geography

Studying France: Baking Bread

January 30, 2015 by Amy Leave a Comment

One of the kids’ very favorite parts of studying France is the food, and bread tops that list. They’ve been enjoying French baguettes, sticks, and croissants, and so we decided that it was time to try baking our own French bread.

We chose this recipe. It’s simple and quick with clean ingredients.

The kids made the bread from start to scratch on their own. They mixed, timed, shaped, rolled, and baked it by themselves.

They were SO proud of their bread!

My Little Man even did the dishes afterwards. What could be better?

What can your kids cook by themselves?

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Studying France: Building the Eiffel Tower

January 23, 2015 by Amy Leave a Comment

What do you think of when you think of Paris? For me, it’s the Eiffel Tower. There are many historic, exciting landmarks in this beautiful city, but the Eiffel Tower has to be one of the most iconic, and so we had to build our own version during our study of France.

We used sugar wafer cookies. I bought two big packages of chocolate ones and a smaller package of vanilla, and we arranged ourselves into teams. I set a timer for 30 minutes, and with a fair share of cookies each, we attempted to make our towers.

This is a very simple project, but it can have great educational lessons. We studied the shape, construction, and history of the tower, and those lessons came out during this activity. Then, when the time came, we used peanut butter as glue to hold the cookies together. Just plan out how you want to stack the cookies to get your chosen shape, and carefully spread peanut butter where the joint will be.

This project just lit My Big Helper up. She was all over it! We had spent the day learning about the Eiffel Tower, and she excitedly tried to be true to the actual structure – counting landings, legs, etc, to make a recognizable representation. She even reported that she knew why I chose these cookies: because they already had a cross-hatch design stamped on them that resembled the lacy ironwork of the actual tower!

My Big Helper’s finished tower looked like this. She is VERY proud of her tower! Although … she won’t mind eating it, either.

Studying the Eiffel Tower? Check out these great resources!

Studying France: A Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt

January 7, 2015 by Amy 2 Comments

Our homeschool geography fair is coming up, and so we’re embarking on a study of France. One of our favorite ways to learn about a new place is to study the culture of food in that place, and so we headed out on a foodie scavenger hunt.

The idea is simple. Each child loaded up with a clipboard, paper, and a pencil. Since I have two children, each one was assigned a certain side of an aisle. They could not leave the aisle until both people were ready to move on to the next one, and they had 40 minutes to find as many French foods as they could. The winner could choose a reasonbly-priced item to take home for us to share.

The kids LOVED this project! They were able to find several breads and cheeses, as well as pastries and cookies, all throughout the store. Since we’re at the beginning of our unit, we haven’t studied much about this yet, but it spurred on their interest, so much that they asked to do it again. We’re having a rematch at a fancier store on our next trip out of town, with the same stakes and rules.

The best part?

The kids are VOLUNTARILY, EXCITEDLY studying the foods of France in preparation for the rematch. They can’t wait to play the game again – and then we get to try more yummy French food.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

What’s your favorite thing about studying other cultures?

Field Work Friday – Exploring Shackleford Island

October 3, 2014 by Amy 1 Comment

While we were on the North Carolina shore a few weeks ago, we took the ferry to Shackleford Island to do some exploring. Shackleford is home to more than 100 wild horses, and it’s also known as one of the East Coast’s best shelling beaches. I still don’t know why that is, but we had fun confirming it.

Exploring Shackleford Island

I bought a simple North Carolina shelling guide at a book store on Emerald Isle. It’s a really big waterproof pamphlet, perfect for taking out onto the beach to identify shells and wildlife. We used it a lot after our expedition to Shackleford because we had lots of shells to identify, some of which we’d never seen before.

We dressed in swimsuits with clothes over top, and that was perfect for our trip. The ferry drops you off on the sound side of the island, and while we decided that the ponies would be fun to see, our goal was to find fun seashells. The captain directed us to the ocean side of the island, and after walking across we hadn’t gone far before we found huge pieces of shells. Walking in the surf as the tide was coming in, huge WHOLE shells started rolling in right at my feet. I’ve never seen anything like it! While my husband and My Little Man eventually took off to explore more of the island, My Big Helper and I found a good spot where the waves were crossing paths and started shelling. We found whole conchs, Sallie’s Augers, big pieces of sand dollars, and whelks, too. We’re still trying to identify exactly which within those categories some of the shells are, but it was an amazing experience.

