Thanksgiving Fun...

For the week of Thanksgiving, I promised the kids that we would devote our studies to Thanksgiving, Early America, and crafts... they are so excited and so far we have had a great 2 days and still got in some great learning!!

Tonight we made "Marshmallow Turkeys" ...I found the recipe here at the National Geographic website...  

They were so easy... and in less than an hour, we had a tray of yummy turkeys!!

 

Rice Krispy treats mixed up and placed in heaping spoonfuls on wax paper to cool...



Rolling the Rice Krispy mixture into balls (you will need 2 balls for each turkey...1 the size of a golf ball (head) ~ and 1 the size of your fist (body)



After we added candy corn feet, marshmallow and chocolate chip eyes, and spice drop  and Twizzler feathers...



GOBBLE!!!         GOBBLE!!!         GOBBLE!!!

 

Our week with Ben Franklin...

Ben Franklin was in the house this week… and boy, did we ever learn tons about what a great man he truly was…

I myself never realized all the great inventions he had made and the wisdom he possessed… WOW!!! It was as much a learning experience for me as for the kids.

We used the BEN FRANKLIN Download N’ Go unit study from Amanda Bennett as spine for our week. I love these units. They are easily adaptable to any style of learning and are so easy to use for even the busiest homeschool family.

The week was laid out for us like this:

 

• Day 1: Who Was Ben Franklin?


• Day 2: People and Places in Ben Franklin’s Life


• Day 3: The Accomplishments of Ben Franklin


• Day 4: Lessons to Learn From Ben Franklin


• Day 5: Remembering Ben Franklin

I have to admit, my favorite day was Day 3... I learned so much myself on this day.

Our week started with my usual preparation for a Download N' Go unit study ~ mainly looking over the weekly schedule and reviewing the suggested book list. Then I took a look at the “FUN FAMILY IDEAS”. These are little extras that are thrown in to the unit that can really enhance the study and increase the learning through fun.

We used books that we already owned and were lucky that a few of them were on the suggested reading list.

Here’s a few of the books that we used this week in our study.

                           

 

 Download N'Go units always have great video and informational links, so that work is done for me ~ I just looked for a few more things to satisfy the gamer in my son ~ who loves playing learning games on the computer…

I found these sites for him to play for fun review.   You can check out both of the games at the links below...

Ben Franklin games    and this one also  Ben Franklin: True or False  and then there is this Online Treasure Hunt...

We love using the lapbook/notebook elements of the Download N' Go units and the  Ben Franklin  unit had some great minibooks and graphics to choose from. My kids love making folders using these. ?

 
    

        

Ben Franklin was a great person on which to study character traits ~ He was honest, intelligent, wise, frugal, and a hard worker. All traits that I want my kids to possess and appreciate in others.

And speaking of being a hard worker, he appreciated time to enjoy his hobbies as well. Not only was inventing a passion of his, but he also loved music and played several instruments. One of which being the glass armonica (which he also invented) ~ my daughter was fascinated when she learned that the armonica is played during the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” in the Nutcracker (her favorite ballet).

We were able to add math into the week, using money with his image (the $100 bill and the 50cent piece)…

   

To finish off our week with Ben, the kids took in a class offered at our local Discovery Center on “ELECTRICITY” … The 2 hr. class introduced the kids to electricity where they not only had some cool experiments but also go the opportunity to be “SHOCKED” (which they both loved and couldn’t stop talking about)…

This great unit study and other Download N'Go products can be purchased here at The Old Schoolhouse. Each unit is extremely affordable at only $7.95 each and the ease of use is wonderful for the busy homeschool family. All the research is done for you and the included links make it a tremendous educational tool. And right now you can buy the Ben Franklin DNG unit for only $6.25 (that's only $1.25 a day for a week of learning and fun!!! WHAT A GREAT DEAL!!)

This unit was provided for my family to use in exchange for our personal thoughts and honest opinions in this review.

 

Operation Christmas Child...

Every year my church has a drive for Operation Christmas Child..  Our family loves having the opportunity to fill boxes and send them to brighten the world of children around the world... For the last 2 years, my best friend, Tracy, has came over and we have packed our boxes together to include in my church's ministry drive...

    My friend Tracy with the kidlets...

