a new reading challenge, an award, and the 500th post!

First: the challenge!



I love challenges. My 2 oldest children and I are participating this month in NaNoWriMo which is a writing challenge and I also have an Art Every Day challenge going on at my create corner. When I read about the 100 books a month challenge at home-grown kids, I knew we had to participate. The challenge is to read 100 books every month. Leslie is commiting to this until the end of May 2010. I think that's a great idea and we will try to continue until the end of our school year. I will post a monthly list with our 100 books. It will be a mixture of picture books, novels, non-fiction books and probably a few graphic novels too, most from the local library.


Second: the award!

Leslie at home-grown kids has given me an award! WOW! Thank you so much Leslie. I am very honoured. It is such a nice award too...the Kreativ Blogger Award. I am very much like Leslie, in that I enjoy being able to share my homeschooling experiences with others, and I hope to be helpful as well when I am sharing ideas or projects on my blog. I am so happy that Book Sharing Monday has grown the way it has!

Leslie posted a few rules that came with accepting this award. It isn't mean to be held on to--it's to be passed along. They are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy and paste the award on your own blog (if I nominated you, you shoud be receiving the award in an e-mail as I have disabled the copy and paste function on my blog).

3. Link the person who nominated you.

4. Name seven things about yourself that folks may not know.

5. Nominate seven Kreativ bloggers

6. Post links to the seven bloggers you nominate

7. Leave comments on each of the blogs letting them know that you have nominated them

Here are seven things about myself that you might not know...

1. my oldest daughter (12) is almost as tall as me, I am pretty short (about 5ft3)


2. my kids and I love to dance around the house with the music blaring (I like pretty much any kind of music as long as it is not screaming-hard-rock-type)


3. one of my favourite desserts is one my mother used to make: bananas cooked in butter with brown and white sugar, slowly in a non-stick pan...yummy


4. I fall asleep with a book almost every night, right now it's the Artemis Fowl series (5th one)


5. I start my day very early (about 5 am, not necessarily my choice, but my dog's)
6. I have an addiction: it's called the internet, blogs, and facebook ;)
7. I like making lists.

Now on to the 7 nominations ~ and these are in no particular order:

1. For being a huge inspiration and giving us guidance in our nature study, Barb at Handbook of Nature Study/Harmony Art Mom . Barb hosts the Outdoor Nature Challenges that we have been taking part of for the last few weeks, using the Handbook of Nature Study as the main textbook. Each of her posts is full of information and activities to do with our children, and she also explains what to do to prepare ourselves as parents so that we can introduce nature in a fun and gentle way, that never feels like a science lesson to me. I also like to leave her blog up on my computer and put the volume up to listen to the beautiful nature sounds playing. Barb's other blog Harmony Art Mom hosts the Sketch Tuesday (another great activity).



2. Lapaz Home Learning is another homeschooling blog that I have been reading for a while now. She has moved from Alaska to Florida not long ago, and I have enjoyed looking at her photographs from both places. Theresa has had so many great ideas on her blog, many Montessori inspired. Learning always looks fun with her!



3. Carol at You're Not Lost, You're Here is one of my "real-life" friends (hi Carol!). She has introduced me to many wonderful free activities (especially the Journey North Mystery Class) and many many great books. She has inspired me over the years to trust my instintcs and do what I think is best for my children when it comes to home schooling. Thank you Carol :)



4. Lisa at Living Life Without Limits is another "real-life" friend. Her family decided last year to leave it all behind and start their life on the road. They are truly living without limits! Her blog is full of gorgeous photos from the places they visited and stories from the road and their new life.



5. Handmade Homeschool is another one of my favourites. Her regular feature "A Quote and a Question" gives me a chance to pause and think for a few minutes. She always has beautiful photographs to accompany those quotes too. I am a visual person and her sketches are absolutely gorgeous. I am planning on re-visiting her great list of handmade gift ideas very soon to get started on my Christmas gifts list.



6. Connie at Dirty Footprints Studio is not a home schooler, but an art teacher. Her blog is one of my personal favourite as it always inspires me to include art in my day, and I also appreciate how genuine she is. I discovered her blog while I was participating in the online book club the Next Chapter and we were wrecking our journals at the same time! Her blog description is perfect : "Dirty Footprints Studio provides an inspiring, fun environment where creative expression and self discovery are cultivated and nurtured through art education that focuses on celebrating individuality, supporting community, and enhancing lifelong learning."
   
