homeschool

Touring Mrs. Hanes’ Moravian Cookie Factory

April 20, 2016 by Amy 4 Comments

Recently a friend organized a field trip to Mrs. Hanes’ Moravian Cookie Factory. How could we pass that up?

I had never had a Moravian cookie before, so we were all excited to find out. The factory is a few hours away, so we set out early in the morning, and we really had no idea what to expect.

We soon found out that Mrs. Hanes’ Moravian Cookies is a family operation going back decades. They use Mrs. Hanes’ original recipes and continue to make every single cookie by hand. The cookies are mixed in giant mixers, then chilled and rolled, cut, and baked individually.

These cookies come in six different flavors (the original ginger, sugar, black walnut, lemon, chocolate, and butterscotch) and ship all over the world. In the back of the lobby is this special area where international orders are shipped out, and they mark each new country on the map above.

Quincy Jones places an order of cookies every year for Christmas. A few years ago he gifted some to Oprah Winfrey, who then named them as one of her famous favorite things. Ever since, cookie sales have exploded, and while you can order these yummy cookies any time, they spend the majority of the year baking to fill Christmas orders.

Our tour guide was wonderful. She took us to six different stations throughout the factory, teaching us about the process, the schedule it takes to prepare for Christmas and daily orders, and the history of the company. She answered many questions from our little ones, too.

The best part? She gave us a whole cookie at each station, and we got to try all six flavors. They’re all good, but the lemon and the chocolate are my personal favorites.

In one part of the building, many pieces of Mrs. Hanes’ house exist to show visitors how the company began. It was very interesting to see the original stove and materials that she used to bake these cookies. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to bake these paper-thin cookies in a wood-burning oven. It must have taken serious skill!

Want to know more? You can take a pictorial tour online here. Don’t forget to order your cookies, too – they’re well worth it.

Check out these other Moravian resources:

Touring the World at iFest

April 15, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

Last week we headed to the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) campus to check out a special event, and while we were there, we stumbled upon another – a very fun one:

iFest, an international festival set up outdoors and hosted by internationals from all over the world.

There were dozens of booths, some manned by organizations, others manned by students from a single country or by a few from neighboring countries. My Big Helper loved exploring this South Korean booth because the hosts had games, crafts and food for her to try.

The Israeli booth was another fun one. With a two-part trivia game designed to test your knowledge, the students gave candy away as prizes and were liberal with their hints so that everyone would win – both the sweet treats and some new information about their home.

The people at the Polish/Ukraine table were answering questions about their countries and had a variety of fun foods to try – the pierogis and some sort of poppyseed swirl bread being my favorites. One girl would ask your name and then draw it in Cyrillic. I say ‘draw’ because her movements looked much more like drawing than writing to me, and the finished product is absolutely beautiful. When finished, she rolled it up and tied a ribbon around it, sending each person home with their own unique scroll.

iFest is a wonderful event. We didn’t have enough time to visit every booth, and the day’s extreme wind made some visits difficult – but the Middle Eastern clothing was beautiful, delicious food aromas were coming from every angle, and the square was filled with the sounds of exotic music, to which people were dancing on a distant stage. This is a great way for natives to teach about their home countries and for us all to learn a little bit about other cultures – because in the end, everyone was proud of their home and happy to share pieces of it.

Want to learn about other cultures but don’t have an iFest near you? Check out these great resources!

When Art & Nature Journals Collide

April 8, 2016 by Amy 2 Comments

With sickness lingering and the grumpies encroaching, we all wanted something fun to do. Since school was called off only because of nasty germs and not because we’d planned a break, I wanted something that would be fun enough to satisfy but studious enough to be considered school. I still wanted that break, albeit later. With sunny skies beckoning outside, I wanted to make good use of those, and so our science journals were calling my name – but then everyone would scatter.

While we enjoy doing those science journals, I anticipated complaints from those still feeling yucky about having to measure and detail anything specific.

