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Dangerous Wonder
Jun. 23, 2008
Puppet Stage
Several years ago, I made some simple curtains out of inexpensive fabric for a puppet stage. The kids weren't really into putting on puppet shows at the time and preferred mommy putting on the show. While I enjoyed doing it for the kids, I was hoping for more participation. I put them away for another time and kinda forgot about the cool curtain puppet stage!
I was cleaning things out in our school room a couple of weeks ago and ran across them . So I put them in a doorway and the kids had great fun for 30-45 minutes! They were laughing most of the time and nothing said was understandable, but the beginning of creative performing with puppets was started. I know we'll have loads more fun this school year creating dramas from our history lessons, creative writing assignments, spelling tests and maybe even our math lessons...hey, I can hope! 
If you want to make a simple puppet stage, all you need to do is make a simple casing in a piece of fabric and slide a tension rod through. Place the tension rod in a doorway and voila! Instant puppet stage! Of course when I was little, I remember using my mom's sewing cutting board to hide behind with my brother. You know, the accordian folded cardboard with lines on it!? I think we put her's through the mill...but we had fun and loads of memories!
Oh yes...those would be original Land Before Time hand puppets from Pizza Hut circa 1980 something...My kids love em! LOL!!!
My DS in all his glory! Interacting with his puppet and the audience! What a nut! I love my kids!!!
Have a funny day!
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Jun. 23, 2008
History Pockets: Moving West Part 4
In the previous entry about Moving West, I shared about our last history group time together at a nature center. I know that we will be riding this time period of history for quite some time! Anyway, I wanted to continue sharing our projects and adventures we've had along the way.
One of the things we did was make cute wood models from Nature's Workshop Plus!
We made the incredibly cute covered wagon and the fort. We also have the log cabins but haven't made them yet. These awesome kits are inexpensive ($4.50 or $4.00 with purchase of 5 or more) and require wood glue and happy kids!
We placed a piece of wax paper on the table for each kid to work on so all that glue didn't stick to the table and other things.
Forming the box for the wagon.
DD9 with her wheels on the wagon!
DD5 holding the "tongue" of the wagon in place.
Cute wagon all done!
DS7 making his fort.
A steady hand and perfect amount of glue is helpful!
Isn't that cute!?! We had a really fun time making these simple projects and you can too! 
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Jun. 23, 2008
Square Foot Gardening
I have wanted to have a garden ever since I got married. It's been 10 years now and I have my first vegetable garden! Woohoo! I read the article about Square Foot Gardening in an Oldschoolhouse Magazine last year and have been dreaming of one ever since. My dh wasn't really understanding my enthusiasm but was so kind and built me a beautiful 4x8 box out of cedar so it wouldn't rot and wouldn't put chemicals in my dirt! He even went to the local family owned garden store and bought me organic compost and what not! He's my hero!
Our poor van was low riding with all the bags of dirt in the back! LOL!
Look at that beautiful box!
My super hero once again saving my day and helping me get the box filled with all that good dirt!
I measured 12 inches intervals along the edges and my dh hammered in some nails for me. Then I used heavy duty kitchen string to make my squares. It worked really well! Once I got the grid in place I could hardly contain my excitement! So I was off to the store to get some seeds and some plants.
When I returned home, I planted all my new treasures in the ground. We have tomatoes, peppers for salsa and peppers for everything else, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, basil, pumpkins and last week I added corn, beets and cilantro. Oh! I also have celery. I can hardly believe all the room I have in my box for such a variety of plants!
As we see the progress, my dh is definitely seeing why I was so enthusiastic. I can't believe how exciting and how great it feels to have a vegetable garden. The kids are really excited too! We have our first itty bitty green tomato on the vine and our first itty itty bitty green pepper started! Yippee! It's incredibly easy to keep the weeds out and watering takes no time at all! Being a farm girl in the suburbs...I am so thankful to have my plot of land to produce good food for me and my family! Praise the Lord!!!
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Jun. 13, 2008
History Pockets: Moving West Part 3
Our long journey west was completed a few weeks ago. We were all very happy to finish this journey of 10 weeks together. We had tons of fun and loads of adventures.
Week 8 we studied the Gold Rush. The older kids "panned" for gold outside and did a few other activities. The younger kids hunted for gold in my home after we read stories, colored pictures and talked about fools gold and real gold.
True treasure in the hands of a child!
Week 9 we talked about homesteading on the prairie and I had the pleasure of teaching the older kids that week. I shared portions of a wonderful historical diary called Butter in the Well by Linda K. Hubalek. I had read the entire thing to my kids a few days before the class in 3 or 4 hours because it was so fascinating to all of us. They didn't want me to stop reading! I highly recommend it!
