Caroline (American Girl) Day

The girls received the Caroline paper dolls and activity book in their "Caroline" (American Girl) fun pack.  We've really enjoyed reading the books, and after we finish each set of American Girl books, we have either a party or playdate to act out the characters.  We were excited that my niece was able to join us for our "Caroline Day!"

We had fun playing the board game that came with the set of Caroline books.

We had hoop races.  I won every time :)  It was very windy and cold, so we didn't do this for very long.

We had bean soup and cornbread for lunch.  We made butter to go with our cornbread, and it was delicious.

We went down to "Lake Ontario" to get water.

The girls dipped their feet in "Lake Ontario."  It was COLD, so we didn't stay out for long (this time last year we were already swimming...I don't like the weather this year!)

The girls had fun dressing up, and O(6) was especially excited to wear her new hoop skirt.  E(3) danced with her corn husk doll, and we attempted (without success) to make hankerchief dolls.  O(6) and E(3) recited poetry, and O wouldn't let me take pics since there were no camera phones in 1812 and she's a stickler about authenticity.  This was a fun day, and I can't wait for our Marie-Grace/Cecile party that is coming up soon (we had to postpone due to the terrible viruses that have struck the girls recently)!

Living History

Our girls LOVE history!  They beg for history lessons, and when we are finished with a chapter of Story of the World, they beg for more.  In addition to studying ancient history through Story of the World, we study American History through the American Girl books.  On Saturday mornings, the girls usually watch PBS cartoons, but lately they have chosen to watch historical documentaries on Netflix.  I was concerned about the violence on one of the shows (Alexander the Great), and O(6) looked at me very solemnly and said "Mama, you know there is never a good war and never a bad peace."  Then E(3) said "They have to have wars!"  When I asked why, she said "So they can protect their land."

These girls, at ages 3 and 6, know more about ancient history and American history than I ever learned in school.  Because they love what they are learning, they remember it in a way that I never did since I was taught through reading mind numbing textbooks and listening to boring lectures while taking copious amounts of notes.  I love that through homeschooling we have the freedom to teach history in a way that enables the girls to love and understand this subject at their very young ages.

To further our study and their love of history, we recently took the girls to a Civil War reenactment.  They watched a man make soap, learned how to spin wool, and watched a lady sew on with an antique sewing machine.

They each chose one of these handmade dolls for a souvenir.  O(6)'s doll's name is Molly, and E(3)'s doll's name was Agnes Lee.  However, E(3) immediately changed her doll's name from Agnes Lee to "Old Time Cotton."  (These children never cease to delight and amuse us!)

O(6) was thrilled when her grandparents bought her a pair of fancy, satin gloves which will enable her to re-enact many American Girl scenes with a little more authenticity.  (She even wore them to the grocery store and had a fun time washing them by hand and hanging them on the clothes line).   E(3) was very excited to buy a beeswax candle.  She said "I'm going to name my candle 'Candle'."  Later, when she lost her candle, I heard her calling "Dear Candle!  Where are you, dear Candle?"

We watched a Civil War skirmish, but we didn't stay for long because the cannon fire was VERY loud, and it made E(3) feel nervous and scared.

The girls were thrilled to wear their Victorian dresses made by Cheri at Ashley's Attic to the reenactment, and they received countless compliments on their beautiful dresses.  

Learning About Heiroglyphs

The girls received a history fun box in the "mail" on Wednesday.  They were very excited.  In the box were a few books about Ancient Egypt including a book about Hieroglyphs.  The girls loved playing with the hieroglyphic stamps.  O(6) has had fun pretending that she is a scribe.

A thoughtful scribe who is hard at work!


O was excited to stamp the hieroglyphs on her pretend papyrus and then roll it up into a scroll.  After she rolled several scrolls, she delivered them to the pharoah (me) and read them to me.  We are having so much fun studying Ancient Egypt!


Here is a link to the Hieroglyphs book that we have.  The stamps are not very good at all, but the children seem to like them.


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American Girl Fun Packs

O(6) received a Kaya fun pack as her first monthly American Girl fun pack (this mama made "subscription" was one of her 6th birthday gifts).  In her first package, she received Kaya paper dolls (bought from ebay), a couple of Kaya stickers (from Michael's), and a Native American toob.

