A Week, Briefly (October 31, 2022)

Mister Man built a Lego Ent--he's reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy right now--and loving it!

 Between the dryer situation (which is resolved as of yesterday afternoon), psych appointments, our dance dress rehearsal, and illnesses, it was hard to feel like we did much "school." 

But we did what we could do!

Monday

I had about 5 activities planned.

We did one of them . . . or kind of two of them, depending on how you count.

These are our pumpkins. Before we cut into any of them, we made predictions about what we would find.  Some of our predictions were accurate, and some of them were not.  Some of our discoveries were delightful!

Not all of the kids tolerated getting their hands slimy and dirty, so I put pumpkin guts in plastic bags, and let the kids squish them.

Ladybug took great pleasure in squishing the guts.  She even formed some into a ball and shared the ball with adventurous kids.

One of the little pumpkins had huge seeds with gray trim around the edges.  They were beautiful, and they tasted just as good as the other seeds did once they were roasted.  Though it was strange to eat something gray . . .

This pumpkin was so hard, it took a hammer and chisel to get it open.  The inside was pretty standard, though.

We made predictions, had sensory experiences, made discoveries, expanded our vocabulary via conversation (mainly adjectives about the pumpkins, guts, and seeds), hypothesized about why the white pumpkin didn't have any seeds, separated the guts from the seeds, roasted and ate the seeds, and roasted the sugar pie pumpkin that day.

The next day I made a batch of pumpkin bars with the roasted flesh, and the kids said they were better this way than with canned pumpkin. 

Even though we didn't do all that I hoped for that day, writing it out shows me that we did quite a lot!

In the afternoon, Little Princess worked on the NASA STEAM assignment I'd given her the week before.  It was about triangulation as a means of determining satellite location.  It turned out better than she thought it would, and a few younger kids really enjoyed watching/helping.

This was the second-to-last day of Halloween candy.

In the evening, the older girls joined friends for trick-or-treating, and I started the book Understood Betsy with the younger 6.  

Instant hit!  

They were outraged at how over-protective Aunt Frances was, and (after I was alone) I laughed until my sides hurt over comments like these:

"What!?!?  She needs to play outside!!"

"She doesn't know what chores are?!?!?"

"No wonder she's afraid of everything!"

"How is she ever going to learn anything like that!?!?!"

And my absolute favorite--

"I wonder what Aunt Frances would think of you, Mom!!!"

Tuesday

Hee hee.

On our walk, the kids discovered a chair set out for large item pick-up, and they made good use of it!

Brother spent time on Monday afternoon fixing his cart, so on Tuesday morning, it was ready for play.

I just think it is so cool!

Knowing I had psych appointments in the middle of the morning, I decided to get outside with the kids and teach them how to actually play hopscotch as a game.

Oh. My. Goodness!

They love it!

Competition

Physical activity

Motor skills

Playing with Mom

All of it (and the perfect weather didn't hurt, either) combined to make magic.

The joy of the game still hasn't worn off, and they're playing every day--even if  I'm not there.

At lunch I introduced two of our new books for the month.

After lunch, the kids watched the first episode of Voyage of the Continents--a geology docuseries.  This one was about Africa.

I discovered some crummy negative behaviors that forced me to reduce some of the kids' unstructured playtime.

I want the kids to grow up as "free-range kids."

But they cannot.

I need to up my game as supervisor in order to keep them safe and prevent property damage.

We got to meet Tink--our new kitten.

We think she's a girl, so her name is Tinkerbelle.  But if she turns out to be a boy, he can be Tinker, so Tink works either way.  

She's part of a couple of abandoned litters that one of Rose Red's friends rescued a couple of weeks ago.  Our JoyJoy disappeared a few months ago (she was an outdoor cat and was 13 years old, so we suspect she went away somewhere private to die).  After visiting the kitten farm, we were all primed to want a kitten, so I asked Sir Walter Scott, and he said yes!

She's adventurous and lovey, and we are all in love.

Nature Angel finished her journal page on the female cardinal.

Nature Angel and Little Princess were delighted to join us for chapter 2 of Understood Betsy . . . even though we only read a little bit of it due to unpleasant behaviors.

Wednesday

We only had 4 babies because fevers claimed two of our usual crew, and our two once-a-weekers had come on Tuesday instead.

A perfect day to climb the limestone rocks at the nature center!

A single handful of leaves produced a gorgeous variety.

Mister Man was charmed to find a whole acorn attached to this sprig of leaves.

"No, I not pwaying yet!  I needa yook at 'dis sign!"

We left the rock climbing area when the second school group came through, and we intended to go right to the van, but the kids saw the little bird-watching area along the way, and of course we stopped!

The birds disappeared as soon as my noisy, wiggly troupe appeared, but had we been quiet, we could have hidden behind this blind and seen some great stuff.  Instead, we played and experienced our own great stuff.

Beowulf caught several tiny frogs, and everyone laughed when one of them jumped out of his hand straight into Mister Man's hand!  It couldn't have been done if it had been planned!

In the afternoon, I was reading more about geology, and Mister Man jumped out of his chair to draw a cross-section of the earth to explain to his siblings about crust, mantle, and core.

He was so sincere and sweet in his efforts.  All I could do was sit back and enjoy.

Then we watched The Secret of Roan Inish because Ireland is part of our November studies.

We finished chapter 2 and started chapter 3 of Understood Betsy.

Thursday

We found 2 missing books, but that still leaves us missing 6, so no family trip to the library. :(

Dance was a dress rehearsal because we have shows for the next two weeks before our fall/winter break.

I got a couple of my babies to dance by bribing them with M&Ms, and that's just how it's going to be for the shows that are coming. :)

It's a fun, energetic show, and I have no doubt that our audiences will enjoy it.

The afternoon was quiet for an hour or so before everyone ran off to Civil Air Patrol and church activities.

*Lola played a kid's version of Family Feud with her group.

*Ladybug and Nature Angel each did a 5 Love Languages quiz.  They both came back with Quality Time as their primary love language.  All I can say is that I'm glad we homeschool!

*Little Princess spent time with a telescope and an experienced astronomer at CAP.  She came home beaming with joy.

*The boys and I watched Star Wars: Rebels at home.

Friday

It rained, and sickness hit everywhere!

We settled in for quiet.

A little yoga in the morning.

And a guitar lesson.

The kids were inspired to have a tea party because I found forgotten Halloween sprinkles (part of Monday's undone plans), and we had ingredients for sugar cookies.  

While Little Princess baked the cookies, I played a rollicking game of Ticket to Ride with 4 of the kids.

Then we decorated cookies and ate and read poems and stories from this month's Book of Delights.

We watched The Secret Garden, 2 episodes of Pride and Prejudice, and 1 episode of Voyage of the Continents.

That was about all we could handle.

Here's hoping for good health in the week ahead!