Our Week with a visit to Apple Hill

It's mid September already, can you believe it?  I'm starting to grab a hoodie as I dash out the door in the morning to take the big kids to school.  Autumn means trips to Apple Hill and the pumpkin patch!

My mom came up to visit last Friday, and she and I took 4 of the kids to Apple Hill, while Paul stayed home with Luke and the Little Ones.  (The big kids were in school.)  No trip with Grammy is complete without a stop at Taco Bell.

Josiah is camera shy, so he took this picture for me at our first farm.

However, I managed to catch him enjoying the misters on the balcony at another farm.

At one farm, we ran into a preying mantis!  That makes it a science field trip, right?

I got suckered into buying a rubber band gun from the woodcraft booth.

High Hill is a favorite of ours, but unfortunately, it's too early in the season for the hay rides to be going on a weekday.  It was really nice that it was not crowded, but they also didn't have as many apple varieties out as what they will in a couple weeks.  I had been hoping to bring home a box of honeycrisps, but was disappointed.

My mom and I

My cute girls!

See that pink box?  There are apple donuts in there.  They were amazing.  I also brought home flavored honey sticks.

This was shot about 3 pm on our way home.  The sky is full of smoke and ash from the nearby wildfire.  The sun was a pinkish orange.

Here at home, Jack and Hannah are both working on computer programs for upcoming reviews.  They are also using XtraMath, which is a free program for drilling basic math facts.

In our reading this week, Panama was mentioned, and I told the kids it was between North and South America.  Hannah and Jack both found it quickly on the world map.

Watch for a review next week about some Columbus resources!

While we were at Apple Hill, I picked up a bag of Lego candy.  Sorting, counting, classifying, and building are all good STEM skills, right?  This kept them busy for a good long while, and when Hannah asked for a ziplock bag, I showed her how to hold an envelope from her paper "placemat" instead.  Jack and Katie wanted me to fold them envelopes, too, and I noticed them playing "mail" later that day.

Miss Katie had an appointment at Shriners this week, and I brought Hannah along in the hopes of getting a new foot, since the toe broke off her old one recently.

The hand doctor took a look at both girls' hands and decided to send Hannah for an xray, since her prior one was from 2011.  In the end, we decided that we're going to continue to leave her xiao hand (xiao means "little" in Mandarin) alone, but it was good to take a peek and make sure that was still the best choice.  The xray tech gave Hannah her choice of books to keep, and she chose a Magic Tree House book.  Silly me.  I hadn't realized that she is now capable of chapter books.  Turns out, she's been reading the series here at home during nap time (the older kids used to love MTH books!).  We're now at the awkward place where Hannah's reading skills have surpassed Jack's, but it hasn't been An Issue so far.

While we were with the hand doctor, I mentioned that Katie is turning 5 soon, and would be starting some K type work, but is having a hard time holding a pencil and making a firm mark with it.  They brought in an OT, who said, "Get her a 504 plan."  Gee, thanks, dude.  *I* am the one teaching her, so I'll be happy to make whatever modifications needed, I just need to know what those might be.  He didn't seem very supportive of homeschooling, but he did give us a special pencil and 3 different pencil grips for regular pencils, so we're giving those a go to see if it helps.

The Little Ones have gotten over whatever bug they had.  It's looking like they'll be leaving us next week.

We're doing "school pictures" for the kids who are not in school next week.  One of our former photographers is back in town, doing photoshoots, so we'll be having individual pictures done of most of the family.  The high schoolers had picture day this week, so they're all set.

She took this picture for us in 2013, and it's still one of my favorites.

As far as actual homeschooling goes, our big accomplishment was finishing Week 2 of our curriculum.  Pathetic, when you consider that this was our 4th week of school.  We're planning to catch up after the Little Ones go home.  Fridays are usually assigned as light days, with minimal work, so we'll be able to fit in more on those days.  I'm confident that by the end of October we'll be on track.

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