A Few Homeschool Projects

Other than our Casual Co-op activities, I haven't posted much about homeschool this year.  Most of what we are doing is a repeat of the second year I homeschooled in Michigan.  Hopefully, since Lydia and Seth are older they are learning more the second time around.  I offer all the projects that we did last time but have given them the option whether they want to do them or not.  These are the ones they chose, most coming from our Egyptian unit.

Mummifying Barbies

Painting clay tablets with Egyptian art.

Dressing up and eating an Egyptian meal.

They also put together an Egyptian home, but I didn't get a picture of that one.  The only other major project that they put together was not Egyptian related.  They made and set up all the pieces of the tabernacle.  I did not get a picture of that one either before they took it down and stored it. 

Other than that it is pretty much like any other school--math, English, writing, science, spelling, etc.   The only thing we did different this year was our reading unit.  Instead of each one having their own book/reading unit, we all studied Little Women together.  We read about three chapters a week discussing vocabulary words, comprehension questions, and different literary elements each Thursday or Friday.  Just last week we ended our unit by watching the movie.  We all heartily agreed that the book was MUCH better.  This format worked so well, we are going to read Oliver Twist next semester together.  

Right now we are just enjoying our break from school!

Grandpa and Grandma and Michael's Thanksgiving Visit

Here are a few highlights from another wonderful visit:

1.  Worshiping together at Cloverdale URC on Sunday and Thanksgiving morning.  This especially includes Nicolas' profession of faith on Sunday.

2.  Driving to Stanley, ID with a traditional snack and potty stop at the Lowman Ranger Station.

Another traditional stop: the scenic overlook of the Sawtooths.  This time we could see the obvious burn out area from forest fires this summer.

Seth is throwing snowballs up to Zoe and she is catching them in her mouth.  We are an easily entertained group.

 3.  Picnicking at Redfish Lake

4.  Introducing Michael to the hot springs.  It was super busy so only Russ and Seth were brave enough to get their suits on and join the crowd.

5.  Spending two nights in a cabin in Garden Valley right on the middle fork of the Payette River.  

We laughed a lot playing games.  One of my personal favorites was watching Seth's dance moves on the Wii to get us more time while playing a trivia game.  Not only did he not gain us a few more seconds, his impressive dance moves actually lost us time.  And who knew Lydia was such a trash talker during Wii bocce?  We also reintroduced our kids to Princess Bride.  The younger three watched the movie when they were too young to appreciate the humor or the story line. Now they understand why people are always quoting the lines or selling things like:

 Or

The top picture is a view from the cabin out to the river and the bottom picture is a view from the river back up to the cabin.

6.  Shopping in the big town of Crouch for undies for that one person who forgot to pack them.  I never would have guessed that we would find tighty whities in a small antique and craft mall.  I can still see the delight on that person's face when they were discovered.

Still not sure if this was intentional or just a big stencil error.

7.  Enjoying the elk and deer near the river the first evening we were at the cabin.

8.  Exploring the river with Seth and Zoe.  

9.  Hiking Table Rock with Uncle Michael.

10.  Eating street tacos in the Village and watching the light show to Michael Buble's White Christmas.

11.  Renewing friendships with George and Marilyn who joined us on Thanksgiving.  Austin from Mountain Home AFB also joined us and entertained us with magic card tricks.

12.  Playing Tenzi all the 77 different ways.

13.  Watching the new Anne of Green Gables on Thanksgiving night.  Still not sure anything can beat the original. I've watched it more times than I can count as it is a family favorite. 

Lots of great memories.  We look forward to the next visit already!

A Little Trip to Cascade, ID

Early in November, the CVCS kids did not have school on a Friday due to a teacher in-service day, so we decided it was a good time to make use of a gift certificate to the Ashley Inn in Cascade, ID.   We left on Thursday after school and headed north about an hour and a half.  Ashley Inn was beautiful, homey, clean, and comfortable.  Nicolas thought it may have been a little frou-frou, but enjoyed the cozy fireplace, relaxing hot tub, and yummy breakfast with the rest of us!

In our hotel room we found a several page list of DVD options we could check out at the front desk. After swimming we had family movie and game night.  We took a break to enjoy warm cookies and hot chocolate/tea and milk down in the lobby around 8:00.  After sleeping in, eating a huge breakfast, and swimming again, we checked out of the hotel around noon.  We drove up a "mountain" and then hiked down to a lake nestled between the craggy slopes.  We had beautiful weather (50s?) so were amused to be hiking in snow.  

This "Charlie Brown" tree was just growing around a huge boulder.  

 Our first glimpses of the lake.

 Falling water always makes such a lovely sound!

 Contemplating his future, perhaps?

Making the long trek back up to the trail head.  Seth found an oar down by the lake that he was going to set up at the trail entrance.  He used it as a walking stick on the hike back up, so not sure if it was in quite the same shape as he found it.