On Labor Day Monday we took a field trip to the annual Sorghum Festival held at Homestead Heritage. We always have such a great time there.

We watched the process of making sorghum syrup.

Using horse power, the cane is crushed in the mill & the juice extracted & collected in stainless steel containers.

The juice is then cooked down in this large boiler. It has several stages from one end to the other. How it gets from the boiling stage to the syrup stage, I’m not sure, but we had samples of the syrup on our choice of either corn bread or gingerbread. I prefer it on the gingerbread. It’s pretty good, but a little stout.

We even got a chance to sample some of the cane itself. Just peel the outter husk, pop it in your mouth, chew it up to get the sweetness out, and spit out the cane. It’s very very sweet.

We watched a blacksmith at work.

In these pictures he’s making a fireplace poker.

We watched a lady combing wool to be spun into yarn and another lady spinning the wool into yarn.

Inside the fabric crafts building, we were able to watch several women weaving the yarn into fabrics & other crafts.

Then the kids were allowed to try their hand at weaving. Justin wasn’t interested. lol

There were lots of neat things going on at the wood craft building. The first thing we saw as we walked in was a man demonstrating what is called a strummer. It’s like a small guitar with only 3 strings. He said that no matter what strings you push or strum, you’ll always play in G. He said it’s a great beginner instrument before moving on to guitar. The kids got a chance to try it out.

Then we moved to the back of the room where another man was demonstrating different woodworking techniques. Of course, it was all by hand.

Somehow Jared hit it off with this guy because before we left there, he wrote Jared’s name on a piece of wood & planned it off, paper thin, for Jared to take home with him.
While we were watching the man above, Justin made a friend who decided to show him how to shave wood to made a spindle for a chair.

Of course the others had to have a turn as well when they saw what was going on. lol

Next was the Potter’s House where we watched a lady throwing clay & making bowls.

Our last stop was the gift shop, but I didn’t buy anything this year. By that time, I was tired, starting to feel bad, and ready to go home. lol The boys got mad at me because I didn’t get them any ice cream, but since they didn’t eat their lunch (except Jack) I didn’t feel bad about it. lol

We’ve decided to ditch our history program because it was just a bit too dark for the boys’ ages. There was too much talk about death & torture…EEK! So now we’re doing History Pockets by Evan-Moor. Right now we’re working on Ancient Civilizations as a review of last year, and then we’ll move on to a Middle Ages Lapbook by Hands of a Child. So far, the boys seem to be enjoying it.

In science, we’ve finally gotten to do a couple of experiments. Here the boys are putting some specimens (germs found around the house) in a petri dish to grow bacteria & fungi.

We also did one where we used cotton swabs & smeared germs from our mouths in a petri dish to see who has the germiest mouth. lol
Here are just a few random pictures of the boys in action with their school work.

Jack working on his timeline for his history pocket.

Jared & Justin hard at work.

Jack watching his math video.

Jared working on his math. He’s doing rounding to the tens.

First, here’s Jack’s:

His schedule grid.

His boxes.

As he completes something in one of the boxes, he takes the number off the front & places it on the grid. The grid also includes 2 short breaks after completing a couple of boxes.

On top of his boxes he has a folder for putting his completed papers in.

Box 1: a math-u-see worksheet

Box 2: a food pyramid file folder game

Box 3: his language arts worksheet & his book "Mr. Popper's Penguins" to read.This one also has a "work with mom" card under the book.

Box 4: Typing Instructor computer game & headphones

Box 5: his spelling page along with a note telling him to do both sides.

Box 6: a set of 4 magnetic board games and a "work with mom" card so he knows that we'll play it together.

His handwriting book & a pencil on top of his table where he works.

And now, Jared’s:

schedule grid

completed work folder on top of boxes

Box 1: spelling page with "work with mom" card

Box 2: Jumpstart computer game with headphones

Box 3: language arts pages, reader, scissors, & "work with mom" card

Box 4: a math file folder game (greater than/less than)

Box 5: math-u-see worksheet & "work with mom" card

Box 6: puzzle pieces (the puzzle board is on top of his boxes…it doesn't fit inside.)

his handwriting book, glasses, & a pencil on top of the table where he works.

And last, Justin’s:

schedule grid

his completed work folder on top of his boxes

Box 1: language arts activity & book, double stick tape, popsicle sticks, and a "work with mom" card.

