Toasted Marshmallow Day: August 30

Today is Toasted Marshmallow Day!  Yum, yum, yum.  Marshmallows have to be one of my ALL TIME favorites.  Whether toasted or made into treats makes no never mind to me.  According to yahoo news,

The second-to-last day of August provides a great excuse to have a bonfire and toast up the remaining summer marshmallows. Whip up some Double-Dipped Marshmallow Sticks or classic S'mores. Marshmallows are an abundant and cheap summer treat, but that was not always the case. They were "once so rare that that only pharaohs could eat them" according to Campfire Marshmallows. Ancient Egyptians mixed the sap of the marshmallow plant was mixed with honey to create a sweet treat in 2000 B.C. Today's marshmallows are made from corn syrup, sugar, water, dextrose and air.

"The marshmallow plant is native to salt marshes and shorelines in Asia and Europe and is now grown in the eastern United States "according to Campfire Marshmallows. The plant, specifically the skin of the Althaea officinalis plant, can be used to treat irritated skin.

Make a mini unit to do with your picklets...they will have fun, learn and remember the hands on fun!

Read:

How Stuff Works:  Marshmallows
The History of Marshmallows 
The Marshmallow Story (good for around a campfire)
How Did the Marshmallow Get It's Name?

Make some yummy treats!

Homemade Marshmallows
Toasted Marshmallow Shake
Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, Toasted Marshmallow Cupcakes
Warm Toasted Marshmallow Malted Milk S'mores 
Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Cake

Marshmallow Crafts

Marshmallow Building
Marshmallow Faces
Holiday Marshmallows
Marshmallow Tea Cups
Halloween Marshmallow Heads
Make a Marshmallow Popper
Make a Marshmallow Shooter

Art
Marshmallow Art
How to draw the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Art lessons from Mr. Marshmallow

Get Active with Marshmallows

Marshmallow Kick, Throw, and Blow Activity
Tie pillows onto your arms, legs and body.  Race down the sidewalk.  Give s'mores awards.

Watch:
Ghostbusters

Parents:
Test your kids!  We tried this once.  It was a disaster.
Marshmallow Experiment 

Science

Marshmallow Masher
Monster Mallows
The Anatomy of a Marshmallow
Marshmallow Catapult
Marshmallow Tower
The Marshmallow Machine
Marshmallow Lab

Have a fun, stick, gooey day!

Citizenship

Back on March 22nd I posted about an article I read about the citizenship exam.  Cool, the picklets, my parents, Cool's mom and I all took practice citizenship exams to see how we would do.  This was an interesting exercise,  We all did very well.  In fact it surprised us all.  If I hadn't mixed up the western and eastern parts of the US I would have done much better.  Nothing like putting the oceans on the wrong side of the country...lol.

 

What I did was print the questions from here and here.  I cancelled out the repeats and voila, our own citizenship test.  I emailed the "tests" to my parents and Cool's mom.  They took the tests and sent them back.  They missed about 10 as a collective.  Here at the picklebarrel we had an oral question and answer session where we took turns asking the questions and the rest of us blurted out the answers.  It was fun!  We did very well too missing 16 as a collective body. 

 

We then all took the civic quiz on this site.  This was easier because they were multiple choice.

 

Since we didn't really know what a passing score was we did some research on the exam itself.

• You must read one sentence out of three sentences correctly in English
• You must write one sentence out of three sentences correctly in English
• You must answer 6 out of 10 civics questions correctly to achieve a passing score
• Your ability to speak English is determined during your interview on your naturalization application
• The Oath of Allegiance must also be recited and be told means in your own words

So, we studied up on our American History, learned what it takes to become a naturalized citizen and to end our little mini unit I used the Oath of Allegiance as copywork.  Voila!  American history done for another day!

 

(c) 2009-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 7

Day 7. Time flies. Decided that a reminder of Pearl Harbor was needed today. We read through Remember Pearl Harbor and answered the questions at the end.

The picklets also baked some more cookies while listening to Cinnamon Bear. We bought some sugar cookie mix from Sam's Club from Krusties Brand that is completely awesome. After sharing with Sweet's gymnastics coaches, they are almost gone.

Sweet had gymnastic and Dill visited with his grandma and did chores for her. Cool and I went out for date night to Ruby Tuesday.

Nothing too exciting but I am happy we got history in. I think the rest of the week will be playing catch up. But that is ok

How to Mummify a Doll

Dill is studying world history. When he was "in" Ancient Egypt he learned how to mummify a doll.

To start he placed the 25 cent garage sale doll on a wooden board in the "per-nefer".

He then cut off the hair

and washed the doll in the Nile.


After placing the doll back on to the board he removed the brain by inserting a hook through the nose.


He washed the mouth and packed the mouth and eyes with resin soaked linen. We used paper towels.


He then cut a slit on the left side to remove the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines.


He washed the doll with palm wine (red wine vinegar),
spices (allspice)

and covered the doll with natron (salt).

It was then to be left for 40 days to dry. We waited 40 minutes.

During the 40 day wait, the organs were washed with palm wine, spices and covered in natron.

Dill then made canopic jars and placed the the organs into the correct jars.

After the 40 day wait he rewashed the doll with palm wine and anointed the doll with oil.

(we only had canola oil so Sweet sprayed some cotton candy body spray into it to make it sweet smelling)


He finally started to wrap the doll starting with the head, hands and feet. We used paper towel for our first layer.


