We just finished up fall term in our homeschool co-op where I taught a class about ancient Egypt.  I had an absolute blast and I’m pretty sure the kids did too. 

The Queen of Egypt showed up on the first day of class and taught every lesson.  She brought a kid size sarcophagus with her.

On the day we learned about mummies, the kiddos mummified one of their stuffed animals.

They also got to mummify each other.  Then they were laid to rest in the sarcophagus.

This is Levi doing the mummifying.

Each child could write to the Queen of Egypt in Hieroglyphics to earn a treat.  I had several that took the challenge, but one actually sent me a letter in the mail and it said, “Dear Queen of Egypt, What are you going to give me?”.  Well, that little stinker got a letter back (in hieroglyphics, of course) that said, “You’ll have to wait and see.” 

The kids made Egyptian murals to document their learning.

We made pyramids out of sugar cubes. 

I let Liberty make one at home and after a few hours I could already see erosion happening…..

We call this “Saliva Erosion” for those who want the technical term.

I love our co-op!  And I love teaching.  So glad I get the opportunity.  One of the moms in our co-op even blogged about me on her blog!
http://www.mentorofleaders.com/ancient-egypt-comes-to-life/

Next term we’ll be learning about Ancient Greece.  I’m still trying to decide who I’ll be.  Helen of Troy or Venus?  Or maybe Athena!  

I know it’s almost Thanksgiving, but it’s never too late to see cute little kiddos dressed up in their Halloween costumes, right???

First up is Ariel.

Then a Clone Trooper- I mean a Shock Trooper.

Then the Pirate

This costume was born on Talk Like  Pirate Day at Krispy Kreme.  It got us a dozen doughnuts for free so he figured it might work with candy too.

Reagan was a Ranger from the book series Ranger’s Apprentice.  His costume has quite the back story.  About five days before Halloween he tells me that he wants to dress up to hand out candy at the door (because I won’t let them trick or treat after 12).  I said ok, but you are paying for the costume yourself.  The day before Halloween he tells me, “Mom, I HAVE to go today to get the stuff for my costume.”  Well, “today” was not possible and since he lucked out and Halloween was on a Saturday this year he had all day to get what he needed.  He led me to believe he only needed a few things so on Halloween I took the boy shopping.  On the way to Goodwill I found out that the “few things” on his list were really about twenty things.   He also informed me that he needed to make a cloak.  With a hood.  “No sweat, Mom, I can totally make it myself in less than four hours even though I don’t know how to use a sewing machine, have no fabric or pattern and don’t know the first thing about making clothing.”  He also informed me that he was planning to climb on the roof and drop the candy down from the roof into the trick or treater’s bags.  You can imagine how that idea went over.  And you can imagine his reaction to my reaction to that idea. 

After three two hours of searching he still had not gotten all the pieces.  Though I will say his boots were a real find.  Perfect, in fact.  He finally managed to get some fabric and brought it home 1.5 hours before it was time for trick or treating and begged me to help him.  We did our best, but the hood was beyond our skill and time constraints.  He was disappointed, but such is life when you spring something like that on mom at the last minute.  Ironically enough, I spent more time getting the non-trick or treater in my house ready than the three who actually went door knocking.  Next year guess who’s going to say no unless it’s at least two weeks ahead of time.  He did end up taking his siblings around the neighborhood, though, so his costume did get some mileage.  And, he fulfilled his Aunt Alli’s dying wish.  Here is her email response at seeing him dressed as a Ranger:

“Oh my gosh! This is the proudest moment of my aunt hood.  Did Reagan really decide to be a ranger, with a cloak and everything?  Did he wear an oak leaf?  My life has met its meaning, my nephew read a series I have been dying to have him read for ages and he loves the books so much he dresses up as a character for Halloween.  Seriously it just can’t get any greater then this, I should die now. “

With our Wesel cousins, Hewey, Dewey and Lewey. 

Good times!

Yes, I know it’s almost Thanksgiving, but it’s never too late to see cute little kiddos and their pumpkins from Halloween, right?

Cade’s plan, drawn free hand.

Two things: 1. I’d smile like that too if I didn’t have to clean out the goopy gunk in the pumpkin.  2. Yup, pretty much nothin on top of  Rock’s head.  Sometimes I’m glad I’m short.   

Can you say, “Hallmark Card”?

We love Fall and the beautiful leaves afire in our back yard. 

The kids start raking them up as soon as the first few fall even if there are only five on the ground!  So once we finally have enough to jump in, mom has to get involved, which I did last week.

Love the airborne shots

Love fall!  Love this face!

That date is significant for most people over 35 because it was the date that Marty McFly/Michael J. Fox went to the “future” in Back to the Future II.  In honor of Reagan’s 13th birthday which happens to be on that same day, we watched the first two movies in the series with the older boys.  We stayed up ON A SCHOOL NIGHT and watched both movies back to back. 

