Music and the Home School: More Unit Study Lists

Music is one of the things in home school that seems to be the hardest to incorporate. I have, in past posts, made lists of music that could be used along with science and history lessons to help bring things together in an artful and well-rounded way. After scouring iTunes and the internet thoroughly, I've found some real treasures I want to share with you. I am so thankful for iTunes "preview" feature that allows me to listen before buying.


We use Christian Cottage Unit Studies (which is a Charlotte Mason approach to history and science). Everything I do, except maybe math, revolves around this─music, foreign language, art, reading...


This "list" of music appreciation listening is going to follow the run of unit studies that are in this curriculum. But, they can be used for just about any curriculum since these are topics that are covered in pretty much all classrooms.

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Music Appreciation for Roots and Relations: The Foundation of Civilizations Unit Study 

Listen to Haydn’s The Creation  (this is a whole 2 disc listening experience, so there are no other ‘assignments’ for this unit)

                        or for younger students

"Creation of the World" by Darius Milhaud

Music Appreciation for Light and Matter Unit Study

Listen to “Light” by Hans Zimmer from The Thin Red Line soundtrack

Music Appreciation for Early Civilizations Unit Study

Listen to Ancient Lyre music by Michael Levy

·       An Ancient Lyre

·       Echoes of Ancient Ur

·       Hurrian Hymn  No. 6 (c.1400BCE) Ancient Mesopotamian Musical Fragment

Listen to EL-HAWZI by Hossam Ramzy (Egyptian Rai)

Listen to Dulab Huzam by George Dimitri Sawa (The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanun)

Listen to Ancient Memories by Derek Bell (The Mystic Harp)

•  Learn what a harp looks and sounds like
•  Learn what a lyre looks and sounds like
•  Learn what a Qanun (kanun) looks and sounds like and where it originates from

Music Appreciation for Oceanography Unit Study

Listen to “Tsunami” from the album Bending the Light: Chamber Works…

Listen to “La Mer” by Debussy

Listen to “A Sea Symphony” by Vaughan Williams

Listen to “Sea Preludes” by Douglas Lilburn

Listen to “Carnival of the Animals: Aquarium” by Camille Saint-Saëns

Music Appreciation for Greece and Rome Unit Study

Listen to “Roman Banquet” by Michael Levy

Listen to “The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo” (c. 138 BCE) Ancient Greek Musical Fragment by Michael Levy

Listen to “Song Seikilos” (1^st Century Greek Song) by San Antonio Vocal Arts Ens.

Listen to ”Ancient Dance” by Petros Tabouris Ensemble

Listen to “Pompei” by Synaulia (music from Ancient Rome Vol.1)

Listen to “Lamentation of Tekmessa” by Christodoulos Halaris

• Research some of the Roman Musical Instruments such as the Roman Tuba, askaules, aulos, and the syrinx

 

Music Appreciation for Weather Unit Study 

Listen to Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”

Listen to “Stormy Weather” by Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra

Listen to “Thunder and Lightning Polka” by Johann Strauss Jr.  

Listen to “Wind” by Peter Davison

Music Appreciation for Middle Ages Unit Study

Listen to Music for a Medieval Banquet by Drew Minter, Judish Malafronte, Mary Springfels, and Newberry Consort

Listen to “Medieval Music: Laudario di Contona” by Vocal Ensemble of Montpellier

Listen to “Salterello” by The Dufay Collective

Listen to “Medieval Dance Music” from the album Indroducing Continuum

• Learn what “chant” sounds like and where it began
• Learn about the beginnings of written music

Music Appreciation for Bread of Life: Birds, Biomes, Bugs, and Bodies Unit Study

Listen to:

BUGS
Franz Schubert's Der Einsame D 800 (The Hermit)
Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos, Book VI, BB 105, No. 142, From the Diary of a Fly
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Overture to the Wasp
Modest Mussorgsky's Mephistopheles’s Song Of The Flea
Chet Atkins' Centipede Boogie
Thomas Arne's Where The Bee Sucks There Lurk I
Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee
Kalevi Aho's Insect Symphony (7th Symph.)
Bela Bartok's Night Music
Roussel's The Spider's Feast
Ralph Vaughn Williams' The Wasps Suite
Tchaikovsky's Chorus of Insects
Grieg's La Papillon (The Butterfly)

