Busy Life

It has been a long time since I have posted.  It has been busy but good.  Ethan is quick to volunteer to shovel the driveway.  He is not as enthusiastic about his language arts!  I try to encourage him to do the things he likes while always working on the things he struggles with or does not like!  He is happy working in the great outdoors, however!

We had another fun day at the MFA.  Today Ethan and Aaron learned about contemporary art.  I'm so glad for this program.  I do not have a proclivity for art!  These are the creations that they made after being inspired by the art they viewed.  Aaron's creation is on the left and Ethan's creation is on the right.

 

The ride home from Boston on a Friday afternoon is harrowing and makes me realize how long Jonathan's drive is every day.  We made it back in time to feed a dog that we are caring for and take Ethan to karate.  He was promoted to an orange belt and received a stripe this week.  We are weary after a long week, and happy to be home and watching a movie!

Work and Play

 

The boys are working on their lawnmowing skills.  Together they can finish a lawn quickly.  After they finished ours, they went down to a neighbors house and did hers.  They are hoping to start a little business.  They are not too keen on raking, however!  We will be starting that chore this week.

Dueling Lawnmowers?

 

Since Aaron didn't have surgery, it is time for him to get more strength in his leg.  Jonathan set up a bike trainer for him to get some exercise.  If he rides the bike, he gets to watch TV for 30 minutes.  Since Aaron enjoys TV, it is a win - win!

 

Aaron dressed up in Jon's biking attire

 

Even though the colors are not as vibrant this year, Fall is still such a beautiful time in New England.  Here are some pictures of a wooded path where we take Danny to walk every day!  Lucky us and lucky Danny!

 

 We mostly see the back of Danny in the woods. 

 

 The Autumn sun coming through the trees.



About Face

It has been hard to make the switch to not having surgery.  Although I do not want Aaron to have surgery, I know that it is necessary to help him function better.  To get geared up for a big surgery that took 6 months to schedule and then have it cancelled was a big adjustment.

But, we moved on the next day to continue with school.  Fortunately, the curriculum is all planned out.  So, it is easy to pick up and keep going!

Both boys have their first math test under the belts, and they both got A's!  They are progressing nicely in math, and I really like the curriculum.  They both are starting to do some basic algebra - like x + 9 = 13, what is x.  Or n/12 = 2, what is n.  So, they are feeling comfortable manipulating equations to find an unknown.  So cool.  I'm kind of excited I still remember how to do all of this too.  Math was not always my best subject, but I remember quite a bit of it.

History is really neat as well.  We are continuing to learn about the Civil War time period.  There are something like 13 chapters from 4 different books that we are reading to understand the Civil War!  How awesome is it to dig into this time period and understand all that was going on.  Yesterday we talked about the precursors to the Civil war - like the Missouri Compromise and what Polk tried to do to placate the south and the north.  Interesting.  Today we are starting to read an photobiography of Lincoln.  While talking about these historical happenings, we look to see where it all happened to incorporate geography.  And, then we also incorporate critical thinking as we assess why Lincoln could have been elected when he was not popular in the South - Lincoln did not win the popular vote!

Here are some pictures of the kids hard at work on their studies.  We also saw a hawk outside our window one morning.  I wasn't sure if it was a falcon or a hawk.  Google is awesome because we can have our questions answered at the stroke of a key!

Aaron working hard on a math and Ethan practicing the guitar (he also plays violin)


Our faithful dog, Danny, at my feet during lessons.

My husband says that bird looks like a pigeon - but I am telling you that it is a hawk!

 

Surgery Postponed

Unfortunately surgery was postponed.  Aaron has an upper respiratory infection and an ear infection.  The anesthesiologist did not want to take the risk of doing such a long surgery when Aaron was not feeling well.  So, back to the school schedule today or tomorrow!

Pre-Operative Visit

We had a long drive into Boston on Friday.  Aaron was thoroughly examined, for sure!  We met with the surgeon, nurse, and anesthesiologist.  He also had x-rays, a CT scan, and blood drawn.  All in all we were there for 6 hours.  Unfortunately we missed the Museum of Fine Arts program.  It took a long time to drive home because of the rain too.  We were all tired and anxious to get home to rest.

Aaron woke up with a cold on Saturday morning.  We are waiting to find out if he can still undergo surgery tomorrow (Tuesday).  He was diagnosed with an ear infection earlier today and is on amoxicillin.  Just to keep things interesting . . . Will update with more information once I get it.

Beautiful Fall Days

This morning started off a bit more stressful than I would have liked.  Today we had some doctor's appointments to get ready for Aaron's surgery which is coming up on Tuesday, October 2nd.

