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Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

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

For the Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time book, we’re making a sun king fun medallion. Be sure to grab more Geronimo Stilton Books ideas and crafts on my page.

Let’s take a trip with our mouse guide Geronimo to the Court of Versailles in 1682 CE in Back in Time, The Second Journey Through Time to meet King Louis XIV and learn about Palace of Versailles.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

Did you know that King Louis XIV (that’s #14 in Roman Numeral) was known as “The Sun King”?

It was a nickname that he gave himself.

And Louis XIV chose the sun as his personal emblem.

The sun is the symbol of Apollo who is the god of peace and the arts.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

King Louis named himself such because he wanted the realm to revolve around him like the planets revolve around the sun.

Be sure to grab Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time book.

Facts about the Sun King Louis XIV 

  • Louis ruled for 72 years, he was just shy of 5 years old when it passed to him.
  • King Louis XIV died of gangrene on September 1, 1715.
  • Louis XIV built his extravagant Palace of Versailles after the civil war known as the Fronde when he had to flee from his palace in Paris at just 12 years old, He fled to the family hunting lodge 13 miles outside Paris.
  • He was very strict in his protocols at court and every moment of the day was precisely organized and planned out.
  • The king was an excellent ballet dancer.
  • He died at the age of 76 and was succeeded by his grandson King Louis XV.
  • A U.S. state is named after him. Louisiana was given its name by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier for King Louis.

Then you’ll want to add a few more hands-on activities to understand about the French.

Hands-on Ideas to Understand the French Empire

For example, look at the hands-on ideas below.

Besides, hands-on activities makes learning stick so be sure to include a few more with this book.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

Too, look at more Geronimo Stilton Book crafts.

Geronimo Stilton Book Activities

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

Now, let’s learn how to make this fun sun king gold medallion.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

I hope you enjoy our journey with Geronimo and also making your very own medallion.

Hot glue is a fun medium for art projects because you can use it for a lot more than just attaching two objects.

It can be put into silicone molds to create shapes that harden once it dries or used free handed like we are going to do today.

How to Make a Sun King Medallion Craft for Kids

Since your child will create their medallion freehanded I am giving you some loose instructions and tips to help them create it.

You will need:

  • Hot glue gun
  • Glue
  • Gold and black paint
  • Plastic bead chain or string
  • Silicone mat

Directions:

Gather all your supplies and don’t forget that silicone mat. It is the best material for peeling off your glue creations and is heat safe!

Your child can create any shape medallion that they would like.

Additionally, they can design their own crest to represent themselves, the family, or they can try to recreate a King Louis sun medallion like this one.

The most important thing is to build up your layers by creating a first layer and letting it cool.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

Use toothpicks and craft sticks to try and add a little shaping or detail to the glue when it is partially cooled but not all the way.

But if it’s too liquidly it will just keep pooling.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

Then add layer after layer until it is thick and shaped like you want it. We tried to get a general sun shape.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

Once the entire thing is completely cooled and hardened, peel it off the silicone and paint it gold with craft paint.

It will probably take 2-3 coats to get good coverage.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

When it is almost dry use a paintbrush to dry brush on some black craft paint to age and patina your medallion, so it looks like an old treasured relic.

Brush off excess, you just need a bit.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

Allow the paint to dry fully.

Measure a piece of chain or string to create a necklace that can be slipped on and off over your head.

Geronimo Stilton The Second Journey Through Time Sun King Fun Medallion

Flip the medallion over and hot glue the length of chain or string to finish your necklace.

What do you think?

How to Fuse Personality and Learning Styles to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum

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

It’s a sanity saving tip to know how to fuse personality and learning styles to choose the best homeschool curriculum. You’ll love the other tips I have on my page Homeschool Learning Styles.

Understanding you and your child’s personality differences and how it affects learning styles in homeschooling is valuable.

While choosing homeschool curriculum, thinking about my children’s learning personality was not tops on my list. That was a mistake.

How to Fuse Personality and Learning Styles to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum

Today, I’m sharing a few quick tips in how to combine your child’s learning personality and homeschool learning style.

Knowing how your child learns best helps you reduce stress and struggling.

However, before I go further, I want to give you a heads up about learning styles.

