Last Friday we went on our first home school field trip.  There were about 65 of us!  We visited the Air Ambulance helicopter that serves our county and surrounding counties.  It was pretty cool.
Although we had seen it before, we had a lot more time to ask questions, etc.

There certainly is not a lot of room in here.

One thing I had not really considered or thought about until able to ask, but often times when they are transporting a child, 90% of the time a parent does not fly in the helicopter. Usually the parents are too much of a basket case to fly in the small helicopter plus if something happened to the patient in route, then who deals with the devastated parent. Then one of the paramedics said that usually when they do fly someone, it takes some time to stabilize the patient at the new hospital so parents usually arrive by car about the time the patient is stable enough to be seen. So, if you ever want a chance to ride along side your child in an air ambulance, you better have your best, calmest face on.

Look at this control panel.....

They also had a robotic man (dummy) that they could practice on. You would turn him on and his eyes would blink, his breathing was very shallow, etc. They can practice IVs, blood pressure and administering drugs. They could intubate him.

Our next field trip is in 2 weeks to a corn maze. We try to have one at least once a month.

I have been dragging the last few days. Some headaches and just achy. One day I stayed in bed until 2pm. That was not helpful from the home school stand point. So, we are currently playing catch up, but one of the great perks of home schooling.

Still enjoying the quiet days!

Tonight Benjamin and Jacob participated in a program called Creativity Mindset. It falls under the umbrella of Destination Imagination. The kids were in similar age groups of 5-7 kids. Then they were given instant challenges which had to be performed within a certain amount of time (usually 5 minutes or less). Each team was given a baggie and then had instructions of what had to be done. In the first challenge, they were given things like scissors, tooth picks, mailing labels, coffee stirrers, index card and a few other items. The had to create a tower that had to support a very large washer for 5 seconds. The parents were not allowed to help at all. There were a few other rules, but plenty of room for thinking outside the box. It required teamwork and critical thinking. In the first challenge, one of the interesting things they pointed out after the fact, was that the rules never stated the washer had to be supported at the top. Therefore, one of the youngest groups won because they had a tall tower built on an index card and the washer was at the bottom of the 'tower' - touching the index card but not the table - therefore the tower still supported the washer. Here was the first challenge. (Joseph was my photographer, so most of the pictures were of random things and not the challenges...)

The second challenge they were given a bag with different items and they had 4 minutes to create a 'product' and then 1 minute to do a commercial for their product. Jacob's team created twin towers that could be used to parachute off of, climb, etc.

Another challenge involved building a catapult for a cotton ball. One of the items was a balloon and I loved watching the team that thought to put the cotton ball in the balloon and use that as the launcher. I loved the whole concept of the evening of thinking outside the box and having to work together. Destination Imagination is an international competition and this year they have 8 challenges and teams can sign up to tackle one challenge and then they compete in February. It is all student led. They have an adult manager but they are not able to give any input. They encourage teams to get recycled supplies. I am really interested for both of the boys to participate but not sure yet if they will enter the competition.

The last couple of days we have been in the 90s, but the high this weekend is suppose to be in the mid 50s. The boys have been getting lots of outside time after school. One of the things entertaining Jacob is catching bugs. Him and a neighbor kid spent about 20 minutes trying to catch a hobo spider. They had me lift up the basketball goal and they were so excited to see so many spider webs. They always wear batting gloves in case some of the spiders are poisonous. They carry around empty plastic containers never knowing what they will find.  (I think a Christmas gift for him will be a dissecting kit...oh the hours I see him using that!)

This past week Benjamin discovered a food chain game online. He asked me to play with him and I lost big time. We played several games today and he beat me every time. I am just now starting to understand how it works. You pick your animal and then you have to create the best habitat for it to survive and multiply. You pick the predators and prey on your turn. Benjamin just amazed me as he would look at it and then tell me in order for his lion to flourish, he needed to add a certain prey, that would diminish one of his lion's predators. It ends up being this huge web of tangled stuff on the screen. I can guarantee you though that he understands this concept and is pretty good at it.

Another quiet weekend coming up. Jacob has a birthday party and I am going out to eat with a friend during the weekend. Other than that, pretty low key.

We had a good time at the parade. Look who got to drive the tractor for a bit. (Benjamin got to drive it for a bit too, I just did not get a picture.)

The weather has been beautiful. Great fall weather. It is amazing how quickly the days are getting shorter.

Another quiet week. The two older are participating in a creative thinking, teamwork, problem solving challenge later this week. It is a national program where they can compete on state and national levels as they get older. Really excited to expose them to this.

We have also discovered some fun thinking games online. One of our favorite games is 3 Slices. Just amazing how much is online these days. The boys are like their mom and really enjoy the thinking/brain teasers.

Off to start school

It is 8:15 and everyone is asleep.  I love that the days are getting shorter and bedtime is becoming easier.

