A Review: The Curiosity Files Red Tides Unit Study

Recently we have had the opportunity to review a unity study from The Old Schoolhouse magazine. We've done a couple of unit studies in the past so they're not entirely new to us, but we haven't used them much. I am beginning to wonder if using unit studies more often, especially with my son, might be very beneficial for us. It's a great way to incorporate so many different areas of learning into one topic.

This particular unit study was about red tides and is a part of The Curiosity Files offered by The Old Schoohouse magazine. I loved how it was laid out sort of like a detective's file~that was particular appealing to my daughter who loves a good mystery.

We had never heard of red tides, so we have very much enjoyed learning about them. We are huge beach and ocean lovers so this was right up our alley.

This unit study began with simply talking about what red tides are~and what they are not. It's set up in a Q&A format and The Princess and I had fun reading it together. She would read the question and then I would read the answer to her and Mr. B. It was a nice change of pace from their regular studies. They enjoy learning together with me reading to them.

After we had studied up on red tides it was time to see what we had learned. There are several fill in the blank/multiple choice/true & false worksheets to see what your student has retained. I was pleased with the results!

We learned about the food chain and types of algae that are in our foods. There's a great list of vocabulary words to learn and several corresponding worksheets to go along with the grammar section of the study.

In math we were introduced to the metric system. I had not yet taught my kiddos about that and this was a fun way to learn about it. You get to measure all sorts of things in your kitchen. There is much more to learn in this unit in the way of math, such as percentages, significant figures and rounding, but that was a bit advanced for my 2nd grader and K5'er.

There is a wonderful Bible study tucked in as well that talks about when God created the oceans and tides and also brings in some beautiful Psalms that talk about the waters. The handwriting/copywork incorporates these verses, too. As for more creative writing, there are several essay options for older students.

Continuing on with the language part of this unit the kiddos were introduced to *adjectives* and *articles* in several fun worksheets. There is also a fun little board game to print off and play to practice learning about these parts of language. My kids love games so this is a huge plus! There are also more worksheets that focus on vocabulary and spelling: some being for younger elementary and some for middle school and jr. high ages.

In reading about red tides known throughout history, there are fun activities to do such as creating a timeline. In geography there are links to follow to learn about red tides around the world along with a map to chart them.

In further science there are experiments to do and worksheets to go with them. My kids love experiments! It was amazing to learn about types of algae that are in the food we eat~among food that we do not eat:)

This unit study is even rounded out to include a song or two, coloring pages, puzzles, book lists and mini books or *snippets* to include in a lapbook, if you desire to make one.

I was very impressed with how very well-rounded educationally this study was. Even though I don't plan to school only with unit studies, I think these would be a wonderful supplement to our year. This especially works well into my plan to school year-round. I will definitely be looking into many more of the ebook offerings at The Old Schoolhouse magazine.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for my frank and unbiased review.

This post is linked to the Homeschool Curriculum Review Roundup at The Happy Housewife.

Our Anniversary Getaway & My Thoughts on B&B's

(our room was in that curved part on the left)

Last week Vince and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. Time sure does fly when you're having fun~and raising kiddos:)

(the front entrance of The Williams House)

We don't always celebrate the same way each year. Sometimes it's a quiet dinner out at a favorite~or even a new~restaurant and occasionally it's been an overnight getaway~or even a whole week away for our 10th anniversary.

(a garden fountain)

This year Vince surprised me and planned a little overnight escape to Hot Springs, AR. And to a Bed & Breakfast!

(homemade snickerdoodles~my fave!)

We love to stay at B&B's! We spent our wedding night at a local one (and our favorite!) and have returned to it several times for special occasions. We've also stayed at B&B's in Eureka Springs, AR and Charlottestown, Prince Edward Island. It's always an adventure!

(room decor by a local artist~so cool!)

Each B&B has it's own feel, but in our experience they are generally gorgeous old homes lovingly cared for by the hosts who can't wait to share them with you. The Williams House in Hot Springs was no exception~it was beautiful and the hostesses were great!

(comfy vintage chairs)

Our room was so nice, furnished with wonderful antiques, a huge jacuzzi and a private bathroom. These are definitely things to check out when booking at a B&B. You want a private bathroom! I've only ever stayed at one where I had to share~and that time we only shared with my parents and sister so it wasn't too bad. I don't think I would enjoy sharing with strangers.

(gorgeous antique headboard)

The bed had the softest sheets I've ever felt before! Is that was super-high-thread-count-Egyptian cotton feels like?! I want some!!

The room also had a fireplace, tv/dvd player, comfy chairs, chocolate covered strawberries...you know, all the nice amenities we all love.

(the breakfast room)

Then comes breakfast~my favorite thing about a B&B! This is one of the most important things to consider when booking at a B&B. Does it have individual tables or one big *community* table? We've had it both ways. I definitely prefer the individual table. The concept of the community table is nice, but it's SO awkward. I suppose if you had the perfect mix of people it would be fun because I'm certainly not opposed to talking to strangers (I'm a blogger, for crying out loud, right?!). But without a good mix it's just....awkward. Not bad, but there's just no personal space around a big dining table, right?

(our breakfast table)

The best B&B's have individual tables that are close enough to each other that you can talk to the other guests if you so desire...or you can have your own private breakfast at your own table. It's kind of like the best of both worlds:) Our morning last week was filled with a wonderful breakfast quietly with each other, but ended with a very nice conversation with the couple from Texas at the neighboring table. See? The best of both worlds!

We realized last week that we hadn't stayed at a B&B since having kiddos. We've definitely stayed at them when there have been families and it was fine, but I think I prefer (for now) to keep B&B's all to Vince and myself:) They are such a nice retreat, I don't want to wait 8+ years again!

How about you? Have you ever stayed at a Bed & Breakfast? Do you enjoy them as much as we do?

Making Seed Starter Pots and a Gardening Update

Time for our 2nd link-up with The Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge! A lot has happened since our 1st link-up~hard to believe that was only a month ago.

Let's start at the beginning and talk about how I started my garden this year. I've not done much with seeds in the past, but this year I went all out (for me). I started 10 different kinds of seeds in little newspaper pots that I made.

I just have to show you the newspaper seed pots because they're working great and they were totally FREE! (I priced those little pots at the store and they are so expensive). These just took a little time and effort, but I got made over 100 in just an afternoon.

First I gathered my materials, which were newspapers, a straight-sided glass, some containers to put the pots in, my seeds and, of course, potting soil. (BTW, if you don't have newspapers~or you run out like I did~head to your local grocery stores and pick up some of those free sale newspapers at the front. I think I hit about 5 stores and just got a few at each because I was too chicken to wipe a whole bin out at just one store..haha). Oh~and don't use the shiny color printed sale papers...something about the dyes not being good for your seedlings.

Next you take one full sheet of newspaper (already folded on its fold) and fold it in half.

Then fold it in half again.

And again.

Next, take the top of your glass, place it halfway on the paper and begin to roll up the newspaper around it as tightly as you can

When you get to the end of the paper it will look like this:

Now tuck the excess paper into the glass. Just smoosh it on in there!

Now pull the cup off of the glass~you might have to put a little muscle into it:)

With your fingers, press down the tucked paper to make the bottom of the cup.

Take the bottom of the glass now and press down into the cup to sort of *seal* the bottom of the cup.

After you've got plenty of these little guys made you're ready to start filling them up with potting soil and then your seeds, giving them a good drink after they're planted.

Here's one of our flats all nicely planted.

I covered them with plastic wrap at first, but I must admit it didn't stay that well. And it's not really practical for watering the seedlings. In the end, it was all off anyway, but I guess it was a good thing to start with.

Now the tricky part. We moved to the neighboring town and the seedlings were all still at my parents' house. With all of the moving business we just weren't ready to plant our garden and the seedlings weren't ready either. But between all of us checking in on them they stayed watered and doing okay. We did lose one flat of corn seedlings to a storm, but we still have one left so that wasn't too bad. It's a very good thing we hadn't been able to bring them home though because I don't think they would have survived these past few days of rain. It's been crazy flash floods in our backyard.

Today we finally brought our little seedlings home though. Aren't they growing?! I'm so happy they seem to be doing well. They're spending the night in the back of my car tonight:)

Check out those green onions!

And I think these are cucumbers. My little tags have washed away in all the rain, but I did remember to write on the boxes what was what.

So there you have it, my garden update! I can't wait to start harvesting these veggies!

Have you planted a garden this year? How is it doing?

This post is linked to HSV Garden Challenge.

Quick! Somebody Grab an Oar!

(our back patio/yard taken with my phone)

I mean, I realized April showers bring May flowers, but there better be some flowers on steroids after the rain we've had this month!

It's been a while since I remember having such a rainy~and very storm~spring here in Arkansas. I'm so ready for the tornado season to end. It's not fun. At all. And it terrifies my Princess.

So far we've only hauled them out of bed to the *safe place* once. But last night I was hosting our homeschool group's Moms Nite Out and Vince had taken the kiddos to Chuck E. Cheese. Then the storm swept in (tornadoes are fast, you know). They ended up spending part of their time at CEC sheltered in a closet~the sighted tornado was right by where they were. And I spent the time storm-watching on the front porch with my fellow homeschool moms.

We Arkansans are great about protecting our children, but ourselves not so much. By the time you're an adult here you're pretty well used to the whole tornado drill. You know when to take it very seriously, but the rest of the time you continue on with what you're doing.

