October Field Trips

 October was a super busy month!!

First, we took a short trip with some other families over to Athens, Tennessee to visit the Mayfield Dairy Plant, where we got to do some (fake) cow-milkin',

some (real) ice cream eatin', 

and some cool porch sittin'!

 And don't forget some funny-face-makin'!

 After this, we headed over to the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum to take in some relics from the past...

some old, 

some not so old!

It was a really sweet day

 with friends.

Later in the month, our whole family hit the road for a whole weekend of field trips near Johnson City.    

First, we visited the Gray Fossil Site & Museum.  They had some neat activities for the kids.  It was great to learn about fossils found right here in our own home state.

Next came an unplanned stop, a little gem we found out about as we browsed the rack of brochures when we stopped for lunch.  Just down the road from the fossil site, on the campus of East Tennessee State University, is a cool railroad exhibit.  The George Carter Train Museum contains a very large model train layout which was built and is maintained by volunteer staff.  We were all very impressed by its size and detail.  (And it's free!)  What a great find.



The next day, we headed down the road to Greenville to check out the home of the Constitution President!  (Okay.  I don't know how broadly he is known by that title, but if you're going to choose a nickname as president, it doesn't get much better than that!)

  The Andrew Johnson home offers a lot to see.  From a replica of his birthplace, to his  original (!!) tailor shop, to two homes he and his family occupied during different periods.  A lot of information.  I'm sure the kids did not absorb it all, but we always have fun looking around old homes.




Last, but not least, we stopped at Davy Crockett's birthplace, which is a state historic site.  As you can guess from the picture, this was by far Andrew's favorite stop.  He had the opportunity to fire Davy Crockett's gun!!!!

We enjoyed looking around the historical exhibits and cabin (a reconstruction)... and the kids especially had fun taking every chance to photo-bamb.  :)

Strike a pose!

Andrew Attack!!

Ta-da!

Reagan on the prowl... and not quite sure
what Andrew and Ellie are doing to each other here!

And to close, some wonderful words to live by, courtesy of Davy Crockett himself:

September Field Trips

It seems that most, not all, of our field trips this month, either in part or in full, had a common theme: our nation in conflict.  We had an interesting time seeing how much the business of war changed from the 19th century to the 20th.  I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to visit these sites; our history lessons will be so enriched by these experiences.
1.  Fall Creek Falls Mountaineer Festival

5th-generation furniture maker!

This festival celebrating pioneer skills and lifestyle tends to be similar from year to year, but the kids won't hear of skipping it.  Since we all enjoy it so much (plus it's nearby and free), we make room on the schedule for it every September.  

Broom maker

We had the opportunities to talk with and watch a broom maker, furniture maker, several blacksmiths, alpaca farmer & his wife who spins and weaves, a sorghum farmer, and several members of a Civil War encampment.

Ready!  Aim!  BOOM!  

     

2. LST 325 World War II ship

We had a chance to see the real deal this day-- an actual ship from D-Day.  This floating museum was there on the beaches of Normandy that awful day of 1944.  We were first given an introductory history of the LST's and their important role in WWII.  Then, touring the ship, we saw various photographs and exhibits.  One exhibit that was a particular favorite of the kids was a detailed replica, made entirely of Lego-style bricks, of an LST unloading tanks and men onto a beach while under attack.  During the tour, it was a honor to meet and talk with some of the men who not only work to bring this museum to us, but many of whom are veterans, including one from WWII.

3. Chickamauga Battlefield

We attended the 151st anniversary weekend of the Battle of Chickamauga.  Now, I am by no means a Civil War buff, but I am forever fascinated by the history, the soldiers, the politics, and the family stories from this era.  This was a great opportunity to have a blow-by-blow walk-through of a significant battle by an extremely knowledgeable historian, Jim Ogden.  The park itself is really neat, too.  In the years after the war, veterans came back and verified the locations of certain important movements during this two-day struggle.  Many monuments (300+)  have been erected to show locations of the heaviest fighting of different divisions of infantry and cavalry, and to mark the places where high-ranking officers were killed or mortally wounded.  This place certainly warrants another trip; we spent all day here and yet left much unseen.

4. Hike to the base of Fall Creek Falls and "Dangers of the Wild" ranger talk

I love living so close to Fall Creek Falls!  We called ahead for this trip to the park and were able to meet with a ranger for guided hike and a presentation about wild animals.  We had a beautiful day for hiking and enjoyed a great time with friends, Misty, Aloni, and Anna.

First came the talk about animals in the wild, in particular ones that can pose a threat to our safety.  Then, Ranger Jon brought out a non-venomous snake for the kids to hold.  Marian's always game for this type of thing, but Drew and Ellie surprised me.  This was a first for them.  Reagan would not even touch it. :)

At the base of the falls

  After this, we hiked from the overlook of the falls to the base.  The kids and I did this hike about the same time last year, which was the first time for all of us.  This second trip was no less awe-inspiring.

