A girlfriend of mine introduced me to the Flat Travelers Homeschool group online. It sounded like so much fun! Here is the posted explanation straight from the group's page:
"This idea is based on the book "Flat Stanley".
A Flat Traveler is a person, animal or thing made out of paper. You print or draw your Traveler, laminate it and then mail it along with a blank journal to someone in another area, state or country. The host family treats your Flat Traveler as a guest and takes it places they go. After a short time your Flat Traveler is mailed back to you along with a completed journal and perhaps some photos, postcards and/or souvenirs. You look over your Flat Travelers journey and plot it on a map. Some families keep a scrapbook with all their journals, souvenirs and photos inside.
Some families send out one Flat Traveler and other families send out dozens! You can make this project as simple or as detailed as you like. This is a fun way to learn about geography and history among many other subjects!
This group has been formed to give homeschool families a group of participants to contact world wide. As a member of this group you should be prepared to host Flat Travelers from other families as well."
What a fun and educational project to do, especially for homeschooling families! :)
Showing posts with label Homeschool Projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschool Projects. Show all posts
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Friday, September 19, 2008
My Children: Entrepreneurs in Training
My children see their mother earning a living online with the things that I'm passionate about: homemaking and motherhood. They inspire me now with their efforts.
It is said that teaching your children to be entrepreneurs is one of the important things you can teach your children as it involves: planning, discipline, math, organizational skills, money, people skills, etc. I took this to heart and bought my children the book "Beyond the Lemonade Stand: Starting Small to make it Big". It is written to teach and inspire children to earn money on their own. It is filled with creative ideas, stories and testimonials from other children. My kids cart this book around everywhere, and especially when they are setting up their next "selling booth".
Several years ago, my kids set up a lemonade stand on our street corner on a hot, sunny Texas afternoon. They had a table, chairs, ice cold lemonade, paper cups and a big colorful sign. They had people literally lined up to buy lemonade. As it neared supper time I had to drag them and the stand back inside. They didn't want to stop earning money! We counted up their till. They earned over $40 and each glass of lemonade was only 25 cents!
Every time we have a garage sale, my kids make up brownies and cookies to sell at the garage sale. They never seem to price the items above 25 cents and they sell like hotcakes. All the kids are there with their money and the adults love homemade baked goods!
Last month, the girls decided they wanted to sell baked goods again. I told them the best time was in the late afternoon when all the kids were out. They made two varieties of cookies with a sample plate. The cookies were brown sugar shortbread cookies and coconut macaroons. They set up their table in front of the house and make a bright colorful sign. They borrowed my red and white checkered tablecloth to make it more homey since they were selling fresh baked goods. Immediately the sales rolled in. No one even cared about the samples. At 25 cents a cookie no kids could resist and most kids have that much change lying around. The adults were buying too. When a car would drive in or out of our court, they would stop and buy a cookie or two. Just when I had come outside to tell them to wrap it up, a woman pulled up in her jeep and said she wanted all the cookies left. She bought them all for her and her kids to snack on while they traveled home. The girls were super excited by that last sale! They made over $20 on cookies!
My two eldest daughters, Cailynn and Chrisy, have a mentor teaching them how to crochet. They are both excellent at the chains and I'm trying to be patient with the long chains all over the house. They finally came up with a use for this talent too. They are making belts, bracelets, toe rings, and anklet "chains". They reasonably priced them at, you guessed it, 25 cents! They had so many kids lined up tonight when I called them in, that they promised to finish the "orders" tomorrow.
"It goes to show you that every business venture- no matter how small- is worthwhile. And every entrepreneur, no matter how young, can become a big success!" - Bill Rancic, Beyond the Lemonade Stand
It is said that teaching your children to be entrepreneurs is one of the important things you can teach your children as it involves: planning, discipline, math, organizational skills, money, people skills, etc. I took this to heart and bought my children the book "Beyond the Lemonade Stand: Starting Small to make it Big". It is written to teach and inspire children to earn money on their own. It is filled with creative ideas, stories and testimonials from other children. My kids cart this book around everywhere, and especially when they are setting up their next "selling booth".
Several years ago, my kids set up a lemonade stand on our street corner on a hot, sunny Texas afternoon. They had a table, chairs, ice cold lemonade, paper cups and a big colorful sign. They had people literally lined up to buy lemonade. As it neared supper time I had to drag them and the stand back inside. They didn't want to stop earning money! We counted up their till. They earned over $40 and each glass of lemonade was only 25 cents!
Every time we have a garage sale, my kids make up brownies and cookies to sell at the garage sale. They never seem to price the items above 25 cents and they sell like hotcakes. All the kids are there with their money and the adults love homemade baked goods!
