Learning Curve

Weekly Wrap Up–The New Mexico Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:32:00 +0000

On Saturday the girls attended a Victorian Tea at the Woodrow Wilson Museum locally. This was Olivia’s 2nd year to attend, and Lindsey’s first. Last year, Olivia’s photo made the papers and even the news coverage of the tea. This year was Lindsey’s turn to shine as she ended up being covered rather extensively, browse through the photo gallery at Victorian Day at WWPL

Here are the girls wearing the hats they made at the tea, they apparently were feeling a bit goofy after being proper all day.

Geography: We focused on New Mexico this week. The girls loved learning about Geronimo and the pueblo dwellings of some of the other natives tribes. They also found the UFO stories from Roswell to be interesting, and the photos of the “aliens” to be a bit creepy. We even made some fry bread for a snack. I also noticed that we somehow missed Washington, so we’ll do that at the end of our states study.

Books we used:

Geronimo; by Bill & Dorcas Thompson
Geronimo, Apache Freedom Fighter; by Spring Herman
New Mexico; by Michael Burgan
New Mexico; by Deborah Kent
New Mexico; by Therese De Angelis

Olivia competed in her first spelling bee this week. The competition was for grades 1-8. Olivia make it to the 4th round of competition before misspelling a word. The winners worked up through round 12. It was a great experience for her, we’ll definitely do it again next year.

Both girls continue to do well in the core subjects. I’m finding that Lindsey is a little learning machine, she can plow through work like a tank! I’d noticed Olivia has been struggling in math a bit more since I’ve been working. I found out today that the my husband somehow didn’t know there was a teacher manual for her math and has just been giving her the worksheets to figure out on her own. Needless to say there was some tense discussion over this, and so I’m going to have to go back through her work and see what she’s been taught and what she’s been guessing at.

In addition to our normal extra curricular activities (ballet, Awana, choir and piano), Olivia started tennis lessons this week at the YMCA. She LOVES it, and it seems to be a good fit for her to replace softball.

For those of you who have been following my prodigal family member story, I’ve posted what should be the final episode on S.A.H.M. I Am!

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

My Memories Suite–Weekly Freebies

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:34:00 +0000

I have been a bit swamped lately with life and didn’t get an opportunity to post the weekly freebie last week. So this week I’m sticking two into this one post. Both are great for homemade Valentines projects!

The link for this freebie can be found here.

As always if you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

Weekly Wrap Up–The Oklahoma Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:26:00 +0000

February in Virginia is typically cold, icy/snowy and gray and dreary. However, this year the first week of February has been amazing!! Highs in the high 70’s, sunny days, bright skies and FLOWERS are blooming. Yes, my tulips have been fooled into thing spring is here. I’m sure that the tulips, and the rest of Virginia will get a rude awakening soon enough. In the meantime, the girls spent a lot of time outside this week playing with the dog and riding their scooters.

The week was once again packed with appointments, meetings and lack of sleep as the quest for the best option for a family member has run it’s course. It appears things will be changing next week and then hopefully life will get back to normal around here. (And hopefully I can get some real sleep each day.)

So having said that, once again we didn’t get go Latin, science or language arts. We did focus on geography and history as we studied Oklahoma. I even broke out my photo albums from my trip out west in the late 80’s.

Books we used:

Beautiful Land, A Story of the Oklahoma Land Rush; by Nancy Antle
Will Rogers, Cowboy Philosopher; by Mary Malone
The Oklahoma City Bombing, Terror in the Heartland; by Victoria Sherrow
Oklahoma, By Tamra B. Orr
Oklahoma; by Linda Saylor-Marchant

Math, spelling, reading and writing are going smoothly. Piano, ballet, choir and Awana are running like clock work. So, that pretty much wraps up our week! Be sure to check out the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Utah Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:38:00 +0000

I really need to spice up our school week. My wrap ups are SO boring anymore! I’m not making excuses at all, but things are just crazy right now. If any of you have been following my other blog, S.A.H.M. I Am!, you understand why. However, there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel (and I’m hoping it’s not a on coming train). This will be another busy week of appointments, but things should get better soon! Thankfully, for now my overtime at work has been minimum, so I’m only working the regular 11pm until 7am shift, five days a week.

