Category Archives: homeschooling

Oct 15 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 42 – Mr. Lincoln

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Today we went to the Pigeon Forge Library for a program called “Meet Mr. Lincoln.” For about 40 minutes, Dennis Boggs told us the story of Abraham Lincoln from birth until his assassination. The costume, hair and makeup were perfect. The delivery was superb. It’s easy to overdo impersonations, but I am happy to tell you that this one is just right. One can tell Mr. Boggs has extensive theater experience.

Meet Mr. Lincoln with little girl

My daughter with Mr. Lincoln at the Pigeon Forge Library.

The whole point of this presentation is to encourage children to read and “stay in school.”

Mr. Lincoln

Mr. Lincoln comes to schools, libraries, conventions, homeschool groups and any other gathering interested in history and literacy. You can find all the information and rates on his website.  Continue reading »

Oct 8 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 41 – Chattanooga

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Since we have a membership at The Muse in Knoxville and we heard so many good things about the children’s museum in Chattanooga, we decided we should put our membership to work for us. The Muse and Chattanooga’s Creative Discovery Museum are part of the ASTC network – American Science and Technology Centers. If you get a membership with one, you get free admission elsewhere.

Creative Discovery Museum Chattanooga

The four of us in front of the Chattanooga CDM

We have already been to the Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC. I decided that October would be the month to visit the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga.

Chattanooga

For your information, there are two different networks of museums for children (besides zoos and aquariums): ASTC and ACM. The ASTC network is different from the ACM network. ACM is the Association of Children’s Museums. ASTC is the Association of Science and Technology Centers.

Your membership card should have the logo of the network of which you are a member. Chattanooga’s Discovery Continue reading »

Oct 4 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 9

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Chapter 9 deals with Japan but, of course, one cannot discuss Japan without China and Korea. The map work was helpful and, in another one of our coincidences, our Adventures in Odyssey CD this week told a story about a Japanese American who lived in Pearl Harbor during the infamous attack which resulted in America’s involvement in World War II.

The kids don’t know yet about World War II – not that much that is. So I had to separate for them what was real and what was fiction in that story.

We read some of the books recommended. The Crane Wife was the most interesting. I had no idea this story is so influential in Japanese culture. Fiction books celebrated in different cultures can teach us so much about those countries and the way their people think and view the world.

Spinach tossed with sesame seed dressing

Spinach tossed with sesame seed dressing

Again, I decided that the best crafts were the ones we could eat. I made a Japanese meal according to the instructions. Rice, mushroom soup for breakfast, sesame seed dressing for green vegetables (spinach in our case), teriyaki sauce for our veggie meat (Frichik), and stir-fried vegetables.

The mushroom soup was not consumed for breakfast. I pride myself in having a tolerant palate and a flexible approach to eating, as long as it did not have a mother or eyes before it got to my plate. However, I have long lost the desire for soup for breakfast, if ever I possessed such a desire. I had my soup for supper one night. Continue reading »

Sep 20 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 8

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Chapter 8 is about the Golden Age of China and the beginning of Chinese dynasties. The kids were excited to do history. We do it once a week, but when it comes back around, it’s like they have not done it in a long, long time. They are happy to be reunited with this subject. They were a bit under the weather, so I decided I would not require them to color and work on the maps just yet. But my daughter was disappointed. She wanted to color while she listened. I obliged and provided the pages and crayons.

They were both surprised by the way Chinese discovered gunpowder, printing and other things. They answered the questions very well. I did not ask for a narration this time, seeing that they both were fighting a head cold.

As far as crafts, they all seemed too messy. Sorry. All except making rice and teaching them how to eat with chopsticks, which is what we ended up doing the next day. By the way, cooking Chinese (or Asian) from scratch is not that complicated. If you can boil water, you can make rice. If you can stir some veggies in a pot in a bit of water or oil or soy sauce, you can make stir-fry.   Continue reading »

Sep 13 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 7

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Chapter 7 describes how Islam became an Empire. It is a rather long chapter. It took us three sessions to finish it. We did the map work at the very end, for some reason. We started out with the snake crafts. These represent the valley of the snakes from Sinbad’s adventures.

We hung two from the ceiling and turned the ceiling fan on. They flew around and twirled and got tangled up, but it was still neat to see them going.

Sinbad valley of the snake craft

My daughter’s snake craft

My daughter did not want to hang hers up. She did not want a button on hers, either. She just wanted to hold onto hers and play with it. Of course, it did not last long. She has not played with her snake since the day she made it. I have gotten used to these patterns now.  Continue reading »

Sep 10 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 37 – M.I.B.

