Pumpkins * Halloween

Jack O' Lantern

Jack O' Lantern, Jack O' Lantern,
Your light it doth shine,
Sitting up upon the window
And your light it is mine.

Once you were a yellow pumpkin
Sitting on the sturdy vine,
Now you are my Jack O' Lantern,
And in the night you will shine.

~Festivals Family and Food


Carving our pumpkin!!

We talked about pumpkins.  Growing huge pumpkins, like the ones we saw in Stillwater.  We read the Laura Ingals Wilder story of  Farmer Boy.  When Almanzo grows a milk fed pumpkin. 


We made pumpkin and scarecrow crafts.

We hung all our decorations in our windows to scare the neighbors.

On Monday we made pumpkin bread for snack.


We also, made our really scary headless scarecrow

We saw a woodpecker right out our door.
We watched him for awhile pecking at our neighbors fence.

All we have left on our ongoing bird chart now is a blue jay and a cardinal.





Tuesday is a shorter day for us because Matthew has a private skate lesson in the afternoon.  It is really nice to have the flexibility to due things like that.

We still managed to squeeze in making our BOO cookies.

Then, we went BOOING with them.

Booing is a new tradition we are starting for this time of year.  First, we made a treat to share.  Then,  we put them in baggies and attached a poem.

The air is cool, the season fall,
Soon Halloween will come to all.
Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.
The spooks are after things to do,
In fact a spook brought this "Boo" to you!


Happy Halloween




Then, we left them as a secret treat for our neighbors!

 

We carved more pumpkins.

Then we toasted the seeds.

Pour water over the seeds and pulp.
The seeds will float away from the pulp in the water.
into a sauce pan add

1/2 c. pumpkin seeds
2cups water
1T. salt
simmer for 10 minutes

drain, place seeds and olive oil on a pan
bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes




We also talked about candle light.  How bright candle light can be.  How we use candles for our Jack O' Lanterns.  Then we tried our weekly watercolor by candle light.

We received a Halloween activity book from our grandma Judy and we did all the activities this week too.  They were fun.

Thank you Grandma :)


Here is a link to everything pumpkin in case anyone needs some ideas...
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/pumpkins/history.cfm

Corn

This week was about corn.  We talked a lot about all the uses of corn.  How corn grows and different ways to prepare it.  Once again we started our week a day early.  On Sunday we went to a huge corn mecca with Grandpa and some friends.  It was very fun and it started our theme off right!  Among many corn related activities everyone got to dive around in a large corn pit.  Very fun.

C O R N

Monday is baking/cooking day and we made "johnny cakes" together.  

Then, we read our very favorite (well worn) story about corn cakes...

We visited Axdahl's corn maze and got lost collecting husks for the weeks crafts.

Corn husk dolls

 I told the children the legend of the corn husk doll by the Iroquois nation.  We made our own dolls.

We talked more about variations of corn, like popcorn and corn starch.  We made popcorn for snack and used corn starch to make playclay.
This is nice because you can bake it and keep it forever.  We made Tillie's hand print.  Here is the recipe from Argo starch in case anyone would like to try.

http://www.argostarch.com/recipe_details.asp?id=1286

We had a shorter week due to MEA :)  (The meetings were grueling!)  We had company on Thursday and played around on Friday.  This week we found out Matthew's hockey team name is the Islanders!  and we already have friends on the team.  Our good friends and neighbors the Hammonds will play with him and their dad is one of the coaches.  Also, there is another homeschooler on the team as well.  It should be really fun.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Next week it is about Pumpkins and Halloween!

Until then...
Blessings

Truth Seeker

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

~Renee Descartes

Woodworking

This week we talked about working with wood.  We talked about the many things you can do with wood, build a house, make a fire...  We did things with wood too.  First, we made our own boats.

Then, we set them a  sailing to see if they would float.

Shipwrecked!

The boys had fun racing their new ships.

The next day we went to the library and got books on carpentry.  Then we found sticks to transform.  We learned about many (many) tools and we used them to make walking sticks.

 Matthew decided to smooth his down

Wesley wanted to paint his.

 It was a bit of work, but I think they turned out nice.

Matthew particularly enjoyed this work.  He said he was like his dad.

On Wednesday it was Matthew's birthday.  We did a little celebrating.  He had candles in his waffles and he could do whatever he wanted for the day.  He chose to go to target and pick out a toy and go ICE SKATING.  I cried.  We bought all his hockey equipment and signed him up for Mites!

Happy birthday!

Big 6

We acted out the story of the honest woodsman with small props.   The story discusses honesty and being a wood chopper.  Then, we used sticks to make stick and twig art.

We also learned a little about wood for fires and cooking.  We built a fire together and made foil potatoes for lunch.  

To do more wood working the boys honed their skills at hammering.

It's very important to use real tools and expose them to fire.  Only then can they have an understanding of their potential and safety. 

Working with wood is harder than I thought.  I have a lot of respect of all the carpenters out there:)  It is an amazing skill to me.  

Next week we discuss corn.

Until then...

~blessings

Leaves and Birds

This week we talked about leaves changing.  We went on leaf hunts to find beautiful colors. 

We did projects with our leaves...

Matthew's place mat

Wesley's place mat

Leaf rubbings

Wesley's leaf rubbing

We also talked about birds and what to expect with winter coming soon.  We discussed how some birds fly south and how some stay here during the cold.  We decided they needed a lot of food to help them get through the winter so on painting day we painted our own bird feeders.

We also made a bird table for the birds and squirrels to munch.

We wanted to find more leaves changing.  We decided on a field trip to the Minnesota landscape arboretum to see what colors we could find there.  It was really beautiful!  We found leaves...

And a lot of scarecrows too.

We did a lot of crafting this week and I think I crafted the kids out!  They protested my last project and in case you are interested it was really cute.  Maybe some one else would like to try it.  here is a link http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crafts-by-type/sewing-fabric-projects/no-sew-projects/weave-an-autumn-tree-931020/

Happy autumn enjoy your weekend it is so beautiful!

Next week it is about woodworking, honesty, and acts of kindness!!  

until then...

~blessings