RAISING SUPERHEROS

Buffalo Bill, and more Wild West

2012-01-10T22:42:00.000-08:00

Well we circled back around to Western Expansion and the Wild West again in our studies of American History. Mainly we focused this time on the Indian Wars and the West after the Civil War ended.

Since we cover most of the Wild West before I gave Dare-Devil Boy the choice on some things about the west he wanted to learn more about. The result was as fallowed: Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickcok, the pony express, the Indian Wars and the Tall Tales that came out of that time.

So here is some of the things we did this time around for our learning on the Wild West and the added stuff we did. Also here is the schedule for the the things we I planed out. It also has lots more books, activities and other things that I've added. Click here for the schedule.

Books:

Crafts:

Covered Wagon
Wanted Poster (here is a picture)

Lapbooks/Notebooks & other printables:
Western Ho! (from Dynamic 2 Moms)

Oregon Trail (from Lapbook Lessons)

Pony express coloring page

Videos:

We finished up the mini-series Into the West. It the series really helped out our learning about the Indian Wars that we learned about this year.
Episode:

Casualties of War
Ghost Dance

There are a few fighting scenes that your young children might not like. My children didn't mind. In our house those scene were what really brought home the reality of how unfair it was. It became a great way to talk more about what happened.

Also here are a few of the other clips we added.

John Henry part 1 & 2

Frontier House part 1

There are more clips and videos we used. You can find them in the schedule up above. Hope you enjoy some of the things we added.

Under Contruction

2011-10-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well if you have been poking around her lately I've been updating my blog here as I have the time and figure out more how to use it. I've trying to making it easier to navigate through. Also hoping to make it less cluttered by everything.

A few things I'm doing are:

Cleaning up the Homeschool Printable page. Instead of having a huge long list of things I've made as the years go on. I'm listing things by subjects. This way each subject has its own page of printables you can look through.
I'm also hoping to do this with the History Extras page.
There are a few other ideas I have.

So please be patient with me as I try to work on this. Thank!

Covered Wagon

2011-10-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

This year we are took a trip back to the Wild West. Most of it was a review of what we learned last year, but we managed to learn some new things. One thing we did this year, that we didn't do last year was make a covered wagon.

Last year I bought WinterPromise's Early American Trades & Crafts Kit. This kit has lot of different craft kits that are already pre-made for you. One of the crafts was to make a Covered Wagon. We never did it last year, but this year Dare-Devil Boy really wanted to make one.

So I went searching for the kit and pulled it out to make. My husband did the main building.

Dare-Devil Boy paint the covered wagon.

With the help of Wonder Girl

And I had the task of hand sewing the cover onto the wagon. Which took a lot longer then I thought. There is the final product. Hondo wanted to get in to the picture.

Not sure what to do with it now. My husband plans on making it into a lamp. But as for now it'll be sitting up a high shelf so it doesn't get broken.

Civil War Unit-War Between the States

2011-10-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

We finished our first 6 weeks as we continue our study of American History. We have gone back to WinterPromise using their American Story 2. We just finished our study of the Civil War and the Underground Railroad. Which was a instant hit with everyone. Here are some of the things we added to our Civil War study. These are just a few things of we added.

If you want a more full schedule then you can download it here. It is only of the first 6 weeks that covers Civil War for now. But it has all the videos, books, coloring pages and other things I added for Civil War.

Here are just some of what we added for you to preview.

Books we used:

Some of the Videos:

There are 6 videos for this. Here is the first one.

Lapbook & Notebook Pages

You can find the link to the lapbook/notebook i made here: Last Safe House
Here is how it looked like when completed.

Civil War Lapbook I added. I added lots more and you can find all of it in the schedule I made. The link is up above.

Projects:

Confederate Flag

Biscuit & Gravy with Strawberries

(Civil War time period meal)

Two Layer Cake with Strawberry filling

(another Civil War time period meal)

Fort Sumter Flag

Making Homemade wrapping paper

Well I hope you enjoyed all the added things we did. The schedule I created I'm sure can be used for about any other American history curriculum, but it was made to be used as an add on for WinterPromise's American Story 2.

Field Trip with Planes

2011-09-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

About a 2 weeks ago we took a trip to the army post near where we live. The reason was mainly for a birthday party for one of the kids friends, but while we where there we took a side field trip to there museum.

