Littles Learning Link Up: September 12, 2017

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

Last week was our first week of school for the 2017-2018 school year. My Wordless Wednesday post was dedicated to our first day of school. You can get a peek into our "first day of homeschool" traditions, which includes first day of homeschool pictures. It also shows a bit of our daily routine.

We started our Creation to the Greeks curriculum from My Father's World. We focused on the days of creation, reading the Bible verses from Genesis 1 and the beginning of chapter 2. Our science topics this year are going to be based around creation. We are using the text called Science in the Beginning by Dr. Jay L. Wile (which is a part of the MFW package for this school year). We'll be learning about light for 6 weeks, though those weeks will be broken up as we will be learning about Pyramids as we start learning about Egypt.

The children and I have been enjoying the hands-on aspect of the science observations. We have gone into a dark room to play with reflecting light and watched white light turn into the colors of the rainbow. I don't have any pictures from us being in the dark bathroom, but the children are using notebooks to record different facts and thoughts.

For math the older girls have been spending some time during the week on math drills, making sure they know their math facts. They enjoy using the Learning Wrap-Ups for this. They have also been practicing math on a newish website called iknowit.com. This site is owned by the same people who created Super Teacher Worksheets, which we reviewed a couple of years ago, and are reviewing again thanks to the Homeschool Review Crew. 

Harold on the other hand has been playing with pattern blocks and Unifix cubes.

Pattern Block Animals 

Playing with patterns using Unifix cubes:

I've also decided all of the children will work on handwriting this year. Both print and cursive as we need to work on neatness. Hannah is using Channie's Easy Peasy Cursive, which is a review product.

And I found cursive worksheets (over at Super Teacher Worksheets) that work for the girls. 

We are just focusing on the individual letters right now. Once we do all of them we will come back to write the words.

Even Harold wants to learn cursive. I found some worksheets on the K5 website for him.

Part of our art this year will be done using God & the History of Art by Barry Stebbing. This comes from the How Great Thou ART company, and is an optional part of My Father's World CtG. Last week we talked about frustrations in art, and learned a bit about Joni Eareckson Tada. The children tried to draw a butterfly the same way Joni creates her art, using their mouths to hold the pencils.

Part of our English study this year will be learning Greek roots to help with our vocabulary. Our first word was Biblos which means book. The girls also needed to write some derivatives with their meanings, and some sentences. 

Additionally, we have been continuing our geography studies with Let's Go Geography. Last week we focused on Ecuador. I discovered a neat picture book called Paco Goes to the Fair that went very well with our lessons. I read it to the children while they colored their design which was to remind them of the beautiful cloths woven by the local people and sold at the Otavalo market.

This week we are moving on to Europe and will learn about Finland. 

No additional packages from embassies this past week. Hoping we will hear from a few more at least. We heard from France, but it appears they don't send anything. We did make a neat hat from the envelope though.

Let's take a look at that review schedule:

A few weeks ago I posted my review of The Everyday Family Chore System from Everyday Homemaking. This week I will be posting reviews of the Charlotte's Web E-Guide from Progeny Press and four books by Carole P. Roman. Later in the month I will share reviews for a juvenile chapter book from Barbour Publishing called Imagine. . . The Great Flood by Matt Koceich, Let's Go Geography, Captain Bayley's Heir from Heirloom Audio Productions, and a couple of books from Worthy Publishing. We also the Channie's Easy Peasy Cursive workbook that Hannah has been working in. That review will post in October, as will a review of Super Teacher Worksheets (which we did review a couple of years ago. You can find that review here), and Brinkman Adventures.

Some things I would like to share with you:

Back to School time is here, plus fall is right around the corner (though it feel like fall already). Seems like the perfect time to share my Apple Fun Round Up.

And here is my

Littles Learning Link Up : Back to Homeschool Blog Hop Day 2 - Back to School Round Up

I recently started a new weekly feature called Fun Fiction Friday, where I share the books the older girls and I are reading, sharing their thoughts on the books, and possibly even a review of a Juvenile book I am reading. 

A few weeks ago I started Picture Book Saturday (though it posted on Monday). These posts feature the picture books we read during the week, with the children each sharing which one was their favorite. I shared the books we had read about Australia and Coral Reefs.

Hoping to make both of these consistent, weekly features here on Tots and Me...Growing Up Together. I didn't have a chance to post last weekend, as I was getting ready for school starting this week.

I will be posting  a new Apple Fun Literature and Craft Round Up within the next couple of weeks. If you have any posts that focus on apple books (whether it is a book compilation post or a craft based off a book about apples) I would love to include them in my round up. Please just leave me a comment or contact me via my contact info on my About Me page.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 14 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.  

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Katelynne from The Disguised Supermom shared Best Books to Recharge a Mama's Soul.

And here are this week's top clicked on posts.

Christy from The Simple Homemaker shared Simple Thanksgiving Craft - How to Make a Canning Ring Pumpkin.

Mommies Reviews shared Homeschool Resources Pirates Week.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

An InLinkz Link-up