I just realized I need to add scissors to that box as well. lol

Box 2: puzzle pieces (again, the puzzle board didn't fit)

Box 3: Jumpstart computer game & headphones

Box 4: math-u-see worksheet & a few blocks

Box 5: sight words file folder game

Box 6: several small containers of play dough

His handwriting book, glasses, & a pencil on top of the table where he works.

We had a pretty good school day today. We finished up Vol. 1 of The Mystery of History. It was an amazing lesson on the death & resurrection of our Lord & Saviour! There were several times during the reading that I had to stop & fight back the lumps in my throat. The boys really got alot out of the lesson today, too. There was quite a bit of discussion during the reading, so we took a little longer on history than usual, but it was sooo worth the extra time!
After our history lesson, we decided to go ahead & do science since the projects we worked on would have to sit for a while & do their own thing. Let me explain…
We set up 2 different weather stations that we’ll be observing over time. The first is a temperature watch. We stuck a thermometer on the side of the house and we’ll record the temp at a specific time each day to figure out what our average temp is. As you can tell in the picture below, it was fairly nice & cool this morning!

The boys hanging the thermomter

62 degrees at 9am!

No wonder I’ve been freezing in the a/c this morning! lol

The second weather station we set up is a water cycle. We have a specially made container for this that has 2 sections in the bottom half (an inner ring & outer ring) and a lid that comes to a point in the center. The object is to put water in the outer ring in the bottom half (leaving the inner ring dry).

Replace the lid…

And wait for the results. What’s supposed to happen is the sun will heat up the water in the outer ring causing it to evaporate. The water vapor will then collect on the top of the lid. As it condenses & turns back into water, the droplets will run down the grooves on the lid & drip into the inner ring.

Ok, now for some randomness from the rest of the morning. Here’s a picture of Justin doing some art with the letter “J.” He made the letter in glue & sprinkled colored sand over it. We also wrote out several other words around it that begin with letter “J.”

the finished product…a tie-dye J.

Jared working on his math.

Jack working on language arts.

Jack's

Jared's

Justin's

And before lunch too!! Woo hoo!! I’m so glad we did better on our time today. A couple pics from today:

Justin doing some patterning.

Jack helping Jared with his spelling.

We started the morning off with some chocolate chip waffles & whipped cream. Mmmm!!!

Kind of reminds me of a fly face. lol Here the boys are enjoying their breakfast.

After breakfast we went through our chores & got the house all cleaned up before starting school. Once the house was situated, it was time to hit the books. We started with history & handwriting. While I read the history lesson aloud to them, they worked on their handwriting. It works out very well this way because it gives their busy little hands something to do & keeps their busy little minds focused. After history, we broke up into the individual lessons. While I worked on math with Justin, Jack & Jared sat in the living room doing their reading.

Those are the only pictures I managed to get, but in science we began our study on weather. Each of the boys drew a picture of the earth rotating around the sun depicting the different seasons. I’ll try to get those scanned & uploaded when I get a chance. All in all we had a good 1st day of school. Our only problem came when I handed Jack his book (Farmer Boy) to read. He absolutely did NOT want to read that book! lol He’d much rather read about inventors, but since Farmer Boy is what his book study is on in LA, that’s what he has to read. lol Oh well, he’ll get over it. lol

School starts today! I’m just making my final tweaks to the plans I already made & hopefully we’ll have a great year!

I’m in the process of selling last year’s curricula along with some other books I had in my cabinet needing to find a new home. I started out with lots of books & most of them are claimed already! I already have everything we need for next school year & now I’m starting to make lesson plans. My goal is to be ready to start school again sometime in the first part of July. We’ll wait until after the 4th.

I’m done for now anyway. It’s not the way I want it yet. That’s gonna take some time. But for now, it’s clean & organized. I still have some piles that need to go away. lol I have a stack of books on one table to list for sale. Once they’re listed, they’ll go back in the cabinet. I have a stack of garage sale stuff that’s going away maybe next weekend when my sister & I have a garage sale. Then I have a stack of pictures/frames that need to be hung as soon as I get some more nails. Also my niece is going to help me decorate the room to reflect our history focus for the upcoming year (early renaissance). So when I get all that done, I’ll be happy. But for now, I’m content to have the clutter better organzied.

Here’s the room before:

And after:

The cabinet before:

And after:

Now I can’t wait to redecorate! lol

Thinking about getting started on making sure everything is set for next school year. I’m pretty sure I’ve ordered & recieved all the books we’ll need. Now I just gotta make sure I know what we’re doing in everything. lol The FIRST thing I need to do is get this school room straightened up & re-organized. YIKES! What a job that’s going to be! Not looking forward to it. lol