Day 17 / 101 - Halloween Costumes

My children as Professor Snape and Hermoine, along with their cousins Harry Potter, Hedwig and the evil Lord Voldemort.

We have a rule around our home for Halloween.  The rule is your costume must tell a story.  You can't just be 'a viking' or 'a pirate'.  You need to be Erik the Red or Black Beard or Captain Hook.  You need to be a character.  And, you need to know that character pretty well before you go knocking on doors asking people for candy.  This enables us every October to dive into both History and Literature as we search for the perfect character for our Halloween costume.

Well, it should come as no surprise that our costumes this year center around the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  What happens to be even more fun, is that we have family donning similar attire.  Our costumes aren't complete in this photo, because we have some hair coloring to add, but a pre-Halloween photo shoot was necessary.  The real magic (and candy) happens tonight!

Day 16 / 101 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

We've spent seven weeks inside the wizarding world of Harry Potter.  Since we are only in the middle of book 3 (out of 7), we'll be staying here a bit longer.

"But Harry happened to agree wholeheartedly with Mrs. Weasley that the safest place on earth was wherever Albus Dumbledore happened to be."   - J. K. Rowling

Day 15 / 101 - Blanket Forts

A little over a year ago, my husband and son built a loft bed for my son's bedroom.  For my son, along with the excitement of sleeping near the ceiling, came the realization that this bed would yield really cool blanket forts!

I have yet to meet a child who didn't love to throw a blanket over a table, along with a couple of chairs, and hang out for the afternoon.  However, my children have taken blanket-fort-building to an entirely new level.  Their blanket forts include sketches for the maximum use of space, instruments to secure blankets together, hammer and nails to attach blankets to the walls, stud-finders to assure nailed blankets stay mounted to walls, countless other tools to add some finishing touches, etc.  The forts are always a work in progress.  Furniture might be moved in order to accomplish a better looking fort.  One blanket might be replaced for a more suitable one.  The idea of a hammock might be tried (and failed).  Huge empty cardboard boxes might be added to make the fort look more like a castle.

We have always allowed our children the freedom to construct and build as a method to express their creativity.  Although, several weeks ago, we came across this article, Why Your Teenager Can't Use a Hammer, which reassures us of our decision, as well as gives context for all the fort building.  It's worth a read.  Sobering statistics in the article show that one-third of teens spend zero time per week doing anything hands-on, and entertainment media eats up 53 hours a week for kids aged eight to 18.  In order for my children to not fit into those statistics, I'll keep giving them permission to nail blankets to the wall.

Day 14 / 101 - Sheppard Softward

There are so many online tools for learning and home educating, but Sheppard Software has been one of my favorites since the start.  There are countless games and activities on a variety of subjects, but it is the Geography section (and their eight levels of difficulties) of this site that keeps us addicted.  We play games to learn the states and their capitals, countries and their capitals, as well as bodies of water and other landmarks. This site is part of our weekly learning.

If you play around on it for awhile, I think you'll find it fun, too.  Adults are never too old to learn!

Day 13 / 101 - Hale Farm and Village

Last week we spent a day in history at Hale Farm and Village.

In an earlier post, I mentioned my enjoyment in using reenactments to teach History.  Hale Farm does just that, as it shows us life in Northeast Ohio during the 19th Century.  Over the course of the day we visited with a blacksmith, a cider maker, a school teacher, a gaffer (a hand blown glass manufacturer - our favorite), a broom squire (my son asked if he was able to construct a Nimbus 2000!), a doctor, and more.  The Hale Farm artisans and historical interpreters facilitate an enriching and interactive program.  We truly felt as though we had traveled back in time.

We had an unseasonably warm and beautiful fall day for our visit.  It made our field trip that much more enjoyable.  If you live in Northeast Ohio, and have yet to visit Hale Farm and Village, I encourage you to do so.  It is worth the trip!

Day 12 / 101 - Veritas Press Timeline Cards

We've used these beautiful flash cards for the past two years, and they are a great resource for developing a history timeline in your brain.  There are a total of 160 historical people, places, and events from early recorded history to modern America.  Learning history chronologically has proven invaluable in the lives of many children. By memorizing names, dates, places and events, children gain a valuable tool for understanding how this world has been shaped and influenced. My long-term goal is that my children (as they advance in school) will be able to routinely contextualize more in depth historical studies. Knowing a chronological sequence or time line of history is a crucial part of anyone’s education.

However, today I thought it would be fun to let you know all the 'things' we do with these timeline cards.  I don't buy many textbooks each year.  Rather, I take what we have and use that to educate my children.  Here are 10 Learning Activities we do with the Veritas Press Timeline Cards.

1.  Read.  Just reading the information to my children gives them more of a background and understanding of history than most people have today.

2.  Memorize.  My children have all 160 cards memorized in order.  It's rather impressive, I must say.

3.  Study the Famous Artwork and/or Maps.  Each card has famous artwork, or a map, on the front.  We study the artist and their work.  If its a map from ancient times, we compare the land and boundaries to a map of today.

4.  Related Resources.  On the back of each card there's additional reading listed.  The resources are worth exploring.

5.  Handwriting Exercises.  I give my children lined paper and have them practice their penmanship by copying the information.

6.  Presentation/Report Material.  Any card can be built on.  My daughter recently gave a presentation on Pocahontas.  We started with the Jamestown is Founded in Virginia card.

7.  Individual Artwork.  My children have drawn their own pictures to go with the cards.

8.  Wikipedia Links.  For years, my husband and I have loved typing a subject into Wikipedia, and then following the links to see what else we can learn.  Here you can see where I typed in Alexander the Great.  In the first paragraph alone, there are 11 additional topics we could explore.

Games.  Here are two games we play with our cards.
9.  Shuffle and mix up the cards so that they are out of order.  We see how long it takes to rearrange them chronologically.

10.  Guess Which Card.  One child will make up 4 or 5 clues using the facts on a card.  Then s/he will try to get the other child to guess which card the clues came from.

UPDATED WITH NEW CARDS AND NEW ACTIVITIES - JANUARY 22, 2013

Day 11 / 101 - School in the Driveway

This wasn't a planned post.  But then again, yesterday wasn't a planned day.  I believe in order for my children to learn effectively, as a homeschooler, I need to approach some days with a large amount of improvisation and spontaneity.  Yesterday was that.

After what seemed like four weeks of rain, we had a gorgeous, 65 degree sunny day.  So we moved the classroom outside.  Into the driveway.  And that is where we did our work.  I mentioned recently about our new fascination with sidewalk chalk.  The chalk became our writing utensils, and the driveway our workspace.  We wrote math facts, diagrammed sentences, and drew pictures to correspond with our history sentences.  We wrote our Latin vocab words and drew maps of the United States.  Occasionally, we'd take a quick bike ride, or toss a ball around, as we were reciting our memorization work.  We had an extremely productive day!

One of my goals as a homeschooler is to create an atmosphere or environment of learning.  I don't believe you need a classroom, or a desk, to learn, but that learning can happen whenever or wherever you are.  That was why yesterday was perfect.  THIS is why I homeschool.

Day 10 / 101 - The Holden Arboretum

The Holden Arboretum, in Kirtland, Ohio, is one of the largest arboretums and botanical gardens in the United States.  It hosts 3500 acres, and a wide variety of activities and tours to help you discover all that nature has to offer.  We received passes to the arboretum last year for Christmas, and we have been truly appreciative of this gift.

The educational opportunities are endless, and many change depending on the season.  Right now you can enjoy the Leaf Trail.  Each fall, a trail is set up through mostly native trees to provide an opportunity for students to practice identification skills using a simple key that is provided in the leaf trail brochure. Over the summer, and early fall, there was a Gnomes and Gardens exhibit.  The gardens homed 20 larger than life gnomes made by local artists.  The last official day of the exhibit was September 25, but we were there over the weekend and there were still a few gnomes hidden throughout the gardens, as well as great photo opportunities like above.

Our favorite aspect of the arboretum is the Helen S. Layer Rhododendron garden.  It contains over 1200 rhododendron plants and over 100 mountain laurel plants set in a mature oak, beech, and maple forest.  All that to say, it reminds us dearly of our former life in the Pacific Northwest.

Day 9 / 101 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

My husband began this book series before we ever had children.  My son, at 'lightning' speed, finished the series in about six weeks last year.  My daughter had been patiently waiting for the day we could begin the books together, and I told her we'd tackle the series this fall.  I have found myself lost in the pages, and even though I somewhat wish I would have started this series before now, I'm glad she and I are sharing the books together.  Here is one of my favorite quotes from book 2.

Harry (defeated):  [The Sorting Hat] only put me in Gryffindor, because I asked not to go in Slytherin.....
Dumbledore (beaming):  Exactly.  Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle.  It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
 - J. K. Rowling