This homeschooling week started off with an unplanned study on poison ivy remedies. My daughter brought the itchy rash home with her from last week’s mission trip.
We learned that placing potato slices over the rash sites was an effective treatment.
Also this week, we the added an anemometer and a barometer to our homemade weather forecasting center.
Z7 updated the current conditions chart and practiced weather related jokes. His favorite this week is, “What does a cloud wear under it’s raincoat? Thunderwear!”
For “Poem In Your Pocket” day we not only kept poems in our pockets, but also studied poetic devices. Instead of notebooking or lapbooking our printable mini posters, we put them on our current (art in progress) chalkboard wall. I think it looks nice having some of the blank spaces filled in.
And, SALT (saved, anointed, loved, transformed) practice for our homeschool group’s creative ministries troop.
And, Silver Lining, homeschool color guard practice.
We will be ending our homeschooling week with our monthly homeschool support group’s family game night and potluck.
We have a chalkboard wall in our kitchen/school room. Currently, we are in the process of working on a project called “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. We are only working on it on rainy days and hopefully the whole wall will be covered in flowers and butterflies by May.
Yesterday, being Poetry In Your Pocket Day, we used the wall for our poetry studies.
All the poetry devise mini posters filled up the blank spots rather well.
It seems like everyday there is a news article explaining some new research, or treatments and therapies for disorders. When I first saw this one, I thought ,”OH NO! A new disorder, what now?” Usually, I would have skipped over it, but it was from The Onion, and I like the way they spin their “reporting”.
So my conclusion after reading about Youthful Tendency Disorder is this: All of my children, even the 21 year old, have several symptoms of this condition. I notice it most often during our homeschooling days, especially when it’s nice outside, or time for a grammar lesson, or after they have read an exciting story. It’s probably in their genes, for both my husband and I have struggled with Youthful Tendency Disorder for years. Until this article informed us, I did not realize just what is was that we have been “suffering” from.
I’m hoping that a cure for this “disorder” is never discovered!
April 18 is “Poetry In Your Pocket Day”. Though poetry has been carried around in pockets throughout history from the Renaissance to recent times, this special day was officially established in 2002.
To celebrate this day you need to select a poem, carry it with you in your pocket and share it with others throughout the day. Many libraries, bookstores, and schools will have events to celebrate Poetry In Your Pocket Day. For the history and details of Poetry In Your Pocket Day click here hhttp://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/406
For our poetry studies in our homeschool we will be reading several types of poems and writing some original poetry. We will be using resources from these links:
I’ve already selected which poem is going in my pocket!
A Mother’s Love
This world has jewels, money, land
position, power, and mansions grand
But a mother’s love more precious far,
than all these other treasures are.
A mother nurtures, guides, protects
Her teachings each child’s life affects,
and when in later years they go,
away from home, and friends they know
Those teachings will provide the stay,
to keep them on the good straight way.
Though some may stray to taste the fruits,
of worldly pleasures — still the roots
of Mother’s teachings, love, and care
will some day draw them back to where,
the Savior’s love can them enfold,
and fill them with a spirit bold.
So children, each and every day,
honor your mother in some way —
To show that you appreciate,
she taught you how to love, not hate.
To comfort you, to guide, to lead,
to be there in your time of need.
But best of all, — to show the way,
that leads to home with God some day.
E17 and B15 took some days off last week from homeschooling. They went on a mission trip with some other homeschool friends to Camp Joy (near Mammoth Cave) to get it ready for the summer camp season. They worked hard, Bible studied, explored the camp, and had a wonderful time with their friends.
E17 came home with a souvenir, too. A rash on her legs from Poison Ivy! I gave her the bottle of Calamine Lotion to dry out the rash and to relieve the itching. It did not work for her. The rash continued to spread and itch like crazy over the weekend. By Sunday night she gave up on the Calamine Lotion and set out to find an alternative to that “yucky pink stuff”.
The first remedy she tried was cucumber slices over the worst of the rash sites.
E17 says this decreased the inflammation of the rash and as long as the cucumber stayed on it, the itch was tolerable. But, this wasn’t quite the relief and healing she was hoping for.
