Showing posts with label School Subject: Summer School Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School Subject: Summer School Ideas. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

DIY Projects Based on Books ~ Gentle Summer Schooling and Bonding


"Furthermore, most children will find greater satisfaction and demonstrate greater learning from things they make and do with their parents or other people than from elaborate toys or learning materials."
~ Raymond S. Moore, School Can Wait

Here is another ode to a no television summer. With so many books to read and memories to be had cuddled and huddled around the couch, I wanted to encourage a lifestyle of reading and doing. Here are some books to be enjoyed and some fun and useful projects and ideas to accompany them. I would like to think that there is a little of something for everyone here!



Sense and Sensibility 


Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Project Based on Book:

Make Your Own Lavender Water



Winnie-the-Pooh


Project Based on Books:



The Tales of Peter Rabbit

                

Beatrix Potter Book {The Complete Tales} by Beatrix Potter

Projects Based on Books:

Peter Rabbit's Gift Tags {Free Printable}

Peter Rabbit's "Bedtime Blend" Chamomile Bath Powders {DIY}

Peter Rabbit's Bookmarks {Free Printable}

Peter Rabbit's Room Spray "Bedtime Blend for the Nursery" {DIY}

Mr. McGregor's (Peter Rabbit's) Seed Packets {Free Printable}

Peter Rabbit's Tummy Tincture "A Dose of Chamomile" {DIY}

Gardening with Peter Rabbit {Precious Playtime Inspiration}




                

Beatrix Potter Book {The Complete Tales} by Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse by Beatrix Potter

Projects Based on Books:







“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children
is not a good children's story in the slightest.”
~ C.S. Lewis

Note: I have always found useful projects made together for the home to be wonderful employment. As time is often a factor, I noticed I found more of "it" to craft together when I knew the things we created would actually be used. For example, children will enjoy making labels or cutting them out for a "Raggedy Ann Room Spray". They would enjoy counting out the drops into the spray bottle and smelling each scent. They would enjoy exclaiming how delicious or strong each fragrance is. They would appreciate spraying the aroma and knowing they made something productive! And as they do prepare it, explain the "little things" to them along the way (that the peppermint oil is made from the peppermint plant, that it has many medicinal properties to kill germs, that they must never ingest the potent oils and so forth). They will associate that little spray with those moments of reading together. Your books will come alive! This is the type of home education and bonding that blesses everyone involved.
All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, and Shabbilicious Friday. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them).

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Friday, July 1, 2016

Quick Study on China ~ Geography Journal Series


If you want to travel around the world with your children this summer, then you may be interested in conducting a "Geography Journal" study! The whole concept is explained here and lends itself to simple summer schooling. Instead of a passport, you will only need a composition book, a library and a few minutes each day! With our geography journal printable, this makes for a quick and convenient summer project (or any time of year for that matter)! Today we are sharing a sample from our time spent in China to give you an idea of how fun and educational this can be!


Page 1 Entry: Title your first page with the complete name of the country. Outline (or print out a black-line map) a map of the country you are studying and paste it into your journal.  Find the capitol city and label it on the map. Include a drawing of the national flag.  Record which continent your country is located in and the main religions. 


Page 2 Entry: “Famous People” (not shown)

Note: This is a great way to study missionaries such as Hudson Taylor, Gladys Aylward and Eric Liddell. 

Page 3 Entry: “Books Read About China”

Note: These types of "activity/craft" books are fun to incorporate into your study. Make sure to take advantage of something like this and include pertaining samples into your journal.

Page 3 Entry - Continued: “Movies Watched About China"

Page 4 Entry: “Famous Places in China” (not shown)

Page 5 Entry: “Interesting Animals in China” including illustrations. (Note: We used the Draw and Write Through History series for the how-to-draw a panda, silkworm moth and pagoda. We also included the accompanying copy-work from that series in our journal.)

Page 6 Entry: “Interesting Facts about China” (not shown)


Page 7 Entry: "Biography Sketch"

Page 8 Entry: "Special Resources in China" (not shown)

Page 9 Entry: "Traditional Style of Clothing" (not shown) 


Page 10 Entry: "Create a Chinese Menu"

Have your children do some research on the types of foods eaten from the country you are studying and write down a menu that sounds appetizing. Choose a night during the week and have them prepare an international meal for the family. For extra fun, dress up in the customary attire from that country (you may need to get creative with what you have which is also fun!).


It is very enjoyable to see what your children come up with! My husband and I aren't "allowed" to watch the preparations for the international meal (we just need to show up dressed in proper costume). For our China study, we found ourselves sitting on the floor for the meal, homemade paper fans were placed on our plates for decoration, since we didn't have chopsticks, bamboo skewers were used and finally some Chinese Floral Place Cards and Matching Napkin Holders (which I found  inexpensively at a thrift store) were utilized for extra fun. 


Bonus Entry Ideas (you will find more on our printable here):

Do a collage page featuring information about the country. For instance, we have a coloring book of the countries which shares facts from many countries. We cut out the snippets of information and colored them and pasted them into a collage page in our journal. You could also use pictures from old magazines, travel brochures, etc.
When our tour of China was completed, we were refreshed and ready to move on to our normal routine again. Do let me know if you decide to give this series a try. No passports are necessary for these kinds of field trips! :) And when we are ready to travel again, we simply bring out our composition books and begin a new journey on the next page!


