Back to School - Day 1 of Our Middle Ages Unit

After a long Christmas break, today we were back to school and started A World of Adventure Unit 4: The Middle Ages!

We actually kicked off our study by watching a few different Robin Hood movies we had checked out from the library over the past few days. This really helped me introduce Big Brother to this interesting time period in a fun way.

It's been a while since I have done a "day in the life" post, so I am happy to share a glimpse into our day with you.

6:30 a.m. - I get up, get dressed, exercise, and spend some time with the Lord. I'm reading through the book of Romans right now.

7:45 a.m. - I hear the pitter-patter of Little Brother's feet coming down the hallway. We snuggle a bit, I direct him to the potty, and he gets dressed for the day.

8:00 a.m. - Big Brother's alarm clock goes off. He groggily makes his way down from his top bunk to turn it off and read the note I have left beside it telling him exactly what he needs to do before school time. I do this because #1 - He's not a morning person (which he gets from me) and needs some direction for how to get moving with his day and #2 - He struggles with auditory processing and responds best to written instructions. He heads to the shower to wake up while I start pulling a simple breakfast together.

8:15 a.m. - We eat breakfast then Big Brother practices piano for a bit. Then he vacuums the living room and sweeps the kitchen while Little Brother puts a load of laundry in the washer.

9:00 a.m. - Our school day officially starts with prayer time together. I set out a castle play set, and let the boys play with some knights as I read them our Bible lesson from Revelation 3:8. This verse will tie in with our literature selection later on in the morning.

After Bible time we recite the nursery rhyme "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" together and discuss what this rhyme meant to the farmers in the Middle Ages. Then we recite it again and clap the rhythm. Little Brother enjoys clapping along and making "baa" sounds.

Next we do a quick multiplication drill with flash cards followed by a note reading drill at the piano.

Since we are studying plants for science during this unit, next I read From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons. There is enough detail and information in this picture book to be useful to Big Brother, but it is also short enough to hold Little Brother's attention.

Then Little Brother heads back over to the castle playset and I read St. George and the Dragon aloud. I point out that this book won the Caldecott Award for its brilliant illustrations. This story is obviously quite exciting, so Big Brother loves it!

We checked out some CDs of medieval music from the library, so I turn one of them on now. As he listens for a while, Big Brother chooses a picture in his Life in a Medieval Castle and Village Coloring Book to begin coloring. I take the opportunity to work on a page I have been coloring in one of my adult coloring books. Little Brother does some scribblings with markers and practices naming the colors. It's rather peaceful.

Next we grab our current literature assignment, The Door in the Wall. This book is set in England the mid-1300's. We go over some new vocabulary, read the first section aloud, and I ask some comprehension questions afterward. During this time, Little Brother watches a few educational video clips on his PBS Kids Android Tablet.

10:30 a.m. - Big Brother is eager to actually "do something" now after doing so much listening and talking. So we decide to go ahead and start our unit science project: an herb garden. He is going to grow his own dill, thyme, oregano, mint, and chives to be used in some yummy recipes later in this unit. He fills little yogurt cups with soil and carefully plants the seeds. He makes labels for each cup and gives each a little water. Then we place them in the window in the boys' bedroom.



11:00 a.m. - We clean up our mess and pull out our atlas and globe. Big Brother finds England and we review some basic geography. He finds London, the River Thames (and complains about how it is spelled), Scotland, Ireland, the North Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. I quiz him on directions (North, South, East, West). Then I give him a few minutes to read about England in his atlas while I take Little Brother to potty.

Once Little Brother is settled once again, we Google King Edward III who is king at the time of The Door in the Wall and check out what Wikipedia has to say about him.

11:30 a.m. - The boys are asking for food, so we go ahead and take lunch and a break. After we eat I go hang up some laundry and check my email and Facebook. Little Brother does some coloring and roaming around, and Big Brother plays Robin Hood with his LEGOs for a while.