Since I’d been wanting an art day for quite some time, this seemed the perfect time to break out the paint, but … springtime blooms screamed for study.

I decided to combine the two.

Instead of working on our traditional nature journals, I sent the kids out to find a pretty bloom. My Big Helper came back with a beautiful dogwood blossom, and My Little Man found a tiny indigo flower with five petals. They cheered when I pulled out canvases and paints.

We settled onto the deck with art supplies all around us, and with a good story going in the CD player, they got to work. They painted and we listened and everyone worked for several hours.

Friends came to visit and we stopped to play. In the end, tiredness won out and we resumed painting later.

But the kids were super excited to keep going by that point.

Both kids continued to paint additional pictures after the first assignment, and both of them were careful to examine their flowers in detail and add those into their work.

I think we’ll be doing more collision-style art in the future.

Do you do nature journals? I’d love to hear about your style!

We typically use a simple notebook we decorated just for this purpose, but our canvas work this day was especially fun. Here are some other things we incorporate to mix up our science work:

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4 Things to Learn from a Historical Reenactment

March 18, 2016 by Amy 4 Comments

Last week we had the opportunity to go to the 235th anniversary of the Battle of Guilford County Courthouse – a rural battle of the Revolutionary War between General Nathaniel Greene and Lord Cornwallis.

I’ve never been to a real battle reenactment before, and it was fascinating! There are many things you can learn from living history events, and the same is true of a reenactment.

Here’s why you should find one and attend with your family soon:

Your senses take over. Good books make you picture the scene, but you can’t truly image the scene until you’re there. The smell of the gunpowder, the blasts of the cannons, the heat of the sun – there’s a lot happening out there, and it can overwhelm your senses. I can’t imagine how confusing it must have been to be a soldier actually on the field, but it couldn’t have been easy to keep to your task with all of that going on.
Battle strategy suddenly makes sense. I’ve never really understood who goes where and why in a battle. Reading about a thousand men moving up and down hills and the like is hard for me to picture, and I’m a very visual person. Though I get that battles are rough and ugly, it was hard to imagine the purpose of the movement – until we had a front row seat. The battle we witnessed was sped up to take about an hour. We could SEE who was going after whom and why people had to move. It was great!
You can hear about it from an expert. I had no idea that reenactments have narrators, but ours did! He stood at the edge of the battlefield in full British uniform, microphone in hand, and explained everything we were watching. We learned about the uniform colors, where each regiment came from, why people were going where – it was amazing. We all learned more than we expected.
The actors wake up afterwards. Some little kids near us were concerned that people were dying for real – they were very young and couldn’t tell the difference at first – but it is all an act. The soldiers that we saw were willing to answer questions and to pose for pictures afterwards. Who knew you could get a photo with your favorite soldier?

What would you add?

Some people go all out for the reenactment. Get your supplies here!

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How to Host Your Own ‘Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library’ Party

March 15, 2016 by Amy 5 Comments

My Big Helper has been talking about this month’s Chris Grabenstein book club event for weeks. She’s been counting down the days, then the hours, all while bouncing off the walls and carrying her invitation around with her endlessly.

We love Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. There are so many things you can learn from it – but even better are the wacky adventures and myriads of mysteries scattered throughout the pages.

She immediately began planning how we could turn our house into the Alexandriaville Public Library and begged to have an escape game similar the one that Mr. Lemoncello hosted.

So we got to work. I designed labels for Lemonberry Fizz and created a recipe for the drink that Mr. Lemoncello loves to guzzle. I also built the Wonder Dome, decorated the house, and filled in many other book details.

I printed out an anagram game that we could use for a Super Dooper Challenge and planted clues around the house. One of these bonus clues became the prize for the challenge.

Of course, we had to eat, too. Since the main characters attended a fancy gala to celebrate the library’s opening at the beginning of the book, I opted to serve a ‘fancy’ dinner. I made two kinds of fondue and served it with sautéed chicken, steamed veggies, and bread cubes on a color-coordinated table. The girls drank their icy water out of glass goblets and giggled every time they stuck out their pinky fingers.