We had a great time walking around the out side portion which held some old military airplanes. Hondo probably had more fun then any of us. He has a huge love for about anything that flies mainly planes and helicopters. He spent the time running from one plane or helicopter pointing things out and wanting so badly to go sit inside them and fly one.

This is my favorite picture of Hondo.

The out door museum even had a few guns. Or at least it think they were guns. But whatever they were they were cool and the kids wanted to fire them. We had a great time and the kids want to go back and see everything again.

Artist Study-Bedroom in Arles

2011-08-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to do an art study, but never found a way to do so. This year by request from Dare-Devil Boy he asked if we could learn about Vincent Van Gogh after watching a documentary with me about the artist. So this past summer I went looking for an unit study about the artist.

I looked over books, searched the web to see what other have done and then finally found something that I like. I needed something that was pre-made for me. I really didn't want to make my own curriculum from scratch. Also I needed something cheap and easy to use. After all my looking I found Harmony Art Mom's Art & Music Appreciation: Vincent Van Gogh & George Handel.

It a summer program but I decided to stretch it out over the school months. Focusing on one painting for 3 weeks and then a week of learning about George Handel. Then repeating the rotation until we have done all the paints included in the study.

This month we are highlighting the painting "Bedroom In Arles". One of my favorite paintings that Van Gogh did. Here is what we did this month.

Dare-Devil Boy and Wonder Girl coloring a coloring sheet of the painting. Dare-Devil Boy's coloring sheet is at the top of the page.

Wonder Girl's own coloring.

They drew out there own watercolor version of the paintings. First drawing it out with pencil and the coloring over with watercolors.

Dare-Devil Boy's creation. It looks great and is pretty good copy of it.

Wonder Girl did her own version of the famous painting. A bit more abstract i think.

Over all our fist time doing an are study and it goes well and they enjoyed it. Dare-Devil Boy can't wait to learn more.

Flags and Wrapping Paper

2011-08-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we started into our study of the later haft of American History. We have picked up were we left off last year with learning about the slavery and the Underground Railroad.

Dare-Devil Boy has expressed that's he's enjoying the books and the subject covered this year so far. Even though it has been the first two weeks. A huge improvement over the previous years when he looked at the books and wanted nothing to do with them. I'm so glad that we've changed into a program that he loves and has great books that he enjoys.

In the last two weeks we've learned about the Underground Railroad and have gone into learning about the Civil War. Like every year we've done some great projects that help in our learning. It takes a lot more planning on my part, but learning is more fun for my hands-on kids.

Fort Sumter Flag

Here is Dare-Devil Boy making homemade wrapping paper. We would use it to wrap gifts a few days later.

Beyond doing hands-on projects, games and other things one thing my family enjoys are the period style meals. I try hard to find recipes from books, the web and friends that will fit with whatever time period or unit we are covering. In the course of doing so my family finds meals or things that they like and I get to add in something new to my menu of cooking.

Sausage & Apples with Hoppin' John. It was one of the best meals yet.

Starting A New (School) Year

2011-08-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Last week was our first offically start of the school year. How did it go? A lot better then I thought it would.

Wonder Girls started Kindergarten this year. She did very well the first week of school. Really better then I thought she would. She enjoyed herself and we both had fun learning her alphabets. I found that she can do some of the work without my help, which in turn was great. It meant that I could wash the dishes and do a loaad of laundry while she worked.

Here is Wonder Girl hard at work practicing her handwriting skills.

Wonder Girl made a friend to help her with her school. She loves to draw random faces and people. I find her drawings that she done (on paper) hidden all over the house. All are different people with different names, that do different jobs. Not sure what this one's job is. I forgot to ask.

Meanwhile, as Wonder Girl was busy writing letters and shapes, Dare_Devil Boy went into perch himself on his bed to do school. This year Dare-Devil Boys has become more independent with is school work. He manages to most of his school work without me there and with very little help.

How does that happen you ask? Well in our homeschool house I've set up a kind of work binder that each child has. In the binder there are 5 folders that are labeled Day 1- Day 5. Each fold holds only one day's worth of work. WIth Dare-Devil Boy he has a schedule with all the work that he's gotta do for the week. Mind you there are some school stuff that he's got that he does to with me. Mainly History, Science, Bible and our Art/Music Study. All this is as a group with Wonder Girl and sometimes Hondo listening in. I'll make a seperate post one day one our schooling system.

Anyway here is Dare-Devil Boy doing his school on his own.

I even managed to do some fun coloring/drawing with Hondo. Here he is hard at work.

