Knights Unit Study

It started with Sir Cumference. I'd heard of Sir Cumference and the First Round Table (A Math Adventure) for years but my library didn't have it and I never saw it in a thrift store. When we moved I finally found it at our new library. Early Bird had been vanquishing dragons in the caves (aka my walk-in closet) for a few weeks so I thought, why not capitalize on the interest? (Yay for being able to homeschool!) So I checked out Sir Cumference, You Wouldn't Want to Be a Medieval Knight!: Armor You'd Rather Not Wear, and 100 things You Should Know About Knights & Castles and added in the story of Saint George and the Dragon found in The Children's Book of Virtues that I already had. I poked around Pinterest and the internet and printed out for free what I needed to make our first ever lapbook. Here's where I got the lapbook printables for free. I used most of the level 2 and a few of the level 3. Here's the instructions for making a lapbook that I used. I also came up with the idea to make easy and cheap, no-sew knight costumes that really sparked their imagination and active participation. We also re-watched our favorite Horrible Histories clips that involved knights, including the Knight Song and Castle Defences. The whole thing was supposed to take only a week. It lasted almost a month.

And....it's been several months since I started this blog post. I thought I had finished and posted this, but clearly I hadn't. So I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

Front of the lapbook

We've never done a lapbook before and I am very happy with the one we made. I arranged and pasted all the parts ahead of time to make sure they would fit and work together. I "mounted" some of the print outs on colored paper for some color because my boys are not all that interested in coloring things.

Timeline Game-great perspective!

Back of the lapbook

They loved the dubbing ceremony. Early Bird started dubbing everyone and every thing in the house, ending with "ha-rise, sir knight!"

When Builder Boy started building castles with every toy, every where he went, and was naming the parts, I knew it stuck.

Building castles everywhere

Lady Bug is 6 Months Old! (a little bit late)

Mommy is tired. Very, very tired. Lady Bug is teething, but her mouth is so petite teething toys do not fit in it. And she spits out the children's Advil we have or it makes her throw up. All I want to do is take a nap, and all she wants to do is smile. Little stinker....


Lady Bus is now six months old. She is very petite and 12.5 lbs. Her eyes are gray and her hair in some lights has a reddish tinge to it. She has long eyelashes like her brothers and very long fingers and toes still. Her legs are chubby and are occasionally refereed to as "drumsticks." She is out growing her 3-6 months clothes and mostly wears 6 month clothes now.


She is finally showing interest in toys and started reaching out for things like people's faces.

She really is a delight. She loves her brothers and they adore her. She's putting everything in her mouth. Including Early Bird's finger, who responded with "Hey, do not digest me!"

Nocturnal Tag Team (Guest Post by Domestic Imp)

*yawn*

I don't know what it is that the two youngest minions are up to, but it's become obvious, even to my sleep deprived brain, that there is indeed a plot in the works.

As Holmes would say, "There's trouble afoot!"

It seems, once I'm settled into bed, Cubby begins to wail.

Sometimes, it's as soon as my head sinks into my pillow.

Other times, it's just as I start to drift.

It used to happen now and again, but lately, it's an every night experience. I'm genuinely not sure what's worse, the instant wail, or the waiting til I start to drift wail, but I'm leaning towards the drift, because it's more of a tease...sleep so close, then so brutally yanked away.

Then, Boo gets in on the action.

His participation of the nocturnal game of Get Momma is to wait until I'm either in the midst of taking care of Cubby...or, just as I'm about to tuck Cubby in, thinking I'm home free and able to crawl back into bed, HE wakes up, and begins to wail.

Again, not sure what's worse,  being mid feed or change with Cubby, and hearing Boo wake, or mere steps away from crawling into bed myself.

And then it repeats, about three hours later.

I don't know how they're doing it, but they're decidedly working together. There can be no further doubt.

I thought that Boo cuddling, kissing, and babbling away at Cubby was a sign of brotherly love, and took delight in Cubby's reaction to him, the smiles, the huge belly laughs, and almost hysterical giggling.

