Pressure-Cooker Kindergarten

" 'This[kindergarten] is a place of creativity and joy, but it’s a tenuous balance. “I try to mix the fun and the lessons,' Kenney says. “But we are testing them so much that I barely have time to teach the curriculum. These are 5- and 6-year-olds, and there is so little time for them to be kids.

...increasingly in schools across Massachusetts and the United States, little children are being asked to perform academic tasks, including test taking, that early childhood researchers agree are developmentally inappropriate, even potentially damaging. If children don’t meet certain requirements, they are deemed 'not proficient.' Frequently, children are screened for 'kindergarten readiness' even before school begins, and some are labeled inadequate before they walk through the door.

This is a troubling trend to an experienced educator like Gerzon, who knows how much a child can soak up in the right environment. After years of study and practice, she’ll tell you that 5-year-olds don’t learn by listening to a rote lesson, their bottoms on their chairs. They learn through experience. They learn through play. Yet there is a growing disconnect between what the research says is best for children -- a classroom free of pressure -- and what’s actually going on in schools.

...the bucolic world of wonder, a place for cookies and afternoon naps.That world is long gone."

Read more here, Pressure Cooker Kindergarten. HT to HSBA.

Not here at my house! Welcome to the school of yesteryear...Happy Hearts at Home Homeschool.

Dollar Store Crafts

Bob the Tomato. Cute!

Homeschool Freebie: Early Elementary School Evergreen(Pine Tree) Study

Two pages(pages 486-487) of short vintage lessons from Primary Education, 1904.

To print at link, simply right click on the image of the page, view page or save, and print. Printing is only possible in HTML mode; the link is preset to this. Settings can be changed at the bottom of most Google Books pages. This book is in public domain, readable online, and downloadable.

Also found in another vintage text - paper cutting exercise of pine tree. Click to enlarge and save.

The Little Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson(printable)









Coloring page :

Education Freebie: December Picture Study, Elementary School Lesson Plan

Not all the pictures are provided, but could be found online. This is for the classroom, but can be adapted for the home.

Talks on Art, Primary Education 1913, pages 606-608.

To print at link, simply right click on the image of the page, view page or save, and print. Printing is only possible in HTML mode; the link is preset to this. Settings can be changed at the bottom of most Google Books pages. This book is in public domain, readable online, and downloadable.

Free Printable: Saint Nicholas Cooking Club, Christmas Cooking for Children

Saint Nicholas Cooking Club, 1908. Vintage recipes for children to prepare with parents. Pages 250-251.

To print at link, simply right click on the image of the page, view page or save, and print. Printing is only possible in HTML mode; the link is preset to this. Settings can be changed at the bottom of most Google Books pages. This book is in public domain, readable online, and downloadable.

Homeschool Printable Freebies: Christmas in Other Lands(Elementary School)

From Google Books(vintage books):

Christmas in Other Lands(western Europe), pages 406-410, Public School Methods, 1921. The Christmas section begins on page 402 if you are interested in looking at other lessons and songs. To print, simply right click on the image of the page, view page or save, and print. Printing is only possible in HTML mode; the link is preset to this. Settings can be changed at the bottom of most Google Books pages. This book is in public domain, readable online, and downloadable.

This story can be paired with paper dolls from around the world in order to see traditional dress. Many of them can be found here. Check Google - there are many free printables to choose from.

It's a very brief lesson which runs through many countries in snippets, but good for casual supplemental reading, and a quick geography lesson if you have the children look up the countries on the map. Better yet, have them label this map.

Free printable maps


We will be doing this on Monday.

Also see(left an illustrated printable page on Christmas in Sweden.

Found later:

Christmas in Other Lands Lesson, Good English, Oral and Written, Book 1(grade 4).

How Christmas is Kept in Other Lands, New Education Readers(grade3).

Christmas in Other Countries, New Era Second Reader(grade 2)

Christmas in Other Lands, Brooks's readers, Book 6(grade 6)

Numbered list for western European countries, a good jumping off point.  Here and here.

Christmas in Greenland, Fourth Grade Normal Reader.

