Frontier House PBS Series

While looking for some more fun ways to learn about the West, I came upon a PBS series called Frontier House. It is on Youtube, and I believe there is more than one season. We watched episode one, so far, and I was surprised at how realistic it was. It takes modern families and puts them in a Pioneer setting. Caitlin, and I both have enjoyed it so far. Check it out if you are studying the West, or Pioneers.

Moving West Covered Wagon Cake

The History book we have been using for moving West, in American History, suggested we make a covered wagon using Lincoln Logs, and such. Well we don't have any of those, so we decided to do a cake. Which btw was way more fun, and messy. As you can see our Pioneers had to trudge through snow, which made their wagon wheels start to bow in. Plus the fierce winds caused their canopy to collapse. Honestly the hardest part was getting the canopy to stay up. Straws, didn't work, tooth picks didn't work, so we gave up and said it collapsed. The cake was delicious, too. We are still deciding how we want to do moccasins. Our next project will be...... Ha you will just have to come back and check. My husband took vacation next week, so we get an unexpected week off. We have lots of fun things planned though. We also watched the movie, Fievel Goes West, but I truly could have done without it. It really did not teach much at all about moving West.

High School Biology Labs and Covered Wagon Cake for American West History Project

Our Fun Fridays, when we do Biology Labs, and other fun but educational things, have been a little messed up. Plus, next week my hubby took vacation time, so we won't be doing any school. Anyway, I am still working on 3rd quarter evals, and I have tons of useful websites to share, but lacking time yet again, it will have to be posted later. Below you will find a set of videos with Biology labs. Here in FL, you not only have to do book work, when you homeschool Biology, but also labs. Sometimes this can be time consuming, and not user friendly. Next time, I will share the website that has Biology labs with interactive simulations. We have already done a ton, but still many to cover. I think tomorrow, we will do some microscope work, since we walk on Wednesdays, then have a lighter school day. I also have some updates for Math, as well.

My daughter turns 12 next week, yikes! Since it is also Mother's Day this weekend, we decided on two cakes. The first cake, we will be making tomorrow, and yes there will be pics. It will be for her West history activities, and will be a horse drawn covered wagon. I will not give details now, but be sure to check back tomorrow. I will try very hard to have it posted tomorrow. The second cake will be store bought, I am sure, and for Mother's Day, and her birthday, as we will be going to see my mom for Mother's Day, on her actual birthday.

The History of Homeschooling

I have lots of information to share with you, but am limited on time. So, for now I will share this short video on the history of homeschooling. This is a very interesting topic to me, and I might just assign a writing assignment, as a final exam to my 10th grader, on this topic. The three named individuals would be a great place to start. Enjoy! I will hopefully be back in a couple of days, to post some of the more interesting things we have been up to. Our field trip to Payne's Prairie got delayed, due to vehicle conflicts, and we might have to wait until Fall now to get there, but there are plenty of other fun things to do.