Lazy days of summer

So many things that need to be done and yet we need some lazy days.  Our summer has been full, especially for Christopher.  Here is a blog post he wrote about one day of his experience at Summit Student conferences.  This has been a great experience for him and one I'm glad he has had the opportunity to do.  If you are interested in learning more about the experience, the student posts are a great way to get a feel for what goes on there.

Its nice to have a week without much planned.  We can sleep in, read books, play legos or just relax.

I've been trying to do some planning for school.  I haven't made as much progress as I would like, but I still have another good week.

I've also been working on cleaning up and decluttering.  It also isn't going as quickly as I would like.  It never does.  I've finished the boys rooms including having them try on all of their fall/winter clothes so I could get things ready for the next consignment sale.

The other room on the list has been the playroom.  If you have been in this room, you know what a job that has been.  We are trying to sort through all of the playmobil and organize what they are playing with.  One of the neat benefits of getting this room more organized has been having Eliana play more with the kitchen.   She is really enjoying playing and pretending.  One day Joshua played kitchen with her and when he told me all of the things they had done, I was so impressed.  He was helping her to learn and work on new skills - just the way we need to play with her!  I love that he did that.

I've also been working (with others) on getting things ready for our homeschool group - setting up field trips, planning the mom's meetings and more.  It is looking like a fun year!

The other huge thing on my mind has been learning about Celiac disease.  I'll post more on that as we work through this process.  I'm reading some books and trying to cook foods that are safe for her.  There is a lot to learn and to think about.  I'm thankful for friends who are helping me navigate this new path.

So, back to the lazy days.  I want to figure out some fun things to do in this last week and half with all of my family home.  Any fun ideas?

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Boxcar Children #4

I'm going to play a little catch up on my blog.  First a little about what is current.  Christopher is home!  I love having my whole family under one roof.  For a little while anyway.  We don't have much planned for the next couple of weeks and that is a good thing.  We have lots of planning and preparing to do for the upcoming year.  Him for college and the rest of us for our upcoming school year.  Its a time of big transitions for all of us.  I would love prayers for all of us.  I'm excited for Christopher.  I also know that this will be hard on the rest of us to have him gone.  Its a new way in which I need to learn to trust God and grow.  

I wanted to share a bit about our co-op.  This was our last formal meeting, though I also have another activity day to post.  I hope this is encouraging for anyone wanting to do Beyond.  It is a great unit study to use!  If you have any questions about it - know I'm happy to answer them.  

A fun ending to a fun year with Volume 1.  We covered the last chapters in the book.  One of the lessons we covered was on marathons.  We asked Christopher to talk with the children about running a marathon.  He gave some interesting facts on the history of marathons and told some of his experience in preparing for and running a marathon!  I loved having him share and think that the kids did too.

After listening and learning it was time to put them into action.

We had them run a race.  We marked out a 1/2 mile course for them to run and told them that a marathon would be like running this more than 52 times!

On your mark ... get set ...

GO!

They all found their pace.  Some running solo and others with a friend.

Next we focused on the part of the story about the names of two of the characters.  We talked about the meaning and family history behind some names.  We asked each of the children to share a little bit about their names and any meaning behind them.

For a fun art project we did potato prints.

I helped with the cutting for the younger students.

It is always fun to see the variety and creativity that they display!

We ended our day with a campfire.  This was from an earlier lesson in the book, but we were rained out on that day.  It was a fun thing to save for the last day together though!  Christopher showed the others how to build and start a fire.

They stopped for a group photo before starting to cook.

First we roasted hot dogs.

And then marshmallows to go in s'mores!

Gooey and yummy!!!

This has been a really special year.  I'm so thankful for this group of friends with which to learn!  We have had fun, learned a lot and made many sweet memories.  Thank you friends!!!

Love
Leslie

Creation Museum

Today we headed to the Creation Museum.  I've heard so much about it and my children were really excited to see it as well.  We arrived at opening time and there were already a lot of people there.  We were greeted by a large dinosaur outside.  

 The staff at the museum were very helpful and the site is impressive.  This is a model of a dinosaur that was found while digging for a line or pipe.

 There were spots around the museum that were geared for younger children, but a lot of the material is suited for older kids/adults.  Not that the younger ones won't have fun!  There is so much to see and just soooo much information.  We ended up pairing up and working through the museum at different paces and that worked well for us.

 There were hands on exhibits and lots of interesting stories.

 Visually fun and interesting!

 We learned some interesting new things and we appreciated that it all came from a Christian worldview.

 The Garden of Eden.

 No fear of the dinosaurs.

We spent some time in the outside gardens.  It was a beautiful and warm day.  This bridge was a lot of fun - bouncy!

