I am excited that November is here. Cooler temps. Falling leaves. Hot tea and pumpkin everything. It looks to be a good month.
We have had a good groove going on the last couple of weeks as we were able to have a couple solid weeks of school without interruption. Amazing what that can do for moral and the ever-present checklist of what needs to be accomplished. On the other hand, we have also been fighting several various and sundry bugs that we've been passing around the house. Two of the girls had horrible coughs and congestion last week leaving us with a couple nights of very little sleep for the sickies. We stayed home from CBS last Friday and just rested. I don't think anyone was contagious but they sounded awful. We had one day of all being well on Saturday and squeezed in a soccer game and church bonfire and then we jumped into round two of germs keeping me and the boy home from church on Sunday and CC on Tuesday as well as a sick day today now that two of the girls are down with high fevers and upset tummies. While I'm sad my munchkins have been sick, I can't help but think that God knew we needed our own respite from the busy schedule we've been keeping. We've been staying home from events left and right just to rest and get well and although I'm missing our activities, I can't help but say it's been delightful to just be home. Books have been read. Laundry has been caught up. Movies have been watched. I'll take more of that, please.
However, over the next month, we do have some neat plans for school. For the first time, we are going to dive into the Civil War and learn what we can about it during the month of November. I've been reserved books at the library like crazy, along with a few Amazon purchases and we've got quite a selection of books to pick from over the next 3+ weeks. Lots of picture books (because we all still love picture books in this house) as well as a few age appropriate chapter(ish) books for the girls at their different ages and stages.
Picture books for all of us.
N1's (age 11) pile, to start with. I've not read Freedom Train so we may read that together. If you have any suggestions for great Civil War / age appropriate read alouds I'd love to hear them in the comments!
N2's (age 8 1/2) pile. She has recently discovered the "who was" series and has already read the one that I bought on Harriet Tubman which is why you don't see it in the picture. She had already taken it off to her room.
B's (age 7) pile. We'll be reading most of these together, and probably with the other girls as well.
The other night at dinner we also made up a list of questions that we want to answer about the Civil War. I had them come up with the list for the most part and we have some good starting off points for our digging in our books. These, our library books, plus some unit study materials on the Civil War from Homeschool Share, and our next few weeks will be full of historical exploration. I'm looking forward to it immensely.
Ugh. I wrote a long post and my computer kicked off of the internet. Are you using a spine to guide you through the flow of your history studies or winging it??? I'm already thinking about next year. Alright. If I'm honest I'd rather make a switch right now but my kids my revolt.
ReplyDeleteDon't stay away from IG for too long : ) I'm glad you are all on the mend. I yearn for some days where we can stay home and catch up, too. We don't seem to be in that spot right at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI was doing some looking around our civil war collection for my friend who homeschools (not Melissa, the friend you need to friend but another one, who you would probably adore as well--she isn't much on social media, though)(she has 9 kids, that might have something to do with it) and I have a few to add to your list! With Every Drop of Blood by James/Christopher Collier might be a good one for your olders.... see if you can track down a collection of Matthew Brady photographs (so cool to study)... I have this fantastic book of Civil War stereoview photos that comes with a little viewer--my kids in class used to LOVE that one, because most of them had never seen a stereoview photograph before. I think you can track that one down used on Amazon, The Civil War in Depth. Also, the American Girl novels are always a fun place to start--I think Addy is the Civil War era character. The historical fiction Dear America Series is kind of similar, too--there is a Civil War book in that, called When Will This Cruel War Be Over? written in diary form from a young girl in the era.
Across Five Aprils is a Civil War novel I loved as a kid, but I don't remember how old I was when I read it.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Pink and Say. "Read it with a box of Kleenex." (Identify that movie quote!)
I am in agreement over the need for downtime!