Iowa

We had a fun trip to Iowa.  The kids took 4th place at World Finals!!  So impressive!

 (waiting to go on)

They were all feeling under the weather on the morning of the performance, but pushed through and did great!  Here is their vehicle they designed, using a swing as the propulsion system:

Grandma, her new husband Bob and my brother David all came from Omaha to watch the kids perform.

On our way to Iowa, we stayed a night in Chicago.  We spent most of our time in Millenium Park, admiring all the art installations, playing the in water features and the boys checking out the skate park.

We meandered along the lakefront.

We wandered to Buckingham Fountain and saw Pat Sajack and Vanna White filming for Wheel of Fortune (I was so excited that I actually *knew* who celebrities where - it's rare!)

Blossom made new friends as always:

We even got a great group photo before leaving to find Chicago deep dish pizza (mission was successful!)

Iowa was of course filled with all sorts of cute moments.  Reed loved having the mix of teen activity and family time and of course new travel adventures!  Blossom soaked up all the attention from being the only little one there!

The return trip took us through St. Louis where we explored City Museum, which is basically a super fun big kid/adult playground.  Giant slides and ferris wheel on the roof, even!

Blossom was not a big fan of all the walkways and climbing paths that were made of welded metal - she didn't want to be able to see through them!

But she did dig the castle!  Everything behind her in the photo is part of the museum, so many tunnels and things to explore - and this was just the outdoor part!

While in St. Louis, we walked to the arch, of course!

It's so fun taking a trip with a kid who is so easy-going and finds the beauty even in the empty field next to the hotel!

I'm so proud of the teens for going out in style.  This was their last year doing OM, and they won first place at States plus a Renatra Fusca award for extreme creativity.  Then went on to rock out the World Competition and come in 4th!  A good way to kick off the Summer as well :)

Fire Station!

I started a Young Homeschoolers Play Group a couple months ago and it's going really well!  I find around age 4 and 5 that it's hard for homeschoolers, as most of the friends they have made go off to school.  So, I started this group to build community for Blossom's age group.

We do a couple park days and a couple field trips each month.  One for this month was the fire station!

Kids got to climb in and explore the various trucks.  Then, they saw a firefighter put on all his gear so they won't be scared of him if he's in their house to rescue them!  This was everyone's favorite part.

This fire station was downtown.  Afterwards, we walked across the street to the big park and splash pad.  Blossom hasn't been here in such a long time, it was seemingly all new to her, and I was surprised that she jumped right in!

Great way to cool off on a hot July day!!  Hope you all are having lots of fun Summer adventures as well!

Just the 3 of Us

The boys are in Memphis for 2 weeks with their grandparents.  Usually in this time, I get to work a lot, and get some good time with ZB (doing activities just geared for her).  She's going to camp at her preschool this coming week, and then a VBS at the church on our block the following week.  Hopefully she'll like both of them, so she'll be staying busy (at least in the mornings)!

A few days ago, we met with some other homeschooling families with young kids to go to the Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary.  I haven't been there in about 16 years, I can't believe I'd never taken the kids.  What a sweet spot!  The favorite spot of most of the children was this climbing tree:

They climbed for a solid half hour and then wandered down the path to ooh and aah over all the turtles in the lake :)  We have lots of fun activities planned with this sweet group this Summer.  It seems even in break times, we stay awfully busy!

Gray Fossil Dig

Just over the Tennessee border, in the town of Gray, is an active fossil dig.  The younger kids and I had a really fun day today accompanying Clay's high school Earth Science group on a field trip to the dig site.

The DOT was actually bulldozing for a new road and starting seeing bones.  They explained this is quite common, and they have paleontologists that routinely come check it out, usually finding bones as old as the Ice Age.  At this site, researchers found bones that were even older, back when this part of the country was very warm (they found an alligator)... so cool!  They have also discovered two new (extinct) species at this dig site - new kinds of red panda and badger.  Also prehistoric bears, tapirs, a mastadon, etc.

We had a great tour guide show us the active dig areas and patiently answer questions from all the kids, including Blossom asking things like, "When will it be Saturday?" and "What will happen if it's night and a girl comes out of a volcano that comes out of a mountain, that comes out of a rock?"  Hahaha!

The guide said she was very impressed with our group.  She said most teens come through and are very disinterested (or at least trying to act like it), and don't pay attention, just goofing off the entire tour.  Our group was asking lots of questions and actually listening (yay homeschoolers!)

The labs are inside the adjoining museum.  Researchers were busy cleaning and examing bones.  It was pretty neat to be able to see this work in person.  To preface this photo, I'll say that whenever Clay saw me snapping a photo, he decided to be totally goofy, so half of the photos I came home with look like this:

The museum was small, but pretty neat.  Some of the kids brought home applications to volunteer as site workers this Summer!

No one in the group had to be home yet, so we decided to spend more time in Tennessee.  We headed to Bays Mountain.  It's only a $4 entry per car, and it was really beautiful!  There was a lot to do there, and we picked the ropes course for this group, and a quick walk to see some of the nature center animals.  We had hoped to visit the planetarium at the end, but the teens found a really great hike, so we followed their lead on that one.

