FLORIDA ECOSAFARIS

 The boys had won passes to go to Florida EcoSafaris at Forever Florida, for all the popcorn the sold at CubScouts last year.

They were about to expire so at the very last minute last Sunday we made reservations. When I say the last minute, I mean at 9am while we were in route for the 10am tour.  We got there in time just by the skin of our teeth. I'm so glad we did!

They say its located in St. Cloud but that's just because everyone needs some city to put on their address.  It is WAY, WAY, WAY out in the middle of NO WHERE!

It is a working ranch with heritage horses, heritage cattle and a huge nature reserve.  The Coach Safari takes you on a trek through all these areas.  We were privileged to have an almost private tour; only us and one other couple.  This really added to the experience since then we could all interact directly and frequently with our guide; listening and asking LOTS of questions.

Before we headed out on our tour we watched a nice video about how the family had decided to start up the EcoSafaris in memory of their son who was an Ecologist and died too young.  He was a young man with a great attitude and life that was full till the end.

Next we learned about what "Heritage" breeds were; basically they are the cattle and horses that have been in Florida since the Spanish first started landing here.  The French breed looks like huge Golden Retrievers.  

Shortly into our tour we spotted our first alligator with a number of babies hiding around in the duck weed near her.  It would be one of quite a few it was awesome to be so close to them in the wild and discuss their habitat and habits.  The gentleman from the other couple asked about their digestion and our guide explained that their stomach had a very strong acid that broke down their food since they don't chew their food.  We learned about invasive species of plants and how they causing big problems for the gators and what was being done to counter their spread.

Then much to the boys enjoyment we saw an Golden Weaver Orb Spider.  They had recently learned all about these spiders and were thrilled to see them in person; me not so much. They saw quite a few throughout the tour and impressed the guide with their knowledge.

When we passed through area where the cattle were Amber got all excited and started barking, she thought they were huge dogs and wanted off to go pet them.  We were privileged to see a calf that had just been born, it even still had its umbilical cord hanging down.  It was so CUTE!

As we entered part of the reserve we went through an area that had recently had a controlled burn.  There we learned a lot about how quickly the vegetation grows back and the roll of the Gopher Tortoise in protecting all the animals during forest fires.  We wondered if after the fire passed and how long did the predators gave the prey before they renigged on the truce.

The tour lasted two hours and we all really had a great time.  The coach being empty was really helpful when Amber got a little antsy, I could escape to the back so she didn't disturb the other couple. At the end they even had a nice cafe where they serve the organic beef from the ranch.

I thought I took more pictures but I guess we were having too much fun!   If you've never gone on an EcoSafari, I highly recommend them one. 

Play Ball!

This fall was Lance and Matthew's first baseball season playing in the "Minors".  It was also their first season playing for someone other than the Hippie. 

We were very thankful that the league and particularly Coach Chris A.  was willing to take Lance knowing he would miss the pre-season practices and his first game while we were in Boston.

This season they made a switch from the "Red Sox" to the "Rays".  Which meant a switch from white pants to grey pants, and picking up a few new pieces of attire for the fans. 

BTW Mom note:  I really like grey pants better than white and UnderArmour (all that was available in grey) is worth the price because they clean much better than Easton!

Lance played a lot of positions but really enjoyed and excelled at catcher.  Coaches from other teams paid him numerous compliments such as "He's like a cat behind the plate". 

Matthew played pitcher and 1st base but it is clear 1st base is his favorite.  When he got an official 1st base glove mid-season, he really started sucking the balls up like a vacuum.  His claim to fame however was breaking our wooden bat at the last day of the wooden bat tournament!  Another moment I wish I'd caught on video.

This week they finished up their first three day, six hours a day, baseball camp.  In a word they said it was "Awesome!".  They learned a lot and the coach really enjoyed having them.  Not to be left behind Lance cracked our new wooden bat the last day of camp. I hope they'll be able to do his camp in the summer too.

This is what they, and their pants, looked like at the end of 18 hours of baseball.  Rather clean and fresh considering :-) 

Here's a quick picture of everyone going to walk with NOKLL in the BP Winter Parade.

On an aside, if you're a big baseball fan the movie/documentary "Knuckleball" is worth watching.  Its very well done and kid/family except for one expletive at 50 minutes.  So just set your timer and mute when the bald reporter comes on the screen.  Chris is of the opinion that all kids should learn how to pitch and how to throw a knuckleball.  After watching the movie seems like a valid idea.

Christmas Time in Ottoville

We started the Christmas Season out strong.  Getting all our decorations up Thanksgiving weekend.

