Wordless Wednesday

November 2011 Edition of The Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival

Welcome everybody!  We're going to start this carnival off with a couple of posts that go quite nicely together and will give you great inspiration if you are studying the Middle Ages.  And since this is a study we just completed in our homeschool and I haven't blogged about very much, I'm going to intersperse today's carnival with photos from our unit.  I know you will gain a plethora of fabulous ideas this month so grab a cup of coffee and a pen and notepad because you are going to want to jot these ideas down!

Tiger's Mum presents Medieval Stained Glass posted at The Tiger Chronicle.

Susannah presents Paper Mache Motte and Bailey posted at The Five of Us.

Field trip to Higgin's Armory

Transitioning from history to science we have a delightful post about Egyptology which I think is sort of history but then it's kind of a science too isn't it?

Sarah presents Egyptology Leads To a Dig posted at All That's Goood.


Emily presents Introducing Solar Science Week, Day One posted at Homeschooling While Living the Life of Easier.

Cindy shares Candy Math and Science posted at Our Journey Westward.

I love these next two posts which are also science related but they include videos too.

Amanda (Victoria is article author) presents DenSchool: Squishy Ice Cream: A Science Experiment posted at DenSchool.  Mmmmm.... making ice cream and learning the science behind it, that's my kind of homeschool.


Shannon presents Hands On Science-Squishy Electrical Circuits posted at Mountaineer Country.  I think squishy was the science theme for vlogging this month.  But really, this is totally neat and even I could handle this science lesson.

Higgin's Armory in Worcester, MA

Jennifer shares Nutrition for Healthy Kids: You Are What You Eat!: Lesson 1: Organic Taste Test posted at Nutrition for Healthy Kids: You Are What You Eat!.

Amy presents 10 Children's Books About Food posted at Delightful Children's Books.  Amy says, "Here are 10 food-themed picture books to entertain as well as teach kids about fruits and veggies, food groups, and where food comes from. These picture books inspired us to cook vegetable soup, homemade pizza, and try some new fruits and vegetables."  

Last but certainly not least, Heather shares some very fitting Thanksgiving Learning Fun for the month of November posted at Cultivated Lives.

I hope you had lots of fun here today.  For those of you here in the U.S. have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of hands on homeschool blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Early Roman Road Building

I've heard the Roman roads are amazingly straight.  They achieved this through an early surveying system where they used a tool called a groma.  It's pretty simple to make really.  In fact we had the supplies to make a rough one in our garage. To better understand the method the Romans used to build their roads and survey their land, my daughter and her friend built a groma and used it to lay out a right angle in our yard.  

There are a couple of excellent youtube videos of how to make a groma as well as how to use one.  The one we had the girls watch before attempting to build or use their own groma is here.  This just explains the use of one.  My hubby led them in the assembling of the groma. 

Fall Photos

DH is repairing a problem with our back deck.  Over the years it has been lifting up on one corner so that this summer is was quite out of whack and my hubby felt the need to fix it this fall.  He pulled the stairs off and dug this huge hole around one of the legs.  I was so happy to see my son out there helping him dig.

Then just as soon as he had the hole dug, the next day it rained and the hole filled with water.  We didn't worry about it at first figuring we'd have dry days and he'd get it finished when it emptied back out.  It seemed to only dry up on days when he was working and couldn't get out to work on it.  Then we had a snow storm (in OCTOBER!) and one thing led to another and now here it is November.  

A friend was kind enough to lend his sump pump and a chain so hubby didn't have to wait for weather to cooperate anymore.  he was able to pump the water out and he now has the cement pillar out of the ground!  Now he just has to put it back together again.