We'll attempt to homeschool for the duration, Just because we can

Love what you do even when you don't like it all the time, especially when you get to invest in what matters for eternity :-)

When the Troops Explore Speed Control

Unexpected Field Trips to Review a Rain-forest Habitat

Kudos to all you teachers out there who are constantly carrying out a unit study.  But when you don't know if the Daddy will authorize an attempt at empty seats on a plane (because he works at the airline) it's hard to plan ahead for the unit study opportunity. Most often, our field trips don't relate specifically to what we are studying in history or science.  With exception, our trip last month to Gettysburg National Park came just as we finished our studies and reading about the United States Civil War, but the trip to San Jose, Costa Rice this month was an unscheduled review of HABITATS (as well as a visit to our church's international workers here).

I seem to recall from my professors in teacher's college that we, as teachers, must repeat something three times before a student will process it (even to the smallest degree) - or maybe that was in church from one of our pastor educators.  Either way, we've completed physical geography lessons from Hands of a Child regarding the (cloud) Rain-forest Habitat and visited the big island of Hawaii once to see the Hilo side where everything is lush and forested in like manner.  But we never expected to take a day trip to the La Paz Waterfall site north of San Jose on a perfect October morning with the guide extraordinaire.

We saw brilliant foliage, indigenous animals and waterfalls. This trip made an impression on my kids so that if given the choice again, they would go to the mountains before trekking to the beaches on either side of the isthmus between the Americas.  And maybe they will visit more sites in the future to make reference to their habitat studies, but that only reinforces how important it was to be intentional and make the effort to teach them nature study no matter what habitat they found themselves (irregardless of our unit study status).

Church Drama Production includes all 3Gs

"New Testament Rewind" is a wonderful way to learn about the Bible.
G1 ran lights and G2 had various parts throughout the play as well.

Thanksgiving Field Trips Rock!

No, we didn't fall off the face of the earth. Yes, we did school including SOTW3 Chapters 14 & 17 as well as Logic Stage Chemistry about Halogens prior to leaving for the trip.  But, better than that we experienced and discussed Louis XIV and the Prussians along with "states" of Germany, and who the Fredericks of Prussia and Brandenburg were.  We visited the castle in Heidelberg where Frederick brought his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart (greatgreatgreat something grandmother of the George III who dealt poorly with American colonists during Revolutionary War), the daughter of James I (King James Bible guy).  We walked where the 30 Years War took place in the 1600s.  We relished the unique environment of Christmas Markets while exploring how cormorants dive forever in the frigid, eddying waters of the Rhine River branch that surrounds the Grand 'Ile of Strasbourg.

So, now we recover from jet lag and ignore the evening hours b/c we're temporarily ALL morning people around here. We put together a gingerbread house for the first time, and fill the new Advent calendar before Advent ends. We find the Christmas tree and let kids decorate b/c it's their turn again. We put away all the clean laundry from the trip and plan our Christmas shopping and recipes for treat plates to share.  Thanksgiving trips are a blessing and we wouldn't miss this opportunity for family trips to worlds where we'd never dreamed were possible to reach before the changes of 2006 & 2007.  We look forward to time with other family and friends during a time of the year when all are blessed by a 2000 year Blessing.

Habitat Study otherwise known as Physical Geography

My theme for teaching PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY was all about field trips and short-to-the-point pieces from Hands of a Child through the vendor CurrClick.com.  Truly, my focus was on ecosystems, but so much from my teaching assistant position in the Geography/Geology University Department came through these discussions of ecosystems into landforms and weathering factors. 

Over the past six years we've covered ocean, desert, polar, forest, mountain, rainforest and grassland.  We began with the Apologia book about oceans and swimming things.  I enjoyed it, but the book tended to drag on and on even though I brought in the compelling H.C. Holling book, Seabird to read.  So, we moved on to polar topics with a lapbook product that coincided with the winter Olympics in Canada.  Desert ecosystems were next when we got to visit the high desert in Utah several times.  Then the mountain topic because, while in the high desert, there was skiing down a mountain, and it all related so well together.  Deciduous and evergreen forests were discussed while we enjoyed H.C. Holling's book called, Paddle-to-the-Sea.  We studied the rainforest after visiting Hawaii.  I really LOVE field trips!  Lastly, we are now finishing the grassland materials.  Truthfully, I never considered the various grassland habitats on each continent and how those differ. 