Tree up check!

Decorating it with the cards we get instead of ornaments is a tradition we started a few years ago that I really like.  It puts the cards/pics in a place of honor and makes our tree look pretty yet different each year.  So "Thanks" so all who sent them, I hope to get back to sending out photo/cards myself next year.

Something new we did this year was to string white packing peanuts on fishing line to make what I think is a really nice looking garland.  Chris said the stringing was therapeutic.

Outside we of course put out the beacon lights for the airport (otherwise known as our deer), and a little tree.  New this year was 60 ft of colored light in the Podocarpus forest out back.  However, since most of our tree lights burnt out this year I think we'll recycle those for the tree inside next year.

My favorite decoration was all that was left, the ceramic Christmas tree from my grandmother and made by my Aunt.  This year the boys decorated in front of it with some neat stand up decorations.  I think they all did an awesome job with those.

Starting with a lot of ideas from my friend Brandy's blog, and adding my own, I listed out a couple dozen activities to do with the boys this holiday season.

Christina came over in early December to help us start crafting with a bang.  She brought with her "Snow in a Can".  They made paper snowflakes.  They finished the day with my favorite craft, hand print Christmas trees.

Over a couple other days we made some hand made Christmas cards and then I think the boys were crafted out for the season.

We went on our traditional nightly Christmas Light walks and drove to see a neighborhood that was really lit up, but the rest I guess we'll have to try to add next year.

Another nice addition to this year was Jared progressing on his piano lessons enough to entertain us with Christmas Carols throughout the season.

Christmas Eve we watched, "The Star of Bethlehem".  Which tied in nicely to our current study of Astronomy (that's a homeschooling mom thought if I ever had one).

We finished Christmas with a morning scavenger hunt at home and evening dinner with my family in Volusia.  The boys were very appreciative of all their gifts, jumping around like you see kids wig out in commercials, wish I had them on video, it was really funny.  

The best part of Christmas Day was evening prayers. When we asked the boys what they were thankful for, not one of them mentioned a present, they listed out all the people they were thankful for.  We said we were thankful to have such awesome kids!

Time to Judge (Part 2)

Her's the continuation of Part 1 of explaining some changes in our history curricula.

We are back to having fun this week studying the world in reference to the word :-)

At the beginning of each lesson I will present Summary/Background before studying individual events:

Time of the Judges  (1380-1051)

As the Judges rule Israel other civilizations are active around the world...

• The Hyksos rule Egypt this entire time To be discussed more during “The New Kingdom”
• c 1300 The Assyrian civilization establishes in the Mesopotamian town of Nineveh To be discussed more at time they overthrow Israel
• 1250 The Myceneans fight in the Trojan War We'll study Homer also
• c1200 The Phonecians establish their trading culture on the shore of the Mediteranian To be discussed during the Davidic Kingdom
• The Hittites rule to the north of Phonecia in southern Asia Minor  To be discussed with Ramses II
• c1200 the Olmec Civilization cultivating in Mesoamerica  This is a bit hard to tie in other than an aside to note the beginning of "advanced" civilizations in Mesoamerica but it was a fun art project.
  

1250 BC Trojan War

• REVIEW:  Narrate about Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations; note this battle was the beginning of the end of Mycenaeans. 1100 BC begins the Dark Ages.
• Read “Usborne Internet-Linked Greeks”  pgs. 14-15
• Complete MAP Trek:  Early Greece (Focus on Minoan/Mycenea/Troy)
• Read “The Trojan Horse” by Emily Little Note there are errors in the back of this book about Homer, i.e. that he "wrote" the poems and that he lived 700 A.D.
• Make Trojan Horse Paper Craft http://www.dltk-kids.com/world/greece/m-trojan.htm  To make this sturdier we used cardboard, however the boys lost interest half-way and Christina ended up finishing it.
• Mark Timeline

Address Homer -  900 BC  Homer

• Read “On the Shores of the Great Sea”  (Free Book) – Chapter 17 “Siege of Troy”
• Read “Usborne Internet Linked Greeks”  pg. 17,  86 (Homer)
• Note the importance of Bards throughout history, how we’ll learn more about bards of Charlemagne (Roland) and William the Conqueror next year.
• Note that the stories were told for many years before they were written down after the Greeks adopted the Phonecian alphabet (adding extra symbols for vowels) around 800BC
• Read “On the Shores of the Great Sea” – Chapter 18 “The Adventures of Ulysses” (4 pgs.)
• Discuss the way Homer uses words to really make the story come alive, how it was different that they other accounts of the battle we read.
• Draw what you think the Trojan Horse looked like.  This was Lance's idea, he felt the picture on the Vertias Press Timeline cards was totally inaccurate because the box on top and windows would have been a give away.

