Family Fun: Klondike Derby and Ski Trip

 Our cub scouts and Daddy attended the Klondike Derby this weekend.  This is the first one they have had in two years. They panned for gold.

Crossed raging rivers.

Chopped wood for fires in the Yukon wilderness

And practiced survival skills like knot tying.

Earlier this week Daddy and the older kids went on a church youth trip to Wisp Ski Resort.  It was a nice warm day and the conditions were pretty good for our area.

The kids took a lesson and learned how to ski that day. They were there all day 9-5pm.  Daddy's legs were very sore the next day.

Family Schooling for February

I have yet to find a World History curriculum that does African history justice.  I cobbled together these books to give the kids a better understanding of what was happening in West Africa during the Middle Ages.

Our study of African history naturally led us to learn more about their Arab trading partners and the Islamic religion that they brought to the region.

All 5 of these were wonderful children's books that told history with stories and pictures. We do history as a one room schoolhouse so I am always on the lookout for books that appeal to all ages.

For our art class we studied Michelangelo and replicated some of his architecture. 

We are starting to spend a lot of time planting and transplanting seeds for this year's garden.

Big sister A has a buddy that wants to be our "farm intern" and learn about all the things that we do. 

She also helped re-white wash the chicken coop in preparation for this year's pullets.

Brother S and Miss L have been creating little dioramas, just for the fun of it. No tech lifestyle = creative kids.

Beardie has been joining some of our classes, including morning bible study.

Earlier this month we did an art class on Maria Martinez. The instructions were to create a coil pot in a similar Native American style, but some of the kids had a hard time keeping their creativity in check.

Baby A: 21 Months Old

 If you happen to notice chocolate chip cookie stains on the guest room sheets -- this is the culprit. 

Baby A is in the "young explorer" phase and is getting into all kinds of things.

He knows what he wants and yells until the bigger kids give it to him. 

Then he is very pleased with himself and his treasure.

He enjoyed having the art supplies handy in the dining room and tried to show us that he was ready to join our art class. 

He loves pulling things out of cupboards or off of shelves -- leaving a trail behind him.

Our house is not very toddler proof and he often finds fun "toys" hidden in the cupboards. 

He is learning to use his silverware and would much rather be at the table with us than in his high chair.

The blanket storage area makes a very cozy jungle gym.

He is very good about taking his mid day nap.  He loves to be snuggled up in his blankie while he naps.  If his blankie falls off in the night he wakes up.  I get up and snuggle it back around him and he goes right back to sleep. He is a stinker and a daily joy to us all. 

Family Schooling for January

We bought this solar house science kit from a little educational store in Lancaster over a year ago.  It's amazing.  It comes with a 100 page manual and more than 70 different experiments with solar energy that we have been working our way through for science class every morning.  

Thermometer measuring the temperature inside the solar greenhouse (in front) at 2 minute intervals. 

We started doing a little Meet the Masters art class co-op with 2 other families that do swimming lessons with us.  It's been lovely so far. 

Our first week we learned about Henri Rousseau and did this water color crayon project. 

Our second week we studied Edward Hopper and made these sailboat landscapes. 

This week we learned about Maria Martinez and practiced making Native American style clay pots.

Some of my little artists deviated from the "Native American" style significantly...

We've been doing our "no grocery shopping" -- use only what we have on hand challenge since January 1. It has led to even more kids baking projects than usual.  Big sister A has been making a series of baking videos as well. 

We had a bushel of oranges that needed to be used and made a bunch of freshly squeezed orange juice and orange zest.  We mixed some of it with a jar of canned peaches and made yummy fruit popsicles. 

The kids were all invited to a big birthday party with their friends at Urban Air Friday evening.  They exhausted themselves jumping around for 3 hours. 

Baby A loved it all, but especially the ball pit under the ninja warrior course. 

Miss L took baby A on this steep slide with her over and over again. 

There was a high wall above the trampolines in one area.  They loved bouncing up and down off the wall.  It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase "kids bouncing off the walls" :)