Night at the Museum

Every year our co-op ends the year with a Night at the Museum to showcase what the older children have learned.  This year they've been studying the middle ages.  It was so much fun to watch them choose who in history they were going to represent, work on their speeches and work out their costumes.

Miss E was Grouch whom the character of MacBeth is based upon.  She put together her costume.  She even made the head dress in her art class where she learned to make chainmail.

Mr. R was a peasant.

Mr. M was excited that he got to be William Wallace.  He even managed to talk Daddy into getting him a big training sword for his costume...I'd only let him have it if he was willing we wear a kilt though.

Mr. S was a knight in the skit his class put together based on Beowulf.

We had a tour guide for the evening who brought us from room to room to hear the speeches etc.  Miss A managed to get a bit ahead of us with some of the other kids when moving on to the next room.  When we walked into the room we saw her planted right next to Miss E like she belonged there...so we left her.  She sat so quietly and nicely listening to all of the speeches.  It was great!

A whole lot o' nothin'

We've been busy....doing nothing.  Well, not actually nothing.  Just nothing big going on.  School, cold and flu season, serving....just life keeping us busy and quiet "on line."  I thought I'd pop in here quickly and post a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Miss A loves playing in the sensory bin.

Miss J has developed a love for math.  She also loves taking care of Miss F.  She's managed to bring two of her loves together here. :) 

The older boys got to go to a UAV conference with Daddy.

Field trip to the Viking exhibit at a museum.

Reformation, and obedience to God...

We've been busy, busy, busy.  I've got back blog posts that I need to do to update, but wanted to do this post while I was thinking of it....

We're enjoying Autumn.  We love the changing colors, the foods, and the cooler weather that October brings.  Another thing we love about October is the yearly opportunity to study some Church History as we look at the Reformation.

                                                         

"My conscience is captive to the Word of God.  I cannot recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.  Here I stand.  I cannot do otherwise.  God help me.  Amen!"  

Martin Luther

This morning we were reading Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed The World.  Ah, what a sweet reminder and encouragement that was to us this morning.  Obedience to God and HIS word is what is important; not what others think.  To do otherwise is not right or safe. (to rephrase Martin Luther's famous words).

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:15

***I'm an Amazon affiliate.  If you shop through my links I make the tiniest bit of $$ which will just be spent on more great books for my kids. :)

Teaching outside

Miss J was teaching classes out on the patio today.  Some of her students were a bit unruly, but she managed to teach about plants and horses.

Earlier in the day I was in the garden with most of the littles.  Miss J told me she was glad we had a garden because it's helping her get ready for when she's all grown up.  My heart smiled.  I told her that's my job; to get her ready to be a grown up, and my most important job is to teach her to love God.  At that I felt the sweetest little tug on my arm.  I looked down into the blue eyes of 2 year old Miss A "I love God"  "I love Jesus"   I think those were some of the most encouraging words I could hear.  My job is not done, but the seeds are planted.  They need plenty of watering and care for several more years, but I'm thankful for the encouragement today.

Homeschool Conference!

We love getting to go to Homeschool conferences.  It's usually a great time of learning from speakers and also learning by getting our hands on books and curricula we've been wanting to check out.  The kids always love getting to come too, when we are able to bring them.  We were super thankful to find out that our local one allows children to come.

Before we could get on the road we needed to pick up two big kids that had a late night baby sitting job (and so had just spent the night).

The rest of the kids waiting patiently while Daddy went in to get the others. :) 

We really wanted our older kids to enjoy the speakers and hear from some men that we had learned so much from in the past.  We were so glad they had that opportunity.  Since Daddy was actually helping out a bit at the conference that left me hanging out with the littles quite a bit.

We also met up with several friends making it extra fun for all of us.

I think we may have had a bit too much fun in the vendor hall.  Our kids sure love books and we are always happy to supply good quality reading materials.  I enjoyed seeing their excitement over picking out new biographies to read together this year, or the excitement over seeing that a favorite author had a new series out.  Some kids had made requests before going and so had been assigned the job of looking for those items; they took those jobs very seriously. 

