Soon this will all be but a happy memory.

"Soon this will all be but a happy memory."

These were my parting words as I left small group on Monday night. I then got choked up and left. Caleb asked me if it was legal to drive and cry. I told him I hope so because I've done it many times.

Our time in Fort Worth is coming to a close. It's hard to believe 4 years of residency are almost over. I know most of my residency wife friends are so glad it is almost over and that their husbands will soon have a more normal, hopefully better schedule.

Change-hater over here isn't as excited. I've gotten used to the "not normal" of residency. If you don't like one month it's ok. It's only a month. Unless you have back to back MCH rotations and even then it's not that bad, at least for me with almost grown humans to interact with at home. [Re-reading that, I wonder, actually, maybe I do like change as long as it doesn't involve saying goodbye and purging and packing.]

Of course, change-hater over here is also signing herself up for a life of almost constant change. A life of packing and purging every 1-3 years. A life of near constant hellos and goodbyes. It is a part of this journey we're on, until we get to go Home.

"Soon this will all be but a happy memory."

I cried as I said those words but later they made me smile. I am so grateful for the memories that I have had the privilege of having in this stage of my life. How much richer my life is because of the happy memories.

I was worried about coming to JPS because the impression that I had gotten was that it was not family friendly and the schedule would be unbearable to those at home. That has not been the case for me. God allowed Glenn to match with some incredible people some of whom we've had the privilege of living life and meeting with on a weekly basis for Bible study, encouragement and accountability. I am so grateful for these friends and the others I have been able to get to know through JPS. The schedule hasn't been that bad either. Again, it may help that I have pretty independent, almost grown humans living with me not small needy ones. Surprise, surprise, God knew what He was doing. Happy memories.

Another group of happy memories I'm mourning is the loss of our school family. At the end of PGY2 I was about to pull my hair out and quit homeschooling but God told me not to give up and pointed me towards Arlington Liber Academy, a school that meets once a week that has helped me grow as a mom and teacher and helped my kids grow as students and humans. The lessons we have learned there and the friends and mentors we have had have been priceless to us. Again, surprise, surprise, God knew what He was doing. Happy memories.

In choosing a house to live in for residency our priority was a less than five minute commute to the hospital. A friend had recommended that I look for a place near a church to get involved in. That was not a priority for me but that is exactly what God gave us. We live across the street from our church which has been SO convenient and, though it is far from perfect (probably because it is made up of humans and our family would have ruined it if it was perfect), it has been a great place for us to serve and build relationships. Many adults from there have loved, spoken truth to, prayed for, and invested in our family and for that I am very grateful. Surprise, surprise. Again, God knew what He was doing. More happy memories.

"Soon this will all be but a happy memory."

Yes, yes, it will. I now say that with a smile. I am so thankful for the memories. How grateful I am for our 4 years here. Thanks, God.

Should the Lord tarry, I am sure that there are many times in the future when I will "get" to say,
"Soon this will all be but a happy memory." I'm looking forward to and excited about the chance to keep making happy and not so happy memories and trusting the Lord that He will carry us through both.

What's Working Wednesday: HabitRPG (Guest Post)

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Today I have a special guest writer, my son, to tell you about a website that my kids have been having fun with and has been a motivating factor in helping them get things done called HabitRPG. It is a website but there are also apps on Android and IOS which aren't as user friendly as the website yet (they're working on it). I haven't used it as much as the kids have so I'm grateful he accepted my request to write this post. With no further ado, my guest writer.

So today I am going to blog about a new website that my Mom found for me called HabitRPG.

HabitRPG is a habit tracking website that as they say it “Your Life The Role Playing Game.” There are   three different  types of tasks. The first type of tasks are Habits which you can do as much as you want and get lots of gold from them. The second type of tasks are dailies. As the name suggests these are things you do everyday as part of your routine. They can also be only on certain days (e.g. you only have school on Monday to Friday so you just highlight those days and not the weekends) Finally the third and last type of tasks are to-dos. To-dos are a one time basis thing for stuff like go grocery shopping not something you would do every day.

As you do tasks you level up and different things happen. At level 2 you can get armor with that gold that you saved up. Level 4 enables drops which “drop” eggs, hatching potions, and food. With eggs you can hatch them into pets with hatching potions. You can feed pets and they will grow up into mounts that you can ride. At level 10 you unlock classes from which you can pick either Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Healer which each give you special “powers”. Also if you are homeschooled then you can just put your children’s assignments in their HabitRPG if they need a little bit more motivation.  Well that has been a pretty long rundown of HabitRPG.

