Saint Canoes

I taught my first saint class of the year last week, and our saint, St. Isaac Jogues, spent a lot of time traveling via birchbark canoe, so I decided to do an easy canoe craft.  First, I cut pieces of felt:

Basically, one sheet of felt can make 2 canoes.  By folding before cutting, the sides will match up, but the bottom will be connected.

Then I let the kids have their choice of embroidery floss to sew up the sides.  This caused all kind of joy.  You would not believe how excited the kids were to pick whatever colors they wanted from my floss box, which admittedly has a ton of colors (probably around 80 or so).  None of the kids was familiar with sewing, but they all caught on very quickly, since this was a very straightforward project.

Gyunay sewed his by himself, which surprised me.  I thought I'd have to hold it for him, but he is always so capable.

The boats are upside-down in this photo, but you get the idea.  I told the kids they could decorate their canoes with markers if they wanted, but so far, my boys have left theirs plain.  I originally thought we could make some peg people to go inside, but I was out of pegs, and so was Walmart.  Since I only had this idea the day before class, I didn't have time to run to Louisville to Michael's or anything, so we just didn't make people.  I think we may do that next class.

 

Back to School

 It's back to school time, so the big boys are all back at college, Lydia is at the high school, and the younger boys are into homeschooling for grades 5 & 6.  We had a field trip to meet an author at the library:

The kids really enjoyed that.  Author Brittany Thurman really did a nice presentation in addition to reading the book, and she took time to talk with all of the kids.   And of course I bought a book, which they were excited to see the author sign to both of them.  

Also, I broke out the soap and pocket knives for them to try whittling:

Emry has been wanting to try whittling for a while, and so I finally let them have at it.  Neither of them made anything particularly recognizable, but they had a lot of fun and were very proud to be allowed to use knives.

I've also been busy with more canning.  I used up the rest of the peaches on another batch of peach salsa, and I canned a double batch of tomatillo salsa.  I grew the tomatillos, so that was particularly rewarding.  I've not had a ton of produce from the gardens; between the deer attacks and the weather, it's been rough.  But I am getting cucumbers now pretty regularly.  I fermented some into dill pickles, which are delicious.  Also in fermenting, I made some sauerkraut.  I keep planning on making a batch of fermented salsa and fermented hot peppers, but I haven't actually done those yet.

peach salsa

Holes and Such

 Lydia got two more sets of earrings on Sunday.

Her ears are bruised and sore now, but she's happy to have them pierced.

The poultry enjoyed some watermelon rinds.

These two guys have been adjusting quite well to homeschool.  They keep me on my toes, and we have our challenges, but they are both learning.  On this day, they were working on school while I was harvesting seeds from dried radish pods:

Outside, my flowers are starting to really bloom:

And our baby chicks are still so cute.  Unfortunately, one of the lavender ones died yesterday, so we are down to four chicks.  As Malachi would say, "Big sad."

Here are about half of the pink oyster mushrooms I grew from a kit Malachi gave me.

They were very yummy.  

Lastly, here's another baby Emry picture, because he's just too cute.

Last Day of Summer Break

 Yesterday was the last day of summer break around here.  The orchard near us was advertising seconds peaches for $20/half bushel, so I loaded the youngest boys up and went to the farm.  

The farm has added several things to the play area.  Still, Gyunay mostly wanted to swing:

Emry enjoyed trying everything.

Both boys did the human hamster wheels.  Those are always a favorite.

We were there, of course, to buy peaches.  I asked for three of the half-bushels.

A half-bushel of peaches is about 25 pounds, but these seemed much heavier, so we weighed one.  It was 37 lbs!  So we got even more peaches than planned.  I already canned 14 quarts of honey peaches last night and aim to can more later today.  Today, of course, is primarily known as the first day of school.  Here is Lydia this morning just before she ran to catch the bus for her first day of high school:

She looks slightly bemused.  It is her first venture back into public schools since third grade.  Emry, on the other hand, is starting his first day of homeschool.  Gyunay, of course, is just starting a new homeschool year.  We do still have all of the big boys at home, but Malachi and Pilot leave next Thursday for college.  Things are changing around here!

Field Trip

 First, here's a group shot of those of us who made it to the wedding:

Now, onto the field trip.  I haven't been able to take the kids many places this fall, which is a shame, because it's been particularly beautiful lately.  I can't manage the zoo yet, and to be honest, I haven't even managed a Walmart trip since July.  I'm just too easily tired.  However, our homeschool group planned a field trip to Salato Wild Life Center for this week, and I thought I could manage that.

Emry got to join us, since it was during his fall break.

Most of the time, this was my view, since the turtle tank was across from my bench:

But I did go out and walk some of the exhibits.  We took a friend and met several families there, so the kids had lots of people to stick with.

Gyunay was particularly interested in the turkey:

It does look a lot like Harry, albeit not as big.

