"Wishing You A Rainbow" ~ Our week with "Expedition Ireland"

This week has actually been one of our favorites. During our school time, we ventured to the Emerald Isle…

Our Download N’ Go unit this week was “Expedition Ireland” and with it we had so much fun learning about the beautiful island full of legends, rainbows, and leprechauns…

I have always been fascinated by the majestic beauty and the wonderful history that surrounds Ireland, so I was excited to have the opportunity to look at it through my kids eyes.

With each affordable, comprehensive Download N’ Go unit, everything you need is included –websites, videos, activity pages, lapbook components. They are geared to grades K-4 ~ but I find it extremely easy with no prep-work to modify them for my 5th grader. My planning and prep time is a minimal 30 minutes and is easy because all the work is done for me. I look over the unit, print out what needs to be printed, make a grocery list (if there are recipes included) and log on to the library to reserve my books (which are included in an extensive book list for each day of the unit).



Our days were spent learning within a themed topic:

Day 1: Where on Earth is Ireland?

Day 2: The Places of Ireland

Day 3: A Bit of History

Day 4: Cool Things to Know about Ireland

Day 5: Fun and Games in Ireland

The fantastic video links lead you to wonderful Irish folk music and beautiful scenery.

Our first day we took an aerial flight over Ireland and learned about the Giant’s Causeway. Download N’ Go’s are an incredible way to get in geography lesson.

(which I must say was pretty incredible!!! )

Language arts is covered with legends, vocabulary, and wonderful verses for copy work.

And science is in there too ~ I never new what a stoat was…

Delicious recipes (my husband’s favorite part of the week) were made as the kids measured ingredients and attempted to speak with an Irish brogue (which sounded so strange with their southern drawls)..

Everything you need in one downloadable package.

With March on it’s way, take a walk on the Carrick A Rede rope bridge and learn about St. Patrick’s Day with “Expedition Ireland“. It will certainly give you a new way to be wearing the green in your home school. You can travel to Ireland or other wonderful countries with Download N' Go's wonderful "Expedition" series for only $7.95. What an incredibly afforadable price for a week (or longer) jam-packed with Irish fun.  To find Expedition Ireland or others like it, click here.  And now thru Monday, Feb. 21st, there are incredible $5 deals going, find out more by clicking here.

Erin go Bragh     

Spending the week with George ~ George Washington that is...

“I CANNOT TELL A LIE” ~ We loved this unit….

 This week we completed the “George Washington Download N’ GO”… and it was full of great learning ideas and wonderful information.

 We spent only a week, but could have easily spent more time looking at this fascinating man.

 This was an awesome unit and my kidlets and I had a great time learning about George Washington,  “the Father of Our Country”. I had wanted to do this unit with my kids for the educational purposes ~ so they would learn some history, learn about a great president, and get some of our educational goals checked off my list. But this unit brought a lot more to the table than just these things I was looking for ~ we got so much more!!

 This is how the week is set up:

Day 1: Who Was George Washington?

Day 2: People and Places in George Washington’s Life

 Day 3: The Accomplishments of George Washington

 Day 4: Lessons to Learn From George Washington

 Day 5: Remembering George Washington



 With this unit you will learn about:

 That yes ~ he did cut down his father’s beloved cherry tree but the moral lesson in telling the truth is even more valuable to children.

 Your kids venture into math with cherry pie fractions and even bake one for a wonderful after dinner desert.

One thing that was of particular interest to us was that he was a journal keeper and that was something that we recently started with both kids ~ it was a great family discussion talking about what he possibly could have written in his journals.

 Another item that I used was penmanship and how important he felt it was.

The learning continues with a stop at Mt. Vernon and Washington state and continues on through the Revolution.

 Everything is included…All the links to websites, games, and videos to enhance your child’s learning. A booklist is always included with each Download N’ Go unit. I just placed my hold lists online with the library and pick them up. No extra research needed on my part at the library for go-along reading.



With each of the DNG units there is a lapbook you can print out for your kids to complete... If you have never done it before, very clear instructions on how to put it all together are included. We do more notebooking and this unit also includes worksheets that are perfect for this too... The options are really endless with these studies, it really is up to you and your personal family’s learning style…This week we took a different route and spent the week reading books, watching the videos, copy work from the quotes, and making drawings of the famous things mentioned in this unit for a totally new experience with the Download N’ Go’s and it was perfect.

Quoting George Washington, “It is better to be alone than in bad company”, you certainly are in good company when you use The George Washington Unit from Download N’ Go…

 You can find this unit and other titles here. To see what others are saying about Download N'Go George Washington, just click on the Linky tool...Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

 

I was given this unit to use for my personal use in exchange for my honest opinion in review.

Magnificent Moon...

