weekly wrap up 11/18/16 -- Kids Election

Not sure how but I appear to be about a week behind on my posts, lol.  Last week our coop participated in the school kids election!

The coop invited any homeschool family whether they attended coop or not to vote!

A sample ballot-- the kids fill in the star beneath the candidates names.  In addition to the Presidency they voted on a few local elections.

MarioFan casting his ballot

The ballot box-- so who was the winner --- according to the counters of the ballot for our local coop TRUMP won but for the national student election CLINTON won.

I will just say I am so glad this election is OVER and it will be a rough four years for us all--for which ever candidate you voted for!  I hope next election the two parties can come up with better options then the two this year ugh!!!

We have wrapped up our studies on the Great depression and Dust bowl and now moving on to WWII.  I have a ton of resources that I am weeding though to determine what I will use and what I want the kids to read.  I have so many books it will be so hard to chose!  Last time we studied WWII we concentrated on the European campaign and only lightly touched on the shameful holocaust due to my children ages back then.  This time we will be doing a lot more on the holocaust and discussing the Pacific campaign along with reviewing the European campaign.  I am expecting us to take several months on this topic since there is so much to cover.

MarioFan Has finally completed his unit study on the Periodic table for science after spending nearly 20 weeks working on a Minecraft class on this topic and building a periodic table lap book.  Our next science unit study will be on simple machines, talking about levers, pulleys, inclines.  I will be mainly pulling from the following book and the k'nex kit I bought.   My friend from England sent me her notes on the unit she just completed with her students and I will be using that as well:)

Next week is Thanksgiving so I am taking a week off blogging to spend time with my family here at home.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and see you all in a week.  Thanks so much for following and commenting on my little blog:)!

weekly wrap up 11/18/16 Federal Reserve and more flight activities

We had a tour with our Homeschool group to visit the Federal Reserve museum in the city.  Since we are studying the depression era in history we thought it would be a great experience and it was!

The great seal of the state of finances was stamped on the outside of the building.

A cube of 1 million 1$ bills, actually it is hollow inside as a million dollars weighs over a ton and the floor of the building couldn't support that weight according to the guard:)

Once we arrived we watched a short film on how the federal reserve got its start back in 1913 but didn't really tighten up on regulations until the 1930's

This is the original bank tellers window that were used in this building until the 1990's

Learning exactly what the Federal Reserve responsibilities are

There was lots of hands on activities explaining how the economy works

MarioFan found out exactly what he needs to do for his chosen career:)

Learning how long $ is in circulation before being destroyed 

Watching a video on workers sorting old money 

That is a whole lot of money to be holding:)

Understanding how our currency is marked to protect it from Fraud.

All the kids loved playing the buy and sell game.  Mario did better than me and made tons of money!  hope his luck continues into his adult life;)

For book club this week the boys read about Amelia Earhart and we did a few activities.

The boys played a game on flight learning about Drag, weight, thrust, and lift.

We got out all the paper airplane we built (five different types)

and took turns launching them

and measuring the distance they flew

Next the boys wrote down the measurements and graphed the results and then noted which airplane was the best and which was the worst.

There was a clear winner the classic dart:)  

measurements aren't exactly accurate as some planes flew further than our measuring tape went so we did estimate a bit:)
The boys had a lot of fun with this activity.

We also mapped out Amelia Earhart's last flight but somehow I forgot to take pictures of that:(

Firedrake is loving learning the Japanese language and is coming along very nicely.    She meet with a tutor once a week and studies very hard!!!

That is our week in a nutshell, always busy.  The kids in our coop are voting this week for the Presidential elections and the results will be next week.  I for one will be very glad when this election season is over!

weekly wrap up 11/11/16--Making a rag rug and Deutsch Days

Halloween has passed but I didn't get around to posting the kids costumes this year.  So here you go!

MarioFan wanted to go as a WWII soldier (since we are beginning to study WWII) A friend  let us borrow their great grandfather's WWII jacket.  We even found some old dog tags to add to the costume.  He looks so grown up 

We have told Firedrake this is her last year for Trick or treating and she choose a vampire type costume and while not pictured we even had some fake blood to add to face, she was quite pleased with herself.

Kids got to work on carving a pumpkin, usually this is my husband's job but with his bad shoulder my daughter  took over and she did an amazing job.  

our lighted pumpkin on display.

I was  going through the kids closets and sorting what fit and what didn't fit for this winter.  I sorted the clothes into sell, donation and trash pile based on the condition of the clothes.

I ended up with a pile of T-shirts that were in fairly good condition but not good enough to donate or sell.  I suddenly got to wondering what could I do with all these t-shirts.  

 After a quick google search I found a few interesting T-shirt crafts and making a rag rug stood out to me.  You can find many you tube videos on this process.

I dragged out the kids old hula hoop and got to work

It was a very easy process and sort of fun to do.

My finished rug.  Now I have to find a place to put it.  I even have enough material to make another rug should I feel inclined one day.  Or maybe I will try another T-shirt craft.

This past weekend MarioFan and I went to Deutsch days to learn about the German pioneers who lived in this area.  This was to go along with our Farmer boy book that we read a couple of weeks ago.   We spent over 5 hours there and still didn't see everything.  They only hold this event once a year but it is definitely worth going to if you are in the area.  So much to see!!

MarioFan and I met up with a friend for this field trip leaving Firedrake and my husband at home to catch up on some HS school work.  This community is based on the mid 1800 to early 1900's

Early washing machine

seeing how sausage is made

Watching a horse work the mill

Then the kids had a try.  They were crushing sorghum cane

watching the liquid being removed from the cane after crushing

sorghum was used in this area as sugar cane and maple syrup was hard to come by

Then we tasted it--tasted like molasses to me:)

Watched how an old saw mill worked which looked incredibly dangerous to me and LOUD

Scrimshaw craft, which the old sailors would have done on whale teeth, bones or Ivory.  First a designed was scratched into the bone

ink was added to the grooves  and quickly wiped away 

It was neat to see this completed

Watching the tine peddler at work.

Seeing his many tool that crimp the tin into shapes for making lids or ...

bottoms of the pans.

I didn't know goats were used to pull small carts around the farm or carry a small person to town or school.  Goats we were told are very strong and can carry about 2 to 2 and a half times there weight

Watching bobbin lace making another fascinating process

some of the ladies threw the bobbins around so fast I couldn't tell what they were doing.

Watching rope being made...over the years we have seen so many interesting ways people have made rope:)

soap being made

black smith

candle making

basketing weaving

seeing how early machines stripped corn from the cob.  So easy to lose a finger on one of these machines.

Sawing wood using a two handed saw!

Further up we went to see how the trappers and indians would have lived in this area

learned how to trap skunks :)  something I hope I never have to do.

Pine needle baskets made by the indians

longest snake skin (rattler) I have seen tack to the trappers house:)

a typical trapper house, although I think this one lived quite well compared to most:)

We learned so much and saw so much at this re enactment camp.  We were tired after 5 hours and we hadn't made it to the Indians site.  Definitely a reason to go back and visit again next year!!!