Planning for the School Year

 This week I've been planning for the school year.  Some homeschool moms hate lesson planning but I love it. It's one of the things I look forward to every year. This next year will be a little different with 2 of my kids in formal school- a 1st grader and 3rd grader (from 1b and 1a). Quite a few of their classes they'll be doing together but others (like math and reading, etc.) they'll be doing separately. Generally, our family does Chinese history the 1st term, world history the 2nd term, and American history the 3rd term. One of the books I'm excited about is Animals of Asia for Kids. We're also going to try and make it a point to watch a few animal documentaries. We watched some before from time to time, but not regularly. I enjoy animal documentaries, esp. where they're working with endangered animals to save them. The picture below is at a park (on a super hot day!) earlier this month. 

North American Animals for Kids

 I just finished another book: North American Animals for Kids. It's available currently as a PDF on www.inknewspaper.net. (my other website). I might later on publish it as as printed book but for now it's available as a PDF file you can print out. Here's the description: 

Follow Samantha (fictional character), a young girl who has to write a report about a North American animal for school. She looks at 15 different animals. As you read about these 15 animals, look for clues and try to guess which animal she decides to write her report on. At the end of the book is her animal report, a poem about North American animals, and a list of books for further reading.