Gingerbread House Party

This week one of the moms in my homeschool group came up with the idea to get together & have the kids build gingerbread houses.  I had never made a gingerbread house without the kit (my limited crafty personality), but they used graham crackers, vanilla icing, & assorted candies.  

So everyone brought the different items & we met at J's house.   The kids had a great time putting them together.  Some collapsed from the weight of all the candies while others really held up.  The good thing about them is that you could actually eat them & they tasted great!

So if you want to make a gingerbread house to display as a decorative item, get the kit.  However, if you want to build something fun that you can actually eat at the end, use the graham cracker & icing idea.  The kids loved it...art & sweets all at the same time!

Homeschool Classes

Today was our Monday for homeschool classes with our homeschool group.  For art they did a quick study of Picasso & then had to paint a self-portrait of themselves.  First they sketched it out in pencil, traced it with a sharpie & then painted it with Tempura paints.  I must say I don't think there are any budding artists in the group from what I could see, but it was fun for them.

Next was the "Think It" class.  They discussed solid shapes, like cube, pyramid, etc...then had to try & build a solid shape with nothing but straws & paper clips.  It had to be thigh-high in height & be able to stand on its own...and had to be done in 20 minutes.  I wanted to jump in ofcourse & try to give ideas on how to make it a free standing 3-dimensional object, but us parents had to leave it up to the kids to figure out.

  Our high school group was successful in doing a pyramid & the 1st graders would have done a great cube if they had not run out of time.  The rest of the kids had ideas but just couldn't figure out how to implement them...but it was a fun challange.  Afterwards we discussed with them why their design did not work & what they could do next time to make it better.

After a quick lunch we continued with our "Mystery Powders" class.  We had small groups work on seven different kinds of powders (Sugar, Salt, Cornstarch, Wheat Flour, Plaster of Paris, Baking Soda, & Quartz Sand).  We treated each powder with Water, Vinegar, & Iodine to see what kind of chemical reaction would occur if any.  We also had them do a heat test over an open flame to see if heat changed the powder or reacted in anyway.

Lastly we had the group divide into teams so that they could start working on their science fair projects.  My son's team will be working on rockets...should be interesting.  They have all year to work on them & then will have a chance to show their work at the end of the year celebration.

If you are not in a homeschool group & live in the Paulding County, Georgia area...check out Home Learners Alliance.  You can find them online. Otherwise check out different sites online for groups in your area where you live to get your kids connected to different activities that you may not be able to do on your own.   It is a great way to make new friends!

Ocean Box: Sponges

If you are looking for a great science course on the ocean check out, "Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day".  This is a course that we completed last year. At the end of each section we made a creature for our ocean box to commemorate the completion of that study.  In the last section one of the creatures we studied was the sponge.  So today I want to talk a little about sponges.

There are thousands of different species in the ocean.  Not all sponges are soft, some are hard & prickly. They come in all shapes & some are as tiny as your finger or as large as a shower stall.   They all look like they are plants instead of animals.

Although it is an animal it has no eyes, ears, brain, nerves, heart, or blood.  Sponges attach themselves to a rock and are "sessile", which means they never move from that spot.  What makes them an animal & not a plant is the fact that they are consumers...they eat food.

Japan: Make Your Own Origami

We have been studying Japan for Social Studies, so today we did an origami project. At first my son moaned about doing it...he is 11 after all! But I know he loves doing art projects & this would be right up his alley.

We found a great website with tons of patterns & animated videos that take you through each step. They also have their patterns categorized from easy to difficult so you can chose a pattern that suits your skill level.

My son chose 3 different ones: A cat, a penguin (his favorite animal), & a snake. All of these were from the easy level & took less than 15 minutes to make each one. We used construction paper that we had on hand & then he finished off the details with markers.

After you have finished you can display them by hanging them from the ceiling of your school room. So if you are looking for a project to do with your study of Japan, try this & get in some art at the same time. Their website is http://www.origami-club.com/en/

Activities for Kids: Activity TV

If you have On Demand with your cable company you know that there are endless options of different things that are available to watch. Did you know that there is a channel called Activity TV? I didn't realize this until I got my most recent cable bill & they were advertising it on the envelope.

It said to go to Channel 1, "On Demand", & select Activity TV on the channel guide. When I did I couldn't find it so we checked the Kids channel & it was listed under that. They have instructions on different projects like how to make your own bird feeder, build sandcastles & airplanes.

We checked out their magic tricks where they show you the trick & then go over it step-by-step so you can learn how to do it. It was really cool & my son loved this...he was doing a couple of them by the end of the day. We also checked out the martial arts where they teach kids different moves & watched one of the Kite making segments. So there is a lot of things that you can do with your kids from the channel.

I then looked at the Kids section again & realized they have kids fitness shows where they put them through an exercise routine that is geared for kids. This is important if you homeschool & your child is not involved in an outside sport such as little league or martial art classes, etc. It gives you the opportunity to do your own version of PE class.

So if you are looking for activities that you can do at home check out your On Demand channels for great ideas to keep your kids busy this summer.

Make a Model of an Indian Village

We studied Navajo Indians this past week & I gave Noah a list of activities that he could choose from to do to go along with the study. He chose to make a model of an Indian village. Before I could come up with ideas for the project he asked me if we had any toilet paper rolls. So I gave him 2 that I had saved along with a paper towel roll. I left him with that, scissors & tape. I had no clue what he was going to do, I just told him to let me know when he was done. This is what he did:

He cut out the door & then bent the tops in together & taped them. He then made a campfire out of the cardboard by taping together little strips of cardboard (sticks) & then attached a cut out flame on top. He then drew a zig-zag line around each one for a Indian design.

This is just a very simple idea that you can use to build an Indian village. You can paint them out in whatever colors you want & then add your own toy Indian figures to complete the scene. So get creative with your kids & have fun with history!