Salt Dough Fun

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I have written in several entries about my love of playdough.  It’s hard to beat the stuff from the store because nowadays it is so cheap &, unlike when we were kids, soft right out of the can!  However I absolutely LOVE homemade salt dough!  We had not made any in 3 years so only my oldest even remembered doing it.  It is one of those things that you need to do every once in a while if for no other reason than the wow factor!  It is so easy & your children will be so impressed that you can make playdough yourself!  I call it Mommy magic- you’ve got to always keep them a little amazed at the things you can do! 

My absolutley favorite part of salt dough is playing with it right after you make it & it is still warm; it is really a delight to all the senses! 

I had lost the recipe for the kind we made 3 years ago which we all loved but I found it recently in a wonderful book that I am really enjoying.  It is Kids Create by Laurie Carlson.  I highly recommend this book for basic craft recipes & fun simple ideas to do with your children- things like what you did as a child before every craft came from Oriental Trading!

This recipe calls for 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup salt, 2 teaspoons cream of tarter, & food coloring.  You put all the ingredients in a large saucespan & stir contantly with a wooden spoon over medium heat.  The soup will magically form a ball at which point you remove it from heat & turn out on a lightly floured surface to knead & cool.

Another thing I love about homemade dough is making your own colors!  These are the 4 colors my boys & I made recently.  To get these eye popping colors I recommend using bakers food coloring (for cake decorating.)  Mine is in a gel form & although a little expensive I have used the same few bottles for years on everything from salt dough, to cakes, to mashed potatoes!  We store our dough in recycled peanut butter jars & do not keep ours refrigerated (although that is what the recipes says to do.)

B1 & I played today.  I can’t imagine anything better for finger dexterity & the imagination!

This was HH’s supper plate that we had waiting for him when he got home- strawberry, blueberry, pear, french fries, ham, cheese, & bread- yummy!

Active Volcano!

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In Mystery of History II we studied Pompeii this week.  It is a tragic but fascinating story from the pages of history about a city that is literally frozen in time- buried in volvanic ash!  We also read Pompeii…Buried Alive! by Edith Davis.  We love the activity suggestions at the end of each MOH lesson & what better way to end a lesson on Pompeii than to make our own volcano!

Here F9 is helping L4 add the vinegar as E6 looks on.  We used a ratio of 3 tablesponns baking soda to 1/2 cup vinegar.  We added a few drops of red food coloring & dish soap for effect!

I don’t know why it suprised me that they went GA-GA over this little experiment.  They are all boy & what’s not to love- it’s messy, explosive, & and "dangerous" (it’s is a real volcano-remember!)  The looks on their faces says it all!

Mount Brookgreen was definately an active volcano.  They repeated the experiment many times- I finally had to put a limit on the amount of vinegar that could be used!  They even started experimenting with capping the bottle & added a little shaking to the volcano with very pleasing results- try that at home yourself to see!  Here are the unsuspecting Playmobile men oblivious to the impending danger!

And finally, the carnage left in the path of Mount Brookgreen.  The poor guy never knew what hit him; he’s still smiling!  Life with boys is sooooo much FUN!

ABC Beads

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We are in our second day of non-stop heavy rain at my house which can become stressful when you have 6 people (5 of them male) in 1000 sq. feet.  Yesterday, I had to banish the boys to the hay barn for a short noise break.  Today we all got involved with a box of ABC beads from Walmart ($3.67.)

The idea was to make one of those water filled bottles full of floating stuff to go in one of L4′s preschool activities in a bag which I use in his workboxes.  The basic idea is from Preschool Activities in a Bag Book 2 & is called ABC HIdden Treasure. The book instructs you to hide the ABC beads in rice but we had been wanting to make one of the floating bottles so we decided to do that instead.  Luckily our bag of beads included 300 beads so we’ll have enough to do a rice version as well.

Basically, we used an empty water bottle filled with 50% light corn syrup & 50% water (although I plan to experiment with this % & see how it changes) & added ABC beads (2 of each letter to make it a little easier) & glitter!  The whole crowd got invloved.  L4 found the letters to his name & then E6 & F9 wanted to do the same of coarse!

E6 & F9 went in order to make the complete alphabet in a line of beads (so we could make sure we got 2 of each letter in the bottle.)

Afterward we decided it would be best to store the beads sorted so we could easily find any letter we needed so E6 went through the remaining 248 beads & grouped them by letter alphabetically.  It was really great alphabetizing practice & fun for him too.

Here is E6 posing with his alphabetized piles of beads & the " ABC Under Water Search" we made for L4!

Spontaneous Science

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We all know the best learning takes place when it is self-motivated!  We have borrowed a book from the library called Every Kid Needs Things that Fly! by Ritchie Kinmont.  We got it to go along with L4′s Fabulous FUN Family Friday on Airplanes but have kept it for several weeks because the boys are so interested in it. 

