Just Hanging Out...

sMiLeS,

History Pen Letters

Last year, my oldest daughter Rebekah had a really cool idea!  She loves history, and one of her main interests is the Civil War.
Her Cousin A is interested in it too, so last year they started writing letters to each other, pretending to be someone from history.
They each chose a historical last name, but not necessarily one from the Civil War time period.  For example, Rebekah chose Rolfe.  They weren't really trying to include exact details, but just having fun.
They dated their letters with the current day's date, but with 1861 instead of 2010 (although they did write 2010 somewhere else on the letter.  I thought this was good so later they could remember what year it really was and how old the girls were.)
They "live" in different places, so that they would have a reason to write letters.
In their letters they are married and have children.  They write about their families and occasionally  historical events that occurred during the Civil War.  Mostly it is for fun, so there's not too much of this in each letter.  =)
Sometimes it's more hysterical than historical.  =D

Once they were both expecting, and thought it hilarious!
The letters are sometimes funny, or not always about things that are historical, but they're having a good time. I am not directing this in any way, and just let them have fun with it.  It was their idea, after all.  =)
They may do some research however, just when they want to know something for a particular letter, so they're learning a little bit here and there.
My daughter has a "husband" in the war, and she writes about him being gone, and where he is, and a little about the battles.
Once my niece was in the middle of writing a letter to Rebekah and her writing got faint and illegible as she wrote, "I can't see" and the pen trailed off...
Then the writing on the paper changes styles and it's her husband writing (later) to my daughter telling that Cousin A had fainted and that the doctor came.  This was during her "pregnancy."
I thought that was clever how she did that in the letter! 
The girls are making copies of each other's letters to put them all in order in clear sleeves in a binder.  They have enjoyed reading back over them.

I got to thinking about how a group might do this for
educational purposes, and I decided to put my ideas here.
If it was a group of kids rather than just two individuals, I wasn't sure about how to decide who would answer whose letter... and some kids might be close friends, and others kind of be left out of all the action.  So maybe they could have a buddy for a few weeks, then switch up each time they move on to a different time frame.
It only needs to contain just a couple of real facts, and the rest could just be made up about their own "life."
I'm thinking this will work well with American History, as it can be more ongoing, being that it is typically studied for a year.  But other specific historical eras may lend themselves to this type of study as well.
 
But they should brainstorm and write down a "profile" of their character to begin with. 
This will end up being a history lesson in itself! 

Rebekah said the hardest thing is keeping the characters' ages, kids, and other details straight. It's a lot like writing a book.
Each "character" needs a profile so details will not mistakenly get "changed" from one letter to the next. Each child should keep their own profile handy, as well as a list of things s/he "learns" about her historical buddy.
What kind of family? middle class? poor?  Jew?
What kind of occupation? Shipping?  printer?  businessman?  laborer?  watchmaker?
Also, she said the setting needs to be clarified, as in what time period.  Clothing and customs could be studied a bit. 
Also, where does each character live? It will obviously need to be in different places because they are writing letters.  What kinds of day-to-day things they write about will depend on their location.  Talk about hardships or accomplishments of the time.

This should probably be done like writing... after brainstorming and figuring out a few things for profiles, let it "rest" a couple of days before going back to it.
Assign some easy children's books to read, even for older kids, so they can get an overview of what time period they are studying.
Copies should be made of the profiles for at least one main person to keep; someone who could help with assignment suggestions if some are having a harder time figuring out what their type of character would do/see every day.  As their character develops new facts about themselves, these should be added to the profiles.  Things like an injury, moving, getting a dog, etc.  Just anything, really, that should be kept in mind.
(A blog would be an excellent place to keep ongoing updated material like this!  For assignments, too.)

You could assign the dates each week, like the month of July, 1776, or preceding months. That would be a huge one!  
Or July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.  What would one have heard in the news about it?
This would obviously be a one-time assignment, and not ongoing.
Before beginning the assignment each week, let the kids discuss where they live and what was going on at that place during the time assigned. They could write down a few notes to research at home.
They could just mention a few details of what happened in their town, etc. and ask a few questions to the one they're writing to.

A note about boys:  They probably would not want to write letters.  Some girls may not either.  So maybe they could pretend to write for a newspaper, or to be a spy who is finding out information from the enemy. 

