Enjoying fall.
I scheduled our schooling last week to have Friday open for our first field trip with our home school group. We were really bummed Friday morning when they called to cancel due to rainy and windy conditions. The kids and I decided to head to the
Dupage Children's Museum. A few year's ago this was their favorite place to head to when the weather was miserable and they had a free day off school. The oldest, turning "10" next week has just about grown out of this museum. They still had alot of fun.
The youngest really enjoyed the workshop this time.
He was immersed in drilling, nailing, and sawing pieces of wood for a good hour.
The oldest spent loads of time in the bubbles. After the little kids left to take their naps this section was open for him to have his own fun.
In the past 3 days we've visited 3 different apple orchards. We absolutely love Fall and hanging out in the country.
At this orchard the kid's enjoyed seeing lots of different animals including turkeys, ducks, goats, and pigs.
Fast forward
Wow, last week flew by. Life with kids seems to be in the fast lane. Dad is in charge of spanish and religious education studies. Last week they started their religious ed. They each made a name card. Inside they listed why they were thankful for that person. They surprised me with a card of my own with very sweet thoughts.
I promised my oldest a picture of him with "his" guitar so here it is.
On Saturday we met up with my Aunt in Chicago. A beautiful day with sunny skies and warm temps.
We started our visit by touring all nine floors of the
Chicago Public Library. What a great place! We strolled down Michigan Ave. stopping inside a huge Lego store and taking a break at
Ghirardelli for dessert.
My Aunt's hotel was across the street from Grant Park which was host to the Celtic Festival. The kid's enjoyed the Irish dancers and the music. We didn't get back home until almost 1am. but they had a blast visiting and seeing the "big" city.
Last week in review
We scheduled ourselves for way too much last week especially since it was a four day week due to Labor day. Fair day was Wednesday. Thursday we headed out to the
local orchard. It was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the 80's and the orchard pretty much to ourselves.
It's amazing how piles of hay bales and water drainage pipes can be so entertaining to the kids. They also spent alot of time in the silo filled with a foot of shelled corn. I picked up some fresh apples and baked an apple pie the next morning. I treated the kids to a carmel apple and an apple cider donut while we were there too. We're heading back in a couple of weeks to check out the corn maze. It's only open on the weekends.
On Friday the local homeschooling group we belong to-
H.O.U.S.E., had their annual "not" back to school picnic.
I was impressed by how many kids are in this group. There is another local Christian homeschooling group,
HEART, that has at least this many kids also. Wow, there are quite a few homeschoolers in our area.
I was feeling extremely overwhelmed at the end of the week with both kids starting out their new instruments. Over the weekend I checked out a few "how to" guitar books from the library so I'm going to try to teach him the basics to see if it's something he would like to pursue. At the moment the guitar is a rental for a month . I'm thinking of holding off on purchasing a guitar until after the new year if he would like to continue with it. It's too much on my plate right now but I'm going to try to take it a week at a time.
Fair time
I took the kids to our
county fair yesterday. It was a perfect sunny and warm September day. They loved the animals although the oldest dwelled on the life cycles of farm animals a bit. They got such a kick over petting the cows and seeing the chickens. They were amazed to see the goats milked and to realize that is how the milk gets from animal to their glasses.
A part of his science studies the past month has been to read
Diary of an Early American Boy.It's tells of a farm boy's life in the early 19th century on a New England Farm. My oldest was excited to see the antique corn shellers and mills that he could try out.
Let there be music
When the kids expressed an interest in learning an instrument this year I was excited. The youngest wanted to first learn the violin and the eldest the guitar. Last Wednesday the local University held an
open house for the kids to sample lessons in the instrument of interest. The sample lessons weren't lessons at all and it ended up being a complete waste of time. It was going to cost us $1600 for both kids for Fall and Spring semester lessons. For a 4 and 9 year old! Not going to happen this year. Today we headed over to a local music store and I purchased the smallest violin I've ever held. According to the measurements it's just the right size for my youngest. He was so happy he "practiced" for over an hour. He would have "practiced" longer but the basset was howling in protest. The dog probably thinks we're trying to kill him with not one but two violins in the house now.
For the guitar we're picking up a rental 3/4 size acoustic guitar on Friday. He's so excited. He wants to try to figure it out himself for a while but I'm hoping he changes his mind and would like to join a group of beginners his age. I'm trying to cover so much with him in other subjects I would love to have someone else take over the guitar lessons. I don't know why I thought I could handle teaching them both instruments this year. In the past three weeks we've started music theory, language arts(including grammar, spelling & handwriting), math, world history, the study of famous Americans, World and US geography, science and spanish. Thank goodness my husband is responsible for the Spanish. Although so far I'm enjoying relearning all the Spanish I've forgotten.
E.A. for today
The "enrichment activity" for today was making Johnnycakes. Colonial travelers often packed these for their long trips. They're a cross between a pancake and corn bread. The kids thought they were very tasty. I enjoyed watching my eldest whip them up all by himself.
Back to school FUN!!
Yesterday we headed to Six Flags for Homeschool family day. It was the first time I've made it through an amusement park with no profanity. That was very refreshing. The kids had a blast. We hit the land park in the morning and the water park late in the afternoon. Thank goodness they closed at 5pm. because we were exhausted. Man, I wish I had started my school year with a trip to the amusement park.
