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25 Summer Homeschool Ideas To Keep The Learning Spark Alive

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I’m sharing summer homeschool ideas to keep the learning spark burning. Also, grab more ideas on my pages The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter and Free Summer Unit Study.

Even if you school year-round, most of us need a change during summer.

Whether you’re looking to add a few hands-on ideas, a summer unit study or a fun workbook, you’ll love these ideas.

25 Summer Homeschool Ideas To Keep The Learning Spark Alive

Also, summertime is a time to focus on those subjects like art, music, and maybe even science, which we would love to do more of.

Look at How to Incorporate Subjects into a Fun Homeschool Cooking Unit Study.

Summer Homeschool Ideas

As I mentioned summer can be a mix of fun and learning.

Look at some of these classes we love to do during summer.

Then I’m not above a few fun workbooks especially when it’s hot outside.

11 Fun Summer Activities for Middle School

More Summer Homeschool Learning Activities

In addition, I have a few more ideas if you’re homeschooling multiple ages.

Finally, look at these fun summer learning ideas.

Summer Learning Ideas

Use one or two of these ideas to add to your summer learning program. Add a few hands-on projects to keep learning fun.

Kids Free Glass Blowing Lapbook on The History Of Glass Blowing

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have a free glass blowing lapbook about the history of glass blowing. Also, you’ll love more ideas on my pages Glass Blowing, Lapbook Ideas, and Best Homeschool Unit Studies.

Although glass wasn’t discovered during the Renaissance period, it did make a rebirth in that time period.

Around 1500 BC in Mesopotamia and Egypt the first glass vessels were made by shaping hot glass around solid cores of earth and dung.

Kids Free Glass Blowing Lapbook on The History Of Glass Blowing

After the glass cooled the plug was removed and it left a hollow form.

During the Roman era, new formulas were invented and perfected.

Glass was so precious Emperor Nero paid $500.00 for one goblet.

Glass blowing techniques were all but lost during the Middle Ages in Europe.

The History of Glass Blowing

However, around the 13th century, Venice became the center of glassblowing.

Having learned the secret of glass blowing through their trade with the Middle East, Venetian artisans revived the technique.

Because the furnaces represented a fire danger in Venice, whose buildings were mostly wooden, they were moved to the island of Murano.

It wasn’t long before the glass makers were the leading citizens of the island.

The artisans were granted the right to wear swords and enjoy immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state.

In the following centuries exports began, and the island became famous for glass beads and mirrors.

Kids Free Glass Blowing Lapbook on The History Of Glass Blowing

Today, even though the art of glass blowing has been shared all over the world.

Murano is still called the Glass Island.

Hands-on Glass and Glass Blowing Kids Activities

Next, add some of these fun hands-on glass and glass blowing kids activities.

And add some fun videos.

Kids Free Glass Blowing Lapbook on The History Of Glass Blowing

Then add some more lapbooks to your learning day.

More Lapbook Ideas

Next, add some of these books and resources to your glass blowing unit study.

Glass Blowing and Dale Chihuly Resources for Kids

Add some of these resources and books to your unit study about glass blowing.

Minibooks Included in The History of Glass Blowing

Finally, look at the free minibooks included in this glass blowing lapbook.

  • Renaissance to Modern Front Outside Cover
  • Glass Island – Where Is It and Why Is It Called Glass Island
  • How Is Glass Used Everyday
  • How is Glass Colored
  • What is Glass
  • How is Glass Formed
  • When was Glass Discovered
  • Craft of the Renaissance
  • The Ancient Art of Glass Blowing
  • Lightning the Power to Make Glass
  • Hot Words a.k.a Vocabulary Words About Glass Blowing
  • Stained Glass
  • Glass Is As . . (Simile Book)
  • 2 Glass Blowing Notebooking Pages
  • 1 Coloring Page which can be used as a front cover or glue on back of your file folder lapbook

How to Get the Free Glass Blowing Lapbook

Now, how to grab the free lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access to my subscribers library and this freebie.

However, not all my freebies are in the library (wink).

I like to keep up to date with what is valuable to you so I can give you more, some freebies you must sign up again on the form below even if you are already a follower.

And it’s the only way I have of freely delivering them to you. Just follow the steps below.

1) Sign up on my list.
2) Grab the freebie.You’ll receive the freebie instantly.
3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

22 Hands-on Fun Ocean Sea Shell Activities For Teens

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have 22 fun ocean sea shell activities for teens. Also, you’ll love more ideas on my pages Oceans, Homeschool Middle School and How to Homeschool High School.

