July Party!

Remember that I am trying to have a fun little study/party once a month with the Lambies? Last month, we learned all about Flag Day together. I did not plan ahead enough to make a flag colored dessert or anything fun like that. This month, besides The Fourth of July, which we celebrate as a family, I want to put some forethought into a fun day. Off to the list of July's special days, weeks and month designations.

I found a few interesting ones. My favorite possibilities are:

Blueberries Month
National Unassisted Homebirth Week (1st-7th) (not really suited to a kids party, but fun to know anyway!)
Freedom Week (4th-10th)
Rabbit Week (15th-21st)
Chocolate Day (7th)
Embrace Your Geekness Day (13th)
Cow Appreciation Day (17th)
National Ice Cream Day (18th)

I'll be pondering options for celebrations. Please leave any ideas you may have for me!

Preschool Math

I spent some time doing math with my preschoolers (and Polly) today. Expecting to spend about a half hour, we played together for over an hour. They didn't even know we were doing school!

Go Fish helps them practice matching numbers and memory skills.
War develops greater than/less than skills and patience (especially for Momma!)
Concentration exercises memory, matching and strategy.

What a great way to spend time with my Littles!

2010-2011 Needs and Wants List

I am pretty well set for fall. I have only a few needs. I do have some wants that I will be watching for at booksales or buying over the summer. Some of the wants will be needs in years to come.

MUS Student books:

Primer (want)
Alpha (need)
Delta + TM (want)
Epsilon (want)
Zeta (want)
Pre-Algebra (need)

Exploring Creation With:

Astronomy (want)
Anatomy (want a lot)
Land Animals of the Sixth Day (want)

ALL the Uncle Eric books (want)

various David Barton books (want)

Spelling Wisdom Book Two (want)

The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges (need)

The Fallacy Detective by the Bluedorns (need)

Certificates

We are at the end of our school year. Tonight we'll be celebrating promotions with some friends, a good enchilada dinner and certificates! What kid doesn't like getting a certificate once in a while? I printed them off from several sites, so that each child will get a unique one. Here are the resources I used:

Donna Young- She has only a Kindergarten certificate. I don't have a K graduate this year. I hope this area of her site gets more variety soon.

123 Certificates- This was my favorite because I could personalize them.

Activity Village

Master Planner I have been very happy with this $5 download.

What do you do to mark the end of the year?

Flag Day Mini-Unit

Today is Flag Day. I don't know how long we are going to be able to fly our flags, with the way our nation is headed. I want to instill in my Lambies a love of their country and all that our flag represents. Here's links to the things we are doing today.

D'Aulaire's Star Spangled Banner

Mr. Key's Song

Betsy Ross

The Star Spangled Banner by Paul Galdone

Tea Party Marine Sings

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance

Various celebrity performances of The National Anthem

Historical Flags

Puzzles

Activities

Printables

Coloring Pages

Games

Bible Reading

I love encouraging my children in their independent Bible reading. My daughter Trixie is reading through the book of Matthew right now. She asked me to print something to help her record her progress. I searched (using swagbucks, of course) tonight and found this great chart:

Books of the Bible Check Off

She was excited to get it. Hopefully it will be helpful to some of my readers, too!

Truth and Grace Memory Book

I received my most recent Amazon order today. Using the search engine Swagbucks, I earned $25 in gift cards that I used to purchase "Truth and Grace Memory Book" (#1, #2 and #3!), edited by Thomas K. Ascol. I also bought a few other books that I might share about another time.

The Truth and Grace books are going to be my scheduling spine for Bible study next year. We'll continue reading together through the Bible, book by book, chapter by chapter, as we always do, but we will add in the suggested verses, hymns and catechism work for our memory work. I have looked them over and am excited about them.

Book One contains verses and catechism for age 2 to grade 4, Book Two, grades 5-8, and Book Three, grades 9-12. There's a line after each verse to record when it has been memorized, but I will not be marking in the books. That is a habit that I dislike very much.

This catechism is a Baptist work. I didn't know that anyone but Catholics used a catechism before I heard Voddie Baucham teaching about it in "Family Driven Faith". I'm really looking forward to adding this type of study to our days.

Goody!

I attended out annual used curriculum sale today. I found a few prizes!

First was a pack of Learning Wrap-Ups. The set I bought contained addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions. I plan to get them out a few times a week through the summer and require 30 minutes of playing with them. Perhaps they will keep the Lambies skills up during our weeks off.


I also found Senior High: A Home-Designed Form-U-La by Barbara Edtl Shelton. I have heard good things about it, and had it in my Amazon cart. The mom who sold it to me also threw in Cathy Duffy's manual. I have some light reading to do this summer.


Another get-to-take-it-out-of-the-Amazon-cart find was "Do Hard Things" by Brett and Alex Harris. Well worth the $3 I spent.


I found a copy of Harvey's Elementary Grammar and Composition. I may or may not end up using it, but it complements my Mott Media McGuffey's series nicely.


Rounding out my purchases was Answers in Genesis's God's Design for Chemistry: Properties of Matter and Properties of Atoms and Molecules. These are another "I might use it, I might not" purchase, but at $5, you have to get it, right?

I really enjoy our annual sale. What's your best find so far this spring?

Story Books for June

I enjoyed logging the books I read with my youngest Lambies (ages 5,8,8) in May. I think I'll continue the documentation for June. Watch this post for updates throughout the month.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Three Gold Pieces by Aliki
Angus and the Cat
Angus and the Ducks
Angus Lost-all by Marjorie Flack
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward illustrated by Marjorie Flack
Wait For William by Marjorie Flack
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter
Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie De Paola
Daniel's Duck by Clyde Robert Bulla
oops...forgot to write them for a while...I'll try to remember later...
Pompeii...Buried Alive by Edith Kunhardt
Emma by Wendy Kesselman
Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown