Lifestyle of Learning: September 2012

Busy...

It's been a month today since my last update. Super busy, even moreso than usual. We've had so much to do. I've been getting ready for fall and for the upcoming holidays of God. I bought most of the kids' fall and winter clothes and am in the process of getting them all washed and put away. I've been clearing out stuff we don't need, and I'm trying to get to a point of doing some fall cleaning. Jaden also took the longest single break from grammar and spelling ever, and so we've recently added that back in, and I'm working with both Trust and Liv more on things like getting Trusten ready to read and planning more math stuff with him. On and on the list goes!

An update on the eggs Jaden William was incubating: Since he didn't use a thermometer, as I predicted the eggs came to naught. Maybe he'll buy a thermometer and try again.

A Fun Visit...

We went to visit our friend Lisa a few weeks ago, and Jaden worked a bit on Paul's and Lisa's earthbag home, applying mud. He also helped Lisa put together a rock hanging. Lisa had been collecting rocks she'd found with holes. I'd given her three myself. They organized the rocks from largest to smallest and strung them on a rope to use as a decorative piece hanging outside. Trust and Liv helped make peanut butter balls while we were there. And of course, just as they do with our chickens here at home, they played with our friends' chickens while there.

Trust and Liv holding friends' chickens

Trust and Liv adding ingredients for peanut butter balls

Lisa, Will, Trust, and Liv organizing rocks; finished product hanging outside

Work with Daddy...

Jaden William went with Nathan to work two different days of one week. He learned some new things and enjoyed a break away from his younger siblings, and Trust and Liv enjoyed a break from JW, too. Some snapshots of what happened when he was away:

Elizabeth enjoying her bath. She's such a sweet, happy baby!

Trust and Liv sitting on front porch in the morning sun, watching the chickens range


Liv hiding in Jade's bag (that Liv has borrowed for her blocks) and Trusten coming up to hug her when he saw me taking a picture of her.

Trust and Liv sitting on counter ready for breakfast-making

Trust and Liv playing peacefully together in the sandbox

South African Currency...

Jaden William received a surprise (to him, not me) package in the mail from my dear friend Nellie's adult daughter Tasha from South Africa. More foreign currency to inspect and learn about! They have their own cents (not the same value as our U.S. cents) and then rands. Their top-valued coin is the 5 rand piece, which is currently equal 61cents U.S. Their lowest paper currency is ten rands, and the bigger bills were color-copied for Jaden to see. The top one shown—200 rands—is about $24.41 US dollars.

10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, 1 rand, 2 rands, and 5 rands coins (I forgot to picture the back picture that is on them all).

On the right, a 10 rand bill front and back; on left copies of what larger bills look like

Thanks again to Nellie and Tash. Tasha took time to neatly fit the coins in little pockets and make notes.

Fall and Winter Clothes...

The kids are very excited about their new fall and winter clothes. I've still got to get some shoes and get Elizabeth some socks and maybe Trusten a couple more pairs of pants. Trusten will have the most clothes, though most of them are hand-me-downs from Jaden. The dress shirts handed down are like new and some of the other stuff is in excellent condition. I got him a brand new sweater, too, and there's one other new and never worn shirt, and he's got a new coat that Nathan bought for him two years ago that will just fit him this year. I had to get Elizabeth mostly new clothes, though I do have some one-piece suits that were Liv's that I'll likely use for her to sleep in.

Miss Liv's clothes (shirts, pants and leggings, dress, and socks) and hair clips

Miss Elizabeth's clothes, got to get her some leggings or tights to go under the sweater dress

Trusten's clothes (minus a couple shirts, plus I need to buy him more pants)

Jaden William's clothes, including a corduroy jacket that I agreed to get if he paid half. He, like I, loves corduroy, and so most of his pants this year are that way, and he loves those soft flannel shirts, too.

Two more shirts for Jade. All the others have monkey shirts. He wanted a penguin shirt.

SkyView...

Jade loves the Skyview app for iPhone (and iPod), and I think it's pretty neat, too, so I installed it as well. He and I have gone out to look at the stars at night. We've also tried to locate the International Space Station. It's supposedly bright enough to see during the day...whenever it's in view. The thing travels at an average of 17,000 miles an hour. For comparison, the moon orbits the earth at about 2,288 miles per hour. The app tells when it should be viewable again in our location, and we've tried it a few times by setting an alarm a few minutes ahead of time, but each time we've failed to see it because of the trees blocking our view, I believe. We need to go to an open field. Maybe if we went up to our first pasture on the hill we'd have better luck. You also only have a very short time frame where you can see it before it is gone from sight again, because of the high speed at which it's traveling.

These were screenshots I snapped within just a few minutes time frame during one of our attempts to see it. All those trees obscured our view of it.

A Street Through Time...

A Street Through Time continues to be a big hit. The kids and I all love it. Since my last post we've covered "Roman Times," "Barbarians," the "Viking Invaders," "Medieval Town," and "Plague Strikes."

Each time period has a two-page spread, summary, info and finding questions around the perimeters, and terms/labels all over the pages. This one shows Roman Times.

The Stone Age hunters was the first thing on the scene, and the same scene or "street" is depicted throughout the ages.

I wanted to give a better glimpse of what A Street Through Time is all about. This is definitely a favorite, and I highly recommend it to others. I tell the kids more about the different terms, and we have some fun discussions. Both the boys really love it. The book is Trusten's, so when he leaves he will take it with him. We've stopped for a bit so that they have time to watch videos on the different time periods to learn more. William especially requested to learn more about he plague. So far he has watched a video on the plague and the first third of a video on the Stone Age era when people were transitioning from being hunter-gathers to being farmers.

Stories From the Stone Age 1/3

The Bubonic Plague (History Channel) Playlist

Reading...

I decided to start taking snapshots of the stuff we read each day, so from now on I think I'll do that. I just haven't decided whether to continue my recent exclusive use of my iPhone for pictures or not. They're not as good quality; some of them are terrible. But it's handy, because I use iCloud now, and so my photos are automatically sent to all my devices via Photostream. No connecting a camera and uploading the pics.

This is a few days' worth of my new habit. The Smurfs? Well, those are Trusten's, and he holds one while Liv holds the other during our group reading time, and the kids all think it's pretty funny to include them in the pictures with the books and periodicals.

We had to catch up on magazines, because we skipped a month reading them. I read a daily Proverbs chapter to all the kids still, but I'm currently reading Leviticus only to Jaden William. We'd be finished with it by now, except he hasn't been here this week. Oh, one of Trusten's Weekly Readers had some rhymes for school rules where he had to fill in a blank to make a rhyme. He did really well and enjoyed it. I try to incorporate all the rhyming stuff I can for him, because he loves it so much!

Sea Star Breakfast...

We read more about sea stars in one of our magazines, and so the next day I made sea stars out of my much-loved fruit, grain, and seed bar recipe:

I made them all with five arms, though they were all unique.

Jaden William is with my parents helping out with the White County, AR fair this week. My dad is the fairgrounds manager, and both my parents are on the fair board. We will meet them halfway on the first day of next week to pick him back up. So the next post will detail what he did and learned while there and what the others did while he was gone.

Before closing, here are some miscellaneous photos: