Harvest Moon Festival

Today we spent a few hours at The Kearsarge Indian Museum . This was on the calendar in my continuing quest to make sure the younger boys get to experience all the living history in our general region now that they are an age to appreciate it all. I have loads of photos of Trevor and Hayley at historical places all over New England and there in the background are toddler Colin and Tristan napping in a double stroller! I felt a real leading to make sure to do fun things like this again now that the "little boys" are big. The big kids will get even more out of them now too. Hayley chose to come along this time but Trevor opted out. There was a Harvest Moon festival going on t the Indian Museum today with craft and skill demonstrations, drumming, Native American food and more. We were not allowed to take photos in the museum itself (boy that was hard!) but I got plenty on the grounds or at the outside exhibits. In the museum itself a teenage volunteer seemed to take notice of the boys and gave them a good running commentary of quite a few exhibits, he also pointed out things outdoors that boys would enjoy. It was like having our own personal tour guide, very cool! The many hand made items were beautiful and the stories of Native Americans in our area interesting.

After the museum we saw some native crafters demonstrating thing like soapstone carving, quilling and bead work. There were some artifacts and craft items on display and for sale. The boys LOVED the weapons! After seeing the crafters we headed outdoors to try some survival skills and to see the tee pee. It started to rain after awhile and we decided it was time to get some lunch, Native American foods were on sale for reasonable prices and the menu even listed vegan options. We chose vegan 3 Sisters soup and a choice or corn bread or Zuni bread. we made sure to choose some of each bread so people could share back and forth and try each. We had our lunch in a barn while listening to some Native American drumming. It was a fun day.

Photo highlights

The boys spent a long time looking at the weapons!

Tristan had good questions for all the craftspeople

This simple weapon was used back in Medieval times although they didn't fling crab apples! the kids made a rendition of this when we got home.

Basically you swing it around once and then on the second turn let go of one of the strings. Tristan was very good at this, his apples went the farthest.

This next weapon is arrow darts, all the kids tried it but only Colin could seem to get his arrow to go far.

Lunch was 3 Sisters soup which was nice and warm after being outdoors in the rain. It tasted good but a little spicier than most of us was used to.

Too many people were watching to get a good photo but this was the drumming group who played in the barn. They explained quite a bit about native American drumming and chanting and how the songs are chosen and what might happen if you sing someones "family song" without permission. They may ask you to stop, turn the drum over or in rare cases even slice right through the top of the drum!

I'm glad we decided to attend this event despite the on and off rain. The children had fun and we all learned quite a bit.

Big

Today we tried out one of the large warehouse type stores called BJ's. We haven't used warehouse stores much as they don't tend to have the brands we use being vegetarian and they also don't tend to be very near where we live. Plus there is the storage issue. Recently we repaired our large freezer and hubby was given a 2 month trial membership to BJ's through work. So off we went today to try it out. The warehouse store was not particularly convenient being nearly an hour away. We did find some good buys on frozen vegetables and some snacks the kids like and Tristan's Pediasure was a little cheaper there. Mainly we all got hung up in the book section for ages and chose a book or two each, thus negating any savings we might have had from buying the food in bulk. Oh well!

We ended up with BIG pretzels, BIG packs of frozen vegetables, BIG veggie burgers, BIG applesauce, Multiples upon multiples of juice and snacks, BIG toilet paper, BIG dog and cat foods, a not so big lego Bionicle (sneaky Tristan!) and of course the aforementioned books.

Long day.

Reflection on month one

We've completed one month in our 2009-2010 home education year. I don't usually analyse our home ed to this extent. We've had some changes this year though, children getting older and me planning to work out of the home this winter. Well it just makes me feel more in control to analyse, report, tweak and reflect!

First reflection, Less isn't more but it's do-able. At the start of this year and even in planning last May I scheduled in quite a few new things. In reality it was too much so some things will need to be set aside until spring. I am thinking of our year in three segments this year roughly by season. Fall, a good start, more "Mom intensive" projects and work. Winter, more independent work, focus on basics, lots of skiing for kids that wish to. Spring add back in more projects and perhaps the new things we were not able to fit in during the fall and of course all the wonderful nature study that spring presents.

