This year we began homeschooling Lucy (7) and Hattie (5). We’re including this on our Giants & Pilgrims blog as all our family adventures seem to impact our art & music so much! Also, we just like sharing the stories. So we’ll be sharing posts on the themes we’ve been covering each month and calling the adventure “ABACUS”! Our hope is that these posts will help spark creative direction and inspiration for your family as well as giving us somewhere to be document and record our experiences.

November was such a beautiful and memorable month around here. Most importantly, we welcomed the newest addition to our family on November 18th – sweet Arthur Thaine. A Boy! Heavens!

We are still adjusting to what it looks like to have one more around here, but mostly things are going well. Momma needs more sleep, all the girls are in need of a little extra snuggle time, and chaos is reigning just a little bit more in our house, but it is all so good and everything feels right. And we are all relishing the tiny ears, coos, and fluffy hair of  our tiny Arlo.

Here is where we have been during the month of homeschooling –

COOKING and MATH:

Since November is meant to be about all things feasting, we took a break from our normal Math rhythms and learned about fractions, addition, and measuring through the very practical handicraft of cooking. I found this highly reviewed kids cookbook on Amazon. (And these inexpensive but very practical aprons  – the kids each picked their own color). We also got these fraction sticks to help explain how fractions work – very helpful when measuring ingredients.

 

The girls – with very little help from me – made ‘grab and go’ granola bars, popcorn balls, homemade orange juice, breakfast sandwiches, yogurt parfaits, perfect grilled cheese,  parmesan chicken bites with dipping sauce, and more. Lucy especially loved the independence of doing everything herself. And all the recipes were tasty! The cookbook also has lots of fun stickers and punch outs in the back.

 

Our cooking month’s finale was of course a grand Thanksgiving feast.

One other little note on Math –

We have LOVED the new BigNumbers Ap from Dragon Box. It sneakily teaches lots of cool long addition and subtraction.

GAMES GALORE:

Our second theme for the month of November was Games!!

A couple of new favorites that we added to our collection:

CURRENT EVENTS:

A day was spent on our political system, voting, and elections.

A thank you note written to the president for his service.

Watching election results come in –

A visit to our city hall

And dropping off our ballot.

READING AND LITERATURE:

Here were our reading books for the month:
  

Plus ALL the Thanksgiving books (especially thanks to Read Aloud Revivals beautifully curated list):

Tea time mostly had to move inside because it is starting to get CHILLY here! Not nearly enough snow yet though…

Art and Handicrafts:

Especially while passing the time waiting for the newest addition to our family, Lucy, Harriet, and I all worked on our own little illustration projects.
Me on a whole series of Alphabet Letters (the first part of are available here).

Lucy on a whole series of Christmas Reindeer to sell at Indie Arts Greeley (a wonderful local craft show that has become a family affair)

And Harriet on a whole series of Christmas Trees that she also sold at Indie Arts Greeley’s Winter Market.

Here is their practice set up for the market –
Note: I love this tradition. I feel like they are learning so much through the process – talking to customers, making change, money math, etc.

We made concrete candle holders and poured soy candles (which Tim’s scented in various wonderful Christmas scents)

The girls rolled beeswax candles

And we got out our little loom and started work on a colorful scarf (alongside our Native American study)

History and Culture:

Instead of choosing a country to study this month, because of Thanksgiving, we decide to read about and explore Native American stories and culture.
Here is a sampling of the library books we found –

Good old fashioned audio tape books are the greatest –

An unseasonably warm November made for perfect teepee building weather – and the perfect location for tea and stories.

Our history study of Jamestown lead us to creating a lego reenactment of Jamestown, John Smith, and Pocahontas.

Nature Study:

This month’s nature outings weren’t anything grandiose. Just simple quiet times visiting and playing in some of our favorite spots and soaking up the last warm days.

Swinging on willow branches

Weaving willow branch baskets

Colorado sunsets

And a little moss collecting from beside our house made into a simple terrarium.

Sketches of what moss looks like through a microscope.

And leaf jumping of course.

CHARACTER:

For November, we continued our family tradition of making a Thanksgiving tree table altar.

And finally, to get into the spirit of Christmas/Advent, we put together a box for Operation Christmas Child together.

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