Canaanite Mask

Last week in Oak Meadow 3 Social Studies, Thing 4 studied Phonecia and the Canaanites and how they used different types of resources to create and trade goods. We talked about natural, human and capital resources and how they interrelate. She was really interested in this, and I was really happy (again) to be using OM, because I would never have thought to teach her this at this point in her learning.

To go along with the lesson, she created a Canaanite ceremonial mask out of Sculpey clay. Cool!

Benjamin Franklin

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

In OM 5 History, we are studying Benjamin Franklin. What an interesting man he was. Early in his adult life, he was a soap and candle maker. We attempted to make candles the way Ben did, by dipping wicks in melted wax, then in cold water, then back in the wax, repeat, repeat, repeat.




We were supposed to keep this up until our candles were the diameter we wanted. After about 20 minutes of dipping, our wick looked only marginally different, and we concluded that Benjamin Franklin had much more patience than we do. (No wonder he moved on to bigger things like becoming an inventor, scientist, writer, along with that Founding Father gig.)

We ditched the Oak Meadow suggestion and re-purposed our Subway cups from dinner, using them as candle molds. I showed the kids how my sisters and I used to make ice cube candles when I was a kid.




I'm no Ben Franklin, but my children were impressed.

Today we wrote with a quill and ink, just like Ben Franklin did. It really gave the kids an appreciation for our current day writing instruments...not to mention the eraser.


Thing 4 had a lot of fun pretending she was writing the Declaration of Independence.



Did you know that, except for two years of formal education from age 8 to age 10, Benjamin Franklin was home schooled and self-taught?

Artsy Craftsy

Oak Meadow provides a lot...a whole lot...of enrichment activities to go along with what we are studying. I'm thrilled to have the activities planned for me. That makes it so easy. Here are a few things we've done recently.

Thing 4 has been studying Native American cultures, so we made corn husk dolls and dream catchers. We invited our sweet friends to do these crafts with us.











Thing 3 has been studying Colonial America, so we made pinch pots and we're in the process of doing a little needlework. The needlework thing has made Thing 3 thankful that he was not born a female in Colonial times.










In our Animal Habitat study, we learned about ways we can improve the habitat for some animals. We made bird feeders.



Whew! I'm about ready for some worksheets!

Halloween

One of my kiddos loves artsy/crafty activities. Every now and then, I try to find some activities that nurture her love of all things creative. It's also good for my kiddo who does not particularly enjoy artsy/crafty things.

Here are some fun Halloween crafts that we did this week.

I found this idea for Salt Dough Pumpkins at CraftTown. I love the recipe for Salt Dough. We'll be using that again at Thanksgiving and Christmas! For the pumpkins, we used tempra paint instead of acrylic because it's what we had on hand. We didn't use the glitter spray because we wanted them just orange. We painted our toothpick stems rather than using colored toothpicks. The kiddos wanted brown stems instead of green the directions suggest.

I bought a Haunted Mansion decorating kit for $10 at the grocery. I didn't have very high expectations for how it would work out because it was so cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised. I think it turned out really cute!

These Footprint Ghosts are my favorite thing we did this week. I love them! I just bought black felt and white paint. I painted the bottom of each child's foot and they made a footprint on the felt. Once the paint was dry, they used a Sharpie to draw eyes and a mouth. I created a rod pocket by folding the top of the felt over a bit and securing it with fabric glue. I inserted a wooden dowel, tied some orange yarn on the dowel and, presto, we had ghost banners.

We also did a little study on the history of Halloween. The History Channel has a very good piece on the origins of the day.

Happy Halloween!