ANIMALS
Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals
J. S. Bach's Where My Sheep Safely Graze
Rossini's La Boutique fantasque: Galop (horses)
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
Respighi's Prelude from The Birds
Anderson's The Waltzing Cat 
 
PLANTS
Jonas Forssell: I begynnelsen (The Kingdom of Plants),
Lakmé: The Flower Duet (BBC Concert Orchestra),
Don Quixote: Flower Walt


Music Appreciation for Astronomy Unit Study

Listen to The Planets by Gustav Holst (this is, again, a whole album of listening, so it’s the only ‘assignment’ for this unit)

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That brings us to the end of the the first volume of Christian Cottage Unit Studies. If you are interested in seeing some of what is included in these unit studies, please see my posts on Year One, Year Two, and Year Three or check out their website linked at the beginning of this post. 

What Curriculum Do You Use?

Home schooling is so much fun. I love that there are so many choices out there now, not just for teaching styles, but also for curricula. Sometimes that can be overwhelming, and sometimes it can be lots of fun. Once I got started sifting through all the many, many options, I became somewhat of a curriculum fiend. I'm thankful that we live in a state where there is no government say-so in our curriculum choice.

So, here's a list of some of what we use and love:

History and Science:  Christian Cottage Unit Studies  Free Sample Unit Download, Evan-Moor History Pockets, LINK 2

Geography: Voice of the Martyrs Prayer Map (or send email to thevoice@vom-usa.org for paper version) and Prayer Point Digest by Samaritan's Purse

Math: Math-U-See

Penmanship/Handwriting: A Reason For Handwriting

Spelling: Sequential Spelling   Try Before You Buy!!

Reading:  All Through The Ages: History Through Literature Guide
  and reading list from Unit Studies
Learning to Read:  Bob Books, Spectrum Reading

Writing: journaling that corresponds to Unit Studies and creative writing assignments provided in Unit Studies

Art: assignments provided in Unit Studies as well as supplemental assignments from:

Draw and Write Through History, Draw Write Now, The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas, The Usborne Art Treasury, In The Hands of a Child: Art Appreciation

Foreign Language: Dora and Diego Homeschool Spanish, The Complete Book of Spanish, Rosetta Stone

Music: Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought), Peter and the Wolf, Making Music Fun, The Story of the Orchestra, DSO Kids, Tubby the Tuba, Carnival of the Animals: Classical Music for Kids, Recorder Excellence, Classical Music Lapbook

Bible and World Religions:  Bold Believers, A Child's ABCs of Praise, Searching for Treasure

My bookshelves are so full that I have to stop myself at the store. I could keep buying more and more, but I have to exercise just a little bit of self-control. We won't be able to fit in our school room if I don't!

Praying this list gives you a starting place if you need it, or if you're already knee deep into your home school adventure, I pray it gives you some new and fresh ideas.

Summer Lovin'

Alright folks! Summer is officially here, with the beautiful sun finally gracing us. I've been out to my garden plots several times already, and I'm gearing up to plant outside after Memorial Day weekend.

To add to the fun, we've got some great field trips planned. We'll be taking a camping trip soon, and with that comes a visit to a nearby organic dairy farm. We're also hoping to get out and do some fishing while we're there. Along with a couple of other families, we're planning some studies about Lewis and Clark through the summer months. Since we live so close to their trail, we're going to head down to see one of the forts they visited and do some camping down there as well.

For our many car trips this summer, I bought a couple of "busy" books for the kids:

National Geographic Field Guide

to the Birds of North America

and

Hammond Children's World Atlas

We threw in a pair of binoculars for the bird watching. The kids have already located a couple of species and tried to name a few more based on some feathers they've found at the park.

