Lesson#46 GMSCPP Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory Field Trip

Another trip to Louisville this month was with Evie's college prepatary program group. The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory was their field trip. Ok, so going to a baseball museum really isn't her thing, but a cool bat making factory, and time with her friends makes any field trip fun! They also went to the mall and the girls window shopped at a nice dress store. She had a great time, and maybe learned a thing or two about how baseball bats are made. Once again I am just thankful for this wonderful group of kids and adults that Evie is able to connect with.

Lesson#45 Louisville KY trip with Girlfriends Circus and More!

Evie was invited by a friend  (and friends of ours) for a lovely few days in their 2nd. Home in Louisville KY. There was much fun to be had, trampoline park, carney festival on the river, shopping, and the circus! So the five homeschooled kids had a blast. I love being able to send my child with people I know will care for her as their own.

Trampoline Park

Carney Fun!

Waiting for the Circus!

Serious Coloring Contest

Lesson#44 April House Building

We are building our own home. A safe, environmentally and people friendly home. A home that won't force us to have a 30 year mortgage, a home that will last loner than our lifetime, a home that is uniquely ours and made by our own hands and with the dirt under our feet. We are building a cob house. A house made of clay,sand,and straw.

We started last fall and became stuck without being able to move forward while we were digging for water lines, by an approximate 14+ft. X 5ft rock, at least a foot or more in depth. We weren't going to be able to get if out by ourselves. We are trying to use little machinary (it's just noisy) but had to get some help. With our dirt mover guy, who actually does "get" what we are doing, we were able to get the rock out, get the water and septic lines in, move all our cob dirt to mostly one area, and lay our 6 inches of sub floor. Really saving us months of work trying to do all by hand!

Just within the last week we have begun to mortar the first layer of foundation. We felt very incappable at first, but we are getting it. It won't be the last time we feel inadequate, nor was it the first time, but I know in my heart this is something we were meant to do. Below is our progress this month, minus pics of our mortaring, I'll just save that for later. :) also just a pic of a pretty cob house, not what ours will look like, just pretty!

Evie was working on the foundation and found this "little" guy

Our home site with sub floor in! Foundation being built with the rocks on our property.

Cob Home Examples

Just another example of beauty

Lesson#43 Earth Day Activities

Evie participated in a few different Earth Day activities. She volunteered for the Public Library twice. The first time was held at the Public Libraries Children's Garden, apparently she was the photographer and out of the 112 pics she took, she isn't in any them, other than her hand :) They had activities such as planting, green education, build a small toy with solar power, plant care, ect. She then volunteered through the library at our local community college gathering for Earth Day, which is absolutely fantastic, handing out different information. At the college there were 57 different booths. Soooo many things to learn and do. Everything from bee keeping, CSA shares, permaculture, star lab, conscious eating, recycling, rain barrels, eco-pets, air pollution ;chickens, alpacas, and goat farming, and so much more. Local music was also going on, which is always a treat, this is an event we look forward to every year! This year the reusable bags that they gave out were so cute, they were printed with chalk board ink, so you could write list and such on your bag, and then erase and re-use.

Evie in the Butterfly House

The cute under-bite Alpaca

Solar toy!

Evie's hand as photographer in the Children's Garden at the library

Lesson#42 Geography Fair 2013- China Exhibit

I can't even begin to say how proud of Evie I was while she was working on this project. I will admit that the thought of doing the Good Luck Parade Dragon is what sealed the deal in making her choose China as her country of study. Since she is so self motivated and driven to do well at whatever task she takes on, I just gave her full rein of her project. I told her to obviously learn a little bit about their government, geography of the land, population, ect. but that everything else was up to her. She was to study things she wanted to learn! What a difference that makes. She did ALL her own research, typing, organizing, making, preparing, everything for her project, minus the dragon, which we did as a family project. Evie and I made the body, and Mark and Evie made the head, I helped a little on the head. She used Corel Draw to help her organize her poster boards, so that everything was measured correctly before she printed it out, pretty amazing design actually. Her display was definitely enhanced by the sweet sharing of clothing and objects by a friend of ours. She shared things that she bought in China while there adopting her beautiful daughter.

The Fair itself was very impressive, these kids worked hard! I love homeschool gatherings, they are so positive in re-enforcing why we do what we do. Each family had food made to represent their country (we cheated and bought egg rolls and fortune cookies...it was a busy day!). The kids had beautiful intricate displays, wore costumes, and were very knowledgeable about their country of choice. We had a banquet type of setting with tables for families to eat together, and then there was an opportunity for any child who wanted too( ok, or forced by parents) to speak about their country. Evie didn't really want to speak, she said a line or two and then in our nuclear family way, Evie, her dad, Mark, and I made her dragon move around for the crowd. Evie was so happy her father had arrived from Californian the day before, he is obviously often absent from these kinds of things, and she is always excited to share these events with him when he is here.

