Since about the middle of the summer, I have been keeping a blog for the Trilogy School elementary classes. It is a small private school. At the moment our entire elementary program consists of only 11 children, so if you are looking for homeschooling ideas, many of our classroom activities could be easily adapted.
http://trilogy-school.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Beeswax Airships
This evening I discovered that regular, thin plastic, chocolate molds can be used to make beeswax ornaments, without the plastic melting.
Just melt beeswax in a double boiler. I create my own double boiler by placing a clean can in a pot of water. That way I can throw the can away, instead of trying to clean wax out of a pan.
The hanging loop is made from embroidery floss, which is placed in the mold prior to pouring in the hot wax.
The light colored airships are plain beeswax. The ones that look like milk chocolate are colored with shavings from a brown beeswax crayon (about a 1/4 crayon). The darker brown was made by adding more brown crayon. For the black airships, I added about half a black beeswax crayon to the existing brown wax.
Beeswax ornaments of the past:
http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2008/12/birthday-and-christmas-prep.html
Just melt beeswax in a double boiler. I create my own double boiler by placing a clean can in a pot of water. That way I can throw the can away, instead of trying to clean wax out of a pan.
The hanging loop is made from embroidery floss, which is placed in the mold prior to pouring in the hot wax.
The light colored airships are plain beeswax. The ones that look like milk chocolate are colored with shavings from a brown beeswax crayon (about a 1/4 crayon). The darker brown was made by adding more brown crayon. For the black airships, I added about half a black beeswax crayon to the existing brown wax.
Beeswax ornaments of the past:
http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2008/12/birthday-and-christmas-prep.html
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Planning to Do Nothing
There will be no exciting outing for me to post pictures of this Saturday. We have purchased crackers, cheese, fruit, and pepperoni, so that we don't have to cook and have declared Saturday "a pajama day". We are all gathering books to read, movies to watch, and in my case, a little hand-sewing, and we are going to lay around in bed all day, rising only to forage. I think a relaxing day to de-stress will do us all a lot of good.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Happy 11th Birthday Blaze!
My youngest child just turned 11 today.
I was up until midnight last night, making little white chocolate airships to go on top of chocolate cupcakes (airship pirates never seem to get old as a birthday theme).
The cupcakes were a big hit at school and the children sang happy birthday to him 3 times today. He just loved all the attention!
The jacket he's wearing in this picture was one of his gifts.
His big birthday surprise, though, happened first thing this morning, when he opened up the 6th advent calendar box and found tickets to the new Legoland inside.
I was up until midnight last night, making little white chocolate airships to go on top of chocolate cupcakes (airship pirates never seem to get old as a birthday theme).
The cupcakes were a big hit at school and the children sang happy birthday to him 3 times today. He just loved all the attention!
The jacket he's wearing in this picture was one of his gifts.
His big birthday surprise, though, happened first thing this morning, when he opened up the 6th advent calendar box and found tickets to the new Legoland inside.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Christmas at the Kanapaha Plantation House
Today, we went to the free holiday open house at the Haile Homestead here in Gainesville.
Costumed docents were there to tell stories about the Haile family and answer questions, about the plantation which once grew sea island cotton using slave labor.
This board was made for bouncing:
The Haile's had 14 children, 12 of them boys, and one of their fun pastimes was bouncing on the board on the front porch. Blaze enjoyed it, too.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a house with so many fireplaces.
One unusual thing about the Haile home, is what they refer to as "talking walls". The family, particularly the mother, wrote notes all over the walls of the rooms and closets.
None of the outbuilding are still standing. This fireplace is the last thing that remains from the caretaker's house that once stood behind the main house.
There were other interesting things going on outside the house, as well. We watched this woman demonstrate lace making
and then watched as this girl pulled the snake out of the bushes near the front porch and carried it off where it wouldn't scare any tourists.
Costumed docents were there to tell stories about the Haile family and answer questions, about the plantation which once grew sea island cotton using slave labor.
This board was made for bouncing:
The Haile's had 14 children, 12 of them boys, and one of their fun pastimes was bouncing on the board on the front porch. Blaze enjoyed it, too.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a house with so many fireplaces.
One unusual thing about the Haile home, is what they refer to as "talking walls". The family, particularly the mother, wrote notes all over the walls of the rooms and closets.
None of the outbuilding are still standing. This fireplace is the last thing that remains from the caretaker's house that once stood behind the main house.
There were other interesting things going on outside the house, as well. We watched this woman demonstrate lace making
and then watched as this girl pulled the snake out of the bushes near the front porch and carried it off where it wouldn't scare any tourists.
A Christmas Carol at the Hippodrome
Yesterday afternoon, we went to see A Christmas Carol at the Hippodrome State Theatre.
If you are in the Gainesville, FL. area, I highly recommend this.
The small theatre means that there is not a bad seat in the house.
The cast is fantastic, especially Scrooge and Marley, who narrates. This adaptation of the story is also well done. It maintains some of the spookiness of a ghost story, but mostly is very funny.
This is very good way to introduce children to live theatre, and on select days (yesterday was one of these), children are free with a donation of two cans of food, to be donated to a local food bank.
The show ended with an audience sing-a-long that had everyone clapping and singing "Jingle Bells" at the top of their lungs.
If you are in the Gainesville, FL. area, I highly recommend this.
The small theatre means that there is not a bad seat in the house.
The cast is fantastic, especially Scrooge and Marley, who narrates. This adaptation of the story is also well done. It maintains some of the spookiness of a ghost story, but mostly is very funny.
This is very good way to introduce children to live theatre, and on select days (yesterday was one of these), children are free with a donation of two cans of food, to be donated to a local food bank.
The show ended with an audience sing-a-long that had everyone clapping and singing "Jingle Bells" at the top of their lungs.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
The Noah's Endeavor Holiday Party
Last night was the Noah's Endeavor holiday party at the Boys and Girls Club. The University of Florida Gospel Choir performed Christmas carols for us and encouraged the children to join them.
Sorry about the poor video quality*
Sorry about the poor video quality*
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Crafty Crow