We did managed to squeeze in a field trip to the post office this week. My husband took the girls, as I was busy with appointments. Before this strange new journey began he had been leery of helping with school at all (translation he flat out refused). But now, he’s actually enjoying it!

I also managed to squeeze in some craft time with the girls this week. We used our Bedazzler to add some bling to little tote bags. The girls will use these to carry their Bible, notepad and pencils to church in.

We also finished up our 4th grading period. We only have 49 more days in this “school year”!!

While the girls did do all their core subjects of math, reading and writing, geography and history was our main focus for the week. Our state was Utah and we studied a lot about Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the tv.

Books we used:

Utah; by Karen Sirvaitis
Utah; by Deborah Kent
The Teen Who Invented Television Philo T. Farnsworth and His Awesome Invention; by Edwin Brit Wyckoff
TV’s Forgotten Hero, the Story of Philo Farnsworth; by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
Blaze and the Lost Quarry; by C.W. Anderson

Olivia’s piano instructor was well enough this week to resume lessons. (Although, with a fractured skull I have to think the sound of kids and piano had to be painful for her.)

Choir is just fabulous! I so wish we’d done this earlier. The girls love it and I can tell such a big difference in their singing already. They will have their first concert in May!

Ballet if full throttle ahead to the Performance Awards. Lindsey was bumped up a level so she’ll be doing Level 1, the rest of her class will be doing Pre-Level 1. Olivia is doing Level 3 and will be working on 3 solo pieces.

That’s the extent of our schooling this week. I hope you had a great time. Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

My Memories Suite–Weekly Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Spring is just around the corner. This weeks freebie just begs for your outdoor photos! Get your free download here.

If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

Weekly Wrap Up- The Wyoming Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:21:00 +0000

Another fast paced week has raced by me!! We had a productive week. Monday was pretty normal. Tuesday was only school and ballet. Wednesday was choir and Awana. Thursday was a super busy day. The girls had dentist appointments in the morning (no cavities!!), followed by our Activity Day meeting in the afternoon and then ballet in the evening. Friday was supposed to be piano, but Olivia’s teacher suffered a pretty serious concussion over the weekend and is out of commission for a while.

Geography: Wyoming is the 10th largest state, but it comes in dead last on population. I’d love to be in those wide open spaces!! We studied Buffalo Bill Cody and Chief Red Cloud to round out our state study.

Books we used:
Wyoming; by G.S. Prentzas
Wyoming; by Nathaniel Burt
Buffalo Bill Cody, Showman of the Wild West; by William R. Sandford and Carl R. Green
Buffalo Bill Cody; by Charles J. Shields
Buffalo Bill Cody Western Legend; Karen Bornemann Spies
Red Cloud Sioux Warrior; by William R. Sandford
Chief Red Cloud; by Judy Monroe

Science: We learned more about changes to matter (water-ice-steam). Did a few fun experiments and enjoyed some melted chocolate!

Math, language arts, writing and spelling went well. Nothing major to report though.

I was happy to be listed among the Top 100 Homeschool Blogs this week. I’m not sure how I made the list, but was in excellent company! Be sure to check it out.

We are expecting our first major storm of the winter over night. Ice….bleck. Have a great weekend, stay warm and visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Activity Day–Clara Barton

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:09:00 +0000

This month, Clara Barton was our famous lady from history. In case you don’t recognize the name, Clara was the founder of the American Red Cross. Clara was moved by compassion towards those who were sick, hurt and in need and took action.

This was a fun class. We learned about sympathy, empathy and compassion. I tied it in with the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke chapter 10, and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

We made these adorable Good Samaritan band aid matchbooks so that the girls can be prepared to help anyone in need.