We don't do these products as lapbooks anymore.  Even though I have one tactile learner, the others get so bogged down by cutting and coloring, and that wasn't why I wanted this study in the first place.  These studies allowed my 3Gs to read, think and write about each bit of information presented by the HOAC authors as well as other story book materials.  Nature studies were best organized through these topics for us over this period.  Now that we're concluding these habitat studies, Nature Study will take a different direction.  (Including a hummingbird moth in front yard.)

ABOVE: G2 USED THE ED EMBERLING THUMBPRINT ART BOOK TO SET THE WETLAND SCENE.  G1 ALSO PERFECTED HIS SPELLING OF HABITAT AFTER THE FRENCH VERB LESSON WHICH MADE HIM CONJUGATE "TO LIVE" VERB.

LOGIC STAGE THIRD YEAR: WEEK TWO WRAP UP

After watching and discussing the "Dangerous Journey" video from AIG, we worked on completing an outline to SOTW3CHchapter 2, begins on page 25 of Dr. Bauer's book which is our spine from Grammar stage history.  The title of the chapter and sections helps us organize the extra readings which build us up for high school and college expectations in Social Studies.
Protestant Rebellions (Oh good, a review of who is fighting who)
The Dutch Revolt
Kindle Readings:  Synge Awakening of Europe:  Story of the Netherlands, Brave Little Holland, A Wealth of Herrings, Beggars of the Sea, The Massacre of Bartholomew, The Siege of Leyden, William the Silent, The House of Orange, William's Invitation
Guerber Story of the Thirteen Colonies:  Ch. XVIII, The French in Canada, Spain, Netherlands.  1579.  Ch. XIX, French and Spanish Quarrels.  Ch. XX, The Sky City.  Ch. XXI, Around the World
Along with this reading we created a venn diagram compare/contrast William and Philip.
In conjunction with art, we read Mike Venezia's Rembrandt.

The Queen Without a Country  (And another bonus is a review of why John Knox is important to good Scottish stock.)
Kindle Reading and Narration: 
Synge Awakening of Europe: England, Elizabeth's Sailors, Drake's Voyage round the World, The Great Armada, The Golden Days of Good Queen Bess, First Voyage of the East India Company, The Dutch at Sea.
Guerber Story of the Thirteen Colonies:  Ch. XXII, Nothing But Smoke, Scotland.  1587
Encyclopedia References:
Usborne pages:  Pgs. 310-311; The Rise of the Dutch
KHE pages:  Pgs. 228-229; Dutch Independence  1477-1648
KHE pages:  Pgs. 210-211; Tudor England 1485-1603

The SOTW3 student guide recommended reading Always Room for One More by Sorche Nic Leodhas.  I read The Wheel on the School by DeJong when these three were in 2nd and 3rd grades, so I was able to narrate back to them about each part of the book.  The discussions were fun and enticed us to go to Europe again soon, and maybe even look for storks, and find heather on the moors with bagpipes in the wind. 

Chemistry study found us with the same sources this week and the task to READ and SKETCHaRESPONSE from:  HSW: inside and atom, elements and compounds
Kindle:  Wonder Book of Chemistry, Chapter 3 (The Slice of Toast) and Chapter 4 (Simple Substances) [PLUS WE USE EVERNOTE TO NARRATE ALOUD ABOUT THIS SOURCE]
Hands of a Child Notebook with questions:  Atoms, Molecules, Bonding, Changing Molecules, Elements.  DK Chemistry pages 8 and 9; http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/multimedia/; https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry".  EXPERIMENT OF YOUR CHOOSING found G3 freezing a water balloon, G2 discussing the product packaging in the grocery store and

Math, Grammar and Spelling went right along schedule. G1 reviewed French lesson 2 and Latin lessons 3 and 4 seamlessly.  He also managed the logic in lesson 2 of Fallacy Detective.  Flag study, habitat study, Illinois state study and art were done with much less stress than any other time - ever.

Below you see Grampa telling the 3Gs why this tractor was sitting on 3 pop bottles with the engine running and wheels engaged... That was quite a story about this 1938 John Deer tractor!

So the biggest part of our week came when we were able to experience a Threshing Show with Grampa.  He grew up using teams of horses to prepare, plant and harvest the farm fields where he, then I grew up.  He knows all about the machines used to farm from growing up and inheriting his father's farm.  Why is there a basket atop that steam engine exhaust stack? Grampa said that the sparks from the fire that ran the steam engine would start the wheat field on fire back in the day. Also, which came first, the railroad steam engine or farm tractor steam engine?  Sounds like G2 has a science fair project for next spring! 

