We had a great time playing with some of the music from the play Peter Pan today at Journey Montessori! We identified which character went with each piece of music we listened to and then did a fun activity to go along with the song.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ugh-a-wug/id189104724?i=189107503&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Song- Ugh-A-Wug
Characters- Indians and Peter Pan
Activity - Ostinato (repeated pattern) on the drums. Drum, rest, drum clap, drum clap, rest, rest, rest.
Songs - Hooks Tarantella and Hooks Waltz
Characters - Captain Hook and the Pirates
Activity - Bounce up and down to feel the duple feel of the Tarantella and Waltz to feel the triple feel of the waltz.
Captain Hook gets some neat songs. He has a Tango, which is a Spanish dance, a Tarantella, which is a duple meter Italian folk song, and a Waltz which is an Austrian triple meter song.
Song - I Won't Grow Up
Characters - Peter Pan and the Lost Boys
Activity - Call and response.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Happy Presidents Day
Our awesome director for our Classical Conversations homeschool group issued a challenge for everyone to sing all of the American Presidents by first name and last for Presidents Day. This task is part of the last week of our curriculum every year, but by the last week of school we are done and just ready to enjoy the Spring weather. We have memorized a few but never gotten them all down. This was the perfect time for the challenge (and I like things presented as a challenge). The twist this time was I told the kids I wanted to rise to the challenge. I did not ask them to do it. So I told my oldest daughter my goal for the first day was to memorize the first 25 presidents (we already knew the first 10 or so). It wasn't long before she was correcting me and helping me through them.
When we got home I began to sing the song again and my middle child plugged her ears. My oldest promptly said, "No, we have to help mom. She is trying to do mommy masters!" My other daughter unplugged her ears and began to help too. The neighbor kid even got involved in helping me! After two days of helping mom learn how to sing her presidents we could all sing all of the presidents in order! My three year old is also aspiring to sing them. I never told them they had to learn them. I told them I wanted to learn them and modeled how I was going to go about it for them and with them. They were so excited to help me, and I was so excited we all learned them.
As a tutor for CC I have noticed that I am such a better teacher for my own kids when I have to have the information memorized ahead of time. I challenge other parents to memorize the work ahead of time, or learn it out loud with your children so they can learn how to learn.
In the music classes I teach we have begun to add in a traditional American song here and there. I love the Schoolastic books for the songs. They have great pictures to help explain the words and meaning of the songs. You can click on the titles to see them at Amazon.
The Star Spangled Banner
"Francis Scott Key was a gifted amateur poet. Inspired by the sight of the American flag flying over Fort McHenry the morning after the bombardment, he scribbled the initial verse of his song on the back of a letter. Back in Baltimore, he completed the four verses (PDF) and copied them onto a sheet of paper, probably making more than one copy. A local printer issued the new song as a broadside. Shortly afterward, two Baltimore newspapers published it, and by mid-October it had appeared in at least seventeen other papers in cities up and down the East Coast.
My Country 'Tis of Thee
America The Beautiful
"In 1893, at the age of 33, Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, had taken a train trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach a short summer school session at Colorado College. Several of the sights on her trip inspired her, and they found their way into her poem, including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the "White City" with its promise of the future contained within its alabaster buildings; the wheat fields of America's heartland Kansas, through which her train was riding on July 16; and the majestic view of the Great Plains from high atop Zebulon's Pikes Peak.
On the pinnacle of that mountain, the words of the poem started to come to her, and she wrote them down upon returning to her hotel room at the original Antlers Hotel. The poem was initially published two years later in The Congregationalist to commemorate the Fourth of July. It quickly caught the public's fancy. Amended versions were published in 1904 and 1913." read more here
The Pledge of Allegiance
"The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist,[5][6] and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). The original "Pledge of Allegiance" was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and sell flags to public schools.[7] According to author Margarette S. Miller this was in line with Upham's vision which he "would often say to his wife: 'Mary, if I can instill into the minds of our American youth a love for their country and the principles on which it was founded, and create in them an ambition to carry on with the ideals which the early founders wrote into The Constitution, I shall not have lived in vain.'"[8]
read more here
When we got home I began to sing the song again and my middle child plugged her ears. My oldest promptly said, "No, we have to help mom. She is trying to do mommy masters!" My other daughter unplugged her ears and began to help too. The neighbor kid even got involved in helping me! After two days of helping mom learn how to sing her presidents we could all sing all of the presidents in order! My three year old is also aspiring to sing them. I never told them they had to learn them. I told them I wanted to learn them and modeled how I was going to go about it for them and with them. They were so excited to help me, and I was so excited we all learned them.
