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How I'm Approaching... Geometry

N will be taking Geometry this year.  A Little Bit of Background His last year was split between taking his first semester of Algebra I at the local middle school as an 8th grader and his second semester being homeschooled. Khan Academy was a fantastic resource for him to make sure that he didn't have any gaps in his learning. We also used IXL to supplement. He took a math diagnostic right when we started homeschooling, and then took the personalized lessons to make sure he wasn't missing anything from even earlier math. N likes math, but it isn't an obsession for him like it is for his brother. I'm a huge fan of the Art of Problem Solving's courses especially since we loved their elementary series, Beast Academy, when they were younger. However, AoPS is extremely rigorous and expensive if you take their online courses, so they are better suited for students who want to focus a lot of their attention on math. However, they do have a FREE online learning platform for...
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About Me

  Hello! Welcome to my blog. What you will find here are my attempts at sorting through my ideas and implementation of homeschool curriculum and activities that I have pursued with my own two boys. The Beginning I began this blog in 2008 when my oldest was only a year old. It began as a family blog chronicling our adventures as a young family in Seattle. We decided early on that we wanted to homeschool our two sons. Honestly, now, I don't remember why we decided to do that, but we did it nevertheless. We began teaching our children as soon as they could walk and talk. We made many mistakes along the way and so learned to follow the lead of our children in what they were interested in. We focused on delight-directed learning with a lot of outings and fun things to do. When things got rough, we learned to adapt and switch things out. Moving To Thailand In 2015, our family moved to Thailand. We started another blog for our time there, but alas it was not a good fit for us. We had int...

New Zealand Week

Overview: Window on the World : New Zealand New Zealand Fact Sheet Flag from Expedition Earth Workbook Map Worksheet Coloring Page People Maori Coloring Page Children Just Like Me book Travel Kids: Maori Haka Travel Kids: Kiwi Videos Tourism Video National Anthem Crafts Weaving Necklace Poi Craft Video Science  Seasons - NZ is in the Southern Hemisphere, so we learned about why they celebrate Christmas in the summer! Crash Course Kids Seasons and the Sun Earth's Rotation and Revolution Seasons Interactive on the Computer Animals Kiwi  Dot-to-Dot Video of one hatching Sheep  Craft Video of them herding Math Skip-Counting by 10s Skip-Counting Maze Bible Verse: I Corinthians 10:31 Some things we didn't do, but might be fun for at home: Various NZ crafts

South Africa Week

Overview of South Africa: Videos Top 10 Amazing Facts about South Africa   (we skipped #1) Beautiful Cape Town Flag Worksheet Make out of Legos Map Mini-Unit Study Science: Talked about why shipwrecks happened at the bottom of continents South Africa's Big Five Animals Other things we did this week (unrelated to South Africa) Art We finished talking about Edgar Degas  and did a coloring page Math Skip-counting by Nines  Learned Nines tricks here and here Skip-Counting Mazes for Nines ( Other tricks that we didn't teach for multiplication  and here ) Science Magic School Bus "Takes Flight" Other Resources (we didn't get to): Nelson Mandela's speech " I Am An African " Learn more about The Big Five

U.S.A Week

Overview of the United States N and Z at a 4th of July party 2015 Videos Fun Facts for Kids Star-Spangled Banner  (National Anthem) Flag Worksheet Map Coloring Page Geo-Puzzle America Learned about The Statue of Liberty About Coloring Page Science: Thomas Edison Short Video of his life Snap Circuits (Light) Copywork Quotations from Thomas Edison Do not be afraid to fail, keep trying, learn from your mistakes Never stop learning, keep improving yourself. Excerpt from "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus  (written on the Statue of Liberty) “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Art: Georgia O'Keeffe Biography Worksheet Examples of her art Painting Tutorial Reviewed some American artists we've already learned about from Mike Venezia's...

Mexico Week

Overview of Mexico Videos 10 Facts about Mexico  (we skipped the folklore section) Flag Worksheet Children Just Like Me  book Map Coloring Page Geo-Puzzle America Food: Tortillas and Salsa! Pyramids Mexico Pyramids Pyramid Book Make a Lego Pyramid Art: Make an  Ojo de Dios  (this was a HUGE hit) Frida Kahlo How to Draw Frida Kahlo Body Cast Printable Art History Lesson and Printable Things we didn't do at school, but could be fun: Make  Aztec Hot Chocolate Tons of resources here Mexico Unit Study Math: Mayan Numbers  The Dawn of Numbers Mayan Counting Worksheet Science:  Monarch Butterfly Migration Life Cycle and Migration to Mexico Song Monarch Butterfly Release Butterfly Symmetry Art More Mayan Info: Hour long video on Mayan Code  by NOVA Mayan Glyphs explained Mayan Math Game Archaeology Game featuring the Mayans Another game (costs money) with a lot of worksheets ...

Canada Week

Overview of Canada Videos 10 Facts about Canada Flag Worksheet Map Coloring Page Geo-Puzzle America Canada Wordsearch Science: Learned how maple syrup is made ( Modern ) and ( Old-fashioned ) More info on Sugar Maples Worksheets for Kids (including one for making Maple Popcorn) Art: Emily Carr Video Biography Another Biography Colored " Forest " with chalk pastels Reading: Read  Ox-Cart Man  (this probably takes place in the USA, but it talks about tapping Maple trees.) Things we didn't do at school, but could be fun: More things Expedition Earth's Lesson Plan for Canada Lots of Canada Day Activities from DLTK-Kids Make Canadian Flapjacks!