Here is what I caught Hondo doing later when I was busy with the other two. He got a hold of a banana and a toy knife. He started to cut up the banana and eat it. That was why he was so quite while I was reading to the others.

One thing I've started to do on the first day of school is pack lunches. We have several lunch boxes around the house. All were given to the kids by family and most are never actually used as lunch boxes. 2 of them are used to carry both Wonder Girl and Dare-Devil Boy's AWANA's books, bible and any odd papers they collect for church. The others are used by the kids to tote toys, as briefcases when they are playing, and who knows what else they think of. But a few are used saved to carry food in.

Here are the my super heroes eating there lunches.

Homeschool Curriculum 2011-2012

2011-08-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

This year I am going to be schooling both Dare Devil Boy and Wonder Girl. Hondo will be sitting in on both in their schooling year. This year my kids will be in 3rd grade and in Kindergarten. Here is what we are planning to use this year.

Wonder Girl (Kindergarten)-

Language Arts: This year we are using WinterPromise's PreK/Kindergarten: Basic Phonics. Its more of a hands-on program then what I used for Dare-Devil boy when he was in Kindergarten. Something my little super hero in training needs. The program uses Jumping Right into Reading, Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code workbooks. It also has a Hands-on Activity Pack and Phonics Card that go along with it that you can get from WinterPromise. Its not in the picture because I forgot to put it in the picture. Click here if you want to take a look at it. There is samples you can try out. I added in A Reason for Handwriting-K and Sonlight's K Readers.

Math: This year after almost a year of researching and going back and forth between several programs I finally decided on using Saxon Math K. The reason is because I needed something hands-on for her that went at a slower pace them Horizon did. (Which I used in the past for Dare-Devil.) Wonder Girl is so excited about starting. Mostly because she wants to play with all the manipulates that go along with the program. Which I got from Rainbow Resources.Click here to see it.

Dare Devil Boy (3rd Grade)-

Language Arts: This year I've thrown out the boxed curriculum and instead put together my own Language Arts curriculum for him this year. I did lots of research and looking at all my catalogs, but finally came up with what I think is a good complete program.

Language Lessons for the Very Young 2. We are using this as a base for the our LA this year. I liked the Copywork and Writing exercises in this.
Phonics- Modern Curriculum Press Phonics C.
Handwriting- A Reason for Handwriting: Transition
Spelling- All About Spelling Level 1 and 2. We need more spelling and something that will teach rules to spelling that I can't answer.
Grammar- Easy Grammar 3 with workbook. I've heard great reviews with this program and I like the way it teaches students.

Readers: This year like most of our homeschooling years we use Sonlight Readers. This year we will be no different. We will be using there 2nd grade intermediate readers, now called 3rd grade readers. Of all the different books we read Sonlight's readers have always been the ones that we use the most and my kids keep coming back to read. I know that Dare-Devil Boy is exciting about reading these books this year. He's moving into short chapter books and he's starting to read aloud to all of us.

Math: Teaching Textbook 3. Dare-Devil Boys are more excited about this then I am. He's been wanting to do it since he did the demo online at Teaching Textbooks website. Its a good mix of teaching on the computer (which Dare-Devil Boy thinks he's playing a video game.) and then workbook learning.

For both:

History: WinterPromise's American Story 2. We finished American Story 1 last year. It was a great year of learning and everyone in the family had a great time learning along side Dare-Devil Boy. We did lots on hands-on projects, lapbooking, and eating food of the time periods we were learning about. (This was my husband's favorite part of last year.) I have lots of extras and other stuff about our year doing American Story 1 that you can check out here.

This year we will be picking up where last year ended. Right before the Civil War then up to present day. It will be another year of learning, eating and having fun.

Science: This year we are trying out to WinterPromise's Rock Around the Earth science program. It'll be something different for us from our year's of doing Sonlight sciences. But we are wanting to do something that will cover science more like a unit study and something that I could do all in 1 or 2 days instead over a week. But still not feel overwhelmed.

Art & Music Study: I've have always wanted to add in an Art & Music study into our learning. But never seem to have the time to do it or sometimes to find something that both the kids and I would like. Well I found it this year. We will be using Harmony Art Mom's The Summer 201o Art and Music Appreciation: Featuring Vincent Van Gogh and George Handel Ebook. This is summer program, but I'm stretching it out to do one painting per month.

So that's what we are doing this year. Its full of fun, learning, and discovery.

