Week in Review - Santa Maria Tour, COSI, and the Renaissance Faire

From left to right - Me, Amber's friend, Amber, Kevin, Mason, and Duncan in front all aboard the Santa Maria

We had such a festive week here with multiple field trips during our overnight trip to Columbus!  Monday and Tuesday were normal school days but on Wednesday morning we headed out to Columbus for an overnight educational mini-vacation focused on field trips.  We had such a wonderful time!

Our first destination was the reproduction of the Santa Maria.  I have to admit that I am a HUGE living history buff so, of course, I absolutely loved every minute of our tour.  The children were not nearly as excited about touring the Santa Maria - they were looking forward to getting to the science center.  Our tour guide was excellent, though, and all of the children ended up enjoying the tour very much.

Our tour guide was great at getting the children involved during the tour.  For example, he recruited my boys for a hands-on demonstration of the ship's capstan.  The tour group was extremely small so the children got to  engage in every hands-on opportunity during the tour.  Touring the ship helped to bring Columbus' journey to life for all of us.

After our boat tour, we headed over to COSI for a fun-filled day of hands-on science fun!  My boys always enjoy the Gadgets Cafe where they get to take apart something electronic.  This time, they got to take apart a computer.

One of the highlights of our day at COSI was watching the Rat Basketball show.  We've seen this show many times but watching the rats put the little ball in the basket never ceases to entertain us!

We spent the next day at Education Day at the Renaissance Festival in Harveysburg.  The boys purchased fantastic jester hats and wore them all day.

Not to be undone, the girls got feathers in their hair.

We attended a joust...

visited interesting shops...

played games (yes, Duncan made it all the way to the top!)...

visited some more interesting shops...

and enjoyed funnel cake!  All in all, we had a fun-filled and festive day at the Renaissance Faire!  

To bring this week in review to a close, I will end with five random statements that relate to our school year thus far:

• Amber finished Watership Down and since she was crying just as hard as I was when I reached the end of the novel, I know she treasured the book.  We've been talking about the book at odd moments and, as always, I'm amazed by her literary insights.
• Our break from swim meets is fast coming to an end.  Next week-end we have swim meets both Saturday and Sunday.  All three of our children will be getting up on the blocks and racing next week-end!
• Mason finished making his volcano for science.  It turned out to be a much bigger volcano than I anticipated.  I'll be posting more about his project after he makes his volcano explode next week.

• Duncan designed his own insect for his science class this week.  Duncan's meat-eating, cave-dwelling insect has multicolored legs and features eyes that are not equal in size.  Very creative!
• Amber and I are very behind on my scheduled educational video watching for her history course.  We'll be watching several episodes of 500 Nations this week-end, hopefully.     

That was our Week in Review!  Tomorrow, we'll be spending the day at Dave & Buster's with Mason, Duncan, and two of Mason's friends to start celebrating Mason's birthday!  Pretty soon I'll have TWO teenagers in my house!

To read about what other bloggers have been doing this week, visit the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Fabric Paintings

Even though we adore art projects here, my boys have only completed one art project so far this school year...but it's a great one!  My boys worked on their "fabric paintings" over two Friday afternoons and a long Friday evening.  They both enjoyed their projects so much they continued to work on them long past the time I had set aside for art class!

As with the vast bulk of our art projects, we followed the instructions for one of the projects in our Atelier Art curriculum.  We are currently working through Level 5.  For a thorough review of the Atelier Art curriculum, you can read my post at Curriculum Choice.


To prepare for the Fabric Painting project, I first gathered up all of the following materials that I already had on hand:

• felt in lots of different colors
• yarn in different colors
• various kinds of fabric trim, pom-poms, and glitter jewels
• fabric scraps in different colors and patterns
• tacky glue
• 3-D fabric paint.

I also made a trip to our local fabric and craft store to purchase burlap for the base of the paintings and some more interesting fabrics.  I purchased 1/8 of a yard of a small pile of fun fabrics with various prints and colors.  Needless to say, my boys were excited about the project just by looking at the large selection of materials they had from which to choose!

After watching the video lesson, my boys first sketched out a design for their project on a large sheet of paper (18" by 24").  As they were sharing their ideas and working on their sketches, I kept reminding them that they would need to recreate their drawing using fabric so they should avoid including a lot of small details.

Duncan's idea was to make a peaceful scene with houses, cars, a body of water, and a bridge.  Mason's idea was to make a fantastical, rather surrealistic scene featuring a Denny's restaurant. 

After much work, both of my boys finished their Fabric Paintings.  I was SO happy with how their projects turned out.  Both of their fabric paintings looked fabulous!  While this was definitely a time-consuming project, I think the results and the positive experience are definitely worth it.

I just love the cupcake sky above Denny's!  Mason's preference for bright colors and surrealistic images are evident in his project.  

