It's Halloween! I absolutely love that our town celebrates halloween on Saturday when it lands on Sunday. Although, there was two feet of SNOW! That didn't stop my kids, who mostly made their own costumes. Abraham just used the costume he made from last year (the jack-o-lantern ghost.) William was the cat he's was two years ago.
But Maxwell made a Steve head. Hyrum changed Maxwell's shark onesie into a walrus onesie, and Daniel, DANIEL out did us all! He made a "wither" skeleton with three heads!! I was quite impressed.
And we did some halloweeny things for Social Studies, so let's get on with that:
First, we learned about Jamestown and Pocahontas. The REAL story of Pocahontas which actually seems to deviate from one source to another. But then, for our activity, we made Kachina dolls (which didn't turn out as cute as imagined) while watching the Disney movie, which by then they knew was wildly inaccurate.
Then we learned about small pox's (and other diseases) effects on the indigenous peoples. Did you know that there are only two documents that say there was intentional spread of small pox to the indigenous people? I'm just saying I thought there was a lot more evidence.
We made beaded necklaces as our activity. I bought some beads off the internet, and I got A LOT of beads, but they had so many fun beads, that I don't regret it!
Then we learned about the pilgrims and the Wampanoag. I love this story, and we had the boys "plant" candy corn in "dirt" with fishy crackers as our activity. This is always a hit.
But then, sadly, we learned about King Philip's war, which undid all the good from the Pilgrim/Wampanoag story. Such a sad ending to a good story. No activity.
Then we learned about the start of slavery in the Americas. We focused on the shipping of slaves. (I have actually been to the main port where slaves were shipped away from in Benin, Africa, and it was the saddest, evilest thing I have ever felt. I'm so glad I had that tour. It changed me.) We had the boys cram into a container while being chained for our activity. They had smiles, but I think it's hard for kids to understand horrible concepts, and maybe that's okay.
Then we learned about pirates! We learned all about Blackbeard and all the real pirates. I didn't talk about modern pirates, because that scares me since we're planning to go SAILING!!
By the way, I made a Youtube channel about our sailing adventure, so here is a link to that:
And Daniel did a treasure hunt for us all, and he was super cute about it and hid the treasure box in the snow.
And then, we learned about WITCHES (can you get more halloweeny?) We learned all about the Salem witch trials and how it was happening around the world too. For our activity, we did a couple Halloweeny activities like blowing spiders across the floor and eating cotton candy with vampire fangs.
See how Halloweeny our school has been? But wait, there's more! We went to the corn maze as a homeschool group. It was a bit colder than last year, but it was still super fun. I love it there.
I sure love our homeschool group. We've had a couple surprise parties lately, and it's just so touching to see how much all these kids love each other.
And just so you know, our homeschool group is GROWING! It was crazy! One day, there were about 24 littles in my class! I've NEVER had a class that big, and it seemed like so many things went wrong, and I was a bit frazzled. We were learning about pressure, and one of the funnest experiments we did was to walk on eggs. Not one was broken during the littles, but some did with the olders.
By the time I had the older's class, I had gone home and gotten some supplies I had forgotten, and the olders were just about 13 kids, and they were the steady kids I've known forever, so I calmed right down, and it was a good experience.
We had an emergency mom's meeting after that, and talked about how to accommodate all these kids. I am now teaching THREE science classes, and for the littles, they are shorter classes (which I'm not sure I love, but I think works.) Cayleen really is the backbone to this whole thing, and I just love how she was wearing a name tag with "William McKay" on it last Monday.
The groups were still pretty big, even though they were split up. Here's a pitcure of some of my crew to give you a bit of an idea of our "smaller classes."
The next week we learned about Newton's three laws of motion. as part of this, we learned about centripetal force, and if you can't tell because it's a blur, Daniel is swinging a cup of water in a circle with out the water spilling out.
And that's it for science, but while we were at the Alternate school, I just happened to look at the town's newspaper and my family was on the front cover! (The backs of my family) it was of the Orange shirt day ceremony.
And in other news, I love Rightstart. Abraham started doing multiplication, and it was so easy for him because of the excellent foundation that they give. Then William started doing percents, and same thing. easy transition to knew learning. LOVE IT!
And lastly, Maxwell and I did our courses for First Aid training! We learned a lot and I read about half of the online stuff with Daniel and Hyrum too, and I plan to complete that with them.
Yes, a new year is upon us. This year I'm going to be CRAZY by not following my usual four year plan.
"WHAT?!!" You may exclaim. I know, I know. So crazy, but we are planning to leave half way through the school year. Leave Canada, and be gone for a year.
This is what my four year plan looks like:
Ancient History, Chemistry
Modern History, Biology
Geography, Earth Science <-----we should be here
US/Canadian Founding, Physics
Since we did modern history and biology last year, we should be doing geography and earth science right now....but I am skipping it for now (gasp) and doing US/canadian founding and physics. Why? Because I want to teach Geography and earth science when we are gone. I think it will be much more appropriate for our surroundings.
Sooo I am teaching US/Canadian foundings while I am actually in Canada/US and stopping half way through when we leave. While we're gone I will do geography, earth science, and If we actually get back home in time, I will hypothetically start US/Canadian foundings backup when we get home...but I might just have to finish US/Canadian founding while we are still adventuring if we take too long to get back to Canada. Who knows.
