Fabulous Fall Fun: September 24 - 30

Homeschool Happenings

Safety! One of our favorite fall traditions is to go to our lil' town's Safety Day at the fire station and see all the shiny red fire trucks and the inside of an ambulance. The kids learned what to do in a smoke filled room. "Get low!" "Don't answer the phone!" We watched rescuers dismantle a Ford with the jaws-of-life and a bucket of firemen rise HIGH into the overcast sky. Sweet Tart got to drive an ATV (with a helmet of course). But our favorite - the K-9 demonstration - is the best!

Awesome Apples! We picked a 1/2 bushel of MacIntosh and Red Delicious apples on Sunday, making our first yummy apple crisp of the season! So, we decided to drop John Cabot this week, and study another John - Johnny Appleseed! We watched these You Tube videos of Disney's 1948 Johnny Appleseed.

But we had to do some apple activities too, right?

Sweet Tart's Color-by-Number from Printables 4 Kids

Sprinter's Parts of an Apple, Map of Johnny's Travels and Summary

Sweet Tart's Finger/Hand Print Apple Tree

Sprinter's Finger/Hand Print Apple Tree

Solar Power! This week our Astronomy studies focused on the sun. We made  a pizza box solar oven to bake English Muffin pizzas and used a paper sun dial to tell time. Our oven didn't quite bake our pizzas, but the inside temperature did reach 110.1 degrees with an outside temperature of 83.1 degrees. And our sun dial was accurate within 10 minutes, but we discussed how the sun's shadow in the dial could be affected by how close to magnetic north our paper was pointing and how straight our gnomon was. (The kids are already talking about changes they could make to increase oven temperature! LOL)

Our Pizza Box Solar Oven with Pizzas

Our Paper Sun Dial Around Noontime

Jag and Sweet Tart had their first Saxon Grammar and Writing tests. Both kids are working a grade level ahead and the work is challenging, so I was QUITE happy with Jag's 99% and Sweet Tart's 89%.

Here's what Sweet Tart and Jag are reading:

Places We Went and People We Saw

• Soccer, soccer, soccer! (Did I mention this already?! LOL) 
• Another Saturday at Rec Hoops! Lovin' this! 
• Junior Girl Scouts bake sale was a SUCCESS! 
• 3 Scout meetings 
• Hangin' out with the neighbor's boys 
• Ice Cream at the Space-themed Parlor! (We each ordered a "Mars". LOL)   
• Toot! Clarinet Lesson for Sweet Tart 
• An evening of babysitting a little girl for Sweet Tart (while we're around to help of course)

Our Favorite Thing(s) This Week

Field Trip Friday! This week we drove through the beautiful White Mountain National Forest on the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire and explored Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves.

Mountains Galore on the Kancamagus Highway

Lower Fall Scenic Rest Stop

Sprinter's Getting A little Big for HIS Cave

Lemon Squeezer Cave -  You HAVE to Fit Through This

Jag's Rock Finds

Sprinter Making Friends at Mt Willey on the Saco River

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