 Operation Christmas Child is a shoebox ministry of Samaritan's Purse...  The mission is simple ~ 

To demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Just last year over 8 million children received gifts from Christian families through the shoebox ministry... and since 1993, 130 countries have been blessed with these small gifts.. Through these small gifts, children come to know the love of Jesus Christ and the love that we have for them... Imagine what a wonderful sight to see a smiling happy face on a small child who has know more suffering and heartache that most of us will never know...  Here is a video about the ministry...



I truly believe that God will see that each of these boxes will go to the one child that needs it's contents...

Best Friends...

I know that one of the blessings of our homeschool journey is that in the end ~ they will always be best friends...

4H Field Trip to Heartsong Farms...

Our 4H group took a field trip to Heartsong Farms today... we were scheduled for co-op but since one of DS' projects is "poultry', I felt like he really needed to go... My dear friend Rhonda (who had 3 kids of her own to look after) was so wonderful and said she would take him with her...I was so thankful and he was so excited over getting to go with one of his best buds...

Here's some photos of their trip... he had a great time and was able to tell me all about it!!  Even wrote a brief summary paragraph of the trip for his field trip log!!
   our group photo

   We're posing for our picture!!!

  

Are you talkin' to me????

 Y'all come back and see us again, ya' hear???

A Beautiful Autumn Afternoon....

Just enjoyed spending the afternoon with the kidlets, walking along the lakeside, admiring the beauty of God's handiwork... Truly the two things I am most thankful ~ my salvation from my great creator and the love  and forgiveness I have in my family!!  Even on days when I am unforgiveable, my children never see it and always give me unconditional love and forgiveness... I am so thankful that I have that in them... and so thankful that my father above forgives me in the same way...

Pine Cones on a Sunny Afternoon

We decided to take advantage of this beautiful afternoon and do some nature study...

We went to our local playground/park which happens to be on the lake and had some fun learning...

Armed with our magnifying glasses, our nature backpacks and Anna Comstocks' "Handbook of Nature Study' we were off...

We decided to do a pine cone study...Pine cones are really neat when you think about it... we discussed the differences between deciduous trees and evergreens... found the name of the pine tree we were looking at (WHITEPINE)... and of course sketched these and other treasures we found on our journey around the lake...

 


You can read up on pine cones in the Handbook on p. 670-675  (Lesson 185)... You can look at this great Highlights article about pinecones too...

The we used a magnifying  lens to look closely at our pine cones.  Take note of its shape, size, color, and patterns. The Handbook of Nature Study suggests the following sketches in your nature journal:

• Bundle of needles, showing the sheath and its attachment to the twig.


• The cone.


• The cone scale.


• The seed (under the scales)

For our experiment we did this: Soak your cone in water. Check your cone every 15 minutes to see what happens. Now let the cone dry. This sometimes will loosen the seeds inside and you can take a closer look at their shapes and structure. Try this activity again and soak only half your cone in water and see what happens...It was so neat to see the pine cones which had been completely open and dry to close up tight and look like new pods... The kids were fascinated... and then we left them out on the counter to dry overnight and they began to look the way we found them by morning... Really neat...


Another experiment that can be done is making a Hygrometer with the pinecone... I got this from the Happy Scientist.

PINE CONE HYGROMETER

Hygrometers measure the amount of water vapor in the air. You will need:

- a pine cone.
- a straight pin
- a piece of wood
- some glue
- a piece of paper
- tape
- a pen or marker

If you look at the pinecone, you will see that it is made up of many scale-like pieces connected together. Carefully stick the point of the straight pin into one of the scales, near the top of the cone. Glue the base of the pinecone to the piece of wood. Place the pinecone outside near a wall or some other surface. Be sure it is somewhere that it will not get wet when it rains. Tape the piece of paper to the wall and position the pinecone so that the head of the pin is near the paper.

Watch the weather on the local news. Listen for the humidity. Make a mark on the paper where the head of the pin is. Write the humidity near that mark. Repeat this each day. Soon, you will have a very good device for measuring the humidity.

What is happening? Inside the scales of the pinecone are the seeds. As the humidity increases, the outside of each scale absorbs moisture. This causes them to swell, closing the scales and protecting the seeds from too much water. This extra moisture could cause them to mold or rot before they are ready to grow. When the air is dry, the outside of the scale dries out. This causes it to shrink, opening the scale to let the seeds fall out.

Even after the seeds fall out, the pine cone will continue to open and close as the weather changes for quite a while.