Jared's on top - Lance's with zoom-in on bottom

1200 BC Olmec Civilization in Mesoamerica – The First Builders

• REVIEW: Ice Age Land Bridges
• Read and Look at pictures in “Ancient Mexico” by Longhena
• Discuss how little is known of their culture but it is believed to have greatly influenced the later cultures in Mesoamerica.  How they still don’t know how they got the stone for huge stone heads from 100 miles away through swampy land.  How presuppositions of early man being primitive hinder archeologists from uncovering more about this culture.
• Watch Video Olmec Art at de young Museum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ_UOgq6LBA&NR=1&feature=endscreen
• Compare Olmec art to Chinese and Mesopotamian and Egyptian art previously viewed.
• Find the Olmec civilizations of San Lorenzo and La Venta on a map. 
• Streams of Civilizations pgs.91-93 You can also read a little more to add the Chavin civilization of Peru to the discussion.**
• Use clay (or play-dough) to try to re-create some of the sculptures found in “Ancient Mexico” We had great fun doing this.

Then things digressed to light houses :-)

**  I also added "2100 BC Caral Civilization in Peru" to the timeline.  This is a civilization recently found in the deserts of Peru.  They find they were a peaceful culture centered around cotton trade.  They built pyramids and did NOT celebrate any religious rituals involving human sacrifice.  This last fact is one that clearly disappointed the BBC.  The BBC put together a Five Part documentary "Lost Pyramids at Caral" on Youtube.  Because of their presuppositions (sensationalizing Aztec human sacrificial) the first four parts aren't worth watching but the last episode summarizes well what they found.  This fits so well to our timeline with all the pyramids popping up around the world at the same time.

Time to Judge (Part 1)

It is a "Time to Judge" because we have just finished studying what was happening around the world during the time of the Judges in the Bible (more about that in Part 2).  It's also a time to judge my history curricula as we reach the mid-point in the school year (I have a great new book review at the bottom too!).

I realized I needed to make some major tweaks to my history curricula and timeline.  It had become too analytical and I could no longer tie the points in a story together.  It has been my goal for the boys to understand ancient history using the bible as a backbone and reference the events around the world during different biblical times. I need to get back to that focus.

For instance, though I'm glad we discussed Hinduism a few weeks back, I realized it was a belief system, not an event and therefore really had no place to be part of our timeline memorization.  This thought will change how we deal with some other points on the timeline in the future as well.

Here's another example.  As I tried to prepare our study or the "Zhou Dynasty in China", I realized we had already studied it when we studied the Shang Dynasty toward the beginning of the year.  The great video we watched had covered both dynasties and I could find no more interesting children books to read.  Additionally, it was very difficult to tie into the surrounding timeline pieces smoothly.  In the beginning, the link had been the sudden building of pyramids all over the world.  So all we ended up doing was reviewing what they had learned and marking the timeline.

In a similar line of thought, I have added "King Saul" to the timeline and decided to start each week with a summary section that notes when we will go into each item in detail.  I will no longer try to study each point at the beginning as it is marked on the timeline but when it best fits into the story, thus somewhat separating the timeline and our history study (i.e. Studying Homer this week as we study the Trojan War).  I think this will better achieve my goal of creating a living history they will remember.  

I'd like to say I am going to revise it all right now, but that's not realistic.  I will be adding, eliminating, and amending different points over the coming months as I prepare to teach each week's lesson, so stay tuned.

Now for the "Book Review":

Veritas Press just released a new book called Pages of History  by Bruce Etter.  It's a living history book intertwined with a biblical message.  I was intrigued and I went ahead and bought one of the first copies.

"WOW!!!" is a great word to use to describe this book.  If you are part of a CC community its' a MUST HAVE book and if your not a part of CC Community, it's still a MUST HAVE book.  I am going to be gifting it to our best friends who do not even home school.  

The book follows the Veritas Press timeline cards, therefore the Egyptian timeline is different from ours.  They do take the time to explain why they think Hateshput was Moses' adopted mother (instead of Queen of Sheba in our timeline). I'm going to use the discrepancies as a great point to discuss the merits of the two differing arguments (like I said I'm being a little less analytical).

This book is a great overview of history, but what really makes it a must have book is how it ties the bible to each point in history.  For instance, when they talk about Hammurabi, they do a contrast of his code, our modern justice system and the bible.  When they cover the Ten Commandments, they take the time to discuss how they are mirror laws.  They explain how we need to obey both sides of the law, the positive and the negative i.e. Do not murder is mirrored by love your neighbor.

