Archive for the ‘Homeschooling’ Category

Medieval Wax Seal

Friday, June 8th, 2012

medieval-wax-seal

My husband bought a medieval wax seal before we were married and never used it. I jumped up and down and said, “Can we use it, please?” He finally relented. It was brand new, and I suppose he never intended to use it. He just thought it was cool.

The kit included three waxy metallic candles in blue, dark red, and gold. It also included the letter “E,” which stands for “Evans,” our family name.

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We lit the candles and dripped the wax in a puddle to seal a letter. The children had each written a letter to God, which they sealed, only to open when they are adults.

The seal was made out of metal. It was heavy for its size. You press the seal into the hot wax. It leaves an imprint. Then you wait for the wax to cool before lifting it up and looking at it.

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If you don’t have a medieval wax seal, I suppose you could use candle wax and a rubber stamp. But it might ruin your rubber stamp, so choose a stamp you don’t like. You could use a stamp that represents your child, like a monkey stamp for my daughter, who climbs on top of everything, including the roof of the neighbor’s shed.

Now the children each have a letter that has been sealed with our family seal. My husband let each child press the seal into the melted wax.

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Bottle Cap Art

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

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A fun craft activity for kids is to make fridge magnets out of bottle caps. If you don’t have any bottle caps lying around, you can go to the grocery store and find drinks with bottle caps, and buy the drinks. Then cut small circles of paper that would fit into the bottle cap. We used markers to decorate the papers. You can glue the small circles of paper onto bottle caps with white school glue. Then put strips of magnet on the back. If you want all the materials in one place, you can get a bottle cap art kit. The circle papers are stickers, which makes it easier for the kids to stick on after they’ve drawn their picture. My kids enjoyed making these fridge magnets.

Hallway Art Gallery

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

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In this video I show you how to set up a hallway art gallery, showcasing your children’s artwork:

Flower Experiment

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

flower-experiment

Here is a fun flower experiment: Grab some colorful construction paper, and cut a flower shape in four different colors: blue, green, red, and yellow. Grab four bottle caps, and put sugar water into each. Place the construction paper flowers into each of four clear glasses, with the full bottle caps in the centers. Then put them outside, and watch which bottle cap gets drunk out of the most by bees and butterflies. For some reason, the red color attracts insects more than the other colors…