There seems to always be a lot of fun ocean seashell crafts for the younger kids but not so much for older kids and especially teens.

I found a great list of crafts that are fun and more challenging.

From tinkling wind chimes to elegant artwork there are plenty of choices here to use for fun craft projects that will brighten up their room or have a special place on the mantle

22 Hands-on Fun Ocean Sea Shell Activities For Teens

Before we get into the more creative stuff, let’s answer a couple of important questions about these beautiful beach treasures.

You can ask your teen and have him research the answers on their own or read to them about shells while they work on a craft.

And yes, teens still liked to be read to.

What Is A Sea Shell?

A seashell is a mollusk’s abandoned exoskeleton.

It was their protection, home, and a place for their muscle to attach to. 

While ocean sea shells seem to come in an endless variety of shapes, they’re all really versions of the same fundamental pattern – a spiral.

How Are Seashells Made?

During their daily life mollusks draw in salts and chemicals from the water around them.

As they process the materials, they secrete the calcium carbonate, which hardens on the outside of their bodies and begins to form the hard outer shell.

 As they continue excreting the calcium carbonate the surface grows and grows.

What Kind Of Creatures Live In Seashells?

  1. Clams
  2. oysters
  3. scallops
  4. and sea snails to name some.
22 Hands-on Fun Ocean Sea Shell Activities For Teens

If you don’t already have seashells on hand from your beach trips, you can grab one of these mixed bags off Amazon to use.

Then, I thought this tutorial on How to drill a hole in a shell would come in handy for a lot of projects below.

More Summer Fun Ideas for Teens

Next, look at these other ideas for teens.

22 Hands-on Fun Ocean Sea Shell Activities For Teens

Finally, look at these 22 ocean sea shell activities for teens.

22 Ocean Sea Shell Activities

Nothing shouts in summer more than hitting the beach, learning about the ocean and doing some fun seashell activities.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today I have a no sew dinosaur mat craft if your child is reading Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time. Be sure to grab more Geronimo Stilton Books ideas and crafts on my page.

Do you have an early to middle elementary kid who loves dinosaurs?

First, grab a copy of The Journey Through Time (Geronimo Stilton Special Edition) to go along with this fun and easy no sew dinosaur mat.

The Journey Through Time Travels into Prehistory, which is the large period of time before written records or human documentation.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

 In the first section, it is a trip right into the middle of the Prehistoric Period.

The book takes Geronimo through the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods to learn more about the dinosaurs that once roamed the earth.

With great little factoids about different species of dinosaurs, bright illustrations, and an engaging story and a theory on how they disappeared, it is a great read for your child.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Use vocabulary words from the story, facts, and drawings to teach your child all about this time of prehistory.

 Add in a few more fun hands-on ideas and you have a wonderful unit.

How to Incorporate the No Sew Dinosaur Mat Into Your Homeschool Units

While the dinosaur mat may seem like just play, it can also be used to label different dinosaurs to work in some science as well as language arts.

Write the names of various species or even words like volcano, river, etc.. on small pieces of paper and have your child place them next to their match.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Work on easy math problems, just add dice and work on simple addition and subtraction.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Let toddlers and preschool children simply play while you read aloud from Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time.

 You will be pleasantly surprised how much they pick up through hearing new vocabulary words and passive listening.

More Dinosaur Learning Fun

Besides getting prehistoric history, this first volume in the series also covers Ancient Egypt and the Medieval Period.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

There are over 3 journeys in one book and they can be read as individual mini units or all at once.

Geronimo Stilton Book Activities

Next, look at these other crafts to go with the books.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Finally, you will need only two things to make a no sew dinosaur mat yourself-felt and a hot glue gun.

It makes a great roll-and-go activity while waiting at restaurants or doctors’ offices as well as at home on the kitchen table.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time No Sew Dino Mat

You are only limited by your own creativity here, whatever you can dream of you can turn into a felt masterpiece.

 However, I am going to give you a few tips for recreating a few things.

You will need:

Use a by-the-yard piece of green felt for the base if you want a larger mat.

However, if you want to stick with the basic felt size you can attach 2 pieces side by side to make it larger.

And to secure them together and hide the seam, cut a wavy strip of blue to create water and glue the two pieces to the underside.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Next, create grass and clumps of bushes by cutting green into ½” strips and cutting vertically not quite to the edge to make fringe. You can roll them up and hot glue the bottom to your base for bushes.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Or leave it long, and glue along the bottom edge, depending on what you want to replicate.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Cut white, tan, and gray felt into irregular circles for rock shapes and secure to the mat with hot glue.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Finally, to create the centerpiece, the volcano, draw and cut out a cone shape with a flat top on beige fabric.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Cut red, orange, and yellow stripes with an uneven edge for flames, and hot glue to the top of the volcano.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

Roll it, and secure down the edges with glue. Stuff with a little cotton filling or even just felt scraps.

