J is for Japan and R is for Risa

Our family LOVES hosting international students. We have hosted nearly 40 students in the past 3 years. It is always such a joy. It brings smiles every day! My kids LOVE learning about new cultures. They also learn about hospitality and welcoming people into our home and into our lives!

We just had to say goodbye to our friend Risa from Osaka, Japan. She was such a joy! The boys LOVED playing with her each day. The kids also learned many Japanese phrases. They can pray in Japanese now!!

We will miss you Risa!! Thanks for the fun times!!

 

U is for the United States of America

We just finished our tour in the United States this week! We had lots of fun! I am originally from the United States, so it was fun teaching the kids about it!!

We started off by stamping our passports and  locating the United States on our globe. We play a game when we do this. I quiz the kids on all the countries we have learned about. They get asked to locate the country on the globe or our wall map, they have to tell me what the capital is and how to spell it (oldest child!). If they get the answer correct, they get a jelly bean! I am not sure why this always seems to be their favourite part of the day!!!

We coloured the flag and talked about the 50 stars and 13 stripes.

We learned about the statue of liberty.

Okay, so this next video is definitely NOT educational, but my youngest LOVE this!!

The boys really enjoyed learning about Mount Rushmore. They wanted to build a mountain with their face on it!!

We also learned about the Washington monument!

We talked about the two mountain ranges in the United States and ate our mountain granola mix. And in the second picture they must have been practicing how to scare off mountain bears!!

We talked about Hollywood and how the United States was the first to pioneer motion pictures. We even made our own motion pictures book of sally the swimming fish!

We made a delicious snack to represent the American flag.

We then stamped our passports as we left the United States!!

     

Many ideas were borrowed from Erica at: www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com !! Take a look at her Expedition Earth!

First Day of School!!

We are off to a super fun start! We had so much fun today and the kids were so happy to be back in their school routine! Seriously!! It was amazing!

We started off the morning by eating Johnny Cake as we call it in my family! It is basically like cornbread with a twist. You add hot milk and syrup or sugar and MMMMM is it good!! It was perfect this week as we are studying the United States of America as well in our geography section!!

We sat down at our homework table and looked out the window to see a very cute little guest!

 

We started off the day with our calendar! That’s right! September 1st!

Here are my eldest's workboxes for the day.

1. Grapevine Bible Study

2. Saxon Math

3. All about spelling! Kids LOVE this!

4. Graphing and snack box! Box 4 is always our snack box! I think this is the kids favourite one!

5. Sing Spell Read and Write

6. Phonics game!!

7. English Ahead: this is a great literature book!

8. My eldest's passport. We are learning about the USA this week! Stay tuned for a blog post once we are finished!

9. Extra math reinforcement!

10. We are learning about colour and rainbows in the next couple weeks!

     

All about spelling is incredible! I think this will be a keeper in our home!! My youngest absolutely loved this!!

Graphing and story time….or shall I say snack time!!

          

And for those of you who always ask me about gym time….here we go!!! We turned on our favourite song and hit the gym!!! Who said homeschooling can’t be TONS OF FUN!! (I LOVE Brooke Fraser!)

 

My youngest is focusing on the letter R this week. Perfect for rainbows! Thanks Erica at www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

Super focused!!!

He is soooo excited to learn about the USA!!

Here we played a game! The boys had to answer questions about all the countries we have learned thus far. If they got the answers correct…they got a jelly bean! Hmm…motivation to learn the capital of India, Canada, USA, Japan and China!!

      

We finished the day off by mixing colours. Stay tuned as we will be learning about colours, rainbows and the story of Noah’s arc in the next couple weeks!