Bible Study Campout

One of the highlights of our summer was the Bible Study Campout in July.  Since I wasn't staying up with my blog then, I haven't posted about it yet, but it was such a fun memory that I want to preserve it, so look out:  many pictures ahead!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed camping out.  They liked gathering wood for campfires, cooking outside, eating outside, playing outside. . .Alan--not so much.

In his defense, we were in a little pop-up camper with a tent off to the side.  And Aryana still insisted on getting up between 5 and 6 am.  And we were trying not to let her wake the entire campground.

Truthfully, our campsite worked out just fine.  I was happy with how all my food preparations worked out.  I have to admit I got a little bit bored with camping.  I had done all the cooking work ahead of time and I used crockpot liners so clean up was a breeze.  There was no cleaning to do, no laundry. . .I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself.  This is where you're incredulous that I wasn't in a hammock with a book, but a busy one-year-old didn't allow complete relaxation--we had to keep eyes on her constantly.

The fun was in spending time with friends.  We went down before the Bible study started, so some friends invited us to spend Saturday with them at Alley Springs and then the river.

It was beautiful, the museum was interesting, and the kids loved walking the trails and climbing up into the little caves with their friends.

After our hike and a picnic, we went down to the river.  The moms sat in lawn chairs with their feet in the river while the dads and kids played in the water and collected crawfish and tadpoles.

The kids brought the tadpoles and crawfish over to the moms so Ginger made them a little pool to swim in.  Aryana was fascinated by this little pool.

The Bible studies started on Monday and lasted throughout the morning.  There were some really good studies--the best for me (most convicting?!) one was on pride (part two).  In the afternoons and evenings, people got together for all kinds of activities, from water activities, to playing games, singing, going for ice cream, etc.

One highlight for the older three children was the canoe trip.  Alan took Easton and they rode in the canoe with Briana and her friend Tiffany.

Destry took a canoe with his cousins Jared and Vanessa.  They were a more adventurous group, racing ahead of others, pulling over to the side to climb up cliffs and jump off bridges.

Another day some friends invited us to the place they were staying off the campground.  The view from the house they stayed in was simply beautiful.

 There was a little creek on the property that we enjoyed playing in.

Alan and Destry got the idea of building a little dam to speed up the current so the kids could ride their floaties.

 Wheeee!  It was pretty fast!

Jumping off the cliff into the river is a tradition Briana got to participate in with a bunch of friends. . .

 Rainy day cards with friends. . .

 Trips to Eminence to the Dairy Shop with friends. . .

 Sweet young ladies. . .

Alan and I ended up going home early when it started raining, but Briana stayed with friends and got to perform the British version of The Three Little Pigs for the sharing night.  It was lots of fun, and we were all tired at the end.  Even Destry slept on the way home.

Once Upon a Leprechaun

Drama class culminated in the production last weekend. The kids had a wonderful time and really love drama, so it's going to be hard to let that class go next year. We'll have to find another outlet for their creative and dramatic tendencies. The play/musical was set in Ireland and was about a shepherd boy who wanted to marry a lass but her mother said he couldn't marry her until he learned to tell a story. With the help of three feisty leprechauns and his observation of three tales, he manages to win her hand.

Destry's first character was that of Lusmore, who had a hump on his back. He was kind and good and helped the Little People finish the lyrics to their song.
As a reward, they removed the hump from his back.Briana's first character complemented Destry's second role. Destry was the Griffin, a three-beast monster, and she was the Griffin's wife. They were in the second tale and Briana helped a heroic lad get the three Griffin tail feathers he needed in order to awaken the fair lass he wanted to marry.
Briana's second role was in the third story where she played a queen whose son, Prince Brian, wouldn't laugh. She asked the villagers for a volunteer to make him laugh and receive a bag of gold.
Bridget succeeded in the attempt (with the help of a cricket, a mouse, and a bird), refused the gold, and married the prince.
And they all lived happily ever after! :)

Here is a short excerpt of the theme song.

Weekly Wrap-Up

I don't tend to blog much about homeschooling, but I saw this great idea to do a weekly wrap-up about what we did this week. It sounds like a fun thing to do and would fit in nicely with my book I want to make from my blog (someday). Technically this post is supposed to be posted on a Friday afternoon, but I just found out about it today. And that pride issue that God is trying to remove from my life? Well, He's being extra nice to me today because we had a really good week! (I have to admit I'm surprised I didn't run into this idea in a week that we accomplished little, I was a horrible, terrible, awful, mean crab, my kids were uncooperative, and algebra refused to be learned. Maybe this timing is to remind me to be thankful for a good week in preparation for an upcoming challenging week. I will try to be humble enough to share the bad weeks too!)

