History Comes Alive

You've heard me say it a hundred times, "We'll hunker down and do school in the winter, you know, when Canadians and bears hibernate."

Well - so much for hunkering down.

And as I think about it, I'm not so sure what I meant by "do school". I probably meant focus on math and reading and spelling and all those other things that are an important part of education.

Hunkering down this week entails skiing lessons at Boler Mountain "the bump" today. We conquered ever run on the hill and will continue our lessons at Blue Mountain at the end of January. Then on Wednesday the girls have Original Kids Theatre where they need to present a 1-2 minutes speech from memory about themselves AND a 1-2 minute monologue from memory from a book, play or movie. Let me just say that watching them practice their speeches in front of the mirror is perhaps one of the cutest things I've seen. I just hope that they are as confident in front of their peers as they are in front of the mirror. After theatre we go skating downtown and then to the library. No HIGH day (our co-op) this week so we are left with three days to hunker down.

And then I start thinking ... (usually not a good thing!).

I start thinking how hunkering down with just plain-old math and reading is just way too boring for me. Plus we usually get done by noon. We need something a little different for these long winter months.

So here's what I came up with.



A little googling and I found so many resources for making history come alive using the Night at the Museum movies. We can watch the movies (a little popcorn, some Mike and Ikes, hot chocolate, a fire in the fireplace) and then every day for the next few weeks we'll study one of the characters that comes to life in the movie. And to cap it all off we'll watch the movies again - only this time with a whole lot more knowledge about the characters. Maybe we'll end it all with a lapbook - maybe.

See - my thinking got me somewhere this time!

It sure is a good thing that a lot of other homeschool moms had this idea before me because they already created a bunch of printables and lapbook ideas and they've posted them all over the web. (Side note: homeschooling pre-internet must have been very different than it is today).

And while we're on a roll thinking of creative ways to make it through the winter, check out the new link I posted on the side. The one for homeschool freebies. Tomorrow (Tuesday, January 5) they are posting a free mp3 for The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Doesn't that sound like fun? Listening to the Long Winter by fireplace, and how about we throw in a little popcorn, Mike and Ikes, and hot chocolate while we're at it!

I need to admit (once again!) that I am NOT smarter than a 5th Grader and I am so excited to delve into these lessons - we're all in this together aren't we?

Oh - and as an added bonus, the soundtrack for Night at the Museum 2 is amazing. Coldplay and the Jonas Brothers!