Volcano Dessert!

Yes, we're still learning about Rome - almost finished, actually. It has been quite interesting seeing how the Roman Empire parallels the history of the United States.

But, this post is not meant to make you lose your appetite, but whet it!

Our science for this unit has been geology - focusing on the 3 categories of rocks and then on to earthquakes and volcanoes. What's the connection to Rome? The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 occurred during the Roman empire in Pompeii.

Of course, we did the age-old volcano eruption using baking soda and vinegar, but my favorite project is our volcano sundae! Be warned - the picture doesn't do it justice!

I'm telling you, one of the best things of Learning Adventures are the awesome recipes we get to try! This Volcano is made with 1/2 gallon vanilla ice-cream, 1 C. peanut butter, 1 C. chocolate chips. You mix in your mixer and then pour it into a graham cracker pie crust. As the ice cream is softened, you mold it into a volcanic shape (I had my children do this all by themselves - hence, the charming imperfection). After you finish sculpting, put it in the freezer for a couple of hours or until dinner. Then, take it out, form a crater in the top and pour hot fudge into the crater, until the "lava" begins to flow down the mountain. A mixture of powdered sugar & chocolate milk powder dusted over it makes the appearance of ash! Add a few volcanic bombs (chocolate chips) and dig in!!! YUM!!!

WARNING: By the time you finish this delicious dessert, your stomach will feel like it's about to erupt!:)

You can make this dessert without creating the volcanic shape, etc - just in pie form. This way, your guests won't think you've totally lost your mind!

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our science class and wishing you all a wonderful school day!

Olympic Festivities

This was the day of our Ancient Greek Finale! What a wonderful few weeks it has been studying Greek culture, myths, history, people, along with the human body (for science). There is SO much more to learn in these areas - which is part of the beauty of unit studies. We walk away knowing so much more than we used to but realizing there is so much more knowledge to gain. We have just whet our children's appetites for more.

Today, the children held the Olympic Games at Mount Olympia. Well, the Mount looked much like our hay barn, but with imagination we were champions at the place of champions! I read through the names of the participants, the athletes repeated the Olympic pledge (they each wrote one and voted on the best pledge to repeat), and I began each event with the trumpet fanfare (otherwise known as the screeching of a recorder). Races were run, ropes were jumped and tugged, relays were...relayed. Fingers and feet were frozen, but all walked away winners.

The Olympic banquet consisted of Greek pizza (pitas topped with ricotta & feta cheeses, spinach, tomatoes, & olives), Greek tortellini salad (tortellini marinated in red wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, & salt and mixed with fresh spinach, red onion, and feta cheese), and, for dessert, Greek lemon cake. A very different meal, but one that most of us enjoyed. Best of all, it was a huge success with my husband!

Once we cleaned up from the banquet, the children presented the play they wrote together based on the fable, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." It was quite good and it's always fun to see them successfully work together. I never enjoyed doing skits or family plays, but our children seem to live for it!

Then came the awards ceremony. I presented the medals for each race, always beginning with the bronze and ending with the gold. Of course, the gold medalist stood on a stool between the other two medal winners.

We then had a group recitation of Psalm 139:1-15. There are 24 verses in the chapter, but we had a rough time with a couple different verses. It is our goal to have the entire chapter memorized soon.

We topped the evening off with a reading that concluded Book 3 of Mary Pope Osborne's "Tales From the Okyssey" entitled "Sirens and Sea Monsters." This is an abridged version of Homer's Illiad & Odyssey written for children. It has been a great evening read aloud for the family and we will begin book 4 as soon as we can check it out of our library!

I am actually sad to say good-bye to the ancient civilization of Greece, but I anticipate a great adventure beginning next week in Ancient Rome!

Raising Story-tellers

This evening, my 3 year old daughter wanted me to read her a story. In fact, her favorite phrase lately has been, "Read me a story, Mommy." My "favorite" phrase is, "Later, honey." However, even though I don't drop everything and run to read to Gloria whenever she requests a story, I do spend a lot of time reading to this little girl.

Tonight I was too tired to read. So, I took the "easy" way out and made up a story. Of course, the main character's name was Gloria. It was a silly story involving flowers, birds, toads, and jungles but she was entranced. A few more of my children gathered around to listen, as well.

When I finished, Gloria and my 6 year old daughter both wanted to try telling a story. Theirs were even more silly than mine, but I enjoyed listening to the girls develop their creativity. It's hard to make sense of a 3 year old's story, but, with time and practice (if allowed) she will become a great story-teller.

Much better than her mother.

What We're Doing Today

Really, when you introduce your kids to their new best friend, how can you get any school done? Let's call it, Learning to Care for a Pet Day!!

Name: Hunter (unless a better name is found)
Breed: Yellow Lab
Age: 10 weeks
Adopted: December 2, 2008

Merry Christmas to us!!!!:)

An Idea

How do you convey the idea of large numbers to young children?

At our homeschool co-op this past week, I was teaching the 2 & 3 year old class about the reason for Thanksgiving. I was telling them that the first Thanksgiving was almost 400 years ago. (Ok, so it was easier than explaning 380 years!) To a 3 year old, 400 years and 1 year are equivalent - they don't comprehend such things. In order to convey the idea more clearly to them, I had 403 pieces of dried corn (my children counted them out for me). I held 3 pieces of corn in my hand. "Most of you are 3 years old. This is 3 pieces of corn." Then I showed them the rest of the corn in a bowl. "In here are 400 pieces of corn. That's a lot more than 3. Just like 400 years is a lot more than 3 years!"

