On with the fall traditions! We of course raked up a big pile of leaves to jump in. I can't believe it was almost a month ago that we did that! We still have a lot more to rake now that they have all finished falling. Good thing the snow and cold has held off to give me a little more time...we'll see if I get to it. You all know what a procrastinator I am :)
At the end of October we had our annual Creation Celebration night at the church. We come together to celebrate God and the amazing things He has created. We dress up like something or someone He created, play games and do crafts. Its such a fun night! Isabella dressed up as a girl from the Revolutionary War period. She has been working on sewing herself an outfit with a our friend Nancy. The skirt she and Nancy made but she hasn't finished the rest of the outfit so she borrowed the costume that Nancy had made for herself when she used to do historical reenactments. She looked so cute! She didn't love that bonnet and she is grateful that she doesn't have to wear one everyday!
Ian dressed up as David from the Bible. He was ready to slay the giant Goliath with his sling and his 5 smooth stones.
Isaac was king Josiah from the Bible. He became king at only 8 years old and during his reign he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord despite the fact that many kings before and after him did not. Isaac thought that was pretty admirable when we learned about it in Sunday School a few weeks back and decided that he wanted to be King Josiah. He makes a great looking king doesn't he?!
For crafts the kids got to make things out of clay and little magnets out of foam pieces.
They played lots of games and had a scavenger hunt. The donut eating contest is always a favorite.
Overall it was a really good time but it was sad too because we missed our little Hannah that night. While we were there, she was in the hospital, in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, recovering from a very serious virus that, combined with severe asthma, nearly took her life. I won't go into great detail because basically if you don't already know them, you don't really need to. Suffice it to say that God is good and her recovery has been amazing. We missed her for a few weeks of school but we were so blessed to have her back last week. If you pray, please keep her in your prayers because any little illness can present great challenges for her and there is still a long winter ahead.

Here are some of the fun things we have been up to during "school time."

We had some sloppy joe bun buggies for lunch.
We're moving on to shapes and color for our art lessons. This was during art but they didn't realize they were having a math lesson too!


The day that Hannah came back to school we had Pajama Day! I love pajama day. It's so funny to see the kids playing outside in their pajama's. They kept talking about how weird it felt to be in their PJ's. They were all so happy to have Hannah back. It was a very special day.
Here is Ian doing a little math work...
while the older girls work on spelling and Isaac did some silent reading.
The older girls are loving their Tuesday cooking time. Last week they made Peanut Butter Banana Bread. It usually has chocolate chips in it but I didn't have any so they decided to add cocoa to make Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread. It was delicious!
You might think in viewing the next picture that these two cuties are showing you bite size pieces of their banana bread BUT, they are actually showing you their banana bread molded into Wombat poop. Ironically the same day that we made the bread we learned that Wombats poop in the shape of a cube. After they realized they could shape the snack into Wombat poop it was all over. We had scat models of all shapes and sizes, puppies, dear, coyote, rabbits, humans. I was surprised they knew so much about animal poop! It was pretty funny.
In the middle of the week my beautiful sister and her beautiful daughters came up for a visit. It was Annika's first trip to Auntie Missy's house. She is sooooo cute. They came up to drop Madi off so she could sleep over for a night. It was so much fun!



Since Madi slept over on a school night we had the privilege of having her at school the next day! Mika was so excited to have a little friend to play with. Mika and Madi had met last year and had hit it off. They were so excited to see each other and it was so cute to watch them play together all day. Ian took the role of guiding every one's play (that is a nice way of saying he was bossy) and they had a great day together.

We did a fun craft that afternoon too. I don't know what I was thinking when I planned tacos for lunch for 8 kids and then a messy craft!! Lots of clean up required but it was worth it. We made these little turkey pictures with spices and dried food from the pantry (well cupboard really, I don't have a pantry but I like that word better and dried foods should come from a pantry. If I had one that is where I would keep them). I found the idea online and thought it would be a good craft for my multi-age group and it was. Everyone worked very hard and we had 8 beautiful turkeys and lots of rice, coffee grounds, beans, and spices on the floor when we were done.





I finally figured out how to publish some videos on my blog. Below is a video of Isabella doing the backstroke at her swim practice. She swam in her first swim meet this month. She did very good. She placed 6th for Freestyle in her age group and 5th for Backstroke. I am so proud of her. She works really hard at practice. One day she swam nearly 50 laps in an hour! She will be doing a swim-a-lap fund raiser in a few weeks to raise money for her team. She will try to swim 30 laps in an hour. If you would like to sponsor her by pledging to donate per lap or by giving a small donation please let me know.



This other video is of the kids having music class last Monday. It was such a nice day out we couldn't sit inside. Days that warm in November are a gift and I certainly wanted to take advantage of it! For music this year we are learning about classical music and composers. This weeks selection was "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky. Usually we listen and discuss the music while we do our penmanship but since we had to be outside I decided to have the children act out what they felt was happening in the music. They had to do it without talking. They did a great job. I took about 15 videos, this is my favorite. Ian steals the stage at the end and it's soooo funny. It was on pajama day in case you forgot we had one and were wondering why everyone is in their pajamas.


