A Few Lenten Resources

In case you have procrastinated and now that Ash Wednesday is upon us you are looking for a few good Lenten resources (which is my usual state of affairs...)

The Lenten Workshop at Catholic Culture has sections for information, prayers, activities, and a personal program.

The Interactive Calendar at EWTN offers daily reflections and actions.

The Lenten Season from the USCCB also has an interactive calendar plus a lot of information and suggestions for the season.

Vivificat! has put together an extensive collection of Lenten reading free for the dowloading.

May your Lent be fruitful.

Flowchart Notes

I can across this link on another list and it looked like a really neat idea for narration especially if your kids like to draw. It is simply a flowchart where you draw a picture and then write what happened below it, and when put it all together you get a story.

It is more in depth than a single picture narration and yet not as extensive as a lapbook. The idea came from this page at mrcoley.com, the web site of a fifth grade teacher. He also has a pdf available describing it. My kids' pictures won't be as nice as these but I think they will enjoy the process and improve their note-taking skills.

Christian Heritage Art Program

We just started using the Christian Heritage Art Appreciation program from Catholic Heritage Curriculum. This is art appreciation and study from a Catholic perspective covering the breadth of art history. The program has eight levels, each level divided into 6 time periods. We are using the program with out TORCH co-op, the younger five kids using level 1 and the older five using level 3.



Both levels start withh prehistoric art. Level 1 focused on cave paintings. After the kids watched the video with examples and age-appropriate discussion of cave paintings, they painted on crinkled brown paper bags to simulate cave walls.





Level 3 focused on Native American art and geometric shapes. They too used crinkled brown paper bags, but they made stencils of geometric shapes which they used to make designs. The program is enjoyable, informative, and easy to use and I particularly like using it in a small co-op setting.

Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival

Welcome to the February edition of the Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival! Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, and importantly the start of Lent--February is a full month, and so is our carnival!

Ritsumei presents an entry after my own heart, Vinegar! posted at Baby Steps.

Becky presents Rain, With An Occasional Cool and Cloudy Break posted at Wide Open Campus. That bottom picture is just wonderful!

Angie presents Winter Outdoor Hour:Nature Close To Home-Cattails posted at TheOneThing. What fun!

Angie also presents great skill building in #5 Handicrafts/ Life Skills Challenge also posted at TheOneThing.

Angie's been hoppin' and she also presents Fun Friday and Why I Home School posted at TheOneThing. Why do you homeschool? "Why wouldn't you," I say!

Pamela presents Not Kidding... posted at Blah, Blah, Blog. I can see why she's Not Kidding anymore!

Deana presents Make-Your-Own Word Family Review Cards posted at The Frugal Homeschooling Mom. She writes, "Here’s a simple, cheap way to practice rhyming words and word families with your preschooler. It’s also a great way to review phonics. Don’t go out and buy word family review cards at the homeschooling supply store or teacher’s store! It’s so easy to make them yourself." I agree!

On my other blog, I started Journey North Mystery Class project. It's not too late to start as we've only done the first week! Journey North Mystery Class Preparation posted on At Home Science.

Anyone who hosts blog carnivals knows you get a lot of spam. Though this next entry falls into that, it actually has a lot of fun printables for kids so I thought I would include it. Car Color-by-Number Mosaic posted at Printables for Kids. At least it's not a "Top 10 sites for..." whatever site!

Our blog carnival creator, Cherylinma, presents Spaghetti Trestle Bridge posted at Talking to Myself - Homeschool Blogger. Looks like a must try book!

Rachel presents Tips for Moms, Activities for kids by Quirky Mommas » Blog Archive » Using M&Ms to Graph with your Preschooler posted at quirkymomma.com. This is colorful and tasty. It will have your kids asking to do math, lol!

Brenda, now at her new web site, presents Creative Photography posted at Brenda. This is a really great project to do.

This next submission is from DreamBox Learning math program, but it is a homeschooling company and the blog post was about math field trips--two things you don't typically put together! Tracy Beach presents Math Learning Field Trip Ideas for Homeschoolers posted at Math Learning, Fun & Education Blog : Dreambox Learning.

Finally, I have submitted my post about our recent History Fair posted at Science Of Relations.

Enjoy the carnival--I certainly have.