Fall Recap Part 2

Family/School Activities

Seth continues to plug away in his last year of homeschool.  I love having him home so much that I don't even want to think about next year. We've developed a routine that has been working great.  We do our 'together' school first (usually devotions and history), he finishes the morning with a few independent things like English and science, we eat lunch while watching "Victoria" or Ken Burns' "Civil War" (studying these time periods in history), he does math with Russ, finishes any other school work independently, and ends his school day by practicing his instruments.  We also added an introduction to coding class this year which seems to be going well. 

We still try to make meals/food that complement the country we are studying in history.  This must have been our "Italy" week.

 Seth coded a "How fast can you click?" game that he played with his dad.  He had to work pretty hard to beat his dad's fast reflexes.

This was a pretty normal fall picture.  He likes mowing leaves; we like having the lawn cleaned up.  Win/Win!

Seth spent some time with friends and learned how to make stroopwafels.

Anna and Lydia thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving break.  Since they both go pretty hard every day with school, homework, and viola (Lydia) and organ (Anna) practice, they appreciated the relaxing break from routine.  Lydia is quite empathetic and feels things strongly so all the peer drama at school or changes in a teacher's mood can be draining for her.  Anna has calculus and three AP classes this semester so she is, well, just doing a lot of homework.  Add in scholarship essays, a senior project/paper, and practicing to audition for an organ scholarship and you have a very tired girl. The girls try to work their homework schedule so they can go to BSF on Tuesday night and the Psalm study on Wednesday night.  They also are super helpful with childcare at church and helping me in the church library.  Anna still volunteers one afternoon a week at the public library like she did this summer. 

I think the boys are doing pretty well at Dordt...or so they tell me.  They Facetime pretty much every Sunday and recap the highlights of the week.  Their phone calls are one of the highlights of mine!  We are looking forward to having them home from Christmas.

With Grandpa and Grandma after the Pops Orchestra concert

Other highlights of the fall months:

Our Honda Odyssey:

A couple weeks were dedicated to making Concord grape juice, pies, and jam.  We had even more grapes than are pictured here, but enjoyed giving much of the juice and jam away.