One last post for today…our Montessori work October 26, 2011

I’m almost completely caught up on posts!  I have a couple more to get to, but I’m just going to attempt to get one more post out today.  Bug & Monkey’s week (or two) in review!

After the pumpkin patch, the kids get to do their two favorite works--the first one is scrubbing pumpkins! The kids love sitting on the porch cleaning all of the new pumpkins.

 

Their second favorite work of the year is to hammer nails in pumpkins. This year the older two wanted to make actual designs with their nails as well.

 

Monkey working hard!

 

Jedi and his Frankenstein design

 

Monkey and her face design

 

Bug and Monkey collecting leaves at the park

 

Jedi collecting leaves

 

Their stash of leaves!

 

Monkey and Jedi with their bag of leaves

 

Pinning clothespins to foam pumpkins

 

I made a spider web out of pipe cleaners for the kids to put the spider rings on.

 

Monkey threading the spiders on the web

 

Sorting the Halloween rings by shape (skull, spider, bat)

 

Bug working with the fraction skittles

 

Spiders in the sensory bin!

 

Monkey learning to weave using strips of paper

 

And finally.... This is what happens when I give Bug a brand new box of crayons. She loves to break them all and peel them. I probably should have just given her the old ones!

Field Trip: The Wilds

The Wilds was in the national news quite a bit a week ago, as they were one of the organizations called to assist with the escaped African animals in Zanesville, Ohio.  Just a couple days before that incident, we visited The Wilds.  The kids always have a great time seeing the animals and going on the safari bus.  This time, it was really windy, so the animals weren’t as active as they had been in the past, but the kids still were able to see a lot of them (I just wasn’t able to get many good pictures).  Here are a few pictures from our trip!

Beautiful fall day!

 

Bug on the bus and ready to go

 

It's always an amazing sight to see herds of African and Asian animals just grazing here in Ohio

 

A camel...this little guy kept trying to eat the trim off the bus!

 

Przewalski's wild horses

 

One of several gorgeous lakes on the property

 

Sichuan Takin

 

One of the many native Whitetail Deer that roam the fields

 

Bug and her daddy (the other kids were here too...not sure how they neglected to be in front of the camera. 😉 LOL!)

 

Banteng...I think?

 

One of the new arrivals...an ostrich

 

Another shot of the beautiful scenery

 

There were a lot of animals that didn’t make it into the pictures–we saw rhinos (including a little baby one!), some zebras, bison, etc., but they weren’t close enough for a clean picture. 🙂

 

Field Trip: Ohio Historical Society

The Ohio Historical Society was on the list for our week of field trips.  While we were just at OHS a few months ago, they were debuting a couple new exhibits, so we went to see them.  As always, the kids had a ton of fun at the historical museum.  OHS really does a nice job of making Ohio history interesting to even the youngest kids!

 

The kids in front of the mastodon....they love this thing!

 

A side shot of it...it is absolutely huge!

 

An artifact from the archeology exhibit

 

A petroglyph from the archaeology exhibit

 

Bug and a reconstructed bowl

 

Jedi finding where he was born on the map

 

One of the exhibits was called "Controversy", which was an exhibit of things that have caused a controversy in Ohio. The exhibit was very powerful and lead to some fantastic discussions with Jedi. However, we didn't take many pictures of the exhibits simply because of the nature of the exhibit. One of the most powerful pieces was the KKK robe....we had a good discussion with the kids on the consequences of hate after viewing that. This was something a little less difficult in terms of choosing something to photograph--the electric chair, which has now been banned from use in Ohio.

 

Jedi thought this was interesting--a contraption used to keep infants from sucking their thumb (notice Jedi's nervous thumb position.... LOL!) He thought that was horrible...I had to tell him that you can actually still buy similar devices today, which is pretty sad. 😦

 

OHS did a fabulous job in compiling articles on each of the pieces on exhibit, so we were able to show Jedi how the pieces were used and what the significance of each was.

 

Hieroglyphics.... Since Jedi had just learned about these, he found them very interesting.

 

"I have no clue why a mummy is in a museum about Ohio history!"

 

Jedi and a spinning wheel

 

Monkey and Bug pretending to prepare a meal at the pioneer house

 

Bug churning pretend butter

 

Bug & the Bell. 😀

Field Trip: Santa Maria & Cosi

As I mentioned a few posts ago, our week and a half off school was filled with field trips.  One of the field trips we had planned was to visit the Santa Maria replica in Columbus, Ohio in honor of Columbus Day.  However, that plan didn’t really come to fruition.  We went to it and were able to see the ship, but due to various circumstances, we weren’t able to tour the ship that day.  We did decide to head across the street and visit Cosi, the children’s science museum in Columbus.

Bug walking by the river

 

The Santa Maria replica

 

A display of various knots.

 

Bug at the Dora exhibit at Cosi

 

Working in the animal rescue center.

 

Monkey with Diego

 

Jedi making a giant metal dinosaur move

Jedi and Monkey are in this submarine...

 

Playing with the water bells

 

Jedi forming a pipe system

 

Bug operating some moon robots

 

Bug loved the exhibit where you could make a short animated video with the astronaut pieces.

 

Pumpkin Patch #2

I’m still working on emptying the camera of the hundreds of pictures from the past two weeks. 🙂  So, here are pictures of the second pumpkin patch field trip!

 

Some turkeys at the farm

 

Cute little goat

 

A camel that was at the pumpkin patch

 

Bug on a giant rocking horse

 

Jedi rock climbing

 

Bug & Jedi driving a train

 

Monkey and Jedi as human hamsters

 

The kids were having a blast at the pumpkin patch!

 

It was a beautiful fall day too!

 

The kids went through a corn maze, and then little Bug led the way through the mini maze.

 

The mini maze was so cute--a little soybean field!