The low ropes course was intended for team building.  The kids had a blast on it!

On the hike, the boys had discovered what looks to be an old dam or bridge maybe.  It is all surrounded by forest now, but apparently used to have a road, as they also found a car at the bottom of it.  The whole structure was semi-dilapidated, which I guess makes it all the more desirable to a teenage boy!

ZB was not allowed to go on top of the structure (lots of holes over a pretty big drop), so she settled with just striking some poses next to it ;)

The group of boys (7 of them, I believe) went off to explore the woods on their own for a while, and ZB found her inner mountain goat and was rock climbing all over the place!  It was really the perfect place for it.

If you ever find yourself near the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee, and have a couple hours to spare, I highly recommend checking out the dig site or Bays Mountain.  I'm sure we'll be back!

Talent Show

The Asheville Homeschool Talent Show was this week.  My kids have never participated before, and this year they surprised me and (very last minute) decided to do it!  Blossom got to go first because she was the youngest participant, and she was thrilled!  Not even a little nervous :)

She then did a quick-change off stage, and 2 acts later, she and Reed went back on stage to breakdance.  I didn't get any video of the two of them, but did get Blossom's ballet performance.  Clay took care of music for both acts, so everyone helped out!

A Mica Hike

Mica was our first choice for Blossom's name.  Boy or girl, didn't matter, we loved the name.  When she was born, it just didn't seem to fit, and we obviously didn't use it.  But I still love the name.  When we went on a rock & mineral hike in Burnsville with Clay's Earth Science class this week, there was mica EVERYWHERE!  Little slivers and big chunks, it sparkled along the whole trail.

I loved getting to show Blossom what it was, and she loved collecting the shiny pieces of rock nearly looked like little pieces of glass.  However, she doesn't have nearly the attention span for an entire rock observing hike, so she was quickly distracted by pretty plants and climbing rocks.

The teens had been studying various types of rocks and minerals, and were eager to find some treasures of their own. 

We hiked into Ray Mine, which is an old mica mine.  Well, we didn't go *into* the mines, that would of course be ridiculously dangerous.  We hiked around them, peered down some old mine shafts and
poked around the creek for rocks washed down from the mountain top.

The class came equipped with rock hammers and axes for getting inside large rocks to identify the minerals within.  They even let Blossom help (I love these guys :)

Hopefully we'll get sneak in some more Winter hikes on the rare sunny days!

Asheville Urban Trail

At the thrift store, I found a book called Artful Asheville.  It is a walking guide to the Urban Trail.  I doubt it is published any more, as this edition is about 10 years old and there are definitely outdated parts.  The Urban Trail is an art walk through downtown Asheville that is split into 5 different walks, with various themes (frontier, black history, etc).  All the stops are at interesting architectural sights, statues, murals, etc.

We found some homeschool friends to do this with, and set off on the first walk.  The kids are here with the pigs that are set in a path of footprints, representing first the Cherokee, then the drovers taking their animals to markets in TN and SC.  The metal edging is representing the street cars that used to go through downtown when it was first a bustling city.

The giant iron in front of the Flat Iron Building.  This building inspired others around the country, has marble floors and person-operated elevators.

We couldn't go inside the Basilicca since it was Sunday, that will have to wait until the next walk!  We also found out really neat things like the Grove Arcade was meant to be 20 stories tall, but is only 4 because the owner died.  That would have been huge in our downtown!  We also found out that there used to be a huge hill right in downtown, but it was flattened out and the dirt was used to make Coxe Ave (a main road in downtown now).  I love this kind of local history!

Back at home, Blossom is still just tickled that she's old enough to be allowed to hold the chickens.  I straw-baled off a section on the side of the house for them, so they can't wander too far.  We do have to put them back in their box in the afternoon when the big chickens are let out, or else the small ones get picked on.

FIRST PLACE!! And my desperate plea for help!

These fabulous Odyssey of the Mind middle school kids won FIRST PLACE for their problem and age division in the North Carolina OM State Competition!!! This means that they can advance to the World Competition of Odyssey of the Mind - this is in Lansing, Michigan at the end May.

They are such rock stars!  I can't post a video of their performance until after the World Competition, but I can post photos of this amazing group of homeschoolers.  Here are the kids in their "Zombies in Candyland" costumes. 

