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Arctic Unit Free Guides & Resources

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I was trying to put off this unit study on the Arctic Unit Free Guide Resources and the Inuit until we at least got our annual 2 days of winter here in Texas.

We wanted to get in a winter sort of mood but like I mentioned last week it has been so spring like here, it has been hard to do that.

Arctic Unit Free Guide Resources

But anyway, we are going forward because we are really excited about starting this unit study.

Well at least Tiny and I are but not so sure about my older boys though. They are killing me I am telling you by staying on their topic of choice, the FBI.

Also, go here to the finished Unit Study Arctic and Inuit Lapbook.

When I start a unit study, I like to start off listing or picturing a lot of my resources. That way if you decide to trail along you can. Here are some of the books and magazines I have in my home library that I will be using. Some I have had for a while, others I collected prior to starting because I had an idea of what we wanted to study for this year. 

Recently, I added in the collection of Julie of the Wolves.

One book that is pictured above and is a keepsake is The Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling written in the 1930’s. 

Beautifully written with rich language as is the style of all of his books, this book explains the different types of Native Americans: northeast woods, plains, desert and northwest coastal.

Though he still uses the word Indian instead of Native American, the stories and sketches are still just worth poring over. So without even hitting the library which I don’t like to have to do all the time, I have enough resources in my home to start this unit.

Am I the only that doesn’t like having to go the library every time? True, it may get expensive but I look at my reference books like my curricula instead of always choosing laid out curricula.

Then the next step in starting my unit is to locate resources that are not just free but that are some better choices. This unit is rich with geography and animal and plant life. But there are other topics too that can be included for the older kids.

Like this lesson plan above that is for grades 5-8. It has a template for snow goggles and talks about limiting sunlight.

Click here to download the free guide.

This next download which includes the two pictures above gives the background of the Arctic region along with case studies on the caribou and the Arctic Tern.

Click here to download the 15 pdf.

This next guide or I should say guides talk about the Arctic animals listed above. There are two guides or grade levels on this teacher’s guide from Seaworld.

These guides are real informative along with having picture cards of the various animals to cut out. Having these guides makes learning this unit easy because a lot of the work is already done.

Click here to download Arctic Animals 4th-8th and Arctic Animals K – 3.

I also see some vocabulary words emerging here. Look at both of these teacher’s guides on the Arctic Animals because they include vocabulary for each level.

Each person’s list will look different depending on what you think your children need to focus on. Here are some of mine I am brainstorming for my youngest.

Arctic Region. (You know a lot of kids, mine too when they were young and we were going over continents, got this mixed up thinking it was a continent instead of a region encompassing several countries). Also, we will focus on: tundra, Inuit, kayak, permafrost, lichen, diapause, scrimshaw and blubber.

I think too this unit just screams a lapbook, don’t you think? Yep, lapbook coming this month too on this newest unit. I have lots more links and hands-on ideas to share with you as we plod along on this unit.

Next post, I will share our first hands-on project for this new unit.

I love this winter quote today:

“I like these cold, gray winter days.  Days like these let you savor a bad mood.”

  ~Bill Watterson~

Cop an Attitude about Organization

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Copping an attitude is not just for our two year olds. If we want to be successful at organization we need to cop a positive attitude about it.

A positive attitude affects what we want to achieve and sticks with us longer than any negatives we keep bringing up about our lack of self discipline or lack of consistency. Until we visualize the kind of homeschooling life we desire, we won’t get motivated about it.

What motivates me won’t motivate you. So how can you be determined to stay motivated? It comes from having a very clear picture of what YOU want.

In our August workshop, we encourage you to WRITE DOWN your goals and what brought you to homeschooling. Did you do that? Did you include how you do not want to be unorganized? It is your MISSION STATEMENT and your personal vision. This is different than a plan. Plans (or curricula) on how we achieve our personal vision will change, come and go and they should, but not our vision.

What you have done is set very clear expectations for your journey. You have determined your success.

So what do you really want? Do you really want to live in a chaos free household or stress free ? True, we know there are no guarantees as "life happens", but when you remind yourself daily of what you want, organization can be achieved.

Overcoming organizational hurdles like how we balance our time each day and clean our home can be reached through routine. Routine and organization do not stifle creativity, spur of the moment responses or cause boredom.

A consistent routine allows time for creativity and taking advantage of spur of the moment decisions we want to make in our day because our time and home are relatively uncluttered. Time to respond to the moment and live carefree are so much more exhilarating when we know we have kept our routine. We can savor the freedom.

