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. 

Lucy Bike

This is such a big deal and I am beyond proud and thrilled for this Lucy girl of ours. For the past several years - Lucy has loved riding her bike with training wheels. She's done a great job and gotten really confident on it. 

 
I hadn't ever talked to her about taking the training wheels off of her bike, but she came to me and asked if I would take her training wheels off so she could ride her bike on her own. Immediately I agreed and popped the training wheels off. After some practice, she was doing it! Riding her bike on her own! 

She'd five, so it's definitely age appropriate for her, but I kept hearing words from the doctor who we saw when she was a baby echoing in my head. "Lowest end of the spectrum." "May not be able to drive or even ride a bike." This milestone was not guaranteed for us. It is a miracle that this sweet, adventurous girl feels confident enough in her body and in her vision to be able to climb onto a bike and go careening down the street. I'm so grateful and I'm so proud. 

Wyoming

We have been going to my parent's house 2x a month and it's been SO great. We go up on a Sunday afternoon/evening, stay the night, then come home after dinner on Monday. It's not a long trip, but it's enough to spend some quality time with my parents and help them with house projects. 

I'm actually shocked that we don't have more (i.e. any) pictures of the work that they are doing. There is SO much work to do! We are prepping the kitchen walls, floors, and electricity (everything!) for the kitchen remodel. We are working in the bathrooms and the house's main areas. I know that my kids wish we could play a little more, but we've been able to help with so many things and that's important. This is a busy time, but there will be less busy times where there will be more focus on exploring and helping on the ranch. 

A lot of the time, the kids just go out and play in the backyard. They love the cats so much. My dad loves his cats and he built them this protected hut to keep them safe from the elements. I think that part of the reason he loves the cats so much is because his mom, my Grandma Walker, loved the cats and I think it connects him to her when he cares for her cats. Obviously the cats are good for the ranch, they keep pests down and things, but it's sweet how much my dad loves them. 

He also has taken time to let us learn about and help with the cows on the ranch. This time when we came to help - we weren't just home remodelers - we were legit cowboys. I didn't take any pictures of this because we were working too hard - but we worked cows all day. My dad's cow's tags had faded completely in some manufacturing fluke and he had to re-tag all of his cows. At the same time, we needed to sort Marti's cows out of our herd. Once we had only the mama and baby cows we had to retag them all and then weigh the baby cows. Austin Lydia My Dad and I rode 4 wheelers out into the field and pushed the cows all the way down to the Alley, then we pushed them to the corral, sorted out Marti's cows, and got them prepped for pushing them through the chute. Kim came down to help a bit, but mostly it was just me, my kids, and my parents. I pushed the cows down the chute. Lydia and Austin used long thin logs to put behind their legs so they couldn't back out, then they would push them forward so my dad could tag them and weigh the baby cows. It was a TON of work (and by the end we were covered in cow poop, ha). I was so proud of my children for how hard they worked and so grateful for the life experience for them. 

My dad is so great. He lets us help on the ranch and teaches us about cows and hay. But he also takes time to do fun things with us. For Austin's birthday, he asked if my dad would buy new rocket motors and shoot off rockets. The kids loved this so much! They shot off several rockets and then chased them down in the fields. We realized afterward that it was hard to find the rockets, but miraculously we found all of the pieces - even though one of them my dad didn't find until a couple of days after we left. 

This time we have to spend here is a treasure and I will never not be grateful for it.