Living History

I've long been a believer in living history. I feel that the more you can actually experience the easier, and definitely more interesting, history is. So this is something I strive for in our school. Experiences and/or reading an account of experiences are an invaluable tool!

Last week, Megan, Nick, and I have been reading about Christopher Columbus and his desire to find a sea route to the Indies, China, and Japan. We read that he died thinking he was in the right area and never knowing he had actually landed on an entirely different continent! Sad! After reading about it I thought a field trip was in order!

We are lucky to live in an area with so many resources. We headed downtown to see a full size replica of the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus' flagship!

We stopped on the way to get a picture here:

 We walked right past a statue of Chris himself!

Then came the main event:

 The cook stove. We learned so much about how and what they ate.

 The kids had fun helping our tour guide (who was fantastic, by the way!) with the cannon. We learned some pretty interesting things about that too like they couldn't aim it...it had no wheels!

 Megan got to steer :)

 The view from the captain's cabin:

 Inside the captain's cabin:

When our tour was over, the sweet tour guide allowed questions and was very sweet about answering all of them.

It was a great way to wrap up our first week back to school!

Our Students

Kristen, senior in college:

 Brandon, 9th grade:

 Nicholas, 5th grade:

 Megan, 2nd grade:

 My three "students" on our first field trip of the school year...an afternoon at the park with friends!

 We officially started school last week and we're off to a great start! Everyone seems to like getting back into a routine and my choices for their studies this year are a hit! The crazy part is only beginning as last week we added not only school but flag football to the schedule. This week we add tap class. Next week we add co-op. Two weeks later we add cubscouts. Our calendar is filling up! I'm so grateful that our kids have these wonderful opportunities though, and I'm so blessed to have these years with our kids :)

Put-Put

One of the things on our "Summer List" is put-put. There are a couple of places to play put-put golf around here so we chose the closest one and spent our family night there!

We started off with a brief putting lesson from Daddy :)

 Even though the course closest to us is a bit run down, it was still beautiful and we all had so much fun!

 Even this guy, who wasn't thrilled with the whole put-put idea had a great time ;)

It was a great family night! When we do things like this, I'm so glad we take the time to make up a "Summer List" because these little fun things would not be happening in the hurry and rush of everyday life. Summer just seems to fly by and while I have good intentions, I don't ever get to all the things I plan to! It makes me very happy when we carve out time for special things :)

Learning Biology

This past school year, Brandon took biology. We have chosen Apologia for the majority of our science classes and biology was no exception. It's a good fit for us.

It worked out great that there was a mom in our co-op who also uses Apologia and was interested in teaching it to our group! We did all the book work and tests at home and the kids did all the lab work at co-op. What a great experience!

They did lots of microscope work and also, Brandon's favorite:

 dissections!

 I was just happy I didn't have to do it here at home ;)

At the end of the year, his teacher also scheduled a field trip to Dawes Arboretum. It was fantastic! They had a lecture on bird identification then a lesson on how to use binoculars and a walk around to put their new information to use.

 

 Even the tag-alongs had fun :)

This class was definitely a hit! We're so thankful for such a wonderful group that we get to have these experiences with!

Another Day in the Pool

Yesterday we went to the pool at my uncle's again! I was hoping to get in a few more visits before the nights started cooling off but I'm too late. The pool was cold! Fortunately, I don't have to be in the water the whole time any more!

This time we were joined by Brandon, Kristen, and Jon. It was a pool party!

 Sweetest picture of the day :)

 There was relaxing:

 and races:

 racing backward:

 Nick joined this one:

 The obligatory jumping picture ;)

 Funny thing about that picture: Brandon didn't jump into the water ;) He is like me when it comes to an aversion to cold water. He had already been in long enough to suit himself and wasn't about to get back in to be included in the picture ;)

This guy doesn't care how cold it is and he loves those goggles!

 These two stayed in way after everyone else was done. Kristen and Jon had to go to work so she took Brandon home with her so glad I could stay and let them play!

 These were taken on a different day but they are such good shots I wanted to include them :)

Outdoor Movie Night

Having an outdoor movie is something we've been wanting to do for a while now and we finally made it happen! I wanted to be able to watch the movie while sitting in my wonderful swing and that's what caused the trouble. It doesn't face the side of the house which would be the most logical place to hang a screen.

Good thing my hubby likes a challenge! He came up with this:

 With some pvc pipe, he came up with a frame that is sturdy enough to hold our screen! And when/if we take it down we can just slide some cute, bamboo torches down in the holes he drilled in the deck railing. Perfect!

Everyone had fun! We're going to have to figure out a better plan for mosquitoes next time since apparently some of us are sweeter than others ;)

Looking forward to cool evenings spent watching our Friday Night movies outside :)

Swimming on a Friday

While Brandon was off doing his camp thing, I took Megan and Nicholas swimming! We look forward to swimming at my uncle's house every year. It always makes our "Summer List"!

We had a really good time! It was stinking hot outside that day (100 degrees!!) so being in the water was the only way to be outside! Even I got in the water for a while! Funny thing is, when I got out to work on school stuff (and take pictures!) I still felt cool and comfortable. Perfect water!

 Nick wanted me to take pictures of him jumping into the water:

 That's his favorite thing to do! That and getting dunked by me ;)

Megan worked on putting her face in the water. At first she would just barely touch her nose to the surface but this is what she looked like by the end of the afternoon:

 She had some help from a wonderful, big brother:

 Freckle alert! Oh how I love freckles :)

 It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon!