Jump to content

Menu

What are some of your most memorable homeschool projects?


Recommended Posts

I'm trying to think of some really cool outside the box type projects that DS13 can do throughout the year. I know he'll have to do lots of the typical writing and research papers and stuff, but I want him to be able to express his knowledge in more unconventional and fun ways too.

 

This will be our first year homeschooling and I'm thinking that at the end of the year it would be fun to do a showcase of a bunch of things that he's done throughout the year for the grandparents and other family to see.

 

So, what have been some of your or your child's favorite projects?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:bigear: I want to know too! We are doing Ancient history and I want to do some fun hands on stuff. I'm not afraid of being messy and I am pretty well stocked on art supplies, so we're ready to get creative. :) But at the same time, I don't want to just make a bunch of silly crafty things that are going to lay around and collect dust. I want to do meaningful projects that they'll remember. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't want to just make a bunch of silly crafty things that are going to lay around and collect dust. I want to do meaningful projects that they'll remember. :)

 

Yes! This is me too.

 

I'll tell you what I have thought of so far and maybe it will help get the creative juices flowing. :D

 

Olympic display board - it will include flags from each country represented, the olympic symbols, motto, creed & oath, a map of England with London marked, a map of Ancient Greece, a graph depicting each of the countries and how many gold, silver & bronze medals they accumulated throughout and whatever else he feels would be interesting.

 

Video recitations

Video monologues, skits etc. of a variety of things he's working on

Build a catapult

Make a board game to demonstrate what you know about ______ (topic to be determined later)

Cookbook (with pics of the home-ec foods that he'll be cooking)

3-D salt dough maps

Photography gallery (he's taking a photography co-op class so this should be fun)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Ooops. I totally didn't notice your son's age when I first responded. Some of these are probably best suited to younger kids.)

 

Chatting with my daughter:

 

1. Fruit mummies. I assembled "bodies" for each kid with an orange and a little red potato on which I carved a face. They scooped out the "intestines" of the oranges, dessicated them in "natron," wrapped the bodies with fabric strips dipped in white glue, etc. While waiting for the mummies to dry out, the kids made amulets and assorted funerary goods out of clay, wrote heiroglyphic scrolls, made mumiform coffins out of paper mache and decorated those . . . We did that project seven years ago, and I still keep the coffins on a bookshelf in the homeschool area, because I enjoy looking at them. It was also the first thing that my daughter mentioned.

 

2. Excavating a big planter full of miniature "ancent Greek" treasures. I bought little terra cotta pots (for about $.30 each), painted them with pseudo-Greek designs and then broke them into large pieces. I added some plastic columns (like the ones you buy in the cake decotating section at Michael's) and some other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. I buried them all in a big pot I had sitting on the patio, then set my daughter loose to excavate. She kept a log of the context for each find (how deeply it was buried and its general location in the planter). Once she'd found everything, she set to work re-assembling the pots using the pictures as a guide to help her figure out how each one went together. Those re-assembled pots are still on the shelves somewhere, too.

 

Those are the two that leapt to mind for both of us.

 

3. My daughter researched and made a display board for the monarchy of England from the Norman conquest to the present.

4. She did another display-board-type project comparing and contrasting medieval and Renaissance art.

5. My son made a Halloween costume inspired by samurai armour. That was cool.

6. He did another one where he re-created a prehistoric painting on a rock, starting by grinding his own pigments and making paint, but I can't remember what we used for the colors.

Edited by Jenny in Florida
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last year we studied US History and geography. We have some large sliders leading out to our deck. I went outside and drew a grid on the glass with a dry erase marker. I also drew a grid on a map that I had copied on an 8.5" X 11" paper. They girls then drew the maps (freehanded, but not by memory) on the inside of the glass doors. When they were done, we erased the grid lines outside, took pics, etc. We left it up for awhile but eventually did erase the entire thing.

 

We did a map of the US, but you could do a continent or the entire world. You could write anything on the glass though -- latin, etc. You could also have him draw different systems on the human body or plants or whatever you are studying.

