MFW ECC: Introduction Part 1

June 13, 2016June 13, 2016 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 12 Comments

Our “first day of school” picture this year was a group shot. I usually like to do individual pictures, but the weeks leading up to our first day of school were so crazy, that I just did not have time to organize something fancy. So instead, we made the trek into the city and posed in front of our favorite piece of city art with one of our favorite brainiacs. Welcome to third grade boys!

The week leading up to third grade was spent at our local Classical Conversations practicum, hence the craziness leading up to the start of school. The boys were enrolled in Geography Drawing camp and they had a wonderful time. I loved that it served so nicely as an “introduction before the introduction” to Exploring Countries and Cultures. They came into this week already knowing the continents song, four oceans song, compass rose, latitude and longitude, basic map reading skills and measuring scale and distance. The week flew by, and before we knew it, Monday morning dawned and it was time to get back to school!

We begin each day with our Morning Basket Time or “Morning Meeting.” We gather for breakfast and spend about 30 minutes together. Here is what I do during that time:

Pray
4 minutes: Utilize our maps to practice current country study
6 minutes: Read from our family devotion (Right now its Clay Clarkson’s “Our 24 Family Ways“)
7 minutes: Read from one of our mornings reads (See the list here)
6 minutes: Fine Arts Study (See below)
4 minutes: Talk about the upcoming day. Discuss any departures from the home or any major chores that need to be done. Review the day before and have any necessary discussions regarding expectation or course correction.
3 minutes: Close in prayer, put breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, and proceed with the day!

Now our Morning Fine Arts time is kept very, very simple. We do something different every day. We have our hymn study for the year from Simply Charlotte Mason. The boys are learning “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” by Isaac Watts these next few weeks. The hymn study is ongoing for the whole year.

We will spend three months with Chopin using Music Study with the Masters and living books on Chopin by Opal Wheeler. We are also spending the next three months with Monet using this study pack from Simply Charlotte Mason. As you can see from the time allotments, the study is quite brief. We don’t deconstruct every painting we look at, we appreciate and become very familiar with it. We become so accustomed to Chopin that when we are out and about and a previously unheard piece by Chopin reaches our ears, the boys perk up and say, “Hey! I bet thats Chopin! It sounds just like him!” The artist and composer are changed out every three months.

Based on other reports of low pretest scores, I went into the day anticipating low scores on our country identification pretest. My children definitely did not get every country, but they performed much higher than I had anticipated in part because of their time in Classical Conversations and also their frequent use of Pin it! Maps. There is still much to be learned, however, and they are eager to take on the task. I was careful to keep my face completely neutral, even when they missed countries I KNEW they knew.

We spent that first morning playing with globes and maps and talking about traveling. They filled out their “passports” and filled in a few dates from Maps and Globes into their individual book of centuries. (We use spiral bound timeline notebooks from Miller Pads and Paper). It was definitely a week of light mornings, which the boys greatly enjoyed. We completed a lesson from our Saxon 3 math each day and spent a couple of days in our Memoria Press Latin books.

Our summers are so abysmally hot and often full of torrential rains that we are indoors much of the time. In the afternoons, during the worst rainstorms, we like to cozy up together and have tea and treats and poetry. “PoetTreats” is a great favorite of theirs. Its something small I can do to bless their hearts and show them my love and care and complete attention. I set the table and put out my fanciest tea cups. We pour oh so many cups of tea and we read our favorite poems over and over again. Its silly and special and lovely. Note the absence of our preschooler in this photo, he is typically asleep during teatime, which is why its teatime and not disaster relief time. People sometimes remark that my boys are “weird” for liking teatime. Well, tea is enjoyed by most men around the world and no one bats an eye at that. Tea is not just lace and pearls and flowers, its warm drink, a bite to eat and good conversation. Its a restful pause in the middle of one’s day and can be appreciated by anyone because tea, like breakfast, lunch or dinner, is about as gender neutral as it gets, in my opinion.

In the early afternoons, the boys like to work on handwriting, enjoy independent reading hour, work on their handicrafts (currently its simple basket weaving or knitting) or choose a fun hands on activity. My eldest has been enjoying Pin it! Maps Land and Water forms map lately, which I love.

We read “God Speaks Numanggang” at the dinner table and my husband and I both cried. Our eldest was so moved he is now asking how he can aide in bible translation and is dreaming of which countries he can travel to in order to take on this heavy work. We are surprising them next month with a trip to the Wycliffe headquarters in Orlando.

My third born is currently in MFW Kindergarten and hit the unit Uu-Us this week. So on top of a study of the five senses, I threw in a little world culture to tie the week together. The cards on the wall are eeBoo Children of the World Artist Cards, they are no longer on Amazon, but do pop up occasionally on Zulily. The boys all had fun enjoying this little corner of the classroom this week.

We had great fun with all of our read alouds this week. I always begin geography study with a lesson from Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Geography and then add in our read alouds afterward. Aside from the listed reading selections in the back of the ECC teacher’s manual, you can find more wonderful books about the world using Jamie Martin and Tsh Oxenreider’s new book, “Give Your Child the World,” which has excellent book lists inside for every region of the world. I’ve included our read alouds this week in our booklist at the end of this post.

The boys have opted to make art books for their geography terms instead of flash cards. I may illustrate some flash cards just for review as the year ambles on.

We continue to use Half a Hundred Acre Wood’s excellent blob maps throughout our year. The boys sometimes blob in other places too. I love how the blob map turned out on our plexiglass easel. He was able to position the easel so that the wall map was in his line of sight and then he transferred the continents by their correct position onto the easel. Spontaneous, fun, hands on exercises like this are always my favorite and turn out way better than anything I lay out in my plans because it is child-led and therefore they are determined to do it!

My second born chose to work on the World Water and Landforms map during this time, which gives specific form names to pin in the proper place, (i.e. Nile River, Danube River, Mount Kilimanjaro, etc.) This is the next map we move onto after the generic Land and Water forms Map which names geographical features.

At the end of the week we pulled out our synchronological map of history and had a look at how all the cultures and countries of the world tie together throughout history. The boys could look at this enormous timeline for hours. I love hearing them call out different events they are familiar with and then discover what else was happening at that time.

Well, if you’re a long time reader, you probably noticed that we were hardly outside this week, which is unusual for us. It has been seriously hot and muggy and the rain has been nonstop. The weather has been so bad that we had to skip much of our science study this week with the exception of our niche project. Our specimen decided to poo right before my youngest’s turn to hold him. You can see from his face that his mind was changed very quickly!

Now here is the confession…..

I really dislike the Complete Book of Animals. My boys do not like busy work or meaningless hand outs and this is essentially a book of handouts. Even the pull-out “story books” are not actually stories but dry informational pamphlets. We will not be using this book for ECC. (No offense to any CBOA believers out there—if your child loves it, that is GREAT!)

We will stick with Properties of Ecosystems and I am currently on the hunt for a better animal study. Chances are I will end up pulling something together for the boys. If anyone has a recommendation, please let us know in the comments below.

Lastly, a look at this years art enrichment—pottery! I have zero talent in this area, I am thankful to have found local talent with a patient nature and nurturing heart. Lani has been wonderful in teaching my boys and they have greatly enjoyed her class. I am thankful that they have access to this. A word of encouragement for anyone without the means or resources, take a careful look around you. Is there anyone in your sphere with a gift of some sort? Someone that can play an instrument, knit or crochet? Someone with the knowledge of a specific skill set that can be (and should be!) passed down to other generations? See if that person would be willing to teach your child. If its a fellow homeschool mother or father, see if they would be willing to barter. Perhaps you can teach their children something in exchange for your children’s lessons with those friends. Get creative! Not everything has to happen at a professional studio with a packaged price rate. Most skills in the world are passed down through relationship within community. Maybe your pastor would be willing to teach Greek to a few children once a week? Perhaps the church worship pastor would be willing to teach a guitar lesson once a week. Maybe there are older generations in the church that would be blessed by the company of older children looking to learn from them? Perhaps there is a neighbor or a friend that would be willing to teach your children something. You’ll never know until you ask. Pray beforehand and see what God can do!

On to week 2!!!!

Week 1 Booklist:
As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps by Gail Hartman
Akebu to Zapotec by June Hathersmith
People by Peter Spier
Around the World in 80 pages by Antony Mason
One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss
Somewhere in the World Right Now by Stacey Shuett
Maps and Scale Drawings by Marion Smoothey
From Here to There by Margery Cuyler
People and Places by Gerard Cheshire
Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
Celebrations by Anabel Kindersley

MFW: Exploring Countries & Cultures–Getting Ready!

May 17, 2016 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 14 Comments

Hello friends! We are gearing up for the start of Exploring Countries & Cultures. We are due to kick off our new school year on June 6 and my explorers are chomping at the bit!

Homeschooling has become such a part of our daily lives that we ended up studying something every week this summer. I never asked the boys to do anything, it was entirely child led–which was wonderful! We ended up taking many, many nature hikes and explored several learning centers in our area. Both boys expressed sadness at the end of Adventures that we did not cover WW1, the Great Depression, WW2, the Civil Rights Movement, etc. So we spent some time covering those topics over the summer. We predominately used living books. Our favorite by far was, “Only a Dog: A Story of the Great War,” which you can find here.

We also pulled a few lessons from Ann Voskamp’s “A Child’s Geography” just to whet our appetites for the coming school year. We are in the midst of making paper mache globes to hang in the classroom. The boys have maintained their interest in learning, explored topics of interest and kindled curiosity for the coming school year. I will be honest and say that if my boys arent building, exploring, discovering, playing, learning, SOMETHING!!!! ANYTHING!!!! then they are most definitely fighting and I am most definitely pulling heart out. Even though I needed a break this “summer,” I am more than willing to keep providing learning material just to avoid the hideous sound of four children arguing.

What have I been up to other than the promotion of world peace? Getting things organized for the school year. Our 3rd son has already begun his K year and things are progressing nicely. Our 4th son is in the last weeks of his curriculum, A Year of Playing Skillfuly by The Homegrown Preschooler. I am in the midst of planning our area practicum for Classical Conversations and gathering materials for my new group that begins class in August. I am so excited to be Directing this new group but I also know that my first callings are: Child of God, Wife to my husband, Mother to my children and Teacher to my children. With this in mind I began my planning by stripping back and trimming away all unnecessary fat. It is often hard to say no because there are many, many wonderful groups and tools and organizations out there. We are blessed to have so many options. As a family, we have prayed and we know where God is calling us and what kind of education He has set before us. Knowing that, we are staying the course and saying “No” where it needs to be said. I do this every year before I lay a finger on any piece of new curriculum. Trim the fat.

Here are the resources we will be using this year!

1) History, Geography, Bible
My Father’s World: Exploring Countries and Cultures
Pin it! Maps
Classical Conversations Cycle 2

2) Math
Saxon Math 3
Making Math Meaningful
Classical Conversations Cycle 2

3) Phonics & Language Arts
All About Reading Level 3 (8 yo with possible dyslexia)
Explode the Code 6 (7 yo)
Spelling Wisdom
Classical Conversations Cycle 2
Simply Charlotte Mason Language Arts Handbook
Beautiful Feet Books Horse Study

4) Foreign Language
Latin Cristiana 1
Classical Conversations Cycle 2

5) Fine Arts
Simply Charlotte Mason art packs
Piano
2nd semester- Guitar (8yo)
Saxophone (7yo)
Classical Conversations (tin whistle, orchestra study, composer study, artist study)

6) Handwriting
Classical Conversations Prescripts

7)Science
Classical Conversations
MFW Exploring Countries and Culture
Nature Study (TBD)
Beautiful Feet Books Famous Scientists Study

8) Handicrafts
leather work
crochet
knitting
candle making
card making

Morning Basket:
Mathematicians Are People, Too! by Luetta Reimer (Volumes 1 & 2)
Burgess Book of Animals
CC Geography
Brave Companions: Portraits in History by David McCoullough
Stories of the Nations by Lorene Lambert (Volume 1 & 2)
Hymn Study
Scripture Memorization: Ephesians 6

I know that looks like an enormous amount of work! But keep in mind that I have two boys in the same “grade” but not in the same place with learning. For example, we practice our CC memory work each day before math. We will skip count or recite equivalents, etc. Then we pull out our Saxon books and work through a problem set or we bring out our Waldorf notebooks and play with Math, depending on the day! If my eldest is struggling to grasp something in Saxon, we stop and use a more Waldorf approach to connect him to the concept. For language arts, my eldest struggles greatly with reading and has seen tremendous benefit from AAR program. My second born found Explode the Code at a friend’s house, begged me to buy it for him and has flown through the series by himself. He likes to do this when I work with his eldest brother. We approach our spelling and language arts using Simply Charlotte Mason. We need those short, focused lessons with a focus on mastery. Music and Art switch off every other day. Handicrafts are done during leisure time.

