Pilgrimage

With Thanksgiving approaching, we have been learning about pilgrims and indians. We have made trunks, and pilgrim hats to prepare for our journey from England to America and today we started our journey. We sorted through 12 items and packed only those that the pilgrims may have packed for their two month journey. We read a letter from a pilgrim girl on the Mayflower, and discussed what each item in our trunks might be used for. We will continue on the journey for the next 6 school days.
Check out The First Thanksgiving for more fun ideas!!!

Food Drive

Camden collected 9 bags of food for Cub Scouts to support our local food pantry in Chaumont. He was very independent in this activity, and did a great job! He also is the top popcorn seller for his pack! He loves Lion Scouts!

Bar Graphs and Tying Shoes

Camden and I worked on tying shoes today...willingly! O.K., so I bribed him, but the deal is that he can get a new DS game to play when he independently ties his own shoes. He has the skill, can slowly tie with very little help, and only needs verbal ques to tie...so this reward might come sooner than later! Also, Camden and I made a bar graph. We used our pattern blocks and recorded data (the amount of each block used in a pattern) then added up our numbers for use in the bar graph. He had FUN! It was nice to work with only one kiddo today. Riley did not join us today until we were done so she colored a few states on a US map. This morning we had ice skating, the kids are doing GREAT! Camden can skate independently and he goes pretty fast too. Riley CAN skate alone, however she still likes having someone hold her hand...I do not blame her! There will be an Ice Skating Recital mid December for the kids to show off their newly learned skill.

Field Trip

We went on an outing to the Burrville Cider Mill where we took a walk to the falls, learned about the making of apple cider, and then tasted apple cider, ate a cider donut, and picked apples! We had a nice day.

First Day of Ice Skating

Ice Skating is a hit! The kids are in their 5th week of lessons...they can now officially skate without a "walker"...they just do not like too! Here are pics from their first lesson.

Substitue Teacher -- Mr. Dad

So I took a day off and scheduled a Lady's Day Out on Monday November 2nd. Sunday night I wrote up my lesson plan and Monday morning I passed it along to Kevin! Actually, I got the kids through Reading, Writing, and started with Math before I ventured off for the day; but then Kevin took over and finished Math with the kids, he managed to do a science lesson and worksheet with the kids, review our home address and phone number, read a book and had a discussion with the kids on it, fed them morning and afternoon snacks and lunch, and then took them to the zoo and park!!!! All of this in a 4 hour period of time! I am very impressed, since the zoo and park were his idea and a complete bonus. He even wrote down the notes I asked for in the lesson plan. He earned an A+ as a substitute in my book. What started out as hesitation on his end has resuted in a plan for him to substitue once a month. Not a bad idea considering Home-schooling is truely a family effort.