Things That Make Me Smile 9/14/18

Jake (12 1/2), Alyssa (10), Zac (8 1/2), Tyler (6), Nicholas (3 1/2)

This list covers 2 weeks worth of Smiles. During this time, we went on a vacation to northern Michigan. We took a ferry to Mackinac Island, climbed the sand at Sleeping Bear Dunes, toured the forts and other sites of the Mackinac State Historic Parks, searched for Petoskey stones in Lake Michigan, played at the beach, went geocaching, and so much more. 

Days after we returned home, I was able to go with my mom to an overnight ladies' retreat with our church and spend quality time with her. The beginning of September with a special time filled with many memories. 

1. Nicholas, about a coconut doughnut: "Mom! Dat doughnut has white 'prinkles all over it! It's so yummy!"

2. Nicholas: "Mom, can you make grape juice yesterday later?"

3. Our first day of school for this year.

4. 

5. Me: "We need to get ready to go buh-bye."

Nicholas: "Where are we going?"

Me: "Mackinaw City."

Nicholas: "No, we are going to Gramma's house."

6. Zac finished reading The Hobbit.

7. Me, while we were waiting in the van while Leighton ran into a store: "Here comes Daddy! Daddy is our favorite."

Nicholas: "No he not."

Me: "He's not? Well then, who is our favorite?"

Nicholas: "You."

8. Zac, eating a blueberry muffin I had just pulled out of the oven: "Mmm, that crumble tastes like sugar cookies. It's sugar cookie on top of goodness."

9.

10. Every night, as the kids are going to bed, we say, "Good night. Sweet dreams. I love you." Nicholas must not have completely understood us, because one night, he hugged me and said, "Good night, green beans. I love you." We've been saying that every night since. 

11. Nicholas: "Daddy, pwease?"

Leighton: "No, not tonight."

Nicholas, whining: "Mama, pwease, can I?"

Me: "If Daddy says no, Mama says no."

Nicholas: "Pwease can Daddy say yes?"

12. Tyler, sincerely: "If you go the wrong way into a car wash, do you come out dirty?"

13. Tyler: "Gramma is a girl."

Nicholas: {gasps} "No, her not! Her is a mom!"

14.

What made you Smile this week?

Make-A-State Activity

We are thrilled every time get to review a product from Home School in the Woods. This time was even more exciting though, because we were able to use their newest product! The Make-A-State Activity, which is part of their Activity-Paks line, is filled with hands-on projects that teach all about the 50 states.   

Home School in the Woods is a family business that was started as a way to make history real, understandable, and applicable. Using timelines and realistic illustrations as a foundation, they've created many resources to make learning history an enjoyable process. I, like Amy the driving force of the company, did not enjoy the boring textbooks in high school. It wasn't until we started our own homeschooling journey that I started to realize that learning history wasn't boring, but, in fact, could be quite interesting. I was excited to download this study and learn more about the individual states that make up America.

The download (also available as a CD) comes as a zip file. Once you open it, and see the multiple folders, click on the "start" file. At that point, the entire program will open in your browser, making it very easy to use. Instead of clicking through multiple folders, trying to bounce back and forth among the resources, everything is laid out as you need it.

The Make-A-State Activity-Pak contains templates to create an individual lap book for each of the 50 states and also includes a bonus book for Washington D.C.. The projects incorporate illustrations, coloring, creative writing, map skills, research, and more. Each lap book covers the same 20 activities. Some of the templates are the same for each state, while others are individualized. There are 20 activities for each lap book:

• Key State Facts
• Origin of State Name
• State Motto
• State Symbols
• State Song
• State Industry/Agriculture/Climate
• State Wildlife
• Regions
• State Geography
• State Government
• State Seal & Flag
• State History
• Famous People From . . .
• Native Tribes
• State Landmarks
• Sports Teams
• State Quarter
• Recipes
• State Vocabulary
• State Timeline 

While there is a bonus page of learning about each state that is filled with facts and other brief information, the activity-pak is designed to compliment your own curriculum, text, or research. This product is different, in that sense, from the other materials we've used from Home School in the Woods (U.S. Elections Lap-Pak, Project Passport: The Middle Ages, and Project Passport: Ancient Egypt) that included the complete lesson texts. The company is known for their detailed, hands-on curricula, and this study does not disappoint. The activity-paks encourage independent study, by guiding the student through a series of topics and offering activities and projects. Hands-on assignments add another level of learning that helps the student to better retain information. There are detailed instructions for each project.

This study is recommended for grades 3-8, but, personally, I've found that it works well even for my younger kids (ages 5 and 7), too. We like to incorporate as much family study as we can, and the Make-A-Sate Activity-Pak is wonderful. Everyone can be involved, whether it's helping to research the information on the internet or helping to cut and tape or helping to draw and color.

We chose to start with the study of Michigan since that's where we live. The kids already knew things like the robin is our state bird and Lansing is our capital, but they've learned so much more than that the last month or so. They've enjoyed seeing our state symbol and flag, learning our motto, and listening to our song. We've studied about wolverines, assembly lines, the Great Lakes, the Soo Locks, meat pasties, and more.

