Year 2 - Week 16 - Isaac Newton's 1st Law of Motion!

Directions at bottom of post for making Isaac Newton Costume!

This week we explored the concepts of Newton's 1st Law of Motion through a variety of experiments!  Our history dress up was World War II -so we had some great costumes!  I couldn't resist making a Isaac Newton costume to go with our science for the day!

We sang, wrote and hand motioned through the week's memory work using our lapbooks to start.

LINK-UP #2 - Wonderful Wednesdays!

Welcome to Week #2 of Wonderful Wednesday Weekly Link-Up!  I appreciate the Bloggers who took the time to share their great ideas with everyone here and Link-Up for our first Wonderful Wednesday's Link-Up!  If you're new to Solagratiamom:  the purpose of this Link-Up is to showcase how other classically minded families have creatively brought their lessons to life for their kids!  

MEGA GIVEAWAY! from Mega Verses

a Rafflecopter giveaway
You all know how much I love to support classical and creative homeschool families, that are making materials to benefit other homeschooling families on this journey!  Tommy & Joe Hendricks are homeschooling parents who are doing just that with their MegaVerses ministry.  This talented duo, puts large sections of Scripture to song and hand motions.  They are available via download on iTunes or via postal mail, from their website www.megaverses.com.  You can also go to their website to see videos and hear samples of their music.  Lastly, they offer flash cards that have the verses on them with a ring to keep them together and accessible for review/use.

Year 2 - Week 15 - Kinetic and Potential Energy Experiments and more

Kinetic and Potential Energy Experiments and Types of Sentences Dress Up!

Today we had a little delay with the weather.  Being in North Carolina, when it snows 1/3" - things are delayed, preschools are closed and Moms scramble!  Originally growing up in upstate, it's funny to see the panic over a flake of snow!

So…to save time, allow kids to play in that fabulous 1/3" of snow and make alternate arrangements for little ones, we omitted our lap books today and instead, we sang and hand motioned through the Week 15 Grammar.  Then we broke out our activities to help the kids understand better, the concepts of energy - potential and kinetic!

Announcing Wonderful Wednesdays Link-Up! Begins today!

You have seen Solagratiamom's™ Wonderful Wednesday's, where week by week we make history, science, geography, math and more - come alive for our kids through creative means such as; history dress ups, re-enactments, science experiments, educational crafting, projects and more.  Today starts a new Link-Up here at Solagratiamom™ for our classical world wide web blogging community of homeschooling families, to come together and show their creative ideas on how they are taking the classical approach at home!

So if you are a classical educating blogger then you can link-up to show how you have creatively brought your lessons to life for your kids!  Share your creative, classical methods and madness...and inspire others!  Being creative can be something crafty or it can be something unique with your own hands on approach to teaching anything within the classical model of education.  Share it here!  Let's put our creative genius together and inspire others to reach beyond the pencil at times, to teach the classical method!  My goal isn't fun -but rather, to encourage our children to become life long learners and see the joy in learning because that is FUN!  So mark your blogging calendars and plan to stop by each week and LINK-UP!


Link Up Rules:

• Link directly to that post using the URL, not the blog in general.  
• Appropriate posts are things such as: experiments, education themed dress up or re-enactment, dioramas, projects, educational crafts, fine art creations or unique field trip ideas.
• You must be a classically educating family, following the classical model (curriculum choice doesn't matter).
• State your post topic in the link description and pick a relevant thumb nail so your blog topic can be easily identified by viewers - DO NOT post links to your general blog name.  Use the specific URL for that post you are wanting to share*.
• Please place the Wonderful Wednesday's button below, somewhere on your blog's webpage.

I am looking forward to seeing what you all are creating out there in the name of a classical education!  I would love to see any link ups that were inspired by a Wonderful Wednesday idea too - copy cats are very welcome!!!

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The top two links will be featured in the following Wednesday's link-up. 
*I reserve the right to remove any posts that are off topic, inappropriate or don't support this link's theme.  