As a tutor for CC I have noticed that I am such a better teacher for my own kids when I have to have the information memorized ahead of time. I challenge other parents to memorize the work ahead of time, or learn it out loud with your children so they can learn how to learn.
In the music classes I teach we have begun to add in a traditional American song here and there. I love the Schoolastic books for the songs. They have great pictures to help explain the words and meaning of the songs. You can click on the titles to see them at Amazon.
The Star Spangled Banner
"Francis Scott Key was a gifted amateur poet. Inspired by the sight of the American flag flying over Fort McHenry the morning after the bombardment, he scribbled the initial verse of his song on the back of a letter. Back in Baltimore, he completed the four verses (PDF) and copied them onto a sheet of paper, probably making more than one copy. A local printer issued the new song as a broadside. Shortly afterward, two Baltimore newspapers published it, and by mid-October it had appeared in at least seventeen other papers in cities up and down the East Coast.
This 19th century version (MP3) of the Star-Spangled Banner was performed on original instruments from the National Museum of American History's collection. Arranged by G. W. E. Friederich, the music is played as it would have been heard in 1854. read more here
My Country 'Tis of Thee
"Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics to "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in 1831,[4] while a student at the Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts. His friend Lowell Mason had asked him to translate the lyrics in some German school songbooks or to write new lyrics. A melody in Muzio Clementi's Symphony No. 3 caught his attention. Rather than translating the lyrics from German, Smith wrote his own American patriotic hymn to the melody, completing the lyrics in thirty minutes.
Smith gave Mason the lyrics he had written and the song was first performed in public on July 4, 1831,[4] at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston. First publication of "America" was in 1832.[4]" see all the verses here
America The Beautiful
"In 1893, at the age of 33, Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, had taken a train trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach a short summer school session at Colorado College. Several of the sights on her trip inspired her, and they found their way into her poem, including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the "White City" with its promise of the future contained within its alabaster buildings; the wheat fields of America's heartland Kansas, through which her train was riding on July 16; and the majestic view of the Great Plains from high atop Zebulon's Pikes Peak.
On the pinnacle of that mountain, the words of the poem started to come to her, and she wrote them down upon returning to her hotel room at the original Antlers Hotel. The poem was initially published two years later in The Congregationalist to commemorate the Fourth of July. It quickly caught the public's fancy. Amended versions were published in 1904 and 1913." read more here
The Pledge of Allegiance
"The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist,[5][6] and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). The original "Pledge of Allegiance" was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and sell flags to public schools.[7] According to author Margarette S. Miller this was in line with Upham's vision which he "would often say to his wife: 'Mary, if I can instill into the minds of our American youth a love for their country and the principles on which it was founded, and create in them an ambition to carry on with the ideals which the early founders wrote into The Constitution, I shall not have lived in vain.'"[8]
read more here
Monday, February 16, 2015
Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Weeks 15 - 18 Extra Activities
Science
For this semester of science I highly recommend this unit:
http://www.
Here is another elements song. This one has the words so you can sing along! A good friend of mine recommended it.
Here is another elements song. This one has the words so you can sing along! A good friend of mine recommended it.
Look back at week 14 for a good video on how the Periodic Table of Elements was created.
Geography
We are thoroughly enjoying the tv series How the States Got Their Shapes. It is on Netflix or click here to see them http://www.history.com/shows/how-the-states-got-their-shapes/videos.
The first episode talks about how rivers and water shaped some of our states. It goes along with this set of weeks well.
We also bought the app Stack the States. It is a great review game to play.
We are studying the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls.
