As I sit here Hamster and Gerbil sitting...

I thought I might as well update my blog as I neglected it last week. I'm hamster and gerbil sitting while their various cages are being cleaned. Hamsters and gerbils are quite pleasant little creatures. I like them a lot especially since I do not have to take care of them, the kids are old enough to care for them independently.

This is Puffy, Hayley's hamster.

Puffy again.

two gerbils

two more gerbils

On to my blog post. It's definitely autumn here. In fact most mornings it feels like winter. It's shocking to have morning temperatures in the teens and twenties, I'm not ready! The days do tend to warm up though so it's not all bad...yet.

The children are enjoying their perpetual leaf pile which they fix after each use.

The dogs are escaping from time to time although we do try not to let this happen Freeze and Bonkers especially do try hard to make a break for it when they know we are busy and rushing in and out the door such as when we're bringing in shopping or company comes over.

Good thing the kids are able to round up the dogs pretty quickly.

Colin on dog round up duty:

Last week on Thursday we joined the relaxed homeschoolers for another 4H activity.This time water bottle rockets. The children thought this was one of the best activities EVER. Also on Thursday Hayley started back to scouting, this year as a Cadette scout.

Some photos from last Thursday.

Cadette Hayley gives Tristan a hug.

Ready to make water bottle rockets, NO they're not for battle Hayley and Colin!

Basically to make this type of rocket one needs two, 2 liter plastic bottles, duct tape, corrugated cardboard, bobby pins and water.

One bottle is cut so that just the top can be used as the tip of the rocket. The other half of that bottle will be saved to carry water outdoors for the rocket.

The new tip is duct taped to the bottom of the complete bottle. This becomes the top. The top of the complete bottle becomes the bottom.

corrugated cardboard fins, 3 of them, are cut out, bent bobby pins are added to stabilize the cardboard fins and this is duct taped on.

Although it is hard to describe here a google search for 4H water bottle rockets brings this activity up.

Then it was outdoors to launch! Water is poured into the bottom of the rocket and then it's hooked up to the launcher. The 4H organiser let the kids do a lot and launch their own rockets but he also made sure they stayed safe.

The rockets went incredibly high!

The children had to go find their rockets after shooting them off, this led to some long treks since these flew so high and far! Colin LOVED this activity.

Hayley and Tristan's turn for launch.

It was over all too soon but the homeschool group is going to borrow the launcher from 4H again next month so the kids can try their rockets again or make new, improved ones at home to bring.

Back at home more fall fun is happening. Fall Fun of the FERRET kind!

Ferrets like leaf piles too!

In our homeschooling last week the kids made Ojos de Dios or our Spanish craft and they loved it so much they made billions of these...ok maybe dozens. Below are just a couple.

We are just starting week 8 of La Clase Divertida and still enjoying this Spanish curriculum a lot. In our study of countries and cultures we are finally moving beyond USA and Mexico and we're learning about Canada this week. Math is moving along for all, I'm still loving the Math U See for all the kids. It;s funny how at some ties a curriculum just doesn't work for you but later it's an ideal fit. Go figure. I'm still not thrilled to bits with Switched on Schoolhouse for Hayley but she seems to like it so we will see how that goes. Trevor is enjoying the teaching Co's "my favorite Universe" much more than he liked their Chemistry and the younger boys are plodding along with reading, writing and spelling.

We have had to use the wood stove increasingly and the dogs just love the stove heat. They tend to gather on the couches or floor near the wood stove and take power naps.

Here is Poppy all cozy.

The last Hamster has just been reclaimed so I guess my work as hamster/gerbil sitter is done. Just as this blog post is done, good timing!

Fall Fun, Autumn Chill and a Random Mole

There is a chill in the air today, very cold for October. A chance of snow too, I'm not thrilled about that! We decided to add some fall activities to our homeschool day. I downloaded an Autumn Treasures activity book which I'd seen advertised for free. I'm glad i downloaded it there are some cute activities and interesting links and videos. Today we watched a couple of the videos about why we have seasons.One of them was a Bill Nye the Science Guy video, he is always good. Then we worked on this falling leaves artwork activity pictured below.


We didn't realize just how hard it would be to cut out all the tiny leaves. I ended up having to help Tristan with his and it was tricky even for me. We joked that it would be even harder for bigger homeschool families to cut out and color all their tiny leaves. That made us think of the Large Duggar family, who are also homeschoolers and have 18 children so far. We laughed and laughed about how many little leaves they would need to cut out if they all wanted to make a tree! It was fun.

Colin colored all his leaves his favorite color...orange! Tristan and Hayley got creative and used many colors.

