Native American Unit

After our Mountain Man unit, it felt quite natural to ease into a Native American unit. So many of the artifacts from the Mountain Man Rendezvous were Native American. Also, we watched a couple awesome drum dances while we were there and the kids could not get enough. Again, I got many of my ideas for the unit from Frolic and Farce, although my kids' interest died after awhile so we moved on. Here are some of the things we did during our Native American Unit. Unfortunately I only managed to capture a few moments on camera.

• Read lots of books (some of our favorites listed below)
• Watched lots of home videos - our wedding video, one of my grandparents we had made for them and a few I've created over the years
• Created totem poles
• Made fry bread - this was a hit so we did it a couple of times, once for dinner and once as a dessert
• Created our own drum circle with different drums we created
• Pulled out Dylan's Thanksgiving costumes from Kindergarten last year and dressed up like Native Americans
• Visited the Museum of Natural History - the first Monday of the month is free! They have a whole section on Native Americans with miniature figurines in display cases. Reminds me of Night at the Museum. :) My kids LOVE this museum! They often have new things they are displaying so it changes from time to time, which makes it easier to go more than once. Last year they did a huge display on frogs, which my kids really enjoyed.
• Visited the Treehouse Museum - we spent some time in the teepee and read a few books about Native Americans, but again, we always end up doing whatever draws the kids in the most that day.
• Another trip to the zoo. We were specifically looking for a wolf, but never found him. Dylan was pretty disappointed. I love how he figures out my intent and then is on a mission. He is really good at incorporating play and other day to day events into our unit. He got out his zoo map and was guiding me to our destination.
• Practiced shooting Dylan's new wooden bow and arrow (no worries, the arrow is rubber)
• Watched Pocahontas (I hate that Disney completely botched the story - even Dylan caught onto that fact - but it was still fun to watch the movie).
• Listened to lots of Native American music. Dylan is in a little music class - Musikgarten - and they had a whole unit on different Native American tribes, complete with music, so I referred to that often.
• Made a book of months. Dylan made a cool calendar with one month per page on it. He wrote the name of the month at the top of each page and then drew things to represent what we do that particular month. It was pretty cute to see what he came up with for each month.
• We revisited the unit again briefly at Thanksgiving, talking about the pilgrims and Indians, making headbands with feathers for a family party and reading stories I borrowed from a neighbor about the first Thanksgiving, Squanto and Native American tribes throughout history.

Dylan's totem pole

Forming a human totem pole

Trip to the Museum of Natural History

Marcos was able to join us on his day off

Another trip to the Treehouse Museum

Thanksgiving craft

Pilgrims and Indians - a short play about Thanksgiving the cousins put on during a family night activity we did the week of Thanksgiving

Books We Read

Again, I got my original book list from Home School Frolic and Farce and supplemented with a few more I found that worked for us.

Like the kids from Frolic and Farce, this book was also a favorite for my children. Dylan loves hearing about how other people live and learning about all sorts of different cultures. It was eye-opening for him to realize how the lives of Native Americans have changed over the years. Also, we got the recipe for our fry bread from this book.

Mountain Man Unit

While I was trying to decide just how to start teaching Dylan at home, I came across a website that I LOVE. I got most of my first unit ideas there. She did a mountain man unit and I thought that was very fitting for my rough and tough boys. Once I read that there was a mountain man rendezvous over Labor Day weekend, I was sold. The timing would be perfect! Here are some of the things we did during our mountain man unit.

• Found the kids bags to use as their possibles' bags and discussed possibles' bags
• Hiking - lots of wandering through the mountains
• Ate beef jerky
• Attended the mountain man rendezvous - one in Ogden and one in Ft Bridger in Wyoming
• Purchased some wooden toys at the rendezvous - a knife, bow and arrow set, and a sword. So worth the money! The boys played with these throughout the rest of the unit and beyond.
• Went to the zoo (specifically to see bears, cougars and other mountain animals, but the zoo is the zoo...we pretty much saw it all)
• Played at the Treehouse Museum
• Learned about Audubon and then painted our own pictures

Hiking with our possibles' bags

Hogle Zoo

Treehouse Museum

Mountain Man Rendezvous - Ft. Buenaventura

Mountain Man Rendezvous - Ft. Bridger

Painting like Audubon

Books We Read

I got this book list from Home School Frolic

Forest Cats of North America by Jerry Kobalenko. If it were up to Dylan, we would only ever check out animal and dinosaur books. Any book with facts about animals is always a favorite for him. We read portions, but really just flipped through this one for facts.

Mountain Men: Cornerstones of Freedom by Andrew Santella. This was a really good book for me to read to review the overall facts about the mountain men. Then I was prepared for day one of school to teach. I tried to read parts of the book, but it didn't hold the boys' attention very well. Dylan did love looking at the maps though.

Jedediah Smith by Sharlene Nelson.

Grizzly Bear by Jason Stone.

Kit Carson by Jan Gleiter. Dylan really enjoyed this book. He "became" Kit Carson and reenacted parts of the story for days.

Audubon: Painter of Birds on the Wild Frontier by Jennifer Armstrong. I'll be honest, art is not my greatest strength. It was great to have a suggestion to include Audubon and to remind myself to include art - appreciating real art and trying to create our own - in our home school.

The Wonder of Wolves by Patricia Lantier-Sampon.

Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West by Gordon Hendricks.

It was nice to have the unit laid out with books and everything and then be able to adapt it to our own situation. I was already feeling overwhelmed enough with the thought of home schooling. The last thing I needed was to complicate things. We kept the unit fun and interesting and moved onto the next unit when it was obvious the kids were bored and I ran out of ideas. I found a few other books we used during the unit too. Of those, most were okay, but not spectacular. However, we did find one that we really enjoyed.

Mountain Men: True Grit and Tall Tales by Andrew Glass. This book was fun for us. It took a lot of the old mountain man stories and put them all together in one entertaining book. We read a story or two here and there throughout the unit.

Schedule

After the initial shock of realizing we are home schooling our children, people's questions usually go from why to how. I've read a lot of books and tweaked my schedule a million times already. But for now, this how a basic day looks at our house. Keep in mind, times are only basic guidelines. I do not start and stop at an exact time. We just follow a basic routine.

• Mom exercises For now it means walk/jogging with my friend Jamie and is a great way to wake up and get my day started.
• Shower/dress
• Family scriptures/prayer with Marcos We read scriptures in Spanish in the morning. We're trying to incorporate more bilingual moments. It is sometimes only a few verses and may even take place AT the breakfast table, but we try to do it regularly.
• Breakfast Sometimes the kids are already eating when I get home from my jog so cereal happens more than I'd like. In general, I like to fix breakfast and eat together, but it's not a huge priority for me.
• Devotional For us devotional goes like this - song, prayer, pledge, patriotic song, day of the week, weather chart, reading one chapter in the illustrated Book of Mormon and one story out of the Friend.
• Memorization I read a lot about memorization and its importance later in children's writing. So we're memorizing a lot. Well, Dylan is and Preston occasionally surprises me with what he's picked up on. We usually alternate between memorizing church stuff like Articles of Faith and scriptures and memorizing poems. So far, Dylan has the first 6 Articles of Faith memorized, two or three scriptures and about 6 poems. We also use that time to memorize other things like talks for Primary he needs to work on.
• Marissa Morning Nap Marissa's nap ends up happening either before or after devotional, depending on how quick we are getting going and what time she woke up.
• Chores It's been a bit difficult for me to realize that much of what takes place naturally at home is learning. I still catch myself freaking out about what my kids may or may not be learning and have to remind myself to chill. Chores are part of that learning process. Dylan and Preston each have a chart on their bedroom door that lists their chores. Dylan's are written, Preston's are pictures. They both make their beds, get dressed, brush their teeth, put away books and toys and Dylan is also responsible for unloading the dishwasher and taking out the trash. Chores is also the time of day I do whatever I need to do...laundry, bathrooms, vacuum, etc.
• School This is the time when I teach what I want to teach. In general Dylan starts with his language arts and math and then we move to whatever we're learning that day. I've been teaching units, which so far has worked really well for us. More to come on that later.
• Lunch
• Free time Depending on what time we start lunch, we sometimes have time to spare. For awhile the kids were in swim lessons at this time. It was a rush to fit it in, but it was perfect to get some activity in during the day. During this time they might play with toys, go outside or just follow me around the kitchen.
• Reading I read out loud to the kids before quiet time. I usually read to both of the boys together, but sometimes do it one on one
• Marissa Afternoon Nap
• Preston Quiet Time Preston goes to his room at this time. He picks a few books to take with him and once in awhile a little toy goes with him too. No big deal. I mainly just want him to be alone in his room for an hour and a half. He often ends up falling asleep, which is great too.
• Dylan Reading Just like it sounds. This is the time Dylan reads to me. If it is a difficult book for him or really long, we will alternate reading a page each.
• Dylan Quiet Time Dylan does quiet time in my room. He takes books and often listens to a book on CD from the library. He has also been known to take encyclopedias or a globe up there to study.
• Mommy Quiet Time In general I use the hour Dylan is in quiet time for scripture study and church prep, but I sometimes use the time for other projects I need to catch up on like my blog.
• Afternoon Stuff Afternoons are less structured. The kids play, Dylan has music class once a week, I might run errands, we try to get dinner ready or prepare for any night activities we have. Afternoons are also a great time for walks so we will head outdoors and go on a neighborhood walk or a hike in the mountains if the weather is decent.
• Dinner
• Evening Stuff Evenings are reserved for family time, but with our callings, we are often tag teaming the evening activities. It works, but sometimes is hard not to have as much time with the entire family together.
• Bedtime Bedtime usually entails bath, teeth, books, prayer and bed. If the bedtime routine goes well, I will sit on the floor and read a bigger chapter book to the kids. They love this and is how I get in some of the "classics" I want them to read. We try to maintain quite a bit of flexibility within our routine...especially with a baby.

Throughout the day I do a lot of feeding, changing diapers, cleaning up messes, kissing "owies", disciplining, teasing, tickling and snuggling.

Blog

Ever since our decision to home school our 6-year-old son, I've had countless questions directed my way. Why? How? Are you crazy? This blog is my attempt at answering some of those questions and tracking a little bit of what I find and what works for us. I've been at this for 2 1/2 months so we are definitely a work in progress...but that's half the fun. The one thing I've learned is that no two families home school the same. Even families that follow very similar home school philosophies don't look the same. Here's a peek into what works for our "academy."