Click here for some amazing great lakes pictures
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/05/great-lakes-are-the-greatest-photos_n_3846351.html
Here is a Great Lakes worksheet
http://www.education.com/files/402001_402100/402043/the-great-lakes-worksheet.pdf
Math
When I was searching for ways to enjoy studying metric measurement this popped up.
I think we will do this this week to study measurement! The original poster just used this as a rainy day game but it seems like a really fun way to work on measuring to me!
If your child does not know how to multiply yet this can also be a good way to review skip counting. "Lets skip count our 4's six times to find the answer to the first question"
Finding the area of a square is a good time to review skip counting your squares.
Fun area of a triangle song
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Homeschooling at Disney - Planning Part 2 - Accommodations and Food
There are two good perks for going to Disney in the off season. One there are fewer people so wait time for rides are low, and the resorts give a 30% discount.
We decided to stay at the Port Orleans Riverside Disney resort. It is one of Disney's moderate resorts. We needed a room that could accommodate five people. On the morning that the 30% discount on room became available for our travel dates my husband got up and made the reservation for the room we wanted right away.
If you stay at a Disney resort you do not have to pay for parking at the parks or for your magic bands. We are a family of five and a basic magic band costs $13 each so that is $65 savings on magic bands. We went to the parks for five days and parking is $17 a day so we saved $85 on parking.
You can take food and drinks into all of the park so before we left we bought breakfast items, snacks, and some lunch items to take along. I packed a zip lock bag for breakfast and snack for each day before going to Disney. That way while we were there all I had to do each morning was grab a bag out for breakfast in the hotel room and put one of the snack bags and some drinks in the backpack for our day.
We also had a good little lesson on profit when buying our bottled water and chips before going. 35 bottles of water at Wal-Mart cost us $4. At Disney each bottle of water costs $2.50. We did a little math lesson and figured out that by buying that water at home we potentially saved $83.50!
You can take food and drinks into all of the park so before we left we bought breakfast items, snacks, and some lunch items to take along. I packed a zip lock bag for breakfast and snack for each day before going to Disney. That way while we were there all I had to do each morning was grab a bag out for breakfast in the hotel room and put one of the snack bags and some drinks in the backpack for our day.
We also had a good little lesson on profit when buying our bottled water and chips before going. 35 bottles of water at Wal-Mart cost us $4. At Disney each bottle of water costs $2.50. We did a little math lesson and figured out that by buying that water at home we potentially saved $83.50!
We decided not to do a Disney meal plan. If you do a meal plan you have to pay for each person, for each day you are there. Our kids are still little and they just do not eat enough for it to have been worth while for us this trip.
This blog has a good post about cost of meal plans and what is included http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-dining-plan-costs-info-tips/
The other plus of paying out of pocket is not having to decipher what we could an couldn't get with a meal plan. In all we ate about 6 quick service meals in the parks and 3 nice sit down meals. Here is a list of some of the places we decided to eat and liked.
Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney
Fish and Chips in the U.K. at Epcot
Turkey Legs in Frontier Land at the Magic Kingdom
We ate sit down meals at
Bells Castle in the Magic Kingdom
Germany in Epcot
and Ohana at Disney's Polynesian Resort
Ohana was hands down our favorite nice sit down meal. The food was AMAZING!
Fish and Chips in the UK was my husbands favorite quick service meal and the kids loved the turkey legs the most.
Our total expense on food purchased on the trip (including traveling days to and from Disney) was $160 LESS than the basic meal plan would have cost us.
We will definitely eat at Ohana again. We would also love to eat at more of the countries in Epcot and do a character meal some day so we may do a meal plan one day in the future. I would want to plan out exactly where we would use the credits before going though so I didn't have to waste time on my trip figuring it out.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Homeschooling at Disney - Planning Part 1 - Disney Youth Education Program
Last February we went to Disney and the kids did a class while we were there. We had a great time and decided to do it again this February. We get a lot of questions about how we planned our trip. Here is the first of a series of posts about how we plan for school-cation at Disney.
