Homeschooling A Houseful

Yes, I do realize it's not August anymore, but well like they say better late than NEVER!!! In August our field trip group, went to a ladies home who spins wool and weaves yarn. It was very interesting, and hands on. Here's a few highlights: Showing us her small spinning wheel. Explaining the process from wool... to yarn and how to begin! and did I mention a YAK? Yes she has one, and uses it's wool too!! More field trips to come, and updates on our houseful, soon!!!!

For our May Field Trip we went to Fort Buenaventura .... a lovely park in Ogden. Okay I have lived here, most of all my life, and I don't think I've ever been here! I hope to return soon, with Papa Bear and enjoy it again... it's beautiful there. We had a Wilderness Survival Man there, who discussed many survival skills, and things that Mountain Men would do to life. He also is a beaver trapper, today. Let's just say Noble, was in heaven. Survival is his newest "thing". He even had to go up and talk to him after the presentation! Here is the replica of the original fort. Boy found a new friend! and of course, we had to learn about hatchet throwing..... Can you believe I got three of my own children throwing at the same time! This next picture is of Valiant, he was SO into it. He's a knife throwing, gun toting, little man. WAIT!!!!! How did that get in here???? Okay it's Mama Bear! My plan was to hit the log, and bring fear to my A's..... ...

One of our homeschool friends set up a field trip with the group, scales and tails of Utah . {Thanks Tammy, you're awesome!!} The group tours schools, fairs, parties and such bringing all their little friends with them! This is an expensive tour, but when you have around 100 homeschoolers all sharing the cost, it's very reasonable, and the information and hands on learning, is beyond the cost. We had an awesome time, I wish I would have recorded it, or at least taken notes. There was so much information given there. Oh and I might add, a ton of drama, from the presenter! He did a great job!!!

We recently toured the National Oregon~California Trail Center , in Montpelier Idaho. If you are local to Montpelier, or are willing to travel 2 hours to get there, you should! Here's a few highlights: In the basement they have a collections of Historical Artifacts. If you can believe it this Phonograph still works. The lady played it for us. Here is a demonstration by one of the tours employees, and her granddaughter. She was teaching us about how they could use old wagon wheels to make woven rugs. They also spoke about the beautiful quilts that were made. Can you see that "machine" on top of the wagon wheel? This is one way that the pioneers could count their daily mileage. They said that the original way was with the rag tied to the wheel, a young child would walk next to the wheel on the wagon and count it's rotations, by counting how many times the rag went around... nothing like car sickness... or I guess walking sickness!! Then Orson Pratt, a Mormon Pioneer inv...

We toured a Sushi Bar and Grill! They showed us how to make sushi, roll sushi... and explained all the ingredients. Then we tasted what we saw....YUM!!!! Papa Bear and I are regular sushi eaters, most of the A's enjoy it too... all except A4 who kept asking when we would leave. He's usually such an eater, maybe to cut back on our grocery bill here at the house, we should start eating more sushi!!! A6, kept asking for ham!

For our November Field Trip with our local Field Trip Group, we toured a local Pizza Restaurant. They were so nice there, and so willing to teach the kids. They took the kids in the back, in the kitchen area, and had them all wash their hands, put on plastic gloves and aprons. We ordered two pizza's and an order of breadsticks. They made our order, right there, and even had the kids help! We also watched our pizza go through the oven. They offered not only an educational field trip, but also a fun and hands on one.

after a week of rain and cold weather, the A's and I decided to go for a Nature Walk... and now we will share with you! ENJOY!

I thought before I get too far ahead of myself with showcasing our field trips, I should tell you a bit about how we do so many awesome field trips. It's called TEAM WORK!!! You see, I have always tried to plan a field trip every month, for a long time, probably the whole time I have homeschooled. Though it seemed like very few of us were always planning, and everyone else was enjoying the ride. Well I got burned out, and came up with a plan to still continue our monthly field trips, and have it not only every month {guaranteed}, but also make sure everyone was helping with the load. We stared a Homeschool Field Trip group, with our local homeschoolers. We are very blessed to live in an area where there is a large homeschool community. Each of us plans one field trip per rotation. So to make alittle more sense, there are 20 families in our group. So for every 20 field trips we attend, I only have to plan 1! YES that's right I get 20 for 1!!!!! We have a yahoo group, which I h...

{isn't this one awesome...it's made by willow branches, that were hand weaved!!} Today was our monthly field trip, with our local homeschool group. We went to a Horse Drawn Buggy Collection. I wish I could say museum, but they are still in the works on that. It's definitely not an issue of carriages, sleds or wagons...it an issue of funding! The man who owns all these, is Eli. He started collecting them when he was younger. He loved to learn the history of them, and felt poorly that our history, was being thrown over the hill, literally. So he decided to act upon it...and it has grown into a passion. Not to mention a passion of around 250 items! He has started, or I should say has been working on a museum, Wagonland Adventures . His wagons, buggies, and sleds have even been in movies, and documentaries. Along with himself! This field trip was not only inspiring for us, but very interesting. I might mention, A3 is in love with pioneer life! She was in heaven. Also when we go...