A Net in Time

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What We Learned today – November 18

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Oh Heavens I am Sooooo tired today. Moving very slowly. So we didn’t start looking at homeschooling until almost 11 a.m. It took me that long to get functional.

Anyways, We continued to work on our Ben Franklin unit study from DownLoad’nGo.
We learned about inventions and being a person of good character. We did all of Day three and part of Day four. Why not do all of day four? because the lad is five, we’re Canadian and it was talking about statesmen and building America. I’d rather not worry about learning stateside stuff at this point. 🙂

We learned about the glass armonica and even got to play one on-line. When daddy tried it later without telling us we could tell what he was doing as it has a very distinctive sound and caused a giggle from a lad. 🙂

We learned about being a person of good character, about how much fun it is to be curious and to like learning. We learned about all kinds of different tools. Because that indeed is what a lot of inventions are right? the ability to make a tool to make doing something easier. A fork is a tool, a computer is a tool, a knife is a tool, a compass is a tool and so forth. we had fun going through the house and finding different types of tools. and then the lad drew a picture a picture of a tool (a car with a whole lot of windows).

Ben Franklin – DNG Review

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I signed up with DownloadNGo to do the Ben Franklin study. I have to admit, I was somewhat hesitant to do so, I like getting stuff free and then being able to review it, but I see Benjamin Franklin as being a real American icon, and did I want to take time to teach a five year old about him at this stage? Really wasn’t sure, do know though that I’m glad I signed up for it. “Mommy! Can we learn more??” I heard this twice during the study. 🙂

On Day one he drew this On Day Two we learned about making trade signs and different places in the world that Ben went to. We used our big map to look for those countries and when we went out in the afternoon, they had a big map there too so the lad needed to use his memory to figure out where Ben went. 🙂

And Today we learned about inventing and being a person of good Character. We had a hoot playing a glass armonica and learning about electricity and street lights! We tested out how to be honest, generous, curious and being brave. This was just fun to test out emotions and thoughts by the things we say and do.

Here’s an overview of what you get in a unit study from DownloadNGo
We haven’t made it to day five yet and not sure if we will this week or not. Time will tell, when we do, I’ll link to it here as well. 🙂

Each study is set out to be done over five days, but you can do them however you wish, they are easy to modify and easy to take side trips off of (aka… we took a side trip to figure out why Ben Franklin disliked the eagle and liked the turkey). The lad wasn’t sure if he agreed with Ben or not. 🙂

Day 1: Who Was Ben Franklin?
Day 2: People and Places in Ben Franklin’s Life
Day 3: The Accomplishments of Ben Franklin
Day 4: Lessons to Learn From Ben Franklin
Day 5: Remembering Ben Franklin

Each day has a variety of activities to complete from colouring, drawing, making small books, activities for older children and younger children, books you can get out of the library, embedded videos, and links to a variety of pages on-line.

Now I have to admit I had two problems with this study
1. conflicting information on-line. For instance when asked how many brothers and sisters ben had, one site said one amount, another site said a different amount. That was confusing and caused a “I DON”T KNOW MOMMY!!! THEY SAY IT DIFFERENTER FROM THE OTHER!” (he likes to be right and sometimes gets loud if he just doesn’t it or if the information seems wrong) Mind you, it did lead to a quieter discussion of how it is sometimes hard to find information that tells the truth online, and sometimes even in books, and that’s why we go to different sites/books and compare and then take the commonly accepted answer UNLESS there’s a reason not to.

2. maps. We need different maps. Trying to match up a detail map with a non-detail maps was very simply beyond our scope this week. And I just wasn’t up for a search to find my own better map…though hold on.. I guess I could have gone to blackline to see if THEY had a detail map of the colonies….. hmm…I will need to look into that. 🙂

You can get Ben Franklin from The Old schoolhouse for $6.25 right now, usually it costs $7.95. It also comes as part of the patriotic package. with George Washington, Constitution Celebration, and Ben Franklin. for $23.85.

The Study of Ben Franklin is currently on sale for $6.25 is available at DownloadNGo

To read what other reviewers have to say, go here. I know that I learned new ways that I can expand out study from reading them. Some were just a fun read. 🙂

What we Learned today – November 17

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We continued to work on our Ben Franklin unit study from DownLoad’nGo.

