forward To

What DID we do this week?  Well, I changed S's Daily Assignments. Sometimes refocusing on new subjects and using different curriculum SPARKS excitement when it's waning, and S had become bored with his Kumon Mazes and Dot-to-Dot Vehicle Puzzles. They're AWESOME for building his visual tracking skills (which his OT and I discovered earlier in the year he's struggling with), but he's truly mastered the maze and dot-to-dot activities. And he finished up his last lapbook. Time for a break!  Out with the old and in with the new: US States and Capital Sticker Book and Lakeshore File Folder Science Games (K-1)! I've also started having him write from memory and in order numbers on a 100 Chart grid (which I slipped into a plastic page protector so he can do this activity over and over with Dry Erase Markers) - he worked on 1-20 this week - and review Skip Counting 2s and 5s. (I can't remember where I got the paintbrush printables for skip counting so if you know let me know. LOL) What stayed the same? S'll continue on with Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read - he started short i this week - and Horizons Math K. 

S Copying his /ig/ Words into his Journal

S Writing 1-15 on his 100s Grid from Memory

S Putting his Skip Counting Paintbrushes in Order

 Now things didn't change much for C. I've been tweaking some of her curriculum throughout the year as Spelling, Writing and Math have been rough spots. I added in Daily Grams. She gets a little Grammar from the Grammar and Writing Handbook, but it's time to reinforce those concepts and go to "the next level". And we "stepped up" the editing process on her creative writing, focusing more on descriptions, developing characters and settings, and having a clearer story line. We're only a couple of weeks into using All About Spelling Level II and she's enjoyed it SO MUCH more than Spelling Power. (I'm still holding onto Spelling Power though! LOL I think it works great...with some kids.) She'll continue on with Handwriting Without Tears, Saxon Math 54, Apologia Zoology III, and her History Pockets: Native American unit study.

R Helping C Play Guess Who Extra!

C Working Through Math

And things changed even less for J. Fortunately most curriculum just, well, fits with him. It doesn't matter if it's a VERY traditional textbook or a notebook page or on-line; he reads, does and absorbs. He worked on his Pond Press newsletter, but also started doing Creative Composition, writing longer, fictional stories and going through an multi-step editing process. (We've mostly focused on informational or report writing.) He'll continue on with middle school Grammar at The Teacher's Cafe and Wordly Wise 3000 Level 6, Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, Apologia General Science with a Lap n' Learn from Live n' Learn Press, and DK's World History.

J's Tightening Loose Leg Bolts Under the Table (Home Repairman)

J Made a Positive and Negative Abacus at Not Math Math

We DEFINITELY want to continue on with our Winter Wednesday, Outdoor Hour and Science Sunday activities! The kids just LOVE  getting outdoors and learning about nature! This week we studied trees and continue observing our backyard feeder birds! Check out this week's activities by clicking here!

C's Flower Garden Planner and Notes

Now, onto our last 75 days of school! Where are those garden seed catalogs to plan for spring? Oh, yeah, J's got one planning our Square Foot Garden and C's got the other planning her flower bed!  Check out other Weekly Wrap-ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and join the blog hops at Hip Homeschool Hop and Friday Blog Hop - buttons are on my sidebar!

C and S's Unit Studies: Part 3 - Totems, Crystals,

Day 11: 

I found this interesting, interactive on-line book called Animals in Winter to review what we learned last week about how animals cope with the cold. If you have young ones studying animals, you should check it out!

C had fun deciding which animal represented us on her History Pocket Tlingit's totem pole. Final decision? A was the eagle, I was the butterfly, J was the whale, and S was the fox. And C? There weren't any animals left! (I think she would have chosen HORSE though! LOL)

C's Tlingit Totem Pole

S listened to one of my favorite books, Snowflake Bentley, and we looked at some of his snow crystal photographs. They ARE quite beautiful! Have you seen them? We talked about what 3 things effect how snow crystals are made (although they're all hexagonal) and S filled out a What Makes a Snowflake Unique? mini-book.  

Day 12:

C started learning about the Nez Perce, reading and coloring her History Pocket information pages and pocket title. And finished Meet Kaya: An American Girl in one reading-before-bedtime night!

Nez Perce Pocket Title and Information Pages

S and I continued on with snow crystals. He played a Snowflake visual discrimination activity. It was a hit! He LOVES making symmetric patterns (and notices right off when they're not). The Complete the Snowflake Drawing Page was challenging and frustrating for him though, but he finished it! (GREAT practice for strengthening his visual-motor processing skills.)

S Making his Visual Discrimination Snowflake

S with his Completed Snowflake

S's Complete the Snowflake

Day 13:

C made a Nez Perce Appalooza ornament. The horse was important to Native Americans, and the Nez Perce bred Appalooza horses who had spots and were fast runners.

C's Appalooza Ornament

S finished up his Winter Lapbook by making a paper snow globe using paper, markers, contact paper, and tiny white paper circles from hole-puncher. 

S's Snow Globe

Day 14:

C started reading Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, a historical fiction book about the granddaughter of Nez Perce Chief Joseph and his famous "I will fight no more forever" stand. Interestingly, Chief Joseph's name was Hinmaton Yalatikit which means "thunder that comes from the mountain". She also created a paper feather mini-book on the qualities of Chief Joseph which included bravery, spirit, determination, and great leadership. 

