Part 2 - The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

This is the OTHER tree we cut down over the weekend...

The ugly, stunted, dwarfed, bedraggled one that we have put in our school room.

This is our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

And we LOVE it :-)

Fall is in the air

September spoiled me a little.
Lovely Fall weather in the mid 70's was just too good to last.
And sure enough the last week has seen temps starting to dip down to freezing.
Usually I spend all of October in denial about summer being over.
I've decided that I like my weather in the extremes.
I love summer and I love lots of snow in winter....but I'm not a real fan of anything in between.
I have to say though one of the greatest things about this time of year is all the fruit and pumpkin picking that we can do here.



Today I took the kids on a CVA planned field trip to Walter's Fruit Ranch at Green Bluff. They got to ride the "Fruit Loop Express"...(which I think was more in reference to the guy driving us around on the tractor trailer than the fruit itself....he was a little out there!)



They got to pick apples and a pumpkin, saw apple cider being made and tasted it. Delish...( but a little gross to look at)
...and they tasted apple butter which was a lot like apple sauce with cinnamon in it.



Next week my brother Pete will be in town and we have lots of fun things lined up for him.
A wander through the corn maze, pumpkin carving, a trip to the IMax.
We are going to send him home exhausted :-)

My Poor Blog

Neglected....

That's what it is.

My poor blog!

Well, it has been neglected for good reason. Living life is getting in the way of my writing about it :-)
We have been getting through plenty of schoolwork. And I'm not going to bore you with details about math or spelling but I wanted to share some of the fun stuff we have been doing this month.
We have just finished an in depth study of the Vikings. To compliment all we have been reading about them we also...



Made viking bread.
Tasted great straight out of the oven and then quickly turned to concrete!
Those Viking were hardy folk!



We made viking weapons to add to the boys collection of medieval weaponry.



For art Ciara and Max had to design and build a viking longboat out of vegetables....and it had to float.
After a few design modifications both made something pretty cool that worked.



Jack made a viking person that he quickly decided was actually more like Matt than a Viking so it became a portrait of Dad.
Obviously Matt has some kind of vision issue that we need to check up on!



More on the creative front...



we did some painting
and...



We made cookie dough and then everyone got to add their own secret ingredients to see who could make the tastiest cookie.
Jack's had sour patch candy, sprinkles and Hershey's kisses that definitely had an...um...unusual taste to them.
Ciara went for the more conventional choc chip variety and Max created a banana cookie that was surprisingly popular.



We also joined some friends for a field trip to a hands-on kids science exhibition called " Mobius Labs".



So much fun....
and what a great way to see science in action



So I think I have a pretty good excuse as to why I haven't been blogging.
Throw on top of that working, remodelling and exercise and you'll understand why my house looks like a tornado hit it.
Hmmmm...house cleaning. That might have to be this weekends project!

Rocks, rocks and more rocks.....

Who knew that rocks and minerals could be so interesting.
The kids have been doing experiments on a whole heap of different rocks and minerals over the last few weeks.

Ciara figured out the minerals in different toothpastes that were most effective for cleaning stains off teeth..



We grew crystals with our "Magic Rocks" kit...(didn't you always wanted one of those sets as a kid???)



And we looked at rock samples to determine whether they were igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic.



I will never look upon your humble garden variety rock in quite the same way after all this.

County Fair

Friday we took a field trip to the County Fair with our homeschool group. Lots to see and do.
First off a visit to see the animals. The kids were nervous about turning their backs on these huge bulls. This was as close as I could get them to stand to the bulls and then they gave me a 2 second window to snap this picture before they took off.



The boys were a lot braver around the mechanical bull



Looking like true cowboys...



The sheep were a little less intimidating...



As were the horses...



Of course there is the obligatory silly picture...(really Mum... do we have to???...this is SO embarrassing)



A few rides....



And a fake tattoo rounded out the day beautifully.



What a fun way to spend a Friday!