While our intention wasn’t to ‘do school’ – we were just joining some family members on the trip – it was the perfect way to do it. We sat on a beach towel, eating apples and crackers, soaking up the sun and identifying shells and wildlife. We compared shell edges and measured the with our fingers as my husband explained about the tides and the geography of the Outer Banks. It was science and math and research and nature all rolled into one.

I love homeschooling.

As an added bonus, the ponies were hanging out near the ferry pick-up when it was time for our trip back to the mainland, and we got to see five. Score!

I’ve also discovered that we love seashells, so we’re going to be working to make official collections with our shells over the next few weeks. Fun!

Do you like seashells? What’s your favorite field trip ever?

Field Work Friday – Clyde Phillips’ Seafood Market

September 26, 2014 by Amy 1 Comment

Last week we spent the week at the beach with family. We had a few things that we wanted to do – and hitting up a real seaside fish market was one of them. My Little Man and I love to eat fish, and we like to experiment with different ways to cook it. Of course, the fresher it is, the better, and that’s why we were so excited to see Clyde Phillips when we got close to our destination.

While it looked a bit rustic, the huge boats at the dock in the back assured us that these people knew what they were doing, and so we stopped in to check it out.

Inside the market, the brick display case was full of ice and fish – whole fish. This is by far the freshest fish market I’ve seen. You pick the fish you want, and Clyde himself weighs them. Next he goes to the sink at the back of the room and filets and packages them for you. The market offered a nice selection of freshly caught fish and Clyde was kind enough to answer lots of questions. He told us about how his business works and how to cook each type of fish and specific information about each kind. It was interesting stuff.

After putting our purchases in a cooler, we headed out to look at the boats and the water. It was a beautiful day.

Our Little Man noticed lots of shells and pieces of marine life at the edge of the water, and he asked for some Daddy time to talk about what he was seeing. He loves playing “Where’s Waldo?’ with bodies of water, and this was a great place to do it.

Our fish-shopping adventure was a real learning experience for all of us. Clyde gave us his perspective of a fisherman’s life, and we got to eat some great fish, too.

Yum.

What real-life learning experience have you stumbled into lately?

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My 4 Kiddos

Write Your Own Irish Blessings

July 19, 2014 by Amy 5 Comments

Okay, I realize that if you write them yourself, they won’t really be Irish (unless you are) but this is a fun introduction to poetry and a way to think about others while studying a neat aspect of Irish culture.

We began by reading some traditional Irish blessings. We found a bunch over here. Of course, we had to read my favorite:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Then we set to work. We always send ‘Happy Saint Patrick’s Day’ cards to our relatives, so we broke out the white and green paper, the rubber stamps and ink pads, and some stickers. I let the kids create their cards however they wanted, as long as they wrote a message inside. My Big Helper’s had to contain some kind of blessing.

At first she wanted to copy blessings from the website, but we continued to talk about the format. The neat thing about many Irish blessings, practically speaking, is that they follow a simple pattern. “May you” followed by a good thing. Soon she wanted to write her own.

My Big Helper got creative with this. She really had fun with this assignment, and I think each card will bring a smile when it’s opened.

Write Your Own Irish Blessing @ www.anestintherocks.blogspot.com

Have you ever ‘studied’ Irish blessings? What would you include in one?

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A Little R & R

Life as a Pilgrim: Fun & Games

July 19, 2014 by Amy

This month our Book Club girls read Ron Roy’s The Mayflower Treasure Hunt. I was pleasantly surprised by this book – the descriptions of the Mayflower are historically accurate, the initial movement of the Pilgrims are tracked throughout the Cape Cod area, and the modern Plymouth is well depicted. I love the way that Roy added a believable mystery into the Pilgrim story, making it easy to tell which parts are fiction and which are true while still maintaining a fun and exciting story.

I had lots of events planned for this club meeting and was very excited – and then it became possible for us to travel to a local park for a “Pilgrims at Play” program, where they promised to teach about the fun side of Pilgrim life. This seemed like the perfect place to meet about this book!

Several of the girls traveled with my family, and they talked a bit about the book on our way to and from the park. They also learned quite a bit more about Pilgrim life while there.

The program began as Hilary, the presenter, talked about basic Pilgrim facts. As she prepared them to use books to study Pilgrim life, she taught the kids a few phrases in Wampanoag and in Elizabethan English. This was by far my favorite feature of this program. Who would expect to hear Elizabethan English in a small park in North Carolina?

Next, Hilary pulled out tubs of supplies and let the kids play Pilgrim-style. Mine never moved past the ball-and-cup. They were each determined to get the hang of it!

After learning about the foods available to the Pilgrims for their first Great Harvest Celebration, the kids made painted fish impressions. They painted a textured rubber fish and then rubbed it onto plain paper to transfer the colorful image.

After a picnic lunch on the center’s beautiful stone porch and some playtime in the museum, we headed out. Even though the rain had stopped, the girls were too happy to pose under this vibrant umbrella.

Next month we’re looking forward to discussing a good Christmas mystery and spreading some Christmas cheer.

What good books have you read lately?

Life as a Pilgrim: Daily Activities

July 19, 2014 by Amy

This week we got together with friends once again to live life as a Pilgrim. We focused on activities of daily life this time, and began our work by learning about the clothing that the children would wear.

After reading Samuel Eaton’s Day and Sarah Morton’s Day, both by Kate Waters, we grabbed three petticoats and an apron. The girls each put on all of these layers to see what it felt like to wear so much clothing at one time. They were all quite certain that they’d stick to their jeans!

Next, we moved to the table and began to make poppets out of cardboard and fabric. Using the pictures in the books as guides, the kids each dressed their poppets in the clothing worn by the pilgrims then. They cut out clothing from fabric and used yarn as garters to hold up their stockings. They worked for a very long time on this, determined to get each layer just right.

Mine were very excited about their finished product.

Don’t they look great?

By this time we were all quite hungry, so we headed for a Pilgrim lunch in the kitchen. After working together to set the table with plates and spoons, the kids stood by their plates – as children did then – and carefully placed their napkins on their shoulders. They were less than pleased, however, when I put five kernels of corn on their plates. After talking about how sick the Pilgrims were that first winter, about how that may have been due to their lack of nutritious food and disease, about how some days this was just all they had, the kids sadly ate their corn. They were quite upset with me …

so we handed them their journals and let them write. Each child expressed his/her displeasure well through writing. My Little Man used exclamation points for the first time, declaring the corn to be “hard.” Another child stated that if he had been a Pilgrim, he likely would have starved, although he would have eaten the corn since there wasn’t anything else.

When they finished their writing, they cheered as we brought out their ‘real’ lunches, and headed outside happily for a picnic.

Next we learned about Pilgrim furniture. After talking about the difference between beds for adults and beds for kids, they stuffed large burlap bags with straw. Each child took turns laying on it. They finally decided that this whole process was a lot of fun, but that they preferred their own beds to these scratchier ones.

Our last activity of the day was to dip candles. While the Pilgrims bought their candles from England for the first few years, being too focused on survival to have time for candle dipping, we thought this would be a good way to see the work that went into having light during this time period. Besides, someone was dipping candles for the Pilgrims!

The kids really enjoyed this process, although they got most excited about it when their candles began to grow fatter. This took a long time, and when the kids learned that a typical candle has 200 dips, a few were rather discouraged.

I took this picture when we were about halfway through the process and at the time, this was the biggest candle. She was so excited with her finished product that she began a second candle! All of the kids decided that they wouldn’t want to be dependent upon their own candle-making abilities for light – but that this was a fun process, at least for a few minutes.

Next week we’re taking a field trip to learn about the Pilgrims’ journey on the Mayflower and games that the children might have played. Come back to join us!