Our 10th and final class was about the Railroad expansion to the west! We talked about Casey Jones and John Henry and watched the classic Disney film about both of these characters. We also looked through a lot of books about trains (especially steam trains) and played with our Thomas the Tank train set and made a humongous track! It was a fantastic time with the little ones!
The final "program" for this year wasn't a festival like we have done in the past with the medieval and renaissance studies. We went to a nature center in a nearby city and explored with the nature center guide about pioneer life. There was a camp fire and hot dogs (before the rain down poured!) and then all sorts of fun with pioneer games and hands on learning. We made butter, saw baby chicks, touched turtles and bunnies and shared all our projects we had made over the previous 10 weeks. The dads and some grandparents were there to share in the excitement as well! It was a wonderful ending to a lot of learning!
 My ds and his friends around the campfire. I love this picture! It cracks me up!
Here's my dd5 (in brown dress) with some of her friends.
DD9 playing with a pioneer toy of some sort.
Our nature guide talking about bunnies.
DS7 playing with a noise maker.
DD5 wearing a dress I wore when I was little.
After the rain had cleared we headed out on the fishing dock.
Saw a rainbow!
An end to a wonderful time together studying the pioneers!
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May. 24, 2008
Thoughts on the Clothesline
The Four Seasons on the Line
Warm spring breezes gently sways my clothing hanging on the line.
Hot summer wind brings the sound of my drying clothes snapping on the line.
Autumn gusts send my clothing twirling with the leaves around the line.
Winter gales turns my garments into stiff boards on the line.
Four seasons of clothing on the line.
by, sonshine4u
2008
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May. 19, 2008
1/2 Marathon
First Race
My Superman DH has been training really hard for his goal of running a marathon this year. He ran his first race at the beginning of April, which was a 15 mile run. He averaged 8 minute miles and did very well for his first race! It was a very casual race for him. He even stopped to give the kids hugs and shake my dad's hand where we were cheering for him! Too funny!!!
 Finished!!!
1/2 Marathon
2 weeks ago he completed his second race which was a 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) and averaged 7:33 minute miles...which rocks! I am so proud of him and his accomplishments! The kids and I cheered him on at mile 5, mile 8, mile 11 and of course the finish line!
 Smiling at mile 8!
 Still smiling at mile 11!
 2 of his faithful supporters! DD9 and DS7
 Strong finish!
 "We love you Daddy!!!!"
I'm so proud of my hubby! He is superman for sure!!!
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May. 13, 2008
Chuck Wagon Cook Out
We've been studying the pioneers around here this spring. We enjoyed a "chuck wagon" cook out with our history study group. There were baked beans and bacon, johnny cakes and coffee and yummy biscuits! We also roasted hot dogs over the fire for good measure!
We also played a crazy game of Buffalo Hunter...a.k.a. Marco Polo... so the kids who were the hunters were blindfolded and the rest were the buffalo...very funny!
Here's one of our friends looking for some buffalo!
It was a fun day outside in our yard!
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Apr. 26, 2008
Science Lab: Plant Cells
We are starting a new Science book this spring. It's called, God's Design For Life: The World of Plants. We picked up this curriculum over at our friends Answers In Genesis. We have successfully completed the first 5 lessons and are enjoying the journey.
The kids are really getting into copying all that I write on the white board into their Science Lab Books. Who would've guessed!
We have had a wonderful time learning what goes on in our cells and plant cells. The kids have drawn pictures of a cell,
....made a cell model out of paper
and a 3-D model with our favorite, blue Jello!
All the essenials for a 3-D model (well, at least at our house!): Blue Jello, Green Wasabi peas, Craisans, a pink gumball, zip-lock bag and a shoe box.
Craisans as the mitochondria!
Green Wasabi Peas as the Chloroplasts!
A pink gum ball as the nucleus!
Ziplock bag as the cell membrane and a shoe box as the cell wall!
So far we are enjoying this fantastic introduction to Life Science! We think this is a wonderful early elementary curriculum!
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Apr. 26, 2008
Why I love The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
If you've looked high and low for a homeschool resource that is encouraging to your heart, helpful for your homeschool and amazingly enough keeps arriving throughout the year in your mailbox in all it's shininess, look no further, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is your answer!
Where else can I get a beautiful, full color magazine packed with articles about homeschooling? How crazy that it talks about real homeschoolers and features real homeschool mom's and dad's and their lives as homeschoolers?!
How cool is it that the articles are written by seasoned homeschool veterans and sometimes even homeschool graduates!