Duncan took such a long, careful time with his project.  I really like all of his different colored houses!

I think our new school year is off to a slow, but successful art start! 

Help! I’m Homeschooling My High Schooler…and I’m Freaking Out!

Over the years, I have often thought that homeschooling seems quite a bit like running a really long race. For me, once I’m all done homeschooling, it will be a 16 year long race.  The sad part about the race, though, is that when I started on the homeschooling track, I had a LOT of company.  Truly, when my children were all little, it sometimes seemed like everybody I knew was homeschooling.

Then, over the years, there were fewer people running with me.  People stopped homeschooling for various reasons, a few at a time, here and there.  But nothing prepared me for the dramatic drop-off in homeschooling once 9th grade hit.  Around here, it is fairly common to homeschool up to 8th grade and then to send high school age children to a brick and mortar school.

Please join me at The Homeschool Classroom today to read the rest of my article.

Week in Review - Lots of Phone Calls, First Latin Test, and a Full-Grown-Frog

Mason and Hershey snuggle up together on the "ugly couch" in the school room to take a little break .

Yes, it's been a rather long and tiring week.  We're definitely all ready for the week-end as evidenced by Mason and Hershey enjoying a little down time during a quick break in Mason's morning schoolwork!  I'm not quite sure why our dog was so tired - she sleeps a TON - but I can understand Mason being tired after a long week of schoolwork and swim team practice.

For me, the week seemed quite long because my mind was often with my mother in the hospital.  She was hospitalized unexpectedly all week due to some issues with her heart.  She was finally released today and her condition should be able to be managed with medication and diet modification but she will continue to be monitored by her heart doctor.  So, my homeschool days were interrupted quite a bit more than usual this week with phone calls that I needed to take the time to answer.

The children are all proceeding well in their academic subjects this year.  The most exciting news this week for Amber was when her Latin teacher e-mailed me to let us know that she earned a 100% on her first Latin test!  Way to go, Amber!  While Amber wasn't quite sure about Latin at first, it is now definitely one of her favorite subjects.  She loves making the connections between Latin words and English words that are derived from Latin.

All of the fun, hands-on work here this week was related to my children's science courses.  Mason and I did a fun experiment to demonstrate the scientific method.  He suspended a cup between stacks of books on an uncooked fettuccine noodle.  After making his prediction about how many pennies the cup would hold before the noodle broke, he added pennies one at a time to the cup.  Each time he added a penny, he lifted the cup up and then lowered in back gently on the noodle.

How many pennies would you predict it would take to break the noodle?  Mason predicted 30 but it took 100 pennies to finally break the noodle!

Amber's Marine Biology labs this week were both microscope work.  She made some lovely drawings of diatoms and other tiny marine creatures for her lab notebook.

  
Duncan's long-awaited tadpole finally arrived.  Even if you're not teaching an elementary science class this year, you can probably tell that the little guy in the bag is definitely NOT a tadpole anymore!  To read more about our froggy adventure, visit my post, "Grew A Frog?"

Mason and Duncan are both working on some pretty cool hands-on projects for science as well that aren't finished yet.  Mason is building a massive volcano and has finished the paper-mache part of the project.  He plans to paint it this week-end...and then he'll be making it explode!

Duncan is working on designing his own insect to go along with his current chapter about insects in science.  His special bug lives in caves and eats meat.  Interestingly, one eye is also bigger than the other.  I'm looking forward to seeing his finished creation.  He, too, plans to finish his project this week-end.

To bring this week in review to a close, I will end with five random statements that relate to our school year thus far.

• As I watched my teenage daughter make herself a cup of hot tea to drink while she watched her Fundamentals of Literature DVD class, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that we are DEFINITELY making the best choice for our family by homeschooling our daughter all the way through high school.  It's good to have her home.
• Amber is almost done listening to "Watership Down."  I'm not sure that she is loving the book quite as much as I did but she definitely likes the book quite a bit.  She also really likes the Audible app she downloaded onto her iPod so she could listen to the book after I purchased it through Audible.
• I finished reading "The Indian in the Cupboard" last week-end and it was such a good book!  Duncan is now listening to the book on my Kindle.  
• I'm so glad I decided to outsource Latin this year.  Amber adores her Latin teacher and the class is going so well and I don't have to learn Latin.
• Amber hasn't hit a wall yet in Algebra 2 and I sincerely hope she doesn't.  Math 6 and Math 7 are both going quite well for Duncan and Mason.  With all of the grading I have to do, I certainly love the self-grading feature of Teaching Textbooks for the lower grades.

That was our Week in Review!  To read about what other homeschool bloggers have been doing this week, please visit the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Grew A Frog???

As an enrichment activity to Duncan's (10) science course this year, I purchased a Grow A Frog kit.  Duncan has been ANXIOUSLY awaiting the arrival of his little tadpole.  After waiting a few weeks, a little styrofoam container arrived today in the mail that was clearly his long-awaited tadpole!

