Weeks 9 & 10

 So with little kids teething and having colds we've had to do some adjusting to have enough time to do schoolwork.  We have been relying on all the younger girls after lunch naps to get most of our stuff done.  And there have been days we just haven't been able to do all that we have wanted or needed to do.  (Its only taken me 5 days to get this posted!)

Activities & Field Trips
Because A and N are not sick they have been able to do most of their activities - scouts, activity days, Liberty Girls, and Knights of Freedom.  They weren't able to go to their art appreciation class because the family who hosts has to be careful about illnesses coming into their home so better safe than sorry.  Prior to realizing the younger girls were sick we went to a field trip at an apple mill farm - I spent the whole time in the car with 3 cranky, clingy girls, and A and N went on the tour with the group. 

School

Old Testament- Read chapters 23-25, journal pages 66-73.  These chapters are about Moses so we also watched The Prince of Egypt, and then Veggie Tales for the story of Joshua

Habits - Oh boy.  I had no idea how much progress we had made in developing good bathroom habits and speaking politely to each other.  And then we went on vacation.  And now it feels like we are starting over again.  Sigh. 

Math - We took some time to review chapter 11 and other past concepts, and then we did chapter 12.  They've also continued to work on their Sudoku puzzles.  I found some new easy level books for them to work on. 

Science - Completed the chapter on Venus, including the experiment about sonar pictured below.  We are doing less and less on the notebook journal pages.  At least we know not to get them for next years science.  Sigh (again).

History - We continue with the American Revolution.  We are reading the Landmark book - its at a higher level than we have read from in the past so its slow and steady going.  We finished the D'Aulaire's George Washington and I'm looking for a new biography to start. 

Geography - Minn of the Mississippi continues.  This is (unfortunately) one of those resources that is set aside when we need to abbreviate our schedule so we have only been doing one chapter a week instead of 2 like when we first started, but they do enjoy it so we aren't completely skipping it. 

Nature Study - We caught up on the Autumn Series 2010 challenges: 1-nature journal, 2-geese, 3-horses, 4-apples, and 5-seasonal tree study.  I really like the new emphasis on comparing and contrasting as a way of learning more about what you are studying.   

Literature - When I was going through our resrouces looking for our next read aloud, I discovered a book we didn't finish last year, A Little Pilgrim's Progress.  I don't know why we stopped reading from it because the kids LOVE it.  So we are reading it a couple days a week and poetry on the other days (Oxford Book of Story Poems - Walrus and the Carpenter, Owl and the Pussycat, Jabberwocky - we are having so much fun!). 

Artist Study - The Promenade, 1906, and Mussel Fishers at Berneval, 1879, by Renoir.  

Composer Study - Tchaikovsky:  I think we are actually ready to move on to the next composer, except that I want to get to a viewing of the Nutcracker this holiday season.  So we may or may not start a new composer right now.  Probably not yet. 

PE - working on what to do next.  Kids may be taking ice skating lessons again if we don't come up with another plan. 

Life Skills - cooking whenever they manage to talk me into it.  Oh, and of course all those chores they have to do.  Poor, picked on kids. 

Autumn Series 2010 - #5 Seasonal Tree Observations

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Autumn Series - #5 Seasonal Tree Observations

 For our outdoor time our family headed to a nearby park that has a path through a small forest of oak trees.  We were able to observe (chase?) more deer during this time as well.  In the above picture there are several deer in the grassy area near the middle of the picture.  You can also see the burn area of last month's fire on the mountains.   

 

 We brought home lots of "treasures" to look at more closely. 

 We decided to compare the oak leaves with leaves from our maple trees.  We read the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out science book Why Do Leaves Change Color? and learned about the how and why of leaves changing color, but also why Maples (red pigments=red colors) and Oaks (tannin=brown color) are different colors.  We also looked at the pages suggested in the  Colorado State Extension guide (pgs.3-5). 

For our journals:

 A decided to do leaf rubbings-

 I sketched mine by tracing the outside and adding veins.  I hope to add in the colors at some point. 

 N also traced the leaves, colored them, and created a story about a boy who shrinks to the same size and has to survive the rain and comes face-to-face with a centipede. 

Another EXCELLENT challenge!

Autumn Series 2010 #3 - Mammal Study: Horses

 Outdoor Hour Challenge - Autumn Series #3 - Mammal Study: Horses

Today we went to Farm Country for their Halloween activities.  In addition to the face painting, carnival games, and making green goo, we spent some time with the horses too. 

 Pony Rides are a favorite! We also did the wagon ride and were able to talk about how useful horses are, and "Mom, can't we please one?"  When horses can do laundry we'll make room in the basement!

One of my favorite signs here is on the horse fences and says-

 "Please don't feed your fingers to the horses."   

 At home we used the suggested Notebook Page to compare horses to our on hand dog, Dade, who was very pleased with the extra attention even if it did involve a little poking and prodding.  He also doesn't help with laundry, but is a little more compact :). 

