South Korea and Japan - Geography!

South Korea

The second Asian country we "visited" was South Korea, and we were pleased to learn so many things about this country. We practiced saying Hello in Korean, and Little V got to say it to a Korean friend. Our friend was so happy to hear hello in her own language. We always try to learn how to pronounce and spell Jehovah's name in the language of the countries we "visit" as well.

It was very interesting to learn about Seoul and some of the nice features that city has, such the underground mall, the biggest subway system and much more. We got to learn a little bit more about Eve-R 1 the female robot developed in South Korea.

* I'm sorry I did not take any pictures while Little V was doing her South Korea activities.

Japan

Our third Asian country was Japan! What a surprise it was to know that Japan is pretty much a mountainous country and that they have hundreds of volcanoes. Japan also has an average 1500 earthquakes recorded each year.

Some of the fun activities we did for Japan was:

Kokeshi doll cards: we used crayons, carstock, sharpie and washi tape. I'm a lover of handmade things and I love making greeting cards, so when I saw these cards online I knew we had to make some.

Little V loves dolls, so she got to make a Japanese paper doll that I downloaded from educents.com .

She also got to learn how to say so e colors in Japanese and colored those carps above with the directions in Japanese,

As mentioned before, we finish the week with a quiz that I developed based on the one from the Expedition Earth Curriculum, but because I want her to focus on answering the questions rather than on how to spell the words, I make each week a multiple choice quiz for her.

I'm so grateful that I get to spend time with my little one and learn tons of things with her, our journey through the Homeschooling years is getting more and more excited! What are the new things you have been learning in Geography? We would love to hear form you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Cursive Handwriting!

There are many reason as to why our kids need to learn cursive handwriting. Not teaching Little V cursive handwriting has never crossed my mind since we started Homeschooling, and this year we had started with an Introduction to cursive handwriting. She's all excited because it's something new and the penmanship just looks better and gives it a touch of the writer's personality.

How will your child write a check or sign his or her name on important documents if they don't learn cursive writing? Will they make their signature an easier target to be copied? If you are still wondering if you should teach your child cursive writing just make a little online research and you will find tons of information about it and will be able to make your decision based in facts that are convincing to you.

As for now, I'm really just giving Little V a taste of it, each day she gets to write a different letter and she is enjoying it. We are using the cursive handwriting sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler, but I'm looking into other programs and trying to make up my mind.

If you would like more information regarding choices of curriculum for Cursive Handwriting check cathyduffyreviews.com, so far I found one option that I really liked that was Cursive Logic and I also found a few books and this one I really liked it, Traditional Handwriting: Beginning Cursive. As I mentioned I'm still researching and will definitely keep you posted when I make a decision.

What are your ideas regarding cursive writing? Do you have a program or book that you use and would like to share? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Learning About Habitats and Animals Behavior!

Our very first chapter of our super cool Science Curriculum was to learn about habitats and animal food. We started by learning what is a habitat.

Then, through an online research we checked how each habitat looks like. We learned also about the amount of rainfall and the average temperature for each one of them of each of the following habitats:
- desert (cold and hot)
- rain forest
- grassland

Time to make a lapbook so we can consult later if we need it:

We also got to learn about the animals food habit:
- Carnivore
- Herbivore
- Omnivore

To finish the week, she answered the quiz provided by the curriculum:

Each week ends with a quiz, and so far each week we had a science project to do, soon I'll be sharing more about our science adventures!

What have you been learning in Science? We would love to hear from you!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Introduction to World Geography and "Visiting" China!!

How cool it's to be able to learn about Geography and have fun!?! You cannot beat that! We started the Expedition Earth by learning and locating the Oceans, Continents, Little V got to understand about the imaginary lines: Meridian of Greenwich, Equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Artic Pole and Antartic Pole, and best of all she has a little minibook that she can refer to it whenever she is uncertain about what is what. By learning about the Prime Meridian and the Equator she was able to identify the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, and also the Western and Eastern Hemisphere.

