HS: February

Seriously, where did February go?!  

I am in complete denial that tomorrow is March.  

Language Arts continues to go great!  I am so impressed with how much Jacob is learning.  I love this program and it is has been so fulfilling seeing him read and thinking "WE DID THAT - TOGETHER!".  It's awesome.  And I am proud of us.  Jacob has mastered all of the phonics cards for his level and he is super excited about that.  We are now just reviewing them once a week.  He has mastered three more of his sight word ladders.  Jacob is also over half way done with his spelling list for his level and he was WAY excited about that!

This month we read a short story about kindness, learned capitalization rules, did a reading review, learned about the first job of silent e, and talked about SH, CH, TH words.  

Jacob has also been a total rockstar at his poetry memorization.  He memorized another poem and a scripture and is working on another poem.  

He also continues to do his handwriting pages and loves them.  

We actually have stopped doing math [insert gasp here!].  Obviously, not permanently, but for the next couple of months.  That has been the hardest subject for us to love - and not so much because of the subject (I actually don't mind math at all) but Jacob and I just haven't liked how it has been taught.  I would normally just continue to plug along BUT the curriculum we have completely fallen in love with is releasing their math curriculum in May and it just meshes perfectly with us and so I feel confident that it will be a great fit.  So rather than plug along with something we aren't loving, we are just taking a little break until we can get our hands on our new curriculum.  

Science continues to go well.  We are still working on our meteorology unit.  We kind of took a break from science so we could do a study on Texas before our trip.  This month we talked about air temperature and how temperature affects air.  We learned two new vocabulary words this month: expand and contract.  

This was a fun experiment we did while talking about how temperature affects air.  The balloon was over an empty bottle and we put it in a bowl of boiling water and the balloon inflated.  

Then we put it into a bowl of ice water and it deflated.  Cool!

We also put dents into a ping pong ball and then put it in the container of boiling water and it made the air expand and the ping pong ball came out PERFECT!

We did add a study about Texas to our learning this month.  This was awesome and I was so glad we could do this together and really get excited about our trip to Texas.  We talked about the different state symbols of Texas, what presidents are from there, and discussed some of its unique history.  We made a Chuck Wagon (which is the State Vehicle) and made Texas Sheet Cake for fun!  YUM!  We also read two books to really get us excited - The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola and Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett.  We also decided that we will probably do a state study every monthish so that we make sure to get them all in.  I am pretty excited about it!

We did one formal art project this month, a Line Quilt.  

And, as usual, we read lots and lots!  We finished The Apple and the Arrow by Conrad Buff (and I LOVED it!  I had to resist the urge to read it at night after Jacob went to bed!), Davy Crockett: A Life on the Frontier by Stephen Krensky (we read this for Texas), Abe Lincoln and the Muddy Pig by Stephen Krensky (we read this for President's Day), A Grain of Rice by Helena Clare Pittman and The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. 

I probably say this every month but I truly enjoy getting to teach and learn with Jacob.  He loves learning...even as I am writing this he is sitting on the floor next to me working in some kindergarten workbooks we found today while cleaning out the office that I had gotten before we decided to homeschool.  I admire him for wanting to learn and hope that stays with him his entire life.  

Seven Years

Today marks Mark and I's seventh anniversary!  

WHAT?!

Seven years ago we embarked on this amazing adventure and the very best part is that we have an eternity to be on it together.  

I love you forever.

The Journey Home

Our final day we woke up in beautiful, chilly Denver.  We stayed the night right across the street from where our apartment was in Denver.  That place was the longest place we have ever lived since Mark and I have been married and definitely still holds a special place in my heart.  It's where we brought Jacob and Sarah home from the hospital.  It was nice to reminisce.   

We got some breakfast and then drove around campus a little.  Then we began our last leg of our journey home.  The wind was out of control.  It was crazy.  We were driving into the wind the whole way across Wyoming but luckily didn't hit snow until we took the turn off to Kemmerer.  We came home to eight inches of snow!  

