Viking Bread

Story of the World Cooking Project

I didn't really supervise their activity. I only came in to the kitchen to snap photos and save them from a sticky mess. 
I let them know they should have floured their hands and boards before kneading. They had quite a sticky mess on their hands! I'm sure you can picture it because I forgot to grab the camera. 
I formed the bread for them and threw it onto the baking sheet so they wouldn't become frustrated. I helped a little but it was mostly all them. From reading the recipe, finding the ingredients, to mixing and setting the oven and cleaning up. 

Eagle said he could see why the vikings ate this bread because it was very filling.
I agree, it was heavy. With a mild baking soda flavour to it. haha *wink*

They ate their bread with leftover meat sauce from a spaghetti dinner a few nights back.
Talking like vikings throughout lunch was just a given. 
Think of How To Train a Dragon
"ya"
"ie"
"lad"
Funny stuff!


The boys did a great job! I know they're proud of their accomplishments.

With this activity I can check off

• History
• Life Skills
• Character (they argued twice)
• and Lunch!

The Book

The Activity Book

Happy Home Schooling, 

Mo

Helpful Tip for Your Home School

I find our days flow better when things are in the right place, easy to access and of course easy to work with.
Trying to share a book between 2 or more people can be challenging. Especially when most subjects are done together.

Textbook Stand or Cook Book Stand 
(tomato - tomato)

Both boys are sketching in their notebooks pictures of different types of geophytes.

If you don't already own one or even if you do and don't use it for homeschooling, I encourage you to give it a try!

You might not have known how useful a book stand is until you've owned one.
I bought mine in college for my enormous Art History books.

• useful for picture study (similar to an easel).
• reading together, when Zazu and I worked on his reading lessons (How to Teach your Child to read in 100 easy lessons).
• Bible reading
• sharing a book during family work time like in the picture above with our Exploring Creation with Botany book.
• to stand up your iPad when ie: watching a youtube clip on volcanoes erupting. 
• and of course for cooking with your kids so the recipe book doesn't get mucky.

If you ever come across one at a thrift store or garage sale pick it up, it's a handy little item.

This is the one we have

Good Day Friends
MO

Weekly Wrap Up 11

This week was quite simple. For the fact that our school week consisted of only Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Daddy left to go back to work on Tuesday and the rest of the week I’ve been feeling under the weather with a cold.

...booo

No crafts, projects or even much reading aloud.

Just a bit of math, copy work, bible study, latin, scripture memory  and history this week. 

And Mommy napping on the sofa.

1. Mommy getting creative with Alba''''s hair
2. Starfall

 Eagle shot an arrow into the trees and is trying to throw a long piece of wood to retrieve it. He says he's waiting for a really windy day to get the arrow and the long piece of wood down from the tree. haha -boys!

 Alba writing up a storm.

1. New books came in the mail. Yay!
2. Colouring page from history

1. Cheesy spinach goodness
2. Home-made tomato soup

Here's hoping that next week is full of healthy bodies in this house.

Have a relaxing weekend friends,

Mo

This post is linked with

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Hammock Tracks

Homegrown Learners

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

Digital Narrating

Narration is a term used by Charlotte Mason. 

It is basically telling back what you know.

We are fairly new to this practice but I do my best to work it into most of what we do in our learning time.

In the summer when preparing for this coming school year I purchased a digital voice recorder. I initially bought it for creative writing and/or Eagle to get his ideas out verbally.  

One of the problems I find is multi-tasking multiple children's needs throughout the school day. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. It seems that at the moment I need to spend time with Zazu (7) of his narration, Alba requires some TLC, or Eagle needs to run something by me. So using a voice recorder I'm able to kill two birds with one stone. 

Just recently I decided to pull out the recorder to give to Zazu for his narration in history. I just told him to tell back what he could remember from our reading into the recorder. I prompted him a few times to jog his memory (because I knew he knew). He pressed pause when he needed to think and used the recorder quite well, I found. I played it back for him to hear his narration. And as a bonus he finds it fun to use also.

Then I took the digital file and I transcribed it, and popped it into his notebook. He can also add images to it from the web, or drawn and coloured by hand to make it personal. Or of course, leave it as is without any illustrations.

It's been a great tool for Zazu (7) to narrate all on his own. 
As, it's taken the pressure off of him to present what he knows to me. Because sometimes there's an off day and he just needs to get alone with his thoughts.

This is the one we have

Another idea

• An older student could upload the file onto the computer for a multimedia presentation, using an application like Keynote (Apple) or Microsoft's Movie Maker.




