Cranberry Thanksgiving-- a FIAR book

 We spent the week after Thanksgiving rowing this delightful book.  I had planned to do it earlier, but it wasn't available at the library.  Someone else must have loved it too!

Here's what we learned:

Social Studies--  Pilgrims, Traditions, New England States and customs, and of course, Thanksgiving.


Language Arts:  Repetition with in text of the story and similies






Some of the pages of our notebook....

 

Science-- We learned about starch....what it is, where it's found and what it's used for.  We had fun with this simple experiment using iodine.  I gathered together some different food items and had Delaney and Liam make a guess as to whether or not the food contained starch.  She said, "yes", all the items had starch. So, we then placed iodine on each food item.  If the iodine turned dark brown or black then starch was found, if not, then it was starch free.

We also learned about cranberries.  We watched some you-tube videos about the planting and harvesting process of these tart berries.  We read some books about them and then counted a bagful for some fun Math.

Math continued with fractions in baking. Delaney enjoyed making the famous cranberry bread from the book.  Our oven was still out, but we managed to bake them on the stove.  Most of it came out great...only a portion was burned.

There were so many more fun activities that I wanted to explore with this book but it's so hard to concentrate on Thanksgiving once it has past....we're now on to The Mitten  by Jan Brett.

History Happenings in November

Slaves and Swashbucklers:   This week we studied about the slave trade and pirates.  Definitely not a highlight of our past history.  For fun, Jen found a site where the kids responded took a questionnaire and then it generated a pirate name for them.  Delaney's name was Dread Pirate Kidd.  I remember mine was something like Mad Bess Cash. Many of the names were derived from real and famous pirates.

We were quite sobered by the statistics and facts of the evil slave trade.  We did enjoy watching a video or LDS member, Alex Boye, he's an amazing singer.  Alex sang his song while on the shores of (I believe), Kenya. This was one of the leading harbors where many dear ones were enslaved and taken to the West Indies or North America.

The Classical Period in Arts and Music:   I wasn't here for this day of learning, however I know that they read about different artist from the Classical period.  Here, they were painting after the manner of Thomas Gainsborough.  Thomas was an English painter of landscapes and portraits.  He was the leading portrait painter in England throughout his life time..  Gainsborough preferred to pain what might be called fancy landscapes, that is, landscapes that are more ideal and imaginary than real.  He would often include the portraits of people as part of the fancy landscape.  To explore Gainsborough's style of fancy landscapes mixed with portraits, our young artists painted imaginary landscapes then glued cut-out portraits that they created into the scenery.  Cailin was the only Hale present. (The rest of us were having fun with Bwennen and Wogan, as Liam calls them!)  She painted a lovely scene and then added portraits of her beloved guinea pigs, Fiona and Melody.

The French and Indian War:  
While the older kids went downstairs to discuss what they have previously read and researched about the French and Indian war, the younger kids learned more about Indian ways and customs.  We read a story about dream catchers and then made one using yarn, beads and paper plates.

The older kids put on a shadow puppet show of George Washington and the Indian Chief prophecy of his greatness.  There were many times, during one particular battle where many arrows should have hit George, but they didn't.  The Indian chief said that the Great Spirit was protecting him for a future great work.  Yes, indeed we know that he was blessed and protected.

The cast!!

Kittens!!!

 This is Cailin writing to you.


Meet the newest additions to the Hale Family, two little kittens found on a mulch pile.
Dad, Ryan, and Connor brought them home. I recall that I was sitting in my bedroom, reading, and heard high-pitched meowing. I didn't know what it was, but it sounded suspiciously like kittens. But we don't have kittens, I had thought. So I went downstairs and there was Ryan, holding the little tabby. He had dubbed her Brook, after a cat in a series he and I both enjoy.
Ryan explained that there was another cat, a ginger tom, that wasn't inside yet. I ran over to the front door and went outside. Delaney and Liam were cooing over the ginger tom, named Pumpkin. Before that, Delaney had named him Sandstorm...but Pumpkin is a better kitty name. Pumpkin is Delaney's very first pet, and, after discussion, I became Brook's new owner. They were both about 2-3 weeks when we received them, and now, they're either 3-4 weeks. I would write below the pictures, but the computer won't let me. Below, left, are the two siblings sleeping in their basket. Below, right, the kittens are playing, and below...below, Brook is being fed by the bottle from my mother.