Time with Mom

2011-08-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

I like to take my one of my kids shopping with me when I go out. I don't always like taking all three of them. If you have ever gone shopping with more then 2 kids life can be crazy. Most of the time i spend in the store consists of, "Mom can I have (fill in the blank)." or me saying, "Don't touch that." or "No you can have that." By the end of the shopping trip (which is normally buy grocery) I'm tired, the kids are tired, and all I want to do is put everyone down for a nap when I get home.

But with just one of my kids its another thing. I can take my time and the stress level isn't so high. Yes, that only child will ask for something and want to touch something they really shouldn't. But in this case I don't have three kids all saying it and trying to run off in three different directions.

Usually I just my trips with a single child in tow is to do some errands like going to the library, to the mall, or something like that. But those are some of my favorite one-on-one time with my kids. It is always during those times I get to teach some things I don't always get a chance while I have all three with me.

With Dare-Devil Boy he likes to come with me to the library. When we are there I use the time to teach him how to look up books on the computer that he might be wanting to get. On our most resent trips to the library I've been teaching him how to play chess. Which has been an interesting experience. He does okay for a 8 year old.

Dare-Devil Boy taking time to be Captain America while in Walmart.

With Wonder Girl she likes to shop like any other girl, but lots of the time she thinks that its a great time to perform her one girl show for me. She likes to run around the store collecting things here and there that she can wear. Then stop me to show off her current costume. A pictures of a few of my favorite creations below.

Wonder Girl's old lady look.

Her Rock Star look.

Wonder Girl playing outlaws.

All in all these are the times my kids love the most. They remember those times I drag them to the mall to get shoes or to Best Buy cause I need to get something. They get the chance to play demo games with me, look at the latest TVs or end up breaking out in a dance in the middle of the toy store. I treasure these times. I know that I can't last forever. Because one day they will be teenagers and won't want to "hang out" with mom. So I'm going to take advantage of those moments with I can.

Doctor Who's Birthday

2011-08-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

If you have been following you know that I love DOCTOR WHO and so do my kids. Well over the summer the kids had a Doctor Who theme Birthday Party. This year we combined our two oldest birthdays. It was just simply due to the fact we just weren't able to have a party for Wonder Girl when it was her birthday earlier this year. SO we decided to double up when it got closer to Dare-Devil Boy's birthday.

Well when the kids choose Doctor Who as the theme to say the least I was excited. I spent weeks before looking for ideas and things that had to do with Doctor Who. In my searching I found a website that had a Doctor Who themed paper craft. My kids were excited about it and loved them. So I spent about 2 weeks printing out and making our own Dalek army, Adipose, K-9 and Tardis. I filled them with candy to give away to the kids that came to the party.

Here is a picture of my Dalek army.

Later I would find Wonder Girl playing with the Daleks and the Adipose.

Here she set them up in a Cha-Cha line.

She managed to even make them work.

A friend of ours would make the Tardis cake and Daleks below.

I also managed to find some coloring sheets also for the kids to color. All in all it was a great party. (Even though it rained us out from playing outside.) My kids have requested for me to make more Doctor Who cube paper crafts of different characters to play with.

This all took a while to get posted because I missed placed my SD converter for my microSD card. So all my pictures have been sitting on my phone.

If you would like to make your own here you can check it our here:

Doctor Who paper crafts

A Bit of Fun and Things I Like

2011-07-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

I know I have posted in a while. Well that is because I've been busy doing other things. Mostly we are on break for the summer. Not doing a lot of school but a bit of review for the summer. So sorry if you been coming here looking for something new. I will be resuming my more regular posting in the fall. But for now I thought I would post a few fun things that I like.

There are lots of great shows out there and many not so great shows. But for me my top 3 favorite are the following (not in any order.)

1. The first up is the British TOP GEAR. I myself am not a car person or petrel head (as they say) but I love watching the show for the crazy way they review cars and they funny challenges that they do.

I'll be honest this looks really fun to do. I probably will never get to do this but it would be great.

This one is just plain funny. My kids laugh everytime.

2. The next show is an old but very loved show...M*A*S*H*. Yes you heard right I'm a huge fan of the 4077. There crazy and witty comedy makes me laugh every time. While the dramatic stories really make me think and appreciate more the price that was paid for freedom by all soldiers. The humor is a bit curd for younger kids just so you know.

This is part of an episode is my husband's favorite part.

