Book Club: Ballerina! by Peter Sis

 

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In this adorable little board book – Ballerina! – we meet Terry who loves ballet and learn about different colors as the story progresses. The book has simple illustrations of black and white with the colorful illustrations being those in the picture frame or mirror of the different ways in which Terry dances.

Physical Education

This book presents the opportunity to get up and move with your preschoolers and young children. Here are a few of the ways in which you and your children can get active after reading Ballerina:

• Stretch
• Twirl
• Leap
• Reach
• Dip
• Flutter
• Float

Music Education 

In addition to practicing your dancing moves, you and your children can listen to and watch different ballets including those mentioned in the book: 

• The Nutcracker
• Swan Lake
• Cinderella

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker 

Swan Lake Act II

Cinderella Overview 

Learning the Colors 

Whether your children know their colors or need some help, this book presents a great opportunity to review the different colors as Terry pretends to dance. If you have different colored scarves – green blue, violet, red, pink, yellow, white – you could imitate the moves of the book as you call out the colors. For example: "Leap for Red" or "White for Dip." 

Painting a Ballerina 

Bringing art into your day can be quite easy. I sketched a ballerina for our children to paint. We used Kwix Stix Tempura Paint and they turned out very colorful!

In addition to painting your own ballerina, one could study famous artists like Edgar Degas and view some of his paintings and sculptures.

painting by Degas from wpClipart.com

 

Resources

• Edgar Degas: Painting and Drawing at The Met
• Fun Facts About Ballet Dancing from Easy Science for Kids 
• A Brief History of Ballet from Atlanta Ballet 

Looking for more fun activities centering around children's books? Our children have read about flamingos and created masks, journeying into space with a Mousetronaut, and made dog puppets when reading about pugs. 

A Fantastic Fit for Homeschooling Our High School Student: A Review of SchoolhouseTeachers.com

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a wonderful resource for all your homeschooling needs. From planners to holiday-themed unit studies, an Ultimate Annual Yearly Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers more than just its 425+ courses for grades Pre-K to 12. There are so many great resources that one review is not enough! Be sure to check out my other reviews (An All-in-One Curriculum, Preschool: Learning Through Art, High School Science for Homeschoolers, or Homeschooling and Creativity Go Hand-in-Hand) of SchoolhouseTeachers.com and those of the rest of the Homeschool Review Crew, too.

An Ultimate Annual Yearly Membership will provide you with access to over 425 courses for preschool to high school as well as parent and family courses, access to World Book tools, Applecourse (which offers course tracking, grade reporting, and more), and a Just for Parents section with courses about Charlotte Mason homeschooling, Everyday Organization, and also access to an eBook library for parents.

While using SchoolhouseTeachers.com over the course of the past school year for our teenage son's complete curriculum, we have discovered many great courses and features. For example, we are using the subscription to RightNow Media for our son to complete Foundations for Teens and our younger children have watched From Aardvark to Zucchini.

How Our Family is Using SchoolhouseTeachers.com

Our teen decided to be homeschooled this year, so the first thing that we did was create a Bookmark Collection for him and saved all of the different courses that might fit his sophomore year. When done, we had saved about 18 classes including:

• Foundations for Teens
• Addressing Cultural Issues 
• Image Editing and Creation Lessons 
• Apologetics: Creation vs. Evolution Archives
• General Biology by Core Academy Lessons
• Geometry with Mr. D Math Lessons
• French Lessons Archive
• American Literature in Historical Context Lessons

Just a few of the courses we bookmarked for our teenage son.

We narrowed it down to the core classes he would need and then electives. I then used the SchoolhouseTeachers.com Planner – which is an editable PDF file – to set out a course schedule, a 36-week plan, and then daily assignments. I love that I can edit the schedule as well as prepare it for one, two, or more children. It makes it so easy to be flexible when homeschooling.

Image cover for the great planner! I love being able to edit it on my laptop or desktop.

Our schedule printed out. If things change, I can copy and paste the information to another week.

Our son completes his coursework each day using the papers necessary, which I print out monthly. Each day, I put what needs to be completed in a file folder for him. He completes tasks both on paper and on the computer. I can then print out his essays and other documents as needed to include in his binder.

A few of our son's worksheets and notes printed out and stored in his binder.

We have two homeschooling binders for his work – one which our son can reference whenever he needs to and one in which I keep quizzes, tests, and other future assignments. We have also created two shared folders on Google Drive with all of his downloaded files from SchoolhouseTeachers.com and his own word documents and photos for his Image Editing course.

One of the photos our son edited in his Image Editing course.

A Typical Day Using SchoolhouseTeachers.com for Homeschooling a Teen 

Our teen may start his homeschool day watching a video from RightNow Media for his Foundations for Teens course. Each video has an accompanying worksheet – some have essay questions for him to complete, as well. Next, our son may read a biology assignment for General Biology by Core Academy Lessons. The course offers several reading suggestions using texts from different publishers as well as a free downloadable text. You could print the text, read it on a tablet, or on the computer.

Another course our son is taking is French. Each lesson has an audio component to help with pronunciation. There are also exercises at the end of the unit. We are supplementing this French course with a workbook to add in extra grammar and vocabulary practice.

He will then round off his day with the rest of his courses: math, history (for which he is using World Book Online for many assignments), American Literature, and more. Using SchoolhouseTeachers.com allows us to be very flexible. Some days he may work on all his subjects, while other days he may only study a few.

Other Homeschooling Perks of SchoolhouseTeachers.com 

One of the other benefits is a subscription to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. This beautiful, full color magazine contains multiple articles ranging from seasonal topics like "Beating the Winter Blues" to interviews, schooling ideas, and a directory of freebies and samples for homeschooling families.

Another great feature is the forum exclusively for SchoolhouseTeachers.com members. There are a number of fantastic boards, such as places to meet and greet each other online, ask for ideas for specific subject areas, swap recipes, and ask about specific courses. Everyone is so supportive!

With new courses being added on a regular basis, SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a valuable homeschooling resource for your family. We feel blessed to be able to use the SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership on our homeschooling journey. Our teen is enjoying his courses, setting his own pace, and focusing on his interests. Our younger children are able to learn together as the courses are easy to adapt for use with a preschooler and kindergartner. This is one homeschooling product that will be a great use for years to come for our family.

Do You Want to Learn More?

To learn more about SchoolhouseTeachers.com please visit:

Facebook – Twitter – Pinterest 

And don't forget, you can see how other homeschoolers use SchoolhouseTeachers.com by visiting the Homeschool Review Crew's blog! 

Top Five Tips for Studying History

Studying the past does not have to be difficult or challenging. No matter what your own personal learning style is or that of your children, you can study the events of the past in a way that will make it meaningful for you and your family.

There are several questions you should ask yourself when you approach the study of history for your own knowledge or that of your homeschooling children.

Five Questions to Ask  

1. How do I want to study history? Do I want to study the history of countries, nations, or geographical locations? 
2. What are the most important things to remember? Do I want to memorize dates, places, and people or big ideas? 
3. Are the stories of individuals more important to me than the stories of nations and countries? 
4. Where should I seek information? Do we want to use mostly primary sources like letters, diaries, telegrams, or newspapers? Or do we want to stick to secondary sources like textbooks or books written by historians and others? 
5. How big a role will movies, television documentaries and specials, field trips, or reenactments play in our study of history? 

Help for History

Here are some great places to visit – just keep in mind that every source will have a point of view and their own perspective on topics. Read information you gather with a discerning eye. (Please note: I am NOT responsible for the content on the pages.)

School History – History Teacher Resources & Lesson Plans 

This British site offers many free lessons and worksheets to help you study or teach history.

Historyteacher.net 

An excellent collection of lessons, worksheets, PowerPoints, and links from a retired New York State teacher. The page was last revised in 2016 so there may be broken links.

Teacher Resources at the Library of Congress 

There are so many fantastic resources at the LOC – classroom materials, primary source documents (photographs, music, videos, etc), and information about classes and professional development.

World War I Document Archive 

This may be a bit specific but I just love the fact that one can read original documentation – telegrams, treaties, and more – as well as find links to photographs and more information for WWI all in one place. I have used this resource on many occasions when teaching and studying World War I.

The National Archives

This site offers resources for both teachers and students studying the medieval world to the present day from a British perspective. Personally, I like the organization of the site. It makes it easy to find what you might be looking for or you might start a journey on a new topic just by browsing.

Vocabulary 

Having a basic understanding of some key vocabulary is a great beginning for any history course.

If you want to download my list of Important History Vocabulary, you can do so here. A few of the words that I recommend you, your students, or your children become familiar with as you study history include:

• Culture
• Empire 
• Historiography 
• Interpretation
• Methodology 
• Nation 
• Nullification 

You will these and many others on my Important History Vocab sheet. 

Geography 

Being able to locate the places you are studying on a map is important and can help you remember more details. Whether you have a map of the world or your nation hanging in your home or you pull up a map on your phone or tablet, it is important to be able to place locations of events around the world.

Here are a few resources to get you started:

Education.com – Geography Worksheets & Free Printables offers some free worksheets to help you study the different aspects of geography from reading maps to labeling countries.

TLSBooks.com – Free Geography Worksheets for Preschool-Sixth Grade offers puzzles, name that state worksheets, and maps to help you study geography.

Perspective 

My final tip when studying history is one I briefly touched upon earlier: No matter what your resource – primary or secondary documents/sources, books, videos, photographs, online material – you must keep in mind point of view and perspective. Everyone involved has an agenda and wants to impart their point of view or opinion to the reader or viewer. So just like when you view social media from today, you should view historical information with a discerning eye.

If you want to read more history-related posts, please check out the following:

Looking Forward to February

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During the month of February, A Mom's Quest to Teach will be sharing several reviews including a new review of SchoolhouseTeachers.com and reviews of more unique products to use in your homeschooling journey. We will also be sharing children's books and activities through Book Club, tips to study history, and writing prompts for the month of March. 

Blogging through the Alphabet 

Starting in February, I will also be joining up with several other bloggers on a new journey through the alphabet. Each week I will continue to share history-themed posts starting with Appomattox and continuing through with other posts about the American Civil War, China, World War II, and other topics. 

I hope you will join me this month to discover more about history, new products, and more! 

Roses, Shadows, and Snow...Writing about the Happenings of February with Free Writing Prompts

The year seems like it just started and we are already getting ready to see if Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow, buying flowers and candy for Valentine's Day, and maybe even preparing to celebrate Presidents' Day. Have you kept up with writing for yourself or your children?

I must admit preparing prompts for February was more difficult because the first things that automatically come to mind are ideas involving Valentine's Day. Is there more to February than the day when people exchange Valentine's Day? Of course! What topics would you spend the month writing about?

Photo Prompts 

Writing Prompts 

Click here to download your free writing prompts! 

Interested in the others from the Free Writing Prompts collection? You can find January, December, November, and October on A Mom's Quest to Teach.

Did you or your children write any interesting stories using the prompts? I would love to hear about them. 

Images are made using Canva.com

I linked up with Timberdoodle this month!