State Science Olympiad

After missing the Regional competition while recovering from birth I was really excited to watch the kids compete at State.  With both a slow recovery and a bad weather forecast we decided that it was best that the 5 younger kids and I stay behind.

Rob and the 4 competing kids headed up the afternoon before competition.  They stopped at Krispy Kreme on their way up and then enjoyed the pool at the hotel.

The little kids and I awakened to a winter wonderland.  We spent the day inside playing and I was super thankful that though the roads were bad a friend was able to come over and help with littles so I could get a nap....it had been a rough night.

The competition went off without a hitch and I appreciated getting some updates throughout the day.  Their weather wasn't quite as bad up there, but the call was made to cancel the official awards ceremony so any teams that could would be able to make it home safely.  Most of the families on our team opted to stay an extra night.  A few of the amazing moms on our team (they are all amazing!) put together a private awards ceremony at the hotel with dollar store medals and trophies.  Miss E (with her partner) got 1st in Disease Detectives (epidemiology) and 2nd in Anatomy.  Mr. R and his partner got 1st in gliders.  Mr. M and his partner got 1st in Scrambler (a wheeled vehicle with an egg on the front, get as close to the wall as possible without breaking your egg).  Our Sr. High team places 5th overall.  Our Jr. High team placed 2nd overall.  Good job guys!

As much as I would have loved to get my kids and Rob home safely that night, this was so much fun for my kids.  Imagine, being a teen and being stuck in a hotel with many of your friends.  What fun!  Even better?  All of the kids had their parents there so they couldn't get into too much mischief. ;) 

The next day they made their way home while we waited as patiently as possible.  Some were more excited for their arrival than others. 

When they finally made it home the truck got stuck right in front of our house.  It was REALLY stuck.  A friend happened to be out checking to see how the roads were.  He knew Rob and the big kids were gone and thought he'd drop by to check on me and the littles....his timing could not have been better.  He drove in just a few minutes after the truck got stuck and was able to pull it out.

What an adventure!  Once again we are so thankful to have been able to have this experience with our Science Olympiad team.   

Science Olympiad Regionals

Last year was our first year participating in Science Olympiad.  It was just Miss E and Mr. R.  This year we added Mr. M and Mr. S.  I was due just 2 weeks before regionals this year; meaning we needed to have a plan to make this happen.  My mom came to help with the littles while Rob took the big kids down for competition (it's an over night thing since they have to be there so early on the big day).

Miss E's day was full of testing.  Nothing to see.  The boys all had building events though that could be watched as they tested their builds.  Between the 3 of them we had 4 different build events Bottle Rockets, Gliders, Scrambler (a wheeled vehicle with an egg on the front; get the vehicle as close to the wall as you can without breaking the egg), and Air Trajectory.

***All placings listed for the boys are at the Jr. High level.  Mr. R and Mr. M are on our "varsity" Jr. High team.  Mr. S is on the "Jr. Varsity" team.****
Mr. R and his partner won 1st place for their Bottle Rocket(s).

Mr. R and his partner won 1st place for their Glider.

Mr. M and his partner did not fair well with their Scrambler.  It was somehow broken after being impounded, their quick repair was not good enough.  It seems many teams had problems though since only 8 teams got official results.  The other 18 teams received placings of 26/27 place.  Oh well.  They will rebuild and hopefully State Competition will go better.

Mr. R and Mr. M placed 3rd for Air Trajectory.

Mr. S and his partner placed 4th in Air Trajectory.  During our practices Mr. S had been getting better and more consistent results with his contraption.  We had expected him to place better than his brothers, but thats just how competition days go.  He is very excited to get to go to state and give it another go.  Maybe at State he'll WHOMP his brothers?