Second reflection, schedules can save time. I am one who finds schedules very confining, something not desirable. At least in the past I have. This year though, with a high schooler, a middle schooler and two upper elementary boys I find a schedule is helpful. The children are not doing as much "all together" as usual and I need to keep track of what everyone needs to do and if it's getting done. Also with older children our outside activities are fewer but more intense in some cases. Scheduling for them and around them is important. The younger boys are in their final months as cub scouts and learning the things they need to know to earn their arrow of light is important. Hayley is in her first year as an older girl scout, those projects need to be well thought out to earn the interest patches. It's much harder than in younger levels. And of course the out of State animals class is only once a month but quite a trek. The closer to home monthly 3rd Wednesday mixed classes and third Thursdays HS group are not quite as much travel but also mean a day off from our at home work. Schedules keep it all running smoothly. I know we will do Spanish 3 days per week, Drawing once, language arts daily, math daily and science, history, bible differ depending on the child and how busy the week is

Third reflection, yes we can still have free afternoons even with older kids, hooray!

Fourth reflection, older children can have some say in their own schedules. What sounds difficult might actually work out very well.

So where do we stand. Trevor has now completed between 1-4 weeks of Algebra, Teaching Co. American History, Teaching Co. London History and Chemistry. I am weaving in British Lit. American Lit., art and music with his history courses. Trevor was having a hard time getting his year started. partly because he doesn't like change but also because he is now in a teen age type sleep schedule. He seems to naturally need to stay up later and sleep in some in the morning. We were finding that he would wake when I was right in the middle of working with the younger kids. I would need to have him wait and then would finally get him started just as the youngers were finishing their work. Trevor was disappointed that he then had 2 hours of work ahead of him when he would rather be playing with his siblings. Also they would get too noisy and Trevor doesn't retain information unless he has a relatively quiet atmosphere. The solution we came up with is that Trevor does his individual work in the evenings. Anything we do as a group he still works on with the others but 3/4ths of his work is completely separate to what the younger kids are doing. Evenings work great for him. The younger kids are watching a bedtime movie or having quiet play then and eventually going to bed. The house is quiet and he doesn't feel like he is missing out on anything. I initially hated this idea but it is working perfectly for Trevor! We have plenty of quiet time to discuss his lessons too if needed without brothers and sisters interrupting.

Hayley seems to have mixed feelings about Switched on Schoolhouse but does want to continue. I have gone in to the teachers planning for it and finally figured out how to take out certain lessons and mostly all the quizzes so that the work can be done in a more reasonable amount of time. Hayley is doing well perfecting her cursive with A reason for writing and she is enjoying the Spanish, Drawing and other things we do all together. I like that she can do some of her work independently this year. She is finding that working independantly often means she finishes faster too and then has plenty of time for all the crafts and such that she loves to do.

Colin and Tristan are doing well with their various work. We try to get their math and language arts (reading, spelling, handwriting, grammar)done first so that the fun stuff can take as long as needed after.

What had to go, Latin and Real Science 4 Kids had to go. I just wasn't fitting in Latin and then realised it would be confusing for the kids to be learning two brand new to them languages at the same time. Latin will be part of our spring time work instead. RS4K was just too repetitive of things we've already done. I decided to let science be child led and they do have all those science classes on a monthly basis too. History we are not getting to formally much yet, except for living history events. We will be attending another history event this weekend. I have a nice pile of history read alouds and some crafts which I know will get more use as we get into the colder weather. Somehow we always do more read alouds in the winter, nice and cozy to sit down with good books then. Geography, we are off to a slow start with my plan to study a country a week. I think that's mainly because the kids wanted to learn more about our US States and also Mexico which is the theme of the first level of our Spanish. That is fine there is no rush. I expect we'll get to Canada within a few weeks and then work our way to learning more about countries which are further and further away after that.

So far our basic days and weeks consist of three days per week Spanish language focus, 2-3 days Geography focus, Friday a long-ish session with Drawing basics (and Friday has neither Spanish or Geography). Hayley does her SOS, Trevor does his work. The younger boys are alternating math U see and CLE math at the moment. I'm thinking of having them do MUS Mon-Thurs and then do CLE on Friday. The CLE is almost completely independent and I love how they get so many different math topics. Yet I also feel they need deeper learning of the basics and the Math U see will be great for that this year.

Colin has CLE language arts and I give him additional spelling. Tristan has his two computer phonics curriculum's, we try to fit in earobics too and both boys have A reason for Handwriting. Colin is working on cursive and Tristan transitioning from print to cursive with the transitional book.

