Burgess Bird Book for Children

We recently started reading The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess.  (You can get a free download of the book by clicking the title.  Or, find it at Amazon by clicking the above book photo.)  I was fortunate enough to find an original 1916 first edition copy with the color plates.  It is a beautiful book with a lovely story!  Only six chapters in and we've already read about wrens, sparrows, robins, bluebirds, juncos, phoebes, and flycatchers.

Here's the book description from Yesterday's Classics..."Through the eyes of Peter Rabbit we become acquainted with a variety of birds as they return to Peter’s neighborhood in the spring. In the context of the story about each bird, we hear about its nesting habits, its feeding preferences, and its interactions with other wildlife. We meet Jenny Wren, Scrapper the King-bird, Redwing the Blackbird, and dozens more. An engaging introduction to birds for young children.  Ages 6-9"

The kids have really become in tune to birds as they're returning for spring.  Ruben found this nest attached to the dump trailer last week.  We believe it's from last year as it still had the broken egg shells in it.

As you can see, the nest is made of moss, dried grass, and sheep hair.  It was attached to the trailer with mud.    It measures approx. 5 1/2 inches wide and 2 inches high.  We are still trying to identify what type of birds occupied the nest.  Let us know what you think.   

I highly recommend this book for your spring nature study!

"Then God said, ".....Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind."  Genesis 1:20

Galloping the Globe Plans

We are using Galloping the Globe and really enjoying it.  This is a geography unit study geared for K-4th grade.  I've stretched the lessons over a 2 year period.  There are 9 units including 38 countries and an introduction.

Here's how I've divided the plan over 2 years....

Month	2011-2012	2012-2013
September	Introduction to Geography	Europe
October	North America	Europe
November	North America	Europe
December	Christmas Around the World	Europe
January	South America	The Poles
February	South America	Africa
March	Asia	Africa
April	Asia	Africa, Oceana
May	Asia	Oceana

From there, I created a chart of possible Countries, People/History, Science, Geography, and Five in a Row books I could incorporate based on suggestions in the Galloping the Globe guide.  Here's that chart....

Galloping the Globe

9 units including 38 countries + Intro

Unit	Country	People/History	Science	Geography	FIAR	R&S Our Father’s  World
Introduction to Geography (September)	Using a Map Basic	Explorers Mercator Prince Henry the Navigator Bartholomew Diaz Christopher Columbus Francis Drake Leif Ericson Cabeza de Vaca Vasco da Gama John Cabet Hernando de Soto Amerigo Vespucci Juan Ponce de Leon Vasco Nunez de Balboa Ferdinand Magellan	CGC 2 Insects CGC 13 Butterflies	Description of earth/globe Continents  Oceans	How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World Grandfather’s Journey Miss Rumphius	Pg 31-48; 95-111
North America  (October- November)	Canada	Royal Canadian Mounted Police Henry Hudson Jacques Cartier	Moose CGC 23 Animal Food Chain	St. Lawrence River Hudson Bay Bay	Very Last First Time The Bee Tree	Pg 8-30
	Mexico	Charro: The Mexican Cowboy Benito Juarez Hernando Cortez Mexican Independence Day Pancho Villa	Volcanoes	Gulf Gulf of Mexico
	United States	George Washington Thomas Jefferson Abraham Lincoln Current President Native American Indians American Flag Barrack Obama	Buffalo CGC 26a Rabbits Beaver Otters Squirrels Skunk Raccoons Porcupine Cougars Prairie Dogs Manatees General Animal Books	Rocky Mountains Mountain Range	Cranberry Thanksgiving When I Was Young and in the Mountains They Were Strong and Good Lentil Owl Moon Gramma’s Walk Higgens Bend Song and Dance Amber on the Mountain Roxaboxen Down, Down the Mountain Warm as Wool All Those Secrets of the World The Rag Coat Mailing May Climbing Kansas Mountain The Finest Horse in Town Paul Revere’s Ride Cowboy Charlie Night of the Moon Jellies Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening The Finest Horse in Town The Little Red Lighthouse Follow the Drinking Gourd Three Names The Gullywasher Daniel’s Duck Snowflake Bentley The Raft	Pg 50-53
Christmas Around the World (December)	Japan China Russia Great Britain France Italy Germany Spain Mexico Nigeria	St. Nicholas	Deer and Reindeer
South America  (January- February)			Anteater Chinchilla Giant Armadillo Jaguar Sloth Birds CGC 18			Pg 54-61
	Brazil		Rain Forest Tamarin Tapir Capybara Piranha	Amazon River Jungle
	Venezuela	Simon Bolivar	Anteater Giant Armadillo Jaguar	Highland
	Peru	Francisco Pizarro	Sloth	Mountain Pass
	Argentina		Squid Rhea	Pampas
Asia (March, April, May)	China	Hudson Taylor Eric Liddell Marco Polo Lottie Moon Qin Shi Huangdi	Ducks Pandas Sloth Bear Orangutans Snow Leopard	Yangtze River Terra Cotta Army Great Wall of China	The Story About Ping	Pg 62-70
	South Korea	Bob Pierce	CGC 15 Animal Kingdom
	Japan	Hokusai Commodore Perry Emperor Hirohito	CGC 19 Intro to Mammals Japanese Macaque	Archipelago	A Pair of Red Clogs Grass Sandals
	India	Amy Carmichael William Carey Gandhi	Elephants CGC 20 Tigers Water Buffalo Chevrotain	Sea
	Israel	Jesus Abraham Isaac Jacob Children of Israel as God’s chosen people David Ben-Gurion Golda Meir	Donkey

