I suppose if I really admitted it (and fully realized it) – which I didn’t until now, our entire school year so far has been a giant unit study of sorts. You’d think I’d catch on a little quicker, eh? We’ve been studying different countries around the world, but all with the purpose of learning more about our world as a whole.

Contained in little pockets of our study are smaller pockets of study…it’s amazing to me how one unit can contain other sub-units…and sometimes you can really get carried away. For example, we are studying world geography and as we studied Japan we also studied volcanoes and had a week-long adventure doing that. When we studied China we added in a unit on pandas. We’ve been using Galloping the Globe as a rough curriculum outline for our studies. At the start of the year I was glued to it, but the more we progress in our school year, the more comfortable I am figuring out my own plans (and sometimes now forget to use the book until I’m almost finished with my planning).

I usually do a post each week that talks about what we’ve been covering in our studies. If you’d like to see what we’ve been doing this year so far, you can following this link “Galloping the Globe“. If you are more interested in a specific country, check out my sidebar where I’ve listed each country as we’ve studied them (scroll waaaaay down), along with the different animals and lapbooks that we’ve done. Just click the label/tag and you should find your way around. I’ve done my best to include the great links that I’ve found along with the resources that we’ve used or made along the way.

With our preschooler, our year has become one where we are doing a unit on the alphabet. Each week we talk about a new letter of the alphabet and all of our activities relate to that specific letter. I do a weekly summary on our activities here on Fridays and have pegged it the ‘Preschool Corner‘.

And as for my favorite unit study we’ve done so far? To narrow it down to one is rather hard, so I’ll give you a couple that we’ve loved. Exploring Antarctica took us much longer than we thought and was very fun. Lapbooking enters our studies occasionally and I put one together this last year based on The Legend of the Easter Egg – we were going to have to enjoy it since I put so much work into it!

Have a question about what we’re doing? Feel free to ask away.

Carissa from 1+1+1=1 is introducing a new site today, Totally Tots, that is geared toward moms of Tots (ages 1-4). It is going to be chocked full of wonderful ideas for you to use with your Tot. I’m going to be working on one of the areas (TOTally Working for Me) and have the privilege of working with other amazing ladies. Some of the other areas of focus: Bible Bites, Giggle Time, Cute Tots, Crafty Corner, Get Real With God, and more!

Be sure to hop on over and check it out. Carissa has done an amazing job pulling the site together and it is sure to be a blessing to you!

I pulled together my post on the Letter E for the Preschool Corner. You can find the post here (buried back in my October posts). There’s a part of me that just needs to have this all chronological…it’s a quirk of mine. :)

Slowly, but surely, I’m catching up on the past posts that are mixed in with our geography posts. As I finish separating them out, I am posting the links in the sidebar too – only F, G, and H to go!

At Heart of the Matter online Amy posed a question question to her 6 year-old homeschooled son: “Why do you love being homeschooled?”.

Just for fun I thought I’d ask our girls the same question. Too fun how their answers give a little glimpse into their personalities.

Laurianna (age 7) – The first thing is, we don’t have to get up early to go wait at the bus stop. We get to play outside longer than we would at school and also we get to learn about lots of fun things. I like it because I don’t have to sit at a desk, I get to sit at our table. AND Mommy teaches me! The last thing is you get to stay home all the time (unless you’re running errands).

The bus stop comment was timely since it was freezing and raining this morning…so she was very grateful to be able to stay indoors!!

McKenna (age 6) – ‘Cause I like writing and stuff. I like it better because we have different schoolwork than school does. There’s less writing and stuff. And I don’t like going to the principal.

This little girl just cracks me up. First she likes writing and then in the next breath she enjoys homeschooling because there is less writing (umm…really not so much, but shhh…). And since she’s never been to school, or had to go the principal (other than Daddy), I’m not sure where that last comment came from!

1. I was at one point ADAMANTLY opposed to homeschooling. Even preached against its’ follies in a college debate. My brothers were both homeschooled for some time and I refused.
2. I could be considered a Jane Austen junkie. I own all her books and sadly more than one version of most of the movies based on her books. I love period dramas.
3. I buy M&M’s to use as rewards for my kids – only they never end up making it to my children. I can’t imagine that has anything to do with why I can’t drop these last few pounds…
4. I have a tendency to overcommit myself…grand plans…but time can be short.
5. I believe the only way to really enjoy a Lindt truffle is to leave it in your pocket for a short time so that it just melt in your mouth.
6. I cannot roller skate backwards to save my life. Never could get that figured out.
7. I had RK surgery almost 10 years ago to correct my vision. No more glasses for me.
8. I have several preferences in my house: Bounty paper towels (the smaller sheet size) and Charmin (for the grown-ups).
9. I am sadly becoming addicted to NBC’s new show: Crusoe.
10. The Mac/PC commercials always make me laugh outloud.