I know no one reading this cares, but I do. I really do.
Anyway, we have decided to get quite formal as a homeschool co-op this year. Mainly this is because we don't want to get shut down because of COVID. Also, many of us will miss our Westwind classes. Westwind has been so sweet and has offered us the Alternate building every Monday. This hypothetically will not get shut down from COVID. We had a lot of planning to do to get this all worked out.
I LOVE THESE WOMEN!!!
The kids will be at the school from 8:30-3:00 every Monday and I will only be there for half of the day to teach science. It's like a real school!
It has worked so far. The first Co-op day (we didn't get started until a couple of weeks ago) I taught about Forces. Mostly gravity. We talked about Newton, and we talked about how it doesn't matter how heavy an object is, it will fall at the same speed.
One of the ways we showed this, was by playing with parachute men.
The other time we went for science, we learned about friction. Of course we did one of my favourite activities EVER of shaving cream on the ground. It was some slip-sliding fun!!!
We also dragged each other on the floor using garbage bags. It was easier with the light littles, but not so much for the olders. By the way, we have almost 20 kids in each group!!! Crazy!
Now for Social Studies:
We learned about the origins of indigenous peoples in North America. We talked about the Bering Straight and the Book of Mormon. For our activity, we made totem poles.
Next we learned about indigenous life styles. We focused on the Inuit, Blackfoot, and West Coast tribes. For our activity, we made teepees. Look at Daniel's! It even had a fire with a hide drying over it!
We have also read Kaya, An American Girl as part of our indigenous studies.
We also went to Writing on Stone (any excuse to go there eh?)
Then we learned about the vikings. I told my boys that my maiden name is a viking name, and now they are very excited that they are all little viking terrors. LOL. We made flat boats as our activity, but I don't think any of them floated properly.
Then we learned about Marco Polo, and we had no activity, but we did watch that Nest Entertainment movie about Marco Polo, so that counts, right?
Then it was Christofer Columbus. I'm not sure what to think about him. I thought it was very fitting that we learned about him on National day of Truth and Reconciliation, because we talked about how bad he was to the indigenous people. For our activity, we went to the Truth and Reconciliation ceremony in town. The Blood Tribe and the government put it on.
We also read these Orange day books. I was frustrated because I accidentally bought (and can't return) the official orange day book meant for kindergarteners, not the one meant for older children. Oh well, I really liked the other one I bought "Stolen Words"
And then it was John Cabot's turn to be learned about. We learned all about the affects of him discovering so many FISH in Canadian waters, so we made fishy crafts and ate fish for lunch.
William thought he was pretty funny with that face he made.
Then we learned about Cartier and Samuel De Champlain. We ummmm we had no activity, but just look at this activity Abraham created for himself, of drawing Champlain's ship! Don't look too close, or you'll realize they are all eyeballs.
Then we learned about the lost colony of Roanoke. I'm sure you're thinking "with all the important things to teach, why make time for THAT" well, I lived close to Roanoke for six months on my mission, and it is close to my heart....and I've always felt gipped that I never got to see the Lost Colony musical and it is now on my bucket list (I'm realizing something about myself. If I go somewhere, but don't do something I actually wanted to do, I fixate on it and REALLY want to do it if I ever get back there.)
We made candle holders out of tinfoil for our activity.
And we started learning about Jamestown, but tomorrow we are continuing with that and learning about Pocahontas, so stay tuned, because our activity is going to be super cute (I think.)
And as for other exciting things, on our first day of school, we went on a field trip to the Birds Of Prey Centre. I love that place! We learned so much, and it was so memorable.
And here's a lot of photos because we were so excited.
Also, this awesome group of Cardston moms is always doing something like sports (which I'm too lazy to get to very often, in fact, we missed an important birthday party because I confused it with a sports day. I didn't even take this photo, but when my boys find out about these things, they go without me. LOL)
And Westwind Alt took us on a hike in Waterton, which I was so happy to go on. I really needed to get out of the house and have some meaningful chats with Heather and others. This is the only photo I could find of that day, but it's gorgeous, right?
Also, a new homeschool family moved here, the Bennets, and I LOVE THEM! They are the best. They invited us on a field trip to explore the abandoned Cahoon Hotel which I've always been so curious about. It was SO fun. One of the funnest things I've ever done in Cardston!
As far as reading, writing and arithmetic goes, I'm not sure if I have to post worksheets anymore since I'm only 600, not 620, so I'm not going to bwahhahah. But here's a picture of Daniel actually reading an unabridged version of Harry Potter! I was mad that Dustin let them watch all the movies a few years ago. I made Maxwell wait until he had read the books. I think that's better. Daniel and Hyrum weren't too insterested in the books because the already knew the plot, but finally Daniel picked up the book and now Daniel said he understood how books are better than movies!! Whoo hoo! We have these AMAZING illustrated editions of Harry Potter. They are Gorgeous. They are done by Jim Kay, and they are worth it! Although, he's only done the first 4 so far.
Also, we are learning about Roman Numerals in Abraham's math right now, and he dressed up as a Roman one day as part of his lesson.
And here's William's "Tang" stand. He did a lot of money counting and entrepreneur skills for this, right?
Other things of note are that we went camping. This is a photo Dustin took. It's GORGEOUS!
And our Dog had puppies again. The boys learn something with that I'm sure.
And here's a cute photo of Daniel just because I wanted to remember it.
