After Mining

As I mentioned, I chose that particular "mining" location because it is in close proximity to other wonderful places. Beautiful places we hadn't been to in a while, adding a bit more fun and adventure to our day :)

Cedar Falls! We actually had several choices though and I think we'll be heading back sometime this fall to see the leaves and take in another beautiful location.

We were blessed with a gorgeous day! I love these late-in-summer days.

It was a looonnngg walk down the hill. 

 Snapping turtles! We actually saw two.

I love this view.

At the bottom you can see the falls and there's a nice little pond of sorts to investigate. 

 They're checking out the other turtle...

 Back up (that's the hardest part! UGH!)

Although we were short one (Kristen had a wedding to go to), it was still a very nice family day and we can't wait to go back!

Mining

Even though we were on a summer break, our kids did not stop learning. Do they ever?? I certainly hope not! Their learning was self-motivated and all I did was sit back and encourage and occasionally help by providing materials or opportunities to fuel their passions. Summers are exciting for us in that way. We can go on whatever  learning bunny trails we want!!

Brandon has always been so interested in science. He was a very early reader and almost always gravitated to science books. I now have a lot of science-type books ;) Now that he's older, he's allowed to use the internet (somewhat supervised!) to help satisfy his unending curiosity about nearly everything science related. This summer has revolved around chemistry and geology for him :) I have to say that last one surprised me. Geology? Really? The study of.....rocks?? But oh how he loved it! He spent quite a bit of time this summer learning all he could. I love that!

A couple of weeks ago, Kristen gave me a brilliant idea. I got up at 4:30 in the morning to see her off on her vacation to the beach. They were leaving a day early to stop at a gem mine at about the half-way point. After she left, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I looked up gem mines to see where they are in Ohio and guess what I found?? A gem mining experience stuck right in the middle of beautiful Hocking Hills! There were others too and maybe we'll get around to visiting more, but this one is pretty close and has the added bonus of having other really cool things to see, which we took advantage of ;)

We didn't tell them where we were going, and you know what? They went anyway! Our kids LOVE to go places; field trips of almost any kind are always exciting and always are at the top of the things they want to be included in our homeschooling lifestyle. Even the old favorites like the zoo, COSI, and the park; they love them all! Anyway...they were so excited when we got there and told them what they were going to get to do!

We all went inside and the very nice lady took us to the shelf that has the different containers of sand/gravel to choose from. We chose the family bucket, then we headed outside to the sluice. They could hardly wait!

 Todd gave each of them a scoop and they got down to business.

 Beautiful gemstones already!

 This is the way I saw them mostly: heads down, concentrating. Intense little miners!

 Todd went through a scoop himself but quickly realized his job would be refilling their trays ;) and that was more fun for him anyway :)

 And, of course, we spent lots of time delighting in their finds!

 The lady inside told us we might have a geode in there, and we did!

 As well as some arrowheads and other fossils.

 Check out that loot! They were thrilled with their beautiful gemstones :) My favorite part of this picture though? The hands. They are Nicholas' and they are still little and soft with a tiny bit of "baby" pudge. I know it won't be that way  too much longer so I'm loving this reminder that he's still little(ish). In the blink of an eye, his hands will be big, strong hands just like his dad's.

 And, oh, the sweetness here! Loving that I still have a tiny 1st grader :)

 Inside, the guy behind the counter put our geode in this and cracked it for us.

 The kids are loving this ting!

The kids had an amazing time! As soon as we got home, they each took their bag to a table and sorted all their pretty rocks. The lady at the mine had given us a card with the more popular gemstones on it for identification purposes (brilliant!) so we spent time that evening looking at each stone.

And you know what? When they got up this morning, the first thing they did was pull out those stones :)

A Glimpse of Our Rather Unschooly Week

Last week we started hitting the books again. I have so much to post about what we're doing this year! But this is not that post ;) Last Friday, Nicholas had a minor procedure done on his foot. He's fine! But we took it very easy over the weekend and that sort of continued through the rest of the week. We did get around to a few things...reading mostly, but most of the week was spent doing a few "chemistry" experiments. That means we made a lot of stuff ;) Here's some of our fun:

We made home-made bubbles. I wish I'd used the glycerin recipe, but I wanted to use up the corn syrup that's been sitting in my pantry for-e-ver. I think the bubbles would be a little tougher with glycerin though. Maybe I'll try to add some to our mixture.

We made play-do. I used a recipe from a book but there are many on the internet. I don't care for the smell so I usually add spices so it smells like gingerbread (yum!) but they turn the play-do brownish and this time we wanted colors. Vanilla essential oil to the rescue! Now it smells yummy again ;)

We made sidewalk paint. It's so easy! Equal parts corn starch and water then add food coloring. When you first add the water a really neat reaction happens. It becomes as hard as a rock! Very, very hard to stir. Basically, the mixture hardens if you are rough but becomes like liquid if you are gentle, so stir very slowly and it will calm down a bit ;) The kids were surprised that when they painted it on the sidewalk it was clear. They were so disappointed! But after it starts to dry, it darkens considerably. It only takes a minute or so.

 

 

 And just to prove we did crack open the books a bit:

:)