Happy (digital) Narrating,
Mo

I THINK I CAN

Chugga Chugga up the track...

I'm writing this in the midst of optimism.

I love these times. I really do feel optimistic. You may wonder why I feel the need to write about feeling optimistic.

Maybe it's the fact that spring is around the corner?
Yes and No.

Actually...

When I look back on the last couple weeks it's been pretty good around here, overall.

The past couple months however, I've been climbing the big hill mountain in hopes to eventually gain enough momentum to cruise along the track with ease.

Climbing up that mountain, I've felt in my case, included setting up house, which affects our home school. This entails forming new habits with new responsibilities. Because of our location out of any town or city, Daddy working away, and the two new dogs. We've got heavy loads on our train cars, but we have to get up that hill to get things done.

Charlotte Mason refers to good habits as following a track. I find, that since moving here it's been quite difficult to lay down train tracks or rails of habits. School days have been more often than not, hard work and don't flow as I wish.

I played this video for my kids (but mostly for me), to teach a little lesson on hard work and to motivate us to keep going even when it seems hard.

We can learn a good example from that little engine.

Alba commented on how the engine helped the other out. Sweet girl.

It does take team work to run through our days. To get things accomplished and enjoy eachother in the process.


Just a thoughtI wonder if The Little Engine knew Charlotte Mason.I Can I Ought I will, ...I Can I Ought I will, ...I Can I Ought I will! CHOO CHOO...!kidding
Press On Dear Mothers,Mo

Weekly Wrap Up 10

some photos from last week...

I mentioned in last weeks wrap-up that we did school on Saturday. I had photos and totally forgot to add them, so here they are.

Alba on Starfall. 
Love, love that site. Fell in love when Zazu was a toddler. It's really a treat for any of my kids to go on a device (computer & iPad). I usually make it "Educational". Eagle gets annoyed when I pull the educational card, but, oh well. I'm the Mom(hee hee).

Our progress in Song School Latin.

And also on each of the boy's cork board they have their phonegram charts up from All About Spelling. I hope to be on our way into the next section next week. We're right at the beginning of Level One but so far, the program is living up to the reviews and hype I've read over the last few years. 




On to This Week...


Monday
Sniffles, Cleaning & Lego

Even though the sniffles have struck two of my kids (Alba&Eagle), Alba and Zazu wanted to help wash puppy drool windows. I caught Alba working hard to get the goobers off. 
My little helper!
  

Currclick Lego Club (Knights & Castles)

Perfect go along with our history study.

Tuesday
I walked into the school room to find Alba and Zazu had already started on the things I set out the night before for school in their pj's. Alba said with a huge smile, "Thank you Mom for making all this for me!" I felt so special when she said that, it made my morning.

Cowboy Zazu 

Another perk to homeschooling! 

Unfortunately the toy gun became a distraction.

Eagle completed the final bridge in his Life of Fred Pre-Algebra with Biology  today! yay!

On to Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics.

credit

If anyone wonders, Zazu is on Chapter 11 in Life of Fred Cats. 
The boys REALLY enjoy Life of Fred! Math has never been the same since we brought that little 5 year old genius into our home! 

Wednesday
Some items on our agenda which were completed.

• Baked Viking Bread for History (family work)

• Botany (family work)

 

• Reading

• Read Ch.2 All-of-a-Kind Family (family read aloud)
• Math
 

Thursday
Considering Daddy came home Thursday, it was a little more relaxed around here. Daddy gathered everyone to pray before school (love when he initiates prayer with the family). Chores and a bit of school work were on the agenda. The boys worked on little chunks of things, like spelling, history and botany. Besides their independent work of math and copywork for the day. 


  
Friday
The kids and Daddy hopped in the vehicle this morning to drive to Edmonton to take in a Star Wars exhibit. It's a 3 hour drive, but for Daddy and the boys it's well worth it. Only 2 cities in Canada are getting this exhibition apparently. I would have liked to tag-along, but Daddy insisted I stay home and have some quality Mommy time. So here I am with you, and the dogs. I hope they bring back a few photos I can share with you.
I did pack a workbook and reading material for  each of the kids for the drive.

Alba is 3 yrs old

Mommy helped make a "letter E" word in the Word Whammer

E Week & 

Wrap up to The Snowy Day

We've had fun reading The Snowy Day many, many times. Alba has worked on most of the activities, and some, well just not yet. The lapbook we made will surely entertain her in the future. I plan to keep it in our cloth storage bin filled with all the other age appropriate activity books, lapbooks, and other fun things for Alba.

