Serving Others- Nursing home Treating

As part of our home school journey I like to do service projects.  Today we did one close to my heart.  Our home school group had a "Treating" at the nursing home my grandmother is in.   All the kids dressed in costumes and brought treats to the residents. 

 

To prepare for today we needed to create our "treats".  My kids wanted to make flowers so we took it a step further and made vases out of old water bottles.

We raided my recycle art bin and started removing labels.

 After the kids removed the labels they started putting paint inside the bottle.  They added a little water to help it spread better since it was a thicker paint.

 Then they added some glitter and  the lid goes on. 

 It is time to SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE.  Spread that paint all over the inside and completely cover the bottle on the inside. 

 After that we took all the lids off and let the bottles dry upside down in a box (with packing paper inside to catch excess drips).

 

The next night they took the bottles and glued (hot glue and tacky glue) buttons, sequins, feathers and tissue paper on the outside to decorate their vases.  A few they left plain.  

We also created flowers out of foam, felt, buttons, pretty paper, beads and pipe cleaners.  The paper and foam flowers were pretty simple.  I cut petal shapes out of the paper and foam. We then hole punched the center (if a double petal) or end and threaded it on our stem.  The center of these flowers were silver beads the kids colored. 

For the felt one's I found a flower template online and cut flowers out of the felt.  The kids then layered their flowers and cut two tiny slits in the center of each one.  They then threaded the pipe cleaner through one side of each flower.  For the center they used buttons or beads.  They threaded the pipe cleaner through the buttons (also layered).  The kids then threaded the pipe cleaner back through the other side of the button and back down through all the layers of buttons flowers.  Once back to the long stem they twisted at the top and laid it flat against the flower.  This helps the flower stand up.  

 

 I printed out little cards that said "Bringing you a little sunshine!" on cardstock.  My oldest cut these out with decorative scissors and I put two hole punches in them.  We then threaded it onto our "stem" (pipe cleaner) of each flower.  The finished product was a deorative vase with a pretty handmade flower and card.  

 The next project we made was rainbow cards.  These were very simple.  We used construction paper cut in half, glue and tissue paper.

 The finished project was a tissue paper rainbow (this one is upside down).  Each one of these was unique. 

This morning the kids were so exited to go and pass out gifts to the residents at the nursing home.  They really had the spirit of this project in their hearts.

 At the nursing home we met at the front for our group and the activity director.   My kids got ready to start passing out gifts.  My oldest was going to hand out vases with flowers, son was handing the rainbows and youngest was giving candy. 

 The activity director then took us around to the area's we were going to pass out "treats".  The first area we came too everyone was ready and waiting.  They had buckets to collect their goodies.   The kids did a great job going around to each person and passing things out.  My youngest was confused with this and stood by me most of the time.  You can see my oldest in the pink hoody and son in black passing out items.

 The residents really enjoyed seeing the kids.  The children did GREAT.  They gave hugs, passed out goodies and even accepted the candy some of the residents handed them.

 We then all started walking down the halls to the other side of the home where my grandmother is.  That side was holding a Catholic Mass so we just went to the rooms.

 Here is a photo of my grandmother greeting my son and daughter.  She is unable to leave her room or bed.  She cannot move the right side of her body, speak or talk.  However she adores the children.  She really enjoyed not only seeing my kids come in but our friends come in.

 We continued to pass out goodies into the rooms and the residents were so grateful.

I saw first hand how much this service project touched those that live here.  When I came back later in the day many of the staff and residents thanked us for coming that morning.  The smiles on their faces was priceless.  Many of these people are terminal or just forgotten.  They are left here without people visiting them.  Yes they have activities but that one on one contact with children is often no longer there. 

 I am so blessed to be a part of a Christ Centered group that wants to teach our children to put others before themselves.  I love that we were able to turn Halloween it into something fun and exciting for not only our children but for the elderly.  

Introductory lessons to the Solar System & the Sun

 

 This year for Science we are studying Apologia Astronomy.  My kids really wanted to learn about the solar system this year and were so excited about outer space.  I picked this curriculum because I wanted something that emphasized how incredible God is in everything he created.  Apologia so far has not disappointed.  

 

The first week we were introduced to our solar system and everything in it.   The kids then sat down and drew the solar system using chalk pastels.  They had a blast doing this.  The Sun is so huge that it only is on the corner of the page with most of it off the page.   We discussed how large the Sun is compared to the planets.  We also discussed the size of each of the planets.  I think the kids did a pretty good job trying to draw the Solar System to scale. 

 As the kids drew we discussed what would happen if the Earth was closer to the Sun or further away than we are now.  I was told if we were closer the Earth would be hotter and if we were further we would be colder.  We also talked about what would happen if one of the planets got off orbit.  Matthew told me it would mess up all the other planets do to the gravitational pull!  I was impressed he picked this up just from one reading. 

 

We read "The Planets in our Solar System" to help reinforce what we learned. 

