Field Trip: Michigan History Day Oct. 16, 2015

Field Trip: 

Michigan History Day 

Oct. 16, 2015

We (Dd and I) held a field trip for our new homeschool group--though no one from our new group actually attended this event!  So odd!  But, we did have a good time.  I thought I'd type up a short summary of our field trip, held at the quaint little farmstand we go to every so often to buy fresh, homemade Pumpernickel bread and fresh donuts too!  The store is called: Heidi's Farmstand--and they grow all the vegetables and flowers there---and bake all the goods there on site.  They don't grow the apples there, but buy them from growers in the area, and have a large variety of apples to choose from.  The family that owns/runs this store/farm, came to America from Switzerland way, way back---the first of them in the 1800's and then the rest around 1914.  This is a family run deal, and feels really good to visit!

They have Corn Mazes and all sorts of fun activities for families to come and do there---acres of pumpkins are growing all over the place!  

Now for the specifics of our event--they (Heidi's Farmstand and The Lowell Historic Society (an aunt) ) organized this field trip, and have buses of public schooled kids go through these six stations.  The stations:

1)Native American Village in the woods...they had around 7-10 "Indians" at the camp.  The leader (actually a member of our homeschool group-Link) gave a really detailed description of the life of the three different Indian tribes that lived in this area and how they formed a successful confederacy and worked together to protect themselves.  Since we forgot our lunch, these fellow hs'ers invited us to come back to their post during lunch time and share a meal with them....wonderful stew in a cast iron dutch boy.

2)Fur Trapping and Trading--also with fellow hs'ers in our LINK group.  They did a great job telling the story of Madame LaFramboise and Daniel Marsac.  We saw lots of animal hides, and heard some songs on a wooden flute and fiddle.

3)Woodland Adventure: this was the only spot that didn't really want to give just two people their normal speel.  They just gave us a rough idea of what they "normally" do for groups and let us look around at the signs at various kinds of trees, basically information about 10 different trees and how they were used (furniture, boxes, tools...).  The best part of this stop was that we got to take a nice little hike in the woods there and back again!

4)Apple Tasting: this was also another stop that just gave us a 10 minute review of the material that they "normally" show the students.  We got to taste and discuss six different kinds of apples.  We also got a donut and a small cup of apple cider---so good!

5)Grandma's Trunk: this was Dd's favorite stop.  This was done by Luanne, the woman who works for the Lowell Historical Society.  She was set up in a tent, and had her actual grandmother's things/trunk that came from Switzerland, and belongings.  She told the whole story of her grandmother's trip form Switzerland to Lowell, Michigan.  Dd got to do all sorts of fun things---doing it in order that she was taught in Switzerland (and this is the same order that my mother-in-law also does her home chores):

Monday is Laundry Day--do the wash-and Dd got to flake the soap into the tub and use the tools for washing in the tub, then the wringer- to get the water out of the clothes....

Tuesday is Ironing Day!  Dd was shown how this was done.

Wednesday was sewing and darning.

Thursday was making butter--and we got to eat some of the butter that Luanne made....wow, that was good!!!

Friday was clean the house day!

Saturday was cooking and baking day--fill up your pantry with food for all the guests you will have on Sunday.

6)Pioneer Farming: this was an interesting set up--the man running this station had built up a portable "barn", even having a loft with hay bales in it.  Dd and I got to saw some wood, and Dd got to sharpen a knife on this cool gizmo that ran the wheel from her riding a bicycle thing.  This was really fun--I liked seeing all the old tools.

I didn't take a lot of pictures---it was kind of odd to try to take a photo when we were only two people and they were totally focused on telling us their story.  I'm really glad we went!

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Sonlight Core G Week 14 "D" Early Middle Ages Oct. 12-17, 2015

Sonlight Core G  

Week 14 "D" 
Early Middle Ages 

Oct. 12-17, 2015

52nd week on this core!

Dd's birthday card for her Pappa!  She did a great job!

The inside of the card I made him!

