Yet One More...

I think this has been the month for field trips!  This one was quite impromptu.  We have been considering all options for putting a home on our property, so Monday afternoon we spent at a local manufactured and modular home dealer.  We were quite favorably impressed by the modular home options.  We'll see which direction the Lord guides in the next weeks and months.

Well, Tuesday morning I got an e-mail from the sales rep telling me they were getting ready to set up a modular home model at their Marion location and asked if the kids would enjoy watching.  Of course!  So, we dropped everything (regular school) and went up there to watch.  The process takes a while, but we did stay long enough to watch them prep and place one section (over an hour).

My ever-ready little artist at work.

Demo Time!

This Sunday afternoon the guys got on their destructive side and pulled down one of the old storage sheds on the property.  Ethan was right there working with them the whole time!  Katie was her flighty, happy, playful little self until it came time to rip off shingles.  I was so proud of her.  Once she found a job that she could actually do she did it with all her might and stuck with it till we were done.

Her creative use of the bowl and clothes pins
we found when clearing the shed out.

We tore some sort of sensor off the wall.  He
pretended it was a walkie talkie.

Katie found a use for her clothes pins!
Thankfully she quickly discovered a more
efficient way. :)

Sticking with it to the end.  I was so
proud of her!

Apple Taste Testing

Friday evening supper included a little lesson in survey taking.  We savored nine different varieties of apples and gave them a rating between 1 and 10.  What a yummy assignment!

Fair Oaks Dairy

The day after our Stonycreek adventure we headed with our local school up to Fair Oaks Dairy.  I learned my lesson about trying to squeeze two big days back-to-back (insert major meltdowns and poor exhausted kids), but it was still really neat.

When asked what their favorite part of the trip was, Ethan was amazed by the birth of the calf.  Katie...getting to eat ice cream!

Riding the cow carousel

He did enjoy the rubbings

Stoneycreek Farm

A friend invited us to head to Stoneycreek Farm for a hay ride and a little fall fun.  9 kids between the ages of 6 and 1 with 3 moms made for a pretty wild, fun day!

So Long, Old Mobile Home!

There was an old, really run-down, unlivable mobile home on our property that we had been trying to get rid of, and Mom finally found someone willing to come tackle the job.  We had fun watching the destruction process. :)

Ethan's drawing of the "picture in my mind."

The Many Faces of School

We've certainly been busy!  I've taken a few pictures here and there, and since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a few to enjoy.

Learning the value of a dollar

"Reading" brother's basal reader.  It's currently
one of her favorite books.

First Handwriting memory verse sheet.

Adventurers Induction Ceremony

Drawing me a diagram of the playground and what needs
to be cleaned up first.

Moving

I finally realized moving, unpacking, and life in general would be far less stressful (and I'd be a much better and happier Mommy) if we paused school during our move.  I'm so glad we did.  So the last two weeks (first to finish packing and canning, the second to unpack) have been "school-free" for the kids.  That doesn't mean they haven't been learning, though!

Both kids helped me label contents of boxes.

Katie found an empty box, some screws, and a screwdriver.
That made for one happy, occupied girl for a long time
while we worked on the place.

Ethan decided he needed to teach Katie to read a clock.
She's not a very quick learner. :)

Bells with Mrs. Olson's Class

Ethan has been invited to play bells with the first and second grade class at our local church school.  What a privilege!  He has since told me that his favorite parts of school are first: Bells, second: Adventurers, and third: actual school work.

Storm Shelter Install

A couple weeks ago Ethan got to go on an impromptu field trip with Grandma up to the new property to watch the men install the new storm shelter.  He spent the day playing in the dirt piles, watching the men, and even got a little ride in the driver's seat, trying out all the gears and buttons.  Even Daddy was jealous when he got to see the pictures and videos that evening!

Printable Flashcards

Abeka utilizes a bunch of various flashcards.  I just couldn't bring myself to spend even more money on a new curriculum at the moment, so I decided to try and be a bit resourceful and make my own.  I've had to look at the flashcard topics and do a bit of guessing, but they're coming along, and I think what I have will be quite useful for both kids.

I'll add more topics as I create them, but you're free to download and print what I've created.  I've designed each set of flashcards to fit three cards on a page, so once they're printed (I suggest colored cardstock, different color per topic) you can divide and cut each page into thirds.

Money Flashcards

Month Flashcards

Number Names Flashcards

Ordinal Numbers Flashcards

Roman Numerals Flashcards

Shapes Flashcards

Curriculum Switch

18 days into first grade, and already I've decided to switch a program.  I love the instructional process Steve Demme uses in Math-U-See, but the more time I spent with in it with Ethan, the more I realized that the program just doesn't cover so many mathematical concepts it needs to (weak in areas like symmetry, measurements, money, number lines, etc. - basically anything beyond major operations).

I had gotten Ethan an "advanced math" workbook this summer that I thought would help give a challenge, but I quickly noticed that though he had absolutely no problems in the Math-U-See book (in fact he never had a challenge at all, which was causing issues in the class) he struggled as soon as he was asked to do something other than addition or subtraction on a page.  (We didn't have problems when doing Math orally.)

I enjoy supplementing, but I don't want to feel like I have to in order for my kids to get a rounded education in a given subject.

So...

Hello Abeka.  Even though I haven't actually taught Abeka Math before, I have seen the program in action and taught entire classes that came from it, and have been very impressed with the results.  The final book arrived this morning, so we had our first lesson today.

I have always appreciated the spiral approach to mathematics, and am pretty sure I'll be much happier with the program.  Hopefully Ethan will, too.

Feline Love

Yesterday afternoon while Ethan was working on his map skills book he had a little help from his beloved cat.

Family Fun Day

This morning we had a little conversation at the breakfast table kitchen-area-where-we-all stand-or-sit-since most-everything-is-packed-and-our-table-is-sold.  We talked about how God provided the Sabbath as a day of rest and time to spend special with Him each week and how we need to have special time like a "family sabbath" where our whole purpose is to spend time together bonding as a family.  Today was totally family time; not work-on-the-house time, not chore time, none of that; just pure, plain fun with just the four of us.

We spent our morning down at the Amish produce auction.  Sorry, no pictures of there, out of respect for the Amish people.  We all enjoyed listening to the auctioneer, looking at all the yummy produce, and stocking up on peaches and tomatoes to can. (I know what I'll be doing for the next several days!)

Our poor car was stocked absolutely full to the brim on our way home.  We fit 8 1/2 bushels of peaches, 200 lbs of tomatoes, and even fit both kids, two small boxes of zucchini, and a pint of fresh blackberries for our afternoon treat somewhere into our car!

Once we unloaded all the goods we headed down to the State Fair for the rest of our day.  I DO have pictures from that!

Farmer Katie

Planting pepper seeds.  I wonder just how many seeds
get planted over the course of the 17 days.

Milking the "cow"

Sawing his own wood slab with the wood miser.  This machine
is so powerful and smooth that even he could move it
entirely by himself.

Enjoying ice cream while they watched
the evening tractor parade.

Weather Unit

We're starting the school year learning about the weather.  We haven't done very much yet, but the kids really enjoyed watching a well-done, informative children's video introducing weather and clouds.  Ethan had his first writing assignment afterwards, and of course that meant Katie felt she had to do one, too.  I didn't require her to write, but she did.