One fall in Virginia

Though it still warmer than I think to expect for early October (75 during the day most days), the days are definitely growing shorter. I catch the sunrises in the mornings now:

Today our homeschool co-op had a wagon ride "wildlife scavenger hunt" field trip at nearby Caledon State Park which was a lot of fun and very informative. We found a lot of cool stuff on our sticker-guided punch list. Here are a few shots of our fun fall discovery day:

Civil War, Ancient Greece, and impetigo

We went to a civil war re-enactment to commemorate the 150th anniversary for the Battle of the Wilderness with some friends last Friday. It was fascinating. I'm a history major and all, but there's so much I forget (or didn't know)...

Snow (again) - and crazy Virginia

Wow, Virginia's a crazy place with snow. We had a bona fide storm last week from Wednesday night, 6 pm ish, till Thursday night. 4 inches, rain, then 3 more inches. Lost power Thursday night at 6:30; it came back on Friday morning at 6:30. HF cooked Indian naans over the propane stove when the power was out; see?

They were delicious.
[Kids were out of school Thurs and co-op was off for Fri. HF had no work Thurs but work Fri.]
Thankfully this time we did NOT flood our bathroom - or any other room in our house - like we did last time we lost power.

The snow was wet and heavy… decent for snowmen and snowballs, though less so for sledding. Some stuff we did:

Valentines Day was Friday; all our Valentine stuff of course got canceled (co-op party; Goose preschool party). We saved our crafted Valentines and just made some heart-shaped stuff at home.

Saturday things were back to normal and they thankfully did not  cancel Monkey's "Blue and Gold  Banquet" for scouts, a nice event with about 100 attendees and delicious tacos. He earned his bear badge, along with most of the rest of his troop.

Yesterday was Presidents Day so we were all off. Last night an inch of ice/slush fell and at 6 AM they instituted a 2-hr delay (which automatically means no preschool for Goose). Then at 8:30 they called off school all together which, I have to say, is pretty hard to believe given the weather we actually have. So. Here we are again...

Sneads Pumpkin Patch

This afternoon the older two kids had a field trip to the nearby Snead's Farm and Pumpkin Patch for some fall fun and pumpkin-picking. We jetted over right after our Friday morning homeschool co-op and met up with Miss Debbie, her other 10 students, and their parents (and siblings). It was a fun group and a beautiful spot. For the past four falls we have done our pumpkin-picking ventures at the Painted Pony Farm in Santa Paula, CA... and while we love that farm's owners and it's in a nice spot, there was also something sad about picking pumpkins off a dusty patch of dirt. It's just dry, dry, dry out there... And it always felt especially fake to us in the fall and winter. This made the visit to Snead's, which is truly a gorgeous spot, all the more enjoyable. It was a perfect, cool fall day and a lovely location.

First we did a hayride:

Then we did some awesome swinging in the bale-filled barn:

Finally we picked some pumpkins:

First week of "school"

This week the biggest two had their first week of "school" (for homeschoolers). This year we joined a local charter school that offers a homeschool hybrid program that offers weekly enrichment classes from 10 am - 3 pm every Tuesday and Thursday. Although the home portion of our school year began on Wed Aug 23, the in-school days began this past week. There are about 50 students, grades K through 8, divided up into four groups with 6 teachers present. Roo, grade K, is a "sea star" and Monkey, grade 1, is an "otter." We know about five other families fairly well who are also in the school which is great.

Roo was very apprehensive and cried her way through the first ten minutes, not wanting me to leave at drop-off. This was as expected; HF (whose disposition mirrors hers quite closely) had given her a pep talk about the likelihood of this response and how to handle it beforehand. She was thankfully very eager to return on Thursday, as we'd predicted, and did not want to go home when picked up. The monkey's main comment was that five hours was an awfully long time, and did it have to be so long? Perspective of a homeschooler...!

Subjects they cover during the day are science, gym, French, art, math games, outdoor ed, and early reading.

Here's a shot of our favorite 17-month old and her trusty companion, as if waiting by the gate for them to come home... (She's not actually waiting; I drive them - with her and the goose in tow. But cute photo nonetheless!)

Construction and "construction"

HF built four more bookshelves to house the array of unshelved books that became displaced when we created our new schoolroom in - a project that was long overdue. He chose a dark wood stain which we applied last weekend. We allowed the kids to be involved in the staining process... not a decision we are apt to repeat anytime soon. The stain got all over them - hands, arms, legs, faces (in Roo's case) - and was very stubborn in coming off. Eventually we landed on olive oil as an effective means to remove the stain, at least most of it, which got the bulk of it off after about 45 minutes. Then showers of course and a very late bedtime! The next day we made the staining an adults-only affair. The results came out very well, and we now have 2 bookcases in the school room (pictured), one in our bedroom, and one in my upstairs office. Happy, housed books and an even happier me.

This week we did our first week of "Five in a Row," a cool and low-key

program in which you read aloud the same high-quality children's literature book for five days in a row and focus on a different aspect every day. It's come pretty highly recommended and it sounded pretty fun to me, so we're trying it. The first book we did was Lentil by Robert McCloskey, and we all absolutely loved it. One day we discussed housing and architecture; another day taste buds and sourness (complete with lemon tasting);another day was America and patriotism; and today was our big finale: we "built" the small Ohio town in which Lentil's story takes place - including post-it notes marking every building mentioned - and reenacted the parade which comprises the book's final scenes. The kids were so into it - the monkey insisted on creating some 'confetti' to appropriately display the festivities - and I must say, so was I! A lot of fun.