Time Travelers Colonial Life: Day 7

For Day 7 we did Lesson 11: Faith in the Colonies- Part 1 & Lesson 12: Faith in the Colonies- Part 2

We took a little deter from the lessons plans and made Salt-Water Taffy, which was an activity from lesson 7. I had a little problem getting the taffy quite right. Thankfully another mom was familiar with the taffy making process and helped me with getting the taffy to the right temperature. My candy thermometer wasn't working quite right, so she just guesstimated on when it looked finished. Boy did it smell and taste soooo good!

The kids were AWESOME Taffy-Pullers. The two mom's that tried it, weren't so hot. It kept sticking to our hands. And then a kid would say, "Give it to me and I will fix it for you." And wouldn't you know, they got it back to the way it is suppose to be. Lucky Kids!

We took a lot of pictures of the taffy-pulling because the kids were having so much fun! It was hard to pick and choose which ones to use, so I used them all! *Ü* Just click on the arrow to go fast through the pictures. Enjoy!

Another deter we took (seems this day is full of deters), was showing the kids examples of some Cast Iron Cookware. We showed them spoons, egg cookers, pans, trivets, iron rester things (don't know what they are officially called), and more. Another neat thing a mom brought was an original 1800's apple peeler, corer, & slicer! The kids enjoyed watching it work and tasting the apples it peeled, cored, & sliced. *Ü*

Ok... Now onto the Lesson of the day. Today we created timelines, learned about different types of religion (Lutherans & Deists to name a few), The Age of Enlightenment, and The Great Awakening. The kids created a lapbook titled, The Great Awakening: Men of Faith. They worked on this at home and brought it back the next co-op day and shared what they wrote about each men of great faith. In the next day's posting, I will share photo's with you and share some of what they wrote. Here are some photos' of what we did:

To close up this days studies, we ate Molasses Gingerbread with Homemade Whipping Cream! It was so YUMMY! This was one of the assignments a family completed from the Book of Goode Cookery!

Time Travelers Colonial Life: Day 6

For Day 6, we covered Lesson 9: The Colonial School

We learned about the "Old Deluder Satan Act". When I first read that title, I was a little puzzled. What could this one mean? It ended up being something different then my original thoughts. Unfortunately, I won't be letting you know what it actually means. This would be a great opportunity to do a little research of your own, or better yet, purchase the study. *Ü*

We also talked about the different types of schools a colonial child could attend, how a schoolhouse was set up and what types of material children used to do their schoolwork on, what children learned in school, as well as how they were disciplined for misbehaving or not completing their schoolwork. Boy were punishments pretty harsh back then...

We did learn a little about a man named Christopher Dock (1698-1777 A.D.), who help change the discipline "policy", for a lack of better word, and thought children should be praised and motivated in a positive way, rather than the harsh forms of discipline that were so common of those days. While reading about him, Anne of Green Gables came to my mind. *Ü*

One tidbit I found interesting was that in the winter months different families who had their children enrolled in the school would be responsible for supplying the wood to heat the school room. If a parent forgot to bring the wood, the child would be punished by having to sit in the coldest part of the schoolhouse.

We also researched more about the horn book. We learned that a horn book had a protective layering that was over the written words that was made from cow's horns. They would peel it off one layer at at time, place it on the wooden horn book and that was what protected the paper. AMAZING. I wonder how some people think of trying these things out for the first time.

Below are some pictures from the lapbook horn book, notebooking page of the horn book, and a rebus puzzle the kids worked on. Enjoy!

And here are some funny ones of my son. He doesn't like to have his picture taken. But our wonderful photographer got these series of pictures of him. They tell the tale of his picture being taken saga perfectly...