Dessert had to be fondue, too, since it’s such a fun way to eat – although there are several dessert options in the book. My Big Helper loved the fruit platters and chocolate fondue; judging from the amount of chocolate on the other faces I saw, they liked it, too.

Throughout the course of the event, we played as many Lemoncello games as I could create. I made Indoor-Outdoor Scavenger Hunt cards, and the kids raced around the neighborhood to collect their items first. I created a label for Mr. Lemoncello’s Anagrams (get these labels FREE here!), and the girls raced to see who could make the most words with alphabet cookies. They also played our version of Hurry to the Top of the Heap with Lemoncello trivia.

Eventually, late that night, one team pieced together enough clues to escape the house – and they did so with lots of whooping and hollering and running around in the dark.

Their prize was to choose their parts in the next-day’s commercial. I gave them the task of creating a commercial to ‘sell’ Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library to other kids.

Click here to view a rough copy of their commercial.

I’ve had myriads of technical difficulties in trying to share this. Their commercial plays well on my computer – I had to video that in order to show it to you. I apologize for the issues that remain.

Of course, we ended the party with a birthday cake, and since My Big Helper’s big day is close, we sang to her.

I spent hours designing the games, creating labels, and putting the details of the party together – so I’m happy to share them with you.

You can find everything you need to print your own 68-page Lemoncello party pack here. Want more Lemoncello? Find lots of printable resources here.

Happy escaping!

What are your kids reading now?

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The Book Nook

How to Host Your Own ‘Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library’ Party

March 15, 2016 by Amy 2 Comments

We love his book

She immediately began planning how we could turn our house into the Alexandriaville Public Library and begged to have an escape game similar the one that Mr. Lemoncello hosted.

So we got to work. I designed labels for Lemonberry Fizz and created a recipe for the drink that Mr. Lemoncello loves to guzzle. I also built the Wonder Dome, decorated the house, and filled in many other book details.

I printed out an anagram game that we could use for a Super Dooper Challenge and planted clues around the house. One of these bonus clues became the prize for the challenge.

Of course, we had to eat, too. Since the main characters attended a fancy gala to celebrate the library’s opening at the beginning of the book, I opted to serve a ‘fancy’ dinner. I made two kinds of fondue and served it with sautéed chicken, steamed veggies, and bread cubes on a color-coordinated table. The girls drank their icy water out of glass goblets and giggled every time they stuck out their pinky fingers.

Dessert had to be fondue, too, since it’s such a fun way to eat – although there are several dessert options in the book. My Big Helper loved the fruit platters and chocolate fondue; judging from the amount of chocolate on the other faces I saw, they liked it, too.

Throughout the course of the event, we played as many Lemoncello games as I could create. I made Indoor-Outdoor Scavenger Hunt cards, and the kids raced around the neighborhood to collect their items first. I created a label for Mr. Lemoncello’s Anagrams, and the girls raced to see who could make the most words with alphabet cookies. They also played our version of Hurry to the Top of the Heap with Lemoncello trivia.

Eventually, late that night, one team pieced together enough clues to escape the house – and they did so with lots of whooping and hollering and running around in the dark.

Their prize was to choose their parts in the next-day’s commercial. I gave them the task of creating a commercial to ‘sell’

I’ve had myriads of technical difficulties in trying to share this. Their commercial plays well on my computer – I had to video that in order to show it to you. I apologize for the issues that remain.

Of course, we ended the party with a birthday cake, and since My Big Helper’s big day is close, we sang to her.

I spent hours designing the games, creating labels, and putting the details of the party together – so I’m happy to share them with you.

You can find everything you need to print your own 68-page Lemoncello party pack here.

Happy escaping!

What are your kids reading now?

