Penn Museum

We have been reading Mystery of History Vol 1. I know I have learned quite a bit. I love the chronological approach and the integration of biblical history with what else was happening in the world. Last year in CC we learned the history timeline and so we have begun to learn more about the events. We have also begun work on a timeline notebook with the goal being that we will keep filling this in for the years to come and give us a good reference for history.

The Penn Museum was one of the things that was on the top of our list of things to do. One reason is because of the extensive ancient history section that it has and this year we are studying ancient history.  We finally did it a few weeks ago of course after my husbands Penn ID card has expired so we had to buy tickets for all of us. It was worth it.

We were very impressed with the Egyptian display.

It was a very nice display and gave us a good feel for some of what ancient Egypt was like.

Of course, one of the things that comes to mind when thinking t of ancient Egypt history is the mummies and we were able to see a few there.



I was a bit surprised that J was a bit hesitate to go into the area with the mummies.

There were also some displays from ancient Rome and Greece. We had not quite reached that part of our study. The museum was a great supplement to our ancient history.

Put off and Put on

One of the things that I enjoy with homeschooling is when a great idea hits you can just go with it. I don't remember what had happened that morning that made me decide that we needed a lesson on putting off and putting on but that idea came to me and so we got our Bibles. It was before Christmas and all Miss K had was her Bible story book which she brought to the table but it didn't have Colossians. She now has one and is very proud of her Bible. Yesterday at 6:00 am she had it open to Matthew and was going to read. Back to that Friday morning and the lesson on putting off and putting on.

We opened our Bibles to Colossians 3 and listed the things that we were to put off or away -- anger, wrath, malice, slander, etc. Then we listed the things that we are to put on -- kindness, humility, meekness, patience, etc.

We then talked about each word and decided if it was something we wanted to put on and if so, we taped it to ourselves. The ones that were put off were put in a garbage bag.

Miss K joined in the fun as well. She got lots of things put on.



I think it was a fun visual way to illustrate this passage. It did give us something to talk about for the next few days as we talked about something that we did and how that was putting on joy or serving.

Delivering a Heart Attack

February 14 is a double holiday here at our house--Valentine's Day and Daddy's birthday. We usually try to combine the two in celebrations for the day. This year we combined moving and being sick and so not much happened for the day. I do like to do something fun looking forward to the day. I know it is a Hallmark holiday but it is a good chance to just focus on love. That didn't happen this year with everything else that is happening.

So last minute today I decided that we should deliver some heart attacks.

We cut out hearts, got the tape, and bought a treats. I will add that at 1:00 on Valentine's Day there is not much candy left at the grocery store and they already have Easter Candy on display. I did decide that we would not buy Easter candy as I didn't want to confuse the celebration. We then drove to the first house. I am not sure how quiet we were but I know that they don't use the front door as much as I figured we were a bit safe. As we were getting in the van to drive away, we did see the person come out the basement door on the side of the house. The kids had fun laughing and hoping that we weren't caught.

Our next house was one we probably should have hit in the morning when they were all busy doing schoolwork. We drove past but could not stop as one of the boys was outside in the front yard. Our van was spotted. We drove around the block, the boy was gone but the front door was still open. We went home and decided to go back later.

Later was safe. We parked in front of the neighbors and J ran up to the door with his hearts and treat bag.

I did have to explain to the girls walking down the street what we were doing, just delivering a heart attack. Then Miss K ran up there. I think her heart landed on the ground.

She knew what to do -- put it there and run.

We really should have made more hearts but again it was last minute and I impressed myself enough that I was able to find a bit of pink and red paper.

Mount Rushmore

Driving back from the west coast we needed something to do along the way to make it fun. We realized that we weren't that far from Mount Rushmore and when else would we  go to South Dakota.



It was a beautiful clear day and not too cold either. Since it was October, the parking lot was empty and there weren't many people there. I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer when it is crowded.



We walked around. The visitor center has a very good display on how this was made. The children both did the Jr. Ranger Program. Miss K filled out the book and then walked over there herself and got her badge.



We saw the mountain goat. He just wandered by the visitor center. The one park ranger said that he stays on that side of the mountain as it is safer.



I am glad we stopped and saw this part of America. It is fun for the kids to see things with Mount Rushmore now and recognize it as a place that they have been. It also was fitting with our American history from last year. They knew bits about each of the presidents. They will still sing the songs from CC last year.