The atlas has been instrumental for my oldest in his schoolwork lately. It has maps for each country and information on population and demographics for each country as well. It's a beautiful atlas. Get one.

My son also bought a wonderful bug book:

A Pocket Guide to Insects

And my daughter got herself a bug holder!

Melissa & Doug Sunny Patch Mombo Snake Bug House

This may come in handy for our gardening! One kid can catch the bugs, another can identify them.

 I also got the Freebie Friday Newsletter this morning and in it was a link for

10 Backyard Science Activities 

from Family Education.

Enjoy! I hope your summer is a blessed one.

For a bonus, check out Dr. Mercola's video and article about summer sun protection:

Summer Survival Kit

Wellness Wednesday~WARNING: GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD

WHAT IS GMO?

SAY NO TO GMO

Why?

• Warning: This Common Food Causes Devastating Offspring Defects in New Research Study  (article on Dr. Mercola's site)

  
  

• Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality   (article from Institute for Responsible Technology)

• NON-GMO Shopping Guide (How to avoid this dangerous health hazard from Institute for Responsible Technology)

• GMO COMPASS (Information on genetically modified organisms around the world)

• READY TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD? BUY NON-GMO SEEDS FROM A COMPANY LIKE THIS. (make sure they test)

Natural Remedies Encyclopedia

I can't say enough about this new book I got. After joining two other girlfriends of mine on a trip to our state home school convention, I came home with this Natural Remedies Encyclopedia. What an incredible book!!

My advice to you─GET ONE! You'll love it. Here are two of my own personal stories on using this book (and I've only had it for four days!):

Before I bought this book, I used a remedy that's already in it without knowing it. My husband and I went to Bible study on the Wednesday night before the convention. After dinner, and halfway through the study, my daughter came up with tears in her eyes. She was holding her ear and shaking from pain. We didn't want to have to leave the study early, but she seemed in terrible discomfort. We tried using a wet paper towel to help with the pain, but it wasn't working, so my husband took her home. After talking with a friend, I called a lady in our church body who was said to have a "home remedy" for ear aches and infections. I asked her if I could come by and borrow it. She said, "No, no. You can make it yourself!" Wow. Okay. I took down the recipe over the phone, went home, made it up, and it worked! The next morning, she was as good as new. I left for the convention that morning telling my husband, "If you need to give it to her again, here's how you make it." He didn't need to. She was fine! No need for antibiotics and long Dr. visits.

Last night, this same daughter of ours was coughing incessantly after she went to bed. My husband and I were watching Chariots of Fire and could hear her over the loud music. (I'm deaf, and I could hear her!) She seems to have either some kind of cold bug or spring allergies. After listening for a few minutes, we finally decided to get up and see about her cough. My husband rummaged through the cupboard for the "normal" medicines and came out with some Vick's. Nah, let's try something different this time, I thought. He laughed as I pulled out the book. "I knew you were gonna do that", he said. I looked in the book and found the cough section. A whole list of options! I picked the one that seemed the easiest given the things we had in our house at the time─a warm wrap with cayenne pepper in it. Buy the book and check it out. It works. After replacing the wrap several times (which of course takes more time than just rubbing the Vick's on and going back to our movie) she stopped coughing. It had almost instant results. No meds involved. We also used our humidifier to do a Eucalyptus vapor. She slept through the whole thing and woke up looking so rested this morning. What a difference!

These are just two of the stories I could tell!

Like my friend, I'm not trying to sell you something. I'm trying to share something with you that may change the way you take care of your self and your family. I've used it about 10 times already and found it to be very thorough and indescribably effective. It's worth the money. Think of it as a down-payment on your insurance copay for visiting the Dr.─except you won't go as often anymore. If you do get this book, or you already own one, share your story in the comments. I'd love to know how it's helped you!! And it may help someone else, too.