Nope. They were making plans to coordinate their nocturnal domestic terrorism.

This is all their Dad's fault. They obviously get their devious plotting abilities from him. 

Everyone knows how innocent, pure of motives, and committed to peace and harmony of all mankind and Earth's creatures I am.

Great.

Not even my dog believes that.

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This was a guest post by the hilarious Domestic Imp. You can find her blogging about homeschooling, parenting, and domestic.....bliss.... over at Not A Stepford Life.

And in other blogger news:

My online friend has started blogging a bit more regularly, so I'd like to promote her blog, Not A Stepford Life. She is homeschooling her 5 kids and she is so much better at being funny than I am (and always wanted to be.) Her recent post over at Sandbox to Socrates, The Secret of Homeschooling, got promoted by Classical Academy Press on facebook! And this new internet celebrity is going to be guest posting here soon.

In other Sandbox to Socrates news, Where Is This Rest, And Where Can I Find It? is also getting a ton of view and I think helping a lot of moms.

And if you're not already a regular reader, Dusty has 10 days of giveaways over at To The Moon and Back that is halfway through. So check them out before they're over!

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 51-60

A continuation of how we're adding to First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind: Level 1 to make it more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

(Lesson 51) Bundle of Sticks

Lesson 51 has students listening to a story that tries to encourage family unity using the analogy of breaking sticks. So after we read the story and did the narration we did the obvious thing, we went out side to test if a bundle of sticks really is harder to break than a single stick.

(Lesson 52) Verbs!

Now that we're working with verbs, there is a LOT of moving and kinetic things to do. We used signs to help us remember the long definition of a noun. Once we figured out what we wanted the signs to be, the boys memorized the definition long before the book expects it of them.

"A verb is a word that does an action (walk in place)
 
shows a state of being (bring your hand down your torso, showing your self)



 

















links two words together (link your index fingers together/sign for "friend")

or helps another verb." (make a fist with one hand and lift it up with the other/sign for "help")

(Lesson 54) In Case of Emergency....

One of the things I love about First Language Lessons is that the kids end up learning a lot more than what you would think of when you think of "grammar." One of the things FLL1 works on with young students is memorizing their address and phone number. During these lessons we had a carbon monoxide scare (post to come) and we needed to call 911. That day after it was over I talked to the boys about calling 911, under what conditions they would be the one who would need to call, and what questions they would need to answer. We practiced them calling and having to give their address and phone number. I also made a paper and put on the fridge with 911 at the top and our address and phone number on it. Because if they are actually having to call, I don't want them to be stressed about having to remember; they can just read it off the paper.

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The lessons and the poem we got from FLL1. The original link is to the author's printing press website, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. I came up with the extra activities on my own.

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 40-50

A continuation of what we're adding to lessons from First Language Lessons For the Well Trained Mind: Level 1 to make them more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

(Lesson 40) Signing the Months of the Year

One of the ways I've been adding a kinetic learning approach to FLL is to use signs, especially with things Builder Boy is supposed to be memorizing. By the time we got to this lesson, Builder Boy already knew all the months of the year, so there was no issue here. But I wanted to link the signs for the months of the year here for kids who do not and would be helped by it. The links are from our favorite online signing dictionary, Signing Savvy.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

(Lesson 43) "The Months" poem

I actually have no help for this one. For previous poems I had hand signs for words to help Builder Boy memorize, but we did not do that with this one. Because of what was going on at the time, I did not require memorization of this poem. But I do love the Knuckle Trick for remembering how many days a month has.

(Lesson 45) Noun Review

For review we used the index cards I made in the beginning lessons and I made a few more to mix it up.

(Lesson 46) Pronouns Hand Signs

I have no idea if my signs are the official ones or not; some are, some probably are not. Either way, they worked really well for us!

