Collage Friday ~ A Week at Hogwarts School

Our little homeschool is enjoying exploring the world of Hogwarts School and Harry Potter this week. Before I go into what our curriculum is for the week, I want to express my feelings about Harry Potter. I know some Christians feel that all things about Harry Potter are evil. I strongly disagree. I have read all the books (more than once) and seen all of the movies (in fact, we own all of them). Our oldest son read each of the books as they came out and "grew up" with Harry Potter, since he was the same age as the character as each book was released. Our girls have heard the first two books and our younger son has read all of the books with a parent. They have all seen the first two movies. In my opinion, Harry Potter is a good role model. He is brave, sincere, fights for justice, has a deep understanding of good vs. evil, is filled with love, and willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Whether he is helping a house elf escape slavery or protecting a stone from falling into the hands of a greedy wizard who would do harm with it, he always comes out on the side of justice and good. His friendships are filled with loyalty and kindness. He is a leader, but never cruel, selfish or greedy. For all of these reasons and many more, I see Harry Potter as a positive influence. You are welcome to disagree with me, but please keep your comments polite.

Now on with the fun ~

We opened Hogwarts school with each child taking the Hogwarts Sorting Hat Test to see to which house they belonged.  All of our children were very worried they might get into Slytherin (considered the house that sometimes produces bad wizards).  They had nothing to worry about.  They all came out Hufflepuff (known to produce hard-working students and loyal friends).  They then sat with the sorting hat on their heads to hear the official announcement of their placement.  The sorting hat told each child their character traits and why they were being placed in Hufflepuff.

We then had an English feast of Bangers and Mash with watermelon on the side.

Then next morning it was time to start our lessons.  Each day we concentrated on a different wizard class, except potions (chemistry) which my dear husband has taught every night.  Each day began with Muggle studies (math, language arts, and geography/cultural studies of England).  Then we moved onto our wizard study of the day.  On the first day we studied Defense Against the Dark Arts. The kids and I reviewed stranger danger, some child-friendly self-defense skills (yell, run, tell someone), and how to maintain a safe distance between them and a stranger.  We then watched some You Tube videos and discussed telephone safety, 911 and basic first aid.  Then the kids got to have a wizard duel with silly string.

On Tuesday, Grandma came as Professor Sprout and taught Herbology.  She taught us how to make a fairy garden.  It came out so cute and will give the children hours of play this summer.  We planted herbs, moss and a strawberry plant.  Each child has an elf or fairy to play with in the garden.

On Wednesday, Tim took on the role of Hagrid and taught the kids a class called the Care of Magical Creatures.  He concentrated on teaching that dragons were invented to explain the many dinosaur fossils that were being found in the Middle Ages.  He then read to them Stone Girl, Bone Girl, which is a great book about Mary Anning (a fossil hunter in the early 1800's in England).  They looked at several more books about Mary Anning and dragons.  He showed them a few videos on YouTube about Komodo dragons (a kind of lizard).  Then he made dragon's breath with them. This is made by touching a 9 volt battery to steel wool.

Tim also is helping the kids hatch and raise sea monkeys.  They are so tiny right now that you cannot see them without a magnifying glass. However, they seem healthy and are swimming around a lot.

On Thursday, I taught the kids Transfiguration.  First, we defined transfiguration, defined as a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state.  We then changed little plastic capsules into sponges by placing them into water. This was a fun activity and was also our sensory bucket for the week.

We then pulled out our dinosaur plant and woke it up.  It can "sleep" for up to fifty years.  All you have to do is put it into water and lava rock and it will wake up and grow within minutes.  We have had this plant for about 12 years.  We take it out of the closet every two or three years and enjoy it for a few weeks before storing it away again.  Now, that is my kind of plant!  It will grow so big that it will overflow the bowl over the next few days.  However, it will shrink down to it's original size once it has no more water.

We finished off transfiguration by going to a friend's house who has a microwave.  We do not own one.  We transformed a cake of Ivory soap into a cloud of soap.  This is so amazing to watch!  You put the Ivory soap on a plate in the microwave and set the timer for two minutes.  We had to do this experiment a few times with several cakes of soap so that everyone could stand in front of the microwave window to watch. 

We had a wonderful time in Potions class.  My husband pulled out several chemistry sets that we had saved from our oldest son's high school years. Here are some fun pictures of our discoveries.