Make Your Own Magnetic Paper Dolls

I made these this afternoon for my niece. I don't have a color printer, so they are hand colored, laminated with clear strapping tape($1.00 a roll at Dollar General or Family Dollar), and hand cut thin magnet strips were adhered to the back. The self stick thin magnet sheets were under $2.00 in the hobby section of Walmart.

I discussed free online resources for printable paper dolls here and here.

See more over at this week's Make-It-From-Scratch Carnival.

Family Movie Night: BBC's Wild China DVD

"This six-part series from the BBC uncovers some of the most exotic and uncharted natural habitats hidden within the vast and diverse topography of China, including Yunnan's forests, the Tibetan plateau, the Silk Road and the Mongol steppes. Through high-definition and other cutting-edge camera technologies, the footage presented here captures stunning wildlife sequences, along with a plethora of breathtaking landscape photography." ~ Netflix

This was a wonderful documentary which covered a variety of wildlife, and also geography(China is vast!). It touched upon the history of the Mongols, Marco Polo and the Silk Road, and the ethnic diversity and rural culture in rarely seen parts of China. The footage was beautiful and so interesting....not your typical documentary. Part one's coverage was fantastic while part two dragged a bit. I could have skipped the second disk.

If you have Netflix, this is worth a viewing.

Wild China at Amazon.

Preschool Counting Freebies: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Read and Color

Click to enlarge and print. From Journeys through Bookland, 1922.

Larger print, One to Ten. From Merrill Readers, 1915.

Teaching arithmetic with Mother Goose, teaching ideas from Primary Education, 1918.

In Rememberance, Pearl Harbor Day

President Roosevelt declared it, a "Day that will live in infamy." The attack on Pearl Harbor was an unannounced military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of December 7, 1941. It resulted in the United States entry into World War II. Read more here.

Remembering all those who lost their lives and fought for our country, and the families who were left behind. Prayers for peace...I am so tired of war.

Homeschool Freebie: Fifth and Sixth Grade Christmas Stories - Reading Comprehension Questions and Composition

From Good English, Oral and Written, Book One-three, Clara E. Lynch
Authors William Harris Elson, Lura E. Runkel, Clara E. Lynch, George Linaeus Marsh
Publisher Scott, Foresman and company, 1921(free for reading online, downloadable, and in public domain)

Christmas in Olden Times

How to Wrap a Christmas Present and more (pages 69-74)

Returning Home for the Holidays(Washington Irving)

Other grades here.

Homeschool Freebie: Children's Elementary School Paper Cutting Exercise

I saw this paper cutting lesson in a 1902 Primary Education magazine. There is one for each day of the week. This one is for Friday.

Another Children's Vintage Cut and Paste Thanksgiving Project and Coloring Page

I keep finding these in vintage public domain pages. They are so charming, I just have to share. This one is from a 1919 School Arts Magazine. Click to enlarge and print. It's a Thanksgiving basket.



And a coloring page.

Children's Printable Vintage Thanksgiving Stories, Poems, Activity Sheets, and Coloring Pages

There are too many to list, but to make your search easier, I've linked my Google Books library to search term "Thanksgiving, Massasoit". There are 54 books with stories for all grade levels, just click through, select a book, right click on the pages(s) you want, save, and print. All are in public domain, free to download, and print.

My Google Books Library(1000+ free children's homeschool ebooks)

Also see these posts from past years for quicker access to stories, etc.. I inserted "Thanksgiving" into the search engine on this blog, so there are a few unrelated posts, but just scroll past those. Also see here for books about Pilgrims.

My eleven year old son is reading this version from The Beginner's American History by David Henry Montgomery, 1915, and this one from Short Stories from American History, 1905. Both are good for about fourth through sixth grade.

Vintage Days of the Week with Mr. Turkey

Taken from a vintage turn-of-the-century public domain book. Click to enlarge and print. This prints out nicely.

Vintage American Indian Thanksgiving Hiawatha Cut Outs

Click on images to enlarge and print.

Found in public domain(1915) at Google books.

Vintage Story Starters: September, October, and November

Younger children can orally tell what's happening in the pictures; older children can write a story. The picture runs across two book pages, so each month will need to be puzzled together. Just click to enlarge and print. They are from Primary plans, Volume 6, 1908.

September :

October:

November:

Free paper: