Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2009
Lewis and Clark kept wonderfully detailed journals as they charted unknown American territory in the early 1800′s. Their journals included everything from a daily diary of events to sketches and descriptions of new plants and animals along the way to maps of the land around them.
To help my children understand the scope of what was included in the Lewis and Clark journals, we created worn leather journals from old paper bags in which I asked the kids to jot down all sorts of notes throughout one of our homeschool days.
The journals….
Take a flat section of brown paper bag and crinkle it up until it looks like worn leather when smoothed out again.
Carefully burn the edges to give the journal even more of a weathered look.
Line several sheets of white paper on top of the paper bag.
Lay the papers on top of a piece of wood. Hammer several holes all the way through the papers using a large nail and a hammer.
Use whatever string you desire (we used raffia) and whatever lacing method you desire to lace the pages together.
Fold the notebook in half and there you have a ready-made journal.
Here’s what we included in the journals throughout the day…
Notes from important events throughout the day.
Sketches of interesting plants and animals we found on a winter nature walk. I also asked the kids to include notes to describe the plants and animals as if they’d never seen them before. If we were able to find tracks from the animals, they added sketches of those as well.
We couldn’t decide who had made these little tracks, but they were one of the few finds on our cold and blustery walk.
And finally, the journals included a map of the hiking area.
We tracked our journey into the “unknown” so we could find our way home. (This left nice little treats for the critters, too.)
This was all part of our super-fun unit study day yesterday. Today we’ve caught Oregon Fever!
Posted by Cindy on December 3, 2008
These turned out so cute, and they were fairly easy for a beginning to intermediate sewing project.
- Draw the shape onto a piece of felt, making it about 1/4″ bigger than you’d like the finished product to be.
- Double the felt and cut out the front and back pieces at the same time.
- Decide which sides will face outward. Go ahead and sew any buttons, beads or other small pieces onto each piece.
- Place the fronts together so that you can only see the “wrong” sides.
- Sew a straight stitch all the way around the felt, leaving about a 1/4″ seam. BE SURE TO LEAVE 1″-1 1/2″ OPEN SO YOU CAN TURN THE ORNAMENT INSIDE OUT.
- After turning the ornament inside out, fill it with popcorn sized pieces of batting until it’s as fluffy as you desire.
- Sew up the opening with a simple straight stitch.
The kids chose to add a little piece of embroidery thread afterward as a hook, but I sewed a ribbon hook into mine (bell) as I stiched around the edges. My hook is much stronger and more attractive.
Posted by Cindy on November 13, 2008
This was another of the projects we did during our Colonial Life unit. It was super-easy and I loved how the notebooks turned out!
To begin, we found compostition notebooks (the kind where all the pages are sewn together with string and the covers are hard.) I picked out several scrapbooking papers that complimented each other then the kids cut the papers into various square and rectangle shapes. We used Mod Podge to decoupage the scrapbooking paper to the notebook covers.
Just in case you don’t know how….To decoupage, you apply Mod Podge (or any liquid glue, really) to the surface you plan to cover. Place your papers on the glued surface then apply more Mod Podge over top of the papers. Easy!
We turned our notebooks into new Bible Journals. As the Bible is read each morning, the kids are taking notes or drawing pictures about the reading to keep their minds more focused.
Posted by Cindy on November 6, 2008
We did many projects to go along with our Colonial Life unit study, but this one tops the list. Not only were these embroidered hand prints a wonderful handicraft activity, they turned out beautifully, too. So much so, that they are gracing my mantle right now and I plan to hang them on the wall soon.
Sorry, this isn’t the best picture. Place a piece of plain colored fabric tightly in an embroidery hoop. On the back side, trace your child’s hand with a pencil.
Using any stich you like, have your child embroider around the traced hand using a brightly colored embroidery thread. Remember, all the knots and not-so-pretty parts of the stiching will go on the side where you have traced the hand.
As part of the unit, we had made homemade buttons out of Sculpey clay. These just seemed to be a perfect addition to the embroidery.
The final product turned out to be quite a keepsake. I’ve written their names and the date on the back of each.
Posted by Cindy on August 29, 2008
Do you ever feel like a cruise director in your home? Me too. I don’t know about you, but with three kiddos in the house now, among various other home and church duties, I don’t have time to stand on “deck” with my clip board in hand passing out brochures of the latest and greatest activities that will be taking place on the ”ship” this afternoon. In fact, it’s about all I can do anymore to get school lessons planned, prepared and taught each day!
So, one of the habits I’m diligently trying to train into my children is the ability to occupy themselves. It’s partly my fault they aren’t very good at it because I *did* direct most of their activities for years. “Let’s play this.” “Let’s make that.” “Let’s go here.” “Let’s read this.” Yep, when my children were younger and I didn’t have quite the amount of responsibility I have now, I enjoyed being the cruise director of the house. That and the fact that all my children are naturally very active and inquisitive make for kids who expect mom to keep them busy.
Truth be told, I’ve been working on training the habit of occupying self for quite a while now, but habits are hard to break. I suppose I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. Mahayla, who is eleven, is very capable of keeping herself busy during the down times of the day – finally. And Caleb, who is eight, can keep himself busy if the t.v. stays off! He much prefers to have someone to do something with (aka mom, dad or sister), but will play by himself if given no other option.
Some things I’ve done in the past and/or am doing now to train them to occupy themselves are:
- learning centers
- quiet, alone times during the afternoon
- mandatory outside time for an hour or two in the afternoons
- What Can I Do Indoors and Outdoors? lists (see the outdoor list below)
- and I always have a long list of chores waiting if someone really can’t find something to do
