Our Fall Activities 2011

We have had a busy but fun month of October.  We were able to participate in some really fun activities.

Early in October we went on a field trip with our homeschool group.  It was actually two field trips in one day.

Our first stop was the Bass Pro Shop.  The group had a tour guide take us through the store.  Who knew you would ever need a guide to take you through a store??  The tour guide even gave them free play at their laser shooting range for about 15-20 minutes.  The kids (and their dad) loved it!
   

Our next stop was at a huge pumpkin patch.  In addition to pumpkins, they had all kinds of other activities.  The kids participated in many of them.  Some of which are pictured below.

 Here the kids are on petal powered racers.

This was serious business.  ;)

This activity was called pillow jumping.

It was basically a giant, air filled, outside bounce house.

This activity was called Pumpkin Blasters.

The pumpkins were shot out of a cannon

like apparatus at around 100 mph!

 Here the kids are on the zip line.

Roo is in the orange shirt.

Beau is in the black.

 A few weeks later we took the kids to an annual event held at a nearby zoo.  The zoo opens their gates in the evening and allows kids to wear costumes.  There are vendors throughout the zoo handing out candy.  We enjoy this event as the kids get to collect candy, wear a costume and see the nocturnal animals when they are the most active. 

This year Roo was the Nile Princess that drew Moses from the water.  Beau was the adult version of Moses.  This fit in perfectly with our CTG studies.

Here are Roo and Beau in costume

Here the kids are posing with their cousin K,

who dressed as a 'nerd'.

 The kids observing the elephants.

Fun was had by all.

CTG Weeks 7-8

Here are the highlights of our CTG weeks 7-8. 

  

 When we were making a cartouche we used Crayola Model Magic and rubber stamps from the book and stamp set called Fun with Hieroglyphs.  (Picture from Amazon.com)  Beau decided he wanted to write a message and not stamp his name so he didn't actually make a cartouche.  Roo did both a message and her name.  Beau's message says 'Beware of Hippos and Crocs' and Roo's says 'I love dogs' followed by her 'cartouche'. 

While reading about Lot we did a lapbook piece that turned Lot's wife into salt.  That made a big impression on my kids.  It was a very good visual that brought lots of questions such as why Lot's wife might have looked back.

We also did a lapbook piece of Abraham, Sarah and Issac.  The outside was covered in stars to represent God's promise to Abraham.

Beau was having a hard time with telling the difference between Lot and Abraham when I was reading about them but it finally clicked with him when we watched the cartoon Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible: Sodom and Gomorrah from Netflix.

We also watched and enjoyed the Nest Entertainment DVD Abraham and Issac.

Our version of the tomb wall paintings included Crayola Model Magic, Fun with Egyptian Stencils by Dover, paint and blotter.  We made the 'tomb tile' from the Model Magic on the day we did the cartouche project.  After it dried we taped stencils to the 'tile' and blotted the stencil with paint.  We then let them dry and the project was done.

 

We also did the wax seal project.  We didn't make our own out of a potato but I had these small, wood decorative pieces that we used.  We also used the beeswax that we used last year during our ECC program.  I placed the wax in warm water to soften it.  While it was softening, the kids wrote notes on the inside of their 'letters'.   We then put some of the wax on the outside and pushed the wood decorative piece into the wax.  The wood stuck a little so I sprayed a little Pam cooking spray on it to make it easier to pull out of the wax.  :)

I served Lentil Soup in bread bowls after we learned how Esau sold Jacob his birthright.  The kids thought it was very good but not good enough to sell someone's birthright for it.  lol 

As I've mentioned before, our science this year is Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 3 - Land Animals of the Sixth Day (Zoo 3).  The kids are LOVING it!!!

In addition to the reading, we completed a lapbook page and the experiment for lesson 1.

The experiment was about animals and camouflage.  We tore up and threw in our laundry basket red, orange and green construction paper.  We then threw in M&M's, the same amount of each color.  The kids then had 2 minutes to find as many M&M's as possible.  The last picture I have posted shows our results.  I think since they were both hunting for the M&M's I should have cut the time in half.  They still enjoyed the experiment and understood the purpose.

 Our weeks 9-10 are almost complete.  Hopefully, I'll be able to post about them soon.  :)