Melissa & Doug Cube Pets Puzzle. 

She almost had it, except for two middle pieces. 

I'm noticing that she seems to have more fun with the rice in the Letter sensory bin than anything else I put in. This week I've taken away the rice and the bin, to see if she'd be more inclined to explore the themed items on their own. It seems she's stuck between big girl preschooler and toddler sometimes. So, I'm at a loss when she proclaims she's bored.

One of her favourite tot activity, is sticking tooth picks in a spice container. I set it out for her, but she wasn't interested.

If you read previously, Alba and I planted Touch plant seeds on Valentines. Things weren't looking great in the germination department, so I covered the dirt with plastic wrap last week to help keep the top moist. I think it may have helped. We checked on the Touch Plant seeds today and there's GREEN, wonderful living green! I think I may need to do a little research on our new plant, to insure it's continual growth.

We had a GREAT time painting together!

And food...

Quiche (spinach, shredded potato, cauliflower)

Printables used in this post

ABC's (1+1+1=1's Animal ABC's, Puppets)

A Snowy Day (Homeschool Share and Homeschool Creations)

This post is linked with

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Hammock Tracks

Homegrown Learners

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

Book Review

We had received a book from Booksneeze ages ago. I had my son work through it as part of school. It took months for him to read each chapter and write a summary. I waited for him to finish so I could post his review. Well, since then, we've moved, finally located the book and his narrations and now I am finally posting his review. Unfortunately because it took long long to review, and since Booksneeze has changed some policies, I cannot get into my account to properly post a review.
So I will just go ahead and post the review on here only. Hopefully it helps someone out there and it was a really good experience for my son anyway.

DON’T CHECK YOU’R BRAINS AT THE DOOR

Rating: 8.5    Reason: Some of the chapters I did not do because the content was not suitable for me.

This book is a good book. It talks a lot about questions and ideas that really make you think. Some of the content is for older kids. So I recommend it to everyone thirteen and up. When I was doing this book I would write about the chapter in a notebook. One of my favorite chapters is chapter eight, were it talks about how we always imagine Jesus having white skin when it really was darker because he was jewish. This book is also split into sections. The first is myths about God and the second is myths about Jesus. The third is myths about the Bible, then the resurrection and then Religion and Christianity. The last is about life and happiness.    

Review by Eagle (13)

*We received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Sketch Tuesday

Topic: FREEZING

Eagle (age 13)

Zazu (age 7)

Happy Drawing,

Mo

I Can't Homeschool Because...

A great topic is being discussed over at iHomeschool Network many home schooling moms. 

Reasons not to home educate vary. 

Including:

I Can't Teach High School

We Are a Two Income Family

I Do Not Have a Degree

I Don't Have Patience

and my favourite ...

I Might Kill My Kids

So, throughout the week I'm going to challenge myself to read at least five.

I encourage you to read, if you are considering home schooling, or think us homeschoolers are all wacky and just want a peek into our world, or even, if you are currently home schooling and might need a little encouragement.

Please head on over with just a click on one of the top or bottom graphics.

Good Day Friend,
Mo

 

Week 9 Wrap Up

Monday is quite vague. I do know that all week Eagle has been enamoured by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. 

Tuesday Daddy went back to work
We cleaned and organized the basement most of the day, unpacking more boxes, and setting aside a box for a garage sale in hopes to purge.


Wednesday felt like a Monday. Oh true it was. Slow. Day.
I had to just go with it. Watching for cues from children is sometimes all we can focus on in a day to avoid melt downs or fits, hey Moms?

We started back into History (finally), after a four month hiatus. Zazu is now joining us with our History study. What joy it was to pull out our Story of the World materials. 

I prefer the CD's, the narration is far beyond what I'm capable of. I toyed with the idea of purchasing the CD's for Volume One but waited till Vol. 2 to purchase. I have a bad habit of not completing books or painfully dragging out curricula if it's left to me to read aloud. I know... my secret is out. I read aloud for Geography, Science and Math (Zazu). I chose to let Eagle mostly read SOTW alone in our first years, to give myself a break when I had a toddler and small baby to care for. I realized last year in preparing for Zazu to join Eagle with history this year that the CD's would be wonderful for all of us to listen to. And hopefully complete in a timely fashion.


