Fall Fun 2015

What an amazing Fall we've had!  It's been so beautiful and we've had so much time outside enjoying God's gifts.  Some highlights.

We've been nature sketching with our ABC coop quite a bit. Miss Deb gave some instruction and our new location at the Wurtele's acreage has been wonderful for finding lots of interesting and beautiful things to learn about.  We combined that with a botany/biology study in science and then added in some poetry, especially focusing on Psalms of Praise. It's a great combination for remembering and noting all the Lord has given us in this world that is wonderful.  We even got out to Glacier Creek Prairie Preserve in Bennington which is under the management of UNO but very open to visitors.  We got to walk the prairie (an old farm with a barn converted into a research center).  We found some beautiful grasses:  Little Blue Stem especially with it's "turkey feet" tassels.  We saw some lovely "weeds" that are not unwanted in the prairie:  milkweed pods ready to burst open were the prettiest.  And there were sunflowers aplenty. 

Fun fall field trips to Vala's (a yearly tradition with some homeschool buddies) and a new location:  Martin's Hillside Orchard in Ceresco were a highlight for us.  Well worth the pretty drive since we got to see lots of combines and harvesting going on.  Vala's was our typical fun with the Himmelbergs, Wurteles, Osikas mostly and other friends that we saw and lunched with.  The Orchard with Himmelbergs and Wurtele's also we a small farm with a butterfly garden that was gorgeous and labeled to help us, a small corn maze, play area and plenty of apples and raspberries to pick.  Both were lovely days weather-wise with low dust (nice for those of us with breathing issues) and perfect blue skies and sunshine. 

"Grandma Serve" took us up to Wayne and Laurel once a month.  We helped Grandma Pat to pick up the acreage, trim the trees, cut the lawn, put away some pots and the garden and such.  One week we went up to Gram Lipp's and pulled weeds and small trees all around her garden and yard and got to visit with Uncle Carrol about woodcarving.  It was fun to get to go up north every month and see the difference in the crops as the fall progressed...getting browner as their dried. 

We had a few play dates at parks with new and old friends too, as usual. We do more investigating and sketching and chatting now than playing on equipment but it's still fun to be outside with friends. 




Learning Center with our preschool teaching and woodcarving class were another different learning experience for us.  We enjoyed our 3-5 year old new buddies. We read books, worked on crafts and of course worked in different preschool mediums:  shaving cream, pudding painting, playdough, etc.  We played a lot and laughed at the things kids say.  Mr. Armsbury was a great wood carving teacher. The kids enjoyed his good teaching but also the conversations during class while they carved. They made a lot of Christmas type ornaments:  stars, Santas, trees, tin soldiers (well wooden soldiers, I guess).  We are excited to get them all painted and ready to be gifts for Christmas.




Our ABC coop was busy on Mondays this fall and will continue till the end of March after Christmas.  We did some fun history/geography study including "visiting" African countries using the book: Material World.  We had some fun presentations and poetry recitations that were improved over the month each time.  We learned biology using a microscope, growing bacteria in petri dishes, and dissecting a starfish much to the kids' disgust and delight ;).  We learned about Bach and Tchaikovsky, Amazing Grace and Jesus Loves Me hymn studies, nature sketching for fine arts.  English is fun as we read GrammarLand in class together and used it to guide our grammar study, as well as analyzing sentences and writing some wonderful stories and poems.  In the afternoon the older kids watched the Apologetics video series put out by AIG and then worked on some Spanish orally.  We had a Roman Olympics day too.  The togas and chariot races were fun. The baklava and Greek gyros were yummy.