There is no way science can fully understand how the magnificent brain takes in information.

But getting a general understanding of why your child may struggle in one subject and excel in another will help you reduce the struggle.

Questions to Know How to Combine Personality with Learning Style

To begin with look at these three tips to help you weigh how a homeschool curriculum will fit your child’s learning personality.

1. What is the approach of the curriculum you’re interested in?

For example, if you know your child has done best with moving while learning then a traditional workbook approach is not the choice for your family.

Too no matter how comfortable you are with the curriculum, if it’s not a fit for your child, you will face resistance.

So, when a curriculum does not fit our child’s personality, it can make stress increase.

Look at my post Top 5 Homeschool Approaches New Homeschoolers Need to Know to understand what are the top homeschool approaches.

Remember, all curriculum falls into one or more approaches.

Next, you need to know what has not worked.

2. What curriculum has NOT worked in the past?

And it may seem like an obvious question, but I’ve learned identifying what will work means to identify exactly what did not work.

Then identify what was the approach of the last curriculum you used which didn’t work.

How to Fuse Personality and Learning Styles to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum

Third, identify what is your child’s strength.

So much focus is on what a child can’t do instead of what he can do.

3. What is your child’s FAVORITE subject?

Furthermore, to identify with better accuracy what is a child’s learning personality begin with knowing what is his favorite subject.

Next hear my heart when I say be sure it’s your child’s favorite subject and not yours or the one you want them to know because it’s your favorite.

Then, is it a content or skill subject?

Look at my post Skill Subjects vs. Content Subjects: What’s the Difference.

For example, if your child’s favorite subjects are art and music and he struggles with writing, he may be more of a creative thinker.

However, if you child prefers to walk around reading encyclopedia or from his device, he could be analytical.

Matching his strong points to homeschool approaches is vital. For instance, Charlotte Masson puts an emphasis on music and art and delaying language arts.

However, there are more ways to identify your child’s learning personality.

How to Fuse Personality and Learning Styles to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum

Grab this 35+ Best Homeschool Curriculum By Learning Style (free printable).

Why Your Child’s Learning Personality is Important

Because teaching styles are only part of choosing curriculum easily, I’ve included a link to my online course Identifying Your Homeschooled Childs Learning Personality.

How to Determine the Best Learning Style Approach for Your Child? Determining the best learning style approach is much easier when you know about homeschool learning styles. A learning style is not something I thought about when I started homeschooling or even when my kids were struggling. However, had I taken time to learn what is the best learning style for each of my children, I would have saved myself unnecessary stress.

YOU WILL LEARN:

  • How to understand the way your child prefers to learn so that you can teach him in a way that he enjoys learning;
  • How to pinpoint your child’s learning personality;
  • A starting point in understanding (barring any special learning challenges or disabilities) and accepting your child’s preferred way of taking in information;
  • Understanding when the learning personality emerges; and
  • Teaching tips for each learning personality to stop the head-butting.
How to Fuse Personality and Learning Styles to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum

Other Homeschool Learning Style Resources

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

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

I have two fun candy cane hands-on winter experiments today. Be sure you grab more ideas for winter fun on my page winter season unit study.

Candy canes are plentiful right now and did you know that they make for a tasty, easy, and inexpensive item for science experiments? 

Your kids will love tasting and exploring the world of science with these two simple hands on science experiments in honor of National Candy Cane Day on December 26. 

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

These experiments are a great way to introduce all sorts of scientific terms like hypothesis and bonds.

You can encourage them to make educated guesses (hypothesis) document results, make observations, and learn about how experiments work in general.

Don’t forget to save some to munch on while you learn about them.

Cool Candy Cane Facts

  • They were first made in 1670 but didn’t make their way to American until 1847.
  • Candy canes were once white, no one is sure when the red stripe was added but looking at images prior 1900, they were always white.
  • The world’s largest candy cane was 63 feet tall and was created in 2011.
  • Candy canes have no fat or cholesterol.
  • Two billion candy canes are made each year.
  • The hooks were created by hand until 1921 when a machine was invented to do it.
  • The original candy cane flavor was originally used as a medicine for indigestion and nausea and then the oil was also used to help cover up the flavor of more unpleasant medicinal concoctions.

Furthermore, add some other hands-on candy cane activities.

Candy Cane Hands-on Activities

  • Before you begin investigating watch How Candy Canes Are Made on YouTube.
  • Here is another fun experiment you can do with candy canes Fizzing Candy Canes.
  • Make some Candy Cane Paint to add some art.
  • Use candy canes as counters and manipulatives for math, measure the length, grab various sizes and let your younger child arrange them in size order.

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Look at these other winter unit study resources.

Now, let’s have some candy cane fun.

For these two winter science activities, you’ll want to grab the supplies below.

Two Candy Cane Science Activities

Here are all the supplies you will need to gather so that you can complete both experiments:

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments
  • Mini Candy Canes
  • Clear bowls or cups
  • 3-5 liquids-water, sprite, milk, vinegar, etc
  • Baking sheet
  • Parchment paper
  • paper/pen

Now, let’s make this first one which is bending candy canes.

1. Bending Candy Canes Science Activity

For the first experiment we are first going to let your child attempt to bend a candy cane fresh out of the package, it just breaks right? Ask them why they think that is? How were candy makers able to bend it in the first place?

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread out several candy canes on parchment lined sheet.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

Bake for 7-10 minutes. Start checking at 7 minutes because you want to pull them out before they begin to distort and melt.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

Immediately remove parchment paper from pan and place on a flat surface away from the hot pan.

Your child can immediately pick them up and begin bending them into shapes.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

You can make letters, shapes like hearts or knots, or even a cute little candy can make like this one.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

You’re just a couple of minutes the candy cane will harden again into its new shape.

You can repeat the process in the oven with candy canes after they’ve hardened or with fresh ones to continue experimenting with what you can do.

2. Melting Candy Canes

Now we are going to test and see which liquid melts candy canes the fastest.

So, you will want to check this one often. We put ours in the bowls and forgot for about 45 minutes and came back to this.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

First, choose your liquids, I would suggest no less than 3 to get a good reading and probably not more than 6 to keep it manageable.

Whatever number you choose to test, place that many clear bowls or cups on a surface where they will not be disturbed. Add a mini candy cane to each.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

Measure exact amounts of each of the liquids and pour over the candy cane.

This is a good time to explain that when conduction an experiment like this you want to keep everything the same except for the one variable that you are testing, in this case the type of liquid.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

Write each of the liquids onto a small slip of paper and place it in front of each container to keep track.

Check after 5 minutes to see how much they have dissolved; these ones were noticeably smaller.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

After the first 5 minutes you want to change to every minute or two because it seems to go so much faster after that.

At less than the 10-minute mark we had a clear winner when we came back, and the vinegar had completely dissolved it.

Two Fun Candy Cane Hands-on Science Winter Experiments

Be sure to have your child record their guesses (hypothesis), then list the types of liquids (variables), and finally their results.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

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

This easy cardinal birds in winter watercolor is a cute project. Be sure you grab more ideas for winter fun on my page winter season unit study.

And the watercolor painting of the cardinal birds in winter and fun birch trees makes a fun display to bring a pop of color.

In addition, you can create it as an art piece on its own or use it as part of a unit on winter birds or winter in general.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

I have some great resources that will help you get started on your unit study.

Too, we are using two different kinds of paint on this cardinal project which are watercolor and acrylic

Also, you’ll learn a new technique to create a unique look to the bark of the birch trees.

But first look at these cardinal bird resources.

Cardinal Bird Hands-on Ideas

Next, add some fun books and resources about cardinals.

12 Northern Cardinal Bird Books and Resources For Children

Add a book or two to your unit study or to your learning day. Cardinals are fun to study anytime of the year.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

Furthermore, here are some cardinal facts.

Cardinal Facts

  • Northern Cardinals are mostly non migratory and stay in their habitat year round.
  • Their lifespan is about 3 years and the oldest recorded lived to be almost 16 years.
  • Cardinals are usually the first to visit backyard feeders in the morning and the last to visit at night.
  • Both male and female cardinals can sing unlike most other species of songbird. Male cardinals might sing up to 200 songs in just an hour.
  • Male cardinals are the bright red ones you see, females are a dull brown with just a bit of red on tail and wingtips.
  • Northern Cardinals are protected by the Migratory Bird Act, which means you can’t have one as a pet and it is illegal to kill them.
  • They get their red feathers from carotenoids in their food.
Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

In addition, look at some more winters unit study ideas.

