Montpeculiar.

First off FALL!  There are no words that have been left unsaid about this wonderful season in New England.  We took a drive to our state's capital and I couldn't help filling with a sense of pride and love cruising through the mountains with the wild gray clouds above.  Fan-bloomin'-tastic. 

We went to Montpeculiar to go to the History Museum, attending our first official "home school" class was enlightening.  I looked around at the other creatures of home school and felt reassured and intimidated..that's a smart group of kids.  One parent started talking to me about a classical education which I promptly came home and googled.  I had assumed she meant reading classic books and so on but it turns out it's more of a movement including studying Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, and Reformation.  I have barely begun to look into it so I feel very naive at the moment....more on classical education to come I'm sure, since (apart from the learning Latin part) it's piqued my interest..

Sailor and Kitten on the capital steps

Our days are much more peaceful than a month ago.  A typical day now looks like this...

Between 8-9am -up and dressed and breakfast
Math for an hour or so
Work on our ghost stories
Reading with Sailor
Reading a chapter a day of Animal Farm with Dodger-good for discussing topics like socialism vs communism and when he reads out loud I can really get a feel for his understanding and pronunciation of the text.
Lunch
Free time-LEGO, computer time, cooking, art, walks.

Lemon Raspberry Meringue!

Usually an evening soccer game for Dodger.
Dinner
Bath and more reading before bed...still on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with Sailor though he's requesting Harry Potter instead.  I can't blame him, C.S. Lewis is pretty dark and humorless.  And, although I'll probably get in trouble for this, I have to say I don't remember enjoying the books much as a child and the movies (like the books) are really violent.  Dodger is working his way through DCF books...voraciously.

I've added some pics of how our fossils turned out as well as our trip to the capital.  We made a couple of fun stops while we were in Montpeculiar, picking out yarn for Sailor's mittens...luminous green and red, at least they'll be easy to find even if they make me queasy!  And a visit to the NECI bakery which was especially fun since Dodger has now decided he'd like to be a pastry chef.  He's always loved baking and I am behind this decision all the way!  Last weekend he made us a chocolate caramel tart...sorry, no pics we ate it too fast.  I think he is newly inspired by the graphic novel we borrowed from the library called "Bake Sale" by Sarah Varon...Cupcake is now Dodger's hero.

Homemade fossils

Impressions in clay of found objects from our walk....

...painted in acrylic and then finished with sparkly Mod Podge.

Rocks...igneous? sedimentary? metamorphic?

The beautiful yarn was a gift from a friend who spins!

Rainy weekend...rainy week ahead.  I had an inkling that this may happen.  That is, we would plummet into the dark days of Fall and Winter and suddenly time would free up for lessons.  Now I'm wishing I hadn't stressed myself out by starting schooling when it was in the 80's!

Brothers...makes me smile.

Outside is a wet shiny world of yellows and greens and the flaming leaf tips are beginning.  It makes me think of Scotland or Appalachia.  There's a mist of clouds hanging over the mountains and the lake has turned to slate gray. Very beautiful.  We started the pellet stove for an hour on Sunday and I've knitted two and half pairs of mittens so far.  As Ned Stark (aka lovely Sean Bean) would say, "Winter is Coming" ;)

Grandma was here at the end of last week and she planned a field trip the Geology Museum at the local University.  It's basically one room with lots of rocks and reading which, to a school group, would probably be really dry.  But since we were able to hang out one-on-one with Dodger and Sailor it was more interesting than I could have imagined.  I felt that we absorbed a lot about the history of where we live and the kids maintained focus for a couple of hours in that small museum.  As we learn more and more about the Champlain Basin it seems important to add some hands on activities.

The kids have been working on timelines and the concept of scale with Grandma, creating their own time lines with photos.  And this has been a fun exercise beyond reading, writing and listening.  Over the past weekend we decided to stretch our legs and we went on a hunt for things in nature to bring home and make our own fossils out of.  As usual it was a challenge to motivate folks at first but by the end of the walk I was shivering and desperate for a cup of tea, whereas the kids had found "rock entertainment" they didn't want to leave.

Kitten was busy throwing rocks and collecting "puzzle rocks", basically ones that have broken into pieces and can be fitted back together.  Sailor found an old railroad tie and smashed rocks...testing Moh's hardness scale I guess!  Eventually he decided to bring home some shale to grind to powder and try to make ink.  And  Dodger made rock sculptures.

Choosing bumpy, textured leaves.

Smashing rocks!

Dodger's art with found objects ;)

Back home in the warm!

The clay was very stinky, despite being non-toxic!

After hot chocolate, pie and  healthy dose of LEGO play we made our fossils in clay...we'll see how they turn out once they are dry, I'm thinking possible Christmas ornaments.  They remind me of ornaments my stepmother made when I was a teenager...maybe that's where I got the idea!

I'm thinking about making homemade geodes next....and we'll be taking a field trip to the oldest coral reef in the world when Grandma comes back next time.  Luckily, it happens to be about 15 miles from here :)