A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

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Curriculum ideas

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the question at heart of the home is this

After hours and hours of research, consultation, lists and that big ol’ investment… what did you finally decide for your curriculum? Please share your choices – by age (or grade) if possible.

Well, being in our first year of homeschooling, my methodology at this point is really varied.

I use books that I’ve picked up here and there along the way… copywork, math, etc. We go to the library, we do unit studies as I’m on a review team, go on field trips, play a lot 🙂 .. what can I say…he’s five. We use a variety of resources on-line, with one of our current favourite places being teachers pay teachers.

and I suppose that’s all I’ve got to say right now. 🙂

Not Back to School Blog Hop

Library books

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Jeffrey and Sloth by Kari-Lynn Winters and Ben Hodson

Oh my, this is just a fun book to read.. for mother and child. 🙂
Spurs all kinds of questions. Great to use to help a child think and imagine.
What could Jeffrey ask next of the sloth? 🙂

Tale of a Tadpole by barbara ann porte

A nice read of a little girl watching a tadpole grow up.

Dory Story by Jerry Pallota

This book has a surprise ending that made us both laugh! Good story as well of the web of life.

Swim the silver sea, joshie Otter by Nancy White Carlstrom

“why’s he called Joshie Mommy?”
“Why didn’t his mommy want to play?”
“why didn’t he listen to his mommy?”
These were questions I was asked while reading this book. It was a great cause of wonderment.

The Blizzard by Betty Ren Wright

a good story of a boy with a birthday in the winter and his disappointment at his cousins not being able to help celebrate…because of “The Blizzard”. My lad asked tons of questions, and was happy for the boy at the end of the story.

Rabbit by Alison Catley

the value of this book to me was in helping my son understand that more than one person can have a stuffy named Rabbit…and they don’t all have to look the same. He was quite amazed by this fact. 🙂

Rabbit’s Good News by Ruth Lercher Bornstein

We’ve had this book about before. it’s just a delightful spring time book. 🙂

Bicycle Race by Donald Crews

DID NOT like this book. It earned a very hearty frown from a five year old lad.

Five Little Monkeys go Shoppings by Eileen Christelow

What a fun read and a smile inducer. “mommy, those monkeys don’t listen!”

Waters by Edith Newlin Chase

This book inspires me to want to do a unit study on it, and perhaps I might. Filled with Canadiana trivia/artwork.

How Groundhog’s Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry

This book was okay, not great, but a decent read. Groundhog learned to not only grow a garden, but how to share. Always a good thing that. NOT an oft requested book.

I’ll be Home soon, snoopy by Charles Schultz

My enjoyment of Charlie brown is NOT shared by a five year old lad. 🙁

Lucy Comes to Stay by Rosemary Wells

Wells has again written a book to be enjoyed and read well. Reads well outloud, causes questions to be asked. A good book.

Bob the builder, snowed under. by somebody I’m sure..

It’s a typical bob the builder book. Something to be built, something to be learned. The lad was very ho-hum with this book.

WAIT!! I want to tell you a story by Tom Williams.

He liked it but… the ending was somewhat less than what the boy wanted it to be. You’ll have to read why a cat-loving boy wouldn’t appreciate the ending. It even made my hubby chuckle. 🙂

The Three Swinging Pigs by Vicky Rubin.

If you KNOW the story of the three little pigs you might appreciate this book. We’ve read a couple books that twist the tale a bit, or at least tell it from a different perspective. This one was an OFT repeated tale.

Shaun the Sheep – Shaun the Farmer and Can’t stand the heat.

It’s the shaun the sheep videos in book form. Still enjoyed immensely by one five year old boy. He asked lots of questions which he didn’t ask in the videos.

Click, clack, moo…and more. by Doreen Cronin et al

Oh..you have to just go get the book and read it. Laugh about what happens. See the farmer’s frustration and just enjoy a children’s book. really…go get it and just have fun with it. 🙂

Jack the bear by Christina Leist.

i have to admit, when I first read this book I thought ‘eh.. don’t need to read this again’. BUT… it grew on me. The lad liked it as well. Probably because the fox was so perplexed by Jack the Bear.