Hayley also drew birds and animals on a bare tree.

Our morning had been frantically interrupted when our cat Flower was playing with a baby mole. I'd gone outdoors for a piece of firewood ('cause it's COLD) and found Flower toying with the poor baby mole. I understand and accept that cats do hunt but I draw the line at playing with their live catch, it's pure torture so I always take away anything a cat is "playing" with for entertainment. It was pure reflex to get this baby mole. I knew it might bite me but I also knew Flower might run with it if she knew I was going to grab it. I just swooped in and snagged the mole, kept it in my closed hand and asked Colin to get a cage FAST. When he did I dropped the mole into the cage and suddenly we all went Awwwwwwww! It was SO cute! We quickly researched it's food and drink needs and gave it a little water and food. The mole drink a bit but upon examination I saw that it was more badly bitten than had initially thought. Sadly the mole was not with us long, just an hour before it succumbed to it's injuries, but it was nice to meet the little cutie. It was quite active right at first but then suddenly lay down and passed away.

Cute baby Mole

After the excitement of the Mole and then our regular work we took a detour into the Chemistry Mole thanks to a suggestion by Chris the Science One . That was quite interesting! Later the boys all settled into playing Lord of the Rings on the computer, Trevor made yet more maps and adventures for the younger boys to play. They have a lot of fun together. Hayley played with her pets, knit some more toy animals clothes and watched tv. I made dinner and then got some things ready for tomorrow. That's about it.

all fall down....in the leaves

Children and their toy animals had fun raking and jumping in the leaves today.

Rolling Along Well

Rolling along well in our homeschooling and also these Mexican wedding/flag cookies that we made this week. This is a simple cookie that are rolled into balls and then decorated the colors of the Mexican Flag. We got this from our Spanish curriculum Las Clase Divertida . If that link doesn't work check it out at CBD .

First we made the dough and split it three ways for Colin, Hayley and Tristan.

Then add food coloring and form into balls.

bake

after baked roll in powdered sugar

Then wash your hands really well since that food coloring is MESSY.

Finally, enjoy.

We are so enjoying our la clase divertida level one. I plan to do all three levels with the kids. Level one is suggested for grades 1-6 or so. Same for level 2 and level 3 is suggested for 1st-8th. Hayley is above grade 6 but still quite enjoys the lessons. I think under high school age could get away with any of these levels.

Friday we moved on to the contour drawing lesson in Drawing basics. The goal was to draw something while looking at your object, not your paper, and also not lifting your pencil!

Colin and Tristan chose leaves for their objects and afterwards Colin asked if they could do leaf rubbing. I thought my kids would be too old for this fun activity this year but Colin and Tristan had a blast making leaf rubbing pictures. This is a sentimental activity for me since it's one of the first things we ever did as "homeschoolers" back when Trevor was just 5 and Hayley 3.5. Also one of the first activities I did with a small homeschool group I started back when my kids were little. What a treat that my youngers still like to do things like this from time to time!

We are in an excellent routine with our homeschooling now. I kept what was working and didn't think twice about replacing those things that were not working. The latest change was Trevor's science. We tried Teaching Company Chemistry and it was just not a good fit for Trevor. I got My Favorite Universe, also from the Teaching Company and it is ***awesome***! We've only done 1 lesson so far but were hooked right into the subject, the professor is fun and loves his subject. This one is a keeper. I'm only sad that it's just a 12 lesson course. We are loving Math U See as well. I have all the kids on it in some way or other now. I always wondered how on earth people utilize (fit in!) two different math curriculum's. It was an I could NEVER do that thought. Well now all of my kids have two different math and it is working great. Tristan and Colin continue to use CLE once per week and MUS 4 times. Hayley is using a few assorted MUS lessons for topics she never quite mastered along with SOS 7th grade math. Trevor is using MUS 4 days and Teaching Company algebra 1 day per week. I feel at this stage these combinations are giving my kids a deep and wide math education. Deep understanding through math U See but also wide through the very diverse CLE math lessons in the younger kids case or the pre-algebra SOS in Hayley's case. For Trevor the TC algebra simply gives him a different way to look at algebra than the MUS and more work with the graphing calculator. I never could have done this when my kids were younger but for this age and stage they are at two maths is working perfectly and keeping interest high.

Another thing rolling along, or blowing around is the leaves. Fall has set in full force here. The days are chilly, the nights downright cold and there has been a lot of wind too. Here are some photos of kids and cats playing and the current foliage colors. It goes fast here I estimate that most of the leaves will be gone from the trees in a week or so.