Kangeroos, Koalas and Wombats Oh My!

Can you guess where we've been?  We had the opportunity to do another review for TOS.  This time it was Expedition Australia from the Download N Go Series by Amanda Bennett.  We had a great "trip!"  

Can I just tell you how I love SIMPLE!  I love things that enrich our homeschooling world without being so stressful on me. You simply purchase your study from The Old Schoolhouse Store, download and print.  It is REALLY that easy!  I liked how this study had an Objective Page where Days 1 thru 5 are laid out so nicely.  Since I am a BIG list person, this was perfect for me to be able to just check off things as we went along. 

During our 4 day study (we did days 3,4 & 5 over 2 days because we only school M-Th) we had a great time learning about Australia, the Great Barrier Reef (I really wanna go there BTW!) and the awesome animals that live there.  We learned about the Outback, their Language and Aborigines.  Ever heard heard of a didgeridoo?  They are really neat!

We really enjoyed all of the video links with this study, which really brought everything to life for us. We have a love for learning about animals so studying a new animal each day was right up our alley.  Did you know that Koala's aren't really bears??  Australia has all the cool animals!  I love how the marsupial babies are born, then they crawl into their mama's pouch to grow.

Things the kids said they really enjoyed:

• All the drawing they got to do.
• Finding time and climate differences for the USA and Australia.
• The fun lapbooking pages
• The animal and Great Barrier Reef videos. 

I would really like to do some more of these in the future.  There are so many to choose from but  I really have my eyes on the Winter Wonders, Spring Surprises, Sea Shells, Ben Franklin, George Washington and Dolphin Days.

If you would like to do any of the Download N Go unit studies they are only $7.95 or you can buy several and save.  I highly recommend giving them a try.  I hope that you and your family enjoy them as much as we have. Best of all, there are currently 38 to choose from!

What we've been up to....

Last week My Father's World sent us on a "trip" to Japan and we had a great time!  As we studied Japan we enjoyed learning about their culture, customs and praying for the people there.  We learned a little bit about the foods they eat, the language they speak and there strong ties to family.    

For fun we made origami tulips with stems, houses and pianos using a Fun with Easy Origami book (that was fun)!  In case you were wondering, my flower is the yellow one, isn't it purdy??!! 

We also studied oceans.  We enjoyed reading The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor and Turtle Bay.  We watched a Moody Science video about Oceans and we watched a SciQ Video about Underwater.

We ending up making it a light week because we still had some sickies.  We only "stayed" in Japan for 1 week because we are doing a unit study this week, (fill ya in about it next week) but we enjoyed our trip. 

What've been up to this last week...

We had to really modify our schooling this past week due to most of us being sick.  I really hate having to waste our days on being sick, we really like to focus on school and finish up our school year by mid May.  But we all needed to take a rest and feel better. 
Since we were on our 2nd week studying China we did try to do some videos on China.  We watched the Inn of Sixth Happiness, which is a movie based on the life of the missionary Gladys Aylward,(very good!) and  The Emperor and the Nightingale.  The kids listened to the book The Empty Pot on CD and we read Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. 
Yesterday, we were able to do some catching up on our reading and such.  We have really been enjoying the very encouraging stories in Hero Tales.  The true stories of these men and women of God have really been encouraging to me and the kids.  We had already watched the Gladys Aylward movie, so yesterday when I read about her in the Hero Tales book the girls came and snuggled next to me and were very into the stories about her.  They had pointed out the differences between the book and the movie, it was one of those moments that I realized they really are "getting it!" To finish up our China study today we are going to read a few more China books, play chinese checkers and order Chinese Food for din-din!
Alot of things fell to the wayside this past week, but I am glad that we were able to take it easy and work on getting better.