Heidi – Our Homeschool Book Review!

27 Friday Feb 2015

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Book Recommendation, Girls, Homeschool, Homeschool Girl Power!

Heidi is a great book to teach about “themes.” I explained to the girls that themes are like the lessons the writer might be trying to help us understand by telling the story. All on their own they came up with “thinking of others before yourself” and “prayer and faith.”

I also added in a character analysis notebooking page from notebookingfairy.com. It was a great moment to bring up positive character traits that Heidi showed us! To do that, I introduced the list of Biblical Virtues (Character Traits) that I purchased from Virtue Training Bible. (I’ve been meaning to start doing this with the girls, but haven’t had time.)

So, we picked out a few character traits for Heidi – joy, encouragement, faith, compassion, etc. and then we were able to look at a few Bible verses to see how the Bible “defined” those traits and if we agreed that Heidi actually had that trait. Then we listed “evidence” from the story on the notebooking page.

We also squeezed in a short lesson on goats!

Kid Reviews:

Oldest’s (age 8) Review:

I liked Heidi because she thought of others before herself. Heidi helps her ill friend Klara walk. Heidi brought kittens in Klara’s house and I thought that was funny.

Youngest’s (age 6) Review:

I liked Heidi because she helped Klara walk and Heidi got to go back to her grandfather. I like Heidi because she learned how to read. I like Heidi because she brought kittens into the Sesamann house.

My Review of Heidi

I had completely forgotten what a sweet story Heidi is!! I just remember I liked it, and thought it would be good for the girls. I absolutely loved how it showed faith in action. Childlike faith sharing their faith, making miraculous changes in even the adults around them. What a wonderful little story of how young girls can make a difference in the world around them! That was what touched me, as a Mom, while reading this story. My girls could see authentic examples of faith in action!

What was especially important was that both of our girls have made personal professions of faith in the past few months. I can’t help but think that reading the story of Heidi played a part in that for them.

And of course, we celebrate the end of every book with the movie! This one got the best reviews on Amazon Prime.

Online Resources:

FREE LITERATURE UNIT STUDY: Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Heidi Unit Study by Confessions of a Homeschooler
Goat Unit Study

France, and the Madeline books

26 Thursday Feb 2015

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Book Recommendation, Geography, Homeschool Girl Power!

We squeezed in a quick unit on France while we were still finishing up Heidi.

I say “quick” because I didn’t have a long chapter book to focus on for France. Instead, we used the Madeline book series.

Literature:
Any of the Madeline Books, but especially the first one.
Madeline Video
Madeline Lapbook

We didn’t use much from the Madeline lapbook link, since much of it didn’t focus on the book and just a bit focused on the country. Instead we have been focusing on activities from the France lapbook below.

France:
France Lapbook

Videos About France:
France: Romain in Brittany
France: Raphael in Brittany
France: My House in Bordeaux
France: Joyce and Her Owl
France: Emmanuel And His Harpsichord

Tour de France:
Tour de France Kids Guide
Tour de France site
Tour de France video on Youtube
Tour de France coloring page

Show Me . . . a Valentine’s Tradition!

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

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Show Me Series, Valentine's Day

For more information about our new “Show Me” Series, go here.
Welcome to our “Show Me” series! Your link-up can be just a picture, or pictures with explanation. Or just explanation if you’re like me when taking the picture and actually getting it uploaded might mean you’d miss out!
The goal of this linkup is fun, though some might have a homeschool bent. If you you don’t homeschool, please feel free to participate anyway and show us how that “show me” theme pertains to you and your home! And if we can share some tips and cool brainstorming ideas along the way — EVEN BETTER!

This week’s theme is “Show Me . . . A Valentine’s Tradition!

I really thought I had better pictures, but these are the only ones we can find. Each year, we have a “family Valentines dinner” on Valentine’s Day! This started as a money saving measure – finding a babysitter AND a dinner reservation on Valentine’s? Impossible! And now of course, it’s a tradition that the girls love!

So, the hubby and I schedule our own Valentine’s date night on a different night, and do our own little celebration with the girls on Valentine’s. We use the fancy china, pull out the fizzy grape juice for the kids, and have fun!

Last year, the girls decided they wanted the menu to be “Breakfast for Dinner” and to have French toast because that was “fancy.” So, we did!

I even had them take their baths early and get into their pajamas, so we could them to bed early. (They thought it was cool to be able to eat in their pajamas. Whatever works, right?)

Be sure to check out some of my friend’s posts!

Amy at Http://homegrownhatfields.wordpress.com
Michelle at http://homeschoolerontheedge.crookers.com/
Kyndra at http://kyndrasteinmann.com

Click below and join us, and checking out everyone else’s posts!

This week: Focus on Valentine’s Day!

09 Monday Feb 2015

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So, I’m sitting here getting ready for Valentine’s Day this week, and I realized that I haven’t posted about Valentine’s Day in eons! So I thought I would focus on Valentine’s themes for this week!

First, if you would like to read a post from several years ago for tons of preschool/K Valentine’s resources, click here!

Tuesday, be sure to come back for our “Show Me” post series, where I will be sharing about one of our Valentine’s traditions!

Later this week, I will be catching up on some blog posts I’ve been meaning to finish for quite a while. Both are dealing with prayer, and what could be a better way to love someone, but to pray for them?

Today the girls are working on Valentine’s Day cards for their AHG friends, to give out at our meeting tomorrow. Here are some of the newest Valentine’s Day Resources we are choosing from this year:

2015 Valentine’s Calendar Printable
Valentine’s Jokes
Scripture Valentines
Valentine’s Crafts (ignore where it says “for Preschoolers”) They’re too cute not to do!
No Candy Valentine’s for Kids

We have put up our minimal Valentine’s Decorations which consist of heart magnets and heart window clings (Dollar store specials and kid favorites!). I cleaned out our “Valentine decoration box” and found tons of old craft supplies that I have never used, and they are all packed up to go to AHG with us tomorrow, where we will be having a mini-Valentine’s Day activity and service project. I plan to do Valentine’s card crafts with the girls today, and might let them pick out another craft to do later in the week. I also plan to print out some of these “jokes” to put in their lunches for Co-Op this week! And then, we will have our Valentine’s Day dinner with Daddy that evening. Still haven’t decided on the menu for that yet, but we’ll figure it out. Hubby and I will do a date night sometime this month – when we find a Living Social/Groupon that we like, or the crowds aren’t so bad at restaurants.

So, that’s my plan for the week, trying to squeeze some Valentine’s Day fun into an already insane schedule! I’d love to hear what you guys do for Valentine’s. Anything special? What are your favorite resources?

PS. I just saw that Amanda Bennett is doing a Valentine’s Unit Giveaway on her Facebook page today!