It's available!

Three years in the making, it's finally done!

It's available at booklocker.com, amazon.com, or barnesandnoble.com

Olympic Peninsula

I am still alive, just been too busy to blog. One reason was our vacation, we left the day after Thanksgiving and were gone a full week.

Day One: Checked out the beach at the place we were staying, the kids collected every single piece of a shell they found, a grocery bag full!

Then a visit to Fort Worden (1890s-1953) in Port Townsend

The artillery museum gave us an overview of the fort, which had some HUGE guns, but never was attacked (would have been a different story had the war in the Pacific gone differently). Over 4000 people lived there.

The Kinzie bunker was a kids' paradise, all made of concrete and lots of places to fall. They liked the narrow, dark corridors and stairways and ladders all over. I had to confine them to the first level for tag, though.

Day Two:

Church in Hadlock, then went to see Port Angeles and the Olympic National Forest visitors center. We drove to a trail to hike some, and I locked the keys in the car. Oops. Hubby saved the day, although he was grumpy about it for some reason, so I made myself scarce until he was done breaking in.

Day Three:

The animal game farm was the kids' absolute favorite thing on the whole vacation. We bought bread at the gate, then as we drove through fed the animals that walked around--

llamas . . .

yaks . . .

grizzly bears! Well, the bears were actually behind a fence about 2 and 1/2 feet high, plus an electric wire, so you had to toss the bread, but that's not a very high fence for a bear. Luckily these were retirees from movies like Grizzly Adams.

They were so roly poly.

This big boy liked the bread thrown where he could catch it in his mouth, he really didn't like to exert himself and looked put out if it so much as fell at his feet.

I didn't get a picture of the elk, I was too busy pushing their heads OUT of the car. There were zebras, buffalo, and fallow deer wandering about, too. The caged animals weren't as exciting, except the roaring lion.

Day Four:

Dad arrived. He went with us to the Olympic Rainforest, the Hoh Visitor Center and nature trails.

We drove back up through Forks to eat (Forks of Twilight fame--might explain the guys in trench coats photographing the Welcome to Forks sign), and then drove to La Push to see the ocean.

We all raced waves (and all lost--the tide was coming in)

Day Five:

Victoria, B.C., Canada

Took the ferry over, that cost more than we expected, bummer. The B.C. Museum was fun, then we went to The Bug Zoo. They have some BIG bugs.

That's a millipede on his forehead.

And on her face. I held it--in my hand.

Day Six:

We took Dad to see Port Townsend, the bunker, the homemade ice cream shop, then drove through the boat yard where they were repairing all types of boats.

The wooden hulls surprised us.

I thought the vehicle they used to transport the big old boats was cool.

Day Seven: the long drive home, which was even longer because my navigator (hubby, who can't drive long distances or he falls asleep) got interested in a movie and sent me the long way home.

Part way home my 5yo asked, "Are we still in Window Washing?" We laughed, "Yes, we're still in Washington."

Halloween

My favorite part, painting faces!

Hulk was pretty easy to paint.


Darth Maul was a bit harder (fix the date on your camera, Jen!)

I took this whole scary group (plus one more) trick-or-treating.

homeschool--science D45

Week D45
Topic: the Brain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1ILrYHvnpA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5nj3ZfeYDQ&feature=related
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/brain/index.shtml
http://www.brainhealthandpuzzles.com/fun_facts_about_the_brain.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/brain/label/lateralbrain/label.shtml
http://www.brainhealthandpuzzles.com/diagram_of_brain.html

Cool Video

Warning--this is religious, if you don't want to see it, ignore :)

I really liked this video, beautiful song and images:
http://deseretbook.com/video/view/5

homeschool--cultural geography D44

Week D44
Topic: Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Western Sahara

These are African countries that do not fit the stereotypes of Africa. Separated by the Sahara Desert from the rest of the countries on this vast continent, they have been influenced by their position on the coasts of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. They are predominantly muslim.

Western Sahara is actually currently a colony of Morocco.

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_algeria.html
http://algeria.8m.com/

http://www.tunisiaonline.com/
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_tunisia.html

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_libya.html

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_morocco.html
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/morocco

Midieval Party and Crazy Kids

The kids are all dressed up for the Midieval Feast at the church.

Didn't know the kids had brought this visitor into the kitchen until later, when I found this picture they had taken. We don't have any chickens of our own, they found this one in our little barn.

My boys got in trouble for fighting and had to nose the wall, well the cupboard, and when I came to check on them, the little guy I watch had joined them. He seems to be asking, "What are we doing?"
My midieval costume.

homeschool--cultural arts D43

Week D43
Topic--drawing faces

How to draw a human face: http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Human-Faces

Eye (complicated): http://www.onlypencil.com/blog/index.php/archive/drawing-the-human-eye/
Another eye: http://div.dyndns.org/EK/tutorial/eye/

Practice drawing each other's faces.

This and That

the triplet kittens

he shrank!

finger painting

homeschool--history D42

Week D42
Topic 70s and 80s

Relate the main events of this time period to things that were going on in your own life/family. This will help personalize it for your children.
Some of the main events:

1971--the first microprocessor (enabling computers/calculators to go from room size to desktop/handheld)
1972--Israeli athletes taken hostage at Olympics
1973--US troops leave Vietnam, Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota
1974--Nixon first president to resign, a result of Watergate (accomplishments: brought troops home from Vietnam, first president in China)
1976--white police fire on school children protesting segregated education in Soweto, South Africa
1979--Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman prime minister of Great Britain
1980--Ronald Reagan becomes president (see the book A Different Drummer by Michael Deaver)
1981--IBM's first PC
1984--40 musicians record Feed the World to fight starvation, especially in Ethiopia (which had had no rain since '81)
1985--Geneva Summit
1986--Space shuttle Challenger explodes, Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion
1987--stock market "crash," Iran-Contra scandal
1989--Bhutto first woman islamic prime minister (in Pakistan), Chinese students killed in Tiananmen Square, Berlin Wall comes down after 28 years

homeschool--science D41

Week D41
Topic Human Senses

After you watch the following videos, you can find some science sheets to label here:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/titlepage.shtml

There are many fun activities to do with the senses as well. For instance, we took turns blindfolding each other and leading each other around to see how blind people deal with the loss of sight. You could identify tastes or smells this way, too. Try some of these ideas:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chsense.html

VIDEOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JunCyiGfreo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIXtM2u--H8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WavjbJhiRAE&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-IJhAWrsm0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtFBALs389o&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skXQ6PuIc4s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY7_TIktQFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm7t5S09iUg&feature=related

Proposition 8

This is a pretty good photo montage put together in favor of California's Proposition 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZaHbGgXH8

homeschool--cultural geography D40

Week D40
Topic Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_centralafrrep.html
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_cameroon.html
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_gabon.html
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_congo.html

Pictures from Mom

Mom always takes better pictures than I do, so here are some she just gave me from our trip a couple weekends ago. They include the boys doing "tricks" on their bikes, and me and sis before (with coats) and after (without) hiking.

homeschool-- D39

Freebie week, good time to review or continue some of the topics we've done. We're still covering people from the 40s-60s, it was such an action packed era. DK's Junior Chronicle of the 20th Century gives a good overview. Childhood of Famous Americans has a good book on FDR that has kept even my 7 yo interested.

Ahhhh, autumn

Such a nice day, rained all night and morning, then the sun came out. Dd and I went on a walk this evening, pushing the baby I watch in a stroller. Went down to the road, the pavement was wet, the smell of pine filled our lungs, changing leaves were rustling to the ground, and the air was cool but the sun was warm in our faces. Perfect. We found some wild red plums, ate some and picked a bunch to freeze for smoothies, snacked on elderberries, then picked some wild apples for apple crisp. Gotta have apple something on the first day of fall.

The weekend was nice, too. Hubby got back from bow hunting camp, then Friday night he took the youngest three to a daddy-kid campout, so the teens and I invited our own friends over, we had pizza and movies and stayed up late. Saturday I froze corn from the garden, didn't expect to get any since the plants only grew to between three and five feet in height, but they all produced.

County Fair

High fives on the Dragon coaster.

Trying to do tricks on the horses on the carousel.

A friend.


Cooling off in the shade with friends and cousins.

Homeschool--history D38

Week D38
Topic 50s and 60s

This is a good topic have the kids present creatively, a collage poster, computer slideshow, etc. Check out biographies or magazine articles on some of the main people of the era (Mao, Stalin, Truman, Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., etc.). You could even assign them to interview someone (grandparents?) who remembers this time period.

Some starter sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s, http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ERAS/20TH/1950s.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960s
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Stories/Narratives/012story.html

Homeschool--science D37

Ooops, just realized I forgot last week's post, here is the topic and some of the sites I used with the kids:

Week D37
Topic human bones, teeth, skin, muscles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQedanwEfHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UBrYj_2h0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfo75XUnRIU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft2SVyEs2SY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqQa934KqCM

Family visit and Water again, Yay!

Sunday morning our pump went out, so no water to get ready for church. Luckily that evening I had already planned to head south to visit my sis (Beck, a.k.a. Reba--I'm the only one allowed to call her that) and her family. My bro Aaron was there, too.

The scenery along the way was spectacular.

This was my sole travel companion, the rest of the kiddos had already gone down with my parents a couple of days earlier.

Tried and tried to get this niece to do her dimply grin for the camera, this was the best I could get. Still very cute.

We went on a bike ride, and half way through split up so the girls (me, sis, mom) could take the stroller and the bike pulling little ones the "easier" way back while dad and her hubby took the older kids. Our route turned out to be mostly straight up-hill. Sis and I traded off burning out our thighs pedalling (pushing when it got too steep) the extra weight.

All our hard work tired out these two nieces, but my nephew was having too much fun to sleep.

Sis, Mom, and one of the nieces.

Reba again.

Came home to no water still, made me grouchy, but hubby was a hero and stayed home this morning, pulled the pump and fixed it. Happy ending!