Hands-On Activities

Homeschool High School World Geography Program

March 4, 2014 | Leave a Comment
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Be still my beating heart. A new homeschool high school world geography program is soon to be released and I am so giddy about it that I couldn’t wait to tell you.

You know I have been quiet about what Mr. Awesome has been doing this year mostly because he has been working his sweet little behind off on his high school courses. I have more to say on that in another post.

But, the other reason is that I have been keeping a secret from you because we have been waiting for a new geography program by Bright Ideas Press called North Star Geography.

Homeschool High School World Geography

We are both about to squeal because I just got the heads up yesterday that it is real close to being published. Before I go any further too, I want you to know that there is no link on their site yet to give you. Like I said, it’s new and not available yet. And there are just very few bloggers who know about this today. So you are getting all of this early.

Homeschool Highs School World Geography Curriculum

But do check out their site, because they have lot of other resources that make learning about geography and history fun and they believe in hands-on. The product link for North Star Geography will be coming soon.

You know I told you that Mr. Awesome, unlike Mr. Senior 2013, has a low tolerance for textbooks and even less tolerance for worksheets. He is my child that made me move beyond my comfortable teaching zone because he learns best by hands-on and visual aids.

So when I heard that Bright Ideas Press was coming out with North Star Geography, I jumped at the chance to use it and review it.

Today, I am giving you a heads up about it and sharing the juicy tidbits I do know.

Too, some of this may change since it’s not published yet, but I wanted to give you some details now. I just can’t wait!

This is a world geography course, worth a full high school credit.
It can be used for your Junior high school student, but if you use it with younger children, you will probably need to tweak it. I always say though it’s easier to tweak down than it is to adjust up for your highschooler. The lessons start out easy, but get more detailed by Unit 2.
There are 16 lessons covering both physical and human geography. That is the part I like. Geography is not just about finding latitude and longitude which may put me to sleep, but it’s about interacting with the culture and understanding the people.
The program includes the Student Reader and the Companion Guide which includes: Daily schedule grids, hands-on activity directions, map work, note-taking pages, reproducible maps and graphic organizers, quizzes and tests, research questions, memorization lists, answer keys, and grading rubrics.

If you have been homeschooling any length of time, you know that resources for this age that are hands-on and interactive are not plentiful. Matter of fact they are almost non-existent. So I can’t wait to get started on it.

By the way you will want to use WonderMaps with the North Star Geography program. You can get WonderMaps now. I am getting the maps today.
When I get more information and get the complete curriculum in my little grubby hands, I will be sharing about it as we use it this year and into next year.

Have you been looking for a hands-on geography program that is not boring to use with your kids? What are your favorites?

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

February 24, 2014 | 11 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, we are learning about the geography of France by creating a solar oven.

Wanting to add in a bit of geography by exploring about France, we had read in our atlas how France will be providing the United Kingdom with enough electricity to power one light bulb in every home.

This lead to our discussion of the world’s problem of energy consumption and how the sun is an unfailing source of energy.

The only way to test out the power of the sun is to bake chocolate chip cookies of course.

Creating a Solar Oven

What you need:

2 pizza boxes, one small, one large	craft knife
newspaper or polystyrene foam	non-toxic black paint, but we used black paper
non-toxic glue	aluminum foil and clear plastic sheeting to cover the larger pizza box
string, sun glasses, tape, a marker and either a single hole puncher or way to make a small hole. We used our ice pick.	chocolate chip cookie dough or make your own

Place the small pizza box on top of the larger pizza box with one side touching. Using the marker, draw an outline on top of the larger pizza box because you will be cutting on that line.

Cut on the line with your sharp craft knife and don’t cut all the way through. Basically you will be creating a lid on the bigger box when you cut on the line.

Then next we lined the inside of the bigger box with aluminum foil and then we stuffed newspaper or if you have polystyrene to fill the space on the outside edges. We just did our best in wadding the paper up small so it fit snugly all the way around the inside edges.

