Currently, we are studying the Mountain States (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada) and the kids had to come up with questions to write on the front of each flashcard, with the answer on the back. Mesa came up with very challenging questions like, “what year did Utah join the union,” while Kasen’s were intriguing riddles. However, this one by Sadie might have been one of my favorites. She’s missing her two friends who returned home last year. Can you figure out where “home” is?
With the holidays and a number of other things, it took us a while to wrap up the Industrial Revolution. Our culminating activity was presentations from each of the kids on an invention or inventor from that era. Sadie presented us with information about the telephone. If only Alexander Graham Bell could imagined the phone-computers we can now carry in our pockets and talk to someone anywhere in the world!
Mesa’s presentation was on the steam engine which was, of course, the impetus for the revolution in industry that followed. We all had mixed emotions on the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution – while it resulted in incredible advancements that we still enjoy today, it also contributed greatly to family breakdown.
Kasen took the Inventor route and wrote up a great report on Thomas Edison. Of his many great inventions, we appreciate the light bulb most of all – especially this time of year!
We have now left the Industrial Revolution and have moved on to the revolutions taking place in the mid-1800s – starting with France. As an aside, if anyone has any great resources for teaching the basics of Nuclear Energy, we’re all ears. Most of what we have available to us is a little more advanced than what we’re ready for yet.
Mesa in particular has been into painting in recent years. Since I have exactly zero artistic ability, this has left her to fend mostly for herself. (Thankfully, one artistic young lady has been at the Ranch for the better part of two years and her equally artistic sister joined her here for about 6 weeks last fall – and they were such a blessing to the girls in helping them with their artwork.) So, we’ve been trying to take advantage of artwork opportunities in the area and are so excited that our library now offers membership to Creativebug for library card holders.
Last week we took our first foray into a Creativebug watercolor art class. The kids had a blast and I was so impressed with their eye for color. In this exercise we found a picture and tried to recreate that color palette.
We will continue on with our watercolor class through Creativebug, but Mesa is also pretty excited to attend her Acrylic Painting class tomorrow that was our Christmas gift to her. I’m sure there will be photos!
This weekend we got to have a wonderful time meeting up with the Johnsons (with special guest appearance by Aunt Darla) at a sno-park on Mt. Hood. We couldn’t have picked a better day as there was enough snow to sled, but not enough to attract major crowds.
(And that stove!! I swear Clint squeezed a whole tree in there. It is huge! And we had that lovely warming shelter all to ourselves!)
Unfortunately our day was not without challenges. Kasen suffered a significant sprain on his very first run. I cannot tell you how disappointed he was watching everyone else enjoy the hills the rest of the day.
And that first video is a record of Mesa’s most recent concussion. ☹ She is now on a very strict one month regimen of rest, low-risk activities, and brain healing food.
Next year, more caution will be taken.
That’s one thing we learned. However, while Melisse remembered to collect some dirt and snow she needed for school this week, with all the injuries I totally forgot that I inteded to discuss Potential and Kinetic energy with the kids while sledding. Fortunately, when Darla comes to town this weekend there will be more sledding (except for Mesa, of course) and we’ll have another chance.
And after the end of such a fun day of sledding and eating, we all felt a bit like Henley even if some of us didn’t have a mom there to haul us around and put us to sleep!
Earlier this fall I asked each of the kids to write about their favorite activities this summer. Here is what each of them wrote:
This summer my family and I went boating with some of my dad’s friends and their families at the Prineville reservoir. We boated for about four hours. A lot of the older kids decided to wake board and I wanted to wake board also but I didn’t have my swim clothes on. After about two hours we got out and swam for a bit. After boating some more we headed back to the dock. Then we swam in a sectioned off spot of the reservoir. After that we ate lunch at a picnic table and watched the cute little chipmunks run around. The little chipmunks would flatten themselves on the ground to hide from people, but they were also very curious. ~By Mesa
This summer we got to go to an amazing little spring called Jack Creek. It’s about a half an hour past Sisters. When we got there we started at a little picnic area. From there we hiked a half a mile to the springs. The trail goes right up to the head of the springs. We even got to drink from them. It’s amazing to see the water trickling from holes in the hill. ~By Kasen
~By Sadie
I was never very good at Geography. I could memorize state capitals and continents, but finding Michigan on a map? Not so much.
