Secret Messages

This week, we had lots of fun.  We talked about how the patriots sometimes had to write to each other in secret so the British wouldn't know their plans.  We made secret messages out of lemon juice that you can only read when you burn the lemon on the paper (it actually worked!) and then put the messages in envelopes that we sealed with wax.  My boys almost started fires, but we are all burn free.

We also talked about the Declaration of Independence.  We made our own home-made ink and our own quills and we wrote our own declaration of Independence. The first photo is Maxwell squishing berries for the ink.

For Remembrance Day we made origami poppies...and lots of other origami things.  I have to say that Canadians don't do Thanksgiving right, but they sure are better at celebrating remembrance day.

I have started Maxwell journaling his school day.  I had a realization that the most important secular things I should teach my kids consistently are math and writing.  Everything else will come easy enough, but without constant practice, math and writing skills are not acquired. So now I've stepped up a notch on my writing expectations for Maxwell.  I ask him what he has learned that day, write what he has said in a yellow marker, and have him trace over what I wrote with a purple marker.  Gradually I will ween him off tracing, but at this point, he just needs to practice his letters.

Oh we went to the Rigby TV museum for our field trip as well.  Not that new looking, but interesting none the less. (The TV was invented in Rigby Idaho!)