(Classical Conversations®, Well Trained Mind, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Veritas Press - all classical approach bloggers welcome!)

Skip Counting Game! Solagratiamom™ Review

Must Have Skip Counting Game!  

To read about Highhill Homeschool Blog
HERE

I just linked up with a fun new blogger the other day at Highhill Education and couldn't help but notice her fantastic SKIP Counting Game!  So, I had to contact her to ask about it!  She was gracious enough to send me a game to review.  I loved the idea of supporting a homeschooling Mom, who has come up with a fun game that helps kids become proficient in skip counting and multiplication!

Year 2 - Week 14 Wonderful Wednesday - WW1 Soldiers and Acid/Base Experiments

Week 14 Wonderful Wednesdays!

Today we dressed up for the military and discussed World War 1!  We focused our discussion around the trench battles.  I had written on a white board the way trenches were built, showed some photographs on my iPad and discussed the conditions and dangers that soldiers faced while fighting in the trenches.  Then I set up a game that was designed to help them better understand some of the challenges of this sort of fighting.

We first set up "trenches" using our gym mats.  They allowed us to zig zag the trench - which was what they did in WW1 and we discussed why that was tactically beneficial to the soldiers.  Next I gave them stuffed snow balls we had, along with rolled socks and those became the "mortars" that the soldiers in the trench were going to use to stop the advancing attackers.  The attackers used Nerf® shot guns and those simulated the rifles that they were issued.

The Grammar Stage - Creative Ways to Memorize!

If you are working in the grammar stage of the classical model with your kids, then you are familiar with the "Oh man, do we have to do that again?" response to recitation/memorization!  So here are some creative ways to make recitation and memorization fun and engaging for them and YOU!

Below is my Top 20!  These are some of my tried and true methods I've used at home and as a Tutor that are guaranteed to be fun, silly and engaging for your kids or students - so give some a try!  Bear in mind that some of these will work for younger kids verses older kids and some ideas work for the classroom setting verses home - you decide!

Top 20

Wisdom and Righteousness -Orchestra Lapbook (Review)

If you have been following me, then you know that Lapbooking is part of our Wonderful Wednesday mornings and the lapbooks I prefer for their colorful layout and creatively interactive pieces, is none other than those from Karen Gill over at www.wisdomandrighteousness.com.  So I'm super excited to tell you about her fantastic new resource, that I just got done previewing.  It's called A Complete Study Guide and Lapbook for The Orchestra with Composers Beethoven, Brahms & Dvorak!  This lapbook is a creative way for parents or Tutors in their classrooms, to teach the Fine Arts section for Weeks 19-24 from the Classical Conversation's® Foundation's Curriculum Guide.  

Classical, Creative - Do They Go Together?

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."  -Albert Einstein

Dressing up stuffed animals or having tea parties with a puppy - it's all in the name of imagination and good fun!  I always try to encourage my daughter's love of dressing up, making things (or as she calls it -being an Inventor) and any games or projects she comes up with herself.   She thinks she's playing and having fun, but Mamma knows that she's actually developing a very important skill - learning to think as she creates and problem solves through what is in her head and what she is able to actually get to work in real life.  It's a fabulous process!  One of the things we like to do with our CC memory work is try to come up with some of our own creative ways to help us remember the various information.  It can be a silly story, a fun set of hand motions or a play on words.  Just this morning we were drilling for Latin and she stumped on which list began the Present Perfect Tense and we stopped to think of a creative way to help her remember it.  She came up with "I gave the present and it's perfect!  So present perfect tense starts with I" That helps her now to remember the list starts with I.

Year 2 Week 13 - States of Matter!

Cycle 2 Week 13 - States of Matter!

Welcome back to Wonderful Wednesdays!  It was such a nice break!  Now it's time to get back into the swing of things and start our second half of the CC year!  Week 13 dress up was anything related to the Industrial Revolution - we had miners and train conductors today!