The Netherlands, Part 1

What a fun week studying the Netherlands!

First off, did you know that, technically, it is incorrect to call this country Holland? True - Holland is actually just a small part of the Netherlands in the southwest. It sounds like the Dutch are pretty laid-back though and don't take too much issue with this common error.

So here's our week:

Our absolutely favorite book:

What a joyful story! A destitute little girl in post WWII Holland receives a series of gifts from a little girl in America and makes the decision to share with her whole town. Based on a true story - the American girl was actually the author's mother! So inspiring.

In relation the this book, we talked about generosity (2 Cor. 9:6-8) and thankfulness (1 Thes. 5:16-18), worked on fractions using a chocolate bar and learned how to write a friendly letter. Little Man learned the four seasons and we talked about sending our own boxes overseas via Operation Christmas Child. There is a wonderful unit on this book at Homeschool Share.

We also enjoyed Father, May I Come? by Peter Spier. It's a tale of two courageous sea rescues off the Dutch coast - 300 years apart. And this amazes me - since 1824, the Royal Netherlands Rescue Society has saved more than 30,000 lives! It is completely funded and manned by volunteers. My boys loved this book!

Of course we had to read the story of the heroic little boy who saved the town by plugging a hole in the dike with his finger. Ours was in Around the World in 80 Tales but there is also a version in The BOOK OF VIRTUES by William Bennett. We were amazed to find out how much of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea. And there are plans underway to reclaim even more. We learned how the dikes are built and then the water is pumped out - initially by windmills. We had to make some:

Now, how cute are those? The plans are here. And can I just say that I LOVE crafts whose materials list is limited to "printer, paper, toilet paper roll?" Yeah - I can do that.

Beautiful FREE Autumn unit study!

I just finished downloading this unit study from The Old Schoolhouse website and I haven't even finished looking at it yet - I just had to come here and tell people about it!! What a wonderful little unit study! There are links for lapbooking elements, links to online videos, a HUGE book list (you can read whatever you can find at your library) and all kinds of activities, work sheets, etc. It also looks like it will be very easy to include multiple ages - and you know that's big with me. WOW!!!!

Without further ado:

Click here to download your free Autumn unit study!

We want to go to Ireland!

We really, really do. In fact, we're planning our trip with the help of the lovely travel catalogues that I requested at discoverireland.com. Hey, it could happen. Opportunity favors the prepared, right?

Here is our travel poster showing our preferred destinations:

We even put a golf course on there for Mark! But we'll be skipping the seaweed baths. Yuck!

The travel literature was our favorite resource this week but we also loved:

We also read a great story about the Giant's Causeway in this book:

And we watched several segments of the Globe Trekker DVD on Ireland (those that were kid-appropriate). We found a great video of the finale of a Chieftans show (love youtube! well, most of the time) that had it all: solos on the celtic harp, fiddle, Irish whistle and bagpipes, a bodhran, a song in Gaelic and step dancers! Whew! The kids watched it multiple times and showed it to everyone who happened to drop in. It also inspired much leaping, kicking and fancy footwork. Grandma M. came over and told of her Grandpa, a rather large irishman who was the best dancer in the county. Only one woman could keep up with him when they had "dance downs." So there you go. It's in our genes.

This is my Father's world

We've added something to our plans for this year that is working out wonderfully so far! We are attempting to learn a hymn each week. We've found some beautiful videos on YouTube for the hymns we've done so far:

All things bright and beautiful

This is my Father's world

For the beauty of the earth

You can see we've got a theme going here.

We start our "morning service" watching our hymn on YouTube and attempting to sing along. Some of the videos have the words on the screen which is very helpful. Z-Man will also get a printed copy of the lyrics to put in his notebook.

Here's a particularly nice one for your enjoyment:

And we're off!

Well, our first week of school was a little shaky (I almost wrote a post titled "The burning embers of our day" but decided against it) but things have gotten MUCH better since. Thank God. (And my sweet husband who prayed for us.) It's just hard for some people to switch gears, even if it's done gently. Not naming any names here of course.

But THIS week - well, this week is a different story! That anti-change boy seems to be settled in and even said one day, "Mom, if we don't get through all the countries this year, can we do this again in fourth grade?" Ah. A gift from God.

So, what did we do?

Well, we started out with the United Kingdom (our plans are here). There were a couple of little changes - we read Wee Gillis instead of They Were Strong and Good (which we will probably save for America).

By far the boys' favorite thing in the United Kingdom was the Loch Ness monster. But our little paper model of Big Ben and the British guards came out so cute too!

They should have no problem guarding that.

Oh, and we learned how to say "hello" in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Russian and Japanese. How fun is that?! The boys couldn't wait to practice on the german lady that works at the library - she loved it and taught them "thank you" and "good bye."

Next stop - Ireland!

Auf Wiedersehen for now!

Patio Schooling

This is the life...

Cooking with Daddy

Those of you who read this month's issue of Homeschool Enrichment (which is a WONDERFUL magazine!) probably noticed the "how dads can help" articles. I am happy to report that Mark has stepped up his efforts to teach our boys valuable skills. Below you will find some "food channel-worthy" culinary instruction being imparted to our Little Man at the Strong Museum of Play.

Disclaimer: No dachshunds were harmed in the making of this video.

Further Disclaimer: There was NOT an earthquake at the museum during filming. I was just laughing so hard that I shook the camera. Sorry about that.