Sunday, December 7, 2014

Ice Skating


This year we wanted to do an "experience" gift for the family.  We decided the Wintergarden's Christmas Traditions around the world and Gingerbread Display (FREE) and then ice-skating in the plaza would be the perfect "experience" this year.  

We started the day with the Wintergarden's Gingerbread house display and competition.  Schools and orginzations from all over the area submit their gingerbread houses and they are judged and put on display for the Christmas season. 

 Here are a few of our favorites: 







Ryan and Dylan thought this was pretty neat.  Hopefully they got lots of good ideas for the gingerbread house they will be making with Grandma this year! 

I was extremely proud of Dylan's self control.  He did not try to dive through the rope and devour the gingerbread houses!

 Then we looked at the display featuring Christmas traditions from around the world.  It started with Santa Claus in American and covered, St. Nicholas from Germany, traditions from Haiti and the Ukraine, La Befana from Italy, Grandfather Frost from Russia, and Papai Noel from Portugal (not to mention a few others). 

Then we took a break for lunch with some hot delicious fries and juicy burgers at 5 Guys before hitting the plaza's ice skating rink.   


My husband decided not to skate since we had brought our nice camera, so it was up to me to take the kids around the rink, which was no small feat!  I started out with Ryan and we wobbled quite a bit that first lap.  I haven't ice skated since college, so I was pretty rusty.   Here we are concentrating and being wall-dwellers.


 Then it was Dylan's turn.  It was a painfully slow lap, but thankfully I was a little steadier the second time around and did not have to rely on the wall as much.   
 Then, I bravely took both of them for the rest of the laps.  Ryan fell several times but each time he got back up and tried again.  Each lap he got steadier and by nightfall, he was out in the middle of the rink and leaving Dylan and I in the dust.

 As for Dylan, he was pretty proud of himself.  He did his best to take me down a few times, but I managed to stay on my feet.  He kept saying things like, "Wow mom! I'm so good at skating!" after nearly taking me down. Good thing he's so humble.  

Ryan absolutely loved ice skating.  
 We had to get off for a few minutes so they could re-surface the ice, and Ryan really enjoyed watching the machine do it's job.  He was begging to keep skating but unfortunately we had a few city blocks to walk back to the car. 
 Maybe if he's really lucky, we'll get him some lessons for his birthday...but I would say our family "experience" gift was quite the hit! 

Sunday, November 16, 2014

3D Cell Model Science Lesson


One fine school day, the science lesson suggested (but did not require) making a three dimensional model of an animal or plant cell.  I browsed online quickly and decided a cake would be closest to my comfort zone for making edible models.  When my husband descended for lunch and I casually mentioned we would be making a cell model out of cake, he instantly decided I was going to mess it up and do it wrong.  Besides, he was a scientist and had spent the better part of five years taking detailed pictures of cells, so who better than him?  I decided I could not doubly crush him: first by doing it imperfectly and secondly robbing him of educational quality time with the kids.  
And so.....behold.....the animal cell.....


I had suggested little labels so we knew what everything was, but Mr. Scientist told me that was unnecessary since HE knew them all and had "imparted all (his) wisdom to his offspring."

The Infamous Art Presentation


I love our homeschool co-op.  Ryan does too.   Every so often, the kids have to give an oral presentation to the class.  Last month, the topic was art and each child was to pick an artist to present on.  Ryan does not exactly know many artists at 5 years of age, so I suggested the first one that came to my mind: Vincent Van Gogh.....because of his beautiful swirly "Stary Night" painting.  In some cobwebby recess of my brain I slightly remembered he had a hard life.....but I had forgotten many things about Mr. Van Gogh. Things that quickly returned when we sat down with our stack of library books detailing the many troubles Van Gogh encountered.  Things like mental illness, depression, cutting off his ear, living with a prostitute and rumors of suicide.  Oy vey! 
We stumbled through those books as I attempted to soften the message.  I would get halfway through a sentence and then realize I could not read that to my five year old
  I paraphrased and omitted things.   I tried to focus on reading about his young life when he had ambitions to become a pastor and help people and the inspirational quotes Van Gogh penned to his brother.

Then we sat down to make Ryan's poster presentation.  He carefully wrote out his four sentences.  "Vincent Van Gogh was an artist.  He wanted to be a pastor when he was young.  He was kind to those in need.  He had a hard life."  We practiced what he would say over and over.  We practiced talking about the names of his paintings and the vocabulary that went with them.  We talked about where he was born and some of the inspirational quotes.  Then we talked about how to play I-spy with the class with the painting of Van Gogh's bedroom (Who can find the chair? Who can find the bed? etc).
On the morning of the presentation day, we went over it one more time.  He had it down perfectly. 


He patiently waited his turn while all his friends gave excellent presentations on their chosen artist.  Then he proudly and exictedly began his presentation.  "Vincent Van Gogh was an artist.  He lived with a woman and her kid and then he left them.  He cut off his own ear.  Then he shot himself to death.  Who wants to play I-spy?"
The words just poured out.  So fast.  I was in shock.  My mouth opened to stop him but nothing came out because my mouth was stuck open.  My eyes panned the room to see every other living soul in that room was also doing their best imitation of a codfish.  Eyes bugging out, jaws on the floor.  This day will live in infamy as the day we brought the concept of self mutilation and suicide to our wholesome Christian homeschool group.  

