In an effort to tempt Athena out of semi-permanent residence in Ancient Egypt and on to further Ancient History exploration, I began reading Mary Pope Osborne’s retelling of The Odyssey at bedtime a few weeks ago to the entire Triad of Chaos. I must confess I did shamelessly use my maternal influence. I got Athena hooked on the story first and then mentioned that Odysseus was Greek. The next day, I mentioned that there were many great stories from the Ancient Greeks about heros, heroines, gods, goddesses, monsters, magic and other mayhem. It did not take long before the two of us were logging in to the library’s online catalog, requesting titles like madwomen and forging ahead once again with our history program.
The next weekend, I needed to run to the library to return a few books and pick up some of those requests. I also needed the next book in Odysseus’ adventures. We […]
Original post by Crunchy Mama
It’s another cozy day at home for us today, which I really enjoy. Here’s some thoughts I had for ways to fill it. Feel free to join in!
1. Silly similes. Teach the kids what similes are (sim-i-lees– comparison words that use “as” or “like,” as opposed to metaphors which say something is something like “all the world is a stage” or “a sea of faces”). Brainstorm together and list a bunch of predictible ones that everybody knows (black as night, quiet as a mouse…). When you have a nice list, have each child make up a new simile for each phrase. Try to be silly and creative, but still accurate. Then share your lists.
2. Make winter collages and cards from old magazines. We’ve been doing this to make our holiday cards this week and it’s lots of fun. I ripped […]
Original post by Alicia
I’ve been rather lackadaisical in posting lately, huh? :) We’ve been busy with little things– company on Saturday (and the return of the kids’ computer), ice skating and shopping yesterday, library books, Netflix movies, art projects and general life.
I didn’t even post an Unplug Your Kids project this week, even though we did a thankful project (watercolor leaves with thanks on them for hanging). It seemed rather predictable anyway! Doesn’t everybody do that project several dozen times over the course of motherhood?
It has been dreadfully cold but snowless, leaving us in a sort of winter limbo. It’s too cold to want to go outside but it doesn’t look at all like winter. I am not a fan of snow, but if it has to be this chilly I wish it would just dump a few feet on us so at least the kids could play and it would […]
Original post by Alicia
We had fun doing some of the 10 fun things to do that I posted the other day so I thought I’d brainstorm 10 more.
1. Make up polls and graph the results. We’ve done favorite ice cream flavors and colors in the past. We even graphed the favorite colors one in M&Ms (I bought Easter and regular colors to cover all the bases!). Let the kids pick their own categories to poll about and call friends and relatives to get their votes.
2. Report on a historical event as a news report. Let the kids pick an event and play news reporters to fill in viewers about what happened. If you have more than one child, let one be an anchorwoman, one a reporter, one a witness and so on. Videotape it if you can!
3. Chart the temperature. Find out the highs or lows for the past month (or week) […]
Original post by Alicia
I will begin with apologies to whoever mentioned this book. I know I saw it on someone’s blog and immediately requested it from my library. It took several months for me to get far enough up the list to read it and in the meantime the origin of the recommendation has disappeared from my memory.
Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World by Timothy Brook is a fascinating account of the early development of global trade, particularly between Europe and China, but taking in the Americas and Africa as they bear on that topic. Brook is a historian of China but in this book uses Vermeer’s paintings, and a few other cultural artifacts of 17th century Delft as “doors” into a wider discussion of global trade relations in that period. Each chapter focuses on one painting (or artifact) beginning with a discussion of the painting itself […]
Original post by jove
…We’ve done here lately:
1. Daryl and the kids stopped by the museum at Walnut Grove and talked to the new director of the summer festival about ideas for next year’s festivities.
2. Victoria started making her own earrings.
3. The kids played Kids’ Trivial Pursuit.
4. Alex did lots of art while the big kids and I did Story of the World. (Note: I really want something else for world history next time. Any suggestions?)
5. We have start putting puzzles together at night after Alex is asleep. Another note: Anna tends to model like she’s acting a part. I’m not sure what the faces mean!)
6. Victoria made a lion mask from a pizza insert. Here’s the work in progress.
7. The girls did vocabulary photos.
Here’s haughty.
Here’s morose.
8. I had the big kids run 10 laps each up and down the stairs. Victoria decided to challenge herself and go for 50, and Anna decided to […]
Original post by Alicia
It’s snowy and dreary here this morning. I desperately need to find the cleaning fairy and chain her to my kitchen, but I also have 4 mostly-darling children in dire need of some plain old fun.
