SICK

Cosy quilts and bandaids

I had no idea how fitting it would be to make a quilt for this unit.  Quilts were actually used in the underground railroad as symbols of what houses were safe and some even had symbols that gave the runaway slaves directions!  Who knew!  Quilts were of course made and sold to raise money for the Union troops as well.  I was going to buy some scrapbook paper and make paper quilts, but since I bought only $1 a yard fabric it ended up being cheaper to make the real thing!  Maxwell and Hyrum loved this project, and Maxwell won't sleep with anything else now.

We started taking about the civil war this week, and we focused on Clara Barton.  WHAT A WOMAN!  She's my new hero.  I think studying about her was the perfect way to study the war.  If my boys ever have to go to war, I hope they would be on the nursing side of things and not on the fighting. We learned some basic (very basic) first aid and the boys got their own first aid kit that they put red crosses on.  Hyrums bandaids were gone within seconds.

This week we began learning about magnets.  What kid doesn't love magnets.  This was the first time I had to kind of hold the kids back and say "well, we are going to do that experiment next week"  I know that kind of teaching method is against a lot of homeschooler's ways, but I like order okay! What we DID do was fun anyway.  We spread out tons of different stuff and went "fishing" to find out what was magnetic (did you know that some Canadian coins ARE magnetic?  crazy) We tested the strength of magnets and made things with iron in them magnetic and then pounded them with a hammer and heated them up to get them to loose their magnetism.  I have since then had a good portion of my silverware be able to pick up paperclips....that Maxwell....

During our devotionals, we focus on one apostle a month.  This month is Boyd K Packer.  We learned that he loves to draw and carve birds....so...

Goin' Up a Yonder

We continued to learn about Slavery this week.  We talked about how the only way slaves were able to survive was through Faith in God and music.  We made our own slave jug band.  We made most of it out of trash...literally.  We got our jug (an old glass salad dressing jar) our harmonica (a broken comb with wax paper on it) and our percussion (two spoons and a drum from an oatmeal container) and made beautiful music.  Maxwell actually had trouble with the jug and comb, but he loved decorating his drum.  I taught them an old african american gospel song called "Goin' up a Yonder" about how now matter how hard you have it in life, you'll be with God and have peace when you die.  I imagine the slaves must have sung songs like that.

We also decorated for easter as an activity.  Maxwell got frustrated since ummm I decorated and kind of pretended he was helping.  I usually try to give a general gist of what the project is and then try to let Maxwell (and Hyrum if he's interested) go to it.  I try to hard not to get too controlling or interfere too much, but well, I didn't do that with the decorations this time..oops.

For our field trip we went to the Church history museum (again.)  They seemed to have just as much fun and Maxwell was determined to dance this time since last time he was too shy.

I kind of had a low key week.  I need to get into gear again.

By the way, a really good picture book about slaves is a book called "Henry's Freedom Box" by Ellen Lavine.  It's about a man who mailed himself to the North in a wooden box after his family got sold away from him.  It's a true story and beautifully done.  I think it helped Maxwell really learn about slavery on his level.

Slavery

This month is our slavery/civil war month.  This week we had the Proffitt family staying with us to share the fun.  The Proffitts have done tons of fundraising for modern-day slavery,  and I think they are among the very few children who, when I started teaching them about slavery would say things like "but slavery hasn't ended."  

Well, I was talking about the slavery that was legal in the United States in the South, and as I was reading to them and showing pictures of the passage that Africans were forced to take to come to America, their eyes got as big as saucers.  I was worried it was too intense for my young audience.

Our activity lightened up the mood in a weird way.  We acted out slavery....now don't get the wrong idea.  The kids were giggling and begging to have their turn, so keep that in mind as I explain what we did.  Becky, my sister-in-law, is VERY dramatic and was the perfect slave master.  We put hand cuffs on the kids and put them in a little box and rocked them back and forth to simulate a ship.  They were let out only to be forced to dance so they could be healthy slaves.  We then put them on the selling block, and compared them to dogs, and someone always bought them.

What would a slave simulation be without cotton?  We talked about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad.  We had them try to pick out seeds from cotton, but when the slave masters weren't looking, they could try to run to Canada (upstairs.)  They all ended up in Canada in the end except Hyrum who ended up in the closet (or his elevator as he called it.)

Another day we read more stories and made corn husk dolls and talked about how things that slaves got from the land were the only things they could play with.

Those Proffitt girls were so creative.  On their own they made home-made drop spindles and made the cotton into yarn and made TONS of dolls that all had their own story.  Family's great.

Also, Hyrum has known his letters for some time, and he was doing it so cute today, I had to film it.

There's GOLD in them there Hills!

