Book review: Celebrations Around the World

A year ago while we were covering a unit study on Ireland, I came across a book at the library that has been a wonderful resource for geography for our family. 


Celebrations around the World: A Multicultural Handbook by Carole S. Angell was written to teach children about Multicultural holidays with its 200 page month by month listing of Holidays celebrated all over the world, but it does

Our favorite site for Geography and History

We have been using this site since 2009. Mr. Donn’s site, in my opinion is a wonderful site for immersing young children in History and Geography, two subjects that many homeschoolers like myself are interested in teaching.

At Mr. Donn's site, you'll find indexes on Ancient History, World History and American History including lesson plans and activities. There are stories, online handouts,

Celebrating Las Posadas: family, food, books and crafts

In Mexico and many parts of Central America, people celebrate Las Posadas during the nine days before Christmas. It is a reenactment of the journey Joseph and Mary took to find shelter before the birth of their child.


At Christmas time, our city hosts a candlelit procession called "La posada" which means "the inns" or "the shelters" in Spanish. For many, it is a religious and social

Meeting a Pilgrim and Wampanoag and building homes

Today, we continued our reading of the book “If you sailed on the Mayflower” by Ann McGovern. I read aloud pages 32-50 from the book which tells the story of the Pilgrims voyage to the world and life during the 66 days they sailed and then landed in the New World.

After our reading, we enjoyed viewing a live webcast from the Pilmoth Plantation that was being made by Scholastic. I had registered

Setting sail on the Mayflower

Monday, was our first day of our Thanksgiving unit. I read aloud pages 10-31 of the book “If you sailed on the Mayflower” by Ann McGovern. We used our dry erase board to explain the story to my youngest son. We learned why the Pilgrims fled Europe to travel to the New World. The boys said that they would feel sad too if an English King told them they had to give up something or someone they love

Our plans for this week (Thanksgiving unit)

This week, we are learning about the Pilgrims and their voyage on the Mayflower, Pilgrim and Indian life, the first Thanksgiving and about Turkeys. I have a general outline of our plans for the week that I thought I would share with you. Next weekend, I will have our Week in Review on our week posted after we complete our study on Thanksgiving.

Here are the books we will be reading throughout

a Detour in our geography studies

Originally we planned to explore Canada as part of our learning about North America but we are making a short detour to learn about some U.S. History and Geography as we learn about the Pilgrims and their voyage on the Mayflower to the New World. We will having a week devoted to reading about the Pilgrims, Wampanoag Indians, their daily life, foods grown and eaten then and today, and the First

Moving through Mexico

We spent the last two weeks moving through Mexico for our Galloping the globe studies (world geography). We did many crafts, read some wonderful children's books and made some Mexican cuisine.

Here is our two week plan we used of our geography studies on Mexico:
Week 1 Layout
Monday- Use the Atlas and globe to locate the the country of Mexico. Read in our Around the World book some information

Week in Review: Back on Track after a short break(weeks 6-7)

October 4th to 15th
We took a short break towards the end of September. I had been ill and was unable to keep up with the boys (homeschooling and parenting). I had my husband to step in and care for the boys while I recovered. I am still under the weather and have scheduled an appointment with my doctor.
I have to admit the past two weeks have been good since starting our homeschool days in the

Learning about the Oceans

Before we embarked on our journey to North America for our geography studies, we decided to spend two weeks (from Sept. 27-October 9) on the earth’s oceans.

The earth has five oceans which are:
The Pacific which covers al;most half of the earth at 46 %
The Atlantic at 23 %
The Indian Ocean at 21 %
The Southern Ocean at 6 %
The Arctic Ocean at 4 %

NOTE: A special thanks to Jolanthe at

Geography Book Review: Children Around the World

Children Around the WorldWhen I last posted a book review it was on “Children Just Like Me.” A good friend, Natalie@ Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns was in search of a similar book for younger children and so was I. In my search for a similar book to Children Like Me, I found this wonderful book at our local library.Children Around the World by Donata Montanari is a wonderful book that shows kids what

Geography Book Review: Children just Like Me

Children Just like Me by Anabel Kindersley. In this informational book for kids, readers learn about what life is like for children from all over the world. From Africa to America, to Brazil to Bolivia, to India to Israel and other countries, kids from all different races, cultures, religions and ethnicity share not only their backgrounds, families, traditions and religions, but their favorite

Art Caddy and some fabulous finds

We have seen during the last two months some bloggers display their handmade art caddies on their blogs. I had been meaning to find materials to make with the boys but when we saw these adorable plastic ones at Target, we could not pass them up, They were $2.50 each and made of sturdy plastic. We found ours in the Target dollar section so we bought two, one for each son.



While there, we

Week in Review for June 1 to 14, 2010

Weeks 33-34We embarked on our study of Kenya last week continued into this week when we learned about the wildlife of Kenya.Our first week last was spent on learning about Kenya's lands, history, music, people and culture. We read several books on Kenyan life, made Kenyan crafts. and . We managed to sneak in our own shadow play of an African version of the Aesop's Fable "The Lion and the Mouse."

Partnership in the Coral Reef: Clown fish and Anemone

Pictured above an anemone fish in a bubble anemone.The boys knowledge about the Coral Reef before we began our study on Australia's Great Barrier Reef was from the movie "Finding Nemo." They knew that the Clown Fish lived in an anemone but not why or how.The Clown Fish (also called Anemone fish) are small fish that live in the warm waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, including the Great

Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Two week's ago, we began a study on Australia as part of our Geography: Learning about our World studies. We took a break from it last week to learn about Earth day and this week we are looking at the Ocean life and Coral reefs of Australia as well as Animal life on the continent. Photo courtesy of Lanmark PhotosToday we took a closer look at Australia's Great Barrier Reef which is the largest

Ocean Cards

Last year in June we did an Ocean theme unit and I made some Ocean Creature cards for the boys to use. We are using some of the cards this year for our study on Coral Reefs.The cards were orginally uploaded to Sribd but I have moved them to Homeschool Launch where you can download them for free. Just click on the thumbnail below.There are 9 pages shown in this set with 6 cards on each the Ocean

Australian Musical Instrument: Didgeridoo

This month we we are learning about Australia as part of our Geography: Learning about our World. For two to three weeks we be doing an Australian unit study.Today, we are learning about the musical instruments of Australia and today we read about one of the oldest musical instruments by the Aboriginal People known as the Didgeridoo.The Didgeridoo ♫♪ ♫♪The didgeridoo (also: didgeridu, yidaki) is

Rock Art and Books on Aboriginal Australians

This week the boys and I are "traveling" (by books and video) to learn about Australia. On Tuesday we learned about the country's states and territories as well as the Australian National Anthem.On Wednesday and Thursday (our second and third day of our Australian Study) we used the book Aboriginal Australians (Indigenous Peoples) by Diana Marshall to learn about the original inhabitants of the

G'day Australia

This week the boys and I are "traveling" (by books and video) to learn about Australia. Today we are learning about the country's states and territories as well as the Australian National Anthem.Australia, nicknamed the "Land Down Under,", is a country, an island and a continent. It is the world's smallest continent and the sixth-largest country. It is located in the Southern Hemisphere, between