Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Activity, Change, Progress

Welcome

Inuit Art, Arctic Circle + 10 Notebooking Pages & Free Resources

| Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

We kept on rolling with a unit study on Inuit Art, Arctic Circle and 10 Notebooking Pages. Look at the completed unit Arctic and Inuit Unit Study Free Lapbook & Hands-On Ideas.

Focusing on some of the beautiful art work of the Inuit, we learned about soapstone carving and scrimshaw.

The Inuit often carved beautiful and elaborate masks and sculptures.

They used bone, ivory and animal antlers. Today, soapstone (a soft rock) is used too.

I find this point made by the Eskimo Art Gallery helpful in rounding out our definition of soapstone carvings: People frequently ask us for ‘soapstone carvings’, but this term is generally a misnomer. When Inuit Artists began sculpting in stone on a larger scale, their art became known as “soapstone carvings,” regardless of the stone used.

If you get a chance, look at some of the beautiful artwork done at that gallery.

Also, the Free Spirit Gallery was educational in understanding about the materials the Inuit used then and what they use today for their native art.

Picture attribution.

A lot of the shapes, as we learned, were quite simple and emphasis was put on enjoying the process of either telling stories through their handiwork or just being at one with nature.

Inuit Art

Whale ivory was a popular material used too to carve figures either of their environment or even mythological creatures.

We also learned about the art of scrimshaw which is basically carving or etching bone used by Native Americans and then staining the surface.

Scrimshaw is also using pictures that told stories and they are usually carved on ivory walrus tusks and whale bones.

The boys tried their hand on simple carvings since we had a couple of bars of ivory soap laying around. I wished I had the bigger bars because it would have been easier to carve, but these worked too.

The boys heard the words carve and gathered up their dissection kit to use. I think any true wood carver might shudder at the sight of the tools they gathered to use in this project.

They tried a simple drawing first like the polar bear and are still working on perfecting it.

In the meantime, I have new printables ready for you. 

I have 10, well actually 11 notebooking pages. 

Notebooking Pages

The Map It page is made in duplicate because one page provides blanks to label for some easy geography and the other Map It page has been labeled already so there is no writing involved.

The second page can be used as a reference page or by a younger child or because you feel your child has done enough writing.

The first set of printables focuses on the Arctic Circle, some basic geography and Inuit Art. The second set of printables focuses on the animals of the tundra.

I have a lapbook coming too on this unit and wanted to give you a heads up on some other minibooks I have created for animals.

You may prefer to use the ones I have coming instead of the notebooking pages or you can use them in addition to the notebooking pages.

Do you remember this meander book on my Westward Ho unit? Well, this unit just calls for a tiny set of books like I used in the Westward Ho unit because there are so many more animals that we can mention.

So if your child doesn’t want to use the animal notebooking pages, I have some meander minibooks coming on animals that will go in the lapbook.

Here is a glimpse of one mini meander book I have prepared on the Atlantic Puffin.

As you can see, it will be just big enough for a few words to describe about each animal. Tiny still loves this meander mini book. And if you are like us you are doing lots of writing anyway, so I try to keep the lapbooks fun and light on writing.

I also wanted to give you a few more free resources that I have used this week and that have been particularly helpful in doing this unit study. Anymore there is so much free on the internet, it just takes a tad bit of time to organize it and that is normally all I have.

They explain about some of the art and materials use and are a very nice free resource.

Arctic Circle

All About the Inuit for Kids. This is an overall good and easy site to understand about the art, music and animals of the Inuit.

Here is another lesson plan on soap sculpture that is a 9 page download.

Here are some sites I will be using this week and in upcoming lessons.

Biomes: Land of the Inuit  A good lesson plan to compare modern day Inuit to those of the past. Most cultures like to be seen as progressive and the Inuit are no different either. This helps to move our children beyond thinking that the Inuit only live in igloo huts.

History Through Arts

Another soap sculpture lesson plan but this actually focus on stone and not soap. It helps to explain artistic style by viewing different angles.

HOW TO GRAB THE FREE ARCTIC & INUIT LAPBOOK & NOTEBOOKING PAGES

Finally, how to grab the free 34 page lapbook and notebooking pages. It’s a subscriber freebie.

 1) Sign up on my list.
 2)  Grab the freebie now.
3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

Arctic Unit Free Guides & Resources

| 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

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

| Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

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!

| Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

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……..

| Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

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