Christmas Bunny

Uncle Josh

Elliot was chillin' and watching the football game with Uncle Josh. The two of them are great buds. Elliot lights up when Joshua comes into the room.

Christmas Dance

We meet monthly to learn dances from the late 1800's. Amazingly the children love it. We have all learned many things about that time in history.

There is a summer ball in July and the children are working on their period dress. It should be lots of fun. Here we are at the Christmas dance practice.

Johanna enjoying the Duck Soup Dance

Joshua with family friend

Josiah with Jessica M doing the Twelve Days of Christmas dance.

Progressive Dinner

Our 4-H club did something different for the month of November. We met as families and had a Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner...with Mexican food. The children were also encouraged to dress up with a Thanksgiving/Historical theme. Though a bit unorthodox.....we all had lots of fun.

Our little turkey!

The contestants parading the room as the fathers judge their costumes in 4 different catagories.

The 3 Muskateers!

Cowboys and Indians

The whole gang!

New Furry Babies

New Holland Lops--Snickers & Hershey

















Hershey meeting our collie puppy Keeley. They are now friends and love to play.

The new Mini Rex-Peanut Butter.

Weekend in Pictures Nov 4th

The weather was perfect! We headed out to the park to enjoy our family. Hamburgers and the fixings. Yummy desserts. Mmmmm! We played in the park...slides and swings. A bit of volleyball and then divided into teams....Kickball! My team won. :)

Here we are sitting and watching the sun go down. We have so many blessings to count!

God is good.

Unit Celebration Unit 1

We are currently using Tapestry of Grace Curriculum. We just completed Unit 1 of Year 3. We work during the week on our assignments as a family. We read books set in the time period we are studying. We also watch videos, make maps, write reports to help each of the children to understand that time period more clearly.

On Friday we meet with another family who is also using TOG. Michele and I coordinate our schedules so that we when coop on Friday we can have some larger group activities to complete each week's study. The children also discuss the literature selections for the week.

(Two visitors from South America shared about the plants and animals found in their country. They also told us of the important man Simon Bolivar was in South America's history.)

This unit we studied American History from George Washington to James Monroe. We also took a short sojourn to South America where we learned about their culture, the land and the historical happenings during this time period. We have learned a lot!

At the completion of Unit I we wanted to show the Dads all that we have been doing so we had a Unit Celebration. We spent our Friday afternoon preparing foods from South America. We have friends who have lived in South America and they were so kind to share recipes with us.

That night the families gathered and we ate our authentic South American dinner. We all agreed we enjoyed the foods from South America much more than we had enjoyed the foods from Iraq's unit study!

(Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha, joined us and told of her father's important role in writing the Declaration of Independence. She also told how he had the vision to expand America and how our country grew through the Louisiana Purchase.)

After dinner, the children all disappeared to dress for the evening. We were treated to a panoramic display of Unit 1. We had all sorts of visitors who gave all of us insights into the late 1700's.

Dolly Madison also came to visit us. She told about her exciting life as First Lady and how she helped to save important paintings in the White House when the British desired to destroy it during the War of 1812. She told us how her husband was a shy man but a very wise man and how he helped to forge many of America's foundations.




We were treated to a very good explanation about the branches of our Federal Government. We learned how each branch has its own responsibility and how when each branch operates as it should, it provides a system of checks and balances that are to protect our freedoms.





The evening not only provided a wealth of information but it also gave the children an opportunity to speak in front of others. They each had to prepare their own presentation but were encouraged to use their imaginations. There were displays, speeches, reports and reenactments. The night was a huge success!

Our coop group:

Front Row: James Monroe, Uncle Sam, Martha Washington and John Adams.

Second Row: Meriwether Lewis, Juan from South America, Martha Jefferson, Dolly Madison

Back Row: Rosa from South America, an American narrator and William Lewis and Sacagewea.

Grandson!

Now this picture says it all!

County Fair Weekend

Our 4-H group created and entered a display for our county's Scare Crow Display contest. I was so very proud of them! Didn't they do a great job!

They won first and had the honor of having their display on the 4-H float in the Centennial Parade.