Flight/Aviation Unit Study

National Museum of the USAF

History of Flight Unit Study

Flight Resources

Aviation Unit Study

FAA Teacher resources experiments & activities

Aviation resources book lists, websites, projects and writing assignments

Flight Exploration Unit activities, websites, experiments

AOPA Youth Education  activities, modules with worksheets

Reading Book Lists

Book Adventure --along with lists of books there is quizzes that kids can take on the books.

PPS Leveled Books Lists

1000 Good Books List

Carol Hurst' Children's Literature Site --collection of book reviews for kids and more

Children's Literature Web Guide

Teacher's and Families Reading Ideas -- reading lists by grade levels, along with a reading theme section for middle and high school students.  There is also a "lifetime reading list" link with a list of books that one should read at least once in their lifetime.

Teenreads.com Ultimate Reading List -- over 400 titles of young adult to adult books that should be enjoyed by teens. List is compiled alphabetically and in a downloadable PDF file

**updated list with additional links added!

Pumpkin Recipes, Crafts & More!

Here in the next couple of weeks, we will be going pumpkin picking! Looking for just the right pumpkins to decorate our house or to carve or to cook to make into pies or in soups or a combination of things! I was doing some looking around online and instead of keeping the information all to myself, I thought I would share my findings!

Thinking on doing a unit study with your children on pumpkins, head over Easy Fun School where they have lesson ideas to recipes for pumpkin pie leather and pumpkin pie chips to pumpkin suncatchers crafts and pumpkin pie spice ornaments to a pumpkin book list!

Looking to do some kind of hands on activity with pumpkins but do not know what to do! How about doing The Pumpkin Seed Experiment?! There is six different activities with pumpkins and pumpkin seeds involving tallying, weighing, graphing, and more (from abcteach.com).

Looking for crafts for the children to do, the list over at DLTK's Pumpkin Crafts should keep them busy for a rainy afternoon!

Are you wanting to expand your palate and try new recipes, The Pumpkin Patch has tons of recipes anything from breads, biscuits, muffins to main dishes to cakes, pies, and cookies!

Here are my favorite pumpkin recipes:

Pumpkin Cake Squares

Pumpkin Oat Strusel Muffins



Pumpkin Muffins

2 c sugar
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c. oil
4 eggs
1 (15-oz) can of pumpkin

Mix together all dry ingredients first, then add oil and eggs. Once this is mixed well (it will be thick), add pumpkin. Put in 2/3 cup batter into well greased muffin cups or or greased wrappers. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 mins (my oven baked them just right at 18 mins). I iced them with Cream Cheese icing!

So there are my pumpkin findings! Sound off: What are you planning on doing with your pumpkins this year? Do you have a tried and true pumpkin recipe that you would like to share?!

This post is linked to:

• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom!

**originally posted October, 2008

Writing Prompts: A Jar of Possibilities

Imagine the following scene with me:

Mom: “You need to write a story today.”

Child(with a blank stare): “ A story!?!”

Mom: “Yes a story!”

Child: “But I don’t know what to write about!”

Mom:“Well use your imagination! I am sure that you can figure out something!”

[Mom leaves the child to their thoughts! An hour later Mom goes to check the child’s paper, only to find there is nothing on the paper!]

Mom:“Why don’t you have your story written like I said for you to?”

Child: “I told you that I didn’t know what to write about!”

Mom: “Well you need to write a story!”

[Mom leaves the child alone and a bit frustrated!]

Do you have this happen with your child? Do you want to put an end to this scene happening in your home school adventure? If so, I have the solution to this problem!

To find out the solution go read the rest of my article over at Happy To Be At Home!

Presidents' Day Unit Study

Today is Presidents' Day!  Here is a list of sites that you can use to find different activities to do and books to read for Presidents' day.

Homeschool Helper's Lapbook resources --lapbook resources

Hands On Activities


Homeschool Share's Lapbook resources

Easy Fun School's Presidents Unit

Homeschool Mom's Presidents page

President Day Activities

Apples 4 the Teacher --list of books along with activities to do

Homeschool Learning Network –downloadable unit for $2.95

Mr. Donn's President's Day Page

Enchanted Learning President's Day Crafts

Education World's February Holidays page –scroll down about ½ way to find the Presidents’ Day links

originally posted February, 2008

Valentine's Day Unit Study Links

Looking for links to study Valentine's Day...here you go! At each link you will find tons of goodies to use from information about the history of the day to books to read to crafts to do!