   
7. The Well-Read-Child is a wonderful blog for reading children books reviews. I have received great suggestions from this site. Her mission is simple: getting kids to read.

I could have picked so many blogs! Most of my favourite ones are listed on the left side of my blog, listed by categories: a children books blog list, homeschooling families, nature and science blogs, an art ideas and interesting activities to do with kids.

And lastly...this is my 500th post!!!

Book Sharing Monday

"What's a curse when it's a curse in reverse?

If it's curse in reverse, and it's given by a witch, then it's a blessing of course!"

This book was picked by Andre. The librarian read it to the group participating in a Halloween program last week, and Andre wanted to share it with me, so he brought it home. I thought it was a fun fairy tale like story with a subtle message.
The witch Agnezza is perceived as a dirty, nasty person and no one wants to open their homes for her to give her shelter or food for one night, besides one poor couple. The villagers that closed the door on her end up cursed, but the poor couple is cursed in reverse.

"Agnezza grew very angry. "I curse you!" she screeched. "I give you the Curse of the Silent Night!" And she spit on Mrs. Ragg's door.

If you are interested in participating in Book Sharing Monday, please click on the button at the top of this post. You can also visit the other wonderful families participating in this weekly event, look for the list on the left side of this blog.

Thanks everyone for sharing all your favourite books! My children and I enjoy seeing everyone's suggestions and adding the titles to our library list.

It was a happy halloween!

No rain + lots of candy = a happy halloween!

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Seasonal Weather Study ~ Autumn

First a little update on our pumpkin study:

the pumpkin we selected was only 8 1/2 inches tall, with a circumference of 26 1/2 inches. It weighed 6 lbs and we counted 21 lines on the outside of it. There were 397 seeds in that little pumpkin!
We dried the seeds and will be roasting them along with the ones that will come out of the pumpkins we will be carving very soon.

Now, on to the Seasonal Weather Study:

It was very warm yesterday afternoon, but our night was cold. This morning we woke up to a blanket of fog. I thought it would be fun to go for a walk in the fog. My oldest daughter has a cold, so she stayed back along with Celeste. Andre, Orion and I went around the block. He was the photographer most of the time and had a great time!

The fog was so thick at first, but by the time we headed back home, it was already lifting. We found some beautiful dew and couldn't help taking more photos!



Andre also took a little video of the fog, about half way through our walk:




Here is our journal page completed for the seasonal weather study (it was so hard to do the fog, lol).



You can participate in the Outdoor Hour Challenge by visiting the wonderful Handbook of Nature Study blog hosted by Barb.

Wordless Wednesday ~ I have spectators..

taken by Adrienne

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Autumn Series ~ Pumpkins

For our study on pumpkins, we went to the pumpkin patch. We brought home a couple of pumpkins and a few gourds. The kids and I would like to try growing gourds in our garden next year, and maybe a pumpkin too! We're going to save a few pumpkin seeds for that purpose.

Once we had the pumpkins at home, we decided to guess a few things..
how tall was our pumpkin
how heavy it was
its circumference
how many lines it had on the outside
how many seeds were inside

We all guessed and recorded our findings on a pumpkin data sheet (part of the teacher's guide from author Gail Gibbons site), then we measured and also cut open our pumpkin to take all the seeds out for counting.

Book Sharing Monday

A special Halloween Book Sharing Monday! We have read a few books related to Halloween and most are listed below the main blog title. I am sharing one of Celeste's favourite. It's a counting book and she "reads" that one to herself several times every day!

"10 Trick-or-Treaters: A Halloween Counting Book" written by Janet Schulman and illustrated by Linda Davick. The trick-or-treaters are scared away one by one. Celeste really enjoys counting down and also counting all the candies at the last page.

"3 trick-or-treaters - why are there so few? A vampire crooned, "Good evening"...

and then tere were 2."

For us homeschool moms...14 days of homeschool

so proud of her..

Celeste has been working really hard these last few weeks, learning how to read. We are using the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and so far, it's working!
I make her these simple little books with the sentences of the lessons, so she can practice them. She is now on her 4th book (lesson 33). The one that she is reading in the video is the first one, the easiest one for her. She only wanted me to record her with that one, until she saw herself, then she said "you can record me reading the other books too now!..

Wordless Wednesday ~ yummy by adrienne