Here’s 10 things that are on our list of possibles today.
1. Play hide the phone. This is one of my favorite games to play with toddlers and the big kids love doing it with Alex. Hide the phone, press the page button and watch the little guy happily tear through the house looking for it. (Can also be played with ticking timers.)
2. Make miniscule art. Hand out index cards or other small pieces of paper and trace a circle in the middle. Have the kids use magnifying glasses, microscopes or just look very closely at whatever object they like (each in a different room). […]
Original post by Alicia
Here’s a few pics from the last Homeschool Day at the Petroglyphs. The theme was primitive technology and we stuck to some of the most popular activities to make it easy for us and fun for the kids.
I go back and forth about whether I want to continue to host these. I’ve been doing it for 4 or 5 years now and I get great feedback but it’s so much work and people just don’t show up as much as they need to in order to make it worth my while or let the petroglyphs even break even in costs.
The kids love it and I really do like playing hostess, dreaming up themes and activities and talking to the moms and dads. I even like leading the activities and reading and playing with the kids. I actually think that’s my favorite part.
Anyway, here’s some photos…
Victoria and Alex coloring […]
Original post by Alicia
Election day at the Martinzoo began with voting. I was expecting lines out the door, but much to my surprise, we were in and out in less than ten minutes. Clearly, they were expecting huge lines and so they had a well-oiled machine that flowed beautifully.
Once we reached home we began preparation for this evening’s festivities. My good buddy in Texas, Dana, had some great ideas on her blog that I decided to borrow….LOL!
Here, GB cuts out a pop-up White House complete with little Obama and McCain figures.
Now he’s gluing the White House to the grass/sky sheet.
Isn’t that cool looking? We think McCain looks very dapper and Obama looks very approachable.
This was the command center at the Martinzoo tonight. We have the electoral college map that we colored as states were called. And we have a chart that we filled in with the electoral votes.
It is 10:00 p.m. EST, and […]
Original post by Robin
…and now we’re waiting on the edges of our seats.
JediBoy was thrilled to help me vote and high-fived me after I made my official selection for president. BabyGirl just liked being inside the curtain and playing in the main part of the library afterwards.
We watched this:
var flashObject = new FlashObject(”http://www.youtube.com/v/FaPlIcQw_dg”,”fm_FaPlIcQw_dg”,”425″,”350″,”6″,”",”",”",”",”");
flashObject.write(”fo_targ_FaPlIcQw_dg1897292532″);
and several others on our Schoolhouse Rock dvd, and the free Brain Pop movie here.
We read some books: So You Want to be President?, Grace for President, Duck for President and Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. (We found Duck for President in our cereal box this morning. Love that!)
Now I’m finding it hard to sit still. Hey, I really thought Gore was going to win when I went to sleep in November 2000. I don’t think I can sleep tonight until all the results are in. Are you waiting too?
Original post by piseco
JediBoy could just as easily be called KnightBoy because he continues to be fascinated with knights and castles. Do you remember his bliss in July, when we got to see a reenactor speak at our library? Last night we went out to see the same knight speak again.
William the Defender spoke with the same depth of information and humor as he did the last time we saw him. I won’t repeat it here, but if you’re interested, I tried to cover at least a little of what we learned in my post from July. PisecoDad was seeing him for the first time, and especially liked his dry wit and breadth of knowledge.
JediBoy loved seeing the weapons, and the armor, and trying on the helmets. BabyGirl enjoyed people watching and playing with the boy about her age three seats down. The presentation lasted for two hours, and […]
Original post by piseco
This was a cool field trip.
I had no idea that there was SO much to do at Mount Vernon. After a two hour trip up I-95, we arrived at 11:30. We stayed until close to 5:00 and suffered the DC traffic on the way home, but it was totally worth it.
One of the absolute highlights of my day, though, was finally getting to meet a woman that I have long admired in the homeschool blogging world, Jennifer, from Toad Haven. Her children, Ethan and Emily, are in the center of this photo with Mr. Washington himself. I’m so happy that she included a visit with us into her busy schedule.
I really loved this wall of stained glass windows.
GB, O-Man, and Wall-E on the lawn in front of Mount Vernon from the land side.
Mount Vernon - Does it bother anyone else that the windows are not symmetrical?
One of the tours we […]
Original post by Robin
The girls and I finished reading Lincoln’s Legacy, the first in the “Blast to the Past” series, last night. Overall, it was a good read-aloud for basic American history information. It gave them some basic history about Lincoln, the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation and they enjoyed it.