In the late afternoon we went to the Deerfield Fair in Deerfield, NH.  What fun we had!  Ethan got to sit in every single tractor available, we ate yummy food, and we saw a blacksmith demonstration, cows, horse pulls, oxen, and so on.  Of course we also tried out some of the carnival rides.  Ethan was not too sure if they were safe, but he ventured on the Scrambler after much prodding.  He ended up having a good time.  Further proof that he should ALWAYS listen to his mother.


Blacksmith Demonstration and the Scrambler!

Aaron eating his favorite carnival fare and Ethan in one of the various tractors.

 

Tomorrow we will be in Boston for pre-operative appointments all day and hopefully to the Museum of Fine Arts for the art class.

Tree House Progress

This is an example of what the boys made at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  This weekend Ethan, Aaron and Jon continued working on the treehouse! Here are some updated pictures

Nervous System!

I find it hard to come up with good titles for the blog - I guess it is good that the audience is my family.

We are finished learning about the cardiovascular system and have moved on to the nervous system.  Yesterday we made some models of the cerebrum, cerebellum and the brain stem as well as a model of a neuron.  Good hands on fun!

 

 

Today we had school work in the morning.  We are learning about the Civil War.  It is very interesting, and I am learning a lot!  We also drove down to Boston to the Museum of Fine Arts.  On Friday afternoons they have a class for home schoolers.  Today the boys learned about ancient civilizations - mostly Egypt.  Then they did a project after touring some of the museum.  I'll post a picture later.

Tuesday is a Busy Day

Tuesdays are our really busy day, but it is a lot of fun too.  We started off with school work and accomplished quite a bit.  We had to review to be ready for our science class.  Here is Aaron with the thumbs up showing off his picture of the heart.

But, we left the house in a mess as we headed to the farm to pick some more corn.  Along with a couple of other local groups, we picked corn for a local food pantry.  We had fun once again and agreed that full time farming would be very tiring (but rewarding).

 Back of the van full of bags of corn!

Ethan posing on the ATV after the corn was removed.

 

After a quick lunch - we were very hungry after all that hard work - we went to a science class where another mom went over the heart and cardiovascular system.  We meet with 3 other home school families and the moms take turns teaching.  It is nice to get together with other families.

 

 

After science class, we took Ethan to karate and then came home to eat and now we are getting ready for bed.  The kids want to wrestle, but I am ready for bed.



Treehouse Progress

 

The treehouse is progressing nicely.  Jonathan put all 4 braces on.  Ethan will be ready to add the floor pieces.





Out on the Town

Thursday we had a good morning of school work - spelling, grammar, writing, math, science.  In the afternoon, Ethan was able to visit our town police station for a tour.  He was so happy!  He had a list of questions, and the officers were so kind to us.  Ethan now knows what it will take to be a police officer.  So, who knows?

Here is a picture of Ethan outside the police station.  Silly mom forgot to take pictures inside (I had some questions too!)

After the police station and a snack (very important, never to be neglected), we went to a program for developmentally disabled adults.  The boys played games with them and did a craft.  We had a nice time!

One of the games that they played was bowling with these big pins and ball!  Here is an action shot of Aaron knocking down the pins!

 

 

After that, Ethan had karate.  Here he is in his gi.  He is a yellow belt and works hard every class.

 



Then we came home and I finished putting together dinner (thank goodness for the crock pot).  Then it was bedtime - well after the boys had a wrestling match with their father.  Friday some more fun!

A Little Bit of Everything

Yesterday we had a full day of school and enjoyed some cooking as well.

The thumbs up seems to be the pose of choice these days.

Today we went to our local farm and helped pick corn and other chores.  It was so nice to be out in the sun and to work hard for a bit.  I think that we will all sleep well tonight.

School Year Begins

We started home schooling in earnest on Tuesday.  We have a new history curriculum which we are all enjoying.  We are continuing with Human Anatomy in Science.  In Language arts, we are working hard at writing this year as well as spelling.  More details to come as we go along.  For now, here are some pictures of the first week.  Next week we will add more subjects - we have to figure out a way to get Latin in there!  We also will add some activities.  Hope you enjoy the updates!

Ethan and Aaron fixed the go cart that had been broken.  They are enjoying riding around the yard after school is done.

Aaron and Ethan wanted to set up a tent in the back yard.  I asked if they knew how to set up a tent.  They told me that Grandpa showed them how! (OK, they needed a little help, but did most of it themselves.)

Ethan is hard at work keeping our yard in somewhat good shape.

We are learning about the cardiovascular system in Science.  This is a model of the heart using graham crackers, marshmellows, and frosting.

Aaron is more of my hands-on learning student.  He is working on the heart model.