WinterPromise Crafstmanship: Experience Adventure on the High Seas with “Adventures in the Sea & Sky.”

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Adventures in the Sea & Sky

Be prepared to traverse the high seas in this adventurous program.  Discover how history was made by explorers, commanders, traders, daredevils, astronauts, and even pirates who captained sailing ships and flying machines!   World history will unfold from the earliest traders on the Mediterranean to astronauts building the space station even now. As you travel through “Adventures in the Sea and Sky,” you’ll encounter the technologies that let sailors conquer the stormy Atlantic and Vikings raid the northern seas. You’ll find out what caused the Age of Exploration and how controlled flight became a reality — and changed the world forever.

Adventures in the Sea & Sky is a world history in a year program designed for students from 4th – 7th grade.  With the simple addition of our “Younger Learner’s Guide” you can even include your K – 2nd grade students in your adventures! To easily include your 8th – 9th graders just add our “Older Learner’s Guide” to the program.

Educationally Unique

This program contains many unique experiences, but before we dive into those, let’s look at how this program can be a great launching pad for further history study.  In Adventures in the Sea & Sky you’ll discover history from a unique perspective — looking at the development of the technology of sailing, flight, and space travel.  You’ll be amazed at how the major trends in history originate in the technologies around ships and sailing!  This program offers a bird’s eye view of history, and is a great launching pad for a four-year world history study.  Families are encouraged to experience our other history programs after seeing the big picture in Sea & Sky.

Adventurous Resources

The resources in our Sea & Sky program are now printed in stunning full color! We have uniquely selected each resource to create a world of adventure for you to enjoy every day.  See some of those resources highlighted below.

 

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Sailors, Whalers & Astronauts

What was life like on a ship? What was it like to live aboard sailing ships, airships, and spaceships in history?  Discover life on rolling seas, in the atmosphere, and out in the vastness of space.  There’s a lot to explore!

You will learn all that a sailor would need to know and the skills they needed to survive in the open ocean. You’ll check out sailor lingo and the different watches on a ship. You will learn what sailors believed and what they wore. You will even to know what kind of knots sailors would have to tie.

Once you master the basics of being a sailor you will be promoted to a whaler. Master the basics of a whaling ship and understand how lighthouses were used to keep them safe. Want some bean soup? Cook some bean soup and really understand how good your family’s cooking is compared to what these sailors ate!  You will even get to go along on a whale chase!

Next, you will be transported to the experiences of an astronaut! Find out how to stay healthy in space and what kind of food you would eat.  You won’t want to complain about cleaning your room after hearing about how astronauts kept things clean in outer space. Get geared up as an astronaut and discover how much equipment it takes to explore — and survive in — space!

“Sailors, Whalers & Astronauts” will bring the adventure of the open ocean, the atmosphere, and outer space right into your living room.

 

MYO_Captains_Log_Cover Make-Your-Own Captain’s Log

This notebooking resource puts you right in the middle of a grand adventure. You begin by being brought onboard “The Seafarer” as a cabin boy named “Crow.” A man named Hawk will be training you in the ways of all things ship and sailing. As you work through our “Sailors, Whalers & Astronauts” resource, your Captain’s Log will bring your story to life.

With interactive notebooking pages, you will constantly be applying what you learn and engaging with the material you encounter in other resources. Learn about sailing culture with engaging questions, activities and mapping assignments. Discover how the technology aboard ships advanced and even changed sailing completely!  Read about how ships were used in war time and see us highlight important ships throughout history. After spending time on ships, you will go on to learning about flight and even space exploration!

 

Another wonderful part of this notebook and this program as a whole is that a science component is woven throughout the program. For students 6th grade and younger it is a full science credit! Each week in your Captain’s Log you will have a science section that gives another layer of education and enjoyment to this notebook.

