Journey to Excellence

Brynne has a new friend! I was contacted by another blogging homeschool mom about whether Brynne would like to become penpals with her 5 year old daughter. I jumped at the chance because Brynne loves to write and loves mail! She got her first letter today. She was so excited! Included in the letter was a laminated paper doll named "Maggie" and a travel log for Maggie. The idea is for the girls to take Maggie with them to various places, write about their adventures, log it and return Maggie to the other girl with the letter. I made a binder for Brynne to hold Maggie while she has her and to hold her letters. Maybe one day they will have the chance to meet each other in person! As you can see Maggie is scheduled to go to Grandma's on the 19th.

On Thursday night we went back to Philbrook Museum to hear Dr. Kara Cooney, a famous Egyptologist, speak. She had a series on The Discovery Channel in 2009 called "Out of Egypt". She spoke primarily about the 21st Dynastic mummies, and it was very interesting. Before she spoke we had the opportunity to make amulets. Amulets were buried under the clothing of the dead before they were mummified. Dawson chose to make a Scarab which symbolizes rebirth . I made an Eye of Horus which symbolizes protection . And then he made an eyeball which symbolizes nothing, but reminded him of the regeneration of the mummy in the movie, The Mummy . So he made it. Then we went on a scavenger hunt of the To Live Forever exhibit. We found every item on the list, and some were hard! We had a good time doing it! We had gone to the exhibit previously, but the scavenger hunt made us dig deeper into the exhibit and made it more exciting. That day Dawson had drawn a map of Egypt, labeling the geographi...

Our first unit in our A World of Adventure curriculum is Ancient Egypt. Our local museum, Philbrook Museum of Art has been having a special exhibit called "To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum." Yes, there were real mummies there, both human and animal. Cool! Dawson and I went today because they were having a presentation on the artifacts in the gallery exhibit. We learned some very interesting facts about mummification and ancient death rituals. It really got us jump started on our new adventure coming up, and gave us some art project ideas. This was inscribed on a bench in the gardens of the museum. We also stopped at a wonderful Christian bookstore in Tulsa so Dawson could pick out a new devotional and journal to start using when "school" starts. I let him browse through them and pick out the one he felt led to get. His morning will start with his time with the Lord. It's a discipline I want him to establish. We had such a good time t...

Not only will it be great to teach Dawson next year, but it will also be nice to have him around during times like this ..... Thank God he was here to slay the beast. And I didn't even pass out when I saw it.

I have posted about how Dawson loves to explore. And he loves hands-on experiences. For him, a trip to the art museum is magical, especially if they have a scavenger hunt attached to it. Today I read about Letterboxing from a fellow blogger, BJ Mama at For What It's Worth ... Or Not . You can go here to read about her 10 "Why Not" reasons you've got to try Letterboxing. I have never heard of this, have you? It sounds so cool! You buy a journal, purchase or create your own rubber stamp, buy a stamp pad and a compass, visit some websites to obtain clues and head out on a treasure hunt. People (lots and lots and lots of people) have written clues for you to follow to find a treasure. At that treasure location you will find a rubber stamp and a log. Many of these stamps are handmade. You stamp that person's stamp in your journal (and write about it if you want) and then stamp your stamp in their log. They have a record that you have been there and you have a journal...