3. Finally the third but not last show is DOCTOR WHO. Yep I love this show. It was really by shear accident that I even came across this show. But I'm not the only one that likes this show. Wonder Girl though loves this show even more then I do. So much so when we talk about a certain Doctor (David Tennant's doctor) she refers to him as "her Doctor". And has told me that she wants to be a companion of the Doctor when she grows up.

This is the 10th Doctor (Wonder Girl's favorite doctor).

This is the current carnation of the Doctor.

Well I hope you enjoy a little bit of random fun videos of some of the things I like. I also hope they made you laugh because that's one of the huge reasons I watch all the shows. They make me laugh.

Wild Wild West and the Young Riders

2011-05-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

Gold Rush! Cowboys & Indians! Outlaws!

What do you think of when you hear the wild west? Those are a few of the things we learned about in our final section of our study through the early part of American History. This was a very brief unit but has become one of our favorite parts so far. We will pick up more on this unit when we do some review next year when we pick up learning about the rest of American History (Pre-Civil War to present).

Here are all the books and extra things we used to make it more fun. (I'm going to add a bunch more things when we cover it again next year.)

Books:

Notebook pages & Lapbook:
We didn't do much lapbooking or notebooking because I just didn't have much time. But you can get some lapbook parts from Homeschoolshare.

Websites:

My friend at Butterflies & Barefoot Lasses has a unit on Cowboys.
Gold Rush game.
By the Great Horn Spoon website to go along with the book.
WayBack Gold Rush
Gold Rush California's Untold Stories
Strike It Rich! (game) My kids like this one.
Oregon Trail game. Its the game I played as a kids but updated. If you have a Facebook account you can play it for free.

Videos:

We've been Watching through this series on Netflix. Its great and my kid's love it. Dare-Devil Boy has been become intersted in Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill since we've started watching it. I've posted just the first part of the first episode of the first season. There are 5 parts to this episode.

There is 5 parts to this series. I'm posting just the first.

Clip from America:The Story of US

Pecos Bill Cartoon:

There are lots of other books, videos, projects, websites and other things to do for this unit. But I'm saving it for next year when we do a short review unit on the west. I hope you all enjoy the stuff I've added for this unit.

Custom House Muesum

2011-05-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

The Grocery Store Section

Over Mother's Day weekend my sister-in law came for a visit. My kids were excited to say the very least. We don't get to see either side of my family or my husband's family to much. Main because both of them live so far away from us. My husband's family in New England and my family in Hawaii. So it tends to be a huge deal when someone visits us.

The kids stayed every night at the hotel with my sister-in law and we spent with her and the kids. One of the things we did was visit our local museum. The best part or the part that the kids loved most was a play grocery store in the kid's section of the museum. There they played with there Auntie. They took turns shopping, checking out and even trying to cook in the little play kitchen they had set up.

Wonder Girl Weighting all the thing she can.

Dare-Devil Boy ringing up Aunty's things.

Trying to figure out how the register works.

Wonder Girl calling for a price check.

DD: What button do I push?

Hondo stocking the shelves.

Another part of the museum they tried there hand at some science stuff. Not really sure what it was, but I know it had to do with force and timing. Then there was a small play house that was set up. That the kids played in for sometime. Really they never wanted to leave that part. They asked my husband later he could build a whole play grocery and play house for them. He told them when we get a bigger house then maybe.

Here is my husband and Hondo trying to work one of the science experiments things they had there.

This was the thing they were trying to do. The little blurry white thing is a ball rolling by.

Wonder Girl playing house.

A little pretend house.

Wonder Girl is pretending to be a doctor. Yes, that's a tool box.

Dare-Devil Boy was taking a hand at playing the piano. It didn't go to well.

Well that was out trip to the museum. There was a part with a old pioneer cabin too. But I didn't get pictures cause it was to dark. That part was also interesting because we had just finished our unit on the pioneering and reading through Little House on the Prairie. In the cabin they had a loom, spinning wheel and other things that just finished learning about.

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Pioneering Unit: Settleing the West

2011-04-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever made butter? How about try your hand at maple sugaring? Or even spun your own wool? I've never done most of those things my self, minus the making butter. Would I like to do the rest? Hmmmmmm.......I'd like to give it a try.

This was unit on the Pioneers was probably one of the best we've done. Or at least I think so. I didn't make any added notebook pages or lapbooks like that. Mostly it was due to the fact I was so busy and other technical reasons (aka computer trouble). But here are the things that we used and I did manage to add in.

