Dangerous Wonder

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!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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?

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!

• Comments (3) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!!!

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 10, 2008

Organizing My Kitchen part 1

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.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jan. 12, 2008

Parental Rights

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!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jan. 7, 2008

Running a marathon?

Jan. 7, 2008

Today I will...

Jan. 7, 2008

Day 1 of workout in 2008

Jan. 4, 2008

A Moment of Spontaneous Learning!

On January 2nd of this wonderful New Year called 2008, I was getting ready for the day in my room when I heard this, "Shhhh.....be quiet. We don't want Mom to see this." Of course this received my immediate attention and I poked my head into the hallway and said, "You don't want me to see what?" All three kids had rather large pieces of ice in their hands. I couldn't figure out how they had these bocce ball sized ice things in their hands. My oldest said that they had made water balloons the night before and put them in our garage overnight (clue as to how cold it's been around here lately!). I had to stop and congratulate them for being curious and inventive and was quite pleased that they were doing "experiments" because they wanted to. You see, I had just been reading a chapter in the book Help for the Harried Homeschooler , by Christine M. Field, that was addressing this very spontaneous learning because of curiosity. I wasn't more than a few pages past this point when I heard my children's voices! Too funny! Of course, the homeschool mom that I am thought instantly, "how can we capitalize on this?" It got as far as our bathtub with cold and hot water and then a spontaneous bath by the younger two. Not bad for our first day of school since Christmas break! Albeit, we hadn't even begun school yet that early morning! Balloons, water and sub-zero temperatures!

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Dec. 17, 2007

A Video To Make You Laugh!

Nov. 9, 2007

Ear Photo

This is what my son's ear now looks like after his stage 2 outer ear reconstruction! Absolutely unbelievable! We praise God for all the good things He has done and is continuing to do in our little man's life!

• Comments (3) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 30, 2007

Healing Up Great!