There was a petting zoo with some interesting animals like wallabies.

Eliana was attracted to the goats.  She has seen these before.

She was terrified of the Zorse and Zonkey.  Yes, I typed it correctly - it's a cross between a horse/zebra and a donkey/zebra.  I should have gotten a better shot of their bodies so you could see the stripes.

Alpaca.

Eliana having fun with her Daddy.

This bridge was great!  Very bouncy - especially when there are a few of you on it trying to bounce it.  We went over this a number of times.  :-)

We stayed until close to closing time.  It was a fabulous day and I would highly recommend a trip here.  (As well as to any of the other fun stops we made!)  Now it was time for a long drive home.  We stopped to pick up dinner after a couple of hours and then kept driving.  We arrived home very, very late - middle of the night.  It was good to be safely home.  

I'm thankful we were able to make this trip and we have a lot of fun memories from our time.  I'm ready to plan another long journey, but not sure when we'll be able to swing that again.  Its good to know that this works for our family.  I do love a good field trip and when you add in family and friends it just makes it all the more fun!

Blessings

Leslie

On to Springfield Illinois

As I mentioned in the last post, we headed out early.  We were expecting a 10 hour drive today and didn't want to get in too late.  As we were driving, we saw evidence of the flooding in this part of the country.  We drove over some heavily sandbagged roads.  (Not sure how those keep the water out, but they were working well.)  At one point, I saw a sign on a road parallel to the one we were on that said "Road closed".  Shortly after that, we saw a street sign sticking up about a foot out of the water.  It looked like a sign sticking out of a lake.  It was unbelievable.  A very real reminder to pray for the many that have been hurt by the flooding.

Here is how we made a long driving day work for us.  We stopped a few hours into the drive at a rest area.  This was a good place to stretch, go to the bathroom and get a snack.  A few hours later, we stopped at another rest area for lunch.  It was a beautiful day and a picnic outside was really nice!

While we were driving, I read aloud another book.  This one on Abraham Lincoln.  We also played some roadside Bingo and scavenger hunts.  I made up some cards and laminated them for the trip.  We used dry erase crayons on these!  They worked great though leaving in the car meant that they got softer than they should and we did have a couple of them break.

We arrived in Springfield in time for dinner.  I had found a Godfather's Pizza that served gluten free pizza!   I was really excited about this.  It was really nice too that it was just a few miles from our hotel!  We had a great dinner and then headed to the hotel for some rest.  We stayed again at the Hampton Inn Suites which is wonderful!

After breakfast the next morning, we headed to Lincoln's home.  Its a National Historic Site.  (I really love these places!)  We arrived in time to watch a movie in the Visitor Center (very well done) and get started on the Junior Ranger badges.

After the movie, it was our turn to tour Lincoln's Home.

We toured with another family with 6 kids.  :-)  Lincoln's name is on the door.

A ranger led us through the home and told us stories about the different rooms - things that happened there or stories about the family.  It was really very interesting.  This is part of the parlor.  I didn't take many pictures as it just wasn't easy to get in a good position for them.

This was Lincoln's desk in his bedroom.  Pretty wild to think of him sitting there.  Another thing I found interesting was the mirror above his washbasin - and how high it was.  Just evidence of it being used by a tall man. 

 Next we walked out to the street and saw a wagon that was used during his political campaign.  It was designed to look like a log cabin to reflect his roots.

 We listened to a costumed interpreter tell us about Lincoln's neighborhood.  He told us about various people that lived on the same street.  Stories about people are always fascinating.  We learned about people that differed with his ideas politically and others that agreed.  We saw where a stop on the Underground railroad was located too.

 A view of the street.

 Looking out from the porch of Lincoln's home.

 Our newest rangers being sworn in.  (I know its not a great picture, but its the best I have.)  This was the first site that actually did a swearing in for them.  

We had a picnic lunch on site and then headed out.  We had a much shorter drive today - just 5.5 hours.  I was excited because we planned to go through Parke County, Indiana - the Covered Bridge Capital of the World.

We saw our first bridge while still in Illinois and stopped to play a bit and look at the bridge.

 If you look really closely, you may be able to see what Daniel picked out at the gift shop.  Because its dark, its hard to see his new hat.

 Playing frisbee.

 A few more of the bridges that we saw.

We didn't drive out of our way to see many of them.  We'd all been in the car a long time and knew we still had quite a ways in front of us.  On to Kentucky.

Dinner and then hotel.  This time we stayed at Homewood Suites.  Really nice.  Great deal if you are going to the Creation Museum too!  More on the Creation Museum tomorrow.  We've been on the road now for 2 weeks.  Its hard to believe its almost over.  I'm thankful we have had this time!

Blessings
Leslie