Yes!!! In our house, (as if you didn’t know) we love unit studies…

 Not only because it makes our school day flow much easier in that I only have to teach the material once (even though there is 3 yrs. difference in the age of my kidlets) but because my kids learn best when one topic is presented which peaks their interest and lots of info is given or found about that topic.

So, this week we spent time with a unit study called Magnificent Moon”which is the latest installment in the Download N’Go series…

In short, (if you are not familiar with these) ~ it is an e-book series that takes the best of unit studies adds some lap book elements and puts it all in one printable product! You choose which activities are the best fit for your family and you’re off and running.



Videos, copy work, vocabulary, science, and geography is all in there for you. Also included is a suggested book list for additional reading, family fun activities, and lots more!
We’ve done several DNG’s and though each one was different, we have loved them all.

Our latest adventure with Magnificent Moon was really fun. In it we spent the week looking at:

1. What Exactly is a Moon?

2. Getting to know the Moon

3. The Story of the Moon

4. Science Secrets of the Moon

5. Cool Things about the Moon

This unit was heavy with science and that suited our family to a tee ~ since we love science. We investigated the lives of Issac Newton and Galileo. Discussed the importance of gravity, the Earth’s tug on the moon and spent a little time doing an experiment involving gravity.

One of our activities was to observe and record the phases of the moon which we had some difficulty doing because of the cloud cover. But we looked thru the online almanac to see what the moon was supposed to be doing and what phase it was in and placed it on our graph. And there was even fun learning to be had with Oreos.

We took a lot of time talking about and getting to know the moon which included tides and their relationship to the moon ~ something my son was really interested in. We discussed the rocks on the moon and the surface of the moon ~ “terra, maria, and craters”.

Libby decided to make a “Man in the Moon” craft.
 

The kids enjoyed learning about the Apollo missions and how spacesuits keep astronauts alive and well.  The kids loved meeting the astronauts but they were not big fans of "Tang" orange drink.  I was surprised that only 12 have walked on the moon within a 3 yr. period and 6 Apollo missions..

I even shared with my kids a report I had written in high school about a hero of mine "Sally Ride” who was the first American woman in space on the shuttle and happens to have also been home-schooled.



We even did a few math activities like calculating our weight and our weight on other planets / moon.

Some of the books we used this week were:

and these too


And one really neat book I want to share is “Choose the Fate of the Apollo 13”. This was my son’s favorite read during our time this week.


One of favorite things about DNG units is the small amount of prep work that goes into it for me. Basically I read over the unit and print what we need and that’s it. (30 minutes to an hour at most)…Then if I need to, I can reserve our books from the library ~ this week was a busy one for us and I wasn't going to have the extra 1 1/2 hrs. it takes to drive round- trip to the library we use, so we used books we had at home.

Finally the best thing about a DNG is that there are activites for my daughter (2^nd grade) and also at my son’s level (5^th grade)… And since I learn something new (actually a lot) every time we do a unit ~ it makes our learning together that much more fun!

Here’s some upcoming specials from DNG that you will not want to miss!!!

You can purchase Magnificent Moon for $7.95 here!

Jan. 26th ~ Australia Day, $3.95 off Expedition Australia

Jan. 28th ~ Cool Moon Map giveaway

Jan. 16 - 31 and the Cabin Fever Fun Pack which includes Magnificent Moon, Winter Wonders, Expedition Canada, and Popcorn on sale for $20 (regularly $28).

And if you would like to see what others are saying about Download N’ Go units just click on the linky tool ~

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...



I was given this unit to use for my personal use in exchange for my honest opinion in review.

Winter Wonders...

We have spent the last 2 weeks marveling in the "Wonders of Winter" .  Since we were taking a small break from our usual school schedule with the holidays we decided to use the Download n' Go unit "WINTER WONDERS"...   This is a unit that is designed to be used in a week, but I took 2 weeks since we were doing it as a fun thing to entertain the kids during our time off and as a way for me to "sneak" some school in too.  Now, as with all the DNG units ~ it's a comprehensive unit study geared toward K-4th grade students, but I use it with my 5th grader and he learns and enjoys them  just as much as my 2nd grader. They are really easy to beef up by adding additonal work sheets on the older childs level. Everything is organized and prepared for you. It includes videos, websites, activities, and lapbook components. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing research, all the work is done for you.

 For the last 10 years or so, East Tn has had relatively dry winters (virtually no snow ~ except for the occasional flurry). In the last month we have had 3 snowfalls with accumulations and more is predicted to fall in the coming days... My kids are in heaven and taking advantage of learning about winter was perfect for us.

We lean towards the eclectic order in our homeschool and I use the DNG units as I use most of my material  ~ in the way that works for us. And that is one of the reasons why I love using these units. They work with us and take almost no prep work on my part. Now I know some people don't mind printing and use every page and that's great, but for us I like to save ink and paper (my budget prevails) and I print mostly the lapbook components and  a few of the activity pages.


This is one of the pages that my kids completed on Caribou.
  I usually take 30 minutes to an hour for my prep for the WHOLE week~ that includes reading over the material, printing the neccessary pages, and putting my library books on hold. Since you download the unit, you have it available as soon as you need it ~ no waiting on it to be mailed or shipped to you. And I usually just take the laptop to our table and we work together on it orally. It is perfectfor our family. 

Each week is broken down into daily objectives:
 1. What is Winter?
2. Science Secrets of Winter
3. People and Places of Winter
4. Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter
5. Goodies and Gadgets of Winter

I didn't use any library books this time with it being the holidays and wanting to have a slow-paced study. So I pulled these books of our shelves and used them.

     These are some of our favorite books involving winter themes. I through the whale book in as we studied Beluga whales...

Now we did this study over 2 weeks and took our time and really went in-depth on each topic. I added some math worksheets with a winter theme that I found here . You can choose your grade level and just print our what you need.


My children used the bible verses or poetry included  with each unit as their daily copywork. Here is my daughter's version of  "BED IN SUMMER" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

The videos that were included in the unit were fantastic... My kidlets loved watching them ~ and I especially loved all the falling snow... It was so relaxing to watch the videos and drink hot cocoa made from some of the recipes included with "WINTER WONDERS".   One of our favorite recipes was for the "SNOWFLAKE COOKIES" .. the kidlets had a great time making them and then hubby and I had a great time eating them...




The kidlets found out what the "Winter Solstice" is, when it occurs,  how the earth rotates to create this occurence, and the season in other parts of the world. Then they each drew their own earth rotating on it's axis. 
     
                                      
Learning about animals like the Snowy Owl, the Arctic Fox,  and  the Beluga Whale would have covered our science but the included experiments took us even further... We learned about "When Does Water Float" in an experiment using household ingredients and a plastic bottle. We melted ice cubes, learning what reaction salt has in the process.

And then we spent a couple of days with the "Iditarod"... my 10yo son really enjoyed reading "Balto" and watching a video on Netflix called, "Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth" .      We learned why it is the "Last Great Race"  and were able to trace the race on a map of Alaska...

 

We spent some time getting to know the artist Robert Duncan and took a look at some of his paintings. This was my kids favorite:



We learned about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley and spent time looking at the beautiful pictures he had taken in his lifetime of the snowflake.
We used this website to learn more about snowflakes and their compostition.  I also thought it would be a good time to use a site that I had found on similies using snowflakes and  "Snowflake Bentley" and you can find it here.  Here are some of the beautiful snowflakes that we looked at online:

                     

And then we made our own snowflakes which was another of my favorite activities in the unit...
           

And we ended our week playing in the snow and looking at the beauty of the snow all around us....

 

 

 

 

 

You too can have a wonderful week learning about this great season. At only $7.95, it's an inexpensive way to add some fun and learning to your homeschool week. You can purchase this unit here. For more information on other Download N Go Series  and all the titles they offer can be seen here.  Check out the DNG Blog for all the latest information and specials or the Winter Wonders Blog Tour and see what other reviewers have to say about these great products.

 I received this product free of charge for use in exchange for my family's honest opinion and I received no other compensation in exchange for my review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Hiding out with "Creation Camouflage"...

Have you ever thought about why an Arctic Fox is white or how a cuttlefish disappears in plain sight? Well, I hadn't either until we spent some time this week with "Creation Camouflage" , a Download N' Go unit... It was great to take time to look at all the wonders of the animal world and that God gave some of them a special method of hiding for protection, defense or for hunting that we call camouflage. 



Now this unit is like all the others in that it is written to be used as a 5 day study with objectives for each day. But as with all DNG units, you can do them at your own pace. 

• Day 1 : Hiding in Plain Sight


• Day 2 : Getting to Know the Rain Forest


• Day 3:  What is in the Desert?


• Day 4: Hiding in the Ocean


• Day 5: Cool Things about the Tundra

This unit is really thorough with geography and science studies, but the vocabulary lists are great too. Imagine your child and words like "mimicry, conservation, and endangered" and knowing not only what they mean but how to correctly use them.  Add learning about Jaques Cousteau and Jack Hanna to the mix and you have a wonderful week of learning!!!  And all the minibooks and worksheets are included in the unit. 



Now, as with all the DNG's we have used in the past, I only print off what pertains to my kidlets age and skill, and then I supplement if necessary or if we take a rabbit trail (which we always do)... And that's part of the ease of these units, they are so adaptable. They can truly be used by every homeschool family, no matter what method your family uses.

