Christmas Around the World

This weekend, we traveled the globe, celebrating Christmas Around the World with our H.E.A.R.T. Homeschool Group.

We transformed our school room into a display area for all the items we wanted to include in our presentation.

This year, our country was Portugal. We had many postcards, pictures, etc... from our trip there a few months ago. We also have a fairly large doll collection, as well as boats and pottery.

The kids did a fantastic job! We started out in our front yard, where my little boy came "sailing" in on his Portuguese boat made by Daddy! Our little girl read about the traditions in Portugal at Christmas time. Then, we all headed inside and our little girl sang Silent Night in Portuguese, while her older sister played on the piano. Then the kids talked about the various displays. After that, we all enjoyed a delicious meal of Portuguese kale soup, sausage sandwiches, and rice pudding.

Each family is given 45 minutes to complete everything. Then, we all drive to the next family's home and celebrate the country they have chosen!

The second country we visited was Canada. We enjoyed some tasty mini meat pies. The kids made candy and participated in a cookie swap, which is a Christmas tradition in Canada.

The next country we traveled to was Germany.

In Germany, we learned all about the Christmas traditions and ate some yummy German food.

The three "German children"  did a wonderful job, creating a project board on Germany, as well as doing an oral presentation. They passed out an authentic German nutcracker and some beautiful German Christmas ornaments.

The fourth stop on our travels was Switzerland.

We learned all about the large hats the people parade around in with lights inside them, and saw a video depicting Christmas in Switzerland. We ate different types of cheese, candy, and had hot chocolate.

Our last stop was in France. We were given Euros to spend at all the cute little French boutiques that were set up around the house.

Everyone received berets to wear!

They also did presentations and told us about gift giving in France.

Then we all enjoyed tasty chicken cordon bleu, cheesy scalloped potatoes, and loads of desserts.

We had such a wonderful day with all our homeschool friends. The kids and adults learned so much, and we can't wait until next year's Christmas Around the World.

Wow! Homeschooling is Busy!

People always ask me what we do at home all day long, now that we homeschool. I have to try not to laugh at them because most of you who homeschool know that it is lots of work, lots of play, and never ever NOT busy!

Our children are involved in many different activities. This fall, both our girls are playing soccer, which takes up 2 evenings per week and 1 game day per week. All 3 take weekly piano lessons as well as do folk dancing. Our girls are in the Keepers at Home club each week. We also have monthly H.E.A.R.T. Homeschool group meetings and all sorts of different  field trips.

We recently had a party for our oldest, to celebrate the publication of her book, Tampa Bay From A to Z. Over $4000 has been raised from the sales of the book, to benefit two local children's hospitals in our area!

Our local grocery store bakery did a fantastic job on the cake! They made the top piece look exactly like her book, and then stacked it on top of a history "book", also made entirely of cake. I do have to say too that it was delicious!

Our little guy has been really busy doing all sorts of fun fall school activities. These leaf numbers were perfect for playing several games with him. He loves it when I take one leaf away and he has to guess which number is missing. He is proud of the fact that he can count to 100 and is now counting by 10's and 5's. We are still working on the 2's.

He also spent some time with me placing all these apple letters in ABC order, and then matching various apple related words to their correct spot. He is getting pretty good at placing words in alphabetical order now.

His  most recent poetry basket involved a poem about Five Little Pumpkins. He enjoyed this poem and loved matching the correct pumpkin face to the description given in the poem.

Meanwhile, our little girl has been learning about different types of poetry, and she was given the task of creating a cinquain poem about apples.

We have all been enjoying the variety of Thanksgiving and fall books in our reading corner.

At our Keepers Club, the girls had fun creating these Christian pumpkins. You can find the printables for this activity at 1 + 1 + 1 blog.

The sweet sounds of Christmas music have been filling the air lately. With all 3 children taking piano lessons, there is often a traffic jam at the piano! Occasionally, there are arguments over who gets to practice next, and I think to myself how nice it is that THAT is what they are squabbling over!

Our two youngest spent a few days at our local international folk festival, stamping the passports of children from various schools. Over 8000 students attended this year! More than 40 countries are represented at this annual festival, and our kids also dance in the Portuguese folk dancing group.

So, that is a little peek at what has been going on. So, when people ask what we do all day as homeschoolers, I can confidently say that we do more than just school work. Life is going on, and what a blessing it is to spend these days with our children.