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It’s not a typo. I actually meant to write M.I.B. It stands for “Mind in Boat.” It was one of the slogans the University of Washington rowing team used to help themselves focus and win gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I am reading all about their story from The Boys in the Boat, a nonfiction book which reads like a novel, written by Daniel James Brown. (affiliate link)

I have been going to the Anna Porter Public Library Book Group monthly meetings for a year now. We vote on several books we propose in the summer. We read one book a month, except for December. In January, we have a lovely dinner after the regular meeting, generously provided by John and Lee Mellor at their Buckhorn Inn.

Thoughtful Thursday M.I.B.

I love the intellectual stimulation these books provide. You see, I would love to go back to school and get a graduate degree in law or French. If I had to choose today, French would probably win. But I cannot. I feel compelled to homeschool my children, blog about it, and publish books to help others. Compelled is another way of saying called. I feel called.  Continue reading »

Sep 6 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 6

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Chapter 6 deals with the rise of Islam. We worked on the craft first. I definitely did not want to make an oasis scene with all the candy recommended, so I was glad they provided a low-sugar version. Even so, I decided that we could use LEGO bricks for the camel, since we did not have animal crackers.

Camel and bedouin in an oasis

Camel and bedouin in an oasis

The kids got into it when I told them to build me some palm trees.

Oasis craft

Putting the oasis together

I prepared the sand by crushing up some old wheat crackers in a zip lock bag, with a rolling pin.

I made "sand" by crushing wheat crackers

I made “sand” by crushing wheat crackers

They surprised me by adding a mini-figure to the scene. The water was aluminium foil, which I kept in place with double tape. Maybe it should have been something blue, like in the sugared up version of the scene, but aluminium works too, as it reflects light the way a body of water does.

Bedouin on camel coloring sheet

Bedouin on camel coloring sheet; can you tell which one was colored by my kindergartner?

As I read the stories to them, they colored the bedouin on his camel (coloring sheet provided in the Activity Book). Then, I asked them the review questions. Finally, we worked on the map. It’s very tempting to do it all. But I decided this was enough for this chapter. There are three other activities recommended in the book, for those who do not have the book.

Aug 30 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 5

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Chapter 5 deals with Medieval India. The best part was the weaving craft, although the two stories were pretty interesting, too. The kids learned the word “dynasty.” New vocabulary is always fun and it is one of the reasons why I chose to do history with them in grades 1-4.

Weaving Craft

Sometimes it does seem like too much when so many people simply focus on the 3 Rs, but I really think there is something to exposure to vocabulary, true stories, geography and historical figures.

They liked coloring the map and the man riding on an elephant, which was the coloring sheet provided for this chapter in the Activity Book. I can already tell the Activity Book has more projects and on a higher level than last year. I can see a progression of difficulty level.

The kids were really excited about weaving. They used the nail to poke holes and my son even made a pun when he said, “I nailed it!” My daughter got discouraged with the weaving process and I had to encourage her to continue and to persevere. “This is only your first time trying weaving, so give yourself some room to make mistakes,” I said, or something to that effect.

Woven Cloth

Finished product

She really enjoyed coloring the elephant. I know she needed to do something more familiar after all that weaving, so she threw herself at coloring with all her might.

Aug 27 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 35 – Wings

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One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Psalm 91. The image of sitting under the shadow of God’s wings strikes me every time with peace and quietness. The idea of putting God and feathers or wings in the same sentence is striking, of course.

I found a profound article online about why Jesus chose the image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings when He talked about trying to reach out to Israel and Jerusalem over the centuries. When you love someone, you want to protect them. Children being like chicks, they need lots of cover from harm. Mothers feel the need to protect their children. Some of us have chosen to homeschool because of this ancestral urge to cover, protect, and keep from harm.

Thoughtful Thursday Wings

Unfortunately, schools have become battle grounds. Children are exposed to a lot of hawks and foxes out there. Many times, they do not have the mechanisms to cope with it all. They succumb to peer pressure and choose to follow the fox, not knowing that, once they turn the corner, the fox will gobble them up. Continue reading »

Aug 21 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 4

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Chapter 4 dealt with the Byzantine Empire, Justinian, Theodora, and St. Nicholas. It was a long chapter: four different stories. Lots of coloring, cutting and pasting fun with paper dolls and pictures of Empress Theodora, Hagia Sophia, and Theodora’s crown happened today.

The kids were ready to color though. It’s like we can go a few days without history and then they miss it and are so ready for it. I was a bit nervous about the story of St. Nicholas, a.k.a. St. Nick and then the connection with Santa Claus. But it was done well in the book and I had nothing to worry about.

Continue reading »