Our days just plod along.  Last weekend we had nothing on the calendar (aside from Church).  Our schedules are so paired down this fall that aside from Joseph's therapies and my inconsistent job responsibilities, not much else happens.  Seems like there is not even much to take pictures of.

I am slowly compiling a list of books geared toward older readers (ie Benjamin).  He loves to read and one of my goals is to turn him onto other genres of books....right now pretty much all he reads is graphic novels.  So, as the days are drawing shorter, I am hoping to spend those dark evenings reading aloud to the boys. (I envision hot chocolate and popcorn :-))  I have always enjoyed reading but the cooler weather always draws me to books.  One of the first we will read is Robinson Crusoe  and Johnny Tremain.

Jacob is coming along with his reading.  It won't be long before he will be reading chapter books out loud to us.  He has a bad habit of guessing at hard words instead of sounding them out.  One of the hardest habits to break I am told!  Joseph is even expressing interest in reading, so slowly working with him.

The homeschooling is all over the page still.  We are on track but can't seem to find a schedule that works for us yet.  Seems every couple of days I am trying to rearrange folders, etc to find a system that suites us best.  Benjamin is making some headway with typing.  He finished the first section with 92% accuracy.  The spanish book we are using has a really neat approach and focuses more on the function of the language, than just the memorization of vocabulary.  Will be interesting as we continue along how B does with it.

We started some pre-Algebra stuff today.  He was totally overwhelmed and confused but Mom to the rescue.  I love relearning all this stuff.  The web site we use is awesome.  You have to get 5 in a row correct before you can move on to the next task.  So, you have to know your stuff before building on it.  Benjamin was laughing at me last night as I was working in 'my account'.  They were asking me all sorts of questions about parallelograms, rhombus, squares and rectangles.  I repeated kept getting the wrong answers.  I found myself raising my voice at the computer telling it that a rectangle can't be a square.  That is when Benjamin said, 'actually mom, a rectangle can be a square'.  Just so no one is confused (and I find the best way to know you have learned something is to teach it to another), a parallelogram has 2 sets of same size parallel lines, a rhombus has 4 equal sides, a rectangle has 4 right angles and a square has 4 equal sides AND 4 right angles!

Jacob is loving school.  The behavorialist at the school called me today to tell me that Jacob witnessed something inappropriate on the playground and he was quick to report it to one of the aides.  I made sure and gave him many kudos for doing the right thing, despite others being mad at him.

Hunting season has started.  JR missed a 40 yard shot of a deer with his bow.  The snow we got last week has mostly melted off so it is hard once again to track the animals.

This weekend is pretty quiet, except for the annual fall festival 'downtown'.  The kids are all riding on the 4H float.  I think my first parade without any kids beside me.

Jacob was invited to go to a college football game over the weekend...complete with a huge tail gate party. He had a blast. The tail gate started at 4, the game at 7 and they did not get home until 11. (He spent the night with his friend, which he thought was great). Jacob considers Cameron one of his best friends! His mom emailed me the following pictures.

Benjamin also spent the night with a friend on Saturday, so the house was pretty quiet.  Benjamin is finding some new found freedom on his bike.  Him and several others has started roaming the streets.  He loves being able to go on his own.  (His friend has a cell phone or Benjamin takes mine.)  Joseph spent all his time outside with neighbors.  I am liking this stage of independence.  Means more quiet time for me during the beautiful days.

We have had some beautiful weather!  Although there is a chance of snow later this week.  Not that it will last, but a great reminder that fall is here!

Bit by bit we are finding our way at school!

Joseph is a real trooper. I have not really gotten him started on anything yet (tracing letters, cutting with scissors, etc). So, I pull out a box of toys and he plays upstairs. Then he can play some games on the ipad. He will play outside. One thing he has decided recently is that he wants to be strong. So he spends part of his day doing this......

It won't be long before he can do a pull up / chin up (what is the difference between the two? I will have to look that up). He is still doing speech. We dropped one of his private therapists to once a week. Now that school is in session, his qualified for school services. So he sees his therapist from last year's pre school twice a week. This kid has therapy Tues, Wed, Thurs and Fri. So good for him to get the repetition but it can make doing school work in the afternoon hard.

Here is our corner of homeschooling. Not much but just what we need. It seems like every couple of days I think of a better way to organize us. Here we are listening to a Longfellow poem called Paul Revere's Ride.

This table where Benjamin is sitting was a recent purchase. The first piece of furniture I think I have ever bought. When we were married we used a table and buffet my grandparents had when they married. It only seated 4 so made meal time hard at our house. I have been on the hunt for a while, that seats more than 4. I finally found it. Now I was able to pass along the other table and buffet to the next generation (my nieces). We use this table every day. I love watching my boys play games with the neighbor kids, as well as eating together with plenty of elbow room.

