Category Archives: Studies

Preparing for Easter ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Easter is Coming

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday,

Easter is just around the corner. Take some time to study this special time with your children this year. Many kids are home with their parents that are not generally there as much, because the schools have closed for now because of Covid-19. This gives families some extra ‘together’ time in which they can talk about the specialness of this season.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is celebrated this Sunday. Here are the passages that correlate to this time.

  • Matt 21
  • Mark 11
  • Luke 19 (beginning :29)
  • John 12

I recommend keeping it in context, so back up as far as you feel is necessary to keep it straight. Then I recommend just continue reading on throughout the week.

Jesus’ Final Passover

These are the scriptures that include the final days of Jesus’ life. They are not easy to read but so powerful and necessary. The chapters and verses between the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) and the final Passover scriptures below happened all in the same week, at least as I understand it.

  • Matt 26
  • Mark 14
  • Luke 22
  • John 13

I had to remind myself that Passover is a week long celebration/observation with both the first and last days being big days. Since I have not observed Passover in the ways the Jews did, I forget this and what all went on during that time. (Maybe another study to be had. ;) )

Jesus’ Arrest, Suffering, and Death

These are the chapters of the account from the night of the arrest through to the death of our Savior. Most of these accounts have the arrest in the same chapter as the last supper but notice that there are five chapters in between the two events in John. Seeing as John was one of the closest to Jesus (along with his brother James and Peter), I think these give some special insight into that time. So many times when verses are mentioned in these chapters of John, it is forgotten when they were spoken.

  • Matt 26 (beginning :47)
  • Mark 14 (beginning :43)
  • Luke 22 (beginning :47)
  • John 18

Resurrection Account

Here are the passages that share the testimonies of the resurrection itself.

  • Matt 28
  • Mark 16
  • Luke 24
  • John 20

I enjoy reading about the interactions with Jesus after His resurrection! This is further proof that He is Alive and Risen from the dead. :)

I hope this breakdown is helpful to you and your children this year. You may need a bit more planning for your Easter baking, so you might check out these past pages too.

Here are my other Easter pages, which include ideas for little ones too.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful time celebrating our Lord.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Health Unit Study Suggestion and Online Resources

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday

I’m sure you are talking with your children about proper hygiene right now. Maybe it is time for the homeschooler to do a basic/generic health study. ;)

  • Find out why hot water is needed for proper cleaning of the hands.
  • Run a stop watch while they sing which ever hand washing song they choose, to know how long is long enough to wash the hands.
  • Find out why you shouldn’t touch your face.
  • Why should you cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze? Why not use your hand to do so?
  • Research what boosts your immune system and what foods have those nutrients.

Here’s an interesting article on the value of fresh air and sunshine from the experience of the flue in 1918.

Here is an interesting compilation of links for all kinds of things to do, from virtual field trips to youtube channels to zoo cams to art to stories. This is really a great list of suggestions/links.

I hope these ideas and links are helpful to you.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Lent: Easter is On Its Way

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday

In just a little over six weeks it will be Easter or Resurrection Sunday, as many Christians prefer to call it. :) It is one of the two most important holidays in my year because it celebrates Jesus’ resurrection from the dead bringing us eternal salvation, if we believe on Him.

Preparing for Easter

In the weeks leading up to Easter it is good to put our focus on who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Did you know that if you read 3 chapters of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) each day, you will read through all of them in a month? That covers most of what the Bible tells us about Jesus and what He has done for us. (Since Easter is 6 weeks away, you could read two chapters five days a week and get them all read before Easter.)

So how will you prepare yourself and your children for the approaching holiday?

I remember doing an inductive Bible study with my kids one year during advent (before Christmas). I really enjoy inductive Bible studies with all the marking of symbols and such. Here’s a sample of what one is like. I’m sure you could do the same thing on your own, without having to worry about if the study was going to lead you into the author’s beliefs/interpretations.

Easter Study Links/Ideas

  • YearRoundHomeschooling has a nice study with videos (linked), art, poetry, music, and craft idea links. I find the art and poetry to be interesting ideas. She has some printables linked too as well as some products (some of which are free) in that section.
  • CreativeBibleStudy has a nice 10 lesson study for Easter. It has a passage to read with a few focal scriptures to write and then usually some questions. It is a short study and doing one to two each week will have you completing it by Easter. I really like this one. :)
  • If you have littles and you subscribe to totschooling.net, you can get their free Easter printables, although this one is not really focused on the holiday as far as Biblical but still useful.
  • TheFrugalHomeSchoolingMom has some links for some Easter (biblical from what I saw) ideas.

I have past posts for Lent and Easter/Resurrection Sunday but I’ll save those for another week. (If you want to check it out ahead of time, just type lent easter in the search bar above and it will show you posts I’ve written with those words.)

I hope this helps you keep your focus on the Savior this season. I’m off to figure out what I’m going to be doing. I’d love an inductive Bible study. ;)

Until next time, God bless,
Michele ºÜº

Stars and Sky Watching

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday

Did you know there are 88 constellations? I sure didn’t! I was shocked. I looked at this webpage on Seasky.org and was totally surprised.

Since my recent post about how you could let students help pick their own studies, I decided that I may add some ‘unit’ suggestions from time to time. I love stars, constellations, and sky watching; so I thought I’d see what I could dig up for a month study to do.

Constellations

Then I found this that explains why there are 88 constellations! Very interesting to me. Of course it wouldn’t be very interesting to the normal 7 or 8 year old though. ;)

Here is a listing of 15 constellations that ‘everyone’ should know and how to find them.

Here’s another page with some introductory info about the main constellations.

Here’s some basic information aimed at younger ones about constellations and what they are: https://www.ducksters.com/science/physics/constellations.php

My Night Sky

Astronomy.com has what is called a stardome (which is powered by Noctuasky.com, so you can go there too) and with it you can see what the sky will look like from major cities. BTW, they have an app too, so you can access it while you are outside. I entered Tulsa to find that tonight at 6:30 tonight, I can see Venus and Mercury in the Western sky. I can also click on View in the dropdown menu and check constellation names and lines, to help identify some of those.

EarthSky.org will give you quick info about when the moon rises and what is in your night sky–here.

Interested in understanding how to read a star chart? Here’s some instruction on that, and they reference the skydome. ;)

Study Ideas

So, this is how I’d approach a study on stars:

  • Take children outside after dark (best during the winter, even though it is cold, because it is dark earlier and can see the stars without having to stay up too late) and have them look up.

Do you  live in a well lit area? Talk about that and how the lights are hindering you from seeing more of the stars.

Go someplace less populated/lit to better see the stars and note the difference.

  • Talk about constellations and name have each child pick one more popular/well known constellation to look up and figure out how to find it in the night sky.
  • I’d probably keep Ursa Major/Big Dipper as something you want to point out, as it is the most important because with it you can navigate.
  • The next week talk about some lesser known constellations and have each one select one to look up, as with the popular one.
  • Talk about why some constellations are not viewable now and pick some to view at another time of year.
  • Meteor Showers!!!! This is one of the most fun things to do. Have the older kids research this and pick one for you all to watch.
  • Talk about the what stars are–again another thing older students can research
  • What are some Biblical references to stars?

I definitely recommend a laser like the one mentioned in this post for your night sky viewing–it’s sooooo cool. :)

  • You could also do some study on the moon and its phases–even journaling it by drawing what the moon looks like each night, and when it became visible.
  • Don’t forget the planets. Like I mentioned, Venus and Mercury are both visible in my night sky tonight. I may just have to go outside after dinner and see if I can find them.

There is so much you can do with this but I think this is enough of a jumping off point or enough to touch the topic to see if there is any more interest. Remember not to overwhelm your children with this, just keep it light and simple–the idea is to cultivate their love of learning, or spark it again, if need be.

I hope this is helpful to you. Please let me know in the comments if it is or if you try it and what your experience was with it.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Sand: Up Close

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday,

Have you and your children been to the beach this summer? Have you seen sand lately? I bet you didn’t see it like this. :)

Yeah, I think it is a cool science link. It shows what sand particles look like magnified three hundred times. Yep, 300 times! I thought it was amazing. Then I remembered that sand is nothing but small bits of shells and such.

I won’t keep you any longer because I really want you to go check out what sand looks like magnified 300 times. :)

Until next time,

Michele ºÜº

 

Art Appreciation

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday

Art Museum ~ Lifeofjoy.eIt seems like I tend to focus here on things I did not focus on in our own homeschooling journey. Today’s subject is one such item. I wish I had spent more time on art and music appreciation but it is what it is and they are not harmed.

Art appreciation is a good practice. In my opinion it is not something that MUST be done all the time but is good for a well-rounded individual. If your child will need to go to college some day, then it is probably a good idea to be sure to include some art appreciation into their studies.