We have had fun reading about Kaya and pretending to be Kaya this month!  One day last week, we pretended to be Kaya and her family all day.  O(6) was Brown Deer, E(2) was Kaya (she always insists that she is Kaya), and I was Eetsa (the mom).  E called me "Pizza" all day, and it was incredibly cute.  O and I kept smiling at each other in that "isn't she cuuute?" kind of way :)

I braided both girls hair, and they wore their moccasins.



O wore her Native American dress (making a similar dress for E is on our to-do list!).  O gathered grass for making baskets and stew.


We planned to build a teepee, but the ground was saturated, so we decided that our treehouse made a good Native American home.   The girls gathered twigs for a pretend fire and leaves for a stew.  I "ground" the leaves and other stew ingredients.


Everybody wanted a turn grinding up the food.


Then the girls started making baskets.  They shredded bark that they gathered and gathered straw.




The girls are now obsessed with making baskets, and they are having SO much fun!






I changed my role from Eetsa to Kautsa (Kaya's grandmother) and read stories to them from a Kaya book while they worked.



We had an afternoon thunderstorm, so we went inside to play with O's Kaya paper dolls.  We all sat on the kitchen floor together and spent almost 2 hours cutting out the paper dolls and accessories while listening to 2 Kaya books via Tales 2 Go on the ipad.  O and I divided the cutting duties while E arranged the paper dolls and accessories.  Surprisingly, E seems to love the paper dolls even more than O does...Luckily, O has not hesitated to share with her!

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The Pyramids of Giza...A Fun Rice Crispy Treat!

Since we are studying Ancient Egypt in our homeschool (and we will continue to do so for a while because we are having so much fun!), I thought it would be fun to make the Pyramids of Giza out of Rice Crispy treats.

To make the pyramid treats, I combined rice crispies, melted marshmallows, and  melted butter (I didn't measure anything) and pressed it into a pyramid sand mold.  I hid m & m treasures throughout the pyramids.


This was a simple and fun activity, but the girls were SO involved in playing with their Kaya (American Girl) paper dolls that they were (shockingly) not interested in helping me make the pyramids until I was almost finished.

O(6) arranged the pyramids on the tray, and they helped spread the brown sugar sand around the pyramids.  They were VERY excited to eat these delicious pyramids!


We used the pyramid mold that is made by Hape.  It is a little smaller than I was hoping, but it worked perfectly.  We've also had fun making sand pyramids on our beach, and  I have a few other fun activities planned for this pyramid.

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"On the Banks of the Nile"

O(6) received several ancient Egyptian playmobil sets from her grandparents for her birthday, and we have had SO much fun playing with them!  (I am somewhat addicted to playmobil now)  We took some of the figures down to our beach and had fun playing "On the banks of the Nile."

I can't wait until E(2)'s bday in September...she's getting the Pharoah's temple and Egyptian family!  I love that the girls can read about the ancient Egyptian times, and then act them out so easily and with so much fun.  We were all VERY excited to discover that the Egyptian tomb (which is really more like a house) has a shaduf in the yard!  
Here are the sets that we have (or will have). Many of the Egyptian items are on sale at the Playmobil website. 

I've only been able to find the Egyptian family on Amazon...I think it's discontinued.

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Toilet Paper Dough

The girls and I had lots of fun making dough from toilet paper and water a couple of weeks ago.  We unrolled a roll of toilet paper into a container (this felt very wasteful to me, so we probably won't do this again very soon), and added in the water... a little bit at at time.


Then we just played...I made a cave for our Ice Age people, and O made a bowl.  E helped me with the cave and then she started knocking it down...I think she was pretending to be a wooly mammoth.






We had a lot of fun, but we'll probably never get all of the dried bits of toilet paper off of our deck...luckily, I'm ok with that :)


 

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Finding Ancient Fossils

O(6)'s uncle gave her the ancient fossils toob for her birthday, and I set up an activity with them (of course!).  They weren't overly interested in these figures at first, so I was surprised (and delighted) by how excited they were by this activity!

I put the ancient fossil figures into a basket and covered them with lentils.  I put the strip listing the figures beside the basket.  Both girls were immediately by my side and ready to find the fossils as soon as I finished setting it up.



They loved reaching in the lentils to find the fossils.  O says that she loves the way the lentils feel in her hands.  As they found each fossil, we matched it to the list and read about each fossil.




When looking back on this activity, I realized that I should have put the identification strip on the right of the basket, so that the children would be crossing their midline from left to right as they found and matched the fossils....I'll change this next time I set up this activity (I had to put it away because I don't have enough shelf space to leave it set up right now).

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