We enjoyed learning about different biomes and the amazing animals that live in each one, from the mighty Rain Forest to dry out in the Desert. From the icy Tundra and then a dive into the Ocean blue... these animals defy and amaze...

As usual, the research work is done for you with book lists and internet links provided in the unit. I also added some more links and activities since my kidlets were having such a good time with learning about camouflage.

Enchanted Learning has some great worksheets on various animals and their forms of camouflage. We added in some movies to the mix, since my kids enjoy and learn a tremendous amount from watching videos. One of these that we watched was a PBS video "NOVA : Kings of Camouflage" ... and Brain POP also has some great info and activities.

This week we played quite a few games. one of their favorites was hide and seek, each trying to "out-hide" the other one. And then we played "Hiding Animals"  ~  I looked online for some animal coloring pages and let the kids color one as realistic as they possibly could and the other as odd as possible.  Then we cut them out and they took turns hiding their pictures around the house and outside and letting the other one try and find it. They then had to decided which was easiest to find. We also did an activity using various shades of the same color crayons and coloring animals (in the same color but various shades) and looking at how difficult it would be to spot the animal if the background was the same color but of a different shade.

Finally,  here are some pictures that the kids and I enjoyed looking at trying to find the various camouflaged animals.

  Is it a rock or a toad?

 Wouldn't want to step on this bad boy...

 Now where is he????

You, too, can have a fun week and learn all about the maganificent creatures and their amazing camouflage abilities. This great unit and many other Download N' Go units on other fantastic topics can be found here and at only $7.95 each they are a bargain for a week of learning for the homeschool family.
 


 

As part of the the "Download N Go" review team, I have been provided with a copy of this unit to use, review, and post our family's honest opinions about it on my blog.

 

 

Our week with Ben Franklin...

Ben Franklin was in the house this week… and boy, did we ever learn tons about what a great man he truly was…

I myself never realized all the great inventions he had made and the wisdom he possessed… WOW!!! It was as much a learning experience for me as for the kids.

We used the BEN FRANKLIN Download N’ Go unit study from Amanda Bennett as spine for our week. I love these units. They are easily adaptable to any style of learning and are so easy to use for even the busiest homeschool family.

The week was laid out for us like this:

 

• Day 1: Who Was Ben Franklin?


• Day 2: People and Places in Ben Franklin’s Life


• Day 3: The Accomplishments of Ben Franklin


• Day 4: Lessons to Learn From Ben Franklin


• Day 5: Remembering Ben Franklin

I have to admit, my favorite day was Day 3... I learned so much myself on this day.

Our week started with my usual preparation for a Download N' Go unit study ~ mainly looking over the weekly schedule and reviewing the suggested book list. Then I took a look at the “FUN FAMILY IDEAS”. These are little extras that are thrown in to the unit that can really enhance the study and increase the learning through fun.

We used books that we already owned and were lucky that a few of them were on the suggested reading list.

Here’s a few of the books that we used this week in our study.

                           

 

 Download N'Go units always have great video and informational links, so that work is done for me ~ I just looked for a few more things to satisfy the gamer in my son ~ who loves playing learning games on the computer…

I found these sites for him to play for fun review.   You can check out both of the games at the links below...

Ben Franklin games    and this one also  Ben Franklin: True or False  and then there is this Online Treasure Hunt...

We love using the lapbook/notebook elements of the Download N' Go units and the  Ben Franklin  unit had some great minibooks and graphics to choose from. My kids love making folders using these. ?

 
    

        

Ben Franklin was a great person on which to study character traits ~ He was honest, intelligent, wise, frugal, and a hard worker. All traits that I want my kids to possess and appreciate in others.

And speaking of being a hard worker, he appreciated time to enjoy his hobbies as well. Not only was inventing a passion of his, but he also loved music and played several instruments. One of which being the glass armonica (which he also invented) ~ my daughter was fascinated when she learned that the armonica is played during the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” in the Nutcracker (her favorite ballet).

We were able to add math into the week, using money with his image (the $100 bill and the 50cent piece)…

   

To finish off our week with Ben, the kids took in a class offered at our local Discovery Center on “ELECTRICITY” … The 2 hr. class introduced the kids to electricity where they not only had some cool experiments but also go the opportunity to be “SHOCKED” (which they both loved and couldn’t stop talking about)…

This great unit study and other Download N'Go products can be purchased here at The Old Schoolhouse. Each unit is extremely affordable at only $7.95 each and the ease of use is wonderful for the busy homeschool family. All the research is done for you and the included links make it a tremendous educational tool. And right now you can buy the Ben Franklin DNG unit for only $6.25 (that's only $1.25 a day for a week of learning and fun!!! WHAT A GREAT DEAL!!)

This unit was provided for my family to use in exchange for our personal thoughts and honest opinions in this review.