Bread Baking

Fall is such a wonderful time of year! There are so many things I love to do in the fall, and one of them is baking delicious, yummy comfort foods. I think I love baking during the fall, even more than during Christmas time! It isn't as rushed and I can just enjoy the moments with my kids.

Earlier this week, we decided to bake some banana bread. It is one of our favorite breads to bake because first of all, it tastes so good and second, it is very easy to make!

My little ones have gotten pretty good at baking and only need me to supervise as they mix and add all the ingredients. Everyone loved the final product!



Geography Month

Our H.E.A.R.T. Homeschool Group meets every month at the park. This year, we decided to try something new and have each family choose a different country to study. Every month has been assigned a specific topic. The month of October was Geography Month.

The five countries represented this year are Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and France. Each family brought information, handouts, project boards, and more!

This family dressed as German children and taught us about the different landmarks. They also shared some information about the first day of school, and passed around little paper cones filled with treats, which is a tradition in Germany!

Our family shared basic geographical information about Portugal, and then each of our children created a specific individual project. My girls made project boards on the cities of Porto and Aveiro, and our little boy made a 3 dimensional project highlighting all the different geographical features of Portugal. We also had a lot of manipulatives to pass around such as cork, ceramics, and even a Happy Meal box from the McDonald's that is written in Portuguese! Then our kids passed around euros and chocolate umbrellas brought back from our trip,  for each friend to have.

This family's project was on Switzerland and they displayed the flag, which we learned was one of only two flags in the world that are square! We also learned that Switzerland has a very small population of people, and that St. Bernard dogs are very common in their country and are used to rescue people in the snow.

Next was Canada, where we all sat and learned about the different territories, hockey teams, and main languages. The family representing Canada even drew the map of the country on the sidewalk for everyone to see!

Last but not least, these young ladies gave their presentation on France. Each family received a darling little French box with a puzzle in it and some different facts about the country. We learned about the Eifel Tower and that cycling is the number one sport in France.

These monthly themed park days are so nice and the kids are learning so much! November is History Month, so stick around and see what exciting projects the children come up with!



Fun in our Homeschool

We've had lots of fun this week in our homeschool! Our little girl surprised us all with these tasty little treats shown above. In the spring, she attended a baking class at our local homeschool co-op. She really enjoys baking and creating yummy things for us!

The kids were busy getting their projects ready for Geography Month. Our HEART Homeschool Group families have each chosen a different country to study. We chose Portugal, since we were able to actually travel there!

The projects came out really nicely! Our oldest made a nice project board about one of the cities she enjoyed visiting. Our little girl also made a project board, and she made a clay replica of a fishing boat. I have to say, we were extremely proud of our little guy. He doesn't usually enjoy "crafty" activities and it is a challenge to have him complete projects such as this. However, he really loved making his project this time, and worked so hard on it!

Isn't it cute? He made a 3-dimensional display of the different geographical features of Portugal. He included a mountain with a windmill, a river with a fishing boat and some logs being sent to be made into paper. He also added a rock wall, some olive trees, and some grape vines.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is being able to really dig into projects and have fun creating things.



First Day of School

Today was our first day of school! Here are our 2011-2012 class pictures:

Our little bean is in 8th grade this year. She loves language arts and is going to start French this year! In her free time, she enjoys writing stories and playing the piano.

Our little nut is in 4th grade this year. She enjoys science and reading. She has some new subjects this year, including geography and history. In her free time, she loves playing with her American Girl dolls and reading.

Finally, our little man is in 1st grade this year. He likes math and has several new subjects this year, including spelling and geography. He is also starting piano lessons tomorrow, as well as Contenders of the Faith.

We have made several changes to our homeschool this year. One of our favorites is our new reading corner! The kids really love it (and so do I!).

They especially like the shelves with all our themed books. This month's themes are fall, Halloween, plants and gardening, and ancient civilizations.

It is so nice to see them snuggling up with a nice book.

Another change for this year is the activity above. Last year, the kids did "Monday Mania Challenges" in which I gave them some sort of activity to accomplish within a specific period of time. I still plan on using those cards, but these cards pictured above are great conversation cards, and so we are using them for our "question of the day" during our Morning Meeting, which consists of Bible study, calendar/weather time, prayers, etc...

There are some scheduling issues that need to be tweeked a bit, but all in all, it was a really good day and I can not wait to see what fun we will have this year! The kids will definitely be busy with several extra curricular activities, homeschool groups, co-op, and more! Keep checking back to see all the excitment...