Vacation Education

Making slime is a popular activity these days. I have even read articles about young homeschoolers making a business out of selling their slime creations. I was in a popular store recently and saw several variations of slime for sale. Also, the store had packages of glittery ingredients to add to your slime recipe. Our homeschoolers had not yet discovered the fun of slime making, so I thought I would give it a try. I found a basic slime recipe using things I already had at home at this website https://www.homesciencetools.com/article/how-to-make-slime/ It was an easy recipe to follow, great for our first time. Mix 1 oz glue with 1/4 cup water (color optional). Then, add 1/4 cup Borax, stir until clumpy, then knead until no longer sticky. One tip I found helpful was starting the project in a small bowl, then placing the small bowl into a larger bowl for the kneading process. This helped keep the mess contained. After a few batches we decided it was pret...

Fun fact: Printing press letters were stored in drawer-like cases. The capital letters were stored in the upper case, the small letters in the lower case. This is where we get the terms "upper case" and "lower case" letters. Every book or unit study I've seen on the printing press (including my own book) has an activity to "make your own printing press" In its simplest form, any soft object can be carved (balsa wood is pictured here). Potatoes are a popular medium. Most any material with a consistency soft enough to carve and firm enough to hold the shape will work for this quick and simple hands-on project to illustrate the process of printing used in the first printing press. The material is carved to represent a shape, letter or symbol; then ink is applied and the carving is pressed onto paper. The ink can be rolled on with a small roller. To ensure success with the young children trying out this project, we chose some tempura paint rath...

This post is a summary and review of the book, "Better Late Than Early" by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. This book gets so much praise among homeschoolers. For years, it was on my to-be-read list, but I thought it was just another set of experts and their opinion on how I should be teaching my children. Sometimes, really most of the time, I get tired of that sort of reading. Better Late than Early is different. It is just a presentation of research. Research that was intended to show the benefits of early schooling, but didn't, and out of obligation to the public was published anyway. It does make for dry reading if you don't love academic research. So, I'll share my take-away points: To remove children from their loving parents/home environment before the age of 8 is detrimental.  Later readers are better at comprehension because they have a chance to develop the analytical part of their brain before tackling reading. States pass laws to require school att...

Tomorrow is Lucia Day! December 13th is filled with tradition in Norway, and throughout all of Scandinavia. It is the official beginning of the Christmas season for Norwegians. As I work on updating the Norway unit study from the Vacation Education Books Epcot series I am reminded that one of my favorite ways to learn about a new country is through their holidays and festivals. One of the major festivals in Norway, and throughout all of Scandinavia, is the Festival of Lights held in honor of St Lucia Day on December 13th. The oldest daughter of each household is selected to play the part of Lucia for the day. She wears a crown of greenery and candles to represent the hope of spring during the long winter days. Lucia leads a procession of children all dressed in white to the hospitals and nursing homes to deliver sweet breads and coffee. You can find recipes for the famous Saffron bread or Lussekatter that is commonly served on Lucia Day. Here is a Norwegian native sh...

Games! Educational Games! These are one of my favorite things to add in to a unit study. I am always brainstorming in my own homeschool, how to make our lessons fun and interesting. Don't underestimate the value of game play in education.  A game can be a great way to set a lesson component into long-term memory, and it definitely is an easy way to get extra practice in for things like math facts and timeline dates. Some of our most valuable lessons can be taught through games. Spanish missionaries to Mexico knew this well, and they incorporated the native games into their teaching of Christianity. One of those native games has become pretty famous, and I would even guess that you have played it before, probably at a birthday party. Pinata! The original piñata was round with ten spokes sticking out of it - Spanish missionaries explained the sins committed when the Ten Commandments were broken were represented in these ten spokes. Pinatas were decorated beautifully wi...

This picture represents the beginning of the Vacation Education Books series. A homeschooling mom with five kids mixed with the joy of a Walt Disney World vacation. This is where it all began. Back in 2007, when we wrote the first set of unit studies, tested them out on our very cooperative friends in our homeschooling co-op and then learned how to work with graphic designers, printing houses and publishers. It has been a grand adventure so far, and now that the books are out of print, and only available at Amazon for extraordinary prices:  Vacation Education Epcot  and  Vacation Education Magic Kingdom and these kids are grown up and there is a whole new batch of youngsters to adventure with, I am starting the process of rewriting the units in these books and making them available for individual sale. The first unit in Epcot is the study on the country of Mexico and it is now ready for you to print and play. Purchase  Mexico with Mickey Unit Study  at...