The basic premise is that 4 kids (or 5? they’re not well developed as characters) have to go back in time to convince a burned out, depressed Lincoln not to resign as president and that he must issue the Emancipation Proclamation. They have to search for him in 1862 Washington DC, deal with various characters from that time, and try to encourage Lincoln to keep going so history is not changed.
The writing is very basic and it’s not a book I particularly enjoyed reading. In all honesty, I found it dull! I love children’s books, but only ones that are well written. […]
Original post by Alicia
Today was Homeschoolers Day at the Museum of the Confederacy.
Typically it would take me about 40 minutes from my house to get into the heart of Richmond for any event. We had to be there between 10:00 and 10:30…….. lots of wiggle room if I left at 9:10.
I’ve been in Richmond many times when something big was going on, such as marathons and concerts (The Boss! How big is that?). BUT this was outrageous!
I knew something was up as soon as I turned onto Marshal Street. The crowds lined up on every sidewalk, crossing the street in all inappropriate places, and traffic was congested to the point of folks making their own lanes out of nowhere! But I still had no idea what was going on until I passed the signs: “Obama for Change.”
Barack Obama was in town; the same day as Homeschool Day at the Museum of the Confederacy. […]
Original post by Robin
GB didn’t feel so great this morning when he woke up. I think he’s coming down with a cold. Bummers!
And after the last couple of weeks, I didn’t want to begin a traditional week with our usual suspects of curriculum choices. I wanted GB to be engaged in what we were doing.
So I spontaneously decided to do a lapbook study of the current election. It’s coming up pretty soon. And GB has really been fascinated by it all. So I downloaded the above file from Hands of a Child this morning and we got to work.
When we got to the explanation of the electoral college, I felt like GB needed a better explanation. It’s kind of a complicated concept. So I printed off a blank map of the U.S. and we used pennies to represent votes for each state. With this visual aid he was able to see how a […]
Original post by Robin
I took so many pictures at History Fest this year that it was hard to narrow it down to anything rational. It is such a neat event that I can’t help but document it though.
The super fast history of History Fest– ten or so years ago, local Mankato resident (and owner of a water softener company and personal hero) Jack McGowan went to the Renaissance Faire and thought it was a heck of a shame there wasn’t something like that for Mankato kids. So he started one. Just like that. Over the years he has recruited just about everybody who’s made the pleasure of his acquaintance to come volunteer, and it has snowballed into a giant history explosion the second weekend of every October out at his amazing home on the river. It costs next to nothing to attend and people come from all over (generally for free!) to […]
Original post by Alicia
I needed this.
I will admit that I thrive on field trips. I actually need them. They elevate MY mood, never mind GB’s mood. So I suppose that if MY mood is elevated it can only mean good things for GB. We went to the Pauwau on Friday, but this trip to Monticello really made me exhilerated. I loved it. The whole trip was fantastic. It’s not too far from our home, about 1 1/2 hours, and the drive is gorgeous.
Monticello is the home of our third President, Thomas Jefferson. The name ‘Monticello’ is translated from Italian to mean, Little Mountain. In 1787 Thomas Jefferson said, “…….all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello.” He loved his home more than any other place on Earth and his greatest hobby was “putting up, and pulling down” parts of the house to make them more stylish or functional.
This […]
Original post by Robin
Today our homeschooling group went to the Powhatan Indian Pauwau. I find it so interesting to learn about totally foreign cultures. And this culture is right in our own backyard. Today’s Pauwau was to honor Chief Powhatan, who was the supreme ruler of most of the indigenous tribes in the Chesapeake Bay area from north of the Mattaponi River here in Virginia.
The Pauwau is a way to share the culture of their Native Ancestors as well as bring an appreciation and realization to the citizens of Powhatan County of the sacrifice made by Powhatan’s People. The word “pow-wow” comes from the Algonquin word “pau wau” - A gathering in celebration to renew friendships, to exchange knowledge, and to trade skills.
Powhatan County is only about 40 minutes away from our house. Members from various Indian tribes came from all over to show us some Indian traditions, like brain tanning. GB […]
Original post by Robin
We went on a field trip Wednesday to see “Challenger” No. 3985, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive.
It’s on a publicity tour from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to St. Paul, Minnesota, and back. Along the way it’s stopping at tiny cities all along the route, including a couple near us.
There was already a crowd when we got to the old train station so we parked in a gravel lot a block before the station, facing the tracks. Then we waited. And waited. And waited.
