Homeschooling
{gallery}places/portland{/gallery}Although we had planned to go to Bar Harbor, a few days ago
it became apparent that we weren’t going to make it (budget constraints,
scheduling problems, etc). Rather than
miss the state of Maine entirely, I began to search for alternatives.
What I came up with turned out to be one of
our best days yet. We drove the van to
Portland and spent the day doing a unique Art project.
My boys are about to graduate from the 1st and 2nd grades and I’m upset. We're messing with tradition. This is how it’s supposed to look…
At the end of the school year I make a scrapbook of all of the things they’ve seen, made, participated in, accomplished and experienced that had anything to do with school in the past year. (I take LOADS of pictures throughout the year because you just can't keep everything.) Then we invite all of our friends over for a huge Open House to celebrate graduating to the next grade. The kids act as guides, explaining everything to their guests. We put the scrapbook out for everyone to peruse. We make appetizers and desserts. The boys also alternate giving a presentation every year to practice their public speaking. They have to research a topic, make a presentation board, memorize their “speech”, and then give it to the group (without fidgeting), which is usually between 20 and 30 people. We've done it the same way every year for the past three years.
Our first trial run was difficult. I was left wanting to ship the keyboard
home. We spent more time fussing with
the computer and the webcam than we did playing piano. It was tough!
First of all, our set up was all wrong.
In one place the piano was too high, in another it was too low. We resorted to stacking pillows on the chair
to raise our little guy to the right height.
With that problem temporarily solved we tried to get our camera pointed
in the right direction. Our poor teacher
was probably getting sea sick from all the motion. When we finally settled on the best location
for the camera, of course there was nothing around to hook it to, so my husband
had to stand there holding it, like a statue.
It was actually kind-of funny.
Then the lesson. Skype locked up
our computer 3 times in the first 10 minutes.
Finally, when we were at our wit's end, our teacher suggested another
service called ooVoo. She was trying to explain to us how her
brother-in-law used it often for business calls when the Skype locked us up
again. All we heard was, "my
brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, my
brother-in-law." Then the phone
rang. That was the end of Skype.
At nearly all of the 391
American National
Park units, one or more National Park Passport Stamps can be
acquired at no cost at park visitor centers and ranger stations. The stamps are
similar in nature to passport stamps stamped in a traveler's national
passport. We picked up our books in
Washington DC and we’ve been collecting stamps ever since. The stamps serve as a record of each park
visit. They’re free, fast, and fun to
collect, so if you don’t have enough time to complete the Junior Ranger program
at a certain park, just get the stamp.
Hard Tack
Hard Tack was a hard bread carried by soldiers during the Civil War. Make your own and see what you think of it.
MATERIALS:
2 cups of flour
¾ to 1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening (Crisco)
6 pinches salt
PROCEDURE:
Mix flour, shortening, water and salt into a stiff dough, kneading several times. Spread dough ½ inch thick onto baking sheet and slice into 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch squares. Poke holes in dough as illustrated below, four lines of four holes across and four down. Bake for ½ hour at 400 degrees. Remove from the oven, cut dough into 3 inch squares. Turn dough over, return to oven, and bake another ½ hour. Turn oven off and leave hardtack in until it is cool.
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