We did most of day two today, modifying it a bit to make it workable for a five year.

instead of making a trade sign for ben franklin’s print shop, he made a trade sign for his “robot maker shop” that he wants to be when he grows up. I thought it fitting enough. 🙂

We also didn’t worry about definitions too much. My lad has a rather nasty cold and it just wasn’t sinking into his head regardless of how many times I read it over….does he at five really need to understand a colony or a founding father? Didn’t think so. 🙂

DID discover a problem. They asked us to put an ‘x’ on the world map for where philadelphia was…but the link they sent was for a small part of the US, but the world map was in a much different scale so we just couldn’t figure this morning. This is something I would like changed with this particular exercise.

This afternoon we’re going to London to be part of a new homeschool group. We’re making and decorating shoeboxes for Christmas. 🙂

What we Learned today – November 16

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Well…we learned that the lad’s bunny Peek-a-Mommy is a good first time mommy. She had seven kits in a nicely made nest. 🙂 Peek-a-mommy is a vienna marked New Zealand bunny and as such obviously isn’t a purebred. But she’s a good bunny for the lad. 🙂

We started to work on our Ben Franklin unit study from DownLoad’nGo. I honestly didn’t think we’d enjoy reviewing this study, but to our surprise we did! The lad practiced writing, colouring, drawing. He learned that sometimes different webpages will give different information and its not always easy to find the correct answer. He practiced listening closely to videos to get answers. Not always so easy to do, but a necessary skill. We had fun with writing out the word draw. He got it right the first time, and then the next two times wrote out dram, and so the third time he asked for (and received) help in getting the “w” right. He’s a boy who worries about having the right answers, so it’s better to have fun with mistakes and keep the learning going rather than correct over something that is a child learning writing skill set.

We learned the grey squirrel was imported by Ben to England where they proceeded to give the native red squirrel a run for the money. (not a good thing that) and he even wrote a poem about a squirrel. 🙂

We headed off in the afternoon to go to gym time with the homeschool group HOPE from Stratford. We got there a bit late but the lad had fun.

We got back home with a tired lad who ended up taking a half hour nap while watching Corner Gas and still went to bed easily at 8 p.m. I really wish we could fight off this cold.

Review: Expedition Australia

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Let me start off by saying that I got a copy of this unit study in return for reviewing it.
I’ve been interested in the expedition series ever since I first heard about them as country study I find fascinating. These unit studies are well done. They’ve done all the research for you, while allowing side trips if you want to take them.

Well, let me explain that my five year old has been not feeling well for the past couple of weeks and this week his head and chest have exploded into a rather nasty cold. This has caused us to go slowly with our homeschooling efforts.

So we managed to get day one done of this study. Woot woot! We will over the next 4 weeks cover the rest of this study. 🙂 Here is day two’s review. 🙂

We took our time with it and just had fun with it.
There is a map of the world that we’re supposed to colour code, they gave suggested colours…but “mommy! can I do it differenter than that”?
“Sure buddy, just pick whatever colours you want”.
And…so he did. 🙂 We did our own version of colour coding the world.

Today we looked at how far Canberra is from us, and learned that going backwards was faster to get to Australia then going over Africa. He found that immensely funny and then proceeded to exercise that new knowledge by testing out shorter ways to get from one place to another in our house and by drawing different maps on pieces of paper. Oh.. we couldn’t get the link – the one included for seeing how far it was from our town to Canberra – to work for us for some reason (possibly because we live in a small town) so we went to google maps. Google maps made us both laugh as they suggested we kayak across the ocean. 🙂

NOTE: we are in the middle of renovating our living room so having a five year old doing things “backwards” as he practiced finding shorter cut going backwards was at times a bit of a talking through challenge. 🙂 White footprints (plaster dust) in places one doesn’t expect always adds interest in life doesn’t it? 🙂 Humour is good.

We learned today just how big the great barrier reef was….the lad found that fascinating. One of the videos they include has a plane flying over the barrier reef. All those little items was just a cause for curiousity.

Some of this study is over the head of a five year old, and the animal of the day being koalas…well what can I say. I can definitively say that the lad DOES NOT LIKE koala bears (which incidentally aren’t bears, they are marsupials). Marsupials have pouches which is for some reason very funny. How can a mommy carry a baby in a pouch? Doesn’t it fall out? How does it get out? Does it bounce when the mommy jumps? that baby must get all wiggly…. complete with a five year old doing a wiggly dance of a dizzy koala baby. (I had to keep him from hitting his head on the coffee table). 🙂
So…I suppose you might want to know what the rest of the study entails.