We've also been having flash floods. The rain has been what-feels-like incessant! Yesterday was the first day of sunshine in many a day and it was SO good to see it! We desperately need to dry out.

Of course, lots of rain does tend to show you lots of character traits about a new abode. For instance, we've discovered that when our backyard is saturated the water stands several inches deep on our patio...then drains down into the under-the-house vents that are on the patio...which then in turn drains out...through the garage. Fun stuff. We sandbagged those vents yesterday. It's a good thing because we've had one storm since then and today looks nice and rainy.

Thankfully we've had no other problems, even though we're awaiting a new roof on the house.

And in more good news, the gold fish have not floated right out of the several-times-over flooded pond. The tadpoles, on the other hand, don't have the good sense to stay in. I'm sure they're thinking "hey look, a bigger pond!" ha

Spring has been a fickle friend this year. What kind of weather has Spring brought you?

Menu Plan Monday: April 25th

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend~we had a lovely day in spite of nearly floating away in all of the rain. We are having one rainy Spring here in the South.

I am thrilled to say we now have internet at our {new} house and I am posting from here for the first time this morning. Yea!!

I think a menu planning post is appropriate for getting back into the groove. Our house is finally starting to shape up (although I still have way too many boxes to deal with) and having the kitchen in good working order is top priority! The kitchen truly is the heart of the home.

I have been grocery shopping, but when it's been so long and you're restocking your fridge entirely there's a lot to remember (and it's expensive!). So I'm also trying to work with all the pantry stuff I had already.

Monday: Beans and Cornbread
Tuesday: Sandwiches and Snacks (I'm hosting our monthly Moms' Nite Out for our homeschool group~I know, what was I thinking?!~so we'll be having a quick early dinner)
Wednesday: Tostadas
Thursday: Salmon Patties, New Potatoes, Corn and Salad
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: (Leftovers)

Ahh...it feel so good to have my meal plan back in place for the week! Sure will save us on the last minute dinners out (which I'm ashamed to say we've done too much of lately).

Happy Cooking to you this week, too!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Happy Easter!

May you have a wonderful weekend celebrating His Resurrection!

Did You Miss Me?

I missed y'all! :)

It has been a crazy couple of weeks and my routine is all shook up!

As some of you know, we were supposed to move on April 1st but were delayed until the 4th. And even though we began moving on the 4th we weren't actually able to spend our first night in our house until the 10th due to some work still being done inside the house. Then we left on an already-planned trip on the 15th, came home for one night on the 18th, then left for an overnight anniversary trip, just getting home today.

So it's been a long process and there are still a lot of boxes to go.

But I'm having fun putting it all together. Each house is SO different, you have to rework things in completely different areas. I like that it makes be creative with what I have. I'm looking forward to sharing some of our recent projects with you soon!

I am especially happy to be getting my {new} kitchen all put together, too! Not having my kitchen is almost like being without an arm for me~ha! Seriously though, I have really missed it. And I really like this kitchen! It has the most amazing island! I can't wait to show you pics!

I am also thrilled beyond words to be getting our school *room* put back together. It has been one tough semester for me. We are in desperate need of our regular routine. We were never able to really get into one during the stay at my parents' house and that has taken its toll.

We don't have a true schoolroom this time around, but will be setting up school in our family room/kitchen area. Sort of like when we very first started homeschooling with The Princess. I think it'll work out okay.

The kiddos don't know it yet, but I am planning to do some school throughout the summer as well. And it's a good thing, too, since we've fallen a bit behind with all the moving, etc.

And there you have it, an update! We haven't yet gotten our internet hooked up at our house, but should have it in the next day or so~thank goodness! I'm in withdrawal..ha!

One Thousand Gifts

0371. going to my son's first t-ball game and seeing him get a hit and a run:)

0372. watching my kiddos do *tricks* in the hotel swimming pool (their fave thing about traveling)

0373. good home cooking after so many meals out

0374. warm, fluffy blankets

0375. the calm after the storm

0376. seeing former students who are thriving in life

0377. laughing with my hubby (he still cracks me up after all these years!)

0378. seeing my children's joy in their {new} treehouse and backyard

0379. catching frogs with my kiddos

0380. laughing with my kiddos over Paddington Bear's funny antics as we read through the books

0381. surprise packages in the mail

0382. getting a few more boxes unpacked each day

0383. family antiques {or hand-me-downs} that bring to remembrance special people

0384. painting my daughter's fingernails

0385. kissing the back of my son's neck

0386. brand new tires on my car {gifted to me!}

0387. a cold Coca-Cola that my hubby made a special run out to get for me

0388. God's amazing protection during storms {both natural and spiritual}

0389. remembering Calvary and Christ's sacrifice for us

0390. celebrating His Resurrection

I'm Still Standing...