After spending the weekend in Indiana, and having to say goodbye to our home---it was sad leaving.  Then when we got back 'home' in Michigan our kitty, Smedley, was clearly NOT doing well.  That theme--Smedley not doing well--was prevalent throughout the week.  I can't tell you how many times I cried over my kitty not doing well, and knowing that these are his last days.  But, there was definitely a huge CLOUD over our week, at least for me.  Dh and Dd are not so attached to Smedley, and he is totally a "mommy's boy." 

Monday was a bit crazy--we had to get the pool totally cleaned and partly emptied for the pool guys that were coming on Tuesday to "close our pool for the winter".  Well, Dd and I spent 4-5 hours working on it.  Then in the evening when Dh got home we pulled out the winter cover, and along with the cover there were 5-8 mice...really fat mice!  Oh my!  They gave me the shivers!  These mice had made a nest in this cover and chewed a few holes in it.  Besides the holes, the cover was so thin you could practically see through it.  On Tuesday, I woke up and cleaned out the leaves again (they must have fell all night).  Then when the guys arrived they quickly said this cover would't do---that we needed to buy a new one.  So, they took our old one to use as a guide for the new one and left.  Dh went by Lowe's and bought a 30' x 50' tarp to cover the pool while we wait the weeks it is going to take to get the new cover.  I won't even begin to tell you how much a new winter cover costs...whatever you guess is definitely not enough!  At least with the tarp on I won't have to spend more time fishing out the leaves anymore!  I feel like that is what I did all day Monday and Tuesday morning.

We spent hours on Monday and Tuesday before we got it covered up until the new cover comes in.

Dd and I took turns cleaning the leaves out

Here is our temporary cover until the new one can be put on by the guys at the pool store.

One good thing happened this week---while Dd was doing her Band (alto sax) class, I went to the store in the Homeschool Building and looked through the section of used materials (actually I looked at everything).  I found....wait for it...a big Sonlight blue binder with a 2010 Core 100 for $25.00!  What a huge, huge, huge blessing!!!  I love how SL use to have all the notes for each book all together back in 2010 and before!  I have not liked the way they divvy up the book notes/questions/vocabulary.  I really want to find an old Core H to buy---and soon.  But, I am so very appreciative of the Core H I found this week!  I also found two books for the core we are doing now---that I had wanted to buy, but had been pinching penny's and didn't buy them new, and now found them used:

The Man Who Laid the Egg

Louise A. Vernon

HERALD PRESS / 2002 / TRADE PAPERBACK

 The Man Who Laid the Egg
 and 

Ink on His Fingers

Louise A. Vernon

HERALD PRESS / TRADE PAPERBACK

Ink of His Fingers.

Another other thing to note of from this week--the co-op we are in, has a rule that everyone has to hold two events each year.  My event was scheduled for Friday Oct. 16th.  It is a special thing the Lowell Historical Society does each year at Heidi's Farmstand.  They have 6 stations with various things to learn about Michigan life at each of these stations.  Well, I sent out emails about this event, and we mentioned it each Thursday morning at the co-op's morning meeting.  But, I only had TWO families sign up.  Then on the very morning of the event, one family called and had to cancel.  The second family never showed up?!  So, while all the other groups had about 30 kids in each group, we were a group of two!  Just Dd and me!  I had on two long-johns under my jeans, and 4 long johns under my wool sweater, and ski hat!  And I still lost feeling in some of my toes and was so cold by the end, it wasn't funny.  Being outside in 40 degrees from 9 am to 2 pm...brrr!  But, Dd reminded me that I had to do two events, and now one of my events is done--completed!  And we could ask lots of questions at each station since we were so small of a group.  I tried to put a good spin on a weird situation.  I had to miss my CLOSING for the house due to this responsibility, it was Murphy's Law that the date I picked to do this event landed on the day the bank/title company scheduled our closing.  If this had been my Indiana homeschool groups, they would definitely had canceled the event due to lack of response, and I would have still got credit for organizing and offering an event.  All in all, even though it didn't work out the way I thought it would--it was still a really great event and I'm so glad we went!!!