I, me, my, mine (point with one finger touching my chest, repeat, hand comes to my chest, repeat)

 








you, your, your (point at person speaking to, move palm facing hand toward person, repeat)

 








he, she, him, her, it, his, hers, its (pointing away towards an imaginary person for first five, "push" towards the imaginary person for last three)

 








we, us, our, ours (make a circle with one finger for first two, make a circle with open hand for last two)

 








they, them, their, theirs (make a circle indicating a group away from you with one finger for the first two, with your whole hand for the last two)



Pronoun Replacing Game

It's one thing to memorize "a pronoun is a word used in the place of a noun." It's another thing to physically replace the noun with a pronoun in a sentence! So that's what we did to help Builder Boy and Early Bird have a better understanding of what a pronoun is. I wrote out the sentences and used sticky note for the noun/pronoun swap.

Noun....

....Pronoun!

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The lessons and the poem we got from FLL1. The original link is to the author's printing press website, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. I came up with the extra activities on my own.

Smile! Sunday #8

We actually have been attending church more than I've been getting pictures. It just been harder than I thought, being busy getting out of church with three kids now and everyone else is busy, too.

Time 4 Learning Review

I am overdue for giving Time 4 Learning their review, and I thank them for their patience. In November/December I accepted a month's trial free in exchange for an honest review. I don't have screenshots of the program like I prefer to have when I write a review because at the time my kids were using this online program I was dealing with postpartum depression. The timing was perfect because school was just not getting done when it was something I had to be responsible for. But the kids really liked doing school on the computer and would work away contentedly for some time.

There were several parental controls that I did not take advantage of, like setting time limits that had to be met before the "playground" unlocked and test score reports. I very much liked that kids were not limited to their own grade level, but had access to both one grade above and below thier registered level. Which was very helpful when you have a child that has asynchronous developments, or a child that finishes all of one level in a subject and wants to move on to the next without having to do every other subject in the level.

I did not regulate or dictate what subjects they had to do, but rather let them make their own choices. Most of the time they chose science or social studies, though occasionally they did some math or language arts. I do like that for the price of Reading Eggs plus Mathseeds you got ALL school subjects with Time 4 Learning.

I was not sure how much of the material my boys were actually retaining. They went through subjects very quickly at times, couldn't always tell me anything when asked, and often did poorly on the tests. But when it snowed outside, Builder Boy said to me "it must be zero degrees Celsius out there, because that's what temperature water freezes at!" so he clearly did retain some of it, because I hadn't taught him that.

Looking at what they had when I had access to it, I would not use it as my main curriculum. But as a supplement, a summer program, or a needed break for Mommy, it's very good and worth the money if you can afford it.

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Lady Bug is sick again, but we still managed to get a little bit of school done today, including what I had planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (Here's the link to my lesson plan on Sandbox to Socrates.)

I admit, I hate teaching about sad things to my happy children. This is the first time we've ever really talked about discrimination and intolerance. My kids have learned to love everybody, so it's hard for them to understand why anyone would be mean to other people just because of how they look. Early Bird shared with us that at Sunday school some girls told him he could not play with them because he was a boy, and how sad that made him feel. I hadn't known that had happened! It make my heart hurt for him, but it certainly helped him relate to what we talked about today.

God Gave Us the World is a sweet beginner book for young children that answers questions as to why God created us differently.  God Makes Us Different by Helen Caswell is the next step to take it from bears (from God Gave Us the World) to people. We talked a bit about how boring it would be if everyone looked the same, and how on the inside we're all the same. There was also a brief rabbit trail about DNA and inherited traits.

Grandpa made a short video about what he remembers about the times, keeping it vague and not being specific until they are older. We also watched the Horrible Histories Rosa Parks Equality song.


The boys were surprised and happy to discover how many of their crayons could be used as skin colors, besides the usual "peach." They used their new discovery on a coloring page while listening to Reverend King's Dream Speech.

Lesson Plan for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday will be celebrated this Monday. Our lesson plan is available at Sandbox to Socrates if you're interested in ideas for your own children.

Know a great resource for teaching about MLK that I missed? Please share in a comment below!