Caves and swords and pretzels, Oh My!

I've been a little behind on posting about our school stuff, but that's only because it's going very well, and my time is spent planning and doing stuff with the kids, so I have very little computer time these days.

And I spent all day hiking for a big field trip (I love school days on Sunday!) for our caves and caverns study which we finished up over a week ago, so I'm heading to bed in a minute and can't post much now!

But we are currently doing a little study on the history of weapons. My Punky has loved weapons since long before he could talk. I wondered what I had done wrong as I watched my precious 7 month old son banging and beating on everything in the house with any object he could lift in his hands. He loves sticks, swords, bows & arrows, axes, spears... and guns (though I personally have a very strong dislike of guns and we do not allow toy guns in the house, nor do we let the boys play with them elsewhere, much to Punky's dismay).

So just for fun I thought we'd study something I KNEW he'd not only love but be completely and utterly enamoured with. And so we are. And he is indeed smitten.

We're doing it on a very basic level, just hitting the main weapons with a mild overview of the historical timeline from the stone age to now and only stopping to focus on those that grab out interest... Vikings, castles, likely a few more modern wars... We're also doing a little overview of simple machines and I look forward to seeing what my Little Engineer That Could will come up with in his spare time for creations. The boy has already made a stunning array of weapons over Week 1. I can only imagine the fun to come...

We also ordered a little wooden trebuchet kit, so the boys will be surprised and delighted when that comes in the mail and we tackle that puppy! I know they'll be inventing their own trebuchets and catapults to go with the real kit, but it was still a fun treat! And my hope is to whip up a batch of pretzel dough one day this week and let them make little pretzel swords and daggers (and guns, I'm sure) for snack. I'm pretty sure that will be almost as big of a hit as the trebuchet kit!

So that's where we are. The other non-unit study basics are still going well for Punky. The little boys are having fun learning together. Finny is doing really well with his current OT activities. Girly Pie is changing her nap time on me which is making me jump around a bit on my happy little schedule, but we'll get in a new groove soon enough. And I'm enjoying my time with them all more then ever!

Who could ask for anything more?

Oh, and the boys will start reading a slightly modified (shorter and cleaner) version of The Three Musketeers this week with their Daddy.

It's going to be a busy house around here... I wonder what they'll think of next to use as swords. ;o)

Fun times!

Just two seconds before I need to go back to the action...

But it's Thursday of Week One of our unit studies, and it's going GREAT!!!

We're doing a study on caves and caverns, and the kids are really enjoying themselves. There is so much we could explore, but with only aiming for the kindergarten and second grade levels, I'm keeping things fun and simple. They are getting info, but not an overwhelming (read: boring) amount of it.

So far this week we've: read a great kids book on caves and caverns, learned about the different types of caves and how they are formed, discussed both the evolutionist and creationist theories of how limestone caves were formed, learned about many different types of limestone cave formations, explored the internet for pictures of caves and cave paintings, learned specifically about the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, formed our own clay and sugar cube versions of limestone caves (we'll finish them soon and watch the sugar "limestone" dissolve leaving behind solid clay) and made our own cave paintings on rocks. And that's just been since Tuesday! We still have cave animals to discover, bats to study, a real cave expedition to undertake... and so much more!

So I have to say that between the interest led unit we're doing and the schedule allowing me to make specific times in the day to do our activities, it's really going great.

OK. Back to cave painting. I think Miss Girly Pie is tiring of her play-dough distraction while the boys paint. Time to entertain the baby. ;o)

Unit Studies!

So for the first time this year I am throwing out all semblance of following a curriculum put together by someone else and I'm going to give homeschooling a try via a unique mix of unit studies and some workbook-type stuff (for the kids and topics where that works well, but in minimal amounts).

It's all very new, and I admit I'm still quite vague on what our year will look like, but last night I was able to come up with (or be divinely inspired with, still not sure which, though I have been praying hard for direction!) a very, VERY vague outline of my unit study plans for September through December.

I'm just so excited to see some sort of goals in writing that I just had to post them here. My plan is to set aside a few nights for each unit and pull appropriate books from the library, good crafts from the internet, and even throw in a field trip or two to places that will help cement the ideas we'll be learning. We'll still do math and some basic language, spelling and other fundamentals separately, and Punky will be listening to some Story of the World CD's to follow along in history at his own pace without my having to pour as much into teaching history as I have been (which is hard with so many littler ones who really can't participate in something that became the bulk of our learning). But I think that at least for this first part of the year this unit idea will be the bulk of where our time and interest are invested.

So without further ado, I give you my basic plan for what topics we'll be covering for the first 4 months of our 09/10 school year.

September:

• Study on caves, caverns, etc.
  o Possibly can lead to study of rock, sand, salt, etc formation.. just see where it takes us
  o A topic I know nothing about, so I have no idea where it could lead! Maybe even a local trip to some caves to explore?
  o Found a cool diorama idea that makes real mini stalactites. How cool is that!?
• Study on the history of WEAPONS (of all things. I must really love my sons…)
  o Boys wanted to know how boomerangs and bows & arrows worked
  o Seems a good time to learn about all things weaponish.
  o If nothing else Punky will want to do school every. single. day.
  o Hubby can cover my behind on the physics behind how they all actually work. I have no clue. ;o)
  o Make a few homemade weapons
  o Maybe a nice time to go over some of the Story of the World CD's Punky will be listening to in more detail
  o Could buy one of those little wooden siege tower or catapult kits… fun stuff!
  

October:

• Fire preparedness
  o Tour local fire dept
  o Go over the some emergency sheets in the October section of The Old Schoolhouse's planner (good ideas for home safety and preparedness)
  o Make and practice new fire escape plans with the kids
• Planet/star study
  o Good time of year with time change to get out in the dark and actually see stuff without keeping the kids up until 11pm!
  o Will need a good friend with a telescope we can borrow…
  o Lots of potential here, will need to work to pull together stuff I will really do
  
  November:
• Little House in the Big Woods unit study (Nice to follow weapons with Little House, huh? We want to be well rounded around here, after all!)
  o Using some resources from a friend with lots of Prairie Primer goodies, Little House recipes and crafts, plus even some fun folk music
  o Lots of opportunity for crafts and holiday coziness
  o Fun recipes to try
  o Make some homemade Christmas gifts for people
  o Listen to the music from the time period during craft and baking times, and for fun
  o Possibly learn some music with recorders or some other intro instrument
  
  December:
  
• Time for our annual Advent month
  o Jesse Tree again (my boys love it every year, and I’m sure Goose will want to do one this year too)
  o Crafts, cooking, all that
  o Possibly find a different theme for Advent readings… I’ve never gone "out of the box" here, so we’ll see

So that's it for now. I have done no real planning on the individual topics, but I am excited to have the ground work laid for what we'll be studying for a few months. I think that leaves me plenty of room to explore, but not so open ended that I fall into my trap of doing nothing due to the overwhelming pressure of a completely blank slate. I think the topics are perfectly age appropriate, and that my kids will really be interested in all of them, but that I can still find information to stretch them to learn outside of their complete realm of current interest. Plus, I can easily pull fun books for the little guys on the topics, so that everyone can do something topic-related.

So has anyone else out there done much in the way of homemade unit studies? Any helpful suggestions or advice on pitfalls to avoid? I'd love to hear ideas from fellow unit study families.