Routine can be defined as "ordinary and regular". It is a blessing to have taught children and it is accomplished through "ordinary and regular" days not boring days.

Establish a routine that works for you. Teach the quality of orderliness to your children.

Blemishes are part of homeschooling. Our houses are our "hearts" and our hearts are not perfect. Strive for clutter free homes with some blemishes. That is realistic and not extreme.

No amount of articles and books on organization will be of any value unless you have attitude.

Attitude affects EVERYTHING, do you have it? :o)

©Tina Robertson

Menu Planning – A Lifesaver!

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If there is anything more satisfying in your endeavor to be organized and one of the very “first steps” to the “organization road”, it has to be meal planning. It gives a satisfying “return” quickly. We all want to see a “profitable return” on our time.

Meal planning is tops on the list for that profitable return.   How so? Look at this list.

menu planning in homeschool organization

 

1. Less time is spent in the kitchen (it’s true)

2. Direction for what to fix for supper at the end of a hard day of homeschooling is a stress reliever

3. If your family has special health needs, they can be filled

4. Less time in the grocery store

5. Less money spent because we are not making several trips and we are getting everything we need

6. More variety equals more enjoyment by our family

Now, since we live in a “different world” than most folks when it comes to everyday living, I won’t share with you crazy things on how to add variety, choose foods for eye appeal, contrast and balance foods,etc. Although it is good advice to follow, when you are trying to survive in the homeschool world, those things are secondary.

In reality, my family doesn’t mind simple meals and will eat chicken two days in a row. Of course, each family is different but the most important thing is to menu plan.

 Menu Planning – A Lifesaver?

1. Start with the recipes your family enjoys the most. When I first started, I could only think of 5. So it made me start to try out different meals. My family appreciated the variety.

2. Think of a system that works for you. I prefer a 5 inch notebook with page protectors. I don’t store cookbooks, I throw them away after going through them. See, in my ideal perfect world all of my pages would look the same in my ideal perfect cookbook, you know same font, same border BUT I don’t live in that world.

So my page protectors are filled with handwritten pages, recipes on index cards, typed pages, pages torn out from recipe books and various other assorted colors. BUT it is organized and tabbed for ME and how my family eats.

Don’t wait until you have the “perfect look” as THAT is NOT organization and you won’t take the FIRST STEP. Again organization is about making it work for YOU.

Some moms prefer an online free planner or even recipes on index cards or even a Word Document that you can add to each time. Find a system for you.

3. Spend time on your Grocery List. My Grocery List is set up “Aisle by Aisle” for Kroger (The store I do most of my food shopping at). If you take time to type one Master List and then put it on the refrigerator, then ALL family members can contribute to checking off when they used the item last.

I can’t express enough how much my printed grocery list has been a huge help to me through the years. I can update it any time. It also allows my sons to shop with Dad independent of me and now that my oldest will be driving, he can shop alone as he has a list “aisle by aisle”

Too, some moms prefer to laminate their list. ME, I prefer to print off like 20, keep them in my binder and then pull one out at the end of the week and put on the refrigerator.

So when it’s time for the grocery store, your list is half done. It saves time too while you are cooking since you don’t have to stop and write, just check off on your list what you need.

4. The last tip, try menu planning for a MONTH and not a week. This doesn’t mean you can’t buy weekly and take advantage of coupons but it means you have taken the time to plan for the MONTH and have flexibility within that month if you need to change things around.

Planning weekly is exhausting as the end of the week is here before you know it and there you sit on Sunday with what to fix the next week.

Menu Planning is a KEEPER when your day is full of homeschooling, activities and children.

Don’t deprive them, take time to do it and it’s WORTH every ounce of work you put into it.

Hugs to you and WHAT’S FOR SUPPER?

©Tina Robertson

Just breathe……..

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Be selfish, very very selfish because we will all face the same decision soon. Will we homeschool through to high school or turn the teaching reins over to somebody else?

I use to read articles about homeschooling through high school and would quickly glance over them. Sometimes, I would not read them at all{me bad} because that time seemed so far off. I figured by the time we get to high school, someone else would be teaching my sons.

Feeling vulnerable and being concerned that we are not going to adequately prepare our children for life can be gut wrenching.