Here's what they had to do:  This team had a "vehicle" problem.  They had to design 3 different vehicles, each with a different propulsion system.  These vehicles have to run through simple obstacle courses a few times, and each time carry a piece of an animal.  The vehicles have to travel a certain distance to deliver the pieces to the same spot.  The animal then has to be assembled and *then* the animal has to do a trick.
The kids have to make up a skit to build a story around vehicles, putting an animal together, etc. and the skit can't be over 8 minutes long.
Do you think you could do that?  Do you think you could have done that when you were 12 years old??  These kids aren't allowed to have any outside assistance.  The role of coaches is not to give them ideas or help make anything, but to help them stay focused and to make (seemingly neverending) trips to the hardware store for more supplies!  They are limited to a $100-ish budget.
These kids couldn't decide between a Candyland theme or a Zombie theme, so they combined the two - setting a zombie attack on Candyland.
No wonder they won first place - they combined the construction and creative propulsion of 3 vehicles, fabulous kid-made costumes and props, an original (and hilarious) song that actually had judges wiping laughter tears from their faces, and a magical zombie-fighting dog named Tootsie.  Those other teams didn't really have a chance ;)

Of course the kids are so thrilled and the parents are excited for them!  The reality of this, though is that nearly all OM teams are from schools.  They have funding!  Since we are homeschoolers, we do not have a school to back us up on getting these kids to Michigan.  WE NEED HELP!!

We have to raise $5,000 in 19 days!  That's right - Five Thousand Dollars, People!!!  We are having bake sales, selling hot lunches at our homeschool co-op, doing 2 yard sales, the kids are being hired out to do yard work & fence staining, but that is not nearly enough.  We need donations and business sponsors.

It's so easy to donate any amount, just by clicking here:
http://ahcom.weebly.com/index.html

Are you an Asheville business that would like to sponsor these amazing kids in their journey to the World Odyssey of the Mind competition?  You can find that information here:
http://ahcom.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/1/2/4812269/world2013omsponsorsheet2.pdf

You can also follow the team's progress by "liking" them on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AshevilleHomeschoolOM

Read even more about them in our recent press release:
http://www.mountainx.com/article/49399/Asheville-Homestead-Co-Op-will-send-kids-team-to-Odyssey-of-the-Mind-World-Finals

Thank you so much for any support and helping get the word out about these great kids!

- Julie

Harry Potter Class

I am teaching two classes at our Monday Homeschool Co-op this semester. One of them is "Harry Potter" (aka "Hogwarts Correspondence School") for 8-11 year olds.  This class filled up rather quickly and I am the teacher only because Reed BEGGED me to make this class happen.  Yikes!  I love Harry Potter and all, but 9 weeks might be hard to fill.  Here's what we've done so far:

Week 1: Make wands out of newspaper, hot glue and spray paint (loosely following the directions *here*).  While the spray paint dried, we played a creative thinking game.  I wrote down some Harry Potter spells on pieces of paper and turned them face-down on the floor in the middle of our circle of kids.  When it's your turn, you choose a spell from the pile and you have to use the wand to cast it on someone else.  The creative thinking part is that you have to tell what creative reason you have for doing it.  There were no spells that would hurt someone.  For example, they might choose "Ferula" (creates a bandage or splint).  The child who is 'it' has to say the spell at someone else and tell why that person would need a bandage or splint.  Were they accidentally trampled by an out-of-sorts hippogriff?  Did they fall off their broomstick during a game of Quidditch?

Week 2:  Care of Magical Creatures class, part I.  Hagrid (the Hogwarts grounds keeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher) sent us a letter (by owl post of course) describing our lesson.  The kids had to use the materials provided (books and magazines from the thrift shop) to create their own magical creature.  They had to name the creature and tell what powers it possessed.  There were some really awesome creations... half-monkey, half-dolphin for example!  One girl even wrote a poem about her creation.  Great creative writing exercise!

Week 3:  That is next week!  I was at a yard sale recently and saw a book called How to Raise and Keep Your Dragon for 50 cents.  Sold!  This sounded like the perfect thing for class ideas.  Sure enough, once I saw all the detailed drawings and description of dragons, including their various eggs, and I realized the next class is the day after Easter, I knew we had to go on a Dragon Egg Hunt.

This will be a totally fun day, maybe some geography will be discussed.  This hunt will take place in our own Forbidden Forest (we really do have a wooded area at co-op that is usually off-limits to the kids).  I've had a blast making dragon eggs.  First we had to decide what to fill the eggs with.  Candy in a dragon egg?  I think not.  How about slime?  Clay had fun helping me make this simple slime from borax, glue and water.

Of course some pretty pebbles:

I made some fun magnets with Potter quotes:

I also used some temporary tattoos of snakes & spiders (Chamber of Secrets reference of course!), and well of course some money... every dragon has a good stash, I would assume.  Each kid is only getting 50 cents, so not really breaking the bank there :)  In fact, I think these ideas would be great for anyone who is trying to do a candy-free egg hunt this holiday.
Then I picked 6 of the easier-looking eggs from our book and got to work.  Spray paint, sharpies and a little hot glue made some awesome dragon eggs!

Let the hunt begin!

And in other news, I just have to share that even though my boys have their fair share of bickering, this is what I heard from my sewing table last night:
"Stop it!  It's my turn to put a diaper on her"
"No it's not, you did it last time!"
They aren't too keen on changing a wet diaper, but if she's already streaking naked around the house (happens more than I'd like to admit), they are proud that they can cover that bottom right back up.  And look at that patient look on her face: