By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge
the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. ~Proverbs 24:3-4
• Jan. 17, 2008 - Lost Colony Exhibit
Last week we took a field trip to see the watercolors that Governor John White painted of the New World - i.e. the coast of Virginia, NC, etc. and the sea life of Puerto Rico. He helped settle the colony at Roanoke,NC and then traveled back to England for supplies. It was 3 years before he could return due to England fighting Spain. When they returned, the colony was gone. The only clue left behind was the mystery word "CROATOAN" craved on a tree.
The British Museum recently allowed the paintings and some early engravings of White's work to visit the US. The Lost Colony drama company loaned some of their sets and costumes to the history museum to compliment the exhibit. So what I thought was going to be just paintings turned into a fun time.
When we first got there the line was really long. So we went off to visit some other exhibits. The one that Mark enjoyed the most contained guns and weapons from all the wars from the Revolutionary to now. When we were done with that it was time for all the school children to head back to school. The line was short but the exhibit was full of lots and lots of senior citizens. They were busy reading every word under every picture, so we just popped in and out of line whenever we saw a picture we wanted to see up close.
They had an interactive CSI based - what happened to the Lost Colony section. Since by that time we were about the only kids there, my kids each got a computer and were able to go through the entire presentation. Mark and I also enjoyed dressing up in the Tudor costumes and pretending we were English.
Pictures were not allowed in the painting section. However, they were allowed in the section with the sets. Oh, to make this a real field trip, we went to Burger King for lunch first. So Mark is wearing his BK crown because he is King.
Mark and Mei pretending to lift the deer. This was a real stuffed deer.
Yummmmm - smells good - when is dinner?
I don't think this one needs a caption.
Going somewhere, Mark?
I also wanted to dress in Tudor clothes. This was actually a girl's dress that I sort of had on. Do you like my King?
King Mark!
Queen Mei!
Mark and Mei were convinced this was the world's largest Baby carrot. When I refused to take a picture, Mark did.
Today they were forecasting ice and snow. Our first this winter. But alas, it did not get cold enough; it was 34 instead of 32 and all we got was rain. So the kids are sleeping in and I am updating my blog. We are having our French cultural gathering on Saturday, so we have to pick out the menu today. We got some French cook books from the library and there is lots of yummy stuff to pick from! So look for those pictures next week!
Well I had better go wake them up and get school started!
We really enjoyed our week of studying Native Americans using the science kit from our local museum. We made pemmican, had an Indian meal, made compost, learned about and planted the Three Sisters, and did a popcorn experiment. We really, really enjoyed it.
Mei started Book 2 in math; she is several weeks ahead. She also read Hop On Pop mostly by herself several times this week. This was her first "real" book.
Mark is still getting used to being home schooled. We had some discussion about attitude and performance. We did this on our walk - see below. I am so proud of him and look forward to helping him improve.
On Friday, Mei begged me to do my walking exercise when she was awake. I usually go before they wake up. So all three of us went on my usual 3.5 mile walk. About half way through Mark and I started a conversation about scripture memorization and the biggest stronghold in my life. He then shared what he thought was a stronghold for him and we talked about how he might work on overcoming it. It was a wonderful time. Then we started collecting leaves. They were so pretty. We taped them to our windows when we got home.
We are taking all of next week off, except for reading some about Thanksgiving. Have a good week!
Mark shows off our compost experiment. This is before we put the cover on it. Now you know why you need safety glasses to grind corn. We used some of the flour he made in our corn bread. Making pemmican - chopped dried beef, chopped dried fruit, maple syrup, and butter. You roll it out and then dry it some more. Only dad and I liked it. All the kids said "No way". Mei uses the deer antler to "dig" a hole to plant the Three Sisters - beans, squash, and corn. Our beautiful windows with the leaves we collected on our walk. They are starting to curl and brown now but we hope to enjoy them for a few more days.
Oh, in case you are wondering...storing your popcorn in the freezer produces the most pops. Soaking it overnight and drying in the oven first are both really bad ideas. But you probably already knew that!
We started the Revolutionary War in American History and visited Switzerland and the Netherlands in Children Around the World. Mark worked on common factors and Mei on subtraction and fractions in math. In LA, Mark continued on verbs and Mei worked on reading words with the letter e.
We had our Swiss dinner on Saturday. We had cheese fondue with steak, turkey, broccoli, carrots, and bread. We also had chocolate fondue with bananas and cookies for dipping. I didn't take any pictures this week.
This coming week are visiting on a whirlwind tour: Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and Belgium. We will continue with the Revolutionary War.
I am thinking about dropping our Native American focus after Thanksgiving. We are studying our home state Native Americans the week before Thanksgiving. We have not really done much with the NA focus. Perhaps we will pick it up again in this summer.
We don't usually do much with nature study. However, I happened to look outside one morning and noticed a woodpecker eating my thistle seed. We got out the binoculars and bird book to identify him. We think he was a yellow-bellied sapsucker, visiting us for the winter. We must have spent 20 minutes on it. It was fun and we ought to do more of that.
All-in-all a pretty typical week here. It finally rained and we are grateful to God for that. We are still in drought conditions and pray it rains again soon. It has finally cooled off and we may even get our first frost this week. I have been enjoying my morning glories, so I hope it doesn't.