So we made a successful field trip.  We learned about quail and saw bison.  We also had a picnic lunch accompanied by the inquisitive goose you saw at the top of the post.  And then I came home and watched Halloween Wars on the couch.  

Also, I had my filter removed Wednesday, so one less doctor to revisit now!

Turkey Gender Reveal and Hands-on History

 We have spent weeks trying to figure out for sure what gender our turkey is, so when we eventually determined that he's a boy, Lydia decided that it was time for a gender reveal cake:

Also last week, we had a hands-on history day with our homeschool group.  We taught the kids how to wash clothes, grind corn, and play with hoops. It was a hit, especially the corn grinding.

I have tons of corn leftover, so Gyunay and Emry enjoyed grinding some more here:

Moving On...

 

There have been plenty of "moves" here this week.  First up, this hen became a mama:

At least 2 chicks have hatched, and she's still sitting on eggs, so there may be more coming.

The ducks moved into their new area.  They are getting used to it.

These two enjoyed their last day of school with a special lunch out:

This little turtle has been making regular appearances in our front yard:

And the chicks keep growing.  We harvested 5 meat birds so far.  Only 18 more of those to go!

And here is a closer look at a turkey poult:

I'm really enjoying the turkeys.  They are inquisitive and friendly.  The ducks don't like me.  They are very apprehensive, and they don't much like us around despite me visiting them, giving them treats, etc at least 3 times a day.  The chicks and the turkeys are always glad to see me, though.

Bubbles

 We've had a productive time during quarantine, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well homeschooling three kids went, since I usually only homeschool two.  So today, to celebrate getting out of quarantine and to use the science kit Gyunay got for Christmas, we had a bubble afternoon.

I broke out the bubble maker.  It was quite cold, so we didn't last too long, but they had a good half-hour trying to catch bubbles on cotton-gloved hands.  And the boys also spent some time blowing bubbles.

The rabbit ran around the deck, totally ignoring the kids also running around the deck.  

The boys have been enjoying drawing monkeys.  They have a 5 Little Monkeys storybook collection that they can read themselves.  In the back is a little drawing tutorial on how to draw a monkey face, so both boys have drawn a lot of monkeys lately.  Emry drew 8 little monkeys, for the eight of us:

Multiplication Joy!

 

Before Christmas, I felt that Gyunay had finally mastered addition and subtraction, so I told him that after the break, he could start to learn multiplication.  We started yesterday, and the sheer joy he has over learning multiplication is amazing!  I told Nathaniel last night, "I've never seen anyone so excited to learn math."  Lydia corrected me, "I've never seen anyone so excited to learn ANYTHING!"  

It's true, and not only is he enjoying it, he's getting it!  I am so happy that we went with the Math-U-See program, because it is really working for my boy.  Right now, he is making his own multiplication worksheets for fun.  If you know me, you understand that I never use the words "math worksheets" and "fun" in the same discussion, but I am staying enthusiastic for my boy, because his incredible joy is so amazing and contagious.

And here are a couple of cute photos of our gingerbread adventure yesterday.  A homeschooling friend invited our Mass and breakfast club crew to her lovely house for gingerbread decorating.  

There were 19 kids and a few moms there, though, and it got pretty loud, so after he was done decorating, Gyunay spent some time playing with my goddaughter, Stella.  

Normally, he runs around with her big brothers, but I think he really enjoyed playing with her.  This picture probably gives a better feel for some of the happy chaos:

It was a lot of fun, and I think all of the kids really enjoyed themselves.  We had ages 2-14 present, and we moms even managed to chat for a bit while the kids ran around after the decorating.  Our poor hostess probably spent the rest of the day wiping icing from every discernable surface of the room, but she seemed fine with the mess, so I hope she enjoyed herself as much as we did.

Paper Marbling

 

A long time ago, I tried paper marbling, and I really enjoyed it.  I made a lot of pages, and I used them in scrapbooking and for stationary.  After a while, though, I put aside that craft.  

A few weeks ago, we were able to watch an historic paper marbler on zoom.  Historic New Harmony couldn't have their regular heritage artisan days, so they offered zoom lessons to schools and homeschools.  Naturally, I signed up, and Lydia and Gyunay and I enjoyed watching the paper marbler, potter, and blacksmith.  All three gave very thorough explanations of their crafts, and it inspired me to go down the rabbit hole of historic paper marbling.

Naturally, I went online and spent hours.  I bought books and supplies.  I do intend on paper marbling the same way they did in the 1800s (and earlier), and I have most of the supplies for that now, including things like ox gall and carageenan.  (Or in other words, bile from a cow's liver, and moss from Ireland.)  But for starters, I bought a kids' modern marbling kit, and I let the kids have a fun art class.

Lydia really enjoyed it, and she patiently cleaned the size after each use.  She tried out some of the traditional marbling techniques, too.

We had a good time.  We saved a couple of sheets for Emry to try when he got off the bus, too.

Overall, it was a huge success, and I am itching to try the historic methods.  That will take quite a bit more trial and error, but I think it will be most rewarding.