In my surfing recently I came across an interesting website: Practical Pages. She has a great Art Page! She has two lapbooks of artists and a sampling of their works. Even if you don’t usually do lapbooks, these are great because there are works of art for each composer. This could be spread over a couple of years or more. There are two free lapbook downloads that cover about twenty-seven artists. There are also some art and music timelines available to print out with ideas on how to use them. So cool!

Nadene of Practical Pages also shares about something she instituted that she calls Fabulous Fine Arts Friday. You can read about it here. It sounds wonderful; it became her children’s favorite day and one where they created a lot of wonderful memories.

One last thing, she also shared was how to make outline drawings of famous works on this page. Then she includes ideas of how to use these outline drawings. I think this is just great.

I hope you will enjoy these art appreciation ideas and that they will help you incorporate art and art appreciation into your homeschool journey.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

 

Vanilla

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday

vanilla ~ Lifeofjoy.meThis week I was researching homemade vanilla extract. I had previously learned that you can make your own vanilla at home by placing a vanilla bean pod in a skinny jar with some alcohol; vodka is recommended. Then it sits for several months in a cool dark place.

Recently a friend said she’d made alcohol-free vanilla extract and I was intrigued. She said she uses food grade glycerin and vanilla bean pods in her instant pot. Of course that made me wonder about food grad glycerin and sent me off researching.

Vanilla ~ Lifeofjoy.me
By Hans Stieglitz – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14970259

My travels landed me on VanillaQueen.com where I found out a most surprising truth: Vanilla is the only edible fruit of the orchid! In the words of my son Sean, How did I not know this?

I was shocked! I also did not know that the orchid is the largest family of flowering plants, with over 20,000 species. There are at least 150 different varieties. To find more interesting facts, check out the FAQ at vannillaqueen.com.

If you want to give your hand a try at making your own vanilla, here’s some recipes I found:

Of course, no talk with young children about vanilla would be complete without pointing out that vanilla is not sweet. ;)

To complete this little foray into vanilla, make something that includes it in the recipe. It could be so many things but a good vanilla pudding from scratch would be fun. I’ve got a vanilla base pudding that I make for banana pudding here.

I hope you found this interesting. It sure surprised us!

Until next time, God bless,

 Michele ºÜº

Pluto and our Solar System

Studies, Thoughtful Thursday

Solar System ~ Lifeofjoy.meI was one that was taught that our solar system had nine planets. See that tiny dot on the right end? Pluto. Yes, the planet Pluto.

So, after doing a little research for my sissy, I found that from 1979-1999 Pluto was the eighth planet from the sun because of its odd orbit. This orbit is one of the things that has caused the controversy over whether to call Pluto a planet or not.

When they demoted it to a Dwarf Planet in 2006, I did not like it at all. I believe when we did anything with planets any time after that, I told the children that I’d been taught it was a planet and now they say it isn’t. I don’t believe we went into it too much because although I am open-minded, I am a bit stubborn. ;) But it has now been 10 years and they haven’t changed their minds, so I guess it’s time to bend. ;)

I found a good and informative but easy to ready website to help with this information. Here’s a link to the page on space.com. It’s really good because it puts the info about the reasons behind Pluto’s demotion right up front, followed by info about dwarf planets, and then a bit more down near the bottom with the information on Pluto itself. It also has a few details about each of the planets. I found it quite interesting.

I felt that was enough information but if this topic is interesting to your child, you might want to let him/her check out this website. Now, I will tell you that right on the main page it says that Pluto is the ninth planet. It was last copyrighted 2015, so I think this may be the reason why. However, it does mention that some don’t consider Pluto the ninth planet and talks about it more on the page dedicated to Pluto. I think it would be good to show this to your children because then you can talk about why it might have different information, how you cannot just take the word of one website, and show them how to look for the copyright (usually at the bottom of the page). All of this helps with critical thinking and teaching them not to take everything they read as fact. This website also has some coloring pages and a planets quiz.

While I was looking for a picture to post with this post, I found some other interesting pictures. Some of them would make a great picture for your children to make up a story about. You can put whatever requirements you want on the paper/story they write or you can just let them go wherever their imagination takes them. Maybe they’ll just use the picture as a basis for some imaginary playtime later, or maybe they’ll want to use several of them. There really are some nice ones here.

I hope you enjoy and I hope this helps, Little Sis!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº