Iditarod

John came over and talked with us about his experience riding in the Iditarod in 2000.  We had talked last week about how the northern route is used in even years, and odd years - the southern route.  Alex remembered that information and knew that the year John was there, they raced the northern route.  John rode from Anchorage to the first stop, Yentna station.  (That's one day.)  He brought pictures to show us of the Iditarod banquet in Anchorage, the starting of the race in Anchorage and some pictures along the trail.  He had beautiful pictures of the glaciers in the bay.  The dogs that were used on his sled were Malamutes, but he could not remember the lead dog's name.

 

Alex wearing a worn dog bootie he brought home.

Nicolas wearing his musher hat. (It was a little big.)

It was a good talk and we learned a lot.  The musher he rode with was Aaron Burmeister.  We will be sure to watch some coverage of the Iditarod in March this year and watch for Aaron and his placing.

Sled dogs

We read Baby in a Basket by Gloria Rand this week.  It's the story of a woman and her 2 daughters who leave the dark days of winter in Alaska and head to Washington on a horse drawn sleigh.  The trip will take 10 days on the sleigh and then 5 days on a steamship.  This story is based on a true story and details some trouble they have along the way.  In order to transport her 4 month old daughter, she lines a basket with furs and the baby travels in the basket.  We took a rabbit trail with this one and talked about sled dogs and the Iditarod race.   I got the unit study as a freebie from homeschool e-store.  We only used parts of the unit study.  Here are pictures of the lapbooks we created.

These are of Alex's book:

This one is Nicolas's book open:

We talked about the first uses of a dog sled and the diptheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska in 1925.  We talked about the 4 main breeds used for dog sledding and a little more detail about the Siberian Husky.  Then we looked at the different lengths of races and the positions each dog holds on the dog sled.  Finally we learned the different Musher commands. 

Last night, Nicolas was running through the house around corner from the living room into the kitchen yelling "Haw" which means turn right, and "Gee" - turn left like he was in a dog sled race.  I thought it was very funny!

Tuesday night was Alex's scout pack meeting.  Every year in January, they play a game called Dog Sled races.  I had forgetten about them doing it this week, but it worked out great with our lessons.  Here is picture.  Alex is the one with his head turned behind him.  They are pulling another scout in a sled.

On Monday, we have a friend coming to the house that has raced in the Iditarod several years ago.  He will be talking briefly with the boys about his experience and showing them some pictures.  I will post something about that next week.

 

Wonderous quiet time

After having trouble for awhile to find a time for my devotions, I decided that it was time I instituted quiet time in our house when everyone would have their chance to be with the Lord.  today was the first time.  Granted, we have had "quiet time" in our house before, but it usually ended up with the boys playing in their rooms (usually together) to give me a chance to catch up on computer work, housework, supper, etc.  Today I stated the rules:

10 minutes for devotions - Alex reads his Bible with his devotional book, Nicolas listens to his Bible on tape, and I read my Bible - then prayers for all of us.

The next 20 minutes the boys each listen to learning CDs they got for Christmas - Alex listens to his States and Capitals CD and Nicolas listens to his math Addition and Subtraction CD while they play quietly building with Legos or blocks, or coloring.  They are not allowed to talk to each other until the time is up.

It was an experiment today to see if the boys could do this without talking to each other.  If you know our house, the boys have the entire upstairs to themselves and have no doors on their rooms.  They can each look into each other's room without hardly trying.  I told them if they have trouble keeping quiet and looking at what the other is doing, I would have to make curtains to hang.  It won't keep out the noise, but may give them each more privacy.

I'm hoping each day, the boys will enjoy having time to themselves and it will help with their arguing during the remainder of the day.  They each need time to themselves since they are together all the time.  We would like this time to develop into something they can each do away from the house, but for now, we will have to work with this.

 

Field trip day!!!

It was soooo nice this week to only have 4 days of "home" school and take day as a field trip day.  Minnetrista Center in Muncie had a program, "It Stings Your Toes and Bites Your Nose" on winter survival.  We talked about hibernation of animals and how frost effects plants.  Also, how does the winter weather effect humans?  We started out with a professor from Ball State speak to us about hibernation and show us a real live bat!  We got to touch it and he showed us the wings.

Then we got to see more animals - a brown snake and a box turtle.

Each child made a greenhouse to show that when the soil is warm, the water in the soil doesn't freeze and when the air around the plant is warm, it will grow.  Then they experimented with ice and salt.  What happens to the ice when salt is placed on it?

Here's the result!

 

Something unexpected:

When we went upstairs, I couldn't believe one of the exhibits!

An entire room dedicated to Anne Frank.  We walked around the room and looked at pictures of her family's secret apartment and family and looked at a timeline of events. One corner was called the Memory Room.  After reading all about Anne's life, guest can write a note about what her life meant, what they feel about the war, or any other thoughts they have and tape it to the wall.  Each of my boys wrote a little something.

 

Back in the saddle

Our first day back to school in 3 weeks: It was hard to get back in a routine, but boy is it nice to have a plan for the day!  We began our day reading The Harmonica which is illustrated by Ron Mazellan.  We met Ron last year at IWU where he gave our kids some pointers in drawing.  Alex did not remember the name, but does remember learning to draw characters from Ice Age.  Nicolas was in preschool at that time, so he did not get to go. 

The Harmonica takes place during World War II.  The character and his family were Jewish and were taken by Nazi soldiers and split up.  The boy didn't see his parents again, but remembers them everytime he played Schubert on his harmonica that his father gave to him. 

We talked about how music makes us feel and looked at the colors the illustrator used in the book.  When the character was happy, he used warm colors and after the character was taken, he uses cool colors.  The boys both related to the story.  Nicolas decided to try to draw a picture using the technique we learned.  We decided that an artist make us feel how he wants us to feel using color.  Nicolas wanted us to feel happy, so he used warm colors.

Alex was to write about the power of music.  He decided a composer could make his listeners feel differently depending on the beat of the music and the chords used.  He also fulfilled a Cub Scout requirement by writing about music.

The next few days we'll talk more about the Holocaust.  I'm not getting into the actual war much, but mainly talking about Hitler and what he and his people did to the Jews.  We will read about Anne Frank and a couple of other short stories written by people who lived through the Holocaust.  (Anne Frank did not.)  I would like them to learn about Corrie ten Boom also, but I think it might be too much.  Maybe next time we get into WWII.