Lacelle Family Ministries Valentine Unit Study tons of ideas and activities

Easy FunSchool's Valentines Unit a pdf of ideas and activities

Valentine's Day Unit Study

Eclectic Education's Valentine Unit Study

DLTK's Valentines Crafts crafts and activities

History of Valentine's day

Notebooking Pages free holiday notebooking pages

Enchanted Learning's Valentine's day Crafts

Homeschool Helper Online's Valentine Unit Ideas

Teacher Vision's Valentine Day's Teacher Resources

Family Fun's Valentine Crafts

How Valentine's Day Works

Valentine Reading Ideas -- different age level book lists

Mr. Donn's Valentine's Day Page

originally posted February, 2008

Christmas around the World

I have taken the time this week to work on gathering Christmas links(and even some book titles) so that I can focus with my kids this month on Christmas. We are taking a break from our usual school work until the beginning of the year so we can get baking and focus on the true meaning of Christmas along with having some fun!

WEBSITES:

Christmas Traditions around the World

Christmas Around the World

Holidays around the World book list, links and activities

Christmas Around the World

Christmas Traditions around the World

Christmas Around the World Unit Study links and activities





BOOKS:

Christmas Around the World: A Pop-Up Book by Chuck Fischer

Christmas Around the World Coloring Book by Joan O'Brien

Christmas in many cultures by Martha E.H. Rustad

Children Around the World Celebrate Christmas by Susan Titus Osborn, Christine Harder Tangvald, and Jodie McCallum


Other Related Posts:

Hanukkah Unit

Kwanzaa Unit

Christmas Homemade Gifts

Do you like homemade gifts from others?

I like to make gifts from my kitchen for friends, neighbors and even my relatives!

Warning: Please keep the drool to yourself! and don't read the sites on an empty stomach!

Mrs. Claus Cookbook

Busy Cooks


Crafty DIY Gifts

Weblink Wednesday--Ancient Egypt

A few weeks ago, I posted links on Ancient Rome.

So this week, I am going to give some Ancient Egypt links.

Write like an Egyptian

Ancient Egypt Resources

Clickable Mummy learn interesting facts about mummification

Egyptian tombs, including floor plans of the tombs.

Ancient Egypt Teacher Resources

Ancient Egypt Coloring Pages

Explore Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Crafts

Egyptian Crafts

Ancient Egypt Unit Study geared for 3rd-8th graders

Ancient Egypt for kids

Ancient Egypt Links, Activities & Books

For other weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement!

Thanksgiving Unit Study

Links/Websites:

All about Plymouth, Massachusetts

Colonial Kids--Celebration of life in the 1700s about life as a colonial kid, see how the pilgrims dressed

Celebrating Thanksgiving teaching ideas and activities for teaching about the first Thanksgiving; an interactive on the first Thanksgiving, voyage on the Mayflower, look into their daily life, learn about the Thanksgiving feast.

Thanksgiving books in the sidebar there is more links to other Thanksgiving themed items like history, clipart, games, activities, and more!

Thanksgiving Teaching Theme writing sheets, songs, recipes, crafts, vocabulary builders, games, lesson plans, and much more

Mayflower History

All about Squanto

Thanksgiving unit study

Thanksgiving Unit Study

Thanksgiving/Pilgrim Unit Study

Thanksgiving Lesson Plans using books

Thanksgiving Lapbook

Billy Bear's Thanksgiving activities Loads of fun Thanksgiving activities for the younger set: games, puzzles and crafts.

Thanksgiving at the Holiday Zone Find Thanksgiving craft projects, discussion ideas, language arts activities, songs and more.

123Child Thanksgiving Art, games, math & science, songs & finger play, make a recipe book with kids favorite recipes, and dramatic play

KinderArt's Paper Turkey Craft Craft project for little kids to make table decorations that resemble turkeys.

Enchanted Learning Thanksgiving These crafts projects are for preschool, kindergarten and elementary school children. The crafts use materials found around the house, like egg cartons, cardboard, paper, boxes, string, crayons, paint, glue, etc.

ABCTeach unit study Print out these pages from ABCTeach to have a complete unit study for a young child.

Turkey Booklet Create this easy and colorful booklet in your home and write down what you are most thankful for this year.

