Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Pumpkins and Halloween

This is that time of year.   Have you all gotten your pumpkins yet?   I remember the first time we carved pumpkins with my son, he did not like to touch the stuff inside.  So from then on every year we just painted our pumpkins or dressed them up.

Take a little break from your regular studies this week and do a pumpkin unit study.  At http://www.hshighlights.com/ we have a pumpkin fun unit.  There is a pumpkin puzzler, matching, fill in blank with opposites, dot to dot, unscramble, how to make pumpkin pancakes and lots of fun things.
Make sure to take a trip to a pumpkin patch, but you may find prices at your local grocery cheaper.  Take lots of pictures, cook pumpkin pie and make pumpkin seeds, or buy some.  
We also offer several halloween units as well.  

Wednesday, October 20, 2010



Fall is such a great time of the year.   But it is not all about trees and leaves and halloween.   There is another concept that I think would make a great unit and that is Farm life.  This is great because it pulls in harvest time, pumpkins, corn and more.    I highly suggest you find a local farm to visit.

http://www.parentled.com/   offers a very nice unit for fall called Fall on the Farm. This would be so fun to use along with a field trip to a local petting farm. The unit offers  very nice looking printable abc cards with fall and farm words, pages with lovely pictures that represent fall colors, some great pictures with different type of vowels introduced.  Then they give you a blank page to draw your own pictures and words, several pages where you can either copy the fall on the farm qoutes they offer, or write your own story.  There are some wonderful recipes and blank card to put your own recipes.  Then directions to make all of it into a great lapbook.  
You won't have to search the internet for pictures, they are all provided.  This unit is really worth it.  You can get it at http://sites.google.com/site/parentledhome/  for $3.

Remember all the fall units at http://www.hshighlights.com/   and see our halloween sale right now.   Spend the rest of the month studying Fall on the farm, Halloween, Pumpkins and more.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Autumn Fun Think Apples

Today I want to talk about studying apples. What a fun thing to add to your Fall unit study.
There are so many great things you can do with apples. One of my suggestions is that you utilize this really sweet unit study    My Nature Buddy Apple picking Unit by Cedar Tree Press.

This offers you a nice list of books to read, a craft, a jumprope poem,a label the parts activity, apple snacks to make, and pages for doing some
handwriting activities.   I thought this was a very pleasant unit.It is available at currclick here

The author is:  Melissa Ringstaff
Cedar Tree Press:
http://cedartreepress.blogspot.com
Visit her blog:
http://melissaringstaff.blogspot.com


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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Fall is here...unit studies

Wow, Fall began on September 22.  Sometimes living in Texas we don't see the seasons change as drastically as they do up north so The Highlights of Homeschooling often forgets to get in gear for it.  But this year we remembered and have listed several of our fall units on the front page of our site at http://www.hshighlights.com/    

When you want to incorporate a Unit Study in your lessons, we suggest that you pick a subject of theme.  For example, Fall is a big theme.  Select something more like Leaves, or Trees that change colors.   
1. Now, go to the library and get out books that you can read to the kids, or that they can read (all that represent the subject).
2. Look for dvd's that might also have similiar themes.
3. Choose a unit study to go along with the theme.   You have many choices at http://www.hshighlights.com/   but I also recomment http://www.currclick.com/.    
4. Gather photos, or other physical items you can use to show your students real life objects for the study, such as
    different leaves from different types of trees etc.   If you live in Texas, then get photos of trees from up north that your kids would not otherwise get to see.

5. Take field trips that may enhance the study.  For example, in Texas there is a place called Lost Maples.  This is about the only place in Texas you would see Maple trees from up north.    (be aware though that you can't take home leaves etc.)

Now, look over your unit study, print out the pages that you want to use and then during one part of your day, utilize this unit study.    A subject can be done in a week or extended several weeks.   Kids will get bored if it's too long.

So, if you are doing leaves right now...in a few weeks....think pumpkins.....
See the Leaves unit at http://www.hshighlights.com/ and get busy before the changing leaves are all gone.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Unit Studies Are Fun

Hello,
This is a blog to share information about how fun using unit studies can be.  When you visit http://www.hshighlights.com/ you will find over 250 great unit studies that can be utilized in your school activities.   I would love to hear from you about using our unit studies.