To Build a Fire

Posted by lapazfarm on January 21st, 2008 filed in montessori, pre-school, nature study, art, Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., Superboy Work Samples

Right, so posting frequency is down a bit, I know. But thats just because we’ve been so dadgum busy and productive around here.

It’s as if a fire has been lit under us all! Even me! My decluttering is going gangbusters. I am keeping to my decluttering schedule (see sidebar) plus using this decluttering calendar. I am loving it. Every trinket I toss, every load I take to charity, means we are that much closer to being a whole family again. Talk about motivation!LOL!

On the school front things are also cooking. I am thrilled because it looks like once again we will be beating the february blues that seem so common in the homeschooling world. Last year we managed to escape them and I don’t want to count my chickens, but things are looking really good for our North America/Alaska/Iditarod unit keeping things sizzling for the rest of this month and all of next. Here is what we did today.

Superboy:(was sick today, so a light day for him.)
Math DVD, negative exponents and fractional exponents. This was a tough lesson, so we will need to do some extra practice on these concepts this week.

Reviewed the USA puzzle map. He has all the states down cold, so time to move on to Canada. He also did some more planning for his cross-country trip.

Short stories: (this is new) I have begun assigning a short story a week for him to read and for us to discuss. Today’s was “To Build a Fire,” by Jack London. His assignment after reading was to choose a sentence or two from one particularly vivid passage and illustrate it. This is what he chose:

“He knew there must be no failure. When it is seventy-five below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire…”

And if you know the story you know this is really the pivotal passage. As far as the illustration goes, our art lesson for today was using space wisely. I think he did a good job.

Littles:
I reviewed the world map and both JBug and JackJack knew their continents (though JackJack is a little iffy on Australia). Squirt hasn’t quite got the idea yet.

Presented the North America map. Did parts one and two of a 3 part lesson on vocab- United States, Canada, Mexico and Greenland.

Looked at these great animal track cards from the Montessori for Everyone free friday files and played a matching game with them. Then JBug used the cards and a tray of her white moon sand to make animal tracks in the “snow.”

JBug did her reading (Bob Books), moveable alphabet (dictation), and played the “room labeling game,” (which is new) and she really enjoyed that.

JBug did her 100 board while I practiced counting to ten with JackJack and Squirt. Then JackJack wanted to look at the globe and try naming the continents on that, so we did that for awhile.

Squirt chose to match some laminated leaves with leaf shape cards. He enjoyed that so maybe tomorrow I will introduce the botany cabinet to him.

The it was lunch, outside play and nap time, and JBug did her snap circuits again and that was that!

A great start to the school week! Lets just hope this fire keeps burning-it’s a great source of heat for the long, dreary winter!

16 Responses to “To Build a Fire”

Fe Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Laminated leaves… what a cool idea! Did you just stick them in the laminating sheet? Or did you prepare them in some way first?
lapazfarm Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I pressed them in a book for about a week first. Then I just stuck them in the sheet and laminated them. Then I cut them out leaving about a 1/8 inch border. Very simple and they are holding up well.
Rhonda Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I love your leaf shape cards. I also laminated my leaves the same way, by pressing them into a book first. My girls had so much fun with them. I had to go to the “Montessori For Everyone” web site and print out those animal track cards. Lindsay will love matching them up. Although I do not have the white moon sand for her to make the tracks in. :0( That was such a great idea. I am thinking that maybe a little baby powder or flour sprinkled in a pie pan would work for us.
Rhonda Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Ooops! I forgot to add that my daughter is reading “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London and will be turning in a report on it. Your son did an amazing job on illustrating that passage. Thanks for the idea. *wink*
ruthie Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
wow.. I just LOVE you blog.. thanks for sharing like you do!

its so great to read and see that kids really DO love to learn! ..
Loved the artworks/short stories idea.. that’s great! I might have to fashion that idea for our HP unit study! ..

and the mapping idea below is fantastic!

thanks for sharing like you do!
blessings
ruthie
Kathy Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Thanks for inspiring me to work on the continents and create continent boxes for my children. We’ve only just begun, but they’re very excited. Now, back to figuring out *what* to put in those boxes…Oh, and dh and ds 7 are working on a tabletop trebuchet. Such fun! I’ll post some photos once they have it working. Again, thanks for freely sharing your many ideas.
woodstone Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
I’m glad the decluttering is going so well! I also love clearing things out and keeping the place (at least somewhat) uncluttered. The homeschool materials seem to grow on their own sometimes, but I consider that good and necessary clutter!

As always your blog is a joy to read. I love the laminated leaf cards, what an awesome idea! I also like your short shory a day idea, I might have to adapt that for my two…

Have a great week!
Summer Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
Wow, you have been productive! I’m diggin that decluttering calendar. I went and checked it out and now I’m in the moood to get rid of some stuff.
~L~ Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Rock on! What a busy day!

We’re winning against winter this year too. First time in years.
Diane Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Theresa, you are such an amazing inspiration! I just ordered the decluttering calendar, and I am copying down your simplicity schedule. It looks so doable. Please tell me there is hope—even for me!

And as always, you make learning such a joyful experience—the way it should be. Thank you for sharing your ideas and enthusiasm. God bless you!
Chrissy Says:
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 am
That is an amazing picture that superboy drew! I am very impressed. I hope that he is feeling better really soon. I am going to check out those animal track cards. Tracker will love them. Thanks for the idea.

If you go to www.jigzone.com you can do puzzles in the shape of the USA. You just need to “change cut” on any of the puzzles. I found it to be a good challenge for Dragon.

Keep up the awesome work!
Jen Lynch Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Just wanted to lead you to another Iditarod resource. mushingdogs.com. They are a homeschooling family in AK (Good friends of ours) and Dad is running the Iditarod for the first time this year. There are a million good Iditarod links off their pages including the wonderful Iditapodcasts. Enjoy!
lapazfarm Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Thanks, Jen! I just checked it out and it’s a fascinating site!We’ll be sure to follow his progress!
Meredith Says:
January 26th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
What a fun day! The animal tracks are great! Happy weekend!
Lynn Says:
January 30th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Hello!
please may i ask where you got the leaf cards from?
lapazfarm Says:
January 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hi Lynn! You can find them here: leaf forms cards, along with lots of other cool stuff!