After the first layer of wrap he added beads that he used as amulets.

He then wrapped the doll from head to toe with strips of a linen dish towel.

After making a mask, the mummy was was ready for entombment.

Voila! Dill went through the process of making a mummy. Though all the picklets found it somewhat creepy, there is nothing like a hands on project to really learn. There is nothing like homeschooling!

Dill read several books about Ancient Egypt as well as his text from Pass. He also looked up information on the Internet about the steps to mummifying. He found two sites, Wiki Answers and a Youtube video, that provided the steps he needed to mummify the doll. The you-tube he used was taken off because of the music they used. But if you google how to mummify a doll or a barbie doll you will find several examples.


(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Happy July 4th

Have a wonderful July 4th.

50 Year Anniversary

The 50 star flag was made official on July 4, 1960.

Did you know the 50 star flag was designed by a junior in highschool? He made it for an American History project and only received a B-! Read the story here and also listen to the story by the designer Bob Heft.

And Speaking of Presidential Libraries...

I forgot to mention in my last post to check out the great site that the JFK Presidential Library and Museum has. The picklets are LOVING this site and I am NOT kidding.

This site is awesome with a capital A! In honor of the 40 year anniversary of the Moon Landing, We Choose the Moon is a wonderful, interactive site that tracks the happenings of Apollo 11 as it happened 40 years ago.

I love that the picklets can get a good dose of history in a fun manner like this. Check it out! It has the 6 thumbs up picklets sign of approval!

©2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

We take the opportunity each January to learn a bit more about MLK. His life, his work, his dream. This year is no exception though the kids are getting old enough to recall in more depth what they have been learning the previous years. This makes the teaching a bit more challenging. The following is our mini unit about MLK. It is rather eclectic but then again, so are we. :-)

For all:

Video: Great Americans for Children Martin Luther King Jr. and King (taped from history channel last night) Yes, I am breaking the no TV/movie rule that I established BUT after long consideration I have concluded that I will tape programs from The History Channel, Discovery and PBS for educational purposes.
Discussion: used teachers guide provided from History Channel for King
Poetry: Peace Is, Peace

Arts: 2 art projects that will be posted later
Foods: an array of southern foods--bbq pork, hoppin' john, corn bread, sweet potato pie and apple salad (not a southern recipe but a good one none the less)

Chip: Martin Luther King Scavenger Hunt, Martin Luther King Jr book level S from Reading A-Z (snagged during their free download)
Dill: Martin Luther King Scavenger Hunt, Martin Luther King Jr book level S from Reading A-Z (snagged during their free download)
Sweet: MLK word hunt and crossword from about.com, Martin Luther King Jr. circle book from Enchanted Learning

I think my favorite activity of the day was the I Have a Dream book and craft (will post craft picture later) the picklets did. While talking with Chip I find his dreams are still big. Not only are they big, I think they have a possibility of coming true. But I see, from talking to him today that he lacks the self confidence of thinking he can make a difference.

I find it funny that they associate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Forest Gump. (I had not idea it was based off a novel by Winston Groom until I just looked it up) Not only do the picklets remember the part where he was in the movie but they have been saying Greenbough, Alabama (in their best Forest Gump voice) all afternoon. Forest Gump (or Grump as my Gaga calls it) is a great movie for introducing pieces of history. Amazing how so many years of history can be in one movie. Kind of like We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. We could listen to that all year and study a different piece of history each week and never tire of it.

The picklets are still working on the art projects and I will post those later. We found, during this quick study, that we are learning more and more about a great man. He is quickly becoming a hero.

© 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

The Lion Dance

While at World Lunch we saw The Lion Dance. What a great tie to our China/Olympic unit! Seeing it in person was much better than trying to duplicate something. Here is what we learned.

"The Lion Dance originated in China close to a thousand years ago. The lion is traditionally regarded as a guardian creature. Chinese lion dances can be broadly categorized into tow styles, Northern and Southern. Northern dance was used as entertainment where as the Southern dance is more symbolic. It is usually performed as a ceremony to exorcise evil spirits and to summon luck and fortune. During the Chinese New Year, lion dancers from martial art school will visit the store front of businesses to "choi chang" (lit. picking the greens). The business would tie a red envelope filled with money to a head of lettuce and hang it high above the front door. The lion will approach the lettuce like a curious cat, consume the lettuce and spit our the leaves but not the money. The lion dance is supposed to bring good luck and fortune to the business and the dancers receive the money as a reward. The tradition becomes a mutual transaction. The dance is also performed at other important occasions including Chinese festivals, business opening, ceremonies and traditional weddings."**

**as quoted from Choy Lay Fut

Pictures copyright 2008 Wicked Pickles-The Homefront Lines

The Presidents In Order

When we first started homeschooling the kids learned The Presidents Song. This song names all the presidents in order. Even though it was 4 years ago, they still go around singing it. Today I got an email from a homeschooling friend asking if I knew of a good President song. Yessiree I do! I thought this would be a great time for V to debut his Presidential Powerpoint he made this spring. I am not sure how to put music to powerpoint so we video taped him singing the song as we scrolled through the show. Please excuse the poor quality...we are just beginners...(-: ~~~Update: you can find the original song here. If you register with the site you can download the song for free. I also printed of a list of the presidents name for the kids to look at while they sang along with the song. It did not take long for them to memorize them.~~~

And just for fun he made a President Song, Fast Forward. Enjoy!

©2008 The Homefront Lines