Now I am going to talk about some of the negative aspects of HabitRPG. As in most RPGs [Role Playing Games] HabitRPG has weapons and “magical” potions. There are also gems that cost money but are not needed. They cost $5 and they give you 20 gems and remove ads. On that subject, ads are only little white things with words and sometimes they don’t even show up depending on your internet so no inappropriate pictures. Also there are different types of pets you can get there are nine eggs and ten different hatching potions two of which are zombie and skeleton which some families don’t like. HabitRPG also has a social party that your child could join so I would just go over the rules and tell him/her to not go on that and set up a party for just your family (maybe your friends as well). It also requires an email to sign up for it like most websites. Finally always know your child’s password so you can see what they are up to.

  That is pretty much it. So if you are looking for a fun gamified way to keep up your resolutions or just your daily life and you don’t mind the problems then I would sincerely recommend this website.

 

Thanks, my boy, for writing a guest post for me. The kids have added various school assignments as well as chores and hygiene habits to their lists. It has been a good motivation for them this past week. There is a wiki if you want more info. I am trying to use it with them but I have found the Good Habits app much more simple and user friendly for non-gamer me.

What do you use to help you stay on track with your habits?

A New "Class" for our Homeschool

This week I "enrolled" my kids in a new "class" this fall. It is a bit of a combination Spanish immersion/ Hispanic culture/ PE/ nutrition/ people skills/ slave labor class. This year we are going to volunteer one morning a week (maybe more once we see if it will fit in our school schedule) at the food pantry that is run out of a church near us. On Thursday mornings they get in a big truck of food for the food pantry and they have volunteers come and help unload the truck and put the food where it needs to go for distribution on Fridays.

We went yesterday for the first time. I'm not sure that the kids really knew what they were getting themselves into. They are good at hauling boxes though and at some point in the day Caleb told me, "This is way easier than moving!" They have each mentioned achy parts of their bodies today though.

The volunteers are primarily Spanish speaking so that has caused me to start speaking Spanglish around the house remembering words and phrases that I learned back in high school. It has also motivated my kids to want to learn Spanish so we all set up accounts and have spent quite a bit of time on Duolingo today practicing some Spanish words that we can use next week.

I had been wanting to volunteer with the kids this year and I am excited to have this opportunity to serve walking distance from our home.

What's Working Wednesday: Helpful Math Websites

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

School started recently so I have school on my mind.  I wanted to share a couple of helpful websites that I use to supplement our normal math curriculum. My kids set a timer and work on these websites for 20 minutes everyday. I'm sure that I would have my kids use these sites even if I didn't homeschool.

1. Xtra Math
Xtra Math is a fun, free website to help your kids master their math facts. It's way better than flash cards! Signing your kids up is easy. There are even video tutorials if you need help. Some things I like about it:
* It's quick. After the quiz for the day and a couple of "race the teacher" sessions have been completed (less than 10 minutes) the page says, "You're Done!" and the only option is to click "Sign Out." I like the clear beginning and ending. We all know when they've completed all the practice they need for the day.
* The focus is mastery. Students aren't quizzed on their subtraction facts until they can answer all of their addition facts in less than 3 seconds. Once addition, then subtraction are mastered students move on to master multiplication, then division.
* Detailed Reports. It is easy, on the reports page, to see at a glance how your kids are doing and which math facts they are struggling with. Reports are emailed to the parent or teacher every Monday morning so you can see how they are doing even if you haven't been on the website that week to check it out. The reports may be a little confusing at first. Check the "Help" section to help you interpret them. You are also emailed a reminder email if your child has missed a few days - a helpful thing for me.

A sample report from the recesses of my email.

2. Khan Academy
If you haven't checked it out Khan Academy I highly recommend you do. It is an amazing website where you can "Learn almost anything for free"! We have been using it for over a year, mostly for math practice. Again the goal is mastery but you get to pick which areas you work on. I, personally, have really enjoyed this site because I have always loved math. I am working my way through the math practice sections myself and, in the process, am re-learning a lot of difficult math concepts I used to know and learning some things I never did learn. It is great because if there is a math concept that you don't understand there is a video to explain how to do it and step by step hints to help you along. The videos come in handy when I can't explain a math concept to my kids myself (I am sure it will be even more helpful in the future as their math gets tougher!)

