What's in the Box today?

image from Amazon.com

Well for the boy-we are reading thru Five InA Row's Neil Armstrong [book 3] and chapter two talks about the Wright brothers-which my son asked to study a mere month or so ago-so I never did have to come up with much myself...yah...I simply am following the FIAR guide, and added a few books and a DVD on them (which is great by the way) plus a few experiments to help him see the concept of flight better.  I put all the materials he needed (except the blow dryer) to do the lift experiment in Wright Brothers for Kids book.

Ladies-save those little boxes and packing things when you can-never know when you'll need them for an experiment! Since we didn't have floral foam or a potato (yes, I need to buy some) this Scentsy box came in right handy :).

I also added three more mini-booklets for the Neil Armstrong lapbook that I am using, which is available for free via Homeschool Share. This unit was put together by one of my friends (with another gal) Leslie-who always has great FIAR activities posted on her blog!

We are not doing all the stuff in there, but again-that is the beauty of being in control-you decide.  I did have to make my own copywork pages because we do not teach D'Nealian/cursive with loops for  handwriting [we use Italic] and that is what it is in.  I simply used MS Word to type out the quote in a readable print, and then added lines for the boy to write on.  Easy peasy.  I will try to download that for you all to use if you want.  I am thinking of using something other than Scribd b/cuz usually when I upload it-it gets the lines and parameters all messed up...so I will let you know when I have that figured out.

Oh, if you did not see this on my Scrap and Lapbook Blog-these little storage gems are perfect for lapbook components.  These ones are from Creative Memories, and I am not sure if they are available any longer-but there has to be something out there that is similar (these have a flap that comes down to keep the material in place and 3 holes for a binder) -I simply pre-print/cut and place the soon to be needed items in one, pull out what we'll need for the day and when he has completed them-they go into another one to await being placed into a lapbook.  All safe and clean and protected.  Look at garage sales, at art/craft stores, scrapbooking stores, etc. for something like this-it is a wonderful "must have" for any serious lapbooking family.

Good ole George

In our history studies, we are starting our George Washington unit.  We are very excited, because we toured Mt. Vernon a summer back (09) and we've always been somewhat fond of our dear first president.  We have been anxiously waiting to get to this section in time...

The books I bought whilst at Mt. Vernon-to add to our collection.

He'll start coloring the pages from the Mt. Vernon coloring book and GW one as we work through the unit.

So in the workbox today-I placed his copywork book on George's Rules of Civility; read more of the wonderful D'Aulaire story-George Washington, and the Fritz book-George Washington's Breakfast. After reading the breakfast book, we decided to give it a go and have ourselves a GW snack.  Off to the kitchen we went to make some hoe cakes, and have some tea.  Now I don't think George ever had Goji Berry Pomegranate Tea (I dunno even know for sure what a "goji berry" is) like we did, but it was fun to recreate a similar experience.  We invited daddy to join us, and the kids even tried to sip a bit of tea (we are not big tea drinkers and the kids could barely swallow a sip or two-but they tried) whilst we nibbled up some 'hot off the griddle' hoe cakes.

 We tried to make these (at first) in great grannie's cast iron skillet-but because it has seen so many days of an open flame, the bottom was chipping/flaking...and don't cha know a big chip broke off and caught on fire (briefly-put out immediately) to set off the smoke detectors for a bit of time there-ah, always something.  Sadly, we had to toss that well used beast...and use our modern day pan instead.

We even used the real china for this.  The table cloth was pretty wrinkly, but we weren't going for looks here-just taste and experience.

Up close of it.  The cakes were not real pretty looking (ascetically) as I was just kinda plopping them in-and we used the basic version of a recipe...next time we'll try Paula Deen's b/cuz it sounds wonderful and more tasty.  Not real sure why the boy thought we'd need 3 sugar packets though-LOL.

Some fun historical goodies to pop into a workbox

 Look at these neat project packs!

I put this in my teen's box-it required sewing this together and I wasn't sure if the boy could do it-besides, she begged to do this one!

Our little corn lady is uh-naked, as we still need to sew her apron and hat...LOL That is her fancy material behind her...now to just get some sewing done and she won't be so "out there"...

so I received these goodies to review for the TOS Review Crew (I am the head First Mate on this so I received all of em-whhoooot)...and thought I would share how neat these are for tossing into the ole workboxes.

We are covering American History right now, and so these are rather timely!  So far, my son has painted and assembled his Tomahawk, helped with the corn doll (which is definitely one where you need two people), and the teen has stitched up the coin purse and (as pictured) the fringe purse.  They really have enjoyed making these!  We will work on the quilt next week, since it requires a bit more time and energy...but when we are done, we'll have some very cute items to remember this period in time.

You can always add such things to the workboxes and the kids will totally dig them-even if they usually don't like this sort of thing. It certainly will add some new, exciting things to do- and it meets the "handiworks" requirement that Charlotte Mason strongly encouraged the children to be exposed to and do.

You can see the great products that the Corps of Re-Discovery company has to offer, and take a look at the other goodies too! I am seriously pondering that Quill Pen and Paper kit!

Enjoy!

**OK, this is not a review per say, but it should be duly noted that I did receive these products for free, from the Corps of Re-Discovery company-to enjoy and use with my fam.  I did not receive any financial compensation for this post or for my opinion of them.  It is what it is-fun stuff to put into your child's workbox to serve as hands-on projects, for their history curriculum.

Vikings Game

Here is the Vikings game I mentioned in the previous post.  The timing for finding this could not have been better.  I chose to print the Bk/Wht version.  I then sat and colored it all nice and perty...and when folks ask why I seem so young for my age, this is the reason I give them:  because I still love to color like a kid (keeps ya young I tell ya!)....so anyhoo, I glued the panels down (using that spray adhesive-that stuff is totally awesome and I am not sure why in the world I haven't used this sooner-it is getting its own post soon!) to card stock, laminated them, and used clear packing tape to assemble them into a board (and it still folds up to a smaller size for easy storage).  I then raided the Pictionary game for the pieces (I am looking for little ships or something Viking related) and pulled a couple spare dice out of our math cabinet and went to town. It is fun!  We also watched a Viking DVD (so that went into one box) with some popcorn, and this will continue to visit our workboxes until we move on to another subject.

You can find this beauty for free (well the components-) at Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop site.