 

Bitty Bug's not so bitty!

 

She may not be bitty anymore, but she's still obsessed with tiny things, so she wanted a pie pumpkin to carve.

 

Jedi wanted a huge pumpkin of course.

 

Monkey using all her muscles to lift that pumpkin!

Field Trip: Pumpkin Farm #1 October 24, 2011

As part of our weeks off from school not so long ago, the kids went to two separate pumpkin farms.  One was part of a field trip with our homeschool co-op and the other trip was a family trip.  Here are the pictures from the first visit to the pumpkin farm…

The kids jumping on a hay bale mountain

 

The kids all attended a lecture on rings on a tree

 

Getting ready to ride the barrel train

 

Jedi on the train

 

Monkey on the train

 

The kids listening to a lecture on pollination

 

Trying to find the queen bee

 

Learning how grains from the farm are used in different food products

 

The kids pretending to drive an old tractor

 

Bug liked this one!

 

I told Bug, Jedi, and Monkey to try to navigate out of the corn maze...I went in with them, but they were the ones responsible for getting us out before dark. 😉

 

Jedi apparently making corn angels

 

Driving the tractors and bikes

 

Monkey burying Jedi in corn

Apparently this is becoming a theme….

Yes, I realize I am way behind.  That seems to be a common theme lately.  I’m thinking maybe a set posting schedule isn’t a good thing for me because I have them set up on days that are already very busy.  So, instead, I’ll continue posting, but I won’t necessarily commit to doing it on a certain day.  I’m thinking that’s just setting me up for failure.  (Not sure what to call it if not Montessori Monday though. LOL!).  We are also in the middle of Jedi’s IEP meeting and setting Monkey’s IEP process up, so we’ve been knee deep in paperwork and assessments and meeting this past week

Coming up this week:

-Halloween/fall themed Montessori work

-A huge catch-up on Jedi’s work

-Field trips to The Wilds, the Columbus Zoo, Cosi, and the Ohio Historical Society

Hopefully, I get that all caught up before we leave in a couple weeks for Washington DC. 🙂

 

Field Trip #2: Stratford Ecological Farm October 11, 2011

Field trip #2 last week was to the Stratford Ecological Farm in Delaware, Ohio.  Growing up in rural Michigan, I was surrounded by farms and farm animals, and I sometimes forget my little suburban kiddos aren’t going to grow up seeing cows and pigs up close and personal on a frequent basis.  We do have cornfields and soybean fields surrounding the subdivision, but it’s not the same.  However, farms like the Stratford Farm gives the kids opportunities to see and touch farm animals and learn more about where food comes from and how to care for animals.  We went on this trip with our local homeschool field trip group and the kids all had a blast!

 

Sheep on the farm

 

Jedi petting a baby chicken

 

Jedi holding the baby chicken

 

Bug in the chicken coop

 

Cute little baby

 

But with a freshly laid egg

 

The kids feeding the chickens

 

Jedi milking a goat

 

Feeding the goat

 

Climbing up the hay bales

 

Lunch time for the pigs

 

These newly weaned pigs were not quite being so nice...the one in the front corner was sticking his head under the other pig and flipping him up in the air.

 

Climbing trees after lunch

 

Monkey doing gymnastics on the tree

 

Hiking through the woods with the family from The Attached Mama

The Attached Mama

Walking across the creek

Monkey turning a log into a balance beam

 

Bug smiling on a log

 

Monkey and Jedi giving me a heart attack. 😉

 

 

Brave souls they are. LOL!

Field Trip #1–Apple Orchard

This week and last, we have a ton of field trips that were scheduled.  The weather has been gorgeous and it’s perfect for cramming in all of those last-minute trips before winter sets in.  So, I have quite a few field trip posts to catch up on.  So far, we’ve done the apple orchard, a farm with animals, and two pumpkin farms.  Coming up for the rest of this week is a trip to Columbus Ohio’s Santa Maria, Cambridge Ohio’s The Wilds, and the Ohio Historical Society.  And there are several more trips in the pipe-line for the coming weeks–the Columbus Zoo, COSI (science museum in Columbus), and a special trip to Washington DC.  See?  I told you we had a whole lot of trips to cram in while the weather is still good. 🙂  Some days I think the home part of homeschooling is a bit of a misnomer….

So, for this post, a brief recap of apple picking at the apple orchard.  This was a trip we almost skipped this year.  Our favorite orchard’s apple crop was completely destroyed by the weird weather pattern this year and time got away from us.  However, Monkey insisted on picking apples this year, so we managed to find an orchard that still had apples this late in the season…

Bug and Jedi picking apples

 

Monkey finding the perfect apple

 

Me and my little Buggy Boo

 

As you can tell, there was probably more apple eating than apple picking... But we all had fun...and the kids got a snack out of the deal. 😉

Around the World–South Korea

The past couple weeks, we’ve been learning about South Korea.  Now, the kids already have a little knowledge about the country due to the fact they have been doing Tang Soo Do, a Korean martial art, for almost two years.  So, they already know how to count in Korean, as well as name body parts and describe the parts of the South Korean flag.  They really enjoyed getting to know more about a country that they had a connection to!

 

Jedi coloring his South Korean flag. He also completed his map of South Korea and found it on the globe and world map. Last week, I posted about some of the other things Jedi did for South Korea, including researching animals from the country.

 

Monkey using the "Children of Asia" work. Jedi & Monkey also played a lot of ka-wi-ba-wi-bo (rock, paper, scissors...popular in South Korea just like it is in America!)

 

No unit on South Korea would be complete without some Korean BBQ!

 

And of course, the kids and I did plenty of Tang Soo Do! Here's an older picture of Monkey, Jedi, and I with Grandmaster Shin at a regional Tang Soo Do competition.