I am a "Coach" for each of my kids on Khan Academy so I can see what math concepts they have been working on. The "Coach" section gives a good overview of how your students have been using their time and helps to see at a glance what concepts they need help with.There are many schools that are using Khan Academy in their classrooms. I haven't explored it too much but there are various Teacher Resources to help you implement it in your classroom.

We haven't watched many of them but there are a ton of videos on all kinds of subjects including: math, science, computer science, finance and economics, humanities, test prep, as well as various talks and interviews. If there is a subject that you want to learn more about this just might be the place start.

These two websites have been helpful to me. Do you have any other math websites you recommend for use with your kids?

"A Lesson on Frustration"

Today was our first official day of school. One of my students has been chomping at the bit for weeks and I've occasionally "let" that student do a little work ahead but everyone else started today.

This year we are using My Father's World Creation to the Greeks as our base. We are excited about it because we really liked MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures last year. There was lots of intro stuff to do today.

One thing that I am looking forward to this year is using God and the History of Art. Today we covered the introduction and got to do "Lesson #1 - A Lesson on Frustration." The lesson explained how becoming an artist takes a lot of practice and how artists are often frustrated with the work that they do, never thinking that it is good enough. The lesson explained that acknowledging that frustration is just a part of being an artist will help you "be able to relax and enjoy the learning process involved in drawing, coloring and painting." The assignment for today was to draw and color a butterfly using only our mouths like Joni Eareckson Tada. It was pretty challenging and sure did make us appreciate the fact that, for most of the rest of our lessons, we'll be able to use our hands that work much better than our mouths.

Several of my students chose to draw butterflies with their hands after finishing their mouth drawings.

Reading this lesson and doing this activity made me think about my own frustration with my various jobs. The lesson told of the frustrations of various artists and their displeasure in their own work, even though others would have looked on them as masterpieces. I need to be careful not to be too critical of my own work knowing that frustration is also a part of being a wife, mom, teacher, cook, friend, writer, etc. I need to not get overwhelmed with my own frustration at my imperfect work but relax and enjoy the learning process involved in growing in all the areas that I have been called to. Funny how God can speak to me even through my kids' art lesson :)

What's Working Wednesdays: Mathematics Enhancement Programme (FREE math curriculum!)

 What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Several years ago I was looking for free or cheap homeschool curriculum because we had no place in our budget to buy school materials. I came across oldfashionededucation.com and they recommended the Mathematics Enhancement Programme from Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching. I looked into it and discovered that they offered all the teachers manuals, practice books and other resources for free on their website in PDF form. I decided it was worth a shot and printed the first year out for my oldest.

I always tell people that we started using it because it is free and have continued using it because we love it. We really do enjoy MEP and I love how it approaches math (ex. basic algebra concepts are introduced in the first week of Y1 and they have really creative ways to introduce multiplication, negative numbers, etc).

Before starting using the program you may want to know a few of things:
1. It is based out of the UK so all measurement lessons are in metric (standard units of measurement will have to be taught with other materials or just in normal life with your kids since that is probably what you are used to anyway.). I love that it teaches in metric since metric is base 10 which makes math problems so much more simple!
2. Also, since it is based out of the UK, all money math problems are in pounds and pence. I usually just have my kids write dollar signs instead of a pound signs. One thing that gets a little confusing is that we don't have 2 cent coins here in the US so you get to be creative with a few lessons in early years. It's also brought up interesting conversations about money in other countries.
3. It is designed for a classroom so not all activities are easily converted to homeschool use where there is often a much smaller class size. You can skip those activities or just get creative. One way that I have gotten around it in early grades was to have the kids use their stuffed animals as classmates. This past year Caleb had to graph his classmates' birth months and I put out of request on facebook and instead of having just 4 students in his class he had about 150 ;)
4. There is a great yahoo group with other homeschoolers using the program. I would recommend joining it as these other homeschooling parents are a great resource when you have questions since this is probably not how you were taught math.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mep-homeschoolers/
5. You will not need much space to store it. (I did Saxon K for kindergarten for my kids and I think that it took more space to store that material, which I had to pull out all the time, than it takes to store the 6 years of math curriculum for MEP, of which I only need 4 of those 11 folders for my 4 students out at a time!)

6 years of Math curriculum in less than 12cm space!

We really love MEP and think that others will to so I want to do a little tutorial thing about how I set up MEP for my classroom.