Friday, Dh came home early so we could take Sophie and Smedley to the vet.  Sophie was so happy for the attention...until she got tired out, and laid down on their floor and started falling asleep.  She did great!  But, Smedley----not so good.  They took him in the back (without me, his comforter) and I guess it didn't go well.  They brought him back quickly saying his was fighting them on the blood withdrawal and that he didn't have enough energy to fight and they were worried that he might die.  He was a limp cat for the next 5 hours.  I syringed food to him before going to bed.  On Saturday the vet called and said it would cost over a thousand dollars to just do more tests...but, basically he has diabetes and is dying...and I need to figure out what to do soon...and crying, just isn't solving any of the problems.  I am so glad that Dh came with me to the vet, it helped me so much to not have to go alone (with Dd, but she doesn't count in these situations).

Here is our section of plants/flowers from Indiana that we brought up...there is a spot on the fence for a big blackberry bush, and another spot where our grape vine has been transplanted, but I didn't get a photo of those...Oh, and Dh also planted one of our Peony plants up front too.

Dh had a birthday this week!  Dd made him a chocolate cake, and super good icing---she just has the touch with baking---so good!!!  Then she made his favorite--Lemon Squares!  On Saturday, she used the new apples we bought at Heidi's Farmstand and made an apple pie--all from scratch--every thing she made this week!

Friday, Gwen, our realtor, called to let us know the house officially sold---and the paperwork should get to us next week.  It seems really hard to believe.

Our lessons:

Bible: 

another week working on completing Nehemiah.  We read Neh. 6,7, and 8 with our Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary

The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament:

Lesson 178: The Reading of the Law

Devotion:

Dd finished the Max Lucado: Every Day Deserves a Chance, and liked it very much!



History Reader:

Silver Branch

The Shining Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff
She read it through, and then asked to re-read it again.

Sonlight Read Aloud: (we did it on audio):Completed

A Single Shard

Linda Sue Park

The Single Shard

The Single Shard was fantastic!  This was such a treat!  I really liked it a lot!  Very recommendable! 

Science:

John Tiner's: History of Medicine:
Ch.1-5

This is the second time through this book, but it has been almost 2 years, and I think she could learn some more from this material.

Math:

Seven Family 2x each day

Math U See: Algebra I

3 A, B, C, 1/2 D

Khan Academy:
Abstraction, Meet the Heart

Current Events:
CNN Student News:

M-T-W

Geography:

Seterra

U.S. States 4x

Language Arts:

IEW's Fix-It: Sir Gwaiin and the Green Knight

Week 6: completed

All About Spelling 7:

Step 7: passed

Busy Hands:

*Finished the Swing she made and hung it in barn

All by herself--she showed us after it was all done

*a "LEGO" carved pumpkin

*Making fort out of wood paneling


*Decorating for Halloween

*Chocolate Cake and Icing


*Building a fort

*Lemon Squares

*Apple Pie and she also did the crust herself

Fun Reading:

Little Blog on the Prairie Paperback – May 24, 2011

by Cathleen Davitt Bell  (Author)

Little Blog on the Prairie

The Marvels

Sep 15, 2015

by Brian Selznick

The Marvels by Brian Selznick: Completed


Audio:

Red Queen

Feb 10, 2015

by Victoria Aveyard

Playaway: The Red Queen

House Progress:

Dh got some dry wall put up and got the seams meshed together:

Dh got to mow for the first time in Michigan:






I've been enjoying a few more walks around our trails:


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Core G Week 14 "C" Early Middle Ages Oct.5-11th 2015

Core G 

Week 14 "C"
Early Middle Ages

 Oct.5-11th 2015

This was a math week for us.  We had Dh work with us on a dry-erase board to show us how best to do our math questions.  It was really nice just focusing on math this week.

....that was as far as I got on doing a post for last week...I'm coming back to finish what I started, though it was only a paragraph!

We got back from being in Indiana over the weekend (Oct. 3rd & 4th).  Dd had a **blast** playing with the "L" family!  Dh and I dug up some daisy, cone flower, lamb's ear, black eye'd susan, strawberry...plants to bring back to Michigan.  We also packed up the kitchen things we had kept handy for cooking while there.

Then on Monday, I had to plant all those plants!  I had a fever for the first 4-5 days of the week, but it usually waited until evening before it would really get bad.  So, we were able to work on our lessons some each day, but I didn't get a lot done other than just the "have to's".

