F-I-E-L-D T-R-I-P!

We took a field trip yesterday to Mammoth Cave National Park.  Our home school group planned the trip, but several families had things going on and so only 2 families went.  We took advantage of not traveling with a large group and were a bit more flexible than the group usually is.  We took in the walking tour of the cave, then went to Big Mike's Rock Shop and Mystery House, which has one of those houses with the crooked floors and walls where the water seems to flow uphill.  It was a ton of fun.  Then we had a picnic on a scenic overlook and then went to a really great salvage grocery store where I got Gluten Free Bisquick for 75 cents among other things and then came home.  It was a really good day.  I share pictures whenever my photographer (my daughter) feels like sharing them.  For some reason, attaching her camera cord to a computer and uploading pictures is a really onerous chore for her. 

Kentucky law says
KRS 158.080 states the minimal school term is 185 days, which includes 177 days of instruction KRS 158.070 and 10 non-instructional days.

I think someone did the math wrong here, and 177 plus 10 really ought to equal 187, but that's beside the point.  The point is that these 10 noninstructional days are supposed to be teacher meeting days, but since I really don't have any need for a teacher meeting, we try to do 10 field trips a year.  :-)

So the first one for 2012-2013 is done.

Well, looky here.

My blog has a whole new design.  I actually didn't mean to do it.  I saw the new dynamic tools from blogger, tried one of them, decided I didn't like it and tried to restore my blog back to its regular look.  However, I had neglected to save my old template and apparently, they don't have it anymore, so I went with this look.  It's kind of festive, isn't it?   I'm not sure exactly what I'm celebrating?  Homeschooling I guess.  I do love homeschooling.  Anyway, let me know if it hurts your eyes and I will change it. 

What is it?

We went to the grocery today and when we first walked in, we saw an unusual looking fruit. We're always looking to try new things, so we put it in the cart. The handwritten card in front of it said "Pumelo". A lady near us said that they were sweet and that this, mixed with a tangerine was what made a tangelo. When we got to the checkout, we realized that it didn't have a sticker on it. The checker asked us what it was. We told him what the sign had said. He couldn't find it on his list. I looked at the list and we asked 2 other people. Finally, the last person we asked said "It's a grapefruit" so I said, "okay, in the interest of the poor people standing behind me in line, let's call it a grapefruit." We looked at it more closely after we got home and realized that it is one of the fruits pictured in our book about Israel that we studied last week. (In the book it's spelled Pomelo.) So we accidently blundered into buying a fruit that is grown in one of the countries we're studying and yesterday, we did a class we'd signed up months ago and it was the very craft we were supposed to do for our middle east study. Are these weird coincidences or is a higher power helping out in our homeschool this semester? Cool.

My daughter loves this fruit. It kind of tastes like a grapefruit but is sweeter.

Tuesday.

We're back to normal life today. No field trip. No meetings. No 4H or library events. We do have to do work and school and somehow get to the grocery, but we can do all that in our own good time. It feels nice. I would kind of like to skip the whole work thing and go back to bed, but I can't. I will probably do the bare minimum though. I'm still tired from the flurry of activity around here the last couple of weeks.

The quilt in the picture is from the trompe l'oeil display we saw yesterday and is carved of wood. Here is the artist's website.

Field Trip!

We actually did 2 field trips in one today. We visited the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft for a printmaking class. It's funny because last week in the curriculum we're using, the instructions called for us to make a print out of an eraser and then print it and rotate it on the pages, which is pretty much exactly what we did today. The museum had much better quality eraser things to use, better tools to carve with and cool colors of ink, so it was neat that we got to do it there. Nevermind that I was just too lazy to do it at home. We won't focus on that part. They also had an amazing trompe l'oeil display today. It was facinating to me.

The second place we went was Schimpff's Confectionary in Jeffersonville, Indiana. It was very cool too. The tour was fun and interesting. We got to see them actually making candy and then we got to sample a little bit. Mmm.

It's funny because the whole trip kept reminding me of one of my favorite shows, Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, because he once visited a candy company that was very similiar to the one we visited (not dirty, just messy in a wonderful chocolatey kind of way) and the storm drain outside of the museum looked like a place he would have to go into.

A very good field trip.

The busy week goes on.

We've had a 4H field trip this week, the long trip to the doctor for my mom, Awana, game night, tween night (both at the library), skate night and multiple trips to Walmart and Kroger. Consequently, we've eaten out more than usual because we've been on the road so much. The house is a mess, I'm behind on my work. I tell you, weeks like this are not good for anybody.

I'll spend the next 2 days typing medical documents like a crazy woman, barely seeing the light of day and then hopefully, Easter Sunday, I can participate in some of the family events. Maybe.

Somewhere I read about a family that planned every single week to have 4 days at home, not going anywhere. They managed to cram everything into the remaining 3 days so that those 4 days they could relax. That kind of sounds nice, although I don't think I could do all I need to do in 3 days. Maybe one day of relaxation a week ... hmmm. Seems like I may have heard of that concept someplace before.

Funny Word Card.

My youngest has moved beyond these cards now, but we went over them today for a review. This one always makes us laugh. It's does, as in "does this card make my butt look big?".

Studying the Middle East and North Africa.