(Yes, I've had that tune running through my head lately!)

Although I enjoy crashing at night on our {brand new!} mattress!!

But look! You can actually see the floor in the photo above. And there are really books on the shelves!! As opposed to the photo I showed you the other day.

Now, don't ask me if the books are organized or on the right shelf. But at least they're out of boxes, right?! The boxes are disappearing slowly, but surely.

At least I can find clothes to wear now. The first morning in it was questionable:)

We haven't gotten our internet hooked up yet (so I'm blogging this from my parents house while I take care of my gray roots...multitasking at it's best!), but we will very soon and I'll be back here on a regular basis.

While I'm not a big fan of the moving process, it does bring blogging fodder with it!

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to visit anyone's blog very often lately, but I promise I will asap! In the meantime, I'd love for you to leave a comment and tell me what's going on in your life right now.

I hope you're having an awesome week!

One Thousand Gifts

0356. wild violets sprinkled around the yard

0357. a new mattress on our bed

0358. springtime crafts

0359. an unexpected, but much-needed nap

0360. watching and learning about our tadpoles

0361. watching the bees pollinating the flowers

0362. Lego creations

0363. rereading a favorite Nancy Drew mystery

0364. fresh, cool mornings after a night of thunderstorms

0365. watching the boxes disappear after our move

0366. thankful that I have boxes full of things for our home

0367. that unexpected but much-needed encouraging word (post, message, etc.)

0368. blue spring skies

0369. family devotions snuggled up with my kiddos

0370. the view of the sky from my hammock

Some Easter Favorites

{I'm reposting this even though I just posted it on Thursday. It was brought to my attention that I had some bad links and I have corrected those now. So sorry about that! Maybe it was Blogger, but mostly likely it was me trying to blog with a brain exhausted from moving:)}

*****

It's Spring time again~and that means it's Easter time! Such a wonderful time of the year, celebrating Christ's resurrection, new life, rebirth. It's beautiful!

Do you have some special Easter traditions? Here are a few of ours:

• Fabric Easter eggs
• Our own Resurrection eggs
• Velvety Carrot Cake

One new tradition I'm looking forward to beginning this year is this special {free} Easter devotional from Ann at A Holy Experience.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where We Unschooled

(Schoolhouse Rock Live!)

Well, technically we took the week "off" because of our move, but I like to think we got in some schooling on the sly.

Our move began on Monday, but it has continued all week (we have yet to spend a night in our {new} house) because the owners still have a bit of repairs and painting to do. We've been working all week getting things done, but some things just need to wait until the painting is over and since we could still sleep at my parents' house it just seemed like the best thing to do.

School this week has consisted of:

• Catching tadpoles in our backyard pond. I even bought an early reader on the life cycle of frogs last week knowing that we would have the perfect opportunity to learn about them and today I actually unpacked the box that had a book I bought a while back: Pets In a Jar.
• Exploring in our new backyard in general. There's a treehouse and their very own *jungle gym/swingset*, new wildflowers to pick...you get the picture.
  
• Attending a {free!} performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live! at a local high school. It was a great show and the kiddos LOVED it! We are big Schoolhouse Rock fans~we have all of the songs on dvd. Hey, they're a great homeschool resource:)
• Attending our co-op classes with our homeschool group.
• Finally breaking out the microscope set we got them {for Christmas!}. They are loving looking at all of the slides that came with it, plus using the outdoor exploring *tools* that came along, too. That is going to be great fun!

And there you have it...our version of unschooling for the week.

Next week I plan to get back into our groove...little by little. I'm still getting our schooling area arranged. We don't have an extra room for a school room in this house, but the kitchen/family area is really big and I think I'm actually going to like having them school there while I can also work in the kitchen, etc., if I need to while I still teach them.

And that's a wrap for us this week:)

If You Don't *See* Me For a Day or Two...

...I'm busy unpacking.

I'll *see* you soon though!!

The Tour Part 6: The Wall of Photos

Yes, this is a repost from 2009~written about our previous house~but I'm linking it up to the *Gallery Wall {Party!}* at The Inspired Room today. These are some of my favorite family photos and I can wait to unpack them and get them hung up in our new house. I already have the wall picked out!

*******

As I slowly wind up the house tour~there's just maybe one or two posts left on that~I just had to show you my favorite wall in the house. My wall of black and white photos of The Princess and Mr. B. This *collection* didn't start out planned, but grew and evolved. Until we moved into our current house I have always had these in our master bedroom, it just always worked out that way. But in this house I had a lot of wall space in the hallway and this just seemed like the right spot. I love the way it turned out! I look forward to adding more.