wonderful autumn!

So, here's what we've been up to:

Visited Curtis Orchard, picked our own apples, made applesauce.

Visited the Great Pumpkin Patch, picked lots of squash, gourds, and pumpkins, admired the extensive displays and were awed by the variety of squash and pumpkins they grow there! Still eating squash.

FEAST OF THE HUNTER'S MOON!!! Saw cannon demonstration, flintlock reliability contest (musket and rifle demonstration), various fife and drum corps re-enactors, a tactical demonstration between two of the military corps, witnessed colonial methods of food preparation and ate the food (lots of it!), watched blacksmiths at work, turned a giant wheel that spun a lathe on which a craftsman made us a little wooden acorn (cute!), watched traditional Native American dance and song, watched traditional Scottish dance and song, traded for different items at the children's trade blanket, learned some classic games from long ago, and more! Did I mention that we ate a lot of food? Pics to come as soon as I figure out our new camera.

Around the World Wednesday at the Spurlock Museum - first week, we learned about Papa New Guinea and drew pictures of face paintings similar to what they do there, and this week we did some Indonesian-style batik painting. Also, visited the Krannert Art Museum today, where we saw some lovely paintings (and some hideous modern art). Samuel wanted to show us something in one of the paintings, and went to point to it, and it wasn't until the last second that we realized he intended to put his finger right on the painting, causing dh and I to simultaneously shriek, "Don't touch the painting!" (Yes, I said not to touch anything as we walked in, but he was quite absorbed in the statues in the entryway and in retrospect, he probably didn't hear a word I said.) The guard who was about 10 feet away kept his eyes on us the rest of the time, yes sirree!

Games: I mentioned that we learned new games at the Feast - we bought one called Fitch, and Shawn and Samuel have been having fun learning the strategies behind this game. We also got the game that goes with the book The Scrambled States of America, and had a lot of fun playing that one, too. With the colder weather, we've been pulling out the family games: Capt'n Clever, Payday, LOTR Risk, Battleship, Uno, and Ziggity are some we've played recently.

Samuel is still blazing through Math-U-See. At this rate (which we may or may not maintain) we'll need the next level by Christmas. He is almost through his reading primer and has done some more poetry for his copywork. I had him do another apple poem, and then a quote about October that I liked, neither of which are in front of me at the moment for me to record. Oh, well.

This autumn has been quite lovely, but I fear it is slipping away too soon - the temperatures are dropping fast! Well, we will enjoy the color while we can!

where does the time go?

Okay, so maybe me posting every day was a bit unrealistic. Oh, well. Here's what I remember from the blur that was the last week:

We discovered two caterpillars had turned into chrysalises and got to watch one go through the transformation.

Lots of arts and crafts, as always.

Spent time with my nieces. Yesterday I took all three kids to play at the park until they got too hot, then to the nature center, then on a walk through the woods. They had fun looking at flowers and squirrels and cool fungi and stuff like that.

Worked our way through more of our pile from the library. Samuel really likes Tomie dePaola's "Pancakes for Breakfast". I think he likes that there are no words, so he can narrate it however he likes. We've noticed more little details in the pictures than I normally would. We also got every book the library had on both guinea pigs and caterpillars/butterflies.

I am probably forgetting something momentous, but that's the way things go around here.

and the caterpillar count is...

... four.

I think I posted on my main blog but not here that one of the five we had before wandered off or something, because we couldn't find it and then another died. So then we were down to three. Well then dh went out in the dark last night to get more leaves and discovered this morning that another tiny hatchling hitchhiked in, so now we have four.

Samuel has been making spaceships out of K'Nex all morning. Yesterday we did some copywork also. He likes to make his letters all fancy - he draws them, rather than writes them, if that makes any sense? Many of them, he does the strokes in the wrong order/direction, so his handwriting doesn't really flow, although it looks nice. We'll have to work on that. I wonder if I should just teach him cursive - he'd like it, and he'd get used to doing the strokes in order.

Stinkin' squirrels won't leave my garden alone. I have lots of big green tomatoes with squirrel bites in them. I just opened the window to yell at one. It is wonderfully cool today, and just started to rain. A nice gentle sweet-smelling rain.