Books We Used & Read:

We have been watching a mini-series called, "Into the West". This mini-series has 6 parts and went along great with our studies. We watched the first episodes. (These 3 go well what we covered so far in our study of pioneers and the settling of the west.)

In to the West fallows the lives of two families The Wheelers (a white family from Virgina) and an Lakota Tribe. The show is told from both sides as it slowly unfolds. Starting with Lakota people and there relationship with the buffalo. Then it goes into the Adventures of the early Mountain Man, Jedediah Smith. Continuing on until finally concluding at the aftermath of the Battle of Wounded Knee.

I recommend watching these 3 first. (We are saving the rest for when we cover railroads and the Indian Wars next year. One the second half of American History.)

Episode 1 - Wheel to the Stars
Episode 2 - Manifest Destiny
Episode 3 - Dreams and Schemes

Here is a preview from the first episode.

We also watched The History Channels: The Story of US episode "Westward". There are 9 parts that make up this video if you watch it on Youtube. Here are the first 2 parts. (You can get it from Netflix as a disk too.)

Part 1

Part 2

We also watched a few episodes of Little House on the Prairie. I can post the video cause it Youtube won't let me, But there is a link to the first part of the first episode. Click Here!

I even made a some of the activities from the Little House Craft book myself that I'm going to give away as gifts. I'm not posting them just in case those who I'm going to give them to are reading this.

Needs a Bit of Butter

2011-04-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

This last week we learned about the different thing that the pioneers made with the milk from their cows. We even gotten a chance to make some. One thing we made was butter. It was quite fun and didn't take as long as I thought it would.

My husband like how it came out and suggested that we make our own butter from now on. Its not a bad idea and to tell you the truth it would last a long while. We don't use butter to much in out house unless I'm baking cookies. Wonder Girl has a milk allergy. (She not lactose intolerant. She allergic to milk and all the proteins that make it up.) So if I made a larger batch of butter it will be in my refrigerator for a while.

The longest and hardest part about making butter was the shaking of the jar. It ended up take almost an hour to do. But everyone helped out in doing that.

Pouring int the whipping cream.

Dare-Devil Boy shaking the cream

Wonder Girl taking her turn shaking the jar.

(The picture is a bit blurry. She wouldn't stand still enough.)

My husband doing his part in making butter.

Me helping in making the butter.

Even Hondo helped out.

But really he ended up rolling the jar around the kitchen floor.

Finally after everyone helping and watching an episode of Busy Town Mysteries it was done.I poured out the buttermilk from the bowl and my husband ended up drinking it I think. I can't find it. I was going to use it to make ranch dressing or butter milk pancakes for breakfast, but my husband got to it first. Then I rinsed the last of the buttermilk from the butter.

Finally after all that work I mixed in some salt. Then put it in a small airtight container and put it in the refrigerator to harden. I used it haven't had a chance to use it for any cooking, but I put some of my husband's home-made bread (he makes the bread in our house) and it tasted great.

Making Maple Candy

2011-04-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

We have just started out on our unit on pioneering. The whole family is having a great time during this unit.

The book that we are using for this unit is called Pioneer Sampler by Barbara Greenwood. Its a great book for us so far. The book fallows a pioneer family, the Robertsons, that are living on a little farm in the back woods of North America. With each chapter you learn a little about the life of this pioneer family and the way they live there lives. After each story chapter there is information about the whatever subject is covered in that chapter and usually an activity that you can do.

One of the chapters we learned about how they use to collect and make maple syrup. At the end there was an activity on how to make maple sugar candy. I had found another maple sugar candy recipe that was a bit easier then the one they gave in the book, that we did instead.

Here is our time of making candy.

Wonder Girl add the butter.

Measuring and putting in the salt.

Adding in some maple syrup.

Stir all everything together.

Dare-Devil Boy couldn't help to have a try.

Here we are rolled the candy and left them on the tray to harden.

I forgot to take a picture of how it came out. But you can see from the last picture it wasn't so bad. It was good treat and I think I'm going to make them again myself, but dipped in melted chocolate and let harden to make a truffle kind of candy.

Bedtime Stories

2011-04-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

There are a few things about me that those that know me well know very well.

The first is that I LOVE the British TV show Doctor Who. I like both the older series, but love the new series.
I hate peanut butter. Yes, yes, it is true I hate the stuff and haven't eaten a peanut butter sandwich since I was 3 years old. My mother can verify this. I can't stand the taste or smell or anything to do with it.

