October 2020

 October kicked off with a field trip for the Brown's. We travelled to a friends house in Oskaloosa and met up with some other homeschool families for a fun filled and educational day at Autumn Acres. The children learned about planting and harvesting corn and about different ways in which corn is used. They played games and enjoyed all the fun activities offered. We had a blast! We also utilized our long trip to listen to our new audio book, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

My sister was back from KY and we enjoyed spending time together. We also scheduled family pictures (the first of 3 rounds of pictures for my crew) and they turned out beautifully.

On the 16th we attended a mock election a fellow homeschool mom organized and we all pitched in to help. Our local courthouse was gracious enough to allow the children to use the real voting machine. They all listened to 2 stories and then went to the courthouse to vote on their preference. We had several patriotic craft activities set up for the others to complete while small groups went over to vote. After everyone voted and while we were awaiting the results, the children all went for a civic themed scavenger hunt. 

Balloon drop after announcing the winner! We had a tie! 17 votes each for the two books that were read! Go figure!! 

We celebrated Noah's 12th birthday on the 21st. We made cupcakes, watched movies, and just hung out. We went to SkyZone in Columbia on Monday, the 19th. Mom didn't get any pictures that day because I was too busy having fun jumping and enjoying my family. It was a blast.

On Saturday, the 24th, the Lancaster Baptist Church hosted a "Super Heroes of the Bible" activity night and the boys got to "meet" and learn about about the heroes from the bible. They also had a weenie roast, got to make s'mores and enjoy hot cocoa and a candy dash. It was so much fun and they learned a lot about our bible heroes. 

I failed at getting pictures of the heroes, but we "met" Noah, Esther, Elijah, David, Daniel, and helped the caretaker at the tomb solve the mystery of tomb. They had fun games that correlated with the story of each of our heroes as well. 

The 26th we celebrated our sweet Abel's 3rd birthday. He's growing up so fast. 

On the 30th we learned about Abstract Art in our art class with Charlotte and had a great time painting with our friends. 

For Halloween this year we opted to stay home and have a party at home with spooky foods and Halloween movies. We just go "trick or treat" great grandpa and [great] Uncle Chris, but most of our evening was spent partying with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Aaron and Nana at home. 

October came and went like a flash. On to November! 

Falling into Fall--September Wrap Up.

We continued with our nature studies and took a hike early in September at Sugar Creek Conservation Area. 

 It was gorgeous and fun until we decided to go off the beaten path a bit.......

and found ourselves covered in THOUSANDS of tiny, demonic seed ticks. I've never in my life seen so many ticks at one time. We learned that seed ticks are just baby ticks that are ready to and waiting for their host. Ticks lay thousands of eggs in their nest and we just happened to be the "lucky" ones to disturb their nest and become host to these annoying baby ticks. Unfortunately for Noah and Me, who were in the lead, we were the most affected. As luck would have it [insert sarcasm], we are both very sensitive to these bites. I blame the fair skin. Good lesson learned this day!!

Moving on... 

School is going well. We are loving our new found freedom of schedule and the added time to grow those family bonds. 

Eli does not love reading. He never has. But, he's actually doing quite well. Here is a video of his reading fluency beginning of our school year. I plan to do other videos to record his progress.

We also got to meet some new friends and start an art class. 

Here's Ike learning his phonics song as he prepares to be reader!!!

We have been really enjoying park days with our friends as much as we can before the weather turns cold.

Adding in lots of life skills here at home that they won't get in the school building. A bit of culinary arts on this day.

We had some fun visits with family and just enjoyed life. Emerson-- you are LOVED!! 

That wraps up September for The Brown's. On to a busy October!