She tried a mix of vinegar and alcohol, but that did not work either. After another day and a few more failed attempts with other remedies, she tried potato slices.
Folks, this is working great! The potato seems to be drying up that nasty rash and is stopping the itching! She had to change the potato slices often for the first hour of the treatment. because they turned dark blue and got hot.
I realize now that we should have known to try this sooner. We have used potatoes before to draw poison from insect stings and spider bites. It makes sense for it to work as well for drawing poison from her rash.
I asked E17 if she remembered studying poison ivy in our homeschool science last summer. She said she did. She even quoted the rhyme we learned, “Leaves of three, let them be!” She said she didn’t see any at the camp.
After a quick Google search, we learned that in the spring, Poison Ivy is not green, it’s red.
I’m sorry this has happened to her, but I’m also quite the proud momma. She has demonstrated a responsibility for her own health. She has a faith that proclaims that God has provided whatever we need and allows us to use what we have on hand. She proved that she understands the scientific method and can proficiently research. She’ll be getting an “A” in science this week even though this study was not on the lesson plan.
E17’s science lesson has been a good one for the rest of us, too. We needed a review on identifying poisonous plants. This site was helpful for our review http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/
“…Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food…” (Gensis 3)
I was chatting about homeschooling and getting some gardening advice from my friend Bobbi, from Provident Living Homestead. She thought the movie, Back to Eden, could help us with our gardening unit study. So, she sent it to me.
How awesome is that? Another homeschooling mom sending me a science lesson. She probably has no idea how much easier this will make my homeschooling day. I won’t have to research, print out anything, or design a lesson plan . The kids are going to appreciate this too. They have a BUSY week ahead. Watching a movie for our unit study one day this week is going to please them as well.
Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
We did not plant a garden last year. However, we attempted to grow some flowers , bushes, and a few vegetables, but nothing succeeded in our clay and rock soil. This year we are trying again, but we won’t be planting directly into the yard.
This past week, my husband and B15 dug out a 10ft diameter circle and lined it with bricks, (my husband is a brick layer so we always have a pile of bricks around), with a path designed going into the center. Do you think it looks like Pacman? E17 and a friend of mine think it does.
Z7 helped his dad and B15 add a ton and a half of good soil.
Now we have a garden spot. My husband must be anxious to get this project finished, because he went to the nursery as soon as the new soil was spread out and bought some tomato plants.
That burlap basket is for our compost. This idea, as well as the garden shape, comes from So. Africa’s “key-hole” gardens. Brilliant plan! There is no bottom to the basket, just rocks so the rain water can drain. And as the water drains, it washes the nutrients from the compost into the soil. When we water it during the dry spells, we’ll do so through that basket. We won’t have to dirty up our feet when we take out our compost. That’s what that path to the center is for. Also, most of the picking can be done from the outside of the garden.
E17 went back to the nursery with her dad yesterday. She decided on several different pepper plants and some mint. Maybe next weekend we’ll add beans, calliflower, and broccoli.
With all this gardening going on, we will be adding some garden studies to our homeschool science lessons.
Did you catch the line when the girl says, “You might be a homeschooler if you are filled with fear and dread when you hear the word ‘Saxon'”? That may not be the case for all homeschoolers, but it is certainly the case for this homeschooling momma. There’s other strange homeschool vocabulary words that give me shivers. Abeka, Lifepac, and FIAR, oh my! The list could go on but I’ll stop here so you won’t get frightened too.
I suppose I should explain. Those strange words are names of popular homeschooling curriculum. If you have ever had the opportunity of being around a group of homeschooling parents, you have most likely been trapped in a discussion (aka debate) on which curriculum is best.
I suppose I should explain more. First, every homeschool family is different. God designed us that way. With that being said, what kind of cirriculum works best can only determined by the individual family. What works in your homeschool is probably not what works in mine or in the Jones’ homeschool. The second reason why curriculum discussions are so scary is the reactions of others when I say (insert a slight southern, country, redneck accent), “Oh, we don’t use curriculum, I make it up.”