First Language Lessons Level 3

Today I had an opportunity to thumb through First Language Lessons Level 3. I thought I would share with you my review on this curriculum. *Ü*

Brief introduction:

Towards the end of last school year, I was all lined up to use Growing With Grammar (GWG) for Holly's 3rd Grade language arts curriculum. I used GWG last year with Timmy and LOVED it. But then Jessie Wise just published a continuation for First Language Lessons ( FLL) 1/2. Since we used FLL 1/2 for 1st and 2nd grade, I started to wonder if I shouldn't continue with FLL series and use FLL 3 this school year.

I asked our local school supply company to order the book so I could see it in hand before I spent near $50 on a new language curriculum when I already had GWG 3 purchased.

Pro's:

(1) Love the narrative format. Teacher says this... Student responds with this...

(2) Poetry is included.

(3) Oral Language exercises are included.

(4) Diagramming

(5) I like the student pages they use for dictionary skills.

Con's:

(1) Extremely teacher directed. The child can't complete the workbook pages without a parent instructing them on what needs to be accomplished for each exercise. There are no instructions in the student workbook.

Just so you know, I have no problem reading the lesson to/with my children and helping them when they need help with their assignment. But I like being able to read the lesson with them, and then give them the opportunity to complete the assignments on their own. Of course they are always welcome to ask me questions if they get stuck, etc. With homeschooling 4 children, this extra step in implementing a curriculum is a big negative for me.

(2) To much additional copywork for my children. Since we do copywork with other studies &/or use History Scribe Copy Books, it would be overkill for my 3rd grader.

(3) The price...

Summing it all up:

It is a wonderful looking program and if you & your child like the format of FFL 1/2, then you might enjoy this book too. *Ü*

My thoughts are... I can do poetry on our own. I already own a few poetry books and some of our other curriculum includes poetry relating to a particular topic. For oral language exercises I could use Abeka Oral Language Exercises, which I just so happen to own already. *Ü* And GWG covers dictionary skills, just not with those neat pages that FLL 3 has.

I also don't know when FFL 4 will be out. Since FLL 1/2 was out for a few years before FLL 3 came out, I would much rather go into GWG 3 and stick with 1 curriculum for language arts.

I must... I must... I must stop the curriculum hoping! Therefore, we will be using GWG this year for 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade! *Ü* GWG doesn't have grade levels 6-8 done yet, but they have been wonderful about getting at least 1 level done each school year. If they had 7, we would use that for Jessica, just because I like it so much. *Ü*

Are You New To Lapbooking?

Have you wondered how to lapbook, what to put in your lapbook, what in the WORLD is a lapbook? Here is a little information to help you understand what lapbooking is and how to get started.

First I would highly recommend to look at some free ones online or purchase 1 or 2 that is already put together for you. They come in a down loadable PDF version. These also come with a research guide, vocab, booklets already made for you, and more. Once you actually "see" in hand, it make so much more sense.

Here are some likes to freebies:

Hands of a Child Theme this quarter is Mary Cassatt an American painter from the late 1800's.

Knowledge Box Central current freebie is Respected American Women .

Live and Learn Press as a couple freebies at the site. And if you join Live and Learn's yahoo group, do a search for "free" and there will be a user name and password provided by them so you can go to their web site and access more freebies, like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Fourth of July, and a couple others.

Homeschool Helper Online has any different types of lapbook on all sorts of subject, from State Studies, Boston Tea Party, Country Studies, and more.

Also, HomeschooleStore comes out with free lapbooks from different companies every few weeks. Check the site every Monday and see what the current freebie is.

In addition to that, there are some wonderful lapbooking videos online for you to watch to get a better grasp on how to assembly a lapbook.

Youtube lapbooking video. This explains the why to lapbooking and shows many examples of lapbooks that a mom has used with her children. It is a wonderful video.

Live and Learn Movies that show you how to create those many different types of fold to add to your lapbook.

Also check out the side bar on my blog page for addition lapbooking helps.

I will be posting more on the lapbooking topic in the near future, so please stay tuned!