A Blessed Thanksgiving

 What a busy and eventful week....our Thanksgiving holiday family time was split between Harrisonburg and Pulaksi this year.  Here we are having a bit of chilly fun at our favorite castle play ground.

 

This time Connor joined me in our trip northward.

 Cooking up some fun!  I do believe that all Santa needs to bring this year is a few bowls and a couple strings of beads and my two will be oh, so happy and contented.  It sure does make their cousins quite happy to play with these day after day!

 Now we all gather together in Pulaski for the feast.  We were quite blessed in our preparations  My oven died the day before Thanksgiving. Luckily, Risa had all the big baking items --apple pie and yeast rolls-- I did have the turkey but, never fear, Barry grilled it and it did just fine.  Of course Murphy's Law prevailed once more and the microwave died the same day so...  next blessing, Brian and Risa had one to spare, so within that cooking gem we finished the pumpkin pies.  (I had to scrape the filling out, so we had pumpkin pudding instead of pie, but it was delicious just the same.)  We cooked the sweet potato casserole in it too.  Thankfully the broiler was still working so we broiled the topping...and it turned to a yummy candy topping.

 I've become quite adept at cooking with this grill.  We made calazones one night and I even tried making cranberry muffins/sheet cake with it.  There were some burned spots, but we all ate and were filled.  I feel much more confident that in the event of a power outage I will be able to cook meals for my family.  Peace of mind--now that's a wonderful blessing too!  Next blessing, after a week of being with out my oven (I never realized how often I used it!) we were able to get a new element.  All's well that ends well!

 The great football challenge....a yearly tradition!

The greatest blessing of all...time with family.  It was a short whirlwind like holiday this year.  Due to the hurricane in New Jersey, Brian left early to travel with others from his ward and stake to help the victims.  Ahh, the blessing of service, again, a truly wonderful gift to be received and to give.

Book Group--Calico Bush

For the month of November we read the book Calico Bush  by Rachel Fields.  We were skeptical of this book as we started reading it, it was so similar to The Witch of Blackbird Pond , that all I heard is "I don't want to hear about this again....we've already read a book about this type of thing."   I'm sooo glad that we preserved and kept at it.  It's become one of our favorites.   Cailin's even re-reading it.  Because of time constrains we had to move our group meeting day...and that made us read the entire book in one week. Again, this became a good thing.  We had wonderful family together moments reading for an hour or more every single day.

We made shoo-fly cupcakes.  Delaney loved these so much that she wanted them for FHE treat the following Monday.

One theme within the book is the concept of overcoming challenges.  This was exemplified by the mountains.  There were many mentions to a certain quilt pattern called  Delectable Mountains .   They all created a paper quilt square using this pattern.  The first picture shows them all together as a paper quilt.

Ryan's Christmas coupon date at the movies and a game premiere night

November is here....and we've not redeemed all of last year's Christmas coupons yet.
Ryan's been looking forward to a new movie,  Wreck-it Ralph to come out for about 2 to 3 months now.  He also pre-ordered the newest Halo 4 game and has been eagerly awaiting it's arrival in stores too.  He was particularly excited when he learned that it would have a midnight premiere --or launching event.  He didn't really think we'd take him at midnight, but he was really hoping we would.

.....We then realized that he had not used his Christmas date with Mom or Dad yet.  We knew he wasn't really thrilled with his original coupon activity of hiking so we changed things a bit and turned the date into a movie/game premiere night.

He was soooo excited.  He called Barry 3 to 4 times during the day, just to make sure things were still on track!!

Ryan's thoughts:    That night was something to remember. We went and saw the Wreck-it Ralph movie and it was awesome. Disney found a way to add in a Star Wars sound effect. The midnight event for Halo 4 was cool. They had someone dressed as Master Chief show up and lots of people took pictures. The thing that drove me nuts was having to wait for a real long time outside in the cold just to get the game. Once I finally got inside I was able to quickly get the game and go back to the car and go home.

Lessons in Civics

Election Day!!  To help our children better understand the process of our nation's election process we've been reading and learning more about it.