I bet you never thought it possible to have a magazine with spiritual insight and educational wisdom coupled with great Unit Studies and how to live organically all wrapped into one special package! That's just touching the tip of the iceberg! There's so much more that's included, but I need to wrap this up, because I have a contest to win...oh yeah, from The Old Schoolhouse magazine...bet you didn't expect that one did ya?
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Apr. 26, 2008
Old School House Magazine Spring Promo
The HSB Front Porch is having a contest and you can win a $50 gift certificate just for blogging about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo before midnight April 30, 2008. Subscribe now to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and receive 25 BONUS gifts valued at over $550! The Winter Promo sold out, don't miss out on the free gifts this time!
They are also giving away a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store. All print subscribers (new or renewing) between April 3 - 30, 2008 will be automatically entered into a drawing. No purchase neccessary to win. To enter without subscribing, please send a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and email address to:
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo Contest
PO BOX 8426
Gray, TN 37615
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Apr. 11, 2008
History Pockets: Moving West Part 2
Our history group has been going great and we have been having loads of fun. You can read my first entry about this group here.
Orphan Train
Our "Orphans" have been learning about where we live in the U.S. and learning more states as we travel west. We read the book Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney and then looked at an atlas to get a feel for using maps. We also have been using coloring pages and US puzzles to help build our geography skills.
To become more familiar with our own great state of Minnesota, we have been utilizing the fantastic curriculum called Minnesota for Mini-Sotans by Debby Anderson (she's usually at the MACHE conference) and we have also been using this great pdf coloring book from MN Dept of Natural Resources for learning our state symbols.
We are making a lapbook with the pieces we have been learning about in our History Pockets: Moving West. (click here to see part 1)
Here are some photos to continue our journey of making this lapbook.
Here is where we left off...
Now flip the yellow piece of paper to the right and you will find this...
The Small Journal was made out of black and brown cardstock and small pieces of paper bound together with some basic string from my kitchen.
I cut out the journal entries with my deckle (fancy) scissors and then inked the paper with a sponge and mustardy yellow ink to make it look old. My kids really got into that part!
Glued them on to the paper (I used the free mini-templates from notebookingpages.com) and then I just drew a basic picture that seemed to relate to the entry of "Kitty."
Here is my sons journal. He did a larger size (regular 8.5 x 11 paper folded in half).
Because of it's larger size, it was easier for him to draw inside. I absolutely love my kids pictures they draw! So incredibly cute!!! Oh I love my yummy kids!
Well, that's all for now! Keep checking back for more fun!
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Mar. 18, 2008
History Pockets: Moving West
The last 2 years we have studied Medieval and Renaissance time periods in the springtime and I have shared photos and articles of our fun here and here. I am just realizing that I didn't share photos from last years fun! Ooops! I'll post that after this post!
This spring, several families from our homeschool coop at church are studying the Westward Expansion of the U.S. every-other week. We are basing our study off of the curriculum,
History Pockets: Moving West
While this curriculum is for 4-6 grade, we are using it with 6-13 year olds. We are using it as a jumping off point with lots of other projects to go with it. We have downloaded the book for easy printing from our home computer over at CurrClick and are enjoying this series!
Here are some pictures of my oldest daughter's History Pocket in progress.
Pocket #1
Pocket #2
The concept of the History Pockets is fabulous. We have history facts, coloring sheets and other fun crafts in this series. My only draw back has been the sheer size of the pockets themselves. It calls for a 12x18 sheet of construction paper or cardstock/poster board that is folded 6 inches up and then is stapled to make a pocket. I have found that while it looks cool, the paper is easily torn if using construction paper and the size is awkward if you want to store it. So some of our creative moms have come up with using sheet protectors as the pocket and putting it in a 3-ring binder or just using a pocket divider instead of the sheet protector.
Our Study Group
One of our fabulous mom's who has spearheaded this study group for the last 3 years has come up with wonderful ideas to supplement the History Pockets as she teaches our group of kids. First thing she did was to have all of the children draw a pioneer name from a hat that was associated with a fictional family group. Now the kids are divided into family groups that they use during our 2 hour class time as their small group for projects and assignments during class time.
The first at-home project was to write an autobiographic journal of their fictional character as they make the decision to go west, during the journey and when they arrive at their destination. For instance, my son who is 7, is the 49 year old father of his family group. We laugh a lot when we think about it and as I help him journal. My daughter is an orphan living with her cousins. So we had to brainstorm together how she became an orphan and what her circumstances were. It has been loads of fun to be creative together and see what they come up with! This will be quite the treasure when we finish it!