As you learn from your mentor Hawk about the ins and outs of sailing, the advances in technology, and even the invention of flight, your students will experience an adventure that lasts the entire year and can be kept for a lifetime! To see a sample of this resource click on the title above and then select “Resource Sample” at the top of the description. You will want to see inside this amazing 300+ page resource.

 

Under_the_Sea_and_In_the_Air_CoverUnder the Sea & In the Air

To add to your science component that is included in your Make-Your-Own Captain’s Log you will receive the “Under the Sea & In the Air” resource. This will be your primary science resource.

You will study the ocean floor, learning about its features. You will get a taste of what saltwater is and learn about ice on the ocean. You will learn about different marine life such as penguins, whales, and other sea mammals.

After the ocean you will explore the atmosphere.  Your students will create a weather log and learn about the atmospheric conditions. They will get to know how the sun affects our weather as well!

Once your travels in the atmosphere are finished, you will shoot up into outer space to discover our sun, the planets and the moons that circle them.  Read about the life of a star and think about how many galaxies there are in the universe!

Every week you will get to enjoy an activity that is fun and educational.  Together with your Captain’s Log and the other science books in Sea and Sky, this resource will cover your science for the whole year!

Other exclusive resources that are included are our Bible resource, “God of All Creation”, and our spine history resource “An Unfurling Sail.”

Sea & Sky is an Adventure

In this blogging series we are going to show how we have uniquely crafted each Themed Program to provide the same wonderful educational ideals but offer very unique experiences. Each program has a unique feel and experience to it so that your family doesn’t feel as if every year is the same.

In our Adventures in the Sea & Sky program your family will go on a high-flying and exciting adventure across history on the decks of ships, the seats of airplanes, and the cockpits of space craft. This program marries a rich and wonderful education with amazing adventure and enjoyment.

We would like to invite you to go on an adventure with your family this year.  You’ll truly understand why history unfolded the way it did, live the life of sailors, crew members, and astronauts, and make memories!

“The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy.  It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides.” – Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

 

 

 

 

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WinterPromise Craftsmanship: Discovering Unique Experiences in our Themed Programs

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When you hear a carpenter talk about a custom cabinet he just installed you will hear about the quality wood used, the dovetail edges, the solid hardware, and the attention to detail that make it a solid piece. But you will also hear about the special touches he added to make the cabinet unique. When a builder talks about that beautiful home he just built you get the sense that he spent time and energy to make this home solid, firm, and safe, while also making it one-of-a-kind. An artist works to create a unique experience for the observer in each painting that he creates, even though he uses his well-practiced technique and eye for color to also make sure it is as beautiful as can be.

This craftsmanship is what we hope you find in WinterPromise’s Themed programs. Inside each of our themed programs there are numerous foundational aspects that are similar, but those special touches are still there – the pieces of each program that make it unique. WinterPromise programs are based on solid educational principles, proven to give academic success, but still contain unique and individual touches that make them one-of-a-kind, joyous learning experiences.

What is the same?

Here is a short summary of the universal aspects of our themed programs. These things are consistent in our programs because they grow out of our core educational values.

Every themed program is inspired by strong Charlotte Mason principles. In each one of our Themed Programs we pick living books that pull your readers into a story that helps teach the material. This is much more effective than using stale textbooks. Each of our programs has a heavy focus on narration and discussion as a way to measure your children’s comprehension and understanding of what they are learning. In each of our programs you will find that we seek to elicit excitement for the material and find joy in learning. These principles are foundational to everything we do.

Another part of our themed programs that is true across the board is that we incorporate multiple avenues or “paths” of learning for your children. Whether you have a child that is auditory, visual, hands-on, people-oriented, or one that enjoys learning digitally, we have a way for them to learn week to week. We do this through activities, research projects, reading assignments, opportunities for presentations, DVD and documentary suggestions and much more!

