Homeschool Travels - Fort Mendez

We are working our way through American History this year.  The kids are enjoying the somewhat leisurely stroll as we make our way from the First Americans and explorers through the American Revolution (where we are right now).  Since we were heading to Florida, I was looking for things to do along the way.  I chose to stop in St. Augustine.  We had learned about the Spanish explorers in the fall, so what a great way to bring history to life!!

Our first stop was a Fort Menendez, which was recommended by a fellow homeschool mom.

Fort Menendez is a hands-on example of a Spanish settlement set up in St. Augustine.

They had a ton of hands-on activities, including a drill.

Our guide gave a discussion about the French and Spanish both trying to settle this area.

Because of the large amount of shells, many used coquina.  This was a special made block using shells.  They had to crush the shells.

The kids dipped candles.

And we learned about the Native Americans of the area, and their supposed "Fountain of Youth" which really turned out to be sulfur water.

Making a shell necklace.

Talking about the tribes still in Florida.

 Digging a garden.

We learned so much about the Spanish settlements and the Native Americans.  I was very impressed with our guide.  He was very knowledgeable and not afraid to answer questions.  He also worked hard to keep the attention of both the children and adults on the tour.  This is definitely a stop you want to make if you are in the St. Augustine area.

Week 37 - Back to the Cold, Terra Cotta Soldiers and Pandas

We made our way back north last weekend.  But not without doing a little exploring along the way.

We took the kids to Coca-Cola World.  We thought it was a little high priced for what you get.  But it was fun to do once.  It's not the greatest place though when you have food allergies.  The poor kids were frustrated at being restricted because there were only so many sodas they could try.

We attempted to go to Freedom Park and see Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthplace and memorial.  But we missed out on the tickets and the place was overwhelmingly packed.  So we opted to skip that for our next adventure.  Then we headed toward our next location, Indianapolis.  We thought it would be cool to visit the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  Especially since we could go with Daddy..

We had so much fun at this museum.  It was not what I was expecting at all.  We ended up buying the family membership and went 3 days while we were in Indy.  It took all 3 days for us to see everything the museum had to offer.  We also took advantage of the many programs that they had to offer throughout the museum.   Because of this, I changed up our history for the week.

They had a wonderful exhibit there on the Terracotta Soldiers.  They did have them on display, but we missed that exhibit.  Fortunately they had a lot of fun projects and exhibits still centered around them.  So we learned about them on Sunday and then Monday in the hotel we watched a special on Terracotta Soldiers at lunch and then they each had to draw their own individual soldier.

The boys working on their schoolwork.

I wasn't able to keep up Lydia's reading.  She was going through a couple chapter books a day.  She would carry her chapter book everywhere.

The girls science happened to be in a Bamboo Forest.  How amazing since the Indy Children's Museum had a huge exhibit on China and panda rescue.  So we spent Tuesday exploring just a couple exhibits, including China.

The girls are loving Sassafrass Science.  So much so, that we are 3/4 of the way through the book already.  So I ordered the next level because their shipping is a little on the slow side.  I figure by the time it gets here, we'll be almost ready to start it.  This series is pretty great!

The boys kept up with their basic work and struggled a bit this week finding a balance between playing games and getting their work done.  To be very honest, I was really getting annoyed.  We go through this struggle on a regular basis.  Their autism has been causing some major hurdles that we are trying to overcome when it come to personal strides.  We will see how next week goes at home before I start making other adjustments.  I think I may try putting actual times on their notebooks.  They must work on this subject from this time to this time.  Maybe if I set limits in print that might help them.  Always something new to adjust to.

Wednesday we packed up knowing we were heading home on Thursday.  But we had a bunch of time to kill between checkout and picking Joe up at work.  So I signed them up for a Homeschool fairytales class at the Children's Museum.  I wasn't sure how the boys would like it.  Surprisingly Brayden enjoyed it.  Joey enjoyed the first part, but that was it.  They started with us doing Forensic Science and solving the problems had by the characters in certain fairy tales.  They had fun with that.

