Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Broken Bone



Here is the back story and 
update on Tillie's leg....
 
Always a very good helper in the kitchen.
Miss Tillie was helping me with 
dinner one night. 
   I had pulled a chair to the counter and 
she really wanted to chop the lettuce for 
the salad. 
I turned around from grabbing 
something and she had stepped back
off the chair.  Landing on the floor.
At first I thought she hurt her back or tailbone.

Then, she grabbed onto her shin and would 
not let go!!  I waited for Tom to come home
from work.  She had a really hard time 
settling down.  We decided to take her to the 
hospital.  Tom brought her in and sure enough...
 


 it is called a toddler fracture, you can 
see it is spiral shaped.
Apparently it is a very common break
and heals really well.



 She got to pick out her own cast colors
Pink and Purple (of course)
She been o.k. so far
Everyone has been so kind 
sending her crafts and coloring books
well wishes and prayers.
She has only complained one time
about "not wanting to have a broken leg."

She can still help me in the kitchen!!!



 She has been making beautiful crafts


and colorings

Next week she is getting a smaller cast that I 
believe she can walk on and is WATER PROOF!!!

These new casts are pretty cool compared to 
the ones I remember. :)


Until next time...
~blessings

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Homeschool Co-op



I have wanted to post about our wonderful Homeschool Co-op.

We started the school year with this great group of about 15
families.  We get together once a week to learn and play.
For the first month or so we met at willow river state park.
one of my personal favorite parks and we played, read 
stories, and hiked the trails.  For all of October and now
November we are meeting at Camp St. Croix.
It is a beautiful YMCA camp on the St Croix river.
With them we have experienced some really fun opportunities.
The kids have gotten to play games
explore trails and ponds.
Matthew has gotten to climb walls and throw hatchets.
On this day I took pictures of the grounds and our 
Stone soup day.  It is so great to be a part of this larger
homeschooling community.

Till is chopping kale for our soup



We cooked over the fire and listened to a stone soup story.
 The kids ran around playing games.
This is my kind of recess.
Everything is so relaxed and the kids have so much fun.





The really big news is my baby girl broke her leg!!!!!
Everything has sort of been on hold for the time being.



Now we have resorted to watching TV!
and eating whipped cream most days

Recovery doesn't seem like it will take too
long she has a "nice" break.  She has been a real
trooper.  My house of 3 boys and 1 girl and only
she has had the stitches and now a broken leg!

I will keep posting on her progress.


until next time...
~blessings

Updates


It has been a long while since I have posted
and I want to make sure I'm not missing any of 
our happenings.  Here is how my memory serves me...
(not well most of the time :) )


Dad and the kids created a radio from 
wiring, foil, and cardboard tubing.
Matthew's very favorite thing is to 
create these science projects.  He asks
weekly when he can make more.
So far they have made a robot, a telegraph,
a spinning wheel, and multiple volcanoes.



for read aloud we fished all three Pippi Longstocking
books.  Wesley proclaimed he LOVES everything about Pippi.
They were a hit all around.


Wesley's snail art


We took a field trip to my favorite local greenhouse/petting zoo.
We picked out our pumpkins for Halloween
and ran around the corn maze.




Wesley has been working hard with learning to 
read.  We have gone through the whole 
alphabet phonetically.  Now we are working on
consonant blends and word families.



This year everyone was vomiting on Halloween.
This picture was taken before 
Wesley decided to get the flu too.




  We celebrated Matthew's 9th Birthday
We went to Marine on the St. Croix
Went down to the river and dinner at the Brookside





Until next time...
~blessings

Renaissance


We created a whole main lesson on King Arthur and 
the knights of the round table.  We used stories from
Linda Proud's book, The Knights of the Grail
We followed Mrs M's curriculum to build upon these 
stories.  Here is some examples of his work...

He did copy work of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poetry

Sword in the stone






We finished just in time to partake in Home School day at 
the Renaissance festival.
It fit just perfectly into our theme!

 Climbing walls
and horseback riding






Jousting


Archery


Knighthood


Fairies




This is by far their favorite place!!
 
 
 
until next time..
~blessings



Sunday, November 10, 2013

Harvest


We spent a few weeks harvesting the last of our garden.
Its amazing how much "hands on" science we get 
from simply having a modest garden.  Of course there is the
obvious things like the life cycle of plants and practical life
skills of growing your own food.  
More than that we learn about different animal
life cycles and weather.

Wesley discovered a tree frog on our tomatoes

 And while digging up the carrots we found painter turtle eggs.


 The garden has given the kids many up close opportunities.
Although, I love the garden it is an annual challenge for me.
I am reminded of the quote by Thomas Jefferson...

"But though an old man, I am but a young gardener." 1814 July 5. (to John Adams).."

Until...next year I suppose we will try again. :)





 Another interesting thing we discovered was a new to us species of moth.
We found a Hummingbird hawk moth feasting at our window boxes.
It was delightful.  We researched the moth, told stories, and drew pictures of him.
It was sort of my unschooling moment I occasionally have.




Not only do I have a house of scientists, but
we have two budding artists as well...

Tillie modeling clay

Taggert sketching a masterpiece


Just like their Big Brothers.

until next time
...blessings