Flower Pressing: Part 1 {Art Friday}

I have really fond memories of pressing flowers as a little one with our flower press. This week we found some lovely local flowers at the farmers market and as they started to fade I thought we would try to preserve them. 

You don't need anything fancy, just a heavy book, some flowers, and some paper. You can also place the flowers inside the book if you have a heavy used one that has minimal value. 

Pick the flowers you want to press. Lay flat on you paper. 

Cover with another sheet and place book on top gently. 

Wait a few weeks for them to dry.  Once ours are dry and pressed we'll use them for a fun project so be sure to check in! 

This was inspired by the lovely ladies over at Wild + Free. They have a free content bundle available  and a new monthly online magazine. September's theme is Garden. Be sure to get a copy before the end of the month! 

Parts of a dicotyledon {Botany}

We are working on seeds this week.  I was really pleased with how hard everyone worked this afternoon on their booklets and sorting. This is a pretty simple set up but has a ton of extensions. 

We used a mini muffin tin and four different varieties of seeds. We bought ours from the thrift store so I was limited with the types. Buy larger seeds (beans, squash) for smaller hands and smaller seeds (carrots, broccoli) for a bigger challenge. The top row contains an example seed and a card with the common and latin names. The middle row is the picture of the seed. It worked well to cover up that hole on the muffin tin. The bottom row is where they placed the matching seeds. 

Nomenclature cards. We did a three part lesson on the parts and ordered them in terms of growth. 

Working on writing. These are almost always a hit.  The younger ones work on tracing the words and coloring the pictures. 

More Resources

Parts of a Seed Cards from The Helpful Garden 

Botany Manual (and cards) from KHT Montessori. pictured

Montessori WorkJobs has a great printable as well

Free Seed and Plant Matching Cards from Montessori Print Shop

Chicken Mummy {Art, History and Science}

This project ended up being a super long one but totally worth it! I included it today for Art Friday but it obviously would fit in just about any subject area you might want it too. 

Make a Chicken Mummy

Ingredients:

3 cans baking powder

3 boxes of baking soda (or approximately 6 cups)

chicken

gallon sized storage bags

rubbing alcohol

spices (we used cinnamon)

salt (we used 4 cans)

gloves (if you want)

The first couple days take the most amount of work. After that, you can leave it alone for quite a while without thinking about it. It took us about 6 weeks total. 

Rinse and pat your chicken dry. You are essentially using various salts to dry out your chicken, water will not be your friend for this! 

Wash your chicken with the rubbing alcohol. Pat dry. 

Mix 1/2 box baking powder, 1 cup of baking soda and a can of salt in a large bowl. With the chicken in your plastic bag, fill the inner cavity with the salt mixture.  Pour the rest of the salt mixture on your chicken. Add spices if desired (it is very much desired) 

Repeat this process the next few days. Dust off any extra salt before adding new salt and replace your bag. We did a new mixture on Day 2, Day 4 and Day 7. After that it was every 10 days or so. The chicken will not smell (it just smelled like cinnamon) but if it does  or you notice it, it's time to change the salt. 

Materials to Finish

Glue (make your own: mix 1 1/2 cups flour with 1 cup water, add more water until you reach the desired consistency)

Fabric Scraps (muslin works great for this, we used our dyed fabric from our unit on the Phoenicians. Find the reciped for Simple Purple Dye Here 

Box (for a coffin)

Hieroglyphs to reference for decorating 

Dust off the extra salt and rub the chicken in spices. Stuff the inside with fabric (we actually forgot this part...). Cut fabric strips and dip into glue. Wrap 2-3 times and let dry completely. 

Decorate your box!

The original instructions came from Story of the World: Ancient Times Activity Book. 

Landscape Art {Art Friday}

I had planned to take the kids up to the mountains to sketch this week but after a hectic few days we really needed that extra day at home. I'm sure we will make it up there next week. 

This morning we looked at some landscape art in our Can you Hear it? book along with searching for landscape art in our Usborne Famous Painting Art Cards. We also listened to  The four Seasons: Summer by Vivaldi. 

The selected cards that the kids felt fit a "landscape" description. 