12:30 p.m. - Little Brother declines a nap today, so I allow him to have some more tablet time. Big Brother and I read about monks and then he pretends to be a monk while doing his cursive copywork for the day.

Next we discuss some figurative language from our literature selection and learn a bit about the Cockney English accent.

In today's reading section from The Door in the Wall we had read a detailed description of the main character's bedroom. So for his writing assignment today, Big Brother composes a paragraph describing his own bedroom.

1:30 p.m. - We play a round of our "Worlds of Adventure" quiz game to review all the things we had learned about today. This is great for reviewing all the new vocabulary words and special terms we have encountered throughout the day.

1:45 p.m. - Big Brother independently completes his Rod & Staff math lesson for the day. He's reviewing his 5's multiplication facts today.

**2:00 p.m. - With his scheduled work all completed, Big Brother decides to turn on the medieval music CD again and do some silent reading in the library books we checked out about knights and castles.

And that was our school day!

It's All Greek to Me!

Have you missed us? We've been crazy busy for the last while, so blog updates have fallen by the wayside.

We did finish our unit on Ancient Egypt, and it was a HUGE success! We ended the unit with a study of Passover and watching the classic The Ten Commandments movie. Big Brother and I discussed the similarities and differences between the Biblical account and the movie. He picked out many glaring differences right away! Even though this movie is an enjoyable classic, t is SO important that we know the truth from God's Word and share it with our children so when they see Hollywood's skewed version, they can tell the difference!

So on August 8th we moved on to Unit 2 of A World of Adventure: Ancient Greece!

We kicked off this unit by watching the Drive Thru History DVD titled "Greece and the Word". This whole series happens to be a family favorite. Big Brother laughed hysterically at Dave Stotts' fast-paced and fun way of exploring history. He really learned a lot from this DVD, and we are referring back to it all the time as we are continuing to cover ancient Greece.

Since the Greeks were fascinated with the human body, that is the focus of our science class for this unit. So far we have read about the major body systems, played a puzzle game to learn the names of many of our bones, measured our heart rates and chest expansion, and watched several interesting DVDs from Answers in Genesis's "Body of Evidence" series featuring Dr. David Menton. These DVDs are pretty in-depth and are actually recommended for high schoolers, but 8 year old Big Brother has still picked up a lot of good information from them.

We have enjoyed reading and discussing Aesop's Fables, the parables of Jesus, various Biblical Proverbs, and stories from Greek Mythology. (Big Brother says he's very glad the One true God is NOTHING like the many selfish and silly gods that the ancient Greeks believed lived on Mount Olympus!)

We are working on memorizing Psalm 139 for this unit. This will be the longest Scripture passage Big Brother has ever committed to memory! So far he knows the first 8 verses. We are just working on this a little at a time each morning.

It has been interesting to see just how much of the ancient Greek culture, art, and language has found it's way into our own.

One day this week while driving through a nearby town, Big Brother noted all the different types of Greek columns he saw on different buildings. He got so excited identifying the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian style columns he saw; and it turned an afternoon of running boring errands into a fun learning experience!

Another way we have been turning van time into learning time has been listening to audiobooks and stories on CD. We've recently discovered storyteller Jim Weiss and Great Hall Productions. His retellings of ancient Egyptian and Greek myths have been just great.

In other news:

Little Brother has been enjoying getting to explore a child sized drum set after his weekly Kindermusik classes. He really seems to have a natural sense of rhythm!

Big Brother has begun taking formal piano lessons at the same local studio where Little Brother attends Kindermusik. He is really excited and practices above and beyond his required time. He's looking forward to getting to use his developing musical talents to minister to seniors at a new local nursing home facility soon.

4-H meetings and activities start back up for the school year this week. Big Brother looks forward to participating in the local Homeschool, Cloverbuds, and Shooting Sports clubs this year.