We begin our day with Morning Time. This is usually conducted over a relaxed breakfast with many cups of our favorite tea. First we go over the plan for the day in order to limit surprises. Is there a doctor’s appointment? Will we be visiting anyone? What are the expetations for that visit, etc? The boys then review their current geography work for CC, we read one poem or look at one piece of art and we sing one hymn. Those three things are done in a five minute window of time. Brief. Consistent. Next, we spend 10-15 minutes reading from one of the books listed above. We may finish them all this year, we may not. We just want an enriching story to begin the morning with a variety of subject that connects to things we are learning in the classroom that year. After reading, we spend a few minutes reviewing and learning our scripture passage for the year or we might write out a few cards of thanks or enouragement to friends. We close by singing the Doxology and moving over to the classroom. Again, real life is happening in between the sentences. Spilled tea, burnt toast, hurt feelings, etc. But we never ever ever skip morning time. I am so excited to read the books in our basket this year. I’ve heard great things about the McCollough book and Stories of the Nations in particular. We have a seperate book basket for the lunch hour but I havent quite readied our reading list for the year yet so I will post that once it is ready.

We work on a block schedule,which I have detailed here.

While the older kids are working on their assignments, the younger childer are hard at PLAY!

I have set up several small spaces throughout the room that I can change throughout the year for the younger two to play and work. We change toys out of the play stand every few weeks. We’ve also prepared a few other work boxes based on the various continents for the kids to play with (the older boys also work at these spaces too since they also love to play and explore). All school materials are left accessible to them. Hubby had this ginormous world map with the United States on the right hand side, which left the other continents intact, and features all longitude and latitude lines marked. Hooray for using things you already own! We are planning to display work from each continent around the map as the year progresses.

To the right of our book cart we have set up several small book cases with tons of books for them to handle as the need arises. Their school books are also tucked in these cases. On top of the bookcases are all the writing and art tools they use on a daily basis. We notebook nearly everything and I will be posting how we do this as the year progresses. I purchased all of their notebooks ready made here along with paint jars, watercolors, brushes and modeling clay. (Yes, long time readers that spy the rainbow boxes in the corner, I caved and got a chicken war cart of doom!)

I’ll pause here to mention two books on our gutter shelf that I am especially excited about this year.

We plan to incorporate these books with ECC!

Above is our Pin it! Maps Geography station. All the pin maps, reference maps,control maps, pins, prompts, etc. are stored on these shelves for easy access. Have you visited pinitmaps.com yet? The free resources section is a dream! Free biome cards, land form cards and much more. Check it out! The boys can grab their preferred map along with the corresponding pins and cards and set to work! Read more about these fantastic maps here and here.

Thats the whole kit and caboodle my friends. I’ll post our weekly schedule a week or so before we begin the school year so you can take a peak at how we balance things. See you soon!

Pin it! Maps: GIVEAWAY!

October 8, 2015October 10, 2015 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 211 Comments

Its our first giveaway here on FarmhouseSchoolhouse! I am thrilled to announce that we are giving away a Complete Student Set map bundle from Pin it! Maps.

This set includes:
8 — 18 x 24″ Pin Maps (World, North America, South America, Central America/ Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia/ Oceania)
2 — Foam Sheets (18 x 24 x .5″) with plastic corners
30 — 12 x 18″ Control Maps
1 — set of 1147 flag labels and national flags
Flag poles and flag bases
1/2″ Transparent Scotch tape for colored flag labels
3/4″ Transparent Scotch tape for national flags

Yes, that is 38 maps in total! (30 control maps and 8 pin maps) Your kiddos will learn 196 country names, capitols, and flags. Science abounds here too! My boys are learning about biomes and plate tectonics. We have not built all of our flags yet. I am purchasing my quilting pins from craft stores with coupons whenever I get the chance to leave the house alone! 🙂 This means we are building as we go, but the 4 pinning maps we currently have in rotation are phenomenal. My kinetic learner, my struggling reader, and my overachiever have all benefited greatly from this set.

You can read our reviews here and here. They will give you more insight on how we use this set in our classroom.

Pin it! Maps also has a large selection of FREE Teaching Materials which we have taken full advantage of. I am so thankful for these extra resources. The homeschooling Mama behind Pin it! Maps has a heart for education and it shows. From the exquisite shading in map detail and inclusion of biomes, to the thoughtful coordination and execution of the various pin labels, to the generous catalogue of beautiful free resources included— is it any wonder that we are now full on Geography nerds? I am a fan! Read more on the website about using these maps with Senior Citizens and those with Learning Differences.

How to Enter:

Step 1: subscribe to our blog! You’ll find the subscribe button on the sidebar.

Step 2: hop on over to our Facebook page and hit “like” for a second entry.

Step 3: If you click on Pin it! Maps Facebook page and hit “like” that is entry number three!

Step 4: Sharing our giveaway on social media is entry number 4!

Lastly, remember to leave a comment below and let us know how many entries you have. Entries close at 3pm EST on October 10, 2015. The winner will be chosen at random and announced later that day. (UPDATE: I was going to announce on the 11th but had just enough time this afternoon. Congratulations to our WINNER!)

Ready. Set? Go!

Our Pin it! Maps 10% off discount code: FARM is effective until October 31, 2015.

Pin it! Maps—Geography lessons in action!

September 2, 2015October 2, 2015 ~ Feisty Mama ~ 8 Comments

We have been using Pin it! Maps for our geography lessons since the end of July. I thought I’d provide a little update on how we have been using our maps this past month. I’ll share a bit about our favorite map, utilizing free material on the site, using the maps with differing learning styles, and finally, I’ll share some of the ways we have used these maps with the littlest Farmhouse Schoolhouse students.

The farmhouse favorite is definitely the Land and Water Forms map. This 9×24 map is a manageable size for my kids to set up on their own. I often discover my second born in the classroom with the map and accompanying pins set out. He practices sounding out the words on each flag and then finds its location on the control map that he sets up in front of his pinning map. He often invites his eldest brother to come and play. Yes, play! They race each other to find the correct features on each map. They quiz each other. Last week they made up a silly song with all the vocabulary terms they deemed silly or strange. “Archipelago and Fjord bought roller skates.”

Three days ago, we were cuddled up in the boy’s bunk beds reading a chapter book. I turned the page and a little voice cried out, “LOOK! An Alpine Lake! Do you see that picture? Right there! That right there! That is an Alpine Lake.” He settled back into the covers with a little smile, “I knew that all by myself.”

I love that my boys can use these maps on their own, absorbing geographical placements and vocabulary terms in a hands on way and then relating it to other areas of study in a natural way. Not to mention the way it has enhanced their play. I know my boys are learning well by how they are playing. When someone shouts, “Corral the troops west of the delta!” or “We’ll sail to the archipelago and search each individual island for signs of the treasure!” I know things are clicking.

Pin it! Maps has a wonderful tab on their site: FREE TEACHING MATERIALS.

Love me some free teaching materials—and these printables are flawless!

Above you can see the Land and Water Form cards. I printed, laminated, hole-punched, alphabetized and then placed all the cards on a large ring. What is an inlet? Look it up! The cards provide a graphic of how the feature appears on the map along with a picture of the feature “in real life!” (My son loves saying, “This is how the fjord looks IN REAL LIFE!”) I have made key rings for every available set of cards and they have taken the maps to the next level. I never ask the boys to use them. I simply place them by the maps and then walk away. The boys love being able to investigate the information for themselves. They learn how to manipulate the cards and they practice their ability to sort through alphabetized material quickly. They relate the material back to the maps and double check their work.

Yesterday, my son pulled out the World Map. He set up his pins, pulled out the laminated key ring, took out a command sheet, set up his control map and began to work.

The command sheets walk the boys through each pin command. Right now my boys are on Level 1, simply familiarizing themselves with the pins and their placements. They are already asking when they can move on to Level 2 so they can begin recording their answers on the recording sheet. (All of these pages are available for free in the link above!) My son worked his way through the commands and then went to find the Biome cards.

He worked through each Biome, placing the beautiful pictures into each appropriate category. He referred back to the map often, exclaiming with wonder, “I never knew there was a desert there! I can see it in my mind now!” These maps really are set apart from other maps, the beautiful hand-drawn shading adds such sharp distinction between biomes. The boys can now quickly identify grasslands from jungles and coniferous forests.

Pin it! Maps has also proven to be a multi-functional resource in terms of its ability to meet my children’s different learning styles. My eldest used to be absolutely overwhelmed by detailed maps crowded with writing. He could not focus on the words he needed to find and often flipped his letters around in his panic. Earlier this week, our Classical Conversations community studied The Assyrian Empire in geography. I made up rhymes and a story to help my boys learn the placement of each sea, gulf and city. My eldest seemed to be following along well enough, but it was tough to gauge precisely how much he was understanding. This morning we used our Pin it! Map and that is when I saw the light go on for him. Having those words standing up on individual pins helped him to understand placement, space, relation, etc.

These maps also provide a welcome challenge to our second born. He is a voracious reader and can never sit idly by. His hands are always looking for something to do. He loves teaching himself how to take on new skills and challenges. To be honest, its exhausting for me at times! He knows how to make a mess and get in a jam! When our maps arrived, he was instantly drawn in by the challenge. He loved that it was an independent activity capable of providing deeper learning opportunity without a finish line.

My third son is a kinetic learner and is not reading yet. He is also using these maps along with his (almost) three year old brother.

Here are a few of the ways we have employed our maps for littles (ages 3-5)

Biome Card Game: These cards are available for free on the website. My 4 year old spent a few weeks familiarizing himself with these cards and organizing the pictures into appropriate biomes. Now we play a game called “Decorate the World.” Based off of the shading and drawing on our World Map, my son can easily find the biome each region belongs to. When I point to the Sahara Desert, he quickly grabs a picture card featuring a desert landscape and places it on the Sahara Desert and shouts, “DESERT!” We play through the deck and decorate all the features.
2) BINGO BABY!: The 4 year old insists that I inform my readers—he alone invented this game. He is also the Captain of this game. Baby Bingo happens at least once a day. My 4 year old takes down the control map of the world which features brilliant, multi-colored continents and all the oceans. He then gives “the baby” (ahem, 3 year old) a stack of green bingo chips and a stack of blue bingo chips. He points to a spot on the map and asks “What is this? Water or Land?” His brother responds by placing either green (land) or blue (water) on the map. They will do this for twenty minutes at a time. TWENTY. MINUTES. Thats enough time for tea and a piece of chocolate, folks!
3) SAFARI TOOB: We also love to place animals from our Safari toobs around our maps. Grizzlies in Colorado, panthers in Florida, Elk in Montana, etc. We have also used landmarks with mixed results. Animals they get, a tiny replica of the Eiffel tower…not so much yet.
4. YARN: A simple string of yarn goes a long way with these boys. We shape them around the continents very carefully and then whip them away very fast. They think its hilarious. I’m happy that they are focusing carefully and quietly on a task with their hands while familiarizing themselves with geography.
5) Rice Game: Another game we made up. I give my four year old a cup of rice and a small piece of wood that has been sanded smooth, its about 4 inches long. I then dump the rice on the control map and tell him to put all the rice on Australia. All the rice has to be IN Australia. Then I switch to another continent. He loves feeling the rice, pushing it around gently with his hands or the wood stick and then making it fit within the borders. He laughs when I pull out the magnifying glass to inspect his work. After we are done I gently wipe down the control map and store it away again.
6) Mr Thumbkin & The Family Band Travels: Yup. We draw little faces on our fingers and go for a tour of the world. We visit different cities, make up stories, learn about biomes. The possibilities are endless with this one. Sometimes the older brothers chime in with the things they are learning. “If you are going to India, you had better stop by the Ganges Delta near West Bengal, I think you might be able to find your missing purple scarf there.” Lots and lots of playacting, voices, adventures and honest to goodness GEOGRAPHY! I always ask them to point out the “pin home” before we leave an area we have named. The “pin home” is the spot where the pins are inserted (according to my eldest boys). My littles don’t use the pins yet, I am training them even now to only place the pins in their homes.

We are in the process of finishing up our North America map and Africa map and the boys can’t wait to start using them as we gear up for our studies of the United States with Adventures and Africa with Classical Conversations.

I am really thankful to have found Pin it! Maps. I love being able to support a fellow homeschooling Mama in this courageous endeavor to provide beautiful, quality, affordable maps to families. I love seeing my boys engage in joyful learning together. It feels good to use resources that create a space for all learning styles to combine.

I can’t wait for the US Map series to be unveiled in December!

UPDATE!!!!!
Pin it! Maps has graciously extended our PROMO CODE until the end of OCTOBER.

Farmhouse Schoolhouse readers will get 10% off their orders with the code: FARM

Happy Pinning!