(Tobin's Lab is the creator of the term Lap book)

Jessica's 7th Grade Curriculum 2007-2008

Here is the curriculum we are planning on using with Jessica this year:

* Above is Lightning Literature7. I really think we will enjoy this curriculum. I think between this curr. and Latin that we really won't need to focus on a full grammar/language course. She will be getting lots of grammar and language in both those curriculum's.

* The orange book is Wordly Wise. We will be moving onto the next book soon. She really doesn't need to use this book, but she enjoys vocabulary so much, she doesn't want to stop using this book. So for now, we will let her continue using it.

* One of her research guides for grammar is The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. It is very easy to use and will be a great guide to look up something quickly.

* Apples: Daily Spelling Drill for Secondary Students will be her spelling curriculum. She will do 1 page a day as a basic review for spelling.

* She will also be taking Home2Teach online writing course. I couldn't recommend the course highly enough. This is our 2nd year using them and Jessica's writing has improved greatly. I like the fact that they work directly with my daughter with correcting any errors in her writing. Teaching is NOT left up to me. And there is a bonus... I too am learning from this class!

* We just LOVE Teaching Textbooks! She is 1/2 way through the book. Once she has completed this book, she will move onto pre-algebra. It is very easy to use, educational, and so much fun! It is the perfect curriculum for a parent that struggles with upper math, as it walks through each problem, step by step.

* My GREAT find for this year is Happy Scribe copybooks . I purchased the cd that has all their copybooks on 1 cd. Some of the titles include: Lord of the Rings, Military Forces, Pets, video games, flowers, birds, and so much more... I will let the kids pick out which topic the will like to work on, print the sheets out that go with the topic, and let them have fun! They are excited to use these this year too.

* Mystery of History... Well I don't know what to say about this one... Since we started Time Travelers Colonial Life study this summer, I may drop MOH this year and continue with these studies for the upcoming year, and do some of their Hands-On History Activity Paks. I still haven't made up my mind, but at least I have a little while until we start up school on 9-10-07. *Ü*

* Something I wanted to do with Jessica last year was Washington State History from State History from a Christian Perspective. We didn't get around to it. So I will keep it with her school work crate, just in case we get the chance to work on it this year. This is a wonderful course that I used at our co-op last year. It is laid out with different schedules for you to use; 10 day, 1/2 year, or a full year course.

* The curriculum Jessica is really excited about this year is... Latin in the Christian Trivium. She will be taking this class at co-op and the co-authors daughter is her teacher! What a blessing this is for us! I say us because... I don't feel confident enough to teach Latin on my own. *Ü*

* Jessica will also do Atelier Art at home and will take a class called: "That's in the Bible" at co-op. We will also participate in another co-op doing our science: Apologia Zoology 1. Something else I want to add for all the kids is Home Economics for Home Schoolers. We would do this 1 day each week. And a friend of mine may teach a sewing class for kids. If that happens, it would be every other week. I can definitely handle that. *Ü*

When we break it down here is how it looks:

Math: Teaching Textbooks 7

Science: Apologia Zoology 1

History: Mystery of History or Time Travelers CD's

Art: Atelier Art

Literature: Lightning Lit & Comp 7

Bible: That's in the Bible

Language: Apples Spelling, Wordly Wise, Happy Scribe, Home2Teach

Foreign Language: Latin in the Christian Trivium

PE: Swimming

Home Ec: Home Economics for Home Schoolers and possibly

a sewing class to boot!

Extra: Washington State History, Lapbooks, and other reading material

I will post our schedules when we get closer to starting school next month.

One child done...3 more to go...

Time Travelers Colonial Life: Day 5

Today we did Lesson 7: Colonial Food & Lesson 8: Family Life

In these lessons we talked about how the colonist preserved the food they gathered from farming and/or hunting. They would need to preserve it in order to have food for the winter months.

We also learned about the different types of cookware you would find in a colonial kitchen. I thank God for the modern day convinces we have today!