Thanksgiving on the Net stories of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, turkeys to take home, holiday pictures for the kids to print and color, tasty holiday recipes and e-greeting cards to send your friends and family

Thanksgiving Family Fun crafts, family fun, clipart and much more

Thanksgiving Traditions & History history, traditions, and customs

The Pilgrims 1621 Thanksgiving

Pilgrim clothing

Mayflower History Mayflower history including a passenger list.

Thanksgiving lesson ideas articles, lesson ideas, site reviews, books, crafts, clipart and much more

DLTK's Thanksgiving Crafts crafts, activities, recipes and much more

Bountiful Thanksgiving history, crafts, activities, parades, and much more

Thanksgiving activities for the younger grades

Teacher Planet's Thanksgiving Page links to lessons, units, worksheets, clip art and other resources

Thanksgiving mini unit Kindergarten level--Thanksgiving mini unit

Thanksgiving Lesson Plans & Activities activities for all grades

Thanksgiving Theme books, music, and tons of links

Mr. Donn's Thanksgiving Page lesson plans and activities on Pilgrims and Native Americans

Crayola's Thanksgiving Activities crafts, activities and lesson plans

Thanksgiving story on pdfs

History of Thanksgiving –first Thanksgiving table manners and the type of meal.

Day in the life of kids at the Plimouth Plantation1st grade lesson plan

Myths & Realities of Thanksgiving facts on the first Thanksgiving

1st Thanksgiving kdg./1st grade level unit of crafts, activities and lessons.

Wampanoag history (Native American group—New England)

Books: (this is just a small selection of the books that are available)

~~A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
~~Thanksgiving at the Tappletons’
~~A Turkey for Thanksgiving
~~The First Thanksgiving
~~Don’t Know Much about Pilgrims
~~If You Were At the First Thanksgiving
~~Its Thanksgiving (I Can Read Book 3)
~~P is for Pilgrim: A Thanksgiving Alphabet
~~Thanksgiving on Thursday(Magic Tree House Book)
~~The Story of Thanksgiving
~~The Mayflower Secret: William Bradford (Trailblazer Books #26) (older kids book or read aloud)
~~If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
~~Sarah Morton’s Day: day in the life of a Pilgrim Girl
~~Samuel Eaton’s Day: day in the life of a Pilgrim Boy

Hymns:

**We Gather Together
**For the Beauty of the Earth
**Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
**Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
**Give Thanks


Projects:

• Acrostic Poem using “Thanksgiving”
• Imagine yourself on the Mayflower write a story about what life is like on the Mayflower
• Create your own first Thanksgiving feast, cook up some of the dishes that the Pilgrims ate on that day.
• Make a turkey craft
• Make a book of blessings---shape book from abc teach.
• Do a Thanksgiving themed Lapbook

Facts/People/Terms to know:

Governor William Bradford
Squanto
Samoset
Wampanoag Indians
Pilgrims
Mayflower
Plymouth
Life on the Plantation
1621
Foods that were served at 1st Thanksgiving
Hardships of the Pilgrims
How did the Indians help the Pilgrims?

Weblink Wednesday--Ancient Rome

Looking at doing a unit study on Ancient Rome? Here is a list of sites that you might find useful!
Rome Project

Rome Unit Study

Mr. Dowling's Electronic Passport

Rome Land of Emperors

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome Resource Links

Six week Ancient Rome Unit Study geared for grades 3rd-8th.

Ancient Rome Lapbook

Ancient Rome and the King of Kings

For other weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement!

Weblink Wednesday

Do your kids love reading? Do you ever wonder if what they are reading they are also comprehending? Does your child need help with reading comprehension? Do you like to do unit studies using "library books"?

Here is a site that I have used with my boys. It has a list of books that are "kid friendly", enjoyable books. Each of the books has a link that takes you to a lesson plan around that book or there is comprehension questions, vocabulary, and activities to go along with each book.

Book Unit Studies

For other weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement!

Fire Prevention Month--Prevent Home Fires!

October is Fire Prevention Month! October 5-11 is Fire Prevention Week! This year the campaign's slogan is "Prevent Home Fires". Below you will find many links with activities, interactive games, coloring pages, checklists, book lists and more to educate yourself and your children on preventing home fires!

National Fire Prevention Association –all about fire prevention week along with activities and quizzes.

US Fire Administration Kids Page learn about home fire safety, smoke alarms and escaping a fire.

Sparky the Great Fire Dog—games and activities

Fire Safety For Kids –games and slideshows to watch and read online regarding fire safety

DLTK-Kids –crafts on fire safety

The Great Chicago Fire --site dedicated to the Great Chicago Fire and a web of memory.