The boys loved them and I was reminded of three things;  1. How good the first movie really is 2. The days when Michael J. Fox was my teenage heartthrob, and 3.  Just how old that makes me.  But really, the fact that I now officially have a teenager is better proof of my age.

Reagan has made some friends at school, so we had them over for a party a few days later.  It made my heart so happy to hear him downstairs laughing and goofing off with friends again.  It has taken a long time for him to find his place here, but I think he’s finally getting there.

Reagan continues to love his new school.  He is really thriving.  They are much more hands on at this school and so he is really enjoying it.  Here is a project he did for his social studies class:

Rather than making them write a paper about the person they were studying, his teacher let them get creative.  Reagan made this rhino out of legos as part of his presentation on the first zooligist.

I went to his parent-teacher conferences last week and was thrilled to hear all of his teachers rave about him.  He’s a good student and a leader in his classes.  The teachers all love his insatiable curiosity.  They told me that he thinks on a higher plane than his peers.  He thinks deeply about things and pushes himself to do better.  His writing teacher said while she is trying to get the other kids to even use commas, Reagan is asking how to improve his sentence structure, word choice and really improve his craft.  I was a bit nervous about sending him to school full time and this school in particular, but listening to those teachers tell me about the one on one experiences they are having with my son as they work to help him learn at his level showed me that we made the right choice.  This is a good fit for him and our family and I’m so glad! 

Keep up the good work, Bud!  We love you.

Time for the annual pumpkin patch post.  We have found a great farm with lots of free things for the kids to do, lots of beautiful pumpkins to pick and the yummiest fresh doughnuts and hot chocolate.  Our tradition just got better!

The Corn Box

The Toys

Hay bail slide (Levi and Cade)

The Pumpkin Patch

Since this boy turned 13 the day before this I thought it would be good to do a little compare and contrast…..

Extreme cuteness age 2 or 3

Five year olds are just hams.  At least mine are.

Levi spent the entire time running around like an antelope all over the pumpkin patch.  He rarely stopped long enough for me to get a picture.

 
Hayride back.  I think Libby looks like my cousin Emily at the same age in this picture-anyone else agree? 

Time to take em home!  She wanted a ride in the pink wheel barrow.

The next day we did our 2nd  favorite October tradition with Alli!

Stay tuned for Reagan’s birthday, leaf jumping and Halloween!

Liberty and Levi and I had our first free week the end of September.  That’s when we put “book” learning aside  and explore the outdoors or bake or whatever they want to do.  I let them choose what we do that week.  This time we went to the zoo, went fishing, read Harry Potter for2 hours straight one day, watched the red moon one night… you get the idea.

The Zoo:

Levi’s favorite animal is still the fox.

This guy actually roared!  I’ve never heard one roar in person.  It was pretty cool! 

One of my biggest pet peeves is when zoos or other places like it make you walk through the gift store to get in or out of the zoo.  Our zoo just made a new gift shop and I now have to walk my kids through the valley of the shadow of want just to get out of the zoo.  Liberty made a bee line for the big pink wall.  In my opinion, the only good thing about this new exit to the zoo is this hilarious picture.

We also visited the beautiful rose garden by the zoo and I got this awesome picture. 

Roses are one of those creations that prove to me there is a God.  They are so intricate and perfect. 

Fishing Trip:

Levi has been begging to do this for weeks.  He fished for about 1/2 an hour before his hook got stuck in a tree across the river and had to be broken off just to save the pole. 
Fishing Rule Number 1: Don’t be over zealous in your casting. Fishing Rule Number 2: Always bring extra hooks in case you break rule number 1.  

Stopped at the Library on the way home…

The Red Moon:

Yeah, that’s how pathetic my camera is.  Sigh. 

We also decorated for Halloween; put the bat cave back up.

Levi’s friends said we had “the coolest house ever!”

We had a new patio put in this summer!  It took forever and I am convinced all contractors are difficult to work with, but it is done and here are the results.

Before:

I didn’t get a good picture before they started hacking into it, but if you look to the right of the door up against the house you can kind of see how the patio was cracking and flipping up into the siding.  The whole patio was cracking and sinking towards the house.  We didn’t want water in the basement so we HAD to get a new basement. 

The boys thought the demolition was awesome….

Even the neighbors wanted to watch men using sledgehammers. 

Pouring day.  They showed up at 5:30 in the morning so the heat wouldn’t dry it too fast.  The neighbors weren’t happy.
Sorry for the bad pictures quality.

The lower section will have comfy furniture on it next year when we can afford it.  And a fire pit too!  

Right about the time this was finished, the flies got bad, so we are looking forward to next year when we can use it the whole summer!