We went to the store, and I had Samuel mark off the items on the list, so he had to at least sort-of read them (although for many he was able to cheat and just look at the first letter). Had an awesome dinner of parmesan chicken with bruchetta that I made from tomatoes that a friend gave us, because did I mention mine are ALL GREEN? (Not that I am bitter.) Went out to Baskin Robbins for ice cream because a good dinner deserves a good dessert. :) I should make fancy dinners more often.

Samuel is determined to create a board game - he has tried this numerous times - but he can't quite get it to work. It's always too easy or impossible, or just makes no sense at all (except to him). He is very passionate about this, though, and I think one of these days he'll finally work it out and make a good one!

pray for Jacob!

Jacob is a man at our parish who will be leaving for the seminary next week! Hooray for young men who follow God's call!

After Mass today, we went to the library and found a big book on turtles, lots of books on caterpillars and butterflies, and even more on guinea pigs! (Because you can never have too many books on guinea pigs, right?) Also picked up some Tomie de Paola books, because you can never have too many of those either.

After the library, we went to a reception for Jacob to wish him well. Then came home, and tried to clean the place up a bit. Samuel has spread his projects and play areas all over the house lately, and while we try to be tolerant and encourage his creativity, it has gotten to the point where we have to reign him in a bit. Specifically, it is to the point where we are having trouble walking!

Samuel made some more arts and crafts in the evening... more for him to clean up tomorrow! then we watched some more Olympics: women's 100m dash, women's gymnastics (vault and floor), and men's gymnastics (floor and pommel horse). Now Samuel wants to be a gymnast. He'll probably be short enough!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary! Yay! It is also the feast of St. Maximillian Kolbe, a truly amazing man. We didn't know that when we were married, but we are so very glad to celebrate his life along with our marriage.

Samuel is still drawing today. And pretending that he is on a space ship.

We went out to a local Greek restaurant, Papa George's, for an early dinner. It was wonderful, as always. They make the best hummus! We also had gigantes, dolmades, and spanikopitakia, among other things. And of course we had baklava! Yum!

Afterward, we went to a local nursery to browse, and of course had to buy a few things. Just can't resist flowers. :) Samuel had fun observing a young rabbit that was hopping through the plants and was able to get pretty close to it. I spied a killdeer - the first we've seen around here.

Then Shawn and Samuel read about some of the Saints before bed: St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Louis, and a few others.

lazy day

I have a feeling that I will have a lot of posts with that title. ;) We ARE unschoolers, after all! The weather is so nice today that I just want to lie down and feel the breeze. Samuel has been drawing all day. He finished his big sea turtle and cut it out, but hasn't finished coloring the underside yet. It took him a long time just to color the top!

The caterpillars just keep on growing. We can see the little antenna-like feelers on the bigger one now. They are so tiny! I am so glad that we were able to start from an egg this year.

Shawn and Samuel have been reading a book on the human body. I can hear them in the next room talking about the kidneys. Next up is geography. They have been looking at globes and atlases and making our puzzle of the states. Samuel knows all the oceans and continents, as well as several countries and smaller bodies of water. Tonight they are going to read The Scrambled States of America along with their map study.

gotta start somewhere

So, I totally quit keeping up with this blog - obviously. THAT didn't last long. I have a hard time keeping consistent when daily life gets in the way - especially because we have dial-up, and I just often do NOT have the patience to wait for everything to load. But I really really want to start making notes of what we do everyday. People often want to know what we do all day, and half the time, I can't remember! (But we do lots, I promise!) So, I finally figured out how to email my posts in - that'll make life a lot easier. I can add to the post throughout the day, and then just hit send before I go to bed. Why didn't I do this before???

This morning was the Perseid meteor shower. So, I got up at 4:30am and went to stand in the backyard to see what I could see. I saw one meteor in about 10 minutes. It was getting a bit cloudy, and there was a lot of glare from city lights. I knew that dh did not want to drive out to the fields, and the backyard was not a good enough view to wake Samuel. Maybe next year.

Got up and had breakfast with dh for once: smoked salmon, avocado, and neufchatel cheese on a toasted English muffin. Mmmmm. Dh skipped the avocado and the toasting part. Doesn't know what he's missing. Samuel got up just before dh left for work, but wanted to snuggle in bed, so we went back there and talked and were silly until he got hungry around 9. He has been wanting to play Uno today, and he keeps trying to stack the deck!