Above are F9 & E6 trying out their modifications of one of the hot air balloon experiments.  We did not have all the exact components on hand but they switched a few things around & tried it a little different.  The goal was to make a hot air balloon with a basket that would carry an action figure.  When their helium balloon would not lift the basket or the action figure by himself they decided to try a Playmobile man, then a legos man.  When it wouldn’t carry away even this tiny man they changed their idea & thought it might make a good parachute instead.

Here they are trying to do a paratrooper jump from their playground cabin.  The wind blew their man way off coarse & then…he came untied!

The legos soldier landed safely in the sandbox but here is their hot air balloon escaping into the heavens above the tree field.  Like most of life, sometimes we learn the most from our mistakes!

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History Fair

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This week has been CRAZY for our family.  Smack dab in the middle of it we had our local homeschool support group’s History Fair.  Usually we would not take on extra activities during this time of year since we also started making wreaths this week & are preparing to harvest Christmas trees BUT our boys (& our entire family) love history so much & we believe public speaking is such a vital skill that we couldn’t pass this up.

F9 did his presentation on D-Day, on which he is an unofficial expert!  He did this presentation 100% by himself including his display board, deciding what he wanted to say, & memorizing the speech Eisenhower gave the troops just before the invasion (which he used as his opening.)  We were very proud of how well he did in preparing for this event & his love of WWII history.

E6 did his presentation on Cherokee Indians who are the American Indians who lived in the Appalachian mountains (where we live.)  Here he is posing with his display table which was the most beautiful there (in my humble opinion!)  E6 is ALL about the costumes & accessories!  He made the small fringed bag at his side & we worked really hard (well, I worked really hard-he supervised) on the rest of his costume.  He really had a great time & makes quite the little pale faced Indian!  I so love the way he enjoys dressing up & gets excited about all that stuff because I love costumes & dressing up too & F9 is way too serious & practical for that sort of thing!

Book Baskets

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Here is a peek into our school-maybe an idea you can use.  We have a part of each school day called book basket time.  We have been doing book baskets for 3 years now & have really seen great returns on this investment!  All of our boys enjoy books & book basket gives them time to enjoy books & allows me to make sure they are seeing/reading certain books.  Although we have used book baskets for several years, this year we have incorpaorated it into our workbox schedule & it fits beautifully.  Book basket is a center on everyone’s schedule & it provides a great break from seat work- my older children often enjoy their snack during this time too!

So what is book basket?  A basket of books, of coarse!  Each of my boys has a basket (ours are actual baskets but they could be anything- plastic bins, cardboard boxes, or even bags.)  Inside those baskets are books that I want them to look at or read.  There are several books in there so they may choose which books to read on which particular day but books stay in the basket until they are read so eventually they all get read. 

What kinds of things go in the book baskets?

4th grader:  Most of the books I put in his basket are supplemental books to go along with other things we are studying.  He consumes books much faster than I could ever keep up with & I don’t want his reading to be limited by my time.  Our history program is Mystery of History (MOH) & we read that text together in our family time.  I also choose living books to go along with some of the major topics from MOH, or ones that I think my boys will be particulalrly interested in, or great hsitorical fiction that I just think they should read.  Although we sometimes choose these living books as family read alouds we don’t have time to read them all so I put them in his book basket.  I also put in books that supplement our current science topics but which I don’t plan to read as a family.  Lastly, I include books which relate to the upcoming Fabulous FUN Family Friday (FFFF- see seperate post.)  For example, this week our FFFF is camo bugs so I will put bug books in his book basket for him to read before FFFF.  This whets the appetite for the upcoming unit study, creates a foundation of knowledge, & minimizes the amount we will have to read on FFFF.  Some of the books that I put in his basket are only to thumb through (unless he wants to read it all) or have specific pages to read & I denote either of those with a sticky note on the front.

Pre-schooler & 1st grader: The majority of the books in my younger son’s book baskets are books that relate to the upcoming FFFF.  My pre-schooler does not read & my first grader is not really confidant in reading solo yet so I include lots of books with great photos, drawings, & graphs.  This works great because by the time FFFF arrives they have already gathered quite a bit of info from the books & if there is something that they saw that particularly interests either of them I can read it in detail then.  This ensures that I am really helping them learn about the things that interest them instead of only what my mind sees as important.  When I collect our FFFF books I check out as many great books on our unit study topic as I can find.  I never expect to read them all aloud to them, that would be impossible in one day.  Instead, I pick a few pearls to read aloud & then pass the others through their book baskets during the week.  I am amazed by what they learn & the incredible questions they ask as a result of this process.  Another type of book that goes in these boy’s book baskets are free choice library books.  When we make our monthly library trip I allow each of them to check out a certain # of books of their choice.  They bring the books to me so I can make sure we aren’t bringing home anything that would go against our morals or beliefs but other than that I am pretty loose on what they select.  What that means is that we wind up going home with quite a few books which I think "stink."  They don’t have any objectionable content; they are just poorly written, predictable, shallow, based on cartoon movies, etc.  I don’t want them to be discouraged & I don’t want to read the books so I cycle those through the book baskets in the course of the month as well. 