 Once her minibook was ready, we started working on her Passport, she signed it and we added the info needed, now she was all set to start her trip around the World!

Our first stop through the curriculum was China! She then learned important and fun facts about this amazing country. The bigger picture below shows her adding information regarding capital city of the country, main religion, population, currency and others. She also learned how to say hello in Chinese (ni-hao), and how to write and pronounce Jehovah in Chinese.

Here are some more fun activities, she got to locate the China and its capital city in the World Map... by the way I don't think map will ever stop being interesting, right!?! Then, we made some Chinese paper fan and she practiced writing the Chinese numbers  from 1 to 10.

A Chinese lantern was also made:

Finally, you get to see our biggest China project - The Great Wall of China. We used the Creatology Foam Project Brick Set from Michael's, some cardboard, moss and of course she had to add some minions characters in the fun!

We did have a Chinese dinner from one of our favorite Chinese Restaurants to end the fun week learning about China! Every Friday she has a quiz about each country and she did excellent on her first Geography quiz!

Hope you had some fun with us and let's see what's the next country we will be visiting!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki 

Our Choice of Bible Activities!

One thing I can say for a fact, there is no shortage of Bible based activity that we can do with our kids in our website jw.org. There are videos that teach great and important lessons to the little ones such as obey your parents, forgive freely, learn to share, how to respect our place of worship and many more... There activities for older kids and teenagers as well.

Little V and I start the day with prayer, it's so important to pray with your child, this is the moment that your child see that you are relying in God and that teaches more than what you say. Plus, think of how they feel when they hear you approaching Jehovah in prayer and asking him to help them to succeed in their efforts to have a good day in school and in drawing close to God. You can always ask them if there is anything they would like to add to the prayer, something they would thank Jehovah for.

After our prayer, we now read the Daily Text and then discuss how we can apply it in our lives. So this concludes our spiritual daily routine. We are studying on Mondays and Fridays the Book of Bible Stories, plus we also prepare for the meetings both the midweek meeting and the Sunday meeting. We try our best to have a comment ready for Little V, so she feels like she is contributing something t the meeting and praising Jehovah with her lips.

She is enrolled in the Theocratic Ministry School and I must say, I always studied in private school and both of them were very good, but the public speaking course we have at our meetings is not simply the best it's divine! Her last assignment was to work on proper pronunciation and she worked hard to make sure she pronounced those difficult words properly and must I add to it, she many times approached Jehovah in prayer to help her to handle her assignment in a honored manner and that melted my heart.

Those activities mentioned above, from our website are added to the week accordingly to our needs.

So, now it's your turn to share with us what do you do for Bible education in your Homeschool? We would love to hear form you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Our Choice of Math Curriculum for First Grade!

Another program that is not a secret we love is Math U See. The best way I can describe it is that they really make teaching and learning Math easy (so far). But believe me, when I first started with Homeschooling I had a few concerns regarding how would I teach some things, how would I be able to break it down to her level of understanding and they do that! We are on the second year with them and do not intend to change it.

Little V started the second level last year, so we are now continuing that, the Alpha Level, and as soon as she is done with this level we will move on to the next level, Beta.

We are using also their app this year, you have to pay for it but it's worthy! It's like having fun with Math on the go and during school as well.

I like to add other activities as well, so quite often we purchase also the No Prep Packs from Moffatt Girls which include really cool Math Activities and Reading and Spelling and other cool stuff she adds to each pack. I add these activities to provide a variety and different approach to what we learn... plus her activities are really fun and hands on, which it's a huge plus for us!

Tell us what do you use for Math? We would love to hear from you!

soon, we will be sharing some of our fun activities!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Our Choice of Art Curriculum for First Grade!