Next we checked out what classes were available for the kids to take. Disney is strict on having the kids in the class is that for their age. Our travel dates were set around when the class we wanted was offered.
Here are the links to find the classes:
Disney Youth Education Series (YES)
Choose the park you want (Florida or California)
Make sure you have chosen the individual enrollment option.
This page will show you a list of the classes and a description of each
If you are taking a class you book your whole trip through the YES program site. You can click here to go straight to the purchase tickets page. This page doesn't have the descriptions for each class. It is cheaper for the whole family to get tickets, even those not taking class, to buy through this option than a travel agent. To see how much it would cost your family choose a class and go through the site.
We began planning in the Fall for our trip. We booked the class as soon as it became available so we could go ahead and plan the rest of the trip.
This year we are taking the How Things Move class in the Magic Kingdom. One parent is allowed to take the class with the kids. My husband is taking it with our daughters this year while our son and I enjoy the park together (he is too little for class). We will update on how awesome this class is after the trip.
Now that you have the links to find the YES program you can figure out the first piece to budgeting a school-cation to Disney. The next part is accommodations and food. I will post the choices we made for those in my next post.
Home School Families Can Go To Disney When It's NOT Crowded!
First we decided to go during a time of the year that isn't busy. Flexibility is our favorite part of homeschooling! September and early February were the logical choices. (This also means lower rates on accommodations)!Disney Youth Education Program
Next we checked out what classes were available for the kids to take. Disney is strict on having the kids in the class is that for their age. Our travel dates were set around when the class we wanted was offered.
Here are the links to find the classes:
Disney Youth Education Series (YES)
Choose the park you want (Florida or California)
Make sure you have chosen the individual enrollment option.
This page will show you a list of the classes and a description of each
If you are taking a class you book your whole trip through the YES program site. You can click here to go straight to the purchase tickets page. This page doesn't have the descriptions for each class. It is cheaper for the whole family to get tickets, even those not taking class, to buy through this option than a travel agent. To see how much it would cost your family choose a class and go through the site.
We began planning in the Fall for our trip. We booked the class as soon as it became available so we could go ahead and plan the rest of the trip.
Synergy in Science; Last Years Disney Class
Last year the girls took the Synergy in Science class at Epcot. It was awesome. The class started before the park opened, so we got in early. In the class we learned about how it takes many parts working together to make a ride work. We learned about how Spaceship Earth was made on the outside, and how the adio-anamatronics were made on the inside. We got to bypass the line and go on the ride as a part of the class. In our Classical Conversations curriculum we go through a timeline from the beginning of time to present day. Spaceship Earth is the timeline in a ride! Classical Conversations is also big on History and Geography so Epcot was an amazing school day.This year we are taking the How Things Move class in the Magic Kingdom. One parent is allowed to take the class with the kids. My husband is taking it with our daughters this year while our son and I enjoy the park together (he is too little for class). We will update on how awesome this class is after the trip.
Now that you have the links to find the YES program you can figure out the first piece to budgeting a school-cation to Disney. The next part is accommodations and food. I will post the choices we made for those in my next post.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
I Recommend
I have always loved Jumpstart Music. I used the game some when I taught public school a little bit and my own kids have enjoyed it a lot. It is a preschool/elementary school game computer game that works on musical concepts. You can adjust the level. You go through music land and complete rhythm, melody, and instrument identification games to collect points. I highly recommend it for anyone learning basic musical grammar!
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
All Play - Improvisation
Deedle, deedle, dumpling,
My son John
Went to bed
With his blue jeans on--
One shoe off
And one shoe on--
Deedle, deedle, dumpling,
My son John.
My son John
Went to bed
With his blue jeans on--
One shoe off
And one shoe on--
Deedle, deedle, dumpling,
My son John.
Change one line - went to bed with his/her __________.
Post your improvised line in the comments!
Here's mine
Deedle, deedle, dumpling,
My son John
Went to bed
With his light saber on--
One shoe off
And one shoe on--
Deedle, deedle, dumpling,
My son John.
My son John
Went to bed
With his light saber on--
One shoe off
And one shoe on--
Deedle, deedle, dumpling,
My son John.
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