On Friday, we found a monarch egg on a leaf of milkweed vine in our yard, so we brought it in. Last year, we found a monarch caterpillar, but he was nearly full grown when we started taking care of him. Our egg hatched on Sunday morning!

Then on Monday, Samuel found first another egg and then a new hatchling. The egg didn't hatch, and it accidentally got smushed so I think it's a lost cause. But we have two baby caterpillars now. You can see how much they grow in one day - the smaller one is only a day behind the bigger one!

Samuel has been getting them fresh leaves every day, but I had to caution him to check first to make sure that he doesn't bring in anymore eggs or caterpillars - two is enough!

He just ran in, VERY excited that he saw a female cardinal. I guess it has been a while since he saw one! We see sparrows and goldfinches at the thistle feeder mostly. I can hear a woodpecker out the window, too.


This afternoon: more Uno games (and deck-stacking attempts - does he really think I'll let him have all the Wild Draw 4's in one hand???), cleaning up around the house, and Samuel worked on his giant sea turtle. He's making it out of poster board, and I think it's probably close to life-size. He has a bunch of babies, so I guess this will be the mama.

Went to dinner at dh's work - they ordered pizza for the staff and some returning students. Came home, had ice cream with Grandma's homemade fudge sauce (heavenly!) and crashed!

Now we'll see how this whole emailing thing works!

sick day

Apparently encouraging Samuel to lounge about yesterday was a bit premature, as today he is REALLY sick. As in, woke up in a panic, barely able to breathe, barking like a seal sick. So, he's watching Charlotte's Web at the moment. BUT he is also finger knitting something or other for his yarn doll, and he made a connection between the finger weaving and Charlotte's weaving, so does that count for entomology? LOL

yarn doll

Samuel had a fever last night and was still recovering today, so I pretty much let him lounge in front of the TV all day. He did watch several episodes of vintage Reading Rainbow, so that counts as educational, right? Can't go wrong with LeVar! We also made a yarn doll, which was last week's Craft of the Week over at 4Real. Samuel had the idea to make it into a puppet, and I think that would work really well with 2 sticks in an X, and five strings - one from each end to a hand or foot, and one from the middle to the head. He then decided that he didn't want to do that to this one, though, so maybe we'll try it with another. It was a fun little project, and one that I think would work well in a group. We made ours with legs, but you could leave the bottom undone and it would be like a dress. Maybe we'll do some like that in white to be Christmas angels. Ooh, that would go great with Pascal and the Kitchen Angels! I'll have to remember that. :)

a record....

My original blog was intended to be in part a record of what we do for homeschooling, but I don't really like cluttering it up with mundane details. So, I am going to keep those here. :) I don't expect that anyone will want to read this, but if you happen across it, you're welcome to follow our mostly-unschooling lifestyle! I hope to update this blog pretty regularlyas we go along, but I wanted to write down some of our past endeavors as well, so I'll add them to this post as I think of them.

Places visited up to October 2007:
Saint Louis zoo
Saint Louis Science Center
Missouri Botanical Gardens
Magic House
Grant's Farm
Indianapolis Children's Museum
Indianapolis Zoo
Bloomington Children's Museum
Bloomington Zoo
Decatur Zoo
camping: Turkey Run SP, IN; Geneva SP, OH; Salt Fork SP, OH
hiking at Turkey Run
Curtis Orchard
Great Pumpkin Patch
Rockome Gardens
a local Amish farm

Academic endeavors:
Working through the Little Stories for Little Folks phonics program
Math concepts: counting, addition and subtraction, simple multiplication and division, fractions

Books read:
too many to name! I will have to come up with a system for keeping track

Creative exercises:
Building with Legos, wooden blocks, Kugelbahn, Thomas trains
Puzzles
Creating countless costumes and accessories from paper, pipe cleaners, and other household objects
Painting with watercolors, acrylics, and poster paints
Modelling with clay and beeswax

Nature walks:
Spotted deer, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, spiders, insects, and lots of birds
Collected variety of leaves for study, crafts

more to be added...