Family Schooling Summary: Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Baltimore

At co-op school this week my class studied Uncle Sam and we made this craft to go with our lesson:

In our nature explorers class we learned all about bees. It was fascinating.

The kiddos learned about tennis in their gym class this week. Baby L and S did not quite get the hang of it.

Right after class we assembled our supplies and drove down to visit friends in Williamsburg, VA.   They took us to all kinds of fun sites, like ye olde towne ice cream parlor.

Baby L sampled the raspberry pomegranate sorbet and loved it, of course.

We visited some of the historic shops and houses.  I found it kind of disappointing compared with Nauvoo.

They had a cool old "Grand Union Flag" like I discussed with my class during our "Stars and Stripes" lesson.

The kids went into some of the old time shops.

 Miss S had a few minutes to gossip with a lovely colonial lady whose name I have now forgotten. She had a great costume.

The S family have a fun neighborhood road with a cul-de-sac on either end. The kiddos road bikes back and forth while we strolled with the two babies.

We went to the beach for an afternoon. It was baby L's first time playing at a beach.

It was too cold for swimming, but the big kids had a wild time imagining castles and moats of all kinds.

 She ate a fair amount of sand. And seemed to really like the beautiful sunny fall weather at the beach.

On Friday we went to the Virginia Living Museum.  They had a living display of shore life for the kids to experience.  They touched star fish, horseshoe crabs, whelk, and hermit crabs.

They also had several giant aquariums of local fish, turtles, alligators and so forth.  My favorite part was the dark room, where they had all the nocturnal creatures: owls, flying squirrels, opossums, and raccoons. They also had the glowing jelly fish.

On Saturday we went to Baltimore Harbor to meet our friends visiting from Utah. We spent the afternoon at the Children's Science Museum.  My camera battery died then, so I only took a few shots there.

Family Schooling Summary

Finally broke out the camera at our nature explorers class (Co-op School).  We explored a nearby creek this week.

Baby S has been ditching his nursery class that hour to come along with me.

We caught a monster crayfish. Made me think of lobster mmmm!

After co-op school I had a meeting with the Fall Festival committee and so the kiddos got to play at a cool local park with this crazy astroturf.  Looks like grass, but it is synthetic. I was not sure about it, but baby L seemed okay with it.

I forgot to bring my camera, but we went to Monster Mini-Golf for Cousin L's birthday party.  They had black lights and lots of scary glowing things. Sort of like golfing in a haunted house.  I was surprised that the kiddos did not seem too scared by it. 

We learned about Frederic Remington in our Meet the Masters class this week. We made western scenes for our project. 

On Friday they had a publicity event at a local Corn Maze/Farm and everything was free. We got a little lost, but eventually had a great time. I met a pig farmer there! He had lots of advice for me and said that he would be happy to help me get started with my project when we get a farm of our own. They had the corn maze, a smaller hay maze, chickens, piglets, mini horses, and goats for us to pet.

They also had a 15 foot tall pumpkin tower.  It looks taller than that doesn't it?

Miss L was anxious to try to make friends with the goats.

The pig farmer demonstrated lassoing for the kiddos. It's harder than it looks.

Baby L got her first tooth this week. I love the look on her face in this picture. Sort of an "Ick. look at your teeth" type expression. 

 Our old neighbors invited us over for potluck and movie night.  It was perfect fall weather for it --just chilly at night. We watched Curious George's Halloween special.

Family Schooling Summary

Only one major drama this week - the boys stood on the side of a little red shopping cart at the thrift store and tipped it over with baby L strapped in the front seat.  I was paying at the checkout so my back was turned, but I believe the cart fell on to them and cushioned her fall somewhat. No concussion, just a bruise on the side of her face and a heart attack for me. 

All the usual stuff also happened this week: co-op school, riding lessons, soccer practice, chiropractor appointments, etc., just add "in the rain" to the end of each of those activities. Here the kiddos are getting creative on the porch after trying to use the swing set while holding umbrellas:

 Everything is fun with cousins.  We keep wondering when they are going to get tired of each other.

Also this weekend is General Conference instead of church, so our family room area has a lot of this going on:

The cousins are enjoying all the conference games and treats together too. Everything is more fun with buddies. 

Recommended Reading: September

I have been doing quite a bit of "waiting around" and "driving around" in the last couple weeks.  Soon to be a trend I understand, as the kiddos get older.  More time for reading that way!

These two books by Linda Sue Park we listened to together in the car. Both are historical fiction. When My Name Was Keoko is set in Korea during WWII and describes the life of a family during the Japanese occupation. A Single Shard takes place in 12th century Korea and is the coming of age story of an orphan boy who yearns to be a potter.  The kids understood the pottery story and felt more of a connection to it due to their recent experiences with using the potters wheel and shaping clay bowls.  I enjoyed hearing another perspective on WWII and realized for the first time that many of the soldiers in the Japanese army were unwilling draftees from conquered lands like Korea.

I felt I had to read Go Set a Watchman, since it was a "new" book by the author of a high school classic. I understand that there is a fair amount of controversy about when it was written, whether it was ever intended for publication, and whether Harper Lee actually approved the deal or not.  All that being said, it is worth reading.  The last 20 pages in particular are insightful into the human character. I agree that it is less polished than it should have been - some wobbliness in the plot and some incomplete threads of the story are obvious.  I think it is reassuring to see that even great classic authors had to work really hard to get their stories right.  I felt the same way reading about Hemingway's efforts at writing in The Paris Wife.  It is a historical fiction and tells the story of Ernest  Hemingway's first wife. This was my second attempt at reading it.  The first hundred pages are okay, good story and interesting characters and all that, but I did not really feel an emotional connection to what was happening until the las t third of the book. The author gets the feelings of breaking up just right.

Buddy Walk 2015

This year we did the Buddy Walk for JJ with my brother's family.  It was a short walk, only about 1 mile around the park.  That was plenty, since it was hot and pushing a stroller and dragging little brother S along at the end was a challenge (hubby was at work).  They had a lot of free fun activities after the walk. First we had a picnic lunch served on frisbees:

Baby L missed a lot of the fun:

All the cousins got their faces painted:

 

There several blow-up playground things to play on:

A little petting zoo:

And of course cotton candy:

The kiddos had a grand time running around with the cousins. And they were all sleeping in the car by the time we got home that night.

Family Schooling Summary

 Co-op school is back in full swing. Weeks 1&2 went smoothly. The kiddos have some creative classes this time. Big sister A has a music theory class (using pipe chimes), a sewing class, and 18th century games (history class). M and S are in a Chesapeake ABCs and 123s class.
They are happy to meet with old friends, have picnic lunches, and play in the yard together again.  I am teaching a class called "Celebrate America" to ages 5-10. It is based on this book:

In addition to horseback riding, they are all doing a soccer/sports class together.  Brother S so far has mostly sat on the sidelines. Too shy.

Baby L has been pleased to join in the fun by attacking and tasting all the balls that roll her way.