A Hodge Podge of Activities

Well its been several weeks of good intentions for writing here, but it hasn't happened.

But even though I haven't written, I have taken some pictures so I'll share them and briefly explain them.


The first pictures is a sample of cookies my 11 year old daughter made. When we go to the library I insist each of my children pick out a minimum of 1 fiction and 1 non fiction book each. One week Daughter picked out a cookbook,decided she wanted to make something and picked out cookies. They are a simplified version of Black and Whites. She made these pretty independently. I helped her find a couple supplies and with melting the chocolate. They were quite tasty.

Both of the children have been interested in the Solar System and Space, but Son seems to have a longer lasting, greater interest. He has been studying constellations for science lately. One day they both decided to make a picture of the solar system. They simple put together 4 sheets of black construction paper and used a variety of art supplies to make the planets, asteroid belt, and stars.  Although they don't show up to well in the picture there are clusters of stars in each of the four corners of the large picture. These stars of made from Glow-in-the-Dark fabric paint. (The only glow in the dark material they could find at home.) While it is faint, they do glow somewhat when the light is first turned off.

Another fun activity around here has been playing/experimenting with the Snap Circuits set they received for Christmas from an Uncle. I am not sure, but I think the project pictured is a flying saucer type project. The ride discs spins while the motor is on and when it turns off the disc lifted up and flies off a short distance. They are both enjoying all the projects, but the first time they did this the end was a very neat surprise. Needless, to say Snap Circuits has been used quite a bit since Christmas.

Last week we also spent several hours one day at the local history museum for their homeschool day with the theme of The Civil War. This included a couple one person theater productions and two classes learning how to read and interpret primary source documents. One focused on written documents and the other on maps, photos etc. Craft time featured the opportunity to make banners or pennants similar to Regimental Flags from the war. Attendees also had the opportunity to view the special exhibit about the Civil War. Many of the events explored the unique situation of Missouri during the war. Part of the reason for that was the governor left his office and joined one side and a good portion of the rest of the state went to the other side.


For read alouds we are working our way through one of the volumes of the My Book House collection. I happened across these on the sale table at our library shortly before Christmas. I had heard about them before and so when they showed up there I grabbed them. Even though a couple of the volumes are below my childrens' interest level, we have been enjoying many stories.


Daughter has finished her Chemistry course so I want to share some of her projects in a separate post.