Clay Clarkson: Educating the Wholehearted Child Revised & Expanded
When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today
Elizabeth Foss: Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home
Karen Skidmore Rackliffe: Wild Days: Creating Discovery Journals
Karen Andreola: A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning
Charlotte Mason: Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series
Margery Facklam: Do Not Disturb: The Mysteries of Animal Hibernation and Sleep
Henrietta Bancroft: Animals in Winter (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)
Polly Carlson-Voiles: Someone Walks By: The Wonders of Winter Wildlife
Retold by Annie North Bedford; Pictures by Corinne Malvern: Frosty the Snow Man (A Big Golden Book)
Maggie has been crafting by herself and she's come up with something very pretty: delicate, glittery, toothpick (and craft stick) stars:
The stars have to be made a day before you apply glue and glitter, that way they will dry thoroughly and not fall apart when you're decorating them.
I'm sure we will have an entire collection of glittery stars for the Christmas tree--or even for a garland to drape across a door way--before she's through.
We made these Handprint and Footprint Turkeys while Nana was visiting so she could take turkeys to Brad and Aunt Kristin (hi!). I was looking for a turkey craft that my 6-and-4-year-olds could enjoy, but that went beyond a simple one-handprint turkey.
The craft comes from Enchanted Learning which I highly recommend you join for the mere $20 per year it requires. You'll get printer-friendly and ad-free pages, and I bet you'll use it several times a week, like I do, if you're a home educator or have young children in your home.
Jacob, young engineer that he is, even made his with movable feathers (" 'cause that's how they are in real life, Mom!"
Now that it feels like we're leaving autumn behind, we were inspired to make winter luminaries which can be used indoors or out.
Glass jars (they came with lids, which we set aside), lots of glitter in blue, white, and silver, glitter glue, snowflake and star stickers, star garlands, tissue paper, and Mod Podge:
We cleared the mantel of mini pumpkins, placed the lit luminaries above a crackling fire, sipped hot chocolate and watched Anne of Green Gables...a small taste of the winter to come:
I've been making time to create and use my visual journal on a more daily basis and I'm really enjoying it. It's more than just a place to jot notes and keep me on target for the day--it's a place to collect images and ideas about home and family that inspire me or just make me feel happy.
On the table where I make my notes for the day:
Placed in the clear cookbook holder on the kitchen counter, where I can glance at it throughout the day:
A few random thoughts: I don't use it every day as it seems to work best for days when I'm home all day; every time I look at it I feel happy (that's worth a lot!); it's a slap-dash, imperfect collage of this season of my life, and I like that; Maggie will look at it throughout the day and keep me on track ~ smile ~; it's totally me.
As you know, Maggie's working her way through Sonlight's Core 5 ~ Eastern Hemisphere for the bulk of her home education focus this year. But we kept getting hung up on the core's Eastern Hemisphere Explorer, a research guide coupled with the World Book on CD-ROM, which were provided to help us navigate our way through the various countries.
As attractive as the guide is, it's little more than a fill-in-the-blank workbook to us, as we have never taken to the idea of using workbook-type activities for our home learning. Yes, it has a fantastic section entitled, "Choose Your Own Adventure" which provides great ideas for hands-on projects to experience each country (recipes, art, music, crafts, games, and so on). And in other sections there are great opportunities to research each country, draw in a picture of a flag, fill in information about the people, culture, etc.
But we really disliked the format and because Maggie's frustration level was increasing to the point that her joy of learning was draining away, it was time to turn to prayer. After talking and praying together, we decided to try a scrapbook/lapbook approach to learning about the countries included in the core, instead of making ourselves fit into the constricting box that the Eastern Hemisphere Explorer had become for us.
And so, with absolutely no scrapbooking experience, but with the encouragement and ideas of my dear friend Deb at As We Walk, and a complete stranger at in the aisles of Michael's (who must be the queen of scrapbooking!) who generously shared the world of scrapbooking with us, we've begun!
Here's Maggie's first page, done almost entirely by herself and with such joy!
I feel certain that when Maggie completes Core 5, she's going to experience the deep satisfaction of creating her very own travel guide to all the countries she's explored. And she'll be the richer for having learned about the non-Western world.
I'll have the peace of knowing I've prayed, listened to God's voice guiding us, and let Him who knows my children best help us navigate our home education journey.
Jacob (with lots of help from Dad) built this fun paper pump rocket:
And it really works! The paper pneumatic launch pad pumps enough air to shoot the rocket about 10 feet.
If you decide to make it, Jacob wants you to remember to pull up on the bellows part so there's more air stored for the pump and launch. And when you print out the template, be sure to put card stock in your printer.
The children have rediscovered the indoors this week. Did the outside suddenly become dull? After weeks of summer fun, inside is new again.
That means it's time to make the stuffed animals new clothing and accessories to go with the stories they're engaged in, of course. So we gathered supplies--buttons, sequins, fabric, jewels, chenille sticks, straw hats, feathers of every description, beads, ribbons, and on and on...
...and the sewing and storytelling began in earnest:
In these moments, I assist wherever needed, but it's really theirs, and it's just as much about the process of creating clothing and accessories and telling stories throughout as it is the result of having fun, new costumes for the new roles the animals will play.
Jacob is into tricks and experiments with strings. He finds the projects, I supply the stuff, and off he goes. It's a whole new world with a boy who is eight ~smile~.
Here he's showing you how to free yourself from a string "handcuff" in a Houdini-inspired trick:
He got the idea from something he looked at in a book. Which book I don't remember, but here he explains how to do it:
1. Get two pieces of string which are four feet long each.
2. Tie loops into both ends of the pieces of string. Make sure the loops are big enough that you can put your hands through them.
3. Put each loop of one of the strings on the doorknobs of a door. The door must be open, of course.
4. Place your right wrist through one of the loops on the second string. Pass the other end of that string thought the opening made by the string which is hanging between the two doorknobs, then slide your left wrist through the empty loop.
5. Show others how you are "handcuffed" to the door. Ask someone if he or she can set you free without taking the loops off your wrists.
6. When no one can do it, show your audience how you can can. Take the middle of the string that is attached to the door and and hold it together in a loop.
7. Push that loop through the "handcuff" loop on your right wrist, and then pull the loop over your right hand.
8. Now pull away from the door, which allows the "handcuff" loop on your right hand to slip over the loop which is attached to the door, and you are free.
Tricky, isn't it?
My children love all things glow-in-the-dark, so they were excited to make their own glow-in-the-dark rocks (all but the 10-year-old, that is. Seems some of our projects of late seem a little young for her.) We discovered the idea from Daily Danny via The Crafty Crow.
I bought every single bottle of acrylic glow-in-the-dark paint (12 total) at Michael's because I know how my boys like to goop on the paint, and they were completely enthralled by the idea that we could actually make something ourselves that would be glow-in-the-dark:
We found plenty of rocks in our own yard and washed them. I had a hard time painting those pretty pieces of quartz, I tell you:
I had grand ideas of painting enough rocks to be able to place them on the path through the woods leading down to the creek. Wouldn't it be fun to take a night walk and see those glowing rocks "lighting" the way?
Well, we found out that the rocks aren't so glowy at night, after all. I suspect we need a second coat of paint and perhaps the rocks need to be "activated" by placing them under a bright light. For now, they're in a nice arrangement on the ground by the side gate. I don't intend to place them on the path in the woods until we know if they'll really glow at night--after another gooping of paint.