They picked a card that inspired them. Indie picked Apples and Oranges by Paul Cezanne.

Barrett picked The Water Lily Pond by Claude-Oscar Monet. 

Book of Centuries {History}

I'm really excited about incorporating this into our homeschool. A book of Centuries is more or less a timeline that is kept in a notebook or journal. You can find details and even a free printable at Simply Charlotte Mason but we decided to use a large journal for ours that I picked up at the craft store. We are also just doing one as a family but if your kids are older it would be great for them to work on individually. 

Traditionally a book of Centuries would start at 4000 BCE and go through AD 2100 but we started a bit earlier. Because it would be impossible to do every hundred years from the beginning of time we split it into manageable pieces:

The Beginning of Time (everything before the Paleozoic Era)

The Paleozoic Era

The Mesozoic Era

Cenozoic Era

Coming of Humans (Early Man)

This is the start of our century divisions: 4000 BCE- 3901 BCE and so on. 

If you incorporate Montessori into your home this would be easiest to do after The Great Lessons.   These stories go up to the history of writing and mathematics and are a great transition into Ancient History.  

Narrating and sketching the end of the Minoan Civilization. We also compared it to other parts of history we had learned about. 

Placing ourselves in the book. 

We had a TON of pages leftover at the end so Barrett thought they would be great for map work and I agreed.  We'll make sure we can cross reference ancient maps with current ones and maybe tape a few in there as well. 

This is a long term project and it will be invaluable as time goes on. What better way to keep track of what we've been learning?  

Chrysanthemums {Art Fridays}

We used the piece, Chrysanthemums by Utagawa Hiroshige along with some hand picked chrysanthemums and sunflowers for our Art inspiration this week. We also listened to The Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. 

You can find both of these in the book Can You Hear it? or you can find them online of course! 

One of the hardest lessons for me with my oldest has been understanding his thought process with his drawings.  He can draw things in great detail and proportion if he chooses too- but other times it appears that he doesn't care and the page just looks like a bunch of scribbles. Today I took some time to sit down with them and realized that he was drawing with the music. He would speed up or slow down, use more pressure or less, depending on the dynamics in the song. It wasn't that he didn't care- he was just experiencing the activity in a different way!  We've referred to it as his "action" drawings. 

Dad's monochromatic approach. The kids really enjoyed having him here this morning! I love seeing his drawings and think I might start stashing them away. 

Next week we will say goodbye to summer by looking at View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After a Thunderstorm- The Oxbow by Thomas Cole and listen to The Four Seasons: Summer by Vivaldi. 

Charlotte Mason- Exploring her Philosophies

It is no secret that I have been heavily influence by Maria Montessori. Her view of children and their capabilities is inspiring.  She was a scientist first and by simply observing the children she was in contact with, she figured out how to guide them so that they could succeed. 

There are of course problems with any philosophy or method. Montessori never intended home use of her work. She was very clear about student/directress ratios and age ranges. She made many of her materials herself and was very controlling of her ideas.  Her primary work was accomplished with the 3-6 age crowd mainly because the older ones were in school already. Unfortunately, she never really expanded too much into the older ages. There is a little bit on Early Elementary and pretty much nothing after that. 

In a home environment, I have struggled with how to implement some of her ideas as the kids get older.  Group work is so integral to the Elementary Montessori Classroom that it is almost impossible to mimic it in a home environment. 

So, here I am, exploring more philosophies and ideas and trying to find a good fit for my oldest. One where he is challenged appropriately but is also leading his own learning. I recently saw this quote in an issue of Wild and Free (a free bundle to download): 

"Cherish in your children the love of investigation"

I love this quote and it inspired me to look more into Charlotte Mason and her philosophies. I feel like I have a lot more to learn but I wanted to share a bit about how she compares with Montessori and what specifically we are going to try to incorporate into our work. 

Mason lived from 1842-1923. This seems to be a turning point in a lot of educational philosophies. She is a huge influence in Christian homeschooling circles.  

She believed that "education is an atmosphere."  This is where you will find the greatest disparity between philosophies. She was very much against changing the environment to fit a child. She felt that a child should not be isolated to a "child friendly" environment.  That means no small chairs or tables or kid sized things that you would find from Froebel or Montessori. 

