Otter: Our wiggly 5th grader
Bear: Our big bear of an 12th grader
Emily: Our froo-froo homeschool graduate working on her nursing degree
March 11, 2010
Otter is really enjoying chemistry. Yesterday we read about plasma globes and did some experiments. Here are the pics.
Otter got a fluorescent light bulb to light up, just by holding it near the plasma globe:
If you put a penny on top and then touch the penny with a nail, you can see a small arc of electricity:
Super close up of the above:
Otter also got an LED light from his Snap Circuits kit to light up just by touching it to the plasma globe:
We also recently split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Dad put a lit match to the hydrogen we collected and we all got to hear a POP!
Another experiment Otter did was to figure out how to separate salt from sand:
Other recent things we've done in chemistry:
- Learned about hydrogen
- Distilled salt water
- Watched an acid reaction
- Put up a periodic table poster
- Learned about lab safety with Sponge Bob
- Learned about controls and variables
- Went on an elements scavenger hunt
- Learned about Antoine Lavoisier
I think Otter is in science heaven lately. Chemistry is full of fun experiments and explorations.
For history, Otter made some ancient Greek honey cakes:
March 11, 2010
I hardly ever blog about Bear. He's such a big kid that there aren't a lot of projects to take pictures of. However, I thought I'd share a gem that I found recently, in case it helps anyone else.
Bear "ran out" of homeschool math courses last year when he completed Calculus. While I waited for Life of Fred's Linear Algebra book to become available, he messed around with various Art of Problem Solving books.
I was finally about to order Life of Fred, when I came across a textbook written by Dr. Jim Hefferon, a Professor of Mathematics at Saint Michael's College. Not only can you download the entire text for FREE, but it comes with answers to the exercises. I also found some linear algebra video lectures from MIT. I'm really thankful that people share their hard work with others online. It's such a blessing to our family.
March 8, 2010
Otter recently finished his First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, Level 4 workbook and...they don't make any more levels for it yet. GASP. That means I had to find something else to use. I thought I was going to use Shurley English, as we've done in the past. But, ugh...we're both tired of Shurley English. It works great, but I think we both want something a bit different. I finally made my choices. We are now using:
- KISS Grammar - I love KISS Grammar. You learn to analyze sentences using classic literature. Here's a great review that goes over the basics. Otter likes it too (we're working through the 1st workbook). The lessons are short, enjoyable and FREE. Don't be scared off by the website. There is a LOT of info there, but you can pretty much pick up and go if you download one of the workbooks.
- Intermediate Language Lessons - This book was published in 1914 and was designed for 4th through 6th graders. I downloaded a free PDF from Google and am printing off the lessons as we go through them. It has picture studies, narration, poetry, dictation, outlining, composition, memorization, grammar and more presented in a gentle, engaging format. I am VERY pleased with it.
I feels great to find things that work for us that don't cost anything! Oh! Oh! I also found this today (for FREEEEEE):
A Child's History of Art by V.M. Hillyer
I'm looking forward to doing some art studies using it. Happy downloading!
March 2, 2010
My husband does some stringer work (as a photojournalist) for both of our local papers. I just wanted to share a picture he took that I thought was awesome.
And here's another:
March 2, 2010
We just ended our study of astronomy and started chemistry. You can get a sneak peek at some of the books and materials we are using here. I'll post the schedule I've created when I'm finished with it. So far, it's a highlight of our day and Otter is loving it. 
Here is a pic of one of the recent experiments Otter did:
You can download the free printable for this experiment from here. There are more science freebies at ACS Chemistry for Life. If you click on "Science for Kids" there are free lesson plans, some online activities, art ideas and more. I'm scheduling in some of the activities into our chemistry schedule.
February 26, 2010
In history we are finally wrapping up ancient Egypt! Here are some pictures of some recent projects:
This papyrus kit was a big hit. You get real bundles of papyrus, a plain sheet of papyrus paper and another sheet with a printed outline on it of an Egyptian scene you can color or paint. The kit comes with instructions on how to make your own sheet of papyrus paper. We ordered ours from Rainbow Resource.
We never did successfully create a piece of paper from the plant fibers, but the kit was still worthwhile to get to look at/feel a sheet of real papyrus paper (which is quite rough and sturdy!) and to see the plant material that makes it.
Here's a map of Egyptian sites on the Nile from Remembering God's Awesome Acts. I didn't schedule this book into Otter's ancient history schedule even though I think it makes a good supplement. We just didn't have the time or interest to use all of it. If your student really wants to dig into early Biblical history and Egypt, you might want to check it out.