Expedition Canada ~ A Northern Learning Experience

Ever wonder what a pingo is or what in the world is curling? Well, Expedition Canada, the latest downloadable unit study in the Download N’Go series by Amanda Bennett can tell you and your children this and so much more. Designed with young students (K-4th) in mind, each DNG unit is interactive, exciting, and engaging for children yet easy and manageable for parents to implement and use.

Lasting a week in length, Expedition Canada begins with a brief overview introduction to lapbooking which is such a fun way for kids to learn and for the information to stick as they can not only have something to show for all their work, but actually look back at the lapbook and remember what was studied. Notebook pages are also included and are a great way for your child to document all the information they will be learning about the great land to the North. Your child will spend 5 days creating, exploring and investigating.

The 5 day study is broken down into each individual day’s agenda which makes the planning  and implementation so easy for the busy home school mom.

Day 1: Where on Earth is Canada?

Day 2: Some of the Special Places in Canada

Day 3: A Bit of History

Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Canada

Day 5: Fun and Games in Canada

And finishing off the week is some “Fun Family Ideas”

Your children will be amazed with wonder as they learn about the Arctic Tundra, the bright Nothern Lights, Niagra Falls and the Rockies…

They will be engaged as they study the incredible animals of the territory such as caribou, moose, and polar bears. And feel the excitement of the sport of hockey.

Expedition Canada also contains great video clips, website links, and supplemental activities which create endless learning opportunities for your child. The recommended reading lists are included for each day with the books being easily obtained  from a local library which causes no extra expense for the home school family in a tight economy.

Geography, vocabulary, history, and science ~ it’s all in there and so much more… All the information in one central location.  No more struggling with research and time management to come up with a plan. Everything is done for you, and all at one incredible price.

Thursday Thoughts...

"THRILL the WORLD" ~ Knoxville

This year, we did something really fun as a family... We were part of "THRILL THE WORLD" ...

Thrill the World is an annual international dance event and world record breaking attempt, in which participants simultaneously emulate the zombie dance seen in the music video of Micheal Jackson's "Thriller".. The dancers perform in unison at locations throughout the world, and can range from pre-teens to the elderly.

We had over 150 dancers in our location and it was so much fun... We practiced at a dance studio one night prior to the event to learn the dance and then we were on our way...

I got clothes from the $1 sale at the Goodwill to cut up, found a great recipe for homemade blood from Steve Spangler science (thanks to my friend Fran), used alot of baby powder, and old make-up... and we looked quite scary...

\"THRILL the WORLD\" Knoxville

DD is the lil' girl in front in the white t-shirt and black leggings, behind the organizer (in the red jacket) who was the Micheal Jackson character...

You can see other videos of this dance around the world on YouTube...

Thrill the World, San Diego

Thrill the World, Sydney, Australia

Thrill the World, Moscow

Thrill the World, China

The night ended up raising money for the American Cancer Society and also donating canned goods to an area food bank...

Rainy Days...

Rainy days make for sleeping in, aches and pains multiplied, and cuddling on the couch with the kids and a good read-aloud!!

Halloween Happenings...

This week we are taking a break from our usual planned studies to do some fun Halloween things...  I know lots of families choose not to celebrate Halloween, but our family choice and decision is, that to us, it's a fun time for us and the kidlets..So while we don’t celebrate with spooky witches, lots of superstition, black cats crossing your path, or ghosts, etc.,  we do love dressing up in costumes and going to our friend's and families' homes for treats...

Some of the books we'll be using this week are:

1. The Halloween Grab Bag: A book of tricks and treats (all kinds of fun crafts and activities)

2. Halloween Poems by Myra Livingston

3. Crafts for Halloween by Kathy Ross    

4. We Celebrate Halloween by Bobbie Kalman (which is a great book that discusses the history of Halloween)

Plus I was able to save a copy of "The Book of Halloween" by Ruth Edna Kelley published in 1919 from Homeschool Freebie of the Day... ( a fabulous resource)... You can get a free PDF  of it from Librivox by clicking on the above link...

We'll be using a FREE Halloween lapbook that I found here.

A cool video I found here...

An interpretation of  "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe done by William Shatner that can be found here... An excellent short clip on the origins of Halloween from National Geographic found here...

 

We'll be learning about the life cycle of the pumpkin and about creatures of the night like icky spiders and bats... Eeeewwww!!! 

and some incredible Halloween facts too....