I'll leave you with my friend's Amazon customer review, which can also be read on their website here:

I am so glad I bought this. It is a very complete, 900 page one-volume encyclopedia of 11,000 natural drugless remedies. It covers 730 diseases-helping your family for a lifetime for the cost of one doctor visit! A whole section talking about nutritional principles, the 8 laws of health,- vitamins, minerals, enzymes, special foods and other nutrients-126 most important herbs-poultices-essential oils-complete water therapy manual-special women's section-great indexes! I do not like my children being on medicine and I came home from the homeschool convention where I bought this to my daughter being sick. We treated her for the ear infection and fever naturally-the next morning her ear ache was gone and fever broke. Now we're flushing her system according to the common cold section! I've always wanted to do this, but didn't know how! After every sickness cause and remedy there is a great biblical encouragement section to encourage those that don't have that-God is our provider and our strength and gives us all we need to keep our bodies healthy! My two girlfriends also bought one and I'm recommending it to all I know for a great all in one resource!  ~K. C.~

Just had to share these marvelous paper crafts. I am in total AWE!
Stock up on some paper and ink, and go to town!

Canon Paper Crafts

Make sure to check out the left side menu for Science, History, and Architecture crafts!

Learning About Electricity

I have searched for some time to find a website that would provide some basic information about how to teach circuitry to children. We have had a Snap Circuit Kit for some time now, but I was pretty disappointed in the lack of information in the book that came with it. It really just has maps of how to set up the circuits with no real teaching of how circuits work to begin with.

I hope the following info is helpful for someone besides me.

Learning Circuits (a fun interactive lesson with a printable worksheet, very informative, and highly recommended)

Teachers' Domain: Electric Circuits (lesson plan with videos)

How to Make a Circuit Quiz Board (3 different sites)

#1

#2

#3

Aquatic Crafts

I couldn't help but pass these on. They're cute and easy─two things I love in a craft idea. Follow the links and enjoy!

Egg Carton Octopus
Recycled Bottle Fish
Starfish
Toilet Paper Roll Octopus
Paper Towel Roll Octopus

No Such Luck

Our Froggy Friend is no more. I tried so hard to get him to eat, but he just wouldn't. I even cut some of the crickets in half to see if he would eat them that way. Nope. He's gone.

Another one bites the dust.

It's strange that I feel so mournful over a silly little frog. But, it gets me to thinking─if I feel this little bit of sadness over him, how much more does our Heavenly Father mourn for one of us when we die spiritually? How does he mourn when one of us is in pain? He must love us so much! I know He does.

Part of my pain is knowing that the children will be sad. We tried so hard and waited for so long.

So, now comes the next quandry─should I let the kids buy a bigger frog?

The Tail of Two Otters

Our 9 and 7 year old boys have written a wonderful little puppet show for two sea otter sock puppets that we made back in our first year of home school. I'd like to share it with you. You may use it and the sock puppet idea if you like. Feel free to print and perform the play for friends and family as much as you like.

Here are the materials we used for the sock puppets:

• tall brown socks
• buttons for eyes
• tan or cream colored felt for mouth (sewed on)
• tan or cream colored felt for ears (also sewed on)
• black felt for nose (sewed on top of mouth piece)
• cotton balls for stuffing nose and mouth area to give it shape
• fishing line for whiskers
• black felt tipped marker for shading felt in ears and around mouth (optional)
• needle and thread to sew on felt pieces (use a whip stitch as shown in video below)

How to Sew a Whip Stitch -- powered by eHow.com


I have attached patterns for the mouth, nose, and ear pieces here. Forgive my lack of artistry on the drawings. They are rough, but they work.

Here is the play!

From our house to yours, enjoy!

*Please do not copy this to any other sites without permission. You may link directly to my site or directly to this post if you wish.

Miracles do happen!

After our many trials with the two tadpoles we ordered in September of 2008, we finally have a tadpole with four legs! It's only taken him a year and a half, which must be some kind of record. The kids are thrilled, as am I, but I'm not looking forward to trying a second round of "Little Frog Can't Eat Big Crickets". We'll see how it goes, but I'm not holding my breath. As some of you may recall from previous posts, the first tadpole/frog didn't make it. Perhaps a remembrance ceremony is in order? We'll see.