Last month, the girls decided they wanted to sell baked goods again. I told them the best time was in the late afternoon when all the kids were out. They made two varieties of cookies with a sample plate. The cookies were brown sugar shortbread cookies and coconut macaroons. They set up their table in front of the house and make a bright colorful sign. They borrowed my red and white checkered tablecloth to make it more homey since they were selling fresh baked goods. Immediately the sales rolled in. No one even cared about the samples. At 25 cents a cookie no kids could resist and most kids have that much change lying around. The adults were buying too. When a car would drive in or out of our court, they would stop and buy a cookie or two. Just when I had come outside to tell them to wrap it up, a woman pulled up in her jeep and said she wanted all the cookies left. She bought them all for her and her kids to snack on while they traveled home. The girls were super excited by that last sale! They made over $20 on cookies!
My two eldest daughters, Cailynn and Chrisy, have a mentor teaching them how to crochet. They are both excellent at the chains and I'm trying to be patient with the long chains all over the house. They finally came up with a use for this talent too. They are making belts, bracelets, toe rings, and anklet "chains". They reasonably priced them at, you guessed it, 25 cents! They had so many kids lined up tonight when I called them in, that they promised to finish the "orders" tomorrow.
"It goes to show you that every business venture- no matter how small- is worthwhile. And every entrepreneur, no matter how young, can become a big success!" - Bill Rancic, Beyond the Lemonade Stand
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Fish Traps
I was so interested in the Curious Beings Epic Adventure, I bought the Noble Birthright curriculum. So far I'm loving it! I'm learning more than the kids probably are, but it is fitting in nicely with our school and I think the kids are getting something out of it, at least occasionally.
Like the Indian Fish Trap project we decided to do this week.
I looked up how to make these simple traps. I wasn't going to get real technical about it since we are not "outdoorsmen". A bottle, some string, a box cutter and duct tape is all we needed. Cut the top of the bottle off, invert it back into the bottle, punch some holes around the rim, tie it together, add your string, and tape it for good measure. We were ready. Off we march to the pond/swamp/lake.
Jesse with the trap. (Anyone notice how short the string is?)
The choice location
Baiting the trap with bread
The Launch
Simeon getting grossed out by the algae as we pull the trap in
SNAPP!!! The string broke and the trap is floating freely in the pond.
Now to try and get it out, with branches at least 10 feet too short.
Branches didn't work and we had nothing else to try to get it out with, so we decide to pack up and return later with intentions of fishing out the trap (no pun intended, hahahhahhhaaa).
We return with Curtis and three more traps. All of which snap, get loose or get thrown out too far and we loose all of them. Curtis, not wanting to get in trouble for polluting local lakes/ponds or endangering wildlife, wades into the pond to retrieve all the traps. I don't think he was enjoying himself to the fullest.
Notice the big knot in the line. He was also grossed out by the algae. I don't suppose it's because he had to step into it and now his shoes are full of it?
But, here's the ray of hope!!! We caught a fish!! He was in the first trap we put out. We released him right after his picture was taken.
All in all the only casualty was a pair of Curtis' shoes. A friend of his from work happened to stop by too and helped us get the other traps we lost in by use of his fishing pole. I think if we do this ever again, it would work better in a stream or river. The fish were biting around 1:00 pm because after we lost the first trap we saw fish jumping around it and saw some of them in the bottle. I do know these traps work, so if its ever a need that we have to catch our own fish, this will work if no other means are available (like the grocery store, or even your own fishing pole).
Like the Indian Fish Trap project we decided to do this week.
I looked up how to make these simple traps. I wasn't going to get real technical about it since we are not "outdoorsmen". A bottle, some string, a box cutter and duct tape is all we needed. Cut the top of the bottle off, invert it back into the bottle, punch some holes around the rim, tie it together, add your string, and tape it for good measure. We were ready. Off we march to the pond/swamp/lake.
Jesse with the trap. (Anyone notice how short the string is?)
The choice location
Baiting the trap with bread
The Launch
Simeon getting grossed out by the algae as we pull the trap in
SNAPP!!! The string broke and the trap is floating freely in the pond.
Now to try and get it out, with branches at least 10 feet too short.
Branches didn't work and we had nothing else to try to get it out with, so we decide to pack up and return later with intentions of fishing out the trap (no pun intended, hahahhahhhaaa).
We return with Curtis and three more traps. All of which snap, get loose or get thrown out too far and we loose all of them. Curtis, not wanting to get in trouble for polluting local lakes/ponds or endangering wildlife, wades into the pond to retrieve all the traps. I don't think he was enjoying himself to the fullest.
Notice the big knot in the line. He was also grossed out by the algae. I don't suppose it's because he had to step into it and now his shoes are full of it?
But, here's the ray of hope!!! We caught a fish!! He was in the first trap we put out. We released him right after his picture was taken.
All in all the only casualty was a pair of Curtis' shoes. A friend of his from work happened to stop by too and helped us get the other traps we lost in by use of his fishing pole. I think if we do this ever again, it would work better in a stream or river. The fish were biting around 1:00 pm because after we lost the first trap we saw fish jumping around it and saw some of them in the bottle. I do know these traps work, so if its ever a need that we have to catch our own fish, this will work if no other means are available (like the grocery store, or even your own fishing pole).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)