Slices of Life

While searching for books to read for our World War I unit I stumbled across so many more great books about World War II that I'm actually considering covering that time period again! When we last studied World War II we found some really amazing picture books to read that we just loved ( you can see the list here ).  We've since talked about them and that time period a lot. I'm not sure if the boys would be willing to read all about World War II again but I am sure hoping so; just look at all these great books! 1.   Lily's Victory Garden -- An inspiring story about life on the home front during the war. 2.   Rebekkah's Journey:A World War II Refugee Story-- A story about refugees who flooded into America towards the end of the war and were put on an abandoned army base. 3.   Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot -- The True story of the Berlin airlift.  Getting supplies behind the Berlin wall pilots used to drop care packages. 4. ...

I knew it was going to be lazy Friday before our day even began! It was almost 10 o'clock last night before any of my boys fell asleep.  Alec slept over in Evan's room and they were up reading their new Minecraft book until well past nine.  Evan doesn't have a clock in his room and the two boys were so involved in the story they didn't realize how late it was getting. I didn't mind the idea of a lazy Friday.  It's so nice to have a lazy day of learning every now and then. Fridays we often play games or make it a fun day of hands on activities anyway.   I figured they would all sleep in a little late this morning.  I shouldn't have been so surprised to hear them all talking and playing in Evan's room at 7 this morning but I was.  I let it go though since all three boys were playing and getting along.  Ian and Evan had linked Kindles and were playing Minecraft while Alec was looking things up in their Minecraft books. Today I figured we could watch a mov...

Today's science lesson wasn't anything big or exciting; it consisted of watching a movie. I know movies can be great educational tools but I often wonder how much they learn and retain from movies.   I can't always tell how well they are understanding or paying attention to the movie.  I usually assume if they aren't asking questions they are understanding. I assume if they asked to watch the movie they're paying attention. But I never really know for sure. Today, once our schoolwork was all done and we headed out for a walk, my youngest showed me that he can learn a lot from watching movies.   He applied the concepts we were learning about in the film to real life.   It was refreshing to know that watching movies is a great way for my kids to retain information and to know that my kids can make connections from what we're learning about to how they apply in real life. Evan wanted to watch another Science of Disney Imagineering video today.  I put the move in an...

Today was a fun day filled with learning.  We did a LOT of reading and mostly I followed the boys' lead in what they wanted to do.  We covered math, history and geography as well as getting in lots of fresh air. Here is what a typical winter day of homeschooling looks like: We learned all about animal adaptations and communication today watching The Science of Disney Imagineering Animal Adaptions: Communication .  We were really excited to discover that this movie was now available through inter- library loan at our library.  We've watched (and re-watched) all the other Science of Disney Imagineering movies and we just love them.  This one was equally as wonderful.  Alec and Evan, in particular, loved to see all the animals.  Many of them we don't remember seeing at Disney on any of our trips but it was still very fun and educational. Alec read a chapter in Danger In The Darkest Hour out loud to us and I read two more chapters later on in the day. ...