Yet the time is almost here when my oldest son graduates next year. It is possible to go from vulnerable, scared, unprepared and not confident to being very, very selfish. Yes I get plain jealous thinking somebody else should teach him at the most critical time of his life. I won’t share his training for the future with anybody. Yes I’m selfish that way.

When the time came for high school and even a year or two before, it just seemed a natural continuation of the journey to keep on schooling him.

High School Years | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Three things that helped me to remember that during the high school years we are still our child’s best teacher.

Look ahead. My husband and I feel that we have a junior partner in his education. No longer is he this 4 or 5 year old boy looking at me in wonder. He is a young adult, not a bigger child. He comes with a plan {although not always perfect}, an individual mind set, goals for his education, personality and oh yes strong opinions opposite of his father and myself at times. Bravo.

Look past it. Look past transcripts, chemistry, calculus and algebra. Homeschooling through to high school is not just about academics. While it’s true that knowledge is power in understanding your options, it’s equally important to remember that high school options are clear cut. The method to arriving at your options are precise. Will he go to a four year college? Will he do some missionary work? Will he go to a technical school? Will he do college courses at home?

You probably already have some idea. There is not as much guesswork as there was in the earlier years. For example, colleges have very specific guidelines they want you to follow. There are specific guidelines for scholarships, the work force and yes even when he obtains his license to drive.

Look past the mechanics and focus your energy on his heart. When he is a grown man sitting there weighing your advice against his own judgment, does he know in his heart your advice is for his eternal welfare?

Look back. Take time to savor the past. As my oldest son sat in my lap and I helped him mouth his first words or put the pencil in his tiny hand or helped him fold his hands in prayer, I was still the best teacher for him. Looking back, I realize that homeschooling through high school doesn’t mean I can’t get help from tutors, co-ops, or even classes. As long as it fits in what my end goals are, I am still the teacher.

I regret worrying so much about “that time”. So be jealous, very, very jealous and revel in teen life. My teen sons want to be treated as individuals. They need more than anything to be understood and help with their goals.

Place a high value on your time during the teen years and then you’re not so ready to swap your time. When the teen years come, remember that learning is lifetime. Just breathe and take the next step.

{I think I have a graduation party to plan!}

The Selfish Mom

I think we are ready for the next part for our Home Management Binder. Do you think we can have it done by spring? Then it can be all ready for spring cleaning and those projects.

Here is a quote I think about today as we choose homeschooling and dare to venture on to high school.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

~ Apple Inc.~

Hugs to ya

Tina

Can I really homeschool my special needs child?

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homeschooling a special needs child

Before I share a tidbit or two about this for those with a special needs child, please accept my hugs, love and prayers. Too, I want to say I do not have a special needs child. Then how can I write this?

Because for years and years I have been mentoring them, supporting them, crying with them and lovin’ them. I don’t know if it qualifies me anymore or less, but I want to share with you what I have learned in mentoring them, in the hopes it can give you comfort, strength and courage.

Homeschooling A Special Needs Child

First, nobody TRULY understands your circumstances more than you do. As each new learning approach and curriculum comes along, you will have to analyze it and see if it works for you. Your love for your child and understanding their heart along with prayer will guide you to successfully navigate your way through this journey.

Too, homeschooling a special needs child takes courage but also there will be times that you will need to get away from them. In order to be refreshed and renew your energy, take time to do that. You need this more so than any other parent that is homeschooling. On a daily basis, you may be dealing with outright acting up to almost no input receive from your child.

A networking system of either support from your spouse, extended family members or an agency set up to help you is absolutely necessary so that you can persevere.

There is not really a curriculum for a special needs child. However, there is curriculum that is more “user friendly” as far as making it fit your child’s need.

READ, READ, READ everything you can on your child’s disorder and determine to become “THE EXPERT” in whatever your child was diagnosed with.

Here are few book I enjoyed:

Taking Charge of ADHD – Russell Barkley. Also, his website has some  nice fact sheets that you mind find helpful.

Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level – Dr. Sally Shaywitz

Also, look at Jan Bedell’s site who is a homeschooling mom and neurodevelopmentalist. She does have some curriculum that is more “user friendly”. She has a free auditory test kit as well on her site.

http://www.littlegiantsteps.com/.  They are constantly given free evaluations.

Lastly, accept your child for who he is and not what you think he should be. Remember, love has no limits.

From my heart to yours, please know that all you moms and dads of special needs children have a soft place in my heart. You CAN DO IT!!

©Tina Robertson