And the Winners are:

Congratulations to:  

Lori W, Stephanie S. and Chantal C.

You've been notified by email, so look for that email and send me your address so that I can get your unit study out to you before Respect Life month begins.

Thanks to all who participated!

God Bless!

A Birthday and A Give Away!

It is now officially a new decade around here.  In other words, I officially turned 50 last week.  I don't feel much different, and I certainly didn't feel old until I saw "50" printed on a birthday card.  Looking at it in print, for some reason, made it seem old.  Well, we'll just put those cards away now, won't we?

We did some good celebrating.  Life's been a whirlwind, what with starting school and celebrating big life events, not to mention all of the usual stuff that goes on.  We managed to sneak in some fun and A LOT of good food.  Not only did I get a year older, I got five pounds heavier.  Back to the old grindstone to work that back off.

So I needed to come back here to let you all know that coming soon I will be having a give away.  Now, in the past those haven't worked that well for me as something always seems to get messed up.  However, I am willing to try again and will be announcing the giveaway soon!

What's the prize, you ask?  Well, I just happen to have three copies of the "Life is Precious" unit study from American Life League.  We were privileged to get a copy of it to try out and some other copies to give away.  I love unit studies, especially if you're schooling a handful of kids.  This one is great and is very easy to do, so check back in and get ready to win.

This unit study will be perfect to add to your schooling for the month of October, which is Respect Life month.  

See ya' soon!

God Bless!

John Paul II Activity

On the homeschooling front, we've been working our way through our John Paul II unit study in preparation for his beatification on May 1st.  

One of the activities we have listed in there is to find a list of all of the countries that John Paul II traveled to during his pontificate and plot them on a world map.

We found out that he made 104 trips outside of Italy during his 26 year reign; to every continent except Antarctica!  I printed out maps of each of the continents and the kids went through and marked each of his trips on the maps.

At one point my son said, "He must not have liked hot places because he traveled everywhere in Africa except to the countries that are mostly desert".  Some of the countries he went to were so small you can't imagine many people being present!

This was a great activity and it shows just how well-traveled a pope he was.  Not only that, but it was a great geography lesson, too!   While trying to find some of these small countries, we found out some interesting information on them and saw some beautiful scenery.

If you're interested in, there's still time to download the unit study and get started before the beatification!

 

Homeschooling Unit Studies

Since this has been a promotional week, I might as well end it by pointing out that I've added a new page to my blog. See that new page heading up above? The one that says Homeschooling Unit Studies?

Check it out, and if you wouldn't mind, please pray for me as I try to finish up my next unit study on St. Ignatius and the Renaissance Era.

July 31st is the Feast Day of this great Saint!

St. Ignatius, pray for us!

Introducing Our First Unit Study Offering!

This past week I've been busily preparing my website for the new release of our first Catholic Unit Study. I'm proud to announce that it is all up and ready to go.

When we first began doing more unit studies and less workbooks, I noticed that there was a lack of unit study material that was Catholic based. For that reason, I never really purchased that many unit studies, instead we just made up our own and made sure to include some Catholicism in it. For example, our archery unit study included a section on St. Sebastian.

Since then it has been my desire to produce authentically Catholic unit studies. When my girls had to do a major work for a club they are in, we decided a unit study would be a great thing to do.

So I introduce to you the fruits of their labor: "John Paul II, A Unit Study on the Greatest Pope of the 20th Century".

This study covers the life of JPII from his early years through his papacy and includes activities in subjects like reading, comprehension, history, fine arts, sports, art, music and religion.

There are book recommendations, field trip ideas, movies and family fun activities, as well as ideas for a JPII unit study wrap-up party.

We tried to write this so that a variety of ages could be included in this study. Many of the activities will be best appreciated by students in grades 3 - 12, but the younger ones will enjoy the read aloud and other activities as well.

I don't think you'll be disappointed! We've offered this in three formats: Download it right away, receive a CD in the mail, or we can mail you the hard copy version.

For general information about Catholic Unit Studies and to give me your own ideas and experiences with unit studies, you can go here.