Besides being sick, our van sprung a weird leak on Tuesday evening--come to find out, it was anti-freeze!  Earlier in the day, on Tuesday, Dd dropped my brand new Iphone that I had only got turned on about 12 hours earlier!  The front face of it shattered...but it does still work.  I put in an order for a replacement front through Amazon.  Wednesday we all left together, Dd and I dropped Dh off at work, and then drove his car to Band & Choir.  Dh managed to buy a new radiator during his lunch..then to make a long story short, he stayed up late and put it in.  Wednesday morning he woke up at 4 am thinking about the repair and decided to go out and just take out the radiator then and there! And he did!  So, by Wednesday 11 pm, I had a new radiator, plus some other new things--hoses, temperature things, and cap.  I was back to driving my van by Thursday---just in time for our LINK co-op.

I had to cut and fold a bunch of construction paper, and cut out 16 pieces of wax paper to help do the craft project with the KinderKids class---they put colorful fall leaves between the two pieces of wax paper, with little chunks of crayon and we ironed the crayons to melt around/on the leave.  Then they used the folded construction paper as the frame for the "stained glass"....very easy and fun for the kids!  It did take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to cut out all the paper---but they didn't know that!

Friday Dd and I went to her "Girl's Club" at Sherri's house.  This "Sherri" is the same one that God placed at the Homeschool Building last spring when I went in asking "How do I meet homeschoolers in Michigan", and she heard me and invited us to a movie and bible study that very night!  How amazing God is!  We are still seeing this wonderful family, and through them we heard about joining the band and Girl's Club!  So far, the only thing I found without Sherri's help is the LINK homeschool group.  The event for this month was a bonfire, S'mores, and games outside.  We all had a really nice time!

Then in the morning we headed back to Indiana to get our last load of things---and a few more strawberry, grape, blackberry, and cone plants! Another visit with the "L" family---and remind them to invite us to visit soon!  G&G came up for lunch.  Then back to Michigan.

Our lessons this week:
Another week of way too much "other" things pulling us away from our lessons, so we just did the best we could do for this Season that we are in.  It doesn't help that Dd is in the middle of all sorts of "her" books, that haven't got put back in their second place position after her summer off---I'm working on that, but am somewhat thankful that her head is in a book instead of too much computer/screen time.  It helps we don't have our tv reception, or any connection to anything--so we can check out a movie from the library or one that we own to watch a show.

We have had many patches of doing a LOT of homework, and I guess it will have to be fine that right now we are in a season of doing too much non-homework stuff.  I have 90% decided to NOT sign up to do the LINK co-op classes in the winter.  One day of Band & Choir will have to be enough for now.  I've got SO much I need to be doing on the house, and I don't have any time to do it.

Bible:
Veritas Press Chronicles Through Malachi
we are on a "bunny trail" and reading the whole book of Nehemiah instead of just the few parts that VP had us read.  I really like reading the whole book, or at least most of the whole book.

Bible & Believer's Bible Commentary(BBC):
Neh. 6, 7, 8, 9,10

Psalm of the Week: 
Psalm 130 
with B & BBC

The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament:
Lesson 177: Nehemiah Threatened, but the Wall completed.  The Reading of the Law.

Dd's Devotional:
Dd has been reading this book for about a month now, and really liking it:
Every Day Deserves A Chance by Max Lucado
(I didn't assign this- she saw the book and asked for me to buy it for her.)

Dd also worked on the VP worksheets that she had gotten behind in--Card 93 (Nehemiah and the Jewish Return) finished.

MATH:
Math U See: Algebra I
2A, B, C, D, E, and test completed

Skip Counting Family:
the 3 family x2 each day
we use to do skip-counting a specific family for a week at a time every week, but due to being so busy we put this on the back burner for a while.

Sonlight Timeline and Mapping:
Week 13 & 14 : completed

Re-Reading:
The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff
Dd finished reading this last week, but wasn't ready to answer questions on it and asked to re-read it again.

Choir and Sax practice: daily

Busy Hands:
Working on making a swing

Fun Books:
The Marvels by Brian Selznick: started

Reckless by Cornelia Funke: in process

The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke: in process

Divergent by Victoria Roth: completed

The Red Queen : completed and then restarted with a "Playaway" (which is an audio)

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan: in process

....