Remember Us? An Update About our Schooling.

I really hate that I'm not updating my blog very often because we are having an awesome year of school.  I think I've mentioned this before...when I have thought of history in the past, I never would think of the word interesting.  But I am loving it as I "teach" it.  And I use that word in quotation marks because along with teaching it, I am learning it as well, right along with my kids.  I can not say enough positive things about My Father's World, and how they choose such great books to go with their curriculum.

Unfortunately I have not been taking as many pictures of our schooling as usual.  A lot of this year is mainly just reading good books and not as many projects which means pictures wouldn't be as interesting.  But I have taken a few.  Since I really haven't put many on here from this school year, I'll just do them all now, and try to give little explanations of each.

Back in October we were learning about aquaducts and bridges in ancient Rome and how strong they were because of the arch supporst under them.  We tested it out for ourselves.  Making a bridge out of a index card, we tested out how strong it was with arch supports underneath it and without.

                                  without

                                  with

Later that month, we joined some other homeschooling families at the library co-op and learned about music from some local musicians.

Leah will call pretty much anything she does "preschool", so I guess I can count the girls doing a puzzle as school. 

And on that note, Anna finding the caramel sauce could be consided learning as well.  You know, curiousity, fine motor skills, etc...

It's always fun to discover a caramel covered toddler.  :o)

Okay, we're up to November.  I guess I have a few more pictures that qualify as school than I thought.

We got together with our new homeschool group and the kids had a blast with the other children and all that there was to do at this house.  Zip lining down the tree house in a baby swing was fun, and the backyard chickens were an even bigger hit. 

This has renewed my desire for backyard chickens.  If only our HOA would allow them...

I felt super brave one day and decided to make home made Thanksgiving cards with the kids to send to our family.  It involved paint.  And my five kids. 

Then we joined our homeschool group again for a Thanksgiving potluck.  The kids did a great job making Christmas cards for deployed Air Force men and women.

December...our library co-op had another fun meeting, this time a carpentry workshop.  The boys got to cut, drill and hammer a toolbox together.  It was really neat.  Chris takes them to the Lowe's Build and Grow workshops but they only hammer there, so this was a new, fun experience for them.  And can you imagine going to the library when this was going on?  It was actually one of the librarians who led this workshop for us though!

So while I don't have a lot of pictures of our actual formal homeschooling work, it makes the fun and educational things we do outside of the formal work more noticible, and they are definately part of my children's education.  I'll have to come do some more updating later...out of time!