Tori in the Herb Garden

Intermediate student, Tori Yeager, spends time enjoying the fascination of all things history as a hobby.  She regularly joins her mother as a Civil War re-enactor at various events in South Jersey.  Garbed in "period attire" she has participated in many activities at the Cornelia Hancock House where she has helped to bake cookies over an open fire in this colonial era home built in 1734. 

One of our Medieval History study assignments recently involved the various herbs and spices used in the middle ages - the same that continued to be home grown and used in colonial times.  For a project report on the topic, Tori visited the Hancock House garden and gathered samples of these herbs and spices, a display of which will be exhibited at the Constellation Academy Starshine Gala Exhibit Night coming up on December 14.  In addition, she wrote an interesting composition on her herb explorations:

On Saturday, October 20, I went with my mom to the Hancock House.  Our Civil War/Revolutionary War group was doing a Colonial Cooking Class.  

After the class, Alicia Bjornson (Research Interpretive Specialist) helped me to pick some herbs and spices from the Colonial Garden.  By the way, my sister Ali, recently refurbished the garden to its original state in the year 1734 for her Girl Scout Gold Award.

We picked a lot of herbs.  I chose sage and lovage for my project.  Sage is as good as any medicine today.  In the Middle Ages people drank sage in tea.  They also used it to treat colds, fevers, liver trouble, and epilepsy.  It was useful against snakebites and would turn hair black.  

According to the website, HistoricCamdenCounty.com, sage was a very important herb.  It was "singular good for the head and braine; it quickeneth the senses, strengtheneth the sinews . . . and cleanseth the blood."  "For teeming women, to helpe them the better forward in their childbearing."  It is also useful in digesting rich foods.  It may be added to vegetables, meats, eggs, breads, and vinegar.  In the home it is an antiseptic cleaning solution.  

The second herb I chose is lovage.  The HistoricCamdenCounty.com website says it is another important herb.  Distilled water of lovage "cleareth the sight and putteth away all spots . . .freckles . . . and redness of the face if they be washed there with."  Lovage is an old pot herb.  It is used in salads, soups, stocks, stews, cheeses, sauces, and to roast meats.

Loveage leaves look like celery.  It may be added to bouquets.  When used as a medicine, it is a diuretic and useful in treating cramps.  Urinary tract infetions and wounds.

Sage and Lovage are both very important herbs now and during the Middle Ages.  They both can be used medicinally and in foods.  Sage could treat a cold, fever or liver trouble while enhancing meat or salads.  Lovage can treat wounds while enhancing stews, cheeses or sauces.  If these two herbs are put together just imagine what they could do.

Bravo, Tori!  You can make me sage and lovage stew anytime!!

With ink in pen,

Miss Kathy

The Value of Personal Responsibility and Self Government

. . . sounds like a mouthful, but our Constellation Academy students are learning about the importance of taking responsibility for oneself through SELF-GOVERNMENT - being able to control one's own actions and make responsible choices.  One young scholar in our elementary class study of Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was able to connect the dots - relating the lesson in the story to herself:

I am responsible for picking up my toys when I leave them out.  If I don't pick up my toys when I am done playing with them, I might trip on my ball and twist my ankle.  I might get punished and not finish my work on time and I will not have any fun after school.

by Olivia Born, age 7

Bravo on your critical thinking ahead - "cause to effect" - "action and consequences"!  Well done!

With ink in the pen . . .

Miss Kathy

Writers on the Way Debuts!

We're in the middle of our 2012-2013 school year at Constellation Academy Home School Resources Network and well on the way to being an adventure packed two semesters of teaching, learning - and writing on the way!

As I anticipated my students to be doing a lot of writing in various forms, I also had planned to start this blog journal of some of their remarkable works in the second semester.  However, I simply could not resist kicking off the WRITERS ON THE WAY blog this first semester, after seeing some of the creative and thoughtful works already coming off the tips of their pens!  To that end -

WELCOME TO

WRITERS
ON THE WAY . . .

A Journal of

Remarkable Compositions 

by Student Writers at

Constellation Academy!

Inspired by our STARLIGHT STORY STUDIES this semester - literature driven unit studies encompassing whole language skills with an emphasis on comprehension, articulation, composition, critical thinking and Biblical reasoning of materials studied, connecting the dots toward whole thought - there is plenty of inspiration to spark "remarkable compositions" from these homeschool students!

Our Primary (K-4, K-5 to Grade 1) have already wrapped up seven weeks of discovery exploring literature, language arts, history, art, and Bible through select picture books from My First Little House Series - adapted stories from the Laura Ingalls Wilder classic, Little House in the Big Woods.  They learned about "narration" and practiced their penmanship through weekly Goal Sheet activities worked on at home with mom, and then reviewed on class day with Miss Kathy in a Show & Tell style.

Elementary students (Grades 2-4) have been enjoying the unabridged Little House in the Big Woods, in addition to associated studies in American history - specifically, the many inventions that came of age during the long lifetime of Laura Ingalls Wilder from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.  Weekly Goal Sheet assignments include foundations for writing skills through the in-depth and critical language study of the book text.  Students become "story detectives" discovering HOW the writer has crafted the tale through the proper use of grammar, punctuation, parts of speech, and the colorful figures of speech that make the written word really "pop" with dynamic!

A SMART READER MAKES A GREAT WRITER!

Intermediate level students (Grades 5-9) have traveled through time to the Middle Ages with Marguerite de Angeli's Newbery Award winning The Door in the Wall.  By this age, students are spending a great deal of time writing and writing and writing - outlining and writing - breaking down the text chapter by chapter to mine every paragraph for the treasure of quality language usage hidden there.

Second semester - beginning in January 2012 - will bring more of the same, this time centering all studies on the Civil War era for both Elementary and Intermediate, in addition to a seven week springtime series for the Primary students on the life and writings of Beatrix Potter.

Launching in January, too, will be the focus group, WRITER ON THE WAY, where students will exercise all their language skills to write and publish works of word art.  And, therein lies the purpose for this blog - an extension of our home Constellation Academy blog - designed specifically to publish the written works of our homeschool students.

Constellation Academy is proud to create a forum to highlight the growing skills of all our Writers on the Way, and hope to see great fruitful trees of prose, poetry, and journalistic accomplishment grow from this humble blogging seed.

With ink in the pen . . .

Miss Kathy