The Orphan Train
At the moment, I am in charge of the younger siblings that can't quite hang in there for the older kids discussion and activities. We are calling them the Orphans or the Orphan Train as their family group. We thought it would be too difficult to keep track of their fictional characters at this age!
We have been reading picture books, playing with legos and puzzles, coloring, singing, learning some Spanish words from one of our bi-lingual mama's, and watching pioneer videos that pertain to the topic of the day. We are trying to parallel the older kids as much as we can to keep the family history project unified!
What I have done for the 4-6 year olds that are needing something just for them and more user friendly, because they can't read yet and worksheets are beyond them, is to make a lapbook out of the pieces in the History Pocket book. We are working on it and it is not complete yet, but here is the beginning stages of the design I have come up with:
Cover Page
#1 I used cardstock to mount the printables on for durability, but construction paper will work fine too. I also used clear packing tape on both sides of the flaps so it would not tear out of the lapbook. Everything else is glued down using a permanent glue stick.
#2 The first flap has the fast facts on the back. The history about Moving west (blue) is taped at the top of the page so it can flip up for our fun things underneath!
#3 I assembled the time line and put just the last of the 3 panels on cardstock so the other 2 can be pulled out to the side for a view of the entire time line. When book is closed the time line is folded up. The map is part of a worksheet in the Pocket #1 section.
#4 Now we are looking at the back of the Pocket #2 title flap (blue). The page is designed much like the first with the history of the New Frontier (green) taped at the top of the page.
#5 Notice that the green paper has another story on the back and is now flipped up. The yellow paper has one more story and is taped on the right-hand side so that it may open up and reveal what is underneath as well!
I have more to do for the next pockets and will keep you posted! My goal is to use one page of the file folder for each pocket. I will be adding folders to this project so we can complete it!
More pictures, more ideas! Keep your eyes on the horizon and we'll get there!
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Mar. 18, 2008
Snow and more snow!!!
Yesterday we were greeted with snow falling from the sky. It was melting rather quickly because of warmer temperatures. As the day progressed we had more slush on the roads than anything.
This morning we woke up to a completely new blanket of snow covering everything. The trees are heavy with snow and everything looks absolutely beautiful.
Even though the temperatures are warming and this snow won't be around much longer, this is perfect snowman building weather! As soon as the kids finish their school work...they're outside to monopolize on this wet snow!
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Mar. 17, 2008
Homeschool Hockey
We finished our first ever season of Homeschool Hockey! This was a first not only for us, but for our new Homeschool Hockey group! They met one day a week for 1.5 hours of ice time. My ds couldn't skate very well the first few practices, but by the end, he said he felt like he was flying and forgot about his feet!
DD 8 (almost 9)
DS6 (almost 7)
My husband was thrilled that his kids could play just like he did at their age! He was also quite excited to see them in his old hockey jerseys from back in the day.
DD taking a break
DS and DH on the ice after practice. There were tons of dads that would take off work early to help coach these guys. So cool!
Being that this was a first for me with everything, the beginning of the season I was a wreck on hockey days worried that I wouldn't know how to help them put on their gear and how to orchestrate everything. By the end, I was a bonafide Hockey mom! Ha Ha! Now I just need to learn all the rules!
Our humongous hockey bag and gear!!!!
My brave son who now LOVES to play hockey!
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Mar. 14, 2008
In the Kitchen
The other day for lunch I knew I wanted to use the leftover bacon in our fridge. BLT sandwiches always taste amazing...but our only tomatoes were baby tomatoes. So I created something that was quite delicious and almost all my kids ate it!
I first mixed up the following ingredients:
Basil, Tomato Feta Cheese
Cottage Cheese
Crumbled Bacon
Baby Tomatoes
Chopped fresh Spinach
Next I made up half a box of spiral whole wheat pasta.
When that was done, I drained it and then sprinkled some Vinegarette dressing over it to infuse extra flavor.
Finally I mixed it all together!
Now that I have made this and have tasted it...I think next time I will add more spinach...all in all it was very yummy!!! The crackers are a basil flat bread.
I love all the flavors God has provided us in this world! Yum Yum!!!
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Mar. 10, 2008
Organizing My Kitchen part 1
It has been my goal for quite some time now to get my kitchen running smoothly. I have been clipping recipes, making lists of favorite meals, trying to get a schedule for our crew together, watching mom's of large families (on t.v.) buy food for a month and reading whatever I could find on how to do it. All I have to say is that it is a lot of work and requires a lot of brain space! Some days I have more brain power than others.
