Leaf Co-Op

 We had a leaf co-op at Hudson Gardens. The kids studied and compared different types of leaves. It was a lot of fun!


Claire's pictures:

 Audra's pictures:

Invitation

For the last couple of days the girls have been playing Birthday Party. Claire wrote Camille this note:

Dear Camille,

I have invited you to dance lessons. There will be stickers and we will perform a show. P.S. Invited to a Birthday party.

Going Camping!

Just because I really, really wanted to make life crazy, 48 hours after we got back from Utah, I repacked our car and (sans Ben) took the girls camping for three days.

This was definitely not ideal, but the camping trip was planned way back in March, before we knew about the UT trip. It was a homeschool camping trip- an annual trip that we really enjoy, and I didn't want to miss out.

Unlike last year, I elected to take Camille this year. She is finally old enough to really be included in pretty much anything that we do. I knew she would be fine, and I was right.

We went up on Thursday and came back this morning. We wanted to stay all day today, but due to soccer games (boo for soccer), we needed to come back early in the morning instead. Ben had yesterday off of work and was able to come hang out with us yesterday afternoon.

We stayed in the same cabin we did last year. At some point in time I want to camp with the girls in a tent, but I really, really like camping in a cabin! It is so much easier! And, it is heated- which really helped with this trip as fall is definitely in the air. It was quite chilly!

It was really nice to get away- again. This week has been a really crazy week. It's been a crazy past couple of weeks. But, when you're in the mountains, you really have no other choice but to relax and refresh- and that's exactly what I needed! Next week we will get into our routine without any forseeable interruptions, and that will be wonderful after all the chaos we have had the last few weeks.  But, having one last little bit of chaos was also nice. Now that we are home, I feel like summer is officially over.

Our new unit is frontiersmen, so I had the girls make buckskin jackets out of paper bags. We did a few other frontiersmen type things, and we did do a little bit of school- but not too much. I wanted the girls to just run around and play in nature, which they mostly did.

Of course we roasted marshmallows:

On a nature hike:

We went to Panaroma Point and I had them divide up and have some "quiet time" to draw the scenery in their Nature Journals.

I made some donuts one morning for breakfast. We used to do this growing up, and I thought the kids would enjoy it. I made a big mistake though by buying the large Pillsbury biscuits- I need to buy the smaller ones. Because they fry so fast, they didn't cook in the middle, so I ended up cutting them up and refrying them, and then they were fine.

We came home today stinking pretty bad, and quite tired. I should sleep very well tonight! I was thinking maybe 3 nights would be good next time, but now I have changed my mind. 2 nights is just right. Camping is too much work for just 1 night, but I sleep horribly- even in a cabin- so after 2 nights, I am pretty exhausted. The girls, of course, could have stayed forever. It was  another great trip! Now I'm looking forward to our regular boring routine starting Monday.

Writing With Audra

With any curriculum choice, there are pros and cons. Every teacher knows this. Every teacher also knows that there are many, many ways to teach each and every subject, and hudreds of different philosophies.

As a homeschooling mama, one of my many jobs is to pick curriculum for my kiddos. In researching writing, I came across a lot of different philosophies. Some experts say that in order to write, kids must write constantly- the more the better. Other experts say that writing just to write is nonsense- kids must first know HOW to write.

I think both of those ways can be beneficial, and really you just need to pick something and go with it.

Two years ago I chose a more classical approach- this requires a lot of copywork, narration, and dictation. The idea is that you study and observe and mimic great writers so that when you are ready you will write like a great writer. This is how Benjamin Franklin taught himself to write.

The curriculum is very strict and rigid in its approach- which I like. It doesn't allow for creative writing, but if you have a child who likes to write creatively, you let her write for fun- that isn't a problem at all.

Of course, no matter what course one chooses, there are always doubts. Always. While I do really like the curriculum, and we will definitely stick with it, I sometimes wonder if they are writing enough.

But then one of the kids will do something pretty cool, and completely on their own, like this:

Audra is writing a chapter book- all on her own. But, not just any chapter book. She is being very meticulous about it- she is writing her story first on small pieces of paper and then checking it for grammar and spelling. Then, she is re-writing it with perfect handwriting as carefully as she can. I'm not checking it, because I just want her to enjoy the process of writing. But, she is quite proud of herself and wants to spend hours and hours writing. It's pretty cool, and helps me remember that we're doing alright in this crazy homeshooling journey of ours.

Bear Lake

And then, on our last stop of our Utah tour, we headed up to Bear Lake for one last summer hurrah. It was a very full house, as our brother-in-laws family joined us, but it was great- we had an absolute blast! Well, it was windy and relatively cold, but other than that- it was great!


Sarah brought some canoes which was so much fun! Well, except that when you went too far out (about 30 yards) the wind would really catch you and we could have easily been swept away, so we had to make a rule that the kids couldn't go out by themselves on floaties or anything.

And, of course, off to Zips for raspberry shakes!

Playing with Mackenzie:

They came up with some sort of game where they took the croquet mallets and ran across the grass while sliding the mallets on the ground. I don't know what the goal was, but they enjoyed themselves.

It was an incredibly busy and full vacation! We were definitely ready to come home and sleep in our own beds. But, it really was wonderful. We have such awesome kids! It was so fun to be with them and to share so many things with them that are so important to us- family, religion, and a bit of our history. We are so blessed! It was simply wonderful.

BYU

Just to add a lot more driving to our trip, we decided to head down to Provo to show the girls my alma mater. It was so weird being there and having so many memories of college, with my three little ones running around with us!

Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun. BYU has changed a ton! They are doing a ton of new building. Most of the old dorms are gone- only Helaman Halls still exists.

Of course, no trip to Provo is complete without a stop at Brick Oven- so delicious!

We also stopped at The Bean Museum- the girls really enjoyed it.

We are feeling like pretty great parents- in the space of a week, we showed them two colleges and three temples. If only we were as this much on top of our game all the time!

Memorial Service

 The entire purpose of our trip was to honor Ben's Grandpa at a memorial service for him. It was a graveside service, and it was beautiful. Mac did all the work, and he did an absolutely fabulous job. It was very special. We are very grateful that we could be a part of it.

Because he was a WWII veteran, he had a military honor guard at the funeral. I'm not sure what it is called, but there was a bugle call, a gun fire salute, and a prayer. I have never seen a military funeral before, but it was really neat.