The Great Pig Escape and The Great Pig Search both books by Eileen Christelow.

Boy oh boy were these books read over and over and over again. Those silly pigs. Both were fun reads, both made a boy ask questions, both had decent illustrations, and were just fun to read. They could be made educational should one so desire…but sometimes fun books just need to be read. 🙂

Up in the air…with the greatest of ease..I saw a Kite

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Kite Capers was our main unit study of the past two weeks, day one and Days 2 and 4. Kite Capers has been developed by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. Kite Capers captured my son’s imagination. To learn more about Kite Capers click here to view more details. It is an excellent study.


One of the fun moments I have as a homeschooling mom is seeing how my son puts to use the information that he learns. Part of the history aspect of kite capers was learning what one of the first uses of kites was. A man name Han Hsing (or something like that..just going from memory here) was attacking a city and he wanted to know how far to dig a tunnel. So we drew pictures of him flying his kite over the city. We acted out the digging of the tunnel and just had a blast learning about this part of kite history. Then he went to my mom and dad’s for a couple of days. When we got there the VERY FIRST thing he did was set up a city and then had an enemy attack that city using a kite.

“How big a tunnel does he have to dig buddy?” I asked
The very excited response was “10 miles mommy! He has to dig 10 miles!”

I LOVE seeing him excited. I LOVE knowing what he remembers.

It’s winter where we live so flying a kite isn’t on our immediate agenda but we stopped at a store to see what treat/toy the lad could buy with his rabbit money and we spotted a couple kits (packed together, inexpensive) and I heard “MOMMY!!! Diamond kites!” So well…of COURSE we had to get them. So now Daddy has a big kite to fly (from last year) and I have a delta and the lad has a diamond kite. I think we’ll have fun this year. 🙂

Each DownloadN’Go unit is a complete unit study designed for grades K-4, not saying you can’t revamp a bit if you have older children. There are 5 days of lessons – which can be done as separate days, or combined two into one, or extending a day as you take small rabbit trails. In Kite Capers you will find the following plan of action:

Day 1: What Is a Kite?
Day 2: The History of Kites
Day 3: Kite People and Places
Day 4: Science Secrets of Kites
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Kites

We didn’t do the entire study, after all…it’s March Break up this way and little boys need to play and get to know their grandparents. 🙂

I particularly enjoyed going through the section on Wind. Learning what my boy knew, helping him to expand his knowledge and use new words. It always interesting to learn just what your child knows. 🙂

If you want to know more Click here to visit Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. You can read more blog reviews by going here.

As part of the the Download N Go review team, I have been provided with a copy of this unit to use, review, and post about on my blog.

Kites Again :)

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worked on Day Two and Day Four of Kite Capers from DNG. Made a sheet to go with it from here. The actual page is made is here.
 Published by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.

cool to learn fact

Andre Cassagne designed a series of ring kites to celebrate the Olympics. He is the best known kitemaker in France and the original inventor of the Etch-a-Sketch.

The lad drew and coloured and learned some geography and science and history. It was a good lesson for him today…even though both of us a dog-tired and highly distractable as a result.

St. Patrick’s Day

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Different things I’m considering preparing for the Lad for St. Patrick’s Day. ONLY because it can be a fun holiday for a boy child. :

A colouring page of the Irish flag. Not sure if I”ll do this as we did one for our study on Ireland.

According to legend, Saint Patrick used a shamrock to explain about God. The shamrock, which looks like clover, has three leaves on each stem. Saint Patrick told the people that the shamrock was like the idea of the Trinity – that in the one God there are three divine beings: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The shamrock was sacred to the Druids, so Saint Patrick’s use of it in explaining the trinity was very wise.

In light of this I’m considering having him do this activity.

If I can figure out how to print this maze off I would use it. 🙂

and here’s a nice little unit study that I might pull ideas from.

DLTK has an anagram. one is easy, one is more difficult. Same site has an easier to access maze.
🙂

there’s this neat green on green craft that I think the lad will enjoy. 🙂

Fairly certain I’m going to be doing this one. it’s a file folder game.

and there are lots of ideas on this page. Not sure what I’ll use at this point, if anything. Though I do like this 3 in 1 craft/song.