This month in the Hymas Household….

Reagan started cross country.  This is his first race.

He watched The Hunt For Red October a couple weeks ago and became fascinated with submarines.  After studying them online he built this amazing recreation of the Red October.

Cade  joined the math club, chess club and dodge ball tournament at school.  He also earned his Arrow of Light Award and has graduated from Cub Scouts.  Woohoo!  Two down, one to go!

Unfortunately I will not get to enjoy my three month hiatus before Levi turns 8 because I was just called as a Wolf Den Leader in Cub Scouts.  I’m trying to be happy about it.  Really, I am.
Cade gets to go on his first campout this weekend.  I don’t think the rest of us will survive his anticipation.  For any of you who know Cade and his hounding skills you will understand what I mean.

In school Liberty and Levi wrote their spelling words in pudding,

they recreated the Nile River to see how it floods to help crops to grow,

and Liberty is counting everything she can find.  She’s learning to skip count by 2’s and she counted all these bears.  I can’t remember how many there were, you’ll have to ask her.

Also this month, our little Kindergartner received her 5 year old shots.  The shots themselves were no problem, she didn’t even blink.  The blue, not pink or pretty in any way, hospital gown, however, was a real problem.

Levi and Liberty also went to their first Options Day, which is their one day a week school day.
 

As you can tell they were super excited.  Liberty is taking Cooking, Art, Music and Movement and PE.  Levi, who walked into school and was immediately  surrounded by tons of his friends, is taking Science, Spanish, Lego learning and PE.  And mom gets a 4 hour break!  This week I went shopping for clothes and I couldn’t shake the feeling I had to be somewhere or that there was some kind of deadline I was missing.  I totally felt like I was playing hooky.  So this is how the other half lives???

Rock celebrated his birthday yesterday and even though this boy is hard to buy for (he only ever asks for ties), I managed to find the perfect gift this year!  Thanks to everyone who pitched in to get him new headphones.  He was given a fancy pair of Bose by his company several years ago and when they broke this year he was very sad.  This reaction is about as much excitement as you can get out of Rock.

And lastly, this afternoon we had a miracle at our house.  All four of the kids played Four Square in the back yard happily and nicely with NO FIGHTING for over two hours.  It was so surprising and amazing I had to take a picture.  (After I picked my jaw up off the floor.)  Today I am grateful for tender mercies.

No, this is not going to be a big rant against the federal education department and the changes I would like to see in it, though I do have lots of those.  This post is about the big changes this year for our family in our own education department. 

Reagan was diagnosed with mild Asperger’s syndrome and ADHD last year and his doctors and I agreed it was time to send him to school full time where he could get the most practice in social situations as possible.  So, he is now going to a local charter school that is a much better fit for his needs than homeschooling or even the regular middle school.  He has been to school for a week now and loves it.  His first day at the school he bonded with another kid over, not sports teams, not music, but the dosage of ADHD medication they are both on.  Weird but true and believe it or not, we are thrilled.

We decided Cade needed some extra practice in the social department as well and needed a good challenge so he is now in the gifted program at the local middle school.  He also had a great first week and can’t wait to go back each day.  His favorite teacher so far is the one that had them throw spit balls at a map and then map the coordinates of their spit ball.  Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

I will admit that I was very nervous the first day of school.  More nervous than they were, though I didn’t let on.  I wanted to be able to homeschool all my kids, but have always been open to doing whatever is best for each kid.  Right now I think this is what these boys need and I was so relieved to know they made it through their first day in new schools with smiles on their faces. 

Levi and Liberty will be homeschooling with me this year.  I am excited to spend so much time focusing on just these two little ones who get the least of my attention most of the time.  They are such good buddies and excited to learn so I think we’ll have a fantastic year.  This week I started Harry Potter with Levi.  He has been dying to read it but I wouldn’t let him because I wanted to read it to him and with him.  He was really mad at me for a while, but when I explained that this was something special that mom wanted to do with just him he accepted it.  And it was so worth the wait.  His eyes lit up at the idea of chocolate frogs and magic wands and his giggles over the crazy wizard world have been priceless.  I would not give this opportunity away for all the free time in the world.  To me there is nothing more magical than snuggling together in my bed reading Harry Potter.

Liberty can’t wait to continue learning to read and write some more.  She has been begging me all summer and I’ve put her off long enough.  It’s time to start!

The two littles and I went on a picnic on Friday to the river.  In the past this activity would have ended in fighting between the kids and eventually yelling from me.  One time I marched them all back to the car  before they could even GET to the river because they were fighting.  But Friday was perfect.  We watched a hawk swoop down and catch a fish with it’s talons, Levi found a crayfish and they had a blast climbing all over the rocks. 

Here’s to a new adventure in education this year!  Wish us luck!