However, over the course of our 15 year homeschooling journey I have practiced a more refined response to the “What cirucculum do you use” question. “Our family learns with a history timeline based unit study approach that includes notebooking and lapbooking. We choose this reinforced learning method because it enables me to teach history, science, language arts, music, art, and religion to the children all at the same time just altering the lessons with more requirements for the higher grades. With these unit studies, we use online resources, text books, video, audio, and library materials. Each child has his own spelling and math programs based on their skill level. Also starting in the middle grades, each child gets to choose his own elective for each grading period. We research catalogs, talk with other home educators, read reviews, compare costs, and assess our children’s individual weaknesses and strengths before deciding on each years educational choices.” That’s better, huh?
So my advice to the new or dissatisfied homeschooling parent is to pray it through before you start buying curriculum. And figure out your child’s/children’s learning style and your preferred teaching method so you can narrow down your choices.
Learning Styles:
Kinesthetic – Student learns best with hands-on activities
Auditory – Student learns best through hearing
Visual – Student learns best by reading, viewing pictures, observing
Teaching Methods:
Unit Study – Reinforced learning in which the same topic is covered in several subjects
Classical – Latin, Trivium, Rhetoric
Charlotte Mason – Real life observation and discussion
Unschooling – Informal lessons determined by child’s interests
Traditional – Text books and work books
Eclectic – Some sort of combination of the above methods
Knowing that Raphael was born April 6, 1483 we included him in our homeschool’s Middle Ages/Renaissance unit study this week. (I like it when historic days can be fit in to our learning.) (My kids like it when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can be fit in to our learning.) So this art study was a win/win situation.
Garden of Praise has a short but good biography of him as well as quiz, word puzzles, coloring page, and more printables. Here’s there link to Raphael’s page, but spend some time here browsing around. They offer a wonderful selection of resources. http://gardenofpraise.com/art33.htm
Inspired by Raphael’s work on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, we’ve been drawing angels.
For those of you who might be wondering how our angels turned out. Well, there’s a good reason why I’m not sharing photos of them. We were a bit disappointed in our work. Wings are tough to draw. The lesson learned falls more into the category of Art Appreciation this time instead of Art Application. And I even have a link for this
You might be an artist if …
–The only piece of new furniture you have in your home is a $2000 easel.
–You’ve ever cleaned your fingernails with a palette knife.
–You butter your toast with your fingers, just to feel its texture.
–You’ve ever considered framing your palette instead of the painting.
–You notice the burnt umber in the background of the Playboy centrefold.
–Your children are forced to share a room so you can have an art studio.
–You routinely drink the rinse water instead of the coffee.
–The suggestion that you should “teach” or “open a flower shop” or “go to law school” makes you want to scream and throw things.
–You know the difference between beige, ecru, cream, off-white, and eggshell.
–Your favorite fragrance is eau d’ linseed oil.
–You do judge a book by its cover.
Leonardo da Vinci has a birthday coming up April 15. We will be learning about him that week. And blog posting about him, too.
I’m regretting not having the time to make Raphael a birthday cake. Maybe, I’ll buy him one. Eating birthday cake while practicing drawing those angel wings sounds like a plan to me.
Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!
This is an Irish blessing we read with part of our holiday unit study of Saint Patrick’s Day. This poem and other Irish blessings, as well as everything else Irish can be found here:
We made these shamrock treats! Hershey Kiss, Green M&M’s, and Pretzels – Bake at 275 Degrees for just a couple of minutes until the Kiss has melted. Watch carefully not to over cook, because burnt chocolate happens easily!
We have a few new rules during this study: must wear green, Irish accents and phrases are mandatory, if anyone finds a pot-o-gold they must share with Mom, and ABSOLUTELY NO PINCHING!
Last but not least, a brief history video on St. Patrick from Veggie Tales
We learned that placing potato slices over the rash sites was an effective treatment.
Also this week, we the added an anemometer and a barometer to our homemade weather forecasting center.
And, SALT (saved, anointed, loved, transformed) practice for our homeschool group’s creative ministries troop. 
We will be ending our homeschooling week with our monthly homeschool support group’s family game night and potluck.
Still Learning Something New 