 
The only negative opinion I have about this study is the breakdown of the PDFs. Because everything has very specific printing instructions (regular paper, colored paper, white cardstock, colored cardstock) each individual page is its own file. I understand the need for the "special" pages, but because of the individual files, you have to open each file individually and print. On pages that are double-sides, you have to open the file, print one page, turn it around, open another file, and print the back. The other studies we've used from this company incorporated more cardstock, whereas this one used mostly regular paper. It would be so much simpler, if the entire resource were one file, or could at least also be given as a single PDF, along with the current format. That way, I could choose the double-sided printing option and my printer can do the work for me when needed and have the option of printing all the regular pages at once. Printers have so many options now that make printing easy, and I really feel that this format hinders it. It's the same complaint I have of each of the products from Home School in the Woods. I had really hoped to see this changed since it's their brand new study.

Aside from the printing frustrations, we absolutely love this study; so much, in fact, that we will continue with our study of the states, even with the extra work to get it all printed. The lap book activities are well done and offer such variety. Because of the slower pace of our summer schedule, we're at the point where the Michigan lap book is about to be assembled. The older kids (ages 9 and 11), especially like the resources from Home School in the Woods, and since they're away at church camp for the week, we'll wait until they're home to put it all together. I'm excited to see the final project with all its moving parts and opening flaps and pages.

Home School in the Woods really is a fantastic place if you're looking for hands-on history curricula. If you'd like another activty-pak, like this one, they also have options for The New Testament, Artists, and a couple others. If you'd like a product that includes more lesson text, their Time Travelers or  Project Passport lines might be more appealing. The also offer timelines, map sets, lap books, and more. A new feature that is being offered is the A La Carte Projects, if you're looking for just a few projects for topical studies. Currently, you can even use code "alacarte" at checkout to get the Erie Canal project for free! Try it out and fall in love with their resources, just like we have. You can find entire lists of products on their website. 

The Make-A-State Activity is a great resource for encouraging independent study of the 50 states. My kids and I are enjoying using this product and look forward all that we'll learn as we continue our study.

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You can read more reviews of products offered by Home School in the Woods on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Wordless Wednesday: 2/1/12

The "Dinosaur" Museum

So we read a lot of Berenstain Bears books with the kids. They enjoy them quite a bit. There is one in particular in which Brother Bear gets really interested in dinosaurs. Jake loves it and started to get interested in dinosaurs himself because of it. It is because of this interest and the idea of wanting to start taking the kids to some museums and such in the area that we decided to go to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. It  is not a "dinosaur" museum but they do have dinosaur bones on display.

The libraries in our area have a program going where you can "check out" tickets from the library for different educational attractions in the area. I do believe that it is Macy's this year that is actually paying for the tickets. It was through this that we got tickets to the museum. Although we found out that the museum was free anyhow. Coincidentally the museum had a special day for the kids with the Water and You exhibit. They had stations set up throughout with tasks, activities, games, and lessons for the kids to participate in. This made the visit. I do believe that our day would have been much shorter and less enjoyable for our young children had the water stuff not been there.

At first it didn't seem to me that the kids were getting in the museum and what it had to offer. I, of course, started to think that they were not going to enjoy it much, but Erika could pick out what they wanted to see and thus it started to become a hit. As I said there were stations about water facts and activities for the kids to participate in. At each of these they got a little bead for their "Water Cycle" band (yarn). This was probably the most exciting part for them since at each station they immediately went for the basket with the beads. 

Activities included PH testing, bingo, and finding little animals from river water.

Some of the activities set up were things that our kids had already done with Erika at home for school. So they already knew the facts and impressed the UM students heading up the activities. Below and to the left Jake was helping demonstrate what items would float or sink in the water. In the center and right pictures Jake was making a color straw with water of different densities due to the sugar mixed in each. Next to the color straws was the water and oil illustration that the kids had just done a few days before.

Placed throughout the museum were large fans for air movement that I am sure are used in the hotter months. For some reason Jake thought that these were the coolest things in the world and wanted his picture taken with them. They were so cool to him that when I asked him to stand next to a huge leg bone for a picture he thought I was asking him to stand next to the fan.

Poor Zac stayed in the stroller the entire time and did great! He never once complained or whined. At the end of the day Mommy bought him a little dinosaur from the gift shop which he immediately went to roaring and attacking his sister with. Did I mention we've never taught him that dinosaurs roar.

All in all we had a great day even stopping to check the Borders in that area that was going out of business along with all the others. The kids had a great time and I do believed learned at least something that  they did not know before. We walked away with quite a few beads, a book, some coloring pages, posters, tattoos, info on local parks, and resources from the local DNR. The Water and You exhibit was very well done. The students and other adults that headed up each of the stations did an excellent job in presentation of their task and in the work with the kids. This impressed us with how young our kids are in relation to the ages that the activities were probably meant for.