Our themed programs are all designed to do as much work for the parents as possible. Many of our parents come to WinterPromise saying, “I liked x curriculum but I felt like I had to work hours and hours just to make it work for us.” We understand that our moms are busy enough as it is, and any curriculum that asks you to do more work than it did is just not worth it. That means we have designed our programs and our Teacher’s Guides as “Open & Go” resources. If you have your books and your guide, you are all set to start your day. Discussion questions have notes for the parent to help guide the discussion, online links are given for extra research, activities are suggested for older students, and everything is scheduled daily for you.

These ideals are consistent through every program no matter which one you choose. You will find these things in each experience you have with us. That does not mean each program is stale and every year is the same. In fact, it is exactly the opposite of that! We have handcrafted each themed program to give a unique experience for your family. One program will have a certain look and feel while another program may provide a completely different experience from the year before!

Why did we do this?

WinterPromise is a company that puts our heart and soul into every product and program that we design. We want every program, every book, every activity, every memory you make with us, to be something that is a wonderfully rich experience. We want our families to make new memories and go to new places with their family every single year.

Yes, our educational values that we hold dear are consistently present throughout all of our materials. Yes, you will see great notebooking across the board. Yes, you will read wonderful books as a family in every program you experience. Yes, you will have a wealth of great activities to choose from each week in every program. No, you will not think of every year as the same.

Why?

Every program and every year is designed to be completely unique. We do this so that every year you are challenged to grow as a family in new ways. We present our material in new ways in our programs so that your children are given every opportunity to enjoy what they learn. Giving new experiences and new ways to learn keeps your children expanding their imaginations and increasing their sense of adventure. When they open their WP resources for the first time they get to wonder, “What adventure are we having this year!?” Joyful and excited learning, inspired through new adventures, is a cornerstone of the WP educational model.

Joyful and excited learning, inspired through new adventures, is a cornerstone of the WP educational model.

In this blogging series we will go program by program and help you discover how each program is unique in what it can offer your family. We want to show you how each program not only teaches new material to your children, but takes your family on a handcrafted adventure designed to increase your children’s love and joy for learning.
 

 

 

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Conquering 4 Common Questions Families Ask WinterPromise: How Does WinterPromise Help the Parent?

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How Does WinterPromise Help the Parent?

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We are continuing our series on answering some of the most common questions we hear at WinterPromise. How does WinterPromise help the parent? This question is often not said so directly, but parents ask a lot of questions that relate to this issue. How do we help our parents succeed in homeschooling? A lot of curriculums puts the responsibility completely on the parent! It is entirely up to the parent to have a rich and memorable experience homeschooling. While the parents are the primary reason homeschooling will be successful, we here at WinterPromise want to do as much as we can to make it as easy on the parent as possible.

What does that look like? Let’s take a look!

1. WinterPromise helps the parent by ensuring there is as little prep work as possible!

There is a lot in a WinterPromise program. We have a lot of pride in being able to offer huge value in our programs. We want to give you a rich, deep, and joy-filled homeschool experience. What that means though is that parents that are new to homeschooling and even more experienced homeschoolers can look at our curriculum and be overwhelmed! We want to assure you that we will help you succeed!

One of the central values our founder and author Kaeryn holds to is that parents should be doing as little “behind the scenes” work or prep work as possible. Life is busy enough let alone homeschooling, and you don’t want to be devoting more energy than is needed working to prepare lessons, organizing activities, scheduling and tracking progress etc. We want to do as much of that work as we can! We are an “open-and-go” curriculum. Which means: as long as you have your materials, you should be able to open up your guidebook and go!

What does that look like in our Teacher Guides? They are the cornerstone to each program. The never center. Our guides are PACKED with information and teacher helps. They not only schedule your weeks but they hold all your activities, extra resources and notes for teaching, all in one place!  Here are some examples:

Every Resource Scheduled Every Week – We have everything from our activities, reading, independent assignments, teacher notes, weekly goals, interactive online projects, DVD suggestions and anything else you could imagine scheduled and laid out for you. You don’t need to plan anything! We have everything planned for you. With WinterPromise you will be able to wake up, get your coffee, get breakfast going for the kids and then start your homeschooling without worrying that you have what you need to get something accomplished.

