Weeks 9 and 10: Brazil

The boys are used to a long day of school after being in public school. Since we get done in just a few hours each day, I am always looking for videos and other ways to extend our day and keep them busy.

For Brazil our Netflix Videos have been:
Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure
Really Wild Animals: Totally Tropical Rainforest
Torchlighter's: Jim Elliott Story. Even though the boys knew this story of Nate Saint, this video brought them both to tears. We looked up the MAF and learned that they recently completed the restoration of Nate Saint's House in Ecuador that he started to build on the edge of the jungle in 1948.

And as always, we found a fitting video at Gamequariam. Magic School Bus: In the Rainforest

After we read The Great Kapok Tree, we went outside and measured off how tall a Kapok Tree really would be. We used some of the printouts from homeschoolshare to make a flip book about the Layers of the Rainforest and Mammals of the Rainforest

Another favorite book basket book was Rainforests by Jen Green (Young Scientist Concepts and Projects). This book was so full of science and experiment ideas.

A great picture book was Brazil by Ann Heinrichs.






And, of course, the boys enjoyed reading in A Window on the World about the Yanomamo people of South America.

I have been a bit frustrated with the Living World and Wild Places books. It seems when I read the boys would lose attention. We did something new this past week that worked so much better. I sent them to the sofa with the books. One of our boys has dyslexia and struggles with reading. Fortunately, his older brother reads to him and then they discuss their favorite pictures. I love that MFW/ECC can be tweeked to fit the needs of our family.

Since we are not doing formal art this year other than Global Art, these Jan Brett Videos on "How To Draw....." have been fun. They had one for a Toucan.. Our local community college does have a home school elementary art class that we just found out about and are looking forward to attending once a month.



And on another note....Boybarian2 and his friends found 4 kittens that had been dumped. We ended up with this sweet little kitten.