She also believed that "education is a discipline. " That education was stronger than natural inclinations. 

Mason stated that "education is a life" and that because the mind feeds on ideas- children should have access to a large amount of curriculum and resources. 

She agreed with Montessori in the realm of external motivators. Both believed that they have no place in learning and are detrimental. You can find modern research confirming this in the book Nurture Shock.  

In terms of early childhood, Mason believed that kids should be outside exploring their environment and that was more important than any other type of learning. You can see a movement back towards this in some of the Forest Kindergartens popping up.  

I am a huge proponent of getting kids outside but I also know from experience that when given the opportunity- they will surprise you.  Montessori put out materials that appealed to children for a reason. Access to a moveable alphabet may spur on your little one to learn how to spell before she can read.  Numerals and counters will have them reciting addition and subtraction problems before you know it. Montessori believed that young children needed to be in a concrete world able to explore with their senses. Concrete always comes before abstract. 

Montessori wanted to cultivate a spirit of learning more than a mechanical skill or mechanism. Mason believed that under the right conditions "studies serve for delight"  and that "the consciousness of daily progression is exhilarating to both teacher and child"

I am growing to love both of these philosophies and am grateful for the chance to pick and choose from them. 

Here's a list that I would like to incorporate into our home for early elementary:

Notebooks for Nature, Math, Explorations

A Century Book (For history, it is a book with pages marked for every hundred years from 4,000 BCE to current time)

Narration of Literary Works 

Recitation, both secular poetry and biblical 

Living Books 

Resources:

Overview 

http://infed.org/mobi/charlotte-mason-education-atmosphere-habit-and-living-ideas/ 

Curriculum Resources

https://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/curriculum-guide/

Books

Charlotte Mason Education, Levison

More Charlotte Mason Education, Levison

Charlotte Mason's Volumes Online (Ambleside)

For your Homeschool Self

A Recovery Program by Diane Flynn Keith

DIY.org {Review from a Montessori Mom}

One of my biggest struggles with doing Montessori "at home" for the elementary years is the lack of group work. The ability to work together in groups and feed each others interests seems to be an integral aspect of a Montessori classroom. We've been able to blend a more classical education with our Montessori inspired activities but it still seems a little forced on my part as "guide." 

When our friends told us about diy.org I was super excited. The best way to describe it would be boy scouts without the actual meetings. Kids can learn new skills and share them with friends in a safe online environment. They can earn patches for accomplishing skills and receive feedback from other members of the community. 

Parents get notifications when things are submitted and can log in online on their parent account to monitor conversations. I've been a little nervous about allowing my little guy some social media interactions but it seems to be a great way to learn internet safety in a safe, monitored environment.  It has been free (and still is) but they just added a subscription service where you get the patches for free, feedback, insights and even mentors that push them to do a little better. We had a mentor ask for a closer shot of an activity and Barrett was so proud to do it over I was amazed at the whole experience. 

Barrett has loved participating with his real life friends in an online environment and they seem to encourage each other in their passions and skill sets. I encourage you to check it out! 

I wrote this review for myself. We pay the monthly fee for this service and it has been well worth it. 

Constellations {Wordless Wednesday}

Wednesdays are the days that I post just pictures of an activity or experience. Thanks for stopping by! 

Free Constellation Cards from Montessori for Everyone

Simple Purple Dye {Practical Life}

We've been having fun learning about the Phoenicians in our Ancient History book this past week. One of the recommended activities was to make dye. The Phoenicians used snails but fruit and vegetables work great too! 

Materials:

Blueberries (frozen)

Pots (one for cooking the blueberries, one for cold water)

Cheese cloth (for straining)

Material to Dye (old curtains, fabric, pasta)

Cold Salt Water

Simmer your blueberries on low heat for about an hour. I found that I needed to add some water to our blueberries. Strain the berries and keep the juice. Dye your materials. Rinse with cold salt water- it will dilute your coloring a bit- but the color should stay a little bit longer.  Lay out to dry! 

Once our fabric dries we are going to make some stuffed animals with the sewing machine. Check back on Friday to see how it comes together!