Archive for the ‘Homeschooling’ Category

How to Make a Paper Leprechaun Town

Monday, March 4th, 2013

leprechaun-city

Are you looking for St Patricks Day crafts? You’ve come to the right place! This super cute Leprechaun Town was built by my 9-year-old son in about an hour.

The supplies you will need include green card stock paper in many shades of green, stiff cardboard for the bottom base of the town, tape, glue, scissors, green markers, green pipe cleaners, green fake jewels, and green plastic vines. Or just use whatever green craft supplies you already have in your home. You might also want a hot glue gun if you want green plastic vines to grow all over your town.

Start with the base. We glued grass paper to the cardboard. You can buy scrapbooking paper that looks like grass at any craft store. Or you can grow some real grass in a tray, and then build your town a week later on top of the fresh new grass.

Make your buildings out of green card stock paper. Draw windows and doors on them before you tape them together, since it will be harder to mark on the buildings later. Tape roofs to the buildings. You can tape the roofs on from the inside so that the tape doesn’t show. We used glitter paper for a couple of the roofs.

We made a crazy miniature swing set for the leprechauns to swing on. Cut out two letter A’s out of card stock paper. Make a swing from pipe cleaner, winding it around the top bar. Add a seat to the swing with a small rectangle of card stock paper. No glue was necessary for the swing set. We just stabbed the pipe cleaner through the A’s.

Decorate with fake jewels, and hot glue some plastic vines to the houses. Now your Leprechaun Town is complete.

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers #9: Mysterious Picture

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers
(A series of 10 fun writing assignments given by a pirate)

Aaaaarggh! This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans, here to give you ideas for homeschooling reluctant writers.

homeschooling-reluctant-writers-14Writing Idea #9: Mysterious Picture

  •  Cut out pictures from magazines like National Geographic or any other magazine that might have a picture that gives you ideas on some story that might be behind it.
  • (Showing 1st picture) Here we have a picture of someone pulling something out of the water. What is it? What could it be? Has he been looking for it for years? Is it pirate treasure?
  • (Showing 2nd picture) And here we have people who haven’t seen each other for years. Why haven’t they seen each other for so long? Tell the story behind this picture.
  • (Showing 3rd picture) This woman is saying good-bye to someone. Who is she saying good-bye to? Is it her son? Why is he going away?
  • (Showing 4th picture) The people in this classroom are very upset. What are they upset about? How come? Are they going to cause a riot? What are they going to do next?
  • (Showing 5th picture) Why is this woman being pulled out of a car? Is there something wrong? Is she being kidnapped in that car? What’s going on here? What’s going to happen next? Is she going to fall?
  • (Showing 6th picture) And what’s this woman doing with a crocodile on her head? Did the crocodile just jump down on her head? Did she go hunting for it, and is she going to have it for dinner? She looks very brave. But what on earth is going to happen next?

So you see, any picture could have a story behind it that is interesting and exciting. You could even write a novel based on one picture.

This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans, signing off. Aaaaaarrrrggh!

Calling all homeschooled kids! I dare you to make a video response to this pirate video on YouTube:

  • Write a full one-page story based on a magazine picture.
  • Dress up as a pirate, and read your story into a video camera. Upload it to YouTube.
  • Go to the above video on YouTube, and press “video response.”
  • I am automatically notified when someone posts a video response. After watching it, I will embed it right here on this page!

Upward Basketball

Monday, February 25th, 2013

upward-basketball-1Upward Basketball is a Christian-based sports program that has games once a week for 8 weeks during January and February. Many homeschoolers participate for their homeschool P.E. program. The boys meet once a week for practice, and the volunteer coaches pray and give the kids cards with Scripture to memorize during the week. The basketball drills include dribbling, passing, shooting, layups, blocking, and teamwork skills.

Two of my sons were on the same team, even though they are two years apart in age. I saw my sons’ skills improving over the two months, and they even scored a few baskets. My boys have enjoyed playing Upward Basketball for two years now.

upward-basketball-2At the beginning of each game, the boys run through an inflated archway with a smoke machine creating a special effect. Parents and siblings line up on both sides of the archway , creating a human path through which the boys run, slapping the hands of everyone as they run through. The introduction to “The Final Countdown” blasts over the speakers as they run through.

The boys are given colored wristbands that match one player on the opposite team. This way the boy doesn’t forget who he is blocking. At the beginning of the season, watching the game is like watching an episode of “The Three Stooges.” It’s comedic really. By the end of the 8 weeks, actual basketball is being played, since the boys know what they are doing by then.

upward-basketball-3The basketball season culminates in an award ceremony which meets at the local school gym. Minute-to-Win-It-style games are played. One of the games had the participants shaking ping-pong balls out of a kleenex box tied around their waist. Whoever emptied their ping-pongs first won. (One of the coaches was much faster than any of the kids, so he won the challenge.) Another game had the participants put Vaseline on their noses. They dipped their noses into a basket of cotton. The cotton stuck to their noses, and they ran across the stage to shake off the cotton into another basket. There were three teams, and our team won. We had the most cotton balls in our basket after a minute.

Overall, Upward Basketball is a great way to get your homeschooled kids involved in a sport with a minimum time commitment. It’s hard for homeschoolers to pull together a team and find coaches, but here you have everything taken care of for you, by a nonprofit Christian organization. My kids have enjoyed it.

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers #8: Ideal Summer Vacation

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers
(
A series of 10 fun writing assignments given by a pirate)

Aaaaarrggghh! This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans here to give you ideas for homeschooling reluctant writers.

ideal-summer-vacationWriting Idea #8: Ideal Summer Vacation

  • You can plan your ideal summer vacation any time of year. Grab a sheet of paper and write a full page of what your ideal summer vacation would be. For example:
    • Would you go to the ocean? (Look at ocean pictures and describe why it’s so calming to you.)
    • Or perhaps hike through a forest to a waterfall? (Describe the waterfall.)
    • Or maybe you just want to go to a lake and go swimming, build sand castles, and float on a big ol’ rafty thing that looks like a banana. (You can come up with other ideas, like traveling to Europe!)

I’m sure you can come up with some plans for your ideal summer vacation. This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans, signing off. Aaaaarrggghhh!

Calling all homeschooled kids! I dare you to make a video response to this pirate video on YouTube:

  • Plan your ideal summer vacation. You can look at brochures from your local tourist office, or just make something up out of your head.
  • Write a full page description of your ideal summer vacation.
  • Read your description  into a video camera, and upload it to YouTube.
  • Go to the above video on YouTube, and press “video response.”
  • I am automatically notified when someone posts a video response. After watching it, I will embed it right here on this page!