Family Schooling Summary: Week 3 at Co-op and Fall Festival at the Horse Rescue

 A rooster that looks a lot like our Sunset.

 The one on the left is a tarantula eating a bird (copied from a nature book).

 Those crazy looking brown horns on the table are the overgrown hooves of a terribly neglected horse! They rescued him and show the "before" and "after" pictures as he was brought back to health.

 We watched a beautiful demonstration of horse-rider partnership.  This gal bought Starbucks from the rescue about 7 years ago and they warned her that he was too emotionally damaged.  And that he would probably not be a good partner and would possibly be aggressive and dangerous. She worked carefully with him and now she told us that their partnership was the best she had ever had with a horse.  She demonstrated that by riding him and then  JUMPING him without a bridle! She was just holding onto a rope loosely around his neck to keep from falling off. We were all spellbound by the demonstration. He performed beautifully for 30 minutes to loud music.

 Miss L is currently obsessed with horses and paid very close attention during the show.

 This was part of a little sheriff and deputy comedy routine.

Field Trip: Historic St. Mary's City

We went to Historic St. Mary's City for our field trip this week for their "Homeschool Day".

 "The Maryland Dove is a re-creation of a late 17th century vessel commemorating the Dove of 1634, which accompanied Lord Baltimore’s original expedition to Maryland" according to the website.  All the personnel at St Mary's City act and speak like they are in character for the 17th century. And oooh the costumes! Aunt S would have enjoyed that.

 The original Maryland Dove was lost at sea on its way back to England. It had a crew of 9 and was a cargo vessel.  The hold would have been locked during the voyage to prevent pilfering.

 They had several workshops for the kids around the town.  We learned traditional 17th century circle dances and they were so fun to practice. I looked around the circle of moms and kids and everyone was smiling! The kids made corn husk dolls:

 And played traditional 17th century games: 9 pins

Graces:

Quoits:

Hoops:

They had reconstructed all the houses that made up Maryland's first capital city. Some were complete and some were just frames to give you an idea of what the city would have looked like.

Of course we had to try out the stocks. We didn't have any rotten fruit to throw so corn husk dolls were used.

Small colonial shop:

We visited the Native American village and learned from those guides as well.  Here they are making cornmeal mush.

Playing Native American games like "AtlAtl". Big sister A was a natural at it.

I don't remember what this one was called. Something that meant throw the corncob through the hoop.

We drove over the "Plantation" example and found the biggest orb weaver that any of us had EVER seen. I couldn't believe how decorative its web was.  It was incredible.

Hay storage shed on the plantation. We told the boys that their might be more orb spiders, like the ones we saw out front, hiding in the hay loft and they looked startled and climbed down from the bales.

The plantation had a lovely garden and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the characters on staff about what and how they were pickling, herbs they were growing, and which poultry the colonists would have brought with them (Hamburg chickens).

Family Schooling: Week #2 of Co-op School

Landscape painting in art class:

Brainy games and puzzles for the littles:

A & M made and launched bottle rockets in "Phun with Physics". I did not get to see the launching, but here is the rocket:

Field Trip: The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Chesapeake Children's Museum

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum had their home schooler day this week and we had a wonderful guided tour.  Everything was very hands-on and life-size. 

The kids learned how to gather oysters with these heavy claw-like tongs. They had to be lowered into the water and scraped along the mud then pulled back up. 

 Success! Those big black lumps are oysters.  We did not get to keep them though.

 Then we learned about blue crabs. The kids saw the crab tank.

 Our guide told us how blue crabs shed their shells. In order to make the delicacy "soft shell crab", they keep them in tanks when it is the season for shell shedding.  They watch them constantly and pull them out right after they shed their shells and put them on ice.  They have to be quick because the shells reharden within a 24 hour period.

The museum had many life size boats for the kids to climb in. 

 This one is a real oyster and fishing boat that was donated by its captain when he retired.

 Our guide told us about how they can oysters.  There is only one cannery he said, but those oysters are canned then sold under many different company labels even thought they come from the same place and are processed in the same place.

 Huge map of the Chesapeake bay! we played on in the map exhibit.

 Learning about the Native Americans who lived here prior to white settlement.

 My favorite part was climbing around in the light house.  The living quarters were much bigger and nicer than I expected.

 

 We learned about the light house keepers over the years.

 I love this old dry sink.

We climbed up more stairs to get to the bell ringing floor and then another flight of stairs to get to the light itself. 

 The kids favorite part of the museum was this retired oyster buyboat. When brother M was "driving" he discovered that he could turn on the engine and rev it up.  The first time that he did it, the other three kids ran out from below decks, afraid that they were somehow going out to sea.

 

They loved putting on the fisherman clothes and playing in the boat's kitchen and sleeping quarters.

  They did not like this 1951 six-sleeper as much because it did not have a kitchen and they could not turn on the engine or ring any bells or anything.

They had a big building for constructing boats from scratch that I didn't get a picture of. It was load in their.  This warehouse displayed retired vessels. 

 We had some time before we went to pick up daddy at the airport. It didn't make sense to go home for a few minutes and then back out the airport so we went to the Chesapeake Children's Museum to hang out while we waited.  We were very pleasantly surprised and the kids keep asking to go back.

 The kids petted a bearded dragon and a chameleon.

 They had different rooms set up for imaginary play.  The kids favorite one was this doctor's office.

 Brother M was the patient.  Dr. A and Nurse L examined him.  Brother S studied his lab results.