But going back to the first, do to my love of the show Doctor Who I've passed this love of the show down to my daughter, Wonder Girl. She's more of a fan then myself at times. So much that she forces her brothers to play "Doctor Who". And her goal is to be one of the "companions" of the Doctor when she grows up.

Anyway, one of the actors that have played the Doctor through out the years is David Tennant. He played the 10th Doctor and Wonder Girl's favorite so far. Well one day while searching on Youtube for a Doctor Who Clip I came across some great videos with David Tennant telling a story. I compare it to like the British version of Reading Rainbow.

So here are some of the videos for you. They are cute and my kids love them. They watch them at least once a month. They love the pictures, the story as a whole and how the actor does the voice of each character.

(This one is my kids favorite)

Also for those that don't know anything about Doctor Who. He's an alien that time travels. There is so much more, but that about it in a nutshell and really you can't beat that. Of course it would be better to just check out the website, here if you wanted to know more about the Doctor Who. But if you don't go to the website here is a great small video that makes us laugh every time we watch it. It was done for a Christmas charity.

Playing Alone

2011-03-30T21:50:00.000-07:00


Wonder Girl's Tent/House

One of my favorite things to see in our house is when all my kids are playing quietly by themselves. There is no screaming, yelling, crying and someone saying,"MOM!! ______ touched or hit me!!!". It is during those times that i get a chance to make dinner, post on this blog, even work on making a few thing for school for the following week, or clean my house.

Wonder Girl Playing in her tent/house

Today I caught Wonder Girl doing something that she loves to do and something that I'm always having to clean up. She had made up her own tent/house with all the blankets she had on her bed. Inside she was working on her own computer. She is dressed in her ballet dress and I was informed later that she going to go dance later for me.

Hondo Playing House

I even manged to catch Hondo playing nicely with Wonder Girl's doll house. He was intent on rearranging all the furniture in the house and making sure all the dolls had taken a bath.

Dare-Devil Boy was working hard on his school. Recently he's been doing school independently. He'll still come to me for an help, but mostly he's doing it without me.

What do your kids do by themselves?

Trail of Tears, Erie Canal & Steamboats (all small unit)

2011-03-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

These units were very small stops in our journey in learning American history. Despite all of that we managed to learn about a few things and even made a short field trip to one of the stops on the Tear of Tears. The trail runs through were we live.

Here are the books that we used and the videos we watched.

Here are a few of the extra videos I found on the the Trail of Tears that we really helpful in our learning.

Trail of Tears-

I'm putting just 1 of the 8 video clips thatt his has. But if you have Netflix you can get it on there too. Its American Experience: We Shall Remain (Trail of Tears Episode)

Steamboats and the Erie Canal-

Something About My Husband...

2011-03-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

I don't get to talk to much about my wonderful husband. But he's really an important part of all of our lives.

Because of his hard work I can stay home to homeschool our kids. He's the one that teaches our boy's what it means to be a Godly Man and shows our daughter what one looks like. He's the one that keeps the cars running and fixes all the things in the house. He kills all the spiders (or takes them outside) that make there way into the house. He's the reason that my kids love spiders, bugs, and anything outdoors. And he'll be the one when they are all old enough will teach them survival skills.

My husband is an outdoors kind of guy. He loves nothing more then to be in the woods camping or climbing a cliff like Spider-man. Or even simply being outside on a nice summer's night catching fireflies with the kids. That's my husband and I love him.

Spring and Play Camping

2011-03-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

Spring is here and is the rain. But during the days that weren't raining we managed to get a few good days of sunshine and get outside to play. I even manged to hang my clothes out on the line to dry. (Something I'll admit that I've only recently come to love now as an adult. Why? It could be with the fact that sometimes its the only time alone I get.)

While the kids played outside on the swings, slides and my husband worked on my van it was no surprise that I found Wonder Girl making her own campsite under the shade of my husband's jeep. And all I could think was, "She's her Daddy's little girl alright."

For those that don't know, my husband is a huge outdoors man. Camping (not an RV, but in tents without showers for a week kind of camping.), hiking, rock climbing and survival things are what makes him happy. So much so that he actually enjoys camping in the middle of winter with snow and freezing weather. I think he's crazy. I don't like it when it dips below 70, but that's what I love about him.

Anyway getting back to Wonder Girl. She had a great time just playing by herself with out the rough and tumble that comes with there brothers. She made she self a pretend fire, pile of extra wood, and even a bed to lay on that was off the ground to keep warm. Then later she took her snack outside to eat at her campsite.