The second half of the program.  We learned about the elements of fairy tales.  We got to read a funny Cinderalla story called Bigfoot Cinderella.  Then they had to share with the group about how this Cinderella was different than the one we were used to.

Brayden also built a catapult in one of the castle activities.  He had fun launching marshmallows.

We got home Thursday night and normal life started back again.  Unfortunately my mom was in the hospital with a leg infection.  So the girls and I went to see her Friday morning.  She will make a recovery, but it will be a slow road the next couple weeks as she gets better.

Friday was also our first 4H meeting of the year.  The kids were excited.  We had a great first meeting.  Our group made some thank yous for our county office.  Very cute project.

Saturday we took our large number of books back to the library.  The girls picked out more.  Lydia just fills the tote each time.  Caty though was having a ball reading stories.  Yes she was reading them on her own!!

We are back at home now.  Trying to get back into the swing of things.  I am struggling to get back out of hotel mode and putting away the packing mess.  It's driving me nuts.  The kids are getting Monday off and then will have school Tuesday through Friday.  So it will be almost a normal week, except Daddy will be home.  So we are excited about that, and he is too.

I hope everyone had a great week!  Hope to see everyone next Friday!

Linking up with other moms on Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.....

Is Homeschooling Sheltering Our Children?

I have heard many people shout that homeschooling is sheltering your children.  I disagree and agree with this thinking.  I will agree that I am sheltering my children.  But I disagree that the “sheltering” I am doing of my children is causing them any harm.   If anything, I see it paving the way for them to become kinder and more social individuals.

While our children were in school, they were picking up very bad habits.  Rudeness that was unlike them.  They were imitating what they were seeing and hearing from others.  Our oldest had a continuous fight in his mind about whether or not it was ok to repeat something he had heard or saw being done.  If he chose to say something, he learned very quickly that it was not a good thing to say.  So then he would ask us why it was ok for the student he overheard saying it, but not ok for him.  Thus the struggle continued.  With autism, there is no gray area….it is black and white.  It’s right or wrong.  What a world we would live in if we all could live in this world!!  How many misunderstandings could be avoided?

I have to say after a few months from him not being in this setting, he wasn’t struggling with the same things.  We had to make other adjustments, including what he watched on TV.  We were inviting that extra influence into our home.   After these changes, he wasn’t having as many problems with the struggle anymore.  He knew what was right and wrong, and if he wasn’t sure he also asked. 

We allowed him to think freely and this allowed him to be a kid.  We were still in the background gently reminding him about how to be a better person and how to be kind.  But he didn’t have anyone picking on him about what he was wearing or what television show he enjoyed watching.  Many of the kids that he met up with at co-ops and clubs were enjoying this same freedom of being a kid.  They were not worried about texting on a cell phone, they were playing with LEGOs and Transformers….Star Wars….and video games. 

I have noticed that my now 15 year old has grown into a wholly sympathetic and caring young man.  He worries about others and if they are ok.  He can talk to adults and toddlers like they were his best friends.  He doesn’t mind getting down on the floor and playing with a little one.  He doesn’t mind sitting with an elderly individual in a museum and will even carry on a conversation and hold open a door for them. 

He is not perfect, and we have many more large hurdles to overcome when his autism rears its ugly side, but I am very proud of the young man he is becoming.  I was watching him hold open a door the other day, and thought to myself, “What if we hadn’t sheltered him from nasty influences?  Would he have been allowed to be the person he is today?”

I am not saying every kid in public school is a bad influence.  There are so many shining examples there and the educators doing their best to be good influences.  Joey just happened to be most affected by the negative influences that were around him.  I am grateful that we made the decision that allows him to think clearly in his right and wrong world and not struggle as horribly. 