I found some cute little plastic boxes at the Dollar Tree and bought supplies to make first aid kits, and then then girls decorated them with stickers. We learned about how and when to use 911. We also practiced some basic first aid skills like cleaning a wound, bandaging, ice packs and splints.

Books we used:

Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross; by Barbara A. Somervill
Clara Barton, Amazing Civil War Nurse; by Mary Dodson Wade
First Aid & Family Health; by Fermie Keech
Baby and Child Emergency First Aid Handbook; by Mitchell J. Einzig, M.D.

My Memories Suite–Weekly Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:02:00 +0000

Isn’t the brown/green swirl the coolest thing in this weeks freebie? Totally loving it. Get your free download here.

If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

Weekly Wrap Up–The Idaho Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:39:00 +0000

We are finally back to our full school work load after slowing down for Thanksgiving through New Year. We added our geography/history and science back in this week.

Geography/history: Our focus state was Idaho. We worked on our state map, facts sheet, state quarter and our 2 page layout in our United States Coloring Book. We learned about their main crop of potatoes (and ate them several different ways this week). We also focused on Chief Joseph, as his people were forced onto a reservation in Idaho.

Books we used:

Idaho; by Kathy Pelta
Idaho; by Deborah Kent
Idaho; by Amy Miller
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce; by Bill McAuliffe
Chief Joseph; by Rachel a Koestler-Grack

Science: We learned about properties of matter, and then grouping items by the materials they are made of . We also learned about different things that can be made from various materials. Lindsey was floored to learn that paper comes from trees!

Math: Olivia is moving into more fraction work. She seems to be understanding it pretty well. Lindsey is learning to tell time to the 5 minute increments, half and one fourth and two digit addition.

Latin: We finished out studies of the names of the constellations. My lofty idea of printing out pages to go with our studies didn’t happen. Oh well…

Reading: Olivia read the book “Bunny in a Basket” this week. It was a super easy chapter book. I thought I’d give her brain a wee break after reading “Gulliver’s Travels” and before starting “King Solomon’s Mines”. Lindsey continues to read everything she can find in addition to her readers.

Writing: Olivia is doing really well with her Cursive Skill Book. She’s enjoying the writing topics and copy work, as most of it involves animals. Although this week most of her work focused on the Canadian provinces. Lindsey’s cursive writing is amazing! It’s far neater and prettier than mine is!

Language Arts: I was planning on making some cute parts of speech printables, but thankfully found these printables at the Crafty Classroom and saved myself some time. So we’re working on our understanding of parts of speech a little more in depth.

Awana: We are making great progress on Olivia’s book now! There for a bit I thought we wouldn’t be able to finish it this year, but now that we’re getting into memorizing the books of the Bible she’s leaping ahead because she already has all that memorized. Lindsey will be finishing her book way early, so I’m slowing her down some.

Ballet: The girls are still working on their routines for the upcoming performance awards. Olivia’s class has started doing a lot more drills, and I can see that she’s improving. Both girls are still in tap, but they aren’t working on it quite at much.

Choir: I’m so glad I made the executive decision to put the girls in choir. They really enjoy it and I can already tell a big difference in their singing. They also had a little lesson on Johann Sebastian Bach this week.

Piano: Olivia had her winter recital this week. She loves getting to play on the grand piano, and it sounds so much better! She played three selections and did a really great job on each!

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

My Memories Suite–Weekly Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:14:00 +0000

This weeks freebie looks very springy. To get your free download, go here.

If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

Back to School–The New Year Version

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:23:00 +0000

Wow, the first week of 2012 is gone! Where is the pause button?? As I mentioned last week, we had another life altering event Christmas week, you can get all the details in this post on my other blog, S.A.H.M. I Am!

We had a productive first week back to school. No major brain cramps on the part of the students, or the teacher, thank you Jesus!! I’m still trying to get some sort of sleep/school/work schedule, but honestly I’m still taking cat naps here and there throughout the day.

Math: Lindsey is learning 2 digit addition and subtraction. Olivia is learning about fractions.

