Finishing up with Fall

We picked all our flowers to enjoy in case Sandy hit us hard!

 I feel at this time of year that I've trod on a "Slip'N'Slide" and it's one long slip into the next one.  The Fall and early winter are so packed with holidays and activities in the United States that it's hard to relax until you're up to your neck in January snow and winter has truly set in.

"Lela" Kitten's Araucana

On the everyday front we've been doing lots of learning through just simply living.  The kids have been recruited to stack wood, clean up the garden and yard and generally get ready for winter.  Our chickens, who are pushing 7 months, are still not laying well so we've decided to give them more love and attention (since they already have fresh water, organic feed, loads of delicious scraps, and a well insulted coop with a lake view-'cmon ladies!).  I was also motivated to clip their flight feathers to avoid escapees and needed partners in crime.

Sailor's art

Hold still!

We spent an afternoon catching, clipping, naming and photographing all the chickens.  Then the kids adopted some for their own and we've been working on watercolors of our chickens as a sort of reference. I've also added a light to the coop to give them at least 14 hours of daylight now that the days are darker.

Digging for treasured potatoes!

"Hermione" sans poop.

Child labor

More Sailor art

On the subject of animals it was our black cat's 13th birthday on Halloween this year and so he was treated like a king with candles in some (gross, wet) cat food-see the photo!  The kids were all agreed in being scary for Halloween which we wholeheartedly support, even Kitten decided to be a "dead" bridesmaid.  We live in a rural community so there's no real door-to-door candy collection, instead the town does "Trunk or Treat" and folks get themselves and their vehicles dressed up and hand out candy at the school parking lot...it's a fun time and there's a clear end which, as a parent, I appreciate.

Happy 13th birthday Mr. Black Kitty

On the official  home school front we have been working on our usual math and reading but we've been doing more writing which I am happy about since it's an area I think the kids need to practice often.  The kids wrote ghost stories and turned them into books with pictures and a front cover painted.  We also listened to Garrison Keeler's Halloween audio CD and took a spooky walking tour at a local town cemetery.  But by far the most successful creative writing exercise I've initiated so far was having the kids pick characters, locations, and "triggers" from a hat and then giving them a half hour to write a story.

Here's what I did...I took small pieces of paper and wrote names on them, all sorts of names like Mr. Fizzy, Drex and Geraldine and put them in a hat.  Then I wrote down locations, for example...the desert, a toy store, a field in winter, and put those in another hat.  And finally I wrote down "triggers" like, "Your main character can time travel", "Dinosaurs have returned", "Money grows on trees" and put these ideas in a hat.  I let the kids choose as many names as they liked and reminded them that the characters didn't have to be people.  Then they each chose one location and one trigger.  I set the timer and they wrote stories.

It may seem that I gave them too much to go on, but the purpose of the exercise (the intended purpose) was to show the kids they can do it.  They can churn out stories and not get hung up on the details such as a character's name.  Picking the ideas out of a hat was really fun and I will certainly use this game again.  The kids are very concerned about getting it "right" the first time and I want to shake that notion from them.  We proof read, we discuss what makes a good story and we talk about the process of flushing out ideas and trying things rather than expecting perfection.  However, I do want them to write with ease since it is an essential skill.  I feel if you can't write well (and quickly) then your learning is seriously impaired.  If you spend too much time in simply translating thoughts to paper you don't have time left to really explore the ideas in depth. 

I see snowy-rain coming as I write so I should go and gather the boys up...they've been outside by the fire playing a game where they are giants.  It sounds complicated.  I wanted to write about the experience of blending with the public school community now that we are home schooling...but I guess that'll have to wait til next time.  For the two of you (probably my parents :) who are reading the blog can you try to leave a comment?  I think there may be issues with this on the blog...though I have been able to leave a comment myself.

The LAST mow..in October