I think after 4 weeks we have made it to a good pattern now and not much else needs to change.

First Fall Friday

First Friday of fall and it felt it, chilly morning and the day never warmed up all that much. We even started the wood stove and kept it going for several hours.

Pretty productive for a Friday, I tend to keep Friday our light day of the week. The kids did their computer work first this morning, followed by finishing up week 3 of Drawing Basics. This involved cutting 3 pictures from magazines and drawing a simple rendition of the pictures using lines and curves. After a break the kids worked on the Friday handwriting. We started using A Reason For Handwriting this year (younger three kids) and on Fridays they write out a verse on the special paper from the back of the book in their best handwriting. They seem to enjoy the special papers and really do seem to try and do their best when using them.

After our morning work we did another of the cub scout engineering experiments, making a simple working electrical circuit with just a battery, a switch and a light. The boys made that first and then wanted to play with our assorted electricity kits. We have collected a few over the years from very simple and goof proof to kits that use all manner of wires and bulbs and odds and ends. The kids had lots of fun making flashing lights and alarms and musical things for a couple hours. Later everyone worked on their Native American costumes or in Trevor's case worked on repairing a broken x-box controller. Later still they settled down with books (as did I) and playing with some of their pets.

Flower the cat is overseeing the electronics experiments. He loved watching the experiments which resulted in things spinning or moving.


This little electronics kit, below, was a major pain to assemble but it had a lot of fun experiments once everything was connected.

The best experiment was using the graphite from an ordinary pencil to make music!

Later in the day Tristan wanted to do more experiments so he looked through this book called 101 science experiments to see what else he could find to do. Trevor used to enjoy this book when he was younger. In fact we must have used it a lot as some of the pages are stuck together with something. Maybe an experiment gone wrong spilled!

It was decided that the Webkinz all needed Native costumes and bead jewelry.

Colin is sewing part of his costume carefully.

Hayley has already made a shirt and skirt, they even have drawstring closures! Tristan's costume is still in progress but he insisted on wearing it without a shirt in the cold. Hayley was not going for that idea and wore a sweat shirt and pants under her costume. It will be even colder when the kids wear these for Halloween and in Mid November for a Thanksgiving event. I am thinking maybe we can get some long sleeved brown t-shirts for them to wear under and maybe brown leggings for Hayley. I'm pretty sure the boys have brown pants.

a little camp out for native children and small animals.

catapult collision crafting

No we didn't have a collision with a crafty catapult (I don't think). Those are just the three words that epitomize our day. We started the morning with reading and Spanish etc. Then the kids made some very simple catapults and the competition was on to see who could get three marshmallows or pasta pieces onto the target, a plate, first. The kids had a blast with this.

newspaper rolled, a spoon, tape and a rubber band is all it takes to make this catapult.

The dogs kept stealing the ammo, well it was edible ammo.

Bobby mentioned he had to go to town for something and as it's a long-ish drive to the nearest main shops we try to combine trips. I knew we needed material for the kids Thanksgiving event costumes so we went along to go to the fabric store. On the way home we saw a sign just like this on the highway, about 20 minutes from home. We drove a couple miles and came across nothing so stopped worrying about emergencies ahead. Well then we suddenly saw rescue vehicles, police and a big old detour.



The detour took us off the highway and down a long country road. We noticed foliage already turning.

and had a good view of Pat's Peak, one of the ski areas we ski at in winter.

We really didn't know what emergency had occur ed since we couldn't see anything and the detour was long, slow and well quite frustrating. When we arrived home I logged on to our State's news station and saw the breaking news that there was a multi vehicle collision and they needed to clear the highway to land a med flight helicopter from Boston. There were a few photos and the cars involved looked very bad. It might have been frustrating to be detoured, having 30 more minutes added to our trip but at least we were safe. I couldn't get the thought out of my head that if we had gone home 15 or 20 minutes sooner we might have been in the crash. very scary.

Thankfully life goes on here and we all soon forget the detour that caused some grumbling. Kids got back to playing and working on their Native American costumes.

I think Tristan took this picture, he was playing with his Bionicles, which are one of his very favorite things in life.

Hayley got right to work on her outfit.

While Tristan started with a bead necklace.