The kids scoured the rocks for treasures and found several railroad spikes. They banged them together and sang “I’ve been working on the railroad.” Daryl talked to them about trains and he even let the kids put pennies on the tracks. He almost felt guilty until he noticed every man on either side of us doing the same thing.
An elderly couple was parked next to us and […]
Original post by Alicia
I picked up Donna Jo Napoli’s Fire in the Hills at the library the other week. We’ve read some of her work before (The King of Mulberry Street) and really enjoyed it. Excellent historical fiction. This one is shelved in the teen section and refers to things younger kids might not be ready for (like rape and prostitution; no vivid descriptions or anything, but recognition that it happened). But this is another excellent book about WWII that focuses on something that I certainly haven’t come across much.
The main character is an Italian boy, Roberto, who is 14 at the beginning of the story and 16 by the end. The novel covers the period from 1943 to the end of the war and tells the story of Roberto’s return to his home city of Venice. Through flashbacks you get some of the story of how he came to be on an […]
Original post by jove
We have a big hardcover book of facts about the 20th century that I got on sale somewhere. Yesterday I grabbed it off the front porch bookshelf and left it out in the living room. I heard once that there’s an unschooling term for that, strewing– leaving educational things out for kids to happen upon. I do a lot of strewing. It works well.
Last night at bedtime I sent Anna upstairs to get ready for bed. We were planning on going to see a train today and needed to get up early, so I told her she should head up. She saw the book on her way up, shrugged, and picked it up.
Later on when I went in to check on her, she was lying in bed reading 20th century facts. I told her she really needed to put the book away and try to sleep.
“Okay Mom. Can you remember […]
Original post by Alicia
It’s nice to be home for a bit.
Today is shaping up to be a nice lazy day. It’s beautiful weather and Anna has set up a family pedicure stand outside. For 5 cents she’ll paint your toenails! I had her do it outside to keep freshly painted toes from marking up carpets and such, and also to keep the fumes out of the house.
Victoria and Alex started the morning bird watching from the window seat.
The girls got out altered books earlier and made some neat pages in them.
I also read a couple of chapters from Story of the World. It was a very interesting bit!
The baby played with watermelon playdough and bouncy balls, Jack made a magnet sphere and I’ve started doing some fall cleaning.
Oh, and I transplanted some geraniums and herbs into a window box for inside. I always bring geraniums inside since they bloom most of the winter […]
Original post by Alicia
We’re back from our overnight trip to Mankato and packed in lots of wonderful stuff.
We started out attending a homeschool potluck picnic, where we all ate great food and played/yapped with friends until well after dark….
We got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house pretty late, with just enough time to play a little and listen to Grandma finish up Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Daryl and I stayed up too late watching TV together and paid the price today. In the morning Grandpa made eggs, I went back to sleep for a couple of hours and we packed up to hit Bethany College’s “Art on the Green” event.
Art on the Green had bouncy rides and lots of fun art activities from sun prints to painting to making funny portraits on the computer. We had very little time to do anything but got to visit with fun friends yet again.
Then we were off to the […]
Original post by Alicia
You’re a regular guy, driving home for lunch to your regular house in the ‘burbs in your regular company car. You turn down your cul-de-sac in your regular new construction neighborhood and suddenly something looks decidedly irregular. A large gaggle of school aged kids and a handful of mothers (one of which you think is your neighbor from two doors down) are gleefully jabbing pointy sticks into a huge mound of dirt on an empty lot that has yet to be built. It’s noon. On a Thursday. In September. What is going on here?
Your neighbor waves cheerfully and promptly goes back to coordinating the pointy-stick jabbing venture. Oh yeah. She mentioned something about homeschooling at the Labor Day block party…… So this is how homeschoolers spend their Thursdays.
Today was the first fun-filled day of my Ancient Scientists class. And those kids jabbing stick in the ground were happily experiencing Prehistoric Man’s […]
Original post by Crunchy Mama
GB and I were working on his history program today. A lot of it is a repeat from last year because this year’s subject matter is heavy on U.S. History, which is what GB’s unit study focus was last year. He loves history, particularly wars.
Anyway, today we were learning about all the different kinds of maps, most of which we had learned about during our Explorer Unit. But we had never discussed in length a contour map. And GB just wasn’t getting an understanding of a contour map from the curriculum pictures and explanations.
Here is where my obsession with other homeschooling mom’s blogs comes in. I remembered that Theresa, from Lapaz Home Learning, had done a contour map with Superboy. So, I hopped over to her blog and did a search. Sure enough, she still had it. So GB and I copied her project as well as we could with […]
Original post by Robin
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