Field Trip

Seeing as how this week's topic is the presidency of Barak Obama, I thought the opportunity we had today was too good to pass up.  There was a tax rally on the steps of the capitol in my state.  There were many speakers, but the highlight was listening to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.  Though she is not our direct representative - we choose to lay claim to here just the same as she does represent our state.  She is a breath of fresh air to listen to.  Both of the princesses seemed rather bored and said they didn't understand much of what was going on, we did have a good conversation on the way home about why we went.  We talked about how our freedom in America comes with responsibility; and that in order to preserve that freedom for themselves in the future, they need to pay attention to what is going on in the government and peaceably speak out when it is in the wrong.  We acknowledged that without changes in the way that our government is functioning, they will perhaps experience some of the atrocities we have read about this year.

Am I Too Old For This?

Today I did something I have not done in thirteen years.  I used to do it quite a lot in my youth, and a few times as an adult.  For my kids it was their first time, and they enjoyed it.  For me, I enjoyed it, but it makes me ask myself if I'm too old for it.

The it in question would be downhill skiing.  We had the opportunity to go skiing today, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The last time I went skiing, I has not yet a parent.  And I was a bit lighter back then, too.  Princess E and Princess S came along with us and were given a lesson.  They caught on pretty quickly.  Princess S was a bit more cautious and wanted to stick with the smallest hill most of the time.  Princess E just enjoyed shooting down the hill without any poles and (sometimes) crashing at the bottom.

As for me, it was like riding a bike.  Once I went down the first hill it all seemed to come back to me.  I did have one wipe out.  Of course, it was right in front of the girls.  I was slowing way down, but not stopping, and trying to look behind me to see where the hubby was.  Then I ran right over my own pole and found myself on my back in seconds.  The girls thought it was pretty funny.  While it didn't hurt, getting up was not nearly as easy as it used to be.  I had to straighten out and then wait for the hubs to help me up.

However, I will admit that I am dreading having to get up out of bed tomorrow morning.  I think my thighs will be in sorry shape, and my feet are quite sore already.  So I ask again, am I too old for this?

TOG Year 2 Week 9

We have one more week until we take a week's break from our regular school to do a science study. Not sure yet what we're going to do, since we only have a week. I'm thinking of a unit study, but picking between several possibilities. We went to a Medieval Fair at a park near us. It was free! Cannot beat that. The girls had fun seeing some of the things they had read about - or rather realistic replications of them. We saw a sundial and Princess E told me that it was a mosaic. I hadn't even noticed, but I was impressed that she did. Pictures are below.

Princess E
Latin - Word Power B4 & 5, Exercises 3.2 and 3.3.
Math U See – Delta Lesson 2
Literature - continue The Door in the Wall
TOG - vocabulary, geography study, important people
Reading - The Story of the Middle Ages (excerpts), The Story of the Crusades, The Story of Joan of Arc
Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 2 (excerpts), Famous Men of the Middle Ages (excerpts)
This week we focused on learning about life in the High Middle Ages. We learned about craftsmen's guilds, the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War and Joan of Arc.

Princess S
Growing With Grammar - Lessons 1.9-1.11
Math U See - finish Gamma Lesson 7
Literature - the book didn't come in from library in time, so we skipped it this week
TOG and Read Alounds - same as above
Reading - Usborne Internet Linked Middle Ages (excerpts)

Princess L
Finish Lesson Three - /l/ is for leaf - we had a drastic change in the weather this week so we really weren't able to do any of the leaf activities as leaves are now browning an falling anyway.
Math U See - Lesson 9 - Place Value - we will be camped out here a while. We've been building with blocks and using place cards. We've played a few games with them. I'm starting to move into asking her some verbal questions instead of just relying on the cards. It's a fine line, with the Primer book, between understanding and overkill.

Here are some of our photos from the medieval fair:

Field Trip

Our homeschool group took a field trip to KTIS radio. It was fun! We got to meet several of the radio personalities, as well as see the behind the scenes work that goes into radio. The large wall of computers in a environmentally controlled room was neat. The kids even got to record little blurbs for an advertisement. We're hoping to hear it played today or tomorrow. Lisa Barry was on the air at the time and she came out and talked to us about how she got involved in radio. She gave the kids each a signed picture. Here is our whole group in front of the reception desk.

