Apple Picking

I love fall! The air is crisp, the smells are amazing, and it means the holiday season is near.
We began our autumn season by going apple picking at Cider Hill Farm. We are definitely going back!

 We met up with friends and had a great time!

 Of course we sampled the merchandise.

When we got home we made apple butter with our apples with this crockpot recipe (I cut the amount of sugar in half). It tastes so amazing. We use it on waffles, pancakes, peanut butter sandwiches... the possibilities are endless!

Science & History

We were in need of some new books so we hit up one of our favorite spots- the library!

 We started a new unit in science- the circulatory system.

After reading this book, we started with our lab.

 We had to record the kids' heartbeats after various activities.

 Afterwards the kids filled in their graphs to record their findings.

We are now in our 7th chapter of Story of the World (history). We are learning about Hammurabi's code, ziggurats, and Babylonian cuneiform. 

We used this website to translate a bunch of different things from English to Baylonian cuneiform.

 Here are the ziggurat coloring pages on the line!

Creative Writing Class

Last week we joined our first creative writing class. Jayden has always been into writing little stories in his notebooks. When I first told him about the class, he was really excited to participate. And of course, Caitlin is always up for new things.

The class had three activities. The first one had the kids draw a bug and use the legs to write adjectives about themselves.

The next activity was writing a short autobiography. We brought in pictures that the kids picked out to add to their stories.

Before the kids started their autobiographies, Amanda (the teacher) shared hers.

And last, the kids got to write something called a "Snot Essay"- which involved anything gross that they wanted to write about.

Jayden is so anti dirt and mess that this was all he could come up with. It says "This is me drinking mud." Below it is a picture of him holding mud.

You could totally hear the disgust in his voice when he read it aloud.

Cait went all out with hers. She told me what to write and it said: "I like to smell gross things. I love smelling daddy's belly button. It smells like dirty butt. I love when Jayden farts. It smells like green beans. I love calling people to smell my poop. Sometimes my poop is green and sometimes it is brown. I poop really big. My favorite shoes are my pink shoes. They make my feet smell like vinegar and poop." Then she drew a picture of her stinky pink shoes.

It was sooooo hot that day so the kids played in the slip and slide at Amanda's house for an hour.

Later that evening Jayden and Caitlin finished their autobiographies. Here is Jayden writing about how much he loves football and Tom Brady.

He also wrote about Caitlin, laughing the whole time. He ended it with "She makes me laugh like I'm in heaven." (which is his way of saying he loves her!)

Here is a picture Caitlin drew of various flips, twists, and splits she wants to try when she goes to gymnastics next year.

We can't wait until the next class next month!

Old Sturbridge Village

Last week we went on a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village. This place was so cool!

Old Sturbridge Village depicts what life was like there in the early 19th century. A lot of the employees are dressed in full costume, from bonnets and frocks to vests and top hats!

I took 174 pictures here, and while I won't share them all, I will be sharing a lot!

We all tried the bed and it was SO hard and lumpy. Definitely unlike our mattresses at home.

We showed the children how clothes were washed and dried back then.

This man showed us a child's toy, a heavy wooden rectangle with a wooden ball inside.

We all went inside of a church and learned that people paid for their pews. The richer people sat up front and had softer benches. They also brought foot warmers. The poorer people sat in the back on the hard benches.

 We visited a graveyard.

We walked into a store that would be equivalent to today's Walmart or Target. They sold everything from fabric to shoes, from food to medicine.

We checked out the differences between civil rights for men and women during the 1830s.

 We saw how bread was baked during this time. It was definitely a long process!

 The kids pumped water.

The kids participated in a cooking class. They  worked together to make a dessert called Jumbles.

They cooked it according to how someone in the 19th century would bake it. Here is Hayzel using a whisk made similar to what they used back then.

The recipe called for 1 egg, 1c flour, 1/4c butter, 1/2c powdered sugar, 1/2tsp rosewater, 1/2tsp nutmeg, and 1/2tsp cinnamon. 

 One of the moms shaped the dough into circles and it went onto a cookie sheet. 

The teacher popped it into their "oven" and set it in front of the fire to bake.

While waiting for the Jumbles to bake, the kids also made a 19th century lemonade *aka fresh lemonade*. The recipe, adapted from The Cooks Oracle, 1823 calls for one tblsp of citric acid with a few drops of quintessence of lemon peel. Mix by degrees with a pint of water, sweetened to your taste. 

 

We saw a couple of different mills.

 

We visited a blacksmith. He explained that during this time, a blacksmith was only a part time job for farmers, whose main job was tending to their crops. They typically would not hire anyone because it wasn't cost effective for them to hire help. Sometimes a neighbor would send their son over to practice the trade, but the farmer was not responsible for paying him, feeding him, or providing his clothes (3 outfits a year!).

 We dropped in to meet the Bixbys.

 We went to some other house where they made cheese. It STUNK!

She's peeing!

 

 The end!

So what did we learn from this trip? That we are pretty damn grateful for modern day living!