After we got done drawing our Solar System we used balloons and pom poms to create our own Solar System on our school wall.  This also gave the kids a visual for the difference in sizes.  Especially planet Earth compared to the Sun. 

The next week we discussed the Sun as a star and how powerful it is.  We read "The Sun our Nearest Star" as part of our read out loud that week.  

We then went outside and melted frozen chocolate with a magnify glass and burnt holes in leaves.  We discussed how our eye has a lens like a magnify glass and if we look at the Sun it can hurt our retina just like it burns the leaf. 

We also spent time discussing the difference in power with the magnify glass close to the leaf and far away from the leaf.  The kids noticed they had more power the smaller the light on the leaf or chocolate.  They really enjoyed making the leaf smoke.   Ever since we did this project they discuss how we should not look at the Sun when we go outside. 

I needed to add a picture of my baby girl and her Solar System that she was so proud of! 

Spanish in the School of Monkeys

In the School of Monkeys we use several tools in helping us learn Spanish. 

• La Clase Divertida 
• I can Learn Spanish and English
• Vocab flash cards
• English/Spanish books

La Clase Divertida Level 1  comes complete in a box with craft supplies, workbooks for 2 kids, teachers guide, DVD lessons and CD with pronunciation.  My children love sitting down and watching each lesson.  The fabulous part is the Mexico history lessons and crafts/cooking lessons that go along with it. 

We use I can learn Spanish and English  for vocabulary.  Each page has 3-4 vocabulary words and this is a big spiral notebook.  I have my children write down each word in English and Spanish in a Spanish vocab notebook.  They review these words over the week until they know them.  We learn about 9 new words a week.   I also make flash cards with the Spanish word on one side and English word on the other.  I laminate these cards and put them on a ring to keep them all together. 

The last thing that I use in order to get Spanish in is English/Spanish story books.  We get books at the bookstore, library and make some.  I got a PDF book off of Scholastic.com that has 12 books to color and make.  We do one book every week to every other week and learn new vocabulary through these.  I try to pick books that go along with what we are learning in our DVD lessons. 

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Chicken Mummy - Living History Lessons

Chicken Mummy

 Ingredients:

Day 1:

• Whole thawed chicken or hen
• 16 oz bottle Rubbing alcohol or any form of alcohol (used wine back in ancient times)
• 2 boxes of Baking Soda
• 2 containers of Baking powder
• lots of Salt 4-6 cups is good to start with depending on size of chicken.
• Freezer bag
• Bowl 
• Gloves
• Paper or something to cover your work space 

For wrapping the mummy and scented oils:

• Baby oil (unscented if possible or cooking oil)
• cloves, Cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, rosemary
• mason jar with lid
• white/off white, linen, gauze or old fabric to cut into 1" strips.  Enough to cover mummy 3 times.
• Elmer's school glue
• If you choose craft stuff to make adornments, sarcophagus and other items to decorate.

 We are in Chapter 4 of our Story of the World Ancients curriculum.  We learned this week about mummies.  The kids had a good time with this one.  We learned that mummies are the body of a person that is preserved after death.  We learned that in Ancient Egypt they believed that you had to mummify a body after death in order to get to the afterlife.   This fact alone was silly to my kids.  They realize that we do not take our bodies when we die. 

 So in order to teach the kids about mummies we decided to make a chicken mummy.  They learned the process in order to preserve it. 

 We started with cleaning the hen (could not get a chicken).  I made sure to empty the cavity before we started this.  Make sure to wear gloves in order to not spread salmonella germs. 

 Once the hen was cleaned good with water we put it in a freezer bag and weighed it.  Have your children write down observations at this step.  What does the chicken feel like, smell like, color of skin and weight. 

Make sure to put water in your bag first to check for holes.  I skipped this step and we ended up having to double bag in a pinch.  Pour in a full bottle of rubbing alcohol.

If you are going to let your children do this make sure an older one is holding the bag steady.  Instruct your children to slowly pour in order to not spill.  See even the toddler got into the project.  She was ready to give the kids a bath.

Here is our double bagged hen and I had my oldest pour in the rest of the bottle with the two youngest holding the bag.  At this point you want to push as much air out of the bag as possible and close it. 

 

Be careful!  Remember that pushing on a bag to fast or hard will push the liquid out.  Apparently I was not thinking about that when I started.  I got to rewrite my kids journal entry due to making this spill.  

Now clean your bowl with hot water and soap to remove all germs.  Put your bag in the bowl and let it sit for one hour.  At the end of the hour turn the hen over and shake the bowl a few times to make sure everything is getting covered in alcohol.  Let it sit for another hour.  Repeat the process for a total of 4 hours.  

 

While the chicken or hen is taking her bath have your kids mix together the dry ingredients.  Make sure their hands are clean in order to not introduce bacteria.  The baking soda and baking salt will increase the acidity of the salt mixture reducing the amount of bacteria that can grow.  This mixture will also make the salt more similar to the natron salt used by the ancient Egyptians which consisted of three salts plus sodium sulfate.  If you like, you can also mix spices anything sweet smelling will work like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg or cloves.   

Now this is a great time to introduce a little math.  Let your children know how much of each ingredient you need.  We have a 4 cup mixing cup and needed 6 cups of salt.  My son calculated that they needed to fill 1 and 1/2 of our measuring cups.

Again everyone got to participate in this step.

Next we put a whole box of baking soda and powder into the mixture. 

Now it is time to mix it all up so that it is an even mixture.

Careful slow stirring is important in order to not spill it over the edge.

Once your chicken/hen is done soaking remove it from the bag and let it drain.  Wash hands well.  We got a new freezer bag at this time and threw away the other one. 

 In the new bag put enough of our salt mixture in to cover the bottom of the bag.  You want to make sure that the chicken/hen is covered completely so make sure it is deep enough.

Now get  your gloves on and grab your hen/chicken.  Make new observations in your journal.  Our chicken is already feeling and looking dryer and was a little lighter in weight.  My kids also liked the "hospital smell".  Now start filling both cavities (neck and rump) with the mixture.  I did not remove our neck because the kids liked seeing it.  So I stuffed it right around the neck.

Turn the hen/chicken over and stuff the rump.  Make sure to keep packing it down.  You want to make sure all the bacteria is killed and to cover any smell. 

 One last smell and observation before putting our hen in the bag.   Her big brother would not even get this close.  He did not want to touch it or smell the chicken. 

Now the hen sits in the bag on her back.  The kids started filling it with the rest of the mixture.  Slowly in order to not spill it everywhere. 

Again you may need an older child to hold the bag to make sure it does not spill.  Ours sat pretty well with the hen in it. 

Yes even the young one's can do this part.

After you get it completely covered push all the air out again and seal it.  I advise you to do this slowly in order to not have that huge spill like I did above.

We washed our hands and then put a second bag around our Mummy (again pushing out the air).  Now it is time to name your new pet.  This project will be with you for several months if not longer.

Nummy B Mummy now has a new home in our schoolroom.  She is being guarded by our little bobble heads.  For the next week check on your mummy daily.  If you notice a smell or wetness in the bag you will need to empty it.  Put on gloves and wash hands when you handle your mummy.  Every time you empty your bag and put a new salt mixture in make sure to take the time to write down observations including weight. 

 Day 5:  We changed our salt mixture for the first time on Day 5.  The hen did not smell bad but the salt mixture was lumpy and a little damp.  I dumped all the salt mixture out and tried to get most of it off the inside and outside.  The hen smelled like alcohol and not like yucky meat.  The kids weighed the hen before we took it out of the bag and then after.  It had lost about half a pound in weight.  The kids made observations and wrote them all down in their journal.  They put down the weight, what it looked at and smelled like.  The hen is getting more dry. 

At this point the pictures stop.  I will add them when we get further in our process. 

If you have to empty it make sure to dust off all salt and put a new salt mixture into the bag.  This includes the need to re-stuff it.  Put the Mummy back in a bag and let it sit.  After a week it should only need to be checked for moisture every week or so. Egyptians took two months to mummify.  So we set a two month date on our calendar in order to check to see if it is completed.    When it is dry it should not smell.

If you would like to make your own scented oil start this process 3 weeks prior to the time your mummy will be done.   Take a mason jar and fill it almost to the top with a combination of cloves, rosemary, all spice, Cinnamon and nutmeg. Then fill the jar to the top with baby oil (unscented if you can find it). You will then set it in a sunny spot and shake it a couple times a day for 3 weeks.  At the end of this time drain the oil and you now have a scented oil/spice to pat on your mummy.

If you would like to create adornments to be burred inside your mummy's cavity and to be put on the outside make them during this wait and see time frame.  You can also make  a sarcophagus using boxes in order to hold your Mummy.  Once we get to this step I will include more detail in this post.

Once your mummy is dried out you will need to get your gloves and dust it off completely.  Dry it off and pat it with your scented oil mixture or baby oil (cooking oil is fine too) inside and out.

Now it is time to wrap your mummy.    Cut up 1" strips of old white (or off white) linen, shirts or gauze.  Dip each piece into glue (sticky tree sap was used by the Egyptians).   If you created adornments wrap them up in the cloth.  Once this is done set it gently inside the cavity.   Now it is time to wrap the mummy with the strips.  Do this completely 3 times making sure to carefully go around the legs and wings of your mummy.   In order to make the Mummy more authentic decorate outside with Egyptian markings,  jewels, adornments, amulets and medallions (all can be handmade). 

If you created a Sarcophagus place your mummy inside the tomb.  You can bury your tomb or place it in a place of honor for the rest of the year.  You also  have a nice decoration every year for Halloween!  

For more online learning here is a cool Mummy site  for kids.