Since so much of our time is spent home schooling, the blog will probably become our showcase. One of the subjects Benjamin is really enjoying is art (no surprise). We are studying complementary colors and warm/cool colors. (Something I must say I never knew for sure...which colors went together.) The top picture is project about warm and cool colors and the second one is complimentary colors. The second picture we got the colors confused, but now we have a way to remember how to pair them. Red and Green for Christmas, Blue and Yellow for our local university, and then it only leaves purple and orange.

One of the other things we are working on, is handwriting.  Every week Benjamin will pick one person to write a letter to.  The lost art of hand written letters.  He happily sat down and wrote this one to his cousin Gaby that spent 6 weeks with us this summer!

We are finishing up our first historical fiction novel, called The Sign of the Beaver.  It is about a family who is heading to Maine to homestead some land.  The father and his 12 year old son go stake things out and then the father leaves the boy so the father can head back down south to get the rest of the family.  It is set in probably the 1600s.  The families journey takes much longer and the boy is left to fend for himself for much longer.  A great book to get an idea of what life was like.  I can't imagine leaving a young son for that long.  We will finish the book today and then Benjamin will write a book report next week.  I have a friend of mine that will help me 'grade' projects like this.  I think something subjective should be graded by someone other than me.  I am hoping to work through a book every 2 weeks.  (He loves to read and I hope once I turn him on to another genre - historical fiction - he will read these in his 'spare' time.)  I have showed him how he can read his homework questions before he starts the chapter so he knows what answers to look for as he reads.  He is amazed at how much easier that is.

In History we are learning about the early explorers and in science we are learning about classification of animals.  I keep saying we, because I learn right alongside him.  One thing I have always enjoyed doing, and think I am pretty good at, is finding word pictures to help remember things.  Benjamin was confused on the classification of mammals.  I gave him some word pictures and I think he was amazed how easy learning/remembering can be.  For example, he could not remember what a marsupial was.  So, I used the word marshmallow and told him if he had a bag of marshmallows he would probably stuff them all in his pouch.  Marsupials have a pouch.  Pinnipeds are mammals with flippers (both words have 2 p's).  Ungulates start with uncommon letter U and they are mammals with hooves and hooves have a V, another uncommon letter and it is similar in appearance to U and right next to it in alphabet.  The little 'tricks' are things that I hope he will tuck away and remember when he needs to pull them out and learn how to apply to the subject he is studying.

I just might enjoy this homeschooling more than Benjamin :-)

He is struggling a bit with Spanish...just hearing and pronouncing some of the sounds/words.  I need to find some Spanish songs online and play them.  It is amazing how much easier it is for me to pronounce things because I have been exposed to the spoken language for much longer.  He is also learning rhyme scheme in poetry.   Right now in computer he is learning how to do power point presentations.  He has also discovered online 'thinking' games!

Another quiet weekend in store.  Tomorrow marks opening day of early bow season.  JR will be looking for bear, deer or elk.  It is getting colder but not really snow in higher elevations to drive the animals lower!

It has been quite a while since I have downloaded pictures from the camera!

A few days before school started we drove an hour to another city pool with some friends. They also had a skate park so the boys brought two scooters and a skateboard.

I managed to get all three of them in one shot.

Jbird...notice the new school shoes!  This time around we bought more of a skater shoe.  They are suppose to have a thicker sole.  Maybe these will last him more than 4 months.

Joseph in the middle on his bike.  (Beautiful college campus in the background.)

The pool was really big.  With separate swimming lanes, diving board area and a lazy river and water slide area.  However, just that morning a little kid had pooped in the lazy river area!  Since they were closing the pool for the season in 3 days, they decided not to immediate clean it and open it back up.  So, one of the main reasons we drove over an hour was to do the water slides.  Oh well.

The boys being silly going off the board.  They both had to pass a swim test.  Joseph really wanted to go off the board, but he could not swim well enough with out the life jacket.  (This is the second time I have managed to get a picture of someone going off the board and their lower legs are totally hidden...)

I then decided to call a friend of ours who teaches swimming.  We met him at a local hotel pool, where he teaches.  I wanted him to help the older two with the finesse of the strokes.  Neither of them can turn their head as they swim freestyle.  (By the way, I can't either - at least not very well - that is why I am hoping they learn).  Then Brad worked with Joseph on not needing any flotation device.  He did really well.  One thing that really helped is there was a water slide.  Whenever Joseph would go down the slide and hit the water, the 'current' would propel him forward.  It was an easy way for him to see the difference between when he put his head down/feet up versus head up and feet down.

 
Why is it so hard for kids to kick with a straight leg?  They all want to bend their legs.  But as Brad was showing them, the power comes from the thigh, not the lower leg.

I took lots of water slide pictures but this is the only one that turned out....

We managed this year to get a back to school picture.  Despite my asking them for smiles, this was all I got!  They really were more excited than they appear.  Joseph preschool, Jacob second, Benjamin fifth.

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