In places like this Psalm 8:4 come to mind, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"

These pictures don't quite do it justice.  As we hiked down into the gorge of the falls, the trail takes us along a towering wall of rock.  The ranger provided some interesting information about Indian movements in this area many years ago, but...

As I walked, my mind wandered back much further.
I tried to imagine the great flood... the fountains of the great deep... perhaps this very rock splitting apart... water gushing forth with tremendous pressure... the sound of the earth in trevail... and Noah & his family, far away, obediently (nervously?) waiting in a boat.  What an incredibly powerful God!

And even today, He meets us in the most surprising places.  Field trips!!

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My Week in Review

Thriving Thursday
Weekly Wrap-Up

Five on Friday-- Highlights of My Week

1. Reagan and I read The Hungry Caterpillar several times this week.  His favorite projects included building this caterpillar (and others like it); discovering lots of things around the house that begin with 'c' like c-cat, c-cake, c-car; and making a hungry caterpillar lunch, consisting of apples, a pickle, sausage, and chocolate cake!  Which brings up an interesting question:

if Reagan gets to lick the beater...

  ...WHO gets to lick Reagan?



2. Our family Bible study this week centered mostly on Jesus as the Way.  So much food for thought here.  We talked about the many different ways we could travel to a nearby city, and that all those routes would successfully take us to our destination.  Jesus is not like that.  Jesus did not present Himself as a way, but as the Way.  "No one comes to the Father except through me."  We also discussed how the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus' death.  This is such a powerful image to me.  It was not torn from the bottom up by man's hands, but top to bottom by God's power.  Through His death, Jesus provided the way by which we can each draw near to God, without a human high priest needed to intercede for us. (Hebrew 10:19-22)

3.  We added math to our home school schedule this week... and pretty seamlessly at that.  Marian does her math mostly independently.  Andrew seems to have a better grasp on things than he did at the end of last year, thanks to a summer's growth and God's mercy!  Ellie is not always a willing math student, but she is certainly more than capable.  As for Mom, math is her favorite subject!

4.  The girls' ballet classes started back up this week.  I am so excited to see how much they will learn and improve this year!  Also, Marian joined Bryan College Community Children's Choir.  The girl loves to sing and I am excited to give her this opportunity.
 Andrew is halfway through the football season now.  Sometimes he has a rough or discouraging practice, but he has come so far and I know that overall, he loves it.  And we love attending his games every weekend and cheering him on!

5.  Last, but not least, even though I've already posted about it, I'm still feeling the urge to brag over the first 5K that Marian finished with me.  First of many!!

Linking up with:
Weekly Wrap-Up
Random Five on Friday
My Week in Review

Reading Lists 2014

Now for the new item in my homeschool plans I am most excited about... reading lists!!  In the past, I have always encouraged my kids to read quality books, and they do quite well.  I read aloud to them almost every day.  At times, I have given one of them a book and told them, "You are going to read this!"  Most times they end up enjoying it; once in a while, not so much.

However, I have never made a written, planned list of required reading for any of them.  Until now!!

I started out intending to select about six books for each child.  Well, that list got out of control so fast!  I finally managed to trim the list down to about ten per child, with a bit more than that for Ellie because some of her books are quite simple and she is a really good reader.  They may not be able to complete all ten this year, but you never know until you try!  Many of these books are ones I have read before; the rest have been recommended by reliable sources.  Of the books that are new to me, I hope to find the time to read them along with the kids.

So without further ado.... The Lists.

*Marian (strong reader, 8th grade)*

Mary Slessor: Missionary Mother

Behind Rebel Lines

Twenty-One Balloons

The Singing Tree

The Endless Steppe

Number the Stars

If I Perish

Red Scarf Girl

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

The Phantom Tollbooth

*Andrew (a-bit-reluctant-but-good reader, aka typical boy, 6th grade)*

David Livingstone (by Sam Wellman)

Shades of Gray

Old Yeller

The Singing Tree

Misty of Chincoteague

I am David

Lassie, Come Home

Hatchet

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

*Ellie (strong reader, 3rd grade)*

Abraham Lincoln: A Photobiography

Thee, Hannah

Meet Kirsten (if time allows)

Meet Addy (if time allows)

Shipwrecked (by Rhoda Blumberg)

Anastasia's Album

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Meet Kit

A Penny for a Hundred

Molly Learns a Lesson (if time allows)

Charlotte's Web

Cricket in Times Square

The Secret Garden

 After reading each book, the kids will write a short summary of the story and complete some sort of creative project relating to the book.  For example, each list starts with a biography.  The project for this will be a picture collage and, if they would like, one or two quotes from the person studied.

For most of the books, I will let them choose what creative project they would like to do.  Ideas for these projects include...

a comic strip or newspaper article, 

a diorama or triorama (!!), 

a lapbook or shapebook, 

a movie poster, 

a diary entry, 

a paper doll figure for the character(s), 

a Venn diagram, 

a story map, 

a mobile, 
a collage,

a wordsearch or crossword puzzle, 

a cereal box book report, 

a main character body book report, 

or an art project which integrates key words from the story.