S made some more snowflakes using his Snowflake Visual Discrimination manipulative.

Literature

Snow (Rylant)

The Frog Princess: A Tlingit Legend from Alaska (Kimmel)

Snowflake Bentley (Martin)
Meet Kaya: An American Girl (Shaw) 
Snow Bear (George)
Dream Snow (Carle)
Snow Party (Ziefert)
Thunder Rolling in the Mountains (O'Dell)

C and S's Unit Studies: Part 2 - Tlingits and Winter

S's Color-by-Number Zookeeper

Day 6: C and S worked on their mini-books while I read aloud. C finished up her igloo story mini-book for Inuits and started her HP's Tlingits of the Northwest information sheets.  S continued adding "fur" to his Polar Bear counting activity, completed 3 more color word mittens, and finished a color-by-number Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? zookeeper. 

C's Igloo Story

Day 7/8: With S and I STILL not feeling well from a cold, we watched a video on how rain, snow and other precipitation forms and read books, snuggled up under blankets on the sofa. 

C's Tlingit Potlatch Mask

Day 9: We read about migration and hibernation in Explore Winter! 25 Great Ways to Learn about Winter. C worked on her Tlingit picture dictionary words and finished coloring her pocket title. S completed definition mini books on hibernation and migration, one on Animals in Winter, and 2 worksheets on animal tracks.

S's Completed Polar Bear

Day 10: S worked on his What I like to Do in the Snow mini book - he likes to sled - and his The Mitten animal trait matchbooks and finished adding "fur" to his Polar Bear. C made a  Tlingit potlatch mask. The Tlingits, as well as other Native Americans, had potlatch feasts which were important for status and respect within the tribes. And then J joined C and S to make Inuksuit (Ee-nook-sweet). Inuksuit are traditional stone structures that represent powerful symbols in the Canadian Arctic Native American tribes (such as the Inuit). Stones are hard to find right now (considering we have 18 or more inches of snow), so we made our Inuksuit out of Snack Well cookies and frosting. LOL 

Our Inuksuit

Literature:
Animal Predators: Polar Bears (Sandra Markle)
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? (Eric Carle)
Ice Bear: In the Steps of the Polar Bear (Nicola Davies)
Snow Globe Family (Jane O'Connor)
Katy and the Big Snow (Virginia Lee Burton)
Tracks in the Snow (Wong Herbert Yee)
Jon Scieszka's Trucktown Snow Trucking! (David Shannon)
Make Your Own Inuksuk (Mary Wallace)

Videos:
Weather Fundamentals: Rain & Snow (Schlessinger)

C and S's Unit Studies: Part 1 - Inuits/Tlingits and Snow

C started her History Pockets: Native Americans (HP) unit study this week. Her studies started with the Inuits and Tlingits of Alaska and northern Canada. And S started his Winter Lapbook from a variety of resources on Homeschool Share and Making Learning Fun. I thought it was a GREAT opportunity to combine their studies, sharing the same books and some activities!

Day 1:

I gave the kids print-outs from Jan Brett's website on her book The Mitten. While reading The Mitten and The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale, the kids colored their paper mittens. Individually, S started his cotton ball counting Polar Bear, his weather report mini-book (and learned how to write temperatures), and did temperature reading and sequencing Snowman cards, and C read her Fact Sheet: Tribes of North America and made her Native American Picture Dictionary booklet for HP.

Day 2:

The kids worked on their paper mittens and animals for The Mitten while I read aloud to them. S added some more "fur" (cotton balls) to his Polar Bear, continued on with his weather report mini-book, and started his Mitten Color cards where he read the color word, made the word with All About Spelling letter tiles, wrote the word, and finally colored the mittens. C read and colored her HP The Inuit of the Artic information sheets and Map of Native American Tribes.

Day 3:

S continued to work on his "furry" Polar bear counting and color word mittens, but also did a "You Melt my Heart" picture frame with puffy glitter glue.

Day 4:

C and S finished up their The Mitten mitten and animals while I read more of our fun books from the library. S continue on with his Polar Bear and Weather Report, but also completed a snowflake shape (hexagon) mini-book and a Shape T-book with other shapes like pentagons, trapezoids and parallelograms. C colored her Inuit pocket title and used her Inuit fact sheets to add the first 3 vocab words to her picture dictionary.

Day 5:

S continued adding "fur" to his counting Polar Bear and completed 2 color word mitten cards, reviewed his Shape Book then finished The Mitten animal layer handwriting book. C read about Inuit's ice fishing and made a magnet fishing pole and fish with a straw, kite string, tape, a paper hook, and a paper fish. She also "glittered" her igloo writing page and wrote a first draft of a story to make a book on Monday.

Literature:
The Mitten (Jan Brett)
The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale (Lydia Dabcovich)
Kumak's Fish: A Tall Tale from the Far North (Michael Bania)
Carry Me, Mama (Monica Devine)
The Snow Day (Komako Sakai)
Snow Friends (Christine Butler and Tina Macnaughton)
The Three Snow Bears (Jan Brett)
Snow Dance (Lezlie Evans)
The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats)
Ice Bear and Little Fox (Jonathan London)
Sam's Snowy Day (Mary Labatt)
Snow Music (Lynne Rae Perkins)
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening (Robert Frost)

Videos:
Knut & Friends (DOKfilm)