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Getting Revolutionary at the Hillsborough Living History Day

March 11, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

There are opportunities to live history all around you.

I didn’t realize just how many until we began to homeschool – and now we find more of them than we can attend.

We couldn’t pass up the Hillsborough Living History Day, though, and we’re super glad we went.

We got there just as the event was beginning and found some soldiers building fires and talking with the visitors.

After checking them out, we headed into the visitors center, where a Native American was sharing about the tools he made in the traditional way with natural materials – and how well they worked.

Next we headed to a local school that had been run by a pastor’s wife before the Civil War. Now a venue for local events and museum-like exhibits, there were crafts for kids on the porch. My Big Helper learned how to make a knitting Nancy and practiced for the rest of the day. She loved it!

Inside, a traditional dancing group from Durham was doing demonstrations – and after they finished, they taught people who wanted to learn. My Big Helper jumped in and danced two different dances with them. It looked pretty difficult to me, but she said it’s easier than it looks.

Back outside, we found more crafts – and these were a bit more boy-friendly. My Little Man made a bull whistle and loved twirling it to make the sound.

Walking on stilts isn’t easy – even this kind. With games of the era spread out across the large lawn, the kids played graces and tried to master these stilts. Even though My Big Helper worked on these for quite some time, she was only able to take about five steps with any surety. She’s still trying to figure out how to convince her daddy to help her make a set for at home.

On our way back to the visitor’s center, we stumbled across an old cemetery and decided to explore it a bit. We discovered that William Hooper, one of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from North Carolina, is buried here. We found a tour group inside the walls who was able to point us in the right direction. The kids were amazed at how weathered the stone was – and to be standing beside the grave of someone who had such an important role in the founding of our country. We’re hoping to go back for an official tour someday.

Even though we visit Hillsborough often, we had no idea there was so much Revolutionary War history in the area. We had a great time visiting the stations throughout town – and the dancers even clued us in to a much bigger re-enactment happening in Greensboro soon – and we can’t wait to go to that one, too.

You can learn so much by visiting living history events. I love that there are so many of them in our area. What sorts of history can you live near you?

For more information about getting your hands dirty in history, check out these Revolutionary resources:

Studying Flight at the Morehead Planetarium & Science Center

March 8, 2016 by Amy 6 Comments

A few weeks ago my son heard about a special event called “Take Flight” being held at the Morehead Planetarium & Science Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The event was described as having scientists on hand to answer questions and stations where you could perform your own experiments and was in celebration of their new show by the same name.

Do your own science experiments! That totally caught My Little Man’s attention, and he asked earnestly to go.

Why say ‘no’ to a kid asking to do science?

We went.

The first stations we found were on the lawn outside. UNC students were manning stations with different tools to create flight. We spent the most time at this one, where you could try to fly different objects. These heavy foam planes flew really well.

My big Helper preferred this thing that looked like a dowel with high wings. I have no idea what it was called, but she figured out how to make it fly well and spent lots of time seeing how high and far she could make it go. It was a really neat gadget!

DH got into this, too, and pretty soon they were all finding ways to make the flying objects go further.

There were other things, too – kites and huge foam planes and Frisbees – but these were our favs.

When we headed inside we found many more stations for experimentation: a chemical station to change bouncy balls into flying objects, another where you could study the wing action of a certain moth, building stations with Legos, paper airplane construction sites, and rocket balloons. We wanted to do all of these, but our time was short, and so we headed into the Science Stage room to be sure we got seats, and it’s a good thing we did – every seat was full long before the show began!

The Science Stage shows at the Morehead Planetarium are great. The ones we’ve seen have all been taught by UNC science students, and they’ve done an excellent job of teaching scientific principles in fun ways. The Take Flight show was no different.

Our teacher taught about the four principles of flight (weight, lift, drag, and thrust) and performed simple experiments to demonstrate each one. By the time we left, I felt as if we had really learned something – and no textbook was needed.