Excitement abounded in our house and my teenage daughter even took a break from her schoolwork to help her little brother set up the habitat.

Having never received a LIVE TADPOLE in the mail before, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous that the little guy would be belly-up when we opened the box.  Finally, the habitat was completely ready, and we opened the package containing the tadpole...

but the tadpole wasn't a tadpole!  It was a very live, tiny frog!  Duncan was quite disappointed that his little tadpole had already grown up.

Perplexed, I called the Grow a Frog folks.  After looking up my account, the representative quickly informed me that I received a frog instead of a tadpole because I ordered a frog.  I meant to order a tadpole, I thought I ordered a tadpole, but I was mistaken.  Tomorrow I'll be sending in the correct form to order Duncan's tadpole.

Since our tadpole habitat is too small for a full-grown frog, we retrieved a small aquarium that we had in the basement and quickly prepared a place for the frog to live so we could get him out of his travel bag.

So, for now, here is our frog's new home.  We put gravel in the bottom but have since learned that sand is a better choice for little frogs so we will be purchasing some from the pet store.  We'll also purchase some small plants to make the frog's habitat more homey.

Now, we wait again for our tadpole...

10 Ways to Celebrate Autumn

Regardless of what the calendar may say, for me, autumn has begun!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE everything about autumn.  Each year I try to enjoy autumn as much as possible because the season seems so short and fleeting.  To fully enjoy this wonderful season, try as many of the following suggestions as possible!

1.  Keep the fridge stocked with fresh apples.  Our favorite variety is Honeycrisp - they are so yummy and are available for a relatively short time where I live.  I look forward to eating them all year.  Also, be sure to always keep some good apple cider on hand.  We buy both from a local apple orchard.  Just going there to purchase the apples and apple cider is a treat as well!

2.  Make a conscious effort to really look at the changing colors of the leaves every time you drive anywhere.  The season of changing colors is dreadfully short and in just a few weeks the trees are completely bare...and they remain that way for a long time.    

3.  Attend a fall festival.  Last year we attended the Circleville Pumpkin Show and it was absolutely wonderful!  I couldn't stop smiling all day - there were pumpkins everywhere, everything was so cute, and the food was so fabulous.  

4.  Eat lots of pumpkin goodies.  We adore the pumpkin chocolate-chip bread from Great Harvest, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin pie.  Our very favorite pumpkin treat, though, is Pumpkin Crisp.  I make it every year for Thanksgiving and it's "stand in the kitchen and eat it right out of the pan" good!

5.  Decorate for all of the fall holidays celebrated at your house.  If you have young children, have them help you make lots of fun, holiday decorations for Thanksgiving and Halloween.  Even just a pile of interesting gourds in a basket can make a lovely autumnal decoration in your living room. 

  6.  Visit a pumpkin patch and take tons of pictures.  My very favorite pictures are the pictures that I've taken over the years at pumpkin patches.  Pumpkins and cute children are always a winning combination.  Make the day even more special by taking a hayride and picking a pumpkin right from the pumpkin patch!

7.  Make time to carve the pumpkins.  Roast the seeds.  Eat them.  If Halloween is not celebrated at your house, you can still cut the top out of a pumpkin and clean out all of the gunk inside and harvest the seeds for roasting.  When my children were younger, we loved to read The Pumpkin Patch Parable to go along with our pumpkin-carving activities.     

8.  Wear a cute fall-themed sweater or sweatshirt.  I enjoy wearing my fall-themed sweaters and sweatshirts right up to the day after Thanksgiving.  Then, I start wearing my Christmas-themed tops!

9.  Enjoy the upcoming Christmas season even more by starting preparations really early this year.  I always start Christmas shopping months in advance and completely avoid last-minute shopping panic.  I just purchased 100 Days to Christmas 2011 and am hoping it will help me plan and organize my preparations.

10.  Make your entertainment fall-themed.  Read cozy-mysteries with a fall theme.  Watch movies with great autumn scenes - my favorite is Baby Boom.  If you have any suggestions for great fall-themed movies or books, I would love to hear your suggestions!

Please visit Top Ten Tuesday to read more delightful Top Ten lists from many different bloggers.

     

Thank you to Paul at Free Digital Photos for the apple picture.  Thank you to Susie B. at Free Digital Photos for the autumn leaves picture.  Thank you to Bill Longshaw at Free Digital Photos for the picture of the pumpkins and gourds.  Thank you to Arvind Balaraman at Free Digital Photos for the picture of the pumpkin patch.

Weekly Menu Plan - A Week of Comfort Foods

Yes, I have a plan for the week!  Not only do I have a meal plan for the week, I'm actually trying THREE new recipes!  I am relying quite heavily on my crock-pot this week (as usual) with lots of hearty comfort-food meals. I'm even excited for the food this week now!

