Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month.  To go along with our study I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids science museum.  They have an exhibit right now called, Grossology~the impolite science of the human body.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was a little boys dream come true and my girls loved it too. 

Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze?  Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!

This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose.  Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boys dream....

The kids spent lots of time at the life size operation game.  Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go.  It didn't hurt their eye hand coordination either.

The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day.  Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system.  The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!

The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too.  While they climbed along they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle.

I did not take pictures of all the things to smell.  Really gross things to smell.  Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog. LOL!  Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine.  We will have to go back when it is less crowded.  The exhibit just got to us and lots of the school groups were there.   All in all it was a really cool and gross exhibit.  Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY!

Blessings,

Dawn

We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down.  I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more!  Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon!  This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change.  I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL! 

So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives.  We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way.  The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan.  I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it ....  The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility. 

On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge.  We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.

I leave you with this picture of the kiddos!  Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them.  We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees.

Blessings,

Dawn

We keep moving on in construction.  Since I last posted pictures, insulation and drywall have gone up.  Also, the siding men have started putting new siding around the upper part of the house.  We decided to do the whole upper part ot the house since the old aluminum siding was really, really old and had become a yucky faded color.  I think it was called by one of the men, yellow-limey algae slime. LOL!!

The really big news is that Tom Sawyer gets the new room!!!  He is so excited.  Timothy was given first choice because he is the oldest, but decided it felt too small to him.  It is probably the smallest room (or at least feels like it with the attic like design).  Because we live in a Dutch Colonial and this room is on the second floor, the Dutch Colonial roof was extended and thus the garrett walls. Tim will move to what is currently our room, and we will move back to the master (which has been Tom Sawyer's and Little Red Ridinghood's).  Little Red Ridinghood will move to Timothy's current room and Goldilocks will stay put in her current room.  Are you confused yet?!?!  BOY, do we have a lot of painting to do in the next few weeks.

The sanding part of the drywall starts sometime this week.  Everyone says this is the really bad part of construction because of the dust.  We will have to be very careful with our asthmatic children.

The new color of our siding is called bananas (kinda like us, ya know).  The contractor was a little concerned that it might be too yellow.  We love it, though.  With our 1931 home, we wanted the historic yellow that you find on homes in our area and this one matches up great.  I will have to try to get a picture of it in the sun.

In other news....We are trying to make this rotation of 4 bedrooms less insane by doing a little bit each week.  We are getting far enough along to start moving things around.  Since we (the parents) are going back to the master, we decided to start working on the walk-in closet.  When we started this weekend, it was a clean slate with only a two wooden shelves up high.  The teddy bear border around the ceiling was from when the closet was Little Red Ridinghood's nursery.  (I've kept the border for sentimental reasons.) It was really important to us to redo this closet for less than $100 but have it look nice and be functional.

Along the far wall we put in a pressure pole that was laying around in someone's closet not being used.  The pole will hold clothes that the children have grown out of and are waiting to go to consignment sales.  It also holds long-term storage clothes (like my wedding dress), which is tucked back in the corner out of sight.  The top self holds photo albums and the kids' baby boxes and books.   You can also see that we have loads of winter coats and snow pants.  Yes, I know we live in North Carolina.  But, my Northern roots get in the way sometimes, and I am just sure it could snow for real anytime now.  

Underneath the consignment pole is all of the kids clothes that do not fit them yet and unmarked boxes holding future gifts.

Towards the front of the closet are our clothes and shoes.  Also, we have a box of Christmas books and wrapping paper.

Total cost for the closet redo ~

$6 for the shoe rack with coupon

$40 for the storage boxes

$12 for the rack and hardware

Total~$58

Blessings,

Dawn

Welcome to another Show and Tell with Mary.

Timothy is really enjoying his continuing education classes at our local community college.  This session he took "woodworking" and "knowing your digital camera".  In his woodworking class, he made a wooden shoe all with hand tools. 

This is the front view.  I love all the detail he put into it.  The little lines used as trim were burned into the wood.

Here is the side view.  I love the detail of the tongue in the shoe.

Blessings,

Dawn

We are having lots of fun with Barb's Outdoor Challenge.

We have enjoyed several nature walks around the neighborhood collecting leaves and observing the change in season.  We found an Oak tree as our tree to follow for a year and watch all the changes it goes through.

Here are some interesting shots that our children took of the neighborhood foliage.


The kids thought this bark looked like a face!


Tom Sawyer misplaced the adult tree identification book, so we cannot identify these strange pods. Hopefully, we will identify them soon.  In the meantime, anybody out there know what this is ?


Tom Sawyer insisted on stopping every few feet and drawing anything that was NOT a tree.  Here he is drawing a picture of a stick.  He is our budding artist, after all. 

The kids have been complaining that we have not decorated for fall.  So, we took the leaves back to our house and did crafts with them.  We did the traditional crayon rubbings and pressing leaves between wax paper. 


While we were at it,  we made a table centerpiece with fabric leaves, pumpkins, and apples.


And decorated our own home grown pumpkin that weighed in at 68 pounds !!


Blessings,

Dawn

Every year our state home schooling association hosts a family camp at a church campground not too far to our north.

It is always a wonderful time of Christian fellowship and encouragement.  This year was no exception.

Although, the sudden drop in temperature, did hamper our efforts a little.  Most of us were not prepared to go from 80 degrees to 30-something in a few short hours.

It was mosty just a great adventure, though, and something for the kids to talk about.

I especially love to hear the men encourage one another in their devotion.  They are just so much more practical and straight forward in their testimonies to one another.

From sharing what the Lord has been doing in their lives and churches to cheering on their favorite team in the blink of an eye!