Happy Happy Harvest Day

Halloween is one of those holidays we don't like to celebrate, but we try to partake in some of the fun activities without emphasizing the evil undertones often associated with the day.  We call our "redeemed" version Harvest Day.

We don't always carve pumpkins for many reasons: quick-to-rot pumpkins, parent labor, kids with knives...etc.  This year, we went for it.  The kids drew their designs, helped hollow the pumpkins out, and did a very small percentage of the cutting.

Our favorite Harvest Day activity was our church's Harvest Festival, which requires that people dress up as someone/something from the Bible.  Kyler chose Joab (complete with a lock of Absalom's hair), Ella was Abigail (she carried food in a basket), and Brennan was Shammah (the Mighty Man of David that defended the bean field - he had a bag of beans attached to his belt).  The church was filled with game booths, bouncy houses, craft tables, and more.

We concluded the holiday with our annual candy sort-and-pick event.  This is where we consolidated candy bag contents, sorted it, and then each person picked 7 pieces to keep so they can eat 1 per day for a week.  The rest of the candy was donated to a good cause (Scott's soccer team).  All-in-all, Harvest Day 2011 was a blast!

Even a child is known by his deeds...

We've made an effort this school year to include Bible verse memorization in our daily routine.  We have a great book that has a verse for each letter of the alphabet, plus a short story that helps kids understand the verse.  Brennan is working on memorizing these verses.

Here is a video of him doing the verses for A through L.  The motions are all his invention, and I can't explain the goggles...

Co-op is Cool!

The kids will tell you, if you ask, that the best school day every week is Monday.  Monday is the day that co-op meets this year.  Last year was a huge success, and this year is different, but equally successful.

Ella and Brennan get to do art, science, P.E., and writing.  Kyler gets to do literary analysis, which involves reading books, discussing them as a class, and then doing unit studies on topics related to the book.  For example, the first book they read was The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which is set in New England during the time of the Puritans.   One of the activities they did was to make their own candles.

Kyler also gets to participate in a class called Team Building, which Scott teaches in addition to P.E. for the younger kids.  In this class, the kids play games and do activities that promote such skills as leadership, trust, and communication.

My responsibilities include maintaining the website and other technological things, as well as coordinating field trips.  Our first field trip was to a pumpkin patch.  Kids got to pick out pumpkins, learn about potatoes, and go through a huge corn maze.  It was a lot of fun!

Project Management

Now that we kinda got the hang of this homeschool thing, we decided to let the kids each pick a project to work on that's not directly related to a school subject.  I guess we could call it electives.

Brennan picked woodworking, which is fine with me, because that makes Dad the teacher!  They are working together on a birdhouse for the back yard.  Don't worry, Brennan is not allowed to use the power tools.  Those of you who know Brennan know what a scary prospect Brennan with a power tool is. =)

Ella chose sewing.  This is her working on a decorative pillow case for her room.  She learned about using the iron, pinning, and even operated the sewing machine.  I am currently her teacher, but we are hoping to transition soon to her much more qualified Grandma.

Kyler is learning computer programming.  This is one area that I feel somewhat confidant that I can teach.  He's using a program called Alice, which was developed at Carnegie Mellon as a tool for teaching programming concepts.  So far, it's mostly like a computer game for Kyler, so he loves it.  But he is learning as he goes along, whether he knows it or not.

Boot It!!!

Ahhhh....autumn.  My favorite season of the year.  Beautiful colors, crisp air, cozy living rooms....and parents screaming "BOOT IT!" from the sidelines. =)

Fall is a busy time for us.  Not only do we have school starting and all the work that goes into that for homeschoolers, but we also have soccer.  Scott is the head coach of the varsity boys program at the high school, and all three of the kids are on teams.  I'm even assistant coach for Ella's team this year.  We have something soccer related - practices, games, meetings, etc. - almost every day of the week for over two months.  It's crazy, but we love it.

Kyler was on a club team for the first time this year.  It was his idea to try out this summer, and he made the team.  They played in a couple of tournaments over the summer, and they're doing great in league play.  They are ranked #2 behind a team they lost to the first time they played them, but then beat the next time.  Kyler has improved quite a lot throughout the season, and we're very proud of him.  Go Pumas!

Brennan loves to play soccer!  You may not be able to see the HUGE smile on his face in this picture, but it's there.  In fact he giggles through most of the game, he's having so much fun.  Brennan has shown himself to be very coach-able.  He is able to take suggestions from us and his coaches and apply them during the game.  He's also turned out to be a natural defender, at least this year.  When his team loses possession, he gets back to defend his goal.  We're looking forward to seeing how Brennan develops as a soccer player over the years.  Go Rockets!

Ella does not generally play keeper, but I love how she looks in those huge gloves in this picture.  This year has been unique for me because I've been able to participate in Ella's experience as her assistant coach.  She

has improved a lot in many ways over the course of the season.  I am most proud of her tendency to look for someone to pass to as soon as she gets the ball.  Go Pink Panthers!

There are only about two to three weeks left in the soccer season.  Although I'm a looking forward to fewer time commitments, I will miss the excitement of three soccer games every Saturday.  Oh well, there's always next year!

Consider the Lilies

Imagine life without flowers.  Of course, they are beautiful to look at, but think of all the other things for which we depend on flowering plants: food, clothes (cotton), honey...the list goes on and on.

