Gold Mini Unit

Gold! Everyone loves gold. It brings to mind a sense of adventure, like pirate gold, or security, like golden riches. We are studying gold today, but with a different mindset. Our memory verse is "How much better to get wisdom than gold!" Proverbs 16:16. There were many, many verses having to do with gold.

I used Printshop to design a bookmark with our verse on it. The children got to choose a colored ribbon to tie in a punched hole.


We did a pot of gold coloring page/handwriting page.

I showed them some gold that my husband and I panned out of the American River years ago and my golden ring and earrings. We also looked at pictures of ancient golden jewelry.

We read parts of some books:

King Midas and the Golden Touch by Nathanial Hawthorne, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt
The Story of California by May McNeer, the gold rush section
Eyewitness: Rocks and Minerals, the gold section
The Wild West by Tim Wood, the gold rush section

I didn't use anything from it, but this is a neat looking resource!

We could have had goldfish for snack, but I can't stand the ingredients in those things. I could have made hardtack, but didn't think that would go over well. Instead, we juiced some beautiful oranges and had some fresh OJ with sandwiches.

Wednesday Morning Math

So I was correcting math with 9 year old Polly. She got four problems wrong. Not too bad, but not her best, either. I started off the correction session by saying, "You missed four problems, and you did the same thing wrong in each problem." She replied, in all sincerity, "Wrote down the wrong numbers?"

He's a Reader!

Troubles has begun to read! He's been doing 100 Easy Lessons since we began school in the fall. He has flown through them. He would want to do two or even three lessons at a time. Since he wasn't all that challenged at first, I let him. At about Lesson 20, he slowed down to one lesson a session. Last week I introduced him to "Hop on Pop". He was thrilled to have a book to read. He wanted to read it right away, so, of course we did.

He felt so good to be reading a Real Book. He asked to read several times a day. It didn't take too long to get through it! Maybe we'll try Fox in Socks next. Do you have a favorite book suggestions for beginners?