We are continuing to study Australia and had a fun time learning some Australian words today. They particularly liked that they call something that is genuine "dinky di" and that children are referred to as "ankle biters." We are also, of course, doing some Thanksgiving studies. I am trying to catch up to my lesson plans but either way we are getting lots done and having lots of fun. It's such a blessing to be able to work at the pace that works for them and maximizes their learning experiences. My plans will all still be there if finally catch up to them.

Hooroo! (that means see you later in Australia)

awesome autumn

So it seems I am becoming a once a month blogger. Gone are the days when I could post three a month and have time to spare. Oh precious time, where have you gone? Just kidding. I'm pretty much a lazy slacker and I spend to much time on Facebook. So, down with Facebook and today I blog. TLC is not in session today due to colds. Please pray for Hannah, her asthma is intense to say the least.

This week was supposed to be "catch-up" week at TLC so it's a good week to fill with sick days, not to mention that homeschool kids don't really "miss" school unless they are really too sick to do anything. A sick day for us just means we cough and sniff all over our school books and do it anyway. Amazingly, we didn't have to catch-up on much anyway, we have stayed right on track since September. Here are some of the super fun things we have done this month.


For science we took a look at the basic parts of a plant and animal cell. Below is our animal cell made of gelatin, grapes, beans and raisins.
This is our plant cell. It's hard to tell but it is in a clear plastic container in addition to the cell membrane baggie so it has a cell wall and you can also see all of the green grape chloroplasts that we added. Certainly not a model to save but it was really cool to make and we all enjoyed the tactile experience of smooshing the cytoplasm around.
Cells were a catalyst into our study of plants and their parts. In this lesson we were studying flowers. We found lots of specimens to examine, fortunately we got to this lesson before the frost came!
The kids have been doing some lessons on their own too. The fascination with rocks continues. While digging holes in the yard the kids found some "chalk rocks" They write on the driveway and are very easy to break. They decided to pulverize them, add some water and make chalk sticks. I was very impressed with their little experiment. In the end their chalk never hardened all the way but it was a great experiment none the less.
We have tried to get out and enjoy as much beautiful fall weather as possible. We took a lovely hike down an Audubon Society trail one afternoon.
I am always amazed at what the kids spot on a hike. They are so observant. We spied this fuzzy creature on a stem. It is the caterpillar of a giant leopard moth. I don't think I have ever seen one of these moths but I am not usually one to stick around and examine a moth.
We took in some breathtaking views.
We found (and scared to death with 8 pairs of eager hands) a little toad.

All in all it was a very educational hike as hikes almost always are. There is just so much to see and explore on a simple walk through the woods!
Of course we went apple picking too! We didn't actually do this as a group. Jason and I took our kids on lovely afternoon. I need my own apple trees. We picked 40 pounds and I would have picked double that if it didn't cost so much. We eat a lot of apples and I didn't even get to make apple sauce.



We did get to make apple cider though! My friend Amy hosted her annual apple day. She opens her home to homeschoolers in our area and we come and enjoy lots of apple activities and snacks. She has a cider press too so we can bring our apples and make cider!


This is Amy's very helpful son washing my apples for me.
The kids all worked hard crushing the apples and then pressing them to squeeze out all the juice. We had 20 lbs of apples and we got 1 gallon of cider!
To continue the fall fun back at TLC we did some leaf rubbing. I thought for sure they would be bored with this by now but for some weird reason the kids still forget this activity from year to year and it's like new every time. They made some beautiful pictures.


I am coming to realize that we have a lot of "fall traditions." Apple picking, pumpkin picking, jumping in leaves, leaf rubbing and of course, the fall foliage train ride! I dressed the kids in fall colors for this autumn family photo.


Bella, is very grown up this year, she didn't sit with us on the train, she hung out with her friends instead. It was kind of weird for me but natural at the same time. I guess that is how it is when your babies grow up, weird but natural at the same time...how profound.

Back at school the kids have been doing some beading. It is one of their choice time activities. They worked out some beautiful and complex patterns (a requirement) and have made some nice pieces. I expect more of this as the holidays approach.
Ian and Mika had their own set of foam beads that they worked with for a long time. They also made some beautiful (although bulky) jewelry.
Isaac and Nova were actually doing math while everyone else beaded but they certainly weren't missing out on the fun factor. They love working with the "math bank" and figuring out equations with units, tens, hundreds and thousands.
Oh yeah, and we made some caramel apples too. It was the long and arduous cooking task for Bella, Hannah and Lexie. They were very very gooey and delicious.
My last thing to report for now, but certainly not the least, is that my niece, Annika Marie Mason, was born on October 15th! This beautiful little bundle entered the world at 2:57 am weighing in at 7.08lbs and was 19 inches long. She came 12 days after her due date but when she finally decided to make her arrival she did it fast to say the least. Mommy and baby are doing amazing.
My kids, and her big sister Madi were soooo excited.
Annika is a very lucky little girl to have such a loving big sister...
and a loving big cousin.
She is just soooooooo cute!

So, once everyone is better we are going to finish up our study of South America and move on to Australia. We'll also be celebrating all of the blessings of Thanksgiving! We have so much to be Thankful for!