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Look at these other winter unit study resources.

Now, grab your art supplies and make this fun winter art project.

How to Make Cardinal Birds in Winter Watercolor

First, you will need:

  • Watercolor paper
  • Watercolors
  • Paintbrushes
  • Black acrylic paint
  • An old credit card
Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

Next, here are the direction.

Use a watered down black or gray with a small paintbrush to outline a few general tree shapes and branches.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

On as many branches as you would like, paint a red tear drop shape for your cardinals and add a little wedge at the base for a tail.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

Fill in the blank spaces between the trees with various shades of blue; you don’t have to make it solid, whitespace looks great in watercolors.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

Put a little black paint on a paper plate and tap the edge of a credit card into it, wipe off a little bit of excess.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

Start on one side of the tree outline and set the edge of the card and then drag the card across the tree stopping halfway across.

This will give your bark the look of a birch tree. You can do this as much as you like up and down the tree.

Allow the black paint to dry fully.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

Once paint is dry go back and add a little bit of black to the center of the bird’s face, black feet, and a bit of yellow for a beak.

When everything is dry your cardinals are ready to be displayed in a frame or as is.

What do you think? Ready to try this for a fun homeschool art, science, and hands-on lesson?

American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

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

We enjoy the American history game U.S. President Go Fish for studying homeschool history.

And we love History For Kids Go Fish Game series a lot, and with a good variety of history topics we can easily add them to several studies.

American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

Today is all about the U.S. Presidents Go Fish and how to use it.

Also, we are going to take this game and build an entire presidents unit study around it with books, hands-on activities, and videos that will help you dive deep into it without cracking open a curriculum box.

About the U.S. Presidents Go Fish Game

Moreover, the U.S. Presidents Go Fish game is a simple game to add to a presidential unit study.

I like it because it is a quick play game that will pack a lot of educational punch.

Too, it comes with a little mini book that gives instructions and plays like traditional go fish but you collect all 4 presidents from each category (cold war, industrial revolution, reconstruction, etc.).

Or kids can collect presidents by guessing them correctly based on the hints on the card the other player gives.

You can take it on the road, use it in place of your lesson for the day or add it to your morning basket to help start the day.

The one drawback is that as of this date, it only includes the first 44 presidents.

American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

Additionally, look at this list of books to use as a unit study spine or for your learning day.

Books about U.S. Presidents

10 Resources about U.S. Presidents and The White House

Here are some books to add to a presidential unit study that cover a good variety of ages.

Furthermore, add hands-on activities.

Hands-on Ideas for a President Unit Study

For example, use the Safari Ltd US Presidents busts to introduce and build excitement to the start of a new topic or for art inspiration.

American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

Create your own bust with Crayola Air Dry clay and a flashcard of a president for a model.

All you need is some clay and a toothpick and craft stick to carve and add detail.

American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

Any age can use these but I like that the scrabble tiles are so versatile and don’t seem babyish like some letter tiles might for older kids.

Instead of writing out spelling and vocabulary words use letter tiles. Call out words you would like your child to learn and let them do it with the letter tiles instead of paper.

This activity is easy to modify for any age level by simply using easier or more difficult words.

American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

 In addition, here are some vocabulary/spelling words to get you started and let your younger children put them in alphabetical order.

  • President,
  • election,
  • politics,
  • republican,
  • democrat,
  • ballot,
  • veto,
  • federal,
  • constitution,
  • monument, and
  • executive.
American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

Besides playing the U.S. Presidents Go fish according to the directions you can also use them to create a timeline by pulling 5 or 6 random cards and having your child place them in order.

American History Game Fun U.S. President Go Fish Unit Study

More Fun History Games

Look at them below.

Furthermore, add some American Presidents board games.

4 American Presidents Board Games

Play a fun board game like one of these below to learn about presidents, elections, and politics.

Finally, videos are always a great way to present information in a fresh new way as well as take a little of the teaching responsibility off your shoulders.