Interest Lead - Life Skill - Phys Ed - Whatever!

So many people partner with us to teach 3Gs.  D&Am are part of that team. Am is intense and knowledgeable about dance.  She shared that a long time ago, but I didn't know if the Gs would go for it.  But bowling was over and DandAm are headed away for work soon. I just couldn't let a little reluctance or rigidity keep us from trying to learn how to dance from Am. D is there to reflect on what he's learned about dance too, but Am runs the dance floor.  This is an hour of dance and cultural lessons for my tweens and me, so we all get exercise.  More about DandAm later b/c they're awesome!

Action shots: Waltz

 Review smooth dance steps

Field Trip in Istanbul to 1453

Our travels to Turkey in September 2012 went almost unmentioned here on the blog.  So, I decided to finally include pictures of one field trip while in Istanbul on the European side from G1's history notebook page this week.  Our Story of the World Medieval Times spine directed us to readings about the conquering of Constantinople by Mehmet, but we'd actually seen one of the Byzantine forts along the Bosphorus during our recent trip.  Below you see the parapets, inside the gate, cannons and chains that stretched across the Strait to the Asian fort on the other other side.  It was a wonderful visit and G1 shared personal reflections in his notebook page unlike some of the other weeks of history.  He was also able to mention the Turkish influence in Vienna after our November 2012 visit to the street that replaced the city walls Medieval Ottomans couldn't take. 

Hit this link to see what a Middle Easter Scholar Sees 1453 Image

Some Words Just Don't Work for ME

Some words are very easy to say. Accidentally, luckily, coincidentally...  Those words are just not that helpful. They don't tell the whole story about the fact that things happen as a logical sequence of events that I've started OR that someone other than myself have started. Doesn't mean I'm a fatalist, it just means that the words accident, lucky and coincidental are used way too much.
Some words are more easily acted out. Entitlement, Deserve.. Really, we all deserve and are entitled to a miserable existence on our own (alone) in this tiny planet with no mercy or hope. Really, all have done hideous things to some extent and are entitled to punishment.  I just do the best with what I've got and am trying each day to be incredibly grateful instead of entitled.
Grace is a better word, and love; humble, generous, polite, providence. So much easier to use those words more readily, or for that fact, just act them out on a regular basis to get the muscles working.  Yep, a grace muscle needs exercise.  These muscles work for me and I do the best with what I have thankfully trying to learn something from it all.

Fourth Travel Thanksgiving

Daddy took the job. We moved to Chicagoland. Kids went into the classroom. Everything was normal. Then, the classroom wasn't working for the exploration of what's available in the area. For example, one day I was late traveling from an expedition with the twins to pick up the oldest from the classroom. It was terrifying to be that far away and not trust where G#1 was in the classroom. So, we pulled the kids from the classroom, and began traveling space available on the largest airline in the United States. Regularly.

Why travel over Thanksgiving? That's the holiday all about family and food and gathering. Well, that's the holiday when the most seats are available for space available travelers like us. First, we traveled with the Daddy's folks to Munich and Salzburg. Then a year later, we got on with the paternal, adventurous Grandmother to Rome. Last year the five of us got to see Berlin and Prague. It was truly life-changing for me. This year, the five of us traveled leisurely, if not a little bit early in the morning, to Montreal. Yes, Thanksgiving is a travel holiday for us because there are people who are more willing to save the money and drive instead of buying the plane tickets. 

Yep, it means we home-school for the maximum flexibility. So far, that's working.  It was fun, FUN, F-U-N to go to a foreign culture and still be able to find English letters that were somewhat decipherable. The food was an adventure as well. By the way, all these four years in a row, we've eaten Turkish food where ever we've traveled on the Thursday of Thanksgiving. You know, eat Turkish on turkey day. The Turks call the bird most citizens of these United States eat hindi. It stands for sub-continental Indian. So, why can't I find a play on words and eat too? You only live once and we definitely live within our means to do so. Travel is a benefit like the trips to the dentist or emergent care. Once we realized how blessed we were to be placed in this life stage, we committed to developing it to the best of our knowledge and ability.