Our botany book points out that God had a wonderful plan when he created angiosperms (flowering plants), and that we should be very thankful for them.  We also dissected flowers and learned about the parts.  But the favorite section was the one on carnivorous plants.  This is fascinating stuff!

Botany

A new school year has started!

We are very excited to get started again.  There are a lot of changes for our second year.  One of them is the topic we'll be studying in science: Botany!

One of the early exercises we did was shoe taxonomy.  We learned about how scientist classify plants, and then we got to try it for ourselves using all the shoes in the house.

We also learned a lot about seeds.  I'm amazed by how much I learn every day.  Hurrah for homeschooling!

Summertime

While we intended to continue school through the summer, we've ended up doing a little school and a lot of non-school.  Here are a few of the things we've done so far this summer:


We spent 4th of July at Magness Tree Farm in Sherwood.

We planted a garden.

We rode our bikes.

Kyler went to his first overnight camp.

Portrait of a Family

It has been a while since we've had some nice pictures taken of our family, so we went to campus and my parents took a few of all of us.  We also snapped some of the kids.  Here are our favorites.

Teacher Loekie

We are very fortunate to have learned, several years ago, about a local preschool taught by Teacher Loekie.  All three of the kids attended, though Brennan was the only one we decided to let go an extra year and do Loekie's kindergarten curriculum as well.

One of the fun things about this school is that the kids get to bring special snacks once a month.  I made turtle cookies for Brennan's birthday month snack.

They also get to participate in a number of fun field trips.  Here are a few:

February: Fire Station

March: Champoeg School House

April: Tulip Fields

May: Farm

And no preschool or kindergarten school year would be complete without a graduation ceremony.  Brennan's main part in the ceremony was to read aloud, as he was the best reader in the class, and Kyler played Pomp and Circumstance on the piano as the kids walked in.

It's a little sad that we won't have any more kids in Teacher Loekie's class, but we have lots of great memories.  Thanks Teacher Loekie!

We're Busting Outta Here!

I've always thought it funny that one of the prettiest towns in Washington has the same name as a famous prison. Of course, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Leavenworth, WA, and were in no hurry to bust out.

But first, the real reason we went to Washington was for Mariah's 8th grade graduation.  She ended up not being able to participate in the ceremony because of illness, but we still enjoyed watching the ceremony and hanging out with the family for the rest of the weekend.

For the last day of our Washington weekend, we joined the Haverlys and Brownlees in Leavenworth.  It's a quaint Bavarian village filled with interesting shops and surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

Makes me want to go to Europe!

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Mmmm....breakfast....my favorite.  Nothing beats pancakes, waffles, sausage, cinnamon rolls, coffee, orange juice, etc.  Not all at the same time, of course.

This year, the kids each chose a menu for their special birthday breakfast.

Brennan chose pancakes and sausage...

Kyler chose French toast and bananas...

Ella chose cinnamon rolls and oranges...

Mmmmm....delicious!

The End of History

We're nearing the end of our history studies for this year.  We've really enjoyed learning about early civilization.

Here are a couple of recent projects...

We made Trojan horses out of Legos...

We carved Jonah's whale out of soap...

Along the way, we've constructed a timeline of the historical people and events we've studied.  Here is just some of it...

We're looking forward to adding to the timeline when we resume history next year.

Food Couplets

Here is another poem, written by Kyler:

A is for apple, shiny and red,
B's for banana, eat it with bread.

C is for carrot, flesh underground,
D is for donut, tasty and round.

E is for eggplant, bulbous and big,
F is for French fries, in we dig!

G is for grapes, which grow in a bunch,
H is for hamburger.  Munch, munch, munch!

I is for ice cream, freezy and cold,
J is for jelly bean, with colors so bold.

K is for Kettle Korn, sticky and sweet,
L is for lamb, which will no longer bleat. =(

M is for macaroni, best with cheese,
N is for nectarine.  Pass them, please.

O is for orange, named for its hue,
P is for peanut, for elephants, too.

Q is for quail meat, which I've never tried,
R is for radish.  Here comes one! Hide!

S is for salad, leafy and green,
T is for turnip, which I've never seen.

U is for ugly fruit.  Huh?  What is that?
V is for venison, which people shot at.

W is for watermelon, juicy (with seeds),
X is for X-ray fish, don't eat one of these!

Y is for yams, (we're close to the end),
Z is for zucchini bread, good-bye, my friend!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

Ella really enjoyed Tangled, the new Disney movie about Rapunzel.  She decided to have a Tangled-themed birthday party.  She invited one friend from co-op over for most of the day.

They braided and decorated long yarn braids to wear and painted their nails.  They ate sun-shaped pizza, made fruit towers, and ate black forest cake under paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

Happy Birthday Ella!

Skidoosh!

Instead of having a typical party with lots of friends, Kyler chose to invite three friends from co-op to join our family to see Kung Fu Panda 2 in the theater.  It was a big hit!

After the movie, we returned home and enjoyed pizza and panda cupcakes.

Happy Birthday Kyler!

Celebrate Good Times

Spring is a busy time for us.  All of our birthdays fall within two months of each other.  Add in Easter, Mother's Day, etc., and it makes for a season full of celebrations.  The kids birthdays will get separate posts, but here are some pictures of Easter and Mommy's birthday.

On Easter, the kids got a small treat, enjoyed a special breakfast, and got dressed up for church.

On Mommy's birthday, we spent some time exploring Champoeg State Park.

Let the celebrations begin!