We're "Rowing"

What's Rowing...you ask? Well apparently it's a term used by homeschooling families who are using the "Five In A Row" curriculum and just love it! I decided to give it a try with Henry for the new school year and once Abby saw what we were doing she insisted on doing it with us as well. I decided that we would take the Lap booking approach to this new curriculum because Henry is such a kinesthetic learner (hands on) and lap booking is perfect for that learning style. All kinds of little projects filled with fun learning experiences all put together in a fun package. The premise of "Five In A Row" is simple. . . yet genius! You use classic children's literature and extract all kinds of learning opportunities from it covering all the core subjects and then some. Because we are new to this I decided to play around with some samples and prepare everything ahead of time so that I could plan my lessons accordingly. We started with "Madeline" and as you can see from the pics I had way too much fun with it and I actually had to stop myself because I was getting carried away. Fun facts and history about France, Famous landmarks, French food, learning some of the language, a science project learning about the human anatomy (remember Madeline had her appendix removed) in math we practiced our 12 times tables, we learned some new vocabulary words, and sang Frere's Jacques and then learned all about famous French artists and did some Impressionist paintings of our own...we even made all 12 of the girls and Miss Clavel and laminated them so the kids can use them to play with. Oh, you can see how this  could be so much fun. Not only for us mom's doing the teaching, but also for the kids. Mine are loving it and can't seem to get enough. It's combining so many essential things all in one and in the end they have a beautiful keepsake to cherish. However, when I showed my samples to some of my homeschooling friends they all agreed that my lap books look like they are on steroids compared to most! Next, we moved onto "Ping" and next in line is "Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel" and on and on it goes. These past few weeks have been filled with everything school. The kids had their evaluations and each of them passed with flying colors. We took a vote and decided to keep on going and not take a big summer break. It's so hot here in the summer anyway so we might as well keep on going because we are having so much fun. During the Summer we cut back a little and only do school three days a week instead of five. But we have so many things planned it will be hard to get everything done. Lots of big and exciting field trips including a trip to Florida to go see the space shuttle and the new penguin exhibit at Sea World plus spending lots of quality time with grandma and grandpa. Trips to the Smithsonian, Greek festivals, Renaissance faires, and so on and so forth! My brain is constantly going in 10 different directions and we are having the best time. Sewing you ask??? Yes, I've been doing that as well and I've designed a new dress that you are just going to flip over. It may be one of my best yet! Keep your eyes and ears open for news about "Felicity" coming soon! Okay, back to work...I just looked at the clock and realized I need to whip up something amazing for dinner and I have no idea what that is going to be.

Dawn

BTW . . . Yes, I did draw the pictures for the covers and all the characters from Madeline.