Halloween Facts 

• Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations in the world-pre-dating Christ.


• Halloween in Welsh is 'Nos Calan Gaeaf.'


• Halloween is correctly spelled 'Hallowe'en.'


• When Christianity came to England and the rest of Europe, November 1 became All Saints Day--a day dedicated to all those saints who didn't have a special day of their own. They performed a mass called 'All Hallow Mass' and the night before became known as 'All Hallows E'en,' and eventually Hallowe'en and Halloween.


• When the Romans conquered England, they merged Samhain with their own festivals, a harvest festival called Poloma, and a celebration for the dead called Feralia.


• In Mexico, they celebrate El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) starting the evening of October 31.


• The very first jack-o-lanterns were made out of hollowed-out turnips.


• Growing big pumpkins is a big-time and serious hobby. Top prize money for the biggest giant pumpkin is as much as $25,000 dollars at fall festivals. The current world record for giant pumpkins is 1446 pounds (that's a lot of pumpkin pies!).


• With an estimated $1.93 billion in candy sales, Halloween is the sweetest holiday of the year (beating out Easter, Valentine's Day, and Christmas). In fact, one quarter of all the candy sold each year is purchased between September 15 and November 10. Now that's one of the sweetest Halloween facts around!

We're going to discuss the history of the Jack O'Lantern and use some resources found here...

Some great pumpkin worksheets found from worksheets 4 teachers.com here...

Family Education has a great maze (you have to register but it's free)   and a Squidoo lense with some free Halloween printables and coloring pages...

and then finish off our week using some printables on activities, spiders, and bats from Enchanted Learning...

and of course, Halloween wouldn't be complete without watching "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and then carving pumpkins!!

Now every year when we carve our pumpkins, we talk while the kidlets do it... It is such a sweet way to remind them what we are as Christians...

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. He selects each and every one of us. We are in the world, but of his family as his children...

He then washes all the “dirt” off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the old things are washed away and all things become new.

Then, He carefully removes all the “yucky stuff” called “sin” out from the inside. He changes us through removing all the "yucky stuff". That’s why it is important to go the church and learn about God’s Word.

He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. After Jesus is invited inside, you will experience the changing power of God’s love in your life.

Then He carves a new smiling face just like the smile we have after accepting Jesus!

Now we are going to light this candle inside. Look! This pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So when Jesus lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us. “Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify the Father, who is in heaven.”

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us. We can say like this jack-o-lantern, “Thy presence, my light!”

Roar, Roooooaaaaarrrrr!!! a week with "Terrific Tigers"

We just finished a week with tigers, using a new Download N’Go unit study called “TERRIFIC  TIGERS”… and what magnificent creatures they are!!



 This was the first time using a DNG unit that I decided to use only information from the internet in the links included in the unit, resources that I already owned, or videos that we were able to get online or from Netflix.  And I can’t begin to say how easy it was for me and how smooth the week went for both myself and the kidlets.

In this 5 day unit the areas of study are broken down into these areas:

Day 1: What Is a Tiger?

 Day 2: Getting to Know Tigers

Day 3: Where Are the Tigers?

Day 4: The Science of Tigers

Day 5: Cool Things About Tigers

Now each DNG unit is geared towards the K-4th grade levels, but there is so much information that only with a little tweaking (if any at all) you can easy expand that for older students (my 5th grader loved it).

We learned several things about these beautiful, graceful hunters… Especially how endangered they are… We watched lots of videos, drew our own tigers, and attempted to learn how to play Pachisi ~ which is the national game of India (home to a large number of Bengal tigers).

 As usual, the night before, I did my planning by briefly looking over the unit, and then printing out what we would need. This time, I decided to work the unit a different way… Instead of lapbooking / notebooking, I took the approach of letting the kids do some copy work and oral quizzing. They loved it ~ it made the unit one big learning game. This is just another of the many reasons I love these Download N’ Go units, because they are versatile and really be adapted to any way that someone teaches or anyway a child learns. But you can tell by this photo that DNG “TIGERS” has some great worksheets and minibook components included.

We covered extiniction, endangered animals, and discussed the animals use of speed, claws, and teeth… Our trek with the tigers led us into learning about Project Tiger, which was started in 1973, and helps protect tigers and their habitats… and how the demand for tiger bone and other tiger parts in the medicinal markets of Asia has made dead tigers worth lots of money to poachers. Geography is one of my favorite things that Amanda Bennett really makes use of in the DNG series and it is such a great way for kids to learn about a topic and where it is from and the habitat..