Bend a small piece of the edge and secure it to the mat with glue, continue to fold and glue all the way around. Fan out the exploding lava.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

You can add other pieces like smaller ponds, quicksand, or whatever other features you would like on your mat.

Add small dinosaurs for play, counting, and more.

Geronimo Stilton The Journey Through Time Fun Easy No Sew Dinosaur Mat

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have a craft about folk hero Paul Bunyan if you’re learning about American frontier legends. Also, look at my Westward Ho Free Unit Study and lapbook.

What exactly are frontier legends?

They are the tales and ideas of people and places that exist at the edge of a civilization, particularly out west, during expansion.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Many famous names make the list but we are going to especially focus on the Tale of John Bunyan and his blue ox Babe of Wisconsin.

June 28th marks Paul Bunyan Day and no wonder, his legend goes way back to the 18th century and has been told in over 1,000 books.

American Frontier Legends – Paul Bunyan

Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack of folk hero tales in America and Canada.

These stories involve his superhuman strength and work. 

Although Paul Bunyan wasn’t a real person, he was probably based on people and ideas of the time.

What started out as an oral retelling of a folk hero for working-class loggers became tales of a man of mythical proportions.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Look at some of the tall tales told about Paul Bunyan.

Tall Tales told about Paul Bunyan

  • He created the mighty Mississippi simply by dragging his ax behind him.
  • He and his trusty rusty bovine, Babe the Blue Ox, dug out the Great Lakes.
  • As a child, his parents needed 10 cows, 50 eggs, and 10 containers of potatoes every day to feed him.
  • Paul went out and found a baby ox trapped in the snow, he took him home and warmed him up by the fireplace, but his fur remained blue. Blue grew larger every day.
  • He had trouble removing trees from a winding road so he tied the road to Babe and had him pull it straight.
  • Some say Babe and Paul are responsible for creating Puget Sound in the western state of Washington.
  • Paul brought 7 more men who were each 6 ½” tall and 350 pounds to his work crew. They were known as the Seven Axe Men, each one was named Elmer so they all came running when he called.
American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Also, look at more frontier legends to learn about.

More American Frontier Legends to Learn About

  • Lewis and Clark- Best known for their expedition, Corps of Discovery, from the Mississippi River to the West Coast and then back. Sacagawea is the most well known member of their traveling party. Look at my Lewis and Clark Unit Study and Lapbook.
  • Davy Crockett- “King of The Wild Frontier” was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. It is believed he died fighting a battle at the Alamo.
  • Christopher “Kit” Carson-American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He fought a violent war against the Navajo that resulted in their removal from the Four Corners area to southeastern New Mexico.
  • Daniel Boone-American frontiersman and legendary hero who helped blaze a trail through Cumberland Gap. His family migrated to America to escape religious persecution. Look at my Daniel Boone North America Explorer Unit Study and Lapbook.
  • William “Buffalo” Bill Cody- Buffalo Bill was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He supported women’s rights and suffrage as well as civil liberties for Native Americans.
  • Also, look at my Pecos Bill copywork included in my Westward Ho Unit Study and Lapbook.
American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Next, add some of these books and movies to your leraning day.

7 American Frontier Legends Books & Resources

Choose a favorite American frontier legends movie and book.

Finally, look at how to make this adorable blue ox craft.

How to Make A Blue Ox Paper Plate Craft

You will need:

  • 2 paper plates
  • Large googly eyes
  • Blue, black, tan, and white craft paint
  • Craft glue or glue gun
American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

You can make this entire blue ox out of just two paper plates. Set one aside for the head.

Using the 2nd paper plate cut out two long horns along the ruffled edge, and ears. You can cut them half on smooth and half on ridges if you like for some extra texture.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Cut an oval muzzle and two ears from the smooth section.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Then, cut a long curve on either side of the other plate to give a bit of shape to your ox head like this.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Paint that plate with a coat of blue and set it aside to dry.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

While the first plate is drying, paint the muzzle and horns tan. Top the horns with a bit of black and finish off the muzzle with two long black nostrils. Allow it to dry.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Add a little forelock to your oxes head with paint, it really gives him a little fun personality.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft

Once everything has dried begin attaching all the pieces with glue, place the muzzle low, and add large googly eyes above it. Glue on ears and horns, let the glue dry.

American Frontier Legends and Hero Paul Bunyan Blue Ox Craft