One of the vegetables they would serve is pease porridge. I never tied the nursery rhyme to what it actually meant. They would warm it up and serve it hot. They would let it cool by the night fire and in the morning they would have it cold; hence the phrase "Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold." Pease porridge was served for SEVERAL days at a colonist home; hence "9 days old." YUCK! The kids didn't find that appealing either.

One of the activities was to put together "A Book of Goode Cookery." This is filled will all sorts of recipes from the colonial era. I made Bread Pudding during class, letting the kids see the mixing process. I put in the oven and 50 min later I pulled out a yummy smelling treat! It tasted as good as it smelled!



One of the kids homework assignments was to make something from the cookbook. My kids wanted Chicken Pot Pie. Below are some pictures of Jessica making the pie.

Over the next few co-op days, different families brought in different things they made from the cookbook. I will post pictures and details when we get to those days. *Ü*

Another fun thing we did was have a honey tasting event! Another mom purchased a variety of honey, bee pollen (yes, you read correctly, bee pollen that is gathered on their little legs) honey sticks, and honey candy! The kids loved tasting all different types of honey. We found the darker the honey, the more bitter it tasted. The types of honey's we had here were: Colver (2 types: 1 from the store & one from a bee keeper), Raspberry, Wildflower, Blackberry, & Sunflower. They even tasted the bee pollen, which BTW didn't get the Best Taste Award. *Ü* Enjoy the pictures below of our honey taste test.

After our taste test, we created another booklet for our lapbook titled "BEES". Nope it wasn't all about the insects, but it was about different types of "BEES: the colonists would participate in. For each "BEE", the colonists would gather together and help each other with what ever task needed to be completed. There were Apple Pulling Bees, Threshing Bees, Husking Bees, & many other type of "BEES".

Time Travelers Colonial Life: Day 4

What fun we had learning about different types of clothing the colonist wore. One thing for sure is that we dress very differently in our time era. I for one am happy for that! I couldn't imagine wearing all those layers of clothing! Or having to wear anything made with bones. OUCH!

For our lapbooking project the kids made layered clothing booklets using transparency film. This was a LOT of work, but the kids kept a good attitude and created a wonderful finished product. Here are some samples of what they did:



We learned where the colonist got the materials to make their clothing: sheep & plants. How they dyed them different colors using natural dyes found all around them: bark, coffee, & berries to name a few.

Prior to our co-op day I dyed several types of material by boiling them in items a colonist might use. I chose carrots, bark, coffee, & leaves. I did this prior to our gathering because I didn't want to have to wait for the materials to dry in order for us to do our activity for the day. But I did do a mock boiling/dying activity so the kids could see the whole process from start to finish.

After co-op another mom dyed pieces of material in blueberries and blackberries! We ended up with a wide variety of colored material for the kids to use on their notebooking page and lapbooking booklet. They turned out wonderful!

We also created a lapbook about the flax plant and learned about how they would make clothing material all from a plant.



We also reviewed previous lesson by playing our trivia game, reviewed vocabulary, and talked about our copywork.

NEED A HOMESCHOOL NAME?

I struggled for years... yes, literally years at what to call our homeschool. I found this great site that listed a lot of choices from other homeschoolers; how they choose their name, reasons for choosing their name, etc.

After visiting the "Naming Your Homeschool" article, I sat down with the kids, gave them choices, asked them what they would like our school name to be etc. It didn't take long to come up with a winner! The kids love our school name!

And here is a link to my blog that shares about how we came up with our name:

JETIHOJA ACADEMY and how we came up with our name.

JoAnn Fabrics Teacher Discount Cards

Now is the time to sign up for your Teacher Discount Card.

After trying to get a new one for this school year and not being able to because they said I was already registered, I finally succeeded today!

Today I received an email saying the 2007/2008 cards are available for registration. Right away I went and signed up and registration process worked just fine this time. I will be getting my card in the mail soon and will be saving 15% when I make my purchases at JoAnn's! YEAH!!!!