And did you know that a big, hungry tiger can eat about 100lbs. of meat at one sitting?  That's about 1/5 of it's total weight...which is like my 10yo son eating 40 hamburgers in one meal...(a fact that absolutely fascinated him).  Another thing that impressed the kidlets was that the tail does all the talking with tigers. An upright tail that wags slowly back and forth says, " Hi, I'm friendly"... a tail that lashes rapidly from side to side says, "I'm excited"... and a lowered tail that twitches feom side to side says, "Watch your step"!!    After we talked about these tiger behaviors, the kids tehn watched the cat all afternoon, trying to interpret her moods by watching her tail...

Since I didn’t reserve any library books this time (even thought a wonderful book list is included with the unit), I used some that I had at home…Two of these were:

An issue of Zoobooks named “Tigers”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and from the Kingfisher Knowledge series “Dangerous Creatures” .

 And we got to watch some great movies this week on Netflix and some great video clips online… We watched a documentary from Animal Planet called “Animal Face-Off : Lion vs. Tiger”… and then these 2 movies also...

                                      

Our local zoo has a great exhibit of tigers. They also have "Zooboxes" which are take home "exhibits" of items that homeschoolers can actually borrow (of course you have to leave a deposit) and they happened to have one perfect for this study called "Habitats: Realm of the Tiger" ...Here are some of the beautiful animals the Knoxville Zoo has in their tiger exhibit... 

      a beautiful white tiger (my son's favorite animal)

  and then this Indochinese beauty...

This fantastic unit can be purchased here from Download N’ Go or in the The Old Schoolhouse Store…

Now to finish our wonderful week with “TERRIFIC TIGERS”, I would like to include the address of the World Wildlife Fund where you can find out you can help these beautiful animals by supporting the work of scientists and conservationists who try to save the tiger, and by learning all you can about tigers and other endangered animals.

World Wildlife Fund

1250 24th Street NW

 P.O. Box 37180

 Washington, D.C. 20090-7180

Now for the giveaway!

DNG and TOS has graciously allowed me to offer one lucky reader a copy of "TERRIFIC TIGER"...

Here’s how to win your very own copy of the DNG's Terrific Tigers unit:

Leave a seperate comment for each entry.

Sorry but TOS/DNG affiliates including the DNG Review Team and TOS Crew are not eligible to win.

1. Let me know what is your favorite species of tiger.

2. Follow my blog and leave a comment that you did.

3. Write a blog post about my giveaway and link back and leave me a comment that you did.

4. Share my post link on Facebook and leave me a comment saying you did.

Contest ends October 31, 2010 .

***Disclaimer Statement*** We were provided a copy of this product, free of charge, in exchange for writing my honest opinion about the product.

Homemade Chicken Strips ~ YUMMY!!

Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts cut into strips
Buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
2-3 tsp Lawry's Seasoning Salt (or other seasoning) *I also used a little Cayenne pepper
Vegetable Oil *I used vegetable and canola oil

Directions:

Rinse and pat dry chicken strips and submerge strips into buttermilk for at least 15-20 minutes. (I let them soak for an hour and a half.)

In another bowl, combine flour and Lawry's. Mix this together well. Next, add about 1/4-1/2 cup buttermilk into the mixture and stir lightly with a fork as you add it.


Remove a few of the buttermilk soaked strips and place them in the flour mixture, turning them over to coat them thoroughly. Place them on a plate. Continue coating them until all the chicken is ready to cook.

Heat oil in a skillet. When oil is ready, begin cooking strips a few at a time. Cook them for a minute and a half or so on each side. When golden and crispy, remove to a paper towel-lined plate.

Some great new freebies found this week!!!

I just love finding freebies that I can use in our homeschool and that I can pass along to others... It's almost like hunting wild game, I just don't have to kill anything... *LOL*

So here's the 2 freebies I found today for you....

A great coloring book about milk and it's affect on your teeth and body...   You can grab a PDF copy here ....  

And then the weekly CurrClick freebie is fabulous... It's a unit study on the American Colonies by Dori Oakes who is a wonderful resource person to the homeschool family having homeschooled her children for years...  You can grab it here ....

Happy Learning!!!