Our local homeschool support group is also busy! We've had several afternoon meetings for play time at the park, and next week we will be doing a fun science co-op class in preparation for an upcoming group field trip to Mammoth Cave!

Have you started back to school yet? I would love to hear how your year is going so far!

Fun Alphabetizing Spelling Activity

Today was Day 3 for us using the A World of Adventure unit study curriculum, and we are loving it!

I wanted to briefly share with you an activity we did for spelling practice today that Big Brother really liked.

Normally being given the assignment of putting words in alphabetical order makes Big Brother groan. For some reason despite having a very high reading level, he still struggles with something as seemingly simple as remembering the order of the ABCs.

But this simple activity helped to make an otherwise boring and troublesome task so much more fun and interesting!

You may remember that we are in the midst of a unit study about Ancient Egypt, and as part of this unit study we are learning about the life of Joseph in the Bible. We all know the story of how Joseph was falsely accused and put into prison.

So to go along with the prison theme today when his spelling lesson called for him to alphabetize his word list, he made a spelling chain!



I cut 21 strips of construction paper so that he would have one link for each word on his current spelling list. Big Brother used a marker to write one spelling word on each strip of paper.

I had a sheet that I normally use when working with Little Brother which has all the capital letters of the alphabet printed out in order in large print, and I allowed Big Brother to use this sheet as a guide.

He carefully put each strip in the correct order, sometimes having to look to the second or third letter to determine which came next. I double-checked his order, and then we worked together to glue the strips together to make an alphabetized spelling chain.

Big Brother was so proud of his chain that he wanted to hang it up in our living room for decoration!

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First Day of School 2016-2017!

Yesterday was officially our first day of school for the 2016-2017 homeschool year! It was great, and I believe I can say that the new curriculum we have chosen for the year is going to be a huge success!

We began our morning with breakfast at about 7:45 followed by prayer and chores.


At 8:30 we began our school day with Bible. Since we are studying the life of Joseph in A World of Adventure, we started off by watching VeggieTales' fun retelling of Joseph's story The Ballad of Little Joe. It was a hit with both boys, and it really was a fun way to introduce our Bible reading for the day. While I read Genesis 37 aloud and we discussed the story, the boys worked on coloring pictures of Joseph and even made their own coats of many colors using large paper grocery bags.



Our next subject for the morning was Language Arts, and our activities tied into the Bible lesson for the day. Big Brother learned the Greek root word chronos which means "time," and he started creating a vocabulary matching game. So his writing assignment was to write three sentences telling things that happened in the story of Joseph in chronological order. Then the boys made the first pages in their "ABCs of Ancient Egypt" booklets. Today's page, of course was J is for Joseph, and they pasted the pictures of Joseph they had colored earlier onto these pages.


Big Brother practiced his cursive handwriting.


Little Brother enjoyed learning about the shape and sound of the letter J and finding the J magnet in his alphabet set.

Once Language Arts was finished, we were ready to dive head first into Social Studies by enjoying a special "Taste of Egypt" snack (complete with a "finger bowl" just like the Egyptians would have used!) while reading from a few of the library books we had checked out on Egypt.



By this time, Little Brother was asking to go watch The Ballad of Little Joe again, so I fixed him a little "Taste of Egypt" bowl to enjoy in the other room. (He came back in several times for seconds...and thirds...)



Big Brother and I read sections from several different books while we snacked on the floor. We read about the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx of Giza, several different Pharaohs, the flooding of the Nile, and the mummification process. Pretty interesting stuff! We had to watch our time because we could have easily spent the entire day like this. Big Brother said this was his favorite part of the whole day, and I am pretty sure I agree!

One book I want to especially mention that we are using that did not come from the library is called Unwrapping the Pharaohs. This is a Christian-oriented book that gives a Biblical timeline for the history of Ancient Egypt. We just skimmed here and there yesterday, but we are really looking forward to digging into this book and especially meeting the different Pharaohs of the Bible. There is a DVD with this book, and we may check that out on Monday.