1. Get folders with brads in the middle. These are so cheap this time of the year (a couple of the folders that we use we already had as you can see for Y4b). I bought them all in blue so blue = math in my house which makes Math folders easy to keep track of. You will need 2 of these per student, one for each semester. Here is all we need for math for this fall. As you can see it is very easily transportable.

Our Math Curriculum for the first half of the year!

 2. Print Lesson Plans.  The first couple of years we used MEP I printed these in duplex, two to a page (as you can see in Y2a's folder) but now I print them in duplex 4 to a page (as you can see in Y4b's folder). I duplex and do multiple sheets to a page to save paper, toner, and space. I hole punch them and put them in the brad section of the folder. (NOTE: a laser printer is a GREAT investment for a homeschooler). You can just look at these lesson plans on your computer if you'd prefer not to print them out. I like having paper in my hand though and a place to scribble down notes for this year and future years in the lesson plans though. I store these after one child is done with it until it is the next child's turn.

Lesson Plans 2 to a page

Lesson plans 4 to a page

3. Print Practice Book.   I print these in duplex as well but just one sheet to a page. I put these in the left hand pocket of the folder. Below are a couple of pages from Y2a's Practice Book.

3. Print an Answer Key. This is not absolutely necessary but has been helpful to me so someone else can grade the work. To make my key I printed the practice pages in duplex, 4 sheets to a page and then did the work myself. I could have gotten most of the answers by looking through the lesson plans but #1 I am a math geek and #2 I also wanted to see what the kids would be doing. Since I have been using MEP from the beginning and store the old sets I only have to do one set of answer keys a semester and I am about half way through Y6a already and school hasn't even started yet. I've been bringing it with me to work on in the car or while watching the kids during swim lessons. The kids think that it's fun catching my mistakes in the key as well. I store the key in the right hand pocket of the folder.

Key for Y2a

 4. Have fun exploring Math with your kids.

MEP Y4b ready to go for the year.

Most of my links here are to the primary curriculum materials. They also have materials for secondary math on the CIMT MEP website as well but I haven't used them yet so I am not sure if they are set up differently. There is a helpful scheme of work to help you see at a glance what will be covered throughout the year. I don't have the website memorized. To find it I always google "CIMT MEP" and it is the first link.

We really enjoy MEP and I hope you do too. If you have questions feel free to ask me or get on the MEP Homeschoolers Yahoo Group and ask there.

Hard Lessons

It's been a rough day at Maas Academy. One of my students in particular is having a difficult day and has been screaming at me, taking it out on siblings, and hurting that student's own body. My main thought this morning was, "I hope I don't die soon because Glenn will need to re-marry and I would hate to have any other woman ever treated the way that I have been treated today."

I have been praying a lot and trying to respond with grace and love and not react sinfully as I am sinned against but it has not been easy.

Which brings me to the other thought that I have been pondering today: "How do I make God feel? How often do I treat Him like I've been treated today? How does He respond?"

I fail, I am disappointed, I get frustrated, I want to give up often and, often, I get angry. I flail. I guess, to my sorrow, my beloved student in question has learned from my example.

Lord, do You often wonder about me, Your student:
- Why won't Sonja listen to me?
- I love her so much and just want to help her.
- I am trying to help her, why won't she accept My help?
- How can I passify her anger?
- How can I help her in a way that will be received?
- Why isn't she more teachable?
- Haven't we gone over this many, many times before?
- Will I ever get through to her?
- When will she ever learn from her mistakes?
- Should I just give up on her?
Dear Teacher, I am sorry for not always being a receptive student in the lessons that You have for me. Thank You, Lord, that You don't give up on me. Thank You for Your mercy and Your grace. Please give me wisdom. Help me to keep my eyes on You and learn from You and Your example how to teach these students that You have entrusted to me. I love You and I long to represent You well in our home.

Fort Stanwix Homeschool Day

Before we left Syracuse there was an announcement on a couple of local homeschooling yahoo groups about a homeschool day at Fort Stanwix in Rome, NY. I mapped it and discovered it would have been about an hour from Syracuse (where we were living at the time) and about an hour from Lowville (where we would be living when the event happened) so I registered and pestered Glenn that I needed to have the van on the 25th.