Activities Designed For Simplicity – We believe that every activity you do should be something that adds to your educational experience and to the understanding of a particular subject. Activities should not be just plain busy work. We offer great activities every week for you and your students to dive right into. To help the parent we have described each activity as Open & Go, Easy, Moderate or Difficult. Most of our activities fall under the Open & Go to Moderate range and are completely doable. You will also be given at the beginning of your guide a list containing everything you will need for the year to complete the activities and also every week you will be given what you will need for that particular week. Most often they include normal household craft materials. We do everything we can to make sure our activities are designed in such a way that you are spending more time learning and less time prepping.

Teacher Helps – Do you ever feel out of your depths when it comes to a particular issue or time in history? Do you ever feel that you are not as gifted a teacher as your children need? We have all felt those things. To address these concerns we have packed our teacher guides with so much information and help that will be invaluable to you the parent! We include in each guide several pages devoted to informing you about the different learning styles and intelligences. This is really great for you to know! You are given tips on how to use the guide even! For those that feel like they struggle knowing what the goal for a given week is, we offer weekly teacher notes so you know exactly what you should be emphasizing. We want you to succeed!

2. WinterPromise wants to help you create memories!

Homeschooling parents put so much pressure on themselves. They guilt themselves into feeling inadequate as a teacher and/or parent. The cause of this is often because the motivation or standard by which they are evaluating themselves is not helpful or accurate. Ask questions like: What is your goal? What are things that really matter to you and your family? What do you want your family to have by the end of this?

Homeschooling offers the unique opportunity to be a part of the learning process. You an be a part of the ups and downs, successes and failures. What an amazing opportunity! If you are only concerned about a test score at some state standard test, we believe you are missing the point. Knowledge is vital and we teach our kids ultimately so that they will learn. But if you are homeschooling purely for the transfer of knowledge you are missing out on so much! WinterPromise is designed to help you create a family culture that is centered around making memories and experiencing joy! Learning should be a joy and it should be shared! We want you to focus on the unique growth of each child, and to grow with them! How do we do that? Laugh together, read great books together, make a mess of a science experiment together, enjoy a nature walk, run around in the rain when you should be doing math, cook meals together, journey together into different cultures, go on adventures together! WinterPromise wants to offer that to your family!

Create memoires together; because memories flow from the wealth of love and joy in a family. This will take the pressure off of you and will enable you to succeed in a way that you never thought possible! If you are willing to not blame, guilt, or crush yourself along the way you will find that you can go on a wonderful journey with your children as you homeschool.

WinterPromise wants you to succeed. Parents are the most important relationship a child has. Parents have everything to do with their development. Therefore we at WinterPromise want to equip and help you the parent as much as possible. Let us become a part of your journey.

 

 

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Building a Family Culture

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How Can WinterPromise Help You Build Your Own Family Culture?

WinterPromise was built from the get-go to promote and support your family, to build a family’s own internal culture.  How?

By Providing Themes Family Can Work Through Together . . .
Most of our themes are designed to keep your family learning together — not divide and separate you.  We have themes to help unite families that include a lot of different age ranges, and themes that will work as your family grows older.  Your family will study history, culture, or history together, and yet still find practice in skills areas (such as language arts and math) that are perfect for their individual grade levels.

By Working Through High-Interest Topics That Keep Kids Intrigued . . .
Each day your kids come together to learn, they’re ready to absorb something — it just has to be interesting, capture them in some way.  We here at WinterPromise figure there’s just no reason at all that learning has to be dry or dull.  Interest kids, and they’ll take off on their own.  That’s why so many families write in to tell us stories of how kids don’t even consider their WP themes “school,” but fun!  We love hearing that — and love knowing that kids all over are inspired by their own joy in learning!  This joy gets them extending the learning into playtime or even work time, creating their own culture as they go.

