A Week with Biblioplan
(This is an old post I had yet to post, so this is from several months ago. Hopefully, nonetheless, it will give the feel of a week with BP.)
Biblioplan has been a highlight in our homeschool this year, and I thought I would share what a week with Biblioplan looks like in our home.
Biblioplan has been a highlight in our homeschool this year, and I thought I would share what a week with Biblioplan looks like in our home.
Monday: We usually listen to the SOTW 2 chapters for that week (audio) while coloring the coloring page.
This week we listened to SOTW chapter 10 and 17b-- Japan and Samurais. They colored the coloring page of a Shogun and a second page of a kangaroo. Even though we skipped Australia, they love to color. (The Australia chapter was also scheduled for this week, but I thought it too much so we skipped it.) The kids were especially interested in the samurai chapter and I drew katana's on construction paper, a book of haikus, and E practiced writing a Japanese character. E picked 3 facts to narrate from the SOTW audio and I wrote them for her on her coloring page (this is what we call "lazy notebooking!" ;) C cut out his construction paper katana and went to work being a Japanese Samurai.
Wednesday: We usually read from Usborne Encyclopedia of World History, the Companion, do the Cool Histories and geography.
This week we read several sections from the companion: Mysterious Myths: Izanagi and Izanami, Fascinating Facts: Samurai Armies, Fascinating Facts: Samurai, Fascinating Facts: Bushido. Surprisingly my kids really like the Companion. I like it because it gives me the "big picture" while allowing me to give only small pieces to my children. The pictures are great and viewing it on my iPad is wonderful because we can zoom in on all the great pictures and illustrations. The Companion gives great lead in to good discussions.
Next, We reviewed the relevant questions from the Cool Histories, and did some of the geography. We used our wall map to see where we are studying. They found Japan, China, Korea, reviewed the seven continents, and the five oceans. We also skimmed the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History, looking at pictures and information that interested them. We finished up our time by reading from Sam Samurai.
Friday: Friday's usually cover anything from the companion we didn't get to, review Cool History questions, and do a project. The Craft book from BP came out later so I have been using many of the SOTW Activity Guide projects. This week we reviewed the Cool History questions, but skipped the activity from the Cool Histories which was make Tanzaku's. The Craft Book selection: hold a Japanese tea ceremony we will try to get to soon. My kids were still really interested in Samurais and swords, so we made wakishazi's out of cardboard. We finished our history time with reading Sam Samurai.
Sword fighting at Grandma's!
Writing: We do narrations from our reading, and occasionally use the BP writing selections. This week's writing suggestion was "explain what is it like to be a Japanese Samurai." We didn't write about this, but we did discuss it. We came across the topics of Haiku's this week, and E wrote three Haikus and illustrated them.
It was a lot of fun.
Readers and Read Alouds:
Biblioplan allows us to have 3 days of "history," but I also have E read from a reader every day. (We alternate between readers that tie into history and other Sonlight readers). We also do a read aloud every night that often ties into our history studies. Not every read aloud ties into history, as we want to cover other great literature selections. So far we have found wonderful engaging read alouds from the time period that really enhance the learning experience.
This week I started having E read Sam Samurai as a reader, but the vocabulary proved frustrating for her so we started reading it as a read aloud. Most of the time we have a history reader and read aloud going, but this week we are finishing up The Tale of Despereaux, and E is reading a non history reader this week. The option lit for this week was Yoshis Feast. I never made it to the library this week but we will try next week!
Looking for more? Check out these other posts about Biblioplan!
What are the Cool History questions you refer to?
ReplyDeleteCool Histories are the worksheets/review questions for Biblioplan. For Littles, it is a series of review questions, optional hands on activities, and geography work. For older kids the Cool Histories are more like work sheets. :) Hope that helps!
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