I will be telling you more about our studies of England and Five in a Row (FIAR) book of the week in another post.  I am joining Homegrown Learners.  Okay!  

Blessings, Dawn

Muffin Tin Monday ~ Fun With Literature

We have enjoyed several books on tape in the car lately.  I wanted to do something hands on to go along with our listening and decided to make a muffin tin to go along with each book.  Our first book was How to Eat Fried Worms.  This book truly speaks to a boy's heart.  LOL!  My youngest son LOVED this book.  I was fortunate to find organic gummy worms that were free of corn (he is allergic to corn). The muffin tin had potato chips, yogurt, green beans, cheese cubes and a turkey meatball.  I added gummy worms to each section.

The kids enjoyed the fried worms muffin tin, so I went on and made one for Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.  This is such a wonderful and practical story about a wise woman who helps all of the mothers in the town train up their wayward kids. Each chapter covers a different fault that is plaguing a child.  I filled each muffin space with a food reminding the kids of each chapter in the book.

Top row of tin~

• Chocolate coconut milk to represent the chapter on kids who never want to go to bed.
• Little tiny cheese cubes to represent the chapter on kids who are small bite takers and never finish their meals.
• Hot dogs and pickles on a stick represent the kids who never clean their rooms and need their food lifted up to their bedroom windows on a pitch fork (because they are trapped in their messy rooms).

Bottom row of tin~

• A root beer float to represent the sweetness that comes when siblings stop fighting all the time.
• Sunflower seeds that represent the parrot that taught children to stop talking back to their parents.
• A radish to represent what could happen to kids who never take a bath.  (They just might get dirty enough to grow radishes on.)
• Finished off with a label that read, "Don't Touch (insert child's name) Food", to represent the selfish children who never share.

The kids really enjoyed this activity.  I will use this for more books on tape.  I am joining Muffin Tin Monday.


Blessings, Dawn

Summer Bucket List 2012

Summer is almost here!  We finish up our 2011-2012 school year just before Memorial Day weekend. We are busy making our bucket list.  I told them that they could each come up with as many ideas as they wanted, but only one idea from each child could be a day trip or be something that would cost our family no more than $50. We are doing some different things this year.  The biggest change is that, in lieu of a family vacation, the kids are going to have one week of day camp each.  I found a very small camp with people I really trust.  This will be their very first taste of camp.  I hope it will be a wonderful experience for them.

Our "Will Attempt To Do" Bucket List

• Go to pool and pool and pool -- LOL
• Go to the lake
• Go to a nearby water park we've never visited
• Go to Splashville
• Have a water balloon fight
• Go fishing
• Wander in a mountain stream
• Play Ping Pong
• Camp in a tent
• Blow bubbles
• Go to Lego Discovery Center in Atlanta
• Have play dates with friends
• Mom and Dad go to see Wicked
• Maintain veggie garden
• Go roller skating
• Paint bathroom
• Paint interior doors
• Finish another side of yard with 6 ft fencing
• Go to July 4 fireworks
• Attend summer day camp
• Catch fireflies
• Label and organize the books in our home library
• Climb a mountain
• Paint and build more on our tree house
• Pick blueberries
• Tour our city on a trolley
• Learn how to make slides for our microscope
• Paint trim in bedroom
• Read lots of books ~ kids and Mom
• Attend library program

Whew!  It sounds like it is going to be a FUN and BUSY summer!  I am looking forward to it.  Do you see the theme of water in our lives?  In addition to all of this fun, we will continue with some schooling.  The kids will do math each day, maintain summer journals and READ! 


Blessings, Dawn

Science Party!

A few months ago, my kids won first prize for their join project for The Festival of Knowledge.  The prize was a science party put on by Hightouch Hightech.  This organization exposes children to the world of science in a very exciting way!  They had several choices of parties.  We decided to go with the Sizzilin' Science party that had a variety of experiments.  Trying to be more frugal, we are not having birthday parties (outside the family) for the children this year.  So instead we threw an "end of the year" party for the kids.  Although school is not quite out yet, this is when Hightouch Hightech had an opening.  Each could invite a few friends.  The kids started off making space mud.  Several of them did not want to touch the space mud because it was so sticky.

Next, they made volcanoes using a baking soda slurry.  I never made the baking soda into a slurry before.  It sure made for an exciting explosion!