At any rate, I guess it's time to clean out the terrarium again. Off I go...

Unit Studies ~ Oceanography

Here we are halfway through our 4th year of home school with our children. We are definitely enjoying it and looking forward to some awesome stuff for the second half of the year.

Our middle boy, who is at a 2nd grade level, is working on an Oceanography unit right now. (I'm using Evan-Moor's pocket book Ocean Habitats from the August Theme Pockets book to supplement.) It's a repeat study for me since our oldest has already gone through it once. My goal is to eventually have them studying the same material at different levels. For now it's fun to go back and try things again!

Today we're talking about tide pools. I found a fantastic video about hermit crabs. It shows a hermit crab changing shells. The video can be found here. We also did a little talking about painted shells and whether or not they should be used when keeping hermit crabs as pets. This site has some information about why not to use them.

We also talked about bat stars. What a fascinating creature! God is so creative! Monterey Bay Aquarium has some fun info about them.

Plan for the rest of the day is to watch 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and listen to Claude Debussy's La Mer!

Back to our day before it gets away!

Blessings on your home,
Erin

Music and the Home School ~ Part III ~ Incorporating Music into Unit Studies

In the first part in this series, Music and the Home School, I laid out some basic ideas on how to incorporate music into unit studies and history. Music and the Home School Part II focused on how to use a live concert as a learning experience.

This, Part III, will focus specifically on using music in Science Unit Studies. For a better understanding, please refer back to Part I.

I like to use the "Five in a Row" type plan for unit studies because it pulls together all elements of learning to focus on one specific topic, thereby driving it home. Quite simply, things stick better that way. Our minds learn by using all parts of our sensory system. Music definitely helps to learn by hearing. Somehow, science and history really comes alive when we hear it through song.

Think about movies, for example. When we can see the picture of what happened, it's great! But, when music is added, it really pulls us in and makes us a part of the story. Then we remember it! Acting out stories in a play format is fun, but how much more fun is it to add a musical element? It really brings it to life!

Music has been a part of human life since God created us. It moves us. It helps us to express ourselves. It entertains. So, how can we pull this rich history into our unit studies? 

Here are a few tips:

Tip #1 - Do a Google search for videos, mp3 files, and lesson plans online.
When I searched "music, ocean" I found very little that was helpful. But, when I searched "music about water" quite a few things popped up. Sometimes changing the wording can help produce more hits.
Here are some fun things I found...

The Mystery, Art, and Science of Water
The History of Handel's Water Music
Video ~ Handel: Water Music, Allegro
How to Make Water Chimes

Tip # 2 - Do a search for (or think up on your own) some science project ideas about music.
I have found several science experiments online about plant growth being affected by music, music's ability to "heal" or help animals, and music's ability to help students at math. Music is very mathematical and scientific. Use that to aid in studies about sound waves, energy, the ears, the brain, etc. Here's a website link to get you started:
Music Science Fair Projects

Tip # 3 - Use music as a background for your learning time. Throw on some appropriate tunes to help concentration and quiet learning time! Use music from the time period you're studying. Create a playlist of music that goes with your unit!

Tip # 4 - Allow experimentation and exploration. Kids love to record things and hear them back. When talking about things like weather, bugs, or water, allow them to try to create sound effects for things like tornadoes, wind, waves, and insects. Let them use different instruments or things from the house or nature to create. Come up with a musical composition that uses these sounds or add them to a spoke poem and record them together. Try using rocks to make a "stomp" style rhythm song. Add a poem about rocks to it.

Listing of music compositions for some unit studies:

Insects

Franz Schubert's Der Einsame D 800 (The Hermit) translation 
Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos, Book VI, BB 105, No. 142, From the Diary of a Fly 
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Overture to the Wasp 
Modest Mussorgsky's Mephistopheles’s Song Of The Flea 
Chet Atkins' Centipede Boogie 
Thomas Arne's Where The Bee Sucks There Lurk I 
Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee  
Kalevi Aho's Insect Symphony (7th Symph)
Bela Bartok's Night Music 
Roussel's The Spider's Feast 
Ralph Vaughn Williams' The Wasps Suite  
Tchaikovsky's Chorus of Insects  
Grieg's La Papillon (The Butterfly)

Water, Seas, and Oceans

Debussy's La Mer (The Sea)

Douglas Lilburn's Sea Preludes 
Felix Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Opus 27
and the more familiar Hebrides or Fingals Cave Op.26 
Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony

Astronomy, Stars, Planets 
Gustav Holst's  The Planets

Mathews' Pluto: The Renewer

(Holst completed "The Planets" in 1917, before the discovery of Pluto. Though he lived until 1934, a few years after Pluto's discovery, he never added a final movement. Colin Mathews rectified that omission with this new piece.)

Haydn's Symphony No. 43 in E flat major ("Mercury"), H. 1/43

Mozart's Symphony No. 41 In C Major K. 551 ("Jupiter")

Berners' Triumph of Neptune

Hovhaness' Saturn, Op.243

Lully's Le Grand Divertissement Royal de Versailles, devertissement / comedie, LWV 38 Les suivants de Neptune

Dvorak's Rusalka (One song in this opera is about the Moon)

 

Animals

Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals
J. S. Bach's Where My Sheep Safely Graze
Rossini's La Boutique fantasque: Galop (horses)
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
Respighi's Prelude from The Birds
Anderson's The Waltzing Cat 

Can you think of any to add? Comments are ALWAYS welcome! Post your unit study and some works that you're using or add to the lists above! 

~I have to laugh at myself~

I am definitely the queen of coming up with 
crazy ideas.

I've been trying to really back off the "public school style" approach to our schooling this year. I feel as though it's had us in a real tizzy the last few years; but because it's what I grew up with, it's the only way I'm familiar with. We don't often sit in on other people's home school experiences, but over the last couple of years I've watched and learned from other people in the "business". Hopefully I've gained some wisdom, and hopefully I've passed some on. We'll see.

So, back to laughing at myself. With my last post, I shared that our oldest son has an infection on his cheek. With my un-schooling approach, I thought it would make a fun learning experience. Then, I thought, why not do an art project to go with it!? Oh, I'm so silly. But, I did it anyway.

Here are the results:

GERM MODELS!! 

Staphylococcus  looks like a bunch of grapes. To create this look, we used stretchy string (usually used to make bracelets) and small pom poms.

Tie three (or more) strands of stretchy string together on one end.

Using a needle, thread pom poms onto each individual strand.

(Use a different number of pom poms for each strand.)

When finished, tie loose ends of string together to keep pom poms from falling off and cut excess string.

When finished it should look like a bunch of grapes. Because the string is stretchy, it creates a nice tight bunch. If it's too tight, just pull pom poms back away from each other slightly before tying it off.

Streptococcus looks like a long string of pearls.
Using one strand of the same stretchy string, tie a knot at one end and thread a needle at the other.
Thread pom poms onto the string, pulling each one snuggly next to the one before it.
When you're satisfied with the length of your strep, knot the end and cut excess string off.

Viruses look like hitchhikers.

Use a Styrofoam ball of any size as the base.






Dip plastic headed pushpins into craft glue (dip only the metal pin part).






Push pins into the Styrofoam ball.
Allow time for the glue to dry.
Remember that it's not a toy.
Push pins and feet are not a fun combination.

The finished virus model should look like this:

Learn with life

Our oldest son has a yucky infection on his cheek. It started out as a scratch on his skin and some bacteria decided to move in. After a couple of trips to the doctor, he was feeling curious about what these germs were, so we did some research. I love Google images. (It can be dangerous if you're not careful about what you're searching for, so beware.)

We looked up three types of germs and what the names mean. Here's what we found:

Staphylococcus comes from the Greek word staphyle meaning "bunch of grapes", and indeed that is what it looks like! There are only 33 species of staphylococcus.
Streptococcus comes from the Greek word streptos meaning "easily bent or twisted". They grow in chains.
Viruses grow inside cells and are not considered cells on their own. The word virus comes from the Latin word virus meaning "toxic" or "poison". They look like hitchhikers, which is basically what they are.

I've attached a simple worksheet for anyone who would like to do a similar lesson. It's pretty basic, but kind of a neat way to make an "owie" into a school lesson.There's space for them to draw a picture of what each type looks like and add any written information they desire below each drawing.

Have fun!

We All Want a Few Answers Here and There

We could all use a little truth in our lives. Especially in the realm of science. It seems one of those areas of life where the Bible seems to be absent and there are more questions than answers.

How can we know how old the earth is?Did we really evolve from one-celled organisms? How does all this fit into my belief that the Bible is inerrant? Can science and the Word co-exist? What is a theory and how can I know if it's true?Where DID the dinosaurs go?

If you're like me, you're afraid to even approach these endless questions that come from your children. There don't seem to be any tangible answers out there. Science appears to be more theory than fact, and the Bible seems to be left out completely. I hope I can help.

answersingenesis.org is committed to "believing it. defending it. proclaiming it." What is it? Truth. According to the Word of God. They couple the Word with science to give us answers to millions of questions about our world. It's a big place. There's much to be discovered! Enjoy!

Answers Magazine

Kids Answers

Curriculum

Answers Research Journal

Our first year

Our first year of home schooling was interesting. David was in first grade and Ethan was preschool age. At the time, we were living in Turkey and enjoying all that it had to offer us as a home school family. It was a bit of a blessing to start there since we didn't have to be monitored by the state. It gave us some breathing room and a chance to get a feel for how it was going to work. We had some wonderful adventures.

We use the Christian Cottage Unit Studies curriculum for our history, science, and geography lessons. Our first unit study was called Roots and Relations. We learned about the creation, made a Jesse tree, talked about cells, ancestry, genes, and made a family crest.

In addition to making the Jesse tree, I found that the Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible series helped to illustrate each part of story.

Here is David's "cell-in-a-baggie". The cytoplasm was made of Jell-o, the nucleus was a prune, the mitochondrion were cooked rigatoni noodles, the ribosomes were black peppercorns, the endoplasmic reticulum were made of twizzlers, the vacuoles were little bubbles from bubble wrap, the lysosomes were lima beans, and the cell membrane was the plastic ziplock bag!

Can you believe this is first grade stuff!?

Next, came the Light and Matter unit study. We learned about energy waves, the light spectrum, rainbows, lenses, mirrors, atoms, mixtures and solutions, and weight.
WHOA!




Daddy came to help from time to time.



The boys definitely enjoyed making a periscope and used it to spy on Cumaziye, our Turkish nanny.


She was always tickled at the funny projects they came out with at the end of the day. How could I explain to a woman that barely speaks English?


Here, David is checking the weight of different objects that are close to the same size.



I think he enjoyed all the hands on stuff. The math, phonics, and reading were all book related, so it was nice for him to be able to jump out of his seat and really see and do some of the things we talked about.


Then came the Ancient Civilizations unit! This one was a personal favorite for me. We had a great time coupling our unit study with the Evan-Moor History Pockets book on ancient civilizations. What a great way to learn! I have come to absolutely adore Evan-Moor publishing.

One of the big projects in this unit was making the Tabernacle from Exodus. It was a tedious chore and required a lot of adult help. It was made of paper and after all was said and done, it was sad to fold it up and put it away in a bag. After moving, it's been squished and ruined. The curriculum we use doesn't have the best one, but I have a hint for that later on. In the photo is David and his friend from down the street. Our favorite cocker spaniel, Cookie, was never far away, so he cuddled his way into this photo also.



We also had some smaller projects that were fun. We made an oil lamp out of tin foil which wasn't very sturdy and kind of hard to work with. When I get around to posting this year's photos, I'll be sure to add one of the clay version I helped Ethan make. It worked much better. We burned olive oil and that seemed to work well.

We also made some Phoenecian ships! The hulls are made from walnut shells.

We got to go to Egypt and visit the real-life Pyramids of Giza and see King Tut's treasure. The boys journals were fun to look at after that trip. They sported pictures of clay butt-shaped jars they saw in the museum, airplanes, pyramids, Nile cruise ships, and more. It was an exciting trip to take. To have the opportunity to not only teach these wonders of the world to my children, but to also SHOW them! A blessing for sure. Before we left, we made a bunch of crafts from this book we got from Chick-fil-A in a kid's meal. The whole set came in handy through the first two years.

We came back from the Egyptian market with some costumes for them to play with. They look so pleased, don't they?


Many wonderful memories from this trip included our Nile cruise, the amazing food, the strange and amazing sights, our journeying partners (both grandmas), the beautiful hotel, and the insanity of the marketplace where one Egyptian seller yelled out to Mark, "I am ready to take your money!"

One of the other major projects that we undertook during this unit was the performing of the play "The Brave Queen." The play was based on the story of Esther. We rounded up a batch of children in our neighborhood, named them the Konya Court Players, came up with some costumes, taught them their lines, rehearsed a few times, and then sent out really cute invites to all the moms and dads for a night of fun, fellowship, and refreshments. We even wrangled some adults to help out.


We made hamantaschen, cute little 'fig newtons' shaped like Haman's three cornered hat, a common dessert for Jewish folks to have when celebrating Purim. A good time was had by all...the parents especially.

At one point, we made our own Middle Eastern feast. We followed our curriculum's recipe for humus (which David enjoyed thoroughly...see below), had flatbread from our favorite local Turkish restaurant, and tried some olives and white cheese. We also got some humus from the local restaurant and compared it to our homemade version. Ours was much better by far. The kids were all so brave to eat such odd things. Remember, we're Scandinavian and Cajun!


Also, in this unit, we talked about ancient inventions. One particularly interesting invention was called the shaduf, the ancient version of our modern irrigation system. We made one out of a soda bottle, a stick, some string, and a plastic baggie. Could've been better built, but it worked and demonstrated the basic gist of it.
We took more than a few field trips while we were in Turkey, and some when we came home on vacation as well. It was a fantastic place to learn about ancient life. We went to Tarsus, which was only about 30 minutes away from our home. It was amazing to see the birthplace of Paul, see what could have been the plot of land he lived on, and sit at the well he mostly likely visited regularly.

Oceanography was our last unit study of the year. It wasn't as involved as the ancient civilizations one, but still a lot of fun. We found ways to bring it to life by making some otters,

sea stars,

and a rubber octopus that sits above the kid's shower to this day. He's sort of falling apart now, but he'll stay with us for a while.

How we made them:

Sea Stars~lay a sheet of wax paper on the table, make the shape of a star out of Elmer's glue, add a paper clip for a hook if desired, sprinkle sand on it, let it dry, and peel it off

Otter sock puppet~brown sock, flesh colored felt cut in the shape of the mouth area, black felt cut in the shape of the nose (use cotton balls to stuff under the nose to give it shape), buttons for eyes, and heavy fishing line for whiskers; felt can be glued on with craft glue or sewn on

Octopus~a rubber bath mat with suction cups served as the tentacles (just cut it into strips), the head was made out of a rubber roll of drawer liner cut and sewn into shape, we stuffed plastic bags inside the head to shape it, eyes were made from buttons and felt

We were lucky enough to have an opportunity to go to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science when we got back to the US on our summer vacation. The kids really enjoyed touching everything and I finally got into a few of the photos!

sea star

sea urchin

baby crabs

I chose to add the dissection of a fish to this unit (supplemented by a step-by-step guide from a site no longer available) even though it wasn't in the 1st grade list of things to do. No photos available for this one, though. My hands were really nasty. This online fish dissection game might be a better option for those who don't appreciate that sort of thing. We read an abbreviated version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and then bought the movie to watch. That made a fun family night.

And here ends the tales of our earliest adventures. Stick around for year 2 and even more field trips!