Welcome to my blog. This blog pretty much reflects me, and I am one eclectic person. I have restaurant reviews, shop reviews, posts about human trafficking, poems (written by me or just appreciated by me), reflections from sermons, events, old mission trip newsletters – and much more. There’s a whole category of posts on the wedding planning and I am now homeschooling our two kiddos, so there’s a smattering of info about that as well.
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I went ahead and splurged on the treasury edition that has 4 of Virginia Lee Burton’s classic stories. We’ve borrowed it from the library enough that it was time to add it to our home library. The kids love this story and the personification of Mary Anne the steam shovel. They could help me finish the repetitive lines throughout by the end of the week, and my 5 year old even wanted to say the little boy’s lines when we got to them. He said them from memory and wasn’t too far off from the text.
We went on a train ride the last day of the week with my sister, to experience what a real steam engine would be like. Alas, it was pulled by a diesel, but the conductor had a side by side illustration of a diesel and a steam so we could see the differences. It was a super fun experience for the kiddos regardless, especially trying to walk around while it was moving and going between cars. We’re also blessed to live close a river and there used to be a canal running alongside the river throughout our side of the state. Sunday afternoon, we visited a museum with all sorts of artifacts of the time of the canal and the river boat culture.
Social Studies
“Superpower” has amazingly detailed pen drawings of steam trains and the various engineering aspects of it. We spent a lot of time inspecting the pictures, but the text was very much beyond our abilities. “Creekfinding” was a really great true story about a man who re-wilds a farm, describing the process of restoring a creek that ran through it, enough for trout to thrive again. I recently took an EPA class on wetlands so this really checked some boxes for me – wetlands are amazing!
We have a short passenger train line nearby and while the engine is diesel, the engineer was happy to talk to us about the difference between that and a steam engine. It was loud, but a lot of fun to try a new way of travel. I spent a lot of time on the train when I lived in Japan, but there are few opportunities in Ohio except on novelty lines. This particular rail has several themed events through the year, seasonal and special rides for kids.
Art
These books are very cool, even though my kiddos don’t have the skills to draw with this kind of detail or sight. It’s valuable to see the stages of a drawing, from simple shapes to gradual adding of details and then definition and bolder markings. I almost always learn something more about art when we do these exercises and read these books.
Science
“Engineer it!” books are awesome! They are “super simple” and, practically, would be great for older elementary. My kids just don’t have the skills yet to do this kind of stuff on their own, but my engineering-minded 5 year old was really inspired just looking at the pictures.
“Make Way for Animals!” was such a neat read! All about wildlife crossing of various kinds across the world. These kinds of books awaken your mind to problems that you would never know existed unless you were right there dealing with it. We’ve been thinking of all kinds of crossings that could be implemented when we’re out driving and what animals they would serve.
The Erie Canal extended far down between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, traveling along the Great Miami River. There is a small Canal Museum nearby with interesting artifacts and pictures to view. It is such fun to learn how people lived their lives through history.
This week’s poem is a classic, The Song of the Engine:
When you travel on the railways, And the line goes up a hill, Just listen to the engine, As it pulls you with a will, Though it goes so very slowly It sings this little song, “I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN,” And so it goes along.
But later on the journey, When you’re going down a hill, The train requires no pulling, And the engine’s singing still, If you listen very quietly, You will hear this little song, “I THOUGHT I COULD. I THOUGHT I COULD!” And so it speeds along.
“The Song of the Engine” by Christine Weatherly
Disclaimer:This site uses some affiliate links. This costs you nothing, but helps supplement our homeschooling costs.
This book was a little too much for my kiddos, and not for the content, but for the amount of words. I try to read our weekly book while the kids are eating breakfast. My 3 year old always speeds through her food, but even though my 5 yr old takes his time, they were both getting antsy before I finished reading. The subject matter, however, did bring a lot of discussion, as did the other books I found to enhance our week. My only complaint is that it was written by a young white girl and not in “own voice.” But, I found plenty of books to balance that so my kids could hear about this history of our country from people who had it in their own families. It is very important to me and there are so many books available out there that I have no excuse to not include them.
Social Studies
We used “The Drinking Gourd” as our first chapter read aloud, reading three chapters one night before bed and the next three the following night. My 5 year old recognizes the Big Dipper constellation already, so he was pretty interested. We skimmed through “The U.S. Civil War” book picking up highlights and details and then tied in “Before She was Harriet” to talk about life before, during, and after the war. “Show Way” was awesome! We actually saved it for our Language Arts day and it tied in with the storytelling through piece quilts that we learned while Rowing “The Rag Coat.”
Art
We skimmed through this book to see how artists will draw a picture in stages – photograph source, straight lines or circles for framing, light sketching, and then filling in more detail until complete. Lots of great pictures and things to talk about.
