The Edible River

I believe one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is that I have the opportunity to discover how fascinating human history is and give that to my children.

This year we are using The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times .


We've started the year first by discussing what history is and how we discover it. The kids recorded a little bit of our own family history by creating this book.


Along with fact sheets about themselves, they also interviewed family members and created pages for them as well.

Please Note: The following pictures will prove that having fun with education, does not mean you must be super-crafty, and that participating in extra craft activities does not have to result in a perfect, award winning creation in order for your children to have a memorable educational experience.


Our focus then turned to Ancient Egypt, which we will camp out on for a couple of weeks. The kids are keeping History notebooks, where they colored a map of the Nile. We quickly mixed up some peanut butter cookie dough (2 cups peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs) because it was the easiest recipe I could find and we had the ingredients on hand. After refrigerating the dough for 30 minutes, the kids spread it out in a baking pan, carved out the shape of Nile River and placed a few cookie pyramids along the bank. We baked it for about 20 minutes (I think on 400 degrees). And because we did not have blue food coloring, we opted for chocolate pudding to represent out river.


We spread on more pudding, flooding out the Nile Delta and the banks of our river, just like the Nile would flood over Egyptians crops each year provided the much needed water.


L2 woke from her nap just in time to help us enjoy the pudding-covered cookies.

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Pocahontas Lapbook

We concluded our studies on Jamestown and Pocahontas at the end of October, but I'm just now getting around to posting the pictures of the lapbook we completed. We read both Pocahontas by D'Aulaire and Jamestown from The Adventures in Colonial America Series. Our lapbook componets came from HomeschoolShare's free Pocahontas lapbook.


I found this map of Powhatan's Indian village while surfing the internet. I didn't save the site so I'm not sure where it came from.


All the kids worked together to make this lapbook, each one making different booklets.




Mapping Jamestown.


Pocahontas marries John Rolfe.


How the Indians help the Englishmen and the gifts that were given to Chief Powhatan from the King og England (his 'Royal Brother').


Pocahontas saves John Smith's life twice.




Even the little ones help with the lapbook, practicing letters. Pin It Now!

Jamestown Fort

We are learning about the Jamestown colony in our American History studies and I came across a resource a while back that I had to share with you! Homeschool in the Woods is currently offering free templates to build your own miniature Jamestown Fort. It is so cool!



Just print off the free templates on cardstock. Color and fold. It maybe took about an hour and half to complete, but it was such a neat project to do with the kids.





The website says that the free downloadable templates are only offer until July 2008, but they still have them up on their website. Even if you aren't studying Jamestown now, I would recommend downloading the templates for future use. Pin It Now!

How Columbus helps us to share our faith.

We have been reading D'ualaire's Columbus and discussing how Columbus wanted to find riches in the new land and bring them back to the King and Queen of Spain. He also wanted to spread the Good News of Christianity to the natives that he met. So today we made a fun craft to illustrate this.


First, we made treasure boxes. I bought these gift boxes last night at Garden Ridge as the store was closing. It's been years since I've shopped there, but they use to sell kids crafts so I was hoping to find the crafty treasure boxes that kids can color and decorate. However, I was informed they no longer sell crafts (when did this happen?) So we made these gift boxes and necklace beads work.


This is the inside of the treasure box.


Then we made Witness Bracelets. Each bead (and even the knots) represents a different part of the gospel. The following is from this site I found that tells how to make the bracelets:

The First Knot reminds me that I am created to love God and to live with Him.
Genesis 1:27 - God created man (humans) in His own image

The Black Bead reminds me that sin keeps me away from God.
Romans 3:23 - Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God's glory.

The Red Bead reminds me that Jesus is my Way out of sin and back to God.
Romans 5:8-9 - But here is how God has shown His love for us. While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.

The White Bead reminds me that my new life with Jesus is clean and pure. No matter what I have done in the past, Jesus makes me brand new.
I John 1:7 But suppose we walk in the light, just as He is in the light. Then we share life with one an other. And the blood of Jesus, His Son, makes us pure from all sin.

The Green Bead reminds me to read my Bible, to pray, to obey & to worship God so my faith will grow.
Ephesians 4:15 We will speak the truth in love. We will grow up onto Christ in every way.

The Clear Bead reminds me to wait for the Holy Spirit to help me.
II Thessalonians 2:13b The Lord loves you. God chose you from the beginning. He w anted you to be saved. Salvation comes through the Holy Spirit's work. He makes people holy. It also comes through believing the truth.

The Blue Bead reminds me to choose to be more like Jesus.
Romans 8:14 Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

The Yellow Bead reminds me that God has a better place waiting for me.
Philippians 4:4-5 Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful. Let everyone know how gentle you are. The Lord is coming soon.

The Last Knot reminds me that God chose me so that I can choose God.
John 14:1-3a Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust in Me also. There are many rooms in My Father's house. If this were not true, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. If I go and do that I will come back. And I will take you to be with Me. Pin It Now!