This Lift The Lid On Mummies kit comes with lots of mummy making "stuff". I bought it years ago to use with the "big kids. Now it was Otter's turn, but he didn't like it as much as the others had.
This is a lift the flap Rosetta Stone with a hieroglyphic translation exercise:
I've been working with Otter on narrating summaries. After I read a selection from our history to him, I ask him questions about it (to help him pick out the "main" facts). Then I have him narrate out loud. After that he writes his narrations down on notebooking pages and files them in his history notebook:
For a great article on narration, click here to go to Jimmie's Squidoo page.
Here is Moses from Famous Figures of Ancient Times: Movable Paper Figures to Cut, Color, and Assemble:
Otter also painted King Tut. We used a simple lesson from the Art Projects For Kids website. I love some of the art lessons on Kathy's site and plan to visit again soon for some lesson ideas!
The paint container in the pictures was made from the bottom of a plastic milk jug. It's perfect- it even has raised areas inside to keep the colors of the paint separate.
Otter also colored a map of the 12 tribes of Israel instead of the scheduled map lesson in Mystery of History. You can download it for free from Bible History Online.
February 25, 2010
Currently in math, Otter's been using Life of Fred Fractions exclusively. He was using a combo of Teaching Textbooks 6, Life of Fred and Singapore, but after hitting a wall, we pared it down to the one program. While Life of Fred has been going pretty great, I saw that Otter needed more practice with fractions. They were just too abstract for him once we started hitting uncommon denominators. I went online to try and find a solution and found a terrific website:
Visual Fractions is exactly what he needed to work with. After just 15 minutes, his understanding of fractions soared. Everything is explained step-by-step and illustrated. There are also tons of free, interactive exercises for practice. You can choose circles or bars to represent the fractions (Otter likes circles) and anytime you get stuck, you can click the explain button.
I think I'll have him play on the Visual Fractions website for about a week and then get back to Life of Fred.
February 25, 2010
Evan Moor has some more freebies to download!
Literature Pocket: The Elves and the Shoemaker from Literature Pockets, Folktales & Fairy Tales
Literature Pocket: Owl Moon from Literature Pockets, Caldecott Winners
If you like freebies, you should check out some of the treasures over at the Google book search. Here are a few I've discovered:
- Talking with the Pencil: Primary Lessons in Language
- New Language Exercises for Primary Schools
- Lessons for Language in Primary Schools
- Primary Lessons in Language and Composition
- Famous Men of Greece
- Stories of Rocks and Minerals for the Grammar Grades
February 19, 2010
Recently I posted about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. I found the basic recipe online. Check it out and give it a try.
February 19, 2010
Here are some more pics of Otter's recent projects for ancient history from History Pockets.
A pop-up Egyptian courtyard :
A cut & paste tomb:
A flip-flap booklet of Egyptian gods and goddesses:
A pyramid shape book:
An ancient Egyptian person
(with sheer "cloth" *cough* -toilet paper- clothing overlay)
Otter usually does his History Pocket projects during our read-alouds. It keeps his hands busy and his mind focused on the stories or information that is being read.
After I read to him, I usually ask him questions about what we read and he also often provides a narration that summarizes the material.
One of the books we finished last week is:
This adventure story is about Senmut, a boy in ancient Egypt. After his father is bitten by a Cobra, Senmut attempts to carve a statue of the healer goddess Sekhmet with the hopes it will cure his father. While working, he thoughtlessly tosses a tool and accidentally kills a sacred dove. Senmut is sent to the mines for his crime. Will he survive his harsh sentence? Will he ever see his father alive again?
Read the first chapters at Google Books.
I scheduled this book as a reader, although I actually did it as a read-aloud due to the Egyptian spirituality that is woven throughout the story. I wanted to be on hand to edit out or explain/discuss portions because I didn't feel comfortable with a lot of it. It's a worthwhile story though, because it gives a realistic picture of ancient Egyptian beliefs, how lives were ruled by these beliefs, and makes this ancient culture more accessible to young readers.
Otter's rating: 5 stars
February 17, 2010
Here are some History Pocket freebies you can download from Evan-Moor!
History Pockets, Grades 1-3 Ancient Civilizations: "China"
History Pockets, Grades 1-3 "Building a Village" from Life in Plymouth Colony
I like downloading freebies and then saving them in organized files on my hard drive. Even if we aren't studying something now, there are often things we get to in the future. Having them downloaded and ready-to go is especially helpful when things disappear from online (as they often seem to do).