Language Arts: This week we finished up Year 2 of First Language Lesson. My goal is to make some fun printable to help reinforce the definitions of parts of speech and being able to pick them out easily during reading assignments as well (diagraming here we come).

Spelling: Lindsey is doing really well with her 1st grade spelling. Olivia is gearing up for our local spelling bee so she’s plowing through word lists.

Latin: This week we started learning the names of the constellations. We'll be working on this for several weeks.

Ballet/tap/piano/choir: Yes the extra curricular activities all started up this week. Both girls are preparing for the Performance Awards in ballet. Olivia also has a piano recital coming up next week. You’ll notice we added choir to the mix. Both girls have lovely voices and I finally persuaded (~~forced~~) Olivia to join the homeschool choir.

Awana: Lindsey is way ahead in her 2nd year Sparks book, so there are no worries with getting her finished this year. The first year T&T book is a little more involved for Olivia, so we’ll need to kick it up a notch.

That pretty much sums up our academic week! Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

My Memories Suite–Weekly Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:10:00 +0000

Blues and browns, with a hint of pinky/red can be used for both boy and girl layouts. Get your free download by going here.

If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:24:00 +0000

2011 went by in a crazy fast way. As 2012 sneaks up on us, I pray that each of you have a fantabulous New Year filled with God’s favor and blessing. May this be the best homeschooling year ever!

Christmas Tidbits

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:35:00 +0000

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families!! It’s amazing how we prepare for weeks (or even months) and then suddenly the day has come and gone. Hopefully the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ, stays with us a lot longer!

Here are a few highlights of our Christmas week. The girls and I spent most of the early mornings last week baking cookies and making candies. By December 24th we were in full “Elf” mode as we delivered goodies to friends, family and a few strangers. To see more photos, check out my post at S.A.H.M. I Am!

Here are a few high lights.

Our traditional Christmas breakfast, eggnog French toast with warm cherry pie filling on top. Yummie!

Yes, Nutcrackers!

We have all had a blast playing with the themed Legos. They make little log cabins.

Lindsey was thrilled to get her blue guitar (the fact that it had Cinderella on it was an added bonus).

Um, yeah, that’s Olivia in her absolute FAVORITE gift. Her raccoon hat, a-la Davey Crockett. I know she’ll be wearing this out in public, and I’ll just have to act like I’m ok with that.

It was a great Christmas! We had yet another life altering experience take place during the festivities. That however is a whole post in and of itself.

Weekly Wrap Up–The “Last Week”

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:43:00 +0000

When I say the “last week”, I don’t mean we’ve quit homeschooling or that I’m predicting the end of the world. I mean, we finished the LAST commitment for the year!! Nowhere to be (other than work) until January!!!

Nutcracker was fantabulous!! Doing 3 performances in 2 days wore everyone out, but it was a great show. You can check out photos of my little ones in costume here.

We had our final Activity Day of the year. Laura Ingalls Wilder was our lady of topic, and we made scarflets for Christmas.

We finished piano lessons and Awana for the year as well! Woot!!

All of our lessons have been pretty basic this week. Nothing particularly interesting. Lindsey has become a reading machine!! She lays in bed at night and reads herself to sleep. Olivia is reading Gulliver’s Travels this week.

We’ll be pretty low key on academics from now until January 3. Mostly focusing on math, reading, writing and Bible. So I hope my wraps ups aren’t too boring until then!

Be sure to check out the Weekly Wrap Up this week!

Activity Day–Laura Ingalls Wilder

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:22:00 +0000

This month in Activity Day, we focused on Laura Ingalls Wilder. Being December, I wanted to go with something Christmas like, so we focused mainly on the stories of the Ingalls’ Christmases. I did however use the Laura Ingalls Wilder Card Set from Currclick to show the girls what the real Ingalls and Wilders looked like.

Books we used:

Santa Comes to Little House; by Laura Ingalls Wilder
A Little House Christmas; by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Since gifts weren’t store bought back then, I decided to do some crafting. We used knitted scarves ($1 at the Dollar Tree), tied the ends of the fringes together, then sewed on some buttons and looped the fringe loops over the buttons to make a nice secure muffler. Here are the directions if you’d like to make one yourself.

