The Gebel family exists in it's own corner of the world, away from aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins. So, in Gebel Family Homeschool we studied family last month. We talked about how family is defined in different cultures, holiday traditions with family, and ancestry. We found a lot of good books at the library, all of which I've taken back so I can't tell you what they were. If you're interested, though, in doing your own study about family check out your local libraries for some great options.
I remember one book we used was a Fancy Nancy book! It was one of Gracie's books and when I read about Nancy asking her grandfather questions about another family member we both thought how cool it was that it fit right in with what we were studying! I love when things work out so nicely.
The big project we did with this study was to make family trees. However, the kids wanted to do something other than a tree...so they did!
This is Gracie's Family Bouquet. It's kind of hard to see, but each side of the family has a different color flower. The last name is in the middle with each family member on a petal. Our immediate family is the flower with all the different colors in it. The kids are red and Scott and I are each our original families' colors. Pretty awesome, huh?
Jace chose a winter scape for his family tree. Again, it's hard to make out, but there are thirteen little snow hills drawn in. That's all I did. He then created sleds for each family and pasted pictures of the people we had pictures for and drew in those we didn't. Each sled had to be pulled by a dog. After all, "We are in the North Pole Mama. How do you expect the sleds to go?" Uncle Jared and Aunt Kate actually have Pickle, their actual pet, pulling them around! Our family sled has treads rather than tracks and is electric. For fun he tossed Santa in at the top and declared us all elves!
I love their creativity and imagination and all that other stuff! They really do amaze and I'm still so honored to have this chance to be a part of their lives in this very intimate way. Love them!
But before I get all emotional, let's finish our unit review, shall we? The last thing we did was to create a list of questions for our extended family members. Yes, that means all of you reading this will also be receiving a list of very difficult questions to answer and return. OK, not all that difficult, but please do answer and return! I'd like to use those questions to facilitate another study of families in the Spring. In that unit I'm planning on covering a little more about the make up of family and what it really means (family that's actually related and "family" that's not). We'll also use your answers as jumping off points for a few studies in social studies and history. Yes, if you're a grandparent - your childhood counts as history for your grandchildrens' schooling.
So, that's our latest unit. December is a busy month for everyone and we're doing things a little differently with school this month. I'll write a little more about that in a week or two! Until then, happy learning!
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