February 17, 2010
We've been really busy lately. Here are some pictures of Otter's most recent projects:
This project was from the Story of the World Activity book. Otter worked on it while we did one of our read-alouds.
A Mohenjo-Daro house made of "bricks"
You can see some pictures of this ancient city here.
Another thing we did was learn the ancient Egyptian game of Senet. Here is the game board from History Pockets. We also played versions of the game online. Guess who won? It wasn't me! 
Here's a project Otter REALLY loved: making an "ancient" map. We took one of our Mystery of History maps, crumpled it up, dabbed it with wet tea bags and then burned the edges. Just a note for the future: outline the edges of the map areas in permanent marker! Ours "washed" away with the application of the tea bags (duh).
I also dug out some pages and lessons from Remembering God's Awesome Acts. I purchased it in the past for the "big" kids and they completed about half of the workbook. It's been sitting on the shelf ever since and the last half fits perfectly with what we're currently studying. The program mixes Bible lessons with history, art, logic, geography, culture and more. One of the lessons was about Egyptian art. Here's Otter's picture he drew after looking over the different art elements:
As far as website news, I designed the "art" for the ancient history section. You can see it here on my rough working page for ancient history books.
February 2, 2010
I love homemade bread. I just don't like the process of making it - all that kneading and punching and fussing. Then, after all that...WORK...my loaves of bread come out tasting like lumps of yeasty grossness with the texture of a boot. 
We came across a bread machine for free. It's great at making character-free loaves with a boring crust and an inside that is just somehow wrong. It's as if the dough knew it was mixed by some machine and didn't have all the love and work put into it by a human and so had it's revenge in tasting like an over done 99 cent loaf from the grocery store. Only with a little better flavor...while it's hot, anyway.
So, it was with some skepticism that I approached this book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. I read some of the pages in the Amazon preview. I looked it up online. I read reviews. Hmmmm.....could it really work? Can you make great tasting bread without all the WORK? Notice I have typed the word work numerous times now because you know how homeschooling moms just have loads of free time to do stuff like knead bread and add extra WORK to our days. *cough*
So yesterday was the big day. Oh, except I don't have a pizza peel, a baking stone, dry measure measuring cups (you can tell how much baking I do by that simple fact) or kosher salt... but I was not going to let any of that stop me.
- I mixed everything up, (3 minutes of WORK).
- I let it sit for a couple of hours.
- Threw it in the fridge for a few more hours (to make the dough easy to handle)...
- Pulled off a chunk (yes, there is more to use later!!), shaped it, set it on an airbake cookie sheet generously sprinkled with cornmeal (2 minutes of WORK) ...
- After letting it sit for 40 minutes, I popped it into the oven onto another air bake cookie sheet with a cup of hot water poured immediately onto the broiler pan below (30 seconds of WORK).
- After 30 minutes of baking, I pulled it out and let it cool on a cookie rack (30 seconds of WORK).
Now, being the terrific homeschool mom that I am, I will do some math. My great expenditure of time (where I was slaving in a hot kitchen) was about 6 minutes. But here's the best part....the bread was GOOD. No, really. It was. I'm saying "was", because it's now completely devoured.
I am SO happy. I can make bread! Real bread! Like the loaves of fancy artisan stuff you buy from the bread store! FRESH, tasty, HOMEMADE bread that tastes like you've been up to your elbows in flour all day, kneading and WORKING away like you live in a little house on the prairie.
So, if you like homemade bread, but don't have the time or talent to make it, now you do, if you check out Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Click here to
support this site
Link to Guest Hollow
Current Projects:
Ancient History
Otter's Chemistry
Learning to use my Nikon
Digital Scrapbooking
Squire & Scroll Lapbook
This site!
Blogs & Stuff I love:
Pioneer Woman
Sites with freebies I visit:
Homeschool Share
Curricula Otter is using:
Otter's Ancient History
Kiss Grammar (free!)
Intermediate Language Lessons (free!)
Sequential Spelling
Life of Fred Fractions
Singapore Math
All Things Fun & Fascinating (writing)
Vocabulary Cartoons
Lively Latin
Otter's Chemistry
and a bunch of other stuff!
Homeschooling for me:
Illustrator CS3
Dreamweaver CSS
Fireworks CS3
Courses I've finished:
Dreamweaver CS3
Flash Fundamentals
Painter X
We would love for you to send us an email !
ALL material on this homeschool site is personal opinion only and should be verified through by qualified authorities.
In order to use this website you must agree to hold all parties completely harmless as well as to read, and agree to everything that is on our legal page.
©2009 GuestHollow.com Last updated:
March 11, 2010