For my younger boys I ususally put 2-3 new books in their book baskets each day.  They look through the books at their leisure (during their scheduled book basket center) & if they are finished with it they return to our library bag (or our bookshelf.)  This also makes it really simple for me to know which books are ready to be returned to the library & which ones need to be renewed.  The only part that gets a little confusing is that these boys usually look at all the same books so I occasionally get confused on who has had what since I do not write down the specific titles I put in the baskets.  When this happens I just ask if they have had a chance to read the book or not.

For my oldest son I usually keep 2-5 books in his basket.  Most of his books take more than 1 day to complete but having several in there gives him more choice on what he feels like reading that day.  He might have 1 very long novel in process, 2 informational books (like the DK Eyewitness books,) & then maybe some short books as well.  I even cycle through some of his younger brother’s books occasionally for some fun. light reading.  Occasionally I put in a magazine I want him to read too!  He follows the same process of leaving books in his basket until he is finished with them.  The only difference is that when he does finish a book he records it’s title & author on his reading log before he putsit away.  This way we have a record of exactly what he has read.

We love our book baskets; maybe it is something you might want to try in your little schoolhouse too!  I’d love to hear other’s variations; I’m sure many of you do similar things.

Lego Mania

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Lego Mania has struck at Brookgreen Farm! 

At our October 4-H meeting one of our families led a triathalon- mind, body, & soul.  For the mind portion we had a jeopardy game with great categories such as 4-H, Presidents, Animals, Quotes, Elements, and more.  For the body segment we had an obstacle course with all kinds of great physical activities like walking paper & other fun things that were great exercise without being ordinary.  Lastly we had a spirit station where we were challenged to build some detailed & creative projects from legos.  We entered a room with more legos than I have ever seen in my life.  They had spread a king size sheet on the floor & in the middle was a mountain of legos (I’m not sure the photos does justice!)  

BTW Moms, this was my best Mommy tip for the day- when you want to play legos or any other small multi-piece thing put down a giant flat sheet.  Then the kiddos can dump the whole bin on the floor & get to all those little pieces in the bottom & when it is time to put everything away- just pick up the corners & carefully dump back into your bin!  Cool huh?  So simple & yet it had never occurred to me!

I discussed with the Mom of this family how in the world you accumulate this many legos?  She is the mother of 6- 1 boy (now 22) & 5 girls (17-9.)  She said that her son began the love of legos but all of her children loved them & they just kept adding to their collection over the years.  In fact she said that when her adult son comes home the first thing he & his siters do is put down the giant sheet & play legos.

I must confess that I have never been a legos fan (gasp!)  My boys have received a few sets where you built a specific item & it always seemed like they were yelling for help to find 1 specific microscopic piece to complete the thing.  Then once it was built it became a shrine that provoked screams of injustice when anyone knocked it down or "accidentally" broke a piece off.  Then add to that the fact that I have had a baby or toddler almost nonstop for the past 9 years & legos scream "choking hazard."  As a result of my lack of excitement about legos they were all boxed up & put in the barn.

At the 4-H meeting my boys (and every other child there) remained enthralled with this lego mountain for more than an hour.  Some built specific items using manuals but many just picked up pieces & created whatever they imagined.  On our drive home legos were the topic of discussion.  They wanted to get their few legos out of the barn & promised to be conscientious in their picking up of them & making sure B1 doesn’t eat them.  They were so excited I was actually contemplating how I might get them some more legos cheap- yard sales, etc.  Then someone mentioned a garbage bag of legos they had seen in the barn.  It all came flooding back- when we bought our farm & I was cleaning out one of the barns I had found an old box of lego pieces.  The box was falling apart & I certainly had no plans of bringing them in the house but I knew one day we would meet someone who appreciated legos & so I dumped them into a trash bag until I decided to give them to a lego person.

My attitude toward the legos reminded me of this anti-playdough lady I met years ago when I only had one child & went to such things as "play group."  She explained confidantly how playgroup was great because she never let her child use playdough (or paint)at home.  I usually try to keep my opinions to myself (feel free to laugh here if you know me) but I was so agast I had to convince her of her misleadings. 

"Playdough is the greatest thing ever made.  It feels so good on your fingers, you can make so many cool things, it’s so cheap, & it smells like childhood!  How can you deprive your child of playdough?"  She then calmly asked me if I knew how hard it was to get out of carpet, between couch cushions, out of hair, etc.  