That's the plan for our reading this year!  I would love to hear about other homeschooler reading lists, or if you would like to weigh in on any books in our lists, that would also be welcome!

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

New School Year, New Plans

Every homeschooler in southeast Tennessee is probably a combination of electrified and exhausted this weekend as the Chattanooga Homeschool Curriculum Fair is on!  Dwayne and I went together this year-- a rare treat, indeed!  We had a wonderful time and had the chance to look over some really great school materials.
This year, we have Marian in 8th grade, Andrew in 6th, Ellie in 3rd, and Reagan, age 4.  So what's in store?
For starters, we're going to continue with last's year's strategy:  forego co-op classes in favor of field trips in the fall, then rejoin co-op for the spring semester.  We had such a great time last fall going places and seeing things together!  A definite do-again!

Our core curriculum continues to be My Father's World.  We have made it to year 5 in the MFW Family Learning Cycle!  It has been so cool to go through all this history chronologically with my kids.  There's so much history that I just did not catch the first time through (back in my school years), and, truth be told, so much that I have yet to truly catch now!  This year we will be reading about events from 1850 to the present.

Bible study will include a unit on the names of Jesus that we started over the summer, our weekly hymn study, and readings from the MFW materials.

Math will be RightStart for everyone; Life of Fred once a week for Drew; and Marian continuing the transition from RS Level G to VideoText.  I love teaching math to my kids!

For science, Ellie and Andrew will use materials from the My Father's World package, which is a combination of chemistry and physics this year.  Marian will be venturing off to more independent work with Apologia's General Science.

Some parts of our writing and grammar curriculum will look different this year.  Marian will continue with Writing Strands since she enjoys it and is doing well.  I may add in a grammar text per MFW recommendations since she is in 8th grade, though grammar is not a struggle for her.  Andrew is going to start Essentials in Writing, a new curriculum for us.  I am really excited about it.  As for Drew's excitement level--- I'll work on him!  Ellie's favorite subject is creative writing, but her basic capitalization and punctuation skills are somewhat lacking, so we are going to use a book from A Beka that will combine the writing she loves with the instruction she needs.  We actually started just the first unit of this book last year when she finished her writing text early and she really liked it, so I envision smooth sailing.
Spelling for everyone will be dictation sentences that I come up with using the word lists from Spelling Power.  Creating the sentences adds a level of difficulty for me, but I have found my kids really do a lot better at spelling if the words are in the context of a sentence.  (Anyone have insight as to why this is??)

In addition to these basics, this will be the first year that I have developed a reading list for each child.  (I'll share the specific lists in a later post.)  The intent is to make sure they are reading more quality literature, and taking time to think about the content.  After finishing each book, they will write a short summary of the story and complete a creative project to go along with the theme, main character, or important event in the book.  A bit of a twist on your standard book report.  I'm really excited about this plan!  I think each of the kids will enjoy the selected books, and I can't wait to see how their creativity shows itself!


As for Reagan, he has come the stage that he asks to "do school" whenever the other kids are busy with their subjects, so I am developing a plan for him, too.  It is my goal to have more one-on-one time with him this year (as opposed to only including him in the older kids' studies), specifically some Before Five In A Row stories .  Also, at the curriculum fair, I bought a Kumon book of mazes, which he really likes to do, and a super cute Richard Scarry book for preschool.  I also have preschool books (C-F) from Rod and Staff, which I don't think he's ready for yet, but this could change as the year progresses.  All written work will be done only as he has the interest.

So that's my plan for the 2014-2015 school year.  Happy planning to all you other homeschoolers out there!

Linking to:

Homeschool Year Recap-- Part 3, Co-op Group Stuff

As much fun as we had on our field trips in the fall, we still missed having time with our friends doing co-op activities.  So after Christmas break, we rejoined our group classes.  The focus this past spring was mostly art.  The kids did a number of projects, including line & design, stamping, collage, and acrylic paints.  We also had a fun trip to an art museum and a great field day to wrap up the year.  So glad to have such good friends!

Food art!  Using grapes to worms coming out of our apple!

Pudding paint!

Painting with acrylic

 Two beautiful finished products!

Museum Trip:

Reagan was a little keyed up after being so good and so quiet during our museum tour!

I just loved this work!  The jars are filled with little things the artist found around an old homeplace.  The woman is simply from his imagination-- how he thinks someone who lived there might have looked.  I seem to remember that the boards are from the structure of the home.  How creative!

 Field Day events:

 Herculean Shot Put!

  The kids assured me throwing this globe was harder than you might think!

 Obstacle course:  boys vs girls!

(Audrey at 14 versus Reagan at 4 just doesn't seem like a fair fight, does it?)

 Sock War!

This was hilarious to watch, but no joke about it for the contestants!

...and that wraps up my homeschool recap!  

We've had fun, worked hard, and learned a lot-- at least Mama has!