By Offering Resources That Get Kids Imagining . . .
What’s better than finding that your kids have taken the germ of an idea and run with it?  You see it come to life, and see their soul in what they’ve created.  WinterPromise resources are designed to trigger that process.  From ideas on making historical hideaways to creating medieval signboards or a Roman milestone, we give families the kinds of projects, experiments, and hands-on challenges that get kids creating and imagining.  It’s a great place to make memories, and your own fun culture, remembering what you did, when.

By Leading You to Experiences That Help Create Unique Family Memories . . .
Yes, WinterPromise offers you practical activities you’ll actually do, but WP also offers tons of ideas for other kinds of experiences, too.  You’ll encounter ministry and service opportunities, ideas for field trips, ways to visit virtual museums or landmarks, instructions for trying out real-life skills, as well as historical games or recipes.  All of it can be done together.  They teach older kids to be good leaders and managers, get younger learners cooperating, and pass along new skills to everyone.  As  you go, of course you run into experiences that turn into fun or embarrassing moments.  That’s just more memories, more family culture, more stories to share.

By Providing Great Discussion Opportunities Around Every Corner . . .
One of the best things about WinterPromise is how the resources we bring you create opportunities for your family to discuss the really important things.  You’ll find it in resources like our “Prayer and Personal Involvement Journal” from our “Children Around the World” program, a resource that specifically gets kids thinking about how much they have that others do not, and how that links up to their understanding of the world around them, what they need to do about it.  Resources like this one are sprinkled throughout our curriculum, and provide the springboard parents need to talk about the really important things with their families.  The kinds of things that sometimes get lost amidst finding toothbrushes or walking the dog.  More opportunities to talk about the important things equals more time to pass along values, more time to build character, more time to really know one another, more time to mentor and serve one another.  That’s the best kind of family culture.  The kind we here at WP want to help you build!

Why not try WinterPromise and see for yourself?

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WP Experiences are “Soul Windows”

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Back before WinterPromise was born, back when my kids were younger, and WinterPromise was just our own family lifestyle, not a curriculum, we discovered that our family experiences provided windows into the souls of our kids.   That each of the things we did together, enjoyed together was an opportunity to see inside them.

A prime example was our family’s love for Playmobil.  If you’re not familiar with Playmobil, you’re really missing out.  Playmobil is a combination building and relating toy.  Sets of Playmobil allow kids to build houses, businesses, firehouses or adventure scenes, while also including people, animals, furnishings, and vehicles to allow imaginations to run wild.  Better still, many of the toys are based in historical time periods such as the age of piracy, the American West or Civil War, and medieval times.

Our family used these toys not only for hours of imaginative play, but as directed props in recreating our favorite scenes from our history books.  The kids named the characters after people we read about.  A little guy with a map and a sextant became Nathaniel Bowditch (of “Carry On, Mr. Bowditch), while western heroes and villains like Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid carried out frontier justice or broke out of jail.  For hours our kids would re-enact what they’d been taught in elaborate scenes.  Some were pitched medieval battles, others were slowly unfolding chases or taut moments in history.  Either way, they built it and populated it with Playmobil and their own imagination.

It was the ultimate narration tool!

But equally fascinating was how these experiences provided windows into the hearts and souls of our children, allowing us to see not only what they’d learned, but who they were becoming as people.  While the girls of the house fastidiously decorated castles for soon-to-arrive hostile forces, the boys arranged their weapons and set elaborate traps around the perimeter.  When the battle came on one of the girls could be heard tenderly whispering to a victim, “Hold on, help is coming!” while the boys’ shouts bared souls filled with courage and sacrifice, protection for the helpless (or hapless) souls inside the castle.  In short, the experiences were “soul windows,” peeks inside the true character of our children.  What they’d do in ‘real life’ in the same situation, practicing acts of kindness or bravery.  A million facets of the complex people they were to become.