 

Yellowstone

No, we didn't go there during Christmas vacation. Remember, I said I am catching up on my blog. This is another catching up post. We stopped here on our way home from the West coast. We just couldn't go through Nebraska again. No offense to those that live there and love the state but it doesn't have much change of scenery. The kids and I had never been to Yellowstone so we decided to do something new on the way home.

We were traveling in the middle of October and we knew that the weather could be iffy. We spent the night in West Yellowstone staying at Holiday Inn. We were tired after driving from Spokane and our room was next to a group of noisy people so before we even unpacked we said something to the front desk and they moved us to the family suite -- nice -- three beds, two rooms and very quiet. The next morning we got up, ate breakfast at McDonalds, saw some Chinese students and met a couple that teach English in China. Then we headed into the park. We decided that we could stay until about 3:00 as we still had some driving to do that day.

We were excited to go.  The weather was beautiful and the part was not too crowded. We wondered what animals we would see. It didn't take long. He was right there munching his breakfast. The kids were excited to see this. The kids had a page to fill out with the various animals that we saw.



 

We decided to go up toward Mammoth Hot Springs first. We made a number of stops along the way. We were excited and stopped at all kinds of things that looked interesting.



We spent quite a bit of time walking around Norris Hot Springs.



We decided not to go all the way to Mammoth Hot Springs but we did stop at Fountain Paint Pots and enjoyed watching and listening to the mud pots.



Then we headed to Old Faithful. Along the way we saw a herd of buffalo so we had to stop and take some pictures.



The visitor center at Old Faithful was nice. We enjoyed walking through there and learning various things. The advantage of being there in October was parking was not a problem.



Miss K said she was a scientist. She was very intent on studying that rock.



We got excellent seating and waited for Old Faithful. It was fun to just sit and watch it slowly begin and then get so tall.



We then began our journey out of the park. We were sad that we hadn't seen any bears but you can't see everything. We did learn that if you saw cars pulled over to the side of the road that probably means there is something to look at. As we were driving out. We saw cars pulled over and so we pulled over and way in a distance we were able to see



a bear. We saw a bear. That is about the best picture that we got but we did see it.

We only had a day but we had great weather and it was not that crowded so we were able to see quite a bit of the park. We did drive quite a distance that evening and some of them were windy roads at high elevation. Maybe it was good that it was dark. Our stop was worth it. We have fun memories and good pictures.

Thankfulnes

I told you that the blog had not been priority and I have some catching up to do. This is a catch-up post.

I feel like November is an opportunity that I don't want to miss to focus on thankfulness. I know we are to be thankful in all things and we do work to practice that but it is good to have a time of really thinking about the thankfulness.

I needed something easy this year. We had just gotten back from spending 2 1/2 months on the west coast and came home to a house that had some remodeling while we were going so I had to put things away and knowing that Christmas was coming and I need to pack the house to move in February. I just couldn't do a big project. A friend gave me the idea of a making a paper chain. That was easy enough to do. I got some scrapbook paper and cut it into strips, put those in a jar along with some markers and found the stapler and we were ready to list the things that we are thankful for.



Miss K's list of things included all her aunts and uncles, her cousins, Sonic, Arby's, and a few other things.

It was fun to watch the chain grow each day. Some days the children would add more than one item so they could help the chain to grow.

At the end of the month, we had a long chain.



I think it was a fun way to think of all the simple, as well as interesting things that we have to be thankful for, things we might not always think about.

Since we were having a stress free Christmas, see the above about all that has happened, is happening, and will be happening, we took that paper chain and included it in our Christmas tree decorations.

Learning to Play Chess

I know the basic chess moves. Personally, I think chess takes to much brain power but other people in my family love chess. I do agree that it is good logic and thinking and so I encourage the kids to learn and play. J has been playing for the past few years and has played in a few tournaments. Miss K doesn't want to be left out of anything. She wants to play as well. Daddy has been patiently teaching her. She knows the names and is learning how they move.



Miss K can set up the board. She has learned to play King and Pawns.

Some of the chess books that we and use are DK CHess for Kids and Usborne First Skills Starting Chess. The Usborne book is the one daddy is following as he teaches Miss K to play.

We need to get her a Hello Kitty shirt to wear when she plays chess. Okay, that is a joke because one of J's friends was beat by a girl wearing a Hello Kitty shirt.