We were having so much fun learning about the World's Greatest Artist that I decided to continue it and finish what was left from Kindergarten from Volume 1 and then move on the Volume 2 of the same program from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

We still have to finish from World's Greatest Artists Volume 1:
- Michelangelo
- Leonardo Da Vinci (our current unit)

The from World's Greatest Artist Volume 2:
- Norman Rockwell
- Rembrandt
- Paul Cezanne
- Andy Warhol
- Pierre Auguste Renoir
- Paul Gauguiin
- Edgar Degas

Just as with World's Greatest Composers, World's Greatest Artists uses the books Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists collection from Mike Venezia:
- Michelangelo
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Norman Rockwell
- Rembrandt
- Paul Cezanne
- Andy Warhol
- Pierre Auguste Renoir
- Paul Gauguin
- Edgar Degas

We also make good use of the Art For Kids Hub website, Little V loves to make their art projects, it is well explained and the fact that the Dad and the kids work together and have fun making the projects is awesome!

What do you use to teach art to your little ones? We would love to hear from you!

Soon, we will be sharing more activities from the Greatest Artists Program.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Our Choice of Music Program for First Grade!

We are actually finishing World's Greatest Composers Volume 1 and then start World's Greatest Composers Volume 2 both from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Towards the last third of the school year I'm hoping to have Little V starting to learn to play some instrument, but as for now I'm focusing on getting her acquainted with Classic Music, learn to appreciate it and have some knowledge regarding world's greatest composers.

World's Greatest Composers Volume 1, we still have the following composers to study about:
- Peter Tchaikovsky (unit we are currently studying);
- Igor Stravinsky;
- George Gershwin

World's Greatest Composers Volume 2, we will learn about:
- Johannes Brahms;
- John Philip Sousa;
- Duke Ellington;
- Aaron Copland;
- Leonard Bernstein

The books that are needed for the unit studies are a collection from the author Mike Venezia, and I must say he has a special way to make the information very interesting for kids and even for adults. There are really cool illustration to the stories and the added humor just make it all so much easier to learn, we love it and recommend it.

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers by Mike Venezia:
- Peter Tchaikovsky
- Igor Stravinsky
- George Gershwin
- Johannes Brahms
- John Philip Sousa
- Duke Ellington
- Aaron Copland
- Leonard Bernstein

Want to take a peek at what we do? Soon we will be posting more about it!

What are you doing for Music in your Homeschool? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Our Choice of Reading and Spelling Curriculum!

No secret here that we love the All About Reading and All About Spelling Curriculum. I love the fact that the child doesn't have to simply memorize how to spell the words, but she actually get to understand the sounds of the letters and how they work together to form words. They teach some rules that are vital and believe me you have plenty of opportunities to inculcate those rules in your child.

Just as an example: you teach your child that the consonant C followed by e, i and y make the sound /s/. Then you do some activities to practice the new learned rule and keep moving on, then when doing some spelling practice you come across the word key for example, your child spells it right and then you ask why did you choose C instead of K, and guess what's the answer you'll hear? "Because C followed by e, i and y makes the sound /s/ and I need for this word the sound /k/. when you get that type of feedback from your child you know the curriculum is right! If your child doesn't remember the rule, that is an opportunity to see the practical application of the rule and teach them a proper pattern of spelling.

Regarding the Reading curriculum, we love it too and it kind goes along with the All About Spelling lessons. Together they work just fine for us! So we will continue the Level 2 for both All About reading and All About Spelling.

For our Literature Units, we will be reading and working on some activities for the following books:
- Little Women (Louisa May Alcott),
- Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder),
- Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain),
- Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery),
- Pollyana (Eleanor H. Porter),
- Heidi (Johanna Spyri),
- Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)
- and others that will add to the list as we progress with the units.

We already started with our Little Women Literature Study, the lapbook activities I purchased from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

What are your choices for Spelling and Reading? What books will you be reading this year? Any suggestions of books you think are good? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Our Choice of Geography Curriculum!

Last year, we worked on the Road Trip U.S.A from Confessions of a Homeschooler, we didn't finish all the 50 states, but my objective was just to get her acquainted with studying Geography, using maps and whatever she would get out of it would be a huge plus. She did surprise me a lot, as to memorizing the capitals of the states we learned. I'm sure some will come easy to her and other she will need some help to remember now.

Giving that I liked the curriculum Road Trip U.S.A and how exciting it is, I decided to to the Expedition Earth this year - First Grade. We will be "visiting" 31 super cool countries and learn as much as we can from each one of them. I like how Erica suggests to try some of each country food, just some added fun to the "trip".

Here are some pictures of the curriculum and the books we will be using this year.

List of the books we will be using:
- The Usborne Geography Encyclopedia with Complete World Atlas
- A Trip Around the World - Carson Dellosa Publishing
- A New Trip Around the World - Carson Dellosa Publishing
- Another Trip Around the World - Carson Dellosa Publishing
- Animal Habitats by Donald M Silver and Patricia J. Wynne


We started by learning about the continents, oceans, locating them on the map and getting her acquainted with the world map. Then we read the book Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney, and she drew a map of our house.

Next post, we will share the first country we visited, so don't miss it!

What are you using for Geography? we would love to hear from you and get to know other curriculum as well!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

First Day of First Grade!!!

I just can't believe my little girl is getting to be a big girl, she's already in first grade!!! Believe me, we are still struggling with the idea that she's already in first grade, as it seems it was yesterday she was pushing whatever she could find to get her moving around the house and giving her first steps... Wasn't it just the other day that she started babbling!?!?!

Ok, let's face reality then! She is in first grade and we are still digesting but we are excited. Each new phase comes with the good and the great and the challenges. I have a great student, she is eager to learn, she loves and she tells me quite often that she loves that I am her teacher, and boy that melts my heart and just gives me the strength to move on even when sick. I do also love to be her teacher and watch her grow, love the look on her face when she understands something new, it is priceless to be living this everyday!

We spent a few days in NY before we started school, and when we came back neither one of us was feeling well. She developed a mysterious rash for two days, it would come and go, but the doctors (yes we visited more than one), assured me was nothing serious as it promptly went away when we gave her the proper medication.

Mom, however had a terrible cold and I just felt miserable, but she was so excited to start school, use all the new stuff that she had seen coming in... I just couldn't let her down. So we started school, slow pace for those days that I wasn't feeling my best. Daddy was home at the first day and that was a plus, he helped out a lot.

I made an "explosion box" with her favorite treats inside, and her initial on the box. We took the traditional first day picture with the grade sign and had lots of fun on our first day of First Grade!

How was your first day of school? What types of tradition do you have? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

First Grade Science Curriculum!

We have been 5 days into our First Grade School year already and we are enjoying it very much! So, today I want to share with you what is our choice for First Grade Science Curriculum.

We are using the Biology for the Grammar Stage from Elemental Science, and the required books for this curriculum.

This is our first year using this curriculum, and as I mentioned before we've been 5 days into the school year, and so far we are very pleased with the activities, the flow of the curriculum, the books required. I love the activities and there's also an option too purchase the lapbook templates which is one of our favorite type of activity.

Little V will have 20 weeks to learn about animals, 10 weeks to learn about the Human Body and 6 weeks to learn about plants. The lessons are well planned and easy to teach. They provide a list of material needed for each week, to make sure you'll be able to complete the Scientific Demonstrations.

Another thing I liked about this curriculum, is the fact that they give you two possible schedules to be used, and believe me this is very helpful. The options are 2 days a week and 5 days a week. I decided to use the 5 days a week schedule.

While I was checking their sample classes online, I was also able to see the list of books that are required for the curriculum, and that was another plus, as ahead of time I knew what books we would have to purchase and therefore no surprises later.

As you can see in the picture above, I purchased the online version and printed the student workbook and teacher manual at home. The lapbook templates are in the same binder as the student workbook.

Come back to check more about this curriculum and to see Little V having fun while learning Science!

What is your choice of Science Curriculum? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki