Gorgeous Geography...

This lovely little map is more than eye candy...

Make your own with instructions by Kinsey at Crate Paper Blog,
[found via One Pretty Thing].

Love this!

An African Adventure

I have begun reading this blog to my children...mostly to my oldest, but my 2 year old is invited to listen in too.  She usually listens for awhile, and then plays, listens then plays.  [This is also how she likes to eat...nibble, play, nibble, play.] 

A friend of mine sent me the link several weeks ago, and after reading the first year, I decided that this girl's experience was one I would like to share with my family.  I started at the beginning [2007] and I haven't read past the first year, so I can't verify whether it's all kid appropriate or not.  In fact, you will need to decide for yourself as a parent what information to share with your child and what you may want to exclude from your reading and conversations.  [...as with anything] 

For example, in the entries we read yesterday, a man in the village across the river was eaten by a crocodile and Katie intervened during a brutal domestic attack.  These stories were not at all graphic, but the reality of it is intense whether the information is detailed or not.  I opted to read the entirety of the passage with my son.  We paused to talk about each incident and I think he handled the information well.  Had my daughter been listening, I may have chosen to omit those sentences as I read.  But I'm glad I was able to address the issues of death and violence with my son in this straightforward and simple way. 

The blog is not written for children.  I like to read adult literature to my son sometimes because he is presented with new words and challenged to think about the context and surrounding information to figure out the meaning.  We pause often as we read Katie's entries to discuss things like language barriers, what it means to be an orphan, poverty, what does industry mean, what do we use cotton for, what is a gecko, what is transportation and many other questions that arise from her story.  We both really enjoyed discovering these things together!

We spent some time studying our globe together.  We found the USA and discovered where we live.

Then located Africa...

...and then Uganda. 

He pointed out that he already knew where Madagascar was.  Which suprised me, until he explained that Dad had shown him once when they were talking about the movie.  Ah-ha!  :)

Then we learned about continents.  I am always amazed at his incredible memory.  We spent some time studying them in the morning, and when Dad came home around 8:30 in the evening, he could find and name all of them...with a little help remembering how to say "Australia".  Yay!  We used those great free Crayola coloring pages I posted about.  Here is the continents worksheet. 

He also colored the Ugandan flag using the color by number worksheet.

This upcoming year I would like use nations and cultures as the foundation of our studies.  For example, as we are learning about Katie's journey in Uganda, we can learn about the animals that live there [like geckos and crocodiles] or learn about measurements and cooking while we make beans and rice for dinner [African staples] - you get the idea.  It's also been on my heart to pray with my children for people around the world. 

I think there are so many valuable lessons to be learned through these studies beyond academics: a thankful heart for how blessed we are; compassion and concern for those who are in need, the knowledge that God is working throughout the earth and that the world is much bigger than our own lives. 

I'm genuinely looking forward to tomorrow's lessons.

Crayola Coloring Pages

Alright...I have discovered a new favorite site.  [Ok, well, it's probably not my MOST favorite, but I'm pretty-much excited I found it.] 

 Crayola.  

Why did I not think to visit there before?  Silly me.  All you other moms are probably thinking, "Get with the program, woman!"  BUT...if you are like me and are usually one step behind, then maybe you will appreciate this post. 

Crayola.com offers over 1,000 free coloring pages to print.  You can also color them online.  [Their online coloring is actually kind of fun to play with].  In addition, students can design their own coloring pages to print.  AND...they add new images every month...supposedly.  I haven't known about the site long enough to investigate this, but I've been checking back often in hopes of finding more fun pages!

What I'm really excited about is that many of their pages are educational... 

They provide pages on Presidents of the United States, and Canadian Prime Ministers.

George Washington & Sir Mackenzie Bowell

I found pages with information about each state and images of the state flag and state birds, or flowers to color; as well as flashcards with the state outlines and capitals, along with other facts about each state.

Illinois coloring page & Illinois flashcard

AND, similar pages for nearly 200 different nations!

You probably can't see it, but the USA flag is a "color by number" drawing.

They also provide a world map of the 7 continents to complete and color.  Along with several pages of historical or famous geographic sites.

You can print out activity pages about Lewis & Clark, Charles Lindbergh, and other famous people.

Need an activity for anatomy? 

How about a diagram of the human eye, heart, organs, skeleton or cell?  

Hey - great news!  You can find them here.

[Can you tell I had fun finding all of these?]

I know it's not all 2 year old material here...but they also had lots of coloring pages for a younger age group too.

Some of my favorites are the "complete the picture" pages.  I love that the child's creativity is encouraged with many of the coloring pages Crayola provides on their site.

Stock the Grocery Store...

Create an invention...

Draw the creatures and plants that live in the water.

They have several math and numbers worksheets.  Like this one:

I found many cultural and historical activity pages.  These show your student how to make a sled dog mobile and a Viking ship and a Chinese lantern.

Crayola offers pages for every letter of the alphabet, with pictures to color that begin with that letter, and ideas of activities parents and teachers can do with students to help reinforce what they are learning.  Here is the "A" page:

Additionally, you can print handwriting practice sheets for both printing and cursive.

And they have lots and lots of just for fun pictures, many of which could be easily incorporated into a topical study...like a butterfly mask, when you're studying insects.  And they have several mini books to print, fold and color.   This book is about rhymes:

 You can find various charts, like this calendar template.

Your child might enjoy color by number pages, or dot to dot worksheets; word searches or other games, like shape and travel bingo. 

But one of our personal favorites:

...stand up animals.

My son made every single one they offered.  He loved it! 

[And my daughter even helped color the turtle.]

We made an alligator,

A cow,

A giraffe,

A horse,

A tiger,

And a turtle.

Here is an example of what these activity pages look like:

Now, go explore for yourself and find something creative to do with your kiddos.  :)