All three of the boys also had a testing event; Road Scholar.  Its about reading and even drawing maps.  Mr. R and Mr. M did better than expected and are hoping to up their game for state.

***Miss E competes at the Sr. High level***
Miss E placed 1st with her partner in Anatomy.  She and her (same) partner placed 2nd for Disease Detectives (epidemiology).  We're still waiting on results for the computer programing "Game On" event.  She and her partner were pleased with how they did and are looking forward to practicing more so they will place better at state.

Over all the three teams did very well and are all continuing on to our State competition..  Our Sr. High team placed 3rd.  Our "varsity" Jr. High team placed 1st.  Our "JV" Jr. High team placed 12th and as our head coach put it "made it by the skin of their teeth....their baby teeth" (only the top 12 teams go on to state; our JV team is all grade schoolers).

***We're super thankful to our head coach and team coaches that put so much time and effort into this team and make it what it is.  We are pleased with how well the kids did, but behind the scenes there was much character building taking place.  That growth and the relationships built are the big reasons we do SO.

Another blizzard!

It started slowly on Sunday afternoon.  On Monday there was a fair bit of snow and schools were closed, mostly because they knew much more was coming.  My kids did not get a snow day.  We had a make-up day after being sick for a week.  Some school was done and a fair bit of cleaning too.

On Tuesday even Daddy got a snow day.  There was so much snow.  Walkways and driveways were hidden under snow drifts.  The wind was blowing and the snow was coming down steadily.  It didn't stop coming down until evening.

This is Mr. S way out a the neighbor's driveway helping him dig out.  He had to get into work.

Snug and warm inside we played games and well....Daddy and Mr. M had a twinkie eating contest.  Mr. M had challenged his daddy; he may be growing up (and it was close) but daddy was the winner!

Wednesday morning brought a slow start to our day and sweet morning snuggles in bed.  Daddy was able to make it in to work with the 4wd truck that had chains on it.  He left the kids with the encouragement that IF he could get the minivan down the driveway that evening there'd be $20 in it for each kid that worked on that project.  They got that driveway cleared!

Mr. R and Miss J can be seen on either side of this picture digging.  Mr. M had just been there moments before the picture was taken.

Miss E made doughnuts for everyone.  While we usually just do the homemade doughnuts for the first good snow, this one was so big we thought it deserved doughnuts too. :)

Now that the sun is back out we've been enjoying our wonderful view.  We've enjoyed the slower pace that the storm brought, but we're ready to get back to our regularly scheduled activities!

Plant cells and squash

Most of the kids have been learning about cells in their co-op classes.  To review the parts of the cell that they were learning we had a fun breakfast of plant cell pancakes.  They each had their own little plate with everything they needed to put their cell together while identifying the parts.

Before breakfast Miss A spotted Miss E and Mr M preparing spaghetti squash to be cooked.  She wanted in on the stabbing.  She did a great job getting hers ready to cook too.

And so it begins....

...a new season of Science Olympiad.  Since I didn't learn my lesson last year; I now have 4 kids competing (and 12 events between them).  I'm also helping to lead an elementary level non-competitive team.  Yikes!  What was I thinking?  Well, anyways, here goes.

At this meeting the very youngest (that really are not involved) played with pasta and marshmallows to build towers, or anything else they came up with.

The youngest participants were practicing their observation skills by trying to copy a gumdrop tower that had been built earlier.  They had to pay attention to colors and direction the gum drops were pointing in order to make an exact copy.  After that they just had fun building.

The middle level guys gave directions orally to their partner in order to help their partner perfectly replicate the structure they had built.
   

The upper level had to write out the instructions for another team to replicate the structure they had.  This is harder than it sounds, but they did a great job and their structures came close to matching the originals.

While building gum drop towers may not sound very scientific this exercise was building the very earliest understanding of computer programing.  It also showed them the importance of paying attention to details and accurate communication.

During this time Miss E was meeting with her Anatomy partner for a study session and Mr. R was helping with this activity since he'd done this event last year.