I took my camera out, after being packed away for over three months. And when I dusted off the nikon this week the objects through the lens looked even more appealing.
It felt so good to click, click, click.

It will be an even more momentous occasion when we make a space for me to work (make art)! It was going to be the loft because of all the natural light. But unfortunately the combination of home school library, a cream leather love seat, light high pile carpet; just doesn't jive well with making art.
It will happen, God willing. We'll figure it out, soon I hope.

Carrying on...

Thursday
The morning was hurried along because of an invite to tea and play that afternoon. A highlight of the morning was teaching Zazu millions place value. It was a hard concept for him. He's got an understanding of hundreds, so hopefully soon what I diagrammed will reach him. This chart reminded me to have him make an entry in his math journal, but his (I'm done) ques were telling me otherwise.

The boys individual studies were completed before I allowed us to leave the house. I found that I needed to remind them of our engagement continually for them to stay on task. I reminded (hopefully not nagging) to get back on task or I would consider leaving them home while I went out for tea. 

The Thursday afternoon get-togethers have been a God sent for me since moving here. It was so refreshing.

Friday 
My plans were to read most of our school time.
I had an interrupted night because Alba was having growing pains in her legs. So the morning started slowly with me out of my room by 8:30 and tried my best to get everyone on task with morning chores without grumpy Mommy making an appearance. The younger two had a bath, while Eagle took the dogs for a walk. I quickly made myself a shake and to the computer I went to photocopy some things for school. All was going well considering our very late start, when the phone rang and it was a girlfriend from where we previously lived. We had a wonderful chat and touched on issues we're struggling with. She means a lot to me! 
I did one of those multitasking things, where I bathed the children and got them dressed all while on the phone without even knowing I did. Similar to driving and forgetting you were driving. It's humorous to think that I really multitasked this morning. 
Unfortunately Zazu and Aylah were enjoying my long conversation with my friend too much, so much that they got into much trouble. I found them throwing clean laundry into the pile of dirty, down the laundry shoot. Then grabbing clean mixed with dirty laundry (whatever they could grab) and carrying it back up the stairs and throwing that pile down, and so on. So, I was obviously now pleased. I then gave the job of re-sorting the laundry to Zazu (lesson learned I hope). When all the commotion ended the digital clock in my room displayed 11:00 am. WOW. Oops. Already time to prepare lunch and we hadn't even began the PLAN for the day. But God's plan is so much better, isn't it?!

Long talk with a friend and character building moments for Mommy and children.

We did eventually get down to our studies, just not in the morning. Afternoon came along after kitchen chores were completed and we listened to our first piece of music by our second composer of our school year, which is Handel. While listening we coloured Latin vocabulary sheets, started math lessons and of course the time sucking bathroom breaks... you know those? When 2-3 kids simultaneously seem to need to use the bathroom, get a drink or "I'm hungry...!".  These afternoon school days seem to just drag on. blah!

Most days I wonder if we get anything accomplished with all the delays and daydreaming out the window. When I reflect back on our week without journalling throughout our days, I'm discouraged with the thought that we are only sitting down to our studies twice a week. With my husbands work schedule the way it is, it can be frustrating to work around and what makes things worse is my lack of focus (distractions even for me, I know) and time management. But I'm learning.

So here's a little joyful listen to Handel to ease the pain.

And...
I ordered books today.
Enter Happy Dance!

Here are a few books from my order.

Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living

Bumblebee at Apple Tree Lane - a Smithsonian's Backyard Book
Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected For Boys and Girls Saturday  Roughly twice a month we have a Saturday school day to complete things which weren't in the week. I longed for a good chunk of time to just sit and read to the kids. It's difficult with our school days to fit it all in plus reading aloud. I wanted Friday to be a day where we got the basics done and read aloud. I had Zazu colour a latin vocab sheet while I read from the Jesus Story Book Bible with Alba cuddled up yawning on my lap, and Eagle typing up a book review on the computer; all in the same room. I also read the first chapter from All-of-a-kind-Family. It was cute the way Eagle interupted to tell me what a "whatnot" was. I didn't have a clue. He said he read it in one of the Little House books.  We finally used our digital recorder for school. I had Zazu record his narration of Chapter 14 from Story of the World vol.2 and we also had some laughs with it. If you listen to the audio book of SOTW, you'll get the following videos.

Alba - 3 yrs old
D WEEK & The Snowy Day















more food...

Happy Homeschooling,

Mo

This post is linked with

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Hammock Tracks

Homegrown Learners

The Homeschool Mother's Journal