This morning while getting dressed I heard Delaney tell us all...."remember you've got to wear red today."  I asked her why, and she replied  "I don't know, Clarissa just told me we should."  I told them that their family is wearing red to show support for   Presidential candidate Mitt Romney."(and eating a dinner of all red foods)  I explained that the two political views each had a color to represent them. The Democrats use blue and a donkey as symbols, the Republicans use red and an elephant for their's.
"Oh!"  replied Delaney....then she noticed that Liam was wearing a blue shirt and said  "Quick Liam you're an Obama supporter....you've got to change!"  Liam then exclaimed...."Oh, I don't want to be an Obama,  Mom, will my Thomas the Tank Engine shirt work?,  It's red!"

Of course we had those who wanted to join us at the polling station come.  The lines weren't to bad, thankfully, because Brianne's been a bit cantankerous lately and she grew tired of our short wait.

We also had the opportunity to meet our Congressman  Morgan Griffith.  I think it helped them to see this process in a more real way to see that real people---people we can see and shake hands with-- are the ones running for election.  Rep. Griffith, along with Senator Allen were also on the ballet this year.

Back at home we read a book about a girl who ran for president in her school.  Grace for President.  From this we learned more about the electoral college process.  We also talked about the different types of votes there are.

After our own registration process, we all  voted on our dessert for that night.  The options were brownies with creamy fudge frosting or flaky apple pie.

The pie won by one vote....and the losers were most unhappy!!  Around here I think we'll stick with a monarchy system of government.  There's a lot less crying, stomping and unhappy little ones when I simply say..."Daddy wants apple pie!  and that's it!!"
Sadly the election did not turn out as we had hoped, (Morgan did keep his position), however there are lessons in that too.

Creating Colonial Crafts and other history happenings

For the past month we've been studying the Colonial time period.  We've put our creative juices to work and have had some fun....just look at what we've done!

The Salem Witch Trials....have moved to Dublin
  My oh my, the accusations abound.  There have been witches masquerading as people. or some think.  These two tied up "witches' are accused as such because they are not wearing jeans....or even the color blue.  Everyone knows that is a sign of witchcraft.  Of course, these two girls counter accused those who wore earrings as being witches.  Clearly, a magistrate needs to come and sort through this matter.

Magistrate Mattson cleared everyone on all counts of witch craft.   We did have an eye opening time learning about this sad period of our history.

We also learned that real men wear pink...I think this photo will be one of those  "Mom, I can't believe you actually put this in the blog!"  episodes.  However, these cuties had fun being a butterfly for the day!  When Barry saw this photo his comment was  "....oh my goodness, is that a black mail photo or what!  That kid is definitely getting a Tonka truck for Christmas!"

Connor enjoyed time outstide creating a clay pinch pot, lid included.  He spent quite a lot of time and did a rather good job.  He's still waiting for me to use it serving soup for dinner....I think he'll have to wait a while longer!

Weaving...  here they are learning to weave.   They had the choice of making a paper place mat for our colonial dinner or they could braid cloth to make a fabric placemat.

Embroidery was another crafting option.  We plan to make these into pillows.

Delaney has never braided before and was quite excited about learning how.  Clarissa was quite a wonderful and patient teacher.  Delaney has since fallen in love with braiding and has practiced on her dolls and other strips of fabric.  We still need to complete these projects.

It didn't take long to Cailin to jog her memory on the 'how-to's' of braiding.

 The following week-- after our day of crafting--we dressed up in our Colonial finery and played some games and had a feast.  We worked on our history hook dates.  A memory game connecting dates, events and people..(  ie.  1215AD, King John and the Magna Carta  or 1607, Cpt. John Smith and Jamestown)
We had a few more obscure dates, people and events for Connor as he's got the primary dates down quite well.

 

Then on to a few of the more "fun' games.  We each made a cup with a string attached.  At the end of the string was a wad of paper.  The object of the game was to get the paper into the cup.

 Ring toss!

 

 The table was set with cloth napkins, placemats and table clothes.  The China was out and a scrumptious meal of foods served during the Colonial time period graced the table.

 Chicken Pudding, Sweet Potatoes with Apples, Pumpkin pudding, Sally Lunn Bread, Blackberry Flummery, Greenbeans, all topped off with creamy Syllubub orange drink.  Mmmm!

They all practiced their fancy table manners and had a lovely afternoon lunch. What a delicious way to relive the past.