Lastly to speak of, four children, in no particular order were given awards. Evie was one of them, she was so thrilled, not only were all of her Parents there, but all THREE sets of grandparents and a cousin too! She received a 15$ check, and a book from our local curriculum writers of  Geography Matters, the Wigger Family. Mostly she received some self confidence in her work. It isn't about winning, all the children did SUPERB, but being awarding something when all your family is there to cheer you on is always fantastic!

Lesson#41 Meet local Authors at the Library Night

This was great! I wish there had been a larger turn out, perhaps we will volunteer to be the PR person for this next year. It was a fun time to take Evie, aspiring writer to meet some other local writers. I didn't take any cash with me to buy books though, I had forgotten. Evie has some money and bought a just released novel by a young 18yr. old local writer, his first book, just been out a month. He was so excited, as you can imagine. He said he began his novel in the 7th grade, just like Evie, and just finally finished, after the millions of edits of course. She met other authors, the rest were much older. Some were great and answered all her questions, and I was surprised that she actually did ask quite a few! One author, a older man, was very condescending and told her "good luck with your LITTLE writing". Afterward Evie said she was going to mail him a copy of "her little writing" when she was published. Way to turn something negative around! Bellow is the cover of the book Evie bought, and the description from Amazon, she is reading it now.

"Tomorrow, at midday, the world as you know it will change." These words marked the beginning of the best and hardest time of Derek Jinx's life. He is swept from an uncomfortable existence and sent far south to a beautiful island in the mid-Atlantic named Calalini, where his trust is irrevocably claimed by his uncle Gabriel Grenth. With the enchanted properties of the island and its inhabitants called Drakes, Derek is quick to love the place. But things aren't as they seem... the boy slowly becomes torn, drawn by people from his past to the Nation of Lleh, where a near omnipresent Dark Lord rules in oppression over all of Calalini... The line between good and evil is far more complex than it so often appears, as the Dark Lord has placed many convincing spies among them. After a brilliant deception where two of their closest are lost, Derek reluctantly feels a call to action when it's revealed who his true father is - the Dark Lord himself. This pressure from his father to join him, the relationship he has with Grenth, and the love Derek feels for a girl that may never be is all culminate to evoke a quality of his character he didn't know he possessed. Slowly, Derek grows from a sixteen year old into his heroic persona, though rarely does he ever feel heroic... Everyone, including Derek, is forced to confront deeply moral questions about the nature of trust, loyalty, love and integrity. Through his coming-of-age, he must learn what it means to be a force for good in their stand against evil, but in the end, when the circumstances require it, he may have no other choice but to confront the possibility of sacrificing himself for the people he loves, and to something bigger than himself...

Lesson#40 April's Red Tent

April Red Tent was amazing, as always. We met at a members home, it was a beautiful day. It was great not to only have my daughter, but my friend Drew with me as well. Drew was going to be going through surgery the next day to have a ovary removed. It was the perfect time to be lifted up by the presence and spirit of all these beautiful caring women. We talked about many things, as a group of 20+ women can. Are topic of discussion was the sharing of our first menses cycle, the sharing of seeds and plants (or in my case eggs), and the sharing of gifts! Our own personal gifts, sometime it is hard for someone to find their gifts to share in this type of group. Those that aren't yogis, massage therapist, gardeners, ect. in our group. It has been a beautiful thing to watch some women realize that perhaps their gift is just to listen to others, share with others, and help them just relax. I shared some partner yoga for families and partners alike. Evie was my partner and demo girl. I could tell it made her very proud to be able to help show the poses, her self confidence was evident and that is always a beautiful thing. There were others sharing massage, garden tips, henna art, and other beautiful things with each other. Of course I don't have pics! I will do my best to remember to take some next month.

This is the actual description for this month....I love re-posting them!
"Spring is getting closer and it will be fun to share some plant starts or seeds with one another. I have many vegetables and herbs to share! What will you bring?
This meeting will you bring your stories of your first menses? Some will be joyful and some will not be. They will be different. If you had a celebration for your first "moon," please share with us. If you do not want to share that you can share something else or not at all. There is no obligation to speak. Listening is also just as good.
Bring your skills! As we learned last time, we are amongst amazing women. Bring massage, bring tarot cards, bring henna, bring herbal knowledge, bring songs to sing, bring your hands to help and you heart. We can set up and exchange with one another. This will be such a treat! Remember you do have skills and something to add to the group, even if all you have is just showing up."

Lesson#39 March Art Day

The March Art Day was a fun time, wish I had a pic of Evie's final project, but I don't. Evie's friend Morgan was visiting from Philly, making it a special art day. Morgan is a homeschooled friend who had moved last year and is very into art. For this month we studied Mandalas, the art of making them, and some of their symbolisms. We discussed how civilizations from around the world have used the circle or geometric shapes of Mandalas for thousands of years. The monks of Tibet use the Mandala as a meditation, and their mandala usually represents the interior of the temple, it is made of sand, therefore impermanent, true to their Buddhist nature. The Star of David was also originally drawn as a mandala. The use of the Mandala for healing is used from art therapy to regular psychology. The art form can be very geometric or free formed. Below are some pics of our Mandala Art Day, the real underlining principal here is more about how to use art in your everyday life, that for thousands of years there was no separation of art and life, it was one.