To purchase your copy of this unit study on JPII, you can go directly to this page.

I hope you take a few moments to check it out and consider using it as part of your curriculum for the coming year (or as a great summer time activity!).

College and Unit Studies

This past weekend we had the opportunity to attend a "red carpet" event at Ms 17 yo's college of choice. It was quite a presentation. As we sat there and listened to them discuss with us the wonderful opportunities our daughter will have if she attends school there, I was struck by what a difference there was between this school, which is about 2500 students, and the large state university that my husband and I went to.

For about three hours we heard presentations from faculty and students about research projects and social events that occur between the students and their professors. They kept stressing how much the professors are involved in helping the students to shape and succeed at their education. They actually said that they care about their students! (okay, so I know it was a big rah-rah event to get these students to go to school there, but still....)

Contrast that with the large state university I went to where 1.) I was lucky if I had a professor for a class, 2.) I knew the professor's name and 3.) the said professor had a remote clue what my name was.

On another point, after listening to a few presentations, my husband leaned over and whispered, "It's like one big unit study here!" The way they described how students are allowed to work with their professors to design projects that interest them and allow them to draw upon many of their different classes did, indeed, sound like one big college-sized unit study. How cool is that. It got me excited again about pursuing more unit studies with these guys at home.

I can only recall one class in four years where we were allowed to design our own project and carry it through to completion. Of course, that was the class that: I remember the most about, I actually had a professor and I even remember his name. There must be a correlation here, don't you think???

For those of you still on the fence about unit studies, I'd say: pray about it some more and do a little bit of research. Try out a short one, even if you just design something simple yourself. I'll be talking more about them soon, as we hope to introduce a unit study that my daughters are working on for their Little Flowers club major work project. We hope to have it completed and ready to go in April or May, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out more info on unit studies here.

Systems of the Body Part II

Yesterday we finished up everyone's presentation except mine. Ms. 16 yo did her power point presentation on the skin and it was, indeed, very impressive. Full of big words that most of us can't even pronounce, let alone remember. We did learn some interesting things, though, about the biggest organ of the body.

Realizing that we had a bit more time before lunch, Ms. 5 yo took her position behind the table and announced that it was HER turn now. She picked up a book about the skeletal system and began to point at pictures and ask us questions.

Her first question was, "How many bones are in our feet?" Someone said, "27!" to which she promptly nodded her head and said, "Yes". The next question was, "How many bones in our hands?" Someone answered, "26!". Her response, "Yes, that's right." Even Mr. 3 yo tried to get in on the act. The "teacher" asked him where his small intestines were, to which he promptly replied, "Your chin". When she told him he was wrong, he slapped his knee and said, "OH man". And so it went on for about 20 minutes.

Towards the end, after we were laughing so hard at her gestures and seriousness that we couldn't stand it, she did the unthinkable - she assigned us all homework!

With her arm extended and her index finger pointing, she would call out a letter of the alphabet and ask what part of the body began with that letter. When someone would answer, she would tell them that they had to write a report on that thing. I think we ended up with reports being assigned on the mouth, the ear, the trachea, the rib cage and the salivary glands. She told us they were to be done for today and that we would be able to present them then. I haven't done mine, yet, I better get to it before I meet with her wrath.

As most homeschooling moms do at one time or another, I occasionally worry that Ms 5 yo has not learned enough for her age. You see, she has a cousin the same age who has been attending pre-school for the past three years, and of course there are questions about writing and alphabet memorization and such. As I think back over the events of yesterday, I rest assured that she is learning more than enough! AAAHHH, the fun of homeschooling!

Systems of the Body Unit Study

We've been studying the systems of the body for the last month or so and instead of teaching them all myself, I thought it would be better to have each student pick a system that they wanted to teach the rest of us about.

Mr. 8 yo (year old) picked the digestive system - a great one for boys, or so I thought!
Ms. 10 yo picked the respiratory system
Ms. 13 yo picked the skeletal system
Ms. 14 yo picked the muscular system
Ms. 16 yo picked the integumentary (skin) system and
I picked the cardiac and circulatory systems.