Big Brother recorded the different foods we ate for our snack that would have also been eaten by the ancient Egyptians.



For science, we read from several books about deserts and especially about cacti and other desert plants. For a little fun hands on learning project, each of the boys planted their own little cactus seeds!



We paused at about 12:15 for lunch. Over lunch, we talked about all the interesting things we were learning already. After lunch, we played the Worlds of Adventure quiz board game that is part of the AWOA curriculum to review what we had studied so far. This was a very fun way to review and check Big Brother's comprehension.

After our game, we enjoyed some singing time for Fine Arts. I chose a couple of short prayer songs to start teaching the boys: "Change My Heart, Oh God" and "Holiness." Little Brother catches on to song lyrics and melodies so quickly, and he was singing right along with us in no time! After the busyness and excitement of our day up to this point, some quiet singing was very refreshing.

We are re-using parts of our 3rd grade R&S math curriculum from last year rather than going on to 4th grade just yet. I thought a year of review and more hands on math activities would be beneficial for Big Brother. For our first day, I kept math pretty quick and simple. First I quizzed him orally on some multiplication facts. Then he did a few rows of division facts on paper. And to add in some fun, I introduced him to the world of cuissenare rods. He learned what numbers each color rod represents. Then I had him use the rods to show me all the different addition and subtraction facts for 10.

Big Brother's next assignment after math was typing. We have Mavis Beacon's Keyboarding Kidz, and it seems to be very good. Big Brother actually started using this program for fun during our break so he had already completed a few lessons. Yesterday he spent 30 minutes working on his typing skills with Mavis Beacon's fun lessons and games. In today's world, typing and computer skills are very important, so I want Big Brother to get a good start.

To end up the main part of our school day, Big Brother spent some time reading from a library book he chose about Howard Carter, the man who discovered King Tut! He was finished by about 2:15.

Meanwhile, Little Brother and I finished up some laundry and dishes together. Then after reading a quick story or two, Little Brother spent a little time playing his toddler preschool app on my phone while I stretched out on the couch for a much needed few minutes rest! Little Brother very rarely takes a nap during the day anymore, so I have to grab a little quiet rest time whenever I can!

Later in the evening, Big Brother and I took some pictures as part of the 4-H Photography curriculum we are working on together.

And that was our busy, fun first day of homeschool for the year!

We are all looking forward to more to come!!!!

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A World of Adventure - Unit Study Curriculum

The mailman has made my day! Our brand new curriculum for next school year has arrived, and we are beyond excited! Big Brother and I both broke into cheers of excitement, and I am sure the neighbors were scratching their heads...oh well! :)

In my last post, I shared that we would be making the switch to a year-round homeschooling schedule and listed our reasons for doing so.

I also left a few unanswered questions about exactly what we are going to be doing in our homeschool next year!

First of all, as you may have noticed if you've been reading this blog for very long, Big Brother has been working one grade level above his age. He started Kindergarten at age 4, and up to this point I have allowed him to continue advancing grade levels each year. He has done extremely well, and I am very proud of his academic accomplishments.

However, I sense the need to slow him down. Home education should not be a race to see who's child can graduate the earliest. Although I could send him on into the 4th grade level ABeka and R&S textbooks, I do not honestly think it would be fair to him to do so just yet.

I have always said that we would probably at some point need to take a year to just let him mature before going on. And I believe we have reached that point. Childhood is so short as it is, and I see no need to rush him through it.

So what "grade" will Big Brother be in next year??

GOOD QUESTION!

He will be completing his 3rd grade work on May 20th (or so), and then starting the new school year in early June 2016. Then (unless we decide differently) he will be progressing on to 4th grade ABeka and R&S textbooks in June 2017! BUT the curriculum he will be using next year (2016-2017)...is usable for PreK-8th grade!!

So...I'm not sure we are going to worry about assigning him a "grade level" at all next year! Just way too confusing! :)

Now for the big announcement! What curriculum are we so excited about using for the 2016-2017 school year??? Drumroll please...