This week was quite the week.  Of course one of the main things we studied was earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and Japan.  I didn't teach about radiation because frankly it was too stressful to talk to my kids about it.  Maxwell was fascinated and kept Japan in his prayers every night.

We continued to talk about the pioneers.  It was suggested in the Four Year Plan to make soap.  You should've used 13 cups of fat from meat drippings.  We don't really eat red meat in our house.  13 CUPS!  I guess I could have bought the fat.  I really should learn such a good and prudent skill, but the smell.....I bought a kit from Michaels....I'm a wimp.  We did make lots of fun soap though. Just not like the pioneers made soap.

We learned about California pioneers this week, namely the Gold Rush.  What a sad story!  Did you know, however, that Levi Strauss got his start by making sturdy pants for the gold miners from tent material?  Cool random fact.  We had a little gold rush of our own, and filled our tub to make a makeshift river to pan gold in.  It ended up to be really fun and the cleanup wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

For science we learned again about electricity.  We talked about open and closed circuits. We played a game were if your metal wand touched the metal loops, a light bulb would go off.  It was sort of like "Operation,"  What kid wouldn't love THAT experiment?

This week was of course St. Patrick's day, so we made Leprechaun traps.  Wow did they go to town with this!  It's fun to let kids loose with a basic idea and watch them as they create.  Maxwell was SOOOO sad that he didn't catch a Leprechaun, even though he did catch his gold chocolate coins.  He said "I need to change my design to make it more effective." and went to work with vigor to make a better Leprechaun trap, even though I told him that they wouldn't come again this year.

We had the most amazing field trip this week!  We went to the Thomas Jefferson Education Forum.  While our boys went off to their own classes, we learned all about how to be the best parents in the world!!! Or at least better then what we have been doing. It was great to discuss the true meaning of liberty, education, and parenting with such amazing people.  If you missed out, you can get a recording of everything at tjed marketplace.  I highly recommend it.

I'm off on vacation for a week or two...time for hands on learning!  :)  bye!

Brigham Young

This week we studied Brigham Young.  He was a pretty awesome person in case you didn't know. My boys loved learning about him and the Mormon pioneers, especially how pioneers used buffalo poop for fire.

We played pioneer games for one of our days. These games included pea shooters, stick pulling, and wagon wheel rolling.  I DID take photos but..well, technical malfunction.  We used hula hoops to represent wagon wheels, but they went a little crazy with them and they were broken within about 10 minutes.  Oops.

We also made wagons.  This was right up Maxwell's alley and he relished making this craft.  I think you can tell this when you look at the finished result.

For science we learned about positive and negative charges and batteries.  It was fun because we played with balloons a lot, but it was also frustrating because most of my experiments DIDN'T work! urg...I have not yet been able to make a homemade battery.  I had everything ready to make several kinds of homemade batteries, and not one worked.....I am buying a kit next time! (I think it is fitting that the photos didn't work for my science day that didn't work!)

This week's field trip was a field trip of epic proportions....You would think a simple tour of Brigham Young's Beehive house and walk around temple square would be low key, but no.  From Dustin being asked by a stranger on our tour who was interested in the church to give him a blessing after Dustin bore his testimony to him, to a guy on the street thinking Dustin was a polygamist because we had my friend and her daughter with us, to Hyrum falling into the fountain and getting DRENCHED, this was a field trip that I think I will NEVER forget!

Westward!

This week we studied about the Oregon trail.  Am I the only one who always thinks of that old Atari computer game when ever the Oregon trail is mentioned? We talked about how Oregon had a lot of trees and good land that made people think they could have a better life there.  We made log cabins as our activity.  We made them out of huge pretzels and glue.  I saw Hyrum and Daniel eating them later….I hope the glue tasted good!

We also made faux beaver pelt hats.  I wasn't planning on it, but in every book, there was something about how the pioneers made money off of trapping beavers for top hats.  I couldn't pass up this opportunity for a cute project. The boys are still wearing them and are very proud of them.

We also made butter and jam (since that was what I DID plan.) We shook and shook whipping cream and blended and mushed strawberries, and we ended up with some delicious butter and jam sandwiches!

For science we began learning about electricity…I have to say, I personally had fun with these experiments.  We played with the static electricity of combs, and learned about insulators and conductors. We made a conductor tester with some wire, a battery, and a light bulb, and we tested different objects to see if electricity could go through them. Scissors, spoons, coins, and hole punchers work great…pens, jump ropes, and most toys…not so much.

For field trip, we went to the pioneer memorial museum of Utah.  Can we say nick-nacks!  Some museums need to realize that less is more.  It was not very kid friendly, but we did see a real beaver pelt top hat that belonged to non other then Brigham Young!