So I do disagree that Homeschooling is Sheltering our Children.  I see it as allowing them to grow to be the people they want to be and not be forced to be someone they are not. 

Week 36 - Marsupials, Sun, Sun and Fun with Friends

We had a wonderful week in Florida.  We started it out by taking the kids to Key West for the weekend.  Joe and I went here on our honeymoon.  And since we were so close, well 5 hours away, we decided to take them for a short trip.  We enjoyed the drive down on Saturday morning.  I almost cancelled though because I woke up with a borderline migraine.  I was the walking dead.  Lots and lots of peppermint oil and Feverfew tea.  But we got going.

We took them to the Lighthouse.  Brayden never climbs lighthouses.  He decided to try this one.  It was a steep metal staircase.  He was freaked out most of the climb, but he did it.

We took them to the Southern most point.

And the Sunset Festival in Mallory Square.

The Shipwreck museum, which we also did on our honeymoon.  The part about wreckers was so interesting.

We did a history walking tour of the area.  We saw the biggest banyan tree.  I didn't even know that a tree could get that big.  It was amazing.  We also saw the roots, they are hanging roots.  That was neat.

After we posed at this tree, we found out that it was used by the KKK to hang people from.

This is the banyan tree.  Largest on the island.  Takes up the whole property.

At the Sunset Festival, Brayden and I were sitting and watching the sun go down. This pelican was right in front of us.  We got to see his mouth as he stretched.  It was pretty amazing.  The bird laid down right in front of us then.

We walked about 7 miles.  This is the next morning.  A very worn out Brayden.

We also visited Fort Zachary Taylor.  A Civil War fort on the island.  The fort never saw any firing action.  

The view was amazing from the top of the fort.  I wouldn't have minded being stationed there.  Minus the wool uniform of course.

While in Key West we also visited Truman's Little White House and did that tour.  It was pretty interesting to see this presidential home and even learn that high level political figures and their families can still stay at this home.  

Caty went on to start reading larger books this week.  She read me all of Red Fish, Blue Fish.  And went through the entire two sets of Bob Books that I brought with us.  She also started the 2nd half of her Singapore Math book for the year.  She was excited!

I tried hard to work with all that was going on.  I made the bed into a desk so I could watch the ocean out the balcony window.

Brayden was well cared for by the front desk staff.  They kept him in M&M Chocolate chip cookies.  They would call up and let us know when they were ready.

We enjoyed the beach as much as we could.

We reserved a cabana on Tuesday when our friends from Miami came to visit.  Joey was resting from the wind and water and watching Psych on his tablet.

Even Brayden got into the Body surfing.  That totally caught me off guard.  He NEVER goes into the ocean.  But out of the blue, he did Tuesday.  He went in every time we went back to the beach.  He really loved it.

Working on science this week.  This week in our Sassafrass science journey, the twins were sabotaged.  We explored a Eucalyptus Forest and a Bamboo Forest.  Here the girls were coloring sheets while I read.  We talked about koalas and how their pouches keep their babies warm.  We heated up my rice pack and used a dish towel to show the warmth that the baby is getting.

We worked on the beach patio for our writing.  The girls have started using Here to Help Learning.  Watch for our review next month.

Our friends gave us National Geographic version of Mad Libs.  We are having so much fun creating the stories.  I had to force the girls to stop the one day because they didn't want to stop making up the stories.

They all successfully finished their January reading challenge.  We started our February reading challenge. 

Joey struggled a bit with finishing his work.  He had plenty of time to finish his assignments, but instead chose to sneak and take constant breaks on his game.  We had lots of discussions this week about taking our student responsibilities seriously.  Brayden tried to pull this one too.  But he realized that I wasn't going to let him get away with it.  Next week we will be working on doing our work thoroughly and not rushing through it.

This was our last week in Florida for a few months, we will be heading out Friday for Indianapolis for our next adventure.  

Hope everyone had a wonderful week! Linking up with other moms on: