Sentence Diagramming Helps

One skill that I believe my children should learn is diagramming sentences. When they diagram sentences, I can see how the lightbulbs come on and they understand better. Diagramming helps them not just in their English and Latin lessons, but more generally in...

read more

Ranger’s Apprentice Teacher Helps

Finishing up Migi's course plans for the year. I've got several book studies lined up for him, but he wants to round it all out with some Ranger's Apprentice material. And Harry Potter, but I think I may have to come up with those myself (more on the HP subject...

read more
Ready for Takeoff

Ready for Takeoff

Whew! Finally, after weeks and weeks of not having phone, internet, and a few days where I didn't have my right thumb (long story), we are ready. Paco is enrolled at Kolbe Academy shooting for Honors. I've got his curriculum figured out and agreed upon (very important...

read more

Africa Unit Study, Day 20

Read aloud: Galimoto Art activity: Make your own galimoto with different grade wires from the hardware store. More ideas here. Read and narrate: Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. (3rd grade and up) Continue to work on African Saints today. Mom: Food Culture in...

read more

Africa Unit Study, Day 19

Fun Read Alouds or for Beginning Readers: What's Cooking, Jamela? Fun Read for Older Kids: King Solomon's Mines (Mom, pre-read please). For discussion: Should fiction be included in a serious study of history? Why or why not? In reading King Solomon's Mines, what did...

read more

Africa Unit Study, Day 18

Mom and older kids: Saints of Africa. Can also read aloud certain sections. Pick 12 saints to include in our Africa scrapbook. (Note about this book: It is a worthy compilation of well-known, lesser-known and obscure African saints. What bothers me about it (so far,...

read more

My Favorite GTD Flowchart

I finally found *the* one.... and realized just how visual I am. at Folded Space -- a png file It's tempting to do a post on "GTD for Homeschoolers"... except I wouldn't know where to begin. 😀

read more

Africa Unit Study, Day 17

Read Aloud: A is for Africa. Add notes to the Nigeria page. Read Aloud: Moja Means One. Copy and illustrate the numbers in the book. Older kids: Read African Fractals. Take note of interesting information and include in the Math section of the Africa scrapbook. Print...

read more

Africa Unit Study, Soccer Time!

FIFA.com The oldest boy is reading Cry, the Beloved Country. Here's a set of questions from LoveToLearn.net if you want to go that route. I've watched the movie and highly recommend for late teens to adults. The younger ones are reading Nelson Mandela's Favorite...

read more

Africa Unit Study, Day 16

Read Aloud: Chidi Only Likes Blue. Make a color wheel. You can use this blank wheel if you like. In each section of the wheel, write down your notes or draw the items Chidi and Nneka like. Put this page in our African scrapbook. Read Aloud: The Jungle Grapevine. Make...

read more

Africa Unit Study: Books and Movies I Didn’t Like

This is my list of what *not* to include in our study. For various reasons. The White Giraffe The Slave Dancer Africa for Kids The Power of One -- ugh. couldn't even get past the first few pages. I borrowed it because of the high Amazon ratings. I'll go ahead and add...

read more

Africa Unit Study, St. Charles Lwanga

How timely (and ironic, but more on that later) that we're doing our Africa unit study and today is the feast day of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions! I'm keeping it simple (everyone's still recovering, bad coughs all around) so we're simply going to read from the...

read more

Mogo’s Flute: Study Questions

Where did Mogo live? What is the mundo-mugo? What is the legend of the 9 Kikuyu tribes? If you were Kikuyu like Mogo, how would you answer the question, "What is your name?" Based on what the author tells about Mogo's thahu, what are some other possible explanations...

read more