Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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Hands-on History: Make Maple Snow Candy – Pioneer Activity

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

We have done a lot of hands-on history pioneer activities while studying the pioneer period in history and we never get tired of doing them to kick off a homeschool unit study. Today, we’re making maple snow candy. Also, look at my page BEST Westward Ho Unit Study and Lapbook for more ideas.

A lot of the hands-on history activities come from a book we love, which is Heading West: Life with the Pioneers, 21 Activities (For Kids series).

Studying about pioneer life in Texas and reading about the Alamo, Tiny grabbed another easy hands-on idea from that book.

He made maple snow candy.

Pioneer Activity - Make maple snow candy when learning about pioneer life. Check out how to make it @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Now you know a good part of Texas never has snow, but we wouldn’t let a thing like that hold us back.

Because Tiny could do this without me and because it was easy and I think because it was sweet, he didn’t mind doing it.

I do have a few more hands-on history ideas planned for him to do as he studies the Alamo, but making maple snow candy was easy and fun today.

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Look at what you need and you probably get tired of me saying it, but hands-on history is always better when you have all the ingredients on hand. And we did.

Make Maple Snow Candy

  • cookie sheet – we used a disposable pan we had
  • pure maple syrup anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1 cup.
  • snow (of course vanilla ice cream works too). I was worried about wasting a good container of vanilla ice cream, but this is in the name of education, right?
1-make-maple-snow-candy-for-learning-about-pioneer-times-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

Tiny spread the “snow” or ice cream on the pan and put it back in the freezer to harden and get cold.

2-make-maple-snow-candy-for-learning-about-pioneer-times-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

Next, depending on how much candy you want, you need to boil about a one-fourth of a cup to 1 cup of syrup.

After it comes to a boil, let it boil 3 or 4 minutes for soft and chewy candy and about 6 minutes for brittle candy.

3-make-maple-snow-candy-for-learning-about-pioneer-times-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

Stir it every few minutes. Then carefully dribble the syrup in a thin line over your snow. It should harden instantly.

Tiny really didn’t follow any making candy kitchen rules so I’m not sure it turned out how he wanted it too, but he enjoyed making it.

And like I said, I liked the fact I didn’t have to do too much with it.

4-make-maple-snow-candy-for-learning-about-pioneer-times-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

But activities like these always gives your kids a glimpse of life in the past. Hope you try this easy hands-on history.

More Pioneer Living Crafts

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World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook

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

We finished our World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and now have the completed lapbook showing where we put all of the minibooks.

World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook

World War II Homeschool History

Like most all of my lapbooks, you can let your student write as much as he wants or as little. Because we do lapbooks as enrichment, I never fuss too much over what Tiny writes versus what he uses premade.

Even if he writes a little, this hands-on tool is better for reviewing than a worksheet. Also, in this unit study he got to hold a primary source, which was his grandfather’s ration card. Anytime I can make a personal connection to history for my boys it makes a unit study meaningful.

Too, there are so many subtopics to cover in this unit study that we just could not cover them all. I hope you like this study as much as we have.

Because we do our unit study and lapbooks too as we plod along, I never have lapbooks in one giant download.

I also do it this way so that you can grab just the parts you need instead of downloading minibooks you may not need.

More World War II Unit Study Hands-on Activities

World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook
World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook
World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook
World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook
World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook
World War II Homeschool History Free Unit Study and Lapbook
World War II lapbook and homeschool history unit study.

How to Get the Free World War II Unit 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) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you. If you’re already a confirmed subscriber, you will not have to do this. You’ll receive the freebie instantly.
 ►3) Last step. look for my reply AFTER you’ve confirmed your email.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

World War II Hands-On History – Make Ration Cakes

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


Continuing on with our War War II hands-on history unit study, we always manage to find a recipe or two that tastes pretty good and making ration cakes today was no exception.

Tiny liked the taste of these spice cakes and grew to appreciate war time cooking.

However, he did say the cakes were an acquired taste. This recipe is butter-free, milk-free, egg-free and white sugar-free and helped him to appreciate to make do with what you had on hand to cook with.

