We've been busy doing mini field trips.  Today the children enjoyed making African Masks.  I was unable to attend, (I scheduled my first day at the gym) but my fellow home school moms let them participate, thanks moms!!  They children loved this trip cause they got to use oil pastels.  So it was an Art class wrapped up with a little bite of history. 

As part of our election study we made a trip to the capital.  It was a gorgeous day to be out taking tours and walking from place to place.  We started at the governor's mansion, then on to the capital.  We also were able to visit both the Republican and Democratic  Headquarters.  Matthew was in charge of the camera today so he took pictures of what he thought was really cool.  And the fact that the governor really lives in the Governor's house made it even more cool.  It was really fancy!  While at the Capital we were shown all three levels of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judaical and how they function.  Which tied in nicely to what I had planned for the following week.  It's been hard making this study fun for Zachary because he thinks it's boring.  I had a friend let me borrow a book with activities and the day I had planned to do them didn't turn out the way I had planned.  So we did not finish them.  So taking a trip like this really helped to break up the study time.

I had to go out of town for a couple of days, but my in-laws were gracious enough to take the children.  So while on fall break they took them on a quilting art class.  They learned that you can use any shape and size to make a quilt, and that you can make cool designs.  They also learned how to write a hycu (not sure if I spelled that correctly) and design their own quilt.  Of couse, grammy is awesome at teaching them home made stuff like that so they kinda knew everything in the class.  But by their designs I think they had fun!

Zach's quilt design

Eli's quilt design

Matthew's quilt design

Well I finally got some new pictures to add to a slide show. I'm so excited about our vacation, well we are home, BUT it was such an awesome time away enjoying God's creation.  The best way to do that is camping, and boy we love it.  We left Thurs. afternoon and stayed till Monday.  We must have identified 30 or more animals, bugs, trees, flowers, stars and probably stuff I can't remember. 

We got there and the children worked together and set up camp all by themselves.  It was nice to sit back and watch them actually work together to accomplish a task and finish that task.  They did not argue, fight, get bossy with each other, or anything negative.  After camp was set up Kenan had the fire already going for super, good old box mac and cheese with hamburgers.

After a good night's sleep, which was a first for me, we had breakfast and headed to the lake.  Thanks to The Pampered Chef (I earned a $250 gift certificate last year), we rented a double Decker pontoon boat with a slide and had a blast on the lake.  It brought back so many memories from when I went boating with my family.  The kids all got to take turns driving the boat and just having fun.

The following day was spent relaxing at the camp site until it was warm enough to hit the beach.  If the sun had not been so hot the kids would have stayed in the water all afternoon.  I, of course, was a big chicken, since I'm not a very strong swimmer, my enjoyment does not come from being in the water, it comes from simply sitting back watching my children play.  It was such a satisfying benefit of our trip.  We later went back when the sun was going down and silly me forgot to capture it on the camera, oh well, next year.

Sunday was spent hiking.  Since we were not going to be in a traditional church setting; Kenan gave each child a part to be responsible for our own church service.  Zachary did the prayers, Matthew did the sermon (kenan expounded on it), and Eli had special music.  They each worked hard on the part they were given and I was proud of Matthew for coming up with a sermon on his own.  He found it, wrote it out and read it to us.  It just so happened that he did it on Noah's Ark and Kenan tied it in perfectly with Noah being obedient to God, like we are to be obedient, But that we also mess up, like Noah, but have to ask for forgiveness.  We also finished a three day game of Monopoly, since I'm counting this as school we have to get math in some how, and let me say I owned everything and kicked butt.  I don't think anyone will want to play with me anymore.

Our final day was sad, well for me.  See I had to come home to life again, the real world, no money, bills to pay, tons of laundry, dishes, and school.  However, Kenan pointed out that it was OK to come back to all that, cause that's what we've been given in life and we can be happy at home just like we are in the woods.   It's just different surroundings.  I asked if we could bring home all the smells of our trip and he said sure, just not the bad smells.  We all were a little gassy from grilling all our food.  Anyways, taking down camp was a little more stressful then it needed to be.  We have not mastered the art of tearing down camp like we have setting up camp.  BUT, I know we will have many more years to practice.

I'd have to say this trip went in the record books as one of the top 5, it also collected so many fun memories and sparkles of joy that I'll always remember it.  I'm so glad we have a God who gave us such a wonderful place to live.  We might see all the messed up stuff in this world, but if you really look around you His creation is abundant.  Enjoy the pictures!!

God Bless

Today was a beautiful day for a field trip.  Since our trip to St. Louis we've been interested in the early pioneers, so we visited Ft. Boonesboro.  It's the fort that Daniel Boone stayed at for awhile.  We learned a great deal about the early settlers, way of life, sleeping arrangements, etc.  Zachary got to be an apprentice to the black smith.  We ended the afternoon with our favorite place to eat, Gold Star Chili.

WOW, we had our first really big snow!!  In our area we never get enough snow to even shovel.  Since I'm from Cleveland, OH, originally, I was so excited to wake up to such a pretty sight.  Kenan had the pleasure of taking them sledding while I enjoyed some peace and quite.  What did I do while they were gone?  Well, I read other blogs. Go figure, maybe not the best use of my time, but it was encouraging.  Even dads can take the kids on a field trip without me.  Enjoy the slide show.