Create-a-Story!

We have been using "Create-a-Story" several times this school year and the kids are doing very well with it. Suz on http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ shared this page earlier this school year, it is http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/createa.htm.

We have a 10-sided die that the kids roll, they roll 2 numbers. These numbers tell the kids which "characters", "situations", "places", "objects", etc. on the tables that they will write a story about.

For example, today my daughter rolled a "5" and a "2". So these are the things she needed to include in her story.
1-the desert
2-turning into a grown up
3-a pretty doll
4-in a few days
5-a living statue

Here is the story my 10yr old daughter came up with, I really enjoyed it.

A Desert Boy

Well to start the story, there was this kid that lived in a desert. Now the story begins.

"Hey, Andrew, what are you doing today?"
"Well, I'm going to sell this doll at the market, then I'm going to buy some food for the family and then go home."
"Sounds like you have a busy day."
"Oh, I do. Well see ya later, bye."

A few days passed and Andrew was walking by some rocks he had never seen before. Then he saw a hole in a rock just the right size that he could fit through. So he went in and he saw a live statue talking to a different live statue. So he just walked by. Then he saw a fountain with the clearest and most beautiful water. Since he was so thirsty (he did live in a desert), he just drank and drank and drank. He drank so much he felt like he was going to explode. Not knowing that it was magical water, he instantly turned into a man. And how happy he was knowing that he was a man. He went home and told his parents that he was a man. And his parents asked, "How did you turn into a man?". He said, "I truly do not know!"

And all the rest of his life he still did not know how he became a man. And never again, no matter how hard he looked, he could not find the rocks or the hole.

The End

All Reading Day!

Since I've mentioned some books my son has been enjoying to read I thought I should mention some books my daughter is enjoying. Yesterday my daughter requested an "All Reading Day" for school, she has asked for this before but we have never done it, so I let them. I was very impressed with how my son and daughter both did. My daughter loves to read so I knew she would do well. She gathered a stack of books together and read and read and read and read some more. My son found one of his favorite books he has read many times and read that for awhile then he started the new book "Conspiracy 365" that I previously mentioned and read and read and read it all day long. After reading a book or reading for a period of time the kids would narrate to me what they had read about. This day was a great success in my opinion and we will be doing it again sometime.

A funny thing about the books my kids picked is that all of them were Usborne/Kane Miller books. Yes, I am an Usborne Books consultant and we have a lot of these books but we also have lots and lots and lots of other books (just ask my husband) and books from libraries. Here are some of the books they read:

Knights Handbook, Conspiracy 365-January

Cleopatra, Hansel and Gretel, Florence Nightingale, Heidi

My daughter loves the Usborne Famous Lives series, actually my son loves this series also. The Famous Lives series has greatly impressed me as well. The books present famous people in a very interesting way, with lots of detail and the kids remember almost everything in the book and can repeat it to you. My kids also talk about these books to many people without being asked to, even long after they have read the books. The "Young Reading" series is also a big favorite of my daughter's.

My daughter is now asking for an "All Writing Day", she enjoys writing but my son does not like to write. Since my daughter knows her brother doesn't like to write, she came up with a possible solution, she said we'll take turns making up parts of stories and she'll write them all down. We'll see what the future brings.

(These books can be found at: http://www.usbornebookstore.com/)

Another Great Read, "Conspiracy 365"!

We have found another great read for my 13yr old son, the new book "Conspiracy 365 - January" by Gabrielle Lord. My son finished this book in 2 days, less than that actually. Joshua has never read this long in one sitting before although the "Kingdom" series was very close. There are going to be 12 books in this series, one for each month in 2010.

You can see the book here: http://www.usbornebookstore.com/.

You can even read the first 28 pages of the book at this link.

My son is anxious for the next book "February" in this series, I know we'll be getting them all!

Volcano Lapbook

Lapbooks are a fun way of having the kids document what they are learning. They are so much more creative and fun then ordinary worksheets. We do quite a few lapbooks at our house. This is our latest lapbook. We bound this one like a book. We took it to our homeschool science fair along with our volcano display and model. Most of this lapbook is available for free at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/.

Erupting a Model Volcano

Tonight was our homeschool group's Social Studies and Science Fair. We were very excited to take our volcano project and model. Our volcano eruption went great and was a lot of fun! The kids at the fair all enjoyed watching.

"The Kingdom Series" Books

Joshua has discovered a series of books that he loves! Finding books Joshua enjoys is not an easy task, so we just had to share this book series with you. "The Kingdom Series" by Chuck Black, there are 6 books in the series. Josh has read the first book "Kingdom's Dawn" and is almost done reading the 2nd book "Kindom's Hope". These books are an allegory of the entire bible told in medieval times with knights, kings, sword fights and more.

Josh has even been telling me how different parts in the books are just like what happened in the bible. I am really impressed with the books and most importantly with Joshua's enthusiasm to read them!

Building a Model Volcano

The kids are studying volcanoes and building a volcano for their Social Studies/Science Fair (per their request). We are still working on it but this is how it's going so far.

We made salt dough, formed a volcano around an empty bottle, let it dry 24 hrs, then painted it.

Our Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Our family always enjoys a trip to our local pumpkin farm (dates on pictures are wrong, they should be 10/14/09).