The McGraw Hill Children's Dictionary

     Here's just a quick post about a dictionary that my son likes to use. Another fellow blogger was looking for a dictionary for her child & I told her I would post some picts on my blog of it, so here they are.

    My son uses another dictionary now, but still goes back and picks this one up from time to time looking at the pictures and reading it. That sounds strange to hear of a child reading a dictionary, but my son does because he likes to look at the pictures in this dictionary.
    This dictionary is the McGraw Hill Children's dictionary. It is filled with lots of colorful pictures and nice size writing, some smaller writing. Not exactly a child's dictionary, but not advanced enough for an upper level student. Great for getting your child interested in dictionary skills. The colored pictures tend to draw my son. We found our's at a used book sale for $ 5.00.

Health - Physical Fitness

    With all the modernized things that we have accumulated in our home, we've neglected exercise. This week we've been trying to do something about that. Thanks to Jamie over at http://seejamieblog.com/2011/04/getting-fit-wanna-join-me/ we've gotten out and gotten moving. Each day we've tried to walk two to three miles. Our goal is to do this at least three times a week. Should we manage to walk more than three days, that will be great. I think I am going to integrate some Health in with our walking plan. I have Considering God's Creation on my shelf. I can pull out some of the detective sheets that focus on the Circulatory system, etc. I also have this cute little set I found at one of our local stores on the human body.
　
    I really didn't want to get into another unit study before the end of our school year, but I feel like we need to have more of an understanding why it is good for us to be walking. We know it is good for us. But, why is it good for us?
   The human body kit that we found is from Discovery Kids. It came with a neat little model of the human body and its organs and two books that are very informational to be as small as they are.

   My hubby says they have some great pictures in them. I'll just throw in some vocabulary and a few internet links and we'll call it a unit study.
   Anyone with any cute quick ideas that will stress this portion of Health, we're open for them. We have three weeks of school left for this term.
   Hope all of you are having a happy homeschooling this week.

Division of Subjects

     We chose not to take a holiday today beings we were at home anyway. We decided that we would school and take another day off in the future since we are just getting back in to the swing of things after the Christmas holidays.
     We are working out of our Writing Strands book this week for our English & Creative Writing lessons. They are going to have to write about one of theirfriends. I'm curious to see the outcome of this writing assignment.
     The children and I had a toss up as to what book we would read this time for our Literature selection. Our final decision was Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge. Beings this book's setting is in Holland (The Netherlands), most of our geography this quarter will revolve around The Netherlands. Our Spelling/Vocabulary words also will come from this book. This brings in a refresher of dictionary skills.
    We thought it would be appropriate to pull in a Dutch artist to go along with our Geography & Literature so we have chosen Vincent van Gogh. We will read a chapter on Monday & Wednesday from the biography we have chosen on him and then, on Friday we'll study some of his art work. Picture study is a part of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy that we have not done in the past. I am trying to incorporate as many of Charlotte's methods as possible in my children's education as I can. The insight that she has on developing a love of learning in your child I feel like is the way to give your child a life long education. Their education doesn't stop after 12 years, but travels on through time with them.
     Finally, to my title to this post, division of subjects, where do they separate? We are suppose to be studying the Romans and Greeks for history this half of our year, but where do I find time. There is so much that we are covering with our Literature selection and our artist I just don't see how we are going to fit the Romans and Greeks in with our schedule. Hopefully, we'll locate a spot somewhere for them. With all that we are discovering in our Literature, artist biography, & geography lessons, I feel like we will be having two history studies if we do embark on the Romans and Greeks. I'm sure the Lord will show us where to draw the line. He has always been faithful to lead me down this homeschool journey.
Feel free  to give your input on how you all divide your subjects. I would beexcited to hear. Until next time, everyone have a happy homeschooling week, Traci