The girls came up with interesting variations on how to wear their scarves.

We also made foam Christmas trees for the girls to take home.

To wrap things up, I gave each girl a gift bag with a cup, a peppermint stick, a gold coin (chocolate) and a little ring. Similar to Laura’s Christmas when Mr. Edwards crossed the river to bring them a tin cup, peppermint stick and a heart shaped cake.

My Memories–Freebie of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:37:00 +0000

This weeks freebie download can be found here.

If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

A Taste Of Nutcracker

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:36:00 +0000

I know you’re all probably tired of the word Nutcracker…believe me, I’m glad we’re wrapping up too!! However, I thought you might like to at least see the girls in their costumes…these were taken backstage in a hurry between scenes, so don’t critique my photo skills okay?

Olivia, my baker and mouse.

Lindsey, my sweet little Gingersnap.

Weekly Wrap Up–Stage Week

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:06:00 +0000

This has been one of the busiest weeks ever!! The girls have had stage rehearsal every night this week (never at the same time, that would be too easy for me! Olivia has been at practice for at least 3 hours each night, sometimes more. Luckily Lindsey’s part is much smaller and practices have been shorter for her. Still, between the 3 of us we logged in over 22 hours of Nutcracker practices just this week. Now on to the show!

Reading: Olivia finished reading Pollyanna and started on Gulliver’s Travels. Lindsey is reading everything in sight!

Math: Lindsey started counting by 50’s and telling time to 45 minutes. Olivia went deeper into Roman numerals and also measurement equations.

Writing: Olivia is still working through her Cursive Writing Skillbook from Abeka. Lindsey is working on sentence structure and punctuation.

We typically study Christmas celebrations from other countries during this time. However it didn’t happen this week. We did surprise our neighbor with her gingerbread cookies and homemade cards for St. Nicholas Day (December 6). It’s so much fun to see her get so excited about something so simple, but it reminds her of her childhood in Luxembourg.

Seriously, that’s pretty much it for the week. I put in 54 hours at work this night (3rd shift). Between that and all the Nutcracker practices I didn’t have the time or energy to do any great in depth studies.

Be sure to check out the Weekly Wrap Up!

My Memories–Freebie of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:34:00 +0000

This weeks free download is very girly in a Punky Brewster sort of way! Get your free download here.

If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

Weekly Wrap Up–Half Way There

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:16:00 +0000

This week marked our half way point for our school year, only 85 more days to go! This has been another light academic week due to the crazy schedule of extra curricular activities for the girls in the evenings, and my 50+ hour work week.

Nutcracker practices have dominated every evening. On Monday Olivia had practice, followed by a pizza party and then all the soldiers and mice marched in the city Christmas Parade. (I ended up walking the parade route as well, helping to keep mice from scurrying into the crowd of thousands.) Here are some photos of before, during and after the parade. So, can you pick out Olivia in the group below? No? In that case she’s the in the front row, far right.

Writing: Olivia finished her Level 3 Writing Strands book. I haven’t decided yet it we’ll start Level 4 this year or if we’ll revisit Level 3 over the summer. Lindsey’s hand writing has suddenly become very mature looking!

Math: Lindsey is working with counting by 50’s and learning about half dollars. I swear Olivia’s 3rd grade math book has more pre-algebra in it than I ever took in high school. This week she learned about measurement problems.

Reading: Olivia is reading through Pollyanna and Lindsey is working her way through her readers.

If you missed my Thanksgiving Week Wrap Up last week, you may want to go back and check it out. We had some cute things going on.

Then swing over to this weeks Weekly Wrap Up.

My Memories Suite Weekly Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:32:00 +0000

I love these dark earthy tones! Get your free download here.