Our education is ongoing and it's not all about travel. It's about language study, grammar and vocabulary. It's about history and science, math and life lessons.  We've taught lessons to each other that we are blessed to share here on the blog. We are blessed to have dear friends and some dear relatives reading about our expeditions, because they love us enough to find us. Encourage us and work with us when we aren't "home" for family or friend gatherings. That's what I'm thankful for... blessed with... everyday of the year.

Sewing with G#2

I didn't best learn to sew from my mom.  We are very much alike.  I did value the time I spent with Dad's Aunt Ruth who patiently guided me through many of the 4H sewing projects I tried. When I waited too late and the county fair approached too soon, then I had to sew with my mom's supervision. That wasn't much fun for either of us. 

So, when our junior me decided she wanted to wear an outfit that resembled Ahsoka Tano from the Clone War episodes which occur somewhere in the Star Wars continuum before Anakin Skywalker turns rotten.  I offered her the opportunity to buy the costume on-line, but she asked if she could make it. Well, she picked out the fabric, the shirt, stockings and tapes. I found the face paint that helped finish it off. The one thing that didn't go as well as I'd tried was my first attempt at paper mache for the head piece. 

The paper mache head piece was pitched into oblivion on Monday the 31st at 3pm, and the muslin do-rag with blue paint tape and shiny beads was found an acceptable substitute.  After the face paint was applied, she was satisfied with the production and we commenced to visit the neighbors for treats. 

This will always be her first sewing project, and it was a memory for me of a cooperative, patient mommy. I hope she wants to sew again soon and that it becomes something she does with all her creativity and independence. 

Well, If you've ever wondered...

what a field trip to Checkpoint Charlie would be like, here it is.


Berlin was a wonderful experience both for food, transport, interactions with locals and transplants. I was not taken into the museum at this site because I begged for mercy from the Cold War Era history lesson. I'd take the same an ancient or medieval history lesson a dozen times before studying this essential recent time period. I sat at *$ for an hour and a half while the Daddy soaked up history from one of his FAVORITE time periods and shared that interest with the kids.  The highlights from our 3Gs were how many ways people attempted to escape East Germany during the 60s, 70s and 80s. It was amazing to them to consider people escaping in luggage, grocery carts or parts of a car.

I watched the gypsies beg for money outside the door and examined the traffic patterns which allowed cars from right and left and then to and fro and then diagonally from oncoming corners to the u-bahn for pedestrians.  I marveled at how this corner has changed over the past 21 years.  I'm thankful for our visit to Berlin. Didn't think I'd ever say that.

Inclined Plane

The physics lesson about inclined planes didn't go exactly how it was supposed to, but we learned something AND we used the Home Depot make and take kit.

For example, the plane was supposed to be 2 rulers at differing angles. So, we used the clamps to anchor the half of our original ramp.  The cars were not heavy enough to be forced down the ramp by gravity. And finally, our rubber bands were too strong even when we tried several sets (Dollar Store bundle of rubber bands used one more time).  So, we tried to weigh the car down with Magnetix. It was not a significant amount of pull until we loaded up one of the cars to stretch the rubber band a whole inch. 

Tall Ships Field Trip

Sailing lessons at the Tall Ship extravaganza on Navy Pier with the Daddy.
Such salty dogs and a giddy Daddy...

Mom, that's not Beethoven!

Group study is done and individual work commences.  No, that's John Lee Hooker singing "Ida Mae" my Dearies.  That's my own form of music therapy for the day folks. 

Tennessee Lessons

Chattanooga Choo Choo

NASA Visitor

Lookout Mountain Battlefield                                    

Incline Railway

Kayaking Lessons

We Got On to Knoxville...

We were able to visit the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge on Thursday afternoon before meeting Gramma and Papa for a visit with old friends in the Chattanooga area.  We saw the Incline Railway and Lookout Point with the National Parks atop. The Choo Choo is still here and we found it, grand as always.  We also found a fresh dozen Krispy Krema Kruilers - JOY JOY JOY Down in my heart! Now for a hop out of Knoxville on Sunday. We'll just see where we are all going to fit. Details to follow because we want to end up in Boston Sunday night for Daddy's BIG BIRTHDAY. It's an expedition and we are up for it!

We love the element model at AMSE. It's been there since the Daddy was a kid. We were introduced to William Jennings Bryan on this recent trip. We will learn more about him later.

Art lessons with Carol and Russell

Sit across the table from your subject and draw them without looking down to the paper and without lifting your pencil from the paper. Test your observation skills. It's not as easy as you think.

They are professionals, and you can tell they are practiced in observation.