Journey North Mystery Class ~ First Two Weeks

We have now completed the first two weeks in JN Mystery Class. Nothing too interesting yet, but after this second set of sunrise and sunset information, we were able to divide the 10 mystery classes into Northern and Southern hemispheres. The locations that lost daylight from the first week are in the Southern hemisphere, the ones that are increasing their photoperiods (like us) are in the Northern hemisphere.

We also worked on the journal pages. This week's journal page with the latitude shoes was fun. We traveled around the globe along the same latitude line!

Book Sharing Monday :: African Tales

We are studying Africa in our World Geography and I have been reading aloud stories from this beautiful book: African Tales: A Barefoot Collection by Gcina Mhlophe and Rachel Griffin.

I don't think I have come across one Barefoot Book that I didn't like! In this book, there are eight tales from eight different African countries. Each page is filled with gorgeous artwork. The art is a mixture of fabric, beads, stamps and more. Each story has an introduction which tells you a bit more about the particular country it came from and its people. There are also quick facts included. The photo below shows part of the introduction for a story from Namibia called "Nowandle, Girl of the Waves".  I added another photo to show the detail of the artwork from that same page. You can click on each photos to see a larger version too.

The stories are tales that have been passed down from generation to generation. We were fascinated by these. Each story also ends with "Cosi cosi iyaphela", which means "Here I rest my story". On the back of the title page, the author explains that this is the traditional way that Zulu storytellers finish their tales.

Here are two facts from the beginning of the book on a page that includes the map of Africa along with some interesting information about this continent.

"Africa has the most varied wildlife in the world. It is also home to some of the largest populations of wild animals, including lemurs, wildebeest, antelopes, and hyenas."

"Typical African musical instruments include drums, xylophones, rattles, clappers, bamboo flutes and ivory trumpets. While European musicians were developing ideas about harmony, Africans were developing rhythm, creating the most sophisticated percussive arrangements in the world."



If you would like to participate in Book Sharing Monday, leave your link to your book sharing post below. Happy Reading!

Great Backyard Bird Count ~ February 18 to 21

The Great Backyard Bird Count starts next Friday! We participated last year (you can see our post here), counting birds at our neighbour's feeder from our bedroom window. We spent 15 minutes a day for three days counting how many birds and recording which types of birds we saw. We then submitted our findings to the GBBC site.

Here is the description of the activity from their site:

"The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds."



The site is filled with helpful resources! There are special pages for kids (games, colouring pages, puzzles...), links to online bird guides, and more. I especially like the checklist that you can create by entering your location (postal code, zip code, or city). It lists all the birds that you could see in your area for this time of year. There are also more resources under  "For Educators".  

Let me know if you participate too!

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Aliens, Horses, and a bit of Physics!

This past week was pretty quiet here, the temperatures were very low and kept us inside a lot. We are really looking forward to spring! The positive part of being at home more is that we are getting more schoolwork done. The main subjects are getting done daily and finished by lunch time by everyone which lets us work on our projects and "together" subjects in the afternoons.

Both Andre and Celeste finished their research project/lapbooks. Adrienne is putting the final touches on hers this weekend.

Andre had chose Aliens for his research. He is very interested in learning about the mysteries and theories around UFOs, aliens, and more. He read a lot and watched many episodes of Ancient Aliens from the History Channel. He put together a small lapbook with a few mini books: the anatomy of an alien, close encounters (explaining the difference between them), mysterious places (Bermuda Triangle and the Zone of Silence), his drawings of aliens, and the drawings made by his family of UFOs. He is planning on adding two more mini books to explain the Crystal Skulls and the Nazca lines seen on the cover of his lapbook.  
I am encouraging him to write more for his lapbook and reseach. He still doesn't enjoy writing, but has a lot of information to share. We also worked on presentation which he could improve on. Overall, I am happy and he is too with this project. I watched a lot of the Ancient Aliens episodes with him and enjoyed talking about various theories with him.

Celeste also finished her lapbook. This is the first one that she completed almost all on her own and she is very proud of it. She even brought it to the librarian to show her! She included mini books about horse breeds, what horses are used for, the difference between pony, donkey, and mule. She also had a book list, a mini book with drawings of horses made by her family, and a colouring page showing the horses colours. She decorated with stickers too!

She really enjoyed working on this, so we'll be doing another lapbook very soon on the Ballet and ballerinas. I have been collecting library books and dvds on that subject.

This week we also worked on Science a little bit more, covering gears and cranks. Adrienne built a cogwheel train and we tested it on an inclined plane. She also built a jumping jack with a crank drive. That experiment didn't work as well, but I was very impressed with her patience with it. I would have given up much faster than she did!

In Canadian History, we took a little pause to compare life in the late 1800s - early 1900s in Canada and in Europe. We wrote short form points as we read and will compile everything next week into a final chart.

In World Geography, we are in Africa still and really enjoying it! We read about deserts this week and I started reading aloud from African Tales from Barefoot Books (I love Barefoot Books!). 

There's our week! Adrienne and Andre started running on our treadmill, using a couch to 5K app. I guess that can count as P.E.!!

If you would like to read more posts from other homeschool families, please visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Book Sharing Monday :: Mermaid Queen

Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way to Fame, Forturne, & Swimsuit History is written by Shana Corey and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. The bright colours are what attracted me to this book first when it was sitting on the library display shelf! I then found out that it was a true story. I really enjoy learning about other people with my chidren.

Anne Kellerman was a very interesting woman, a woman who made waves in the early 1900s. She is credited with inventing the modern swimsuit and the water ballet (synchronized swimming). She especially wanted to make swimming accessible to women and show them what they could do. She travelled with her father from her home in Australia to promote swimming but it wasn't easy at first.

Her story is wonderful, especially for young girls. It shows that even if things get difficult to keep on trying. Annette had decided to cross the English Channel, but didn't make it to France, but people still were amazing that she had done as much as she did! When she was asked to perform in front of English royaly, she was told she couldn't go on because her bare legs were showing, she quickly found a solution and did her performance!

"Swimming and diving filled Annette with joy. She wanted to show other girls how wonderful they could be."

You can find more information on Annette Kellerman's life by googling her name. She had a big influence in women's swimsuit fashion and the change from being completely covered (stockings, shoes, bloomers and bathing dresses) to swimsuits that were much more appropriate for swimming. She became a film star, she even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! She was a role model for health and fitness for women. Wikipedia has a short interesting biography and I found a video on youtube showing some of her underwater movie performances:







If you would like to participate in Book Sharing Monday, please leave the link to your sharing below. Happy Reading!