Saturday, January 3, 2015

Planning and back to school! Classical Conversations week 13: 14th Amendment, atomic number and free printables

Wow...is it really 2015?!  I've been trying to step out of my comfort zone and do some planning. I love the end result of planning...putting things on the calendar, order in my life, looking at the big picture...but the process is so hard for me!  I'm not a natural planner.  My tendency is to be spontaneous and just do most of life as it comes, glancing at our lives a week at a time.  While this works fine for some people, I'm seeing that for our family, this has caused some limitations and missed opportunities that I don't want to pass up for 2015.  My personal theme word for this year is "thrive."  I want my family to come out of our "survival mode" and really thrive this year.  In order for that to happen...I've got to make changes in pretty much every area of my life.  Change is not easy, friends.  It will definitely take some support and some big God interventions.  But I'm not scared or discouraged...He is a God of miracles and it CAN happen : ).  I'd appreciate your prayers!

To start off, I wanted to share this post on Ann Voskamp's blog.  Good truth and some great, free printables to start your year off.  I've got the "Sanity Manifesto" taped to my wall right above my computer right now : ).  I printed it a year ago and just let it sit somewhere, ignored.  Now I've got it front and center!  Her blog has a wealth of free tools and framables that you don't want to pass up.  I especially love her scripture memory cards for the book of John.

Now on to week 13!
History: 14th Amendment
*Here is a great explanation of the 14th amendment and shows a picture of it at the national archives. I will probably read over it and just briefly summarize/simplify what it meant for my kiddos since they are young.
*Because this is the only week that we'll be doing the Constitution, I thought I'd add in a few activities to go along with that:
*I found a simple, and free, We The People class Constitution booklet that the kids can illustrate that goes along with the Preamble.
*This page has a nice graphic that breaks down the Constitution in an understandable way
*www.education.com has free worksheets and I printed one off about the Constitution.  Here's a link to one about the Bill of Rights.
*I have more activities pinned on my Classical Conversations Cycle 3 board on Pinterest.

Geography: Western Mountains

Fine Arts: Grandma Moses
*Nice video of Grandma Moses' art and a little biographical info, too.

*Folk Art Lesson inspired by Grandma Moses' art.  Looks like a great lesson!

Math: Liquid Equivalents
*FREE liquid equivalents printable that you can use as flashcards

Science: atomic numbers
*We'll probably just look at our periodic table and discuss the definition.
*Here's a video, too

*I found this great blog page with some awesome FREE printables of the periodic table and some elements flash cards that I'm definitely going to print for my kiddos!

Hope all of you have a great week back into the school groove!  Blessings to all of you from the Daniel family and Happy New Year!

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