We are going to be using a complete unit study curriculum for the first time! We have done short week-long unit studies in the past (like "LEGO week" and "Cowboy Camp" the past couple of years before school started), and Big Brother has LOVED them! He enjoys having a unifying theme to explore while covering different academic subjects.

We have purchased Volume 1 of the Learning Adventures curriculum called "A World of Adventure!"

Big Brother is a history buff, and he loves hands-on learning. This curriculum seems to be perfect for him!

A World of Adventure is a full 180 day unit study based on world history. It is Christian based, and it covers all subjects (except math...we will be reviewing his 3rd grade R&S math and using games, etc.).

There are 6 units, and each unit will take about 6 weeks to complete.

These are the historical time periods we will be studying in each unit:

Unit 1 - Ancient Egypt
Unit 2 - Ancient Greece
Unit 3 - Ancient Rome
Unit 4 - The Middle Ages
Unit 5 - Renaissance and Reformation
Unit 6 - Age of Exploration

The science topics covered during each unit relate in some way to the historical time period being studied. These include:

Unit 1 - Deserts & the Nile River
Unit 2 - Human Body
Unit 3 - Geology
Unit 4 - Botany
Unit 5 - Astronomy
Unit 6 - Oceans

Each unit also includes Bible study and memorization, language arts activities (grammar, spelling, writing, etc.), fine arts (hymn singing, hymn studies, classical music, art projects, art history, etc.), and literature for read-alouds that are all related to the specific history or science theme!

The main curriculum is geared toward students in grades 4-8, and I also ordered the supplement books that give more ideas for including younger children in the unit study activities. I am so excited to be able to include Little Brother as he adventures through world history along with us on his own level!

This curriculum is very different from the textbook approach as there are no actual...umm...textbooks. The author, a veteran homeschool mom named Dorian Holt, has written out detailed daily lesson plans to guide parents as they choose their own learning materials (library books, videos, encyclopedia, internet research, etc.) to use with their students as they dive head first into learning about each topic.

The guide is huge! I am going to have to purchase a large binder to keep it in! You can see sample lesson plans on the Learning Adventures website. Everything is very well planned out for me, but there is still plenty of room for any adjustments or supplements we may want to make as needed.

Another awesome aspect of this curriculum is the really neat learning game called "Worlds of Adventure" that we can play to regularly to review and reinforce skills and concepts that are covered in each unit. I ordered this game extra, and it looks like it will be well worth it!

There are so many great projects, crafts, cooking ideas, games, field trip suggestions, and more! We are going to have a hard time waiting until June to get started!!!

We are looking forward to 2016-2017 for a fun, exciting, and refreshing school year for us! I hope to share it with you right here!

Be sure to Follow me on Pinterest as I have already been busily pinning lots of things to use with these unit studies!

I am not affiliated with Learning Adventures. I am not using any affiliate links in this post. I urge you to check out and purchase this curriculum directly from the publishers on their site. All opinions are my own. Thanks!

2015 Cowboy Camp - Day 3

Today was Day 3 of Cowboy Camp! Click to read about Day 1 and Day 2!



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Big Brother really got into our singing this morning! He loves yelling "Yeehaw!" when we sing "I'm in the Lord's Army" Cowboy-Style. Little Brother likes "Happy Trails" because we pat our knees to sound like horses trotting as we sing.

For today's devotion we talked about how ranchers branded their cattle to be able to tell which ones belonged to them. I asked the question "How will people know that we belong to the Lord? What does 'God's brand' look like?" We found the answer in John 13:34-35.

Later on we read all about the branding process in Cowboys: A Library of Congress Book. We looked at many different ranch's brands and Big Brother drew some of them. He also created a couple brands of his own!



We finished reading The Wild West: An Interactive History Adventure. Today we learned about the people who went out west in search of riches. (This book has really captivated Big Brother's attention! I want to try to find some of the other books in this series.)

