Snow Day!

In my Weekly Wrap Up last week I mentioned that I was crossing my fingers for a big snow in March.   Tada!

This above photo was taken in the early morning as snow piled up…and up.  We ended up with approximately 20 inches of snow!   I think my flag did it’s job!

This was to be a snowman…but it got away from the girls on the hill and took on a life of itself.  A short lived life, the dog mauled it.

Here is poor, unsuspecting Olivia, making a snow angel.  Do you see that huge scoop of snow in the right hand corner of the photo?  She never saw it coming…heh heh heh.

Lindsey to the rescue!

I hope you enjoyed your day, regardless of what the weather may have brought to you!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Super Derecho Edition

This has been an eye opening week.  Friday night around 9pm, as I was putting the kids to bed, the lights started to flicker and then I heard our dog go berserk.  Berserk in a way I’ve never heard, so I headed to the back door to see what was going on.   Then the lights went out.   I opened the back door and it sounded like a freight train was coming.  So I slammed the door, grabbed the kids, yelled at the husband and my mother and headed to the basement, grabbing a flashlight as we went.

From the basement I could still hear the dog going berserk and headed back up to get him.  The 50 foot tall trees on the other side of our privacy fence were swaying and swirling all at the same time.  As I grabbed the dog, and headed back in the house, I heard children yelling.   I got the dog to the basement and handed him off to the husband and headed back upstairs and out our front door, around the side of the house to the church playground where two kids, MAYBE 9 or 10 years old, were freaking out.  (My question is why are they out at that time of night alone, and why didn’t their parents have sense enough to come looking for them?)  But I didn’t take time to ask, as I escorted (shoved, ran with and drug) them off the playground, out from under the trees and across the church yard and shoved them in the direction of their front door as I bolted back across the church yard in the hail and wind.

My thought, and that of everyone else was a tornado, but we found out later it was a super derecho. I’d never heard of it before, have you?  Anyway, this massive storm left a 700+ mile path of destruction over several states, killing 12 and knocking out electricity to millions. You can see some pretty amazing photos and videos on this site.

Some of the people in our area are still without electricity and water (wells don’t work without a power supply).  We were without electricity for a little over 36 hours.  We lost the food in our fridge, but the deep freezer in the basement was able to maintain, thank God!  Thankfully though, none of our trees, or even my 7 foot tall sunflowers were damaged, thank you Jesus!!

In other news the girls started swim lessons this week and LOVED it.   Lindsey insisted she didn’t want to take lessons (she’s slightly afraid of water).  By the end of day 1 she was able to go under water, and even open her eyes under water, which was a huge accomplishment.

We finished out knights and castles unit study.  We’ve been working on this project for several weeks now.  We still have a few read aloud books to wrap up before moving on to Vikings.

We had some great family time on July 4th.  We hung out with friends during the day and extended family by night.  And we’ve progressed more on our art curriculum review.   Check out the girls replicas of Claude Monet’s “The Bridge”.

It’s been an interesting week!  We’re thankful to have our utilities restored, thankful to all be safe, and thankful to live in such a great country.   We hope your week went well (although, maybe not as full of natural disaster!)  

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Blizzard 2010 Edition

Catchy title, eh???

This has been a real humdinger of a winter for us here in Virginia. We've had snow and or ice, almost every week now since the first week of December. Sometimes more than once in a week. Such is the case this week. This past Saturday we had 8 inches of snow. Tuesday night, another 6 inches. No biggie....but then....drum roll please!

Tonight through Saturday night we are supposed to get a blizzard. For real, BLIZZARD. The weather map for our area shows PARALYZING SNOW on our area, with winds of 35-30 miles per hour. Nice. Supposedly 36 inches or more. Time will tell! I'll post photos if/when it happens. Here is what my backyard looked like BEFORE the snow started today.

Now, on to our school week.. All of our outside activities have been cancelled this week because of the weather. You'd think that would mean I've gotten extra school work done...not so. I'm just not in the mood to press especially hard this week. We did manage to get a full five day week in this week. Our co-op typically doesn't meet on the first Friday of the month...however, even if we HAD been scheduled the snow would have caused a cancellation.

We did finish up our study of New Jersey. We didn't have the state meal this time, it sounded good, but I knew the kids wouldn't eat it, so really why bother? All that is left to do is the collage from the maps and brochures we have. I'm saving that for Saturday as a boredom buster.

We finished reading our selection of books on Abraham Lincoln. To finish up the readings, Olivia wrote her own story and made a lovely little book out of it.

We also revisited the puffy paint creation. We ended up with a green dog, and a pink cat. It is just me, or does the cat look like it has "issues"?

There was nothing overly exciting this week, just typical stuff. I do feel it was productive. Lindsey's reading skills are increasing quickly, and her cursive writing is getting a lot easier to read. Olivia is doing well in all areas. Although, I really need to find a way to make her think outside the box.

For those of you who do not have snow, but would like to make "snow angels" with your kids, here is a photo of a nifty craft to do. I'd love to take credit for it, but Lindsey's Awana teacher sent this home last week. The "body" is Lindsey's footprint , and the "wings" are her handprints.

Go check out the Weekly Wrap Up and see how well, or wild, everyone else's week was.