We began by going to the library to find some books and movies on each of our systems. Everyone then spent the next few weeks (we only do this twice a week) pouring over their books and deciding what they wanted us to learn and how they wanted us to learn it.

Last week, the presentations began. Ms. 13 yo and Ms 14 yo did very nice presentations on their systems. They each had some written notes, some pictures to share with us as well as a movie and a game for the skeletal system. For the muscular system we ended with some stretching exercises that left us all feeling muscles we haven't felt in awhile.

This week we began with Ms. 10 yo who did a great job on her presentation about our lungs and how we breath. She even made up a game where we had to guess system related words that began with the letters that spell out RESPIRATORY. Let's just say she had to give us a few clues.

Next came Mr. 8yo and his digestive system. A few weeks ago he decided that this system was disgusting and he refused to look at any books that showed pictures of the various parts - you know, like the intestines or the liver. Maybe his 3 yo brother isn't too far off in calling him a "girly boy" :) (really, I'm just kidding!) Anyhow, he is the kind of kid that reads something once and has it memorized, so he was able to very accurately describe what happens to the food that we eat. He then entertained and educated us by reading the book "The Quest to Digest", complete with different character voices and everything! It was highly entertaining.

Today, Ms. 16 yo will give us her POWER POINT presentation on the skin. Should be good and it will definitely show us all up! Last night she had the nerve to ask me if I had been working on my presentation (which I conveniently saved for last to give me more time!) Of course I have been working on it! It just won't be as flashy as hers. Fortunately, I have a movie to fall back on!

Overall, it has been a very fun way to learn a lot about the different body systems. I know they have all learned a lot more than if I had spent the last four weeks teaching them! It always amazes me what they are capable of when I let them have a say in their learning.

Exploring with National Treasure

Since my daughter went to Washington DC a few weeks ago, she wanted to rent "National Treasure" again so that she could look at all of the places that she got to see that were in the movie. Once we watched the first movie, we decided to rent the second "National Treasure" movie again, too. Our family finds both of these movies to be quite entertaining.

I was thinking about it more this morning and I realized that they could both be good springboards for some American History learning, too. Here are a few ideas that we came up with:

~Who was Charles Carroll? Was he really a Mason?
~What are the Masons and what has been their role in our country's history?
~Was there really such a thing as the Templar Treasure?
~What are the Knights of the Templar and how did they get started?
~How many of the founding fathers were Masons?
~What is the history of daylight savings time?
~Was there such a thing as Cebola?
~What was Queen Victoria's association with the Confederacy?
~Who were the Knights of the Golden Circle?
~Who was Edouard Laboulaye and what was his role with the Statue of Liberty?
~Is there more than one Statue of Liberty?
~Research the HMS Resolute. Were there two desks that were really made out of it? If so, where are they?
~Research the Olmecs and ancient Native American languages.
~Research Mt. Rushmore and Gutzon Borglum.
~What is Area 51?
~Is there really a President's Book?
~What does the FBI do?

And this is just the beginning. What a fun way to brighten up a gloomy old February day. Rent one (or both) of the movies and explore some of the topics above. Who knows where your research will lead you?

Schoolhouse Rock

Okay, so how many of you are going to admit that you remember the Schoolhouse Rock videos? I rediscovered them when we were studying the Preamble of the Constitution. Admit it, right now you are humming the tune that helped you to memorize the Preamble. Can you still sing the entire thing? If not, here is your chance to listen to it, memorize it and sing it for the family (my kids just gave me that sideways glance that kids are good at when I was singing along with the video!).

Today we were discussing how Congress has the power to turn bills into laws and guess what, I remembered another SHR video about that, too. After a little searching, here it is...



After watching the poor bill make his way to the President's desk, my kids were wanting more, so we watched the Boston Tea Party, the American Revolution and one about how the government is like a three-ring circus. I found an interestingly pertinent one about what Wall St. is and how to invest properly: "Remember, Buy Low, Sell High". If it were only that easy.

