My Daddy is turning 60. Twenty-four years ago on my Mom’s 30th birthday, my Dad surprised her with a party full of friends and family. It took her quite a long time to repay the favor, but she successfully pulled off a surprise birthday party for him this year! We had such a good time! …
Studying Ancient Greece has been so much fun! We could’ve spent many more days lingering in the Greek hillsides, but it’s time to move on to Ancient Rome. Here are some highlights from our week. On top of the regular reading about Ancient Greece, map work, timelines and such, we did lots of hands-on activities,…
We are SO pleased with the first edition of the Westward Gazette! I bought a $20 software program from WalMart called Perfect Pro Office that made our computer work simple. (Word Perfect is the only office-type program that came on my computer and it stinks for projects.) The newsletter includes a story or journal entry from…
Grandma, read no further! Here’s an idea from the Holidays Around the Year book that we did as part of our seasonal Friday lesson last week. We learned the science behind suminagashi art (marbling paints) and created beautiful card covers. Inside the kids have written letters to both sets of grandparents for Grandparent’s Day. We finished…
(This post contains links to my books.) What is chromatography? It’s a big name for: separating mixtures. Or, in this case separating pigments. As complicated as the word sounds, experimenting with chromatography is very easy. Chromatography with Markers I always like to teach the concept of chromatography with markers before using other materials because markers…
What fun we had visiting WKYT TV in Lexington today! They took us on a tour of the newsroom, video control room for broadcasts, video control room for taping shows, and the live set. The kids all had the chance to stand in front of the green screen to try their hand at pointing correctly on the weather map. …
If writing isn’t a natural passion for your child, it can be a subject full of drudgery. Believe me, I know. Up until this year Mahayla has fought me tooth and nail over any sort of writing assignment. This year has been different, though. I believe she’s enjoying writing partly because of maturity, but I’ve made…
We’re on a tour of ancient history right now and loving it! So far we’ve been through Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. I thought I’d share a few highlights of this week in Egypt since we had so much fun. The best part of the week was mummifying a Ken doll. Thanks Jamin for the…
(This post contains affiliate links.) Picture Prompts Inspire Writing Here’s a fun way to get your kids to write – and it’s VERY easy! Use homemade picture prompts. Simply cut out interesting pictures from magazines, old calendars, old books, etc. and paste them on card stock. Let your child choose a picture, then write a…
We took an impromptu history trip Saturday to Blue Licks State Park where they were having a reenactment of the Revolutionary War battle that took place there in 1782. Okay, so we missed the actual reenactment by seconds, much to my son’s dismay, but had a great time anyway. During the actual battle, the English,…
My son loves baseball. He’s also excited about his new interest in learning to read. (Thank you, Lord!) So, we came up with a fun way to show his reading achievements – a “book”ball chart. Everytime he reads a book by himself, we’ll add a baseball to the field. We came up with the idea…
We made a solar oven today! It was so much fun! And easy! A pizza box, some aluminum foil, pencils, tape and sun are all you need to make the oven. Today was the perfect day to try out some solar s’mores with our good friends. A little swimming while the s’mores sat in the…