I'm half way through pre-reading the book and my only note of caution would be that the author purports that "false gods" are demons.  This may a topic you'll want to discuss or skip.  This is an example of why I always encourage parents to pre-read ALL books before their children read them.  We have been charged by God as parents to censor what our children see, hear and say.  Only you as the parent know how that best fits in our family in relation to God's word.

I look forward to finishing the book and then reading with the boys and perhaps even incorporating those readings in with our history lessons.

Plagues to Judges

This is a catch-up post.  Our bible study (Hulburt) converged with our History study so we did a lot more discussion and a few less activities.

One new tool we really enjoyed is the Drive Thru History - Holy Land, its a great way to review and go deeper with the biblical history we're learning. If you are unfamiliar with the Drive Thru History series you're really missing out.  The series is incredibly informative and highly entertaining, they literally drive through the areas history took place to bring it alive, include a printable study guide and often share tidbits I'd never heard about anywhere else.  Right now you can watch the first episode on Youtube for FREE  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5-1msVHZ2Q 

1445 BC Plagues in Egypt

• REVIEW:  Students narrate what they remember about why Moses left and why he returned to Egypt.
• Read Exodus 5:1-12:36
• Read VJTB pgs. 58-61
• Mark Timeline
• Read “The Exodus” by Brian Wildsmith Beautifully Illustrated!
• Compare to Biblical Account
• Use Watercolors to recreate some of the art

1445 BC The Exodus

• REVIEW:  Students narrate what they remember about the Exodus and why
• Read Exodus 12:37-15:21
• Read VJTB pgs. 62-65
• MAP TREK:  Map #10
• Mark Timeline
• View computer simulation  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM4_51K4PjM 

1445 BC The Ten Commandments 

• REVIEW:  Timeline
• Read Exodus 20
• Read VJTB pgs. 68-69
• Mark Timeline
• Narrate and Read Excerpts “Unveiling Kings of Israel” pgs. 65-69
• Memorize Ten Commandments in Five Minutes:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdbTM8RLVNY&feature=fvwrel

1445 BC Hyksos Invasion of Egypt 

• Read “Unwrapping the Pharaohs” pgs. 97-101 and “Unveiling Kings of Israel” pgs. 57-63
• The Hyksos are identified in the bible as the Amalekites.
• Putting the Hyksos invasion at the time of Moses instead of Joseph, as older timelines do, puts all the biblical and archeological pieces together.  It would make Khasehkemre-Neferhoteph I the Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus and that is significant since his mummy has never been found, which makes sense biblically since it would be at the bottom of the Red Sea.
• Read Samuel 15: 3-8
• The Hyksos attacked the Israelites as they left Egypt and those captured could have told the Hyksos about the Egyptian army being at the bottom of the Red Sea, which allowed the Hyksos to take control of Egypt without any record of a fight.  The fact there is no record of a fight has puzzled secularists for a long time.  The Hyksos then remained in control until Samuel later commissioned Saul to invoke retribution against the Hyksos/Amalekites, which allowed Ahmosis to retake the Egyptian throne from Hyksos in 1018 BC.  Further evidence is found in that secularist can find no evidence of the Hyksos after they left Egypt, reading the biblical account this is no surprise, Saul’s army eliminated them.
• Mark Timeline

1405 BC  Joshua Leads Israelites into Canaan - Begins 354 years of Judges

• REVIEW:  Timeline; Ten Commandments
• Have children narrate what they know about Joshua and Jericho
• Read Joshua 5:13-6:27
• Read VJTB pgs. 78-81
• MAP TREK:  Map #12 & 13
• Read http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v21/n2/the-walls-of-jericho
• Narrate and Read Excerpts “Unveiling Kings of Israel” pgs. 71-77
• Mark Timeline

Now partly in an attempt to catch-up a bit and partly because I feel the Hulburt Bible Study covered these Judges in enough detail, I am not going to do a separate study on each of the Judges as I originally intended.  However, I will still add them to our timeline in the appropriate order. It is my goal, above all things, for the boys to get a sense of what is going on in different parts of the world around the same time.  However, I have gone ahead and given a quick outline of what we were going to do to study the Judges in case its useful to someone else.

1241 BC Deborah Judged

1201 BC Gideon the unlikely hero

1091 BC Samson Judged

• Narrate and Read excerpts “Unveiling Kings of Israel”
• Read Judges and VJTB
• Study Lesson http://www.gbdoc.org/index.php/kk-sample
• Mark Timeline