Autumn Series 2010 #4 - Apples

 Outdoor Hour Challenge - Autumn Series #4 - Apples

We had a lot of fun with this challenge! I happened to read this challenge the day before going grocery shopping and was able to grab a bunch of apples.  We ended up with 7 different varieties:  5 that we have tried before- Gala, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Fuji,  and a couple unfamiliar varieties- Honey Crisp and Sweet Tango. 

 Then it was time for tasting!!

 N's favorite was the Gala, and she didn't like the Granny Smith or Red Delicious. 

A's favorite was the Granny Smith, and he didn't like the Red Delicious or Fuji. 

My favorite was the Honey Crisp, but I liked them all. 

My younger girls stuck with the one we usually buy, the Gala. 

Yum! Yum! Yum!

Autumn Series 2010 #2 - Bird Study: Geese

Outdoor Hour Challenges - Autumn Series #2 - Bird Study: Geese

At home I gave A and N notebook pages for a goose and a duck from Enchanted Learning.  I spent a few minutes reading some of the differences and similarities of these two birds from the Handbook of Nature Study.  We also listened to geese and duck calls from our copy of The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Western North America. 

Then we headed to a nearby park to see if we could find any geese or ducks. 

There were 4 ducks and 1 goose.  We had lots of fun throwing them popped popcorn while we talked about the differences and similarities we could see. 

Goose on the left, duck on the right.  When we came home we tried to identify the goose.  I have almost, somewhat, possibly, maybe decided it is a Chinese Goose, but you can tell how sure I am. 

Then we went for a nature walk through the woods in search of more interesting things.

N was excited to see some Rabbitbrush blooming.  She is reading the American Girls: Josephina series and in one book the characters use rabbitbrush to make a yellow dye. 

Lots of acorns . . . at least there is plenty of evidence the squirrels and other animals are enjoying the acorns. 

And we were all excited to see TONS of deer. 

There were several groups close to the walking trail.  After our walk we went for a fall drive and saw many other groups feeding close to the road.  Its that time of year!!

Weeks 7 & 8

Vacation!!!!

We have spent the last couple weeks on vacation and recovering from vacation (something that always takes longer than I think it will).  My husband, baby, and I were in Hawaii for a week, and the 4 older kids were at Grandma and Papa's.  We all had a great vacation and got to do some really neat things. 

My kids discovered a super-park by the grandparents' house, went to the zoo, went to the river to feed the birds, and lots of other things that I don't have pictures of :(.  (Psssst, Mom, Dad, can I get a copy of all the pictures you took?)

Hubby, baby, and I lounged in the sun, visited the spa, vegged in the hotel room, had a few adventures, and ate way too much yummy food.  Lovely :)

We came home this past week and spent a few days dealing with jet lag, lots of time doing laundry, grocery shopping, and being together again. 

Sooo . . . . school this week has been pretty informal. 

A had his Knights of Freedom club meeting and a field trip to the state capital building. 

Both kids went to their art class.  They talked about Renoir's painting Madame Henriot and practiced drawing a portrait from a picture.  A did Iron Man and N did a picture from an American Girl catalog. 

We spent one morning putting together photo albums my mom gave them with pictures from their vacation.  They told me all about their adventures. 

Later that day I shared some of the neat things I learned about while I was away from them - the discovery of an earth-like planet in another galaxy, Hawaiian legends, Hawaii's state bird (Nene goose), a piece of choral and shells fossilized together, and other interesting tidbits from the local newspapers in Hawaii. 

We spent time reading from their books for their clubs - Josephina's Surprise for N and George Washington for A.  We listened to some Tchaikovsky, discussed a Renoir painting, and did a Nature Study challenge.  We watched "Mercury and Venus" from the Universe documentary series. 

They spent a lot of time working with beads to create necklaces, bracelets, and toy animal collars.  We did some planning and shopping for Halloweens costumes. 

They *happily* did a bunch of overdue housework (bathrooms! dusting! light switches! bedrooms!) to earn money to buy some toys they've had their eyes on - a new Bionicle for A and American Girl pets for N, O, and J. 

A and N had a service project for Scouts and Activity Days - weeding at a local elementary school.  O, J, S, and I tagged along (me doing the parental support bit and the little girls playing on the playground). 

While we were outside one day N and I discussed rotation and revolving as it relates to the sun, plantes, moon, asteroids, etc., and she showed me the following demonstration: 

I love it when concepts "click." 

Tomorrow's forecast - back to our regularly scheduled programming!!

Autumn Series 2010 #1 - Nature Journal

 Outdoor Hour Challenge - Autumn Series #1 - Nature Journals

We spent our outdoor time in our yard looking at all sorts of different things:

Black Widow web

 Under rocks - worms, roly polys, roots

 Centipede

 Leaves changing

 Sunflowers - we discussed the birds who have been coming to eat the seeds

 Later in the day we saw several House Finches eating from the sunflowers - sorry the picture isn't very good. 

 It was a cloudy day so the Evening Primroses were open. 

 Deer tracks

 When we went inside I had my older two kids pick something they wanted to learn more about.  N wanted to learn the ins-and-outs of how silk/web is made.  We found some great information and pictures in one of our bug books. 

 N's journal page-

 A wanted to know more about what venom is and how it is made.  The same bug book was a great resource, and he also decided to read about several different spider species. 

 A's journal page-