Clint and I are on a mission to teach our children useful things – not just twaddle to fill up their brains and their time. In spite of my lack in the subject, we agree that knowing where Michigan is is important. Here are some ways that we’re helping the kids to learn useful geography – and remember it.
We have used a couple of applications to help us with Geography over the years. Our old standby for recognizing the shape of a state, or certain details, is Stack the States – which we got on Amazon years ago. A new favorite that helps us discern the location of states is from a great website called Sheppard Software. If you’d like to try your hand, click here. (If it doesn’t work – because Adobe Flash is being phased out, let me know and I can try to help you get a flash player going on your device.)
Our most recent endeavor, as we are currently studying the landscape of the United States, has been making salt dough maps. I told the kids they could form the country however they liked, but it needed to include the major mountain ranges for the U.S., as well as the border outlined and major rivers located. I haven’t really been into making messy school projects with the kids, so we’re all enjoying more hands on activities now that they are a bit older (and can clean up their own messes!) and I’m pretty sure the kids will remember where those major mountain ranges are for a while now. You can see for yourself how they turned out.
Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
Every homeschool family schools differently. In that way – and probably only that way – we’re just like them.
Because we are not just a homeschooling family, but a ranch-living and home-business-running family, our schooling day looks different every day, but here’s what we aim for:
After breakfast is put away and morning chores are done, we start in on school. We usually start with a devotional. Right now we are using a Christmas family devotional that has given us wonderful ideas of how to pray for and serve others in this season of giving.
After our devotional time we usually move on to History. For the next two weeks we are studying the Industrial Revolution – which has been fascinating! If you think of it, ask the kids about an invention that came about during that time. The girls are each creating a poster of an invention from that era, and Kasen is researching Thomas Edison.
Science is taking on two forms right now. For History, Science, Geography and Art we use an excellent family based curriculum called Layers of Learning. That curriculum has us studying Energy right now – which is a perfect complement to the Industrial Revolution. We also use Exploring Nature with Children – which has us studying our feathered friends this week. However, as Clint points out, ranch living offers countless opportunities to observe and test God’s creation – and we try to take advantage of that!
In Geography we are studying the landscape of the United States. In fact, as I write this, the kids are perfecting their salt dough maps of the country – with special focus on the major ranges: the Rockies, the Cascades, the Sierra Nevadas, and the Appalachians.
In Art we are investigating the Romantic Period. All of the kids enjoy drawing, and we are looking forward to playing around with some watercolors to try to achieve some of the look of the Romantic Era pieces. Of course, then we’ll have to talk about what the Romantic Era was all about: feelings. Of course, this will be all new fodder for Kasen’s running comedy show during school – though I hope to circumvent that by spending most of this 2 week unit on the beautiful landscapes that came out of the Hudson River School during this time.
We discovered the Layers of Learning curriculum last summer when we came across their Writer’s Workshop. Language Arts has always been a mixed bag for us. One of the kids loved it. Another loathed it. And yet another was frustrated by it. Thankfully, we all love Writer’s Workshop and I am so grateful we found it. Right now our writing is centered around the History assignment mentioned above, as well as Spelling and some mini grammar lessons.
Throughout the day the kids have Math and Reading to work on independently. For years we have used Math-U-See. I love Math, and I love curricula that helps students understand what is going on when we are doing Math. Speaking of that, here’s a freebie for you. The “Golden Ratio” has always fascinated me. If you enjoy looking at the glory of God’s creation, check out this fun collection of photos of the Golden Ratio in creation! Our Reading curriculum is from Christian Light Publishers and we could not be happier about its emphasis on the character traits we seek to emphasize: integrity, a diligent work ethic, love, kindness, and gratitude.
When we finish school depends, of course, on when we actually got started and how many times we got distracted our delayed. We try to take a short break between subjects, but sometimes those breaks are no longer short by the time we get back to school work. But, that’s one of the beautiful things about homeschooling – school isn’t separate from life; it is life!
Thanks for joining us on this journey. We look forward to sharing with you what we’re learning.
A Life Well Learned 