Much of the rest of the day was spent with Big Brother working on creating a script for a little western movie he wants to make with his LEGOs. He made up a short story about the James-Younger outlaw gang. He dictated the script to me and I wrote it down for him. Then he spent some time going through his LEGO mini-figures deciding which would play which characters in his story. He is so creative! :)

We did not have as many different activities today because Little Brother had a checkup at the pediatrician's office. (Poor little fellow got 3 different shots, but he's a trooper!)

We have really been enjoying learning as much as we can about cowboys and the wild west this week! We still have 2 more days to go. We'll see y'all on down the trail!

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2015 Cowboy Camp - Day 2

Day 2 of Cowboy Camp has been another day of fun! Did you miss my post about Day 1? You can find it here!




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Cowboy Camp Day 2 started bright and early! Big Brother was eager for another day of fun and learning.

After breakfast, we all dressed up in cowboy fashion and sang our cowboy songs. Both boys had fun with this!

For today's devotion, we talked about all the different jobs different cowboys had on a cattle drive. We talked about cooks, wranglers, trail bosses, and night herders. All had important jobs to do, and they all had to work together for one goal: to get the herd of cattle safely to market. We read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and discussed how every Christian has different gifts, different jobs to do, and each of us has an important place in furthering God's Kingdom.

Chorin' Time was next! Today Big Brother took care of the laundry then he and Little Brother cleaned up the living room together.

Once chores were done, we jumped into the lawman section of The Wild West: An Interactive History Adventure. Today Big Brother learned what it would have been like to be a deputy U.S. Marshall in 1876.

I found a lesson on "how to draw cowboy boots" in the Abeka Art Projects 3 book I bought for Big Brother to use for art class this year, and we decided to give it a try next. I am a musician - NOT an artist! But the directions were pretty simple to follow, and we were both rather proud of our completed drawings!

Big Brother's Drawing



My Drawing



To sneak in some math drill today, I had Big Brother play "Quick Draw!" I would call out a math problem and he had to quickly write the answer up on the dry erase board. I have to say that when it comes to math, Big Brother is definitely quick on the draw! ;)

Before we ate lunch, I asked for some help in the "chuckwagon" to prepare for tonight's supper. Big Brother followed my directions and got the roast cooking in the slow cooker.

Throughout the morning, Little Brother (15 months old today!) joined in as much as possible. He loves wearing a hat and toy gun, and he spent a good amount of time playing at his little table with toy horses and cows. He has learned that horses say "neigh" and cows say "moo." He knows the ASL signs for HORSE and COW, and he can say both words very clearly. After lunch, he was ready to go down for his nap.

While Little Brother napped this afternoon, Big Brother and I settled in for some more reading. The first book we read today was Cowboy With a Camera.



This book was fascinating with photos taken by a young cowboy in the early 1900s who wanted to capture all the rugged realities of life on the open range before they disappeared completely.

The book mentioned that very young boys often worked as wranglers, and it mentioned a popular cowboy song called Little Joe the Wrangler. We found it on YouTube and listened to the King of the Cowboys himself, Roy Rogers, sing this sad story about a young wrangler who died trying to stop a stampede.

The next book we read was called B is for Buckaroo: A Cowboy Alphabet. Written in rhyme, this book tells all about cowboy life from A to Z! Big Brother chose a short, fun portion from this book to copy onto notebook paper for his cowboy booklet.

Big Brother and I did some more browsing through DK's Wild West Eyewitness Book for a while. We mostly looked at pictures and read anything that seemed interesting.

Big Brother continued practicing "Home on the Range" today on the piano. He loves that song! :)

Then we played a few more rounds of Wild West Hangman before Big Brother decided make up stories and play with his western LEGO toys for the remainder of the afternoon.

Cowboy Camp has been great so far! Check back tomorrow for more rootin' tootin' fun for Day 3!!