"Oh," it was painfully clear, "a playdough snob!  Hopeless!"  Well I’ve realized I was a lego snob.  I was  more concerned about having to pick up little pieces (or stepping on them-ouch!) & about being able to maintain a complete set (who cares?) than I was about the educational & creative opportunites that they offfered my boys. 

I am reformed.  We brought in their small box of legos & the garbage bag from the childhood of boys who are now grown & have children of thier own.  To my boys’ amazement there were even some of the same pieces they had used at the 4-H meeting in our trash bag legos!  Our collection is no where near the giant mountain of legos in the picture but it’s sizeable enough to entertain 4 boys.  They have made some really cool stuff, all from thier imaginations, & I am sure legos will be on someone’s Chrsitmas wish list, who knows maybe even mine!

Fabulous Fun Family Friday

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A new creation that we came up with this year are: Fabulous FUN Family Fridays!  Our goal is to get in 4 good solid days of school work each week.  If we can get 5, that’s gravy.  One way we motivate ourselves to get 5 is with the new FFFF.  Every Friday we take a break from our regular studies & do a one day wam bang unit study.  I have always wanted to do unit studies & it just never fit my personality exactly.  I suppose I am a little too structured (strict) to give my whole school curriculum over to unit studies & they always seemed like a lot of work.  Well, no more.  Here is what we do.

On the first Friday we have 4-H which is an all day affair.  After that (and because we are in town) we make our monthly library trip & often visit the second hand store in town to see if they have any treasures.  That is our FFFF for the first Friday of the month.  I have 3 boys who are old enough to voice a reasonable opinion & they each receive one of the 3 remaining Fridays of the month.  On the 2nd FFFF of the month L4 gets to pick the unit study topic for the day, on the 3rd FFFF E6 gets to pick, & the last FFFF of the month goes to F9.  On the occasional month where we have 5 Fridays we get to catch up if we’ve missed one (like this month when we went out of town.)  Of coarse this would work just as well with more or less children & just letting each child pick every 6 weeks (for six kids,etc.)

FFFF has been wonderful for us.  The children have to select their topics for the month by the first FFFF when we attend the library.  I check out a ton of books on each of the 3 unit study topics of the month.  As the month progresses I include these books in my younger sons’ book baskets for them to look through.  Longer, more detailed books for my oldest are included on his literature list & he has all month to read them.  On the week of the unit study I do some searching through materials I have at home & on the internet & try & find a paper craft or hands on project to go with the topic.  I select a few books from the librabry assortment that we will actually read together & flag any pages from other books that I want to look at together.  I think about what information or skills will be appropriate to each boys age & plan to include that in our study.

So far we have done a lapbook on each FFFF.  These are not meticuluosly planned; we just record info we learn in appropriate fold-its & then fit everything into a lapbook at the end of the day.  These have been a lot of fun for sharing with Daddy & friends & the boys are very proud of all they have learned.  So far we have had FFFF about Alligators & Crocodiles, Lizards, The War of 1812, Airplanes, Camoflouge Bugs, & D-Day.  I will try to post pictures of some of our lapbooks soon!

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Science Experiment

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Today we had our first science experiment of the school year.  My boys really enjoy science so much & since my background is in the sciences I have a lot of fun with it as well.  We useApologia Science.  This is our second year using this curriculum & this year we are usingExploring Creation with Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day.  We enjoy doing this all together- baby to Mommy.  Today we did an experiment to demonstrate what happens to a person’s lungs when they dive deep into the ocean.  Here the boys are blowing up a balloon inside a bottle (or attempting to blow up a balloon inside a bottle.)  Then they stepped on the bottle to increase the air pressure inside the bottle & observe changes in the balloon.  B1 was having his own private experiment with how fun balloons are in the background. 

One of the things I have been working on is making our school work more interactive & visual.  Normally I would have read this experiment out of the book & then we would all follow along as I led the boys in doing what the text paragraph stated.  Instead I typed the experiment out on a checklist for each of the boys & created a Science Center.  I provided the materials & they were responsible for making sure the materials were there & then following the step by step directions to complete the experiment.  They had a place to check off each step as they completed it & record observations.  I also included a few simple questions to get them thinking about what was happening.  They completed the experiment with a little supervision from me.  In general I thought there was more work & thinking taking place on their part & work + thinking = learning in my book so I was pleased.  Here is the sheet I made:

This is an idea Sue Patrick talks about in her materials.  Of coarse her experiment sheets are done with great graphics instead of my hand drawn pictures but who am I kidding- I have 4 children!  This was a lot quicker & the boys followed my drawings fine & gained all the benefits of really doing the experiment themselves.  I will continue to try working with the Science Centers & let you know how it goes.

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