Pumpkin Farm Field Trip

Today, we went on a field trip with some other homeschooling families to Bob's Corn and Pumpkin Farm. First, we took a tractor to the corn maze, where the kids had to find five color markers and color their fingers. Then, we got back in the tractor and rode over to the big pumpkin field full of little pumpkins. The kids got to each pick out a pumpkin to bring home. Finally, we rode back to the beginning and they ended the trip with a fun ride in a cow train (cow cars pulled by a fast tractor), which the kids couldn't stop talking about afterward. We didn't necessarily learn very much, but had tons of fun!

A fun tire swing.

In the corn maze.

They were just running through the pumpkin patch having fun before they realized they actually got to take one home.

The favorite attraction: The cow train.

Reptile Zoo and Withdrawing from CVA

We went to the Reptile Zoo on Monday, which was a blast. But more about that later. First, the big news of the week is that we withdrew Skyla from CVA yesterday and signed her up for a really neat public alternative learning program at Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe (20 minute drive).

The way Sky Valley works, Skyla gets 7 "credits" to choose from a huge variety of classes, which are each worth usually 1 "credit". The school year for them started three weeks ago, so there weren't a ton of open classes, but there were enough for her to get signed up for four. So on Fridays, Skyla has:

• Math In Many Ways: They play math games and have hands on activities to supplement the math curriculum at home.
• US & World Geography: Reading maps and learning about countries and states. Today, they went outside and drew a map of the school.
• Dramatic Fun & Games: Skyla's favorite class so far.
• Art Exploration 2D/3D: They have been making paper mache masks. Luckily, the teacher had an extra that had been made, so Skyla was able to join in today and paint one.

Skyla had tons and tons of fun at her classes today and is really excited for next Friday.

Now on to the Reptile Zoo visit. We went on Columbus Day, so Chris had the day off and was able to come along. There were so many snakes, lizards, alligators, and turtles to view, along with several types of bugs. Penton's favorite part was the alligator in the water and Skyla's favorite part was holding the rosy boa.

Skyla holding a rosy boa. Penton wasn't the biggest fan of holding one.

Feeling a tortoise's shell.

The snake came over to inspect Skyla's finger.

"An alligator goes 'chomp!'"

Pete and Re-Pete, the two-headed turtle (yep, that's really two heads you see coming out of one shell!)

One of Penton's favorite parts was being able to read what the reptiles ate and when they were awake using the profile pictures.

First Spelling List & some Joan Miro

Skyla completed her first spelling sheet with short a's. She got the hang of spelling pretty quickly and we've been able to skip a lot of steps and move on to short i's and short o's right away.

We also learned about another artist, Joan Miro, who was from Spain. He was a surrealist, which is a very hard term for a kindergartner to remember, apparently. He would often start pictures by blobbing paint onto a canvas and then adding eyes and a tail or whatnot and going from there. His style was right up Skyla's alley, and she had a great time doing the abstract art collage for this week's lesson.