Top 10 Activities for Teaching Fire Safety to Kids

Ato Z Teacher Stuff Fire Safety Page –links to activities, crafts, and snacks.

FEMA's Teacher Page

Fire Safety Lapbook

Home Safety Council Fire Safety Month Activities

Staying Alive –games and activities on fire safety

Fire Safety Thematic Unit checklist, coloring pages, and a list of books to read about fire safety

Fire Safety Unit Study--full of cross-curriculum activities and fire-related websites

Scholastic's Fire Safety Page –activities galore!

Educational Website

While doing my nutrition education online class for being able to receive my WIC coupons this month, I stumbled upon a state's extension service's just for kids page with LOTS of educational info and links!

Kids can enjoy a story called "Riding the Winds with Kalani, A Weather Adventure" where they will take a ride in a weather balloon and talk about weather. OR they can enjoy a story about "A Walk in the Woods" where they will learn facts about nature. There are other fun stories as well from doing your first garden to finding out where your food comes from to learning about insects.

Each of the stories have a teacher's resource/guide page that gives standards or objectives. There is also several of the stories that have activity pages to do.

Along with the story links, there is additional educational websites that you can go to as well and learn about sports and nutrition to prehistoric animals to so much more!

Just for Kids from University of Illinois Extension

For other weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement!

Weblink & Works for Me Wednesday--Testmaking

We are into our third week of doing school! We are to the point in several subjects that we are ending units or chapters and with that comes tests and quizzes.

This year, I have decided to work in actual written tests and quizzes rather than doing it verbally with my kids. I came across this site that you is a FREE online test generator to help you create your tests. You register for FREE! You can create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true and false questions all on the same test. You can also insert instructions and divide your test into multiple sections. It automatically formats the test for you! The Free section also keeps the tests archived so that you can come back to them if needed.

There is "Plus" features to the site. The "Plus" features include spell check, exam builder, test duplicator and alternative versions of a test. According to the site, "a Plus subscription for 1 year is $14.95 or choose the 2 year option for $24.95 and save over 15%. It's Risk-Free! If you are not completely satisfied we'll refund your money within the first 30 days, no questions asked. There are no limits to the number of tests you can create in either the Free or PLUS edition. You can upgrade to or downgrade from the PLUS edition at any time!"

What site has all this available to use????

Easy Testmaker

Using Testmaker works for me for my homeschool testmaking. To find what work for others, head over to Rocks in my Dryer. And for other weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement!

Weblink Wednesday

As I was looking for sites to go along with my oldest son's studies on World History and Cultures and Earth Science, I stumbled upon this site I am going to share! I haven't had a chance to look through the whole site but what I have looks inviting and fun for my son! The site is part of the American Museum of Natural History! It is their Ology Page! It is a Science rich site! You can learn more about archeology, paleontology, astronomy, Earth, genetics, Einstein along with a few others. There are tons of activities to do like quizzes, experiments, interviews with scientists, field work, and more!

Ology Page

For other weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement! This week, Val is also having a DVD giveaway, that you can enter just by participating in Weblink Wednesday! :)

Link Review--The Mint

In an effort to find "Real Life Math" activities online for my oldest son to do for part of Math class this year, I found this website called The Mint!!! My oh my!! There is alot of different financial resources and useful tools at this site geared to middle or high school students!!! The site is divide up into three "pages"---for kids, for parents, and for teachers. There is online activities to do such as building a budget, learning to write checks, tracking your checking account.

Here is what it says at the site regarding its purpose.....
"Launched in 1997, the site provides tools to help parents as well as educators teach children to manage money wisely and develop good financial habits: the building blocks for a secure future. Given the current rate of savings and debt in America, this is a lesson that desperately needs to be learned.

Sections on this site have been designed for families. Most pages are written in a kid-friendly style so families can work together – or older children can work independently in learning money lessons. However, some sections have been developed exclusively for teachers and parents.

Ideas for Teachers contains activities to illustrate sound money-management concepts.

The Parents section provides tips for mentoring and nurturing children, to help them grow in financial responsibility. Some of these tips lay very simple groundwork and can be used before children start grade school."

One needs to explore the site to get the depth of its resources!!!