Here at WinterPromise, we offer you a variety of experiences in part because each of them provides a “soul window” for you as a parent.  Not only are they designed to provide rich learning opportunities, but they are deliberately constructed to give you a great chance of peeking inside your child’s very soul.  These are the opportunities we have to change our child’s character, praise him for his gifts, smooth off rough edges, polish up the best in them.

For us here at WinterPromise, we hope to bring you a curriculum is living, well beyond just an educational experience — one that allows you to ‘bring up your child well,’ to mentor and grow them, to reach for the best in them and make them blossom and bring joy to those around them.  This should be the ultimate goal of education.  It was Charlotte Mason’s goal, and it is our goal.  And every one of our children deserves nothing less than that.

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Just What is WinterPromise’s Experience Approach?

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Just What Does WinterPromise Mean When They Say They Offer the “Experience Approach”? 
What is the “Experience Approach”?

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Unlike other curriculums that focus largely on literature, or workbook pages, or textbooks, or even highly involved activities, WinterPromise is just brimming with all kinds of experiences:  learning experiences, real-life experiences, and so much more.  Kids can be getting out into nature for one class, creating a history notebook for another, building a model for a different class, or trying out a real-world skill in yet another!

What does this variety of experience mean for families?  It means that each day is a new adventure, for one — and each WinterPromise theme offers its own unique set of experiences.  There’s literally a different “feel” to each program, since each theme has its own amazing take on how students “experience” the time period for themselves.  But it also means that, for families with multiple students, each one can pick the learning experiences that most connect with them personally, if they like.  This keeps students motivated and intrigued, and yet keeps families building a common family culture.  Each student is uniquely challenged, and yet the entire family gets to enjoy common experiences, too!

Here’s a Sampling of Some Types of Experiences Your Family Will Encounter in Most WinterPromise Themes:

Learning Experiences: These experiences are more generalized learning experiences, those that allow students to take in information.  These might be called “traditional” learning experiences that include reading and discovering content in books, listening to oral histories or music, seeing new things for oneself in everyday surroundings or at landmarks, parks. or important places, either in person or through pictures or video.

Geographical Experiences: In WP, students discover geography in a variety of ways — through study of countries and their lands, by mapping both places and topics in time, and following how geography affected history and the unfolding of human trends and development.  Geography is integrated in different ways to help students think all the time about how the land affects how events take place.

Natural Experiences:  A key part of WinterPromise study is nature study and other natural experiences.  As students discover themes, there are integrated activities that have them also getting to know the natural world that was a part of history or scientific discovery, or even catastrophic events.  Students spend time creating eco-journals, and discovering the trees, plants, animals, and physical forces that affect  our lives every day, and have dictated world outcomes in the past!

Real-Life Experiences:  A hallmark of WinterPromise learning are our real-life experiences.  These creative activities get kids trying out true-life skills, things that are needed and important in the real world.  These experiences not only help them understand key historical figures, but also help them understand different times and places.  Plus, they whet their appetite for enjoying things they may never have considered pursing otherwise.  AND, they help build real-world confidence in themselves to experience success with new things!

Online Experiences:   Getting kids familiar and productive with computers is another thing you can count on with WP.  Not only does it give them skills they will use for a lifetime in almost any workplace, but getting them online opens up a world of amazing experiences.   Online, students can visit places they’d never go in real life, or get a chance to see something up close that is locked away in a museum vault or under glass in an exhibit.  They can hear from experts they could never talk with, and even attend online courses or seminars, or watch online videos and biographies.

Creative Experiences:  Kids and parents alike love all the creative experiences WP suggests.  Our activities are never pie-in-the-sky, but are well-thought out to bring you the highest possible educational value for the lowest possible prep or expense.  WP’s creative experiences are unmatched in this regard.  Parents love how the experiences really get kids thinking, demonstrate principles of science or history or humanity or culture, and how the experiences themselves are built to make it “stick” inside a kids’ head!  Creative experiences can be drawing, painting, building, designing, recreating, photographing, videoing, cooperating, demonstrating — the list goes on and on — and all of it highly educationally rich!