Unit	Country	People/History	Science	Geography	FIAR	R&S Our Father’s  World
Europe (September-December)	Russia	Catherine the Great Peter Tchaikovsky Peter the Great Yuri Gagarin	CGC 22 Animal Structure Bears Wolves	Ural Mountains Tundra	Another Celebrated Dancing Bear	Pg 76-80
	Great Britain	William Shakespeare Elizabeth I Charles Dickens Beatrix Potter Florence Nightingale	Sheep	Channel	Mr. Gumpy’s Motor Car The Tale of Peter Rabbit
	France	Marie Curie Louis Pasteur Claude Monet Joan of Arc	Trees CGC 11	Palisade	Giraffe That Walked to Paris Mirette on the High Wire Madeline Glorious Flight (English Channel)
	Italy	Michelangelo Leonardo Da Vinci Galileo Giotto	Astronomy CGC 2 The Universe CGC 3 Our Solar System		Papa Piccolo Clown of God Angelo
	Germany	Ludwig Van Beethoven Johannes Gutenberg Albert Einstein Johann Sebastian Bach Brahms Handel Robert Schumann Castles	CGC 10a Plants		The Duchess Bakes a Cake A New Coat for Anna
	Holland/ Netherlands	Rembrandt Vincent Van Gogh Johannes Vermeer	Flowers CGC 10b Flowers	Polder
Spain	Queen Isabella	Bulls/Cattle/Cows Cork	Peninsula	Story of Ferdinand	Spain	Queen Isabella
The Poles (January)	Antarctica	Roald Amundsen Ernest Shackleton Sir James Ross Robert Scott	Penguins	Iceberg Floe Ice Sheet		Pg 71-75
Africa (February-April)			Giraffe Apes & Monkeys Chimpanzees Gorillas Hippopotamus Lions Ostrich Rhinoceros Zebras			Pg 85-94
	South Africa	Nelson Mandela	Boer Goats Meerkat Cheetah	Cape
	Kenya	Maasai Verna Aardema	Giraffe Hippopotamus Lion Ostrich Zebra	Lake Valley
	Morocco			Strait
	Nigeria	Mary Slessor King Eyo Honesty VII	Warthog Waterbuck
	Egypt	Cleopatra King Tutankhamen Hatshepsut	Deserts	Nile River Delta	The Giraffe that Walked to Paris
Oceana (May)	Australia	James Cook Robert Burke & William Wills Matthew Flinders	Coral Reef Kangaroo Wombats Koalas Crocodile Tasmanian Devil Duck-billed platypus	Reef Key	Pumpkin Runner	Pg 81-84; Review & Test pg 112-117
	New Zealand	Margaret Mahy	Fruits & Vegetables Kiwi Kune kune Pig	Island

Since we have a separate formal history and science course, we will not touch on all the subjects listed above.  This was just an idea guide in my initial planning stage.    

We are studying each country for 2 weeks.  Here's the daily break down for each of those 2 weeks....

Monday          Locate continent/country on map          Read -          Color and label map	Monday          Review country          Vocabulary          Literature -
Tuesday          Children Just Like Me          Color flag          Missionary	Tuesday          Animals          Missionary          Worksheet
Wednesday          Read –          Geographic features          Map data box	Wednesday          Literature -          Activity          Bible verse
Thursday          Missionary          Animals          Worksheet	Thursday          Animals          Worksheet          Literature -
Friday          Read –          Bible verse/copywork	Friday          Animal report          Make a meal

Again, there are not always enough suggestions to cover each idea for each day listed above.  For example, we may only cover 1-2 missionary stories over the 2 week period.  Or maybe there are fewer animals to study in some countries and more to study in others.  This is just an outline for each week.  It helps me stay on  task.  

We are currently studying South Korea in Asia.  The kids are really enjoying Galloping the Globe.  I feel it's a great over view of the world.  Obviously, we don't cover every country in the world, but it's enough for early elementary.  We also have a markable map on our school room wall.  This is were we keep track of each country we study.  

Each child has a binder with notebooking pages to complete with each country.  Some of them are printable worksheets from the Galloping the Globe book and some were downloaded from Homeschool Creations.  

Here's a list of recommended resources based on an old and new version of Galloping the Globe.  I've highlighted the ones we use regularly.  I feel they're more relevant to our study.  Of course, you would need to pick the areas you want to focus on and choose resources accordingly.  

Recommended Resources:

Considering God’s Creation (CGC)

Geography from A to Z

Our Father’s World (2^nd grade Rod & Staff)

Missionary Stories with the Millers

Heaven’s Heroes – by David Shibley

Children Just Like Me – Kindersley

Profiles from History Volume 1 – Wiggers

Big Book of Books and Activities

Marvels of Creation series – by Buddy & Kay Davis

The Usborne Book of Famous Lives

Eat Your Way around the World

Zoo Guide

Aquarium Guide

Galloping the Globe is working well for our family.  I like that I can tweak it to make it our own.  Remember, let your curriculum be your slave, not your master.