Challenge A Geography Helps

Drawing the world can be a daunting task. This part of Challenge A intimidated my daughter the most. Most of the time I had to encourage her just to get started and that the map didn't need to be perfect. My goal was that she learn the countries and if drawing skills were improved then that was icing on the cake. As the year went on I found some videos that helped her draw the countries. I will list them below

Canada- The Challenge tutor covered this one in class.
U.S- We purchased the U.S. portion from this website. My daughter thought it was a but childish, but I had to encourage her that she could make it more detailed if she wanted. Be careful that you don't squish out the eastern United States. I folded my paper in half (and also used a large piece of paper) so that I made sure that there was line to keep North Dakota and Texas to the left of it. This gave room for the eastern half.
Central America- The Challenge tutor covered this one in class. My daughter looked at maps to draw the countries
South America- My daughter looked at maps to draw the countries
Europe- We used this video. There is no spoken words. The artist first walked her through several simple shapes. This seemed classical to me. It helped her remember how to draw them later.
Asia- She used this video. The same artist as previously.
Africa- This video is the same man as before.
Australia- I helped her form a plan for this country. Australia has many horizontal and vertical lines making it easy. Your scholar should have so much experience by now, Australia will not be difficult.
Oceania- My daughter looked at the map and did this one all by herself. 

Leaving Saudi Arabia

Today she left Saudi Arabia and entered India

Learning Arabic

We have been studying Saudi Arabia on our way around the world. Kit was supposed to look in a book and copy the Arabic alphabet. I was able to find a YouTube video that explained each letter and told us the sound for the letter. It was a much more interesting. She is writing each letter as the video explains them. She will not be able to write any words after the lesson, but she will have an awareness of the writing. In know that I never had this experience. After we were finished we looked up some Arabic alphabet songs. It was interesting to compare it to how we learn our ABC's.

African Savannah

We are studying Africa this week. For art today we are making a mural of a savannah. Kit is using paint, markers and colored pencils. I photocopied and printed animals from one of our books. Mr. Wheels also painted and glued the animals on. He loves painting. While we painted I put on some African music. We don't always take time to do art. There are days when I don't want to make the mess, but this is what makes learning fun. We always have a good time. We had a peaceful time today.We did'n't finish today, we will have to work on it next week.n

Going to Kenya

Today we leave Europe and head to Africa. We were in Germany. I have been so busy that I didn't get to take the Germany pic today with the Kenya pic.

France

Kit is now leaving Norway and traveling to France.

Gone to Norway

Today we left Brazil and we entered Norway.

Junior Ranger

While we were driving to St Augustine Kit worked on the worksheets to earn her Jr. Ranger pin. There were several things she had to do while there. One of the things she had to do that she found difficult was to interview a ranger and a volunteer. Her father and I were so proud of her. She asked her questions like a natural, even though she was shy. When she finished her the interviews she received her pin. The Junior Ranger program is a wonderful resource for homeschoolers or anyone who wants their children to learn something when they visit a national monument.

Going to Brazil

We have finished our exploration of the North American Continent and today we started are travel to South America, first and only stop on this continent is Brazil.

Canada

We have been studying Canada and for English today Kit wrote a 3 point expository paragraph of Canada. Here it is.

I have three cool facts about Canada. These cool facts are about Maple syrup, ice hockey and Canadian police. My first cool fact is about maple trees.  Maple trees produce sap to make maple syrup and maple syrup is cool because it tastes good and is good for you at the same time.  My second cool fact is about ice hockey. Ice hockey is cool because it originated in Canada. My third cool fact is about Canadian police. Some Canadian police called Mounties ride on horses instead of in cars. Canada is really cool but my three cool facts about maple syrup, ice hockey and Canadian police is the best of them all.

Geography Vocab On The Floor

We do so much of our home school on the floor in the living room. This shows Kit using the computer to make her most resent 2 geography video vocabulary productions. This time we made a slide in PowerPoint with transitions and she narrated her content. I love that she is learning how to use the computer and the geography vocabulary at the same time. She gets a bit frustrated because she wants it to be perfect, but she enjoys not having to write out the definitions.

Crossing the Boarder

Today we crossed the boarder. We left Mexico and we are now in Canada.

Mexican Dinner

For school Kit was studying Mexico. In a previous post you can see that we made a pinata. This was just the start. We decorated it, put candy in it and devised a plan to hang it. After it was all over we knew many things that we would do differently if we had it to do all over. We would put the string to hang it starting it at the bottom and running through it. We had trouble with it pulling out. We would also put more tissue paper on as a background. Kit was disappointed that the newspaper could be seen through the tissue paper.  I was happy with the end product since it was our first time trying.

Friday night we had a Mexican dinner. We fixed fajitas with chips and salsa. Kit learned how to make Mexican tissue paper flowers  and was in charge of decorating the table.

We wanted to have some friends come over to break the pinata and help eat the candy. While Kit was in Sabbath School she told her friends that she was going to break a pinata at 3:00 and they were invited to come and help. We went outside just a little before 3:00 and waited to see who would show up. Kit was afraid that no one would show up. Well you can see by the picture that many did show up. It was fun watching the kids ride their bikes as they came over to our house.

We had trouble hanging it so my husband hooked it up in a miniature basket ball net. When we blind folded the first person and spun him around, he swung only twice and broke it open, but since it had the miniature net under it it didn't fall down. All the rest of the kids were able to be blind folded and hit the pinata at least 2 times. They all had fun.

Mexican Piñata

This year Kit is studying world history. This week she is learning about Mexico In the picture below she is making a piñata. We had a bit of difficulty at first. I was a bit overwhelmed with the mess of the project and all of my homeschool stuff out. We had fun after a while. The piñata is drying for today and tomorrow we will put on some color on it. I hope to have a Mexican party in a couple of days and burst our piñata.

While Kit was making the piñata mr. Wheels was learning to glue colored cars on paper.