Mexico Week

This week we began our look at other countries and cultures. We took a look at the wonderful country of Mexico. I knew this would be a fun mini-unit study but I never expected Jordan to be as excited as he was about it. He LOVED it! He didn't want to stop coloring. And enjoyed our crafts.

I do have to say, I had planned many more crafts than actually got accomplished. Jordan's seventh birthday was in the middle of the week and we took the day off to enjoy it with him. I hadn't planned to do that. My hubby is very spontaneous and wanted to give him the day off, so what's a mom to say??

However, we had a great week starting the day out with Mexico. Listed below are some of the coloring sheets I used for Jordan (first grade) to make a Mexico booklet. This one has a coloring page of a Mexico blanket, sombrero that my little guys had a blast coloring.

My coloring worksheets from Enchanted Learning were fabulous. We incorporated the Map of Mexico, Flag of Mexico, and animals commonly found in Mexico such as the Kangaroo Rat, Chihuahua Dog, and Roadrunner from their site. Enchanted Learning not only gives you a "coloring page" to color, it is also chock full of great info. I should mention that I am a member of Enchanted Learning. Membership is $20/yr and is a great resource. I cannot recommend it enough.

Spanish dictionary from Enchanted Learning to color and fun to run through the words for the kids to hear a different language! The boys learned spanish words such as siesta, fiesta, Feliz Cumpleanos (Jordan's birthday was last week), sombrero and we reviewed Spanish colors and numbers.

I also hit on a great place to look at some sites around Mexico that gives you a virtual tour . Jordan and I checked out the Chiapas virtual tour and then we got to see the ruins at Palenque along with Agua Azul. Breathtaking waterfalls. This site is loaded with lots of stuff--just be sure to check it before you involve your child. You know how websites can change overnight. I believe there is also a map of volcanoes around Mexico. It would add a little more science/geography to the unit study.

For Mexico crafts and recipes, my favorite website is DLTK-KIDS . We made a newspaper sombrero and painted it. Very cool! My boys love to play dress-up. We also made a colorful blanket they could wear by painting stripes on newspaper and then tying string to the edges which were hole-punched. I cut a hole in the middle for their heads to fit through. Cute! For maracas, I did the easy-peasy paper-plate maracas located on dltk.com's website. All you need is beans or rice, two paper plates, stapler and markers or paint and crepe streamers or tissue paper cut into ribbons.

Dltk-kids also has a cute Spanish song that we have learned to sing to the tune of "Are You Sleeping" that my little guys and I sing all the time now.

For general information on Mexico as country I used Wikipedia as my resource. I also used this site to find out about the sports they like to play such as soccer, baseball, bullfighting, charreria, etc.

To wrap up the week the boys dressed up and put on a show for Daddy. They sang their song and told about all the things they had learned about Mexico. We played "Blind Chicken" after eating some yummy tacos and tostadas and mexican bunuelos. YUM!!

We have had soo much fun learning about Mexico that Jordan is ready to pack his bags and go there to visit:)

OOOh-Lala . . . Free Rosetta Stone

Wow, if there's one thing I REALLY would love for my boys to study it's foreign languages. I would be right there with them, too!! My Father's World curriculum sings the praises of Rosetta Stone's successful approach to teaching languages but alas, it's expensive and doesn't fit into our meager budget. But the cool thing is I came across a CONTEST for a FREE Rosetta Stone Latin program. Check it out below and be sure to go to http://jeneralities.com/?p=541986 to ENTER THE CONTEST.

Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!).This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!****