You can read more about PEAH's by reading here: PEAH's eSaving Bulletin

Just wanted to pass the information on to other homeschoolers out there! *Ü*

Take the Citizenship Quiz

For our Time Travelers Colonial Life study, I needed to do a little research on Williamsburg (this is for an activity in L14). I went to a site that lead me to this neat quiz. In all honesty, I didn't know how well I would do, but took it anyway. I am glad to say I passed...*Ü*

Now it is your turn to take the quiz:

Citizenship Quiz

Here are my results:

Your score is 70. Congratulations, you qualify to be a Untied States Citizen.


If you don't mind, please post your results to this thread.

Time Travelers Colonial Life: Day 3

We are on doing lesson 4 & 5 today (lesson 5 is a project day, a.k.a. make up day for projects you aren't able to cover all week long). Every 5th day is a project day, therefore there isn't a particular assignment to read or activity to do . In the future I will not be posting about lesson 10, 15, or 20. I will post about lesson 25, as this will be our Colonial Spree (a.k.a. end of study family event).

On to what we learned on Day 3:

We began our study by playing a review game with facts from Lessons 1 & 2. We used a tri-fold display board that was plastered with colorful library pocket cards. I put questions and answers on 3x5 cards and placed them randomly in the pockets (I did have extra credit pockets with a little tougher question). The children choose a color pocket and if they answered correctly they got a skittle or M&M. If they choose the extra credit pocket, they received 2 skittles or 2 M&M's. The kids loved it! And it was a wonderful way for us parents to know that they were indeed retaining the information from the lessons.

The Colonial Home- Part 3

We learned about all different types of things you would find in a colonial bedroom, kitchen, parlor, and more...

For the kids the neatest room of all was the... necessary... a.k.a. outhouse! LOL *Ü* Oh you should have seen the little girls face that was reading this section when she discovered what a necessary was. It was priceless! She didn't want to read and was trying to get another child to read, but her mom told her it was her turn, so she read. When she came to the part where it explained what it was she said something along the lines of "and you choose "ME" to read this..." Oh it was so funny. We learned about the different things they did in order to take care of the "special" room.

After we read, the kids set out to make their rope beds. We used Corn husks (found in the Mexican section of a grocery store) and they worked wonderfully. Just make sure they don't put to many in, or the bed will be way to puffy. The kids got to hammer, sew, and fill their beds. They turned fantastic.

At the end of class, I sent home the vocabulary cards, along with the definitions for them to complete before the next class time.

Time Travelers Colonial Life: Day 2

This day we learned many interesting facts about "The Colonial Home"; from arriving to America, clearing their land, to building their home, and taking care of the farm.

We learned about the meaning behind "Strong fences make good neighbors." The kids came up with all sorts of idea's. Here are a few of their thoughts:

1. Other children wouldn't play on another persons property.

2. The farm animals wouldn't run away.

And my favorite:

3. The animals wouldn't go poop in the neighbors yard.

Another topic of study was about different things you could find on a Colonial Farm. The kids were amazed at all the different types of tools they had back then. There are many graphics of pictures provided for the lapbooking project.

We also learned about the many different styles of homes colonist would build. The fact I found most interesting was about "The Brick House." I often wondered why houses are so narrow on the east coast. Well way back when, folks were taxed based on the length of the front footage of the house. Amazing! We also made 4 wonderful pop-up house booklets that will be placed in the kids lapbook at the end of the study!

QUIZ: What Dog Breed Would You Be?

discover your dog breed @ quiz meme

What type of doggie are you? I didn't know which one I would end up being.... and I don't know if I am happy about this one... *Ü* But it sure is a cute doggie.

Jessica & Jake are in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

If you get this magazine, The Old Schoolhouse, 2 of my children are on page 12 of Summer 2007 issue.

On page 12, look at the ad for "In the Hands of a Child", and the top picture is Jessica holding Extreme Weather Lapbook and Jake is in the one on the left holding In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb lapbook.