Ready to start your own "Geography Journal"? Print out our free Journal Entry Ideas to make it easy!



Some Favorite "General" Geography Resources for Your Geography Journals:

An Encyclopedia Set


Around the World Coloring Book by Winky Adam (Dover Publications)


Round the World Cookbook by Usborne


Draw Write Now Series by Marie Hablitzel

This is more of a "how to draw" series with matching copy-work but we have found it useful for illustrating our geography journals.


Draw and Write Through History Set by Carylee Anne Gressman

This is also more of a "how to draw series with copy-work" (via history timeline) set but we have found it useful for illustrating our geography journals. 
All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Shabbilicious Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them). Clip art source.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Geography Journals ~ Homeschool "Curriculum" ~ Free Printable


If you feel like your current homeschool studies are getting a bit stale, I encourage you to take a short trip around the world with your children! As a way of diverting a bit off of our history of the world study, we are conducting this "Geography Journal" series on the side. We take approximately two weeks off of our normal routine and do some "traveling" together to keep things interesting.There are many ways one can conduct this study but ours starts out with a blank composition book and a country. To make it easy, we have prepared a printable with daily journal ideas. You will find it HERE if you are interested in doing something like this. Each day, we simply do some reading on the country we are "touring" and include a journal entry or two (as shared below). 


For fun, the first thing to do would be to decorate the cover of your composition book. Pictures or clip art of globes and maps would be wonderful. Perhaps you can make up "passports" for each child with their picture and use them as a cover. Either way, it is a nice and creative start. 


Page 1 Entry:

Title your first page with the complete name of the country. Outline (or print out a black-line map) a map of the country you are studying and paste it into your journal.  Find the capitol city and label it on the map. Include a drawing of the national flag.  Record which continent your country is located in. Optional: Record the main religions.

Page 2 Entry:

Title the page “Famous People in _________________________” and record all the famous people you are familiar with in the country you are studying. As you learn more about the country, continue to add names to this list. Don’t forget about missionaries!

Page 3 Entry:

Title the page “Books Read About ____________________________” and half way down the page add another title “Movies Watched About ___________________________” (this is a great time to watch movies about missionaries). Enter all the books you are reading and all the movies you watch pertaining to the country you are studying. Continue to add to this list as you go along.


Page 4 Entry:

Title the page “Famous Places in ____________________________” and list all the interesting places you read about pertaining to the country as you go along in your journal. Make sure to include interesting land features such as famous mountain ranges, etc.

Page 5 Entry:

Title the page “Interesting Animals in ____________________________” and list all the interesting animals you read about pertaining to the country you are studying. Choose a favorite from the list and illustrate the page with a picture. (We use the Draw and Write Through History  and the Draw Write Now Series series for the how-to-draw part. We also included the accompanying copy-work from that series in our journal.)

Page 6 Entry:

Title the page “Interesting Facts about __________________________” and list accordingly.

Page 7 Entry:

Choose a person from the country you are studying and do a biographical sketch about them. This would include a picture or drawing of them in the middle of the page surrounded by short notes of the person’s life such as date of birth, death, interesting facts and what made them unique. Don't forget to include some missionaries! 


Page 8 Entry: 

Write out a list of the special resources that the country you are studying has (such as gold, copper, types of native foods such as kiwi, pineapple and so forth).

Page 9 Entry:

Draw a picture of people wearing the traditional style of clothing for the country (source).

Page 10 Entry:

Do some research on the types of foods eaten from the country you are studying and write down a menu that sounds appetizing. Choose a night during the week and have your children prepare an international meal for the family. For extra fun, dress up in the customary attire from that country (you may need to get creative with what you have which is fun!).


Bonus Entry Ideas (you will find more on our printable here):

Do a collage page featuring information about the country. For instance, we have a coloring book with many of the countries which shares facts from each country. We cut out the snippets of information and colored them and pasted them into a collage page in our journal. You could also use pictures from old magazines or order travel information from the travel section of the country online and use those images for collage purposes. They will usually mail or provide download information for free.



Once our tour of the chosen country is complete, we feel refreshed and ready to move on to our normal routine again. Do let me know if you decide to give this series a try. No passports are necessary for these kinds of field trips! :) And when we are ready to travel again, we simply bring out our composition books and begin a new journey on the very next page! The nice part is that you are left with a nice set of "scrapbooks" to remember your "homeschool vacations" by! Visit our trip to China here for an example! 


Some "General" Geography Resources for Geography Journals:

An Encyclopedia Set


Around the World Coloring Book by Winky Adam (Dover Publications)


Round the World Cookbook by Usborne


Passport to the World by Craig Fromam
Your A to Z Guided Language Tour

This is a fun supplement to have as it explains biblically how the languages were formed from the Tower of Babel and then goes on to take the reader to 26 counties by sharing the language, country facts, cultural and traditional customs, interesting information section, how to greet the people of the nation, learn basic introductory words, the currency, a proverb, traditional costume and modern dress and map. Two pages are shared per country.


Draw Write Now Series by Marie Hablitzel

This is more of a "how to draw" series with matching copy-work but we have found it useful for illustrating our geography journals and for including some good old-fashioned copy-work.


Draw and Write Through History Set by Carylee Anne Gressman

This is also more of a "how to draw series with copy-work" (via history timeline) set but we have found it useful for illustrating our geography journals.
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