TOG Y1r U3 W23

This will be a shortened week time wise, but not work wise. Dad has the day off for President's Day on Monday. If the princesses want time with him, then they will have to hit the books hard to finish their work first. I gave them their assignments and told them to work on Monday's work over the weekend, but as of right now, 4:00pm on Sunday afternoon, they have yet to do that. They do not learn from past mistakes very quickly. Also, we have been invited to see a play on Friday. We will see The Miracle Worker. We are going with our current Pastor's family and our former Pastor's family. Here's the assignments for the week:

Princess E
Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
Geography: mapping the Persian Empire under King Darius
Growing with Grammar: 5.1 through 5.4
Math - continuing multiplication drill sheets and starting some flash cards
Writing - continuing with newspaper writing
Reading: What the Bible is All About (excerpts), Usborne Ancient Worlds (excerpts), Jewish Holidays all Year Round (Purim sections)

Princess S
Bible and Geography - same as above
Growing with Grammar: lessons 28-45 and Review sections
Math U See Beta: finish lesson 24, test 24 and start lesson 25
Reading: Old Testament Days (excerpts), Celebrate Jewish Holidays (Purim section)

Princess L
100 Easy Lessons - we're up to about lesson 12 but she is becoming very antagonistic about doing this. We will only do one or two lessons a week until decide where to go next. I plan to research some reading programs so that I can perhaps make some decisions before the MACHE conference in April. I do have the Math U See Primer book. I might just start this with her soon as she loves to "play with the blocks like sissies do." I am considering purchasing one of these in an effort to save money. I would have the bindings taken off the books and then slip the pages in. I could then re-use the pages with Princess M someday. I think I could do that with Primer, Alpha and perhaps Beta. After that I would have to decide. Math U See is changing their book layouts, which make them more convenient to be able to use a system like this, especially since their books will cost more money. The only question I have is for the later books, there isn't a lot of room to write and my oldest two princesses seem to write their numbers quite large.

Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty

We took a field trip today. We went to see Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman speak. It was packed! We got there somewhat early, but all the seats were still taken. We took a seat on the floor. When they got there, Tim Pawlenty introduced norm Coleman, and then came over and stood next to us while Norm Coleman spoke. Every time he would make a great comment, everyone would would clap. Princess M thought this was great fun and grinned from ear to ear and clapped as loud as she could. I was amazed at how well behaved Princess M and Princess L were. After Coleman was done talking, he started circling the room. Pawlenty spoke with us briefly and Pat Garofalo, the Farmington State Rep, took our picture with him. Then we headed for the Coleman line. I started talking to a friend who had also brought her kids, and didn't notice that Princesses S and E had pushed their way through to the front. Princess S had a question all written out on a note card to ask him. The question was, "John McCain said he supports vouchers. How do you feel about these and what effect will they have on our homeschool family?" I think he thought she wanted an autograph, because before she could ask him the question, he grabbed the card. Then he saw there was writing and read it. He answered by saying he supports homeschooling, that in fact his niece was homeschooled, and that it was a great alternative for a well-rounded education. He didn't really say anything about vouchers. Oh Well. He did ask her if he could keep the card for reference. All in all it was a fun time, and a great experience.

The rest of these photos are of our cookie dough map of the Indus River Valley (India and part of Pakistan) that we made last week. We plan to do one of China later this week.

Blessings.

LHOTP Field Trip

We were blessed with a field trip to see Little House on the Prairie the musical. We had a wonderful time! We got to see the Guthrie Theater and its beautiful and unique architecture. The girls had been to see Anne of Green Gables before at the Stages Theater, but this was their first big production to see. It was a little weird, at first, to see familiar characters burst out into song. Yet, they weren't totally familiar as they were played by different actors. Melissa Gilbert played the part of Caroline Ingalls. She garnered loud applause when she first came onstage, and I dare say that the play wouldn't be as popular if she were not in the cast. But it was a wonderful, wholesome family musical for all ages to enjoy.

After the play was over we made our way downstairs to the stage door. We brought along our hard copy of Little House on the Prairie on the offhand chance that we would get autographs. We almost didn't. There was a line of 50 people or so waiting for Melissa Gilbert to come out. Some of the actors with ensemble parts came through. Finally, she came out to a cheer from the crowd. We were in the back of the line. The other actors, with more prominent parts, came out and stood off to the side - seemingly ignored by the rest of the crowd. So I took my two princesses and we went to get their autographs. They were wonderful. After getting three of the four, I turned around to see Melissa Gilbert heading for the door because her taxi had arrived. I grabbed the girls and said, "Oh no! Is she leaving? Can you do one more please?" She didn't look real pleased, but did stop. When she saw I had children with me she smiled (I guess that made the difference) and she signed our book and the program. Then she was off. We went back to the other actors to get Kara Lindsey's autograph, the actress who played Laura.
It was a wonderful night.