 

:) Beachy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

1. Fruit mummies. I assembled "bodies" for each kid with an orange and a little red potato on which I carved a face. They scooped out the "intestines" of the oranges, dessicated them in "natron," wrapped the bodies with fabric strips dipped in white glue, etc. While waiting for the mummies to dry out, the kids made amulets and assorted funerary goods out of clay, wrote heiroglyphic scrolls, made mumiform coffins out of paper mache and decorated those . . . We did that project seven years ago, and I still keep the coffins on a bookshelf in the homeschool area, because I enjoy looking at them. It was also the first thing that my daughter mentioned.

 

This is super cool! No wonder you both thought of it. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow I am SOOO not creative enough. I never want to play with food or make mummies. I don't think they care either. DD likes art and DS is getting more creative with programming, but I don't really help much with either.

 

You guys are cooler than I am.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think our most memorable so far have been -

 

Delaware Suspension Bridge

 

Skipjack boats (scroll down to see the bridge post)

 

These were both part of Road Trip USA. They both had a lot of fun making these. The bridge was a good lesson in accomplishing something that looked very overwhelming. The skipjacks they were able to be very creative with and we ended the night at 10pm having a skipjack race in the bathtub. Needless to say we didn't get to save the boats as they got a bit wet but it was the biggest hit for the year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My daughter, the years she was homeschooled, did a vocabulary project. She used this list, 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know, and created a word border at the top of the wall. She used letter-sized card stock to write the word, the definition of the word, a sentence using the word, and she filled the remainder of the page with a picture illustrating the sentence she'd written. She's an artist, and her goal was to create a visually appealing product so that she could glance around the room at her words and enjoy studying them. (They could just as well have gone into a binder or book.) They were incredible.

 

She also did an Italian cooking term project. She researched Italian cuisine. She cooked a different dish each week. At the end she wrote a final report and made a several-course meal from appetizers to dessert.

 

And my ds11 is looking forward to 7th grade (another year to wait!) because I told him he can do a similar project with an engineering/bridge building theme. He's got a book he loves to read, so he will take the year going through the book and building each project. We did something similar with a book for younger children, and all of the boys thoroughly enjoyed the process, so he's looking forward to a repeat with more challenging projects.

 

Cat

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We do very large science projects every year (100+ hours). This year, I have described the process ds11 went through to come up with an idea, how he collected data, and how he analyzed it. I have also included his write up and linked to his oral presentation.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=361740

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

Edited by lewelma
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, not academic, but an annual tradition. We love to tie-dye tons of stuff once every school year. One year I had them stirring their clothes in an old bucket with sticks. We recited Witches' Chant by Shakespeare while working... :tongue_smilie: Good times!

 

Our reading tree was a fun year long project. I always loved the massive Nile River we cut out and colored. It ran up our big staircase wall. I like projects that grow and consume a room. :D

 

Here's an old thread where some of us posted photos of fun projects: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=312244

 

:bigear: Always looking for new ideas!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

So, what have been some of your or your child's favorite projects?

 

Volcanos!! My ds8 enjoyed his so much last year that this year we are doing them again for 4 kids.

 

We start from scratch & the kids do every part!

- Make a paper mache volcano base by using a water bottle & wrapping it with a "cone" of construction paper then using newspaper in gooey paper mache stuff to wrap it all up.

(This year, I even had the kids make the gooey stuff - we boiled 1 part flour to 5 parts water & they did the measuring & stirring with fractions split between 4 kids, so we got in a good math lesson!)

- When the cone dries in a few days, paint over it with a good water-sealing paint (if the top layer of the paper mache is regular printer paper instead of newspaper it is supposed to paint better - I am trying it out!).

- Have the kids create the lava mixture with experimentation to determine exactly how to mix it & how much of each thing to use (the best mixture seems to be mixing the red dye and the vinegar separately, maybe with some dish soap, and then adding it to the baking soda). We experimented with this in clear small cups on a small scale while our volcanos were drying.

- Put the baking soda into the water bottle (after base is dried & painted) and add the vinegar/red dye/soap mixture and enjoy!! Make sure to do it on a cookie sheet! :)

 

Ds8 loved this SO MUCH last year that the next few weeks he made his own eruption pretty much every day (and several times a day if friends were there to admire it). He became very proficient at mixing & exploding - lol! That volcano base lasted a REALLY long time, too - I think he may still have it around (although I've tried to throw it away several times in the last few months..).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My daughter, the years she was homeschooled, did a vocabulary project. She used this list, 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know, and created a word border at the top of the wall. She used letter-sized card stock to write the word, the definition of the word, a sentence using the word, and she filled the remainder of the page with a picture illustrating the sentence she'd written. She's an artist, and her goal was to create a visually appealing product so that she could glance around the room at her words and enjoy studying them. (They could just as well have gone into a binder or book.) They were incredible.

