A Mother’s Journal

It seems our study of Rome, Italy, has flowed nicely into a fine study of the Renaissance.  I think Princess of the Universe is enjoying it.  I know I’m enjoying it, especially since I purchased a laminator. 

(You know you’re a homeschool mom when you spend your mad money on things like Velcro rounds, laminators and cardstock.) 

Using the laminator for the first time.

Recently I was visiting with a dear and sweet friend, Leslie, and she was showing me some fabulous ways to review material throughout the school year.  These materials had been put together using a lamintor.  Leslie had turned the review material into sturdy, nice looking, permanent documentation of units covered.  I was inspired.  I could see a trip to Sam’s Club in my future.   My very near future.

This would be a good time to say what an amazing woman Leslie is:  a devoted mother, beautiful, intelligent, lively, organized, and where would our homeschool group be without her?  I also know that Leslie has been quietly in my corner, cheering for me to be able to come back home to work during the years that we were dealing with so many health problems with my dear husband. I was out working in the “real world” to gain better insurance.  (Thank you, Leslie!  I had to say all this about you because you wouldn’t say it about yourself, and I appreciate you so much!)

The first project I did with the lamintor was to make our Michelangelo timeline interactive.  I know I mentioned recently that I had a timeline I was going to introduce Miss Priss to.  We already keep a timeline notebook.  It’s great, but it can be sort of dull at times.  I wanted her to enjoy this timeline.

Using reference books, the internet, and a huge timeline book I have (Leslie, I finally figured out what this book is good for!) I came up with about 10 significant events that occured during Michelangelo’s lifetime. 

(I’ve read that there’s controversy about when and where the first watch was invented. We’ll study this further.)

Using pictures from the internet, I copied them into a word document, typed a bit of info under each item, printed them on card stock, cut them out and  laminated them.  Then I cut each one out again, now laminated.

A piece of self-adhesive Velcro goes on the back of  each piece, with the other piece of Velcro going on the time line.  For each date on the timeline, there is mostly a hint at what piece goes there.   You can see how this was done for King Henry VIII. 

Hint:  A king in England who rules with an iron fist and has many wives.

Answer piece:  Henry VIII becomes the King of England.

The line below the piece can be followed down to the year 1509.

I really like how this turned out.  I can see us doing this with many historical figures to learn about history: study one person and learn what happened during his or her lifetime.  It makes the info more real somehow.  I mean, to think, Shakespeare was born the year that Michelangelo died.  They missed each other completely.  That’s sad to me.   This also really shows how short a man’s life is on the earth.

Thanks to our lessons from Five In A Row, we are amassing quite a list of Italian words.  Between Angelo, Papa Piccolo, and The Clown of God, we’ll have several nice Italian word lists in our notebook by the end of the week.

Another laminated review piece.  A blank map of Italy with some key places covered in our reading.

Again, the answer pieces are going to be stored in an envelope.  Velcro was used on the map and the backs of the pieces.

Leslie, thank you so much for the ideas!

I had so much stuff pulled out this morning as I filled up work boxes.  I even took out the old Papa Piccolo-inspired felt set we made long ago.  We’ll do a lot of geography review this week by placing all our story disks from this year onto the map.  I have several more items to laminate for review.  I also need to finish the test I was putting together from our reading of The Apprentice. At the end of our unit, I hope to post a book list and brief review of the books.

Enjoy your Monday!

Lynn