Busy, Busy, Busy

Oh my where have I been? What have I been doing? I have not posted anything for over a whole week! I really cannot believe I have not been blogging. However, I have been so busy I would be crazy if I did. So, what have I been doing with all my free time? Well, planning and organizing this school year. For us, school starts the first week of August so we can take more time off in the middle. I had a crazy goal to have lesson plans/goals for the next two months written out for all of the kids. I almost succeeded. I have about 6 weeks set up in all subjects and in others, I am planned through Christmas.
This week was the first week and I wanted to just jump in with both feet and get the kinks worked out. We are doing everything differently this year and so far, I think it will work with minor adjustments. I started including Baby G in more of the lesson time than I did last year. Last year we took advantage of her nap times because she demands so much energy and attention. She makes the Energizer Bunny look lazy. This year she is more able to sit for about 5 minutes at a time and she is enjoying being a part of what the kids are doing. She thinks she is big stuff sitting at the table with the big kids. This week has been intense and full of preparation and planning.

The kids and I are doing a unit study for the Olympics. I have scoured the internet for resources and information. Here are some more useful sites (see this Weblink Wednesday for more) I found and have been using.

The Teacher's Corner has several links to all sorts of sites for a great unit study. I have not even finished looking at all they have yet.

Teacher Planet has some links for lessons, clip art and information.

The International Olympic Committee has a great FREE Educational Kit. It is a 78 full color PDF. It is full of pictures, information and some activity sheets. I think that this is probably my favorite find.

This is the Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Here is a site that has some pictures of the lighting of the torch in Greece. Traditionally, they use a concave mirror to ignite the torch with the sun's rays.

So much information so little time. The kids have been learning all this week and are so excited about the Olympics this year.

Miss H working on a worksheet about the torch for her lapbook. 

 

Princess K is working intently on gluing her mini books and

Baby G is so proud of herself to be able to use the glue with the big kids. 

They watched the Opening Ceremony and were excited to know about what was going on and why. They loved every moment of it even though they stayed up past midnight. I was very impressed with the ceremony and loved watching the history unfold. Also, the torch lighting was awesome. The kids were in awe. You know, sometimes school does not have to be confined to normal daytime hours.