Next, we worked on the small pizza box. Instead of using non-toxic black paint to paint the bottom of the small box because we only had acrylic paint and I don’t think it’s so non-toxic (you certainly could make your own natural paint too), we used black construction paper to put on the bottom inside box.

Then, we placed the small pizza box with black construction paper and put it inside the larger box.

You see from the picture above, we have two lids as well.

Be sure the lids from each box are next to each other and not both on the same side because you will be using the lids to grab the sun and form a “corner”.

After that, we got more newspaper and wadded it up real good and stuffed more down in the crevice between the larger and smaller box just to be sure we had it insulated real well.

Learn About the Geography of France

By the way, we used plain old Elmer’s glue (non-toxic) to hold the black construction paper in place on the small box.

Also glue black paper or use your non-toxic black paint to paint the outside edges of the bigger box too. This helps to hold the heat in.

As you can see in the picture above we have added our black construction paper to the outside bigger box. T

he next thing we did was to line the inside smaller box and lid and the lid of the bigger box with aluminum foil.

I wish we would have known earlier too, but try to keep the aluminum foil as wrinkle free as possible so it reflects light into the box and it is not bouncing.

Almost done!

The next thing now to do is to make a small hole at the top of both lids, wide enough for your string to go through.

You want the lids to stand up and form that “corner” I mentioned earlier.

Just tape the string on the back of the box after you pull it tight to keep the lids up.

The final touch is to add some chocolatey goodness to your solar oven and you’re ready to bake! One more thing, be sure to cover the cookies with some plastic wrap. Seal it tight because you want to hold the heat in.

Using his sunglasses so the sun and reflection from the foil doesn’t hurt his eyes, Tiny adjusted the oven for best exposure, and we waited, waited and waited.

Doing this in the winter, we didn’t have real strong sunlight the whole day and the mornings were cool. But even with those factors, we were pretty happy with the results after a few hours.

More French Revolution Activities and Learning About France

It could take anywhere from 30 minutes to hours before you see progress depending on weather factors.

And then presto! Tiny was pleased.

Our cookies took several hours to cook, (tip: don’t let your kids know, but try to keep them small so they will bake faster) but then again it probably didn’t help that Tiny had to check on them about 300 times and with a magnifying glass to speed up the process.

It was a great way to spend the day waiting and anticipating chocolate chip cookies!

And oh yes, talking about the culture of France too!

French Revolution Unit Study – Pain Au Chocolat Easy Recipe

February 15, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I wanted to add in another easy hands-on project for our study about the French Revolution besides the Storming the Bastille board game I created.

Because the French Revolution is a pretty deep topic, I wanted to focus some on the culture and aspects of the country.

When I think of France and it’s culture, I think of, besides wonderful aged wine, (which Tiny was up for a taste test on) the best bread and chocolate.

French Revolution Game - French Revolution Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

So I came up with an easy hands-on idea for studying about France and that is to make chocolate sandwiches or pain au chocolat. Tiny is for sure getting his home economics in on this semester.

I probably wouldn’t make a great ambassador for France because I didn’t bake my bread all from scratch with wholesome ingredients. I used store bought wheat rolls because I had them in the house already for meatball subs that night.

After reading some about what kids in France snacked on, the idea of a chocolate sandwich for breakfast sounded too good to be true for Tiny that morning (or so he thought anyway). He was pretty eager to get started with “school”.

After gathering up the bread and mostly the chocolate and a bit of butter and milk, Tiny was ready.

Tiny cut the bread on a diagonal so we would have 4 halves to share.

He buttered the bread so we could toast it in the oven after we put the chocolate spread on it.

Then he added a tad of butter to the mixture.

And actually we used half and half in our mixture because it was a bit creamier. But you can use milk too.

Pain Au Chocolat Easy Recipe

Microwave the mixture until heated through and melted.

No, I didn’t pull out the bowl on top of the boiling water pot for this. Microwave is fine for us.

Then spread the chocolate and we baked the sandwiches in the oven on 350 degrees until toasted.

Tiny wasn’t sold when he tasted it. I think he worked himself up to thinking about the word sandwich and couldn’t think of anything else when he bit into it.