Notebooking Experiences:   Not only does WP offer your student one of the most unique timeline notebooks available for homeschoolers, but we also help them build a “Make-Your-Own” History Book with looseleaf notebooking pages they collect year after year.  These notebooking pages are designed to be interesting and very interactive, demonstrating historical or scientific concepts, adding more rich content to student study, or helping students show what they know in a unique and fun way!

Working Together Experiences:   Collaboration is another great way to learn, and WinterPromise integrates these kind of “together” experiences all the time.  They’re great because they build family cooperation and unity, and give your family wonderful shared experiences to laugh about and remember later!  Whether students are putting on a play, creating a historical video, or cooking up a cultural dinner, they’ll learn a lot — and enjoy it in a different way — by doing it together.

DVD Experiences:   WinterPromise also recommends key DVD picks for students who connect with this avenue of learning.  There’s nothing like seeing how Vikings used the same kind of boats in the open sea and inland rivers, or finding out what Civil War soldiers endured during battle and in between.  These come alive in good quality videos, and our picks let you choose which ones you’d like to get from the library or buy for your family.  Either way, it offers another great way to “experience” history, science, or culture.

Service Experiences:   There’s no better way to teach your values to your kids than getting them serving in your community or church, or volunteering to help those who are less fortunate or challenged in their everyday lives.  That’s why WP suggests opportunities that get kids giving in some way to others.  These service experiences help you as a parent to teach them contentment and gratitude for the blessings in their own lives, while helping them learn how to serve and help others who really need it.  They build real-life skills, and create tenderheartedness to the challenges others face, either right down the street, or around the world!

These are just some of the different types of “Experiences” that WinterPromise offers to parents.  Each one has an educational focus, not busy work.  This means no matter what kinds of students are in your family, there is something for everyone in our family-oriented packages.  The experiences WP offers are based on the Multiple Intelligences, and each scheduled activity appeals to one or more of these learning avenues that connect with a certain type of learner.  No matter how many different kinds of learners are in your family, there are plenty of experiences just right for them!  PLUS, WinterPromise is always focused on how each experience can change the heart and the character of the learner.  How cool is that?

THAT’S the “Experience” Approach!  That’s WinterPromise!

 

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Simple Nature Idea ~ Senses Scavenger Hunt

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One of the  ways to incorporate more science into your school day is with simple nature study! Charlotte Mason (and Winter Promise!) believe that nature study is one of the best ways to learn about the world around us.

Do you take nature walks with your family? Such a simple, yet fun and meaningful, way to study nature AND make family memories at the same time! Nature walks is one of the 5 simple ideas for nature study that we shared earlier!

If you’ve taken nature walks before, this week, why not try a NEW way to take a nature walk?

Go on a SENSES SCAVENGER HUNT!

In our science program called The World Around Me, this is one of the many wonderful experiences you will share with your child! Why not try it today?

How to take a Senses Scavenger Hunt

1. Ask your child if they can name their senses and know what they are.

2. Discuss each sense and how it helps us to discover the world around us.

3. Explore one sense at a time as you walk.

4. As you start your walk, ask your child what hidden treasures he can find with his EYES and sense of sight.

5. Continuing along, ask your child what fascinating parts of creation he can HEAR with his ears.

6. Make it a game! Tell your child you SPY something that they could explore with their sense of TOUCH.

7. Still walking, see if your child can name anything they can SMELL with their nose.

8. As you finish your walk and head toward home, if you haven’t seen anything yet that would be safe for your children to TASTE, tell them you have a treat waiting back at home that will allow them to try out their sense of TASTE. 🙂

9. In a later nature post we will discuss keeping a nature journal, but for now, if you don’t have one, just grab a piece of paper and have your children try to recall all the things they found on their SENSES SCAVENGER HUNT. Discuss with your child the TREASURES that we have all around us to explore in the world around us!

