History Lesson - Coins From the Past

Today we got a great surprise - while visiting my Grandmother, we were talking about some old coins that we had and she pulled out a HUGE collection of coins from WWII (and some even older ones), plus a bunch of paper money from different countries. This is going to be an awesome addition to our World Geography lessons this year! For each country we study, we can look at and actually touch the currency from that country (at least at from some point in their history). Also, I plan to make color copies of the coins and paper money to cut and paste into our "Travel Journals" (part of the Winter Promise Children Around the World Curriculum).

We have about 50, but here are a few that I think are the most amazing ones. These are from Hitler's Germany 1937, 1939, & 1940, Russian 1930 & 1934, France, a German coin that says "Paul von Hindenberg", a huge 1937 "Penny" from England, and the one with a hole is from Denmark 1936. You should be able to view these larger if you click on the pics below.

And here is some of the paper money. We also have a few US Military Payment Certificates that my grandparents had to use when they were stationed in Germany (instead of US Dollars). Some of these are from Germany, Poland, France, Ukraine, Korea, and Japan. Then she had some from Mexico and Ghana, too.

We already had some neat things that I had collected over the years. The paper money is from Iraq, the coins mainly from Canada & Mexico, but a few are from Panama & Aruba.

I am going to ask the rest of our family if they have any coins or bills from other countries, too. I know my father has some from Kuwait (we lived there for a while). Who knows what we might dig up.

Here are some Roman coins I bought off eBay a long time ago. When we study World History (next year), I will pull these out and add them to our study. Each one is labeled and they "say" they are from from 238-383 AD, with one being from 41-54 AD. Now, I do no know anything about coin collecting, so I am not saying they actually are from these time periods, but they sure look real. Not sure...maybe one day I'll take them to be appraised to see if they are true Roman coins, but for our needs, they will do just fine.

Another idea we are doing this year (idea was from Guest Hollow a great homeschool site for literature based curriculum ideas) was to send off for a China kit that includes money, a flag, a red scarf, bookmark and much more. It only costs $14 and come from China. Go here to see it.

I think we are going to enjoy this! Hands on learning is unforgettable learning!

2009-2010 Curriculum

Here is what my girls will be working on this year. Amanda is in 9th Grade and Bailey is in 5th.


Both:
Geography
Winter Promise Children Around the World
(geared for 2nd-6th grade, but I have added lots of extra activities/books for my 9th grader)
Art**
Typing**



Amanda:
Math
Saxon Advanced Math (we use the Solutions manual extensively!)
D.I.V.E. Adv Math CD only or Saxon Adv Math AND D.I.V.E. CD Kit

English
Write Shop (we are finished with WriteShop 1 and are into WriteShop 2 now...an EXCELLENT writing program)
Vocabulary from Classical Roots D
Intro to World Literature**

Science
Apologia Chemistry
MicroChem Lab Kit (we will do the Apologia Experiments but these are extra experiments to make this an Honors class)

Power Glide Ultimate: Spanish 2 (bought this on ebay, no link)



Bailey:
Math
Math 7/6: Homeschool Set (actually we don't use the tests, but it sells for more on ebay if you have the whole set)
D.I.V.E. Math 7/6 CD only or Saxon 7/6 AND D.I.V.E. CD Kit

Science
Exploring Creation with Botony (semester 1)
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures (semester 2)

English
Wordsmith Apprentice (writing)
Bob Jones English (we don't use the tests, so we buy just the Workbook and Teacher Manual and save a little :)
Vocabulary from Classical Roots 5
World Literature**

Power Glide Junior Spanish (also bought on ebay, so no link)



**Notes**

World Literature: For both grades, we have literature books each week that go along with the current Geography topic. Winter Promise Children Around the World covers more than 30 different countries, exploring the culture and traditions and food of those countries. I have found a book from or about each of those countries for each of my girls to read for that week. For a complete list, you can email me or I will be listing them later.


Art: We will also be doing "Artist Studies" for many of the countries we are studying. I will post this lesson plan later as well. Bailey also utilizes Draw Write Now, Book 7: Animals of the World.


Typing: This may sound crazy, but it's been working! We get on the Webkinz website and use the game "Lunch Letters" for typing/keyboarding practice. The girls (both) love it and it gives them a little break during the day. There are other typing tutors and games out there, but we already "did" Webkinz and so it was easy for us (plus my youngest wins points each time they play!!) If you have an account already, it's kind of neat to "play" during school! (note: you need one of the stuffed animals to get an account started)


Curriculum Sites: We buy all our science curriculum and kits through the Home Science Tools website and sometimes on Ebay. Amazon has some math and almost all of our literature books. The Scroll Bookstore is where we like to buy some math and spelling/vocab (we used to live near them and truly love the customer service & prices). Then Rainbow Resources is a good place for good prices on mostly everything.

Welcome to My Blog!

Well, another school year is about to start around here. We are using our last remaining weeks to get a few things organized in our new school room (we just moved) and enjoying a few more weeks of summer. School will start on September 8. I like to start after Labor Day because, well, that's when I started school when I was a kid. We end up finishing about the same time as public school even though we start later, so it all works out fine. And my kids (10 & 14) are happy to put off starting school for as long as possible!

We have used lots of different curriculums in our homeschooling years (this year is our 9th!!! WOW!). Most have worked fairly well. It seems like we add new curriculum each year because we like to switch things up...we don't want to get in a rut! We are eclectic homeschoolers - a little of this and a little of that. We LOVE using unit studies, lapbooks and notebooks especially for science and history, but we have found a few we have liked for literature too.

What we really love is saving money while homeschooling, too! I have found that homeschooling does NOT have to expensive, we do NOT have to have the best looking curriculum or the newest books, and we CAN do it for less if I put a little time and work into looking for deals and great ideas for freebies. I will add many of my finds as I come across them to help other homeschoolers save money too.

My plan is to have everything we have used linked so you could buy it or download it if you would like to also use these curriculums/books (and other goodies). I also have a website that I am working on which will have lots of my personal downloads (schedules, printables for notebooks or coloring pages, foldables for lapbooks, etc.). I hope to have that all up and running this year sometime.

My next blog will have what we are using this year with my 2 girls who are about to be 5th and 9th graders. In future posts, I will let you know what all we have used in our homeschool, maybe some pictures of daily school work, as well as some of my favorite frugal living tips.