Farm-to-Table: Flock Swap

We attended a flock swap as part of our farm-to-table studies for this season.  It was pretty nifty.  There was an easily walkable variety of critters and folks, and we believe we have determined which chicken varieties we want to attempt.

We're planning to pursue Brahmas, Delawares, and Orpingtons. Tis a real pity we don't have our coop set up yet because I would have come home with these beauties!

Dark Brahma Standard pairs

The boys were enamored with the baby rabbits that were available as well, but I hold the same philosophy as a friend of mine who stated: Our animals need to provide a functional service, we all have to work for our food.  I don't have the mental constitution for skinning and eating rabbits at this time.  Too much of a city girl.

"Spring Term"

We're currently on hiatus.

Our overall plan has always been to do structured lessonwork September through November, January through March, and May through July.  However, we also put life before seatwork so we haven't always accomplished that framework--but, life and homeschooling is a work-in-progress and we've been better honing both over the last couple of years.

Today I laid out our "lesson plans" for our "spring term."  We'll be completing our current World War II studies (Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes; Japan; a WWII overview) and doing lapbooks for dinosaurs, fossils, and volcanoes.  Our aspiration to also accomplish a photography unit (once a week), and an astronomy unit (while the evenings are pleasant though insect-ridden), will not be realized due to time.  We have weekly activities laid out: scouting, nature study/science, correspondence (HA!), library, art, museum trips, karaoke, baking, etc.  Zoo trips with Papa still need to be sorted.

I also managed to sketch out next year loosely!  Currently our "fall term" will be an overview of the 17th Century, Jamestown, Pilgrims, and Thanksgiving.  "Winter term" will be Founding Fathers, George Washington, and the Declaration of Independence; as well as a pause for the Iditarod--a custom from my childhood.  Next "spring term" will be the Revolutionary War.

It's exciting to get things scheduled....now to see how well follow-through goes....

WWII: Number the Stars

Eldest drug his feet through this portion of the unit.  He took off with the book and read it straight through-- and he's disappeared to listen to the audiobook for it as well--but the associated assignments have been like pulling teeth from a cranky crocodile.

It was finally completed (mostly).  I need to check on the diary entries, and the pamphlet is only a rough draft, but we're moving on for the moment.

The neat thing about it, besides his finishing off the book on his own, is the interest he's developed in Denmark.  Our Christmas celebrations this year are going to involve a lot of Danish traditions if we're able to pull it off!

WWII: Europe

We could not locate a lapbook for Denmark (we might make one ourselves), so we opted to do a lapbook for Europe in conjunction with our studies for Number the Stars.  This one had the option to write the answers yourself, trace the answers, or utilize pre-printed answers so Wee-one was able to participate more fully in the activities for this lapbook.

The Front Cover

We didn't do all the activities with the HOC-Europe lapbook
so were able to trim it down to a two-folder event.  This is
with the cover opened.

The section about the European Union.

The section about language and geography.

The back.

Valentine's Day

We don't tend to "celebrate" the candy events, but since we were going to a local nursing home to make Valentine's cards with some of the residents as a group I figured it was as good a time as any to do a quick study on the holiday.  Especially since I got a great deal on it with my SuperMembership and a $4 off special commemorating Hands of a Child's 400th lapbook.  There were a few items that we chose not to do, or utilize, and I should have sorted out my own placement rather than going off theirs--ah well.

That modified envelope again.

WWII: V is for Victory

Due to weather interference (we don't do lessons when DH is home, we utilize the time to be with him) and sickies we're a a bit behind on our original schedule for our World War II unit studies.  We did finish the segment that revolved around Sylvia Whitman's V is for Victory, but the pamphlet (book report) wasn't completed before the book had to be returned so it's in a state of limbo.  We'll have to interlibrary loan the next time we're at the library.  No credit given for that bit yet.

To go along with the V is for Victory we did a lapbook for the State of Hawaii, since Pearl Harbor was the event that finally involved the United States in the war.



We 3-hole punch all of our lapbooks so we can store them in a binder.
One binder per 'school' year.



We also use a couple of supplemental lapbook/notebooking pages
found here and here.

 

We modify the large envelopes to hold the 'reading material' from the
lapbook pdf.



Our Annual Historic Gingerbread

We were introduced to the gingerbread house contest at the Carolina Inn last year thanks to some friends of ours and decided to make it our holiday tradition to enter a historic gingerbread house each year.  This year the kids wanted to do something with trains, and after some research we found out about the Historic Burgaw Depot.

The Burgaw Depot is the oldest train station in North Carolina and one of two surviving antebellum depots.  At the time it was built it was on the longest railway in the world, and was involved in the Civil War as part of the supply line between Wilmington and Richmond.  The Depot was expanded in 1898, 1916-17, and 1941.  We had found some awesome sites and info online at the time that we were doing our research, but I cannot relocate most of them now that I'm finally doing the blogpost--one of them was a pdf of the Civil War Trail sign outside the Depot.  In looking for those pages and sites, however, I found out that they had their Grand Opening after recent renovations shortly before we had stopped in to do physical research for the gingerbread house!

Because of our size constraints for the competition (18"x18"x18") we decided to not do the platform; as it was we had to scale it to approximately 1-inch per 9-feet and put it at an angle to fit.

The perimeter on parchment, with the base board.

Eldest working on preparing gingerbread for cutting.

Wee-one doing his part.

The base of the warehouse section with its surrounding platform/walkway,

ready to bake in the oven.

Stacking the layers.

With the base of the roof.

Gingerbread railroad ties.

Royal iced sides, dried green onion for grass,

food-colored dried minced onion for railroad gravel.

Layers of yellow cake for the roof.

Roof over waiting rooms and baggage room.

Progress continues....

All gussied up and ready to go!

The circle of fondant was for writing the entry number on with

an edible marker.  Last year they had an issue with the entry

number placards being migrated about by visiting school

 children so the pictures of the winners did not match

the info for the winners.

We added another bit of fondant that indicated the Depot

was being shown circa 1916/1917.

We really enjoy doing historicals because it provides us with a finite opportunity to learn a little something extra, but unfortunately it's difficult to compete with the whimsical imaginations of the other entries.  They always have a fabulous turn-out!

This year's winner in the adult category was Amalia Bolivar.



...or Not...

Today totally turned on ear. Athletics and fall curricula are out the window. Instead we have an extended fieldtrip on the horizon. We're VERY excited!

Possible studies to link with our outing:
Prairies
Mountains
Pioneers
Native American tribes
Lewis & Clark (possibly)
Buffalo
Family History
Wind
Tornadoes
Watersheds
cow tanks

I know I'm forgetting tons!