ENJOY!

Find more nature study inspiration on our Nature Study pinterest board! 

{these directions are not directly out of The World Around Me, just a fun idea to try out!}

 

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5 Simple Nature Study Ideas

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We would like to share some simple ideas for nature study! I hope you’ll join us for this series. We love nature study in our home!! And Winter Promise loves nature study, too! Like Charlotte Mason, we believe that there is much JOY to be found in studying and observing nature and God’s creation all around us! We love making memories together as a family, and one wonderful way to do this is through nature study! But, don’t make it too hard! It doesn’t have to be!

5 simple nature study ideas

 

“As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child.”

Charlotte Mason

1. Keep a SIMPLE nature notebook or journal with your child! The key to this is keep it simple. You don’t have to go out and buy anything fancy. Just take a simple notebook, some colored pencils, go outside and EXPLORE. Have your child draw, label and date what they see!

2. Go on regular nature walks. This is as simple as simple gets, but I know that for me, at times, I let all the other “stuff” of our homeschooling day get in the way of what could be the best part of our day! Getting outside, enjoying fresh air, admiring God’s beautiful creation around you, time with your children…these are all fabulous reasons for taking nature walks with your children!

3. Explore your own backyard. I love taking little “breaks” in our homeschool day, walking out into the backyard with my kids and “assigning” them a corner of our yard to explore. Sometimes we take our nature notebooks and I have them find ONE thing to draw in their corner of the yard. Sometimes we just take a magnifying glass and see who can find something interesting to look at. It can be so simple, but so meaningful.

4. Study one something from nature in your own yard. Choose a tree, a flower, an animal, a bug…something you can view regularly in your own backyard. Watch it, draw it, look at it in different seasons, describe it, check out a book from the library on it.

5. Bring nature indoors for study. This is another of my favorite nature study ideas! Create a nature table (or corner, or shelf) in your home. Admire the beautiful flowers, rocks, twigs, leaves, and other items with your children. Bring them inside and set them in a place to explore and admire even more! Start a collection with your children. Discuss, admire and examine many different nature items in your home to build observation skills and admiration skills in your children!

“Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of bee, ant, wasp, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragon-fly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way.”

Charlotte Mason

Be sure to check out our Nature Study pinterest board & Charlotte Mason pinterest board!

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Winter Promise Wednesday

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We love sharing how you are using Winter Promise in your homes!

This week I would like to share a few links and pictures with you from around the web…

Leigh, from Little Homeschool in the Woods shares about starting off their new year with Winter Promise!

Amy, from A Nest in the Rocks, had an English Tea party to start off their Children Around the World year!! Read more about their tea party and how they are using Winter Promise in their home on her recent post.

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Amber, from The Classic Housewife, is using our Dinosaur Days program with her science loving son who was eager for more science! It looks like they are having a great time! Read more about their fun with Dinosaur Days AND enter her give away for this program which will end on August 16th.

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9 approaches in ONE curriculum?

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Would it truly be possible to find NINE different homeschooling approaches in ONE curriculum? At Winter Promise, we believe it is possible! Let us share how…

many methods

 

Winter Promise truly takes the best of all of the homeschooling world and brings it together! Here are the different approaches you will find inside Winter Promise products:

  1. Charlotte Mason ~ joyful learning, journaling, making family memories while learning
  2. Literature Based ~ fantastic living book choices in each program
  3. Hands-On ~ lots & lots of “open and go” activities /projects
  4. Classical ~ history themes that can repeat, with new facets each time
  5. Notebooking/Lapbooking ~ exclusive timeline, note booking, and journaling pages
  6. Unit Studies ~ unified themes and cross-curricular Language Arts programs to reinforce topics
  7. Ebooks ~ digital options for guides, books, and resources allow you to use tablets and laptops for school
  8. Multimedia ~ Internet linked guides, DVD suggestions
  9. Workbooks ~ easy to use workbook options for Language Arts or Math

 

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