 

Cat

 

I LOVE this idea! I'm simply going to have to copy it! :)

 

 

We do very large science projects every year (100+ hours). This year, I have described the process ds11 went through to come up with an idea, how he collected data, and how he analyzed it. I have also included his write up and linked to his oral presentation.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=361740

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

 

I know, I've poked around in that thread a bit and I must tell you that I find it pretty intimidating and very impressive. Kudos to you guys for doing something like that. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

  • Powerpoint presentation
  • Biography outlines/oral reports
  • Various long-term science projects
  • Making videos for writing - ads, news reports, etc.

 

 

Those have been some of our favorites. I'm looking forward to some big history projects in the next few years as well, like hosting an 'Olympics.' Oh, and I almost forgot - my kids love trying various cuisines of the world, too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

we are studying ancients this year and started mummifying a chicken. the small cornish game hens.

 

my kids are 9 and 12 and they are having super much fun!!

 

Robin

 

I am planning to do this. Do I need an unfrozen bird or can I thaw one out and use it? :)

 

There is this lapbook, and I plan to do something similar. I use history pockets and make lap books out of them instead of the pockets. There is one for ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and ancient Rome. I also bought the ancient civilizations one even though it's for a lower grade than my kids thinking I could probably use some of it for clip art or whatever. I've skimmed it and the information really is very simple so I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My favorite homeschool project story is Mr. Chicken. When my older dc were 5 and 6 or so, we were co-opping with other families with 6 year olds. So we had each child do an apple mummy, but one friend decided to do the chicken. We followed the instructions in the SOTW 1 activity book, and had a great chicken mummy, wrapped and varnished and everything. I think he even had some amulets of some sort bound in his bandages.

 

But even mummified chickens don't smell particularly good, so when we were done, my friend put it in the trash (we were meeting on trash day). On the top of the trash in a very full can. So that when the garbage truck came and picked up the can, Mr. Chicken mummy fell off and didn't make it into the truck, instead, he landed in the gutter. The preschoolers were watching the garbage truck because, well, that's what a gaggle of 3-4 year old boys does. So they saw it and there was an uproar. So the host mom goes out and tries to catch Mr. Chicken mummy to get him up to the garbage truck. Oh, and did I mention that it was raining, and that chicken mummies can float (more or less)? Much hilarity ensued.

 

We had a lot of fun making the chicken mummy and apple mummies over the month or 6 weeks or whatever, but I don't think that any of us will forget trying to get rid of the thing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When we studied chemistry, my son was inspired (by dh) to start collecting the elements. This really made the periodic table "come to life" for him. He made the board himself, using a circular drill bit for the holes.

 

What a killer cool idea! Saving this one!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not creative or craftsy, nor do I like big messy projects. Still, we have had some fun!

 

We studied Africa, and each of the kids made a different kind of house out of materials that were authentic...stick houses with thatched roofs, clay houses with thick walls, etc. We have made suger cube pyramids. We have made large posterboard sized maps of entire continents we have studied, including adding in rivers, capital cities, mountain ranges, etc.

 

We studied world religions and each of my five kids took one of the major world religions and created a display board which included a timeline of major events, a paragraph or two about a famous person from that religion, symbols, history, basic beliefs. They ROCKED!

 

We did a salt dough map of Australia.

 

We have time line books we will keep throughout high school and add anything we want, not just from our history studies but from anything like civil air patrol dates to recall, interesting people we learn about for fun outside of school, etc.

 

We also did lapbooks and are transitioning to notebooks for all the kids with lapbooky things but also writings, etc.

 

We took tons of National Geographics and made a geography terms book with illustrations of the terms cut out and presented.

 

We are studying Lewis and Clark and westward expansion in general this coming year with a big field trip, and I have already warned the kids they will all be learning how to create a powerpoint presentation of their trip, so they need to think creatively with cameras!

 

We do lots of workbook stuff too, but using science and social studies to jazz things up gives us something to look forward to each day.

 

Cindy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...