Unlike his mom, he is not a big bread eater either, but I was hoping this would make him like it a bit better.

Me? It was actually pretty good for a sweet roll for breakfast.

If we had used some other bread too besides wheat, it would have been even better.

I was pleasantly surprised that with the butter and toasting it, we almost felt a bit like we were eating at the outside cafes in France.

Flaky, crunchy and sweet, it was pretty good. Some home made bread or wafers could make this even better.

At least with wheat rolls, I felt like it was a bit healthy. {it sounds good anyway}

I found a couple recipes too that you can fuss over a bit more and that could be used when studying about France, it’s food and culture.

Here is a grilled chocolate sandwich with a bit of confectioners’ sugar dust.

{Source: Martha Stewart}

And then this one is from Dying For Chocolate blog.

I love the crusty vanilla pound cake and the whip cream. Ewww la, la.

{Source: Dying for Chocolate}

However you serve it up, this definitely will send you and your kids’ blood sugar sky high in the morning, but a little bit doesn’t hurt.

French Revolution Lapbook Minibooks

Next, look at the minibooks which come in this free download.

Beethoven and the Revolution
The Guillotine – The French Terror
Timeline of Events Leading up the French Revolution
3 Estates – French Society
Causes of the French Revolution layered book
Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI
What is the Directory, What is the Reign of Terror and What is the Sans Culottes

How to Get the Free Lapbook

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Sign up again like you’re resubscribing, but you’re not. You get the freebie instantly when you’re a confirmed follower.

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Fun & Easy Hands-on Ideas with Zeezok Music Appreciation

February 13, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Tiny has been loving the easy hands-on activities he has been doing as we have been going through the curriculum by Zeezok Music Appreciation. Also, look at Fun Facts About the Phantom of the Opera & Styles of Music Unit Study.

One of the reasons I wanted to review this curriculum was because of our love of unit studies.

Fun & Easy Hands-on Ideas with Zeezok Music Appreciation

The homeschool music curriculum is Zeezok Music Appreciation – Book 1.

Many curriculum providers may not have on their website a product description of their curriculum as a unit study.

However, this curriculum goes above and beyond in fitting my description of a comprehensive unit study.

Zeezok Music Appreciation

Beyond having work texts, each unit is filled with hands-on ideas that are easy.

Sometimes I know I fuss over hands-on ideas too much, but they don’t have to be complicated.

I always have to remind myself of that too.

Also though in the music appreciation curriculum other subjects like history, geography and language arts are certainly included.

You’ll love Zeezok Music Appreciation – Book 1.

You know I told you we honed in on a study of Beethoven and one easy hands-on idea suggested was to make Beethoven’s porridge.

We tweaked the activity a bit to fit our need, plus the original recipe I wanted to preserve in the curriculum so I don’t ruin any surprises for you.

We have enjoyed getting to know Beethoven’s lively music personality as he directed from his piano.

He would forget that he was a soloist as he became so engrossed in it that he would jump up and begin conducting. We feel kindred spirits with him as he would leap in the air at the loud parts, wave his arms to the skies and even crouch in quiet parts.

Look at the parts that come with the curriculum Zeezok Music Appreciation – Book 1.

Tiny would not ever forgive me if I showed you the pictures I took as he acted that out when reading about those tidbits on Beethoven and listening to his music.

Easy Hands-On Ideas for Music Appreciation

The porridge pictures are not quite as exciting, you’ll just have to imagine the other pictures.

Later this month, I will be posting a full review on this curriculum that we are savoring every bit of the way.

Because there is no way in one post I can tell you the things we have been loving about our music curriculum, I shared a few other things we have done on this unit below.

More Homeschool Music Curriculum Resources

50 Keep Me Homeschooling Activities During the Long Cold Winter Days

November 23, 2013 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have 50 winter activities for homeschooling. Grab more ideas on my page winter season unit study.

Hoping to have a few activities to pull of out my bag when the kids are bored and the days are long and cold, I rounded up some activities to keep us learning.