The Brownie camera was introduced in 1900 as the first ever portable camera, by Eastman Kodak. Made of cardboard with a simple meniscus lens, it was marketed for children and sold for $1. The Brownie No.2 was an improved model, which came onto the market in 1901. These cameras were used to promote personal photography,……
Category: Homeschooling
Art Lab Lesson Seven: Drawing with an Eraser
Drawing with an Eraser was a super fun lesson, especially as I ended up buying some special erasers which were shaped specially for drawing with. Art Lab: Drawing with an Eraser – Trying Out The Medium First things first. I set up a still life for the girls to draw: The girls covered their paper……
Precious Moments
We hit the ground running this week as we began home school in earnest since lockdown began six months ago. Oh, I kept them on their workbooks but really did very little else. I’m not sure why. I think I had maybe lost my way a little, as the teens have needed me in quite……
Ancient Egyptian Escape Room
My once little Abigail has recently turned a much bigger girl twelve, and to celebrate her life I threw an Ancient Egyptian Escape room party. Now these can be as simple as photocopying the whole game and playing it as is, or going all out to the point of near hysteria… I’m sure you can……
Shut-In: Political Party Speeches
This has to be my personal favourite activity so far. Everyone joined in with such gusto (even Thomas), it was hilarious! Earlier on in the day I had randomly chosen eight words from the dictionary. I did this by opening to a page and with shut eyes pointing to a place on the page. I……
Shut-In: ‘Who am I?’ History Edition
This was a surprisingly simple yet fun idea, especially when everyone gets involved. I had made Thomas his bribery coffee, so he needed to keep up his end of the bargain…and he did! Yay! The premise of this game is that each individual either dressed up or acted the part of a famous character in……
Shut-In: The ‘No Talent’ Talent Show
When I came up with the idea of putting on a talent show, I really did mean a place to show case individual talent. But our family never does seem able to do things properly, and it very rapidly became a ‘no talent’ talent show especially to our teens 🙂 There was much talk and……
Art Lab Lesson Six: Scrape Art
I’m playing catch up a bit, so these art lessons were done last year sometime. I use the book above, Art Labs for Kids, and we are working our way through it slowly. This week’s lesson was about Scrape Art Art Lab: Scrape Art: Trying Out The Medium This is another lesson that Lil helped……
Art Lab Lesson Five: Oil Pastels
In our sixth Art Labs lesson, the girls tried out using oil pastels creating some beautiful sketches of Winnie the Poo and of their giant teddy bear
Loo Roll and Other Important Stuff…
Hellooooooooo! Yes, I am still alive and kicking, and juggling my family which has increased by two members as we’ve had friends staying with us for a couple of months as one of them convalesces after a major operation. I always love to see how God expands our house to fit as many bodies as……
My Word for the Year: Balance
When I chose my word for this year I had to have a giggle to myself. I don’t go in for the zodiac signs and astrology since becoming a Christian many moons ago, but I do remember that my birth sign is libra and has something to do with scales and being balanced. If there……
Little ‘Lil
A year and a half ago Lil was heavily influenced by an important relationship in her life. It wasn’t necessarily a bad influence, in fact in many Christian circles it would be considered to have been positive. Over time, though, Lil became less of the Lil we all knew. Of course, change is inevitable in……
The Gift of Grace
I wasn’t sure what to do. Burnt out, and with an unusual compulsion not to homeschool, I felt a little lost. Sure, I went through the motions each day but that feeling of purpose and fulfilment had disappeared. I wondered if it would ever return. Struggling to contain the laundry, keep my home clean and……
ACE Workbooks
I wanted to have a record of all the children learnt last term. It was not nearly as productive as I would have liked, but they did their work books religiously every day and as I am writing out the contents of each, I am struck by just how much they learnt. This half term……
Recalibration
Over the past two years we have needed to recalibrate often. Life has been a bit up and down, with heart breaks and ill health, exam stress and working too many hours… The tumultuous times come and they go, and I am learning that they are not something to be scared of. There is very……