That was the perfect set-up for our next activity. We went to the GlaxoSmithKline Full Dome theater to see the new show Take Flight for ourselves. It was very quirky in style and admittedly not my favorite show there, but it emphasized the four principles of flight well. Also featured was information about the history of flight and ideas about what kind of flight innovations might be coming in the future.

By the time the included star show had ended, the Take Flight event was nearly over, too. The kids were sad to leave but excited to come home and try to improve the flight of their kites, planes, and Frisbees.

Attending the event was well worth it, and the Morehead Planetarium holds many such events throughout the year. I’ll definitely be watching the calendar for the next one.

Are their local science centers or museums that might hold great learning events suitable for your family?

Want to know more about flight? Check out these great resources!

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1 Easy Way to Teach about the American Southwest

February 29, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

Recently my Little Man asked to read Elise Broach’s book Missing on Superstition Mountain. I knew he would love it – it’s packed full of adventure, danger, and treasure hunting – but I hesitated. This book is perfect for teaching about the American Southwest. There are many, many threads that can be tugged to build deeper learning and critical thinking.

So we made a deal: he would wait to read the book until I had created some ‘stuff’ to go along with it, and then I would give him a week off from school to read the book and complete the ‘stuff.’ I’ve been hard at work creating a series of fun extension activities to accompany it ever since, and it’s DONE! I’ve created a web-linked novel study that incorporates your typical vocabulary quizzes and creative writing assignments, but also has math, science, and history activities, too. Many include writing or art projects. All of it can be done individually or cooperatively.

Since it’s made and finished, I’d like to share it with you! Missing on Superstition Mountain is a fantastic book that’s sure to excite any child about treasure hunting and solving mysteries. Better yet, it’s based on the real history and legends of the Superstition Mountain Range in Arizona (and this study has more about that linked up for your convenience, too!). It’s also the first book in a trilogy, and since the other two books are just as great as this one, novel studies will be coming soon for the other books in the series.

Missing on Superstition Mountain will make a great book club pick for upper-elementary or middle school book clubs. Our boys’ club will be reading this story next fall, and I can’t wait to see what they think of it.

So don’t delay – go Missing on Superstition Mountain and catch gold fever yourself.

How do you keep your children excited about learning?

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Do Your Kids Sing in Spanish?

February 26, 2016 by Amy Leave a Comment

My Little Man sings everywhere he goes. For a kid who refused to sing at all for the first four years of his life, he’s making up for lost time quickly.

Now, though, he’s singing in Spanish.

It’s funny to hear, but I love it. Each day as he and his big sister watch their Foreign Languages for Kids video, they shout along with the opening. As they get to words or pieces of dialogue that they already know, the quote along with the video.

And when the video has a review feature at the end, they sing along with it.

Loudly.

I love watching them sing along with their Spanish lesson, but the best part is the lessons aren’t musical. They’re videos with kids talking, playing, etc., but they don’t sing. My kids love it that much, though. Their call-and-response back to the video takes on a singing quality that is sweet to hear.

They’re learning Spanish.

They’re having fun.

School doesn’t get better than that.

Want to know how you can have your kids singing along in Spanish, too? Hop over here for more information about Foreign Languages for Kids.

Want the nitty-gritty? Here it is:

We started using FLFK in September.

We watch the videos a few times each week, watching each one several times until we’re comfortable with the vocabulary.

We’re working on Lesson 20 now. Some lessons we watch more than others, and some days we go back and review older lessons. I’m sure we could probably be further along, but I’m content with going slowly and making sure the kids really understand it.

My Little Man is continuing to sprinkle random Spanish words into everyday conversation. It’s funny how a new word will show up and everyone freezes, just looking at him, until he laughs and says, “What? Don’t you know __?” I love how happy he is with his newfound knowledge!

Foreign Languages for Kids is by far the best program I’ve found for learning a foreign language in elementary school. It’s fun and easy. I’m so thankful for FLFK!

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