We drove down for the event and ran into some homeschooling friends from Syracuse as well as a family that we have met since moving to Lowville. It was a fun day. At each area of the Fort there were stations set up for the kids to learn or do something related to what was going on at the Fort back around the time of the American Revolution. We got to trade our beaver pelts for supplies to last through the winter, built our own fort out of food to defend ourselves, practice using muskets, learn about  living at the fort and some of the chores that would have been required of us, see medical instruments and hear about medical practices, hear music from the time period and play with time period toys. We also got to try our hands are archeology because, until the mid 1970s when the fort was rebuilt, the place where the fort currently stands (which is where it stood back in the second half of the 1700s) was covered with buildings and parking lots. The only original thing in the whole fort is one fire place hearth that was uncovered. They will be having more archeological digs this summer that we'd like to go and check out.

I would highly recommend a visit to Fort Stanwix if you've never been. We are looking forward to taking Glenn down there one day this summer so we can explore some more!

Archeologists in training

Look what I found! (Uncle Doug would be proud!)

The girls made this fort out of graham crackers, pretzels and frosting (the cannon out of a tootsie roll and mini oreos can't be seen)

Musketry training

trying out the yoke in "Family Life"

tricorn hats

Lydia dressed up to go get water for the family

Fun at the parade ground

Model of Fort Stanwix

Cute kids after a fun day!

Exploring Art and Literacy

Our paintings :)

One area that my Maas Academy is weak in is art. I was excited a couple of months ago when I got the Lowville Library's monthly email that announced that they had a free art and literacy class at the library. We stopped by the library on the way home from somewhere a week and a half ago and the librarian told me that I should take the kids downstairs and have them check out the class. We went down and I stuck around because the librarian had indicated that I was supposed to. The teacher said that I could stay but I would have to participate if I stayed. They were studying Paul Cezanne that week and we got to paint still life. We don't paint often because it is a mess to clean up after but it was fun to paint at the library. There was space for them so I signed the kids up for the Wednesday class.

This past week the kids got to do portraits in Rembrandt's style with the subjects in funny costumes. (I didn't get a picture of their portraits, maybe next week!)

I am thankful for a fun art class for the kids!

I'm Giving Myself a Break

Written last week, before we got internet so just posting now.

I was really feeling guilty earlier this week because we didn't do any school last week because we were packing up our apartment and I couldn't do both, and we haven't done any school this week because we've been unpacking and it's been Glenn's spring break. I started thinking... "oh no!! We'll never finish our school work for this year!!" I always err to the extreme. Freak out is often my middle name, unfortunately.

Thankfully, yesterday (Wednesday), as I was trying to get our school/ dining room set up and talking with God about my frustrations, He reminded me of Fillmore. Sometime while we were living in Houghton Fillmore schools changed their spring break from 2 weeks in the spring back to back to one week in February and one week around Easter like I had growing up in Waterloo. This upset a lot of people who really liked the two week chunk off because they could go on family trips, ect. I'm so thankful for that reminder because it was freeing - other people have taken 2 weeks off in a row for spring break in the past. Silly. I know.

We didn't take a February break because I knew our move was coming up and Glenn didn't have one. One thing that I love about homeschooling is that we can take breaks when Glenn's free (like this week) or when we need them (like last week). I am required to do a certain number of hours/ days of school with the kids but I'm not required to follow the school calendar. If I was Lowville School's spring break is, in fact, this week so no one around here is expecting the kids to have school this week anyway.

Thanks God for the freedom to homeschool and to make our own schedule. Thanks for the opportunity to take a break last week and this week. Please help us to enjoy the rest of it for your honor and glory.

We've started school back up this week and I've still had to give myself a bit of a break because we still haven't figured out exactly how the house is going to be set up and my stations are not set up yet so we've had a bit lighter week than I would have liked but we are still pretty close to on schedule for the year. I got my paperwork in to the school district today so I am officially, legally homeschooling again. Only 1 quarter left of this year - hard to believe!!

Week 3 in Pics

Week 3 of school didn't go exactly as planned but it was a good week. My camera pretty much stayed in it's home this week so my week in pics doesn't have as many pics as some other weeks. The kickball pic was one that my friend posted online and most of the others are from my phone so the quality isn't the greatest.

On Tuesday we played kickball with some friends.

