The Old Village

Later in the year we are taking Pioneers with our homeschool group. At the Transporation Museum we walked through an old village with homes of different times and buildings from earlier days in our area. There was a school house, a general store, a police station, a train station, a barber shop, a doctor's office, and old homes dating back as far as 1820's. Did you know that in the school house there was only one teacher and 50 kids of different grades from K - Gr 8. The doors were shut that day and there were no tours. So we had fun running around between the buildings and peeking in all of the windows.

“My walls outside must have some flowers,
My walls within must have some books;
A house that's small; a garden large,
And in it leavy nooks.”, William Henry Davies

Transportation

We will be learning about Transportation with our homeschool group this year so we went to the Transportation Museum to get a head start on it. It was amazing to learn about the cars that use to be made locally. I didn't know that the plane built by the Wright Brothers was not the first airplane, but the first airplane that could be controlled and maneuvered by a person. There is a picture above of a wheel that was supported by wood inside because in the depression they couldn't afford to get their blown tires fixed so they improvised. Ironically, while we were outside an airplane flew over us!

“An American can have a Ford in any color so long as it's black", Henry Ford

We LOVE Insects!!

Although the kids are afraid of being stung by a bee, there is sheer delight in watching bees and learning about them. All insects create a light in the kids eyes. There is so much wonder in watching a wasp collect nector, or our caterpillar turn into a butterfly, or watching a spider slide down a string of it's web in front of our window (well Spiders aren't insects... but you get my drift). There is so much beauty in all living things. Even the grubs in our lawn in spring were fun for the kids to handle and poke at. They are all living beings with life and movement about them. What wouldn't be wondrous about them to a child?!

“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.”, Henry David Thoreau

Sand Between the Fingers

Sand is great to create things with and is so delicate that I see how it promotes a different type of creativity. It works much different than dough or clay.

“A handful of sand is an anthology of the universe”, David McCord

Mega Blocks

We have just about every size and shape of building material available. We took out the Mega Blocks one day because we've not used them in a while. What fun!

Dress Up and Drama

It is dress-up time in our house just about every day that we are home. We keep costumes around for creative play and the kids love it! We act out different daily activities in a board game we have. Drama is incorporated into a simple phonics game we play. They do a great job of being other characters.

“The play is His, The role is His gift, The lines are written by Him”, Sri Sathya Sai Baba

New creations all of the time.

This is Austyn's Jet Truck. It has been redesigned a few times. He creates things like this all the time and keeps doo-dads to make things out of. Do we have an engineer on our hands?

Our Garden in the Summer Time!

We may not have maintained our gardens as well as others do but we really did get some beautiful flowers. Here are just a few pictures of the beauty in our yard.

" When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other." Chinese Proverb