Canada Unit

This week we started our Canada unit, and Micaiah was really excited!  We lived in Langley, BC for almost two years while Tim finished his MA in Linguistics (2009-2011).  Consequently we have a lot of friends and a great church family there!  So in honor of the first day of our Canada unit, Micaiah wore her special shirt.  We talked about hockey, maple syrup (a conversation stemming from a discussion about the flag), sang the Canadian national anthem, talked about the loonies/toonies, learned the provinces/territories, and discussed some of the special wildlife (like bears and moose) in parts of Canada.  We even talked in exaggerated Canadian accents!  The only other thing I would have done if I'd had the ingredients was make some Nanaimo Bars ... mmm...

And in case you're wondering, no, we weren't making fun... we were reminiscing about our time in Langley and it made us miss living there.  Micaiah and I both spent a good part of the morning in tears as we remembered our friends, thanked God for the time He gave us there, and prayed that we will have the opportunity to go back, visit, and catch up with them all again soon, Lord-willing.  We have been blessed to have developed such close friendships in such a short time, and we know that was a gift from God.  So this is a shout-out to any of our Langley friends if you happen to be reading this... we miss you!


-JLR
ps... if you're Canadian, what else am I missing that is essential either to your region or to Canada as a whole?  We have one more week of study and I'd love to include your ideas into our lesson plans somehow if possible!

World Cake

Homeschool is fun for a lot of reasons.  But one thing I really love is the surprise activities I randomly find mixed into our curriculum!  At the end of week two, our fine arts assignment was to bake and decorate a world cake.  It was tempting to skip it as I thought through all the work of baking a cake from scratch (no cake mixes out here) and making our own icing (which involves sifting down the super-chunky "powdered" sugar and using precious butter).  Not to mention the fact that we've cut down our sweets quite a bit, and having a cake around is just too tempting!  But I figured out a work-around for that, too. (see below) 

And honestly, I just love making edible art.  My Grandma taught me most of what I know, and the rest I've just experimented with on my own.  She sometimes struggled with a shaky hand, so as a teenager I remember going over to help her with the text... I loved those special times with Grandma! 

Micaiah chose white-on-white, our family's favorite.  One twist is that we love to add almond extract to the icing.  Growing up, I was convinced that all good icing tasted like my Grandma's, which had a heavy almond flavor.  To this day, if you tell me otherwise, I won't believe you.  Almond is the best with white cake.  Period. 

Anyway, back to our cake day...

Micaiah did all the measuring and mixing

 The cake fresh out of the oven. My original plan was do bake the cake in a bowl so we had a hemisphere to work with, but the bowl I wanted to use was cracked and the only other one I have that size is plastic.  Plus, then we'd have to decide which hemisphere is the best---North? South? East? West?  We live in the South/East but are originally from the North/West... we wouldn't want to have to choose.  So it worked out in the end.  We decided to go for a flat map, modeling it after the one in our atlas.  In retrospect we could have trimmed the top and bottom to make it closer to the right shape for this type of map, but it's only second grade...

Sorry there aren't more process pictures.  We were both consumed with the task, I suppose!  First I free-handed the outlines of all seven continents (as we reviewed them).  Micaiah wanted to fill in the continents, which is admittedly much more fun.  We did the same with the five oceans as we reviewed them. 

The final result... we did pretty well, I think!  Plus it accomplished its purpose of helping us review the continents oceans. 

 And then just for fun, we attempted a population map. Totally not accurate, but a GREAT excuse to add sprinkles!  And the oceans got blue sprinkles to help them be physical maps (showing depth)... much easier to remember the different types of maps when you have sprinkles to help you!  And no, I wasn't even going to ATTEMPT a political map!!

It tasted great!  mmmm... almond butter-cream icing.... :)  And to avoid eating it all in one sitting, after we had each had a small slice, we cut the rest into individual servings.  We separated them with small pieces of waxed paper, wrapped the whole thing up in waxed paper and plastic wrap, and popped in the freezer.  Done.  Not staring me in the face, and we could pull it out a piece or two at a time as a treat.

Not a bad way to review maps, continents, and oceans, is it?

-JLR

School-Related Posts

Welcome new readers!  If you are looking for updates about our school adventures, you can find them at the following links:

On to Second Grade!

The Chalkboard

The School Room A picture tour of the school room.
Back-to-School Excitement Some of my school-related musings...

Otherwise, feel free to look around and even glance through our archives.

Thanks for stopping by!

-JLR

Elections From Afar

One of our privileges as Americans is being able to participate in US elections, even from afar.  While the absentee ballot is notoriously not counted during the actual election (unless it is a very close race), it is still our privilege and responsibility as American citizens to have a voice and a vote in our home country.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to participate in a presidential election from the other side of the world?  Well, it is not without its challenges, that's for sure!  There are the obvious practicalities of receiving our absentee ballots in time and/or when to send our replacement ballots if (let's face it *when*) those ballots don't arrive.  We want to wait as long as we can to send them in so we know the most about each candidate and can make informed decisions.  But we also are working with a less-than-reliable mail system where things *might* arrive in 3-4 weeks... Then there's the issue of who to vote for.  Finding the best information and trustworthy sources on the web can be difficult to say the least.  Let's just say we've learned a lot about bias... 

But it can also be a welcomed relief.  We are not constantly inundated with manipulative advertising and campaign ads.  We can read platforms in their entirety and not be swayed by emotions or by what everyone else around us is thinking.  If that sounds more like a down-side than an up-side, be comforted by the fact that technology still enables us to be connected and we hear our fair share of both fact and opinion via the internet, especially facebook. 

But. We. Can. Turn. It. Off. 

I feel sorry for those of you who can't escape it!  Because let's face it, at the end of the day, some things are more important than politics.  Especially when politics incite the kind of anger, hatred, mudslinging, and division that make you stop loving your neighbor.

-JLR
ps.. I do not endorse or affirm any one party or candidate.  I do have my leanings, but unless you've actually taken the time to have an intelligent conversation with me, you may not be able to discern where I stand on ALL issues or which issues are most important to me.  But one that should be obvious... I live in a different country... so how the US relates and interacts with the world is more pragmatic for me than for most US citizens!

Back to School Excitement

I'm going to come right out and say how much I loved school.  It may sound strange to some of you, but I think there might be a few of you out there who were the same.  You might be a back-to-school nerd (like me) if...

...you perused the circulars from various discount stores (Target, Walmart, etc.) for weeks in July and August looking for the best sales and coolest gear.
...you found any excuse to walk past (and pick up a few goodies) at the local discount stores (Target, Walmart, etc.) and couldn't pass up a deal where notebooks, notebook paper, glue, scissors, pens/pencils, or crayons were an exceptionally low price.
...the aforementioned section of Target, Walmart, etc. made you feel at peace and was actually a "fun" place to go spend some time.
...you were excited about meeting your teacher at the classic ice cream social.
...you were excited when the bus company put out its routes.
...you "practiced" getting up early for school and figured out how early you'd need to get up to get everything done and still make it to the bus on time.
...you had a "first day of school outfit" with new shoes (white keds that were never white for long...), and your best clothes.
...you packed your lunch the night before.
...you couldn't wait to see where your desk would be and where you'd keep all of your school supplies.
...you always got a bit nervous when the teacher took attendance-- wondering if he/she would say your name right.  (and being overjoyed if they did!)
...you color-coded your binders/notebooks/folders by subject... red was always math for some reason and blue was almost always for science.  The others varied each year based on what subjects I was taking and what was on sale at the local discount stores (Target, Walmart, etc.)

Does this sound like you?  It was definitely me.  And while living in Tanzania has curbed my living-at-Target-during-back-to-school-sales appetite, I don't know that that's an entirely bad thing.  I was still really excited when Tim brought home two bags filled with binders, dividers, folders, paper, and chalk.  Not quite the same, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  :)

-JLR