You can read about our Pilgrim cooking adventure here.

How are you preparing for Thanksgiving?

Life as a Pilgrim: Cooking

July 19, 2014 by Amy

When I was about nine, my grandmother* took me to Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. It was a cool New England day in the summer, a bit misty and damp, and I’ll never forget how shocked I was as I stood inside those tiny houses, amazed at how dark and smoky and damp they were. I felt sure that the Pilgrims must have been incredibly brave and determined people to purposely live in such difficult conditions.

As a teacher, I feel that we often leave that part out of the Thanksgiving story. Yes, we talk about a rough winter, about Squanto teaching Pilgrims how to plant corn, and then a miraculous, wonderful harvest and a big party to celebrate; but I want to dig deeper into the story. How did they really survive that first winter? Why were the Pilgrims – really called ‘Separatists’ – so very determined to stay in the New World? How difficult was that first winter really, and what was their trip like on the Mayflower, anyway? Basically, what did their everyday lives really look like? What kind of people were they?

As a parent, I want my children to understand about the kind of people who will do anything to obey the calling that God has placed on their hearts – even when it makes no sense to their peers. So this month, we’re studying the real story of the ‘Pilgrims’ – and we’re doing it in a real way.

We’re reading books, studying photographs of my two journeys to Plimoth Plantation, and watching virtual tours- but we’re also getting together with friends to try our hands at some real Pilgrim activities. We began yesterday.

After trekking out to the edge of the forest, we talked about how the Pilgrims brought very little with them – and so they had available to them whatever they could find on the beach or in the forest. With that in mind, the children tackled their first task: cooking.

We spent most of our day working with food – largely because that was one of the most important tasks for the Pilgrims during their first winter in Plimoth. Arriving in December didn’t allow them to build or harvest anything leisurely – they had to hurry to settle in. While they wouldn’t have had an oven to bake bread, they would have needed to find a way to cook, and simple quick breads and fritters were likely.

We gave the kids a batch of homemade play dough and asked them to cook it. You should have seen their faces!

After working for nearly an hour, conferring, scouring the yard for natural ‘supplies, and talking through their plan, they built this spit-like contraption. They broke the dough up into smaller pieces, reasoning that it would ‘bake’ faster this way, and they arranged it on boards and on a spit in the sun. They felt sure that the sun would bake their small pieces of dough.

Next, we handed them a rubber ‘turkey.’ They laughed crazily at this one, but instead of building another spit as I expected, instead they went searching for vines. They found one near the creek and tied the turkey to a tree. Again, they expected the sun to cook their bird.

We had to have a long talk about the strength of the sun during a New England winter.

These Southern children were not impressed. They seemed to prefer a Myrtle beach heat wave to a Massachusetts winter wind. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board!

Next we gave them each a walnut that we had harvested and dried from our backyard walnut tree this summer. Now, this project completely cracked me up. I’ve never seen kids struggle so much with a nut! At a loss as to how to crack it without a nutcracker – which my kids have never seen, anyway – they began throwing the nuts at trees. When that didn’t work – they just lost the nuts that way – they began banging and scraping them against the bark, trying to rub off the shell.

After a seemingly endless amount of time, we asked them to work on another plan, so they found some rocks. They each put their nut on a rock and began banging on the nut with a stick. That didn’t work out so well, either. They did throw large rocks at the nuts, and they cracked that way, but since that was rather dangerous – who really goes around throwing boulders at tiny walnuts? – they started again. They tried everything from jumping on their nuts to making a 3-Pilgrim pile-up on top of a nut, hoping to squish it with their sheer accumulated body weight, but to no avail. Finally, after a few hints towards other objects and reminders that their Pilgrim tummies weren’t filling up this way, they grabbed hand-size rocks and beat the nuts with it.

Rock-hammers work for cracking walnuts. Just so you know.

(It’s a good thing these kids aren’t real Pilgrims, but you gotta hand it to them – they’re seriously determined!)

Next, we moved on to the real cooking. We gave each kid an ear of dried Indian corn and asked them to remove the kernels. That proved to be harder than they expected.

