Columbus Day, Toilet Paper Tube, Spyglass

I had hoped to transition smoothly from pumpkins, on to Columbus Day, with Jane Kurtz' What Columbus Found: It Was Orange, It Was Round.


From the back of the book:

In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain to America. Once there he found many new things, especially pumpkins. Read on to learn how he was able to bring Europe its very first pumpkin.

It sounds perfect, doesn't it? Unfortunately, my library system doesn't carry it, the local bookstore has never heard of it, and Amazon takes 6-9 days getting it ready to ship - so I'm not going to have it by Columbus Day.

I do have a number of other Columbus books due in at the library today, though. So, when the girls discovered my stash of toilet paper tubes, and demanded a craft, I figured we might as well make the spyglasses I had planned.

I didn't Google ahead on this craft, so I'm not sure if anyone else has done a similar version, or not - but what I wanted was a collapsible, handheld, mariner's telescope.

We used three toilet paper tubes, and cut two of them lengthwise, then overlapped, and taped them back together...

...so they fit, snugly, inside each other.

To keep them from slipping apart, we (mainly I, at this point) added a roll of tape, sticky side out...

...and an additional layer of tape, to hold that on, on both ends of each tube.

The tape on each of tubes bumps together, and keeps the tubes from being pulled out too far (as long as they aren't really yanked), or slipping through backwards, when collapsed.

I had big plans for fancying them up with construction paper covers, and plastic wrap lenses, but the girls had a different idea.

I sent them out in the yard, in search of the riches of the New World. They found gold everywhere...in the fall leaves, the golden (dying) grass, the pumpkin blossoms, and the sunflowers. Which, if I remember right, was about the type of "riches" Columbus, and his men encountered in the 1490's.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Squirrel Lacing Craft

For stART (story + ART) today, we read Patrick Cooper's Never Trust a Squirrel. It's a lighthearted, cautionary tale about listening to parents' instructions, and learning which voices to ignore, in the world. So, we incorporated an element of listening, and following advice, into our craft.

I gave the girls squirrel dot-to-dot's, printed from here. Which, at ages 4, and 5, are still tricky for them, so they had to follow instructions, and pay attention to connect the correct dots. Every once, and a while they zipped ahead, and ran into trouble.

They colored in their squirrels, and glued them onto cereal box cardboard.

Then, I cut them out for them, and punched holes...

...for lacing.

Which again, called for help, and advice, to stitch the yarn through the right side, and the correct hole. Luckily for the girls, and the little guinea pig in Cooper's story, they had someone trustworthy to guide them.

Be sure to check out this week's stART link-up at A Mommy's Adventures, for even more story stretching arts, and crafts.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

The World's Shortest River - A Battle Between States

No trip to western Oregon is complete without a stop off at the coast. So with grandparents in tow, we made a mad dash to Tillamook, to see cheese being made...

...and Depoe Bay, to see salt water taffy being made, although the machine wasn't running while we were there.

But, that's okay, because buying salt water taffy from Ainslee's, in Depeo Bay, has been a solid family tradition, for my family, on every visit to the coast, since the store was opened. It's not really a trip to Oregon, unless you can make yourself absolutely sick on the way home, eating salt water taffy.

And, between Tillamook, and Depoe Bay, we stopped off at the beach in Lincoln City, where there is a sign proclaiming the World's Shortest River. The children ran out to dip their feet in the freezing water...

...except for A, who being a true Montanan, wouldn't take her boots off, even for the beach.

We had a great time playing in the surf, but I was bothered the whole time, by the thought, that we had already seen the world's shortest river. I was pretty sure on our last trip to Great Falls, we had read about a river running from a natural spring into the Missouri river, being the world's shortest.

So, when I got home I checked it out on Wikipedia, and sure enough there has been a battle between Oregon, and Montana, over the title.

• "D" River was listed as the shortest river in The Guinness Book of World Record's at 440 ft., from Devil's Lake to the Pacific Ocean.



• In 1989, the title was lost, when elementary school children in Great Falls, MT, measured the Roe River at 201 ft., from Giant Springs to the Missouri River.



• The people of Lincoln City, then remeasured "D" River, at extreme high tide, and found it to be 120 ft. long. I'm guessing that's when the sign went up.
  
  

I have to say, I think Oregon is cheating a little. But, the Man of the House, a native Oregonian, finds it all very fair, and above board. The Guinness Book of World Record's, apparently, quite carrying the category of "shortest river", in 2006 - a very wise move on their part. Wars between the states have been known to get ugly.

For more fun geography, and history facts, and activities, check out the weekly link-up at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn. Or, for more first hand accounts of the Oregon coast, visit Pebblekeeper's Beach Schooling blog - homeschool on the beach - wow!

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Pumpkins, Bats, Owls, Spiders, and Graveyards For Bible Alive! Tuesday

Whether you celebrate Halloween, or not, there is no missing it in the stores, movies, and books, at this time of year. Some of the symbols of the season can be a little scary, and intimidating for the preschool set. But, not everything has to be frightening...we've been having quite a bit of nonscary fun with spiders...

