July 19, 2007 by KellyH.

It’s barely the end of July and already I’m getting things ready for the upcoming school year. Normally I would wait another couple weeks before doing my last-minute prep, but school is right around the corner… literally! The public schools in my community are resuming on August 9th! That’s just 3 weeks away… since my oldest attends the local tech school for programming classes, we usually follow the public school schedule.

I spent time back in May planning for this coming year, and today was the semi-annual teacher’s sale at Mardel’s. I purchased two Milliken books: The Middle Ages and The Renaissance, both from the History of Civilization series.

Now I need to clean off my desk, and get last year’s papers filed away so I can start fresh. And I ONLY have 3 weeks!! Where did the summer go?!

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June 11, 2007 by KellyH.

I have discovered a wonderful tool for getting my children to write: an old typewriter!

My grandfather liked to write, and so did his older sister. I’m not sure how the story goes, whether he bought the typewriter for himself and eventually gave it to her, or if he bought it for her, but one year he gave her a red Underwood Golden Touch typewriter. (I would guess this machine is from the 60s, but I cannot find another like it to verify that.) About 10 yrs ago it was given back to my grandfather, and a few years ago it was given to me.

This past week I’ve let my kids do some typing — it’s always special when they type because I don’t let them “play” with the typewriter often. Today I sat down and showed them what all the different levers and buttons do, and explained the changes that have come over the years to keyboards (computer vs typewriter). I used to have some White-out tabs, but can’t find them right now, so I’ve had to explain (without showing) how to ‘fix’ mistakes.

They’re having a blast, writing stories about themselves! And I’m enjoying the clackety-clack of the keys, and the smell of the ink ribbon. I’ve even taken time to do some manual typing myself. I’ve forgotten how hard it is to just type and not worry about mistakes. To make a perfect paper, I must be conscious of every letter I push, otherwise I will have to core correct my mistakes somehow.

Now I’m anxious to visit some antique stores again… I want to look at the old typewriters!

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February 22, 2007 by KellyH.

A few years ago, I saw fabric that had a map of the USA imprinted on it. Each state lists the capital and has a picture of the state bird and state flower. There was a key/list off to the side of the map, listing the names of the birds and flowers.

I wasted no time in buying this map panel! I also bought some solid red fabric to back it, and created a small “quilt” simply by adding some batting between the fabrics and machine-sewing straight lines, horizontally and vertically, about an inch apart, with “invisible” thread. (I used red thread in the bobbin, though.)

About a year later, a panel with the map of the world came out, so I bought that, too, along with blue material for the backing. This map was trickier to machine-quilt as the lattitude and longitude lines were already printed on the map and they are not straight, which threw me off at times.

Both maps are cherished by my two youngest children. They’re going to come in handy in a few weeks when we cover map skills once again. I also have a game called State to State, which has magnetic pieces making up the USA. I’ll bring that out to help my third-grader memorize where the states go, and what their names are. Chances are, my first-grader will whiz through this and learn it right along with his sister!

One resource that I’ve had for a few years but haven’t used yet is the book States & Capitals, by Twin Sisters Productions. I’ll have to pull some of the games and activities out of that book. I’ll also have to see if I can find the music for Turkey in the Straw–that’s the tune they use for “singing” the states in Volume 5, chapter 9.

We’ve got two weeks left of our current chapter, but I’m already starting to plan for the next one–a 30-day chapter! Those long chapters seem to need the extra planning.

Posted in History/Geography, Volume 5 | Print | 1 Comment »