Pennsylvania Week 3 (The Weatherman Cometh)

This week in our Pennsylvania study we started off by learning about  the Liberty Bell.  I thought it was interesting that it cracked the first time it was used, and it was melted down and remade twice with the same results.   Researching online I found a lovely connect the dot drawing of the Liberty Bell on abcteach.   We also used the following books from the library:

American Symbols The Liberty Bell, by Debbie L. Yanuck
The Liberty Bell, Gail Sakurai

We then moved on to studying Ben Franklin.   This made for a very hands on week!  We used the following books from our library:

Let Freedom Ring Benjamin Franklin, by Susan r. Gregson
Benjamin Franklin A Man of Many Talents, by the editors of TIME for Kids
The Ben Franklin Book of Easy & Incredible Experiments, A Frank Institute Science Museum Book

Using the Book of Easy & Incredible Experiments, we built our own weather station this week.   First we made a thermometer using rubbing alcohol, water, food coloring a clear bottle, a straw and some homemade playdoh.  As the temperature increased the colored mixture would move up the straw, and then back down as the temperature fell.

Next we made a barometer out of a wide mouthed glass jar, a rubber band, a balloon, a straw and some tape and an index card.   The air pressure pushing on the top of the balloon would cause the straw to move.  So we marked our starting spot and checked it each day.

A wind vane was next on our agenda, so that we could see the direction of the wind.  This was pretty simple, consisting of an index card, 2 hollow coffee stirrers (the guy at the coffee shop was very interested when I told him why I needed them), a paper clip, pushpin, playdoh and plain paper.  Obviously, we used this to tell the direction the wind was blowing. 

To measure the speed of the wind, we built this lovely anemometer using 4 small paper cups, 2 strips of corrugated cardboard, a pushpin, stapler, pencil with and eraser and more homemade playdoh.  We colored one cup, and used it to count rotations in a 1 minute period.

I had never heard of a hygrometer until now, so we made that too!  (It measures humidity.)  All we used were 2 index cards, a brass paper fastener, a 6 inch strand of Olivia's hair and some masking tape.  The hair would expand and/or contract depending on the humidity level in the air, causing the arm to move up and down.   The hygrometer is the index car at the bottom of the photo above, you have to look closely to see the hair just to the left edge.

We already had a rain catcher, so I didn't see any point in making another.  We also didn't have any rain this week so there was nothing to note.

For our read aloud time, we read the book Bread and Butter Indian by Anne Colver.  For those not familiar with the story, it takes place in the Lancaster area, shortly after Pennsylvania became a state.  The fact that there was an indian in the story was enough to hold my audience captive throughout the entire reading.    We read the entire 96 pages in one sitting, over a huge bowl of popcorn and some hot cocoa!

This week is the fall baseball picnic, and Olivia wanted to make something special for her coach.  He loves dogs (raises show dogs), and Olivia loves pink, which is why the coach nicknamed her "Pinkie".  We decided to mix up some homemade puffy paint, from a recent post by Jolanthe over at Homeschool Creations.  LOVE IT!   The recipe is simple enough, 3/4 cup shaving cream, 1/4 cup white glue and some paint to add color.

It looks tasty...almost.

So her gift for Coach David is this lovely pink puffy paint dog.  I personally see it more as a pig, but she says it's a dog, who am I to argue with an artist?

Not to be outdone, Lindsey made a cat.  The difference, is all in the ears my friend.

Nothing else overly exciting to report here.  Tomorrow is co-op, although I've already gotten word that there are a lot of teachers (and students) out tomorrow because swine flu is making its rounds through our area.   

Head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for Kris' weekly wrap up!

Possible Tornado?

We had severe weather this evening.  I heard the thunder rumbling and went upstairs to check the windows and saw that the wind was picking up, so I opened the back sunporch door to go secure the backyard.  This is where I made my  mistake...I was almost floored by the door as the force of the wind took me by surprise.  I seriously had to fight to get the door shut again.  I looked at the large line of trees next to my property line and saw that the tops of the trees were starting to rotate...yeah I've seen enough of  those cheap tornado movies to know that this is NOT a good thing.  So I ran like wild back through the house to the basement with the kids, hearing a roaring sound as we went.    They asked what was wrong so I said "well, it's a REALLY bad storm".   The ever thinking three year old did just as I've always told her to do, she pointed her finger at the window and yelled in a very authoratative voice "Go away storm, in the name of the Lord!!"      Then it got dark and quiet..too quiet (again, I've watched those made for tv movies, and anyone knows quiet is right before IT happens).  So I was praying Psalm 91 over us as fast as I could and Lindsey is still yelling "Go away in the name of the Lord!"...and we waited and the rains started, and the winds died down.  I heard lots of sirens for a long while.

My brother, who lives a few counties over called me several hours later.  They are pretty certain a tornado hit his town, lots of damage.   Reports of several INCHES of hail in areas, buildings off their foundations and trees uprooted.  The national weather center will have someone out that way tomorrow to determine if it was a tornado for certain.   I'll have to check the newspapers tomorrow (we don't have tv).

So, as I go to bed tonight in my damage free home, with my two children safely  tucked into their beds I want to say thank you Lord for your protection and your provision.  Thank you for the faith of a child to stand on your Word and to believe what You said....and thanks for letting me see that what I'm teaching them about You really is getting into them.

Snow Day

After waiting for months the kids finally had snow!!   This was one of those snows that the experts missed.  I'm sure being a weather forecaster is a thankless job....but really folks, can't we try to have just some hint of accuracy once in a while?

It's a powdery snow, so there was no chance of a snowman...we tried, it was ugly.  But we did have fun with sled riding and making snow angels.  And the dog enjoyed it to...you'll notice her getting  a free ride in one of the photos below.  And for the record, we're doing school now...no snow days here!

Silly little dog....