Homeschool week 1

So we made it through our first few weeks of homeschool. So far so good. We have been getting through our workload and having some fun too. Here's a bit of a glimpse of what we have been up to.



Field trip to a Rock Ranch. This was organized through a homeschool group we are part of. It's fun to be able to go on these trips with a group of other families...its fun and social...as well as a learning experience.



The kids got to dig up a variety of rocks and minerals....quartz, mica, obsidian...you name it. They had a blast sorting through them and trying to identify each one.



They used their rocks and minerals in some experiments. This one is part of a series of tests they did to determine the density of different minerals. They learned how to use a triple balance beam which seemed to be the highlight...at least for Jack.



We cracked open some geodes and studied the crystal forms inside. Jack was a bit of a crazy man with the hammer. His first geode ended up as a powdered mess on the pavement. He managed to refine his hammering enthusiasm with his subsequent geodes.



For history we learned about the fall of Rome and the Barbarian invasions. We talked about the Anglo Saxons and read a version of Beowulf which inspired the kids to make their own double sided medieval axe and battle each other in the front yard.



For art we made some clay pots....



And our teenaged next door neighbor provided a music lesson for the boys



So all this plus math and language arts made our first couple of weeks a success. All we need now is to move into our homeschool room so we can have a little more space.

Homeschool planning

As our remodelling project progresses the kids are getting excited to see their new homeschool materialize. And I have had to start figuring out exactly what they will be studying next year. It sounds like a simple process...math, english, science...but I have discovered..(as most teachers will tell you I'm sure)...that its a little more complicated than that. Who knew that what we used to call "English" is now termed "Language arts" and comprises reading, comprehension, grammar, composition, spelling, vocabulary and penmanship. Sheesh..I felt like I could be in trouble already :(
Science has also been a tough one for me to figure out. But that will be fodder for another blog post. Suffice it to say that there are a LOT of different programs out their with a huge range of different world views.
We are still deciding on whether or not we will go with a government sponsored program like SVLA or CVA or go it alone. There are benefits to both of course. The government sponsored programs will reimburse you for any non-religious curriculum but there are reporting requirements that go along with them. Part of the attraction of homeschooling was that we can really do whatever we want with minimal oversight, so that freedom is a lot to give up.
We will be attending a local homeschool co-op. I think that will be healthy for all of us to spend some time with a group of like minded people. They have asked me to think about what skills I could contribute to the co-op. Hmmm...let me think. What am I good at? Oh...I know...what about a coffee appreciation course...no. Blog surfing skills....no. Housekeeping 101 ! ( I can just visualize my husband choking on his cornflakes as he reads this)....no that is definitely out. Ye gads...don't tell me I'll have to dust off the business degree and put it to work.

It's All About Consolidation

It seems by now that blogger has ironed out all the problems that I was experiencing moving my blog to my own website. It was not redirecting readers from my blogger address to my website as it should. Apparently that has all been fixed and so if you enter the old blog address (http://lemondingo.blogspot.com) you should be redirected here. {fingers crossed}.
Initially I thought it was a good idea to move my blog. When I first started blogging it was really just to share all the photos I had been taking and as a way of staying in touch with family and friends around the world. But after nearly a year it seems that my blogging has become a little more complicated. I had my original photoblog, a personal family blog plus a business one and homeschool one. It was getting a little confusing...keeping tabs on what I had posted to which blog was dizzying.
All this has coincided with a major life shift for us. Pulling our kids out of traditional school and homeschooling is a big change in all our lives. It is going to require a lot of adjustment in what we do and how we do it and in the spirit of change I decided that my blog life needed to be simplified too. I understand that consolidating my blogs may lead to some readers losing interest and no longer coming here for a visit...I know someone who is interested in photography might have zero interest in homeschooling...but in a way these blogs all represent different parts of who I am. A homeschooling, small business owning Mom who loves photography, her family and going just about anywhere on vacation! So just like me...its all just going to be packaged up in the one blog. I hope you can all still find something in here worth reading :-)