The Mint

2008-2009 Curriculum

After taking the time to share what I am doing with my daughter this year. I thought I would take the time to share what I am going to be using and doing with my 3 older boys.
I have added in a few new items to our learning this year. Word of the Day and Music are new to us. For Music, we will be doing it altogether and will be working on it one or two days per week. The Word of the Day is going to be worked into our daily work and used as part of our copy work exercises for the day.
My oldest son is pretty much a self-learner so he will be doing most of his year on his own with minimum effort from me. I chose what he will be learning along with scheduling it out and he does the work. My other two are so close in age, abilities, and learning styles that I try to work with them together on most things.
History and Science texts are used more as a study guide because we do more Unit Studies and Lapbooks for those subjects. I am still working on age appropriate book lists for all three of them and I will post at a later date.
Also we will be doing Art(weekly) and PE(daily), however, I didn't list them because we do these things altogether and as time allows for them.
#1 son--Grade 7:

Bible:**Bible Class Books
**list of Scripture to memorize
**Character Building
**Christian History
Math:
**Finish Grade 8th Math
**Pre-Algebra
**Consumers’ Math
English/Writing:**Word of the Day
**Journal Writing
Reading:**Fundamentals of Literature--BJU
**Poets Study
**Select Reading List—Book Reports and Comprehension QuestionsSpelling:**Spelling Connections Grade 7
**Spelling Connections Games
Handwriting/Copywork:**Donna Young's Penmanship
Science:
**Earth Science
History:**World Cultures
Music:
**Ambleside Composer Study
**Learn Music Notes


#2 son--Grade 5:
Bible:
**AWANA
**Character Building
Math:**BJU Math Grade 5
English/Writing:
**Scott Foresman Grade 5
**Journal Writing
**Word of the Day
Reading:**BJU Reading Grade 5
** Select Reading List—Book Reports and Comprehension Questions
Spelling:
**Spelling Connections Grade 5
**Spelling Connections Games
Handwriting:**Cursive--Handwriting for Kids
**Donna Young's Penmanship
Science:
**Investigating God’s World—Grade 5
History:
**Abeka New World Geography
Music:**Ambleside Composer Study
**Learn Music Notes


#3 son--Grade 3:

Bible:**AWANA
**Character Building
Math:**Finish LifePac Math Grade 3
**BJU Math Grade 3 or 4
English/Writing:
**Scott Foresman Grade 3
**Journal Writing
Reading:
**BJU Reading Grade 3
** Select Reading List—Book Reports and Comprehension Questions
Spelling:**Spelling Connections Grade 3
**Spelling Connections Games
Handwriting:**Cursive--Handwriting for Kids
**Donna Young's Penmanship
Science:**Understanding God’s World—Grade 4
History:
**BJU Heritage Studies Grade 3/4
Music:
**Ambleside Composer Study
**Learn Music Notes

Weblink Wednesday--Read Alouds

Are you familiar with this book?? I wasn't til someone on a homeschooling message board recommended reading it! I just picked up from the library today! From what I gather from skimming thru it just briefly....it is a book that helps you to understand that every child can become an avid reader. It answers common questions about doubts, it gives tips on how to get children into books! It boosts about discovering the rewards that come from reading and the importance of reading aloud.

Little did I realize that Mr. Trelease has a website set up with all the same information that is in the book plus new reviews of books that are not in the last edition of his book!

He has a Weekly Read-Aloud Book review and Weekly Education Essay.

He has articles about different debates that are going on in the Educator's arena--like the No Child Left Behind, Censorship, on-line reading vs. offline, and even research on the effects of "screen time"(TVs, Videos, Computers). I found many different and interesting articles that even as a homeschooling parent I found to be interesting to read.

You can purchase CDs and DVDs of his past lectures.

You can even find out how to make Rain Gutter Bookshelves!!!

So if you are looking for information on reading or looking for a good book to read aloud to your kids....check out his site!!!!

The Read Aloud Handbook--Trelease on Reading

For more weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement!

Weblink Wednesday--Summer Olympics

I have been working at getting a couple of unit studies together for us to do during the first few weeks of school. With the Summer Olympics going on during our first week of school, I thought that doing a fun unit on the Olympics would be a good place to start our year!

Here are a few of the links that I found to incorporate into our study....

Teacher Visions Summer Olympic Page---tons of activities, facts, and resources.

Homeschool Share's Lapbook

Teacher's Corner Summer Olympic Links---links to National Geographic's page, the official 2008 Beijing's Olympic site, links to the history of olympics and more!

Teacher's Planet Summer Olympic Resource

Want to find other weblinks, head over to Homeschooling with Encouragement!