Play-Doh Geography–a twist on map blobbing

 

 

My daughter has really struggled retaining the names of the 50 states. We’ve tried music and workbooks and iPad games and trivia during dinner.

 

 

But I think it was all just too abstract for her.

Enter map blobbing.  I love love love the idea! We’ve been using the idea to learn the continents. One day the idea popped into my head that we could modify the idea to help her learn her states too. And she doesn’t need to draw it to retain it! Why, she could play-doh blob the states instead! Everything is more fun with play-doh!

 

 

So I searched Pinterest for the cutest FREE USA printable I could find.  Hands down it’s this one. I printed & laminated & added magnets to the back so it can hang on our white board. We just pull it off the board for geography lessons. I have her shape play-doh over 5 (gradually increasing the number) states of her choice. She then has to tell me the names of the states she’s play-doh blobbed.

You can make it as intensive as you’d like. My goal right now is just helping her learn the names of the states and where they are geographically. The natural connections, like places we’ve been or have family help make it more concrete too.

 

 

This is so much fun even the 7th Grader can’t resist helping when he happens to find her state blobbing!

 

…danielle

our MOH timeline notebook

 

 

 

A homeschool mommy friend saw this picture (above)  in my Homeschool FaceBook album and asked if I’d ever done a post on our notebooking timeline.

 

 

Turns out I can’t remember!

 

 

 

So just in case…here we goooooo…

 

 

Side Note:  I posted the pictures above as evidence that we don’t always do school in our jammies!

 

 

But it is a homeschooling perk of which we take full advantage.

 

:: smile ::

 

 

So History is one of our Togethers. Meaning both kiddos and mommy (ie. me) and sometimes even Trevy meet together three times a week (ideally) to explore the history of the woooooorld.

 

We’ve used a variety of curriculums in the past.  ACE.  Abeka.  Little Pilgrims.  And we’ve enjoyed them all and still explore history outside of our formal curriculum.  But I really wanted something that starts at the beginning and would work for us to do together.  Through my online researching I fell in loooooove with Mystery of History.

 

 

We’ve been working our way through Volume I this year.

 

 

 

In true Chronic Complicator form, I’d started our timeline notebooking by previewing the lessons and writing in questions and such to help expand learning.

 

 

Totally UNnecessary.

 

 

The MOH book has EVERYTHING you need! Seriously. Well, except for those cutsie timeline cut outs. I bought those on the side from their store.

 

Also, the 1” inch binders.  I provided those separately too.

 

But cross my heart, the MOH book has everything else!

 

 

The point of our timeline notebook is for an easy hands-on project to reinforce our learning.

 

It gives the kids a little art and we always have fun talking about whatever we’re learning.

 

 

We typically do our notebooking pages on Fridays as a review of the lessons we completed that particular week.

 

 

I have the kids cut out the appropriate timeline figure and paste it into the page. I then have them label which lesson number it goes with. We can usually fit two timeline peeps on one page.

 

We then fill in the empty space around the timeline figure with stuff we’d like to remember about that lesson.  It’s kinda like a memory cards and timeline Mash-up.

 

 

Sometimes I’ll get creative (see my MOH Pinterest board) and have more crafty stuff for them.  They do love the crafting thing.  But I’ve promised myself no Mommy Guilt if I can’t squeeze it in!

 

Plus, it’s always really fun to watch them think up creative ideas on their own!

 

 

The Timeline lives in the front of the book.

 

 

Behind the divider we store any extra printables I’ve found.

 

 

And last comes their mapwork.  We haven’t done a ton of mapping.  But they do love it whenever we work on them.  More mapwork is on my to-improve list!

 

 

We did start the year with a wall timeline.  But I wanted something more hands on so we switched to the notebooking.  I think it’s working great.  I totally see us continuing with it in the Fall.  Of course, Bristel asked me today why we aren’t doing the wall timeline anymore and how we really should.  I encouraged her to go for it on her free time!  She wasn’t impressed!   :: haha :: 

 

 

…danielle

art by candlelight (pin inspired)

 

 

Like the majority of modern mommyhood…

 

 

I am a Pinterest junkie!

 

 

Most of my pins just sit on their boards collecting cyber dust.  But every now and again…a pin will come along that inspires me to stop clicking the mouse and get busy creating!

 

 

This pin (here’s the original post by Helping Little Hands) with melted crayon art looked way too fun to not try!  The Helping Little Hands post is so rich with goodness that you really need to click over there.

 

 

But in the meantime, here’s our twist on melted crayon art.

 

 

The first thing I did (other than making sure Trevy was down for his nap, of course) was to peel all the paper off our crayons.  I’m sure it wasn’t a fire hazard.  But then again…I know my children.  Sooooo…

 

 

I gave each child a tea light.

 

I did this with two kiddos.  I wouldn’t recommend doing this with more than that unless you have lots of adult help.  Or really really big fire extinguishers. 

 

 

 

I learned quickly that they would need scrap paper underneath their candles to catch the waxy drips.  We also learned that if we drained the wax out of our candles it kept the fire nice and big for better melt-y power.

 

If I would have thought about it…I’d probably have newspapered the whole table first.

 

 

In the spirit of autumn, I decided we’d create melted crayon trees.

 

I had them sketch their tree trunks with pencil first.  We decided it would be easier to color in the trunks with crayon and use the melted crayons to create leaves.

 

 

We tried using the melted crayon tip as a stamp and also just dripping melted crayon here and there.  Honestly, it all looked pretty.  But even more important it was FUN!

 

 

Her (2nd Grade) Masterpiece

Dancing Leaves (above)

 

 

His (6th Grade) masterpiece

Dimensions

 

 

They enjoyed creating melted crayon art SO much that they decided that one picture was just not enough.

 

 

Dolphins Dancing

Jewel Crusted Tub

 

Oh…and by the way, the fancy name for melted wax painting is Encaustic Painting and has it’s roots traced all the way back to ancient Egypt!

 

 

This project is super fun but please remember to BE SAFE!  Maybe it’s a good time to couple a fire safety unit study together with art! 

 

 

…danielle 

 

 

ps.  I don’t normally wear all this purple…but in case you hadn’t heard November is Epilepsy Awareness month.  Purple is the chosen color for Epilepsy   And I happen to over the moon for an amazing little boy who battles seizures.