Homeschool October

October has been a good month of homeschooling. I feel like this is one of the really sweet spots of the year. Everyone has gotten the routine down and you're pretty much feeling the rhythm, but it's right before the holiday busyness starts throwing things off. 

Lucy's IEP was officially transferred over to My Tech High, which is now called OpenEd (the school we use for funding and state resources in our homeschool) and she has started receiving services once a month through zoom. They mostly work on tracking with her and I feel like they are a good resource if I have questions (and good familiarity with the computer for Lucy). 

We have stayed pretty consistent with our Fairy Tales (Monday), Nature (Tuesday) and Country (Wednesday). Thursday mornings are busier than I anticipated so poetry has kind of gotten lost, and by Friday we are all happy to have a free day. However, the three Family Study areas we have kept have been amazing! This month we are learning about 

Nature: Ocean

Country: The Netherlands 

Day of Creation: Dry Land and Seas  

Character Trait: Charity and Love

We also have been using the Seasons Afield Science Study for an extra nature study this month. (Nature is the Mothers of Influence topic) 

Nature Study Objective: To learn how to nurture a child’s natural love of nature and how to give them eyes to ‘see’. -Mothers University “Nature Study”
https://www.librariesofhope.com/2-nature-study

The Netherlands has been SO fun to study this month. I can't believe I don't have pictures of the Delft Plates that we made or the paper Klompen. We've read lots of stories and learned a lot about tulips. Lucy's middle name is Holland and she particularly loves the Netherlands and Tulips - but our whole family has loved this study. 

One of the things that I love so much about homeschool is the time that we have to just be together (and how being together so much of the time feeds the relationships between these siblings - they are such good friends and are so good to each other.) Lucy really wanted to have a fancy Tea Party, this is something that we do regularly in our house, however this tea party was extra fancy. I love that our kids have time to play together (but note that Lydia is reading a book as she participates, ha).  





Utah History 

We are learning about Native Americans/the Indiginous people of Utah. The first week we learned about the 5 different tribes that inhabited Utah and how they still live hereThe second week we learned about how important stories were to the peoples. We read traditional stories and then created rock art of some of our stories.  




Field Trips: 

This is the Place Indian Village (Utah History) 

Pumpkin Patch (Kids Choice) 

Star Dome (Field Trip Group) 

Biggest shoutout to the kids Uncle Sam (@rencher_smile) for bringing a star dome to share with our homeschool group so we could learn more about stars and constellations. We had such a great time and are grateful for the time and effort that went into this activity.

As a follow up activity we woke up at 6 am this morning and spent an hour stargazing in the chilly fall nighttime air so we could see Orion. We spotted a couple other constellations (Taurus) and even saw Jupiter and Mars. It was such a neat application of the things we had learned.

Because we had more kids than could fit in the dome at a time, we broke into two groups and I put together a constellation activity in the primary room for the kids that were in the off group. It turned out great, with a little improvising for the younger group with a physical star activity because they were losing interest! 

Bonus Field Trip: James and the Giant Peach/SCERA Field Trip

We watched James and the Giant Peach at the Hale Orem last year and it was one of my favorite plays of the whole year. I didn't expect this one to top that one, but we thoroughly enjoyed it! It was extra fun because we went to the play on Monday, and then on Friday we came back and got to go on a backstage tour with our homeschool group.(Technically in Novemeber, so the pictures will get posted with next month.) 

Sewing Classes

Other things that are happening in homeschooling news, I am teaching three different sewing classes right now. After Utah History (every other Tuesday) the three girls stay an hour longer for a small sewing class. We made quilts and are working on little crossbody bags.

This is Ava's third year sewing with me and we have been making some fun projects! She comes over on Wednesday mornings from 11:15-12:30. She just finished a pool bag out of canvas. She learned some fun skills like fusible web batting and iron on appliques. 

My third class is my biggest endeavor yet. I am teaching a 6 week "service sewing class" to a group of 16 middle school aged homeschoolers. This is for Lydia's Middle School Coop and it's been so fun. There are 10 boys and 6 girls. I have broken them into groups of four and each group is making a quilt to donate to Wrap the World with Quilts. I am borrowing a machine, in addition to the 3 of ours (2 of mine and 1 of Lydias) so that each group has their own machine to work with. It has been such a blast to be teaching a full class of students again - not just small groups. I have loved it so much! 

