Half a Hundred Acre Wood

Christian homeschooling integrating Classical and Charlotte Mason principles

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Make a Model Lung

Purpose: Students make a working model of a pair of lungs to see how the diaphragm, lungs, and trachea work together. Materials: Plastic bottle with lid Straw Two rubber bands Two balloons Gum or modeling clay Procedure Cut off the bottom of the bottle Cut off the neck of the balloon Secure balloon over the […]

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Anatomy Experiments: Kidney Filtration & Kidney Model

Kidney Filtration Purpose: Model how kidneys filter blood.Materials: Cornstarch Iodine Water Two drinking glasses Measuring cups Measuring spoons Sandwich baggie Twist tie Procedure: Add one teaspoon of cornstarch to 1/8 cup of water. Stir. Add 3/4 cup of hot water and stir well. Measure 1/4 cup of cornstarch mixture… …and pour into sandwich baggie. Use a […]

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Anatomy Experiments: Digestion

This is a very simple experiment using normal household items. Purpose: Model how bile from the liver digests fat as it enters the small intestine. Materials: Shallow dish or pie pan Cotton swab Whole milk Food coloring Liquid dish soap or hand soap Procedure: Pour about 1/2 inch of milk into the dish/pan. Add four […]

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Civil War History Study

As we approach the end of the semester, we plan to continue our study of the War that Crossed Five Aprils even into our winter break. We hope to visit a few of our state’s Civil War sites over the holidays as a review of many of the projects we’ve completed (or will complete) as […]

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Why Cursive? Why Copywork? Why Poetry?

During my first years of homeschooling, many questions plagued me, especially as we found ourselves in the midst of a community of classical educators…  Why introduce my children to cursive handwriting? Why emphasize the mundane act of copywork? Why read poetry, much less memorize it? Although I liked the idea of a classical education for […]

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Underground Railroad & Anatomy Experiments

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve enjoyed reading a collection of books set during the time of the Underground Railroad: Follow the Drinking Gourd A picture book about “Peg Leg Joe,” a conductor of the Underground Railroad who teaches a folk song to slaves to give them directions to follow the path to freedom. Here’s […]

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Studying the Star-Spangled Banner and Other Stuff

Let’s see… we studied the War of 1812 almost a month ago, but we had a special arrival that caused me to embrace my natural tendency towards procrastination. After all, he would only be home a week before heading to Greece… Yes… that is the *real* Parthenon (not the one in Nashville). My husband sent […]

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The Pumpkin Prayer Bookmarks and Lesson {Printable}

Last year I shared about the Pumpkin Prayer, which has become a special tradition in our family even though we seem to change it up a bit each year. Last week we came across another version of “The Pumpkin Prayer” (author unknown) that we used for carving our pumpkin this year. We also fine-tuned a […]

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Multiplication Drill Sheet {Printable}

A few weeks ago, we came across a simple timed multiplication drill for students of different abilities where each student works on a specific fact family as needed. In this case, our eleven-year-old practiced his x 12 facts (pictured above) while our 8-year-old practiced his x 2 facts. Both filled in the left side of […]