Autumn Shenanigans!

We are starting to wrap up our autumn activities and look ahead to the holiday season, basketball season, and the Christmas lighting season!  All of these will keep us very busy in the coming weeks, but, I wanted to share some pics of activities we enjoyed over the last few weeks.

We enjoyed another trip to Curtis Orchard with our friends, the Barnharts.  We couldn't pass up another round of apple donuts and cider...YUM!!!  We then went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.  

 

 

 Here we are at "Trunks of Treats" dressed as the S'mores!  We took 2nd place in the trunk decorating contest and used our gift card to purchase a new family movie!

 A sign that fall is coming to an end shortly...the squirrels have started to gorge themselves on our pumpkins!  They have been taking bites out each day and today they were finally caught in the act!  Stinkin' squirrels!

Election Day

For the last month we have been learning about the election process with our friends, the Barnharts. Miss Emily took the time to research and teach the kiddos about our right and privilege to vote.  We put together these amazing lapbooks to show all that we have learned over the last month.  We took Devin and Hannah with us to vote this morning so they could see how a polling site is set up.  They took their lapbooks to show the election judges and even received their very own "I Voted" sticker to place in their lapbooks!  It was a great experience for all of us as we exercised our right to vote in this great country!

Watching a video about the different types of government.

Taking an oath after filling out their pretend "voter's registration."

Looking through books about the election process.

Miss Emily is teaching about the qualifications required to hold an elected position.

                              Please be sure to Vote!

Our First Report Cards!

Well, we did it!  We made it through our first 9 weeks of homeschool!  I am so proud of Devin and Hannah for their hard work!

Straight A's!!!

Straight A's!!!

September Happenings!

My apologies for taking so long to post this blog!  We have been so busy!  We've also been dealing with colds and allergies so I had to put blog updates on the back burner for a bit.  We are still having a wonderful time learning at home!  We celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday in September by working on a lapbook that had all sorts of fun information for us.  We read books, watched a movie and went to the apple orchard to have apple donuts and apple cider.  We even invited David and David William to join us!  On one afternoon we had an apple tasting, estimated and counted the apple seeds inside of an apple, decorated apple cookies and even made some homemade applesauce in the crockpot!

 All in all, we had an exciting month learning about plants and the fruits they produce.   A great time to talk about Johnny Appleseed and his passion for apples!  In a previous post, I put up pictures of the kids planting seeds.  Only our lima beans started to sprout.  :(  But, we gave it a good try and had fun!  The kids checked their lima beans everyday and gave me daily reports on their progress.  They were thrilled to see the changes that took place on almost a daily basis!  Our sweet Aunt Ina gave us another idea that we will try in the spring...growing grass seed on a wet sponge!  Once the grass starts growing, the kids can give the grass "hair cuts."  We look forward to that experiment!

Plants!

Devin started a science unit on plants this week.  We spent a few minutes this afternoon planting seeds in hopes that we will be able to watch them grow.  We planted pumpkin seeds in the actual pumpkin (I got the idea off Pinterest.)  We also planted lima beans and apple seeds.  The apple seeds were Devin's idea because he had an apple for lunch and found the seeds!  I don't have much of a green thumb so this could be interesting!  Oh well, we certainly had fun playing in the dirt!  I will keep you posted if these little seeds actually start to grow.

Stay tuned next week because we will be celebrating Johnny Appleseed's birthday by making lapbooks about his life and taking a trip to Curtis Orchard to pick up apples for homemade applesauce in the crockpot!

ROAAAR!

Our bible verse this week is Psalm 4:3, "But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto Him."  Today we talked about how Daniel trusted God even if it meant he would be thrown into the lion's den.  I wonder how many of us would actually take a stand for our faith when push comes to shove.  Do I call upon the Lord instead of trying to take matters into my own hands?  Do I trust him fully with my life?  I pray I do, but I know that sometimes I fall short.  Fortunately, my Heavenly Father is merciful and ready to take me by the hand and guide me through this crazy life!  I pray, that as I grow in my faith, I will be an example to my children that trusting in our Heavenly Father in all areas of our life provides us the courage when we stand face to face with the lions!

Insects & Spiders!

On Friday, we went on a field trip to Lake of the Woods for a class on "Insects & Spiders."  We were able to hunt for bugs and put them in cool little bug boxes. The box had a magnifying glass on the top so we could get a better look!  Hannah volunteered to be dressed up as a bee and our friend Griffin volunteered to be dressed up as a spider!  We were also able to see what it is like to have fly eyes!  It was a great morning digging in the mulch with fellow homeschoolers!