Finishing Up Explore the Continents

 

One of our favorite curriculum studies this year was Explore the Continents History and Geography program from Catholic Heritage Curricula.  Read about what we did with the program HERE, HERE, and HERE! 

 

Our final two continents to explore were Africa and Asia!  We continued with Africa and learned all about the culture, the animals, the geography and special Saints from the continent!  As with our other countries learning we loved the book list that CHC provided to enhance the learning. 

 

Honey, Honey, Lion by Jan Brett

A True Book:  Africa by Mel Friedman

Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema

Africa by Mary Lindeen

A is for Africa by Ifeoma Onyefulu

Introducing Africa by Chris Oxlade

3 Little Dassies by Jan Brett

We also found a Reading Rainbow Video of Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain at the library which the children loved as well! 

 

We also have a brand new African Grasslands exhibit at the Omaha Zoo so we had to go explore!  We visited the brand new elephants, giraffes and more!  We love taking field trips to learn more in real life about what we are reading about in books! 

We finished Explore the Continents with studying Asia.  There were so many great Saints that we studied from this Continent including Blessed Mother Teresa, St Peter, St Paul, St Nicholas and more!  This was a fun continent to learn about how different the climate varies throughout the regions and how many different animals live in the different areas.  We then continued with some awesome books to enhance our learning.  Our children LOVED the Five Chinese Brothers, so much that we purchased our own copy to read it again and again! 

 

The Five Chinese Brothers by Bishop

The Story About Ping by Flack

Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett

We're Riding on a Caravan:  An Adventure on the Silk Road by Krebs and Cann

A is for Asia by Cynthia Chin Lee

In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee

Introducing Asia by Anita Ganeri

A True Story: Asia by Mary Lindeen

As we finish this curriculum and look back over the year and all that we have learned it is truly remarkable.  All of our children (ages 6, 4, and 2) were all able to participate in some way and learn about our world and the people and animals that inhabit it!  Our oldest son can name and locate all 7 continents, many countries within the continents, and understands many of the different cultures.  I hope to be able to repeat this curriculum again later as our younger children continue to grow!

Celebrating the Gifts of the Holy Spirit - Pentecost

 

We have celebrated all 50 days of Easter and have reached Pentecost, the birthday of the Catholic Church and the feast day in which we celebrate the Holy Spirit descending upon the 12 apostles and Mary.  It was after this occurrence that the 12 apostles being led by St. Peter were able to go about the world and spread the Gospel and truly spread the Catholic Church here on Earth.  To celebrate the tongues of fire on Pentecost we wear RED on this feast day!

 

They love the liturgical color song that they learned in Catechesis of the Good Shepard and they were thrilled to FINALLY be wearing red for Pentecost!

 

"Purple and Green, Red and White are the colors of the Year.

Purple and Green, Red and White remind us of the Light.

Purple is for Preparation, White is for Celebration,

Green is for Ordinary Time, Red is for Pentecost

Purple and Green, Red and White are the colors of the Year."

 

 

 

Here are the kids singing another Catechesis of the Good Shepard song today about Pentecost!

 

 

After we went to Mass we came home for some learning fun.  We use Catholic Mosaic and read about all of the Twelve Apostles with the books The Twelve Apostles by Marianna Mayer.  We also read the story of Pentecost in Tomie dePaola's book of Bible Stories. 

Finally, we did an activity for Seton 1 Art Book and we learned about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  As we learned about each gift of the Holy Spirit we lit a candle from our Easter Candle.  We also then lit a candle for each of the 12 apostles and Mary who were all in the upper room or cenacle on the day of Pentecost.  The lighting of the candles really helps the children appreciate the understand of this feast day.  Pentecost is also a great awakening to each of us as we go into Ordinary Time to realize our own personal need to spread the Gospel and to live out our lives in the truth of Jesus by our every day words and actions just as the apostles did thousands of years ago. 

 

 

Check out what we have done in years past to celebrate Pentecost HERE!

Our Summer Learning Plans

We truly have figured out that schooling year round works out really well for us.  Our entire family thrives on a bit of structure and with homeschooling we have really learned that we enjoy exploring and learning together!  Even still, we plan to change up our formalized lessons a bit this summer and wanted to share with you our plans!

 

I am so blessed that our children have developed a true love of learning.  In early May we had completed Seton's 1st grade Religion book with our oldest son.  Without talking to him I had just decided that we would be done with that subject until the "next school year" in the fall.  Well, we started our other lessons the next week and by Tuesday (a mere two days) he asked "What is my next religion book, I haven't done anything for TWO DAYS!"  It also took him a long time to understand why we do not do formalized school on Saturdays and Sundays!  We have a few weeks left of our formalized lessons and we will move onto some new summer fun!

 

 

 Religion

We do such a great job intentionally celebrating Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter but I think that sometimes we forget about intentionally celebrating the liturgical season of Ordinary Time!  This summer we plan to continue going to daily mass when we can, praying our daily prayers and rosary, and learning about the Saint of the Day.  We also will continue with our FAVORITE resource Catholic Mosaic which includes some of our favorite literature texts dung the summer months!

 

  

Math

This past November our oldest son (almost 6 years old at that time) finished his Seton Kindergarten Math book.  Our 4th son was just born so we decided to use Life of Fred for a few months before starting Seton's 1st grade math text.  He LOVED it!  Now that he is almost done with Seton's 1st grade math text and our 4 year old is just finishing Seton's Kindergarten math so we plan to go back to Life of Fred this summer.  It takes us about 1 month to get through one book (19 lessons in each book) and there are 2 books for each grade level.  Our 4 year old will be working on Apples and Butterflies and our 6 year old will be working on Cats and Dogs!

 

Science

 

I am so excited to start St. Thomas Aquinas for Everyone for summer fun science learning.  It has 30 quick and fun lessons, activities and outdoor adventures based on the Summa Theologica!  We will also be spending a lot of time outside doing nature walks, and basic exploration!

 

 

Reading

 

Reading is a part of our daily life all of the time, but in addition to our read aloud time I also love to incorporate other learning with great books!  We have done a lot with Before Five in a Row in the past few years and just started using Five in A Row this past year (2015-2016).  We will be continuing this summer reading these great books and complete the corresponding activities!

You can also follow us with What We've Been Reading to see some fun and exciting books that we read each month!

 

Character/Virtue Building

 

We are going to use the Devotional Stories for Little Folks books from Catholic Heritage Curricula along with the Building Good Character Series.  We have used this a bit before, but it never hurts to add more virtue building!  Plus our oldest son will be able to start reading the devotional stories to all of us, which will allow him to practice his reading skills as well!

 

Physical Activity

 

This is the best part about summer, right?!  Our kids are all taking swimming lessons and spend many afternoons at the city pool or at the lake where the kids grandparents have their boat!  The oldest two boys are playing t-ball this summer and then there are plenty of days biking, hiking and having fun!

 

 

Field Trips and Summer Fun

 

We love to enjoy the beautiful days and embrace letting the kids be kids!  We are blessed with the opportunity to have a lot of free time together as a family always, but summer is a time to really let go and have fun! We love to visit the zoo, go to the park, fly a kit, and go on new adventures!

 

 

Happy Summer!

The Young Men Who Have Made Me A Mother

 

Oh, these young men.  They steal my heart every single day. They are each so unique in the personalities that God gave them and they each stretch me to grow a little more myself each day. 

 

"Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him."

-Psalm 127:3

 

My dear Ryan teaches me to explore the world and ask questions.  He teaches me to love the wonder of God and appreciate little miracles in every day life.  Ryan teaches me how to be a mother, being our oldest, and is patient with me as we continue to explore new ages and developmental stages together!

 

My sweet Connor teaches me how to stretch myself and be patient.  He challenges me to be more selfless, and to think outside the box and out of my comfort zones. He teaches me how to love with my actions and not only my words.  Connor teaches me to laugh and to enjoy just being silly.

 

My wonderful Luke teaches me how to appreciate the little things; morning cuddles, curling up with a good book and singing songs.  His ability to love others helps me to better understand the depths of my own love for others. 

 

 

My adorable Peter teaches me about the gift of life and trusting in God's plan.  God knew that Peter was supposed to be a part of our family and he has blessed us abundantly in the past 6 months.  He teaches me how quickly time continues on and how to slow down and marvel in the day to day moments.

"Her children arise and call her blessed"

-Proverbs 31:28

 

 

 

I am very blessed this Mother's Day, and every day from these young men who have made me a Mother!  I have also been blessed by another little one who made me a mother who is now up in Heaven.  I am thinking of you today and always my little one!  To all of the mothers who have lost a child, who have lost their own mothers, who have struggled with infertility, I am praying for you today.  Happy Mothers Day, to all Mothers!

Ascension Thursday Fun!

 We celebrate the feast of Ascension Thursday 40 days after Easter Sunday.  It is on this day that we remember and celebrate Jesus ascending to Heaven after the 40 days that he spent here on Earth teaching his apostles.  We now wait 10 more days until we celebrate Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples giving them the grace to preach the Gospel throughout the world! 

 

Here is what we did to celebrate Ascension Thursday and Pentecost last year!

This year we met my husband at Mass before lunch and then came home for some fun learning time.  We read about the Ascension in one of our favorite books "Tell Me About the Catholic Faith".  Our oldest son (6 years old) then read us all the story of the Ascension from the Acts of Apostles.  His reading skills have improved significantly over the past few months and it warms my heart to hear him reading on his own from the Bible.  He commonly will take the Bible and the Catechism to bed with him to read as he is going to sleep!

 

 

Next we did the craft activity from Seton's Art 1 book!  We are loving how this Art book gives us so many fun art projects that all relate to special Feast Days in the liturgical year!  We made a ribbon with the mountain on the bottom, Jesus in the middle (Ascending to Heaven) and God at the top!  It was so easy and a lot of fun to have a great visual of this feast day!

 

 

Afterwards we had a yummy snack of Marshmallows, simply because they kind of look like clouds and more importantly because the kids love them and they are a special snack!  It is adding those little things into our celebrations that really help them remember how and why we celebrate what we do! 

 

If your diocese has moved the celebration of this feast day to Sunday, you still have time to plan fun learning for your family on this important Feast Day!  Happy Ascension!