Prehistory Study: List of Topics

From January-May, we’ll be concentrating on prehistory for our science and history studies. You’ll find the tentative booklist for our prehistory study here.

This is a list of topics we plan to cover in our prehistory study. Some of these we’ve already done a lot of reading on and others will be new areas of exploration for us.  We’ll likely spend more time on some and less on others and we may extend our study through the summer, but this is our starting point. The last topics cover the entire time period, so we will talk about them throughout the semester but I’d like to spend some time focusing on how we know what we do about the prehistorical world.

formation of the universe

formation of the earth and the earliest life forms

more complex forms of life develop in the ocean

first fish and sharks

fish move onto the land (early amphibians)

first reptiles

dinosaurs

reptiles of the sea

flying reptiles/first birds

first mammals

early humans

discovery of fire and farming

Darwin and evolution

archaeologists (what they do in the field, how they make discoveries)

fossils (different types and what we can learn from them)

 

 

What We’re Reading This Week, November 19

M and her dad are reading Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris by R. L. LaFevers.  She loved Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos. book but found this one a bit too scary the first time they tried it.  This time, she’s completely into it.

M and I read The Yellow House Mystery (Boxcar Children #3) last week, and we just finished Seven Day Magic by Edward Eager today.  Next up for us may be Besty, Tacy, and Tib or one of the two Edward Eager titles we’ve yet to read.

C’s favorite this week has included Little Rabbit Lost by Harry Horse, Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, and First Snow by Bernette Ford.  A few nights ago she demanded I read her a chapter book so we’ve started My Father’s Dragon and so far, she loves it.

Cybils Reviews, November 17

I’ve gotten to read so many wonderful books as an Easy Reader and Short Chapter Book panelist for the Cybils.  I’m trying to review the ones that I’ve enjoyed the most and especially ones that M has read or I’ve read to her. You can see more Cybils book reviews here.

Alice’s Shooting Star by Tim Kennemore (short chapter book)

Eight year old Alice is the middle child.  Her older brother is hyper-organized and orderly, and her younger sister, Rosie, excels at being naughty.  Alice feels as if she’s the one nobody remembers.  Alice’s parents decide they’ve had enough of Rosie’s outlandish fibs but strange things happen as they begin a crusade to get her to tell the truth. As Alice lends a hand with her sister, she finds a niche for herself and teaches her parents something about imagination.

I read this one to M and we both loved it.  Alice and her little sister Rosie reminded us both of Beezus and Ramona.  We laughed out loud at many of Rosie’s antics, and we liked the way Alice found her own place in the family.  We will definitely read Alice’s other adventures.

***

Dinosaur Hunter (Max Spaniel) by David Catrow (Easy Reader)

Max doesn’t see himself as a dog but rather as an intrepid archaeologist in search of dinosaur bones. With the help of a vivid imagination, he finds a whole skeleton in his yard and assembles his own dinosaur. M snapped this one up immediately and read it herself.  She laughed out loud and read it to me as soon as she was finished. She loved the way Max could make any object be a dinosaur bone.

***

The Magical Ms. Plum by Bonnie Becker (short chapter book)

Ms. Plum is a third grade teacher.  All her former students report that there is something very special about her class, but none of them will say exactly what.  She does in fact have a special kind of magic that touches each student over the course of the year and helps them learn something about themselves.  I don’t want to say too much or I’ll ruin some of the surprises.  I  would have loved to be a member of Ms. Plum’s class ,and I read quickly, eager to find out how the magic would touch each student.  The ending was more abrupt than I would have liked, but I would definitely recommend this unique journey through a year of third grade to young readers.

Non-Fiction Monday: Dinosaurs in Your Backyard

We found Dinosaurs in Your Backyard: The Coolest, Scariest, Creatures Ever Found in the USA by Hugh Brewster on the new books shelf at the library.  M loved the cover picture of a roaring dinosaur in front of a suburban neighborhood and the idea of learning about dinosaurs who might have lived where we live now.

Two page spreads with brightly-colored pictures show dinosaurs who lived in the United States, tell where they lived, and give fun facts about the various species.  At the end of the book, there is an explanation of the dinosaurs’ extinction and a great timeline showing the development of life from unicellular life in the ocean to humans.  The final pages include resources for further reading and museums with dinosaur collections.

This week’s Non-Fiction Monday Round-Up is at Tina Nichols Coury’s blog.

Advent Approacheth

I know I just posted my list of Thanksgiving books but Advent (the 24 days leading up to the celebration of Christmas) will be up on us very soon. No one should miss Karen Edmisten’s wonderful series for a no-panic Advent.  She has a host of wonderful suggestions to help families enjoy the season rather than rushing through it in a panic.

The one piece of advice I am most thankful for is her idea of creating an Advent file and storing away all the crafts to make, goodies to bake, and books to read that you see during the season but can’t fit in so they are there for you to enjoy next year.  The file I started last year also contains a list of the events and activities we enjoyed, our traditions and things I wanted to do differently this year.

Last year, I posted about many of the books and activites we enjoyed: Advent Week 1, Advent Week 2, Advent Week 3, More Advent and Christmas Reading

Thanksgiving Books

I looked at my list of favorite Thanksgiving books for kids and realized it was quite short.  I’d love to hear more suggestions!

Here are our favorites:

In November by Cynthia Rylant

Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin

Squanto’s Journey by Joseph Bruchac

Over the River and Through the Woods by Lydia Maria Child

Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27) by Joan Pope Osborne and Magic Tree House Research Guide #13: Pilgrims

Some books I’ve seen and want to check out:

P is for Pilgrim by Carol Crane

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla

Reality Check

Conversations with two different friends this week led me to believe that my recent posts have given the impression that I have everything running smoothly at our house and that our days are filled with nothing but cozy reading sessions, happy homeschooling endeavors, and yummy meals and treats.  Like one of my favorite bloggers, Melissa Wiley, I like to blog mostly about those times I want to remember and savor when chaos is threatening to destroy my sanity. But in the interest of dispelling any myths about the togetherness of our lives, I’d like to confess a few things:

Velveeta shells and cheese, hot dogs, and cereal are regularly served to the girls for dinner.

We sometimes eat cake for breakfast and very often eat graham crackers with peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Yesterday, I paid M to let C keep a pillow of hers so I wouldn’t have to hear C scream.

Last week, the girls watched the second half of The Incredibles (M doesn’t like the beginning) 8 times in the course of 2 days.

Often by the the time I get around to sweeping the kitchen floor, the pile is too big for our dust buster to handle.  I envy friends with dogs who “sweep” for them.

I haven’t seen the surface of my dresser in months.

We haven’t raked a single leaf this fall.

We got a new toilet in August and the old one is still sitting by the basement door waiting to be taken to the dump.

I’ve put off teaching M to tell time so I can put her to bed early and not have her realize it.

One of my closest friend’s first child turned 1 in October and I’ve yet to mail her present though I actually bought it on time.

When it comes to keeping the house clean, making good food, and homeschooling, I can do one of them well, or two of them not as well as I’d like but I have yet to figure out how to do all three.

Non-Fiction Monday: Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

I’d read many positive reviews of The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History and I’d been looking forward to checking it out when we were ready to use it.  I requested it from the library last week, and I was pleasantly surprised to see what a large portion was devoted to prehistory since that’s what we’ll be studying starting in January.  I like the concise explanations and the interesting website links.  M has enjoyed flipping through random sections.  I ordered us a copy of our own because I can tell that it’s a book we’ll keep using for many years to come.

This week’s Non-Fiction Monday Round-Up is at Abby (the) Librarian.

A Few of Our Favorite Toys

As the holidays approach far more rapidly than I want to admit, toy catalogs are filling the mailbox and talk is turning to wishlists for Santa and the grandparents.  For those of you who’ve also begun pondering holiday gifts for kids, I thought I’d share some of our favorite (as in actually played with often) toys.  I’ll share some activity books and art supplies in another post too.

Playmobil (We have the vet clinic, pony ranch, Noah’s ark and the take-along house.  We salivate over everything in the catalog on a regular basis)

Safari Ltd plastic animals and Toobs

Basic Building Blocks (we have these by Melissa and Doug)

Tubation building tubes

Wedgits (nothing like a toy that gets your 1.5yo saying “octahedron”)

Marble Run (we have this one)

bins of little things to sort and mix – buttons, beads, rocks, shells

Polly Pockets (both girls have loved them and they often get mixed with the Safari animals)

Diego 1-2-3 (M played this everyday at 2 and 3 and now C loves it just as much)

Ocean Bingo (no reading required, only picture matching, perfect for young kids in a range of ages to play together)

Rush Hour – Safari (great logic puzzle game)

Favorite Places to Shop online for great toys:

Fat Brain Toys

Mindware

Rainbow Resource

Prehistory Study: Booklist

As I mentioned here, we’ll be embarking on a study of the prehistoric world after Christmas. I’m making our curriculum myself so I’ve started by putting together a book list.  I’m excited about all the cool titles I’ve written down to investigate and the ones I already know that we’ll love.  We’ve done a lot of reading on dinosaurs and I’ve yet to add our favorite dinorsaur books to the list, but here’s what I’ve got so far (I’ve put in links for titles I’ve described in greater detail for Non-Fiction Monday):

Books I Know We’ll Use

Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History (I’d seen this title recommended for homeschoolers many times, but I didn’t realize until recently that it begins with the formation of the universe and contains a large section on prehistory)

Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution by Steve Jenkins

When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and Tetrapods Stalked the Earth and When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm by Hannah Bonner

Reign of the Sea Dragons by Sneed Collard III

Rare Treasures: Mary Anning and Her Remarkable Discoveries by Don Brown

Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs

Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life

The Kids’ Natural History Book: Making Dinos, Fossils, Mammoths, and More (Kids Can! Series) by Judy Press

Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1) by Joan Pope Osborne (and accompanying research guide)

DK Evolution Revolution: From Darwin to DNA by Robert Winston

Books I Want to Investigate

Born With a Bang: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story, Lava to Life, and Mammals Who Morph by Jennifer Morgan

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Jennifer Westberg Peters

The Best Book of Early People by Margaret Hynes

You Wouldn’t Want To Be Mammoth Hunter by John Malam

The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonnick

DK Eyewitness Evolution and Eyewitness Prehistoric Life

Kingfisher Encylopedia of Evolution

On This Spot, An Expedition Back Through Time by Susan Goodman

Prehistoric Earth BBC DVD set

Usborne Great Prehistoric Search

Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters

One Beetle Too Many by Kathryn Lasky

What Darwin Saw: The Journey That Changed The World by Rosalyn Schanzer

I discovered these books from the excellent list of Prehistory and Ancient history “living books” at Funschooling,the delightful prehistory curriculum posts at Satori Smiles, the fantastic new Ink Think Tank database,  this list at Library of Books, Links, and More, and a few rabbit trails I followed on Amazon.