Then, using borrowed mortars and pestles of different materials and sizes, they tried grinding the corn.

Eventually we used a very simple recipe to mix up our own cornbread. My husband had a fire going in the yard, and so we cooked our cornbread outside in a pan over coals. It was difficult to get the temperature right, the smoke burned my eyes as I tried to flip each one, and the kids danced impatiently around the fire as they waited hungrily to eat. Oh, the life of a Pilgrim!

Finally the cornbread – and the simple pumpkin fritters that we’d made and also cooked over the fire – were ready. They kids all liked the cornbread and asked for more. The fritters were a bit less popular. They all decided that cooking like a Pilgrim was hard work.

Back outside, the kids decided to check on their ‘bread’ dough. They decided that it was getting crusty and that perhaps this sun thing was working. We decided that next time we should use real dough instead of play dough that dried out so easily. 😉

Finally, each child settled in with a journal to record his/her thoughts about Pilgrim life and food. Each child decided that being a Pilgrim was quite difficult – and one was quite certain that he didn’t want to give up his McDonalds’ drive-through or KFC. They each seemed to feel that our lives today are much simpler – at least where basic survival is concerned – than that of the Pilgrims. My Big Helper had so much to say that she began another book – complete, as my Little Man exclaimed, with “a Table of Continents.”

In the end, no matter how successful they might be at Pilgrim cooking, they met our goals. They tried hard. They were creative. They thought outside the box, just as the real Pilgrims had to do. They realized that the Pilgrims worked really hard and made do with what they had. They also learned that they have lots to be thankful for.

Mission accomplished.

Shared at I Can Teach My Child.

Come back next week to see our next installment in our ‘Life as a Pilgrim’ series!

*Nana, thanks for taking me to Plimoth all those years ago. It made a huge impression on me – and, by extension, is making one on my kids, as well. 🙂 I appreciate all the work you put into our summer excursions!

DIY Egyptian Cookie Map

July 19, 2014 by Amy

Whenever we kick off a new unit of a place, we start out by watching a few YouTube travel videos and studying maps. The kids love maps. They love trying to determine what the weather might be based on the location’s proximity to the equator, what sort of animals might live there, and even to speculate about what daily life might be like.

We began to study Egypt about two weeks ago, and we decided to kick our map study up a notch: Instead of reading other people’s maps, we made our own out of cookie bars.

This might sound complicated, and it did take longer than I expected, but the kids loved it.

The kids began by mixing up a double batch of our favorite cookie bar batter. The kids are good bakers and were able to do this entirely on their own. (This also required my Big Helper to practice adding mixed numbers as I didn’t double the recipe for her.)

Then they each retrieved the paper maps we’ve looked at and studied the basic shape of the country. I gave each kid a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and half of the batter. They used a spatula to spread the batter out into the general shape of Egypt. My Little Man wanted to create the topography of Egypt with hills and valleys but then sadly decided that the desert was probably pretty flat. My Big Helper actually used her spatula to carve the Nile River and its delta with tributaries into her batter.

After baking, we mixed up a batch of simple cookie glaze. We colored some blue, some green, and left the rest white. The kids used our cookie paintbrushes to paint the Nile blue and the fertile land near it green. Then they crushed graham crackers and sprinkled them over the white icing to represent the desert sand.

Next they moved on to labeling. They made small flags out of toothpicks and scrapbook paper to represent major cities and monuments. The kids shared a small package of M&Ms to designate these places on their cookie and then stuck a flag in next to each one. My Big Helper color-coded her candies to signify the capital city, monuments, and other places of interest, and then made a map key so share that information.

Their personalities shine through on each one. My Little Man wanted to have lots of glaze on his map and as much of the color orange as possible.

My Big Helper wanted everything to be neat and orderly and as close to a printed map as possible. She was exact and precise as she worked and really enjoyed making her Egypt, as she calls it. She’s already planning how to make the map for the next country we study!

Now, after supper each night, the kids eagerly ask for “a piece of their Egypt.” Who knew that Egypt was such a yummy country?

What’s your favorite way to kick off a new study?