End of Year Wrap-Up/Studying Mammals - and it's FREE!

I'm proud of some of the big things we have accomplished since we began our school year. One of those is our study of mammals - which I tried to tailor to my nine and six year old so we could learn together.

In August we began reading The Burgess Animal Book for Children. Originally I had purchased the book because it is a part of Ambleside Online's curriculum - and we do use parts of that in our homeschool. A few times a week we read a chapter in the book. I must say, my children always ask me to read more and have gained so much from this sweet book. I read it aloud to them and the short chapters (about 15 minutes each) kept my little one's interest, and the detail in the chapters kept my nine year old very interested as well.

While I ordered the physical copy of the book, you can download your own copy for free, read it straight from the internet, get your own free audio download, or download your own free version for the iPad or Kindle (just search the iPad and Kindle stores for that). (By the way -- there are many other Burgess books for free download out there, and I can't wait to explore some more!)

The narrator of the book is Mother Nature, and each day she conducts "school" to instruct the animals around her about the mammals of North America. Each mammal gets a cute name and persona, which really helped my children to remember them. Now, when we see a certain animal out in the real world my kids will say "There goes Johhny Chuck!" or "Do you think that's Chatterer the Red Squirrel?" I LOVE IT! The scientific classification is an added bonus, and while my children remembered some of that, I didn't feel it was of utmost importance. At this age I just wanted them to soak up a general knowledge of the mammals of North America and enjoy learning about them. We accomplished this goal!

Some days I would print out coloring sheets from the internet about mammals we learned about, and other days I would just let my son build Legos or blocks while he listened. I'm finding that he's ALWAYS listening, even when I think he's not!

This week we are reading the last chapter in the book, and then will be watching a video, a DK Eyewitness Mammal DVD, which I got from our library.

I think it will be a perfect way to wrap up our study, and in these weeks before Christmas it's nice to relax a little. We've been doing the crafty thing and baking, too -- but quite honestly I just like activities with low prep on my part and high interest and learning on the kids' part!

If you wanted to make this a totally independent study you could download the audio and let your children listen in the car or during quiet times over a period of months, then let them wrap up with the video at the end. I'm all about instructing my children, but I'm trying to get more "hands off" activities for my own sanity!

I hope you can use this resource as you plan for the New Year!

This post is linked to Teach Me Tuesday, at a Bokros Kind of Life, and also to the Hip Homeschool Hop. Check out these two blogs today for some great ideas!

New Nature Resource

This week we are learning all about bears. After reading about them in our Burgess Animal Book (which I blog about all the time - this is an awesome book!), both of the children expressed an interest in bears, so off we went! In addition to checking out tons of books from the library about bears, we also have been reading Winnie The Pooh and Paddington. We are all in love with these sweet stories.

Last weekend, during our trip to the Appalachian mountains, I found the greatest book about bears! It is part of the Discovering Nature Library series and is called Discovering Black Bears. It is full of many activities to help children learn about a bear and its habits and habitat. It includes a story and board game. The best thing about it - it was just $8.95! We have started going through the book and I'm so impressed with how well done it is, and how interesting it is for my children. Other topics in the series include wolves, sharks, salmon, earthquakes, volcanoes, and ancient forests. I know I've missed some, so go over the website to see what they have.

I just love how homeschooling brings life and learning together - well, really they are beginning to be seamless for our family. We read about bears in one book, start researching bears, go to a place where lots of bears live, then find a fun bear resource while we are there. If you have any great resources you have used when you learned about bears, can you let me know?? I'm always on the lookout for new things!
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Reading to the Dogs

Miss B loves animals, and has had an ongoing love affair with dogs for the past couple of years. At our local library there is a program where children can come and read to assistance dogs as part of their training. Miss B has done this a few times and enjoys it so much. This week she read to Kool Joe. While she was reading to him, he laid his head in her lap and fell asleep. It's a great way to practice her reading skills, help train a dog, and feed her canine obsession at the same time!