How neat is that!

Another neat tidbit is that all our children are pictured in In the Hands of a Child Template Pack that they recently was released. This is a wonderful "MUST HAVE" blank template kit for lapbooking.

Here is where the kids are pictured within the Template Pack pdf:

Timmy on page 4 (this is also the included in the sample listed at their website) & page 121

Jake page 4 (top right)

Jessica page 94 (top left)

Holly page 116

Time Travelers Colonial Life: Day 1

Oh, where to start... All I can say is that this is one of the BEST homeschool products I have ever purchased in all 13 years of homeschooling. Amy Pak's Time Travelers Collection is a MUST HAVE for all homeschooling families.

BTW, she also has wonderful timeline figures, and a "must have" placement guide for your timeline books. I refer to the suggested placement guide quite often while doing our timeline's and/or memory binders with Mystery of History. But information about that curriculum will be saved for another thread. *Ü*

Now back to the main topic... Our Time Travelers Colonial Life Study: Summer 2007.

Our family is so blessed to have 3 other families join us this for this study; for a total of 8 kids (age range of 6 to 13 years old) participating in our summer co-op.

My goal is to post highlights from each day we have gathered together, along with pictures of all the fun things we do during co-op time.

Here are the highlights from Day 1 (Lesson 1):

We learned about how the American colonies began; The Lost Colony & Jamestown, The First Thirteen Colonies, Indentured servants & Slaves.

The Children also did an archaeological dig where the kids unearthed many neat items such as, buttons, nails, bugs, rings, beads, coins, and so much more (see slide show below). They placed all their items in their Archaeological Journal and made notes as to which layer it was found in, observations, and hints to the past. They also created a notebooking page with artifact pictures from George Washington's boyhood home: Ferry Farm.

With each lesson they also have copywork (aka: handwriting practice) to do. This includes one of George Washington's Rules of Civility (not all of these, but ones that are suggested within the study) & a bible verse.

W.H.O. Convention 2007 : Lapbook'in for In the Hands of a Child

This year I was honored with the opportunity to represent In The Hands of a Child at our state homeschooling convention: Washington Homeschooler's Organization . My dear friend, Pam, was an "above and beyond friend", and joined me for this event. I was also lucky to have some helpers; (L to R) Bethany, Holly, Abbey, & Jessica.

It was wonderful talking with other homeschoolers and sharing my love of lapbooking with them. I can't wait for next year!

Taco Pie

Just had to pass this AWESOME recipe on that we tried last night. It was very easy to make and everyone loved it! *Ü* BTW, this didn't only get thumbs up from the kids in our family, but thumbs up from children from 4 other families! I am sure you children will enjoy it too!!!

Taco Pie

1 (8 oz) package refrigerated crescent rolls (I used 2 and used a 9x13 & a 11x7 pan)
1 pound ground beef (I used a little over 2 pounds)
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 (16 oz) container sour cream ( I used about 1 1/2 containers)
8 ounce shredded Mexican style cheese blend
1 (14.5 oz) package crushed tortilla chips (I didn't measure this, I only crushed up a few @ a
time until I completely covered the top of the pie)

I also added a can of refried beans; which I spread on the baked crescent rolls before I began layering the ingredients.

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F
2. Lay crescent dough flat on the bottom of the baking dish and bake according to the package directions.
3. Meanwhile, brown the ground beef (I added a little crushed garlic to the meat) in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the taco seasoning and stir together well. When dough is done, remove from oven and place meat mixture on top (I first layered it with refried beans), then layer the sour cream and cheese, and then top off with the crushed nacho chips.
4. Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 min, or until cheese has melted.

I also provide chopped up lettuce & tomato's, as well as some salsa to put on top of the pie. This was served with Mexican Rice.

The next time I make this dish, I will take a picture and post it here too. *Ü*

**I originally found this recipe at http://www.allrecipes.com/ , but I made some changes to our liking **