World War II Hands-On History. Make Ration Cakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

The recipe comes from the Great World War II Projects You Can Build Yourself book, which we are growing to love.

Hands-on History

Look at this pretty easy list of things you probably have in your house.

1. How to make World War II Ration Cakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup raisins
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
powdered sugar for dusting
Mixing bowl		3/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup water
3 T. shortening like Crisco
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
12 paper cup liners/12 cup cupcake pan
Sauce pan

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

2. How to make World War II Ration Cakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

First combine the honey, water, shortening, spices, salt and raisins in the sauce pan.  Heat on stove and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Then turn off and let the mixture cool.

3. How to make World War II Ration Cakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

In a mixing bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, which are the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Mix it and you can sift the flour mixture for extra lightness, but Tiny didn’t. He just threw it all together.

4. How to make World War II Ration Cakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Then pour the cool liquid into the bowl and mix, but don’t overstir. Then pour the batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

5. How to make World War II Ration Cakes @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Next, Tiny sprinkles some powdered sugar on the top. The cakes were just perfect and helped us appreciate time period cooking.

Because we do our unit study and lapbooks too as we plod along, I never have lapbooks in one giant download.

I also do it this way so that you can grab just the parts you need instead of downloading minibooks you may not need.

More World War II Unit Study Hands-on Activities

World War II Hands-On History - Make Ration Cakes
World War II Hands-On History - Make Ration Cakes
World War II Hands-On History - Make Ration Cakes
World War II Hands-On History - Make Ration Cakes
World War II Hands-On History - Make Ration Cakes
World War II Hands-On History - Make Ration Cakes
World War II lapbook and homeschool history unit study.

How to Get the Free World War II Unit 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) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you. If you’re already a confirmed subscriber, you will not have to do this. You’ll receive the freebie instantly.
 ►3) Last step. look for my reply AFTER you’ve confirmed your email.

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Free Art Notebooking Pack – Grade 2 (Other Grades too)

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

This art series I began a few years ago to fill a need in my homeschool year and today I’m so TICKLED because I have the last grade, which is the 2nd grade finished.

Free 2nd Grade Art Curriculum and notebooking pages. Pssst, there are grades 1 -8 too. Grab them over @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Homeschool Art Curriculum Notebooking

You will need two things to get started.

 Homeschool Art Curriculum & Notebooking Pages

Then choose a grade level or several depending on how many kids you have.

Yep, I have free printables for all the grades offered, which are Grades 1 – 8.

Free Homeschool Art Curriculum and Notebooking Pages. Grades 1 to 8 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

And don’t forget that you can use just one packet with ALL of your kids (print one copy for each child) and save your sanity by teaching them all together. Or, print one copy for your older child and do another level with your younger children. You decide, you’re the teacher.

Also, I wanted you to know that even though the free art curriculum that I am following to create printables divides the art into grade levels,  I did not create the art notebooking pages baby-ish.

This way whatever the ages of your children are, they can use any grade level guide of their choosing along with the printables I created to have a complete art program for each year.

If you cover one artist per month, then each grade level will take you one year. So free art for a year!

One last thing I need to remind you is that I also create TWO SETS of the SAME art notebooking page, but each set is slightly different.

I like things perfect workable and to have options and I love for you to have them too.

Look below at the graphic I created to show how each set is slightly different.

One set has all text boxes in case you have a kid or two like I do that doesn’t want to sketch the art.

Especially at the high school level, my oldest son just wanted to make it more about art history.

So he wasn’t interest in sketching every piece. He just wanted to read the background information about each artist, read about the artwork and move one. Oh yes, I used some of these packets for high school art credit.

The second set has one small sketch box instead of the text box because then I have another kid who wants to sketch the art that we were learning about. Too, I keep the sketch box not too big so it doesn’t become a project to sigh about.

How to Use - Art Notebooking Pages 1

So the art is the SAME for both pages.

Too, this allows you to choose from either set depending on the time you have for that month. For example, one piece my sons may want to write, so I would print off that page. The next art piece they would want to sketch so I would print off that page from the other set.

Give your child options and don’t think you have to use ALL the same pages from one set. I mixed and match depending on the mood for the day or month.