I'm sure there are many more ideas, and can get quite specific.  I guess if a co-op or group wanted to do this, they would need to also brainstorm and find more new ideas and discard others.
The beauty of homeschooling.  =)

sMiLeS,

Thanksgiving Football, 2010

I don't know why I never added these pics at Thanksgiving!
It is the kids' and Dads' tradition to have a football game every Thanksgiving.  The big kids play football, the Dads quarterback, and the little kids run around.  =)

These girls only wear mascara BELOW their eyes!  lol

Run, JohnDavid!

I like this one!

Kicking a Puff Mushroom

Bethany caught it!

Rebekah caught this one!   AND Bethany's arm, haha!

Nice catch!

She actually caught this one! 

Rebekah -- Umm.... why are you hugging me in the middle of the game??

Bethany -- To keep you from going after the ball!  😂

sMiLeS,

"5 before lunch"

Would you like a method that will get kids to go on to another subject even if you're busy with his/her sibling?
I mean, if Mama is helping one child, and it's taking a bit, and is not available when you get stuck on #11, um...  you do not have to sit staring at #11 or daydreaming for 10 minutes.  Please can you go do typing or silent reading?  Or times tables?  Or even listen to Bible online?  
Or maybe Mama isn't looking, so you go into a sibling's room and then the two of you goof off...
10 minutes here and there can quickly add up to an hour or more.....

Well, that has not been happening here for awhile (not too much anyway). 😁

I decided to assign point values for each subject, depending on how long it should take to complete.
The kids have to get 5 points before lunch, and if they're done early, they get to take break/lunch early.
If they somehow have not gotten 5 points, they still get lunch, but not quite as much break as they would have.

We usually start around 9:00, and have at least a 1-hour break/lunch around 12:00 if necessary, but usually before.
(My kids are all teens, so they can go longer w/out a break than little ones can.)
As soon as they get 5 points, they can take break early if they wish, and still have break until 1:00.
They usually get to 5 points before 12. 😊

If they only have a little left, they might decide to work a little longer, or break only for lunch, knowing they can have a longer afternoon. Sometimes they start school early if they are planning to go somewhere w/ Grandma or cousins, etc.

I give 1 point for subjects that take around a half hour, give or take. The kids don't really know my system, so they don't argue if they think something should be worth more. They do see that harder subjects have more points.  They don't read my blog. 😁

So spelling, typing for 15 minutes, and silent reading (for dyslexic ds) are each ½ point.
History is 1 point per lesson for the twins (they do a block schedule and do 2 lessons a day), English is 1, math is 1½, Bible is usually 1, Dd16's Biology is 1 or more, Spanish is 1, Practicing piano is 1, etc.
Remember though, these are not all exactly half an hour.

Also for one child, practicing piano for X number of minutes is worse than practicing a song X number of times.  Once we switched, it was much easier.
Sometimes I change the number of times depending on the difficulty.

Sometimes it takes them a little longer for a subject, but unless it is obviously harder, I don't change the point value.  Occasionally if 2 or 3 subjects all seem to be just a little longer, I might grace them an extra ½ point completed.
Sometimes math is super easy, and I change it to 1, but they know this ahead. But only if it's really super easy. I try not to lower points if possible. Don't want to discourage them if they think they're nearly finished, then have an extra ½ point to make up.
►(I remember the story of a lady whose kids got up early, worked hard and got their work done early nearly every day. Another hs mom observed and suggested they do more work since they were able to get it all done so early. Um... way to unmotivate them??)
If it's harder, I'll change math to a 2. Usually it stays at 1½, though.
(But not if they take an hour and a half because they like to talk a lot. lol.)

We do kind of have a schedule of what order we do them in, but if something gets off a little (disruptions, etc.) they know they can fill in with another subject and still get their required amount done before lunch.
No one is sitting waiting, because they know they get their break as soon as they get 5 points.

This just helps keep things moving along.

And a subject is not DONE until all work is corrected, and I say it is done.
It has to be crossed off MY copy of their weekly schedule. 😊
And after lunch, the "light at the end of the tunnel" (or any activity they plan to do) encourages them to finish up. 

One other thing:  I've learned that doing math first causes it to take longer.
What?
Yep, it really does.  Math is The Dreaded Subject.
The long school day looms ahead, stretching out into infinityyyyyyy.....  "And this is just my FIRST subject??? sigh....."
So we do it last before lunch.  Remember that light at the end of the tunnel!
And after lunch, depending on the child, any other Dreaded Subject is last as well.

sMiLeS,