Week 3 In Review-Fall Field Trips

This week, the weather went back and forth from rainy and cold, to sunny and pleasant, and it seems our moods followed suit.  Motivation was low for schoolwork, and when it was attempted, our brains seemed foggy and forgetful; not much was accomplished.  It was a good thing we had some distractions planned; it helped to just get out and be social!

Monday

What can I say, it was Monday.  We did some stuff and moved on.

Tuesday

  Everyone was crabby and in a snit.  The best thing we squeezed out of the day was listening to another chapter of The Lord of The Rings. Oh, and I picked some of our late season Prairie Spy apples.

Wednesday

We were up and out of the house early to see a play at the near-by Festival Theater with friends.  We were excited to find out that the Festival was putting on Ichabod Crane and The Headless Horseman this year, as the boys had all read Washington Irving this past spring.  

This particular production, featuring a combined cast of youth and professional guest artists, begins as a live radio play set in 1946, and is upended when its young audience intervenes, turning the tables on the broadcast and taking the commonly tragic ending into their own hands.

It was cleverly done, had great moments of both suspense and comic humor, and retained much of the original wording and language of the story. 
  
Some of our home school friends were in this one, too! And don't you just love this set? So cool and spooky.  Perfect for this time of year!

Thursday

Thursday was cancelled due to lethargy.  

Actually, William worked on a still life painting of one of our Prairie Spy apples, so not all was lost!

Friday

A perfect fall day...sunny and crisp!  While the older boys, along with some of their buddies, opted to do some raking for an elderly neighbor, Charlie and I visited an orchard with friends.  

We hiked the wooded trail,

enjoyed a warming fire,

and of course tasted many apples and enjoyed fresh-pressed cider.

He wears a bow tie now. Bow ties are cool.

Pressing a delicious blend of Honey Crisp and Haralson apples.

Today, Saturday, it is back to rain and cold.  The older boys are participating in Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) today with the Boy Scouts, and will be camping out tonight.  The low for the evening will be 31F.  Brrr.  I think they love it though!  As for me, I'll be enjoying a warm house and doing some planning for next week.  Hope your week was good!

If Depth Of Feeling Is A Currency...

An old favorite to remind me of an old friend.

An Open Letter To My Friend Carolyn

Dear Carolyn,

Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for giving me that new pancake recipe. It's really good. So good that my children have enthusiastically told me that they like it "much better than your recipe, Mom."

Needless to say I am hurt because food=love. If they don't love my pancakes they must not love me. They love you. Well, if you think you know so much about kids and the kind of pancakes they like then why don't you just go ahead and be their Mom now. Really. I'm sure they'd be better off with you anyway. No, really. I'll be fine.

Sincerely,
M.

P.S. Please remember to email me that yogurt recipe of yours, too.

For Carolyn And Bhob

Hey...remember that one time when we were all in that 52 piece show band from Las Vegas and we managed to get that sweet gig at Wally's Cosmos Liquors? Remember the rows of motorcycles that greeted us as we arrived? The shouts requesting we play "Cocaine"? Bathroom stall conversations where locals boasted of seeing us on TV...and we were pretty good? Who knew a city with a total area of only 1.1 square miles could hold so many enthusiastic fans? So glad we made it out alive.....
Boy Howdy! Those were the days!

How To Shovel A Driveway-Farm Style

Our next door neighbor decided to take a little detour into our driveway this morning on his way down the road. Just as I was headed out to shovel at the back door and go out to the barn to feed the chickens, his tractor came roaring in making light work of the ample snowfall. This is so appreciated! We hadn't cleared snow yet after yesterday's storm because it was so fiercely windy all night that it would have just been covered in drifts again by morning. Steve was "saving" the work for tonight with the snow blower. Won't he have a nice surprise?

Getting To Know Your Pumpkin-A Carving Day Activity

The boys had their good friends, the A. Family, over yesterday to carve pumpkins together. It was a sunny but rather chilly day so we did the pumpkin carving indoors (it's hard to carve with cold hands) and then set them free to run around after we were done.

Before we got started on the actual carving however, we made some fun predictions about our pumpkins.

First we had the boys predict how much their pumpkins weighed and write that down. Here's Will's friend Collin using an 8 pound weight to help him decide how heavy his pumpkin might be.

And Ben weighing his to see how close his prediction was.

Then we asked the boys to estimate the circumference of their pumpkins. Here's Will checking how well he did.

Next, just by eyeballing, not counting, they had to predict how many lines their pumpkins had around them. When they had written down their guess, they counted up the actual lines.


They also had to figure out how much all of the pumpkins put together might weigh.

Probably the favorite was predicting whether or not the pumpkins would float. Three boys said yes, three said no. We tested this one out in the bathtub. Yep, they all floated!

I got the idea for this activity from an Evan Moor book I had around here at one time...something I picked up used. I had saved this particular worksheet because it looked like something fun and I wanted to remember to do it. You can definitely accomplish this on a regular sheet of paper divided into prediction/ actual outcome columns. Nothing fancy needed. Evan Moor books are geared toward school settings but they can have some really fun, adaptable ideas for using at home. You can browse entire books online here.
(The activity I used was titled "Petit Pumpkins" from Hands On Thinking Activities-Centers Through The Year Grades 3-6)

The boys had fun with this and did really well with their predictions. We didn't labor over it too much because I didn't want to sap the fun out of pumpkin carving, but the boys seemed to enjoy competing against their own best guesses and each other while finding all this information out.

After they finished up predictions, there came the planning, drawing, carving and gutting of the now quite familiar pumpkins. Surprisingly there was very little mess despite 6 boys tearing into 6 pumpkins in the middle of my dining room floor!

Charlie choose to draw a face on his rather than carve. I love it!

And the finished products....

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

The Dave Brubeck Quartet-Take Five

For Jay, Old Tony Rondone and all The Other Hepcats "Takin' Five". You are deeply missed.