Day one: Where on Earth is Australia
Day two: Some of the special places in Australia
Day three: A bit of Australian History
Day four: Cool things to know about Australia
Day five: Fun and Games in Australia

Each day includes videos. Activity sheets. An animal of the day. Vocabulary words and so much more. It’s a well done study.

And hey! DownloadNGo is doing an Australia map giveaway! Go there, enter. My philosophy…if you don’t enter you can’t win. And well…winning is fun! 🙂

If you go here, you’ll learn how you can get Expedition Australia for $5.95 from now through Nov 8.

Also available at the Old Schoolhouse. 🙂

You’ll find more reviews listed here.

Terrific Tigers – Day Four

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Today we did day four of the terrific tigers unit study. You can buy it from download N go right here. 🙂 OR from the Old Schoolhouse.



Did you know that there are only 12-90 Amoy (South Chinese) Tigers left in the world? At the most there are 30 in the wild, the rest are in zoos or on reserves. The lad learned that this means that the amoy tiger is endangered.

Our bathroom is as long as a male south chinese tiger is long.

We had fun roaring through the house today. The lad went upstairs to each room and roared. I sat at the computer and listened. Then it was my turn. He stayed at the top of the stairs listening for my roar. He couldn’t hear me from the back bathroom. In the wild a tiger roar can be heard for 2 miles!

We had fun though a lad with a cold had a hard time staying on task today. 🙂 He’ll spend most of the rest of the day relaxing and rebuilding his energies. Lots of fluid and couch rest. 🙂

What We Learned this week – Oct 25-29.

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Well this week has been a good week thus far. Having a general outline/schedule is very helpful. 🙂

We did day three of of the unit study from Download N Go on Terrific Tigers.
We learned that Sumatran tigers have webbed feet, watched good videos, and just had fun learning about tigers. Justin made a mural of tigers on a mountain.

We started to work on Expedition Australia, we just got to the first part of day one. This is a harder study for a five year old lad. He’s currently working on colouring in the world map. There is a whole whack of information in it, he was fascinated by the giant clam in one of the first videos that we watched. This is also a DownloadnGo product.

We volunteered at the Rummage Sale for the local hospital. We were there for two hours and the lad helped with putting price tags on items and helping me sort out the cutlery.

He did gymnastics on Monday.

He did gym on Tuesday with the homeschool group. This was held at the Startford YMCA and costs $6 for 8 weeks. He had a hoot learning some kickboxing moves and playing hockey with the big boys.

On Wednesday he was part of Story Club while I was at bible study at the local Christian Reformed Church. We are studying the Psalms, they are working through creation (as far as I can tell). He made a great craft and learned more about Adam and Eve, how God made each one of us in his own image.

Today we’ll be making hallowe’en cupcakes and doing a study on Hallowe’en. The study called Happy halloween that we are doing is good for a variety of ages, and comes from the Simple Homeschool. It has a maze, copy work, listen and remember exercises and so forth. I like it, and the lad is looking forward to doing it.

I have to interject this.
My boyo sometimes makes me laugh. The maze had two friends looking for a path to the candy corn. So he drew two paths. One friend kept on going the wrong way (complete with “uh, wrong way” being muttered under his breath) and had to retrace his steps and then mommy had to help the other friend show the first friend which way to go (with comments of — yea!, see, this is how you go, see he’s helping my friend find the candy! YEA!! you helped me!!! (this last being the lost friend talking)). He just makes me chuckle. 🙂

we will also be doing this unit from Ingles on Hallowe’en. Oops…not this exact one, but one similar that has a game in it. Spooktacular letters that’s the one we are doing. 🙂

Pics of what we did today.
First you start with some muffins 🙂
then you make the icing, you start with a basic white icing and add food colouring… it looks like a lollipop as you mix it in. Much to the delight and interest of a five year old. we were aiming for black, but he thought grey was good too. 🙂

You add some smarties (sorry trick or treaters, you won’t be getting them).

the finished product, they all ended up with three “friend” smarties sitting with each other on top.
We brought two to our very nice neighbours who live next door to us. They are so kind to us that this was just a small thing for us to do for them, and they were simply delighted. 🙂

AND tomorrow he’ll be doing the last HOPE day with dad for the fall season.