Now you're hooked, too! Have fun and I bet you'll find that when you least expect it, you'll be singing "We the People..."

God Bless!

Civil War Days

We got a chance to go back to the past this weekend to Civil War Days. Not just any Civil War reenactment, but the largest one in Illinois. It is held every year at this time on a pumpkin farm nearby. This year we knew one of the reenactors so it was kind of fun to try and find him in the midst of battle.

One question we had was, if the guns aren't really firing bullets, how do you know when you've been wounded or killed? Our friend told us that you get to fight until you run out of ammunition. Once you run out, you have to fall down as if you've been shot. Sounds fair to me!

The South was outnumbered almost 3 to 1 in this battle, so consequently, the North was able to maneuver around and capture some of the South's cannons and soldiers. I thought that I would share some pictures from this event in case you've never had the chance to see anything like this. From what we've heard, the US Civil War reenactments are very popular in other parts of the world, too.

Here is a picture of one of the soldier's hams that he was cooking for dinner.


Here are some women and girls in period costume.

This is a picture of the Southern soldiers firing their cannon at the Northerners.
This picture shows the fighting. It looks pretty authentic to me. I wonder what it feels like to be a reenactor facing another man and his gun?

Here we see General Lee and General Jackson (in the black) and another unknown officer. They look quite real!

This is an example of the old meeting the new! One of the little boys we were with kept wanting to go see the golf cart!
The graphic descriptions from the medical tent were quite interesting. Miraculously enough, all of their patients are able to walk away after treatment.
Here are some ladies having tea after the battle. Maybe they are discussing the strategies that were used and coming up with ways in which to improve them!

These cannons were actually used during Civil War battles. One of them was named "Lady Molly". Pretty cool, huh?
The afternoon gave some of the girls a chance to dress up, too. How often do you see that many snoods in one place?

Here is a close-up of one of the soldiers. It looks like a lot of fun. Some people travel all over the country doing this.
Hope you enjoyed my tour of Civil War Days.

God Bless!

Unit Study Ideas

Since school is just around the corner (or is already here for some of you) I thought I would throw out a couple of unit study ideas that I have come across recently.

With the elections coming up this fall, we are spending the next couple of months learning about the founding of our country. We will be exploring the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution and reading about some of the founding fathers of our country. Then we will spend some time looking into our government: the different branches and how they run (or at least how they are supposed to:) I found what looks to be a great unit study about elections by Amanda Bennett. Hopefully we will be able to watch some of the debates on TV and then follow the election results that night. That is about as planned out as I have it right now. We will be utilizing the library extensively as well as following Laura Berquist's recommendations for American Government for the high schoolers.

Other friends of ours who have some Mexican heritage are spending the next month or so doing a unit study on Mexico. I believe there are three families that have started this. The neat thing about their unit study is that they will be hosting a Cultural Heritage Day in September for any interested families so that we can all join in the fun. This sounds like a great idea if you have a group to do this with.

Another family is taking this idea of learning about other countries and turning it into a co-op where families will sign up for one of the six months available and will organize activities, songs, games and learning opportunities for the other families in the co-op about a country of their choice. What a great way to have fun and throw in some history, geography, religion, music, etc.

Just wanted to share some of these fun ideas with all of you. If you are looking for some way to spice up your year, unit studies are a great way to do that. It is even more enjoyable if you can do it in a group setting or share your ideas and learning with others.

God Bless!

Unit Studies - Part III

Yesterday Elizabeth left a comment that brought an important piece of information to my attention. I tend to forget that other states have strict reporting laws when it comes to homeschooling. We happen to live in a state that has no reporting requirements. So, if you live in a state that has stricter laws and required paper trails, you can still do unit studies as your main style of learning, it will just require more documentation and possibly thinking outside of the box to get it done.

I was just rereading a book that I had about unit studies called "Unit Studies Made Easy" by Valerie Bendt. In part of the book she discusses how she keeps track of what her children have learned. She keeps a spiral notebook open with one page per child per day. On it she records all of their activities and classifies them into a typical subject of study. She makes note that she records things the family might do outside of typical school hours since those activities can certainly qualify as learning. For example, making a meal for a sick family could be classified as Home Ec, gardening time could fall under science, etc. This way she has documented evidence that her kids are studying and learning.

