A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Our Week with another Pumpkin Patch Trip


It's been a busy week this week!  We went to another pumpkin patch with friends.  The high school had Open House.  Luke had a visit from the Regional Center.  And I went to the doctor for travel meds.  Somehow, we still managed to get our schoolwork done!


This time, instead of taking 8 kids to the pumpkin patch, I got out with just my "class."  Three is a great number of kids to homeschool.  When it was Brianna, Eli, and Jack, we had a blast.  While the dynamic is very different with Jack and the little girls, I'm hoping we can enjoy it just as much.


These two are great together.  I'm so incredibly blessed to be their mommy and get to see what a close sister relationship looks like.  I'm so glad they have each other.


And nothing slows them down!  Hay pyramid 3 times taller than the grown ups?  Bring it on!


The patch that we went to this time had "sandboxes" of corn for the kids to play in.


And a giant pillow jumper.  Jack was running with a pack of homeschooled boys around his age, so I don't have many pictures of him, but he was having a great time.


After the corn maze and our picnic lunch, we did the hay ride.


There's Jack!  By the end of the hay ride, all the boys were standing (on the floor, not on the bales!) and "surfing" since they'd noticed the driver wasn't paying attention or telling them to sit.


After the hay ride, the kids selected their pumpkins.


Jack and Katie found theirs quickly.  Hannah was a little more selective.  She wanted a small pumpkin that was not bumpy and had a stem.


Many of the pumpkins were very bumpy, so she had a hard time finding just the right one, but eventually settled on a lopsided one she could barely carry.  I don't think I want to watch her pick out a Christmas tree!  (Good thing we have artificial ones.)


We've learned about birds, and fish, and now we're working on reptiles and amphibians.


This week, we finished our Squanto book.  Jack and Hannah have been taking turns reading aloud.  As slow and painful as this can be sometimes, I really think it's good for them, and I'm going to have to come up with a way to continue to incorporate it.


There was a little craft where they cut off boarders and glued two pages together and then folded to make a sampling of the New England Primer, a schoolbook from colonial times.


Listening and following directions can be a challenge sometimes, but we eventually got it done.


I came upstairs and found a spontaneous game of Ancient History Memory going on, so I grabbed the camera.  Jack was surprised at how well Katie was doing.  I'm embarrassed to say, I don't think she's ever played memory before.  Must be time to get the Very Hungry Caterpillar game down and let the girls play.


Luke had a haircut this week.  We finally had our appointment with the Regional Center to get his file reactivated.  (We closed it in April when he left, and started calling them in August when he came back.)  Hopefully he'll start getting some respite services next month.


Our art project from the DVD this week was Op Art.


Hannah loves doing art, which makes it more fun.

We managed to finish Week 8 this week, so we're just one week behind in History and Science now.  Bible and art, we're not on a rigid timeline for.  Handwriting, spelling, English and math, we've been keeping up with.

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8 comments:

  1. The pumpkin patch field trip looks like it was a blast. We still need to get our pumpkins. I am not sure what to suggest for reading out loud. I noticed when I picked up extra books for certain subjects my daughter just started wanting to read them aloud so I ran with it. Maybe it is thanks to the All About Reading Program we used. I love the kids art projects.

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    1. I do have the new YWAM junior missionary books that I haven't brought out yet. I think we'll try reading one of those aloud. :) There are other "reader" type books we'll get to later in the year, I just don't want to lose the momentum we've got going now. The kids literally ask, "Can we read Squanto now?" at every subject change, lol. I'm not sure how much is the story and how much is the read aloud experience, but I intend to run with it, lol.

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  2. Your weeks are always filled with learning fun! Love the new art work and the hair cut. 😊

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    1. We do have fun around here. I really regret that our homeschool wasn't like this when my older kids were little. It was all workbooks back then.

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  3. I've never seen a sandbox with corn!

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    1. I couldn't resist running my hands through it! Like the little bins at the Lego store, lol.

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  4. Awesome week! What is the art program you are using? It looks like so much fun. The pumpkin patch looks great too.
    Blessings, Dawn

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    1. It's this DVD: http://amzn.to/1GyifoK
      I reviewed the 2nd grade disk last year (with my 5th and 8th graders, lol) and we LOVED it. Almost every project was a hit. I intend to own the whole collection at some point. She has a holiday dvd, too.

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