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Add a Little Adventure to Your Home School Life isn't just a matter of fun and games, but a spoonful of sugar sure can help the medicine go down. We can help our children actually  enjoy  the process of doing their work rather than just tolerating it. In the process, they will learn their own lifetime techniques for making tasks interesting.  Middle school kids are naturally inquisitive. This creates big demands as Mom and Dad are barraged with “how” and “why” questions at inopportune moments. Within reason, we should not squelch curiosity, but catapult it into self-motivated learning situations.  Here are some ways to enliven academic pursuits: Hobbies:  Hobbies can provide beautiful balance to a home education program. They offer brain-enriching opportunities to plan projects, select materials, follow patterns and instructions, develop skills, care for equipment and supplies, make useful items, and nurture creativity. You could spend tons of money on this (“I ...

What are these? Hint: They are all from something edible... Try looking at common objects in new ways, in different forms. Be attentive to odd things just as they appear. With a silhouette. Weird already... Cropped to see just a part... Or artfully arranged... How can you use image and imagination in the kitchen? Try it! I took all of these pictures, many in the past few days . The others are from posts on my other blogs, as linked below. So what are they? Egg white, which leaked out of a boiled egg that cracked when I put it in the pan; some of it stuck to the side of the pan above the water, and some is submerged but still connected by a thick strand. Ice cubes, stuck together so they won't fit in the cup. A big head of broccoli with all of the florets cut off Pomegranate whole and halves (from Pomegranates! ) A thin wheat cracker, held up to the light. Horned melon at grocery store (from  Fun & Fruity at the Grocery Store ) Pumpkin (from  Prepping Your Kitchen to Fix a ...

Dear friends, My English class at our home school co-op was a bit of a mish mash today.  My assistant Dawn (who is actually now my co-teacher) presented a grammar lesson on conjunctions and interjections, and then I took over for the rest of the class.  In their history class earlier in the day, my seven students are learning medieval history, with lessons on St. Columba, St. Gregory the Great, and Japan in their assignments this coming week.  I decided to put my laptop computer to use to turn their history lessons into English lessons too.  (I love to integrate the school subjects with related literature!) For poetry, we read "The Prayer of St. Columba."  The chants and prayers of the early church were passed down from century to century, a potent form of devotional communication.  While reading this prayer, we talked about the use of repetition ("Let me...") and parallelism in the first four stanzas.  We also talked about the historical context (the ...

It's a rip stick, right? Left by a child on the  concrete patio at the play ground,  it's ready to roll. Or is it El Raton,  the ominous rat  with beady eyes and a furled brow? In coming posts, lets talk about Image and Imagination .  Let's explore how to stimulate our children's curiosity with pictures, whether it is photos like the one above, or masterpiece art, or advertisements, or even random doodles. I think we can get some good writing prompts going!  I'd love to hear your ideas!   P52 Photo Project    this week's  theme  " Hobbies" Yes, I confess!  I posted two pictures for P52 this week!  You can find the other at on my www.comewearymoms.blogspot.com at  On Clouds, Hands, Oysters and Messy Humanity .  

HOW DOES A HOME SCHOOLER CHANGE A LIGHT BULB? I don't remember where I saw this, but I tucked it into the June 2000 edition of the Hope Chest.  Wow, it's fun reading stuff after a whole decade! Q: How does a home schooler change a light bulb? A: First, mom checks three books on electricity out of the library, then the kids make models of light bulbs, read a biography of Thomas Edison and do a skit based on his life. Next, everyone studies the history of lighting methods, wrapping up with dipping their own candles. Next, everyone takes a trip to the store where they compare types of light bulbs as well as prices and figure out how much change they'll get if they buy two bulbs for $1.99 and pay with a five dollar bill. On the way home, a discussion develops over the history of money and also Abraham Lincoln, as his picture is on the five dollar bill. Finally, after building a homemade ladder out of branches dragged from the woods, the light bulb is installed. And there is lig...

THE MYSTERY OF MATH One thing that I like about math is that it is so orderly! If you stick with it, things compute. They stay constant and objective. At the same time, math is a marvelous mystery. There is always something new and thrilling to discover. The patterns can be awe inspiring and even beautiful. In so many ways, I can see the hand of a Master Designer (our Gracious Creator) in math. Who else could invent all of the intricacies of geometry or the sense of justice found in algebraic equations? I have had a load of fun computing the sums of digits in multiplication facts. I know this is a bit complicated, but stick with me for a minute. Take a piece of paper, and write the numbers 1 to 20 down the side. In the next column, write the sums of the digits of each number. For example, the digit sum of 11 is 2, the digit sum of 12 is 3, etc. If you get a sum over 9, add the two digits of that number. For example, the intermediate digit sum of 59 is 14, and adding 1 and 4, the final ...

This is a fun little quiz for middle school aged kids.  Answers are at the bottom in very tiny print!  Don't peek until you think you've guessed most of them! Obfuscated Christmas Carols Quiz Can You Name These Religious Christmas Carols? Approach Everyone Who Is Steadfast Ecstasy Toward The Orb Hush, The Foretelling Spirits Harmonize Hey, Minuscule Urban Area Southwest Of Jerusalem Quiescent Nocturnal Period The Autocratic Troika Originating Near the Accent of Apollo The Primary Carol During the Time Ovine Caretakers Supervised Their Charges Past Twilight Celestial Messengers From Splendid Empires The Tatterdemalion Ebony Atmosphere What Offspring Abides Thus? Removed in a Bovine Feeding Trough Seraphim We Aurally Detect in the Stratosphere The Slight Percussionist Lad The Event Occurred At One Minute After 11:59 PM—Visibility Unlimited Are You Experiencing Parallel Auditory Input? ANSWERS TO OBFUSCATED CHRISTMAS CAROLS QUIZ 1. O Come All Ye Faithful 2. Joy To The World 3. Ha...