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2015 Cowboy Camp - Day 1

In my last post, I announced that this week has been declared "Cowboy Camp" here at our house as we celebrate our last week of summer vacation!

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Today was Cowboy Camp Day 1, and it has been a BLAST!



To help get in the camp mood, Big Brother slept in a sleeping bag last night. He got up at 7:00 a.m. and Cowboy Camp officially began!

First off, he dressed up in a cowboy hat, bandana, t-shirt, vest, jeans, cowboy boots, toy gun, gun belt, and holster! I joined the fun by wearing braids, a checkered shirt, jean skirt, cowboy hat, and a bandana. Little Brother also wore a cowboy hat for awhile. :)

For this week, we have renamed our kitchen/dining area "the chuckwagon." Big Brother's first duty was to help make scrambled eggs for breakfast. He did a fine job!

After breakfast, we sang some fun songs. We sang "I'm a Little Cowboy," "I'm in the Lord's Army - Cowboy Style," and "Happy Trails." We incorporated fun motions and sound effects for each song, and Little Brother even joined in the fun!

Then we did a simple devotion. We talked about all the things a cowboy wears and the purpose for each part of his gear. Then we read about what God tells Christians to put on in order to do our jobs in Ephesians 6:10-18. After prayer it was time for "chorin'."

We talked about how cowboys had to work hard all day long. Big Brother worked on his daily laundry load and then helped wash up some dishes. (Because, hey, even chores are fun when you are dressed as a cowboy!)

Our next activity was some reading time. We decided to start reading in The Wild West: An Interactive History Adventure. This book is so neat! You choose how you want to learn about the west: as an outlaw, a lawman, or as a fortune seeker. Then throughout the story you make various choices, all with different outcomes. There are real people, places, and facts in the stories; and the maps and pictures are great! Today Big Brother chose to explore the wild west from the perspective of an outlaw. We took turns reading paragraphs, and he loved getting to make choices in the story! He is really looking forward to learning from the perspective of a western lawman tomorrow.

Next it was game time (with some sneaky spelling and vocabulary practice thrown in!). I found this neat little Wild West Hangman magnetic game at Dollar Tree over the weekend.



We both took turns several times choosing words related to our cowboy theme having the other try to guess. It was fun!



After several games of Wild West Hangman, it was time to go outside for awhile. While we were outside we had a gun fight...a squirt-gun fight, that is! I cannot think of a better way to cool off and have fun on a hot day!

Little Brother got nice and messy (and tired) playing outside, so when we came in he was ready for a bath and a nap.

After lunch, I challenged Big Brother with the following word problem I had written on the dry erase board:

You are a trail boss on a cattle drive. You are 100 miles from the rail head, and you have 10 days left to get the cattle there. How many miles do you need to move your herd each day to get to the rail head on time?

(It took him about 5 seconds to come up with the correct answer: 10 miles per day! That actually would have been about the fastest a cattle drive could have travelled.)

After our easy little math challenge, we sat on the couch and I read the book Cowboys and the Wild West aloud to Big Brother. It was very interesting with quotes from real cowboys and plenty of great pictures. We consulted our US Map anytime places were mentioned for a quick geography lesson. We spent well over an hour absorbed in this little book.

In our reading, we came across a part of a poem about the life of a cowboy, and Big Brother copied it down on notebook paper to put in a little booklet we are making about cowboys.

For his piano practice today, Big Brother played "Home on the Range," and we sang it together.

He spent the rest of the afternoon either browsing DK's Wild West Eyewitness Book or playing and making up stories with his cowboy LEGO pieces!



Little Brother LOVES horses and cows right now; so he was pretty happy looking at pictures of them in our books, riding his rocking horse, and playing with his Little People Farm set!

And that was Day 1 of Cowboy Camp! What do you think? Big Brother told Daddy that he had lots of fun, so I guess that means it was a success! Stay tuned for Day 2!

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