November 2017 Homeschool Happenings

November was a weird month for homeschooling. We ended October with news Jeff’s aunt had died, and then about halfway through we found out the funeral was the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we suddenly were trying to figure out a surprise trip North, but I get ahead of myself.

November week 1

The first week of November was a week of friends over, game playing (Mincecraft card game, which my boys suckered me into a round by saying, “It’s like the Coffee game” you like when I was way short on time), and a trip to the Renaissance Festival. The kids all decided to wear their Hogwarts robes there, but we ended up with the hottest day ever and it was in the high 80s. Another bit of fun was the drawstring on my hoopskirt broke just as I put it on, so I had a fun day of figuring out how to keep it snugged up under the “corset” (since I’ve been reading more about historical clothing, I’m getting more particular about correct terms, but in modern usage, it really is a corset.

In actual school work, we’ve taken a break from anatomy because the kids weren’t really retaining much, and instead worked on physics. Our first chapter was all about the first law of motion. Then we read a fun picture book about a scientist.

 

November week 2

This was a busy week of field trips and some fun hands on lessons. We reached the point in our history book all about the Texas Revolution, and so of course we had to head down to the Bob Bullock Museum and check that out.

After the Bob Bullock we walked down to the Susanna Dickinson house. She is one of the few survivors of the Alamo massacre, and was let go by Santa Anna to tell the rest all about what happened there. Of course the news had the opposite effect of what he wanted, but that’s another story.

For a #texasrevolution activity I told the kids they had five minutes to pack everything they want to take with them. It’s been lots of running around. #handsonhistory

A post shared by Ticia (@ticiam) on Nov 8, 2017 at 11:29am PST

We also had a brief simulation of the Runaway Scrape. That’s where the Texans basically abandoned their homes ahead of Santa Anna. The kids thought it was both very fun, and immmensely frustrating at the same time.

Princess helped with a Veteran’s Day ceremony with AHG, and then on Veteran’s Day itself we helped at a resting home, where we both got to hold a baby kangaroo.

In a strangely sad note our church had their last Sunday in the YMCA. We have been meeting there since Princess was a baby, and on our last day I took pictures of all the rooms I’ve taught a Sunday School class in.  As you can see most of them are not the most ideal of circumstances to teach in. Sadly we missed the first week in our new building because we were driving up to Iowa to see Tara and for the funeral.

 

Week 3

I started the kids working on a research paper on people in the Texas Revolution, which of course meant we had lots of work right before we left town. Then I had some other brilliant ideas:

We had our Doctor Dolittle movie night……..

We’ve started making our #Christmas celebrations early and our making our #homemade wrapping paper. #ihsnet

A post shared by Ticia (@ticiam) on Nov 13, 2017 at 11:34am PST

Then I set the kids to making our traditional homemade wrapping paper. This meant paint all over the floor. This was all a build up to something my kids swore up and down I had promised they would do someday.

Shaving cream ice skating. #funschooling #whydidisayyes

A post shared by Ticia (@ticiam) on Nov 14, 2017 at 10:49am PST

Skating on shaving cream. We completely cleared the kitchen area, swept it 100%, and then I gave them each a can of shaving cream and let them have at it.  By the end, they were all covered in shaving cream, the floor was a huge mess covered in soap, and so I got a giant bucket of water and shooed them outside to rinse off while I started mopping.  By the end my floor was squeaky clean.

This was perfect because we had our family birthday party for Princess who got a giant psychadelic rainbow pegasus sleeping bag. It’s really bright.

 

Week 4

We drove up to Iowa for Thanksgiving.  Princess got her second birthday celebration on her actual birthday, and it was pretty amazing to see.

It was a short week of playing games, making large amounts of food, and lots of talking, oh and walking dogs.

Then we drove over to Wisconsin for a funeral. We drove by Jeff’s childhood home and got to hear grand stories of massive amounts of snow. Only the entire time we were in Wisconsin there wasn’t a bit of snow. It actually got warm enough my giant thick winter coat was too warm, but not warm enough I couldn’t wear it. Sigh.

Our drive home was complicated by a flat tire at the Wisconsin/Michigan state line. This was one of those strange God stories because the tire was fine when we stopped to take my picture, and then when we got ready to drive it was destroyed. We found a tire repair place that was open on Sunday just a few miles from us, and when we got there, the guy said, “You got the last tire I have in this size,” and he got us out and back on the road in less than an hour.

It was amazing!

To add to the miracle, we got home and a day later our car broke down again (it is almost 13 years old and has gone coast to coast and tip to tip several times). So we are looking for a new

But, it was great to make it home to Texas, and back to our wonderful beds.