South American Learning!

This week in our Around the World Unit for homeschool co-op we traveled to South America. The kids made stops in Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina.

Brazil

In Brazil, the kids first found the country on the globe, learned about the flag, and saw pictures of different areas in Brazil, including the Amazon River and rainforest. After that they read "If I Ran the Rainforest" by Bonnie Worth, learned about the many different animals in the rainforest and a little about deforestation. The special Brazilian treat that I made for them to try was brigadeiro, which they went crazy over! While they were eating that they got to enjoy some cute clips from the movie Rio, namely the one with all of the birds doing the Samba, the carnival scene, and the end where they are all in the rainforest.

Colombia

In Colombia, the kids learned where the country is on a map, saw the flag, and learned a bit about the culture. They learned about coffee, Cartagena, listened to pirate stories, and learned about the artist Fernando Botero. After that they got to eat another yummy snack (arepas!) and got to do some Zumba dancing using the Wii game.

Argentina

In Argentina, they found the country on the map and learned about the flag first. Then they watched some video clips, played and listened to some music, learned about tango and about soccer.The snack was toast with dulce de leche and something similar to a goat cheese pillow on a cracker with pâte de fruit..

Z's letter y

All of the kids had a great time!

While the big kids were all occupied in their reading class, the younger siblings were making their letter y. It's amazing to think that next week they will be creating their letter z pictures and be done!

Here Comes the Rain... Again.

This afternoon we are supposed to go on a Nature Exploration/ Visual Scavenger Hunt with one of our local homeschool groups, but I can see the storm clouds coming... I'm really hoping the storm holds off but we are expected to have scattered thunderstorms all afternoon. The boys will be so disappointed!

Yesterday our morning was spent at our homeschool co-op. We started a new unit on Cultures Around the World! Instead of breaking things up into subject based centers we've decided that each mom will cover a different country. :) Yesterday we covered 4: the UK, France, Greece, and Russia. 

Russia

Greece

The UK

France

The kids made passports together and then traveled to the different countries. Each country offered, food, music, pictures, books, cultural facts, and a fun activity. Whole group activity for the unit will be the kids learning how to say hello, goodbye, and count to 10. This week they learned that in French. I love watching all the kids learn so much about all of the topics we cover each unit.

Making his passport.

Paper nesting dolls.

His Greek outfit.

This unit has already sparked S's desire to travel. He loves geography and learning about other places. In previous lessons he's asked me to visit different landmarks and national monuments, which of course just added to our current plan to take a cross country road-schooling trip in a couple years. Now he is showing more and more interest in places outside the U.S. probably due to watching multiple episodes of Human Planet, Planet Earth, Life, and Blue Planet. He LOVES those shows and so do I.  We'll see where that interest leads our family.

While S was enjoying learning about the different countries, Z was busy enjoying all of the food. He had no problem sampling everything he could and then some... potential foodie in the making!

Next week we're traveling to Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Jamaica! It's going to be a lot of fun!

Let's Pretend 2011 Didn't Happen!

Shortly after my last post in 2011, my father passed away. Then months after that we suffered a miscarriage and had our van stolen, so my vow to update the blog more did not happen as I was distracted with the unfortunate events that permeated 2011.

As of this moment I am renewing my vow to make an effort to update this blog regularly. My spirit has been lifted, life is moving on, and thus far 2012 has been a far better year. I'm usually more private so I'm going to really branch out into this blogging world and see what happens. Future topics will include but are not limited to homeschooling, our love of Sea World, our upcoming trip to LegoLand, random life events, and our new found love of SimplyFun games (seriously, my kids have been going crazy over them so check out what they have to offer some time here and read my reviews, demos, and special offers at my new blog).

So on that note, I hope anyone reading this has a wonderful rest of their weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Making an Effort

I have not even looked at my blog in months. Before that I just could not find the time to post anything that I had planned. So, as of this moment I am going to make a more conscious effort to update this blog.

Family Fun at Disney!

Earlier this year we took advantage of buying the FL resident discount for a 4 Day Dream Pass. We decided that we would go to each of the Disney parks. We had been to Magic Kingdom before when S was 18 months, but we'd never been to Epcot, Hollywood Studios, or Animal Kingdom. Even though the boys are young (and free until 3 yrs old) it was well worth it. S had the best time!

So let's start our adventure with our trip to Epcot in March. The picture above is Spaceship Earth. We went during the Flower and Garden Festival, which is held in the spring time, and I'd definitely recommend people go during that event because it was amazing to see all of the character sculpted topiaries. As you can guess I took many pictures of these beautiful creations as we wandered the park. That Lady and the Tramp topiary was in Italy. Obviously someone had a sense of humor because this next one made us laugh.

While we were there we wandered through each country, taking pictures and smelling the fantastic food. Epcot is known for its great food! It's not the most kid friendly park just because there is a lot of wandering through the different countries with less flashy fun stuff for kids than say Magic Kingdom. There are movie type rides that let you explore the different cultures, which is not that interesting for a 2 year old. When the boys are older I hope to take them back so they can experience and appreciate the performances and movies. It's still fun to do with kids, but they won't be as entertained throughout the day. If you want to go just adults, I imagine it would be fantastic... I'd have plenty of money available though because all the different foods available are very tempting!

Before you wander the countries there is a section that's more kid friendly. This was where S had the most fun. In particular he loved the Finding Nemo ride. After that ride you can spend some time in the building looking at the aquariums. I knew that would be S's favorite because he is obsessed with Sea World. His fascination with marine life is unbounded. He would have gone on that ride all day if we had let him. He also enjoyed the 3 Caballeros boat ride in Mexico, but not as much as Nemo.

Of course, we met multiple characters. The first ones we saw were Chip N' Dale. We even waited in line to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy. Z was asleep for all but the picture with Goofy, and S was real tired by that point too so he didn't even smile.

Overall, it was a good day. It was worth the experience, but I doubt I would do it again with young children.