If you haven’t purchased the My Memories software you can do so by clicking here. Then, use my special code STMMMS5881 to save $10 off the price

Weekly Wrap Up–The Thanksgiving Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:32:00 +0000

It’s hard to believe it’s Thanksgiving week already! My goodness this year has flown by!! We had a light school work week. We mainly focused on math, reading and writing. And we wrapped up our Pilgrim unit study this week. Be sure to go read all about it!

My husband has been filling in for me as I get adjusted to working 10 hour nights and sleeping 3 hours in the mornings. Olivia asked this week if I’d go back to teaching her math because she’s apparently not understanding it as well. So my goal this weekend is to work on a schedule that will work better for everyone.

There was no regular Awana, ballet or piano this week (thank you Jesus!) We did have Nutcracker practice one evening and the girls picked up their official 2011 Nutcracker shirts.

Thursday was a huge day of cooking, eating and family time. Of course, the oven went out shortly after I put the 24 pound, stuffed bird in the oven. I noticed several hours later that the oven had stopped working…thankfully I was able to get it going again and dinner was just a bit later than planned. Everyone on both sides of the family came to my house for dinner…and they all got along!!

We took a little excursion downtown to check out some of the local shops. I did a blog post about it at S.A.H.M. I Am! You’ll definitely want to check out the gingerbread houses in the window displays. Here’s a teaser.

Today we did our traditional bell ringing for the Salvation Army. Normally we freeze while ringing the bell, but today the temperature was in the mid 60’s! The girls love this activity and seem to sway people to give more than adult would. We’re doing it again in December, and I’m sure it’ll be a lot colder then.

That’s pretty much our week in a nutshell. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Life in Plymouth Colony

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:36:00 +0000

Thanksgiving is on of those events you just HAVE to teach on every year, no matter how old your kids are. (Or maybe I’m the only one who does that?) You can check our older study of Squanto by clicking here.

My kids love history, and these history pockets by Evan-Moor are just the thing to help make the learning fun and memorable. While working through Life in Plymouth Colony both girls created 8 discovery pockets, including:

~Voyage to the New World
~The New World
~Building a Village
~Home Sweet Home
~The Family
~Working in Plymouth Colony
~Going to School
~What Did the Pilgrims Give Us?

Books we used:

Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims; by Clyde Robert Bulla
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving; by Eric Metaxas
Squanto’s Journey; by Joseph Bruchac
Miles Standish Colonial Leader; by Barbara Witteman
Sarah Morton’s Day; by Kate Waters

We made a diorama of a”keeping room” where the family slept, ate and worked.

The pilgrim paper dolls were a big hit! The girls continue to play with these daily.

Lindsey enjoyed working on her “stew of good manners”…mostly because most of the items listed are things we do, only worded different. For example we don’t allow singing at the table, the Pilgrims etiquette was “Sing not, hum not, wriggle not.” And of course the world famous “Stuff not thy mouth to fill thy cheeks.”

We also made a geese in the garden game. The original would be made of wood, but ours is made of poster board. You pull back and forth on the paper strips and the geese rotate towards the garden.

We also made hasty pudding from the recipe included in the history pockets. Lets just say it wasn’t a big hit with the girls. But if you’d like to try it, here is the recipe.

1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
pat of butter
maple syrup or brown sugar

1. In a bowl combine the cornmeal and 1 cup of cold water.
2. In a heavy saucepan, bring 3 cups of water and 1/2 tsp. salt to boiling.
3. Carefully stir in the cornmeal mixture, making sure it does not lump. (Easier said than done.)
4. Cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring often. Cool slightly.
5. Serve the pudding warm with a pat of butter on top. Add a little maple syrup or sprinkle with brown sugar.

The girls also learned about dame school (being taught by a woman in her home), and we made our own hornbook and New England Primer.

Now we’re off to work on some thankfulness crafts and start our pre-Thanksgiving day cooking. Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

2011 Homeschool Blog Award Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:06:00 +0000

The winners for the 2011 Homeschool Blog Awards have been announced. Congratulations to all the winners!! Be sure to visit the winners blogs when you get a chance, and congratulate them.