We accomplished a great deal this week--so much so that Briana logged 33 hours of learning and instruction time and Destry logged 29 hours. We finished The Two Towers in our literature class (Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings, which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!!) and both older children earned perfect scores on a vocabulary quiz which included such rich words as dissemble, espied, covert, allured, interminably, rank (as in the smell!), and aghast. They completed their rough drafts of essays about leadership as they examined the consequences of effective and ineffective communication and decision-making exhibited by the characters from The Lord of the Rings. They also read Lamb's version of The Tempest by Shakespeare to enrich our reading of The Two Towers since Tolkien modeled the relationship between Sam and Gollum off the relationship between the servants in The Tempest.

Briana is especially excited to have started a quilting class this week. I don't know any of the finer arts of homemaking, and she is especially interested in many of them, so I am very grateful to an older lady in our community who has volunteered to teach a few girls this dying art. I am teaching Destry a cooking class this year as well, so he learned to make country fried steak and gravy this week. It was delicious and his first attempt at gravy was an outstanding success (better than my first try, for sure!).

In their Bible study with Dad this week, they read and discussed Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zachariah. They also participated in the drama performance "The Word Alive" which was all based from the Word of God. They performed skits from the stories of Ehud killing Eglon and Solomon discerning the true mother of the baby. They also performed oral interpretations of several passages of Scripture including the first chapter of Mark. Destry regally portrayed both King Eglon and King Solomon while Briana focused on oral interpretations from Luke and Mark.

In areas of personal growth, I was really proud of Destry in his Algebra work this week as he practiced diligence in learning a new concept. He came to me and told me he could get the answer, but he couldn't tell me how to do it, and he wanted to understand it better. I think he has finally learned not to take advantage of his ability to get answers to math problems intuitively because as the math gets more difficult he can't always just figure it out in his head--he has to know how to work the problem.

They did several other subjects and music lessons, of course, but I want to focus some on Briana's preparation for TeenPact, a statewide class on government and leadership which takes place in the capital early next Spring. Students have a pile of homework to complete before attending the week-long event and Briana has mapped out a plan to complete the homework without getting too stressed out. She has finished reading the book and memorized the assigned verses (Romans 13:1-2 and I Timothy 2:1-3) and this week she has been working on the vocabulary words. I enjoyed reading her definitions of government, self-government, the branches of government, democracy, republic, justice, liberty, etc. We've had fun discussions this week and she gets so excited she had to write in her journal about the things she's learning and thinking. I'm seeing her grow and expand her horizons just in preparation for this event and am fully expecting her to come home even more grown up and changed from the experience.

The little ones have had a good week, too. We've read too many books to mention (even when friends came over to play!), Easton learned how to clean the light switches and Kiana learned how to clean the windowsills. They memorized Genesis 2:7 this week as we finished studying the creation. (We do little motions with the verses as we learn them, and my favorite is when Kiana sticks her fingers up her nostrils--no! I did not tell her to do that, I just told them to point!)

Easton made the meatloaves for one of our meals and Kiana helped me make a broccoli casserole. I was right there the entire time, but yes, I was a little nervous at her stirring the sauce on the stove. I told her she could help me make it before I looked closely at the recipe and realized how much was stovetop cooking.Easton still loves drawing and was very excited to acquire his very own sketch pad on Thursday of this week.
He loves to draw all kinds of cars and trucks and vans, and the picture on the right below is of an army tank, complete with tracks, the gun barrel, and a guy driving. We decided to save these drawings this week and start a notebook for him. (For my readers who don't homeschool, notebooking sort of takes over your life when you homeschool--even when said child is only four!) We've also played several rhyming games this week, which Easton loves and he really has a good grasp on this pre-reading skill. When Easton's little bedside table broke, they found a creative use for the stand as their imaginations kicked in and Easton became a dog and Kiana rode a dogsled. With winter on its way and such a fun toy, we had to talk about Alaska and the Iditarod and they played this game until Mommy realized it was scratching the hardwood floor in the dining room and declared it time to play something else.
As one would expect with a three-year-old and a four-year-old, this has also been a week with many opportunities for character training. We have especially been focusing on obedience (doing what is expected of me cheerfully, immediately, and thoroughly) and patience (waiting with a happy heart). I've been pleased with a book and flashcards I bought that we're using for just a few minutes a couple times a week. Easton has memorized the definitions to these character traits and really seems to be applying them. For example, tonight when Kiana was sitting on the couch holding Tyrell, Easton wanted a turn holding him. I picked Tyrell up and waited for Kiana to move so Easton could sit there, but she wasn't moving quickly. Easton got impatient, used his bossy voice, and gave her a little physical assistance in moving! I reminded him that he needed to talk kindly and be patient after he has asked her to move, then asked what it means to be patient. "Waiting with a happy heart," he recited, then agreed that he had not been waiting with a happy heart. It's so precious, and I just love this fun and easy little way of building character.

It really was a busy and productive week--no wonder I was ready for the weekend!