One day 2 weeks ago, I decided I was just going to try buying enough food for our family of 5 for a month. With help from my kids we headed into our favorite big box wholesale club and loaded our cart with food. The next day I went to our local big box grocery store and loaded another cart full of food. With our cabinets packed, our laundry room cramped with the excess food, outside freezer and fridge full...I sat back and thought wow! It feels as though we actually have food in the house for a change! LOL! Thus begins the work of getting everything ready for a month's worth of storage.
I had never really wanted to brown large amounts of ground beef, but somewhere at sometime I had read about a woman who does this and freezes it! For a gal that had always frozen her beef, thawed and then cooked...I thought I would give it a try!
To my great joy, I can now say that I have successfully cooked 6 pounds of ground beef at one time with chopped onions and no seasoning. It is all carefully packaged in freezer bags resting in my freezer. The other 3 pounds became Swedish Meatballs right away because we hadn't done that in a long while. The meatballs smelled so good we had to eat them for supper that night. The ground beef is still safely tucked away in the freezer except for 1 bag that I used today for the world's fastest lasagna making in the west! I felt like a gun slinger for sure!
Even if I hadn't shopped for most of my groceries for the month, having a stock-pile of pre-cooked ground beef in the freezer was enough to make this mama do a victory dance because of speed and ease of the process for our latest meal! YEE-HAW can I get a HALLELUJAH!!!
Catch me next time for more on our latest victories in the kitchen!
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Feb. 25, 2008
Marathon Man
Despite frigid temperatures, my DH has now been outfitted to run in them! I thought he was crazy to train for a marathon...now he is running outside in January and February! Yikes! Here he is in his running gear for ummmm....the cold weather.
This particular day he was running outside when the weather was 17 degrees!
He has been running one long run each week that keeps getting longer. He is now up to 12 miles for his long run. Next Saturday he's looking at 13 miles!
He is brave and oh so healthy!!!! I am so proud of him!
As for me...the "training" for the 5k has paused because I can't seem to get myself out the door to the club! I did keep doing my Denise Austin workouts for the entire month of January. Now that I have successfully not done them in February (for various lame excuses and not so lame ones), it's time to get back on the horse!
My hubby is such an inspiration and he is being such a wonderful leader for our family in the department of physical fitness and healthy eating.
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Jan. 12, 2008
Parental Rights
Please take a moment to go to the website, http://www.parentalrights.org/, and sign the petition for parental rights. This is a very important thing for us all to do to keep our rights as parents and homeschoolers. You can read about their efforts to get an amendment passed to keep our rights to parent our children in the way we deem best!
There are people and organizations ready and waiting to take over our job of raising our children in the way they think best. They are wanting to deny parents the option of making the best choices in raising their children. By going to Parental Rights you can learn more about the fight for our rights to raise our children without the government interfering!
You can join the Parental Rights effort by becoming a partner through a donation, blogging and being vocal to all you meet about our freedoms as parents and U.S. citizens. With the Presidential Election this year, we need to be praying for someone who will support us as parents by allowing us the freedom to be one! Join the campaign today to get the amendment passed for our freedoms!
Protect our freedom to
raise our children in a free world
without government interference!
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Jan. 8, 2008
Day 2 of Workout
Well, ladies, I am still alive, I am still walking and I am still smiling! That has to say something! Day 2 of my workout was great. Burnin' Butter as Denise calls it! LOL!
Goals for today:
Mail the newsletter
Eye appointment
Swim Lessons
2 loads of laundry
complete 1 box of Christmas stuff to put in storage
drink lots of water!
Have a super duper day!
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Jan. 7, 2008
Running a marathon?
So my husband is on a major fitness kick and is looking quite good. His New Years resolutions mostly involved staying healthy, losing weight and running a marathon! A MARATHON?!!? What!? Is he crazy? Well, because I'm not one to squelch enthusiasm in the fitness department I was very supportive, but volunteered that perhaps he should run a 5k, 10k, half marathon first before the big one. So my handsome man is going to be running a half marathon in April. Not wanting to be one to sit on the sidelines, I am aiming to do a 5k. So I started my workout today.
Just got back from walking 1/2 a mile, running a 1/2 mile and walking a 1/2 a mile. Thought I was going to pass out...but hey, you gotta start somewhere! Next running workout is on Wed. Yikes!!! This is going to be a challenge, but fun to be back in my running shoes with a purpose! It's been 12 years since I ran a race in college! Little rusty!
This is my plan:
Denise Austin workout in early morning hours Monday-Friday for toning and all around fitness.
M-W-F running workouts per the article in the latest magazine from Lifetime Fitness in the afternoon at our health club. In and out of the club with a purpose and a plan! Cheerio!!!
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