I also added this picture of a Flyer I made for the Blue Moose Elementary coop because I thought that I should note that I have taken on the duties of Financial Admin for both the Elementary and Middle School coops. This means collecting fees, providing receipts, paying teachers, and keeping track of the finances. When MyTechHigh started rejecting our coop receipts, I had to pull together this flyer so that we could prove we qualified under CORE. I stepped down as the director of SPARK coop and almost immediately stepped into this role, but I have no regrets. This is exactly where we are supposed to be this year and I couldn't have helped in this way if I was still trying to fill that role. 

Summer Sewing

Cal is working on cleaning out the sewing room (aka Matts room), the little room across the hall from Cal and Sue's bedroom. It's filled with sewing supplies, craft supplies, extra furniture, and hundreds of photo albums, old pictures in frames, and loose photographs. Wendy has been helping him do that when she comes to visit on Fridays. They asked if I wanted all of Sue's extra fabric, which yes! I do - so David and I made a trip to get the fabric. We knew there was a lot but we were surprised when the fabric filled the entire back of the van to the brim (with the back seats folded down). We got the fabric home and I went through every piece of it- throwing about half of it away and keeping only the things I felt I would be able to use in the future. It was a huge project and it made me feel so connected to Sue and filled with such love for her as I went through unfinished projects, beautiful fabric, and all of her sewing supplies. 

I was excited for all of the fabric in part, because this summer I decided to host a "Quilt Camp" for my summer sewing classes. I did a couple of different sessions where I taught the kids the basic skills needed to make a block quilt. They made their own "mini quilt" and then they teamed up with a group to make a larger quilt to donate to "Wrap the World with Quilts" - a charitable organization that we have worked with in the past. I loved using Sue's fabric to piece together these quilts and enjoyed teaching these classes. 

I chose to do "Quilt Camp" this year for sewing classes because in the fall I am planning to teach a 6 week Quilt Service class for Lydia's Middle School Coop. Doing a couple of trial runs in my neighborhood with 6 people in each class helped me to prep for teaching 16 middle schoolers at the same time. 







I really enjoy teaching sewing and am glad that I was able to do a couple of sewing sessions this summer. 

Info on Wrap the World with Quilts: https://hellocottons.com/

Summer Sewing Classes

Each year our YW/YM programs host a youth auction where members of the ward donate items/services and people bid on them. I offered a couple of sewing lessons for the auction, and then when a couple of friends asked if I would be interested in teaching their kids some sewing lessons this summer I decided to make it a thing and host some official classes.

I taught four different projects, one per week. I had two sessions of Monday/Tuesday classes with four kids in each class.

June 29&30 8:30-10 or 12-1:30 Adventure Banners (for collecting pins, stickers, jr ranger badges)

 July 10&11 8:30-10 or 10:30-12 Quillows (foldable fleece blanket) 

July 17&18 8:30-10 or 10:30-12 Rolled Pillowcases (Fits a standard queen pillow) 

July 24&25 8:30-10 or 10:30-12 Scrunchies and Otter Pop covers 

$15 per child per session. I will have standard supplies and a fabric stash that the kids can choose from. (*Quillows have an extra $15 supply fee)

 I will provide a supply list for kids who prefer to go pick out their fabric themselves.

I had a really fun time with this. It was fulfilling in a way that felt a little different than my normal. I enjoyed sewing with the kids and was able to use the money on some fun extras this summer. (i.e. Sarah Eden's Book Launch Party).

Adventure Banners: 

Rolled Pillowcases:

Quillows (I didn't get pictures of all the quillows, but this was by far the fan-favorite project). 

Scrunchies/Otter Pop Covers (also didn't get pictures of both sessions, but the kids liked this more than I thought they would.) 

I saw someone with this bag at church on Sunday and decided I wanted to figure out how to make it. So maybe next summer I'll add in a bow-bag project. 

I had such a fun time with this, I'm already thinking about doing a few Christmas sewing lessons. It was fun to sew again and fun to teach lessons to these small groups.