[UUMom]

what you and the kids are planning together?

We are going on a few visits to Salem MA and read Witch of Blackbird Pond , among others, and study a little US history this fall. We're going to wait until the air is crisp to head to Salem. We are doing all the summer stuff right now-- boating, swimming etc and don't want to rush that.

We migh also back track US history and visit Plymouth Plantation a few times as well. They have some respectful Wampanoag education programs, too. Just depends how into other stuff we go and for how long. Plymouth shuts down tight after November. We'll see.

We also plan a couple of fun trips to Manhattan (again in the early fall, after the heat passes). We'll do Chinatown, eat some Korean food etc. We're going to celebrate Chinese New Year this winter in Boston.

I actually don't like to think so far ahead in summer, but the kids and I were talking about fall last night.

 

[wonderactivist]

We're actually doing nature study and science all summer - from rocks to astronomy. My eldest wanted to do this and since we just moved it's been a nice distraction. We're also planning to travel quite a bit around this part of the country - Great Plains - and to step up our schoolwork for the fall.

We've already mde two great trips, to a Native American winter camp (now a park) and to Tulsa zoo.

He's in 6th grade as of next month and he wants more learning. Boy am I jealous of your being close to New York and all of its resources!

Best wishes,

Lucie

 

[3momkmb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UUMom We are going on a few visits to Salem MA and read Witch of Blackbird Pond , among others, and study a little US history this fall. We're going to wait until the air is crisp to head to Salem.

We did Salem a couple falls ago but didn't make it down until after Halloween so there wasn't much to see

We did get to the House of Seven Gables and the Witch Museum though. I'd like to go back this fall and see a mock trial. I recently saw this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068...e=UTF8&s=books at the library and though it would be a good read when we cover the trails again.

We enjoyed Plymouth too. I'd like to see Sturbridge Village sometime but that's a big trip for us. We'll probably get to Strawberry Banke this year (well, we go every year for Halloween but I'd like to go with it's open LOL!) since we'll be getting back into the early American history at some point. we are still knee deep in Medieval Europe right now and still have Mesoamerica to cover!

I'd like to cover more art history this year, so a a trip (or two or three) to some art museums hopefully.

 

[UUMom]

I was thinking of the museum and a walking tour. (I wasn't sure about House of Seven Gables right now, but the house is cool. My kids haven't shown interest in Nathaniel Hawthorne yet). Also, for the period study, I was not wanting to confuse Halloween and the with trails. But I know Salem is a fun party place around Halloween.

Speaking of the museum. It's been a while since I've been. My recollection is it's intense in places, darkness, dramatic music etc. Any thoughs on it for a little one, around 'first grade' age?

 

[frogguruami]

We are scheduling the science center every other week. My boys are very much into science right now so we are going to try to start a science coop with our local hs group.

We are also going to start lapbooking. Drake is utterly obsessed with the show Good Eats (anything involving Alton Brown, actually - good thing DS is only 7 or AB might have a stalker

) so we are going to do some Good Eats style lapbooks. He has chosen a few foods that AB hasn't covered yet (or at least we haven't seen yet!). Which means I will probably be eating pancackes all next week! LOL

We use Math U See for math. That is one of the only curriculums that we use. The kids enjoy it so we keep with it.

I am going to introduce a history timeline and see how that goes. If that doesn't go over I will probably switch to a History of Science timeline. I am sure that will go over well if the other doesn't.

We are also going to start a newspaper and publish it each month. We will send it to all the familiy members. The boys will be writing and editing most of the srticles and hopefully be the end of the year Drake will be laying it out on the computer. He is already familiar with myGD software and uses it for artwork. Drake is quite the camera nut so I am sure he will take all the pix for the newspaper.

 

[Callimom]

We're busy and busy planning

My kids want to learn about Canada so we're planning that as an overall theme. I'm struggling with how to organize topics but I think I'll start with geography for the first month or so and then history with culture/arts/music feeding off either geography or history as appropriate. I've sent for tourism brochures from each province to get us started.

We're meeting tomorrow to plan our co-op which is taking a slightly different form next year so we'll see what comes from that. I'm hoping for an around the world theme which I think would be lots of fun.

My middle two are wanting to learn to read. My daughter wants a 'program' which I think means a workbook, sit and do stuff with mum type situation. We play lots of games, have computer games and learn to read type videos but she wants something schoolish. I'm trying to find a program that isn't silly but isn't so dull that it will make my eyes fall out. I also don't want to spend much $ so I don't feel bad when it gets abandonned. I'm happy to take suggestions

Let's see - also on our list to learn about:
~ native people and pioneers were high on our list - so that's one of the reasons we are wanting to do Canada
~ pets of all types (planning lots of field trips for this one - pet store, vet, Humane Society and friends w odd pets)
~ bugs ( a local nature based garden centre has a bug university and we are planning on visiting our local Butterfly Conservatory during Monarch Migration so that will fit the bill for that one)
~ Latin - hoping Minimus and Rummy Roots will work here
~ the sun - planning a solar day as soon as we get the right weather for it. The kids want to make solar ovens, sun prints, sun dials etc.
~ geology. We've had some fun with this so far this summer. We're off to a Rock Jemboree this weekend which includes a fossily hunt, panning for gold and a tour of a sodalite mine among other things. Also planned is a trip to the local mineral and geology museum and another homeschool rock show and share day. My rock guy is about to go out of his skin he's so excited.

I want to get some more art experiences into our year next year - maybe lessons. And we have the usual homeschool stuff starting up in Sept/Oct.

It will be busy - lol.
Karen

 

[beanandpumpkin]

Well, we're hosting a German exchange student for the year, so we'll be learning about Germany...German foods, the German language, German sports (she plays soccer), etc.

I think my son is at a good age to learn about how Christmas is celebrated all over the world! So we'll start that later in the year.

We're going to do a bit of a family tree. We'll be visiting family in CT for Christmas, so maybe we can hear some old family stories.

Definitely going to learn about nutrition and staying healthy! We need to re-vamp our diets (incorporating more vegetarian/vegan/organic/raw foods into our diet), and all of us can learn together.

We'll renew our membership for the science museums around here in the next few weeks, and I"m sure we'll be visiting those quite frequently, so we'll see what interests us there.

I don't know what else yet! We'll go with the flow and see what we come up with.