I didn't think the kids could get anymore excited.  However, the scientist pulled out the Hair Raising static electricity machine.  Oh my, were they excited.  My pictures do not really show how much their hair stood up.

If that was not exciting enough, they moved onto launching water rockets. These rockets really took off. One went all the way over our neighbor's house and into their driveway.

The kids who weren't helping to put off the rockets enjoyed standing in the splash zone.  You can see the spray of water in one of the pictures.  After launching several rockets, the kids did a winding down activity.  They enjoyed playing with tornado bottles.

What a fun party!  Plus, its low cost made it even more fantastic -- a total of $40, including balloons, food (water and juice bottles, watermelon, chips, and fruit roll ups), and party favors (bubbles with a lollipop attached).

One funny ~ We have always had mixed age and gender parties with all of the kids playing together.  However, this time the boys and girls separated.  The girls went out on the trampoline and played Duck, Duck, Goose and the boys played with Legos.  I guess they are growing up.  I better enjoy it while this stage lasts.  LOL!

I am joining Science Sunday.

Blessings, Dawn

A Day in the Life ~ April

The alarm was not a welcome sound this morning after a long night with a vomiting dog and a child having nightmares.  Alas, I got up at 6:30 anyway.  For a little while it was just me and my buddy, Boomer.  This is one food motivated dog.  With food in my hands, he won't leave my side.  LOL

Before long, Tom Sawyer arrived and immediately started building one of his Lego birthday sets.  He received several sets over the weekend.  I really need to look into organizing the Legos.  We are drowning in Legos!   This is a real passion for Tom Sawyer.  If anyone has suggestions on organizing Legos, I'd love to know them.

Since the girls were still asleep and Timothy was walking Boomer, I decided to finish painting the bookcase I got off of Freecycle last week.  It was a gross pink.  However, it is SEVEN feet tall and loaded with shelf space.  Did I mention that it is real wood?!  To add to the wonderfulness of this find, it was only a half mile away, and Tim and I were able to fit it into the van.  I like it much better as soft white, some paint my Mom had.  Totally FREE!

At 8:30 the last of the children woke up and I finished up the bookcase so I could concentrate on getting ready for our lessons.  The kids got themselves ready for the day and ate breakfast while watching Curious George and the Cosby Show.

At 9:00 am we started our lessons.  For the next two hours the kids rotated through Teaching Textbooks (math), our newest sensory box (occupational therapy), choice of reading with me or library book independent reading, independent chores (life skills), Follow the Directions workbooks (language arts and life skills) and writing a good paragraph from their mind maps (language arts).  I worked one-on-one with whatever child was currently doing writing or reading.  Our sensory bucket's theme for May is trains and magnets.  I dyed rock salt as black as I could get it to represent coal.  Then I added all of our magnets, some different types of metal (magnetic and non-magnetic), a Thomas the Tank crane that can pick up metal, and a harmonica.

We are really working on quality work around here.  Whether it be writing a paragraph or doing the dishes, the quality must meet my standards.  This means slowing down and expecting less quantity.  For Goldilocks there is the additional issue of learning how to use just enough of cleaning products.  She has a tendency to use a huge amount of cleaning supplies if she is unsupervised.  I will be doing a blog entry soon about living with FASD and RAD.  In some ways, this year has been filled with steps forward for her, and in other ways she seems to be spinning her wheels.

By 11:00 am everyone was ready for a break, including me.  The kids went back to the endless play of Legos that is going on around here.  I folded laundry, checked the blog, called a friend about a play we are seeing later in the week, and talked to my Mom.  At noon, we had lunch and did a 10 minute sweep.  We then dropped off Tim at college.  He goes to a Traumatic Brain Injury program at the community college three afternoons a week.  Since we were out on the road, we used our free birthday and half-birthday tokens at Chuck E Cheese.

It only took the kids about 20 minutes to spend all of their tokens and trade in their tickets for prizes.  We headed for the hardware store to buy some vegetable plants.  On our way, we talked about gambling and how Chuck E Cheese games were fun, but when you run out of tokens, you are done (life skills).  We got home at 2:15 pm and prepared the garden for planting.  We only planted three tomato plants, a cucumber plant, some herbs, and a bell pepper plant.  I hope to add onions for this rotation. After this crop is done, I will plant potatoes and zucchini.  Our raspberries are spreading like crazy.  I am so happy about that.  Some of the blueberry bushes look okay (not great), too (life skills).

We might build another raised bed for strawberries.  We will have to see if funds and time allow.
After working in the little garden, everyone wanted ice cream and popsicles.  While the kids ate, I read Guns What You Need to Know, which was suggested in our Little House on the Prairie unit study (life skills).  We then solved three more mysteries in our Art Fraud Detective book (art).  The kids are loving this book.  I thought it would take us the rest of the year to complete it.  However, I think we will be done with it this week.

It was now time to pick up Tim.  We picked him up and came home.  We took a few minutes to put the house to rights.  Then the kids had about 20 minutes of free time before Tom Sawyer was due at dance class.  They all played or watched the others play on the Wii.
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It is now 6:30 pm.  Tim is at fencing class and Tom Sawyer is home from dance (physical education,  theater, and social).  The girls are puttering in the gardens with Dad, and the day is winding down.  It is good.

Blessings, Dawn

School Daze

Another week gone!  I can't believe we only have three more weeks of official school left for the year.  We are busy having lots of adventures and winding up this school year.  I really need to get our summer planned.  Here are the highlights in the past few days.

• I am trying to give Tom Sawyer lots of sensory fun.  He enjoyed doing his spelling words with shaving cream this week.  He also enjoyed schooling with his rat, Shade, in his lap.
• We went to the local university and explored all of the telescopes they had on display.  We got to view the sun and look at sun spots.  Mr. Moon was also there visiting with all of the kids.
• We finally made it to the gem mine and did some mining (to go with our Laura Ingalls and gold mining studies).  The kids found lots of quartz, blood stone, Dalmatian jasper and sodalite.
• We are loving all of the Lego worksheets from Milk and Cookies.  Tom Sawyer even enjoyed the copy work sheets.

In addition to all of this, we finished our Explode the Code books, completed Little House on the Prairie (blog entry coming soon), attended the last library reading corner for the school year, learned three new songs from our Laura Ingalls Wilder Musical Memories CD, and the kids read lots of library books.

Please join Homegrown Learners for more great collage wrap-ups.

Blessings, Dawn

How We Do a Picture Study

A friend asked me almost a month ago how we study a picture.  I am sorry it took me so long to reply.   Here is an example using Norman Rockwell's illustration, The Discovery.  I think Norman Rockwell is an excellent first choice for picture studies, because so many of his illustrations are about children and home life.  It is easy for children to identify with the pictures.

Settle down with the kids and look at a large print of the piece of artwork you are studying. Then ask, "What do you see in this picture?"  Some responses my kids gave to this picture were ~

• "The boy looks shocked."
• "I don't like the green carpet."
• "He is making a mess."
• "He should not be in his Dad's drawer."
• "Why are there marbles (actually moth balls) on the floor?"
• "I guess he knows Santa isn't real now."

Then I would ask for more details, such as, with this illustration, whether the bedroom was on a first or second floor (stairwell off in the distance) or how they knew it was the father's dresser (pipe on top of men's dresser).  If they were having trouble getting into a study, I may ask them to describe the picture to me as if I were blind.  Sometimes, I get the most amazing information this way!


I often leave a picture up for a few days after our first look at it and then do it again.  The second time we sit down to discuss it, we often start creating stories about the picture.  My kids have some wild imaginations!  However, they tend to remember tiny details.  For example, just now, long after this picture study, my son looked over my shoulder and reminded me that I STILL have not gotten moth falls for them to smell.  LOL!


Some of my favorite resources for learning how to do a guided picture study are  listed below.


The book, Discover Great Paintings, asks great questions and pulls details out of the picture so a young child can easily see them.

Once children are more experienced in looking at art, I find The Art Fraud and The Great Art Scandal to be wonderful adventure stories to do with the kids.  Each book has about 35 famous paintings to study and has wonderful mysteries to solve.  We will be working our way through The Art Fraud for the rest of this school year.

For the older student, Great Artists Explained is a great book to learn more about picture study and artists.  I used this book when my oldest son was over  12.

I suggest finding 8x10 prints or larger of the paintings you are studying.  I am very pleased with the Rizzoli Art Series.  The prints are large and they cover many of the most famous paintings from a particular artist.  Unfortunately they are expensive on Amazon.  So I have kept an eye out for them at used books sales and homeschool stores and found them for much less. 

Blessings, Dawn