On our drive home we did our drawing for our 2019 family vacation!

Mark picked Virginia, I picked West Virginia, Jacob was Maryland, Sarah had Idaho, and Benjamin picked Montana.  The final round went to IDAHO!  We are actually really excited to explore this state that we love even more!  We're coming for you Idaho!

Fort Davis

We began our travel back home.  We left the ranch house in Alpine around 8:00 and headed up to Fort Davis National Historical Site.  This was a frontier military post from the Indians War era.  We have been to several military forts before and this one was different and neat to see.  

We walked around the museum in the visitors center and then around the grounds of the fort.  It was fun to look at what the barracks, fort hospital, and especially the commanders home used to look like.  It was definitely interesting.  Also, Sarah looked like a little homely child walking around.  We could NOT find her jacket anyway (turns out it had fallen between the cooler and the back seat) and so she had to wear my jacket.  She was NOT happy about it...

This was a day I definitely did not plan very well.  It was an over twelve hour driving day which we normally would have left early early for but we had to wait to get to Fort Davis in time for it to open so we ended up getting into Denver a lot later than we wanted.  Oh well...what can you do?!

Big Bend

Big Bend National Park was incredible!

We started our day by heading down to the Rio Grande part of the park.  We hiked the Hot Springs Historic Trail which was an old resort and homestead that also had pictographs.  The old resort was built back in 1906 and I can't believe how remote it must have been back then - because it sure is remote now!  The hot springs felt awesome - a hot 105 degrees!  There were quite a few people soaking in it but we just dipped our hands in.  This was also our first time seeing the Rio Grande and seeing Mexico!  

On our way back we also saw these trinkets on the side of the trail.  I don't know how we missed them on the hike in (or maybe they were put out in between) but they were from Mexico.  They all had little price tags on them and then I looked across the river and someone was over there watching.  It was bizarre!  I still don't really understand how it all works (or is legal) but it was a little crazy!

Next, we definitely headed off the beaten path up into the desert above the Rio Grande and did the Ernst Tinaja Trail.  This was a really cool trail.  It went through a canyon and then into a naturally-carved rock pool.  There were two smaller pools and then one BIG one that was thirteen feet across, also known as a kettle.  The rock around the pool is really slick and you can see claw marks from animals that fall into it and are unable to climb out.  I was completely obsessed with the color of the rocks and it was pretty fun to find oyster fossils in the rock as well.  

We hit the road again and ate our lunch while we trekked north of the Chisos Mountains back in the desert to the Grapevine Hills Trail.  The last quarter mile of the trail was crawling over steep boulders to the top (that was fun with Benjamin on my back - AHH!).  But it was definitely worth the climb.  It was pretty neat to see the balanced rock.  PLUS, it made it all worth it because a couple actually asked to take our picture because they were so "inspired" by us.  And I'll just be honest, it felt pretty good to hear that!  I love these trips but sometimes it is hard juggling traveling with three little kiddos and we get lots of looks and comments, but it was so nice to get a little validation for what we are trying to do.  

The day was getting late but we knew we had to do one last hike!  So we headed down to the Castolon area and did the Santa Elena Canyon Trail.  This took us once again down to the Rio Grande River (but the opposite end of the park) and up the Santa Elena Canyon.  This trail definitely did a number on my heights anxiety.  You hike up some steep switchbacks right next to the river and then go back down into the canyon.  I stress way too much about this kind of thing, and hate it, but I can't seem to help it either.  The river and canyon were beautiful though...when I wasn't freaking out.  

Sarah comment of the day...as she is walking with Mark and getting a little discouraged [she was a CHAMP!] she says, "I don't look good....I don't look good at all!"  She kills me.  

We packed in A TON in one day but it was all worth it.  The kiddos were absolute champs!  We then headed out of the park and up to Alpine where we were staying for the night at a small cabin on a ranch.