As just another example of how to set up a unit study, I would like to tell you about one that we did on Romantic Era composers. We obviously studied music, and in addition to that we covered history by learning about various composers. We mapped out where each of them lived, thus covering some geography. My oldest did research and wrote short reports on various composers. We also watched some movies that were related to certain composers, as well as learned to play their songs and listened to recordings of their music. When you think about it, it is fairly easy to cover a good deal of ground by taking a look at just one topic.

I'm not sure if I'll have time to post anymore before the conference, so I hope this has been helpful.

God Bless!

Unit Studies - Part II

With the homeschooling conference approaching, I have had to give a little bit of thought to what I want to do next year. In the coming school year I will have two high school students, both of them very different learners. My oldest daughter likes her text books and likes when I map out exactly what she has to do and then leave her alone! Most of the time she groans when I tell her we are all going to do something as a group. I think it is because we slow her down. My next high schooler is definitely one who is an auditory and hands on kind of learner, so the unit study approach works well for her. I have found that planning a unit study around one of the high school topics is a good way to blend us all together. For instance, this coming fall my oldest will be studying the US Government and I just happened to find a unit study on elections that will tie into it. She will also be studying Biology, so I found a great book called "Christian Kids Learn Biology" that the rest of us can use.

In planning my year like this, I have found another great advantage: I save a lot of money. I don't need to buy a bunch of workbooks for each student. There are certain subjects we still use textbooks and workbooks for (like math and map skills), but otherwise I really don't have to spend all that much money. With the inter-library loan system around our area and the availability of the internet, we have many resources at our finger tips. Many times I will just buy a few general books about a subject that we will be studying that we can all use.

I will admit that I am a book fiend and I still do find it hard to shop the vendor hall (or even a catalog) and not be tempted to buy a lot of stuff, most of which I really don't need. At last year's conference I was just about to buy grammar workbooks for some of my children when a friend asked me why I was doing that. She brought me over to the used book section, we found an early version of a good grammar book and she gave me some ideas of how I could incorporate it into whatever we were studying. What a great idea that was!

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that workbooks are bad. Some children do just fine with them. Some mothers do just fine with them. I can tell you that they were just not working for us. I hated what was happening to our schooling and my children hated it, too. It was obvious that something needed to change. After a lot of prayer and research, I knew that this was a better way for us to go. If you are struggling with the workbook way of learning I would urge you to try out a unit study and see if you like it. I can definitely say that it revolutionized our learning!

God Bless!

Unit Studies - Part I

It's that inevitable time of the year when people begin to ask if we are finished with school yet. The other night my father-in-law was asking us that question when one of my daughters said that she was done already. He started asking her what subjects she had studied this year. Of course she said math, and then went on to list off Latin and art but then stopped. He asked her about English. She responded that we don't really do English. Boy, my sister-in-law got a hoot out of that one. Always ready to spring into action, I tried to explain to them how English is something we conquer amidst all of the other things that we are learning.

I find that this is probably one of the harder things about Unit Studies: There is not a specific workbook or test for each individual subject. We read good literature out loud and independently. We studied grammar during our Latin lessons. We did writing assignments which included drafts and rewrites. We had spelling words. As far as I can tell, this is English. Its just not balled up into a nice, neat little workbook.

Thinking in Unit Study mode definitely requires thinking out of the box. I found that I really had to make a shift in my thinking when I started to teach this way. I had to get over the security of having the concrete workbook and test in my hand that "told" me my child had learned something. In reality, all it really told me was that they memorized something for the short term. All I could do was hope that they retained it for the long term.

The longer we learn with Unit Studies, however, the more I see that it is a way of inching ever more closely towards a more natural way of learning. We might learn about four or five different subjects just by exploring one topic. I like the way that works and I think my kids do, too.

Hopefully I will be able to add more on this subject tomorrow :) God Bless!