Their faces showed understanding. I'm sure they still don't have an overall concept of time, but they understood it for that lesson.

Do you have any other ideas for conveying the concept of time? I'd love to hear them!

Good-bye, Egypt! Hello, Greece!

Well, we have officially completed our study of Ancient Egypt. I must admit, though I was excited about beginning unit studies, I was looking forward to just getting through this topic so I could get on to one that really interests me. Ancient Egypt just didn't sound very appealing to me. You know, eat the spinach so you can have cake? I'm amazed at how much I did enjoy the "spinach!" Not only did my children learn much from our study of Egypt and deserts but I did, as well!

We concluded our travels in Ancient Egypt with a Passover meal. We had read the Exodus story and learned the history of the Passover and the meanings of the various foods and traditions of the Seder table. So, if you had come to our home on Friday night, you would have observed our children searching for the 10 pieces of leaven left throughout the house. Once found, each child threw their leaven (bread) into the fire. The next night, we prepared a Seder plate including 3 pieces of Matzo (representing the fact the Jews left Egypt before their bread was able to rise), onion (bitter herb - representing the bitterness of slavery), an egg & parsley (representing new life that was begun once the Jews left Egypt), and a bowl of salt-water (representing the tears shed by the Jews during their slavery). In the middle of the table was "Elijah's Goblet" - a goblet filled with grape juice waiting for Elijah to enter our open door (which remained open throughout our meal) and announce the coming of Messiah and drink the juice waiting for him. The juice (wine) represents the joy of the Hebrew's freedom.

Eric took one piece of Matzo and broke it in half. He wrapped half of it in a napkin symbolizing the bread packed in the Jews' knapsacks during their flight. Anna asked him questions concerning what we were doing - in the tradition of the youngest child asking the questions of their father so that they may learn of their heritage and how God saved their people. We then named each of the ten plagues taking a sip of juice after each one was mentioned. Eric left the table for the ceremonial washing of hands and then hid a piece of Matzo for the children to find after dinner. When he came back, he broke matzo and gave each family member a bit of it to eat.

Once the ceremony was finished, we ate our dinner of Chicken & Matzo Ball Soup, Potato Latkes, Baked Asparagus, and Hard Boiled Egg. It really was a good meal. Before you begin to think that I must have over-done myself with grating potatoes and mixing matzo meal for the balls, think again. You'd be amazed at the convenient instant Passover foods you find at the local supermarket!

After dinner, the children presented the play Cassia and Anna wrote (for Language Arts) illustrating the story of Moses' birth through the time of his escape from Pharaoh who sought to have him killed for the murder of an Egyptian. It was quite good and the kids had a great time performing it.

What an incredible adventure Ancient Egypt was! I look forward to beginning our adventure in Ancient Greece tomorrow. I've always been fascinated with mythology, the Greek way of life, and their architecture. On top of that, the science study for this unit is one of my favorite topics - the human body! We are going to have such a great time with this. Will 30 days be enough? Obviously not. But that's what is great about these unit studies - it wets the children's appetites and encourages them to continue learning even more long after the study is "finished."

Good-bye, Egypt. I'll actually miss you. Hello, Ancient Greece! Can't wait to get started!!!

As we are studying Ancient Egypt, I wanted to read the children a biography of a missionary to this country. Obviously, there were none to Ancient Egypt (unless you count Moses), so I Googled "missionary to Egypt - biography" and came up with very little. In fact, the only name that was consistent in popping up was Lillian Trasher. As I couldn't find anything about her in our county library system, I went ahead a bought this biography from Amazon.com - a missionary biography is always a good investment.

I had never heard of this woman, but after reading about her, I wonder why I never have. Lillian Trasher was a remarkable woman of strength and faith. She cared for over 20,000 orphans in her lifetime. She had nearly 900 orphans in her home at one time. She cared for these orphans (as well as some widows) as a single woman throughout both World Wars and a cholera epidemic that ravaged the whole of Egypt. She and the children often lived day to day not knowing where the next meal was coming from. In my opinion, Lillian Trasher is the female equivalent to George Mueller in many aspects.

Everytime I would finish a chapter, the children would yell, "Read more! Read more!" The girls can frequently be found playing "orphanage" and whenever I would pick up the book to read in the evenings, the children would excitedly exclaim, "LILLIAN!!!!!" Definitely worth the $8.00 I spent for this book!

We finished "Lillian" last night. Today, I perused the orphanage's website with the children. It was so interesting to them to see the orphanage their new-found heroine began and that it is still taking in and raising children in Egypt. We also watched a short documentary about Miss Trasher which was filmed in the mid-1950's. How intrigued they were to actually see this woman and hear her speak!!

Whoever said nothing good came from the internet?

I believe the most profound statement came directly from one of Lillian's quotes that was at the end of this biography. When asked what was the greatest thing she ever did, Lillian answered, "I just stayed! I did not quit. I stayed with the work God gave me to do."

Oh, if each of us could just do what she did - stay with the work God gives us!

"Lillian Trasher...The Greatest Wonder in Egypt" - 189 pages that will stay with my children for the rest of their lives.