We're still studying the Middle East and North Africa. The unit study we're doing from Christian Cottage is a good one and it offers several activities to do. However I just wasn't in the mood to do those activities. Mainly, the book had us cooking some middle eastern dishes and then sampling them. I could read the recipe and just tell that my picky kids wouldn't eat it. Normally, I'd search for alternative recipes and make those, but I just wasn't in the mood to cook. So, we just did our own thing, something that seems to happen more frequently the longer I homeschool. We did a notebook section on the Bedouin who live in that area. We'll be starting a study of Greece today and we might have to go to a Greek restaurant. That would be fun and I wouldn't have to cook.

Busy Week.

We've got a busy week ahead of us, with something we have to do outside the house pretty much every day. When this happens, something has to go on the back burner; sometimes school, sometimes work, sometimes housework, possibly all three. This week, housework is already back there because we celebrated 5 birthdays over the weekend (3 parties). I've really got to work this week so that will be a priority. Looks like we're looking at work, then school, then housework. I hope we don't have surprise guests next weekend ...although, come to think of it, I do have a teen who is looking for things to do to earn money so I might put him to work.

What if?

What if they were able to make a live dinosaur be born, by using the DNA that they got from a mosquito that was frozen in amber, that had sucked the blood of the dinosaur. And, then they put the dinosaur in a zoo and were able to train it? And what if they trained it to tell time and to roar at 6 o'clock every day? Then the people at the zoo would know when it was 6 o'clock.

These are the questions that we ponder in our household.

Before breakfast.

Encyclopedias.

I bought an inexpensive older set of encylopedias last year on ebay, to help with homeschooling. They've been a great help, quicker to look things up in, sometimes, than the internet. Lately, though, they've been the material of choice for building. Right now, they are a race track for Hot Wheels cars. I tried 4 times to share a picture, but blogger won't let me. Annoying.

Sometimes

blog posts just come to me in the middle of the night. :-)

Last night, my daughter was brushing her teeth and said something to my youngest son, which to me was completely intelligible. He understood it though. I remarked on his understanding and he said "Yeah, we can understand each other in toothpaste, pudding and mouthful" (He said this like these were 3 different languages.) and my daughter who had since spit and rinsed said "Yeah, we're almost like twins."

Friday.

I decided to do one of those acrostic thingys for Friday.

F - Foster Care - Our application got approved at the first level yesterday and now will go to our caseworker's supervisor's supervisor. I don't know if that's as far as it has to go or not. It's been a 5 month process and the stack of paperwork on us is as thick as a phonebook from a relatively large city.

R - Reading. We're not really reading anything that interesting right now, Hank The Cowdog and The Phantom in the Mirror. It is one of the funniest Hank episodes, in my opinion. I've got 2 books for our unit study on hold at the library but they were "in processing" yesterday and I couldn't pick them up.

I - I am doing okay, but having a particularly difficult time focusing on work this week, don't know why. My mind is just jumping from one thing to the other.

D - Dog. The little dog is going to stay. She's been behaving herself lately. She's a character, that's for sure. I asked my daughter what to blog about and she said "Freckles" (the dog) because I guess, that was the first thing she saw. Freckles is her constant companion and whines at the window whenever my daughter leaves the house. The whole time. This is according to my teen and my husband who frequently stay at home when we're gone.

A - Advertisement. I might as well throw in a shameless advertisement for my store, Grandparent Gifts, on Cafepress, since there is an A in Friday.

Y - Youngest Son - He's had a very, very, very, very, very talkative week this week, which may, come to think of it, be part of the reason I've had trouble concentrating on work. It's cute though. He's been talking to me the whole time I've been trying to type this blog post. He just went into the living room, still talking ...

The verdict.

We've decided to use mom's schedule with a few modifications. My youngest wants me to put a space on the page at lunch, so he'll know when he's done with his morning section. The oldest wants time for guitar on Fridays. We decided to put 4 freebies (things we don't have to do) per week. Most of the time we save our freebies until Friday and have a shorter day, but sometimes we use them on a day we just don't feel good for whatever reason.

So here's my 9-year-olds version of our new lists.
1. Breakfast.
2. Brush teeth.
3. Chores. (These vary from day to day.)
4. Exercise 1 hour.
5. Spelling words (writing, alphabetizing, sentences)
6. Math review.

Lunch.

7. Unit study we all do together.
8. Geometry.
9. Daily grammar.
10. Art/game.
11. Reading.

I found some good spelling lists here.
I found some good daily math review here. \
I found these daily review grammar lessons here.
And here is the best place for art lessons.

Still here.

I'm still here. My eye is still pink but maybe getting better. I hope. I really don't want to go to my Mom and Dad's anniversary party this weekend with a yucky looking eye. We didn't have school yesterday, not because I didn't feel good (which I didn't) but because I didn't get done with my list. I had too much computer trouble so the kids got the day off. The oldest said that he'd rather be off in the spring when it's not so hot and he won't mind doing school this summer to make it up. We'll see.

I watched the results show of Dancing With The Stars last night. I hated to see Leeza go. She was the oldest female there and I was cheering for her for that reason. Oh well. I think they are all doing a pretty good job with the exception of Clyde. I think he's a very nice man, but to me, he's just not very graceful on the dance floor. Sorry, Clyde Drexler fans.

I'm finding it hard to focus on school this week because I'm not feeling very good and I've got so much looming over me this weekend but I guess I'll just press on. I don't want to take any more days off unless we really have to, so we can be done at the end of May.

That's all from me today, nothing funny or cute, nothing particularly clever, just hanging in there, waiting for the weekend to be over. I've got my sights set on next Monday ... when I can relax.