My scrapbook weekend was fun!! I finished up my summer vacation from 2006 and Christmas 2006, about 30 pages altogether. Now I can start on 2007. I have gotten really behind this year. I don't even have 2007 pictures printed yet!
The coolest part of the weekend was being able to minister to one of the ladies on the way home. We were able to share with a mom how important God was in our every day life. It was an amazing discussion and I hope and pray that many seeds were planted. I pray they grow and bear fruit - that this mom can become the woman God wants her to be. I am excited to see what happens next!
We had school Monday and Tuesday, then my dh and I returned to the resort for 3 days of alone time. My dear mom stayed with my children and taught them school. They just did Bible, LA, math, science, and the history crafts. They had a great time. Thanks mom! You are the best!
Observations:
- I don't feel like we are doing justice to Children Around the World.
- I also feel like we could be spending more time on history.
- I know we need more time on Spanish.
- I haven't been home much recently. I was gone 1 day last week and 3 days this week.
- I haven't been feeling well recently due to tooth problems. So far on the same tooth, I have had a root canal, gum surgery, and am half-way through getting a crown.
- I have not been enforcing any kind of daily schedule, although we have developed a few patterns.
- Mark is doing a lot of long-hand multiplication and division problems in math. It takes it a long time and holds up the subjects the kids do together.
Changes:
- Be home more!
- Stop feeling guilty and do more.
- Plan more, develop more patterns (schedule) that works for us, and stick to it.
- Limit Mark to one hour on math. After that, we will move onto another subject and he can come back to it later. Fortunately, he will soon be done with long-hand multiplication and division, so maybe math won't take him so long.
- Make more time for the county work on Thursdays and Fridays, even when I feel like quiting early.
Our scrapbook mess:
Mei with early colony buildings:
Mei with 13 colonies map:
I hope your school has been going as well as ours has!
We are starting to settle into a routine. However, I did get thrown a monkey-wrench last week. My fitness center up and closed. Now I have to figure out if I am joining another one, or just working out at home.
We went to KY to visit Granny and Grandpa (my dh's parents) over Labor Day weekend. We had a good time and even did school in the car on the way there and on the way home.
Observations:
- Mei loves, loves math. She is averaging 2 to 3 lessons a day. She even brought her math book to me around 9pm last night asking for instructions on a set of problems. She is starting to memorize her addition facts.
- Mark has learned one or two new things in math, but he hopes more new things are coming soon.
- Mark did better this week on his spelling test. I think Spellwell is working okay for him.
- dh is getting them up at 8am and putting in an educational video for them to watch until I am ready to start teaching. This has been a great way for them to watch the videos for history and CAtW.
- We are still not getting to Spanish very often.
- We got in 2 days of science this week!
- Mei is distracting Mark less.
- Mark enjoys playing/learning with the crafts after I make them.
- Mark and Mei are arguing less.
- Both are loving homeschool.
- I joined the local homeschool group.
Changes:
- I need to figure out my exercise schedule and fitness center issues.
- Got to figure out how to get more Spanish done.
- Need to have Mark write more. It is still a struggle for him. I need to help him figure out why it is so hard so we can work on improving it.
- Mei loves to color, so I think she and I will start doing the coloring crafts while Mark finishes other work.
- I want to add a Bible based study for Mark. The one included with AS1 is too easy for him.
Pictures!! Mei's Travel Diary - page 1 - our travel path. I did the labeling for her.
Our mud wigwams (American History 1) before we took them off the bowls. The one on the left stayed together.
Mei and her Timeline Notebook. The title was her idea! BTW - she is growing out her bangs so the hair in the eyes look is common these days.
You can do it! Science this week was experiments with the robot T-Rex. Yes, he could pull the notebook once we gave him two strings to pull with.
Mark and Mei pretending to lift the deer. This was a real stuffed deer.
Yummmmm - smells good - when is dinner?
I don't think this one needs a caption.
Going somewhere, Mark?
I also wanted to dress in Tudor clothes. This was actually a girl's dress that I sort of had on. Do you like my King?
King Mark!
Queen Mei!
Mark and Mei were convinced this was the world's largest Baby carrot. When I refused to take a picture, Mark did.
Mark shows off our compost experiment. This is before we put the cover on it.
Now you know why you need safety glasses to grind corn. We used some of the flour he made in our corn bread.
Making pemmican - chopped dried beef, chopped dried fruit, maple syrup, and butter. You roll it out and then dry it some more. Only dad and I liked it. All the kids said "No way".
Mei uses the deer antler to "dig" a hole to plant the Three Sisters - beans, squash, and corn.
Our beautiful windows with the leaves we collected on our walk. They are starting to curl and brown now but we hope to enjoy them for a few more days.
Mei's Travel Diary - page 1 - our travel path. I did the labeling for her.
Our mud wigwams (American History 1) before we took them off the bowls. The one on the left stayed together.
Mei and her Timeline Notebook. The title was her idea! BTW - she is growing out her bangs so the hair in the eyes look is common these days.
You can do it! Science this week was experiments with the robot T-Rex. Yes, he could pull the notebook once we gave him two strings to pull with.