Science
Simple Machines are so much fun and I learned right along with the kids about some daily things we all use and what type of simple machine they are. We did a quick run-through on our favorite and least favorite things of different seasons, and our five senses. I am hoping that someday, my kids will look at the food I put on their plates and realize that each piece plays some part of building a healthy body. Until then, PBJ sandwiches it is! (actually, my kids are great with fruit, so I’m calling that a win for now)
Additional Books:
I thought I was doing a really great job at balancing stories of historic slavery and biographies of diverse people doing really awesome things and also just living lives like our family. Kids connect information in wonky ways sometimes though, and my 5 year old saw a picture of a modern Jamaican man and said, “Oh, Mommy. He has dark skin so he was enslaved.”
Yipes. So, we had to have a quick talk about how people with dark skin live and move all over the planet and that not everyone with dark skin has themselves (or in their family history) been a slave, and U.S. chattel slavery was a long time ago. I’m glad that I also borrowed these books from the library so we can see black people living their full lives, overcoming adversity of all kinds, and NOT just as enslaved people in the 1800s.
I struggled finding a poem this week for us to memorize. My kiddos are little and don’t understand a lot of poetic symbolism. They also can’t memorize something too long. I decided to stick with the sun theme for this week.
Stand with your back to the shining sun; watch your shadow dance and run.
Stand and face the shining sun; look ahead – your shadow’s gone!
“Shadows” by Judith Nicholls
Disclaimer:This site uses some affiliate links. This costs you nothing, but helps supplement our homeschooling costs.
I skimmed through this book the week before we were to read it. I wish I had read it thoroughly, although I don’t think that would have mattered. By the time I reached the end, I had to ask my kiddos to give me a minute to compose myself to finish reading. What a tender, tender story! I just learned that there is a named “movement” in the world called “death positivity.” I didn’t know it was a named thing, but I definitely find value in talking about the reality of death with my kiddos. I don’t sugarcoat it, but I try to explain things at an appropriate comprehension for them. Neither of them appear to be scarred by discussing the topic. All that to say that I might need to use a recorded read-aloud for the rest of the week; I can’t keep crying during storytime!
Social Studies
These Foxfire books are so neat! A collection of a periodical of the same name, there is so much in these books with information, culture, old photos – if my kiddos were a little older I think they would have spent hours poring over these pages.
We used this books as an opportunity to learn about topographical maps and marveled at how the mountains look like wrinkles on the map.
Art
This was a great little book to go along with our “facial expressions” lesson. Simple step-by-step guide to drawing facial features and a handful of emotions. I used a dry erase board and the kids marveled at how emotions could be changed just by different mouth and eyebrow placement.
We took a trip to Honeygram’s (my mother) for some quilting learning. The kids were able to pick out 4 pieces of fabric that meant something to them and then we encouraged them to think of a memory that tied back to the particular piece. That was a little challenging for a 3 and 5 year old, but we came up with some good stories to go with our mini-quilts.
Math
I initially selected “The All-Together Quilt” for Language Arts day, but as I read it, we found that it fit much better in the math section.
A group at a community center all pitch in to select fabric, cut them to size, choose pattern, and sew together a beautiful quilt to donate to the local library.
Science
We read these books and then the kiddos watched a series of YouTube videos on coal mining in old Appalachia, how the cotton gin worked, and how cotton is grown, harvested, and processed today.
Additional Books:
We got Dolly Parton’s book through her Imagination Library and it must have been a common thing to piece a quilted coat together in Appalachia. This story was easier for my 3 year old to swallow, as the father survives in her story.
“Good People Everywhere” talks about how all sorts of people in a community do all sorts of good things – some we see and some we don’t until we need their help. This was a good bedtime read aloud.
I looked for books in my master list that talked about community and gifts, and these two popped up. I love a good nature picture book and since we don’t live anywhere near a desert, “Saguaro’s Gifts” was a very good read. “Catch That Chicken!” is about a little girl who is so fast at catching chickens, but she learns a better way than being fast through the advice of her family and community members. My 5 year old especially liked this book because it is a Vox book and he can listen to it without me having to read it for him.
I borrowed these books because they were about community and clothing, however, I chose not to read them to my kiddos this time. “Ogilvy” was a little confusing as the bunny kept changing what he called his outfit based on what he would be allowed to do that day with the group. It wouldn’t have made much sense to my kids. “The Most Beautiful Village in the World” was a truly sweet book of a child and his father going to market in Afghanistan. I could have read it to the kids and skipped the last page, but I don’t like to leave things out of stories. The author wrote this story to talk about a village wiped out from war. We have talked about war before, but I decided that The Rag Coat had enough heavy, sad topics in it that we could avoid the subject of war until another time. What I find most fascinating about it is that the author/illustrator is Japanese and this was translated into English.
I found another short rhyme from my Mother Goose book to fit the topic this week:
Old Mother Twitchett had but one eye, And a long tail which she let fly; And every time she went through a gap, A bit of her tail she left in a trap.
“A Needle and Thread” from Mother Goose
Disclaimer:This site uses some affiliate links. This costs you nothing, but helps supplement our homeschooling costs.
Xapa to the World 