The Fall Farm

 We went on a family trip to a local farm. There was a huge corn maze to go through. Here is Zoe in the jumpy boat. 

 We raced around a track on these tractors. 

 We watched a pig race and got up and close with some of the animals on the farm. Here is Zoe petting a goat. 

It was fun shooting pumpkins into a field to try and hit some targets. 

We finished off our day with a tractor ride to pick some pumpkins in a field. This trip was fun!

The Creative Child!

 As I make the time to do more art and be more creative, I can't help but think about how creative Zoe is. She loves to play with colours and make things. This is homemade sidewalk paint. It didn't work as well as we would have liked. We also made coloured soap for bath time.

 She loves to trace, draw, colour, paint, sculpt, and do crafts. She paints glass and sometimes pots.

 This is a craft she found on the internet to make for her American Girl Doll. She has made many things for these dolls. It's something she does on her own, when she has free time. My Froggy Stuff is a great resource for ideas.

 If she isn't drawing on her arms or her tummy, she is face panting or doing her own make-up. Another example of something else she does on her free time.

This is Zoe's version of crazy hair for International Homeschool Spirit Week. I was a little surprised that she didn't add colours to it, since that is something she does often, but it still turned out good. She did it herself and she wanted me to take a picture!

She loves to act, sing, dance, and do gymnastics stunts as well. Over all she is definitely the most creative person in our home. Even more creative than me!

River Nature

 This is Austyn's favourite spot when we have time alone together. While Zoe is at gymnastics I sometimes take him to places he wants to go. Sometimes we take a hike. Sometimes we hang out at the library. He sometimes likes to go to the river to explore. He could be there for hours. We learned about fish, and birds there. Did you know that the seagulls we see aren't seagulls! They are actually called Ring-Billed Gulls. This is thanks to the Audubon app on my iPhone.

 We see fish jumping out of the water. We watch fishermen fish. We saw geese land right in front of us.

 It's very pretty here. 

 Sometimes we look for fossils. The large rocks hold huge fossils. 

One fisherman let us get up and close to the fish. This is a salmon.

Worms

 We studied worms already this year, but here we are looking at one again. This one was a great specimen because it was younger and so we could see through it's skin well. 

These diagrams can be downloaded from enchantedlearning.com.

The Fair

 We were at the fair this year for their "Agriculture in the Classroom" event. Usually it's just schools, but we were allowed to sign up and come. I'm so glad, because the kids loved it!

 There were stations set up everywhere. There were stations to learn more about animals and others for learning about safety or the environment. 

 This one was about dangerous chemicals and identifying them. In the case is a bunch of liquids that look the same. Each pair consists of something edible and something poison. The kids had to try and guess the liquids.

 This is a bee display. I made sure to ask questions about the current bee situation and the answers were exactly what I thought. We need to educate farmers so that they don't kill them all. Well, there was much more to the conversation than that, but I don't want to get anyone in trouble for their knowledgeable opinions.

 I didn't get to see this whole presentation, but they were talking about not using chemicals in your garden by paring up plants that help each other and other tricks.

 Before machines people popped off the kernels by hand. This was pretty cool and the kids got to keep the cob.

 We didn't see the whole demonstration on pulleys but the kids got to try this one out and pull a tracker. 

 The kids got a try at lassoing.

 I even got to give it a try. Zoe took this picture.

 Zoe helped one of her younger homeschool friends when she could. I think they are friends.

 I always have so many pictures of Zoe petting animals when we go to things like this. She loves animals.

 This was fun! These are rubber duckies in a race. The kids make them move forward by using a pump. Eventually all of the boys took this station over. They loved it!

 This station was another fun one. Racing horses by turning the rope around a wooden rod. Too easy to cheat though!

The kids got to get interactive and collect things from each station to get a prize. 

 Zoe got to do some sewing. 

 These are eggs hatching. So cool!!

 They are waiting for a ride. 

 Zoe found a friend from gymnastics and went on a ride with her. 

 This is Zoe jumping with excitement after getting off of a ride she never had been on before. I think when I was younger they called it the Gravatron. Eventually we were able to get Austyn to try it too. 

It was a fun day at the fair. I'm so thankful to the people who put this on for allowing us to attend!

Battle of the Thames

 One of the moms in our homeschool group registered us for the education day event of Battle of the Thames. This is the first year they have done it. It was busy!! There were performers, re-enactments, camps, markets and more.

 There was a man there who specialized in making arrow heads. He looked at Austyn's arrowhead and told him that it is over 2000 years old! We came and chatted with him a few times and eventually he ended up giving Austyn one of his cannons from the war of 1812. It was found in Port Colbourne area.

 This is a traveling museum and magic show. 

 This solder told us all about his gun and what it was like to camp in that little 4 man tent. 

 He gave us step-by-step instructions on how to use the gun.

 There were solders everywhere and you could just walk up and talk to them.

 This solder was playing a flute.

 This was a show put on by the Canadian Cow Girls.

 Every so often we could hear cannons being fired.

 Zoe and Austyn got to ride a horse for the very first time EVER.

 They saw how food was prepared at camp. Some beef liver was being smoked and some rabbit was being cooked.

 They got to see and feel real animal fur and hides. They learned where the term "mad-hatter" comes from after talking about beavers and the fur trade. 

 They got to see inside each tent.

 They learned what aboriginal people used for food, medicine, and tools. There is grandma. She came to this with us.

 Austyn showed the Chief his arrowhead and they compared some. 

 They looked at other tools and had a good talk together.

At the end of the day we got some home-made cookies, a souvenir (Zoe got a hat and Austyn got a wooden knife toy), and we all left with a real glass bottle, corked of home-made lemonade.

This was a great experience for all of us!

HERE is the link.