...bats...

...owls...

...and pumpkins.

And, our recent trip to Oregon, allowed us to demystify one more symbol of the season. We visited a bright, sunny graveyard, filled not with zombies, and vampires, but Great-Grandmas, and Grandpas...

...or at least the shells they left behind (happily all of the Grandparents we visited were followers of Jesus), the seeds, that will grow into their new bodies at the resurrection. Paul reminds us in I Corinthians (click the link to read the passage), that when we plant a seed, we don't expect the plant to look like the seed. The pumpkin seeds the farmers planted, produced the bright orange pumpkins, we've been having so much fun with, but which look nothing like the seeds. And, the bodies resting, like seeds, in the winter, will give way to new bodies, someday too.

So, visiting a graveyard, for a Christian family, anyway, is a lot like visiting a pumpkin patch, in the spring - not creepy, and sad, but happy, and hopeful, looking forward to the harvest, and all the fun, in the fall.

Find more thoughts, activities, and crafts at The Fantastic Five's new Bible Alive! Tuesday link-up, bringing the Bible alive for our children



It's great to be a homeschooler.

A Visit To Bauman's Farm and Garden Pumpkin Patch

Well, we're back home, after a very busy (long) weekend.

We did make it to a pumpkin patch, among other places, on our visit.

My sister, offered to play fairy godmother, and take us to the patch of our choosing. She suggested six different patches to choose from. And, since my sister, and her husband, love to do it up big with the kids, much to the joy of the children, they chose Baumen's Farm, out of the tiny town Gervais, OR.

The admission price is a steep $12.00 a piece to get in, if you want to do all the activities, but there are a lot of activities.

A giant jumping pillow...

...hay mazes...

...a petting zoo...

...bouncy buildings...

...barn swings...

...a hay ride...

...apple tasting (my personal favorite!). They let us sample six, or seven varieties of freshly picked apples, from their orchard...

...and for a less healthy snack, we splurged on a bag of apple cider donuts, and a jug of fresh apple cider, to share with Grandma.

There was also, a zip-line, dark maze, corn maze, fort type play ground, sand boxes filled with hay seed, and corn, an apple cannon, and apple slingshot, and honestly, I don't know what else. In fact, there was so much going on, we almost missed the pumpkins, except for a glimpse of the patch from the hay wagon. But just as we were leaving...

...we ran into this beauty - not quite as big as the Guinness Book of World Records' title holder, but not bad.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

What My Child is Reading - Pumpkin Patches

Just when I thought we'd gotten to the end of all the really good pumpkin themed children's books, all of the pumpkin patch books I put on hold at the library, started streaming in. Below are a few of our favorites, each with something special, or unique.

The Pumpkin Patch by Patricia Miles Martin, is an old fashion, but still very relevant story of friendship, and finds, on a kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch. I love that the pumpkins at the patch are 10 cents a piece, and that Tom Haul's pen scratched, illustrations are very similar in style to Charles Shultz' Peanuts' characters.

And, speaking of Peanuts...

It's another Halloween, and Linus is back in the pumpkin patch, with high hopes for seeing The Great Pumpkin, at last. Tad Hills' Duck & Goose are back too, just trying to find a pumpkin patch, in a story probably best for toddlers, but cute enough to engage the entire family.

In Mary Peterson, and Jennifer Rofe's adorable Piggies in the Pumpkin Patch, there are...well...piggies...in the pumpkin patch. There's also a great map of the entire barnyard at the back of the book, just begging for a geography extension. And, did I mention the piggies are adorable?

Finally, for something completely different, we read Liz Curtis Higgs' The Pumpkin Patch Parable. Higg's uses a Jack-O-Lantern, from the planting of the seed, to the lighting of the candle, in conjunction with verses from the International Children's Bible, for an analogy of the Christian life. It's an interesting addition to the celebrate-or-not-to-celebrate Halloween debate.

You can find many more children's book reviews, and recommendations at this week's What My Child is Reading Blog Hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

I hope to link up with it later today, but for now we're on a road trip - over the river, and through the woods to...you know the song right?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Pilgrim Pumpkin Pie in the Microwave

Yes, I know, the Pilgrims didn't have microwaves. That's okay, because they probably didn't have pies, either. But, they very well could have had pumpkins - whether they had learned to fully appreciate this fall fruit by the first Thanksgiving, or not, is up for debate.

Somewhere along the way, though, someone figured out they could hollow out a pumpkin...

...fill it with a mixture of eggs, cream, and spices (we mixed three eggs, with 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of evaporated milk, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon ginger, topped with 1/2 tablespoon of butter)...

...and let it cook in the hot coals of a fire. We didn't have access to a fire, and as the fall heat wave that's crossing the western part of the nation, has made reached us today, I wasn't real excited about turning on the oven. So, we plopped our pumpkin onto a plate, and into the microwave for nine minutes.

That might have been about two minutes too many...

...so our custard was a touch overdone. But, when served warm, and scooped with a bit of pumpkin per bite, it was still a tasty (if not pie like) pumpkin treat.

It's great to be a homeschooler.