 On Tuesday night we lended our kids to some friends so that Glenn and I could go on a much needed date. We went to Outback because we had a coupon for a free steak then wandered around Ollies and talked.  On Wednesday morning when I went to pick up the kids it was decided that I would stay and watch the 8 kids because none of their baby sitters were answering the phone and the mom had to go and be there for a baby to be born (she's a doula). It was a fun day off from school with kids ages 4,5,6,7,8,9,10, and 11. There was a lot of Lego playing, some Wii playing and

 I introduced them to my favorite fall game: Catch the Leaf

And they played with the tree swing

 On Thursday after playing a bit of catch up on schoolwork that we'd missed the day before we headed to Waterloo for our monthly visit. We stopped in to see Phoebe and Jonah first before heading over to visit with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy and Kyle. We then got to go to part of Ehren's volleyball game which was a lot of fun. We got to see Aunt Ruth, Uncle Jerry and Ali while we were there.

Hannah sharing her school notebook with Grandma

 On Friday Glenn took his Internal Medicine Shelf in the morning while we did school work then we headed down to Montour Falls for Glenn to meet the doctor that he will probably be working with for RMED (Rural Medical Education Program). Glenn got to see a few patients with the doctor while the kids and I checked out the local library (a first stop for all homeschooling families) and the Shequaga Falls which are at the head of "the T" downtown. They are really pretty and only about 10 feet shorter than Niagara Falls. After the work day was over we were invited over for dinner at their home. They ordered pizza and we got the chance to meet his wife, 5 of their 7 kids, and their 3 dogs. Caleb got to go out and shoot guns with their 15 year old son and the girls enjoyed playing with their 10 year old daughter and her new puppy. After dinner Glenn got to go and observe the circumcision of a newborn at the hospital. We had an enjoyable evening and ended up sitting around and talking until after 10 when we headed back for the almost 2 hour drive to our beds.

The kids at Shequaga Falls in Montour Falls, NY

I'm thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling affords (like the chance to visit grandparents on a weekday once a month, the ability to help out a friend with childcare and the chance to go and check out where we might be living as a family during school hours) and for the fun week that we had.

Week of Fall Fun

Last weekend started on Saturday morning when the kids and I went to the St James Festival where I was playing with a small group from the CNY Flute Choir.

A small group from the CNY Flute Choir

After playing we got paid in food so we sat with Sul-Young, Sara, and John as we ate our Korean food (and they shared with my hungry kids)

After leaving the festival we headed across the street to check out Betts Library then we went to Webster Pond where you can, for a donation, get cups of corn to feed the ducks and geese.

Caleb making friends

They ate corn right out of our hands

Sunday after church we walked over to the Westcott Cultural Festival which takes place just about a block from our house. It was fun wandering and looking at the booths, making crafts in the library parking lot, visiting with neighborhood friends and generally avoiding the used book sale going on at the library ;)

 This clown made us balloon animals

The girls made stuff out of clay - H made a tea set, A made a couch for her Pollies

L is not excited about how her cup is turning out

McGruff, a robot dog, was there telling kids to scream if they saw their parents texting or talking on the phone while driving

There were races for kids (love this pic with our upstairs neighbor coaching her little brother on the far left)

Hannah came in first followed closely by Lydia in this heat

 On Tuesday we went to Owen Orchards for a field trip with friends from the Waterloo area. (It felt almost like a family reunion. I love all the other mommies that were there and miss sharing life with them! Many of them I either grew up with or went to Tuesday morning Bible study with, or both.) The field trip started in the barn with an education on how honey bees help orchards

Worker bees on the left, queen bee on the right and my drone in the middle

checking out the bee hive

Then we took a wagon ride out to pick apples.

our wagon ride out to the orchard

Learning how to properly pick apples and how their neat apple picking baskets work

Abigail's first apple

L&A munching apples on the way back with Jonah

The sky looks ominous but thankfully it didn't rain while we were there!

The sun actually even came out for a bit

After our picnic lunch Caleb decided to try out the stocks

ain't it the truth

 After apple picking we went on another field trip with people from around Syracuse to Side Hill School, a one room school house near Skaneateles.

 This week we have also had the chance to walk our neighbor's puppy Iggy at lunch time. It was a fun but reminded me why I don't want a puppy - they are crazy!

Iggy on our porch steps with 3 of his fans

 To wrap up the week we made globe cakes this afternoon for Friday Funday. H&A worked on the Western Hemisphere and C&L worked on the Eastern.

The Western Hemisphere girls decided to start with water

The Easterners decided to start with land

Showing off the finished product

Western Hemisphere Ws and Eastern Hemisphere Es

That was our week in pics. I love fall.