Bathroom Re-do

When we first bought our house five years ago, I knew that someday I would want to re-do the "powder room" bathroom.  I was not crazy about the previous owners sponged on fish or the 70's style blue toilet, but it seemed to go together and appeared to have been newly painted at the time we moved in, so we left it. Recently,  it felt like no matter how I tried to clean the bathroom--scrubbing walls, the floor, the mirror...etc....it just seemed...dingy and dirty.  And I was sick of the blue trim and the blue toilet.  So, I asked my sweet husband if my Christmas present could be re-doing the bathroom.  
We tried to keep it low budget.  I was going for a light soothing gray....since the bathroom is a confined space and windlowless, I wanted to keep it light.  Well....the gray I picked turned out a bit darker than I expected and at first I was really worried and Josh thought he might have to kick me off the team...But once we painted the trim a bright white and put a white toilet in, it really started to grow on me. 

 One of the things I love the best about the re-do (besides the sparkly white toilet) is the white flooring.  Before the flooring was a grayish blue and the white tile really helps brighten everything up and gives a striking contrast to the darker walls. 



I found some small "apothecary" type jars at the dollar store ($2.00) to put cotton balls and q-tips in.  Maybe over the next few months I can add some pops of color, hopefully red or yellow accents to help set everything off.  For now, I'm very happy with the outcome! 
 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Fun in the Leaves

If you live somewhere where the trees just dump their leaves all over-- piles and piles and piles of leaves-- you might as well take advantage of it!











Olliver Miller Homestead Adventure

This year we discovered the Oliver Miller Homestead.  The homestead is an old stone farmhouse originally built by the Miller family way back when Pennsylvania was largely nothing but wilderness.  The sons of Oliver Miller served in the Revolutionary War, the frontier Militia and were also involved in the Whiskey Rebellion.  This place is just full of history.  On this very property which we visited today the first shots of the whiskey rebellion were fired.  On this very land we stood today many years ago, was a dispute between the states of Pennsylvania and Virginia, both of which claimed the land as theirs.  If you are interested in learning more about the Miller family, you can visit the website: http://olivermiller.org/history/

Periodically throughout the year, historical festivals are held here and re-enactments are held and all sorts of glimpses into the past are presented.  We went to the Children's Harvest Festival.  It was a blast. 


 The Blacksmith: We visited the blacksmith and learned about the smithy work done on a homestead.  Here homesteaders made nails, horseshoes and tools.  We learned that wrought iron was very rare to work with at this time costing by todays standards $33.00 a pound.


The Tinsmith:  We learned about the role of a tinsmith (or just working with tin).  Beautifully tin-punched lanterns were definitely needed during the time period on ships and in barns and houses since electricity had not yet been discovered.  The kids were able to pick a piece of tin with a pre-made design and then punch it with a hammarlike tool (a piece of wood with a nail driven through it).



 Making Rope:  We learned how homesteaders twisted rope, by taking thinner threads, putting them on this thing-a-ma-jigger and turning the crank to make something much stronger and more durable for various uses (like handles for buckets).


 In the Barn:  We learned that...guess what? The homesteaders did not use nails to build this barn.  That would have been very costly.  Instead they used square wooden pegs in round holes.
 Sack Races:  While homesteading children had a lot of work to do they also got to play from time to time at get-togethers and barn raisings.  I'm not entirely sure when sack races were invented, but they had those here and it was a lot of fun.

 Giant Leaf Piles:  Kids really don't change that much throughout the decades. I guess all kids are drawn to a giant pile of leaves.

 Bobbing for Apples:  Again, I'm not sure exactly when apple bobbing was invented and I'm pretty sure I could google it, but they had apple bobbing at the Homestead today and it sure was a nostalgic nod to the past.


 The Springhouse:  We got to take a peek in the springhouse and see how this system of refrigeration worked since refrigerators had not yet been invented.  Ryan was pretty surprised and impressed by this concept I think.
 Period Clothing:  The boys thought they were above dressing in period clothing (breeches, stockings, cloaks,etc), although that was an option.  Instead they settled for wearing the tri-corner hats.
 Corn Bracelets:  One of the activities today was making a corn kernal bracelet. Dried corn kernals had been softened in water and then on a needle and sturdy thread the kid made corn bracelets.  It was explained to us that when the corn hardened again it would be very sturdy.

 Corn Cob Toss:  Kids had to get creative with what they had on the homestead and there was an abundance of corn.  So, one of the games we played was tossing a corn cob into a bucket.
 Corn-Meal:  Ryan learned how to make corn meal out of a small hollowed out tree log and pestle.  By the end of our activities we had done so much with our arms....those homesteaders must have been very strong!

 Quill Pens:  Ryan was able to experience writing with a quill pen and walnut ink.  There are many recipes for walnut ink floating around on the internet we were told today just in case we wanted to make our own.
 Shelling Corn:  Shelling corn by hand.  It was explained that the older and drier the corn, the stronger the whiskey.  Although, they used dried corn for many other purposes as well.
WhirliGigs:  Homestead children did not have much in the way of play-things.  They had to get creative.  One of the toys they played with was "whirligigs" decorated wheels of wood on strings.  The object was to get it to spin.  This was Ryan's favorite take-home craft by far. 
Church Babies: Way back in ye olden days, church was long and boring and kids had to sit very quietly.  The mothers would make their daughters little dolls out of scraps of cloth and when the dolls were dropped  by accident, they did not make any noise and the preacher did not get upset.  We got to make a very basic "church baby" doll by tying a knot in two sides of a square piece of cloth and wraping it around a cotton ball with a bit of string.  Ryan was not a huge and Dylan did not make one at all.  But I have no doubt we can find a cute cousin or Aunt to give this to around the holidays. 

This was a great family activity and oh, so educational.  Just in time for our next unit: The Colonial Days.  I am considering today a pre-field trip.