Let Them Eat Cake!

We studied the french revolution this week.  I think Maxwell was a little shocked that everyone we studied got their head chopped off.  Even Robespierre himself! I was toying with the idea of making a guillotine for our activity, but this seemed a bit morbid.

We ate french food instead :)

Of course we studied Marie Antoinette. I loved the Usborne books we found this week. One was about Marie Antoinette and one was "The Tale of Two Cities."  Both made excellent books for children's understanding.

We made cake from scratch to celebrate Marie Antoinette.

It was an excellent recipe, so I'm going to record it here for future use: (I got this recipe from the children's book "Elliot bakes a cake")

2 eggs
3/4 c soft butter
1 1/2c sugar
1 c milk
1 tsp vanilla

mix in separate bowl
2 1/4c flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

First separate the eggs into two small bowls.  Next cream the butter.  Now add the sugar.  Stir until smooth.  Beat egg yolks, then mix them with the butter and sugar.  Add the milk and vanilla and stir.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt a little at a time.  Mix until smooth.  Beat the egg whites until they are stiff, then gently fold them into the batter.  Pour the batter into two greased 9 in pans and spread evenly. Bake in a preheated oven at 350*f for 30 min. or until the centers spring up when touched.

We also started one of our co-ops this week.  There are eight families in our group!  But spread out between three houses next door to each other, it was very manageable. I am with the babies/preschoolers for two thirds of the time and teach the Maxwell-aged kids theatre for the other third.  That works great for me!  We're doing the "Standin' Tall" series of plays.  We are starting with "Obedience" and I hope everyone has lots of fun.

The Dentist

This week we went to the dentist----everyday.  Maxwell, Hyrum, and I went to the dentist two times each.  UUUGGGG!  My boys were champs.  But my homeschooling for the week didn't survive the grind of the drill.

I did manage to get Maxwell's reading writing and arithmetic done however.  On one of the days, we cleaned the house, then Maxwell went in for his drilling, he came home to watch some Magic School Bus, took a nap, and then at about 4 pm came to me and said "Okay, I want to do school now." What a blessed boy.

I had grand plans for the Enlightenment to be taught this week.  Now I'm thinking I'll just skip it this time around. I couldn't find any book or resource that any of my boys would be remotely interested in on the subject of the Enlightenment.  And the adult resources I found frustrated me.  I felt like they twisted and turned all the philosopher's lives and writings to fit their own agenda.  Very disappointed.

Having graduated in history, I have very little faith in historians as a whole.  And with that I shall end this post with Voltaire's quotes about historians:

All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon.  ~Voltaire, Jeannot et Colin

Historians are gossips who tease the dead.  ~Voltaire, Scribbling Books

What would constitute useful history?  That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.  ~Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary

School is ON! Pirates and Microscopes---oh yah!

The school year has started in our house!  And what better way to start off history, then PIRATES!

I love teaching my kids.  Maxwell was so excited-"Pirates are REAL?" Yes, with tons of interesting facts to learn. I've been having fun reading all our books on pirates as much as the boys. My hubby said to me "Lindy, you don't often repeat yourself, but you've told me how Blackbeard lit his beard on fire MANY times now."  Ha ha.

To celebrate, we dressed up as pirates and we've also had many treasure hunts. Maxwell wanted to be Blackbeard, and made his beard accordingly.

For science we read "Greg's Microscope" and  did whatever Greg did in the book with our own microscope.  This was a win/fail activity.  It was a win because, besides not seeing our own cells, everything worked out just like it did in the book.  We even saw a single cell live organism that we got from aquarium water!

It was a fail because I got frustrated with Hyrum when he put salt on the microscope and frustrated with Daniel when he broke some cover slides.  Even though it's a nice microscope, Hyrum and Daniel's enthusiasm matter more, and I hope I learned from the situation to "never let a problem to be solved be more important then a person to be loved" as Thomas S Monson says.

My future is up in the air right now, so I have been super hesitant to make any co-ops just yet.  We will have a science club for sure and some other co-op as well, but not yet.

Also, I want to record all the books Maxwell's been listening to recently via audio book:

History Plans for next Semester

Like I've mentioned, this year we'll be studying Modern World History which will cover 1700-present worldwide and 1870s-present for the US (We do an entire year for US history up to post civil war).  Sadly, I was a bit disappointed with the Four Year Plan for history this year.  She hardly gave any activity ideas, and she didn't cover everything I think should be covered, so I had to come up with my own plan:

September
Pirates-----------------------dress up
                                       Treasure hunt
Voltair/Locke--------------game where you can't say certain words without going to "jail"
Isaac Newton--------------physic experiments
Marie Antoinette----------make cake and powder faces
French Revolution--------eat french food
Napoleon-------------------three cornered hats
Les Miserable Revolution-make barricades and "fight"

October
Industrial Rev/Steam engine-homemade steam boat
Trains-----------------------train obstacle course
child labor-----------------act out working in a mine
Jane Austin----------------silhouettes
Telegraph------------------morse code kit
camera----------------------UV paper
Florence Nightingale----toy doctor kits
Victoria--------------------Decoupage box using victorian pictures
Charles Dickens---------decoupage book with character descriptions in it

November
Impressionists------------paint with pointillism or divisionism
Alexander Bell-----------cup telephones
Edison---------------------experiments with lightbulbs
Tesla-----------------------plasma ball
Immigrants----------------statue of liberty crowns
                                     act out ellis Island
Carnegie/Rockefeller---play monopoly
Inventors------------------make inventions out of junk

December
Write brothers-----------paper plane book I have
Henry Ford--------------Car cookie assembly line
Teddy Roosevelt-------teddy grahams and ?
WWI----------------------ummm urg play with barbed wire? jk (ideas wanted)
Charles Lindbergh-----balsa wood planes with rubber band propellers
Amelia Earhart----------blindfold and try to find island to refuel

Ya, I need some tweeking with these ideas.  Any suggestions are welcome!