I have a more pictures from each set to show you. This is how the pages look from the set that has sketch boxes and

3rd grade Artist Study Packet 1 with 3 text and 1 sketch box 23rd grade Artist Study Packet 1 with 3 text and 1 sketch box 3

this is how the pages look from the set that has ALL text boxes.

3rd grade Artist Study Packet 1 with 4 text boxes 13rd grade Artist Study Packet 1 with 4 text boxes 2

Again, BOTH sets have the same art and are the same except for that one box.

HOW TO GET THE FREE HOMESCHOOL ART CURRICULUM FOR GRADES 1 TO 8 AND NOTEBOOKING PAGES

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

 1) Sign up on my list.
 2) Grab the freebie instantly.
 3) Glad to have you following me by email!

Also, you may love to read these posts.

Hugs and you know I love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History – Fun Hands-On Activity

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

Medieval chemistry and homeschool history is about hand on today. Medieval Chemistry had early beginnings although we don’t always think about the medieval period as that time. Also, look at my free 4 week Middle Ages Unit Study for more fun.

I shared Medieval Homeschool History – 4 Surefire Ways to Beat a Boring Study when we started using Beautiful Feet living history books.

Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History. Alchemy was a 'science' back in Medieval times. Look at this fun hands-on activity over @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

We have been loving reading about the Middle Ages, but I wanted to add some science in with our history and reading.

Although the Middle Ages is not really known for its scientific discovery, the ‘science’ of alchemy was a popular idea.

The Forerunner of Chemistry in the Middle Ages

Trying to turn different base metals into gold I’m sure kept early alchemists busy discovering new things.

Today, I thought I would do some basic chemistry with Tiny so that he understands how early alchemist felt.

Alchemical_Laboratory

Alchemy was probably the forerunner to chemistry today.Though Tiny now knows that he can’t turn egg yolks into gold, he used to think about that.

However, he is always up for some fun chemistry.

Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History

Look at this easy hands-on activity to do when learning about Medieval history. Color changing is about as close to gold changing as we get to today.

Grab these items.

  • 5 small jars
  • 1/2 head of red cabbage
  • sprite or I used diet 7up
  • cream of tartar
  • baking soda
  • vinegar
  • lemons or lemon juice
  • big microwavable bowl
  • colander
  • pitcher
Medieval Chemistry 1 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Medieval Chemistry 2 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

After Tiny grabbed everything, I used half of a head of red cabbage and put enough water to cover it somewhat.

Medieval Chemistry 3 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Medieval Chemistry 4 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Then, we put  the bowl in the microwave for about 10 minutes.

While the cabbage is in the microwave, Tiny put a 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar in one jar, 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice in one jar and we repeated this for each item.

One ingredient in each jar.

Medieval Chemistry 5 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Medieval Chemistry 6 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

When the time was up for the red cabbage in the microwave, I used a colander to put on top of the pitcher and strained the juice. (Whoops, ignore my morning glass of cold iced coffee. I do love my coffee. )

Since the water is hot, it makes it easier to experiment if your kid can pour it into each jar using a small pitcher.

Because the cabbage juice is a ph balance indicator, each ingredient will turn different colors depending on it’s acidity or alkalinity.

Water has a ph balance of 7 and acids will have a lower number and alkaline items will have a higher number.

Medieval Chemistry 7 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Medieval Chemistry 8 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

For example the lemons have a low number and the baking soda turned blue-ish because it has high alkaline.

Look at this nifty scale for understanding about ph balance.

Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History - Fun Hands-On Activity

You can experiment with more ingredients. Just remember this is chemistry so be sure you know what you’re doing because it can be dangerous combining ingredients.

I felt pretty comfortable with these things because I did them with my oldest kids.

However, there is nothing like your youngest child being able to do the things he had just watched his older siblings doing when he was little.

Besides, this fun activity helps Tiny to get into the spirit of discovery like they did in the Medieval times.

We used Beautiful Feet’s Medieval history because we love living literature!

Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History - Fun Hands-On Activity

Can you add a bit of chemistry to your study of Medieval history?

Also, look at Medieval History for Homeschool Middle School.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Look at how we used Beautiful Feet before in When We Used Beautiful Feet Books as our History Spine and also look at How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History.