Here Is Wonder Girl eating her snack at her campsite.

Lewis and Clark Unit- Corps of Discovery

2011-03-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

This unit was 3 weeks long but it was short compared to our unit on the American Revolutionary War. I didn't supplement with a lot of other books. But I managed to find a few movies and clips to watch.

We also managed to do a few other crafts and activities. I should note that the book that we used for our unit; is: The Lewis and Clark Expedition by Carol A. Johmann. You can see it in the widget. This is also the book that the notebook pages that I made goes with.

Notebook Pages:
The notebook pages i created for his unit was so big I had to make two files. Lewis and Clark Journey Notebook Pages 1-CLICK HERE to download.
Lewis and Clark Journey Notebook Pages 2-CLICK HERE to download.
I made the notebook pages to go along with the book The Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Project/Crafts:
We tried to do a few crafts with this unit. You can see more pictures of the crafts and projects we did for this is unit on this blog post. I just wanted to give a small idea of what we did. If you want to see more pictures go to my post Being a Member of the Corps.

One we did was make a Keel boat out of cardboard box and Playmobil people.

Also like I stated above we made a few meals that the Corps might have eaten. Here is a picture of one of the meals. This one is roasted duck with three golden squash and corn and sweet potatoes.

Books and Videos:

I wanted to point out the book The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark: Recipes for an Expedition. I found this book because I though it would be nice to try and make a meal or two that they might have eaten. My husband loved the meals I made for our Colonial/Revolutionary unit. He like this one just as much. It was a great book because it starts from the White House to the end of the trip.

Here are also some of the Youtube videos that I could find and added to the our unit.

Being a Member of the Corps of Discovery

2011-03-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

For the last few weeks we have spent out time learning about Lewis and Clark and their journey into the west. It was a fairly short unit, but felt like we spent so long on it.

All of use learned so much more about the Lewis and Clark then neither of knew. It was a unit that Dare-Devil Boy(DD Boy) really enjoyed. He has been looking forward to it all year.

To go along with this unit I made notebook pages to go along with the books we used in this unit. You can find it under my Homeschool Printable Page.

Here is DD Boy with is keel boat that we made.

Another close up picture of the keel boat and the Playmobil guys we used as the crew. Yes, those are Roman soldiers as Lewis and Clark. There are vikings and Celts too if you look closely. I think there is even a monkey standing in as "Pomp" Sacajawea's baby, but I think he's hiding. Sacajawea is somewhere on the boat too if you can find her.

We even made moccasins. A kit someone gave to us a while back.

Here is DD Boy and I reading the instructions.

Here is DD Boy giving it a try.

Here is the final product. Not to bad. I even made one for WG (Wonder Girl). They like them so much that they use them as house slippers.

Here is a look at the Lewis and Clark meals I made for the unit. I even made hardtack. Hardtack gotta love the stuff it last forever. I'm the only one that liked that. Oh well!! More for me. I got the recipes for these in a book called The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark. But here is link to some of the recipes that are in the book.

This is Salmon with Sweet & New (I used red) Potatoes.

My husband's favorite: Duck with Three Golden Squash Corn and Sweet Potatoes.

One last story, someone was listening to me while we learned about the Corps of Discovery because the other day while we we outside playing WG and Hondo were playing Lewis & Clark. I was pulling them in the wagon and WG keep yelling to her brother, "Row! Row, Clark, Row!" I stopped pulling them to ask her what she was doing with her stick. Without missing a beat she told me that they were playing Lewis & Clark rowing up the river. She was Lewis and Hondo was Clark. When I inquired who I was she said, "Your the members pulling the boat up the river."

I Heart You!

2011-02-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day didn't pas without us doing something. For us it was making some very easy Valentine's Day hearts. Each was given to close friends. But by the end my kitchen floor looked like someone threw rose petals all over. This was because Hondo though that they were and proceed to put them on the floor.

What you need to make this:

Clear contact paper cut into 12 inch x 12 inch square
Pink and Red tissue paper cut into small pieces
black maker

Fold contact paper and on one side draw out a heart to fit most of the paper. I scored the contact paper and peeled of the backing on the side i drew the heart.

Then let kids place tissue paper over the heart.

Next I peeled off the other side of the backing of the contact paper and then folded it onto the front. Then cut out the shape of the heart.

We then wrote a message on the heart.

There you go you have a simple easy Valentine heart.