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Half a Hundred Acre Wood

Half a Hundred Acre Wood

Christian homeschooling integrating Classical and Charlotte Mason principles

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Orphan Trains, Elements, and Building Big

I receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please see our full disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for supporting Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood through your purchases.

I found out I was subbing for a homeschool class five days in advance.  But that doesn’t help much when you procrastinate in hopes that you will somehow be delivered from the task you know you must face.  So, as I scrambled to come up with a review time activity for class last week, I decided to try this passport idea, given that we were studying immigration that week.

I printed and assembled a copy of this Play USA Passport for each student and then printed labels for each of our review time subjects.  After dividing the parents that were in the room up into four different stations, the children rotated through the room, reciting the past 6 weeks of material, earning a stamp for their passport (which was a sticker for each item recited because I didn’t have any stamping supplies on hand).  It took some upfront time to pull together, but it went really well in class. The kids really liked having the passports, and it made those 30 minutes go by really fast!

History:  Immigrants Coming to America

On the home front, we read the well-illustrated and touching story When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest and continued our study of the Titanic. David and Stephen both have been very fascinated with the Titanic since our visit to The Titanic in Pigeon Forge (read a little about that trip here) and have really enjoyed the book 882 1/2 Amazing Answers to Your Questions About the Titanic by Hugh Brewster.   Gary and Stephen built a wooden Titanic Model. (The model does not quite fit together the way the picture on the package looks! That’s what we get for buying the $4 model.)

Of course, Stephen couldn’t paint without his brothers also wanting to hone their artistic abilities, so we practiced some more O’Keeffe paintings…

Stephen continued some projects in his Time Travelers Study from Homeschool in the Woods, learning about Orphan Trains and Natural Disasters of the era (like Titanic, Hindenburg and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl).

Because we’ve been learning so much about bridges, we decided to go even deeper with our study by purchasing a copy of the 5-DVD set Building Big.  WOW!  These DVDs are so fascinating, and with wonderful history tie-ins, too!  After we watched the one on Bridges, Gary and the boys built a simple bridge over the creek!


I think tomorrow a dam may be in the works!  (You can visit the PBS Building Big Site for more info and activities.)

Science: The Periodic Table

Although the Element cards at  Ellen J McHenry’s Site are great, Stephen liked making his own element flashcards (an activity in Classic Science Elementary Chemistry) and learned quite a bit by doing so.  It was such a great activity that I made this handmade element flashcards template for others to use as they introduce each element.

Stephen sorted out the flashcards he’s made thus far, placing each card in its respective family in the Periodic Table.

We also completed part of the interactive study on the Periodic Table at The Simple Homeschool.  (Requires a paid membership, but she provides freebies if you sign up for the newsletter.)

David completed a Periodic Table of Fun Stuff (another activity in Classic Science Elementary Chemistry).

Periodic Table of Fun Stuff

This helped to explain how and why the Periodic Table is organized the way it is.   He classified his element family groups as “Chocolate Dinosaurs,” “Wooden Toys,” “Wooden Train,” “Rubber Bands,” “More Wooden Toys,” and “Musical Instruments.”

As David and I played Chutes and Ladders, we all broke out into song each time after spinning the spinner – singing our 1st 12 Elements memory work song. I love it when review just fits in with whatever we’re doing!

Other things…

Stephen decided to free-hand the USA.  We have not been practicing this outside of CC much (yes, I admit it!), but he did a pretty good job without having really practiced at all. The thing I loved so much about this was that he was absolutely grinning through the whole thing.

Now that’s a boy who loves geography!

David was conducting “Science Experience” (aka, science experiments).  He was trying to figure out what varying wind speeds would do to Levi’s blankets.

Gary and Stephen climbed to the summit of Mt. WayUpThere.

Stephen’s first climb up the ridge surrounding our farm. If you stare long enough you can see the barn through the trees.

We made it to the Home Depot Kids Workshop on Saturday!

And discovered a bit of local history.

The Battle of Hartsville (Civil War Trail)

Living History Museum in Hartsville

Levi was frightened by the Washing Machine. (I was, too.)

And… just for kicks, I had to pull this one up from the archives, since it has some pretty fun stuff sort-of related to our history studies (like the Statue of Liberty, for instance).  This was from last summer when we created “America City” after playing Ultimate I Spy.  All of these templates are available on Papertoys.com.



And I think that’s for now.  But if you’re interested in more activities for Week 16 (or other weeks!), visit our American History Resources page.  (If you don’t see the subject or week you’re looking for, just keep on a-scrolling down!)

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By Brandy Ferrell February 6, 2012 5 Comments Tagged With: CC CYCLE 3 WEEKS 13-24 ACTIVITIES, HSITW, LAPBOOKING, NOTEBOOKING, REFORMAT

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