Monday - Ham and Bean Soup, Biscuits

Tuesday - Pot Roast with Potatoes, Carrots, and Onions
***I will also cook a whole chicken in another crock-pot this day to have shredded chicken for Wednesday's main meal.


Wednesday - Three Cheese Chicken Bake

Thursday - Slow Cooker Cheesy Potato Soup

Friday - Swiss Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Saturday - Sloppy Joes, French Fries

Sunday - Broccoli Cheese Casserole from The Taste of Home Recipe Book (1994)

Visit Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie for TONS of ideas about what to make to feed your crew!

Weeks in Review - Back to School, Lots of History Reading, and a Glittery Fairy Dress

We are definitely back to school here and find ourselves VERY busy at home!  This past week marked our 5th week of school so this Weeks in Review will cover the highlights of the past 5 weeks.

We started back to school mid-week on Wednesday, August 17th.  I've never started our school year mid-week before but I wanted to start getting us back on the school routine track yet found we needed just a few more days to recover from THREE solid weeks of championship swim meets marking the end of long-course season.  So, we had two regular days of school and then spent Friday touring our local Federal Reserve Bank and science center.  If you have an opportunity to tour a Federal Reserve Bank, I highly recommend it - I think my husband and I learned more than our children!

Our second week back to school was a short week as well.  We left on Thursday and took a fun, overnight trip to Pittsburgh to visit the Carnegie Science Center and the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium.  We greatly enjoyed two delightful dinners out at the Hard Rock Cafe and Primanti Brothers.  Yummy!  We were a bit disappointed in that we were expecting the science center to be fairly empty since I thought most children would be back to school...and they weren't yet so it was quite crowded.

We spent most of our time at the zoo visiting the aquarium.  Amber and I, in particular, took a very leisurely stroll through the aquarium, stopping for long periods of time to view the fish and other marine animals.  We are both more aware of marine animals now since Amber is taking Marine Biology this year.

Our third week of school was a "completely normal" 5 day school week which gave us all an opportunity to really get back to the books and a regular school routine.  I spent the ENTIRE day on Saturday of our third week of school shopping for a dress for Amber to wear to Homecoming!  Yes, my home educated daughter was invited to a local school's Homecoming dance.  Hopefully, now, well-meaning folks will stop expressing concern over the fact that my daughter will never attend a formal dance in high school. 


Our fourth week of school was another back to the books week filled with high anticipation on the part of my daughter for the big dance.  We made it through our school week, and Amber had a WONDERFUL time at the Homecoming dance.  She was so lovely, I got a little teary-eyed when I first saw her all dressed up.  Amber even wore a little bit of make-up for the very first time.  Sigh.

She attended the dance with friends from swim team.  I fretted and worried all night but she had a great time.  She loved wearing her dress and having a fun night out with friends.

So, that brings me all the way up to this week!  While all of my children are taking a full range of subjects this year, this week I'll focus primarily on history.

In history, we are reading A LOT.  We are using Sonlight for history for the first time this school year.  Amber is taking a heavily tweaked Early American History course (1/2 of Core 100 with lots of books added), and Mason and Duncan are taking Early American History (Core D).  Between history readers and read-alouds, Mason and Duncan have already read or are currently reading:

• The Corn Grows Ripe  
• A Lion to Guard Us
• Walk the World's Rim
• Pedro's Journal
• Secret of the Andes
• Peace Child
• A History of US Volume 1:  The First Americans:  Prehistory - 1600
• Vostaas:  White Buffalo's Story of Plains Indian Life
• Pocahontas and the Strangers.

We haven't done any fun, hands-on history activities - we've just been reading a lot.  We do have a great field trip planned for the end of the month to tour a reproduction of the Santa Maria.  So, hands-on history is coming up again in the near future!

To bring this weeks in review to a close, I will end with five random statements that relate to our school year thus far.

• Duncan was quite proud to achieve the level of Expert Touch Typist in his typing program.  I feel quite confident that my 10 year old son will soon be a better typist than me.
• Speaking of my sweet Duncan, he recently beat both my husband and me in Scrabble (my very favorite game).  Since I fancy myself a bit of a Scrabble player, I was pretty impressed by his skill.
• With the short -course swimming season in full swing, it seems that one or more of the kids are ALWAYS at the pool.  Amber practices 8 times a week, Mason practices 6 times a week, and Duncan practices 3 times a week.  Thankfully, both pools in which they practice are close to our home.  
• We are using more textbooks this year than we've used in a LONG time...and I really like it.
• One of my favorite parts of my day is singing classic hymns with my boys during their individual Bible classes.  I wish we sang some of the classic hymns at our church but we sign contemporary Christian music.

That was our WEEKS in review!  To read about what other bloggers did this week in their homeschools, please visit the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.