Irish Twins!

Modelling their new jammies from Hanna Andersson.  I love their stuff but my goodness are they expensive when you consider they actually charge tax and shipping (hey, I'm spoilt!).  They also use some weird metric system for sizing so you almost have to have some of their clothing to make a good guess as to what size to order next time.  Rose is this bitty little thing, but she is wearing size 140 and it barely fits.  According to their size chart, Woodjie is wearing something that would fit a 13-year-old.  He's eight. 

Jesse James Farm!

Today we went to the Jesse James Farm and Museum in Kearney, Missouri.  This is Jesse James' boyhood home.  The museum features all sorts of James family items from the time period.  They also show a 20-minute movie about his life as part of the tour.  Guides bring small groups through the house itself, although we were unable to take pictures in the house or in the museum.

A view from the side of the house, with a cutaway showing some of the original construction.

A reconstruction of a nearby slave cabin on the farm.  There is no way to survive a hard winter in this structure; they would have had to have been in the house on the worst days.  The tour guide did say that both small family and slave children would sleep together in the loft in the upstairs part of the main house.

D being a goof and pretending to be "caught" in the reconstructed outhouse.

A large tree outside the farmhouse.  We thought it was interesting, so we took a picture of it.

Homeschooling Update!

I am too cheap to buy a textbook for each child to keep.  Woodjie reads all left-hand pages aloud, and Rose reads all pages on the right.

Emperor is plowing through his First Form Latin.  He has a list of 50 commonly used Latin verbs from the teacher at the local high school, and instructions to finish First Form Latin and a good deal of our Second Form Latin before entering high school as a freshman next year.  If he gets the four verb forms she wants finished, and does well on his NLE exam this year, no reason he can't begin a year ahead in Latin II as a full-time public high school student.  But it's a lot of work.  Emperor is taking it very seriously.

We multiplied fractions so we could mix pancake batter.

Woodjie and Rose have really been working hard on our spelling, but you wouldn't know it.  For some reason, both children are allergic to putting two m's in "hammer" or spelling "people" correctly.  We've been on the same word list for a month but I don't feel ok about moving on until it's mastered, ya know? 

We're also reading Farmer Boy as part of our studies.  Today, the little children got to hear about sheep-shearing.

We're working on finishing their History curriculum, and we'll probably be finished next week.  Yes, it's a bit early in the school year but 1. we work all summer and 2. I just let Science totally go.  I can only rotate so many subjects in a day and... pff, forget it.  We'll do Science studies after we finish our History, have a field trip and an end-of-subject party.  We finished one of our ten LIFEPACs ages ago.  Only nine more to go! 

Fingers crossed we get round to taking a fun field trip and can share pics with you soon.  :)

Outdoor Time!

My three youngest with a woolly caterpillar they found.

This is the time of year we take plenty of field trips and spend time out of doors.  Pretty soon, it will be too cold to do so comfortably.

The children have hunted up little bugs and worms in the yard and they're patiently waiting for the leaves to turn.  (It hasn't happened yet!)

We're also making liberal use of the Nerf guns I got for super-cheap on one of those Amazon flash sales.  Loaded up on foam bullets as well.  I keep them all in a large plastic Cheez-Ball container by the front door near the bubbles.  This way when it's time to play, we can grab stuff and go! 

Homeschool Field Trip - Weston Red Barn

Can you tell it was sunny?  Look at those squint-y faces!

 Yes, the apples are ready to be picked!  We got some buckets and ran out to the orchard.  It's pretty sunny and hot, so I suppose the crowds haven't figured out that it's time yet.  We had the place to ourselves (except for the workers).

More info on their website here if you're interested.

Bringing apples up the hill.

Mini-pony!

A partial view of one of the orchards.

These chickens were loose and foraging.

A view of the barn from the orchard.

There's a cute country gift shop inside.  Right now they are selling "cider slushies" as well.

Peaches are ripe!

Iowa Open 2015

Emperor got to meet GM Alexander Yermolinsky.  He is a big fan of his "Every Russian Schoolboy Knows" show on the ICC.

Rose, ready for round one in the Rated Beginner Open.

I got to meet blogger Bethany Carson!

The Good Knight Dala Horse in Lindsborg, Kansas.

The Good Knight Dala horse was unveiled outside the Anatoly Karpov International School of Chess in Lindsborg, Kansas, on Saturday. Emperor's design was chosen for the horse, so his name is on the plaque.

Here he is with GM Timur Gareev.

Nearby Dala horse.

There are now 33 Dala horses in the town...

While we were there, we browsed an art gallery and I brought this jellyfish home.